Chapter 20. The Leisure of a Cup of Coffee (2)
Chapter 20. The Leisure of a Cup of Coffee (2)
"Hmm. You've got nerve."
The Count's lips curved up slightly.
"A cat turned into a person, and you don't even seem surprised....... Not like the young people these days. Ah, that's a compliment."
"Thank you. I've always had a lot of nerve. I see ghosts and all that."
"Ahaha. You even have room for jokes. Impressive."
The Count took out a fan and laughed as she waved it.
I hadn't been joking, though. I meant it.
"Uh......."
"Hm......."
The hunters glanced at each other. The Count was the only one who burst out laughing. The HR team leaders, who had been loudly shouting out contract fees just moments ago, went dead silent the instant the Count appeared.
"Um, Alliance Master. Excuse me, but......."
A large blond hunter cautiously spoke up.
"Go ahead and excuse yourself."
"A contract fee of 500,000 gold and a guaranteed vice guild master position... isn't that excessive? O-of course, the achievement of clearing the 10th floor is remarkable. But Hunter Kim Gong-ja's... how remarkable his abilities are... is still... unknown... so......."
The hunter stammered more and more as he went on. It wasn't that he'd suddenly developed aphasia. The Count was gazing at him steadily, her mouth hidden behind her fan. She was even smiling with her eyes over the top of it.
"......."
In the end, the hunter shut his mouth. He must have belatedly realized that nothing he said would matter. His opponent was the rank 3 heavyweight. In crude terms, they were on a different "level."
"Are you all done excusing yourselves?"
"...Yes."
"Then before you excuse yourselves any further, go fetch your superiors. Sorry, but I can't communicate with the likes of you. Ah, if there's anyone here who can throw down a bigger bet than 500,000 gold, then it doesn't matter. Feel free to stay seated."
In crude terms, it meant "get lost."
When told to get lost, they really had no choice but to get lost—such is the karma of middle management. The HR team leaders stood up one by one and left.
And ten minutes later, new hunters walked into the café as if tagging in for the HR team leaders.
"That fucking Twin Lotus! Goddamn piece of shit!"
Rank 5. Heavenly Martial Sect Master, Viper.
"Hm, we've been outplayed. I'll have to admit it was an error on our part."
Rank 4. Pantheon Master, Heretic Questioner.
"Calling it an error is strange. Our assigned task today wasn't to welcome a new hero—it was to keep the existing hunters from falling into chaos. The Alliance Master went too far."
Rank 8. Vigilante Corps Vice Captain, Paladin.
"......."
Rank 2. Black Dragon Guild Master, even the Black Witch.
'Whoa.'
I clicked my tongue inwardly.
'It's a full mobilization. Full mobilization.'
The lineup was dazzling.
Top-rankers I'd only ever seen in interview videos or articles in the past. They were moving right before my eyes, settling into the seats across the table one after another. It hit me anew... just how much my market value had risen.
"Welcome, all of you."
The Count rested her chin on her hand and smiled.
"I can't remember the last time we all gathered in one place like this. The days when we cleared the 2nd floor together feel like yesterday, but time is truly cruel, isn't it? We've all gotten old."
"Twin Lotus, shut your mouth before I boil you into butterfly soup."
Viper growled.
The Heavenly Martial Sect Master, a one-eyed hunter, a middle-aged man known as the first person to clear the 2nd floor, wore an eyepatch over his face.
It was said to be a wound he'd gotten from challenging the Sword Saint.
"I heard on the way here. What, 500,000 gold? Vice guild master? You've been doing that beast cosplay all the time—has your brain dropped to a beast's level too? Fine, throwing money around is your specialty, so I'll chalk it up to Twin Lotus being Twin Lotus again, but vice guild master, what kind of bullsh......."
"Now! Let's order coffee first!"
The Heretic Questioner said brightly.
"It would be rude to come into a shop and not give them business. What would people think if the heads of the great guilds responsible for the Tower behaved like that! I'll order a caffè mocha. What about everyone else?"
"Ah, I'll have a hot Americano, please."
"I'm craving an iced caffè latte."
"...Hazelnut latte. Hot. Extra shot. Grande."
The guild masters spoke in turn, as if they'd been waiting.
The only flustered one was Viper.
"What? Coffee? No, hey. The 10th floor just got cleared and the whole world's in an uproar—do you bastards have room in your stomachs for coffee? Have your brains gone pickled in caffeine or some......."
"The Heavenly Martial Sect Master will have a strong espresso. Understood."
"You fucking religious nut......?"
"Boss! Take our order over here!"
The Heretic Questioner ignored Viper and called out. Flinch. The barista standing at the counter jumped. The Starducks barista, suddenly tasked with making coffee for the top-rankers, went pale.
