Chapter 108 (2/2)

“If you think that would be enough to reward someone who saved my life, it would hurt my pride.”

“Then treat me to a meal expensive enough so that it won’t hurt your pride. For example, I don’t mind going to one of those 1,000,000 Aurum per meal restaurants. Although I have no plans to eat there myself, I would be more than happy to go there if someone would pay for it. I did tell you, remember? I’m at the age where food is much more interesting than girls.”

Carol seemed a bit cheered up as she smiled.

“…Geez. It can’t be helped then. If it’s in one of those facilities near the Hunter Office branch, I don’t mind treating you to a meal.”

“Are you sure? Well, I’m glad I asked you to treat me.”

“I want to return my debt as soon as possible and I don’t want to wait until you’re interested in girls.”

“Alright then, we have a deal here. So let’s hurry up and get back.”

“I don’t mind if you want to pick up the pace, but make sure to properly escort me, okay?”

“Of course.”

Akira then happily swung his legs toward the Mihazono ruin’s Hunter Office branch.

Carol just giggled and followed behind him when she saw him showing his child-like side befitting of his age to her.

There were restaurants built near the Hunter Office branch located on the outskirts of the Mihazono ruin. Hunters were allowed to bring in their heavy weapons inside those restaurants when they ate their meals, so as to be expected, those were not high-class restaurants.

But as if to betray their outer appearance, some of those restaurants were actually selling high-class meals. A full course meal in those restaurants could cost above 100,000 Aurum. Although those meals were pretty delicious, in the end, it was the wasteland price, so its price was rather swollen compared to if they were served in the city. It was understandable to be that pricey since they would have spent money to manage the place and transport the ingredients all the way there, but still, expensive things were expensive.

The restaurants in that place were roughly divided into 3 areas, then the customers who went to those restaurants were assigned to different seats depending on the price they pay for their meals. They were roughly categorized to the Hunters who paid 1,000 Aurum, 10,000 Aurum, and 100,000 Aurum for their meals. It was not like there was a strict ruling about it, so it was not compulsory, but if they took a different seat, they would feel a bit out of place and might feel uncomfortable, except for those people with steel-nerves.

It was an easy thing to identify the skill and the success of a Hunter depending on how much that Hunter would spend on his or her meal. Because of that, grouping Hunters’ seats like this would allow them to be seated together with the other Hunters with more or less the same skill level. So, it was not rare for the regulars of a restaurant to recognize the faces of the Hunters around them, although they did not know each others’ names. It was also common for them to strike a conversation with the other Hunters eating near them, and if they got along well, they might even form a team later.

But then, because of that, when someone new came in and ate in a seat for expensive meals, it would garner a lot of attention from the other Hunters. And that day, the new face was Akira.

Akira was sitting in front of an expensive-looking table and meals befitting for that table were lined up in front of him. That scene made Akira beam up as he gobbled up those meals while occasionally voicing out his amazement, he was in a really good mood there.

Carol was sitting across Akira. Although it was less than what was in front of Akira, her meal was worth about the same price as his.

Carol rested her palms on her cheeks as she smiled and asked Akira.

“Is it tasty?”

“Yeah, it’s delicious.”

Akira happily nodded, after confirming which Carol smiled satisfied.

“That’s good to hear, it seems that my pride is safely salvaged.”

Carol, who was looking at Akira eating his meal for a few minutes, eventually started eating her own meal.

[But still, Akira looks like just a normal boy during times like this. He doesn’t seem like a strong Hunter at all.]

Carol’s evaluation was correct. In all reality, Akira was not that strong of a Hunter in the first place. It was all thanks to Alpha’s support. If he relied on his own skill, it would still take a few years of training and hard work before he could sit on that seat.

“But still, you eat quite a lot, don’t you? I don’t mind paying for all of it, but don’t leave anything behind, okay?”

“Don’t worry, my appetite is growing bigger and bigger lately. So I won’t have any trouble finishing all of this food.”

Akira just answered back casually. But after Carol pointed that out, a question popped up in his mind.

“Now that I think about it, I actually really start eating more and more lately.”

Alpha interjected.

“It might be because your body is trying to compensate for the nutrition that you didn’t get when you were in your accelerated growth period.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been living in the slum city for years, so you’re in a constant malnutrition state. Because of that, you must have been stuck in a slowed growth rate for quite a long time. So in order to compensate for that, your body might be demanding a lot of food right now.”

“Is that really something that you can solve simply by eating a lot of food?”

“I think you’ve gone through a special treatment so that you can solve that problem just by eating a lot of food. You have gone through that 60,000,000 Aurum treatment before, remember? They might have identified your impeded growth was due to an unhealthy environment, and so they might have done something to your body which allows you to get you back to your optimal state just by eating a lot of food, though they might have also done that so that they can charge you more money too.”

Akira suddenly stopped eating his meal.

“…It’s not like they did anything weird to me, right? I’m actually okay, right?”

“Well, it’s true that you’re getting back to your healthier body state, so it’s alright. Moreover, wounds and fatigue won’t get properly recovered or healed unless you eat food and get ample rest. After all, there’s a limit on how far the medicines can help you. Since it was a treatment to get you back to health, so it shouldn’t have any bad side-effects. As long as you earn enough money to satiate your hunger, you should be fine.”

“I see, well, I guess it’s alright then. I also got that after going through an expensive treatment, so I guess it should be fine, huh?”

Akira then continued eating without worrying about it anymore. Carol, who saw Akira pause momentarily, found it weird.

“Akira, what’s wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

“Is that so? By the way, there’s something I want to ask you, I don’t mind if you want to keep eating while answering my question. Is that okay?”

