Tanya squinted, turning her head away as the brown metal glinted in the morning light.

She continued to unpack and repack her bags, checking all of the paraphernalia in her bag once more. There was no such thing as too much paranoia as far as pre-exploration packing was concerned. You always ended up forgetting something essential, only to need it somewhere in the middle of your mission.

...Yes, she was speaking from experience.

Ever since their new adventurer group— Archleone —was officially created, Tanya had temporarily lodged with Zuken and Elena in one of the empty quarters inside Banksi territory. They’d spent the past week making preparations for their upcoming trip— reviewing maps of Namzuhuu, filing paperwork for their team, and getting familiar with one another.

And packing. Lots of packing.

Tanya let out an exasperated sigh as another beam of light hit her in the face.

“Can you, you know, not do that?”

Elena unsubtly hid her new badge— a legitimate Copper-plate —behind her back, innocently sitting up on the couch. “Who, me?”

“No, I was talking to my imaginary friend. Of course I’m talking to you, dimwit.”

Her dimwitted teammate pasted a stupid frown on her face as she crossed her arms, inadvertently revealing the badge in her hand. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

Tanya suppressed the acute need to burn something as she regarded the brunette in front of her. It was just… unnaturally easy to dislike this girl for some reason. Strange, considering Elena wouldn’t even make her Top-50 list of truly malicious people, if she were to create such a list. No, she was more like an innocent, naive little girl that somehow managed to piss her off nearly as much as Olfric.

“Look girl...” she began, glancing towards the sigil on the metallic badge. It was a Copper-plate, the lowest rung an adventurer could officially occupy. Being a Copper-plate meant the Guild recognized you as one of theirs, rather than some freelance worker snooping around for odd jobs. On average, a foreign adventurer had at least five low-level missions under their belt before they were considered for one.

And this changeling had just gotten it thrown into her lap. As a freebie.

Truly exasperating.

“Yes?”

Tanya reared back, ready to fling a sarcastic barb, but then thought better of it. The girl straight up told her what she thought of her, though it was all based on inauthentic information. But Zuken, her leader, made it very clear that Elena was an irreplaceable part of the team and, as such, it was best to keep confrontations to a minimum.

They were, after all, going dungeon-hunting. Bickering and nipping at each other’s heels could very easily devolve into a major fight. And knowing the changeling, she’d be killed by a single blow.

At the very least, Tanya thought morbidly, there would be some truth behind the rumors this time.

“Umm… I know I’m beautiful and all that, but I don’t really swing that way.”

Tanya flushed, immediately cursing herself. Being caught off guard was unforgivable, especially in front of a prissy little bitch like this one. A derisive smirk flitted across her lips as she regained her bearings.

“Keep your daydreams to yourself.” She flipped her hair. “And try not to disturb anybody else while you’re at it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Tanya sighed again. “Tell me, girl, why are you really doing this?”

Elena rolled her eyes, scoffing. “Don’t answer a question with another question. Now tell me what you meant!”

“All of this,” Tanya extended her hands outwards. “Going on this mission. Everything.”

“So?” Elena tossed her badge back and forth between her hands, playing with it as if it were some sort of toy. “What about it?”

“Do you really know what a Class-3 Anomaly is? Experienced adventurers have been eaten alive by Class-2s, and this is a three. It’ll be as dangerous as they come, yet you’re not a spritist, you have no experience, and the only reason you have that shiny little badge is because your lover wants to get into your pants.”

“Zuken doesn’t need to do that to get into my pants,” Elena smirked, crossing her arms as if she just won the argument.

Tanya palmed her face, her shoulders tiredly drooping. “Yes,” she confirmed. “Because that’s the point I was trying to—”

“What’s going on?”

She turned around and saw Zuken standing at the entryway. The brown-haired young man was dressed in the same attire as earlier, a traditional Banksi battle-dress enchanted to support the spiritist while in battle. On his arms were a new matching set of armbands, littered with sigils and magical diagrams.

“So?” Zuken beamed, gesturing to himself. “How do I look?”

“You look great, Zuken,” Elena started to babble. “That waistcoat looks really good on—”

“Unzipped,” Tanya offhandedly commented.

“What?” the girl questioned. Based on Zuken’s perturbed expression, he was equally confused.

“It’s unzipped,” Tanya repeated, her lips flat as she tilted her head towards his fly.

“Ah!” Zuken smiled as he zipped himself up, though the cheshire expression never left his face. “Though I have to wonder, what made you look there first?”

