The Footsteps Of Adventure

“…Did you know?”

Tooyama stared at the man before him, the cowboy calling himself a Tower-Class Adventurer.

He was tall, and from the way his leather armor rose like a jacket, he also had a good build.

Strong. That was how Tooyama evaluated the man before him.

“Well, obviously. If you listen to even a little information in this city, you hear rumors about you everywhere. Though a lot of them sound pretty dubious.”

His soft smile looked as though it would loosen one’s caution, and that made Tooyama find him even more unsettling.

“…Right.”

“But well, that aside, I heard you kidnapped a bunch of kids from the slums, but from what I saw, it feels less like kidnapping and more like you properly protected them. I watched you talking with those kids, and you looked like a real family.”

“…Adventurer-dono, thank you for your assistance. Let me thank you properly.”

Lazaar joined the conversation. Perhaps because of his honest personality, or perhaps because Lazaar also could not judge this man.

“Oops, you’re the rumored Lizardonian slave. No, that phrasing is rude. I’ve heard plenty of rumors about you too, like how you avoided a nationwide Empire pursuit and beat down one of the Angel Church’s Ten Knights.”

Even after seeing Lazaar, a Lizardonian and a discriminated race, the man did not change his tone or expression. He smiled and lowered his head again.

“Niko-chan! Are you hurt, this?!”

“Y-Yes, I’m fine. More importantly! Stolu-chan, are you hurt?! I was worried, you were facing such scary people like that.”

“Compared to Tooyama and Lazaar, those people were like trash, this!”

“Huh? Big brother and Lazaar-san?”

“Ah… Phew, phew, pweee.”

Beside that conversation, Stolu flew over to Niko and fussed around her.

Come to think of it, the children should not know that Stolu and Tooyama had originally been in a relationship where they had tried to kill each other.

Stolu also seemed to feel guilty about that, and was trying to deceive them in her own stupid way.

“Um, could that blue-haired girl be the First Knight of the Angel Church? I heard she’s equal to the upper tier of Tower-Class Adventurers…”

Apparently, this adventurer named Yuto also knew about Stolu. Not the stupid one, but Stolu as the sword of the Church.

“Ah, yeah. Yes. Well, that’s that. Thanks, adventurer-san. You helped us.”

“Taha! Don’t worry about it. Well, yeah. It was perfect timing. It’s like a good-luck ritual before work.”

Perhaps going along with Tooyama’s sloppy attempt to dodge the subject, the cowboy-like man laughed lightly.

“Good-luck ritual?”

Tooyama tilted his head at the man’s words.

“Yeah. Hmm, I still have time. Hey, dragon slayer, can I sit here? I’m not planning to say anything about the debt of saving you, but if I ever got to meet you once, I wanted to talk about all sorts of things.”

The man pointed at the seats where Tooyama and the others had originally been sitting, and asked with that friendly smile still on his face.

“Ah…”

Now, what should he do? He felt somewhat shady, but he was technically someone who had helped them. It would probably be bad to treat him too harshly.

“It should be fine, Naruhito. I will watch the children with Stolu. Besides—”

Lazaar’s advice reached Tooyama as he hesitated over how to respond.

Lazaar glanced in a certain direction, more precisely, in the direction the adventurers who had picked a fight with them had gone.

“—Ah, right. Lazaar, tell me when you find them. I’ll go immediately.”

Lazaar nodded at Tooyama’s words and urged the children to move to another seat.

Only Tooyama and the man remained at that table.

“Oh, sorry. Did that sound like I was holding a favor over you?”

“No, it’s fine. I feel like I’ve met a decent person outside my own circle for the first time in a while.”

“Taha, you sure say it. Well, if the rumors are true, you’ve had quite the turbulent few weeks too.”

“Yeah. Ah, should we change locations? Um, the looks from around us are pretty intense…”

Stare, stare. Murmur, murmur. The onlookers had not disappeared yet.

Many of the people gathered in the market were staring at Tooyama and the man.

“Nah, here is fine. You’ll get used to people staring at you eventually. Still, it’s funny. The man who killed a dragon is worrying about the gaze of the rabble now of all times.”

However, the man apparently did not care about such things. He plopped down into a chair and stared at Tooyama’s face.

His eyes were a color close to teal, with blue and green mixed together, common among people of this world. His face, Western-looking by the standards of Tooyama’s world, was clearly handsome.

“…That’s the kind of people we are. I worry about other people’s gazes. So, you, uh…”

Tooyama gave up and sat down too. This strange and oddly friendly man was too eerie to ignore, and too difficult to treat coldly.

“Yuto Wetral.”

“Yuto. Ah, pleased to meet you. I’m Tooyama Naruhito. Call me Tooyama or Naruhito, whichever’s easier.”

