Here’s the chapter, enjoy~
Chapter 136 – Chaotic East
In the end, the 100 Kingdom gold coins turned into 120 Republic gold coins.
Since there is no significant difference in weight and size between the two countries’ gold coins, the original value would have been approximately 1:1. 20% more would have been the value of the information fee I paid, not the exchange ratio. They must have thought I was a useful person who had some other hidden gem. At any rate, I interpreted it favorably.
“I’d like to think it was a good deal.”
When I said this over a cup of tea made by old grandma Kerg, Inos-san nodded his head with a tight smile on his face.
“Yes. We would like to maintain a good relationship with Takifu-san in the future.”
I was asked to join the commercial guild, but I declined at once, saying that I would give priority to the adventurers’ guild.
Although it is not forbidden to belong to more than one guild, and there have been cases in the past, each guild has a different position, and their interests may conflict, and joining both guilds may (in some cases) result in the loss of trust from either guild.
Although it was not explicitly stated, I got this impression from the conversation with Inos-san, which took place while both parties were trying to find out what was in each other’s hearts.
After receiving a quiet send-off from everyone, who seemed to be somewhat averting their gazes, Myrril and I left the guild.
“Now that we have some money let’s go to the adventurers’ guild.”
“I guess life in the Republic is not so easy after all.”
“It’s good that they don’t come and try to kill us like they do in the kingdoms and empires.”
“You have too low a standard.”
While saying this, Myrril kept the UZI casually clutched to her chest. With so much money in my pocket (or, more precisely, in storage), it is better to be cautious, though.
I got 120 Republic gold coins. In Japanese yen, that’s 1.2 million yen or more than that in terms of currency value in this world. I am not saying that we will be able to live until spring, but it will be enough to build an economic foundation.
“By the way, Yoshua, I know it’s a little late for this, but it might be a good idea to keep your real name hidden from now on. “Tekehue Yoshua” has become well known as the “Demon King of Casemaian.”
…No, it’s not even my real name.
“Takefu is fine. I’ve already told the captain of the guard and the commercial guild that name. Although they don’t call me by that.”
“Well then, I guess Takifu will do for you. I shall be called Mir.”
I can’t help but feel that my name is becoming more and more garbled. It doesn’t matter.
The adventurers’ guild is located in the commoner’s district, which is to the east of the town of Sarz and far from the Wolf’s Tail Pavilion. The guild that we just came out of is a little off to the southwest of the center of the town. So, if we continue to head northeast, we should be able to see the guild.
As I walked around with a rough map in my mind, I noticed something.
“Hey, Myrril, aside from the commercial district and the commoner’s residential district, the east and west sides look a little different, don’t they?”
“The east side is more chaotic and confusing, or in short, messy. It is lively but not elegant.”
“That’s right.”
The adventurers’ guilds are the epitome of the east side’s messiness. The signboard with the sword symbol was enough to convince both Myrril and me.
“What is this?”
Myrril tilted her head in dismay, but I was pleased to see that it was just as I had imagined it to be, or rather, that it had surpassed the stereotypical image of a guild.
It is a two-story building like the commercial guild, but unlike theirs, it is dirty and tattered, like a bar in a western movie. There was a large hole in one of the walls, which had been covered with wooden planks. The doors are the double-door type, which is well sealed because of the snowy climate, but it would have been better if they had been swinging doors that only swing at the chest position.
Well, anyway.
A broken barrel was lying on the road in front of the entrance, and three men were left lying on the ground. Glaring at them, a woman is standing with her hands on her hips. She is about 170 centimeters tall. She is a muscular human woman who looks a lot like Yadar, the muscle-brain tiger girl from Casemaian―which means she is the type of person you don’t want to be actively involved with while not being acquainted with her. I have a very bad feeling that she seems to have no weapons other than the gauntlets of her two fists.
Is she a martial artist? I don’t even know if there is such a profession.
“Excuse me, we want to pass by.”
I don’t know what happened, and I don’t want to know, so I let it go, assuming that this kind of thing is a tradition of the adventurers’ guild, and I walk through behind the woman with my special Japanese one-handed worship.
“Let’s go, Mir!”
Anticipating that the two women were about to start a war, I grabbed the dwarf girl by the hood and forced her into the building.
“Okay, we’ve cleared the first hurdle. Let’s register quickly and go… Whoa!”
Inside the adventurers’ guild, where we had slipped in after an emergency getaway, more than a dozen people were in the middle of a huge brawl.
Chapter 137 – Dance on the Floor
What’s all the fuss about?
