GalaxyTL
* * *
The crowded lobby of the Adventurer’s Guild Yoshanka branch office was further disrupted by additional intruders!
They were the town’s business owners!
Forming a circle around me, they struck intimidating poses with folded arms and menacing gazes!
Even the adventure-hardened adventurers involuntarily shrank back from their overwhelming presence.
Currently, the lobby interior had shaped into me, Emi, standing at the center (along with the inadvertently involved Kamasse).
Surrounded by the circle of business owners.
Further ringed by the onlooking adventurers in the outer layer.
An extremely high-density crowd, yes.
“W-Wait wait wait…..the stall owner old man, and the innkeeper lady? What’s the meaning of suddenly barging in like this?”
Interrupted while delivering his spirited declaration, Kamasse appeared bewildered.
He shot me an accusatory look as if to say “Did you do something!?”, but unfortunately, I had no idea what prompted this!
I simply tilted my head in response.
“Hmph, our business isn’t with you, but rather that cursed child beside you.”
Stepping forward was……ah, the stall owner old man I had driven to tears with my repeating side-steps!
“Ah, that’s Baccarou, owner of the Togūdo Skewer stall!”
“What!? The head of the Yoshanka Trade Association!”
“Eh!? The legendary ‘Togūdo Skewer Artisan’!?”
The surrounding adventurers began whispering among themselves.
Eh, that old man was actually such a renowned yakitori chef?
“I heard he has a bad drinking habit.”
“Rumor is he’s been divorced three times.”
“Saw him puking on the street the other day.”
<Hmm, seems all sorts of irrelevant information is pouring in as well……>
Having good hearing can be troublesome too, huh?
“Ahem!”
The stall owner cleared his throat, silencing the adventurers.
“Ah— my apologies for the rude interruption, adventurer folks!”
Then the old man raised his voice to proclaim loudly:
“Currently, Yoshanka town is experiencing unprecedented prosperity the likes of which I’ve never witnessed since my childhood days here! While I’m glad adventurers like yourselves have adopted this as one of your bases, contributing to this boom, allow me as a resident to express my gratitude!”
“Well I’ll be.”
“Ah shucks, no need for that.”
“What’s a kokeki? Can’t eat that?”
Responding as they pleased to the old man’s abrupt speech, one idiot among the surrounding adventurers displayed a concerning lack of comprehension.
“We townspeople wish to seize this prosperity as an opportunity to revitalize Yoshanka after years of declining population! Each business is devising various strategies – renovating storefronts, exploring new ventures, all sorts of new undertakings! This will make Yoshanka a more convenient town, ideal for residing adventurers as well! Drawing even more people, Yoshanka’s development will surge onward! A wonderful future awaits!”
“I’ll be.”
“Now that you mention it, saw some expansion construction going on here and there.”
“What’s a Yoshanka? Can’t eat that?”
The stall owner’s oratory skills proved unexpectedly adept, inadvertently captivating the adventurers’ attention!
That one particular idiot, however, seemed hopelessly dense.
“However!”
With a bellowing shout, the old man instantly silenced the stirring crowd, then declared:
“There is an existence hindering Yoshanka’s prosperity! That would be you, cursed child!!”
Pointing forcefully at me, he drew everyone’s gaze squarely toward me.
Eh?
Me?
What’s this about me being blamed?
Why am I being blamed?
“It is well known that ‘cursed children spread misfortune wherever they go’!”
“You, a devil, came to defile this town! Begone, devil!”
The rotund innkeeper lady and the elderly woman who had pelted me with salt stepped forward, further accusing me.
The others joined in too, hurling their own invectives at me from all sides.
…………………….
Ah, I see.
This is that usual thing, huh.
Discrimination against black hair and black eyes, against cursed children.
They hurl insults.
Foul-mouthed insults, no matter what.
Because I’m a cursed child.
Anything goes when insulting a cursed child, so they let it all out.
Summarizing their intent comes down to a single statement:
“Cursed child, get out of this town at once.”
…………………….
Sigh.
Well, it’s not like this is an unfamiliar experience for me.
I was ostracized (or was it the opposite?) from my garbage village too upon birth.
During my wandering period before meeting my master, I wasn’t even allowed into villages or towns at all.
But it had been a while, so—
This kind of thing.
Haha.
It’s a bit shocking.
Yes.
Nostalgic, isn’t it?
A sad sort of nostalgia……
Taking advantage of my silence, the business owners continued hurling baseless insults at me.
Claiming I must be living through thievery with no common sense.
That I’m an unclean breeding ground for disease.
My very presence spoils the town’s scenery.
I bring misfortune wherever I go.
Why, I wonder every time.
Just why is this world so harsh?
Is being born with black hair and black eyes really that terrible a sin?
Why must I keep being condemned like this?
Why?
Why?
Why?
Honestly—
I could feel it starting to leak out.
Killing intent.
Ah, no no.
I have to endure……
<Do you really need to endure?>
…………Extra-sama?
<Let’s just kill them all, Emi. Tear every single one to shreds. No, shreds won’t be enough. We should rip them apart limb from limb, dismember them completely, then toss the pieces into the sea. It seems the adventurers present lack any real combat prowess. None could stop you. Let’s kill them. Slaughter them as you please. Butcher them into chunks of meat.>
……You’re raging.
Extra-sama, you’re calmly raging.
And there was yet another person enraged on my behalf within this space.