“Oh, sorry, thanks for being considerate. Then Naruhito. It’s just that I’ve been curious for a while. The topic of the dragon slayer has been a rumor even among us.”

“Us?”

“You have something similar too, right, Naruhito?”

With a jingle, Yuto took out that dog tag, the golden adventurer badge.

“That’s Drako’s tag… Adventurer badge. Then, as expected, Yuto, you’re…”

“Yup. A formal identity confirmation, for the time being. Tower-Class Adventurer, Yuto Wetral. Well, don’t stiffen up. No, you’re the dragon slayer-dono. I guess there’s no need to worry about that.”

From the smiling Yuto, Tooyama did not feel the pressure he had felt from Drako or the silver-haired elf he had met in the Guild.

“…The same as Dra—no, the Hoarding Dragon. The pinnacle of adventurers…”

However, Tower-Class.

In other words, he was a human positioned at the same level as those two inhuman beings. Tooyama was not carefree enough to lower his guard completely.

“Ah, well, that person is… Among the monsters gathered in Tower-Class, she’s part of the even higher upper layer. To be blunt, Tower-Class varies wildly when it comes to combat ability. I’m on the lower end.”

Yuto laughed, “Tahaha.” He spoke self-deprecatingly while slumping over the table.

It was a gesture that made people unconsciously lower their guard.

Now, Tooyama still could not see where this conversation was going. At the very least, he wanted to know what kind of person this guy was—

Ping.

That sound rang, and a message flowed through Tooyama’s vision.

The incident in that dream affected reality.

Tooyama Naruhito slowly influenced the world and changed others.

A message similar in tone to the incomprehensible bespectacled girl in his dream.

It was assistance from Harvey, the Familiar of Knowledge.

“…Says the guy. Could someone like that blow away a person with a pebble flicked by a finger?”

The attack he had not even been able to perceive was apparently nothing more than a stone flicked by a finger.

Based on the knowledge of the familiar who shared his dream, Tooyama tested the waters.

“Taha.”

Yuto laughed.

A cold sweat ran down Tooyama’s back.

Ah, just as expected. This guy too was probably one of the transcendent beings who had surpassed most humans.

“You watched well… Honestly, I didn’t think you’d notice. As expected of someone who killed a dragon. Well, there’s also the level difference. Those guys looked level two at best.”

At Tooyama’s words, Yuto apparently let his true self show for an instant and grumbled while scratching his head.

However, the tingling pressure had already vanished.

“Ah, right. There was that level thing…”

For now, Tooyama understood that antagonizing him would be troublesome. On top of that, he still had to figure out why Yuto was being this friendly.

Tooyama braced himself slightly.

“Hey, more importantly, Naruhito. Tell me about the rumor that you were seducing dragons at Rain Inn. That one’s dubious, right?”

“…It is.”

He had been bracing himself, only to get a deflating topic instead. It was not dubious but completely true, but explaining it would be a pain, so Tooyama looked away and muttered.

“Taha!! You’re serious?! That reaction! It’s true?! He’s an idiot! There’s an idiot here!”

“Shut up. I was dead serious back then. It was practically a life-or-death situation.”

“Tahahahaha! No, even so! Seducing dragons, and two at once on top of that, makes no sense! How did that happen?”

Yuto began laughing while holding his stomach.

“That’s… No. Why? Really. Why a host?”

When he was told that again, it certainly made no sense. What made even less sense was that, somehow or other, he had cleared his trouble with the dragons by being a host.

“Tahahahaha! Naruhito, you’re interesting! Yeah, I get why that person cares about you.”

“That person?”

For some reason, Yuto’s words. The phrase “that person” caught his attention.

“Ah, you know her too, right? Tower-Class Adventurer, hero of the Great War, former Hero Party archer, Wenfilbarna. I became an adventurer because I admired that person. I heard it, you know? That she nearly killed you on your first meeting.”

“Ah…”

What came to mind was that strange elf.

The woman he had first met in the Tower, then met again at the Guild.

He remembered being scared because she had reacted as if she were a completely different person. Since then, he had not seen her at the Guild either, and she had seemed troublesome in some vague way, so he had pushed her to the corner of his memory.

“Don’t be wary, Naruhito. I admire that person, but I don’t blindly believe in her. It’s not like I think anything about you… Well, saying I don’t would be a lie, but it’s not hostility or anything.”

“That’s reassuring. So, what did you want to talk to me about? I owe you for helping. Let me hear it.”

“Hmm? Well, first, I wanted to see you directly. Wenfilbarna. Whether it was hostility or whatever, it was my first time seeing that person show interest in someone else.”

“…Does she hate me that much?”

“Yeah, to a frightening degree. Every time rumors about the dragon slayer spread, the air in the Guild basement gets worse.”

“The Guild basement?”

“Oh? You don’t know? We Tower-Class Adventurers basically have what we call basement duty. We have an obligation to wait in the Guild basement by rotation. Well, it’s like service.”

