“I don’t believe we’ve introduced ourselves, that should be a good start no?”

  “An honest request, fix in your feeble mind my name, as it will be remembered in the echelons of history! I’m Ceryse! Pleasure to make your acquaintance!”

  ...was such a long intro necessary? I’m not gonna ruin their fun, at least for now, I looked at her twin sister and she simply responded in a meek voice.

  “...Evelyn...”

  “Evelyn right? You’re surprisingly quiet compared to your sister Ceryse, The pleasure is mine, you can call me Marisa”

  “Marisa, what a fine name, I heard you’re an experienced adventurer, let us depart to our destination!”

  Ceryse was about to just waltz out of the guild, but her sister stopped her.

  “Ceryse, we don’t know where the orcs are... shouldn’t we prepare supplies at least?...”

  “Always dampening the mood! But mayhaps you’re right! What preparations did you have in mind Marisa?”

  “Me? None, I’m ok with the pn of just going head first!”

  “It’s settled then!”

  “B-but...”

  Much to Evelyn’s dismay, we went out running, or more like Ceryse did, umm... slither? Out of the guild, with me following her pace. She’s not as fast as me, but it’s still breakneck speed for a city, don’t run in the streets kids!

  Her sister is following behind us as well, even if she’s clearly having a harder time keeping up the pace..

  “The request mentions a forest to the east, let’s move there!”

  “Understood!”

  “W-wait you two!”

  We were at the edge of town in a matter of seconds, and we both stopped dead in our tracks, only for Evelyn to catch up to us a minute after, panting and out of breath.

  “D-do you two have any idea where the group of orcs was st spotted?...”

  “...”

  “Maybe I should’ve asked for more information. Well, such is life, we’ll find it eventually!”

  I said to the twin sister to reassure her, even Ceryse didn’t realize we were going head first without an estimated location.

  “It might be a foolish endeavor to wander the forest without proper guidance! We should regroup to hold a strategic meeting with the quest giver...”

  “Getting cold feet Ceryse? You’re the one that bolted out of the guild first~ If you want to go back for information be my guest, I’ll head deeper into the forest myself”

  Heh~ Watching the flustered Lamia is fun, at least they don’t ck common sense completely, even they wouldn’t go blindly into the forest, but what she doesn’t realize is-

  “M-Marisa... Without the request paper, they won’t g-give us any information...”

  Exactly that, the paper is in my hands, and if they head back, they lose the only chance the guild will give them to take a high ranking request legally.

  “Hand it over!”

  Ceryse tried to take the paper off my hands but I simply moved it away from her grasp. She’s slow, too slow to actually get it off from me.

  In fact, she’s still trying, but I simply either move out of the way, or jump back when she tries to overpower me by nding her body weight on top of me.

  “Ha... A-As expected of a silver rank adventurer! You truly do honor to your title!”

  “Or maybe you’re too slow Ceryse”

  Oh! This gives me an idea, it’s something that just came to mind, and I want to try! I hope my chest is big enough.

  I rolled up the piece of paper into a scroll, and slid it down the small opening in the chest part of my dress. It felt a bit weird as it went down in between my silky mounds but also. No, I’m not big enough, the bottom of the paper is poking my belly, but it’s somehow staying in pce regardless.

  “Come and get it~”

  “H-how shrew and indecent!”

  Anyways, I took the request out of my boobs, no point in prolonging this any further.

  “You’ll never take it out of my hands, and even if you did, I would beat you to a pulp until you hand it back”

  “Have it your way then!”

  “So, are you two coming? It should be fine, we’ll be back before sunset regardless if we find the orcs or not”

  “Hmm...”

  “C-Ceryse, we shouldn’t...”

  “Fine! I agree to this little escapade! You’ve shown to be clearly capable of keeping up with our antics, let us prove to you we’re not pushovers either!”

  “Great, let’s continue then”

  And so, Ceryse, Evelyn and I walked through the forest, although I have to say, it’s a rather grim forest, most trees have very little leaves, and some of them are gray for some reason.

  “Pray, Marisa what role do you partake in when in combat?”

