Chapter 64
Chapter 64
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: Why Not Bikini Armor?
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Six days had passed since we accepted the raid request.
We headed to the port city, the location of the request, a day early.
We needed to assess the situation, get a briefing, and make our own preparations.
And so, we arrived at the port city.
It was hard to compare it to the count's domain we'd visited before, since that was a resort town, but if it was just about seeing the ocean, this place might be better.
The city itself was bustling with people, likely due to its role as a trading hub, but the problem was that every face was shadowed and gloomy.
"Wow, look at their faces. You'd think the whole city was a funeral parlor."
"Well, from their perspective, they've all suddenly lost their jobs."
The fishermen and sailors, jobless overnight because of the monster disaster.
It was like seeing the small business owners from my past life who had no choice but to close up shop because of the pandemic.
"Our preparation period was a week, so have these people actually been out of work for longer?"
"Probably, right?"
Wow...
Just how much of their wages did they lose?
In my past life, the minimum wage was 9,160 won, and assuming an eight-hour day, five days a week...
*'Hmm...'*
Get the gears turning!
I attempted the mental math.
I failed.
I have no idea. They probably lost a lot, I guess.
"Oh. But wasn't there someone who went out fishing alone in a rowboat?"
I think it was right after we entered the city.
When we stopped at a restaurant for a late lunch, that story was making the rounds among the people there.
They said someone, claiming he was short on living expenses, took a rowboat out to fish by himself.
I was too busy eating to hear the rest. What did they say happened to him?
"I heard he hasn't returned yet."
"He's dead."
What else could it be if someone goes out to sea in a rowboat and doesn't come back for days?
He's dead.
He's not going to be living in the middle of the ocean, building a bonfire on his boat and eating fish, is he?
As you can see, the city's situation wasn't the absolute worst, but it was rock bottom.
Everywhere you looked, the unemployed were sighing heavily, and some were drinking from the early morning.
"Let's get to the port before we catch this negativity."
""Okay.""
Staying here any longer felt like we might catch some kind of bad luck, so we quickly moved on.
Our destination was the port where the raid was being prepared, just as we'd been instructed.
At the port, ships unable to set sail were lined up everywhere.
As expected of cargo ships, they were all massive and majestic.
If there was one place in this city that was loud and crowded, it had to be the port.
The reason was that a large number of people were busy preparing for the raid around a huge ship.
The ship was likely the one we'd be taking for the raid, and it seemed they were currently loading hunting-related supplies.
"Oh! What's that!"
Suddenly, my eyes caught sight of a wooden barrel on a cart being pulled by a worker.
A fuse stuck out from the top center of the barrel, like an idiot's cowlick.
It was a bomb—the very thing I'd been searching for ever since I was reincarnated.
With just one of those, I wouldn't have to make a mess shaking flour sacks around to create a dust explosion.
*'I'll have to grab a few of those later.'*
The corners of my mouth curled into a grin at the thought that coming here was a good idea.
"We leave tomorrow, so load all the shells onto the ship! Hey, you! Can't you carry those shells more carefully? If one of those goes off here, we'll all be dead before we even set sail, you bastard!"
It was then.
A booming voice from somewhere drew my gaze away from the bomb.
A woman, about Luna's height, was standing on a crate as if it were a podium, directing the work.
Everyone else was working, but she was just standing there yelling. She must be the A-rank adventurer who was the commander here.
She had long, orange hair that reached her waist, but it was spiky and untamed like a lion's mane, giving her a wild look.
No, now that I looked closer, she had ears and a tail. She was a beastkin.
*'This seems to be the first time I've seen a beastkin other than Luna.'*
I knew there were other beastkin adventurers, but this was my first time seeing one.
All beastkin have superior physical abilities, so they're all high-rank and were probably off somewhere far away.
Her weapon was a long sword that didn't quite match her appearance. A claymore, perhaps.
Her armor seemed designed to emphasize her abs, with the midsection completely exposed.