“Oh, I didn’t know. Tower-Class Adventurers are the highest rank of adventurers, right?”

“Oh, that’s right. I’m at the lowest seat among them, but, well, I’m a little amazing too. But that’s the same for you.”

Yuto looked at him intently while wiggling his fingers.

“What do you mean?”

“You have the Hoarding Dragon’s adventurer badge, right? It’s an old custom. It’s considered fine to take adventurer badges. Even if someone is certified at a lower rank by the Guild, if they take it from a higher-ranked adventurer, they’re considered to have about the same ability as that adventurer badge. Well, it’s a legacy of the fairy-tale ‘hunters.’”

“Hmm? In other words, that means…”

“Ah, that’s what it means. Leaving those hopeless guys from earlier aside, any proper adventurer thinks this: the ‘dragon slayer’ is an adventurer at the level of Tower-Class.”

“Well, thanks for the generous evaluation, I guess.”

“Don’t be humble. At first, no one believed it. The dragon slayer thing had to be some kind of mistake. Maybe that Dragon Shrine Maiden-sama just started something to kill time again, that sort of thing.”

“Drako is evaluated like that by other people too…?”

“…Dra, ko? Hey, hey, hey, dragon slayer Naruhito-kun. Could it be, could it just be that by Drako, you mean the Hoarding Dragon?”

Tooyama’s casual words must have been unbelievable to someone living in this world.

Yuto, who should have been smiling the whole time, opened his mouth blankly.

“Ah, is that bad?”

Tooyama asked timidly.

“Taha!”

Yuto’s laughter echoed.

“Taha, tahahahahaha! Hey, hey, hey, that’s crazy! That’s seriously crazy! She’s a dragon, you know?! A monster who treats most Tower-Class Adventurers like infants, you know?! And you call her by a nickname? And Drako, of all things? You, tahahahahaha!!”

“Hmm. So that’s how she’s treated no matter who looks at her, huh?”

“Man, that’s crazy. I’m laughing, seriously. But yeah, as expected, you’re the real thing.”

Yuto wiped away the tears that had gathered from laughing too much and faced Tooyama.

“Huh?”

“Taha. Everyone thought the dragon slayer was nothing but a rumor. But what happened? Before anyone knew it, your footsteps kept getting carved deeper and deeper into this city.”

What Yuto spoke of were the many adventure tales Tooyama had caused in this city.

“A dragon formally ordered the Empire to search for you, and there was talk of making you her mate, then that was canceled. Around that point, some people started believing you existed.”

The stories counted off on his fingers sounded close to dubious rumors. However, all of them were true.

“Then next, you had a huge quarrel at the Guild with that living legend, the surviving member of the Hero Party. On top of that, a dragon showed up there. Haha, it’s funny just hearing about it. Well, after that, more and more came out. Like how you massacred the gatekeepers you disliked, and so on. Ah, the story about kidnapping children from the slums was half true.”

“Ugh, that’s what the rumors became?”

“There’s still more. Like how you’re the lovely Bishop’s lover, or how the progenitor of magicians, the All-Knowing Dragon, is your patron. Ah, I heard this one from a Tower-Class Adventurer who came from the Academy. He was talking about you while crying tears of blood from his eyes. He said something about his brain being destroyed.”

“Is that person okay?”

So the concept of having one’s brain destroyed exists here too? Tooyama let his thoughts wander to the convergence of history.

“Well, he’s alive, so he’s probably fine. What else? The fire at the illegal liquor brewery near the slums in the southern part of the city the other day, the one not approved by the Church. They say that was the dragon slayer’s doing too.”

Yuto’s voice lowered slightly.

His gaze as he stared at Tooyama seemed to be probing for something.

“Now, I wonder what that’s about.”

Tooyama feigned ignorance about that job. Jobs from the Church were often basically secret.

The Inquisition was, so to speak, in charge of the Angel Church’s dirty work. Tooyama understood that subtlety.

“Oops, did I poke a snake? I won’t ask too much. …Well, after that, there’s this: the Crows are looking for you.”

He murmured it casually.

The words, like oil floating on water, were clearly foreign within that conversation.

“…Oh, the Crows, huh.”

This too was an unresolved problem.

Perhaps because he had killed them all in the slum incident, no pursuers had appeared yet.

But it seemed to have become a rumor.

“Don’t look so scary, dragon slayer. At least I’m not all buddy-buddy with them. It’s just that it’s better not to mess with them too much. The Crows are the sort of people who’ve become a ‘salted request.’”

“Salted?”

“You don’t know this either? You really haven’t been showing your face at the Guild, have you? A salted request is, well, that. A request that stays stuck on the Guild request board forever because no one touches it.”

“…For a request to remain among those that get fought over…”

Tooyama remembered the state of the Guild early in the morning.

