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“The special unit’s going to take another regular member, they say, so what are the chances of them failing a raid?”

“Regular member? Who?”

“I still haven’t heard anything on that, but… Wouldn’t you think it’d be Squad Leader Axion? He’s pretty close with that woman.”

“Then they really wouldn’t end up dying.”

“If Squad Leader Axion goes with them, then what about the Red Wolves under him? Will they take a break from raids?”

“Bet the Red Wolves are gonna cry. They must’ve been overjoyed to be led by a flame mage, only for their leader to end up being mobilized as a backup for another team.”

“They get a main dealer on top of a main priest. A special unit getting special treatment, wouldn’t you say?”

All of them seemed convinced that Axion would be helping us out. Even if their nonsense proved to be wrong later, they’d pretend like nothing was said. I was all too familiar with their ways. The only thing that mattered to these people was to form a public opinion.

Dungeon expeditions and assignments were a delicate issue. You could only level up in dungeons. Expedition corps competed to gain rights over dungeons, and such competition was intense even within the same group. As the saying went, the richer the greedier. The Dark Knights were no exception to this, even with all the dungeons they could afford to obtain. The existing corps members could have hardly welcomed the establishment of a special unit with dungeon priority. I was certain that there had been little opposition from them about the special unit’s formation because we were low in level. We wouldn’t threaten their interests: the middle and high-level dungeons.

But seeing how they were acting up already, the 2nd Corps squads would start a riot if we leveled up fast enough to challenge middle-level dungeons. Not that it bothered me much. The worst they could do was to mutter behind our backs like this, after all. All my efforts in leveling up and raising the special unit were to defeat the demon lord. Them, on the other hand? I doubted even a quarter of them had the will to truly fight against the ultimate evil. They were expressing displeasure at being hindered in leveling up, which to them was merely a means of increasing their self-worth. This was why none of these dissenters spoke up to Mayer about our unreasonable privilege. Their deception would only be exposed pretending to be indignant over this unfair situation.

“I’m starting to get tired of it now. Shall we go?” Deciding I had heard enough, I raised myself from the railing I was leaning over. I felt a burning desire to give them what they deserved.

August followed after me and asked, “Come to think of it, you have yet to talk about the regular member that would join your raid. You would not really be taking Brother Axion, would you?”

I laughed ambiguously. “No way. I said I wanted a seasoned melee attacker, didn’t I?”

The priest frowned suspiciously but didn’t ask further.

* * *

A few days later, I went looking for Axion.

“Jun!” Had he heard of the gossiping? He welcomed me with an unusually bright face. “Have you come to take me after all? I welcome it! Trust in me and I’ll make you level 50 in no time!”

It was truly regretful that I had to break his expectations in his bare face, but I had no choice. “I’m here because I want to borrow someone from the Red Wolves,” I said firmly.

“One of ours? Oh, just take me, will you? Or is it because of the rumors? They’re all meaningless.”

“That’s not why I’m not choosing you. I just don’t need you.”

“Oof… Don’t need me? There can’t be a team that doesn’t need me!” Axion exclaimed.

“Your position overlaps with Sevi’s.”

“Sevi will have to work in sync with me eventually, anyway. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to do it early, don’t you think?”

“Are you telling me that you want to practice chain casting with a level 5?” I snorted. “Axion, you’re too strong. You joining our unit will only result in destroying the balance. If I were only focusing on level-up speed, I would’ve asked the captain.”

He frowned. “You can’t bring the captain into this! I’ll have nothing to say!”

“That’s my intent.”

Axion grumbled. It was already famous among our elite members that Mayer had given me a free ticket to use him whenever I needed. “Then who do you want?”

“Vegan.”

“Spearman Vegan?” Axion grew wide-eyed. “I do hesitate to say this about one of mine, but… Why him of all people? He’s a decent fellow who can pull his weight, but there’s nothing special about him for you to choose.”

“I had a harder time looking for someone decent among the seasoned regular members.”

More people were against me than I thought. Not being hostile didn’t mean they were favorable toward me. It turned out that were only a handful of people I could trust to go into a dungeon with.