Who Says I’m Not a Legitimate Adventurer?

So bright.

The intense sunlight made Cecilia instinctively narrow her sore eyes.

But in the very next second—

Her entire body jolted awake as if struck by lightning.

She abruptly turned her head and looked in horror at the brass mechanical clock hanging on the wall.

The hour hand was unmistakably pointing at eleven.

It was almost noon already!

“Heavens!”

Cecilia let out a despairing wail.

She had actually missed the appointment. She had perfectly missed the internship time she had arranged with Senior this morning.

The girl jumped up from her chair in a panic and began hurriedly changing clothes in a frantic mess.

She struggled to shove her feet into her leather boots, carelessly threw on that dull gray coarse-cloth cloak, then grabbed her canvas backpack and rushed toward the door.

Just as she was on the verge of crying from anxiety, the room door was pushed open from outside.

Yuna had just walked in from outside.

Because today happened to be her party’s regular rest day and they did not need to head into the forest, she appeared especially relaxed.

“Whoa, what’s wrong?!”

The moment Yuna entered, she nearly got slammed into by the headlong-charging Cecilia.

“I’m doomed! I missed the internship gathering time today!”

Cecilia’s face was full of panic as she brushed past her roommate without explanation and tried to continue running outside.

But Yuna reacted quickly and grabbed her around the waist from behind.

“Stop running already. We’re not going to the forest today.”

Yuna hurriedly stopped her.

“Lance already came by this morning!”

“Senior came here?”

Hearing those words, Cecilia instantly froze like a puppet whose pause button had been pressed, immediately stopping all struggle.

A strong wave of unease and anxiety surged within her heart.

Senior wouldn’t think she was some pampered lazy young lady who couldn’t endure hardship because of this, right?

Missing something as important as internship attendance… would he be very disappointed in her?

She lowered her head as all kinds of terrible guesses continuously flashed through her mind.

Seeing her roommate looking so pitiful, Yuna smiled helplessly.

“Lance told me to give you a break for these next two days.”

Yuna released her and walked to the table to pour herself a cup of water.

“He also said you two have been completing commissions at high intensity every single day lately, and the combat intensity has been way too high. He came to the manor specifically to tell you about the vacation.”

Yuna took a sip of water before continuing.

“When I came into the room earlier, I saw you sleeping so deeply on the desk, so I made the decision myself not to let him come in and disturb you.”

After hearing Yuna’s explanation, the heart that had been hanging in Cecilia’s throat finally dropped heavily back into place.

She let out a long breath of turbid air, and the tension in her body completely relaxed.

“Oh right, there’s one more thing.”

Yuna put down the cup and turned around with a teasing grin.

“Later this afternoon, Lance will come to the manor to find you and bring you to the market to buy professional supplies needed for overnight stays.”

“He said he’ll prepare a list in advance.”

“Going shopping together?”

Hearing that invitation, Cecilia’s heartbeat, which had only just calmed down, sped up once more.

It felt as though some cheerful emotion was bouncing joyfully around inside her chest.

“I understand!”

She happily turned around, preparing to return to her room to change out of her heavy Adventurer outfit and back into her usual casual clothes.

But the moment she walked beside the desk, she immediately saw the stacks upon stacks of paper scattered across the tabletop.

They were filled with detailed records of all her wild thoughts and ridiculous worries from the entire previous night.

There was even an absurd question like “How can I keep my hair smooth while in the wilderness?”

The girl sharply inhaled.

She hurried forward and spread both arms, sweeping together all those papers that were practically black history, clutching them tightly against her chest.

“What exactly was I even thinking…”

She organized the papers while muttering in annoyance inside her heart.

“Obviously no matter what trouble comes up, Senior is so amazing that he can definitely solve everything easily.”

“Cecilia, you really are such a big idiot.”

Bright sunlight poured through the window onto the girl.

Within that warm halo of light, the exquisite cheeks of the Half-Elf girl unknowingly became tinged with another beautiful blush.

……

Meanwhile, on the other side.

Warm and brilliant sunlight shone without restraint across the flat streets of Graystone Town.

Outside the courtyard Lance rented, Nia stood there quietly.

Today she wore a very homey set of casual clothes and carried a small wicker basket carefully wrapped in a clean checkered cloth.

Faint wisps of enticing heat from freshly baked herb roasted meat bread seeped out from the basket.

But standing before this tightly shut wooden door, Nia was beginning to regret this impulsive action of hers.

And all of this was the fault of the mysterious star-shaped mark on her left wrist.

She had obtained this peculiar mark while in White River City.

That day, as if possessed, she had wandered into the local temple of Goddess Areteia. While praying devoutly, this strange mark—a star wreathed in flames—had suddenly branded itself onto her left wrist without any warning.

Just as she was overwhelmed with panic and completely at a loss—

The mark actually spoke inside her mind. It was a mature female voice that sounded extremely lazy.

The sudden voice frightened the completely unprepared Nia so badly that she nearly cried out inside the temple.

Sensing Nia’s panic, the mark quickly comforted her in a gentle tone.

The female voice claimed her name was Judith.

And she instructed Nia not to tell anyone.

For a local who had grown up listening to fairy tales since childhood, the name Judith was far too familiar to Nia.

That was the name belonging exclusively to the white lion of Goddess Areteia in mythological epics. Within the faith of the people, that name symbolized courage.

But the voice within the mark immediately explained that she seemed to have lost her memory.

She also could not say with absolute certainty whether she truly was the legendary white lion.

However, the only thing she could confirm was that she had definitely encountered some kind of fatal danger before. Left with no other choice, she had hidden deep within the temple and eventually ended up residing within Nia’s body.

She swore repeatedly that this was absolutely an arrangement made by the goddess in the unseen workings of fate.

To verify this outrageous claim, Nia later secretly tried bringing the mark on her wrist close to the sacred emblem of Areteia worshipped within the temple hall.

As expected, it did produce a faint resonance with the mark.

This fully proved that the other party truly possessed some kind of connection with the goddess. It was just impossible to know why such melodramatic fate had to fall specifically onto her shoulders.

However, after confirming this fact, Nia did not feel any joy at being chosen by destiny.

She had never fantasized about becoming some hero who saved the world. Deep down, she was simply an ordinary small-town girl who only wished for a peaceful life.

Thus, Nia very politely asked within her mind whether the other party could hurry and leave her body to search for a more suitable host.

The result was an immediate and decisive rejection.