The main jobs of adventurers were “requests” and “hunting.”

Of the two, requests seemed more popular because the goal was clearly indicated and one could choose according to one’s ability. Adventurers always fought over request notices.

“Exactly. ‘Not worth it.’ A salted request is a troublesome request that even adventurers with eyes for money don’t want to do. Well, there are slightly more complicated reasons why the request to subjugate the Crows is salted.”

“Complicated reasons, huh… So, kind Yuto-san came to warn me?”

“That’s right. You’re lucky. The rumor that you clashed with the Crows is itself actually unusual. People who clash with them get retaliated against and killed right away. Well, regardless of the rumors, what I’m saying is that you’d better not get involved with them.”

“Thanks for the warning. I’m not exactly eager to get involved with dangerous guys because I like it.”

“That’s good. I’m glad you have common sense. After all, this city has a lot of people with strong quirks. Ah, right, Naruhito. Come to think of it, do you know that the Guild has its eye on you too?”

“The Guild?”

“Yeah, that. You’re unloading a mountain of Titanos Mare materials to merchants, right? That hard-to-hunt reptile-type monster. That’s become quite a topic at the Guild.”

“Ah… That. Was there some kind of problem?”

“Taha! Says the guy. You understand everything, don’t you? From the Guild’s point of view, they keep letting a money tree escape. There’s exquisitely no one who hunts Titanos Mare in those numbers. For first-rank adventurers and above, they aren’t profitable enough for the trouble, and for adventurers second-rank and below, hunting them without casualties would be difficult.”

“Oh? So what does the Guild say? Don’t tell me they’re going to come demanding I hand over my prey someday?”

“Tahaha! Don’t get so murderous, dragon slayer. There are a lot of idiots among adventurers, but the Guild, or at least that Guild Master, isn’t stupid. Apparently, some executives were trying to order you to appear, but that well-born Guild Master stopped them all. She probably doesn’t want to antagonize the dragon slayer no matter what.”

“Ah, that smart-looking person. Hmm, I’ve been causing her trouble. Should I show my face?”

“Taha, well, that might be fine. Though idiots like the ones earlier might pick a fight with you.”

“Huh?”

“No, that’s how it is, dragon slayer. The evaluation of you in this city is delicate.”

“What do you mean?”

“If someone understands reason to some degree, has a certain attitude, education, and calmness to look at themselves, they’ll understand your power. They’ll understand how much of a tightrope you’ve walked to survive in this city. But for people who don’t understand that, people who don’t understand your struggles or power, well, Naruhito, you stand out in a bad way.”

“Stand out in a bad way.”

“Yup. Well, they call it an adventure city for a reason. There are countless hot-blooded, dreamy, and overconfident idiots. To those guys, Naruhito, you are extremely annoying. ‘What’s with that grand nickname, dragon slayer? Seeing him in person, he’s not that impressive. I could do that too.’ There are more idiots who think like that in this city.”

“Ugh. So that’s what you mean by getting picked on if I go to the Guild.”

“That’s right. Adventurers are full of idiots. Well, when we Tower-Class Adventurers were all newbies, we also got picked on by those kinds of idiots. Rather, adventurers grow bigger by being polished by those countless idiots.”

“If idiots polish idiots, doesn’t that just create even bigger idiots?”

“Taha! That’s what adventurers are, right? Kings of idiots. Me and you both.”

“…You’re a strange guy, Yuto.”

Suddenly, Tooyama realized.

Was he the type to talk this smoothly with others?

Leaving aside his high school days, recently he should not have been someone who talked this much with anyone outside his circle.

“Naruhito, we haven’t known each other long, but I don’t want to hear that from you of all people. Oops, look at the time. Sorry, I talked for a long time. Actually, I have work after this. Work related to the great dragon slayer-dono too.”

Yuto’s voice as he laughed “hihi” flattened, becoming level.

Only now did Tooyama realize that the number of onlookers had grown smaller.

And also that gazes of a different kind from onlookers were staring at him.

“What did you say?”

“…Do you know that recently, the number of adventurers going missing on the plains and in the forest has been rapidly increasing? No, you probably don’t.”

“I don’t. Tower-Class Adventurer Yuto-san, why does that have anything to do with me?”

He had a bad feeling.

He moved his gaze toward Stolu and the children. They were properly there. However, Stolu also seemed to have sensed the abnormality. With an expressionless face, she was casually watching the surroundings.

“It does have something to do with you, dragon slayer Naruhito-kun. I said it, right? Adventurers are all idiots. A newcomer who recently appeared in town is apparently making a fortune hunting Titanos Mare. If he can do it, then we should be able to do it too. …The idiots who couldn’t understand your power thought that way.”

“Ah… I see. So the number of adventurers going on self-responsibility ‘hunts’ increased.”

