No Fatiuge

Marquekt had a long history and since the Spring of the year 1296, there are 2 rumors that came out of the Adventurer Guild HQ in the royal capital Monokans. Even though they were different, both of them were about the same household, the Chrebl Household.

The first one, the subordinates of the Lord Chrebl keep successfully hunting many high ranking monsters.

As the reward of his achievement, he was given the ownership of a dungeon, which was located rather close to the royal capital.

It’s basically a demand to expand one’s territory towards Sonorat, so there was a strong dispute between some upper-echelons of the country. But since it was requested by the Lord Guardian, the B-class dungeon 『Abandonded Ancient Firedrake Nest』 located about half a day from the royal capital became owned by Marquis Chrebl.

At first, it looked like it will overlap with Adventurer Guild’s authority, but originally the dungeon had many humanoid monsters. Since there is little demand from the material side, the guild had no desire to monopolize the dungeon.

The adventurer guild was entrusted with the task of keeping the monsters in check, they can’t neglect to thin out monster populations in the country. And of course, it costs money. Of course, revenue may be generated from materials and drop items, but it is too small. Considering the trouble of managing the dungeon, the cost greatly surpasses the profit so it can be said that it is a “bad dungeon”.

The adventurer guild had to think about they should do with dungeons like this, but there’s nothing much they can do. In the end, they decided to “push” it onto Marquis Chrebl. The young people, who heard about the now discussed dungeon, foolishly rushed inside expecting profits. Meanwhile, the people from adventurer guild laughed mockingly in their minds while handing over the rights of the dungeon to Marquis Chrebl.

However, they heard that Marquis Chrebl seemed to be looking for a dungeon. At that point, the Guild started to question what was Marquis Chrebl’s plan.

In that dungeon, there must be 『something』 that exists beyond the guild’s imagination, but the famous hero, Marquis Chrebl knew about that certain 『something』. It must be the reason why he wished for a dungeon as a reward for his achievements.

Even so, Marquis Chrebl can’t monopolize the dungeon. As long as they are paying the toll fee and making a report, the adventurers from the guild are allowed to dive into the dungeon. Using that premise, the guild issued an investigation to several high ranking adventurers to dive into the ancient fire dragon nest to try finding that 『something』.
However, after confirming that it was a troublesome dungeon with low profit, the people from the guild had to give up further investigation while tilting their heads.

The other rumor besides the Abandoned Ancient Firedrake Nest, there’s a strange adventurer that was witnessed in several dungeons and fields. Even though the adventurer looked like a 17 or 18 years old maid, it was said that she was swinging around a gigantic sword and fighting.

Moreover, witnesses also said that the girls fought like the heroes in legends. Her big sword was wrapped in flames, swinging as fast as lightning and sliced through the enemies with tremendous speed. At the end of the fight, she divided the ground using her big sword and swallowing her enemies into the crack.

Based on the rumor, the girl is now called 《White Frilled Hero》.
Is she an adventurer?
Is she a retainer from a certain noble?
No one knows who she is.

(TL: ホワイトブリムの勇者 – howaito burimu no yuusha means hero of the white brim. White brim is the frilly hat that maids wear so I translate it was White Frilled Hero)

Regarding her appearance, some say that she looked cute and lovely, while others say that she looked like an ogre.
It has been confirmed that she was not registered as an adventurer from Monokans, but everything else is an enigma.

Regarding the girl, some witnesses said that she had been seen together with Marquis Chrebl in the Abandoned Ancient Firedrake Nest. Some say that she’s the follower of the hero Lord Protector of the House Chrebl or his secret disciple. Some also say that she’s Marquis Chrebl’s illegitimate child. Various speculations were made. Meanwhile, Marquis Chrebl himself left no comment on this matter.

◆◆◆

「ーuwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!」
「Ogre! It’s an ogre!!」
「No way! It’s a variant!」

Screaming in the 5th layer of Abandoned Ancient Firedrake Nest was the C-rank party 《Battlefield Hammer》. The party itself is formed by ex-mercenaries. They are often found causing trouble for other adventurers due to their roughness and temper. However, they were still an asset to the Guild since they would take dangerous quests without hesitation.

