It was three years ago this year that Alina became a receptionist, too short to be called a veteran, but long enough to not be called a rookie anymore, and she was starting to get the hang of things. She had set herself a goal as of late. A precious goal that she was determined to achieve, even if she had to risk her own life to do so.

　‘Have a nice day!’ With a bright smile, Alina bade farewell to the adventurer from behind her counter. With accustomed hands she filled the commission form, a task that on busy days she would put off until later. After a careful check to make sure that no entries had been left unfilled, she added it to the pile of processed forms. ‘Ahh, isn’t this peaceful!’ Alina mumbled to herself, satisfied.

　Ifühl Counter. The quest reception which boasts to be the largest in the entire metropolis of Ifühl. Alina, standing behind one of its five counters, cast her gaze to the interior of the reception. Lit in the soft light streaming in from the skylight in the hight ceiling was a group of adventurers, studying the quest board that covered the entire back wall, calmly discussing which quest to choose, and, next to them, the fingers of the wall-mounted clock were nearing twelve, about to herald the coming of noon. The morning shift was drawing to a quiet close.

　‘Lunch time!’ Alina stretched her stiffened body as the town’s clock tower loudly struck noon. As the other receptionists left for lunch in quick succession, Alina too put down the “Closed for lunch” sign and was about to leave her post in high feather. That was when disaster struck.

　‘Wait, wait, wait!’ A burly adventurer shouted as he burst into the reception. Startled, Alina stopped for a moment—something she would later identify as the cause of her defeat. Ignoring the other counters, the man looked straight at Alina and stormed over to hers.

　‘Oof, just in time! Thank God I got here before the morning shift was over!’

Just in time, my arse!

　Sure, Alina was still standing behind her counter, but morning reception was definitely over. But as if to say: “as far as I’m concerned it’s still morning in the world,” the man breathed an unearned sigh of relief as he wiped the sweat off his brow and said, without a hint of shame: ‘There’s a quest I want to take with some haste. No other reception will serve me once it’s noon, but I thought that if it’s Alina, it’s okay even if I’m a little late, so I rushed here! Right, thank God, thank God. Well then, please take care of the paperwork for me.’

Die.

　Her inner voice nearly escaped her lips, which were frozen in a smile. She barely managed to hold herself back, but when she found out that his crime had been premeditated, a tremendous bloodlust welled up in her chest. By asking her to give up minutes of her time with such an air of nonchalance, this foolish man had violated the inviolate. Put simply, he had just committed a grievous crime. For Alina, lunchtime was a precious break in the middle of a long working day, and hour of paradise where she didn’t have to think about annoying human relations, where she could set her heart free. He was asking her to sacrifice this time, of which she couldn’t bear to waste a minute—nay, not even a second. Unforgivable.

　Yet bear it she must. True, the man had arrived too late, technically speaking, but he had come so cunningly close that she couldn’t refuse him. If only she hadn’t stopped, she could’ve pretended not to have noticed him.

　‘Yes, of course. What quest would you be taking today?’ Alina forced out through gritted teeth. She wanted to take an hour to hammer into his head on just how much benevolence, how much sacrifice she had put into those words. But she restrained herself and forced a smile on her face. At times like this, if you refuse a customer outright, they might well come back later to lodge a complaint. Weighing the small sacrifice to her afternoon break against the risk that he raise a complaint against her and increase her workload, she ended up choosing the former and accepted his request.

　As soon as she saw his face, she had recognised him as one of her regulars who frequently queued up at her counter. As she added his face to her mental blacklist, she told herself that this was just part of the job. She would not let it get in the way of the goal she had vowed to achieve. That’s right. I have a goal. I can’t risk increasing my workload unnecessarily.

****

　‘Tough luck, eh?’ said the voice of an adorable young girl with strikingly large round eyes and pigtails that swayed pleasantly whenever she moved her head. It was Laila, two years Alina’s junior, the rookie receptionist who joined the reception staff just this year.

　‘Tough bloody luck indeed.’ Alina sulked childishly, stuffing a sandwich in her face as if she were taking out her frustration on it. In the end, the adventurer dragged out the procedures with his barrage of requests and comments, and before she knew it, half her lunch break was gone. Normally Alina spent her break outside, but with so little time left she had no choice but to eat at her desk.