“What is it? I don’t mind as long as it’s not a request in which you’ll refuse to pay for my meal if I don’t accept it.”

Carol giggled lightly.

“Don’t worry. Well, it’s indeed a request but I’ll still pay for this meal even if you refuse it.”

Akira stopped eating. He could feel that it was something serious from the way Carol asked him, he then stared at her with a serious face.

“So, what is it?”

“I don’t mind if you want to continue eating, you know?”

“I’ll hear you first and if it’s something not that important, then I’ll continue eating. So, go on, what do you want to ask of me?”

Strictly speaking, Akira still seemed to be in a good mood, but there was a trace of cautiousness in his face. It was obvious that he was being paranoid. He looked at Carol with distrust, as if he was suspecting that she was going to bring more trouble to his plate. Although it was just a hunch, there was no mistaking it.

Carol had no idea if it was simply because there was a flicker in Akira’s feeling and it was expressed in his eyes, or it was because Akira was actually suppressing his feeling and it was leaking out.

[…This situation… It’s dangerous if I say anything wrong here.]

Carol intentionally changed into a more serious face before continuing.

“I’ll say this straight. Akira, will you work together with me?”

Akira did not reply immediately, he was just silently staring at her. He was trying to guess any possible meanings behind those words. Carol understood that very well when she looked back at him.

After a short silence, Akira finally opened his mouth.

“…Let me get this straight, do you mean working together with you as a team of Hunters?”

“Yes.”

“Sorry, but no thanks.”

Akira only said that and immediately returned back to eating. His tense aura was gone in a snap and the mood quickly returned to normal.

Carol sighed in relief when she noticed that Akira had lowered his guard, although she also regretted the fact that he refused her offer.

“Is that so? That’s really unfortunate. Well, it’ll only cause trouble down the road if I force it, so I’ll just give it up here. Would you at least please tell me the reason?”

“It’s simply because I’m more comfortable moving alone. I am used to moving around out of whim or based on situational decisions. Now that I think about it, I can be a bit random most of the time. I won’t be able to do that if I work together with another Hunter, you see. Even for today, I only decided to go to Mihazono ruin just this morning and it’s simply because I thought about it when I was visiting another place. So like, you know, I won’t fit to work together in a team, right?”

Most of the Hunters decided beforehand where to go and properly prepared themselves before actually heading there. And if Akira was in a team, then he should think about how to divide the reward and the profit too. Not to mention, when one of the team members was not feeling well, there was a chance that the expedition had to be cancelled too.

Akira always turned to Alpha and asked for her opinion before making any decision, and of course, he could not use that reason if he had to explain his decision to other people. If he worked with someone for a long time, it was almost completely guaranteed that he would be treated as a troublesome team member who always made sudden random decisions on his own.

Carol tried to guess Akira’s way of thinking from his answer.

[Akira is the type of Hunter who focuses more on the downsides of working together in a team rather than the advantages that he can get from doing that. He’s one of those who get suspicious of people who stay together with them for long rather than feeling safe. Back then in the Seranthal building, he also seriously thought of moving separately from me; given that I know the layout of the building well, and that we were in such a dangerous situation. He might be thinking that I’m planning to kill him since he knows about the backdoor now. But, on the other hand, if it’s out of a request, he would even shield me using his own body… This boy is broken… Or more like, seriously, what kind of moral value is this boy following?]

Carol had experienced spending a night together with some Hunters with distorted personalities. Because of that, she knew how to handle these kinds of people very well. But the Akira in front of her was unlike any other Hunters that she had dealt with. So, in order to look for the right way to handle Akira, she made a friendly smile and asked him a question.

“So you’re that kind of Hunter, huh? Well, I tend to work alone too, so I can understand your argument. But like, were you always working alone until now?”

“Not really. It’s just that I never really worked together as a team. I’ve explored ruins together with other Hunters too, I also accept requests that need me to work in a team. Is that not the case for you too?”

“Me? Well, I did a lot of stuff in the past. I’ve formed a team together with the other Hunters, there were also times when I joined an already established team of Hunters. But at the moment, I’m working alone. There were a few things that happened with my last team which caused the team to break down, you see.”

Carol said it as if it was none of her business. But in reality, the reason why that team broke up was because of her. The guys, who got roped into her side job, did a lot of bad stuff in order to get the money to buy her.

Some of them even sacrificed their equipment and ammo budget and became nothing but a burden to the team, some of them would cause a fight when dividing the reward money. Eventually, the mood in that team became so bad that they broke up in the middle of exploring a ruin.

It was not like Carol intentionally did that, but she also did not try to stop the situation from getting worse. She thought that it was all their own responsibilities.

“Even if I want to make another team, it’s not like I can do that with just any Hunters. After all, there are Hunters who are only interested in forming a team because of my side job, that in itself is fine though, the real problem is when they demand a discount or even demand it for free just because we’re on the same team. I just don’t want to work together with those kinds of people neither for my real job nor for my side job.”

“That sounds rough. Oh, this one is also really tasty.”

Akira was at least properly listening to Carol’s story, but his attention was more focused on the food in front of him.

Carol was indirectly saying that she was interested in forming a team with Akira because she evaluated his skill highly. But since his attention was all on his tongue and stomach, it was rather vague whether Akira got it or not.

Carol smiled in resignation as she mumbled.

“…He’s really just a little boy.”

Akira, who was still gobbling the food in a good mood, flatly replied.

“Hm? Isn’t it obvious that I’m just a boy? Oh, this one is not bad at all…”

“…Well, you’re not wrong about that.”

Carol regretfully mumbled as she thought that if only Akira was more of an a.d.u.l.t and his interest in food was shifted towards girls, he might have given a different answer there.

Index