This is from the Hero’s point of view.

“Hey, why is this request marked as incomplete?!”

“As I explained earlier… it’s because the required items haven’t been delivered.”

“What do you mean? There are clearly ten right here!”

It was early morning, just as the sun began to rise.

Inside the Adventurer’s Guild located in the town of Fido, the B-rank hero party leader, Nord, was raising his voice in anger.

Yesterday, Nord and his team managed to escape from a dungeon after sacrificing one of their members to survive a Minotaur attack. After resting their weary bodies at the inn, they visited the guild to report the completion of their job.

The job required them to deliver magic stones. The conditions were:

• Ten stones for low rank,
• Three stones for mid rank, and
• One stone for high rank or above.

Nord's party had been challenging the depths of the Septem Grand Labyrinth to gather magic stones from the third floor. In the middle of their triumphant return after defeating the third-floor boss, Nord's blunder led to the appearance of a Minotaur, and they barely escaped with their lives.

However, Nord himself didn’t recognize it as his mistake that caused the disaster. On the contrary, he believed his decision to abandon his comrade and escape from the Minotaur was a commendable judgment.

For Nord, the notion of their life-risking adventure being considered a failure was simply unacceptable.

In fact, he held ten low-rank magic stones in hand. It was barely enough, but it should have met the conditions.

Yet, the guild receptionist, Ayla, firmly shook her head.

“True, you do have the quantity required. However, five of them are severely cracked. They’re unusable, so we cannot buy them. I’m sorry, but those are the rules.”

“Damn it…!”

Nord gritted his teeth in frustration, knowing the reason for the damage. The Divine Sword attack he used to destroy the stone bridge drained his magic power after his battle with the boss on the third floor. In desperation, he forcibly drew magic from half of the low-rank stones he had, leading to the cracks.

As Nord fell silent, Ayla continued.

“Today is the last day of the request. What will you do? If you can’t gather five more, we’ll have to mark it as incomplete.”

“Fine! Do whatever you want—mark it as incomplete!”

There would be a minor penalty for a failed request, but he had no energy to return to the dungeon. Nord spat his words without consulting his teammates.

The mage Yun, who had been listening nearby, took this chance to chime in.

“If someone hadn’t triggered that trap, we would have completed the job.”

“Yun! Are you saying this is my fault?!”

“Well, it is, isn’t it? You could’ve avoided that trap, and breaking the bridge made no sense!”

“Shut up! I had no choice! You wouldn’t understand since you did nothing!”

“…!”

Yun bit her lip, but then fell silent.

Nord, convinced he’d won the argument, pondered why he was facing such trouble.

The answer came immediately.

It was all Ike’s fault.

Despite having no use except as a decoy, Ike failed to fulfill even that role when it mattered. If Ike had done his job and served as bait instead of trying to escape, they wouldn’t have had to rely on the magic stones.

“Right, there was one more thing. Receptionist.”

“Yes, how may I help?”

The job may have failed, but there was one last thing to report.

“About Ike—he’s dead.”

“What…? Ike…?”

Ayla's face twisted in despair. Nord remembered that she had been close to Ike.

“Yes, he made a dumb mistake. He’s the reason we failed our request.”

“That can’t be true… Ike, of all people…”

“It’s true, he’s dead. Isn’t that right, everyone?”

The rest of the party quietly nodded in agreement.

As experienced adventurers, they knew it was impossible for Ike to have survived in that situation.

“…!”

“Please process his removal from the party roster for me.”

With those final words, Nord left Ayla, who now understood the truth, and headed toward the tavern next to the reception.

It was still morning, but he decided to drink to relieve his frustration.

“You’re drinking already, Nord?”

“Shut it. If you’re going to complain, then leave.”

He brushed off the complaint from their heavy warrior, Lloyd, and downed his drink. Lloyd, Yun, and Yor exchanged glances and then sat at the same table.

Nord’s mind drifted to Ike, who was likely dead now.

An infuriating guy. It was a mistake to let someone with such a useless job join them in the first place.

They already had a heavy warrior tank in their party, yet Ike and his puppet were always scrambling to escape monsters’ attention. At times, he would use his beginner-level Low Magic, far inferior to the mage’s magic, and his low-grade healing, though they rarely even saw that.

He was useless in every way.

In the end, the only thing he was occasionally helpful for was scouting. But even for that, a thief would be more efficient. With someone better in his place, they might have defeated the Minotaur without retreating.

“Eh?! Wait—Is that…?”

“…Hmm?”

Just then, a shout echoed from the reception area.

Nord didn’t care; drinking was more important than dealing with the noise. He raised his glass and continued to drink.

But amid the clamor, he heard a familiar voice.

“So, they’re saying I was presumed dead? There’s a lot I need to explain… but for now, I’d like to sell these magic stones and a Minotaur magic stone.”

“Yes… w-wait—a Minotaur magic stone?!”

The voice, full of irritation, piqued Nord’s interest. Instinctively, he turned toward it.

There, standing before him, was Ike—alive and well.