It was late at night.
In a small inn on the outskirts of Garden Town, two women were drinking at the bar.
They were Marian and Lilia, the two who had been kicked out by Torina for bullying Milora.
After being kicked out, they were angry, aggrieved, and frustrated.
They knew they were outmatched in both combat and social standing by Torina, and they were also aware that they were in the wrong, so they could only swallow their anger.
However, returning to school in disgrace would make them a laughingstock, so they stayed in town, carefully avoiding their former adventurer companions.
Ironically, none of those former companions spoke up for them; no one truly cared about them.
But tonight, things were about to change.
“Here’s the potion for tonight.
Take it, and you know what to do.”
A Black-clothed Man sitting next to them handed them a small package.
He spoke in a disguised voice, his face completely hidden under a hood, looking like a classic conspirator from a fantasy novel.
“Of course we know… haha.”
“Hehehehehe…”
Marian and Lilia looked as if they had eaten something they shouldn’t have, with slightly crazed, dazed smiles, eagerly taking the package.
“Remember, all I’m doing is bringing out the power you already have.
The rest is up to you… Go ahead, do what you want.”
With that, the Black-clothed Man stood up and left, disappearing in an instant.
Marian and Lilia didn’t linger either, leaving the bar with strange laughter.
——————
“Ah…”
Torina rubbed her eyes.
It was late, time to sleep.
Today had gone well; she could feel that Milora was not as resistant to her as before.
Just as she was about to change clothes and go to bed, she suddenly heard a commotion downstairs.
(What’s going on…?)
She suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of danger and quickly headed to the first floor, encountering Milora, who seemed to have been woken from sleep, still groggy.
“What’s all the noise downstairs… meow…”
Her sleepy, cat-like sound was adorably cute, but Torina had no time to appreciate it.
The two of them went to the first floor together, only to see—
“Where’s Torina Deville!?”
“And that Milora! Bring them out!!”
Marian and Lilia, the two troublemakers, were causing a scene.
They looked visibly unstable.
At least half the inn’s guests had come down to see what was happening, including the members of the Moonlight Adventurer’s Guild.
The most hot-tempered Anna-veil and the straightforward Lanifi were about to say something when the troublemakers noticed Torina and Milora coming downstairs, their expressions turning quite colorful.
“You finally came down to see us!”
“Deville!!!”
“What are you so excited about… Are you here to apologize? If you want to show sincerity, you should do a full prostration.”
““You’re the one who should do a full prostration!!!!””
“…Huh?”
Torina was taken aback.
She had almost forgotten about them.
Why were these minor characters back? In the original story, the Protagonist had easily defeated them upon returning, and even with a temporary power-up from the author, they were still beaten in a few rounds.
Why bother with stepping stones like them?
No choice, she’d have to kick them out again, and this time, they might need to suffer a bit.
“Stop embarrassing yourselves here.
Go back to where you came from.
Have some self-awareness, okay? Do you think I care about you? Agreeing to let you join the team was just a courtesy.
If you don’t leave—”
“Torina Deville! Don’t push us too far!!! If it weren’t for family orders, do you think I’d want to suck up to you!?”
“Praising you was just to get close to you.
Do you think we have no temper!? How dare you humiliate us in public?”
…Huh?
“I’ve had enough! You boss me around all the time, and now you’re kicking me out for such a stupid reason!!”
“So I’ve been sucking up to you for nothing, huh!? I’m not done with you today!!!”
…Huh?
Marian raised her staff—
Lilia drew her twin swords—
“Do you really think we’re afraid of you!? Let’s duel!”
“If we win, we’ll deal with that Milora however we want!!”
Ah ah ah?
This time, it was Torina’s turn to be dumbfounded.
This development wasn’t right?????
How did these stepping stones suddenly become so bold?
————————
————————
“Someone’s going to duel!! Seems like it’s because of an internal dispute?”
“Which adventurer’s guild?”
“Moonlight Adventurer’s Guild! The one with all the beautiful girls, very famous!”
“Look, isn’t that their leader?”
“The legendary super mean girl!”
“I kind of want to be stepped on by her…”
“Is she going to fight two at once?”
“Yay! I want to see blood!”
In no time, the onlookers, adventurers, and merchants had surrounded the street in front of the inn, even though it was the middle of the night.
Marian and Lilia were glaring at her with burning eyes, ready to unleash their pent-up resentment.
