Chapter 62 – v2c23 The Town’s Adventurers

「For the next three weeks, bring middle-layer material free of charge to satisfy the demand of the townfolks.」

It was the memory of what Raust-san told us while we were prostrated.
It was still clear in my memory.
After all, the condition was too light considering what we had done to Raust-san until now.

…And that was when I first felt guilty about Raust-san.

Until now, even when I apologized to Raust-san, what I felt was fear and not guilt.
Those who are weak deserve to be oppressed.
Everyone lives just for himself.
That was my common sense as someone who lived in this Labyrinth City since I was born as an orphan.

Using that common sense, I shouldn’t have been able to complain even if I was killed by Raust-san.
Because in Labyrinth City, the strong did as they please, and we have used that to abuse Raust-san.
Now that the position reversed, there was no way I could complain if Raust-san decided to return in kind.
But Raust-san was behaving as if he didn’t care about that.

It was then I realized that he was a special kind of being compared to us.

As a Labyrinth City orphan like us, no, while in a much worse environment than us, he became an adventurer completely different than us.
I felt a somewhat strange feeling in front of this being, and then I made a decision in my heart.

I have to make up for what I have done to this person.

To be honest, I didn’t like the people in this town.
They were weak people who couldn’t fight.
Doing something for those people who were beneath me was not something I was willing to do.
Even so, for Raust-san, I decided to forget that feeling and obey.
With that determination, I decided to bring the materials to the town.

But at that time I didn’t know.

Even though I tried to repay Raust-san, I ended up getting something I couldn’t return.
Also, every day I spent in the town would become something irreplaceable in my mind………

「…Old man, err, please take care of me.」

In the early morning, Louis, the leader of the boys who asked us to teach them the sword, called me while swinging the sword in the vacant lot near the town.
Seeing him calling me out timidly without his usual cheekiness, I was almost laughing.

Perhaps he was thinking that he might be inconveniencing me by learning the sword from me.
Even though me agreeing in the first place meant that I didn’t care about being inconvenienced.

「Who’s an old man! Call me Marnell, I told you so, you damn brat!」

However, I hid my inner thought and said so bluntly.
While pretending to be as usual.

「Wha-! Shut up! You’re an old man, so I call you old man!」

Responding to my words, Louis was taken aback for a moment and then shouted at me.
By that time, he was already back to his usual self, I was about to laugh.
Right, keep it that way.
You kids don’t need to weirdly fuss about others.

Even without doing that, we had already been helped enough by Louis and the others.

「Cheeky brat. Well, enough of that. Today is our first day, so for now, let’s start from practice swings.」

As I hid that feeling inside my chest, I pretended to be angry from Louis’ words and started the training.
Separately, I was thinking about what kind of conversations my peers who were teaching other children about the sword would be having right now.

It was another peaceful day for Labyrinth City’s town.

After finishing the training with Louis and the others and having breakfast at their house, I met with the others that also selling material to this town in a cafe.
The woman from the cafe put a cup of fruit juice in front of us as we had now become a regular.

「Here’s for you. Thank you for everything you have done.」

After I thanked her for the fruit juice, I carried the cup to my mouth and took a sip.

「…Delicious.」

The refreshing flavor spread in my mouth and I leaked such words despite myself.

Of course, the fruit juice was by no means cheap.
Especially in Labyrinth City, where the price was inevitably increased because there was no choice but to import the fruit.
And yet, the people from this cafe gave me the juice without worrying about that, it gave me a warm feeling in my heart.

「This is a good town.」

It was then my party member that sat next to me, Gozzu, whispered to me.
I silently nodded, agreeing to his words.

It had been only a couple of days since I came to this town.
But in that short time, our value changed greatly.

At first, we never had a good sentiment toward the townfolks.
Bluntly speaking, we looked down on them.
To the end, we only handing over materials because we had an obligation to Raust-san.
Maybe they also sensed that? The townfolks also didn’t show us a good reception at first.

It changed two days after we handed over materials to this town, when I came back with a minor injury from a trivial mistake.
That was par for the course.
There was no healer in our party, there were times we couldn’t heal our injuries immediately if we got hurt.
That was why we always had healing medicine ready, and we would ignore small scratches.

「You! Use this!」

However, the reaction of the townfolks who didn’t know that was different.
The innkeeper woman called Marry ignored my refusal and handed me a healing medicine, and then she bowed in front of the still confused me.

I did bad things to the person Raust-san introduced.
Thank you for bringing us the material to the point of getting yourself injured, was what she said.

It was then the townfolks’ relationship with us changed.
Originally, we brought the material for free to repay Raust-san, but now, they paid us properly and started to say their gratitude to us.

……At first, we couldn’t hide our confusion about the change.

That sudden change in attitude was only a part of the reason for our confusion, more than that, it was the first time we were given such favorable treatment.
Since born until now, it was just a life full of struggle.

However, the townfolks’ attitude didn’t feel unpleasant.

We couldn’t change our rough attitude to the good-natured people in this town.
Only because we didn’t know how.
And yet, the town folks didn’t hate it.

── And then, over time, the townfolks had become irreplaceable for us.

We found ourselves became close with the townfolks and we wanted to do our best for them.

We tempered our body and tried to bring as many labyrinth material as possible.
The adventurers also started to teach the non-adventurers children individually about the swords.

All the actions were based on that thought.

All of them were our first experience and were irreplaceable.

「I owed Raust-san a favor I could never pay back.」

I whispered that as I recalled the figure of the benefactor that brought me to this place.
The me that was looking down on the people in this town was no more.
No, it wasn’t just me, the other adventurers that Raust-san brought here also not looking down at the townfolks anymore.

The others with good ears picked up my whisper and nodded along, seeing them agreeing with me, I laughed hard.

「Hey, you guys!」

However, the laugh was stopped by the figure that rushed into the room way after the supposed meeting time.
The adventurer was Salams, the magician in my party.
The meeting time was almost over, I was about to complain to Salams who was late, but seeing his expression, the words stuck in my throat.
Salams opened his mouth without paying notice to me.

「Raust-san, he has been banned from entering and leaving the labyrinth!」

And then, along with the words he uttered, everyone in the cafe put on a blank expression.