novelraw Chapter 11 : Meat Delivery (1)
Chapter 11 : Meat Delivery (1)
Chapter 11 - Meat Delivery (1)
The hunter bastard stared at me with eyes full of suspicion and said.
“Don't tell me, you bastard, that thing in your hand……”
My location was in front of the gambling tent and in my hand was a jingling money pouch.
Before long, the suspicion in Flaco's eyes turned to rage.
Stride by stride, Flaco walked towards me.
“You bastard…… Did you gamble with Bert's money?”
But he didn't start throwing punches recklessly like that other day.
Because.
“Hey. Meat-seller.”
Jeros, who had taken a hefty sum of my money, had his arm around my shoulder.
“Let's talk, with words. Why are you gathering mana so recklessly? You want to go at it? Heh heh.”
Did someone say that having anger management issues and being good at controlling anger can coexist?
Flaco could only clench his fists tightly; he couldn't hit me.
“And what are you doing here, Jeros? Why are you with Bert's outsider slave–”
“Why are we together? It's nothing much. Bert entrusted this friend to me. Oh, right. The shop too!”
At that, Flaco's two eyes widened as if they were about to pop out.
Of course, I was just as surprised on the inside.
'He tells a lie like that without even coordinating with me?'
When I barely managed to nod as if nothing was wrong, Flaco, greatly flustered, began to stammer.
“Th-That can't be. Why would Bert entrust him to the likes of you, and not me?!”
“Did you just say 'the likes of you'?”
Jeros's killing intent spread in an instant.
Flaco, as if realizing his mistake, took a step back.
“N-No. That's not what I meant……”
Overpowered by the atmosphere, Flaco trailed off and shook his head, and Jeros slowly withdrew his killing intent.
“Getting scared, are we. Right, well. I guess it could be baffling from your point of view. I'll let it slide just this once.”
“……”
“Anyway, that's what happened. Heh heh.”
Flaco's mouth fidgeted as if he was about to say something, but he ended up biting his lower lip tightly and glared back and forth between me and Jeros.
It seemed he was trying to grasp the truth with his 'hunter's intuition'.
'But Jeros's words are a lie.'
Did he figure it out?
While an unidentifiable, uneasy feeling was rising within me.
“Outsider. Are Jeros's words true?”
Flaco asked me.
Dammit. What am I supposed to say to this?
The moment I was rapidly racking my brain.
“Hey, meat-seller.”
Jeros took his hand off my shoulder, gripped the hilt of his sword, and spoke.
“Do my words not sound like words to you?”
“……”
“I told you clearly. That Bert entrusted this friend and the shop to me. So why are you asking again?”
Shwing.
“Do you want to die?”
Ah, so this is what they call 'the one who farted gets angry'.
But it seems to be okay.
Because Jeros looks strong enough to get away with it.
“W-Wait! Alright, I'm sorry. Just get out of the way.”
Flaco avoided Jeros's gaze and pointed at the gambling den entrance we were blocking.
“Hmm. We were coincidentally blocking the way. Heh heh.”
Only after confirming that Flaco's spirit was completely broken did Jeros sheathe his sword and make way.
“Looks like you had some fun? How much did you win?”
“I'm not enough of an idiot to talk about money with the likes of you.”
Flaco passed between me and Jeros and entered the tent, and Jeros watched Flaco disappear and said to me.
“I'll count this one as a freebie, specially for you. Heh heh.”
Is that something to say after already taking 2 shillings?
'Crazy bastard.'
I can't tell if I should hate this bastard or be grateful to him.
……
Flaco wanted to spit right away.
Not only was his mood utterly foul, but he also had to swallow all the words he wanted to spit out.
But he still had to endure.
Because if he did something like that in 'One-armed Derek's' tent, it wouldn't end well for him.
However,
“You fuuucker! Find that little brown-haired piece of shit kid and kill him now!!”
The inside of the tent was extremely chaotic.
