“Now then, let’s talk.”
The grin and the gleam in Lilia’s eyes make me worried all over again, I wondered if I had walked straight into another mess. I glance at Sonia beside me and find her clearly forcing a smile. It seemed Lilia was a lot more dangerous than I thought.
“You do know I’m here to get an explanation of Haruka’s job, right?” Sonia says, an edge to her voice and a tightness in her expression.
“Hmm? Ah, yes~, that, that’s right,” Lilia says before she lets out a haughty laugh. “It seems we had a little bit of an understanding, didn’t we~?”
“A misunderstanding…?” I asked.
“No, no, it’s nothing, don’t worry about it,” Lilia says, smiling and laughing.
“I-If you say so,” I said, trying to smile myself.
The atmosphere of the room is so heavy now.
“So, this young girl’s job,” Lilia said as her grin and gleam from earlier came back. “Haru, please tell me all about it.”
I pulled out my book and handed it over to her.
“Ah…!” Lilia sighs as she read my job. “This is exactly what I needed. Please wait a moment,” she said before she got up off her chair and started searching the documents all over the floor.
She picked up a paper, scanned it, then threw it away, repeating it over and over so many times I wanted to yell, “Clean-up while you’re looking!” as I watched her and drank my tea.
“Ah, found it!” Lilia said as she raised a piece of paper into the air. The letters are very tightly packed together, but I can’t tell much more than that with how I don’t know this world’s language.
Lilia began to read it, her expression quickly turned serious. “Sonia, please come with me for a moment,” she said as she took Sonia’s hand and pulled her out of the room.
I don’t know what happened after since they left me alone inside.
“What’s going on, Master?” I asked after Ms. Lilia dragged us out of the room.
“That child—who is she?” Lilia asked. “One of our allies?”
“No, I picked her up in town,” I replied. “She’s my party member.”
Lilia sighed and said, “I’m just going cut to straight to the point: can you bring her with us tonight?”
I stared at Lilia in disbelief. Yes, Haru’s job had amazing abilities. Of course, tonight’s raid will be dangerous and you could never have too much strength on your side. But, it’d be too dangerous to have Haru join us when she just became an adventurer today.
“We can’t,” I said. “She’s not used to death yet. She was shaking at the sight of human corpses just a while ago. Even looking at monster blood freaks her out.”
“That’s perfectly fine,” Lilia replied. “Her job is specialized in support magic, so we’ll just have her in the back at all times; in other words, she’ll be well out of danger. Furthermore, if you’re an adventurer, you must become used to death, yes?”
I said, “Yes, that’s true but… I’m worried I won’t be able to protect Haru’s smile.”
Being an adventurer sounds like a fun job where you can slay evil and travel the world, but the reality it’s a harsh and brutal life where death is always lurking around the corner. Being unused to death and violence was a huge drawback, to say the least. I remember the first time I saw someone die right in front of me; even if I was in the middle of combat, I froze. That one moment taught me the importance of getting used to the horrors…
… And when I imagine that radiant smile shattering, my body wouldn’t stop shaking. It’s always been so much worse for a front-liner like me, seeing the exact moment someone loses that innocence forever.
“It will happen sooner or later,” Lilia replied. “For a young child like her, it’s better to have it as early as possible.”
I say nothing.
“Ah, I see how it is,” Lilia said. “I leave it all to you. I don’t know anything about her, after all.”
And with that, she went back into her office.
The door opens, Lilia comes into the room, alone. “Where’s Sonia?” I ask.
“I asked her to do a little research for me,” Lilia replied. “Perhaps she’ll be back soon.”
As if on cue, the door opened and Sonia walks in. Does she look a little upset or is that just me?
“Ah, Sonia,” Lilia said. “Did you find what I asked for.”
“Oh, no,” Sonia replied. “I looked for it but couldn’t find it.”
“Ah, a shame,” Lilia replied.
The conversation was so plain, it was as if they had rehearsed it.
“Now then, with all that out of the way, I’ll explain Haru’s job,” Lilia said as she returned to her seat. “In our records, the name is ‘Valkyrja’. It’s a very unusual job, in that it specializes entirely in support magic. Its most prominent feature is the ability to skip magical chants, at the cost of greatly reducing the power of offensive spells.”
I was starting to realize just what was so great about my Valkyrie job. It was terrible that my attack power was so weakened, but in turn, I could use magic without chants. There was no doubt in my mind I could be a formidable warrior.
Why? Because I could speak English.
I don’t need to know the chants; I can use any spell so long as I say what its name is. And since the magic of this world has been written in English so far, that means I can cast magic just by combining words together!
As I mulled it all over in my head, I grin spread on my face.
Sonia stared at me then asked, “Are you okay, Haru?”
“I’m okay!” I yelled, unaware of just how excited I had gotten.
TN: The original text had “Valkyrie” written in English in Haruka’s book, then written in Kanji when Lilia was discussing it. Don’t you just love weird translation conventions and adjustments so it doesn’t sound stupid?
ruff Translations 
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