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Chapter 446
Day 102 – Before Noon, the Town of Omui, Adventurers’ GuildI’d always been striving for the frontier. It’s both the land of legends and center of many tragedies. When was it that I first swore to myself that I’d grow stronger and make it there someday? But the life of an adventurer is harsh. The money’s good, but the higher you aim, the faster your earnings vanish into equipment costs. The gear I slowly scraped together sometimes broke, sometimes melted away, and no matter how much I earned, it all just kept flowing out of my hands, so obtaining high-grade equipment remained nothing but a distant dream.
And then, the frontier, said to be heading toward ruin, suddenly made a comeback. They swept the Evil Forest clean, and began conquering dungeons one after another. The rumors sounded too absurd to be true, but before long, magic stones and mushrooms from the frontier began circulating on the market. I couldn’t sit still. I set out for the frontier… and the result was that a group of rogue-like adventurers abducted my companion, lured us into a Dungeon, and tried to assault us.
We avoided that fate, but there was nothing fortunate about that. The men were helplessly devoured alive by massive spider monsters. They hadn’t come to rescue anyone, they came for a meal. Bound in spider web I was carried away by those monsters. Whether we were meant to be preserved as rations after the spiders had their fill for today, or to be fed to their larvae, we’ll never know now.
Because the spiders all died. Was it just a dream? Half conscious, the scene appeared to me like a hazy mirage yet was burned into my mind. A massive spider that even those battle-hardened B and C-rank adventurers, as vile and despicable as they were, couldn’t so much as touch, struck down in a single blow by a boy who seemed to fly through the air.
Pierced through by the spider’s scythe-like jaws, my battered body was still held in its mouth, yet in the blink of an eye it was completely healed. All my other companions were saved as well. The corpses of spiders, each so formidable that taking down even one would’ve required a collective effort of the entire guild, and a jet black silhouette surrounded by the darkness of the dungeon, a man in the robes so black that they seemed to be colored with the terror and fear of this entire world as pigment. Dreadful as a grim reaper that came to witness the end of this world, a being that didn’t seem to belong to this reality, a herald of the realm of the dead that had equal compassion for both the dead and the living, just impartially spreading death to all. And yet, as I laid there battered, my consciousness fading away, he walked toward me and spoke casually, as if merely out for a stroll, like making small talk with an old acquaintance.
「Heyyy, spider’s meal-san~. Well, I stole you from the spider but it’s not like I’m gonna eat you or anything, so don’t worry, okay? I mean, eating in the cannibalistic, human-eating kind of way is off the table, but if a pretty lady went『Eat me ❤』 then, as a Highschool Boy, I wouldn’t exactly oppose the idea, but I’m not touching a spider meal-san, all wrapped up in sticky thread, filthy and tattered? If anything, I’m more the type who does the feeding, you know? Like, have some of my mushroom? Hup! (*Chomp*)」
From there, things were utter chaos… There’s far too much I’d like to say, but in the end, I was brought to the Adventurers’ Guild in the Town of Omui. All four of us, safe and together.
「Quite the ordeal you went through. As a guild, we welcome anyone willing to fight in the frontier, and we’re grateful for that spirit. We’ll help you to the fullest of our ability, if anything troubles you, don’t hesitate to consult us.」
「「「Thank you very much.」」」
Though we were under the guild’s protection and being questioned about the incident, the receptionist lady treated us, complete strangers from elsewhere, with both kindness and a firm, dignified compassion. A beautiful woman, intelligent, carrying an air of refinement. To us, her eyes were gentle, but to the boy who had saved us, her gaze was flat, somewhere between exasperation and concern, yet still warm and filled with respect…
「No, to think that after coming all the way to the frontier, you’d be kidnapped by ill-natured adventurers, nearly assaulted, and on top of that attacked by monsters in a deep dungeon and almost eaten alive. That’s more than enough misfortune already… but you also ended by encountering That(disaster). But since nothing worse than getting involved with that boy can happen in the Frontier, things can only get better from here on. It’s all good now. No disaster here is more malicious than he is. Even if you gathered every calamity in the frontier and rolled them together, they’d still be far cuter than this.」
「Hey now, they said you were adventurers, so I went through a lot of trouble to haul them all the way to the town, okay? I’m just a kind dashing young man who happened to be passing by, who made a lot of effort to head from the town to the dungeon, turned right back around to bring them to town, yet somehow, I feel a distinct malice in the way I’m being treated, I’m at the age where you are particularly sensitive to such unfairness? And also, the bulletin board still hasn’t changed, has it? This look again?!」
It sounded almost like they were insulting each other, yet there was a familiarity in the exchange, with their nonsensical back-and-forth drewing an air of 『here we go again』 from the surrounding staff and adventurers, but there also was a sense of warmth to it. Adventurers’ Guilds are normally full of rough types, many with criminal pasts, causing trouble whenever they have spare time. The staff are usually cold-eyed, there to keep order while processing requests, but this place was completely different. The obviously high-ranking adventurers behaved with humility and courtesy here, and the staff spoke with genuine concern and kindness.