Right now, the 〈Battlefield Hammer〉 was inside the low-profit dungeon Abandoned Ancient Firedrake Nest for one reason. It was because the gossip flowing around the kingdom.
That is…
『Whether or not Marquis Chrebl was hiding 『Something』 about the Abandoned Ancient Firedrake Nest』

To own such a low-profit dungeon and frequently bring his knights into the dungeon, it was way too suspicious even by the eccentric Marquis Chrebl’s standard. This story is famous among the guild’s adventurer.

Marquis Chrebl said that he is trying to train the knights under his wing, but who would really believe even half of what he said?

『There is something in the depth of this dungeon, something that the Adventurer Guild doesn’t even know. And Marquis Chrebl is trying to monopolize it』 and such rumors were spreading around.

And the 《Battlefield Hammer》 was one of those people who believed the rumor.
To the people who have little faith in the noble’s good deeds, they don’t believe that Marquis Chrebl simply leads his knights into a dungeon with the intention of simply raising their levels.

There must be something here. And so, the guild issued a secret mission to conquer the dungeon.

Despite the danger to the C-rank adventurers, despite their sorrow, they still came to the job and are now struggling to escape from a group of ogres.
Why?

Because originally the dungeon rank was B. It was obvious that the dungeon doesn’t fit their level.

(TL: please excuse my language here. They are mercenaries so they must have sailor’s mouth)
(ED: Let the swear-fest begin)

「You fuckers stand your ground and stop them!!」
「Are you fucking kidding me! I don’t want to be caught dead in this kind of place!」

The party leader ordered the bottommost members to hold their position, but of course, they would refuse.
but…

「Then I’ll force you to do so!」
「Guaaaaa!!!!」

The leader swung his huge mace and crushed the knee of one member.

「We must do our best to keep surviving! Thank you, Buffet! We will survive thanks to your sacrifice!!」
「Gyahahahaha!! Thank you very much, Buffet!」

The other adventurers escape while mocking the fallen adventurer.

「You fucking bastaaaaー」

The fallen adventurer somehow managed his sword and leaning against the wall, staring at the incoming ogres.
They were approaching.

「shit. shit. Shit. SHIT! SHIIIIー」

He decided to stand his ground, raise his sword, and fight until his end.
Suddenly a gust of wind blew from the back of the ogres, past the adventurer.
The adventurer turned his eyes towards the source of the wind and exclaimed.

「w-w-why is there a maid in this kind of place…?」

Right.
There was a maid.
The maid carried a gigantic greatsword and used it to block a club swing from an ogre.

「O-oi! Those ogres are variants! There’s no way a woman could beat them!」

No wonder the adventurer thought like that.
The maid looked like a small and delicate girl.
Her approximate age is 17 or 18 years old. She had long chestnut hair. Her stature from behind looked rather innocent. But most important of all, she looked rather glamorous.
But, normally she wouldn’t able to fight the ogres.
Even soー

「〈Flame Tongue〉!!」

The moment the maid murmured the chant, her sword was clad in flames.

Guoooooooooo!!!

The ogres shrieked in anger.

「〈Thunder Strike〉!!」

The maid’s greatsword swung at an unbelievable speed. The adventurers, couldn’t even perceive the speed. The large sword slices through the neck of the ogre variant while scattering out electricity.

The maid with her greatsword strikes and thrusts like a lightning bolt and managed to deal damage to the variant ogre that the 6-man-party 〈Battlefield Hammer〉 couldn’t touch.

「w… whoa…」

While the adventurer murmured, the other ogres snapped and attacked the maid.
The maid sliced the ogres with the flame-clad sword like a lightning bolt.
Furthermore, she shot a water bullet from the handle of the sword and took a distance

「〈Ground Dash〉!!」

She swung the sword into the ground.
And the ground exploded.
The rock flows from the place the sword hit and swallows the group of ogres.

The adventurer still looked at her while gaping his mouth.

「ーーfuuh. I somehow did it~」

said the maid while humming a light tone.
The maid pulled the sword with a cute「uu~n」 from the ground.
Behind her, a huge shadow approaching.

「Behind you!」

The adventurer shouted to warn the maid.
It was the variant that should have been killed.
The mutant, with blood still gushing out from the neck, picked up his fallen club and tried to attack the maid.

*whoosh*! *splash*! *drop*!!

The adventurer couldn’t understand what happened then.
Something flew at a blinding speed, hit the ogre’s arm and blew it up. The club flew past the maid’s head and crushed the unfortunate rock when it landed.
He tried to look back slowly to see the aftermath of the club and missed what happened in front of him.