In the center of the floor, a group of strong men stopped to exchange blows with each other face-to-face. They were dressed in furry winter jackets and leather armor, looking like “vanguard adventurers!”
Around them, men and women of slightly inferior stature wielded clubs… or mages’ staffs, and swords still in their sheaths.
They are the very image of the “rear guard” of an adventurer’s party.
Although they are not using offensive magic or swords and are limited to punching or intimidating, some of them are still bleeding or have fallen.
“Good heavens… what are these people doing? Why don’t they take their fighting outside?”
“T-that’s right! D-do it outside!”
The guild employees also tried to stop them, but it had no effect as they just hid behind the counter and called out to them.
Watching from a distance, Myrril and I tilted our heads and wondered what was going on.
I beckoned to Myrril to come back, and our gazes met with men with bloodshot eyes. We were immediately stared at with murderous looks. We had nothing to do with it.
“Damn, are you one of those new guys from the west?”
“No, I’m just passing through. We have nothing to do with your dispute, so if you excuse us…”
“Get ’em!”
I don’t know if they thought they could defeat the small Myrril-san and a middle-aged man with little energy or if we looked like someone from somewhere else, but the men jumped on us, brandishing liquor bottles and chairs and yelling angrily.
This is no good!
“Don’t kill them, Mir!”
A dull thud echoed through the air.
One of the men is blown away and rolled over, bubbling and immobilized. The other man was followed by a sharply angled hook to his solar plexus, leaving him crouched on his knees, silenced.
“Damn you!”
Pow. Silence. Pow. Silence. Pow. Silence.
It’s almost as if it’s a procession.
Without a moment to stop, Myrril-san advances to the center of the floor, blows away even the vanguard that was beating each other up, and knocks them down. The only one barely able to hold himself to the punch was the strongest-looking tiger-beastman man, who took Myrril’s punch with his body and still showed the courage to punch back.
“That’s a great spirit!”
Nojaloli-sensei easily caught the fist with one hand, grabbed it, and threw it away with a half-turn. The tiger-beastman man, who had flown through the air, seemed to land on his feet with his feline instincts, but the ferocious snap of his body slamming into the floor made it impossible for him to defend himself and was thrown up again, this time face-first onto the floor. Once more. And again.
The surroundings were stunned to see his huge body, which was arcing back and forth in the air while he was still limping.
“W-wait a minute! Mir-neesan, that’s going to kill him! Calm down; it’s all right now…”
“Hmm.”
Because she let go of the tiger-beastman man while he was still in the air, he spun around, flew through the air, and slammed into the belly of the other fighter, who was standing. The two of them rolled around in a dumpling and remained motionless.
“You guys are bothering everyone. If you’re going to do this, why don’t you do it outside? Take a lesson from that unfashionable woman.”
“Who’s unfashionable, you shorty!”
With an indignant look on her face, a woman who looked like a macho fighter or a martial artist who was beating up three men outside stepped into the room.
“I complimented you, didn’t I?”
“Where the hell did you get that!”
The two women, who looked like they were more than twice the weight of each other, glared at each other with ferocious smiles on their faces.
“It seems you’ve taken good care of my friend. I have to thank you for this, don’t I?”
“No, you don’t have to thank me. This is nothing more than a garbage sweeper.”
What is this? Just when things were finally calming down, the situation flared up again. I stood in front of her and bowed.
“Oh, I’m sorry, miss. My companion was just trying to protect my frail little body, but I think she went a little overboard…”
“Get out of my way, you bastard!”
A fist swung out at me with blinding speed and was about to knock my head down.
…It was at that time.
I quickly moved behind the woman with a short teleport and told her to calm down with a hand gesture.
“Would you like to stop now? We’re just here for the guild; we have nothing to do with your troubles.”
“I know. But it doesn’t matter anymore!”
She turned around and landed a hook followed by a combination blow. I even avoided a follow-up fight kick with an ultra-short distance teleport and let out a sigh.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the surroundings are quiet, and the only one who has the will to resist is this martial artist woman.
The problem is that she seems to be the strongest of them all.
“Heh, it’s interesting, isn’t it? How can you say you’re weak? I can feel the presence of a monster from… uhyoo!?”
Something huge and white plunged into the woman’s belly, and her huge body leaped up with ease.
“Woof!”
“”Moff!””
The fighter woman, who spun around and landed on her feet, seemed to be undamaged, but the snow-white wolf that suddenly appeared in front of her was licking her face and making her stiffen.
“”It’s a magical beast!””