“Uh…”
Torina wanted to say something, but someone spoke up first.
“Tch, two worthless fools who don’t know their place!”
It was Anna-veil, arms crossed, looking at the two women with disdain.
“Torina may be a jerk, but do you think you’re her match in terms of combat? Leave quietly, and you might avoid some pain!”
“Who’s afraid of who!? She’s just a lazy dog!”
“She always lets others fight while she drinks tea and reads the paper! Last time, she almost got killed by a griffin, and she deserved it!”
That was true; the old Torina loved to boss people around and had a cleanliness obsession, though her personality had changed now.
“If you want to kick us out, then do it! I bet you don’t have the guts!”
“Come on, let’s have a real fight! You always skip combat classes at school, claiming menstrual leave, having your period thirty times a semester!”
“Don’t say that in front of everyone ahhhhhhh!!!!”
Torina was completely cornered and had no choice but to accept the duel.
Everyone watched her with interest, curious to see how the notorious mean girl leader of the famous all-girl adventurer’s guild would respond.
Even her other guild members didn’t seem inclined to stop it.
Who wouldn’t want to see beautiful girls fight? But these two challengers didn’t seem like they could put up much of a fight.
“Come to think of it, I’ve never seen the leader seriously fight anything other than monsters,” Patty said curiously.
“Don’t worry, she’s strong,” Lanifi said confidently.
“I wouldn’t serve under a weakling.”
“How can you be sure she’s strong? Her ice and lightning spear was flashy, but fighting monsters and fighting people are two different things.”
“Just a hunch.”
“……”
The teammates chattered away, while Torina was inwardly groaning.
Showing off big moves in front of her team and sparring with Ji Xue was one thing, but this kind of formal PvP… she didn’t have fond memories of PvP.
In this life, she often got beaten up by her siblings when she was young.
(What a hassle…)
Torina summoned her status screen.
She needed to familiarize herself with it, as she hadn’t checked it in over ten days.
(My class is a Rare Class Rune Swordsman, with low defense and endurance, average physical and magical attack, but very high physical and magical critical rates, and impressive movement and attack speed.
I can stack buffs on myself repeatedly…)
In other words, a build that relies on stacking buffs and high attack speed to deal explosive damage, which she was already familiar with—when Torina’s attention was suddenly drawn to an anomaly.
Why… are there two classes listed?
(A second class? There wasn’t one before, and it’s called… ‘Corporate Slave’?)
What the hell is a Corporate Slave?
In the class section, there was something called a “Corporate Slave Gauge,” similar to a mana bar, divided into three segments by dotted lines, currently full.
Below it, several skills were mosaicked out, with not even the skill names visible.
(Could this be my class from my previous life? Did awakening my memories also awaken my previous life’s class? But it makes no sense at all!)
“What are you daydreaming about? Do you look down on us?”
“Take this, you wicked woman!!!”
The Wind Swordsman Lilia was surrounded by green wind elements, accelerating explosively with powerful thrust, shooting forward like a cannonball! As she charged, she swung her twin swords in a swift cross slash, aiming straight for Torina’s head!
Ding!!
A sharp metallic clash pierced the ears.
Torina blocked the slash with her swift sword.
That beautiful bright silver blade, containing a strength and resilience completely at odds with its slender appearance.
“ᚺ ᚻ ᛁ”
Torina softly chanted, and three runes flashed by—the next moment, a torrent mixed with ice shards erupted from the blade, blasting Lilia away like a kitten hit by a truck.
“Damn it! Earth Spike—”
“ᚦ ᚷ”
Before Marian could cast her spell, Torina pointed her sword at her like a magic wand, and a silver lightning bolt struck her, leaving her smoking from all orifices.
Coughing up blood, Lilia struggled to get up, using wind element thrust to throw her sword at Torina.
But Torina dodged the flying sword with speed that left afterimages, lightning sparking under her feet—she suddenly vanished into a blur, and with two thuds, she reappeared behind Lilia and Marian, knocking a big bump on each of their foreheads with her sword hilt.
“…I mean, I’m the leader, after all.
It’s pretty easy to deal with you.”
Torina said helplessly.
Seriously, PvP is so boring…
Fighting stepping stones like you doesn’t show off my skills.
Why don’t you get the author to drop in some cheats like in the original story?
