Chapter 5 (1/2)

Volume 1

CH 8

The Hero finds a perfect opportunity and jumps into the cliché

After being betrayed and fleeing the battlefield, I hid myself in a city that I had never visited before in order to recover from my wounds .

After my injuries had healed to some extent, in order to gather information on what had happened, I concealed my identity and entered a bar, where I came to know those guys .

The leader, the man with the best physique, was named Barkas; the small, bucktoothed man was Dot and the thin, mage-like man was Terry, if I remember correctly .

That day, they’d become all drunk and festive after having been able to hunt some good prey . As if they were displeased by me drinking by myself in a depressed manner, they ordered me drink after drink like they were trying to drink me under the table .

Because I was feeling anxious and hopeless, I was grateful for the company of these bright, merry men . Before I knew it, I was drinking with them as if trying to forget the terrible reality that I was faced with, and became on such good terms with these men that we would drink together whenever we met each other in the bar at night . They sensed that I was hiding a secret, so they even went as far as to say that I could let them know if there was anything that they could do .

But after I visited that bar several days in a row, the fact that I was the Hero was exposed .

I was blamed for becoming the next Demon King and being a traitor of humanity, and no matter what I said, I was only met with hostility . I fled the bar, and then that was when Barkas and his friends appeared .

They’d apparently heard what happened at the bar and they told me that they would give me a place to hide, so I followed them . At this hiding place, they tricked me into drinking water with sleeping powder and anesthetics mixed in . Through the guild, the nation had put a large bounty on my head .

Due to the resistance provided by my Soul Sword, I managed to avoid becoming immobilized immediately, but I was forced to spend that night hiding from Barkas and his friends, who were chasing me to try and kill me .

As I left the city while avoiding being seen, I saw them for the last time . With the same mouths that they had used to tell me that I could rely on them, they were howling that they would kill me the next time they met me and proactively spreading rumors about how much I fit the description of an evil person .

After that, I never met Barkas and his friends again .

Ah, I didn’t think that I’d meet them in a place like this .

I find myself lost in thought for a while as I look at these men .

… That’s right, they’re not people I mustn’t take revenge on, they’re people I want to kill . So there’s no problem, is there?

My hatred for former friends who betrayed me isn’t all that high; they’re people that I wouldn’t have thought of going out of my way to hunt down .

But now that I’ve met them like this, they’re people that I don’t give a damn about . Of course, there’s no way that I would let such a lucky opportunity pass me by .

“Minnalis, I’m going to kill them,” I say . “Of course, in a way that doesn’t obstruct our revenge on our main targets . ”

“… Very well, Goshujin-sama . ” Minnalis gives an understanding nod, as if she has already gained all kinds of information from my brief words .

Minnalis has probably gained a desire for this kind of strange, half-baked vengeance as well . It seems that my memories that she experienced didn’t transfer all the small details perfectly, but the sharing of my desire for revenge seems to have worked just fine .

I think about what we should do as I eavesdrop on the men’s conversation .

The trio, who have started eating breakfast at the bar inside the guild, seem to be raising a toast with the drinks on the menu, which are slightly on the expensive side . It appears that they were drinking all night right until just before they came here; they’re deep in talk with red faces that show that they weren’t able to completely sober up .

It seems that they found an Aural Rabbit on the way back from an Orc extermination, and after a great deal of effort, they managed to bring it down .

Aural Rabbits are rabbits, about fifty centimeters long, with small horns and mouths that look like they have a big split in them .

Their fighting ability is nonexistent and they have no defensive strength either, but they are ridiculously agile and they have the characteristic ability of blending their fur into the background, so defeating them is incredibly difficult .

And most importantly, they are rare characters . Their sense of caution is strong and they are exceptionally good at finding enemies, so it’s really unusual to find them . This is why they are designated as extermination rank E, despite their lack of ability to fight .

However, Aural Rabbit meat is a delicacy . Their organs are used in medicine, their horns and claws are used as catalysts for the creation of expensive magical tools and their fur is used as a material to create high-grade furniture; their body parts are so valuable that capturing a single one would yield enough money to live on for a month .

That’s apparently the reason these three came to the guild at this time of day, too .