The men who were about to draw their swords were silenced with a fist, and Myrril-san held Moff’s head in her arms.
“Oh, I’m sorry. This is our companion, Moff the Snow White Wolf. As long as you don’t harm us, he won’t do anything.”
Everyone on the floor was speechless at the sight of the huge wolf wagging its tail in a good mood.
Meanwhile, the fighter woman continues to have her face licked, but it is unclear whether this is included in the “nothing.” She accepts it with a fainting look on her face, unable to move.
The gap between her rugged impression and this is surprisingly cute.
◇ ◇
“Well, everyone, let me introduce myself once again. My name is Takifu, and I am a merchant. My main business has fallen into disarray due to the mess in the kingdom and the empire, so I decided to come here to earn my living as an adventurer. This is my partner, Mir.”
“I’m Mir. I’m a newbie who doesn’t know what’s right and left, so please take care of me.”
“…..”
Surprisingly, there was no reaction. No one even looked at her. Not even a single movement.
After registering at the completely silent adventurers’ guild, I returned to the female martial artist who was sitting face-to-face with Moff in the middle of the floor.
She is Louie, a strong-arm vanguard of the second-class party, “Battlecry.”
According to Hal-san, the guild’s receptionist, she is one of the top three martial artists in the adventurers’ guild in this town.
The other two are Tig, the tiger-beastman man whom Myrril-san blew away, and McCain, a shield-user giant man. The giant McCain, a gentleman who did not use his shield because he thought it was too much against humans, sank to the ground by the Nojaloli-san.
Their injuries were healed by the healing magic of Eino, a half-elf mage who was also in the rearguard position of the “Battlecry.” …But.
“Hey, Louis, are you alright?”
“…Can you see… if I’m alright?”
Louis, with a dazed look on her face, was in tears, her face was shiny from the continuous licking by Moff, and her short-cut hair looked like a shaggy punk rocker.
“I don’t know why, but he seems to have taken a liking to you. He doesn’t miss us this much anyway.”
“…I’m, so… glad.”
“Woof?”
Moff makes a gesture as if tilting his head while giving out an aura of liking. Louis kept his face pouty and stroked Moff’s belly roughly.
“Woof.”
“…Oh geez, you’re such a depressing guy…”
Eh, what’s with this tsundere? I wonder if my feelings were leaked out, the big girl turned her face away, but her hands are still stroking Mofu. Moff is wagging his tail so excitedly that he seems to be in a good mood.
I wonder if other snow-white wolves are this friendly.
“So, what are you so worked up about?”
“…Because those idiots from the west… they were making a fool of me.”
“West?”
I knew there was a disconnect between the east and west sides of town. The atmosphere is so different that even a stranger’s eyes can easily detect the difference.
The receptionist, Hal-san, offers a helping hand from the counter in place of Louis, who refuses to answer any further questions.
“There was a request from a commercial guild to escort a regular transport, but a party of adventurers in the west district monopolized it on their own.”
“…Hmm? From what I just heard in the terms and conditions, it is the guild’s job to manage and coordinate between the client and the adventurers, isn’t it? Shouldn’t it just be a matter of coordination on the guild’s part?”
“Yes, it can be done. As long as those idiots don’t get fraudulent orders by submitting false applications.”
There was a snarl of anger.
Before I knew it, Tig, the tiger-beastman man, stood soundlessly behind us. He had been bouncing around like a pinball for some time, but now he looked completely unperturbed.
He seemed to have refused the healing magic of the mage Eino. Amazingly, there are not many beastman with such physical abilities, even in Casemaian.
“The real problem isn’t that the guys from the west monopolized the request. It was that they had taken the order under false names and refused to fulfill it until the very end.”
Louis shook her head and looked at the corner of the floor.
There were seven men lying motionless on the floor, moaning in pain. Their faces were swollen, their noses were dripping blood, and their eyes were closed. Naturally, no one was applying healing magic.
This kind of persistent superficial damage is an “act of demonstration by fighting,” not the work of Myrril-san, who is known for her one-hit kills and one touch with her armored sleeves.
I don’t know how to say this, but is this really a problem that needs to be sanctioned to this extent?
“That party failed to protect the merchants of the guild. So they ran back on their own and asked for our help. Or rather…”
Louis looked at the men with a deadly glint in her eyes.
“They pulled out half of the request fee and told us to go clean up their own mess.”
Oh, so the knocked out lasses outside the guild did a half-assed job with falsified information, yet had audacity to ask the guild members to clean their mess?
Whelp, adventurers guild indeed XD
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