"W-would you like... to order......?"
"Yes!"
The Heretic Questioner smiled brightly.
The Pantheon Master. A blond hunter. The young man tasked with preventing the people gathered from all over the world from starting religious conflicts was famous for speaking politely to everyone.
Even when torturing terrorists, he supposedly used honorifics.
"One iced caffè mocha, tall. One hot Americano, tall. One iced caffè latte, tall. One hot hazelnut latte, extra shot, grande. One espresso doppio! That'll be our order!"
"Yes! Y-yes, yes......!"
"Ah, right—"
The Heretic Questioner slowly turned his head.
"...What would Hunter Kim Gong-ja like?"
Everyone's eyes turned to me. The table went quiet in an instant. Amused eyes. Hostile eyes. Bright eyes. Cold eyes. Expressionless eyes. Five faces and ten pupils stared at me quietly.
As if testing my reaction.
-Don't flinch.
The guardian spirit, who had kept his mouth shut until then, spoke.
-Those guys are nothing. Just think of them as nothing! You're a guy who's died to old man Marcus. Not one of those bastards is better than the old man.
'I know.'
I knew it well.
'It's just a simple war of nerves.'
And it was a rigged game of go-stop.
I shrugged.
"Manager, don't you have a menu here?"
"Excuse me?"
"I had a macchiato earlier, so I'm not really feeling coffee. I'd like to look at the menu before deciding... Hm. Never mind. If you have hot chocolate, just give me that."
"Ah, understood."
Composure.
What I needed to show right now was a composed attitude.
'These people didn't just happen to swarm in here together.'
When the HR team leaders had swarmed in earlier, and now too, hunters from different guilds had arrived at the same time.
Could that timing have been coincidence?
'Absolutely not!'
A tactic disguised as coincidence.
It was all just an act.
'It's a tactic to swarm in all at once and make me lose my grip.'
It was a classic move, if ever there was one. You could say it was similar to thugs mobbing up to threaten a single person.
'Well, for thugs, they're a bit too terrifying as hunters, but.......'
The air was tense, as if thin ice had formed.
'Compared to burning to death alive, it's nothing.'
In other words, it was nothing more than a little thin ice.
Before dying to the Flame Emperor, I would have trembled in fear of those people... but not now. I wasn't scared at all.
The reason was stupidly simple.
'If you're pissed, kill me.'
Even if they killed me, I'd be fine!
The guardian spirit nodded.
-Right, I told you. That's your talent and your strength! If they want to kill you, stare at them like "go ahead and try." Put some force in your eyes! Snap! How dare these losers who can't even kill anyone act all high and mighty as top-rankers!
'Uh, thanks for the encouragement. But I'm still not lifting your penalty.'
-Oh, damn it......!
The guardian spirit clutched his head in despair.
"Hm."
Meanwhile, the Heretic Questioner's expression changed.
"How fascinating. Until you cleared the 10th floor, you were listed as a hunter with no notable achievements at all. For a person to suddenly change like that... the ways of the world truly are beyond understanding!"
"Not entirely without notable achievements."
The Count hid her lower face behind her fan and smiled with her eyes.
"That young man won our guild's lottery not long ago. He's lucky. He's got guts, too. I don't know how he cleared it, but seeing as he conquered the 10th floor, he must have skill as well. Luck, guts, skill. When a young person has all three, they're bound to succeed at anything."
"Hah... That's what I said."
Viper sighed from across the table.
"Stop messing around with all these little tricks and just recruit him! You think the guy who cleared the 10th floor is some clueless rookie? Tch, putting on an act that wouldn't even work......."
"That kind of talk isn't important."
Abruptly.
The Black Dragon Guild Master, who had been quiet—the Witch—opened her mouth.
"Just because the Alliance Master lost face doesn't mean the Buddha lost face. We're all busy. Let's put off blaming each other for later."
"Ahem......."
"Hunter Kim Gong-ja."
The Witch looked at me.
"I'll ask you honestly. Which guild are you planning to join?"
Ink-dark eyes.
"If you intend not to join any guild, like the Sword Saint, tell us in advance. Depending on that, we need to discuss how to respond to the media."
"And if I do plan to join a specific guild?"
"Then a fierce bidding war will begin."
The Witch said calmly.
"We've stayed on the 9th floor for too long. Stagnant... even saying that is embarrassing. It was just ugly. But thanks to you breaking through the 10th floor, we have a chance to advertise the Tower's value to the outside world again."
"A chance."
"Yes, a chance. A chance to draw in not just war refugees but all sorts of people from the outside world."