“That’s right. The poor adventurers who misunderstood realize their mistake and your true ability only after they’ve landed in a serpent’s stomach. Well, if that were all, it’d be a common story in this city. Idiots overestimating their ability and becoming monster food is like the seasons going round. But this case didn’t end that simply.”

“Huh?”

“Recently, it’s not just low-ranking fourth- and third-rank adventurers. Second-rank groups who should have built up a fair amount of achievements and had their feet on the ground, and yesterday, finally, even first-rank adventurers didn’t return from the forest.”

“…There are no absolutes in this work. No matter how skilled someone is, in this job, dying from one mistake isn’t strange.”

“Yeah, Naruhito, you’re right. But yesterday, eighteen people vanished. Two groups of second-rank adventurers, one first-rank adventurer duo, and one mixed party of second-rank and first-rank adventurers all went missing on the same day, in the same place.”

Tap, tap, tap.

The seats around them were filled with people.

And yet, it was quiet. Quiet enough to hear the sound of Yuto tapping the wooden table with his finger.

“…That is…”

“The location is, of course, the forest. The place where you dragon slayer lot were making a killing. And for some reason, the dragon slayer and company, who had been energetically hunting serpents until very recently, have hardly gone out hunting lately.”

Yuto stared at Tooyama.

That friendly smile was no longer on his face in the slightest.

What was there instead were the cold eyes of one of humanity’s upper layers, the highest among adventurers.

The cold eyes of a Tower-Class Adventurer looking at prey.

“…What are you trying to say?”

Tooyama slowly muttered. It was a small voice, as though filled with the thought of not provoking a beast.

“No, nothing much. Humans think about all sorts of things. When investigating an abnormality that normally shouldn’t happen, one needs to think about and eliminate various factors one by one. …Yes, among the possibilities is something like this: that the ‘dragon slayer’ disliked other adventurers messing around in his hunting grounds and disposed of them.”

Tap…

Yuto stopped tapping the table.

This was probably what Yuto Wetral had truly wanted to discuss with Tooyama Naruhito.

“…Yuto, it seems you don’t have a sense of humor. What a roundabout way of talking. So that’s what you wanted to ask in the end? That’s a ridiculous suspicion.”

“Don’t rush, Tooyama Naruhito. I said it was one possibility. It hasn’t been decided yet.”

He was being suspected.

As the cause of the abnormality apparently occurring in the forest.

It seemed to be a situation grave enough to move a Tower-Class Adventurer, a human of the same rank as Drako.

And.

“…Tooyama!”

Stolu, waiting at a nearby seat, finally raised her voice.

Sweating coldly, Tooyama answered.

“Yeah, I know, Stolu. Ha, Yuto, you’re quite the villain too. Acting all friendly. Seems you’ve got quite a lot of friends.”

He looked around.

Ah, damn it, I got played. Damn it, you huge idiot. Tooyama cursed himself. The Tower-Class Adventurer before him had used the same method Tooyama used when setting up Relic Blade.

They were surrounded.

The onlookers and the people sitting at the surrounding seats had completely been replaced by adventurers disguised as citizens.

On top of that, all of them were higher-ranking than the guys from earlier.

“Taha, you notice after all. Yeah, my comrades have already surrounded you. All of them are second-rank or higher adventurers. I don’t really like doing it this way, but, well, I’m dealing with the ‘dragon slayer’ and the ‘First Knight.’ Think of it as respect.”

Without looking the least bit guilty, Yuto Wetral spun his words as a Tower-Class Adventurer.

Confidence and gazes overflowing with slight tension.

A professional face.

The troublesome nature of that man could be understood from his expression.

“Tch, Tooyama, this guy…”

It was Stolu.

She was probably the trump card who could overturn this situation, and she could not bear it any longer, beginning to move.

“Okay, stop there, young lady.”

“Don’t move. I don’t really like this sort of thing either.”

At the very last possible timing.

Moving as if threading through the gaps between breaths, two adventurers took positions behind Stolu.

A large man holding a slender sword pointed at her, and a thin man who had already finished drawing an absurdly huge bow.

The sword tip and arrowhead had Stolu locked on.

“…Tch. Skilled, this.”

“…Ah, sis.”

“Stolu-chan…”

The children let out frightened voices. As if answering those voices, Stolu smiled faintly and slowly raised both hands.

Good judgment, Stolu.

For the time being, Tooyama judged that Stolu would not go berserk.

“Ooh, River and Small, good timing. Nice.”

Yuto’s carefree voice was even more casual than when he had been talking with Tooyama.

This was probably the voice Yuto Wetral used toward his real friends.

“Shut up. You’re always dragging us into dangerous stuff.”

“For real. Yuto, pay us properly.”

The two adventurers who had been addressed by Yuto answered. They were the two who had restrained Stolu.

