Volume 6 - CH 1.7

“What the hell?! I haven’t even eaten breakfast!”

“Just come on! There are a hell of a lot of people here at the guild!”

Half-awake, Reito was escorted by a guild official to the guild building. Despite the early morning hours, a good number of adventurers had gathered there.

When they saw him, they rushed over.

“Hey, what the hell!?”

“You really messed up?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Get out of our way!! Move!!”

A guild official chewed out the adventurers who swarmed them and made them move out of the way.

The official led Reito to the guild leader’s office and asked him to enter. He knocked on the door and entered, wondering what was going on.

“Huh, Goo monin’,” Reito said, half-awake.

“Hey, you finally made it. I’ll let her explain everything.”

“Oh! Young man, you saved my trading company’s life!”

A woman of the Beastmen, a beast with cat ears, walked up to Reito. She was probably in her late twenties.

The woman, who had distinctive cat eyes, smiled and asked for a handshake. Reito tilted his head in confusion but agreed to the handshake.

“My name is Ferris. Thank you for your help in recovering our trading company’s cargo from the orcs.”

“Trading company…?”

“What’s that? Maybe you don’t know them. Have you at least heard of the Dalton Trading Company?”

Reito thought about it for a while and then remembered.

“Let’s see… Oh, yes. I believe that’s the city’s grimoire store.”

“That’s right! We’re the magic ware dealers.”

“Reito, this is the owner of the Magic Power Herb you brought back.”

Bal’s explanation finally made it clear to Reito what was going on. Apparently, this woman had come to thank Reito. Reito hadn’t expected the owner to visit so soon.

The woman, who introduced herself as Ferris, gestured that he sits on the sofa facing her.

“Anyway, thank you very much for your help. Thanks to you, we were able to get back our precious goods. Well, it’s too bad that almost half of it was devoured…”

“Hah?”

Reito thought, “This person talks in such a weird way.” Ferris noticed the confusion and explained further.

“Are you curious about my accent? I’m sorry, this may be unfamiliar to people from this part of the world, but where I come from, this is the normal way of speaking.

“I see.”

She seemed to be speaking in dialect.

Reito continued.

“So, what brings you here today?”

“I was gonna send a messenger to invite you, but I’m busy with other things at the moment, so I thought I’d come to thank you in person. Please accept this first.”

Ferris took the pendant off her neck and placed it on the desk. At first, Reito thought she was going to give the pendant to him, but apparently, this was a pendant made with a “Storage Stone” attached.

A large wooden box appeared on the desk from the pendant.

“This is our way of saying thank you. I thought money would be better, but the truth is that we watched your performance in the arena the other day. So I thought maybe you would be happier with this rather than money.”

“What?”

Her words puzzled him, but he opened the crate.

Inside the crate was his most-wanted item.

“Isn’t this a Reflection Sword!?”

“You can’t be serious!” Bal chimed in from the side.

Inside the wooden box was a long sword in a familiar scabbard. Reito exclaimed in surprise, and Bal, who was sitting next to him, could not hide his agitation.

Bal hurriedly reached for the longsword and pulled it out of its scabbard to check it. The beautifully shining blade was revealed, just like a mirror, and it was indeed a real Reflection Sword.

This sword was a sword that Reito had borrowed as a temporary replacement for the holy sword Caledfwlch when he asked a certain blacksmith to restore it. The blade, sharpened like a mirror, has the power to repel any kind of magic.

“It’s real, and this is the old man’s seal right here.” Bal was shocked.

“Old man…? I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but that is an item that we recently bought at our store. An old man of the small-bearded Dwarf tribe, who was in need of money, brought it to me and asked me to buy it for him, even if it was cheap. It seemed to be a very valuable item, so I bought it for 30 gold coins.”

“Old man… were you really so pressed for money?”

“Um…”

Ferris’s explanation was so simple that Bal’s grasped her head, and Reito was dumbfounded. It turned out that the Reflection Sword was indeed the property of a small-bearded Dwarf who was Bal’s acquaintance who liked to drink and that he had sold it to the Dalton Trading Company for one-tenth of its rightful price because he was strapped for cash.

“I can’t accept this expensive of a present,” Reito said before Bal shouted at him.

“What the hell are you talking about!? You can get this famous sword for free!! Just take it!!”

“Based on your reaction, I’m going to assume this sword is worth quite a lot.”

But Ferris smiled as if anticipating these words and pulled out a folding fan from somewhere, and tapped her palm. Then she opened her narrow eyes slightly and looked at Reito with yellow pupils that could be seen through the gaps between her eyelids.

