Protagonist Knows Everything

Without wasting any more time, I opened up the records. And after a bit of explaining, I gave her the ‘test’.

10 minutes later,I opened the door of the conference room and came out. Kasha came out behind me.

Sain was standing outside, looking at Kasha’s exhausted face. Sain looked as if she saw a ghost. Kasha’s hair was a mess after the ‘test’.

“Ka…Ms. Kasha. What’s wrong?”

“Sain…this guy knows me better than myself……”

“Huh?”

“I am going out to get some fresh air.”

Kasha stumbled upon her feet as she was making her way out of the guild.

‘Was it such a shock?’

“……”

Sain stared at me. Her gaze was familiar.

‘When was it?’

Oh, it was the gaze of employees when Daewi of the marketing team applied for maternity leave. It was only 5 months after his marriage.

‘But why are you looking at me like that?’

After a few days the Hagnut guild received the anticipated A-class quest request. Honestly, I thought that when Sain accepted this request, my personnel evaluation points would increase.

‘Right? I am the first receptionist to secure an A-class quest’.

However, not a single point was granted.

Rather as an appreciation, Sain asked with a concerned voice, “How much is the penalty?”

“It must be written in the form.”

‘Then she silently stared at the form’.

Her expressions slowly turned cynical, then she cried out.

“What?! This is ridiculous.”

For the first time since my reincarnation, I heard Sain’s cynical words. It was refreshing.

“Yeah, I know.”

Even after hearing my carefree answer, Sain touched her forehead. This was this lady’s habit. She touches her forehead whenever she’s deeply concerned about something.

“We haven’t accepted the quest yet, I’ll make some arrangements so that we don’t have to pay that ridiculous compensation.”

“Ms. Sain.”

“But we can’t change the term unilaterally. It won’t improve the guild image, but…”

“Calm down.”

“I’ve never been calmer than this!”

After some time she put her hand on her chest, took a few deep breaths, and said, “Mr. Tay. Of course, this is a great opportunity for our guild, but this is beyond our capabilities.”

“……”

“Look.”

In the form, it was written:

Defeat A-class monster Braum.

Honestly, I knew nothing about this monster. However, it’s information was highlighted with red.

Braum. A monster born from the eternal flame but without a physical body.

Physical attacks do not work at all.

It can only be harmed with magic but fire magic doesn’t work at all. It is necessary to have a water mage in the party.

For adventurers, B-class or below, it is recommended to go with three parties.

I was expecting something like this but I had to look surprised in front of Sain.

Then after looking at me, Sain said,“As you may know, Mr. Kasha is a fire mage and cannot handle the water magic at all. This quest is too dangerous.”

“……”

“I will formally refuse this.”

At that time, the guild’s door flung open. It was Kasha.

Kasha was wandering around the guild mindlessly for the last few days after I gave her the ‘test’.

Sain, who saw her, whispered in my ear, “In addition, Ms. Kasha doesn’t look alright.”

Meanwhile, Kasha came over and asked, “The quest…is it here yet?”

“Yes it did.”, I replied before Sain could say anything.

“Then let’s go.”, Kasha said with gleaming eyes.

Sain was disappointed and replied, “Kasha. This quest cannot be solved without water magic. It’s too dangerous.”

“I know.”

“Ah, you know?”

“Yeah. I can go with Tay.”

This was the first time she called me by name. Sain looked shocked. And turned to me.

“You are going together?”

“Yeah. I have my luggage all packed.”

“But…But why is a receptionist accompanying an adventurer to a quest? This doesn’t happen.”

“There’s always a first time for everything.”

“But you don’t have to be the first. It’s too dangerous, for both of you!”

Sain’s face was full of worries. It feels a little odd. I don’t remember getting this much anxiety when I was called for an interview with the Ministry of Labor in my previous life.

“Kasha. Please say something to Ms. Sain.”

Sain, who became frustrated, turned to Kasha for salvation.

But Kasha still replied without blinking an eye.

“It will be okay. Ms. Sain.”

“Ms. Kasha……”

“This guy knows what he’s doing. If we solve the quest today, we will tell you what it is.”

After that Sain gave up.

I packed up and said, “Shall we go then? It’s my first time going to the field.”

“……”

“Please guide me, Ms. Seasoned adventurer.”

Kasha replied a while later, “Troll face.”

Hundreds of years ago there was something called the Great War.

Now, the name had been reduced to a mere fairy tale. But it did happen, during the war the Demon lord became infamous across the whole continent for his ruthlessness. His legions invaded the continent by freeing numerous monsters, monsters that might appear in mythology. Even after desperate attempts, the human empire lost two thirds of the continent to the demons.

However, as always at the end of the stories, heroes appeared on the human side, and they finally succeeded in killing the Demon King. It would have been a happy ending if the story ended there.

The problem was that after the Demon King died, the monsters he unleashed into this world had no one to control them, so they went wild. For nearly hundreds of years after that, humans repeatedly marched North to search for the lost half of the continent, and now about two-thirds of the territory has been restored. It is said that the remaining third of the land has become uninhabitable because of the war. So humans gave up on reclaiming it and focused on restoring power and order to their empire.

I was in Kelk, a small town at the northern end of the human empire. The power of the state didn’t reach this part yet, so a noble family pushed out of power was given the task to guard this place… and someone needed to subdue the monsters that could not be handled with their military power.

