In a guildhall, two strangers sat at a table and lamented their terrible situation. They needed a job for money, but their ranks were too low for any good-paying ones. They couldn't do a bunch of little jobs either because they were on a time crunch and needed to leave as soon as possible.

Ryuji held his head in his hands. Queen meanwhile tapped her foot with a blank look on her face. “Don’t…say…anything. Okay?”

“Alright. I won’t say anything about this terrible situation we’re in because of your bad spending habits.”

“Ah! The truth! It hurts!”

“Hey, are you okay there, partner? You’ve had your head in your hands for the past fifteen minutes.”

“Yes, I’m fine short cowboy lady! Huh? Short cowboy lady?”

In front of Ryuji stood a girl who was about 155cm tall with aqua blue hair that went down to her stomach. Her outfit gave off a very wild-wild west vibe. Strapped to her hips were holsters for a variety of guns. A few held revolvers while others held automatic pistols. There was even one that sheltered a short shotgun. Her last weapon was a sniper rifle slung around her left shoulder.

“I ain't no cowgirl! I’m a certified gunslinger.” Her blue eyes shined with adventure and excitement. Ryuji also observed that she was super giddy and had a hard time standing in one place.

'Her voice sounds like she just got done filming a Clint Eastwood movie.' Ryuji looked at the dressed up weirdo one more time. “Gunslinger…riiiight. So, what did you want Ms. Slinger?”

“I heard ya yelling about needing a job, and it just so happens I need pardners!” She seemed to act smug as if she had solved all their problems. Ryuji remained unconvinced.

“Well, that’s cool and all, but we’re both rank D.”

“That’s fine, that’s fine. I’m rank A! I can cover for you, so the guild will let you go on a quest.”

“Rank A? What’s this quest about, and more importantly, what’s the payout?” He was fully invested now that he knew she wasn't spouting bullshit.

“There’s a sealed library nearby, and they want someone to break in and wrangle up some good books. As for the payout. 1 million ISH”

Ryuji was so happy he felt inclined to pick up his new favorite girl and spin her around. Instead, he looked at Marie. “Queen? Any thoughts or outstanding opinions on our new savior?”

“I see no harm in following the disillusioned young girl and reaping the benefits.”

“Then it is decided… what’s your name?”

“I’m Jessy. I don’t have no fancy last name.”

“Ah, is that so? Ryuji Koyanagi at your service. We can fill you in on our skills as we head out.” Ryuji stuck out his hand shyly, and the ever-bold Jessy shook it with vigor.

They set out for the library, which was a day away. According to Jessy, the library was sealed by magic, and no one had set foot in there for over a hundred years.

“So, can I ask something?” said Jessy with her hands behind her head.

“Yeah, what is it?” Her random question broke the quiet tension in the air.

“Why in the Sam hill is it so awkward walking with you guys?” Then just like that, she brought it back to the forefront of the conversation.

“W-whatever do you mean?” Ryuji decided that now would be a good time to start looking away from the inquisitor and stare at the trees they were passing by.

“Well, for starters, greeny over there hasn’t spoken since the guildhall, and then every time you speak, it's only to me. Did something happen?”

“Well…”

A sly smile spread over her face as she watched Ryuji struggle to explain himself. “Oh, I get it. But let it be known to ya that I ain't that easy.”

“That’s not the reason! Also, you look like a kid. I would literally go to jail for that!” The light inside Jessy's eyes died as Ryuji conveyed his reasoning.

Queen spoke up for the first time in hours only to insult Ryuji. “Ah, so if jail wasn’t in the cards, you would then? Disgusting pig Hero.”

“N-no! God! This is why I was avoiding conversation! Hey… Jessy? You good?”

A dejected Jessy looked at the ground and moped. This was the first time that they had seen the happy go lucky girl without a smile or grin. Ryuji felt as if he knew why.

‘Can’t be the trope, right?’ Ryuji gulped and prepared himself for the worst. “Don’t tell me…you’re actually an adult, aren’t you?”

“I’m…20.”

“Sorry.”

As night began to set, they found a spot high up on a hill and set their camp.

“The library is just over yonder big hill in front of us!”

“I don’t think that’s how you use yonder.”

“Shhh, Hero! Let the disillusioned girl roleplay in peace.”

“I am not roleplaying, missy!”

“More importantly, you said the library was sealed, so how are we getting in?”

Jessy struck a confident pose. “Hufufu, I am the archmage, Gunslinger Jessy! My level is 67! If anyone can get you in there, it's me.”

“67? What kind of magic can you do?”

“Isn't it obvious! I do gun magic!”

Ryuji was less than impressed. “Uh… huh. What else?!”

Jessy's pride shined through as she gave her answer. “Nothing else.”

“Nothing… else.”

“Nothing else.”

“Stop acting so smug about it!”

“Someone’s mad because they use a sword and not a superior weapon like a gun!”

“What are we, children!? I’m mad at you for wasting all your potential!”