  “Me? I usually fight with my fists, or using magic”

  “Ah! A spellcaster, then we make a perfect match as companions, both Evelyn and I are both vanguards”

  “Is that so?”

  I looked at the pair, Ceryse has a sword, scimitar to be more specific. While Evelyn is only carrying a shield on her back.

  “Where is your weapon Evelyn?”

  “Eh!? I-I don’t have one...”

  “And how do you fight?”

  “I...”

  “Ahem! We got the sword and shield pair but we haven’t found a worthy smith capable of meeting our demanding specifications in gear, so we divide their use between us!”

  Well the first part was a lie, now I’m kinda worried, these two share a single weapon, I looked at Evelyn, who’s coy around the subject and looks away from my gaze.

  “And what’s the real reason?”

  “I just informed you!”

  “Evelyn?”

  “...W-we couldn’t afford more equipment...”

  “Evelyn!”

  “I see, adventuring must be rough then”

  I said, ruffling Evelyn’s hair. Ceryse is literally shooting steam from her ears.

  “You should learn from your sister Ceryse, if there’s one kind of people I hate, it’s liars”

  “Fine, we are penniless, is that what you yearn to hear!?”

  “It’s a start~”

  Since we’re walking aimlessly, I should make idle chat by asking about the whole presentation when we meet.

  “Say, you mentioned being descendants of the demon lord, is that also a lie?”

  “Nay, it’s the truth! Are you impressed by our lineage?”

  Ok, Ceryse is lying once again, so I crossed my arms and asked Evelyn, since she’s the earnest one of the pair.

  “I-It’s the truth!”

  What!? Evelyn didn’t lie!? So they are? But aren’t they twins? How can one be and the other one isn't?

  “Are you sure about that Evelyn? How do you know?”

  “W-well... our parents told us and... umm... we have the red hair symbol of the demonic royal family...”

  ...I mean, yeah, Maldi, Aaron, Hope and I all have the same bright red hair color, but Evelyn and Ceryse have a much darker coloration, plus being redheaded doesn’t make you royalty...

  “Hmm... now that you bring the topic up dear sister of mine. Your hair also possesses a red hue Marisa”

  “Well, I was born with it, but having physical traits doesn’t imply your reted to someone”

  That’s like saying everyone with pale skin is family.

  “W-Who knows... we may be reted somehow...”

  “I doubt it, but maybe if we go back enough in the family tree?”

  “Our beloved progenitors informed us of our bloodline, what about your family Marisa?”

  “My family? Well, blood reted I only know of my mother, father, and two siblings”

  “O-Oh really?...”

  “Yep, my mother was probably insane, my father is an obsessive man, and my brother and sister are annoying. Honestly I don’t consider them my family”

  “Bleak news, is there someone that you do consider as such?”

  “I do, I have people that I consider my family...”

  And I want to be done with this whole thing to go back to see them again! I need to write them a letter to let them know I’m ok.

  “Well-”

  I lifted my hand to stop Ceryse’s yapping. A very peculiar smell caught my attention, and made my stomach rumble as well. Blood, fresh blood at that, being spilt somewhere up north from where we’re standing.

  “I think I found something, follow me and stay close”

  The twins were taken aback, but continued following me quietly through the forest.

  Eventually we arrived at some sort of crag formation, and after turning around the small rocky elevation, there they were, 3 green fat people with the face of a pig, wearing nothing but rags.

  I know they’re monsters, but I couldn’t help but associate them with how the piggy used to look, lowkey he could just paint his skin and survive like he was one of their people!

  “W-what’s the pn of attack?...”

  Evelyn whispered to my ear, they haven’t seen us, so we have the strategic advantage in the fight. On that note, at simple gnce, they’re complete pushovers, I could massacre them in the blink of an eye without sweating.

  Recounting my fights, between Celestial, the siblings, or the tailor made monsters of the church, the orcs are basically nothing.

  “This is the pn~”

  I grabbed both Evelyn and Ceryse from their waist, and jumped towards the group of orcs. They seem to have killed something and eaten it raw, I can’t tell what it was, now it’s just a mass of bloody entrails.