The fact that they seemed relaxed even in this savage situation was proof of their history in battle.

They would not be easy to deal with.

“Yes, yes, you two. Have I ever broken a promise?”

““Many times.””

A carefree exchange unfolded before him. This conversation, taking place in a situation where one wrong step would lead to deaths.

So this is what proper adventurers are like, Tooyama thought, slightly revising his perception of them.

“…You seem close.”

Tooyama exhaled and muttered.

He had underestimated them too much.

This was something to reflect on.

Tooyama Naruhito turned his gaze to the sky. This was exactly what it meant to be done in.

Somewhere in himself, from his interactions until now, he might have been looking down on “adventurers” compared to “Explorers.”

“Huh? I know, right? These guys are my childhood friends.”

“Oh, nice. Yuto, to tell you the truth, I didn’t have many friends until now. I haven’t really relied on others much.”

Tooyama Naruhito was someone from the side of those who had been robbed.

During adolescence, he had sought connections with people and run around trying to make friends, but in the end, Tooyama chose a way of life where he faced his own desires more than other people.

“In high school, there was a time when I did all sorts of things because I wanted that. I thought maybe if I helped people and stood out, I’d eventually get it. I was pretty stupid back then, really.”

“High school?”

He had tried to live alone, and once concluded that it was fine that way.

But people change.

Tooyama’s desire was never complete.

An “expanding self” sometimes invaded and changed others, and likewise, that self spread while changing shape through others.

“It really is a good thing. Whether you have them or not changes the options available in your life. Thinking that way, I can feel that struggling back in high school wasn’t wrong.”

Yuto Wetral had reliable adventurer friends. Tooyama Naruhito, who had lived alone, probably could not have competed with that.

But now—

“Dragon slayer, what are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about ‘friends,’ Tower-Class Adventurer.”

Tooyama Naruhito also had a reliable adventurer friend.

“?! Yuto!”

The large man called River spat as he shouted.

River was the first to notice that presence, but even then, it was already too late.

“Oh, whoa. Seriously, huh…”

A single drop of sweat appeared on Yuto’s face.

The blade of a thick knife was pressed against his Adam’s apple.

“Hello there, Tower-Class Adventurer-san. I’m the dragon slayer’s ‘friend,’ as introduced.”

Now, Tooyama Naruhito also had a “friend.”

Shadow Fang, La-Zaar, had taken the back of Tower-Class Adventurer Yuto Wetral.

No one had noticed. No one had known.

No one had grasped the Lizardonian who had disappeared on a certain minor errand before the adventurers spread their net around Tooyama’s group.

“You…”

The thin man tried to shift the aim of his bow—

“Do not move, Small. You have allowed this young lady to draw her sword.”

“This.”

In an instant’s opening, Stolu drew her sword from its sheath and pointed it at the large man’s throat.

A temporary stalemate where each side had a sword pointed at them.

The battle situation tilted back to even because of one man loved by shadows.

“…No, seriously? No, no, I’m surprised. Huh? Wait. I seriously didn’t notice. You Lizardonian, from where? No, when did you vanish? A skill?”

“No, I have always had a weak presence. Even if I disappear from a group, no one notices. Well, after finishing the task my boss gave me and returning, the atmosphere seemed rather tense, so I simply did it on impulse.”

Lazaar’s eyes did not smile at all as he looked down at Yuto.

“Phew, what a deep voice. If you press a knife to my throat on impulse, I can’t take it, seriously.”

Yuto played the fool.

The air grew even heavier. Silence piled up painfully.

“Yuto.”

“What is it, Naruhito?”

Tooyama’s voice broke it.

“We are different.”

Those words were simple. Straightforward, nearly lacking in explanation.

“…Taha.”

Yuto tried to stroke his own chin, then noticed the knife at his throat and gave a wry smile.

“You’re free to suspect us. Thinking logically, from the circumstances, we certainly look suspicious. But we haven’t done anything.”

“Taha… And the proof I can believe that? Dragon slayer, you have rampaged too much these past few days. Every time you move, large ripples spread through this city. As the Guild’s loyal doggy, I can’t help but be curious about you, right?”

Tap, tap, tap.

Yuto’s finger began tapping the table again.

“Try collecting eyewitness testimony about what we were doing on the day those adventurers disappeared. Seems you have quite a lot of friends, so it should be easy.”

“Hmm. You have terrifyingly steady nerves. Even like this, I am technically a Tower-Class Adventurer.”

“You’re pretty brave too, considering there’s a knife pressed to your neck.”

The two exchanged short words.

At either one’s command, this place would be stained with blood.

“…Now then, what should I do?”

Tap, tap, tap.

“Yuto.”

What a pain. Enough already.

Tooyama called out briefly.

“Hmm?”

Yuto’s finger stopped moving.

“—I don’t care.”

“Hmm?”

