Chapter 110

After meeting up with Maizen, the three of us, including Mea, decided to go into a nearby tavern since neither of us had any major business to attend to .

They seem to have acc.u.mulated a lot of stuff about the party, so Ill at least listen to them complain .

I propped my elbows on the wooden desk and looked around the interior of the restaurant .

A large number of liquor bottles are neatly arranged at the counter .

The desk is s.h.i.+ny, and there are no leftovers on the floor .

Its one of the cleanest bars around .

However, Ive never been to a bar before .

Because it was still in the early afternoon, the seats were almost empty .

Ill just have a whorup (beer) . What about you two?

Maizen calls out to me .

Im alright with milk .

Ive drunk alcohol at village ceremonies, but Im not very good at it .

I once threw up and collapsed and had Gizel to care for me .

Mea will have the same as Abels!

Oh, yeah, I see Well, you know, this store has milk thats made from crushed eve berries

I miss it .

If youre talking about eve berries, there were also some in the Marren village .

Theyre a little sloppy and sweet and tasty .

They taste a bit like strawberries, even though theyre nuts .

Well then, Ill have that .

Mea too, Mea too!

Somehow, Im kind of feeling very alienated .

Maizen had been here a few times before and told the owner to order for all of us .

The waitress immediately brings us two gla.s.ses of milk and a whorup .

When I was wondering if I should suddenly start talking about the party, Maizen opened his mouth first .

Come to think of it, youre the one with the Gaston thing, right?

Easily, Maizen guessed so .

When I looked next to him, thinking of fooling him, I saw Meas face turned pale and frowning .

I decided to speak without hiding it, thinking that Maizen would shut up .

No, I knew it, or rather I thought it was you anyway . No matter how you think of it, its strange, you know .

Maizen took a gulp of his whorup and then shook his head from side to side .

That much, huh? Maybe I should quit before its exposed .

I take a drink of eve-milk while keeping pace with Maizen .

. . Well, I think its okay . The promotion is essentially like a reward for being a good adventurer . Losing an excellent fighting force by poking them poorly is the end of the world . Theyll do everything in their power to pretend they dont know . Especially since the lord of this place owes you a debt of grat.i.tude, so he wont be the first to take advantage of it .

Besides, Maizen continued saying, keeping his voice low .

I heard from the survey team that the lord is planning to have Gaston as a hero . If it gets to the point where you cant back out, I think the city would rather protect you .

Buh! Geho!

Eve-milk got into my trachea .

Holding my throat, I set the cup down on the table .

Eh youre kidding, right?

Apparently hes serious about it . If theres a famous adventurer, the citys fame will go up a notch, after all . Look, dont you see the lords scholar, Wegener? That man read the report on the defeat and he liked Gaston . Im sure Gaston will be hearing from him soon .

A combination of a phony scientist and a phony adventurer is about to be born .

So phonies get drawn to other phonies .

But wont the n.o.bles who heard the rumors and try to get Gaston to serve them get angry?

A n.o.bleman wouldnt bother to visit a place that isnt even his own territory . Theyll probably send a random underling to check on him and pull him out as soon as they find out whats going on . Even the examination for joining the lords legion here involves an interview and a practical test, so they wouldnt take an adventurers rank alone without even checking your ability . I dont know if its a very stupid n.o.bleman, though .

So its like that .

No matter how it turns out, it doesnt seem to be as important as I thought it would be .

Then, there are quite a few other people besides me who are fooling around?

I dont know any other adventurers who would go to such lengths to hide something like you . If you had the time to do all that, youd want to focus on your own hunting . For me, I want my work to be recognized for what it is, and I dont understand why you get to celebrate other peoples work . You have your own set of circ.u.mstances, though .

Ha, hahaha

He stared at me with a still stare, so I looked away and laughed and faked it .

I guess Maizen doesnt really like this kind of approach .

C-, come to think of it, hows the party going?

Maizen chuckles at me for blatantly changing the subject .

Im starting to see a way out of this, at least .

Hoh .

It seems that it wasnt just a throwaway that they should be able to handle it .

Honestly, I dont think theres anything else to do but keep that Lisha and Tida apart, what kind of a plan does he have in mind?

Our party, you know, its just not going so well . We try to talk to each other, but there are some holes in the party, and we dont work well together . It wasnt so bad in the past .

Definitely, Lisha and Tida arent working well together

If you ask me why, I think its because of the composition of the members . Thats why they cant play their roles .

I knew that Maizen also realized that he shouldnt bring those two together .

Either let one of them quit, or let both of them quit . I feel It would be faster if Maizen himself left already, though .

Thats why Ive decided to add one more member . Ive been in a tavern with a guy who knows both magic and swordsmans.h.i.+p . Im planning to get them both to meet each other in the near future .

What?

So youve gone that way .

I feel like theres a bigger problem lying around than that .

The ranks of our members have risen, so we tend to go to areas where the magic beasts are strong . I guess it was too much for the three of us . The search wasnt going well, so discord spread, and because of that, the search didnt go well again .

Maybe I should just say it outright now .

If this is the case, the number of victims of heartache will only increase .

Hey, maybe its because of that Lisha and Tida disagreement . I have a feeling that as long as were left with those two, its never going to work .

N, no, if that were the case, one of them would have quit a long time ago . Those two are still here, so we should still be able to do something about it We-, well, yeah, if one of those two says it, Ill think about it in that direction too .

Maizen uttered that while choking as if it was hard to say .

As expected, its not like they couldnt notice it . Thats right, they couldnt have been this dull .

But I think those two just dont want to get out of it because Maizen is higher in rank I think it would be better to break up sooner rather than later .

It seems that Maizen himself has a lot of feelings for it, so its not going to be that easy .

Thats right, since were here lets ask for something to eat . Its quite delicious here

Uwaaaa! Run, run!

As if to interrupt Maizens words, screams could be heard from the city .

This was followed by a series of screams .

The shopkeeper in the tavern opens the door to see whats going on outside .

Through the gap, a crowd of people could be seen rus.h.i.+ng down the street in front of the store in front of them .

The clerk turns pale and drops the tray in his hand to the floor . Cups and plates fell to the ground, splattering liquor and food on the floor .

The other customers also seemed to notice the abnormality when they looked out the door and got up hurriedly and left the tavern .

Maizen took out coins from his pocket while standing up and scattered them on the desk .

I dont know whats going on, but it looks kind of bad . This should be enough, so lets get out of here right away and head for the voices .

Running away is not an option, apparently .

I guess thats the spirit of an adventurer for times like these . I honestly admire him for that .