Chapter 1: No Cutting in Line. If You Do, I’ll Push You Away with a Barrier

“Next person, please.”

A line had formed at the reception counter of the Adventurers Guild.

From inside the counter, the entrance was directly ahead, a bulletin board with posted requests covered the left wall, and tables and chairs for eating and drinking were arranged on the right.

People—adventurers—had gathered in both areas.

The guild hall was crowded and buzzing with noise.

Even so, it did not feel cramped, thanks to the originally high ceiling and the renovations from two years ago that brightened the colors of the walls and floors, making the space feel even more open.

Near the ceiling above the neat counter hung a large banner.

[No Cutting in Line]

Perhaps because of its effect, even those who looked like rough troublemakers properly waited their turn if they had business at the reception desk.

The Adventurers Guild.

Simply put, it was an organization that introduced jobs to registered individuals.

The work ranged from simple tasks like “Peel fruit skins endlessly” to more dangerous requests such as “Subdue monsters” or “Gather medicinal herbs from hard-to-reach places.”

Those who accepted these requests were called adventurers, and the Adventurers Guild evaluated the content of each job before assigning it to adventurers likely capable of completing it.

I was one of the staff members working behind that counter, employed here as a receptionist for the past two years, and everyone called me Charlotte.

At first, working reception at the Adventurers Guild had been difficult since it was my first time, but now I could handle everything thanks to the magic and skills I had acquired, as well as the memories of working in clerical positions in my previous life.

“Yes, Kirakira Grass. Let me confirm it.”

I checked the item gathered for the request.

As its name suggested, both its stem and leaves sparkled, with a gradient of yellow-green fading into blue.

‘Now that I think about it… this plant…’

‘I saw it for the first time in this world.’

‘I don’t think there was anything quite like it in my previous world.’

That was right.

I was what people would call someone reincarnated from another world.

Ever since I became aware of myself, I had felt that “this is a different world from before.”

The people around me had uniquely colored hair and eyes, and civilization had regressed compared to when I had lived on Earth.

In my previous life, I had worked in clerical jobs.

I might have changed jobs a few times.

I remembered being an office worker handling general administration, and also working reception at a cram school.

My memories were vague, perhaps because it had already been seventeen years since I reincarnated into this world and I had grown accustomed to daily life here.

Compared to when I was a child, I recalled them less frequently, and they were no longer as vivid.

I would only remember them suddenly due to some trigger or desperately dig them up when I was in trouble.

Even my old name… I could not remember it.

Hmm, did it contain the name of a season?

No, maybe it was something related to nature.

…Forget it.

There was no point thinking about it.

Right now, I was Charlotte.

“Thank you for waiting. Next person, please.”

Besides my memories of my previous life, there was something else useful for my job.

It was the skills I had acquired after starting this work.

Clerical-type skills.

Skills were like personal abilities one possessed, indicating that “you can use this particular power exceptionally well.”

Everyone had skills, and of course, there were combat-type skills too.

But the ones useful here were these.

[Beautiful Handwriting] [Speed Reading] [Shorthand]

“Request completed, correct? I’ll take your guild registration card. Please wait.”

With my [Speed Reading] skill, I quickly checked the report of completion.

Then I wrote today’s date and my name in the completion confirmation section of the paper.

Thanks to [Shorthand] and [Beautiful Handwriting], I wrote at incredible speed without any distortion in my letters, keeping them neat and clear.

I had acquired many skills beyond clerical ones, but most people did not possess that many.

Perhaps because I was reincarnated, I learned skills more easily than others for a certain reason.

Now then, back to work.

I placed the completed form and the guild card into the designated slot of a specialized magic tool.

This registered the completion status onto the guild card of the person who had finished the request.

It recorded when and what request had been completed.

After finishing all necessary processing and about to call the next person, someone suddenly cut in from the side.

“Hey, miss. I wanna take this request.”

…Did he not see the words [No Cutting in Line] written above the counter?

“I’m sorry. Those who are already waiting in line will be served first. Please line up over there and wait.”

I gestured toward the end of the line for the dog-type beastman.

Perhaps he could not read, or perhaps he had not noticed the banner above the counter, or maybe he had not seen the line.

At first, I informed him with a smile.

“I said I wanna take it now!!”

…Ah, so he was that type after all.

“No cutting in line here.”

I told him firmly with a smile and once again instructed him to line up.

Everyone else was properly waiting.

I had no intention of giving special treatment.

“Tch. I said I ain’t lining up!”

A man big only in body.

Did he think raising his voice would get his way?

Was he being stubborn, acting arrogantly?

I had not seen this type recently, but was he not embarrassed to loudly declare he could not line up?

Good grief…

I quietly activated my magic.

It was my specialty spell, well known to the townspeople and regular customers.

“Then please come back after everyone else has finished and the line is gone. However, I cannot say when that will be.”

Upon hearing that, the short-tempered man swiftly reached out to grab my throat.

Thud.

He was blocked by a transparent wall that appeared in front of the counter and jammed his finger.

“Owww!!”

What appeared in front of the reception counter, at about the man’s height, was something like a colorless transparent glass panel.

That was my barrier magic.

It was extremely effective against those who immediately resorted to violence like this, or against headlong-charge type monsters.

They rushed in on their own and slammed into the barrier on their own.

Its durability was considerable.

Even if a high-ranking monster rammed into it, it would not budge.

Furthermore, I could freely move the barrier within a certain distance at my will.

Keeping the barrier standing vertically on the floor, I slid it toward the entrance, pushing the man along with it.

Right, I should add some color to the barrier so unrelated people could easily avoid it.

As expected, those who had been watching the exchange smoothly stepped aside to avoid colliding with the barrier.

The man being pushed out by the barrier scraped along the floor and was expelled outside through the open door.

“I’m sorry for the wait.”

I offered a brief apology to the person waiting in front of the counter and resumed my work as if nothing had happened.