Chapter 11
――A few days after Rent was kicked out.
Over the past few days, the Sky-Cleaving Sword had been having a rough time of it.
Because of Rent's 【Forced Collection】, the mana that was the lifeblood of adventurers was constantly running dry.
Though they were B-rank adventurers close to reaching A-rank, that only mattered when they could make full use of their Skills.
With so little mana that they could barely use their Skills, they could only manage the strength of C-rank adventurers—or perhaps even less.
"Damn it! We're in the red again!!"
Since their mana wouldn't recover naturally, they had no choice but to restore it with mana recovery potions.
The first one or two bottles they drank didn't restore any mana.
As soon as their mana recovered, it went toward repayment.
Their mana wouldn't recover until they'd repaid that day's amount of 11,492 MP.
So, to complete their requests, they had no choice but to use large quantities of expensive mana recovery potions.
And the cost was more than the rewards for their requests.
The more requests they took on, the more their funds dwindled.
"I'm sorry. This is all my fault..."
Misa bowed her head apologetically.
Guy, a swordsman, could still fight to some extent without using Skills.
But Misa, a mage, was practically helpless without mana.
"Me too."
The same was true for El, a healer.
"What the hell is going on?!"
Their mana was running dry, and they couldn't recover without guzzling potions.
And it was happening to all three of them at once.
Taking large amounts of mana recovery potions caused health problems.
The daily limit was said to be five bottles, but day after day, they'd been drinking nearly that many and completing requests while fighting nausea, headaches, and dizziness.
They'd suspected an illness and even gone to a doctor, only to be dismissed with, "There's no such illness."
They'd considered the possibility of a curse, too, but the curse mage had denied it just as readily.
"Hey, don't you think this is because of Rent after all?"
Misa said.
She'd asked that question several times since their MP stopped recovering.
But each time, Guy denied it.
And this time was no different――.
"There's no way! We've been borrowing from him this whole time, and he never once told us to 'pay him back'!!"
――Guy and the others knew.
They knew they'd been borrowing mana from Rent all this time.
And they knew exactly how much they'd borrowed.
The truth was clearly recorded on their Adventurer Tags, after all.
Guy checked his status.
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Name: Guy
Age: 19
Sex: Male
Gift: Advanced Swordsman (B)
MP: 0 / 1,171
Adventurer Rank: B
Party: Sky-Cleaving Sword
【Party's Borrowed Mana】
Rent: 2,678,078 MP
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"See? The number hasn't changed at all! If we'd paid him back, it would've gone down! It did when we paid him back before, didn't it?"
As Guy said, the amount of mana they'd borrowed hadn't changed at all since the day they'd kicked Rent out.
That was why Guy had always dismissed Misa's theory.
Guy's words were convincing enough that whenever he rejected the idea, the other two couldn't say anything more.
――Guy and the others didn't know.
They didn't know that their mana was being used to repay Rent.
And they didn't know that it was going toward interest, not the principal.
Unless they voluntarily repaid more than was being collected, they'd be paying interest forever.
――And so, Guy and the others made the wrong choice.
If they'd made the right choice at this point, they could have escaped the bottomless pit they were trapped in.
But, having never heard of revolving payments, they would never choose that path――.