Chapter 23
—Marnell— (One of the adventurers that prostrated to Raust)
「For the next three weeks, bring middle-layer material free of charge to satisfy the demand of the townfolks . 」
It was the memory of what Raust-san told us while we were prostrated .
It was still clear in my memory .
After all, the condition was too light considering what we had done to Raust-san until now .
…And that was when I first felt guilty about Raust-san .
Until now, even when I apologized to Raust-san, what I felt was fear and not guilt .
Those who are weak deserve to be oppressed .
Everyone lives just for himself .
That was my common sense as someone who lived in this Labyrinth City since I was born as an orphan .
Using that common sense, I shouldn’t have been able to complain even if I was killed by Raust-san .
Because in Labyrinth City, the strong did as they please, and we have used that to abuse Raust-san .
Now that the position reversed, there was no way I could complain if Raust-san decided to return in kind .
But Raust-san was behaving as if he didn’t care about that .
It was then I realized that he was a special kind of being compared to us .
As a Labyrinth City orphan like us, no, while in a much worse environment than us, he became an adventurer completely different than us .
I felt a somewhat strange feeling in front of this being, and then I made a decision in my heart .
I have to make up for what I have done to this person .
To be honest, I didn’t like the people in this town .
They were weak people who couldn’t fight .
Doing something for those people who were beneath me was not something I was willing to do .
Even so, for Raust-san, I decided to forget that feeling and obey .
With that determination, I decided to bring the materials to the town .
But at that time I didn’t know .
Even though I tried to repay Raust-san, I ended up getting something I couldn’t return .
Also, every day I spent in the town would become something irreplaceable in my mind………
「…Old man, err, please take care of me . 」
In the early morning, Louis, the leader of the boys who asked us to teach them the sword, called me while swinging the sword in the vacant lot near the town .
Seeing him calling me out timidly without his usual cheekiness, I was almost laughing .
Perhaps he was thinking that he might be inconveniencing me by learning the sword from me .
Even though me agreeing in the first place meant that I didn’t care about being inconvenienced .
「Who’s an old man! Call me Marnell, I told you so, you damn brat!」
However, I hid my inner thought and said so bluntly .
While pretending to be as usual .
「Wh! Shut up! You’re an old man, so I call you old man!」
Responding to my words, Louis was taken aback for a moment and then shouted at me .
By that time, he was already back to his usual self, I was about to laugh .
Right, keep it that way .
You kids don’t need to weirdly fuss about others .
Even without doing that, we had already been helped enough by Louis and the others .
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「Cheeky brat . Well, enough of that . Today is our first day, so for now, let’s start from practice swings . 」
As I hid that feeling inside my chest, I pretended to be angry from Louis’ words and started the training .
Separately, I was thinking about what kind of conversations my peers who were teaching other children about the sword would be having right now .
It was another peaceful day for Labyrinth City’s town .
After finishing the training with Louis and the others and having breakfast at their house, I met with the others that also selling material to this town in a cafe .
The woman from the cafe put a cup of fruit juice in front of us as we had now become a regular .
「Here’s for you . Thank you for everything you have done . 」
After I thanked her for the fruit juice, I carried the cup to my mouth and took a sip .
「…Delicious . 」
The refreshing flavor spread in my mouth and I leaked such words despite myself .
Of course, the fruit juice was by no means cheap .
Especially in Labyrinth City, where the price was inevitably increased because there was no choice but to import the fruit .
And yet, the people from this cafe gave me the juice without worrying about that, it gave me a warm feeling in my heart .
「This is a good town . 」
It was then my party member that sat next to me, Gozzu, whispered to me .
I silently nodded, agreeing to his words .
It had been only a couple of days since I came to this town .
But in that short time, our value changed greatly .
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At first, we never had a good sentiment toward the townfolks .
Bluntly speaking, we looked down on them .
To the end, we only handing over materials because we had an obligation to Raust-san .
Maybe they also sensed that? The townfolks also didn’t show us a good reception at first .
It changed two days after we handed over materials to this town, when I came back with a minor injury from a trivial mistake .
That was par for the course .
There was no healer in our party, there were times we couldn’t heal our injuries immediately if we got hurt .
That was why we always had healing medicine ready, and we would ignore small scratches .
「You! Use this!」
However, the reaction of the townfolks who didn’t know that was different .
The innkeeper woman called Marry ignored my refusal and handed me a healing medicine, and then she bowed in front of the still confused me .
I did bad things to the person Raust-san introduced .
Thank you for bringing us the material to the point of getting yourself injured, was what she said .
It was then the townfolks’ relationship with us changed .
Originally, we brought the material for free to repay Raust-san, but now, they paid us properly and started to say their gratitude to us .
……At first, we couldn’t hide our confusion about the change .
That sudden change in attitude was only a part of the reason for our confusion, more than that, it was the first time we were given such favorable treatment .
Since born until now, it was just a life full of struggle .
However, the townfolks’ attitude didn’t feel unpleasant .
We couldn’t change our rough attitude to the good-natured people in this town .
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Only because we didn’t know how .
And yet, the town folks didn’t hate it .
── And then, over time, the townfolks had become irreplaceable for us .
We found ourselves became close with the townfolks and we wanted to do our best for them .
We tempered our body and tried to bring as many labyrinth material as possible .
The adventurers also started to teach the non-adventurers children individually about the swords .
All the actions were based on that thought .
All of them were our first experience and were irreplaceable .
「I owed Raust-san a favor I could never pay back . 」
I whispered that as I recalled the figure of the benefactor that brought me to this place .
The me that was looking down on the people in this town was no more .
No, it wasn’t just me, the other adventurers that Raust-san brought here also not looking down at the townfolks anymore .
The others with good ears picked up my whisper and nodded along, seeing them agreeing with me, I laughed hard .
「Hey, you guys!」
However, the laugh was stopped by the figure that rushed into the room way after the supposed meeting time .
The adventurer was Salams, the magician in my party .
The meeting time was almost over, I was about to complain to Salams who was late, but seeing his expression, the words stuck in my throat .
Salams opened his mouth without paying notice to me .
「Raust-san, he has been banned from entering and leaving the labyrinth!」
And then, along with the words he uttered, everyone in the cafe put on a blank expression .