“You lot! Ever since earlier, you’ve been running your mouths spouting all sorts of nonsense!”
Stepping forward protectively in front of me with a flushed face, Kamasse fired back at the crowd.
“This girl saved Yoshanka town! The one who defeated the Togūdo Commander was her! And your response is to drive her out for having black hair and eyes!? You ungrateful shameless Yoshanka residents!”
“What did you say!?”
“What’s this brat blabbering about!?”
Kamasse didn’t back down an inch from the confrontational adults surrounding him, arguing for my sake.
“And you know what!? Leaving aside whether she’s a cursed child or not, you’re trying to drive a single person out of town! Do you have any legal grounds for that!? Is there some law stating cursed children can’t remain in town!? Hey, guard, what about it!?”
“……There is no such law.”
“Then your claims are unlawful and unjustified! For adults to act as you are is no different from the bullying of street urchins!! Am I wrong? Well!?”
“……Gh!”
……Kamasse is truly amazing.
Intelligent and articulate.
Despite this sudden predicament, he swiftly turned the tables against them all through sheer rhetoric.
“However, I saw that cursed child scaling the outer walls to leave town rather than using the main gate!”
The young guard tried to counter.
……Ah, that was the one who had tossed me out of town in the middle of the night after finding me sleeping in the park.
So he must have witnessed me dashing out to rescue Kamasse by climbing over the walls.
“……So what? Is there some rule against scaling walls?”
Kamasse briefly hesitated.
……Well, the fact was I had entered and exited town by climbing over rather than using the main gate.
Since I had carried Kamasse in the same way earlier, he was aware of this too.
“There’s no such rule! But that’s simply because no one ever conceived of someone entering and exiting town by scaling walls!”
“If there’s no rule against it……”
“Even without a rule, it’s unacceptable! Do you understand what we guards are tasked with at the main gate in the first place? Screening to prevent any criminals from entering! That cursed child hasn’t undergone any such screening process! No, she’s intentionally avoiding it! Why is that? It’s because she’s a criminal!”
This was growing troublesome.
The tide seemed to be turning unfavorably.
<What about that one? We could start by crushing their limbs from the extremities inward, then drown them in a tank filled with their own blood.>
Wait.
Calm down, Extra-sama.
“Sure does seem suspicious, avoiding the main gate like that.”
“If they had nothing to hide, they wouldn’t go through the effort of climbing the outer walls.”
“Could she be dealing illegal drugs or something?”
The bystander adventurers began murmuring restlessly, indulging in baseless speculation.
“In any case, we’re taking that cursed child into custody! After interrogation at the station, it’s either imprisonment or exile! Out of the way, young adventurer!”
The young guard declared as such while trying to shove Kamasse aside.
“Imprisonment or exile,” huh.
It seemed the possibility of me being exonerated didn’t even cross his mind.
He likely intended to fabricate some crime to justify expelling me from town regardless.
As for Kamasse—
Even after being pushed, he didn’t budge an inch.
Bracing himself by activating 【Body Strengthening】, he stood his ground firmly.
“You brat……!”
Knocked back by Kamasse, the guard began directing his hostility toward him as well.
By now, not just the business owners but even the surrounding adventurers viewed me as a menace to be expelled.
Such was the prevailing atmosphere.
And yet.
Still, Kamasse persisted.
“……Unless your actions are legally grounded, you’re the one engaging in unlawful conduct, guard.”
“What did you say, brat……”
“And the Adventurer’s Guild has the ‘Adventurer Rules’!”
……Hm?
“These rules don’t just bind adventurers, but are also meant to shield us from unjust national authorities like this! As an international organization, the Adventurer’s Guild is obligated by these rules to protect adventurers! It’s a fact agreed upon by every nation where the guild operates! Isn’t that right, receptionist!?”
Oh no.
Kamasse, that’s not good.
“What!? The Adventurer’s Guild is siding with this cursed child!? Well, receptionist!! What do you have to say!?”
“Eh, ehhh—!?”
Suddenly addressed after merely observing from the sidelines, the flustered receptionist woman fumbled for a response.
The depraved receptionist who had been exploiting me for medicinal herbs.
“W-Well, um, y’see……!”
Looking around anxiously over the counter, the depraved receptionist surveyed her surroundings.
The business owners and guards were already my adversaries to begin with.
The adventurers harbored no particular goodwill toward a cursed child like me either.
Under such circumstances, her eventual conclusion was set in stone.
Or rather—
There was a fatal flaw in Kamasse’s argument.
Ordinarily, barring that flaw, the depraved receptionist would have been obligated to defend me without hesitation as an Adventurer’s Guild employee.
But instead:
“Err, y’see! As the Yoshanka branch, our stance is that we wish to contribute to this town’s development, which is why we’ve been allowing you to undertake jobs here all this time, y’see!”
“The guild would abandon adventurers!?”
Kamasse roared back.
By reframing it as the guild “abandoning adventurers” rather than me specifically, he shifted the point of contention.
But Kamasse, that won’t work.
“Oh—no no! We would never abandon ‘you adventurers’!”
“Then!!”
“But we absolutely won’t be shielding that cursed child either!”
“Wha—!?”
“Because—!!”
Pausing to inhale deeply, the depraved receptionist shrilly declared the fact:
“That cursed child isn’t an adventurer!!!”
“……………………Huh?”
Kamasse froze, blankly dumbfounded.