　‘Why is it always the guys who come in at the last minute who make the most annoying demands? Things have finally calmed down here with overtime and stuff, and yet… why do I have to work in my break when it’s not even peak season?’ Alina complained. Feeling the aura of bloodlust rising from her, Laila opened her eyes in fright.

　‘Alina, you look terrifying when you’re angry! When you’re calm, you’re like super pretty, so please stop making such a monstrous face! You’re destroying the delusions of all the men in the world!’

　‘They can think I’m a monster all they want, my anger of having my sacred lunch ruined is impartial.’ Alina, too, was a beautiful young woman who had secretly gained popularity among the adventurers. Her long, shiny black hair, her large jade-coloured eyes, her soft, smooth skin and slender body were all points of charm. But currently her expression was distorted with unbridled hostility, her pink lips twisted in a snarl, her enchanting jade eyes glittered with bloodlust, and her aura was one of carnage, spoiling her precious beauty.

　‘That piece of shit adventurer ruined my lunch! I won’t forgive him! I hope he dies a thousand deaths!’

　‘There’s no point reasoning with you when you’re like this.’ Laila sighed in resignation. ‘Couldn’t you have refused him?’ she asked.

　‘And risk adding more annoying work to my schedule? No thank you.’ Hmpf, Alina snorted and balled her fists. She went on: ‘It’s all for the sake of my goal.’

　‘Your goal?’

　‘That’s right.’ Alina glanced at the flyers that had been carelessly pasted to the wall. Because she had kept her eyes wide open in searing rage during the commission procedures just now, they were strained and bloodshot, and they harboured a certain frightening vigour. As she opened her eyes even wider, Alina shouted: ‘It’s the Century Festival!!!!’

　The walls of Ifühl Counter, whose halls were host to countless adventurers during the day, were plastered with pamphlets of all sorts advertising this and that. Including one promoting next week’s festival.

　The Century Festival. The biggest festival in the metropolis. Originally intended to imitate the rites of the Ancestors, who once lived on this fair continent of Helcassia, as part of a research project, nowadays it has been reduced to an excuse for adventurers to make merry. Over the years, the festival had grown more and more extravagant, to the point where it is now considered one of Ifühl’s biggest attractions. Not only do people from out of town come to visit the festival, which lasts three consecutive days and nights, from every corner of the world talented cooks, peddlers, even street performers, sniffing a business opportunity, come together to pack the streets of Ifühl with their stalls so tightly one can barely walk through them. As such, not a smidgeon remains of the dignified ceremony in which the Ancestors prayed to Dia, the God worshipped in this place since time immemorial. It had been replaced with a grand event of Bacchanalian revelry. As the festival approached, the town grew more and more excited. Sensing that restless energy, Alina clenched her fists and gave vent to her inner frustrations.

　‘Last year and the year before that, I had to work overtime and couldn’t go! Do you know what it’s like to work through the night all alone while you can hear the festival music coming through the windows?! It’s close to torture, is what it is!’

　‘R—right. I can imagine.’

　‘This year I’ll make sure I leave work on time during the festival!’

　Pointing her quill in no particular direction and facing the skies, Alina struck a figure resembling a god of war charging onto the battlefield to lead her troops to victory. So strong was her determination to achieve her goal. ‘And I’m going to enjoy the whole three days and nights as much as I can!!’

　Yes, this was the biggest, most important goal of the third year receptionist. She had lived in Ifühl for over three years, but oh! such an absurd fate, she had still not enjoyed the Century Festival. By fair means or foul, she was going to attend this year. Anything less would be unacceptable. Even those who exchange their time and labour for money have the right to enjoy the things they like, to use their time as they please. Alina wouldn’t allow this precious right to be crushed by the cruel wheels of overtime. No, this wasn’t a simple matter of an overworked girl wanting to finally go to the festival. This was a holy war to regain her dignity as a human being and to win back her freedom.

　‘I’m looking forward to it too!’ Laila said, her eyes twinkling as she echoed Alina’s enthusiasm. ‘It’s the biggest event in Ifühl! Truth is, one of the reasons why I wanted to become a receptionist was that if I lived in Ifühl, I could enjoy the festival every year.’ Ah, but, she tilted her head as if she had just noticed something. ‘Why are you so caught up on leaving work on time? Like, there hasn’t been any overtime lately, right? If nothing changes, you can just finish your work and be done with it, right?’

　‘I get what you’re trying to say.’