Derek was throwing the ledger and screaming,
“Boss. Please calm down for a moment……”
“Calm down? If you were me, do you think you could calm down?!”
His subordinates were busy trying to stop him.
“Hey, Flaco.”
Just then, one of Derek's subordinates who he was acquainted with called out to Flaco.
“We're busy right now, so come back later.”
Normally, Flaco would have meekly listened to those words.
But Flaco's feet wouldn't easily move.
Because his intuition was kicking in.
Flaco was the one who had seen Jeros and the outsider come out of the tent.
It was an intuition that if the atmosphere here was this chaotic right after they left, there must be some information that could be useful to him.
“Don't tell me, is it like this because of Jeros and the outsider?”
Just as he thought, the man let out a sigh first.
“Hoo. Yeah. You must have heard the rumors about the boss and that psycho bastard. If you don't want to get hit by the sparks, get out of here quick.”
“By any chance, could you tell me what happened a moment ago?”
“Ssshp! I told you, you can't.”
“No, listen! I'm asking because I think I might be able to help you. You know who I am. I'm Flaco, the only hunter in the frontier town of Granpn!”
In the end, Derek's subordinate glanced around cautiously, pulled Flaco to a corner of the tent, and explained what had just happened.
'The outsider won over 3 shillings?'
And furthermore, that Jeros had helped him collect the money.
Looking back, the outsider was the one holding the money pouch too.
'This is strange. What the hell is going on.'
Jeros's crazy personality was so infamous in town that even if Jeros was looking after the outsider, it was a strange picture.
As he slowly organized the information in his head, the suspicion Flaco had held from before began to expand.
No matter how stupid and eccentric a pervert Bert was, would he entrust his shop and his slave to that psycho guard?
No. He wouldn't.
'If that's the case.'
As Bert's close friend, he had waited quietly until now, but he now felt that it was time for him to step in.
“Milton. Could you help me out?”
“What?”
“The money your boss lost, I'll find it for him. In return, you help me out.”
Because it's hard to handle Jeros alone.
……
The entire way back to the shop with Jeros, I couldn't shake off my uneasy feeling.
It was already a Flaco who would stop by the shop with a strangely suspicious gaze,
So would he really believe Jeros's ridiculous lie?
And I didn't even answer Flaco's question either.
'The probability that he's figured it out is high.'
Even without a Senses stat, it was a situation worth being suspicious of contextually.
And on top of that, the opponent is a hunter with good intuition.
The probability that he's figured it out is probably at least 80%, to put it conservatively.
Once my thoughts reached this point, I concluded that I couldn't just stand by.
“Jeros.”
“What?”
“I think Flaco is going to figure it out. Or already has.”
“Figure what out.”
I looked around and spoke in the smallest voice possible.
“What do you mean? The deal between us. And further, the fact that Bert is dead.”
“Is that so?”
But Jeros indifferently dug his ear and blew on his finger.
“So what?”
This bastard.
“Won't I be in danger, no, won't our shop and money be in danger? If he suddenly attacks when you're not here, I won't be able to handle it.”
“I wonder. If he's figured out the deal between us, he won't be able to touch you. He'd be scared of getting killed by me, wouldn't he? Heh heh.”
Uh, that does seem to have a point, but in my experience, these medieval guys aren't that rational.
“Still, there's a chance he might attack, isn't there?”
“Hmm, well, that could happen. Heh heh.”
“……You'll come rescue me in time then, right? Not me, of course, but the shop and the money.”
“I wonder. If I'm not busy, I'll try. Ah! If by chance I'm late, I'll be sure to go collect the stolen money. Heh heh.”
The way he says such nonsense while snickering makes him twice as annoying.
Well, I didn't have high expectations for this bastard in the first place.
That's why I led the conversation this way.
“In that case, what you're saying is, if you're busy or not here, I'll have to just take it helplessly. Because I'm weak.”
Only then, as if realizing he had fallen for my leading questions(?), Jeros stopped walking.
“Are you asking me to teach you swordsmanship right now?”
