I knew I shouldn't look at things through tinted glasses, but there had been far too many unclear and suspicious things in the Goddess Church's scriptures I'd read before, and the old village chief had shown such deep concerns over the matter of "conscription." I couldn't help forming a bad impression of organizations like this world's government, Church Knight Order, and the like. I always felt as if they were hiding some malicious scheme to screw people over—so when I heard this morning that recruiting officers had come to this little village to conscript soldiers, the first image that came to mind was a dozen or so fat, bloated officer types. They should have barged into the village on horseback, arrogantly whipping commoners along the way, their armor hanging crookedly off their bodies. And beneath it all, they'd be useless idiots who gave only five experience points each when killed and didn't drop any equipment...
Judging by the brick Viska had been carrying when she ran out, I wasn't the only one who had been thinking that way.
But when we came out and saw them, the recruiting officers really weren't like that. There were only three of them, and not one was some pampered officer. From their sharp bearing, the immaculate armor and weapons they wore, their capable air, and the way they stood utterly still, these three were clearly the sort who could charge into battle with real blades in hand. They might even have seen plenty of combat. One was even a handsome elf, while another was a mature-looking female officer—this world probably didn't have much use for smiling customer service or government PR, but it was hard to say whether one reason they had been sent out was to win over new recruits with their faces.