EeDechi sorted through the stack of application forms in her hands while she and Barrett screened them, grumbling the whole time.
"After all this time, hardly any decent types have shown up. The female knights all have sky-high Justice Values, but they're either dressed like they're heading to a brothel or acting like total flirts. The male warriors are strong as hell, but their Justice Values are so low they'd drown in a sewer."
"I think that young guy Rance is exactly what we need," Barrett said.
EeDechi nodded. "He's the only one who seems reliable."
Clap... clap... clap, clap, clap! Clap! Clap!... A string of fierce, rhythmic flesh-slapping sounds suddenly erupted from next door, mixed with the girl's low, muffled moans.
"Who's clapping outside?" EeDechi frowned. "Go check, tell them to move farther away, don't let them disturb our recruitment."
Barrett stepped out of the wooden shack. He came back moments later, his face unreadable.
"What's going on outside?" EeDechi asked.
"Uh… how do I even say this? Screw it, I'll just spit it out—Rance is fucking Sill."
"WHAT!" EeDechi exploded. "In broad daylight? This is the marketplace!"
She yanked out her giant sword, booted the wooden wall so hard it exploded into splinters, and burst through the wreckage. Sword raised high, she charged straight at Rance, bellowing, "I'M GOING TO SLICE YOU TO PIECES, YOU BASTARD!"
Rance was every bit the elite warrior. In a blur of motion he yanked up his pants, scooped Sill into his arms, and vanished like smoke on the wind.
EeDechi chased him a few steps, but he was already gone. She trudged back, scowling. The little recruitment shack had collapsed from her kick. Barrett stood there cradling Cheeko, staring at her helplessly. "You just scared off the last qualified applicant."
"Ugh!" EeDechi pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed. "Why is every single person who shows up a complete weirdo? The only halfway normal ones are those girls, but their outfits are either flashy garbage or straight-up slutty. They don't look like they could last five seconds in a real fight."
"I've never seen or heard of any of these people before, and their outfits don't look local at all," Barrett said. "Think it has something to do with those 'banned characters'?"
"Well…" EeDechi frowned, thinking hard.
She suddenly sensed something was wrong. The huge racket she'd made kicking down the wooden shack should have drawn a massive crowd in this busy marketplace—people should have been staring at her by now.
But everything was deathly quiet. It felt like time had frozen and space itself had locked up tight. All around them, the crowd's movements had stopped mid-action.
A pedestrian's left foot and right foot hung frozen in mid-stride. An old woman buying spices had a smile frozen on her face, her little copper scoop tilted in the air; the rosemary on it should have been tumbling into the buyer's cloth bag, but it hung suspended, refusing to fall.
A child was tugging his mother's hand, both feet off the ground in the middle of a jump, his spoiled pout preserved like a delicate plaster statue.
Barrett stared at the eerie scene. Cheeko in his arms looked up at him and gave a soft "Meow," sounding a little puzzled too.
EeDechi's eyes swept the area like a hawk. She quickly spotted the fourth living thing in the marketplace besides the two of them and the cat—the only one still able to move.
It was a strikingly handsome young man with neatly combed golden-blond hair and a pair of bright, rare purple eyes that looked like crystal orbs set with violet petals. He wore a perfectly tailored mage's robe, fastened at the chest with a pure-silver brooch inlaid with sapphires and rubies forming an intricate six-pointed star.
EeDechi stared at the man, her brow furrowed deep. She wasn't distracted by his good looks—it was the way he was acting right now, completely sleazy and totally at odds with his dashing appearance.
The young man held a teal magic staff in his right hand. A beautiful girl stood frozen beside him, and his left hand was slithering like a snake over her hips and waist, greedily stroking her slender curves.
EeDechi's frown deepened. She was certain this perverted bastard had cast a time-stop spell, freezing everyone in place so his filthy hands could roam wherever they wanted.