Tanya inspected her surroundings for a thick enough wall to bang her head on. It was almost as if being in the changeling’s presence brought forth the immature parts of Banki’s personality. She had seen him gain control over any public situation, turn events into his favor without raising his voice or resorting to violence, but once the brunette entered the equation… the diplomat was no longer present, nothing but a scatter-brained idiot in its place.

“Before we leave,” Zuken coughed into his fist, “perhaps we should clarify a few things first?”

They’d been there for three days, and now he wanted to sit and talk? Did Zuken Banksi exist solely to subvert all her expectations?

“...About what, exactly?”

“There are a total of five teams going on this mission, including Archleone. I’ve spent the past three days perusing over their profiles, histories, that sort of thing. The only person I’ve yet to go through is you.”

“Leaving your mysterious team member for last?” Tanya wryly smiled. “Is that supposed to be a courtesy?”

Zuken shook his head. “Not at all. I was actually hoping for Elena to do it in my stead. Trust me, she’s good at getting under people’s skin when she wants to.”

When she wants to—

Tanya opened her mouth, but found no words. She tossed a quick glance at the changeling, who had an impish grin on her face.

Frowning, she crossed her arms over her chest. “And? What now?”

“I’d like to know about your past.”

“I assume you can just read about it from the records.”

“The records also say that you’re on probation by order of the Shogun, yet here you are. Signed up to be a part of the Governor’s own representative team.”

Tanya stared at him.

“Listen, Miss Tanya,” the brown-haired aristocrat emphasized the honorific. “Loyalty is a two-way street. If I’m asking it from you, then you’re getting it from me.” He gave her a half-shrug. “So, what’s it going to be?”

Tanya closed her eyes, deeply exhaling.

The question he posed was simple in nature. The real difficulty was finding the boundaries of her answer. Just how much did he know about her? Why did he choose her? Was this contract some over-complicated insidious way of extracting information? What about after that? Blackmail? Servitude?

Her fingers clenched.

Her trench coat billowed softly.

She needed to answer him. There were no two ways about it. The issue was, what should she tell him? She ran the risk of telling him only a bare amount, only to lose his trust and faith because he knew far more. Should she reveal the truth? Or just what he really wanted to hear?

“Very well.” Tanya opened her eyes. “Ask what you want.”

Zuken nodded. “Let’s start easy. Where are you from?”

“Baramunz.”

“You don’t have an accent.”

“I’ve traveled a lot. Been to several places.”

“Name three people who can vouch for you.”

“From Haviskali?”

His answering grin was sharp. “Outside of Haviskali.”

Tanya bit her lip. That was tricky, but still partially answerable. “One person can.”

“And that is?”

“Wuodan.”

His brow slightly furrowed. “Who?”

“One of the adventurers that showed up during the auction, a jotunn. He’s an honorary Mithril-plate back in Baramunz.”

“A Mithril-plate?” Zuken asked, a hint of awe coloring his tone.

Tanya nodded. “He’s a freelance mercenary, unassociated with the Guild here. He only comes into the Guild for missions when it's worth it.”

“So someone must have called him in for this one?” Zuken prodded.

Tanya shrugged. “No clue. Last I checked, he dropped it.”

That got his attention. “Dropped a Class-3 anomaly mission?”

“It wasn’t worth his time, according to him.”

“Strange,” Elena muttered.

“Tell me about it.”

“You seem to know an awful lot about this Wuodan,” the brunette observed.

“We’re... acquaintances.”

“How close?” Zuken asked.

Tanya narrowed her eyes. “Is that relevant?”

“Nope.”

Tanya suppressed an urge to scowl. “Next question.”

Zuken grinned, though it wasn’t as carefree as usual. This time, there was a tinge of melancholy. “Tell me what happened with the Blues.”

And there it was. The real reasoning behind the line of questioning. The Blues Incident was the main start of all the nasty rumors about her, and it made sense Zuken would want to get to the bottom of it. Especially since he was about to put his own life and the life of his changeling lover in her hands.

Still, it wasn’t something she liked talking about.

“I gave an official testimony.”

“I’ve read it. I’d like to hear it from you directly.”

“And what makes you asking me here and now will make it any different?”

The Banksi chuckled. “Call me optimistic.”

“Fine!” she muttered. “Fine!” She tossed a glare in Elena’s direction for good measure, as if this was her fault, and then began to speak.

“The truth is, our team was woefully unprepared for the mission.”

“Excuse me, I’d like to point out I’m fluent in this language,” Elena interrupted, “because this definitely sounds like bullshit.”

