Adaptation Period 4
Adventurers live off their reputation.
That was why, back during the Horned Wolf incident, I had paid for the building repairs without a word of complaint, and why I treated the middle-aged men who claimed to be my fans so warmly while freely handing out secondary weapons worth a gold coin or two. In the adventurer trade, word of mouth turned into money.
"I am Valbes! Valbes of the Blood Axe!"
"Valbes? Ever heard that name?"
"Hmm… none of the names floating around the Tower lately sound like that."
A thick-bearded man had planted himself at Han Se-ah's table without so much as asking permission and was now shouting with veins bulging in his neck. The surrounding adventurers, however, casually closed ranks as if the whole affair had nothing to do with them.
In the Adventurer's City, what counted was not some mercenary's fame from outside, but how high you had climbed the Tower. Boasting about golden calves in your family vault or your past achievements got the same treatment as a game community's single dismissive line: So what rank are you, bro?
So, buddy—how many floors have you cleared?
"Listen. I don't care how famous you were outside the city. What matters here is how much you've contributed as an adventurer."
"You bastards dare…"
Stories about beheading a hundred men or wiping out bandits mattered far less than stories of what you had done as an adventurer—and the ones who made those stories valuable were the citizens of this city.
They valued the adventurer who had stood guard in front of an inn during the Horned Wolf attack more highly than a mercenary who had taken a hundred heads. They prized Mana Stones brought back from the Tower more than any bandit-suppression medal. Because the city had grown up around the Tower itself, everyone from commoners to nobles was genuinely invested in adventuring tales.
A chilled sangria and a massive steak landed on our table without anyone paying the slightest attention to the uproar. Grace could not tear her eyes away from Han Se-ah, clearly worried, so I simply downed the cool wine and settled in to watch the farce unfold.
"Valbes of the Blood Axe, is it? So are you going to pick a fight or not?"
"What…?"
And of course, tales of adventurers thrashing thugs were a classic part of any good adventuring story.
"If you're going to fight, please take it outside…"
"Oh my, Big Brother Alex? Win and come back and I'll give you some extra special service~"
Dozens of patrons fingered their weapons and glared. Behind them, the inn's waitresses shot their mercenary boyfriends looks that clearly said buy me jewelry, egging the adventurers on. In a way, those mercenaries were no different from monsters.
Whether you defended a shop against a Horned Wolf raid or protected an inn from rowdy outsiders (mercenaries), both made for excellent word of mouth.
Hearing your name on the lips of chatty waitresses, of shopkeepers who dealt with the innkeeper, of fellow adventurers who loved to talk over drinks—those small things still built an adventurer's reputation.
"Y-you crazy bastards…?!"
"Mercenaries these days only fight with their mouths?"
An adventurer snatched up a buckler and stepped forward with a swagger. The others clicked their tongues in disappointment at having lost the chance to take the lead and simply watched. In a city packed with adventurers, troublemakers were rare, so missing the chance to be the hero of the story stung.
Han Se-ah herself was rolling her eyes in panic, while Grace sat with her mouth hanging open, clearly unable to make sense of the city's everyday logic.
"Food's getting cold. Looks like it'll wrap up soon—let's eat."
"Uh, Roland? Isn't this a little weird? I mean, I know Hanna's pretty, but…"
Even so, every single person who had been drinking jumping up to help was strange, and the staff giggling and egging them on was stranger still. The reaction so blatantly defied common sense that both the rampaging mercenary and the watching Grace were left flustered.
These were people whose notions and common sense as city citizens were completely different from the serfs of other territories; adventurers burning with the desire to snatch even the tiniest scrap of fame; and on top of that, a faint sense of camaraderie among fellow adventurers.
It was the kind of peculiar city routine that made the old saying "if you don't know, you get hit" spring to mind.
"They're adventurers. That's why."
"Because they're adventurers?"
Once Grace confirmed Han Se-ah was safe, she finally sat properly at the table and looked at me. The once-steaming, mouthwatering steak had gone lukewarm, but we had gotten a good show out of it, so it hardly mattered.
Grace did not seem to mind either; she sliced the meat into small pieces and chewed with her dainty mouth while listening to my explanation.
"Our party doesn't bother with them, but the private requests adventurers take are more varied than you'd think. Honestly, the line between mercenary and adventurer barely means anything. The Adventurers' Guild only handles Tower- and Mana Stone-related jobs, but private requests are different."
"So that's why they fight…?"
