I'm Trash
Karante's axe had shattered, and he still hadn't gathered his wits.
"Huh…?"
I had no intention of letting it end there.
THWACK!
A right body blow with everything I had.
"Guh!!"
Then I cranked his jaw around with my left.
CRACK!
Karante went over onto his back. I was about to drop into mount when—
"H-I surrender."
What?
He surrenders?
After that little?
I stopped moving and looked down at him.
"Didn't you say this was a fight to the death?"
"I did. But I never expected you to be this strong. This is my complete defeat."
At Karante's words, the staff member serving as referee shouted:
"The winner is Participant Choi Minwoo!"
The staff member's declaration. The crowd's murmuring. Coldly speaking, it wasn't a bad outcome. I'd already burned a barrier earlier, and that bastard's weapon had been way tougher than I'd expected, so I'd dumped a lot of mana into it. The truth was I couldn't have kept the fight going much longer.
I didn't feel even a little bit happy about it, though.
"We Dragonkin respect those stronger than ourselves. The reason you don't fear the witch is surely because you are strong."
"This isn't about the witch. Karante. You scrape a man raw like that and then one word of surrender and we're done?"
Sure, this asshole had treated Rin like garbage too. There was a lot I still didn't know about her situation, so I could sort that out later.
But me? Do you have any idea how hard I worked to build this body? Calling me lanky. Calling it vanity muscle. You slap a man with slander that ridiculous and then you just try to walk it off?
"I see. It was something precious to you. I was in the wrong."
"Yeah. Do you have any idea how hard I worked? I had no talent. There were plenty of times I wanted to quit. But I never let go. Not once. And you spat on all of that."
"I-it meant that much? Then I will apologize properly. Regardless of the duel, this was something I should have apologized for from the start. I truly did not know. It is all my fault."
Karante surged to his feet. Then he turned his back and started walking off somewhere.
Where the hell is this bastard going…?
The person who should be getting that apology is standing right here. Where does he think he's going? Don't tell me he's going to call that good enough and just dip?
He said he'd apologize. That's it? That's the whole apology?
That was what I was thinking when Karante's stride halted dead in his tracks. He bent at a perfect ninety degrees and bellowed:
Hey. You insane bastard. What the hell are you talking about!!!!!!!!!!!
"Uh, um… w-what are you doing! That's not it! It's not like that! And I'm fine, really~!"
"I was told this man poured tremendous effort into winning your heart. As a fellow man, insulting another man's beloved was a deeply shameful act."
"Whaaaaaat?!"
No. No. That's not it. Karante, you crazy bastard!! Please shut that mouth of yours!!!!!
"And a love that deep makes it perfectly understandable that he would not fear some paltry curse. My sincere congratulations. And I hope that going forward you bear a healthy chiiii—"
Karante never finished the sentence. Aria, pissed beyond all reason, had hurled a bolt of lightning magic and electrocuted him on the spot.
Karante hit the floor, body convulsing, twitching. Aria glared at me with her hair standing on end in every direction. Rin, her face beet-red, just rolled her eyes around like she didn't know where to look.
What a shitshow.
But we'd already gone way too far to start correcting the record now.
And then—
And just like that, I had become a piece of human garbage. A scumbag womanizer.
Once the duel was over, we started heading back to the Base Camp. The receptionist had told us that if you kick off a duel, you can't take any more missions that day.
Then maybe lead with that…
I'd won the duel and gained absolutely nothing. A miracle victory with a prize of zero. And the situation right now was—
"Oppa, even so, a public confession in a place like that is a little…"
"Master, that isn't really true, is it?"
I was going to lose my mind.
I'd explained the whole thing to both of them the second the duel ended, but neither of them looked like they believed me.
"Oppa, do you like me~?"
Rin hooked her arm through mine and pressed in close. Did I like her…?
The soft give of her chest was printed against my arm, vivid and unmistakable.
I did…
I liked it a lot…
No. That was not the point.
"I already explained. It's not like that."
Rin went quiet for a moment, thinking, then opened her mouth again.
"Oppa."
"Yeah?"
"Aren't you going to ask?"
"Ask what?"
"You know what."
Honestly, I was fucking curious. Why a Japanese girl like Rin got treated as a witch. What the hell this "curse" even was.
But when people used to ask about me being an orphan my whole life — about the ugly memories that came with it — it never felt good. I never particularly wanted to talk about it either.
So waiting until she felt like telling me herself seemed like the right call. At least, that's how I saw it.