The barista carried a tray and served the coffee. The guild masters quietly accepted their cups one by one. No one spoke. The Witch, too, just took a silent sip of her hazelnut latte.
"Above all, once the 10th floor opens, even the hunters who've been living with their feet planted only in the 1st-floor city will feel a stirring. What unknown world awaits from the 11th floor onward? Even the realists who've forgotten their sense of adventure will crane their necks."
Indeed.
"The food shortage will ease up somewhat, then."
"......."
The Witch looked at me with a surprised expression.
"...You catch on quick. That's right. Selling only the items excavated below the 9th floor is gradually becoming insufficient to meet food demand."
"I do keep trade routes with the outside world open around the clock."
The Count laughed.
"But I'm not as energetic as I used to be. Age makes it a bit taxing."
"It's time for new products."
The Witch continued.
"We need to draw adventurers into the world beyond the 10th floor. We need to find items that can only be excavated beyond it."
"For that, you'd need a means to actively appeal to the outside world and the Tower. A means to advertise with a bang: [A new era has begun!] And that means is me, right?"
"...Right. Exactly."
All of it was what would happen in the future.
This was why the great guilds couldn't push around someone like the Flame Emperor, who lived high on his own greatness. The title of hero. Whether they liked it or not, he had become an icon symbolizing a new era.
For the Tower to keep growing, such a hero was absolutely necessary!
'And yet the Black Dragon Guild tried to assassinate the Flame Emperor.'
I recalled the conversation I'd overheard in the slum alley.
-Who ordered you to kill me? Just answer that.
-Was it the Black Witch's doing?
Back then, the Saintess had slowly nodded.
If the Saintess hadn't been lying, then the Witch before my eyes had actually attempted to poison the Flame Emperor. Why she did it, I couldn't know now.......
'We'll get along well.'
Why?
'No one who hates that bastard could be a bad person!'
The enemy of my enemy is my friend, as they say.
I felt a sort of camaraderie forming.
"I understand what you're saying. The guild that succeeds in winning me over can become the symbol of a new era. The other guilds won't be able to avoid being relegated to the sidelines."
"Yeah."
"That would make me feel a bit bad... so let's do this."
The hunters focused on my words.
I took a deck of playing cards from my pocket.
"...Playing cards?"
The Witch tilted her head.
"You're not suggesting we decide by a game, are you? Which guild gets you?"
"Yes."
"......."
"I'll join the guild of whoever comes in first place in poker. No contract fee, no position needed. However!"
I grinned.
"If I win, I'll [simultaneously join] all of your guilds."
"......."
"Ah, I mean I'll only be a guild member on paper. In practice, treat me as your equal. You all get to sell my image, which is good for you, and I get to be treated on par with the heads of the top guilds, which is good for me. How about it?"
In that instant, the guild masters' eyes changed.
"Ahaha."
The Count burst out laughing.
"A young man who's only cleared one floor wants to be treated the same as us?"
"Yes. If I come in first place in a card game against all of you, that is."
"Interesting. I'm in."
The Count set down her coffee cup and looked around.
"What about the rest of you?"
"As long as there's no cheating, I'm fine with it!"
The Heretic Questioner responded first.
"...Let's also agree not to use skills. Otherwise, you'd be at too much of an advantage. If someone's caught using a skill, they're automatically disqualified."
Next was Viper.
"Our guild is poor anyway, so we'd lose for sure in a bidding war. If we lose, we lose nothing; if we win, it's a windfall. Fine by me."
Then Paladin agreed.
"......."
Finally, the Witch nodded.
"Fine. I'll accept your proposal."
The wager was set.
We established the detailed rules of poker. The rules themselves were ordinary. The only thing was that the top-rankers personally and meticulously inspected the cards to make sure there was no nasty trick on them and no suspicion of cheating.
'Sir Sword Emperor.'
When the cards were dealt.
-Huh......?
'Honestly, you really hate calling me "sir," don't you?'
I called out to the guardian spirit, who was still wallowing in despair.
'Let's do this.'
-Do what......?
'Just until this game ends, call me "sir."'
The guardian spirit's eyes went wide.
-Huh? I can really do that?
'Yes. Of course.'
I grinned.
'In exchange, tell me what hands all these hunters are holding.'
-Hell yeah! Hell yeah! Aja-byo-oh!
The guardian spirit bounced around.
-So fucking easy! Kyaa, as expected of you, sir! Who would dare say you're not worthy of the title—look at that magnanimous character! How can our sir be so generous! You want me to tell you what hands these bastards are holding? Oh, don't you worry. I'll even tell you whether they're bottom-dealing or not! Sir!
Now then.
Let the game begin.