They’d hunted the Aural Rabbit late into the night and by the time they got back to the city, there wasn’t long left before the sky would start turning brighter . Of course, the guild wasn’t open at such a time, so they apparently chose to pass the time at a nearby bar that they go to regularly and then come to the guild when it opened rather than coming home and sleeping . They borrowed some money from the guild, so they wanted to exchange the Aural Rabbit for money as soon as possible .

“…”

Seeing them so happy over their high-quality prey reminds me of when I met them for the first time in a bar during my first time through this world; it’s a little unpleasant .

As I flip through a monster guide that I’m not even reading and continue observing, another person enters the guild, a young man with a small figure .

He appears to be about the same age as me, but he’s probably actually a little younger .

This bright-blonde-haired young man is clad in leather armor beneath his brown robe and has a single staff in his hand .

He looks around at his surroundings restlessly before heading to the reception counter .

Of course, he heads not towards one of the muscular, male receptionists, but towards a quiet-beauty-type female receptionist .

It seems that Barkas has just finished eating, and is the only one among his trio to have done so . With his face red from still being slightly drunk and his cheerful mood clearly visible, he heads towards the counter and –

“Hohoh . ”

As expected, a conflict between the young man and the adventurer trio begins .

The young man, who appears to have come to register as an adventurer, is quarreling with the red-faced, drunken adventurer .

It seems that the one who has been caught in this cliché is not me, but this young man .

“Say, Minnalis . This kind of thing happens quite often, doesn’t it?” Leaving the various circumstances aside, I give Minnalis a broad grin . Her face shows that she’s so disgruntled that I can almost hear her disgruntlement .

“I-it is a coincidence,” she says . “And since we were not the ones who were caught up in it, I do not admit defeat . ”

I mean, it’s not like it was a competition .

And I wouldn’t be particularly happy even if I won .

I regain my focus and try to listen into the details of the argument . It seems that it’s the young man who came to register as an adventurer who started the fight, not the one from the trio .

It seems that the young man looks at the adventurer profession as some kind of dream, and ended up saying things like, “How can adventurers be drinking from so early in the morning?” and, “This is why your ranks won’t increase,” making me wonder whether it really is their first time meeting each other .

Of course, this adventurer isn’t the type who would control himself after having such things said to him, and he’s angry from having cold water dumped on his merry, drunken mood from having good things happen for him .

Despite the roles of the cliché being reversed, the adventurer has taken on what can be described as an overbearing attitude and is retorting with the typical cliché lines like, “What does a brat like you know?” and, “Being an adventurer isn’t the dream-filled line of work you think it is . ”

It seems that the cliché is a curse after all .

The argument remains a verbal one because the guild’s eyes are on them, but if that weren’t the case, it might have already escalated into a fistfight .

This kind of argument is an everyday occurrence, so the guild doesn’t bother interfering as long as the conflict remains verbal .

As if in a great hurry, the receptionist calls out to us despite the fact that there is an argument happening in the next booth over, right in front of her eyes .

“Kaito-san, Minnalis-san . My apologies for keeping you waiting . ”

“Read the damn mood…!” I curse .

“That woman… shall I pulverize her into mincemeat?” Minnalis asks .

Because the receptionist called out to me while I was seeing how the argument was progressing, I ended up making perfect eye contact with her . Of course, I can’t just pretend that I didn’t notice her .

“… No, I suppose this is actually convenient . ”

I wanted to watch from a distance for a little longer, but it can’t be helped . That young man is a bit of a nuisance, but now that things have come to this, I’ll just make use of this argument .

If I approach and get caught up in it, then that’s fine . If I can use that as an excuse to get a word in and manage to entice them successfully, it would remove the need for various preliminary preparations .

In any case, receiving our Guild Cards comes first .

“These are your Guild Cards,” the receptionist says . “Re-issuing Guild Cards will cost five silver coins, so please take care not to lose them . ”

She hands us thin, pale yellow card-shaped objects about the size of a small wallet . It feels like it’s made of plastic, but this is apparently made by processing some monster material .

“Please place a drop of your blood here on your card,” the receptionist says . “This makes it impossible for the card’s recorded information to be displayed except at the guild or if the owner desires it . ”

I take the needle she hands to me and make a small prick on my fingertip, putting a drop of my blood on the plate .

It gives off a momentary flash of pale light before returning to its original state .

But as I silently command it, writing appears on the card as if floating to the surface from inside .

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

Name: Kaito