Not far from Ifühl a huge fortress made of stone stood tall, a flag in the guild’s colours dancing on the breeze atop its towers. As the carriage passed through the massive iron gate, the group found themselves in a place so vast it could house a small town.

The guild headquarters. Once an S-rank dungeon, it was captured in its entirety by Glenn Gallia—then a member of the guild’s elite—and now serves as the guild’s stronghold.

Flanked on all sides by the Blades, Alina proceeded down a long stone corridor until they reached a double-winged iron door. Passing through, they emerged into a spacious courtyard—though instead of flowers and benches the inner yard, wide enough to accommodate a multi-party raid fight with room to spare, was surrounded by a high, sturdy wall, giving the place a cold feel. Instead, it looked more like—

‘An arena?’

Alina furrowed her brow. An arena was hardly an appropriate place to summon someone for a talk.

‘This here is the largest training ground owned by the guild.’

The answer came from a lone man standing in the courtyard. Greeting Alina was a warrior in the prime of his life, his red cloak emblazoned with the guild’s crest fluttering in the breeze, his well-used broadsword slung across his back—it was Glenn Gallia.

Standing by his side, wearing a pair of glasses which imbued her with a rather stern look, was a female secretary who observed Alina with eyes that seemed unwilling to believe that this young lass could be the Executioner.

‘What did you want to discuss?’

Alina curled her lips in displeasure and asked bluntly.

This wasn’t the the way a mere receptionist at the bottom of the totem pole was supposed to behave towards the highest authority of the guild, but Alina had gotten defiant. Glenn, on the receiving end of her thorny demeanour, paid no heed to Alina’s ill manners. Instead, he stared at her intently with a look of curiosity.

‘Heh, the more I look at you the more I see just an ordinary receptionist. Do you know how surprised I was when I used “Observator Temporis” and saw the Executioner’s face? I still have trouble believing it.’

‘If you called me here just to tell me that, I’m going home.’

Furrowing her brow in displeasure, Alina continued:

‘I have to pack my belongings and prepare to move back to my parents’.’

‘Wait, wait, you’ll be joining the blades. You can pack your bags, but it won’t be to go to your parents’.’

‘Hmpf. If you want to fire me, go ahead. But I’m not joining the Blades.’

‘Now, now, wait just a minute. You seem to have misunderstood something. I didn’t call you here to press you into joining the Blades, let alone to fire you.’

‘Eh?’

Alina blinked her eyes at Glenn’s unexpected words.

‘I mean, of course I wouldn’t. I’m an ex-adventurer myself, so I know that using my authority to force you into the Blades won’t make for a well-functioning party.’

‘So why did you call me?’

As if he had been waiting for the question, the guildmaster announced with a wide grin:

‘Fight me, Executioner.’

For a moment Alina struggled to understand what he was trying to say.

‘Huh?’

Alina stared fixedly at Glenn, who looked back at her fearlessly.

‘Fight you?’

‘That’s right. Like men, let our fists decide whether you join the Blades or not.’

‘But I’m a woman.’

‘The details are not important.’

It looked like he was dead serious. Alina narrowed her eyes, trying to get to Glen’s true motive.

‘If I win, what do I get?’

‘The guild will have no further involvement with the Executioner. Whether you decide to dive into the dungeons as the Executioner or work a job on the side, the guild will not threaten your position as a receptionist. However, if I win, I’ll have you obediently join the Blades.’

Alina opened her eyes wide at the offered reward.

If she wins she’ll no longer need to worry about being fired. In other words, she can keep being a receptionist for the rest of her life without a care in the world. Rather than millions in reward money, or the prestige of being appointed to the guild’s elite, this was worth far more.

‘How about it? It shouldn’t be a bad deal for you either—’

‘Activate skill: “Dia’s Ruin”’

In lieu of an answer, Alina took one step forward.

Her position as a receptionist was guaranteed for all eternity. She needed no time to consider whether or not to accept his challenge.

A white magic circle rose up from her feet and a warhammer appeared silently from thin air.

‘A—a white magic circle and… a warhammer!’

‘So Alina really is the Executioner?!’

Ignoring the flustered Loewe and Ririru behind her, Alina gripped the hilt of her hammer tightly and approached Glen step by step.

‘Yes! That’s the way it should be!’

As she listened to Glenn’s voice, who sounded pleased for some reason, Alina stopped just out of reach of his broadsword. As Glenn stood face-to-face with Alina, who looked her opponent straight in the eyes as she stood motionless, a sudden tension flashed across his face.

