Chapter 49
Eventually, Rinka and I both regained our composure.
Rinka's eyes were red and bloodshot.
Mine were probably much the same.
It felt good to purge the dregs that had built up deep in my heart, but having shown each other such an emotional outburst left us both embarrassed.
As if to cover it up, I drained the wine in my glass in one go.
Normally, the proper way to enjoy wine is to admire the sparkle on its surface, savor its aroma, roll it around on your tongue, and let it slide slowly down your throat――that's how it's meant to be enjoyed.
I felt bad for the wine and its producers for treating it so disrespectfully, but I wasn't in the mood to take my time.
I let out a long, drawn-out “Phew~,” and the lingering aroma of grapes, evoking the bounty of nature, escaped through my nose.
Perhaps the wine, treated so roughly, had made one last stand.
Having indulged in an extravagant way to change the mood, I brought up a new topic as if nothing had happened.
“Tomorrow's finally the day.”
“Yes~ Time to bring the hammer down on those scumbags~!!”
“Let's make those guys who kicked you out eat their words, Rento-san!”
I'd already told Rinka about the Sky-Cleaving Sword.
And that I'd been making them pay through the nose every day.
She was even more fired up than I was, and had hit it off with MP.
Tomorrow, a carriage carrying Guy and the other two members of the Sky-Cleaving Sword would arrive in this city.
――It would be my first time seeing them since they kicked me out.
The plan was already in place.
All we had to do was carry it out tomorrow.
When they kicked me out, they made a complete fool of me.
I managed to get back on my feet after meeting MP, but I'd never forget the humiliation I felt back then.
Their hell had begun the day they kicked me out, but I was going to make them experience it firsthand.
Their hell would continue from here on out, but tomorrow would be one part of it.
I'd get to savor the sight of their despairing faces.
I wouldn't show them the slightest mercy.
I'd make them feel in their bones what happens when you don't repay what you borrow.
This hell wouldn't end until they'd paid back every last bit――.
“Master, that wicked smile of yours is wonderful~!!”
Apparently, it had shown on my face.
I hurriedly forced a normal smile.
MP praised me, but...
“Sorry, did I scare you?”
“No, it's only natural to be angry! I felt a real sense of satisfaction when my former party members ended up enslaved, too.”
As someone else who'd been kicked out, Rinka seemed to understand how I felt, which was a relief.
Still, it wouldn't do to let the mood turn gloomy with the two of them here.
To change the subject, I asked MP something I'd been wondering about.
“By the way, when will those guys finish paying it back?”
The truth was, I'd left the collection plan entirely to MP.
MP had mentioned things like revolving payments and ten-percent interest every ten days, but honestly, I hadn't understood any of the details at all.
What I did understand was――.
The total amount of magic power I'd lent them was 2,678,078 MP.
Of that, 1,435,837 MP could currently be collected.
The interest was 8% every ten days.
The daily collection amount was 11,492 MP.
――That was all.
And there was one thing I'd been wondering about.
It had been three weeks since we started 【Forced Collection】.
They'd been paying back a little over ten thousand a day, so the total amount of magic power repaid should have been over 200,000.
And yet――the total amount lent hadn't decreased at all since the first day.
How did that work?
“Oh, I haven't explained that~ The day those worthless bugs finish paying it all back is――”
MP gave a wicked little chuckle.
“――never~”