"Are you... Blizzard of Hell?" Yamada never expected to run into such a high-profile figure here.

It was true that, looking strictly at the Hero Association rankings, Blizzard of Hell was merely a B-Class hero. Even if she held the number one spot in B-Class, B-Class was still just B-Class.

In reality, however, this wasn’t a reflection of her true limitations. She had simply been consistently refusing to let her hero rank advance.

Judging from surveillance data and eyewitness accounts alike, her actual strength was easily on par with the upper ranks of A-Class.

Still, that alone wouldn’t have been quite enough to warrant Yamada’s use of such a respectful title.

What truly made Fubuki special was her older sister—the number two hero in S-Class, Tornado of Terror.

As the absolute trump card of the Hero Association, Tatsumaki’s power was notoriously immense. Whenever an extremely thorny situation arose, she was the one the Association relied on most.

Even though Fubuki herself maintained a frosty, almost distant attitude toward her sister, Tatsumaki’s fierce protectiveness over her was plain for anyone to see.

Because of this, others couldn’t help but show Fubuki a degree of deference, if only out of respect for her sister.

"It’s Fubuki! A companion of the Hero! Welcome, and thank you for greeting us!" Alice called out to the woman with a bright smile, nearly shattering Fubuki’s carefully maintained icy composure.

Fubuki didn’t answer Alice immediately. Instead, keeping her aura tense and heavy, she pressed on, "Is there something here that shouldn’t be seen by human eyes?"

Yamada’s stunned silence just moments ago had sparked an unpleasant suspicion in Fubuki’s mind. The Hero Association might wave the banner of ’justice,’ but she knew exactly what kind of organization they really were behind closed doors.

"Ah... no, nothing like that at all."

Realizing Fubuki had misunderstood, Yamada felt completely wronged and quickly explained, "I was just curious why you’re paying such close attention to Alice... considering you were also the one who bailed her out of the police station."

The man had referred to Alice as ’her,’ which softened Fubuki’s expression a fraction.

Why was she keeping an eye on her? To get stronger, of course.

Just two months ago, she had chanced upon a young girl dressed like a witch. The girl called herself Herta and displayed a level of science and technology far beyond Fubuki’s comprehension.

She had lent Fubuki a crystal, which made her feel her own power surge past anything she could have imagined.

The woman called it a Sephira Crystal of Wind.

While a completed version could generate power on its own, the one given to Fubuki was a mere prototype—a battery that would lose its charge once used past a certain point.

Power.

Whenever she thought of that petite silhouette, a deep, frustrated yearning for power would flare up inside her.

The crystal in her possession was merely a deposit. If she wanted the finished product, she had to do Herta a few small favors.

It was a fair trade—a matter of give and take that even a child could understand. Yet, Fubuki couldn’t entirely shake her anxiety, because what qualified as a ’small favor’ to someone like Herta might be an overwhelming task for her.

But Fubuki’s mind was soon put at ease, at least for the moment.

The task she had been entrusted with was simply to look after a ’child’ while Herta was away. According to Herta, she was taking care of this child as a favor to someone known as the ’Sensei.’

Unfortunately, Herta seemed to be preoccupied with other matters and couldn’t keep a constant eye on her.

And so, Fubuki had become the child’s temporary guardian.

For Fubuki, it was a highly profitable deal. She just hadn’t expected this seemingly well-behaved girl to have such a... unique personality. To make matters worse, she was an actual robot.

Just a couple of days ago, a brief lapse in supervision had landed the kid in a police station... Fortunately, being a robot meant she didn’t have to worry about a criminal record or anything of the sort.

She just didn’t know how Madam Herta would view the incident...

"Fubuki is Alice’s companion!" Alice piped up, puffing out her chest as if answering the question of why Fubuki was looking after her.

"Anyway, that’s how it is."

Fubuki had more or less grown used to Alice’s train of thought and manner of speaking. She simply nodded expressionlessly, validating Alice’s claim.

"Ah, well..." Yamada scratched the back of his head, finally handing the contract over to Fubuki. "You two know each other?"

"I’m doing a favor for someone. I’ll be looking after her for a while," Fubuki explained tersely as she took the document.

"Doing a favor..."

Yamada immediately thought of Herta. So, Fubuki and Herta were connected somehow?

He desperately wanted to pry, but given the time and his current position, it wasn’t appropriate to ask...

Fubuki paid Yamada no mind. As she carefully scanned the clauses of the contract, a look of slight surprise crossed her face. The agreement looked a bit too clean, which ironically made her suspect there was a catch hidden somewhere.

She snapped photos of the pages and sent them to her crew, reviewing them thoroughly once more. Only after double-checking with her team to confirm there were indeed no hidden traps did Fubuki hand the contract back to Alice.

"It looks like there really isn’t any issue with it."

Had the Hero Association suddenly grown a conscience?

It wasn’t that the Association used to rely on outright predatory clauses, but its core composition consisted of capitalists. They had formed this association to turn a profit, after all.

Yet, Alice’s contract was completely devoid of anything resembling a ’Rising Star Initiative’—the kind of rookie clause where the Hero Association takes a massive cut under the guise of promoting the hero’s visibility and popularity.

But regardless of whatever sudden epiphany they had experienced, her only job was to ensure the contract was safe.

"Just sign your name here, and on these two pages over here," Fubuki instructed.

She could write, right? Even though she was a robot... or should they sign Herta’s name instead? No... Herta didn’t even know about this, so it had to be Alice’s name.

Fubuki wasn’t worried about Alice being illiterate. As a robot, learning such things would be far simpler than it was for a cyborg—just a matter of data transfer.

Besides, she had seen Alice write before.

Alice quickly scribbled her name onto the papers, handed the contract back to Yamada, and turned to Fubuki with an excited gleam in her eyes. Placing one hand on her hip and raising her other fist high above her head, she cheered:

"Ta-da! Alice has completed the tutorial, left the starting village [The Blizzard Group], and arrived at the capital city [The Hero Association]!"

"What capital city..."

Fubuki sighed helplessly. "We still have to go back. This place is just an ’Adventurers’ Guild’ at best. Besides, you don’t even need to come to the guild to accept quests..."

"Eh? Then where is Alice’s capital city?"

"You’ll find something like that eventually."

"That is true! But even without a capital city, Alice has officially embarked on her adventure!"

"Yeah... but you’re not allowed to go out by yourself next time."

"Ohh! Next time Alice goes out, she will bring Fubuki along! As an all-rounder, Alice can act as the main tank and warrior, so she can protect the mage Fubuki and let her focus on dealing damage!"

"I’m very busy... take Lily with you instead..."

--+--

T/N: If you want advance Chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL