Chapter 11
I took Elena into my arms.
She felt surprisingly light.
Carrying her, I signaled to Jeina.
Jeina determined the winner and ended the match.
Elena won.
As expected, Darko was no match for Elena.
"B-Big brother..."
Darko, still sprawled on the ground, looked up at me.
"How could you do this to me, brother? Huh? How could you do this over some girl you've only known for a few days...? I-I'll do better, so... l-let's pretend this match never happened, all right?"
"You brought this on yourself. If you did it, deal with it yourself."
"You know who I am. That person won't let this go."
Darko, who had been parachuted in as the guild's swordsmanship instructor, had connections among the nobility.
As an A-rank adventurer, Eck had even received word from a noble's retainer asking him to look after Darko and help him settle in.
From where I stood, if I laid hands on him before the noble had a chance to weigh in, I would only bring unnecessary trouble down on myself.
Besides, this guy seemed not to understand what he had done.
"Unbelievable. A noble isn't going to bail you out for tripping over your own feet."
"B-Big brother...!"
"Shut your mouth before I feel like killing you."
"Ghk..."
I was about to support Elena and head into the guild when I stopped.
"Darko."
"...."
"You should be grateful to that noble. If it weren't for that person, I'd have killed you already."
"E-even now...? This isn't funny..."
"Does it sound like a joke?"
I was dumbfounded.
"I wonder what sort of joke the noble will make."
"......Huh?"
I didn't need to think twice about what his "huh?" meant.
Realizing that the power he had wielded all this time was now tightening around his own neck, he fell silent as a mouse.
***
The next day came.
The guild was as noisy as ever.
From midday on, adventurers guzzling liquor and traveling merchants mingling among them traded news and swapped stories.
The traveling merchants were especially interested in the A-rank adventurer.
"Hey, that's him, right?"
"The A-rank adventurer, Black Wolf Eck."
"He's the one who raised a newcomer all the way to C-rank in no time."
Eyes gradually rolled toward me.
Being an A-rank adventurer was enough to attract attention, but the fact that I had cultivated a talent like Elena drew even more of it.
Tap.
Jeina set down a glass of liquor.
"You must be pleased to be so popular."
"It's pointless attention."
I tilted my glass and ignored the gazes around me. But I couldn't stop the words coming out of those idiots' mouths.
"Three days? An I-rank beat a C-rank in just three days?"
"The way that girl moved when she dodged Darko's attacks. She moved like this. Even among C-ranks, you won't find movements like that. She just lacks strength. Once she grows stronger, she might even surpass B-rank, don't you think?"
"So it's the girl who's blessed, not Eck? How blessed is she?"
"She grew so quickly because she has talent."
The chatter from a group in the corner lodged itself in my ears.
The chatter gradually grew louder.
"No, but isn't Eck the truly amazing one? No matter how talented someone is, it's useless if the person teaching them is an idiot."
"I thought he was just a punk who did nothing but guzzle liquor."
"An A-rank isn't an A-rank for nothing."
The adventurers kept sneaking glances at me.
I pretended not to notice.
What idiots.
They couldn't read people, which was why Elena had suffered so much in the game.
But I didn't bother arguing with them.
'Yeah, if you're going to misunderstand, then keep misunderstanding.'
If those rumors reached Elena's ears, she would firmly convince herself that she had gotten this far thanks to being taught by me.
If I praised Elena's talent while those idiots praised the excellence of my teaching, I couldn't help wondering which explanation Elena would believe.
"And take this."
Jeina placed a pouch on the table.
Tap.
It sagged under its own weight with a heavy thud and a jingle of coins.
It was money.
"This is the settlement from yesterday's bet."
"That's quite a lot."
"A lot of merchants have gathered lately, so the pot grew quite large. I got a share too, thanks to that."
"Did you bet on Elena too?"
Jeina gave a small laugh.
"Sister Rebecca said that if Mr. Eck ever does something with conviction, I should follow him without question. She said he has an incredible nose for that sort of thing."
"Is that so? Looks like she's still the same."
"But, Mr. Eck."
"What is it now?"
"When are you planning to meet Sister Rebecca?"
"...."
Rebecca.
She had been Eck's former colleague.
She also appeared in the game. After Elena killed Eck, she would secretly appear in the hunting grounds and interfere with Elena.
Of course, Rebecca couldn't defeat Elena in a direct fight.
But Rebecca was a monster tamer.
She drew the aggro of the forest's monsters and created something akin to a monster wave.
Even Elena found it difficult to face dozens of monsters at once, so she was often gang-raped by them.
Yet for someone supposedly bent on avenging Eck, the Rebecca in Eck's memories had always been curt with him.
Above all, Eck had once thrown Rebecca into a pack of monsters.
She had even given birth to monsters because of it.
"I'm supposed to meet a woman like that?"
"Why would I meet her?"
"Um... I may have overstepped. I'll be going now."
I raised my glass and drank.
When I held out my empty glass, Jeina refilled it and brought it back.
That was when it happened.
The adventurers who had been carefully watching me got up from their seats and sauntered over to my table.
"Um... Mr. Eck."
"What do you want, you lot?"
