Chapter 13 (1/2)

「Heh, it’s too late now. Even if you have some skills, we won’t forgive you even if you start crying.」

「I’ll repay the insult that Claws of the Hawk received.」

Vargas held a battle axe and Zorito held a long sword in his hand while threatening Rei.

The two adventurers at the back held a bow and dagger respectively as they looked at Rei and grinned.

The 4 people didn’t have any armour equipped and were wearing ordinary clothes.

The residents of the city gathered at a distance while curiously looking at Rei and the other 4.

At this time, Vargas and the other 3 were still drunk. They were curious voices from the people who had seen Rei and Set walking down the main street, but they didn’t hear.

By the way, as for Set, he had noticed the sign of magic power when Rei came out of the Adventurers Guild. When he lifted his head, he saw Rei wink and closed his eyes before lying back down again.

Although Set was always pampered by Rei, he instinctively guessed the ability of the adventurers standing in front of Rei and judged that there was no problem.

In addition, because Vargas was drunk, he had the thought that Griffons would never be found in downtown and didn’t even notice the existence of Set.

No, it would be funny if one expected a Griffon in the city.

「Well, good for nothing Goblin Drool. Why don’t we make a bet?」

「……A bet?」

Goblin Drool, he urged Rei to continue while blue veins appeared on his forehead at the disgraceful party name.

By the way, even the onlookers who heard the name were trying not to smile and laugh at it. Everyone shut up when the man with the bow glared at the surroundings.

「Ah. A bet. I heard a story a little while ago, miraculously, maybe because you used up a lifetimes worth of luck, you succeeded a request at last?　So, during your celebration, you picked a fight with me who was just registering. Pride is pointless, that’s the truth……」

「Shut up! Stop talking freely like just before! Used a lifetimes amount of luck?　Fortunately?　Finally? You’re looking down on us even though you’re a novice that just registered!」

To Rei’s provocation, Vargas yelled threateningly while waving his battle axe.

The sound of the air as he waved his axe showed that Vargas wasn’t just all talk.

「Well, that’s difficult to say. So, the contents of the bet. I’ll fight the 4 of you from Goblins Drool one at a time. And if you win……that’s right.」

He took a bag of gold coins from his chest and removed the mithril knife and the Misty Ring from his right arm.

「7 gold coins, a knife made from superior mithril and a magic item with an item box function. I’ll give these to you.」

It became noisy when Rei held out the items for Vargas to see. Not only that, there were some onlookers who had knowledge on magic items to some extent, they started to explain the value of the goods such as the Misty Ring that Rei had displayed.

「Don’t joke!　You’re just a kid and you only registered with the guild today!　Don’t try to cheat us with fake things!」

Vargas said angrily. It wasn’t for no reason. Aside from the gold coins, there was the mithril knife and item box. If you bought them, it would be worth dozens of light gold coins, hundreds might be necessary. Mithril knife aside, item boxes were a very rare product.

Knowing this, Rei looked haughtily at the 4 people in front of him.

「Whether or not it is the real thing, feel free to judge if you beat me. Well, since I took out articles of this level, you guys have to put out something of equal value.」

「……」

The 4 people were silent after Rei’s words, this was natural. Afterall, Vargas was only a D rank adventurer. This was the first time he had seen a magic box, there was no way he had goods of equal value. However, even though he was made into a fool in front of the crowd, he could only glare at Rei with murderous eyes.

「What’s wrong? Display the goods you bet. ……That said, it’s probably impossible, as expected of Goblin Drool. Therefore, I’ll allow you to bet everything you have right now. You should have something if you came to celebrate the achievement of a request?」

Hearing Rei’s words, Vargas’s eyes became more murderous.

In fact, Rei had misunderstood. To Rei, he thought that the 4 people wouldn’t have taken their entire fortunes with them and would have left some savings at their inn. However, because of the possibility of it getting stolen, Vargas hadn’t left any money at their inn and had brought all of it with them. However, his judgement wasn’t that strange. As a frontier city, Gilm had good security. But, this didn’t mean there were no thieves.

「……All right.」

「Vargas!?」

Zorito and the remaining two men looked at Vargas with criticizing eyes when he nodded.

「You must prepare yourselves. We would make a fool of ourselves if we ran now, we would become laughingstock from tomorrow on!　We only have to win. If we win, then the mithril knife and the item box will be ours.」

Whether the Vargas’s words stimulated their greed, or maybe they understood that they couldn’t retreat from the situation, the 3 men stared daggers at Rei.

「 If you have decided. Then take out your entire fortune.」

At Rei’s words, the 4 men each took a bag of money from their chests and tossed to where the Misty Ring was.

Seeing that situation, Rei opened his mouth as a grin floated onto his face. As if to match the timing, a man walked out the guild door,

「Now then, we’ll leave the items here in this place while we fight, it’s no fun if someone steals them. ……Set!」

Though Vargas was suspicious about who Rei called out to, he understood at once. ……They were forcibly made to understand.

「Gurururururu~!」

While raising a cry, a Griffon over 2m in length that had been lying down instantly leaped up. As half the crowd started running away screaming. Set stood as if guarding the mithril knife and Misty Ring. Still, although half the crowd ran away, half stayed. The information that Rei was accompanied by a Griffon was whispered among the crowd. This was probably because the the necklace that Set wore was evidence that he was a tamed or summoned monster.

……Of course, the average person would normally be scared if they saw a Griffon in public.

「Hii, Hiii~!」

The person with the long sword, Zorito, fell backwards screaming. He wasn’t in a state were he could stand up.

Starting with Vargas, all the others that saw Set were stunned.