When the variant draws near, a sudden metallic sound was heard, and the variant fell to the ground.

「Thank you for saving me, Ed-bochama」
「Now Steph, what did I tell you about being wary of your surrounding?」

(TL: just in case because someone asked me before, bochama is used to address someone with status of very very young master)

A human figure came and the adventurer still couldn’t believe his eyes.
The one appeared before him was a 5-years old child.
The child lowered the bow on his arm… So does that meant that it was his arrow that blew off the variant’s arm?

「But, I didn’t think anyone would still be alive after that much of damage」
「It’s because ogres are stupidly durable, especially since it’s a variant.
This mutant seemed to possess the ability 【Toughness】」
「Then please tell me beforehand~!」
「But didn’t Steph just say to leave it to you? Well other than that, are you okay?」

The boy approached the adventurer and called him out.
He was still puzzled but replied.

「A-ah… Thank you.
Thank you for saving my asー rear」

The man tried to choose his words carefully since there were a maid and a boy with questionable age right in front of him.

「Uwaa, this is a terrible wound. Even his bone popped out. Is it from those ogres?」

「No… it was from my party members. They crushed my leg to buy them time to escape. Those basー guys… washed their hands of me just like that」
「I see. So it was misfortune.
Party is it? So you must be an adventurer. But it’s really weird. I have confirmation from my father that no adventurer is supposed to be diving today」
「Father…?」
「Yeah, he is the Marquis Chrebl. The owner of this dungeon」

The man’s expression paled after hearing the boy’s words.

「O-oi, you look pale. Don’t worry, I’ll heal you now. ИーHeal」

The boy drew a shimmering magic character and the man’s wound started to close.

「oooh… This is the first time I’ve witnessed 【Healing Magic】」
「So what happened? Did you perhaps not submit to the Adventurer Guild and dove into the dungeon anyway?」
「You (Omae wa)… no, are you (Anata-sama) really the son of Marquis Chrebl?」
「Using 『Omae』 is fine. I’m just 2 years old. My name is Edgar」
「tw… two?」

He almost muttered 「are you kidding me?」.

「My name is Buffet. The truth is our partー no… my previous party tried to enter this dungeon without notice」
「Since just making a report is not an obligation, I won’t blame you for it. But why did you do such a foolish thing? You can’t call for help if you got caught up in something」
「We know it. But… that…」

Towards the hesitating man, the boy gave a nasty expression.

「Ahahaha… Do you seriously believe in that rumor? 」
「That is how it is…… But, as Edgar-sama said, is the rumor a hoax?」
「You don’t need to add 『sama』, but putting that aside.
My father had said since the beginning. This dungeon is a place to train his knights. This dungeon is really useful as training grounds since the monster pack moves in an organized manner, it was like fighting in real combat. Well, the raw material we get are few in number, but after the middle layer, the monster levels were raised as well」

「So that is what happened. Damn… They even said that 『Nobles always try to extract profits from people to the bone』 We were completely deceived」
「I’m sorry for you. Well, when you get back to the guild, you can report that you were dumped as a scapegoat. I’m sure the punishment for injuring a party member and turning them into a decoy will result in their expulsion from the guild」
「Even though you’re a child, you sure know a lot about the Adventurer Guild. That attack before, You are Marquis Chrebl’s son of a devil. …… Ah, I apologize. That was very rude of me」

(TL: Just a reminder, he has a sailor’s mouth so calling him a devil’s child was actually a compliment)
「I don’t mind~ By the way, can you go back on your own?」
「I think so… It will be really embarrassing to be escorted by the son of a noble and not the other way around. Even so, as a scout, at least I should be able to scurry home」

Hearing that response, the boy glances at the adventurer.

「If you say so… But, your 【Stealth Step】 is quite sluggish, no? You know you can use it to walk on the surface of the water if you’re careful, right? Meeting goblins or orcs should be alright, but you might be ambushed by Kage-Tokage though」

「water surface… I see! I understand! If you think about it, it’s true!!」

(TL: Kage Tokage basically means Shadow Lizard but I want to preserve the pun. It probably looks like this certain part of an obsolete rank-4 engine from yugioh cardboard)

Hearing the boy’s words, the man hit his hand *pon* since it was such a good idea.

