Chapter 64
The excitement died down, and I slipped out of the ring of onlookers.
Guy and the other two were lying on the ground, receiving basic treatment from the guild staff.
It looked like all three had regained consciousness.
I walked over and looked down at the worthless trash.
"One last piece of advice."
All three stared at me in fear.
It seemed to have worked better than I'd expected. They were completely terrified.
Hopefully, that would keep them from thinking about revenge...
I spoke to the three of them, still lying on the ground.
"Don't put up any pointless resistance. Repay your magic debt with everything you've got. Spend every last coin, sell all your equipment and items, borrow as much as you can, then buy as many magic recovery potions as possible and put them toward repayment. Otherwise, the real hell begins in nine days."
With that, I turned my back on them.
My warning wasn't for their sake.
I didn't expect them to follow my advice anyway.
If they were that capable of humility, things never would have come to this.
I warned them so they'd regret it later.
So they'd regret not listening to me and, at the same time, realize it was already too late.
"..."
Silence was all I got from them.
I had nothing more to say.
"Rinka, let's go."
"Okay!"
Rinka and I left the training ground――.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇
When we returned to the guild, the banquet was already underway.
It was supposedly "to celebrate my victory," but that was just an excuse.
Adventurers had a habit of looking for any excuse to throw a party.
――As long as they could enjoy a drink, anything would do.
That was basically it.
Before I even had time to wonder whether I should join in, they ushered me into the center of the celebration, calling, "Come on, the guest of honor goes here!" and set a mug of ale in front of me.
At that point, I had no choice.
"Well, then, I'll have some. Cheers!"
I raised my mug, and cheers went up――.
Before I knew it, I'd been swept up in the revelry.
Rinka, sitting beside me, was a little tense, but as she got used to the atmosphere, she gradually relaxed.
She seemed bewildered by how warmly everyone treated her.
She probably hadn't ever been treated this kindly before.
Overwhelmed with emotion, she started crying partway through.
The unlucky one was the man who happened to be standing closest to her at the time.
They gave him an earful, accusing him of "making such a cute girl cry."
Amid all that, a few people came to apologize to Rinka.
They were people who had once been in a party with her.
They'd come to apologize for kicking her out.
It felt a little late for that, but... at least they were apologizing.
Rinka seemed to have moved on and accepted their apologies without reservation. It wasn't my place to interfere.
I had my own problems to deal with.
I was grilled about my expulsion and my combat style, and it took all I had to dodge their questions.
Everyone seemed especially interested in my ability to fire off spell after spell, and they pressed me hard about it.
If Roger-san hadn't cut in with, "He's in a tough spot. Don't ask him any more," it would've turned into a huge commotion.
Looking back, maybe I'd gone too far during the duel, but the other adventurers didn't seem bothered by it, any more than Roger-san was.
If anything, they told me, "Well done."
It seemed Guy and the others were more disliked than I'd thought.
Well, they'd flaunted their strength and treated the other adventurers like dirt, so I supposed it was only natural.
Word traveled fast among adventurers, especially bad news.
I'd repeatedly told them their attitude was out of line, but they never changed. They brought this on themselves.
Then I had an unexpected reunion.
"Hey, Rento-kun." "Rento!"
"Destra-san, Sinistra-san!"
They were the two leaders of the B-rank party Twin-Headed Silver Wolves, who'd looked after me in the previous town.
Destra-san had short silver hair.
Sinistra-san had long silver hair.
They were twin swordfighters.
"What brings you here?"
I thought they were supposed to stay in that town for a while...
"We're here on a job," Destra-san said.
"We rode here in the same carriage as those guys," Sinistra-san said.
"Looks like you really beat them up."
"I wish I'd seen it."
"You disappeared so suddenly. We were worried about you."
"Rento, you're heartless."
"I'm glad you don't seem down."
"What a relief."
"Kicking Rento-kun out..."
"Fools will always be fools."
"Those guys are beyond saving now."
"They got beaten up by a High Orc."
"I wanted to have a proper talk with you."
"Me too."
"But we have to leave right away."
"To Count Willard's place."
"Once we're done with this job, let's meet again."
"Looking forward to it."
"See you, then."
"Bye-bye."
They rattled all that off without giving me a chance to get a word in, then left.
They were as laid-back as ever, but I was happy.
Happy that they'd treated me just as they always had.
Actually, how much did Guy and the others get hated?
Roger-san and those two had nothing good to say about them.
So, I could drink with everyone from the Twin-Headed Silver Wolves again...
The banquet went on even after they left, and I wasn't released until well into the night――.