‘I will warn you. I won’t give you an easy victory.’

Glenn threw off his cloak with a grand flourish. He brandished the broadsword on his back and shot Alina a fearless smile.

Glenn Gallia. The legendary adventurer, known as the strongest vanguard in his time.

Utilizing his transcendent skill “Observator Temporis”, said to be a “once in a hundred years miracle”, the figure of him fighting while manipulating time was like a god on earth, the figure of him swinging his broadsword and mowing down his foes like a rampaging lion. To this day, none have been able to break his record for the most dungeons captured, and he stands at the pinnacle of adventurers in both name and substance.

‘Of all the transcendent skills, “Observator Temporis” is said to be the strongest. However herculean your strength may be, it is useless in the face of my skill. I can stop anything. Well then, missy—no, Executioner! How do you fight a foe with the power to stop time? Do not think it’ll be easy to surmount m@#*#&!!1!!’

Without waiting for Glenn to finish his taunt, the hammerhead sank into his fearless smile. With a painful crack, Glenn’s face compressed to half its size, and a second later his body, as if it had just remembered to obey the laws of physics, went flying. In a rain of broken teeth Glenn’s middle-aged body skidded across the ground until it finally crashed into the distant wall.

For a brief second, there was nought but silence.

‘G—guild master?!!!’

The secretary shrieked at the merciless manner in which her boss had been blown away, and rushed over to his side. Glenn, collapsed in a heap, didn’t stir for a while, but eventually he managed to get to his feet, groaning.

‘Unbelievable! A sneak attack?! What a dirty trick!’

The secretary glared at Alina and started to complain, but froze in mid-sentence, gaping. Her face turned white as chalk as if she’d seen a monster, and finally she let out a short shriek.

‘It was his fault. He kept yapping away while we both had our weapons drawn.’

All the negative emotions that had accumulated up to now were condensed and released as a sinister aura from Alina’s entire body.

‘If I win, I get to be a receptionist forever. Now, if only my overtime would go away, I will have my ideal life of peace and quiet.’

Muttering under her breath, the sinister figure of Alina, dragging her warhammer along the ground as she slowly approached the prey before her, was truly worthy of the name Executioner, tormentor of sin.

Alina spoke in a subdued whisper, devoid of emotion, while those around her inadvertently lost their words at her bloodlust:

‘Guildmaster. I’m grateful for your kindness in deciding to settle this matter with violence.’

The next moment, Alina’s eyes opened wide. Without a moment’s hesitation she kicked off the stone floor.

‘Now you must die!’

In the blink of an eye, Alina closed the distance. Jade panicked, instinctively sensing the danger from Alina’s blood-curdling expression and unrelenting bloodlust.

‘Damn it, I told him to not challenge her recklessly! Activate skill: “Ironclad Guardian”!’

Jade readied his great shield and stepped between Glen and Alina.

‘Miss Alina, please calm down! If you seriously hit the guildmaster, he’ll—’

‘Out of my way, you fucking rat!!!!’

Accompanied by a war cry, Alina’s hammer soared through the air and crashed head-on into Jade’s shield.

A tremendous metallic screech echoed across the training ground as the relic, which hitherto managed to withstand the attacks of many powerful foes, failed to withstand the full force of the blow and, along with its owner, was launched into the air, spinning like a top.

‘Blegh!’

Unable to curtail his momentum, Jade’s back slammed into the wall before tumbling like a rag doll to the ground.

‘Jade!!?’

When Glenn, who was barely managing to stand up, saw the twitching body of Jade at the edge of the training ground, his face turned pale at the ferocious power of the attack.

‘Oi, you’ve got to be kidding me. You sent the guild’s strongest tank flying?!?!’

‘Ruru, am I going blind or did I just see our leader get blown away?’

‘You’re not going blind… Probably.’

Even Loewe, who had reflexively drawn his weapon at the unprecedented sight of the strongest tank being knocked down by a single blow, could not attack recklessly, while Rururi was even hesitating on whether to cast heal on Jade as cold sweat poured down them in great torrents.

‘I mean, wait a minute. Jade is currently the guild’s strongest tank. If that’s not enough to stop her…!’

Loewe suddenly realised. There is not a single person in the entire world who can stop Alina now. As he was about to speak the terrible truth, however, he quickly stopped himself when Alina’s eyes turned towards the pair.

‘Eek!’