「Sigh… This morning you were picking fights with the bulletin board and then disappearing with a satisfied look on your face, so why is it that, despite not even being an adventurer, you happened to be passing by in a dungeon?! You don’t have a permit, so if you must, at least act quietly! Why are you coming back openly from a dungeon and trying to cash in magic stones?! Where did the sneaking part go, where?!」
「「「He wasn’t even an adventurer! And not only that, he’s an unregistered one, yet somehow he’s acting like the most important person here!」」」
The moment he stepped into the Adventurers’ Guild, the atmosphere shifted in an instant. At the appearance of a single level 24 boy, high-ranked adventurers straightened their posture, sank deeper into their seats, and then turned to face away? And yet he wasn’t even an adventurer at all. Still, everyone here knew him, and he passed his time in the guild as if it were perfectly natural.
「…Besides, I heard the dungeon you were going to was only a medium-sized one. Even though you can’t fight anymore, why were you trying to get into the lowest floors? With your condition, even the middle floors are recklessly dangerous… Were you planning to wipe out all the deep dungeons before you went? You only have today or tomorrow left, don’t you? You don’t have to worry so much about the frontier, dungeons are more than stable enough now.」
「But they were just lying there, you know? So I thought I’d be thoughtful and roll them here out of kindness, and now I’m being spoken to so cruelly, my barricaded heart is riddled with wounds.」
Yes, a giant horse the likes of which I’d never seen before has rolled us here at an incredible speed. My head was spinning, and by the time I came to my senses, we were already in the town!
「If you had a delicate heart, I would adjust my response accordingly. But for someone with a barricaded heart so devoid of feeling, I think it’s better to break it down instead? Honestly, if you’re going to save someone, then act like you saved them. Why ride a giant horse and roll back adventurers all tangled up in silk cocoons? And why, exactly, did they let you through the town gates like that? I’ll have to give the gatekeepers a word or two.」
「「「We didn’t expect to be rolled here… but it was so much faster than the carriage we rode in on!」」」
「Look, I heard they were part of the Rolling Society, so I thought I’d be considerate and roll them along, and the horse did his best too, so he is now eating sweets I gave him as a rewards outside? The horsie isn’t to blame, you know? He’s big, but he’s a good horse? He’s very cute, you know?」
「The horse isn’t the problem. The problem is the person who thought it was fun to let the horse play rolling-ball with people!」
I thought we were being rescued, only to find myself rolled into town still wrapped up in spider webs and only freed once the Adventurers’ Guild staff got to us. And since when were we in such a society?
「「「We’ve told you, we never formed or joined a Rolling Society! Who exactly did you hear that from, huh? Who?!」」」
「The dead adventurers were criminals, so they got what they deserved. But for monsters that strong to appear on the 20th floor… if it’s a deep dungeon, we can’t casually dispatch an investigation team.」
「Ah, well, they were strong, but it was only troublesome because they were spiders. And since the floor was so spacious, I wasn’t even sure if smoking them would’ve weakened them much? But it doesn’t matter since I’ll destroy it. If I don’t take care of that place today the Pres and the others will take it, you know? Since even the Idiots came back there’s a Dungeon shortage crisis, so I’ve gotta do it quietly today? So I’m leaving the society members behind, they’d even started a 『Spider Meal Club』in there, so they’re a bit too multi-hobby for their own good. Still… watching the Rolling Society made it look kind of fun, I almost joined. Maybe it’ll be popular in the frontier? Sort of?」
For some reason, this boy, who wasn’t even an adventurer, said he was going back into the dungeon. The guild lady seemed concerned, but said nothing and saw him off. Ah!
「Thank you for saving us! I haven’t properly said it before, thank you for saving everyone.」
「「「We’ll come to thank you properly another time. Truly, thank you so much.」」」
My spirit had been shattered, leaving me so gripped by despair that I was numb to the fear lingering in it. But the massive spiders, symbols of that despair, had been killed almost too easily, and before I realized it, the fear binding my heart had vanished as well. Well, I guess I’d been too busy yelling to notice. Between shouting, being shocked, and making a fuss, my fear-stricken spirit somehow recovered.
