Main Scenario 3
With monsters that should have stayed in the Tower appearing and leaving a trail of casualties, the city had erupted into chaos like a kicked hornet's nest. Plenty of people strutted around with their noses in the air just because this was the Adventurer's City — and now that monsters had actually drawn blood here, those lofty noses had been thoroughly smashed flat.
The Adventurer's City wasn't ruled by a single lord. The Tower's presence had woven together a tangle of competing interests: the various guilds, the Temple's bishop, the tax-collecting nobles, and more. It was a setup designed so that free-roaming adventurers wouldn't end up living like unfree serfs.
Anyway, amid that web of tangled interests, the higher-ups had started their usual blame game — jockeying for advantage under the banner of righteous cause — while the mages from the Magic Tower, eyes gleaming with manic curiosity as they investigated the Tower's anomaly, began tearing through every alley in the city.
And the person drawing the most attention of all was, of course, Han Sea.
"I say, I heard there's a female adventurer named Hanna staying at this inn."
A mage with an impressively pure-white beard ambled up to the inn, clad in a robe and pointed hat, leaning on a staff taller than he was. Even a country bumpkin would have dropped to their knees and called him Master Mage at a glance.
The sight was so absurd I nearly snorted out loud.
Because the mages of this world weren't mysterious, supernatural beings cloaked in arcane wonder — they were more like university professors who'd gone completely mad for research. The way they worked their apprentices was basically how grad students got worked over. Having seen the reality a few times on Advanced Adventurer commissions, that getup was basically a comedy alarm for me.
"What brings you here, sir?"
Even so, I couldn't just drop informal speech on a white-haired old man right out of the gate. Adventurers might live by the sword and act like ruffians, but image management was what brought in private commissions. And when the target was a mage — someone who could literally be called a meal ticket — that went double.
"I've got a few questions regarding this recent incident… Are you acquainted with her, by any chance?"
So I stood at the inn door and gave the old mage a once-over. His robe and hat were flashy and well-kept — he'd clearly spent some real money on them. On top of that, he was speaking politely to someone who looked young, rather than immediately talking down to me. For a mage, that put him solidly in the top one percent of human decency.
"Yes. I'm her adventuring partner. There are other mages inside already — would you mind speaking with them together?"
Decent mages who knew how to spend money got let inside. Then Grace would spot the obviously-a-mage guest and fetch Han Sea. The arrogant, self-important ones I filtered out at the entrance — only the refined types who looked like they might actually pay for something got through.
"How rude! I said I have questions!"
"We already have prior appointments."
Because of all the loud, arrogant mages, I was wearing full armor — the kind I didn't even put on when entering the Tower. This particular guy was carrying on like some noble young master, but when I slammed my shield into the ground hard enough to crush a man flat, he huffed and stomped back off toward the Magic Tower.
The inn had temporarily closed after the serving girls saw the adventurer who'd been gored by a Horned Wolf. That meant nobody complained when I blocked the entrance. If anything, the innkeeper — who'd been paid in gold coins despite shutting down for a bit — kept bowing his head in gratitude.
Grace poked her head out from behind me, apparently having heard the slam.
"Um… is it okay to treat mages like that?"
"As long as we're not making enemies of every mage, it's fine."
"Still…"
She looked every bit the refined city girl, but there was still something of the rural superstition from the slash-and-burn village she'd grown up in — she seemed a little uneasy. Still, her faith in me as an Advanced Adventurer outweighed any superstition about mages; when I smiled at her, she nodded.
"How's Hanna?"
"She's been talking with the mages for a while now, but honestly, I can't understand a single word of it."
Well, most of the mages I'd let in were elderly. There'd been a few cranky old coots mixed in, but by and large they were old, refined, skilled, and wealthy. Standing in a room full of them when you weren't a mage yourself would be pretty intimidating.
She'd been watching me with just her head poked out, then slipped outside to stand beside me. Her lips were moving slightly — she clearly had something she wanted to say.
"Um… we haven't been a party for that long, but… isn't calling you 'Lord Roland' a bit too formal?"
So that's what this was about. After getting thoroughly worked over that one night, the bold girl who'd thrown herself at me had vanished, leaving only a shy young lady behind. Her transparency ran in a completely different direction from Han Sea's — I gave a slight nod.