Tanya threw her another nasty glare.

“The Blues,” Elena continued, her face smug, “are a team of Silver-plate adventurers. You’re a Bronze.”

“And all this coming from a fake Copper. We’re really hitting the whole spectrum here.”

“Well, I’m not the one with a probation mark on her record,” Elena huffed, crossing her arms as if it meant anything.

Tanya couldn’t help but bristle at that. The adventurer ranking system used different metals to indicate one’s rank based on their accomplishments. Starting with Copper as the baseline, the scale moved up to Iron, Bronze, Silver, then Mithril. Finally, at the top were Orichalcum-plate adventurers— incredibly rare, top-class battlers with levels exceeding seventy, and absolute monsters in their own right.

In fact, across the entire Llaisy, there was only one Orichalcum-plated warrior.

The current king himself.

For a small town like Haviskali, even a single Silver-plate adventurer was a significant presence. Even more so when there was an entire group composed of people at that skill rank. So it didn’t come as a surprise that everyone knew about the Blues. And when they hired a newly promoted Bronze-plate into their ranks, everyone came to know about her as well.

But when she came back home alone from the mission, everyone noticed that as well.

The results hadn’t been nice.

At all.

She had testified in court and had everything cleared up, but it still didn’t get her out of trouble. Three months of probation and a nasty reputation that made her life a living hell.

Even now, she could feel glances and glares alike fall on her when she crossed the street.

Frustrated, Tanya let out an audible sigh.

“Look,” she began. “Being an adventurer is being in the business of death. Now that being said, I don’t go around looking for death— it might come as a surprise but I do like living, thank you very much. So excuse me for not throwing away my life when my colleagues decide to think with their dicks instead of their heads.”

A terse silence overtook the room as Zuken and Elena just stared.

“...Well, that was certainly an original opening statement, if I’ve ever seen one,” Zuken muttered. “Alright then, go on. I’m all ears.”

Tanya snorted, her shoulders drooping as she sat on the bench. “It was an anomaly-exploration mission. Beneath the Sea of Mone. Underwater anomalies can be scary as fuck just by their nature, and this one was a Class-2, bordering on three. We managed to outright the monsters in the outer periphery, and then...”

She shuddered, grasping at her chest. “And then, we met them.”

“Who?” Elena asked, seemingly captivated by the story.

“I can’t— I honestly have no idea,” Tanya went on, her tone betraying nothing. “My memories are all fuzzy. After the ordeal, the healers said I got hit by some sort of compulsion magic.” Her eyes flickered to Elena for a moment. “But I remember our group meeting something— people, I think, though they could be monsters. They looked female and bremetan, for the most part.”

“Were they other teams?” Zuken offered.

“I don’t think so,” Tanya sulked, her face lined with desperation. “We didn’t run into any other teams.”

“I’ve already studied the case in detail,” he clarified. “Olfric Bergott was a member of one of the other teams who participated in that mission, and he testified that the anomaly collapsed.”

“It did. And I survived.”

“Leaving the others behind?”

“Listen,” her words now louder with anger, “I’m telling you everything I remember. We met those things, and we went in. I think they were adventurers— or maybe they weren’t —but I remember Madeline, who was one of my colleagues, yelling something...”

She rubbed her temples. “It was an ambush. And in the middle of that clusterfuck, Daenis, our captain, destroyed the core.”

Zuken hummed. “That’s what the transcript says.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean to say that you, Miss Tanya, are lying.”

“Excuse me?! I gave an official testimony in front of the Governor and—”

“—and it was falsified. I can tell.”

Tanya challengingly raised a brow. “Is that right? Then by all means, enlighten me on how you came up with this.”

“Well, for starters, I personally know— correction, knew Daenis.”

Tanya’s eyes widened for an instant, and Zuken’s knowing smile widened further.

She immediately pursed her lips, cursing herself for that moment of slip-up. Appearances were everything, and if Zuken wasn’t sure before, he likely was now.

“You’re bluffing,” she bluffed.

“Am I?” The Banksi splayed his hands freely in a disarmingly casual way. “Daenis comes from a family of priests who worship anomalies as sacred existences upon the world. He, in particular, is a religious fanatic. He’d rather let himself and the rest of his team die than willingly destroy an anomaly.”

“And yet he did,” Tanya pointed out. “It only goes to show, you never know how people can react when faced with dangers.”

“Too true,” Zuken bobbed his head agreeably, unnerving her even further. “There’s just… one little problem.” He raised a single finger. “The ley lines travelling from the core to the outer periphery of an anomaly.”

