With heavy footsteps, a lone man walked down the corridor.

Although he himself likely intended to hurry, his progress was slow. With a distinctly rotund belly and a chin so large that it made it rather hard to see his neck, even his height was lacking for an adult male.

All of the aristocracy felt that it was good to eat proper meals every day, but anyone could see that this man had eaten more than his share.

Druid Dean, the Minister of Finance for the castle, was a person who carried much on his person. Not just his excess flesh, either. Oh, no. He was a person hiding many dark secrets.

However, there was no evidence for it nor did he lack in money. Working his way up through the castle’s ranks and into a position of import, he spent his days in decadence as he left his work to his subordinates and l.u.s.ted after any beautiful woman that caught his eye. The person this man had his eyes on was an existence quite the opposite of himself.

“Fiana-dono!”

Druid called out to the woman with enough force for spittle to be expelled from his mouth.

As though noticing the man’s existence for the first time, the woman named Fiana slowly turned around. She had, in truth, noticed him since before that, but the woman didn’t not think well of Druid and pretended as though she hadn’t realized he was there until that moment.

She had snow white hair and red eyes. Her waist-length hair spilled over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s from over her left shoulder. Her hair and eyes extolling a calm demeanor, the woman’s natural aura felt gentle.

She wasn’t too tall, not much different from Druid’s own height.

Well, Druid slightly won out in that regard, but for this man who called out to the woman so readily, it may well have been the only thing he won in.

What stood out the most about this girl were her two pointed ears that parted her white hair. Seeing the characteristic elf ears, Druid smiled. However, even though he had only walked a short distance, his face was covered with a thin layer of sweat that s.h.i.+ned in the corridor’s light.

“I pray you are in good health today as well, Fiana-dono.”

“The same to you… Druid-dono.”

Both bowed their heads as a token greeting, but Druid’s gaze was not on Fiana. It was on her body.

Although Fiana was a knight, she was not wearing her knight armor this day. As it was so early in the morning, she thought to go and offer her prayers to G.o.ddess Euswara in the temple.

It wasn’t as though she was a pious believer in the G.o.ddess, but she didn’t see a need to break her life-long habit of daily prayer.

Contrasting her relatively short height, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s propped up her white blouse generously. With an abundance so great that they shook just from walking despite being protected by underwear, these b.r.e.a.s.t.s that so many women envied were the one part Fiana disliked about herself.

Elves were a race that weren’t so well-padded, yet almost as though to spite that idea, her chest had ripened rather richly. They obstructed her both when she swung her sword and when she trained. They were large enough that she found them to be hindrances during fights.

With just the bottom half of her outfit resembling clergy vestments, a long skirt that had a slit up the side, the visible black knee-socks held up by her garter belt were captivating.

Her very un-elf-like sensual body and calm expression would attract even the eyes of a reluctant man. She herself didn’t wanted something like that to happen, though.

In defiance of her plentiful b.r.e.a.s.t.s and well-shaped bottom, her waist was thin due to her training as a knight. Although her calm demeanor and body gave the feeling of being motherly, her short height gave the feeling of being charming.

Druid’s gaze as he looked at her disproportional chest seemed like he wished to lick them.

(… Mou, so gross…)

She wished that she could hide her b.r.e.a.s.t.s with her arm, but she wasn’t able to as the man outranked her in authority.

Finis.h.i.+ng the greeting and standing upright, her expression looked just slightly uncomfortable.

“So, Druid-dono, is there anything you needed to talk with me about on a morning like this?”

“Ooh, there is. It was just that Fiana-dono’s beauty was so great, I forgot what I wanted to talk about.”

“Fufu, you flatter me.”

Fiana responded to Druid’s pigheaded compliment, hoping all the while that this would end as quickly as possible.

Quite a number of aristocrats who were knights or in another positions of some import pa.s.sed by them, but none of them would interfere with Druid.

Everyone knew very well what would happen if they started being a nuisance to Druid.

“Excuse me… I’m sorry, but it’s almost time for prayer—do you have anything you need to tell me?”

“Hoh, it’s already time for that? Time truly does fly when you are accompanying a beautiful woman.”

“Thank you… for the compliment.”

Taking Fiana’s troubled smile as embarra.s.sment, Druid smiled.

“Fiana-dono, I do not know if you have been left with a task already, but do you have time?”

“Y—yeah, it’s not that I don’t have a task that needs to be done soon, but…”

“You’ll be moving around in the training grounds or doing your filing work for a while then, am I correct?”

“You are…”

She didn’t know why the Minister of Finance would know what her tasks were, but it caused her skin to crawl just thinking about it.

Druid continued talking, not noticing Fiana’s expression s.h.i.+ft to one of caution.

“In that case, could I request that you take a job?”

“A job?”

(What, a mission?)

She felt like it was a little anticlimactic.

It would be a mission from Druid, but she was pleased to be able to work as a knight.

Although the Minister of Finance held no authority in knights’ affairs, his position allowed him to ama.s.s money. The thing that no one working in the castle could disregard—money.

Of course, even if she had an attractive face, a mere knight like Fiana couldn’t refuse him. Regardless of what Fiana thought to herself, she had no choice but to listen to this man.

“Do you know of the recent disappearances near that village in the north?”

“Yes… I believe I’ve heard the Adventurers Guild announcing that there were some victims?”

This was a topic that she’d heard about just that past month.

People going to that northern village to peddle their wares or to travel would come up missing, adventurers as well.

“In truth, I was asked by my friend in the guild if I could lend some help from a knight order since it was too much for the adventurers to deal with.”

“… So, you ask me?”

“I merely felt that Fiana-dono would love a chance to serve in settling an incident that is disturbing the peace.”

Druid wanted to get a debt of grat.i.tude from Fiana.

He wanted this beautiful knight to belong to him one way or another.

Fiana knew that this offer was born from wicked intentions, but she still hesitated in declining it.

A knight wouldn’t abandon those in trouble, they would help them. If she could help, she would. That was what she felt.

“… I’ll need to ask the captain, but…”

“Fufun, if it’s something like that, this Druid will—”

“That isn’t what I mean. I’ll need to..” [1]

“But—”

Fiana truly did just want to ask her captain if she could accept the mission, but Druid panicked somewhat, thinking that she was trying to refuse.

However, thinking of something, he stopped midway.

“I understand. I’ll be hoping for a favorable response from you.”

“I’m not sure if I will be able to meet your expectations, but okay…”

Ending the conversation with that, Fiana took the opportunity to incline her bow.

As she did so, Druid’s gaze fell on her hips.

Her skirt was thick due to imitating a clergy member’s, but it wasn’t enough to fully conceal her curvaceous body.

Druid’s eyes were fixated as he watched the woman’s bottom sway back and forth as she walked away.

Just the thought that those hips would one day be his caused his groin to fire up.

With a quiet sneer, Druid also began to walk away. Fiana was heading to the temple, yet Druid was heading towards the office belonging to the knight captain.

He would hammer the nail in hard enough that Fiana couldn’t possibly refuse the mission.

Two days later, Fiana took several knights that were training and had lacked things to do with her and joined up with adventurers from the guild.

Their group of five knights and twelve adventurers set out from the royal capital towards the northern village.

… Even now, none of them knew what they were about to beckon in.