“Waste-Ah, whatever! Hmph.” Jessy sat down on the opposite side of camp and started ignoring Ryuji while pouting.

“If you hurt her feelings, we may not get this job done.”

“I don’t want to hear any kind of lectures about hurting feelings from you!”

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Later in the night, Jessy was awoken by a noise. She glanced around to see what was wrong. Ryuji was crying in his sleep while Jessy watched on with uneasiness. As she went to wake the poor man from his nightmare, a hand stopped her.

“Just let him sleep.” The woman whose emotions never showed let go of Jessy's hand.

“What?! He’s literally crying! Why wouldn’t I wake him?” The accent she had been using remained but her manner of speaking had become more normal in her emotional outburst.

“He does it all the time. I doubt he will stop just because you wake him up once. All you will be doing is interrupting his rest.”

“Every night? Does he know?”

“How would I know?" Queen laid back down and turned over. "But no, I don’t think he is aware. Now go to sleep.”

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Early in the morning, Ryuji opened his eyes to the great light in the sky and let out a deep sigh. Jessy already had her gunslinger outfit on and raring to go. She looked rather excited, much like a kid on Christmas. Queen, on the other hand, looked more like an emotionally distant teen who didn’t want to go on the family vacation.

Ryuji stretched before walking towards the ruin. “Well, let’s get to it then.”

“Yes! Let's go right now!” Jessy seemed a lot more enthusiastic than he could ever be.

Queen though he was pretty sure he could always beat in a contest of enthusiasm. “Yaaaaay.”

They arrived at the library, but instead of some grand cathedral or ginormous building, it looked more like a war bunker. A single metal door with runes carved on it jutted out of the earth.

“That’s our library?” Ryuji was less than impressed with this outcome.

“Sure is! Now stand back and let the professional do her job.” Jessy took the rifle from her back and set it down on the ground. She opened the chamber to put a single bullet in and loaded. Ryuji and Queen felt the pull of mana being sucked into the barrel of that gun. The next moment the trigger was pulled, and doors were blown off by what he would describe as a low-quality cannon.

“Professional, my ass! You just shot through the door!”

“We have entry, now don’t we? Shut yer trap and look on the bright side.”

Ryuji looked at the mess she just made in the scenery. “Is the bright side somewhere in the hole you put in the hill?! I can literally see through it.”

Queen pushed him forward. “Stop being a baby and go into the library. Or is the great Hero scared?”

After some grumbling, the party descended the stairs into the conspicuous bunker of knowledge. They walked down steps for what seemed like forever until they made it to a set of metal doors. As they opened it a musty smell met them.

Sprawled in front of them were rows upon rows of books laid out in sections based on content. In the center of these rows was what looked like a reading area with some metal tables.

Ryuji looked around and noticed the tranquility found in this library. “This is impressive and all, but I’m starting to wonder why you needed us here in the first place.”

“That’s a simple one! I can’t shoot down here cause I might make the entire library collapse. So I some bodyguards to take down those pesky guardians!”

“Guardians?”

“I think she means those golems coming for us.”

Sure as day, four seven-foot-tall metal soldiers were rushing them down. Ryuji readied his blade and took a defensive stance. Jessy hid behind him and cowered. While Ryuji was thinking about how cute that just was, a golem bared down its metallic fist. With a single Iai draw, the golem fell into pieces and stopped working.

“Woohoo, one down! Go get em mean spirited lady!”

Queen's eyes twitched at the peanut gallery's comment, but she still stood ready to receive enemy attacks. Three golems rushed her down.

“Impact fist.” Mana coated fists pierced through each golem as Queen unleashed a torrent of blows in the three separate directions. The golems lay in pieces, and her fists remained unscathed.

“Yay! Go, my heroes!” Jessy jumped for joy at their victory with a big grin on her face.

“What now?” Ryuji didn't think that was particularly hard, but he had a bad feeling that more bullshit was coming his way.

“Now, you protect me while I check around for cool books!”

“Huh?” Ryuji had a look of pure confusion at the gunslingers’ request. This was mostly because she didn’t seem like the type interested in reading anything, much less a musty old tome.

“What do you mean, huh? The whole reason I took this job was so that I could look around and see if there were any worthwhile books about gun magic in this decrepit place.”

Ryuji slapped himself in the face for not realizing something as obvious as the gun nut wanting to find more gun stuff. He felt like this would hardly be the place to find such a thing, but upon seeing her beg and whine, he agreed to it.

Hours were spent walking around the oversized library. Occasionally a golem would activate, and Ryuji would cut it down in an instant. It’s not that Ryuji was particularly strong it's more that these golems were super weak. Ryuji assumed that they probably were just used to get books off top shelves, and they had gone haywire or something.

Queen meanwhile “stood watch” or, as some would call it, wait at the entrance until the idiots were done walking around. She stared at the books wishing she was somewhere else.

