Everyday Life In The Adventure City

“Oh? What’s with those eyes? You wanna go?”

“Gyahaha, that’s fine by me. One Lizardonian and one man. Perfect warm-up before monster hunting.”

“We’ll cut the tendons in the man’s legs and leave him in an alley. He can survive by begging in the slums.”

“Me, me, I think that freckled girl’s pretty good.”

“Nah, more like that blue-haired brat girl. It’s fun making strong-willed ones like that do whatever you say.”

“The boy brats are adventurer slaves. Oh, that girl brat with the hat is cute.”

At a glance, all of them looked stupid. Thin leather armor, swords at their waists, and hammers hanging down their backs.

Adventurers. Their faces were overflowing with confidence. Their faces were dyed with the excitement of having found prey.

“Oh, a fight?”

“A fight between adventurers! The adventure city’s specialty is starting!”

“Hey, aren’t those adventurers a group that’s been making a name for themselves in third rank lately? Is that girl going to be okay?”

“Hey, doesn’t a Lizardonian and a black-haired adventurer sound familiar?”

At the hint of conflict, the people did not run. Instead, they gathered one after another. In this city, quarrels between adventurers were an everyday occurrence, and were even regarded as one form of entertainment for the residents.

The onlookers rustled and raised voices tinged with delight.

One adventurer grinned. Pushed on by the cheap voices of the crowd, the color of sadism appeared on his face.

“Oh, I definitely want that freckled girl. I-I feel maternity from her… Mama…”

“Hih.”

“Hehe, cute.”

One of the adventurers, the largest giant among them, a fat man with a swollen belly who looked about two meters tall, stared happily at the frightened Niko.

The pimple-faced fat man licked his own lips.

The one who had thrown the plate at Niko was also him—

“Tooyama.”

Naturally, the one who reached her limit was Stolu.

The faint bit of reason that remained asked her own scabbard.

What she sought was—

“Stolu, permission granted.”

Permission to draw.

The sword’s scabbard, Tooyama Naruhito, had already snapped too.

“This.”

The sword was drawn.

The Church’s, no, the inquisitor’s foolish, yet more than anything pure, blade.

Faster than a beast, stronger than a monster.

“Huh? Gubo?!”

A light-blue wind danced, leaving dust in its wake. Her ponytail, tied into one bundle, fluttered.

With a sound like a huge water balloon bursting, the pimple-faced adventurer was slammed into the ground.

No one could even follow Stolu’s movements with their eyes. Neither the onlookers nor the adventurers involved understood what had happened.

““““Eh?””””

In this place, the First Knight was an existence in a class of her own.

“Don’t point your filthy breath at Niko-chan. I’ll kill you.”

“Ga, bo.”

The pig spat out phlegm.

His body bent backward into an inverted V-shape and was slammed into the stone pavement just like that.

Stolu crushed his back beneath her foot. Her light-blue eyes shone brightly, while her voice, in contrast, was endlessly quiet.

“Eh?”

“Why?”

“W-What the hell?! What is this brat?!”

Only belatedly did the adventurers finally grasp the situation. Their recognition could not catch up.

Such a small girl had instantly knocked down the tank of their well-equipped party.

Even the thing that had happened right before their eyes was hard to accept.

They still did not know. They did not know that they had touched something one must never touch with half-baked power.

“You, brat! What the hell are you?!”

The leader-type man’s attention had completely turned toward Stolu.

Stolu, called out to, slung her long light-blue ponytail over her shoulder and smiled broadly.

It was the laugh of a starving wolf, no, a wolf who knew the joy of the hunt—

“She’s our bakery’s security department.”

A short voice, and a fist swung without hesitation.

“Ah, bubera?!”

Tooyama was not one to overlook that opening. Using the moment when his opponent’s attention had completely shifted to Stolu, he threw a punch at the same time as his greeting.

Modern, refined sports science, proper training and a solid diet, and his everyday life as an Explorer had properly strengthened Tooyama Naruhito’s body.

His clean hit connected. The adventurer leader-type man fell to the ground.

“Here we go.”

“Gih?! Ah.”

As he turned around, he kicked a nearby man in the groin. From his own violent past experience, Tooyama also knew the tricks of fighting.

In the end, the one who won was the one who acted first.