"You're right. We're party members — that kind of distance feels a bit much."
"Right?"
She lit up with a bright smile at my positive answer. Honestly, I had no desire to hear formal titles from a woman I'd spent a steamy night with. And if we were going to climb all the way to the top of the Tower in Han Sea's party, that went double.
Grace sidled one step closer, smiling bashfully as she changed the subject. She'd gotten what she wanted, so she wasn't planning to push the whole way forward in one go. Fair enough — last time she'd charged in boldly and gotten handled roughly all night long.
"By the way, monsters from the Tower showing up in the city… what on earth is going on?"
"Well… the Tower's always been like that, hasn't it? Even with the entire Magic Tower's mages swarming over it, they've never really figured the place out."
"When you put it that way, it really hits home. An unknown space that thousands of mages still can't unravel…"
The towering structure was visible even from the entrance of this no-name inn. Grace's profile as she gazed up at the Tower — stretching endlessly into the sky as if it had no concept of height — was striking. I looked up with her in silence for a moment, wondering what she was thinking, when I felt a presence behind us.
The inn door opened, and the refined, wealthy mages I'd let inside began filing out slowly. Looks like my people-filtering had worked — no raised voices, no annoying squabbles.
"That was a truly productive conversation, Miss Hanna."
"If you ever decide to leave the adventuring life behind, please come find us at the Magic Tower anytime."
Some of the mages had taken such a liking to Han Sea that they were politely trying to recruit her. Not that a girl who needed to climb the Tower would ever hole up in the Magic Tower.
Once the mages had all filed out, the inn fell quiet. The gold-paid innkeeper had cheerfully given the serving girls the day off, leaving us alone in the silent building. Grace skipped cheerfully inside and latched onto Han Sea's side.
"Hanna, what were you talking about for so long? I was right there and I still couldn't understand a word."
"We talked about the symbol from the back alley, the silver Horned Wolf we ran into, that kind of stuff. Honestly, I didn't really understand most of it either."
While the two of them chattered away, a knock echoed through the room. I opened the door in place of the two girls lost in gossip, and found a cascade of golden blonde hair. This time the visitor wasn't for Han Sea — it was for me.
"What's up, Alice?"
"Ugh, what else would I be here for in a situation like this?"
"That's a little harsh. Is that any way to talk to the hero of the city?"
"I'm talking to a destroyer of public property, not a city hero, so I think it's fine."
Alice fluttered a sheaf of papers at me from inside her coat. If Han Sea had drawn a crowd of visitors as a mage who'd sensed the Tower's anomaly, I'd drawn my own crowd for entirely different reasons. I'd said it as a joke, but I really had become both the city's hero and its destroyer of public property.
The problem was that I'd bolted mid-testimony after hearing some Novice Adventurer's nonsense. Apparently I'd shoved the door open harder than I thought — the door panel had cracked, and a footprint-shaped crater had formed near the entrance.
On top of that, there was the wooden inn roof I'd smashed through, the footprint I'd left in a merchant company's stone roof, and the novice alchemist's wall and shop back wall that I'd punched clean through. My savings — set aside for building a house stuffed with magic tools — were fat enough that I could cover the damages without issue, but apparently so many buildings had gotten stomped and jumped on that people kept showing up at the guild.
"So, what's the guild planning to do?"
"Not much for the guild to do this time. Looks like the city guards will be monitoring the alleys. Once the Magic Tower's mages figure something out, we'll move then. Oh, and the Magic Tower has requested that anyone who finds anomalies inside the Tower — even minor ones — report them."
"So it's just one more exploration request on the board."
"Pretty much. Uncovering this kind of thing is mostly the mages' job anyway."
Even her bright smiling eyes couldn't hide the exhaustion behind them. Alice ranked high enough that she had plenty of responsibilities to match — she was clearly putting in some hard work. And since she'd been the one treating the injured Novice Adventurers and hearing their stories, she probably had a mountain of reports to write.
She pressed the damage claim forms that had flooded into the guild into my arms, then turned and disappeared.
…Ah, shit. I really did smash a lot of stuff.
Still, money calls to money — you have to pay what you owe. If you start thinking spending money on things like this is a waste, you'll never make it as an adventurer.