What slipped from Tooyama’s mouth was undoubtedly his true feeling.

“To be honest, I truly do not care about anything except myself and the people around me.”

They had done something to other adventurers?

They were suspected of that?

While forcing down the laughter welling up at the sheer absurdity of it, Tooyama looked at Yuto.

“Whether someone succeeds or fails. Whether someone lives or dies. I truly do not care.”

“…Huh?”

“Like I give a damn. Why would I need to go out of my way to interfere with other people? I truly don’t care. Listen carefully, Tower-Class Adventurer.”

Clatter.

Tooyama stood from his chair and looked down at Yuto Wetral, the Tower-Class Adventurer.

“To begin with, you lot, adventurers, are not even in my sight.”

He released those words.

He could feel the killing intent of the disguised adventurers surrounding them swelling.

The Tower-Class Adventurer, whose eyes had widened and who had frozen,

“…Taha.”

slowly raised a smile to his lips.

“Tahahahaha!! Hey, hey, hey, did you hear that? Small, Pine! Taha! This is great. True, if he says that, we’ve got no choice but to accept it!”

He broke into a broad laugh.

With tears gathering at the corners of his eyes, the Tower-Class Adventurer began laughing loudly while holding his stomach.

The pressure had already vanished.

“…You bastard. You tested me?”

Tooyama exhaled deeply.

Again, he sat back down in the chair with a clatter.

“Taha, no, no, sorry! Seriously, that one was our fault. Even if you killed me, I couldn’t complain. I’m serious by nature, so I can’t cut corners on work.”

Waving his hand loosely, Yuto laughed.

“Small, River, good work. That’s enough.”

At Yuto’s signal, the adventurers restraining Stolu slowly put away their weapons. The hostility of the onlookers around them also gradually quieted.

“Stolu, Lazaar, thanks. It’s all right now.”

At Tooyama’s signal, Stolu reluctantly sheathed her sword while still carrying a dangerous atmosphere.

When Lazaar gave him a look asking if that was all right, Tooyama nodded, and the thick knife was lowered from Yuto’s neck.

“Man, I really did something bad, Naruhito. No, no, it’s been a while since I felt my liver chill. True, to the dragon slayer, other adventurers really don’t matter at this point.”

Yuto smiled brightly. The darkness from earlier was gone from his face.

Most likely, everything had been a bluff from the beginning.

“Yuto, your job is…”

“Yeah, just as you guessed. ‘Investigating the abnormality in the forest region, or resolving it.’ Well, that’s it. Even Tower-Class Adventurers, aside from a few lunatics, are basically errand boys for the Guild. I’ll write clearly in the report to the executives that the dragon slayer is unrelated.”

“I’m grateful for that, but why did your suspicion suddenly clear?”

“Eh? Because I already have a rough idea what’s causing this abnormality.”

“Huh?”

At Yuto’s casual declaration, Tooyama’s mouth fell open.

“…Dragon slayer-san, I understand how you feel. This guy is just like this.”

“Somehow, I’m really sorry… dragon slayer-dono.”

The two skilled men who had restrained Stolu muttered with tired faces. They had probably been made to go along with Yuto’s act.

“Huh? What’s with you, Small and River? You look like you’re about to go bald. Ah, right. I’ve got a rough idea about this situation. Skilled adventurers disappearing, an abnormality in a hunting ground where that normally shouldn’t happen. Well, it’s probably the work of an Elder.”

“Elder?”

“Huh? Hey, Naruhito, even if you haven’t been showing your face at the Adventurers’ Guild, to be in the adventure city and not know about Elders… Ah, actually, that sounds possible. You were an adventurer slave, right?”

“Yeah, I’m ignorant. Yuto, I was suspected for no good reason and made my companions go through trouble. You could at least teach me that much, right?”

“Hmm, well, that’s true. Elders are, well, how should I put it? They’re like Tower-Class Adventurers among adventurers. In short, the Guild calls monsters that are outside standards ‘Elders.’”

“Elder… Does that mean they’ve existed since ancient times?”

“Hmm, that’s mostly right. Species whose existence has been confirmed since the Great War era, types that exist only in Herel’s Tower, and then exceptions like the one this time. Well, in one phrase, it’s a name for monsters outside common sense that are troublesome to classify.”

“An exception like the one this time…?”

“Yeah. Usually, Elders are easy to find because they’re huge or emit a presence. But this one is cunning. So far, we haven’t even been able to find it. Well, that’s exactly why suspicion fell on you too… Among long-lived monsters, some are as smart as humans. Elders with human intelligence and monster power have been confirmed in the past.”

“You think this abnormality is that thing’s doing?”

“Well, that’s the most likely possibility. Adventurer’s intuition, you could say. It’s a lot closer to reality than the idiotic prediction that the dragon slayer was disposing of his business rivals.”