That’s where the adventurers came in. And the guild was created to support such adventurers.

[Rattle]

The wagon caught onto a rock and shook up. I almost fell over. Of course, the coachman was Kasha.

“Why am I driving?”

I heard Kasha and replied, “It can’t be helped. I don’t know how to drive.”

“Why are you so confident about that?”

“Everyone has something that they aren’t good at. I just have to tell someone who knows how to do the things that I can’t.”

That’s how companies worked.

“Why did I get stuck with you?”

“If you have time to say that, do a good job of monitoring your surroundings. You don’t know when the monsters will attack you.”

Even with Kasha beside me, I was a little nervous. In my past life and now,I was doing a white-collar job.

“You are really weird.”

“Huh? It might not look like it but I didn’t have time to learn the common sense of this world.”

She slowly gave her explanation.

“The carriage we’re riding on was made by the Tower of Eternity who were commissioned by the guild association. Monsters won’t come near the carriage as it has a repelling spell on it.”

“Okay?”

“Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to deal with monsters hidden deep in the region, people will get exhausted dealing with the monsters in their path.”

I nodded. Kasha said what she wanted to and didn’t open her mouth after that. To complete the quest we had to go deep inside the monster realm. We travelled for almost a day and reached the destination.

The ground was burning, and the burning could be felt from hundreds of meters away.

‘We should go back.’ Suddenly that thought crossed my mind.

From here you could see the monster rampaging, it was Braum. Contrary to its name, it looked somewhat feminine. Just like the description her eyes and mouth were empty holes, hollow. She didn’t have any physical body, just a sentient flame.

She suddenly turned and pointed at us. At that moment I felt a chill running through my spine.

“Ok. It’s time.”

I was trying to gather my thoughts.

That’s when I heard Kasha’s voice, “Don’t worry I won’t leave you. Never.”

At her words, I quickly regained my calmness.

‘If I leave you then I won’t be any better than my old teammates.’

Receiving all this reassurance from a little kid. Looks like I had plenty to learn.

I replied with a laugh, “Yeah, yeah, I know.”

“…”

“Then let’s do it. Are you ready?”

“Yeah.”

Braum approached with a slow pace. However, the slow pace for a 16 ft tall sentient flame is like sprinting for a regular human.

‘I have to hurry.’

“Human Resources”, and as always, the hologram window appeared.

When I was promoted to 1st-year employee I unlocked a unique ability.

[Professional ability 1: Permit.]

[Effect: Gives new aptitude to the subject.]

[Duration: 30 minutes]

[Cost: 40 points]

I selected it.

[Would you like to use the unique ability ‘Permit’?]

Nod.

[Please enter the subject’s name.]

“Kasha Flame.”

[The unique ability ‘Permit’ is initiated. Please select the aptitude to be granted.]

“Water magic.”

Then a familiar screen came up. It was a draft document that came up to me several times a day at my previous job. This took some stress off me, and I vaguely smiled.

[Aptitude for water magic chosen.]

[For the next 30 minutes, Kasha Flame will be able to use water magic.]

[Points deducted: 40]

[Current points: 0/1300]

This sentence was at the bottom.

[To proceed, please review and approve the order.]

One significant difference from my previous lifestyle was the fact that I no longer had to wait for someone’s approval. No one is above me anymore. Only I, Kim Ill-do, can approve this document.

I lifted my index finger and signed ‘Kim Il-do’ in the payment section on the screen. At that moment, Kasha’s eyes changed.

She said, extending her hand while trembling, “Keep your promise.”

“……”

“You’ll have to tell me how you do this.”

I knew what she was talking about. But I was shaken at the moment. And my mouth moved on its own.

“Sorry. That was a lie.”

“What?”

“I can’t tell you, not right now.”

At those words, Kasha turned to me. I thought she would get angry, because I broke the promise.

But to my surprise, she was laughing.

“I thought you’d say that, trollface.”

“……”

“Thank you for informing me before everything was over.”

She looked directly ahead once more and began to chant something. It was a language that I would give up on because my tongue would curl up if I tried to recite it. Words that I heard for the first time since coming to this world .

[Thump thump]

Suddenly, the distance of hundreds of meters had been reduced to tens. Unable to bear the heat, I wrapped my face with a wet hood.

“Wow.”

Braum, who had a zombie-like voice, slowly extended her arm.

Finally, Kasha exclaimed before it could finish attacking us, “Aqua Serein!”

Thick ice suddenly formed near Kasha’s feet. It attacked Braum at a very high speed and surrounded her.

“Screech!!!”

The monster gave out a blood curdling scream.

“Wow! We really did it Tay!”

Kasha’s face, who used water magic for the first time, was filled with joy. At that time, the ice melted and the heatwave followed, Braum was still burning. Without even a second of delay Kasha started her chant again.

“Aqua Surin. Agni de! Aqua Serein!”

Braum froze once again, but it wasn’t enough. Braum’s heat freed herself again.

After a few minutes of struggle. Braum couldn’t create any more heat. Her flames disappeared, and her actual appearance was revealed. It looked like an old charred tree branch.

“…”

After a bit of struggle her flames disappeared, and the ice climbed up. And with that, everything was over.