"STOP!" EeDechi lunged forward in a single bound, slamming her knee straight into the man's face. He couldn't dodge in time—blood sprayed from his high, straight nose in two crimson jets as he flew backward and crashed into a stall selling dragon fruit.
"Why'd you hit me?!" the young man clutched his nose, blood still gushing, and snarled at EeDechi in fury.
"Wow, you're still standing," EeDechi said, genuinely surprised. She'd held back, but a normal person taking a hit like that would've been out cold with a concussion for sure.
She rolled up her sleeves. "I'll hit you a few more times and you'll understand why."
"Don't push your luck!" The man flicked his wand. Sparks of explosive fire burst from the slender tip, and a column of raw force shot straight at EeDechi.
She was caught off guard and took the spell head-on, but it washed over her like a breeze—completely harmless.
"What a shame," the man muttered, casting a quick spell on himself like a cure wounds to staunch the nosebleed. "Such strong magic resistance, and yet you're such a wild, unruly girl."
He raised his wand, arm whipping back and forth in a blur, and fired off ten death curses in an instant. The spells streaked toward EeDechi like glowing green nails, aiming for every part of her body. She twisted and spun, dodging every single one with ease.
The man laughed smugly, looking her up and down. "Nice figure, though. Too bad your personality's such a spoiled, bossy mess—not my type at all."
But his grin vanished fast. EeDechi charged like black lightning, closing the distance in a flash. Her fist rocketed forward and smashed into his jaw with a brutal crack.
The sound of fist meeting bone rang out like a bronze bell. The man's eyes went glassy. Two pearly-white front teeth flew from his lips, trailing strings of spit, as he tumbled like a rag doll into the corner, groaning in pain he couldn't hold back.
"Got it now why I'm beating you?" EeDechi asked. She figured she'd done enough and started to turn away.
The blond young man was now a total mess, hair wild and face bloody, but he still gripped his wand tight. "I only kneel before a beauty's charms—I'll never submit to a woman's fists!"
He scrambled up from the ground, brushed the dust off his clothes like nothing had happened, and snarled, "Woman, round two! Let's go three hundred rounds and see who lasts longer!"
Barrett, watching from the sidelines, was stunned. He'd expected the fight to end in a corpse, but this tall, skinny blond guy was ridiculously tough. Cheeko perched on his shoulder; man and cat stared without blinking, utterly focused on what would happen next.
EeDechi cracked her neck, then exploded forward. Her foot slammed down, carving radiating cracks across the ground. In a blink she was right in the blond man's face—so close he could see the massive reflection of her fist in his violet pupils.
BAM! The man shot sideways, spinning a full 180 degrees before crashing headfirst into the dirt. Yet he got up again. The eye she'd punched was already swelling into a deep purple bruise that perfectly matched his natural eye color.
"Brute force can only break my body—it can never crush my spirit!" the man declared, thumping his chest with grand, booming pride.
Dude, seriously, shut up before you actually get yourself killed. Barrett sighed. He'd felt a flicker of sympathy for the blond guy earlier, but now he realized the man really had it coming.
EeDechi's face stayed blank as she advanced on him step by step. The man flinched back, raised his wand, and roared, "Woman, get ready to kneel and beg for mercy! Eighth-tier magic—Godslayer's Oath!!"
EeDechi's hand flashed. She whipped out her fountain pen and shouted, "Magic Repeater!"
Eighth-tier magic—Godslayer's Oath!
Eighth-tier magic—Godslayer's Oath!
Eighth-tier magic—Godslayer's Oath!
Four terrifying spells slammed into each other head-on. The roaring shockwave blasted a huge crater where they stood. Three of the spells were EeDechi's. The man had only cast one.
The winner was obvious in an instant. Blood poured from the man's eyes, thin wisps of green smoke rose from his golden hair, and he toppled straight backward, rigid as a board.
