Hero
Hero
Even though we returned to the capital early in the morning, our party lasted until evening.
Seriously. I got put through enough drinking that saying I'd drunk myself into a complete wreck felt perfectly accurate.
Gaendal, drunk as he was, didn't know when to stop. Gin simply didn't get drunk. And Yekaterina was a born drinker. Even counting my previous life, I'd never seen anyone who could drink as well as her except Gin sitting right beside me.
"Gwaaeeek..."
Fortunately, unlike Gaendal puking over there, I hadn't thrown up. Still, the world was spinning so badly that I could barely control my arms and legs unless I consciously moved them as if I were operating them. When I stumbled, a sturdy arm caught me. I turned my head and found Yekaterina smiling brightly, her face flushed with drink.
"Haha! You fight like a man possessed, but you've got a cute side too, Eldmia! Stumbling already?"
"Rellie... hurry up and tell her I held my liquor damn well. This woman won't listen to reason."
Other than nearly falling for her because of how dependable she felt, I somehow managed to steady myself with Yekaterina's help. Rellie, who'd drunk the least of us, and Gin, who looked perfectly sober despite drinking the most, stood together laughing at our sorry state.
"Seriously... Kasha! You're drunk too! Snap out of it!"
"Huh? I'm pretty fine, actually?"
"Fine my ass!"
Rellie must've been drunk in her own way too, because she came over calling Yekaterina by some mysterious pet name and pulled her away from me. Yekaterina still hadn't let go of the hand supporting me, so we nearly toppled over together—and she and I burst out laughing.
Why was that funny? I don't know either. Yekaterina was laughing, so it was just funny to me too.
"Haa. Anyway. You all worked hard. We'll see each other again when the reward comes in, but that's no reason to put off saying it now."
Gaendal, who'd apparently sobered up considerably after one good puke, wiped his tears and spoke.
"Yeah. It was a truly satisfying quest. Everyone, if we get the chance, let's work together again."
"Hahaha!"
"Shut up! Stop laughing!"
In the end, it took a bit more time for us to disperse, but we were able to part laughing.
"Phew. Now I can finally breathe."
They were good enough people that, if I hadn't had other things to do, I'd have gone out of my way to get closer to them. Thanks to that, my steps toward the mansion felt lighter than they had in a long time.
"You're coming in looking awfully pleased with yourself."
But for some reason, the moment I passed through the garden, I had to turn into Cowering Eldmia.
It was unfair.
Hadn't I just come back after finishing work? So why was I kneeling in front of Sheryl the moment I got home, head bowed like a criminal while she bristled with hostility?
"I heard you returned to the guild early in the morning?"
"I... did?"
"Then why are you coming in now?"
It was exactly like being scolded for not coming straight home after getting off work. Even though I didn't have a single damn reason to be treated that way, I couldn't do anything about my shrinking voice.
"Well... the thing is... they were really great people as party members... partly for long-term networking..."
"And?"
"And it wasn't just us having after-party drinks... since the guild looked after us because we did quite a lot, saying we'd worked hard... it felt a bit awkward to just leave, I guess..."
"...Hmph."
After I'd hemmed and hawed my answer, her pickle-radish eyebrows, which had been cold beyond belief, seemed to soften slightly.
"You'll have to follow Ragnis to the capital in four days, so until then, get plenty of rest and take care of yourself."
She was clearly telling me to rest, but Noble Sheryl's tone was so overbearing that I felt like I was sitting on a bed of nails. Seriously, why did one kid need three different ways of speaking just to make my life difficult?
Anyway, Sheryl got up and went into the mansion as if delivering those words had been her sole purpose.
But how did she know I'd be coming back at this hour and happen to be waiting for me here?
"......"
Ah, a servant must've told her.
With the alcohol helping me ignore reality, I returned to my quarters, sorted out my clothes and equipment, lay down, and went to sleep. Even my laundry had been handled by magic at the bathhouse the guild provided, so I could sleep like a baby without worrying about washing anything.
◈
After that, time passed surprisingly uneventfully. It wasn't until today, the second day, that the guild summoned us all together, and even that was only to collect the one gold coin we were due as our standard pay.
"It's certain there's additional compensation... but it seems it'll take some time."
I wasn't particularly curious about why it was taking so long. An explosion on that scale had surely been observed somehow, so we all agreed that if we waited, compensation would come. Since we'd gathered for the first time in a few days anyway, we rented the training ground behind the guild, had a friendly spar, and then split up. Rellie was a mage, so naturally she just watched, but she looked like she was having plenty of fun.
"Well then, shall we go?"
"I'm counting on you."
Unlike the others who parted there, Gin was heading to the adventurer district with me.
I wanted to rely on his dwarven eye for quality while buying a new sword, so I asked for his help. Even though the subject came up out of nowhere in the middle of our spar, Gin readily agreed.
Yans's longsword was beyond saving no matter what I tried, so in the end I sold it for scrap.