Jessy had filled a bag to the brim with tomes and wore quite a grin on her face. 'Are there really that many gun books in here? Anyway, this is super boring, might as well attempt to converse with the crazy loli.' Ryuji attempted to polish up on his horrible conversation-starting skills. “Are all those gun tomes?”

“What?" Jessy looked down at the bag before looking back up. "No. None of these are actually.”

Ryuji palmed his face. “Then what have we been walking around for exactly?”

“The request was to scrounge up expensive-looking books. I’m just completing the quest. I gave up on looking for gun tomes in here a few hours ago.”

“So why do you want gun tomes anyway? You a collector?”

“Nope. I’m on a journey to completely master gun magic! The problem is I’ve already mastered all the known spells, so now I’m trying to find spells that people have forgotten about.”

“Aren’t guns new though? I doubt you’re gonna find anything like that.”

“The art of gun magic has been around for 500 years! There’s gotta be old musty tomes about it, and I’m going to find them!”

Ryuji felt like that was a sort of stupid goal, but he liked the passion she had about it. “Well, everyone needs a goal, I guess.”

“Yep! What’s yours?”

“Me? I’m gonna take ice-cold over there and go to the adventurer academy in the capitol. Then after we’re done there, we’ll meet up with the sword saint and travel together!”

Ryuji half expected her to call him out like Marie did when he first told her but to his surprise, she seemed to believe him. “Really? Where are you gonna travel?”

“Where? I haven’t really thought about it. I don’t really care where we go as long as we have fun.”

Jessy looked at him like he might be missing a few brain cells. “An adventurer for fun? Now that’s something you don’t hear every day.”

“What are you gonna make fun of me now?” Ryuji looked at Jessy, and she smiled so wide she closed her eyes. Ryuji felt a gentle kindness as she slapped his back.

“I think that’s a great thing, Ryuji! People who don’t dream are losers, and I say to hell with em!”

Over the course of this quest, he had gotten to know the weird gun mage. He had to say while she was definitely weirdly optimistic, he really liked being around her. Now with that last comment, he was sure that he wanted to continue his time together with her. “Hey, do you…want to- “

“Well, that’s enough books! Let’s hoof it back and get you on the road again!” Jessy turned around on a dime and headed for the exit where Queen had been waiting for hours.

“Y-yeah.”

As they made their way outside the bunker with precious cargo, a great wind struck them.

“Grrrgh, what the hell is this freak storm!?”

“It’s no storm pardner, look above!”

In the sky was a drake. The same kind that assaulted him and Rhea at the caravan. The only difference being that this time it wasn't hundreds of feet away. The drake was directly overhead, and it did not look pleased.

Queen felt fear in the pit of her stomach and couldn’t move. Ryuji wasn’t much different. One could argue that an incubus and a drake are pretty equal in terms of killing power and that since Ryuji slaughtered an incubus, he could do the same to the drake. The big difference between those two is that Ryuji was practically insane during that fight. Right now, however, he was of sound mind, and that mind said run.

Jessy, on the other hand, had the same smirk as always. She took out her revolver and loaded a single bullet into the cylinder, then closed it.

“Why are you so damn calm!? You were losing your shit against those piss golems!” Ryuji didn't get this weird girl next to him one bit.

“That was then, and this is now." She aimed her revolver directly at the drake. "Now I don’t have to worry about property damages.”

“That’s all well and good, but it’s coming down now!”

“Bang!” A light erupted, and a force so strong it knocked both the spectators down a few steps came rushing out in all directions. The drake tried to flee, but the light was too fast. The body of the beast practically evaporated, and the clouds in the distance parted a little.

A massive show of force you would expect from a deadly warrior. Jessy continued her normal smiling routine, but now Ryuji felt it was a little more sinister somehow. “You’re seriously scary." He turned to his side to look at Marie. "Hey, you gonna keep calling her a role player?”

“I think it’s pretty clear that that is not the case, unlike you, Hero.”

“OOOOO! The ice queen graces me with a compliment. Why thank ye, ma’am.” Jessy curtseyed a nonexistent dress.

“Let's just go back before scarier things come.”

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

One day later, they arrived back at the guildhall, books in tow. After cashing them in, they split the money in half and said their goodbyes on the split road outside the town. Jessy was going right, and Ryuji was going left.

“You’re sure you don’t want to come with us?”

“Look, that academy probably has nothing new for me. Not to mention I don’t want to be tied down in one place for a whole year.”

Ryuji couldn't help but look a little sad. “Okay. Promise we’ll meet again?”

“Ha! Is this a romance novel or something?”

'If it was good enough for the Sword Saint, it should be good enough for a damn crazy lady!' Ryuji sneered at her comment. “Fine then! I hope we never meet again.”

“Ah, don’t be so upset. Here, I was just teasing.” She outstretched her hand, and Ryuji shook it, determined that they would meet again. They watched until they couldn’t see her back on the horizon anymore. Afterward, they went to the local inn to rest before setting back out.

On their way out of town, they heard unnerving news. A dark god had been spotted nearby.