“Sorry. I’ve been influenced by them too. Recently, my temper has gotten short.”

“Ggh, ah?! My arm, aaah!”

“Ah, gi.”

Before anyone realized it, Lazaar had suppressed the remaining two. He sat down on a fallen man and pinned another in a full nelson with his thick arms around the man’s neck.

“Hih, wh-what are these guys?! Th-They’re strong?!”

The last one remaining backed away. Before he knew it, even though they should have had the complete advantage in numbers, he was the only one still capable of moving properly.

The remaining one collapsed onto his rear, and Tooyama, Stolu, and Lazaar stared at him.

There was no light in the three pairs of eyes.

Eyes with their highlights gone showed exactly this:

All three of them were people from that side. Cursed people capable of killing.

“You were the one who threw the plate at Niko-chan earlier, this?”

“Buhih, ah, aaah, it hurts, my back hurts… Let me gooo, guba.”

“Do not move, pig. I could just stomp you to death like this, but…”

With the largest giant still under her foot, Stolu bent her body limply and looked down at him.

The fat man strained to get away, but he did not budge. Stolu’s thin leg pressed down with force and pushed him even harder against the stone pavement.

“…Tooyama, is it fine?”

“Yeah, so that pig was the one who threw the plate at Niko. Right. Make sure he can never throw things at people again.”

Tooyama nodded at Stolu’s question. There was no hesitation or uncertainty there.

“Wee, hook.”

The large dog drooled.

Her slender hand grabbed the pig’s thick, short finger.

“Huh? Hey, wait, wait, wait, what are you planning to do?! Hey, my finger! My finger?! Wait, it doesn’t bend that way, ah?! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah?!”

She twisted and broke it all at once.

“You are noisy, this. Look, there are still nine left. Ah, good. I can count to nine.”

Stolu laughed.

Regardless of birth or upbringing, she was the kind of person who could do this.

“Two, three, four, five, five, five?”

Crack, twist. Snap, plop.

Bu, hi, iiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

The adventurer screamed like a castrated pig and thrashed violently, but he could not resist the First Knight’s physical strength.

In one corner of the lively market, a man’s screams echoed.

“If you only break them straight, they will connect again eventually. The trick is to twist the flesh and bone while bending them.”

“Don’t explain it. I can feel the darkness. Now, you lot, what will you do? Continue?”

After twisting and breaking all of the pig’s fingers, Stolu exhaled.

Tooyama looked at the adventurers, who had already completely lost their will to fight, and muttered.

“Hih, wh-what the hell are you? Suddenly, all at once, doing this… Are you insane?!”

One adventurer who had fallen onto his rear began shouting. His eyes were bloodshot, his voice rough. He pointed a trembling finger toward Tooyama.

“Y-You went too far! We, we hadn’t even done anything to you yet! Wh-What the hell are you!! Damn it, Church Knight! S-Someone saw, right?! Call a Church Knight!”

He apparently had no shame or concern for appearances. Astonishingly, the adventurer began asking the onlookers for help.

His attitude was as if Tooyama and the others had attacked them.

“H-Hey, he looks like he’s about to cry.”

“More importantly, did you see that girl? She broke his fingers without any hesitation…”

“H-Hey, that black hair, could it be? And the Lizardonian too…”

“Light-blue hair and that way of talking… Wasn’t there a knight like that at a Church ceremony?”

“B-But isn’t it true that they went a little too far? Sh-Should we call a knight? They should be patrolling around here.”

The atmosphere among the onlookers also changed.

Perhaps it differed slightly from the entertainment they had wanted.

They continued to rustle, if anything, in sympathy toward the adventurers.

“H-Hiii, knights! We were attacked! W-We were injured too! A knight, someone, call a knight!”

The shouting adventurer must have sensed the change in the onlookers’ atmosphere. His voice was pathetic, meant to draw sympathy.

“…Shaaa.”

Lazaar bared his teeth in displeasure.

“Trash, this.”

Stolu did not hide her irritation, and put even more strength into the foot crushing the adventurer beneath her.

“…Guys like you always say the same thing.”

“Huh?”

Then Tooyama spoke in a quiet tone. At this point, Tooyama had already decided ninety percent of what would happen to them after this.

