INTERLUDE: SCENE 1

—A Lonely Girl Who Was Looking For Companions—

I sat in the corner of the Adventurer's Guild, and repeatedly looked at the party recruitment notice board with a sense of unease.

Megumin, my fri… rival, who's traveled with me so far, has found a party and left to do a quest.

On our first day as adventurers, our distance had widened.

Although Megumin was petty, bad tempered, and had a weird perception, she still had considerable social skills.

After living so long, the thing I've talked to the most was the marimo reared at home.

TL Note: Marimo is a kind of green algae ball found in lakes.

It was too difficult to talk to strangers. I simply couldn't do it.

Therefore, I posted a notice at the party recruitment notice board…

"…! I see it! Someone just looked at my notice!!"

Looking in the direction of the notice board, I saw a small adventurer's party reading my notice.

Maybe these people would accept me as a companion. How should I greet them? I'm so stupid. I never thought of how to greet them until now. I should keep to the order of name, job, and skill…!

As I was getting hot-blooded, those people pointed at the notice and nodded. They looked around happily, as if looking for someone…

Meeting my eyes, they trembled.

Finally, this small party shrank and left hurriedly.

It seemed they were not recruiting…

But no problem. The notice clearly stated the job of Archwizard…

If I waited, surely some adventurers…!

—Did not come at all.

Some other people read the notice later, but for some reason, they left without saying anything after seeing me.

… At this time, an onee-san with spectacles came over to my table.

"Uh, uh… Excuse me."

"Ah, yes! What is it!? My name is Yunyun. My job is Archwizard, but I can only use Intermediate Magic. Sorry, but no problem. I can learn Advanced Magic soon!"

"No, no. I'm a staff of the Adventurer's Guild! Sorry, I didn't come over because of the recruitment notice!"

She seemed to be a guild staff.

"Uh, did something happen? Was there a problem with my recruitment notice…?"

"No. Although I do think there's a problem with the way it was written… A lot of people complained that whenever they read the notices, a girl will stare really hard at them. They felt it was very scary…"

It was a misunderstanding! It was because I was very concerned.

"I know that very few adventurers are considered worthy of a Crimson Demon, but please don't glare with your crimson eyes at those that don't meet your criteria. It's somewhat scary…"

Wrong! A Crimson Demon's eyes would glow crimson only when excited!

I was excited because there was someone coming.

"…So-Sorry. I will take note of it…"

Hearing my reply, the staff breathed a sigh of relief and left.

… People were afraid of me. I was kind of hurt.

As I laid my head on the table slightly dejectedly…

"I heard you're 13 years old?"

I raised my head and looked.

"Uncle… No, I'm 13 years old too! You're looking for a frontline job? Leave it to unc—me… I'm a high level Crusader! I will protect you, my little sister!"

No matter how I looked at him, he seemed to be over 40 years old. The heavily armored uncle panted and said quickly…

…

"…Uh, uh, let's chat."

"Eh!?"

Even though he was the one who initiated the conversation, the uncle cried out in surprise.