Chapter 158: The Battle Against Pride I
The name of the party in question is "Argancia".
It's an old word from the center continent that means "pride" and "arrogance".
They're an up-and-coming party with a young leader, and they're the next fastest party to become intermediate adventurers after us.
What's more, by a narrow margin of only two days
I've heard their name being brought up from time to time. However, I'm not interested in other parties<That and there's the time when the one party I had teamed up with got wiped out>, so I've never gotten involved with them, and even though they sometimes glare at me, I've always ignored them.
And that's the party that I'm going to meet together with Evetta-san.
The location was the country-run bar that I hadn't been to recently. They were seated in a corner.
「Excuse me, which of you is the leader?」
Come to think of it, I don't know the leader's name or gender.
Evetta-san probably knows, but it's forbidden for anyone working for the Adventurers' Guild to leak the personal information of the adventurers. It's a pretty strict prohibition.
I surveyed the party in front of me for a moment.
The first person to catch my eye was a young woman with short hair that was silver, which I strangely knew many people with. Her two machetes stood out, and she was outfitted lightly in the style of a reconnaissance or exploration adventurer. She was slender and had adorable features, but her expression resembled a Noh mask.
Maybe she’s just wary of me
Next was a beastkin with short animal ears. She had a thick, reptilian-looking tail. Her dark brown hair was also short and slicked back. She was dressed in the usual underwear-like garb of beastkin. Her face reminded me of the otters that I had seen recently.
Is there such a thing as an otter beastkin? From the fact that she carries a staff, I'd say she's probably a magician of some sort.
The most striking one was a huge person in full plate armor.
Encased entirely in that armor, it was impossible to tell this person's race or gender. Moreover, there didn't seem to be any weapons on their person.
The armor's gauntlets look strong, but are they enough to kill monsters, I wonder? It's quite a mystery.
Almost as a side note, there was a slim boy hidden behind the armored person.
He was probably around the same age as Shuna.
With armor, cloak, shield, and sword, he was dressed like a knight. He embodied the saying "the clothes make the man". His blonde hair was cropped short and he had a cocky look on his face.
He reminds me of the wielder of the magic sword that I had defeated in the past.
In summary, the party "Argancia" consisted of one silver-haired young woman in charge of scouting, one beastkin magician, one mysterious armored person, and one brat dressed like a knight.
「You! Aren't you from Seeker Brigade?! What the hell do you want from us?! Huhhh?!」
I ignored the brat who came at me……
「Sorry, who's the leader?」
……and repeated my question.
The silver-haired young woman pointed at the brat snapping at me.
「Ohh, it's you? The leader?」
「I'm the leader!」
He's so loud though.
「I'm here today to ask a small favor」
「What the heck do you want, asshole?」
I wanted to punch him in the face, but being an adult, I resisted the urge.
「Evetta-jou here says that your party wants to hire her, but I'd like to ask you to let us hire her first」
「Don't be ridiculous! We applied to hire her first!」
「No, that's not true」
Said Evetta-san.
「The applications were submitted at almost the same time. I believe both parties have equal claim to me」
「What?! You must have pulled some kind of dirty trick again, Seeker Brigade!」
By the way, Evetta-san is the one who had pulled the dirty trick, forging an application by imitating my handwriting and submitting it together with theirs.
Maybe it’s her prerogative as my person-in-charge, but I wonder why she had done that.
「Wait, young man. What do you mean by "again"?」
He was right, but I couldn't let that "again" pass.
「First, you've got two beautiful elven princesses in your party! I heard that you threatened another elf with your bow to get them to join you!」
「That's not what happened. Rana was tricked by that same elf, and I was only trying to save her. Threatening that elf with a bow was just payback」
「Then, what about the subjugation of the Dragon-Tortoise Midoranga?!」
He uttered a name that brought back memories. The materials from that tortoise were so pricey that they still hadn't been sold yet.
「That's a result of my party combining their strengths. Though it was eventually fixed, we sacrificed one of our most valuable weapons in that battle」
「No, I don't believe you!」
「Then……」
……it doesn't matter what I say, does it?