"It wasn't a bad sword, but it was a bit lacking for someone who even uses aura. I'd recommend buying something better, even if it costs a bit more."
"That was the only properly made sword I've had in my life, so if I may ask... is there a difference?"
"That's impressive in its own way. Of course there's a difference. If there weren't, we'd all be frauds, wouldn't we? Heh heh."
Gin, laughing heartily, dragged me to the dwarf district, a place I'd never once visited before.
The district was fairly large, almost like a place where skilled dwarf craftsmen lived while training human apprentices. They worked not only on adventuring gear but even on precious metals, so it wasn't somewhere ordinary people could casually shop.
It felt something like a luxury shopping district. Looking around, almost everything on display looked expensive at a glance.
We passed the displays and reached the entrance to a smithy farther inside. A dwarf sat there munching on something like dried fruit while watching the apprentices work out front. The moment he saw us, his face lit up and he called out.
"Hey! Isn't that Gin? Long time no see! Has it been about 20 years?"
Leave it to a dwarf to talk about 20 years as if it were two weeks. Still, if Gin had come here this confidently, did that mean he already knew this man had been here for more than 20 years? I doubted every dwarf knew every other dwarf inside and out. Maybe Gin was more well-connected than I'd thought.
"Has it been that long already? Then I guess I haven't told you I became an adventurer either."
"What? Really? Since when?"
"It's only been a few months. I'm a blue-rank adventurer now."
Since it was the first I'd heard of it too, I was just as surprised as the dwarf master. Seriously, what kind of person had he been to talk about trying out being an adventurer as a hobby like that? I wondered if all dwarves were like that, but judging by the other guy's reaction, that didn't seem to be the case.
"Huh. I was wondering why you'd been so quiet lately, and now you've suddenly become an adventurer at your age?"
"It's let me see plenty of interesting things. Anyway, get this friend of mine a sword. It's hard to find anyone better than you at making swords for humans."
Gin gave my back a couple of heavy pats that nearly knocked me off balance. The dwarf craftsman gave me a sympathetic look, then laughed and introduced himself.
"Hm? Oh, he's your companion? Sorry about that. I was so glad to see an old friend that I forgot my manners. I'm Balkun Dmarli. Just call me Balkun."
"I'm Eldmia Ega. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Balkun."
The moment we shook hands, Balkun began studying me with obvious interest. Then he let out a hearty laugh and spoke to Gin.
"You've brought me a remarkably unusual friend. He still looks young—just how long has he been swinging a sword?"
I didn't know exactly what or how much he'd discerned, but Balkun and Gin, looking amused, just chuckled and stroked their beards without a word to each other.
What the hell? Let me in on the joke too.
"You really do have a knack for getting mixed up with people like this."
"I had a hunch, so I tried adventuring myself. Turns out I was right."
Leaving me utterly baffled, Balkun and Gin carried on a conversation only the two of them understood. Balkun thought for a moment, then headed into the smithy.
"I'm not questioning either of you, but what exactly were you two talking about?"
"It's not easy to be that strong at your age, is it? That friend's hobby is making sure promising warriors don't die because their weapons fail them. You just caught his interest."
"That's one ridiculously grandiose hobby."
"Heh heh. My thoughts exactly."
I couldn't bring myself to ask what the success rate of that hobby was, so I zoned out beside Gin while he lit his pipe. Before long, Balkun came back out with a longsword in one hand. Unlike the ornate pieces displayed outside, it had no decoration whatsoever. It was so plain that I almost wondered whether a place like this really made swords like it.
But isn't that about the same length as the one I used?
"Draw it. It should be similar to the weapon you were using."
"Oh, what in the world? How on earth did you know?"
"I've been at this for years. If I couldn't tell that much, I'd be an idiot, not a dwarf."
Unlike Balkun, who just chuckled, I couldn't help staring as if I'd witnessed actual magic. Was this what decades of experience looked like?
"If nothing else, it's sturdy. I'll take just one gold coin."
I pulled a gold coin from my pocket and handed it over without a moment's hesitation. Balkun, if anything, looked taken aback and asked,
"You don't even haggle?"
"I'm not such an ill-mannered bastard that I'd haggle over something a dwarf handed me personally."
"Hahaha! You really are an interesting fellow! I like you!"
Dwarves had an interesting custom. When selling goods to others, they absolutely never handed over items they hadn't made themselves. Even if they were just slightly unsatisfied with the quality, they didn't hand them over directly. They'd just put them on the display rack for the customer to take.
But I could buy a sword a dwarf had personally handed me for one gold coin? I'd bet anything that among the one-gold-coin weapons displayed outside, there wasn't a single one good enough for a dwarf to hand over personally.
It was so ridiculously cheap that the phrase 'acquaintance discount' couldn't even begin to cover it, so why would I hesitate? Anyway, the reason I saved money in the first place was to secure good gear and ensure my own safety.