“Half-baked violence and poor imagination. I get it. You were only half playing around, right? The people who caught your eye looked weaker than you, and you didn’t like them for some reason, so you picked a fight, right? I know people like you.”

“Wh-What, what the hell! Y-You got serious! Th-That’s right! We were just playing! You went too far when all we did was scare you a little! Breaking Flatt’s fingers like that!”

“So that’s about it. Only scared us, huh? Then I’d like to say don’t make a fuss just because we beat you up a little too. Now then, what should I do?”

There was nothing to think about, but this place was too conspicuous.

Should I let them swim a little and start later?

Tooyama sighed and looked at the man who continued shouting. What kind of brain allowed someone to say something so convenient?

He found it deeply mysterious, but he did not want to know, so he fairly did not care.

“Fu, guku, you insane bastards!”

Shing. A spirited shout.

The sound of metal scraping meant a sword had been drawn.

The man who had been writhing in agony after Tooyama kicked him in the groin stood up and drew a broad shortsword from the sheath at his waist.

“Kya?!”

Niko screamed.

“Damn it, I kept quiet and listened, and you got carried away! You’re annoying! You should just shut up and hand over those brats! Damn it! Damn it, damn it! Don’t move! Black-haired bastard!”

“…Is this good enough?”

Tooyama raised his hands and stopped in place.

The shortsword thrust before his eyes was poorly maintained and had a dirty blade. It probably had not even been oiled.

“And you too, brat! Damn it! Doing that to Fred’s fingers… I can’t take this anymore! Damn it, damn it, damn it! Why did it turn out like this?”

“Do you understand the situation? The moment you drew a weapon, this stopped being just a fight.”

The excited man shouted while pointing his sword at Tooyama. The hand holding the sword trembled, and his voice was not articulating properly either.

Tooyama, despite having a sword pointed at him, was far calmer.

“Huh? I don’t know, I don’t know! I don’t know what you’re saying! Shit! Don’t move! You brats too!”

The man staggered and pointed the sword toward the children as well.

Tooyama quietly shifted his gaze toward the one among the children who was probably the strongest in a violent situation.

“Luca.”

“…Yeah.”

The boy in the hat quietly moved as if to protect Niko and Pero and Shiro, who were still eating sausages.

Seeing that, the man’s eyes went wide.

His threats were not working even on a brat. The man before him did not budge even when a sword was pointed at him.

That must have wounded the man’s petty pride. His body trembled, he dripped greasy sweat, and he raised his sword overhead—

“This is tedious, this.”

“Eh?”

However, even that movement was too slow for her.

The First Knight. To Stolu, who had carried out countless acts of “justice” as the Church’s sword, it was truly tedious.

A light-blue wind closed in on the man who had raised his sword in an instant.

“Cheap.”

Crack.

The one Stolu drew from her waist was also a shortsword, the same as the man’s. By coincidence, it was a mass-produced item being sold cheaply in the market.

She swung it up and knocked the adventurer’s sword upward. Just that alone shattered the poorly maintained cheap sword of the adventurer.

“Huh?”

“Slow and weak. The worst, this.”

Again, crack. The sound of something breaking.

This time, it was not a sword, but the sound of the man’s knee breaking after Stolu kicked through it.

“G-Ah?! Gyaaaaaah?! My leg, my leg, aaaaaah…”

Without even a delay, the man collapsed on the spot. His dangling leg showed that flesh, bone, and even tendons had all been kicked and broken.

“H-Hiii, m-monster…”

“Nice, Stolu.”

Once again, Tooyama recognized the fighting strength that was Stolu Pula. She was clearly outside standards. Thinking calmly, there was probably not much difference between his own strength and these adventurers.

If he were alone, unless he went in with intent to kill, he would almost certainly lose against three people.

But Stolu was different. Against people of this level, even if there were a hundred of them, she seemed like she would beat them all down—

Just as Tooyama sank into thought,

“?! Idiot! Tooyama, you looked away!”

Stolu shouted with wide eyes.

By the time he realized he had messed up, it was already too late.

“You insane bastards!”

The adventurer Tooyama had punched down first had probably been pretending to be unconscious. Cornered, that man had already swung his sword.

“Ah, crap.”

“Naruhito?!”

Lazaar screamed.

‘Crap, I can’t dodge anymore. I won’t die, but a serious injury—’

Reflexively, Tooyama raised his arm and hardened his flesh to deflect the trajectory even a little.