*'If she's going to expose that much, why not just wear bikini armor? Why bother with armor at all?'*
Strength is proportional to the amount of skin shown. She must not be S-rank because she's so covered up.
And I was secretly disappointed that I still hadn't seen any bikini armor.
As we approached the woman on the crate, her ears twitched once, and she noticed us.
"Hmm? Who are you?"
"Why aren't you wearing bikini armor?"
"...What?"
***
I almost... blew our first impression, but Luna stopped me.
But how could I not ask when an A-rank adventurer wasn't wearing bikini armor?
Just as I was thinking that.
"Luke..."
Tch. This is why I hate perceptive people.
She mistook me for a pervert and drew her sword, but sheathed it again after seeing Luna.
She seemed happy to meet another beastkin after a long time and immediately shook her hand.
Thanks to that, I was able to have a conversation with the woman who had put away her sword.
"So. You're the backup that old man sent, is that it?"
"Yep."
"What's your rank?"
"Provisionally B-rank."
Her eyes narrowed.
"That just sounds like you're C-rank right now."
"That's because we are C-rank."
Her eyes narrowed even further.
What's the problem? I didn't lie.
It's a fact that we're provisionally B-rank and currently C-rank, right?
"Which branch sent you?"
I took out the letter I'd gotten from Argo and showed it to her.
After unfolding and reading the letter, she blinked several times, turned it over, looked at it sideways, and even squinted.
"The old man sent this...?"
By 'old man,' she probably meant Argo.
He was the one who wrote us the letter, after all.
"'C-ranks who are like B-ranks'? Is this old man kidding me...!"
Well, we are C-ranks who are like B-ranks.
We'll actually be B-rank after this request is over.
"Hah... Still, if the old man went this far, you must be skilled enough."
As far as I know, Argo is also an A-rank adventurer. Seeing her attitude change just from one letter, there must be different levels even among A-ranks.
Then again, other C-ranks aren't nearly as strong as me. You'd have to be that strong to be a Guild Master.
Ahem. Clearing her throat, she carefully rolled up the letter and spoke.
"I'm Hazel, the commander for this raid. Good to have you."
"Watashi no namae wa Luke desu."
"...What did you say?"
"...My apologies. I'll introduce him for you."
Luna cut in.
Hey, why? I introduced myself perfectly fine.
"This is Luke, I'm Luna, and this is Yui."
"Uh... um... right. Your party leader's a bit of an odd one."
"First time I'm hearing that."
"Luke, please..."
***
After introducing ourselves to Hazel, the on-site commander, she told us to help load supplies onto the ship, but we said we had our own preparations to make and parted ways.
*'We need to get ready for the hunt, too.'*
The things on the ship were just the basics. Just in case, we went searching for a restaurant to gather various tools useful for hunting.
To be precise, we weren't looking for a place that served food, but a tavern that specialized in alcohol.
"I understand we need tools for the hunt... but why a tavern instead of a blacksmith?"
"Luna, you have to discard the stereotype that hunting tools only come from a blacksmith!"
This girl! After being by my side for so long, she still hasn't escaped the clutches of stereotypes!?
A hunt doesn't have to be done with normal tools and normal methods, Luna.
As long as you kill it somehow, it's a hunt.
Whether by explosion or whatever else.
"Yui. I have a question. Do monsters get drunk?"
"I wonder...?"
"Vampires are technically monsters, too. What about you, Yui?"
"I do get drunk, but vampires are relatively close to humans, so maybe that's why?"
That's what I'm curious about.
"Do you guys remember when I was suffering from that massive hangover?"
"It was a complete mess, of course we remember. We had to carry you after you collapsed, and you even threw up at the Adventurer's Guild the next day."
"Just file that away as a fond memory."
"That's not what people call a fond memory..."
When you get old, even stuff like that becomes a fun memory.
"Anyway, I'm not certain about this. I just came to buy some on the off chance it might work."