「Oh, are you trying to recruit me into the Rolling Society? Hmm, I’m a little tempted, but if you roll too much, people will get mad at you. Lately I’ve been having a bit of a rolling problem.」
We’d been rolled, labeled as part of some strange society, and in the end he never actually freed us from the spider silk himself. He insisted it was an accident, but no matter how you look at it, he had saved us. Most importantly, our bodies that had been gouged full of holes by the spiders’ fangs and claws were completely healed without a single scar left. Yet he acted like he’d done nothing, like it had nothing to do with him, waving a hand lazily over his head and walking away without even glancing back. Without ever once giving his name. Without ever once asking for ours.
The boy in the black cloak that the receptionist lady called Haruka-san, not even an adventurer, only level 24, which outside the frontier would make him a novice adventurer, and here in the frontier barely an apprentice to one, not even allowed into a dungeon. Wearing shabby villager’s gear even more threadbare than what ordinary townsfolk had on, with nothing but oddly luxurious pauldrons for some reason.
Even after saving our lives, all he said was, 『I happened to pass by and you were just lying there』 followed by, 『so I rolled you here』 and then ended it with, 『You know? Sort of?』, as if that explained anything.
And now he was saying he was heading into a legendary deep dungeon, one forbidden to all but the so-called еranscendents, the parties of legend, and no one was stopping him? They said he wasn’t even an adventurer, yet in the guild he acted with calm familiarity, and the high-level, high-rank adventurers lining the place stepped aside for him as if they were frightened, making way for this boy dressed like a mere villager?
As for us, with no equipment left and no money to our names, the suggestion we were given was the 『Adventurers’ Guild Newcomer Loan Course』. A plan where you attend training lectures while completing assigned requests, with the guild covering your lodging and meal costs, then deducting repayment from your request fees until the debt is cleared. It even came with the emergency 『Mushroom Insurance』 providing peace of mind in case of injury or illness, and included a full loan of weapons and gear, an adventurer-friendly system through and through.
When we all bowed our heads and asked to get on it, they gave us a simple ability test in the training yard, followed by lending us weapons suited to our results. And those weapons were unbelievable, Dungeon drop items stacked with special effects, exquisite swords and spears that could only have been made by top-class smiths, and heaps of armor and cloaks that seemed like stuff of legends.
「This is the policy of the investor behind the 『Adventurers’ Guild Newcomer Loan Course』 In his words 『If you get injured and can’t work or die, that’s a huge loss of profits, so load them up with weapons, gear, and medicine, send them out to earn big, and while you’re at it the inns and General Store we’re partnered with get the money too. It’s a total magnate’s system!』 Strangely enough, it’s never once run in the red and has always been profitable, but with the principal so massive there’s no hope of returning it anyway. Still, the investor happily pockets small change and goes『Big profits! Total rip-off! Magnate’s life!』, so it’s a very nice system? Thanks to this plan, our guild’s number of casualties has plummeted, with zero deaths, and guarantee of all serious injuries fully healing everyone using this equipment are rapidly raising their levels and repaying their debts.」
「It sounds absurd, but it makes sense.」 「Wait a moment, so that person is only getting small change?」 「I see, since everyone comes back alive, the weapons never disappear, so the invested capital doesn’t get reduced!」 「And consumables… ah, that’s what the 『Mushroom Insurance』 covers. And with equipment this high-grade, it won’t break or even get damaged.」 「So basically, they’re lending out weapons without losing anything, and the small change just keeps coming in forever? But you could sell this stuff and live the rest of your life in luxury!」
It was such an unbelievably generous system, and honestly, it was a huge help. The generosity made me suspicious, but it seemed the other party wasn’t losing anything, in fact, they were profiting. It must be that the rumored Frontier King, Lord Omui, was the one investing in order to raise up adventurers, so he was fine with taking only a modest gain.The living legend of the Kingdom’s frontier, who rebuilt the frontier when it was on the brink of ruin and cleared the corruption that had been the Kingdom’s true cause of decay. Apparently, there was even 『Adventurers’ Guild Intermediate Assistance Course』.
And so, after asking where we could find the boy who had saved us, Haruka-kun, and learning the inn where he was staying, we first headed for the budget inn behind the guild they’d recommended. He saved us, but also he’d given us medicine, so we needed to at least earn the money to pay for it. Starting tomorrow, we’d work hard, save every coin, and at least pay back the cost of the medicine, only then could we go properly thank him.