He's a bastard who's astonishingly quick on the uptake.
“Yes. Even if you're busy, I should be able to protect the shop by myself. So please, teach me.”
When I said that confidently, Jeros smirked.
“Why should I? Why do something that doesn't even make money?”
“Didn't you hear what the Battalion Commander said?”
If it's Jeros, he definitely would have heard.
The words the bald Battalion Commander told me, to 'learn a lot from Jeros'.
“Haa. That man has a real talent for making things annoying for people.”
Just as I thought, Jeros's eyebrow twitched.
“Ah, I don't know, it's a pain in the ass! Go complain to the Battalion Commander. I refuse.”
To think that even name-dropping the Battalion Commander wouldn't work.
In the end, I decided to make an offer Jeros couldn't refuse.
“One hour of lessons for 1 shilling. How does that sound?”
Jeros's eyebrow twitched even more than when I mentioned the Battalion Commander.
“You, spending money recklessly just because you earned a little? Heh heh.”
1 shilling is not a small amount,
but if I thought of it as the price for my life, I could gladly pay any amount.
I took the last silver coin from my money pouch and showed it to Jeros,
And Jeros looked at the coin intently and then spoke.
“My teachings are difficult even for the soldiers here. Are you still okay with that?”
In the end, money really is the answer for a money-crazy person.
“I'm o—”
Snatch!
Before my words could even finish, the shilling disappeared from my hand.
“Follow me.”
Jeros changed direction and led the way.
As I hastily followed his back,
'Why am I so excited.'
At the thought of being able to learn how to get stronger, my heart began to pound like crazy.
……
Late at night, in a shabby home.
Flaco confirmed the smoke rising from the east side of town through his window.
'Good.'
A week ago,
He had asked Milton, the subordinate of One-armed Derek whom he had met at the demonstration's gambling den.
To create a small commotion, aiming for the time when Jeros was on duty.
Then it would be difficult for Jeros to pay attention to 'The Fairy's Leg'.
'And for that outsider bastard, too.'
Use the commotion as a chance to kidnap the outsider, torture him, and find out the truth.
This was Flaco's plan.
'Time to get going.'
Flaco, with a malicious smile, grabbed his bow and arrows and headed outside.
He walked on the snowy path.
Crunch, crunch.
His opponent is a person, but his steps are quiet, as if he were hunting.
His close friend's shabby inn, The Fairy's Leg, is not far.
He was able to arrive shortly.
BANG, BANG.
As usual, he knocked on the door and called for the outsider.
“Hey, outsider!”
BANG, BANG.
Hmm. Usually the door would open after waiting this long, but it's a bit slow today.
BANG, BANG.
“It's me! Flaco!”
A moment later.
With a creeak, the door opened.
The face of the black-haired outsider bastard could be seen through the crack in the door.
An atmosphere that was clearly hiding its inner thoughts and being vigilant.
And now, that feeling was even stronger than before.
'For an outsider, he's quick on the uptake.'
But what can he do, for someone of his station.
The only thing the bastard could do was get caught and be tortured by his own hands.
Still, just in case, he checked first.
“Hasn't Bert returned?”
“……He hasn't returned yet.”
The fact that his hesitation before answering was longer was not just his imagination.
“I see. What about the meat?”
“I was just about to tell you about that……”
WHAM!
Before the outsider's words could even finish, Flaco slammed his fist into the outsider's solar plexus.
Because for reliably knocking someone out, there's no better place than the solar plexus.
And so, the outsider's body bent forward.
However,
“……?”
The sensation of his fist connecting felt somehow strange.
A sensation as if something that would be hard to feel if he had struck a flat abdomen was enveloping his fist.
Just as he was feeling this sense of incongruity.
“This……”
The outsider's voice was heard.
“It really works?”
Before he knew it, the outsider's body was standing straight, and in that moment, Flaco couldn't believe the sight before his eyes.
“?!”
His fist, imbued with mana, was blocked by the outsider's palm.