"Would you take us on as your disciples?!"
"No."
My answer was firm.
A female adventurer sat down beside me.
She slid a hand onto my thigh.
"Am I not good enough?"
"...."
I set down my glass with enough force to make the table thump.
The adventurers flinched.
"Get lost."
"S-sorry..."
The adventurers who had been firmly rejected returned to their seats, pouting.
"You took Elena on too. Aren't you going to take on anyone else?"
Jeina brought over something to eat.
It was my usual breakfast set.
A lump of meat coated in sauce. I speared it with a fork and ate it with my liquor.
"Raising even one is a hassle."
I tore into the meat and took another drink.
The only reason I had first spoken to Elena was that my life had been at stake. She was a guaranteed winning lottery ticket.
I hadn't taught her so I could play teacher to those idiots.
Jeina sat across from me and rested her chin on her hand.
"Do you have something to say?"
"I do. I heard a secret bit of news from Sister Rebecca, you know?"
"News?"
Jeina raised a hand to shield her mouth and whispered.
"They say Darko got fired."
"It would be strange if he hadn't."
The swordsmanship instructor was one of the guild's public faces.
Whether Elena's skills exceeded her rank or her talent was exceptional, the fact that a C-rank swordsmanship instructor had lost to an I-rank had tarnished the guild's reputation.
This world placed a high value on reputation.
Since reputation was not easily built, Darko couldn't escape responsibility for this incident no matter who was backing him.
"A swordsmanship instructor who lost to an I-rank? Who would want to study under someone like that?"
Jeina grinned.
No wonder her face looked so bright.
"You have no idea how relieved I am not to have to see that man's face anymore. His rough hands hurt so much whenever he slapped my butt. By the time I got off work, it would be bright red, you know?"
Jeina rubbed her own butt with her hand.
It was none of my concern.
"But that's not what I wanted to tell you. Darko had one duty he was responsible for as the swordsmanship instructor..."
Jeina lowered her voice another notch and leaned toward me.
"...It's a message from Sister Rebecca. She wants someone to fill the position Darko left vacant."
Jeina looked at me as if checking my reaction.
"What do you think, Mr. Eck?"
"You want me to clean up the shit he left behind?"
"I'm only asking your opinion. Still~ if you stepped up, it would save Sister Rebecca's face. Maybe she'd even be willing to forgive you, at least a little, for what happened back then."
"Hmm..."
A bitter taste spread through my mouth, and I couldn't tell whether it was from the cheap liquor or Jeina's proposal.
"That depends on what the job is. What would I have to do?"
"Subjugate the troll that appeared in the eastern forest."
Troll.
It was a B-rank monster.
It was smaller than an ogre but twice the size of a human, with powerful regenerative abilities and an innate command of green magic.
As a sub-boss-level monster, it possessed a variety of patterns.
"A troll appeared on the trade route and caused losses for the merchants. Darko was supposed to handle it, and he was going to lead some novice adventurers to subjugate it as practical training."
So that's why there had been so many merchants around today.
Was the troll blocking the trade route?
"What's the deadline?"
"You just need to resolve it within a week."
A week.
An event involving a troll had appeared in the game as well.
'Is the game following the same course as the original?'
But events were proceeding somewhat differently from the original.
In the original, the troll subjugation would fail, and the quest would be passed on to adventurers. Since it was a side quest, it could be taken or left.
Because it was a problem that could be resolved even without the protagonist.
'So originally, Darko took the job and failed?'
He probably brought along novice adventurers, failed to adapt to unexpected variables, and made a mess of it.
It seemed he had gotten greedy because he needed results, then suffered a spectacular failure.
'And yet he wasn't fired? His backer must have been even more impressive than I thought.'
At the very least, he must have been someone whose position made the guildmaster wary.
Although he had never appeared in the game, I could make a rough guess from Eck's memories.
"What if I refuse?"
"Wouldn't you ask the adventurers to do it? But then it would take at least fifteen days. If the trade route suffered for a fortnight, the merchants would take losses. Prices would rise... and after that, Elena might even struggle to make ends meet."
Jeina grinned and pointed at my empty glass.
"Would you like another drink?"
"...Cheeky."
I held out my glass.
"I should thank Elena. I like you better this way, Mr. Eck."
"Tch. Just bring me some liquor."
"Yes~."
After clicking her tongue, I drank the liquor Jeina brought me.
'A troll subjugation with novice adventurers.'
It was the result of Darko and the guild supervisor overseeing him getting greedy.
Those two probably boasted, 'We can take down a troll with just novice adventurers!'
That sort of thing translated into power and influence for them, so they were easy to predict.
Even so, taking only novice adventurers to subjugate a troll was definitely overreaching.
'If I went alone, I could finish this in less than a day.'
Their bluff had complicated things.
Still, I had one card to play.
'I can take Elena with me.'
Practical battle experience against a B-rank monster.
Since it was a commission from the lord, completing it would at least get Elena's name before some high-ranking people.
Elena needed to become famous.
It couldn't hurt to start managing her reputation now.
'The equipment is finally finished, too, so it'd be perfect for testing its performance.'
I took a drink.
The bitterness slid down my throat.