"Being the first adventurer to step up when citizens are in trouble—just that image alone is enough to snag small advantages. From delivering mail to a nearby village to fetching some random item, even the slightest bit of trust means people would rather leave the job with you than with a complete stranger."
I cut another piece of the still-tasty steak and glanced toward Han Se-ah. While I had been talking, the mercenary who could not swallow his pride and the adventurer eager to spread his name had apparently gone outside for a duel.
Perhaps because she was the cause of the duel, or simply because she had been swept up in the crowd, Han Se-ah's back disappeared out the door as well. We had come for a date and ended up watching a bunch of guys duel instead.
Before I knew it, our date had turned into Han Se-ah's chaotic Adventurer's City experience tour. Even while chewing steak and rinsing it down with sangria, Grace kept glancing behind her, so I spoke up.
"If it's still bothering you, want to go watch?"
"Huh? Oh—"
"We can always date later. Checking on our party leader shouldn't be a problem."
And it would give me better material to tease her with. Han Se-ah probably thought she was playing matchmaker, but her efforts were hopelessly clumsy. If I seized this chance, I could rib her all day.
Joining Han Se-ah effectively meant the date was over, yet Grace nodded readily. She seemed to have a mild overprotective streak when it came to the genius mage Hanna.
We cheerfully paid for the half-eaten steak and the barely touched drinks and followed the tail of the crowd out of the inn. The people who had left first were still weaving drunkenly, so catching up was easy.
"Those look like them, right?"
"This is the only open lot around here. Ah—there's Hanna too."
Sharp-eyed Grace spotted Han Se-ah tangled in the crowd in an instant. Of course, it took me less than a minute as well. That streaming-obsessed girl had hurriedly switched on her camera in the middle of all this.
A quick glance at the internet window showed she had not started a full stream; a translucent camera drone hovered just above her head, probably so she could clip a short video later. Fair enough—an adventurer and a mercenary picking a fight at an inn and settling it with a duel made for perfect storytelling material for her viewers.
"Hey! Blood Axe, was it? Lose and from today on you're a razor blade, you hear me?!"
"Alex! Miss Pila's waiting back at the inn! Finish him quick!"
An adventurer gripping a small buckler and a one-handed sword faced off against a mercenary holding a massive double-bladed axe. Drunken adventurers surrounded them like the ropes of an arena, roaring at the top of their lungs. Because it was an empty lot with no civilians around, the guards merely glanced over and lost interest.
And right in the middle of that scene, Han Se-ah stood out like a sore thumb.
If Alex the adventurer and Valbes the mercenary were the fighters in the ring and the spectators formed the ring itself, then Han Se-ah was standing in the awkward space between them like a referee.
"The beautiful mage lady is watching! Fight hard! Just don't kill each other!"
"It's a notarized duel! Act like men, damn it!"
I had thought she only looked like a referee—turns out she actually was one. Being shoved into the role's seat as the duel’s notary was funny enough; keeping the camera rolling the whole time was even funnier. If people truly had callings, Han Se-ah's were streamer and clown.
Standing in the eye of that storm with a huge grin because she had found content—who could possibly deny it?
"Huh. Is she actually enjoying this more than I thought?"
"Seems like it. Guess we didn't need to worry."
Even Grace, who had been fretting under the influence of rose-tinted glasses, lightened up enough to casually link her arm through mine. Savoring the soft, yielding warmth against my forearm, I settled in to watch the duel.
The mercenary swung his huge double-bladed axe in wild, excited arcs, while the adventurer—despite being drunk—calmly measured the distance and leisurely dodged every edge.
For someone who had dragged half the inn's customers outside, the fight was surprisingly one-sided. Unless that hairy mercenary had a hidden trump card, he was going to keep swinging until his stamina gave out and then get subdued. The skill gap was so wide that the crowd's jeers grew louder by the second.
"Not much fun to watch. Should I go grab Hanna?"
"Grab Hanna…? Well, I don't mind either way."
A one-sided match, spectators whose excitement was cooling, a circle of people, and right in the center a beauty… who also happened to be our party leader. I sprang lightly into the air and dropped into the middle of the crowd.
I made no attempt to soften the landing. With a heavy thud and a cloud of dust, every eye snapped toward me.
"Hey. Don't you think you're making a bit too much noise this late at night?"
"And who the hell are you?!"
It was the perfect setup for snatching someone else's meal right off the table.
Sorry, Alex. If you come looking for me as a fan later, I'll give you a nice shield.