「Well, in that case……」
I don't know what case he’s talking about, but……
「……"Dragonshell Slasher" and "Dragon Scale" are also frauds, right?」
「Huh?」
……I got pissed off.
You can say whatever you want about me. But it's a different story when you speak badly of my party. It's partly because of my own emotional issues, but I'm not the kind of leader who can laugh it off when someone ridicules my party members.
What this guy just said is taboo among adventurers.
「I'm especially skeptical about "Dragon Scale". After all, he's from a family of criminals and was exiled from Elysium. What was the charge again? Umm, they fell for an elf's charms or something? Oh, right. Maybe you used the elves in your party to――――――」
I swept the brat's legs out from under him.
「Unhh!」
It resulted in him hitting the back of his head on the table as he fell over comically.
I reached for my katana, but Evetta-san stopped me.
「Souya, I know how you feel, but we came to talk」
「Can you not stop me? This guy just ridiculed Irvin, my wife, and my sister all at once. That's more than enough reason to cut him down」
We can talk to him after I've chopped off his limbs. In fact, for people like him, that'll make things go faster.
「You bastard!」
「Come and get what you deserve」
「If you're gonna fight, don't use your weapons! Do it bare-handed!」
It can't be helped
I'm not very good at fighting bare-handed, but I'll kick his ass. He's also raring to go anyway.
「Souya, we?came?to?talk」
「Owwowowow」
My right arm, which Evetta-san had grabbed, was in agony.
This is that thing where she's implying, "If you don't listen to me, I'll crush it", right?
「You've given me one hell of a greeting, party members and leader of "Argancia". I challenge you assholes to a match for Evetta-san. You don't have to accept if you're scared and want to run away from the city」
「Y, y, you bastard!」
The brat bellowed at me.
But instead of him, my gaze was directed behind him.
The barkeeper’s was as well. Rather than me, he had been eyeing the silver-haired young woman from the very beginning. She had drawn her machetes and was holding one in each hand. Moreover, she didn't seem inclined to sheath them even after being warned by the barkeeper.
This is the first time I've seen someone not obey Master in this bar.
Is she really that brave or is she just plain crazy??
「………Fine! I'll take that challenge! I'm going to beat you to a pulp! I'm going to expose you for the fraud you are, and make it impossible for you to go adventuring ever again!」
「Early tomorrow morning, meet me at the Adventurers' Guild. At that time, the Guild President will reveal the rules of the match」
Well, I got what I came for.
「Listen you! I'll expose you for the fraud you are!」
「You've said that once already. And tell your guardian behind you to sheath her weapons. Otherwise, Master will send her flying and you won't be able to compete properly」
Finally, the brat realized that the silver-haired young woman was all geared up for battle.
「Hey, Nanassy. Sheath your weapons!」
「Understood」
The silver-haired young woman he called Nanassy put away her machetes. Until the brat had given that order, she had been directing quite a serious killing intent at me.
I have to say though, Nanassy sure is a strange name.
After giving me a quick look, the barkeeper went back to his usual place behind the counter.
「Wait, hey!」
Thinking that there wasn’t anything more to say between us, I turned to leave, but the brat stopped me.
「How did you get Otou-san to join your party?」
「What?」
Why do I have to tell him that?
「I was turned down by him! Why you and not me?!」
So that's how it is.
………Then I guess I have no choice but to answer.
「I helped him defeat an enemy he had a vendetta against」
Not much is known publicly about Lola. She was an unknown enemy, and the number of casualties she had caused is on the low side. With so much information being kept secret, it's not strange for this guy to not know about it.
「I was taking a huge risk helping him. If things had gone badly, I would have lost not only my life, but my wife's as well. It's hardly surprising that Otou-san would feel indebted to me and join my party」
「That can't be it」
That's the truth though………this guy is such a pain in the ass.
「Oh, after that, I happened to come into possession of some valuable materials, so I made a sword with them and gave it to Otou-san」
「Th, that person! Is not the kind of person! Who can be tempted by possessions!」
「Adventurers are mercenary creatures to begin with. Even the father of adventurers is just an adventurer like any other. Don't glorify him in that creepy manner. He's plenty vulgar, that guy」
I mean, do I really think that Otou-san joined my party simply out of gratitude? No, I don't.
