Anya had been provoked by Cecil.
Maybe it was "idiots repel each other," but for the cat-girl, there was one thing she absolutely couldn't tolerate:
Getting looked at with a "concerned" expression by Cecil, that idiot.
A humiliation beyond words, meow!!
So…
…
On a warm spring afternoon, after they finished delivering the produce and meat, Cecil drove the wagon out of the city with Evan and Anya, heading into the wide fields beyond Orario.
Green seedlings stood in neat rows in rich earth. Birds wheeled in flocks overhead. In the distance, there were huge orchards stretching across the landscape.
In the fields, farmers in light clothing were hard at work. Some were even shirtless. Even so, most of them wore the Demeter Familia emblem somewhere—on their clothes or headbands—
A beautiful woman with hair like ripe wheat.
Almost all the land outside Orario belonged to the Demeter Familia.
As the city's largest production familia, they were responsible for feeding the entire population. Their combat power was basically zero. They had massive numbers of ordinary farmers without blessings, and among their adventurers, almost everyone was Level 1.
But in terms of influence?
They could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the strongest familias in the city—like Loki and Freya.
Because no matter how strong an adventurer was…
They still had to eat.
Before long, Cecil returned the wagon to Demeter Familia members. Following their directions, she found an open patch of land.
Grass sprinkled with tiny flowers swayed gently in the spring breeze.
Anya stood at a distance, looking so solemn in such a stupid way that even Cecil struggled to hold it together.
The cat-girl was going to prove to them that she was a powerful Level 4 adventurer!!
To be honest—
Both Evan and Cecil seriously doubted it.
If Anya claimed she was an adventurer, that was normal. There were tons of gods in Orario. As long as you accepted a blessing, you were basically a Level 1 adventurer. In practice, if your standards were low enough, there was no such thing as "can't become an adventurer"—only "don't want to."
But Level 4? That was ridiculous, wasn't it?!
You had to be Level 5 or higher to be called a First-Class Adventurer. People that strong numbered under a hundred in all of Orario. In Evan's words, that was already "sect prodigy" territory.
Level 4 would at least be "the elder's personal disciple," right?
In Orario, you could absolutely call that "a master among masters."
And someone like that was… Anya?!
But—
When they'd left the city earlier, Evan and Cecil had both seen it!
Anya had actually been stopped by the Ganesha Familia guards at the gate. They checked her travel permit multiple times before letting her leave.
That made things seriously hard to dismiss.
Evan knew the Guild had a clear rule: adventurers Level 3 and above weren't allowed to leave the city freely. You needed Guild documentation and procedures.
Because outside Orario, in other countries, high-level adventurers were extremely rare.
The monsters on the surface were the ones that had escaped from the Dungeon a thousand years ago, before Babel Tower existed. After so many years, with breeding and change, they'd grown much weaker.
The most obvious sign was the magic stones inside surface monsters—they were much, much smaller than the ones from the Dungeon.
Which meant adventurers outside the city struggled to earn enough "great feats" to level up.
For example, in the kingdom of Rakia—ruled by the war god Ares—there were only a handful of Level 3 generals. So if high-level adventurers from Orario were allowed to freely wander out, it could lead to unimaginable disasters.
Anya was clearly fully prepared.
Like she was deliberately showing off to Evan and Cecil.
Ever since earlier, she'd been yelling about leaving the city. Now that she'd gotten her way, she stood in the distance looking smug and self-satisfied, shouting at them loudly:
"Start already, meow! Meow is ready, meow!!"
To show off her power, Anya told Evan to throw something—anything—out into the distance.
So Evan picked up a large rock from the grass, swung his arm back, and threw it with all his strength!!
The fist-sized stone even ripped through the air with a sharp screeching sound, shooting toward the distant woods.
Meanwhile, Anya wasn't in a hurry at all. She even acted provocatively, grinning smugly at Evan and Cecil.
"Watch closely, meow!"
And then…
…
So fast!!
Evan didn't even notice when Anya disappeared—nor when she returned right in front of him.
Her speed was faster than his own instincts.
Not being able to see the movement with your eyes wasn't the main issue. In a fight, "intuition" and "the flow of air" were often enough to judge an enemy's attack path.
Evan had already started to grasp that kind of technique after several days of intense fighting.
But Anya was too fast.
It was like she vanished into thin air—then appeared out of thin air.
There wasn't even any sound.
She really was Level 4?
Evan could feel the gap.
Between adventurers, every level was a massive gulf. A Level 2 could easily defeat dozens of Level 1s. And at Level 4, "numbers" basically became meaningless.
"Anya… you're really strong."
"Heh heh heh! Now you know how amazing meow is, meow!"
"I didn't quite see it just now. Can you do it again, Anya?"
"Of course, meow! Meow is the strongest, meow!!"
Teasing the dumb cat.
Evan picked up another rock and threw it into the distance again—while staring with absolute focus at Anya, watching how she started, how she moved, how she left and returned.
"Again, Anya."
"Grrr!"
…
"This time I'm throwing two rocks. No problem, Anya?"
"Don't look down on meow! Meow is the strongest, meow!"
…
"Anya really is the strongest. Let's do it a hundred million more times."
"Bring it on, meow!!"
…
Evan kept throwing rocks. Little by little, even though he still couldn't see her movements clearly, he started to feel something—
The stirring of the wind.
Even if Anya moved without sound and too fast for the eye to catch, it still made air move.
Just a tiny bit.
But as the wind rose and fell, Evan could now tell exactly when Anya started moving—and when she stopped.
However, this extremely serious and professional "academic discussion," from Cecil's perspective, looked exactly like Evan was playing that game where you toss a bone or throw darts to entertain a dog.
Except Anya was a cat-person, not a dog-person!!
And why were the people involved having so much fun with it?!
Anya looked ridiculously proud every time, like:
"Meow brought the rock back again! Amazing, right?!"
What are you even proud of, you dumb cat?!
Before they knew it, the afternoon had dragged on for a long time. Anya was in a fantastic mood after proving her strength. Since it was her day off and she didn't have to work at the tavern at night, she still had lots of time to play!
So she made her demand to Evan.
"Evan, are you going to the Dungeon tonight, meow?"
"Yeah. I'm going."
Because he'd promised Lefiya he'd take her today, Evan planned to go at night—after she finished transferring blessings in the afternoon.
"Then meow is going with you, meow!!"
Anya crossed her arms and proudly declared.
Proving her strength was only step one of today's goal, meow!
That idiot Cecil said Evan kept running into weird messed-up stuff on the first floor of the Dungeon because he was too dumb and getting tricked, meow!!
Anya had seen Evan tricking Cecil before, heh heh heh. So this time, she was going with him, meow. Then when they got back, she could laugh at Cecil for being the dumb one, meow!!
Meow has been there, meow—how could what meow says be wrong, meow?!
Kukukuku.
Starting tomorrow, meow won't be the dumbest one anymore, meow!!
-------
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