Ch.24Debt Settlement (5)

Morning came, and Seriya and I got up, scratching our heads, and headed to the Adventurer’s Guild without breakfast.

Perhaps because we ate too much yesterday, despite the night having passed, beer and pork were still being digested in our stomachs.

“When we get paid today, let’s go pay off the debt.”

“Sounds good.”

Since we would receive 50 silver coins plus additional compensation, it would be at least 60-70 coins.

Adventurers affiliated with the Adventurer’s Guild didn’t pay taxes according to ancient decrees, so we could spend our earnings without any worries.

Because of this tax exemption, numerous cities and nations were desperate to extract money from adventurers by any means, but this was based on an imperial edict issued by the emperor of the ancient empire who established the Adventurer’s Guild with the consent of the four gods, and secular rulers couldn’t ignore this restriction.

In fact, there were a few rulers who tried to ignore it, but they all died in excruciating pain, their skin flayed and flesh cut into pieces before their subjects by apostles sent by Karil, and their souls were shattered for the crime of daring to ignore a contract made in the name of the gods, preventing them from reaching the afterlife.

After this happened a few times, no one dared suggest abolishing the tax exemption privilege given to adventurers, and the Adventurer’s Guild continued to thrive as a den and nest for young people and swindlers seeking to enjoy tax exemption privileges.

Once again, glory be to the Four Great Gods above the heavens.

As long as we slaughter for the Blood God, love for the God of Eros, seek knowledge for the God of Wisdom, and work for the God of Prosperity, no power or authority shall bind us.

“I still don’t understand something.”

“What?”

“Those bandits. Why did they attack us on the road? If they had ambushed us in the forest, they could have won easily.”

The forest…

Indeed, if we had been ambushed in the forest where friend and foe are difficult to distinguish, it could have been disastrous.

Falling from a horse would make it hard to recover from the shock, and if clubs and blades came flying in that moment, even I in chain mail wouldn’t have been safe.

Thinking about it, I pondered with Seriya why they hadn’t ambushed us in the forest, and soon came to an answer.

“Maybe they were also after the sap?”

“The sap?”

“Yes. They clearly said ‘leave the sap and go.’ That means this sap, whatever it’s used for, has a specific purpose, and it’s valuable enough to readily hire a mercenary group of over 20 people to secure it.”

“Hah. That damn sap. Why couldn’t they just collect it themselves? It wasn’t even that dangerous.”

“That’s hard to say. We rode horses and didn’t get bitten by insects or vipers, nor did we encounter wild animals or monsters.”

“Hmm… I guess that’s true.”

The sap was probably not used alone but consumed as an additive or catalyst for something.

No matter how much we collected over two days of hard work… I grew up in a port city. That means I know how much cargo is required for serious business operations.

Of course, Rascal’s scale was only about one-tenth compared to the port city of Parcifal, but even so, from a business perspective, it’s hard to understand why they wouldn’t do such a simple job that a two-person team could accomplish.

If I hadn’t worked in the dangerous docks to earn more money, such reasoning would have been impossible, so life truly is unpredictable, isn’t it?

“Those mercenaries were probably sent by a competitor of our client. People who need the same sap. They tried to steal our sap to sabotage the client’s business.”

“That’s a clean deduction. You could have made a name for yourself as a spell caster rather than a battler.”

“Well, with sufficient background knowledge, one can only converge to this conclusion.”

“Few people have that ‘sufficient background knowledge,’ Victor. You need to be a bit more proud of your wisdom.”

The scoundrel praised the young battler with those words.

To be honest, it felt quite good.

*

Clink~ Clink~

As we entered the Adventurer’s Guild, one of the staff approached me.

“Are you Victor, the party leader of the Iron Walker party?”

“That’s me.”

“Yesterday evening, the client came to the Adventurer’s Guild, confirmed the completion of the request, and paid the reward. Please go to the reception warehouse to collect your compensation.”

“Ah. Thank you.”

I expressed my gratitude lightly, and the staff member nodded slightly before withdrawing.

By the way, party leader of the Iron Walker party…

It wasn’t incorrect, but hearing someone directly call me a party leader somehow made my shoulders feel heavier.

As I approached the reception warehouse, the idle receptionist came running with a pitter-patter sound.

“Welcome. How may I help you?”

“I’m Victor, leader of the Iron Walker party. I heard the client processed the request completion yesterday?”

“Ah… please wait a moment.”

After saying that, the receptionist began rummaging through the pile of request forms, and soon found our request form, examined it carefully, and then handed over two money pouches.

Seeing that there were two pouches, I assumed one must be the additional reward.

“Here, I’ll give you a total of 100 silver coins, combining the reward and additional compensation.”

“Hmm.”

A total of 100 silver coins…

That’s quite a substantial amount for flint-rank adventurers like us.

But considering the 23 bandits and the labor intensity in the forest with no end in sight, it seemed like a fair reward.

Or perhaps they had set such a generous compensation assuming a party with more members would take this request.

Since parties with many members are organizations where money flows out just by breathing, I thought the latter was more plausible.

I grabbed the two money pouches and put them in Seriya’s roll-up bag, then left the Adventurer’s Guild again to head to the private bank attached to the gambling house to pay off the debt.

“100 silver coins. That’s not money we can easily get our hands on.”

“Indeed. Looks like we hit the jackpot this time.”

We walked through the streets with light steps.

Debt meant constraint, and this situation meant liberation.

Now 300 would soon become 200, so Seriya would break another of the shackles binding her.

*

“This can’t be… this can’t be happening…”

Dragging sounds…

Inside the bank, a man with an expression that was hard to tell whether he was laughing or crying was being dragged away by security guards.

“It’s always like this here.”

“Well, it is a gambling house.”

I know well how gambling can devastate a person’s life.

For vagrants like me, gambling was one of the few opportunities to turn our lives around, and people in similar situations often clung to gambling, trying to climb higher.

But whether you win or lose, if you realize that the only one who profits is the gambling house owner, you would never even mention the word gambling.

This was a decision I made when I was 10 years old, after seeing someone who boasted about winning big money get beaten to death by thugs sent by the gambling house owner and have his fortune taken away right before my eyes.

“I’ll wait here.”

“Alright.”

Seriya took out 100 silver coins from the roll-up bag and approached the receptionist.

Looking around, I noticed people watching Seriya with amazed expressions.

Everyone else had come to borrow money, but Seriya alone had come to pay it back, so it was a natural reaction.

Of course, that wouldn’t stop them from gambling.

Rather, they’d probably think, “See! I can win and pay it back too!” and shuffle the cards more eagerly.

Thinking about it, Seriya was relatively better off.

A gambling-addicted wood elf scoundrel… I had no confidence in controlling such a person.

As the old saying goes, a gambler will gamble with their tongue even if their arms and legs are cut off.

“…Confirmed. You have repaid 100 silver coins out of the principal of 300 silver coins, and the remaining principal is 200 silver coins.”

“Phew…”

Hearing the bank clerk’s confirmation, Seriya returned to me with a relieved expression.

“Did you wait long?”

“Not really. I was just people-watching here.”

“People-watching?”

She flapped her ears with amusement.

…So she could flap them like that.

“It’s nothing special. Gambling addicts always have interesting faces.”

“Ah… I think I know what you mean.”

She smiled softly as we escaped together from the purgatory of the gambling house filled with dying souls.