“I have a favor to ask of you, Mr. Reito. Oh, please take that sword. I was going to give it to you no matter what you said, so you can use it as you like. I won’t shamelessly ask you to return it later, so don’t worry.”

“Haa… So what is it that you want to ask me to do for you?　You want to ask me to do something for you as an adventurer?”

“I’m sure that’s what it is. It’s not the usual job of defeating demons or escorting a group of merchants. I want you to represent our trading company and take part in the first annual ‘King of Combat Tournament’ to be held in the arena soon.”

“King of Combat Tournament?”

“Hey, hey… Are you really going to hold such an event?”

Reito tilted his head in confusion at Ferris’s words, and Bal looked dumbfounded as if she had an idea what she was talking about.

According to Ferris’ explanation, a large-scale tournament was going to be held in the city in the near future as an alternative to the “Hunting Festival”. She also said that they were planning to use Reito’s recent popularity in the arena to make a big publicity campaign and hold a martial arts tournament in which only those who have performed well in the arena will be able to participate.

“The best adventurers from each guild, as well as people from other guilds in other cities, have already decided to participate in this festival to determine the king of the fighting game, known as the ‘Combat Tournament.’ And our own merchants’ escort was scheduled to participate as well, but he was so reckless before the competition that he got injured.”

“That’s a big screw-up.”

“Many people from all over the world will gather to watch the games. Naturally, some of them are leading aristocrats and state officials. It’s not every day you get to see a real battle between adventurers, and this is a great opportunity to recruit skilled people. Every country is looking for talented people at this time of the year.”

“I see. You want me to participate in the tournament?”

“That’s the ticket. I want you to fight as a representative of our business association.”

“No, I don’t think so. He is an adventurer from our guild.” Bal chimed in.

Before Reito could reply, Bal told her no in a tedious manner. Since he had a deal with Maria, she could not let Reito act in a way that would be too conspicuous. Besides, it was strange that Reito, who belonged to the Black Tigers, should participate as a representative of the Dalton Trading Company. If Reito were to perform well in the competition, it should be the Black Tigers, not the Dalton Trading Company, that gets the credit.

Ferris, however, reacts as if she had anticipated Bal’s words.

“I thought you’d feel that way. Just like Maria said, you’re really prudent.”

“…What?”

“My apologies. I have also brought this on behalf of the company.”

Ferris handed a letter to Bal.

Bal suspiciously examined the letter. Her eyes opened wide when she saw the sender. She snatched the letter and read its contents.

“There’s no way!?”

“What is it?” Reito asked, but Bal didn’t hear him and kept muttering to herself.

“Shit, she didn’t even… Ahh, damn it!! Got it!! Reito, do what she says!!”

“Huh!?”

“Pleasure doing business!”

Reito was astonished by Bal’s sudden change of opinion. Ferris put away her fan. Reito was confused about Bal’s sudden change of opinion and stole a glance at the sender of the letter, which read “Maria” on it.

“Our Dalton Trading Company has recently signed an exclusive contract with Maria’s guild. We are to sell all of our merchandise to Mr. Reito at a 30 percent discount.”

“What the…?”

“Damn, that woman… So, you’re really trying to poach Reito.”

“Don’t worry. It’s something that Maria has thoroughly thought through. Also, Reito saved our company a fortune with his good deed the other day. We won’t treat him badly at all.”

“I know. I know, I know… don’t pick on our young man.”

“Of course…”

The conversation proceeded quickly and smoothly, despite Reito’s inability to grasp what was going on.

Ferris asked in confirmation: “So, is it correct to say that Mr. Reito will be representing our Trading Company at the Combat Tournament?”

“Um, yes?”

Thus, without understanding the situation well, Reito decided to participate in the Combat Tournament as a representative of the Dalton Trading Company.

When Reito shook the right hand offered out by Ferris, it was met with a surprisingly strong grip. She opened her narrow eyes wide for a moment to see how Reito was feeling and then smiled.

“Well, I hope you don’t mind if I’m only here for a short time.”

“Oh, yes, ……, I have one question. What’s your dialect?”

“What’s the dialect ……? I’m not sure what you mean, but are you asking about our tone of voice? As I told you earlier, this is our local way of speaking.”

“Oh, I see…”

“Well then, Guildmaster of the Black Tiger, I’m going to need to borrow Mr. Reito for a moment.”

“Just don’t hurt him. He’s expensive to repair.”

“Don’t treat people like objects.”

『Your accent is slipping.』Airis made fun of his sudden accent change.

Reito left the room as Ferris led him along.