Once they felt they were adequately ready for their next adventure, Miri and Anne began searching around for their next job. Even though the three douchebag knights from the Golden Lion guild had sworn to make sure they wouldn’t get another decent paying job within the city, that incident had happened over two weeks ago. Hopefully, that would be enough time for those knights to forget about the incident, leading them to no longer want to bother the two women with their underhanded tactics ever again.

  However, that unfortunately did not happen. Instead, throughout these past two weeks, the Golden Lion guild had been spreading rumors around the city about a particular redheaded mage by the name of Miriam Caldwell. Not only that, these rumors were quite varied as well—ranging from innocuous to venomous to straight-up silly.

  I heard that Miriam Caldwell is sleeping with the mayor’s son, who is already married.

  I heard that Miriam Caldwell uses magical-enhancing drugs and is a long-time addict.

  I heard that Miriam Caldwell is heavily involved with criminal activity and may even be part of a gang.

  I heard that Miriam Caldwell is secretly a vampire who will drink your blood if you so much as go near her.

  I heard that Miriam Caldwell loves to eat garlic, which is why her breath smells so bad.

  What?! Miri thought. C’mon, seriously?! Those last two rumors don’t even make sense when put together! They literally contradict each other! What kind of vampire loves to eat garlic?! Who would be stupid enough to believe in all these lies?!

  However, regardless of how ridiculous the rumors were, it was enough to make it exceedingly difficult for them to find any decent paying job within the city. Miri and Anne had falsely assumed that this problem would simply go away once enough time had passed, but that was not the case. Instead, it had simply gotten worse as time went on.

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  Because of that, aside from some minor runehunting jobs received from Madame Laveau, pretty much all other people they’d met had refused to offer them jobs—all influenced by those baseless rumors. This had made the whole job-searching process incredibly aggravating, even more so than when Miri first came to this city.

  Currently, Miri and Anne were inside Madame Laveau’s shop, where the two were explaining their situation to Madame Laveau and Isaiah.

  “Grr, this is bullshit!” Miri complained, slamming her palm onto a wooden table in frustration. “Those douchebag knights just won’t leave us alone! I swear, if they’re here right now, I won’t hesitate to punch them in the face for a second time!”

  “This situation is quite troublesome indeed,” Madame Laveau said, sympathizing with Miri’s situation. “However, it shouldn’t have that much of an effect on the two of you when it comes to keeping yourselves financially afloat. You two are still able to make ends meet with just the jobs I’d given you.”

  “That’s not the point!” Miri snapped. “The point is that our reputation is being dragged through the mud here! And let me tell you…it’s not a great feeling. Even if we’re not struggling with money at the moment, that feeling is just something I cannot stomach.”

  “There’s got to be a way we can resolve this issue,” Anne said worryingly. “Some way we can restore our reputation to the public.”

  “Hmm, there may be one way of doing that,” Madame Laveau said before turning to her apprentice. “Oh, Isaiah, can you bring me that flyer we’d received from this morning?”

  “Yes, madame,” Isaiah replied, obliging to the blind woman’s request as he brought her a piece of parchment, which she then placed in front of the two women.

  “What’s this?” Miri asked as she and Anne looked at the parchment in front of them.

  “This is an opportunity for you two to restore your reputation. And perhaps even earn some renown along the way,” Madame Laveau said with a confident smile. “A competition held once a year within the city, one that’ll be watched by tens of thousands of people, one that’s open to anyone willing to partake in the challenge. A competition known as…the Pentacle Trials.”