Full Name: “I… Don’t Want to Work Anymore” I Quit Being an Adventurer. Even if You Treat Me Better Now, I Won’t Do It. I Will Never Work Again."
Associated Name: "Mou.... Hatarakitakunaindesu" Boukensha Nanka Yamete yaru. Imasara, Taiguu wo Kaerukara to Onegai sarete mo Okotowaridesu. Boku wa Zettai Hatarakimasen.
Aix is an archmage adventurer that has undergone five years of slave-like work as part of the local Adventurers' Guild due to its corrupt Guild Master, who has stolen Aix out of years' worth of earned payment for his skills. When he arrives a few minutes late to said Guild Master's monthly self-aggrandizing "rousing speech", the latter rips Aix's Adventurers' Guild card and demands that Aix beg to be reinstated into the guild at the lowest level.
For Aix, this is the last straw: he tells the Guild Master he quits, and after doing several "outstanding" quests that were piled on him, he frees himself of the chains that have been holding him for so long. Now, he intends to enjoy life at the fullest.
The Guild thought Aix would be back in a few days. They were wrong. And when they realize how it was Aix's power that kept a good part of the Guild running... well, let's say it's not good for them.
Associated Tropes:
- Deal with the Devil: Literally. Casters bargain with demons in order to gain access to magic, even gaining a trait that boosts their casting prowess in a way they want. In exchange, the demon they bargain with imposes a restriction on them that makes their life difficult.
- Entertainingly Wrong: The sheer level of misunderstanding strangers have regarding Aix, his circumstances, and his motivations reaches truly ridiculous levels at times. When Aix gets national recognition for his magical ability and a scrying is done on his history, the Magician's Hermitage (that had refused to teach his when he was starting out) is more ready to believe that he is a paranoid recluse with some unheard of undispellable anti-scrying measures than the actual truth that he was an exploited low-ranking member of the Adventurer's Guild.
- Karmic Jackpot: Once Aix has had enough and quits, karma starts paying very, very close attention to how people treat him. Those who treat him well have nice things happen to them. Aix, despite openly stating he has no desire to work again, helps people who treat him kindly out of gratitude and lends a helping hand to a couple of orphaned little girls, one of whom needed expensive medicine to live. Those who treated him badly and look to exploit him have terrible things happen to them right away, like the adventuring party who was stealing the credit for his kills by picking up and turning in the magic stones of the monsters he killed on patrol and was forbidden from collecting himself, suddenly find themselves having to fight their own fights, and can't hack it, and then when they go after Aix in town, have the angry townsfolk come at them. Then there's what happens to the guild master himself...
- Moral Myopia: Every last person who exploited and abused Aix thinks he's the epitome of righteousness for exploiting Aix in the first place, especially the guildmaster who sold Aix's services at B-rank rates but paid Aix at the E-rank rate, pocketing the difference, but when Aix has had enough, quits, and refuses to return, Aix is the "greedy and selfish lout."
- Power at a Price: The reason mages are rare, and should be rated as B-rank in the adventurer's guild, is that casting magic abilities always requires a sacrifice of some sort. Luca, the girl in the page image, got puppet magic in return for being afflicted with androphobia. Aix on the other hand got the "extension" perk that allows him to extend the effects of his spells for a full month, but at the cost of never being able to cast anything more than the most basic of magic spells.
- Removing the Crucial Teammate: Invoked. The Guild Master destroyed Aix's guild card, allowing Aix to remove himself from the guild. However, Aix's had an ability that allowed him to make his basic spells last for months at a time: soon enough, the town's infrastructure begins to fall apart without Aix's support.
- Take This Job and Shove It: For 5 long and grueling years, Aix is put through slave-like conditions by the corrupt and dismissive adventurer's guild, in its entirety, and Aix is left with no recourse, at all. The story begins with the arrogant, corrupt, and strangely self-righteous guild-master destroying Aix's guild license, his official ID, for laughs and daring him to quit, and is openly shocked when Aix jumps on the opportunity, the only reason Aix does the three outstanding quests in his name is because the butt-kissing receptionist refuses to process his retirement until he completes them, even after the rest of the guild openly scorns them for being chores with a piss-poor pay. To the surprise of every last jerk who exploited him, Aix utterly refuses to return, no matter how sweet an offer they make.