  “M-Marisa! What the hell are you doing!?”

  Heh, Ceryse was too panicked for fancy words.

  “Well it’s simple, you two want to be better adventurers, and what other way than with practice, try to get rid of them”

  “T-They’re three orcs! There’s no way we can win!”

  “C-Ceryse is right! We need to retreat!”

  The orcs almost came running towards us, but the moment they got close, they stopped in their tracks, visibly afraid from my presence.

  It seems monsters are not stupid, they can tell at a gnce when they’re outmatched, but I can’t let them just get away.

  “3 versus 2 seems unfair though, let me take care of one~”

  I then used wind magic and sliced an orc’s head off its body without any problem, his body fell unceremoniously to the ground as the blood spttered and pools under its corpse.

  “BUHII!”

  Oh they make pig sounds! Now the other two have entered full panic, and are running away, so I teleported in front of them to cut them off.

  “Going somewhere?”

  And he attacked me with his club, it was a mighty blow, but it just nded with a thud in my palm. They’re not THAT strong.

  “Ok you two, now’s your chance”

  “M-Marisa! What the hell are you!?”

  “A demon? you let an opportunity slip, they’re completely defenseless from a backstab you know”

  The orcs, almost as if understanding my words, flipped around and tried to attack the twins. This is a good opportunity to let them train, I will only step in if their life's on the line.

  “Hii!”

  “Ahh!”

  Evelyn stopped the club on the pigman’s arm with her shield, but it sent her flying backwards anyways, I guess having only a tail for ground support makes it easier for you to be unched?

  “Evelyn!”

  Ceryse ran towards the orc that attacked Evelyn, and tried to hit him with the scimitar, but the orc stopped it with his club, the bde embedded itself into the wood, and Ceryse could not pull it back out.

  The orc didn’t miss the opportunity, and punched Ceryse across her stomach. I could hear a loud cracking sound as she was also sent flying.

  If you’re wondering about the other orc, he’s trying to hit me with his club. I’m not even defending from his attacks, even though they nd on my head and body, it’s doing pretty much nothing. In fact the club is taking more damage than me if anything.

  For now Ceryse is coughing up blood, and Evelyn is staggering while trying to get up.

  I teleported to the pair, and used healing magic on them. I’m not as proficient as Az, but wounds are workable. Thinking about it, bringing Az here to work with demons would be a fun little interaction.

  “Are you two ok?”

  Ceryse is coughing loudly, sure her wounds are healed, but that doesn’t mean she’s not in pain, Evelyn is probably doing better.

  “Ceryse, what a weak slice, if you’re gonna do a frontal attack, it needs enough force to break through, and Evelyn, you’re the shield! Protect your sister”

  “E-easier said than done!”

  Oh! First time she gave me a loud answer! A shame it was interrupted by the orc in sheer panic trying to split my head open. I simply grabbed the scimitar handle that’s embedded into the club, and jerked it away, or so was my intention, the orc let go of his weapon. The other one used the opportunity to flee.

  Two of them might be too much for the twins, so I beheaded the fleeing one as well. And then I removed the bde from the club and handed it back to the orc.

  “Here you go big guy, get to it~”

  ““Marisa!!””

  They both excimed in astonishment.

  “Two against two was too much, let’s see how you two fair against a single orc”

  “Wait! We can’t do it!”

  “Not with that attitude, what happened with the haughty and fancy words?”

  “Be reasonable!!”

  “W-we’re gonna die...”

  “You’re the one that jumped into these quests to begin with, and fear not, I won’t let you two die while I’m here”

  “Ugh...”

  I carried the orc some steps away, and used earth magic to make a circle in this rocky area, now it’s an arena!

  “If you leave the circle, Your fate is gonna be the same as your companions~”

  I mean, I am gonna kill him in the end, he is a monster and according to the paper, they terrorized the town a few times.

  “Let’s try this again!”

  “W-we can’t...”

  Evelyn dropped her shield, same as Ceryse with her bde and even the orc dropped his weapon.