Honestly, instead of going to a blacksmith, paying a fortune for metal equipment, and then throwing it away after a few uses, isn't it better to use cheap stuff like this?
No matter how much money we have, we can't just buy out a blacksmith's entire stock by the sackful.
The cost-benefit just wouldn't add up, you know?
So, we headed to a tavern.
I'd noticed it on the way here, but the unemployed were all sprawled out, drinking in broad daylight.
I wonder if this is how my mom felt looking at me in my past life.
Though I wasn't exactly a drunkard back then.
*'They look so pathetic.'*
We looked for the tavern's owner.
The owner was an ordinary-looking woman with a massive chest.
The reason this tavern was especially crowded was probably 90% because of her.
*'I wonder if she ever gets assaulted when a real piece of trash shows up.'*
"Excuse me. How much alcohol do you have here?"
"Huh...? A lot...?"
"I'll take it all."
"Uh... you do have the money, right?"
"Mochiron."
I took out a gold coin and placed it on the counter.
The woman's eyes widened like saucers.
The booze these unemployed guys drink from morning till night can't be that expensive.
That one gold coin is more than enough to buy all the alcohol here.
"Hey... I don't know how much you can drink, but aren't you being a little greedy? What are we supposed to drink?"
One of the guys who had been watching me from an empty table shot to his feet and approached me.
Seeing me in my academy uniform pull out a gold coin, you'd think he'd at least mistake me for some young noble master.
But he must be too drunk to see straight.
"Proud of yourself for drinking in broad daylight, you bastard!!"
-Thwack!
"Keuk!"
He was pissing me off, so I just punched him in the head.
It made a nice, clean sound, as if his skull was empty.
At that, the other men, who had nothing better to do, started clapping and laughing as if they'd just seen a great show.
"Puhahahaha!!"
"Look at that idiot getting his ass kicked by a kid half his age!!"
"Tsk, tsk, look at those pathetic bastards laughing. As if they're any different."
"What?"
The men's expressions hardened.
There was a brief commotion after that, but it's not even worth describing.
Sailors might be strong, but they're still just regular people.
How could they possibly be a match for me, someone who slays monsters?
Since they started it, I beat the rest of them up and gave them some free plastic surgery, then kept one conscious to experiment on.
"Owner! A mug of ale over here!"
I called, but the owner was nowhere to be seen. I found her hiding under the counter.
"What are you doing?"
"Ah... I-I don't know anything..."
Why is she so scared?
Does she run a tavern and has never seen anything like this before?
"Whatever, just give me the drink."
"Y-yes...!"
The owner quickly drew some ale from a nearby oak barrel and placed it on the counter.
"Here, here. Try it, try it. Today we're testing the limits of your alcohol tolerance!"
"Mmph, mmph!!"
I offered him the cup, but he refused the very thing he'd been happily chugging just moments ago.
"Hey, you jobless bastard. It's free booze, your favorite. Why aren't you drinking?"
What, it's not like I poisoned it. He's not some picky brat. He should just drink it quietly, but he has to be difficult.
"Hoo... This isn't working."
It's disgusting to do this to a guy, so I try to avoid it.
"Gut punch, you bastard!"
"Kuock!"
I landed a Falcon Punch to the man's stomach, and his eyes rolled back as his face went blank.
"Ugh. That expression is exactly why I didn't want to do it."
I quickly covered his face with the cup and poured the alcohol down his throat.
The ale shot straight down his esophagus.
After repeating that a few times, he passed out before he could even finish one barrel.
"Mhm. A normal adult male can take one oak barrel. Noted."
"Was it really necessary to cause such a commotion...?"
"Yui. If someone starts a fight and you just let it go, they'll get cocky and do it again."
There's a reason the phrase 'establishing discipline' exists.
After that, the owner led us through a door behind the counter.
Inside, countless oak barrels were lined up.
All of them were filled with alcohol.
I stuffed all the barrels into my inventory, paid the bill, and we left the tavern.