Smack.

“Hah—”

It sounded a little pleasant, like someone striking and stretching out a futon with all their might.

“No, this one is just too much.”

The frivolous voice sounded amused.

“Keppura?!”

The adventurer who had tried to ambush Tooyama was blown away at the same time as the sound.

He crashed into the surrounding tables and chairs, then stopped moving while buried among them.

Screams spread from the surrounding seats. The onlookers scattered like baby spiders, made a commotion, left that place, then gathered in another spot.

“This one is obviously your fault. No matter how you think about it, the side to help is this one.”

That guy had a strange appearance.

He wore a broad-brimmed hat pulled low over his eyes, and he rested his back deeply against a chair.

A worn leather vest and a black shirt. He had a somewhat Western look, and from Tooyama’s perspective, he looked like a man who would appear in a western movie.

That this man had done something to that adventurer was clear to everyone’s eyes.

“Wh-Who the hell are you?!”

One adventurer who was still conscious shouted while holding his groin.

“Ah, it’s sad being so unknown, really. Here, my adventurer badge. Will this make you understand?”

With leisurely movements, the man dressed like a western cowboy rose from the table and took something from his breast pocket.

A necklace shining gold in the midday sun. That dog tag-like object was proof of one who braved danger.

And that color was proof of someone recognized as an elite among elites, and among them, as someone outside standards.

The highest rank among adventurers, who were counted as wartime forces comparable to the Empire’s military.

“A g-gold adventurer badge. Then, no way…”

“Yup. Calling myself your senior might be overstating it. Well, that’s how it is. …If possible, it’d help if you saved my face here.”

One of this world’s untouchables.

Someone qualified to challenge the Tower, one permitted to freely challenge Herel’s Tower by his own will, smiled brightly.

It was a bright smile, yet one that would not take no for an answer.

However, that people-pleasing smile, combined with the pressure the man possessed, became something unknowable.

“Ah, d-damn it… Let’s go…”

“H-Hih…”

The adventurers apparently understood that pressure and tried to leave the place.

“…Wait, this. Why are you deciding things on your own? Whether we forgive those people or not, no, whether we let them return alive, is for us to decide, this.”

Stolu’s voice poured cold water on the situation that seemed about to settle.

Clear irritation seeped into that voice.

“Taha. You’re quite hot-blooded, young lady. Let go of that fat guy. He’s going to die soon.”

However, the man only laughed breezily.

“…What if I said I do not care?”

“…Taha.”

The man laughed. Gravelly sound rang from the stone pavement he stepped on.

Which one would move? Which one would make the first move? The large dog turned her gaze toward her next prey.

“Enough. Stop, Stolu. Let him go.”

However, this was as far as it went. At her owner’s command to wait, Stolu’s killing intent calmed.

“But!”

“It is my order.”

Tooyama commanded Stolu while burning the adventurers’ faces into his eyes.

He would settle what happened after this himself.

Tooyama had already decided that.

“…This.”

“Uuuu, my fingers, my fingers…”

The adventurers left the place one after another, but obediently. They sent resentful looks toward Tooyama’s group, but that was all.

With one word from that cowboy-like man, the trouble reached its end.

“Oh, battered all over. Well, you’re on the gentle side since no one died.”

“Um, did you maybe help us?”

As the staggering adventurers left, Tooyama spoke to the man.

Rather than them, he should probably deal with this unknowable man before his eyes first.

“Hmm? Yeah, I did. I’m not exactly a hero of justice or anything. But if you think about it normally and common-sensically, I should side with you here, right?”

“…Oh, seriously? I feel like this is the first time I’ve met a decent adventurer since coming to this city. So, who are you?”

“Taha! Ah, sorry, sorry. I still hadn’t introduced myself.”

At Tooyama’s question, the man, who had gray hair and well-defined features, removed his hat that closely resembled a western hat and lightly lowered his head.

“Tower-Class Adventurer, Yuto Wetral. Yuto is fine.”

Snap. Even though he was a man, his wink suited him annoyingly well.

“Nice to meet you, fourth-rank adventurer, dear dragon slayer.”

Smile.

However, that smile was far from one that would reassure Tooyama. It was a refreshing yet bottomless smile.