  “Really? Meh!”

  One orc beheading ter, I went to the defeated twins and pced my closed fists in my hips.

  “That was a rather pathetic dispy, You two let go of your weapons and gave up. That’s a big no-no!”

  “...”

  Evelyn is in shock, completely silent, Ceryse managed to calm down a bit, and by that, I mean she started yelling at me.

  “We’re not that strong! It’s all your fault for jumping headfirst! We could’ve done this in a less risky manner!”

  “Hmm... Well it’s true that a pn is always nice to have, but there will be situations where the only way out is to bruteforce your way through! Do you expect the enemy to be nice enough to wait for you to get the upper hand? That’s a naive way of thinking!”

  I know I said it to the twins, but I feel like I also needed to say so for myself as well...

  “Ugh...”

  “Let’s go back you two, enough adventuring for a day~”

  I said, approaching them so I could touch them to teleport them into the guild, but a pair of inconvenient pests came to ruin my fun.

  “Princess, is everything ok? We felt your spells all the way here?”

  “Oh great, dumb and dumber, it’s nothing, are we ready to go to the next town?”

  “I’m afraid our departure will have to wait 2 days, I hope that is not an inconvenience”

  “It is, the reason?”

  “We need to prepare some things with the local people, unfortunately it’s not negotiable~”

  I simply clicked my tongue, they did say it might take days. Honestly I’m contempting whether I should just ditch them and go by myself.

  “Princess, you’re not-”

  “The hood, yeah, whatever, get lost! Only look for me when it’s time to depart!”

  “As you command~”

  And they both left...

  “Marisa, are you associated with the demon’s lord cult?”

  Evelyn asked me with a straight face.

  “Sigh... unfortunately, but just temporarily, they’re the ones helping me with reaching a certain pce”

  “I see! I...”

  Yeah, I know that being associated with them is not exactly good but-

  “That’s amazing! Could you introduce us! We tried to join once but they rejected us!!”

  What happened with Ceryse’s chuuni? Whatever, that was not what I was expecting, I looked at Evelyn, but she also had those puppy eyes, it’s almost like their fear just left their bodies.

  “Nope, and you should quit the idea. Don’t join with those lunatics, they mean nothing but trouble”

  “But! I...”

  Evelyn is looking defeated, something that Ceryse also picked up, and interrupted her again.

  “But we’re obliged to assist in the cult conglomerate! We are rightful descendants of Maldi after all!”

  “Sigh... I guess I’ll see what I can do, better than being an adventurer, that’s for sure, let’s go back”

  I grabbed both of their shoulders and teleported back to the guild, startling the receptionist.

  “Marisa! You’re back already? Did they pester you enough already?”

  “On the contrary, we’re done with the orc hunt, it was a breeze”

  “...And the proof of sying?”

  “...I...”

  I checked the paper, and sure enough, it says to bring the pair of ears from the orcs.

  “Ups~ One sec!”

  A teleport to the crag, picking up the heads, getting a taste of their blood because the intrusive thoughts won, and a teleport back ter, I showed the three heads to the receptionist!

  “Would this suffice?”

  “By the demon lord! Only the ears were needed!”

  “Sorry, I’ll incinerate the heads ter”

  “I-It’s ok, we will take care of those...”

  The nice receptionist grabbed the heads with visible disgust on her face, and handed it to another worker of the guild.

  “We will contact the quest giver to inform the success and proceed to the payment, if you wish to wait for him in the meantime, feel free to make yourself at home”

  “Thanks, I’ll do just that”

  I said sitting on an empty table, I am now the center of attention, but unlike back at home, they’re gazes of respect, rather than whatever the hell the people of Welst were doing.

  “And you two? What did you do on the mission!?”

  It looks like they’re about to get chewed on, I can see the receptionist is visibly concerned for their safety, Ceryse has blood on her face and torso after all.

  “They helped me stall one of the orcs! They were vital to the expedition, you know!”

  I told the receptionist, stalling a single orc seems like an appropriate measure of their strength, even if it’s a lie, I believe they are capable of such a thing.

