Miss Catherine at the front desk was propping her cheek up with one hand, bored out of her mind as she poked at the mission scroll with a quill.
Her thoughts had long since drifted elsewhere.
‘Those women at the masquerade… why haven’t they returned yet? Could it be they’re too stubborn to turn back, intent on clashing head-on with the demon battalion and ended up taken down by Lord Shadowfang?’ she mused.
‘Although it would be a pity if they died, the plan can’t be delayed too long… the news about the Holy Sword must be released as soon as possible to lure out the big fish from the Church…’
Thinking of the upcoming storm she would help stir up within the kingdom, cooperating with His Majesty the Demon Lord to realize that grand blueprint, a secretive, excited curve tugged at the corner of her mouth.
At that moment, the doorway’s light was blocked by several figures.
Catherine casually lifted her eyes. Upon recognizing Irene and the others, she immediately sat up straight, plastering a professionally practiced smile of just the right amount of surprise across her face.
“Oh my! The ‘Masquerade’ ladies! You’ve finally returned! You really had me worried sick!”
Her voice was warm and lively, as if she genuinely cared. “So, how did the exploration of Death Valley go? Did you discover anything unusual?”
Irene stepped up to the front desk, her golden eyes beneath the mask calm and steady.
She placed a mission report on the counter, her voice clear and firm: “Miss Catherine, the investigation mission of Death Valley is complete. Here is the mission report.”
Catherine eagerly grabbed the report and scanned it quickly.
The more she read, the more genuine her “surprise” appeared—excellent! Everything had gone according to plan!
The report detailed the demon clan and heretic occupation, the forced plight of the Tomb Guardians, and—most importantly—the confirmation that the Holy Sword Barumk was indeed on the altar of the valley’s tomb!
“Oh my goodness! This… this is incredible!” Catherine covered her mouth, looking shocked yet anxious.
“The demons! The heretics! They actually occupy the resting place of ancient heroes and have imprisoned the guardians! Even worse, they dared to desecrate the Holy Sword and use it as bait?!”
Her voice suddenly rose, full of righteous indignation. “This must not be allowed! The Holy Sword is a treasure of humanity, a symbol of faith! We must immediately take it back and crush the demons’ conspiracy!”
She jumped to her feet as if ready to rush out and issue the highest-level mission order at once. “I’ll immediately issue an urgent extermination order in the name of the guild! Summon all B- and A-rank adventurer teams in Sol City and the surrounding areas! At the same time, call for reinforcements from the royal capital’s Church and the Kingdom’s Knights! Gather our forces and—”
“No need.”
Irene’s cold voice cut through her impassioned speech.
Catherine’s energetic motion froze instantly, as if a pause button had been pressed.
Her expression locked into an exaggerated blend of anger and impatience, bordering on ridiculous.
She blinked, thinking she must have misheard. “… What?”
Irene brushed a stray lock of hair aside, her golden eyes calm yet carrying an unmistakable pride and spirited vigor. “I said, no need. The extermination mission has already been completed.”
“Completed…? What do you mean?”
Catherine’s smile slowly faded from her face, a subtle tremor creeping into her voice.
Irene didn’t answer directly but gestured to Lillisa behind her.
Lillisa stepped forward expressionless and placed a heavy, roughly burlap-wrapped spherical object on the front desk with a heavy thud.
The cloth shifted, revealing a grotesque, black-bone-armored wolf’s head with protruding fangs! Its crimson eyes still bore the shock and unwillingness of death—it was the severed head of the Demon Wolf Shadowfang!
Then, Irene took something else from her spatial ring and gently placed it beside Shadowfang’s head—a dull, rusted, and cracked metal fragment, vaguely recognizable as the tip of a sword.
“One of the Four Demon Kings, Shadowfang, has been slain,” Irene’s voice remained calm but exploded through the silent guild hall like thunder.
“As for the Holy Sword Barumk… it was unfortunately damaged in the fierce battle. This is the remnant. The demons and heretics inside the tomb have been defeated, and the Tomb Guardians freed. Mission accomplished.”
Silence.
Absolute silence engulfed the entire Adventurers’ Guild hall.
All the adventurers who had been drinking, chatting, or checking missions froze, their mouths agape as they stared at the gruesome demon wolf’s head and the broken scrap of the “Holy Sword” on the counter.
The air seemed to solidify.
Catherine’s expression utterly collapsed.
Her eyes—usually calculating and alluring—lost all their luster, her pupils shrinking violently as if she were witnessing the most terrifying, absurd, and impossible event on earth.
Her body trembled slightly, lips quivering but unable to make a sound.
After a moment, a sharp scream, almost breaking her voice, exploded from her throat:
“Impossible—!!!”
“You… you were just a few people?! How is that possible?!!”
Catherine lunged at the counter, hands bracing on the surface, body leaning forward almost to grab Irene by the collar.
She roared in a total loss of composure, completely abandoning her usual elegant poise, “That was one of the Four Demon Kings! Lord Shadowfang! And hundreds of elite demons! And those sneaky, deceitful heretics! Even… even the Grand Archbishop of the cult was there! How could you possibly defeat them?! How could you possibly destroy the Holy Sword?! Absolutely impossible! You’re lying!”
Her hysterical shouting echoed through the hall, filled with frantic disbelief and the desperate rage of a plan utterly shattered.
But Lord Shadowfang’s bloody head lay on the counter, telling her all that was before her eyes was reality.
Irene’s brow furrowed deeply beneath her mask.
Catherine’s reaction… was far too extreme.
Unnaturally so.
And how could she know so much?
Even mentioning “the Grand Archbishop of the cult was there”—internal intelligence like that slipped out effortlessly? This was not something that could be explained as “a guess based on new information.”