“You really have a wonderful personality.”

“Don’t praise me. But I’m glad I got to talk with you. Next time, let’s go drinking slowly. I really want to hear the story of the man who conquered dragons.”

“I don’t like your pace, so no.”

“Taha! Don’t be so cold, dragon slayer. Now, I should get back to work. Well, I’m working right now too.”

Yuto stood up. There was no opening in his movements.

“…Yuto Wetral.”

“What is it, Tooyama Naruhito?”

There were many things Tooyama wanted to say, but he thought of one fact.

He was annoyed at being dragged into a Tower-Class Adventurer’s job, but he had one payback to give.

“Thanks for helping. You saved us.”

He meant it as sarcasm.

He grinned and murmured his thanks.

“—Taha! You really are interesting! Ah, right, Naruhito. As compensation for the trouble, I’ll teach you something that might be useful for what you were talking about earlier.”

Yuto grinned in the same way.

“Huh?”

“I’m from a country town in the Western Territory, and the one thing we can brag about is our meat dishes. You were talking about sausages or something, right?”

“Since when were you listening, bastard?”

“Taha! Ah, Naruhito. Try making sausages with the meat of the beast-furred species on the plains, Giant Boar and Horn Rabbit. The ratio was, I think, seventy percent Giant Boar and thirty percent Horn Rabbit. It should probably turn out tastier than any sausage sold in the adventure city.”

“Sausage from monster meat?”

“Yup. Beast-furred species taste similar to wild animals and livestock, and they’re easy-to-eat races. Their meat is loaded with fat and delicious. Well, there might be some variation in taste, but that’s part of the charm, right?”

“…I see. So that’s why the meat I ate at Drako’s place was…”

How much of the conversation had he heard? Tooyama was curious, but by chance, he had heard something useful for the bakery business.

Regardless of whether it was true, trying it would be fine.

“Well, that’s how it is. Dragon Festival. You’re doing something too, right? I’m looking forward to it, Naruhito. Small, River, next is the plains and the forest. Let’s work to get our pocket money from the Guild.”

“I mean, I want danger pay.”

“Young lady, pardon me. See you.”

“Tch. There won’t be a next time, this. Pretty boy and big man.”

“Ooh, scary.”

“See ya, dragon slayer and merry friends. We’re all residents of this wonderful city. Let’s keep getting along from now on.”

Yuto Wetral left while waving his hand. The adventurers under him scattered in the same manner.

“…He was hard to pin down, Naruhito.”

Lazaar sighed while watching the back of the departing Tower-Class Adventurer.

“Yeah. There are too many troublesome people, and it makes me sick of it. But Lazaar, you saved me. That was the best possible timing for your appearance.”

“Heh, indeed. Or so I would like to say, but I was drenched in cold sweat. I was the one pressing the knife to him, but I did not feel alive at all. So that is humanity’s critical point, a person above level five.”

“Ah, right, there was a level system. Stolu, thanks too. Having you there saved me.”

Fatigue hit him all at once.

Stolu being calmer than expected had also helped.

“Hmph, Tooyama, this is unlike you. That disagreeable Tower-Class Adventurer was, well, not an enemy, so he may be fine, but those people who tried to lay hands on Niko-chan, those pieces of trash. To think you let them escape.”

Stolu, however, pouted slightly in displeasure.

Apparently, the First Knight was displeased that he had let those guys, the adventurers who had picked a fight first, escape.

At that, Lazaar laughed a little.

“Escape?”

Tooyama tilted his head with an expressionless face.

“That is right. If it were me, I could have disposed of all of them there. It was a quarrel between adventurers. Even if a knight were involved, no, in that situation, there was no doubt that we would not have been punished.”

“Ah, I see. Stolu, you are misunderstanding one thing.”

“…What do you mean, Lazaar?”

“It is simple. Our dragon slayer is, very unfortunately, not that kind.”

“Eh?”

Stolu tilted her head blankly.

“Stolu.”

“…This?”

Tooyama stood up and placed his hand on Stolu’s light-blue hair.

Stolu did not seem to dislike it.

The exchange with the Tower-Class Adventurer had been tiring.

But there was still work left.

“Take care of Niko and the others. Everyone must be tired today. Let’s return to the inn and rest. Lazaar and I will go settle a small errand. Let’s go, Lazaar.”

“Yes, Naruhito. I will follow you.”

After patting Stolu and then the heads of all the children, Tooyama began walking in a certain direction.

His eyes were fixed straight on the direction those certain people had left in.

“Ah, wait, Tooya—”

The child with light-blue hair watched the backs of the adults walking away. Her foot started to move forward as if to follow, but then turned toward the slum children behind her.

“…Ah, I see. Hmph… So to you, I am a child…”

Stolu’s mutter neither pursued Tooyama nor reached him.

Ping.

Ping.