  “Really Marisa?”

  “Yep, and while Ceryse got hurt, given enough time, they might have been able to kill a single one as a team! Three would be impossible though, if they took it alone, it would be suicide”

  “I see, thank you for looking after them Marisa”

  “No problem”

  “Well, since she’s vouching for you, we can increase your rank to 2 or 3 bronze stars! Isn’t that-”

  “We don’t deserve it...”

  “““Eh!?”””

  Why is Evelyn shooting herself in the foot!? The receptionist, Ceryse and I all retorted.

  “If it weren’t for Marisa, we would’ve died or worse! We’re not ready...”

  The guild receptionist smiled.

  “The fact that you can recognize your strength and limits tells me you’ve grown, I believe Marisa, you two deserve at least a small raise, give me your credentials”

  And just like that, the twins went from a bronze star to two! That’s double the rank, granted double of the minimum given, but double nonetheless!

  “Congrats you two!”

  “And you Marisa, let me talk with the guild master to see if we can increase your rank as well”

  “Oh!~ That would be nice!”

  “M-Marisa is crazy strong!”

  “She’s able enough, and she proved it! She might not be born with indomitable genetics or under an exceptional star like us, but she most certainly merits the highest honors!”

  Oh! Ceryse is back on her stupid way of talking! I guess the stress makes her drop her charade, or at least rein it in somewhat.

  “Yeah, teleportation spells are not something a random mage could achieve, let’s wait for the guild master!”

  “You called?”

  A burly man entered the building, if that’s the guild master, then that’s some BS timing, how did he get in just in queue for the sentence!

  “Master, you’ve been waiting outside again to make another entrance again! Stop doing this!”

  Or he’s just an idiot.

  “I wanted to see the new silver ranked adventurer of town with my own two eyes, but she never came through the door”

  “Sorry old man!”

  “Marisa! Show more respect please! I’m so sorry master, I-”

  “It’s ok, I don’t mind, so you wanted a higher rank?”

  “Yes sir, do you need me to beat you to a pulp? It wouldn’t be the first time I humiliate a guild master~”

  The man looked at me, then looked at the receptionist, walked towards the beheaded orcs, and then looked at the receptionist with deadpan eyes.

  “Give her a gold star rank”

  “““WHAT!?”””

  It wasn’t only the twins, even the other adventurers screamed in shock.

  “B-but, are you sure Master?”

  “You know how hard and tough Orc’s skin and bones are, now look at the cut”

  “...N-Now that you mention it! It’s super clean!”

  “It’s immacute, whatever she used to make it had a lot of strength behind it, not only that but she’s capable of advance magic like teleportation, Even a single gold star rank may be too small for her, but it’s the most my authority allows me to give”

  “Hmm, then how do I go higher?”

  “You’ll need approval from different towns guild masters, and ptinum upwards can only be awarded at the capital, which unfortunately is at the empire, so give up on that dream”

  “Hmm, I’ll force them to give it to me!”

  “Well, I’ll send my written approval for you at least, that way you have one step in at bare minimum”

  “Thanks old man!”

  Not much more happened after that, it took a while but I was paid the reward for the orcs, it was from one of the cult people...

  I forgot they run the town, he offered to let me join in secret, but I declined, much to the cult man calling me things like heretic and dissenter. I also told him the two of the twins wanted to join, but he left too angry to care.

  If only he knew that if Aaron and Hope find out about this, they would probably either not give a shit, or chop his head off, no inbetween.

  “Do you know of any good inn I can spend the night in?”

  I asked the twins, I did hand them a little bit of money for the trauma I gave them, something symbolic for coming with me, about 10% of the reward. It was a lot to them though.

  “If you’re looking for lodging, allow our humble abode to serve as such during your brief stay, we would be honored if you allowed us to maintain your company”

  “Huh, what do you say Evelyn?”

  “I-it would be our pleasure to have you over Marisa...”

  “Well, don’t mind if I do~”

  I will intrude on them a bit longer, they seem like nice people all things considered.

  Joanne_carper