　Receptionists. They are public servants who commission quests, write reports, and gently see adventurers off as they head towards the perilous dungeons. Employed on a permanent contract, they enjoy a stable occupation where they rarely get fired or made redundant, are never in harm’s way, unlike adventurers, and have a high social standing—in other words, it’s the ideal job. Yes, you have to greet those slovenly, self-important adventurers with a fake smile, and you have to go through mounds of paperwork that offer little sense of reward when completed, but in essence duties are leisurely.

　‘But you’re naive to think so—and foolish to boot.’

　‘Eh?’

　‘When the festival comes, this place will become a battlefield.’

　‘How!?’ Laila’s eyes opened wide in shock. Alina replied, her voice cold with long-held resentment: ‘How? Because during the festival, the guild increases the rewards for quests—the detestable, so-called ‘Special Century Festival Bonus Period’.’ ‘Century Festival Special Bonus Period!?!?’ Laila reeled as if she’d been struck by lightning. ‘Wait a minute, they’re increasing the payout!? Why!? I never heard about this!’

　‘Headquarters issued a memo the other day. Listen, the more important things in life come around before you know it, so it’s your responsibility to make sure you’re properly prepared, or you’ll be caught off guard and die.’

　Alina had also missed the memo in her first year and been caught off guard, but now she was lecturing Laila, who was about to make the same mistake, with a smug look on her face.

　‘All the adventurers who’d been lying dormant till then come out of the woodwork together to take on quests during the bonus period. You know what that means, right? Mountains of paperwork as far as the eye can see. Working hours so long they stretch into the next day. The only thing that awaits you during this cursed time is death!’

　‘Death!?’

　‘Because of this, I haven’t been able to enjoy the Century Festival even once!’

　Under normal circumstances, receptionists start and finish their workday according to schedule, but under certain conditions the workplace is thrown into a hell of hard work and overtime, such as when a new dungeon is discovered, or when a dungeon capture is nearing completion, or, as is the case now, when the Guild decides on a whim to introduce special measures that increase the reward payout and attract the greed of adventurers, who then madly take on quests and stir up a storm of overtime that makes it nearly impossible to maintain even the lowest standards of living for those caught up in it.

　Alina still remembered how she would work frantically through the night, crawl home when her shift was over, fill her stomach with the shabby meal she managed to cook with what little energy she had left, and then fall asleep like a log, exhausted. Naturally, under those conditions, she didn’t have the energy to go to the festival—far from it, before she knew it, it was already over.

　‘Every bloody year I have lost to the Guild’s underhanded tricks!’

　‘Dirty…’

　‘Listen, Laila. Adventurers are an easygoing bunch. They will accept the quest during the bonus period and only do it after the festival is over, thereby killing two birds with one stone: they get to enjoy both the festivities and the higher payout. That’s why I said, they all come out like god-damn maggots!’

　‘Alina, you’re kinda scaring me…’

　‘Have a look at this.’ Alina said, ignoring her junior who was trembling in her seat at her terrifying aura, and slapped a sheath of papers on the desk. The front read in grandiose strokes: “Manual for Overcoming the Century Festival Bonus Period.”

　‘Th—this is!?’

　‘Using my two years of experience, I have compiled this manual, detailing the trends and countermeasures to overcome the onslaught of commissions during the bonus period. I don’t intend to continue losing to overtime. But that’s not all!’

　Alina opened a booklet that had been carefully placed beside her desk. It was a guidebook, distributed mainly to tourists, detailing the various festivities during the Century Festival. It was small enough to carry with you as you walk around, but there was a reasonable thickness to it and contained the full three-day programme, the location of stalls, and numerous drawings of people enjoying the festival. It was meant to be handed out to people coming from outside Ifühl as a guide, but Alina got hold of it before anyone else, and had already cluttered the pages with notes and comments.

　‘I’ve completely memorised the public timetable published by the planning committee. I’ve learned, through painstaking inquiry, the location of the stalls that sell out every year. I’ve handpicked the shops I want to visit and worked out three possible routes to see everything in the quickest and most efficient way possible! All I have to do is make sure I can leave work on time!

　‘Wow…. You really put a lot of effort into this.’

　‘Ahaha… A-HA-HA-HA-HA! Wait for me, festival. I have the experience and technique of three years as a receptionist. This year I’m gonna get out of work on time and enjoy you to death!’ Alina cackled madly, her fists clenched, her eyes burning with dark passion.