EeDechi shook her head, tucked the fountain pen away, and turned to leave. What she didn't expect was that the man wasn't badly hurt at all. He arched his body like a striking snake, lunged while her back was turned, and… wrapped both arms tightly around EeDechi's thigh.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing!" EeDechi jerked her leg hard in shock, but she couldn't shake this glue-like bastard off no matter how hard she tried.
The man's right eye was still swollen purple. He clung to EeDechi's thigh with a death grip, eyes shining with raw hunger. "Master, what spell was that you just used? You actually copied my incantation! Are you the Goddess of Magic?! Please teach me, Goddess!"
"Let go of me!" EeDechi snarled, furious and frantic. She grabbed his face and yanked with all her strength, stretching it like taffy, but his hands stayed welded to her thigh like they'd been soldered on.
He looked up at her with a shameless, sleazy grin. "If you don't teach me how to copy spells, I'm not letting go."
"Shut up and let go already!"
"Nope. Not letting go."
...
After the two of them wrestled for what felt like forever, EeDechi's face turned pitch black. "Last chance. Let go or not?"
The young man flinched for a split second under her glare, but he still refused to budge. He put on a pitiful, cutesy pout and whined, "I haven't learned the spell yet, so I'm not letting go~"
His fake sugary-sweet tone was so nauseating it made her skin crawl, and he even twitched his eyebrows, shooting her a flirty wink.
EeDechi felt a chill run straight down her spine from pure disgust. She sucked in a deep breath, arms powering up. Her fists blurred faster than the speed of sound. With a furious roar, her punches hammered down like hailstones in a blizzard:
"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!"
In the relentless storm of fist shadows, the man finally blacked out completely. But his hands stayed locked rigid, clamped tight around EeDechi's thigh.
The instant he lost consciousness, time began flowing again. The men, women, and children in the marketplace resumed their normal bustle. EeDechi and Barrett exchanged a helpless look. Barrett grabbed the blond man by the legs, and the three of them plus one cat trudged wearily back to their inn.
...
Inside the inn, the blond man slowly cracked open his eyelids. The moment he woke up, he saw Barrett holding a long steel saw—the kind lumberjacks used—measuring it against his own arm, clearly getting ready to saw his hands clean off EeDechi's thigh.
With a startled jolt, the man yanked his hands back. EeDechi's thigh was finally free.
"Whoa, nice and firm," the man said with a sleazy little smile.
EeDechi's hand shot up to slap him, but he dropped to his knees in a flash. "Please let me join your adventurer party! I want to learn how to copy spells!"
His wounds had healed completely without anyone noticing—even his front teeth had grown back in. The regeneration was so insane that even the widely traveled Barrett couldn't help letting out a low whistle of amazement.
Barrett and EeDechi talked it over for a moment and couldn't help wondering if this guy was another "talent" dropped on them by the whole "recruitment incident."
"Too bad his Justice Value is only a 2," EeDechi muttered, eyeing the blond with open disgust. "First time I've ever seen a single-digit Justice Value."
"Don't be so picky," Barrett whispered. "If we chase him off now, the whole recruitment was a waste of time."
"Fine." EeDechi pointed at a chair. "Sit down. We're doing this interview properly." Even if they'd already decided to take him, she still wanted to go through the motions.
"Name?" EeDechi looked down at the blond man from above.
"Franco."
"Occupation?"
The man who called himself Franco lifted his chin proudly. "I am a noble prince of the human race, the legendary mage beloved by the Goddess of Magic, and the savior of lost maidens!"
"What can you do?"
"I can brew knockout drugs and lust potions, I'm an expert in hypnosis spells and time-stop spells, I'm a master of rope bondage, I can command tentacle monsters, I have extremely nimble fingers and tongue, and I also have transformation ability—but it's limited to my…"
"That's enough." EeDechi shrugged and signed her name on Franco's team application form. "Congratulations. You are now the fourth member of The Last Defender of the Way adventurer party."
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You don't need to look for the origin of the character Franco; he comes from an erotic novel I read a long time ago.