‘Are you two going to stand in my way too?’

Loewe and Rururi quickly hid their weapons behind their backs.

‘N—no, no, no, no, no, we definitely weren’t thinking of doing that ahahahaha.’

‘R—Right right, right, right. We’re just standing by like we were told to do. Right.’

‘I see.’

‘… damn…’

The secretary glared at Alina and quickly stood up to protect Glen.

‘Please fall back, guildmaster!’

As she pulled out several knives she kept concealed around her thigh, her face quickly changed from stern secretary to well-trained bodyguard. And yet, there was no disguising the tension on her face.

‘We don’t yet know how strong the Executioner is. It’s too dangerous! I, as your secretary and bodyguard, will be her oppo—’

‘Hmpf!’

Alina soundlessly closed the gap between them in an instance and swung her warhammer just a few millimetres from the tip of her nose. Instantly, her glasses, grazed by the hammer, flew through the air as the lenses shattered with an audible crack. The air pressure caused her bun to come loose and her hair to be tousled into a shaggy mess.

Across the silent training ground, the metallic clink of crooked glasses clattering on the stone floor echoed vainly.

‘I—I couldn’t see the attack…’

The secretary, unable to move an inch, opened her eyes wide in shock. She froze, her face twitching with fear, as if confronted by some unfathomable monstrosity.

‘For the sake of my peace and quiet,’

Walking past the secretary staring blankly in the distance, Alina glared at Glen’s face, then lowered her waist and brandished her hammer high.

‘Die!!!’

Just when her warhammer, roaring thunderously through the air, was about to smash into Glenn’s face:

‘Activate skill: “Observator Temporis”’

Glen, who had been waiting for the opportunity, extended his right hand towards Alina.

****

After confirming that he had just managed to activate his skill in time, Glenn breathed a sigh of relief.

Silence reigned in the timeless world.

Everything—the twitching face of his secretary, the flustered forms of the elites (a rare sight)—had come to a halt. Here, only Glenn’s time moved. He lowered his broadsword and wiped the sweat from his face.

‘God, that was close.’

Even though he had been certain of his victory from the start, he couldn’t help but mutter from the bottom of his heart. He was in no mood to celebrate his win. If anything, he felt like like he had fled the battlefield for dear life.

‘Good grief. You’re not an executioner, but a demon—nay, the Devil.’

Glenn, staring at the girl, frozen in time just before she could reach him, and her homicidal warhammer, suddenly softened his stern expression.

‘Though you may even surpass the Devil, missy. Heh.’

He said, chuckling to himself. At that moment:

In the soundless world, a creaking sound reached Glenn’s ears. A sound that shouldn’t be.

‘What?!’

Glen spun around, his eyes wide with surprise. The sound came Alina’s direction, whose time should have halted, who wore a fierce expression on her face, her hammer in mid-swing, her mouth twisted in the word “Die!”.

‘Wait, no, this can’t be…’

Creak, creak. The sound grew louder by the second. Glenn, sensing danger, hurriedly leapt back from the spot.

Not long after, accompanied by an orchestra of discord as time screechingly ripped asunder, Alina began to move.

‘Ah?’

As her warhammer struck the empty pavement of the training ground, Alina cocked her head in wonder.

‘I have the strangest feeling that I stopped for a second.’

‘You’ve got to be kidding!’

Glen, horrified, hastily looked around him. Time stood still, apart from Alina’s. “Observator Temporis” had not been disrupted.

‘Did you… did you break through my skill?!’

Alina, struck by the inexplicable scene of a timeless, silent world, finally came to her senses and surveyed her surroundings with a furrowed brow.

‘Stopped?’

‘Welcome to my “Observatorium”, missy.’

Glen didn’t want to admit that in this space, where all time should have halted, only this girl was unaffected, but he had no choice but to offer her an explanation.

‘This space is detached from the great flow of time. All time except my own is in a state of momentary suspension… or so it should be.’

Glen had grown tired of being astonished and, with a deep sigh, he covered his face with his hands.

‘How is it that you’re able to move?’

‘Who knows.’

Forgetting about their match, he pondered this strange phenomenon. In the end, he could only think of one explanation.

‘Hehe. I knew it. So that’s how it is.’

‘Sorry?’

‘Haha, hahahaha!’

Ignoring Alina’s look of suspicion, Glen laughed out loud and snapped his fingers.

‘Sorry, missy. I lost’

With his graceful declaration of defeat, once again sound returned to the soundless world.