「Good bye then. Have a safe trip. If I were you, I will also report to the guild about the abandonment. After all, you should be allowed to have your revenge, no?
ーNow, Steph. Shall we make some profit?」
「Eeeh? Haven’t we hunted plenty enough already?」

「I see, so Steph is the type who will slack off when left alone. We have to keep on earning relentlessly whenever we are together.
That said, if you leave people like Elemia alone, they will persist doing things excessively so you have to stop them somewhere」
「We had been working too hard these past few days, hence why Elemia-sama took a day off. I’m so jealous~ I also want a day off」
「I wish I can work with Elemia」

While doing such a casual conversation, the boy and the maid disappear into the dungeon.
The craggy ground from the maid’s magic? The boy aimed his palm to the ground and the dungeon regained its original appearance like nothing had happened.

「…… so that was the Chrebl’s demon of a son and the 《White Frilled Hero》…」

The adventurer totally forgot about escaping, he could only just stare blankly as the two left him alone.

◆

「To~oh!!」

Along the stupidly placed shout, a huge sword was swung at a terrifying speed, cutting the unfortunate goblins in its path.

While watching her fighting, I reminisced about what has happened so far.

Since the start of the training, Steph’s clumsiness could be seen as clear as broad daylight.
To be honest, I think Steph’s power would be too much for regular everyday life. She could swing a great sword like any normal ones. I won’t be surprised if she couldn’t adjust her strength to daily life.
Steph herself didn’t think that she was that strong, but people around her had expected to be a victim of her clumsiness.

Whether it was the effect of her class as 〈Spell sword〉or the result from rigorous training, Steph doesn’t seem to have any trouble controlling her strength.
Thanks to that, her “clumsiness” is reduced to almost non-existent. Her efficiency in jobs like cooking, laundry, and cleaning had improved greatly. Since she can do heavy lifting work, she had grown to be regarded as Ace-class personnel among the maids in the mansion.
The head of Corbette village once remarked when he had seen her growth 「I thought this would happen since the first day, I can’t imagine her growth after this point…」 and shed emotional tears.

Even though there were many mistakes such as mistaking sugar and starch and made an incredibly thick black tea, she has undeniably come a long way.

It was also thanks to the Royal Capital’s maid education trainer we employed, she gradually grows into a refined maid.

Currently, the result of Steph’s 【Appraisal】 is as follows.

《
Stephanie Poporus (Attendant of Chrebl Household | Daughter of the Chief of Trenadette Village | 《Powerful Maid》 | 《White Frilled Hero》)
Level 31
ＨＰ １２３／１２３（７８＋４５）（↑７０）
ＭＰ ５８／１７２（１２７＋４５）（↑１２０）

Skills:
・Master_Class
【Sense_Presence】２（ＮＥＷ！）

・General
【Simultaneous_Invocation】４（ＮＥＷ！）
【Martial_Arts】３（ＮＥＷ！）

Class
〈Spell Sword〉Ｃ（↑２）
》

To encourage her class growth, I told her to focus on her skill, so even if she learned other skills, it will be included in the 〈Spell Sword〉 class by the【Skill Magic】.
【Simultaneous Invocation】 was learned to obtain the counter stop bonus, which is 【Uninscribed Invocation】. Unfortunately, her low affinity really slows the growth.
【Sense Presence】 was obtained with much struggle by combining other low-affinity skills like 【Keen Hearing】 with other skills. Her aptitude for【Martial Arts】was low as well, but to make her able to fight a little in case she doesn’t have her sword, I’m doing my best to have her learn it.

Her recently acquired title 《White Frilled Hero》 seemed to be counted as Magic-related title, so it’s possible for her to do max MP expansion technique.
Therefore, her magic sword, which has a bad MP cost and can only act as a trump card, could be used quite easily. If her MP kept increasing, she will become quite a broken character indeed.
Her level also increased considerably after Alfred-tousan asked her to hunt down some monsters on a whim.
Right now, even Gazaine would have some trouble to take her as a hostage.

Regarding 〈Spell Sword〉, she can even use it to give some form of retaliation against my father.
When she is pitted against a human opponent, for example against my father when he’s going easy, she can win 2 or 3 times out of the total of 10 fights. Father’s frost magic had a lot of progress after his match, but Steph’s explosive power output is not something to scoff at.

And that is the how the 2 years-old me spend my days. While training Alfred-tousan, Julia-kaasan, Steph, and Elemia, I am still going to raise my skills and continue my research. Even though every day is monotonous like this, I’m still enjoying it the best I can.