"Tell me later, when you feel like talking about it."
"You're okay with that?"
"Yeah. But this curse isn't the kind where you plant an arrow in my back, right?"
"Who knooows~?"
It's not, right?
It's not… right?
"Oppa!"
"What now?"
"I'm not grateful."
"Huh?"
"I'm not grateful at all! Who asked you to do that? I told you not to! I… I…"
Rin's bright little smile started to darken. And for some reason, I didn't want to come face-to-face with that darker side of her.
"Rin."
"What…?"
"Want to take a shower before we go?"
"W-what? Why would you say that all of a sudden?"
"We've got shampoo at our Base Camp. Body wash too."
"……"
"We've even got cleansing foam…"
"…Are you going to peek?"
"Would that be okay…?"
"Huuuh?"
"Of course not, Master!!!!!"
We kept that kind of conversation going until we made it back to the Base Camp. After her shower, Rin threw a fit insisting she was sleeping there too. I shot the breeze for a while with Aria, Kiki, and Rin, and spent a night at the Base Camp for the first time.
Needless to say, the sleeping arrangements were uncomfortable as hell.
The next day.
We headed out to the Gathering Hall and, at Rin's suggestion, stopped by the blacksmith to look over the weapons. I bought the two cheapest swords they had. Even the lowest-priced pieces felt like a massive step up from the standard-issue junk we'd been using.
"Bind."
The problem was the price: 1,000 Points a piece, 2,000 Points gone in a single swing. I'd effectively blown every last Point we'd earned from the last D-Rank mission.
Well… let's just call it an investment. Not like I had a choice.
Kiki bought a tower shield for 1,500 Points. He also had the look of someone who badly wanted a 1,000-Point spear on top of that, so Aria covered it for him — the kid was short on Points. She was a mage, so she didn't particularly need a new weapon. And since I was the one bringing in meals and clothes anyway, she didn't have much to spend Points on in the first place.
Anyway, we finished our weapon shopping without any trouble and headed back to the Quest Office. Fortunately — whether because of yesterday or not — no more Participants tried to pick a fight with Rin.
And we took the mission we'd originally been planning to take.
Target:Karvan, boss of the Red Chain
Reward:4,500 Points
Minimum Personnel:4
"Your request has been registered. I will now begin the briefing."
Karvan, boss of the Red Chain.
The bastard had originally been a Participant, same as us. He'd mostly run D-Rank missions and sat in the lower ranks even among Participants. Then at some point, he deserted in the middle of a mission. Apparently he'd taken a liking to the region he'd been sent to, because he nested there and started living in it for good.
And the reason he'd been able to pull that off:
"This Participant's skill is Deception."
Deception.
A skill that fools the other party and keeps them from seeing the truth. He'd used it to deceive even the system itself and slipped away into the port city of Luan.
Once there, he'd founded an organization called the Red Chain and gone into the slave trade. Even without being a combat skill, Deception's effect itself was powerful, and between his natural talent for the work, the cruelty he brought to dealing with slaves, and Deception on top of it, he'd piled up a serious fortune. Then Karvan used that money to hire a lot of strong people, burrowed in deep behind them, and became an absolute nightmare to deal with.
"Hold on. You just said there are a lot of strong people there. So why is this only D-Rank?"
"Because the mission is not to wipe out the Red Chain. You only need to assassinate Karvan."
"Then why did the parties that already tried this fail?"
"They were killed by other members of the organization."
"……"
Is this a joke?
The last D-Rank mission had nearly gotten us killed meeting Isra. And even then, extra rewards or whatever — we'd gotten jack shit.
"Yeah, I'm not taking this."
"A mission you have already registered must be completed."
Fuck!
It was a bait quest. A death lure designed to drag whoever bit on it straight into a killing field. And we'd chomped down on it like idiots.
"That said, we are aware the difficulty exceeds what the rank would suggest."
"And does you being 'aware' change anything?"
"There is currently another investigation party on standby in Luan. They will be providing you with support."
"Support meaning what, exactly?"
"They will work out a way for you to infiltrate, and provide various other conveniences."
"That's it? They're not helping with the fighting?"
"The investigation party currently deployed is not a combat-oriented party, so combat support will be difficult."
We're fucked.
"And if you go to the location written here, you will be able to make contact with the investigation party."
The receptionist held out a slip of paper.
Shag Inn, Room 301
Knock six times upon arrival
Okay, the inn's name is doing a lot of heavy lifting…