What is he talking about?

“What are you talking about?”

“The ley lines are channels through which energies from the anomaly’s core travel outward to the rest of its terraformed environment. They are also what keeps the entire structure the way it is, so any damage done to the core would cause the periphery to break down, creating a detonation wave travelling inward. That would mean,” his gaze seemed to sharpen, “the last person to be killed, or otherwise injured, would be the person closest to the core.”

He looked up with a cheerful smile, one as fake as his cavalier attitude. “Am I right, or am I… right?”

Tanya’s arms remained frozen at her sides. “And when did you become an expert on Anomaly Energy dynamics?”

“Last night.”

She blinked.

Then blinked again, as Zuken pulled up a chair and relaxed into it, tugging at his shirt collar.

Oddly enough, despite him looking up at her, his entire countenance gave her the impression that he was, in fact, looking down on her. Like he had won, ending their little ‘battle’ with him standing head and shoulders above her.

“So yes,” the insane bastard continued. “Considering how you escaped with superficial injuries at best, and knowing Daenis as I did, it’s more than likely that you were the one who destroyed the core. Not him.”

Tanya seized up, her fists clenching so tightly that her nails began to draw blood. Suddenly, the room— the one in which she was carelessly packing mere minutes ago —felt like a prison. Elena’s constant annoyances felt like a façade at best, designed to rile her up and throw her off the game. All the while, Zuken poked and prodded at her troubling history with a giant-sized magnifying glass.

Was that what this was all along? Had she been duped into this Archleone business to get a confession because the court failed to obtain it?

After all, Zuken Banksi was a bureaucrat, one with the ear of the shogun. It all fit.

Her knuckles grew white, and an icy fear began to permeate through her chest. She was trapped, cornered like prey. She had to first escape and—

“Tanya?” Banksi’s voice broke through her growing fears.

“...Yes?”

“Look around you. Notice anything?” He stood up once more, the nonchalant attitude he wore as a second skin never faltering. “Or more specifically, something that isn’t here?”

She put both hands behind her back, readying a spell to be cast at a moment’s notice. But it was then that she finally noticed what he was talking about.

“You— you haven’t called the enforcers yet.”

Zuken nodded, like he was proud of her for getting the right answer. It irked her. “That’s right.”

“But why?” Elena chimed in, looking equally surprised at his actions. “If she destroyed the anomaly, then she lied in her testimony. She killed the Blues.”

But Zuken shook his head. “The Blues were dead regardless. From everything I’ve heard about that so-called mission, I’m inclined to believe that the Blues were faced with odds they couldn’t overcome. Even if Tanya didn’t destroy the core, they all would have died. But since she did, she became the lone survivor.”

“So you’ve thought I was lying this whole time,” Tanya surmised. “That I was lying in the testimony, and that I was the one who destroyed that dungeon core. All this, even before you offered me a spot on your team.”

“I’m Zuken Banksi,” he smirked, putting his hands into his pocket. “It’s my job to know things, but that’s beside the point.” He leaned forward. “You still haven’t asked me the most important question.”

Tanya gulped, mustering up her courage. “Why did you make me a member of Archleone?”

Zuken clapped his hands. “You’ll be happy to hear that our discussion today has only cemented my decision to have you as our third team member. Because I don’t need you to explore the dungeon with me and Elena.”

He grinned. “I need you to destroy it.”

“You— you want me to destroy the core of a Class-3 anomaly?”

Zuken took out a very familiar scroll— it was the same one she had signed a few days prior, accepting her role as a member of the newly formed Team Archleone. She deftly caught it in mid-air as he tossed it to her.

“If you’d like to keep pointlessly denying that you didn’t destroy that core, or if you don’t want to take part in this upcoming mission, feel free to rip that thing to shreds. However,” he smiled, a genuinely welcome expression on his face, “if you’d like to join us, then welcome to the team.”

Tanya turned to look at Elena, who stood there with crossed arms and pursed lips as she glared at both of them. “Fine!” She threw her arms up in the air. “If it’s alright with Zuken, it’s alright with me. Just… hurry up and choose already.”

Tanya looked down at the scroll, her gaze intense.

“...Well?”

“You do realize that if I say yes here, I’m practically admitting to killing your acquaintance? You’re really okay with that?”

Zuken half-shrugged. “What can I say? Adventuring is a risky business.”

Tanya chuckled, feeling both relieved and nervous at the same time as she tossed the scroll back to him. “You are a very scary person, Zuken Banksi.”

“So I’m told.”