「If there is any other reason, I'd say he wanted to bet his own life on the challenge. It's a manly yet selfish reason」
「Y, you’re wrong」
「It's my party members we're talking about here. At the very least, I understand them better than other people do」
「………………」
He finally shut up.
Good grief, making sound arguments one after another is exhausting.
「There's more!」
「There's more?」
Now I'm starting to lose my patience.
「Tyu, Tyutyu's left the brothel!」
「Eh?」
I hadn't expected that name to come up.
「I had finally, finally gotten my hands on the gold coin with the chain, but of all things, she was no longer there! From what I heard, she quit her job to make the ramen that's all the rage, and you're apparently the one who invented it! It's all your faulttt!」
That resentment is totally unjustified, isn't it?
But I had no idea that Tyutyu had quit her job at the brothel……… Well, I would have been bothered had I known, I suppose.
「Listen up, Seeker Brigade. I had intended to beat you one day by gaining more fame than you through adventuring, but if you want to challenge me to a match, that's all the better. This representative hero of Elysium, Arcane-sama, will show you your place」
Hey, you've got to be kidding me.
What did you just say?
「Wait」
The young woman called Nanassy raised her hand.
「Don't get it wrong, it's "apprentice" representative hero. You mustn't get the title wrong」
「Th, this apprentice representative hero, Arcane, will crush you guys!」
Apprentice representative, I don't know what the heck that means anymore.
「Yeah yeah, see you tomorrow」
「Y, you!」
It felt silly to waste any more time with them, so I quickly left.
The otter beastkin was in a state of panic the entire time.
The huge armored person hadn't stirred in the slightest.
As for the silver-haired young woman, though she was suppressing it, a quiet killing intent still seeped out.
I'm not one to speak, but they're a strange party.
I had felt a strange presence from the armor, but I wonder what it is......I can't remember.
Turning my back on Arcane's laughable threats, I walked out of the bar with Evetta-san.
「Hmmm, the tit for tat ended up escalating into me challenging him to a match」
「And what's wrong with that?」
She cocked her head to the side, but……
「I thought it could have been settled with us hiring you in turns, Evetta-san」
「I went through all the trouble to arrange this because that wouldn't be enough to settle things though」
「Eh? What do you mean?」
「That apprentice representative hero, Arcane, is planning to follow in King Lemuria's footsteps and become the next king of adventurers by reaching greater heights of adventuring than the king did. As part of that, he wanted to hire me」
「Hmm………Huh?」
The next king of adventurers, huh?
It's not exactly an unusual goal. There are many adventurers who yearn to become the master of castle and country. Following in the king's footsteps isn't a rare pursuit by any means. In a sense, that's what I'm doing too.
「But then again, even if we hire you in turns, it shouldn’t particularly……」
There shouldn't be any problems with it.
Evetta-san then held her head in her hands with a blank expression on her face. Well, a very troubled-looking blank expression.
「I'm not very good at this kind of thing. I really don't want to say anything until the match is over………so can you please not ask any more about it?」
「Ehh」
This is the pattern where things will get really troublesome later on.
「I'm begging you」
「Well, then I won't ask, I suppose」
If a woman goes that far, I can’t possibly say no.
She's my important person-in-charge, and I do trust her, and she definitely won't do anything that could be detrimental to me………………well, other than when she has the wrong idea or something, I can say for sure that she won't.
「It'll all be fine. Don't worry. You will win. You're the first and last adventurer under my charge, so you should puff out your chest and be confident」
I can feel the confidence in those words, but they also left me concerned about something else.
But I was unable to voice my concerns to Evetta-san, who was looking more cheerful than usual.
I'll resolve my concerns and suspicions after that.
Did you catch it? The thing that Evetta-san said that worried Souya. If you didn’t, it gets explained 5, 6 chapters later at the start of the next arc…
But what a colorful cast of new characters! Another silver-haired person, which are supposed to be really rare. And someone involved with Elysium and the representative heroes… Remember, representative heroes are the representatives of the Popes, the hand that enforces their will. And I’m sure you remember that Varner was one.
But before anything else, there’s the match between Seeker Brigade and Argancia! Stay tuned!
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om