“Miss Catherine,” Irene’s voice turned cold, her golden eyes narrowing as she stared at the unhinged front desk clerk, “you seem to know very detailed information about the situation inside Death Valley? Even the exact number of demons and the existence of the Grand Archbishop? None of that was in our report, was it? Where exactly did your so-called ‘new intelligence’ come from?”
Catherine felt as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over her head, instantly snapped out of her rage!
She realized her recent outburst and loose words had exposed far more than they should have!
Cold sweat drenched her back.
Suppressing the storm of shock and the furious desire to tear these women apart, she forced a stiff smile that was worse than crying, and croaked out an explanation:
“Heh… heh heh… Captain Irene, you must be joking… I… I was just… too shocked! Hundreds of demons, enough to take a small city! And the Four Kings… this news is terrifying… I, I panicked and said things carelessly… yes, it was careless guessing! I was just worried about your safety, and then seeing… seeing that demon’s head frightened me…”
Her words tumbled out incoherently, her eyes darting about, unwilling to meet Irene’s gaze.
Irene gave her a long, hard look but didn’t press further.
However, the suspicion and scrutiny in that gaze made Catherine feel as if needles were stabbing her back.
She knew she had left an indelible doubt in front of this woman.
At that moment, the guild master’s office door opened, and the burly guild master stepped out.
The commotion outside had clearly roused him.
Catherine grasped at the chance like a lifeline, quickly picking up Irene’s mission report and Shadowfang’s head (stifling her nausea), and hurried to the guild master.
In a low voice, she rapidly gave her report, her face once again adorned with that formal “great surprise” smile.
The guild master examined the report and the head carefully, a mixture of shock and ecstatic joy flashing across his face!
He announced loudly: “Good! Well done, ‘Masquerade’! Not only did you complete the investigation mission, but you single-handedly destroyed the demon nest in Death Valley and slew the Four Demon King Shadowfang!
Exceptional merit! I hereby declare that according to guild rules, your team rank is immediately promoted to A-rank! Congratulations!”
The hall erupted in thunderous applause and cheers!
A-rank! This was the first homegrown A-rank team in Sol City’s Adventurers’ Guild in recent years! And all-female members, no less! Truly legendary!
Irene took the opportunity to face the adventurers in the hall, bowing slightly, her voice carrying a trace of subtle pride:
“Thanks to the guild master’s recognition, and thanks to all my comrades witnessing this. This mission was extremely dangerous. Thanks to the top-tier dual-enchanted mithril equipment from the Raven Domain Mithril Workshop, which provided powerful protection and magic amplification, we were able to fight our way out of the demon’s lair! The workshop master’s craftsmanship is indeed trustworthy!”
She deftly slipped in a bit of advertisement, drawing many adventurers’ envious and eager gazes toward their radiant mithril gear.
Serena, standing behind Irene, watched this familiar yet strange scene, quietly murmuring to Haerja beside her:
“… When ‘Rainbow Bonds’ got promoted to A-rank, it took us almost two years and countless high-difficulty missions… and these guys did it in one mission…”
Her tone was full of complicated feelings.
“Well, no choice. We’ve just gotten stronger! But back then, weren’t you trying to die together with Shadowfang? What were you thinking?”
Behind the front desk, Catherine maintained the fake smile of “joy” over the ‘Masquerade’s A-rank promotion, but deep in her eyes, a boiling hatred threatened to overflow.
She glared fiercely at Irene and the others, especially Irene’s casual, carefree demeanor, silently roaring in her mind: ‘Bastards! Bastards! It’s all over! Lord Shadowfang is dead! The Holy Sword is destroyed! The plan is completely ruined! It’s all because of these masked bitches! All because of that Irene!’
Until Irene and the others left, Catherine ground her teeth bitterly.
Demon clan revenge could wait ten years.
As long as those masked women remained on the border, she had plenty of ways to drag them into endless torment!
Traps—she needed to set up several more near-death traps!
This time, she would allow nothing but success, no failures!
Just then, a junior guild member rushed in, hurriedly handing Catherine a letter sealed with golden embossing—
“Miss Catherine, your transfer order! Congratulations! Due to your outstanding performance during your tenure at the Sol City branch, especially your remarkable achievements in intelligence handling and mission coordination, the Royal Capital Headquarters has decided to promote you ahead of schedule to a more important position at the Royal Capital Headquarters! Please prepare for handover and report to the capital as soon as possible!”
The staff member’s voice carried sincere congratulations.
“W-what did you say?”
Catherine’s smile instantly froze again, then completely collapsed, the light in her eyes… once again, utterly extinguished.
The Royal Capital… Headquarters?
Heavily guarded, filled with experts, demon infiltration difficult and obstructed… and unfamiliar territory where she couldn’t freely move and set traps like at the border.
This was no promotion. This was exile! A transfer away from the frontline where she could cause trouble!
What terrified Catherine even more was that Lord Shadowfang was dead, the demon clan defeated, the Holy Sword in human hands—and yet she was the one getting promoted.
Could it be the demons thought she had already betrayed them?
‘Catherine has lived among humans for too long; she must have developed a human heart! She has betrayed us!’
She felt as if she could hear the other Four Demon Kings passing judgment on her.
Damnation, she was doomed.
Her fingers gripped the transfer order so tightly that her knuckles whitened.
Tears welled up in her eyes, sorrow overwhelming her until she could barely hold back her sobs.
The staff member looked at her curiously: “Miss Catherine, are you alright?”
“Ah, I-I’m just crying tears of joy! Finally getting ahead!”
Catherine choked on her words, her face filled with feigned happiness.
She clenched the transfer order, feeling it burn her hand like a red-hot iron.