“—And that’s why I called out to you, Mr. Haring!”
Yuri explained the course of events with a beaming smile as he trailed Haring down the road. Haring, meanwhile, kept his irritation rather blatant.
“Not my problem. Get lost.”
“Oh, I can’t quite do that!”
“Yeah, well, you know what you can do? Learn to listen to what people are sayin’!”
Haring stamped his foot to the ground, earning a few looks from the surrounding pedestrians before they went back on their way.
“And wait, what could possibly make you think I’d say yes?”
“Well Mr. Haring, you look like you don’t have many friends, so I just thought you’d come along if I asked!”
“Okay, I get it now. Here comes the fist. Grit your teeth.”
“Oh, so you’re going to join if I beat you in a duel!?”
“Hell no! I just want to knock your friggin’ lights out!”
A vein popped up on Haring’s forehead as he watched Yuri enter a fighting stance. However, it only took a few deep breaths for him to contain his anger.
“Aight, listen here, kid. I don’t plan on entering the Babel Roulette.”
“Oh... I’m so sorry, you really didn’t have anyone to...”
“Lemme stop you right there. I’m just not interested.”
Haring painstakingly grunted. From what Yuri could see, he really was just simply uninterested.
“Fightin’ alongside someone else just ain’t my style, and I don’t give a hoot about bein’ strongest or comin’ out on top.”
“Then...why did you become a duelist, Mr. Haring?”
“I don’t got a reason. It just worked out that way.”
His expression looked genuine, and his words sounded completely sincere. However, Yuri couldn’t help but feel like something was off.
“Way I see it, anything’s fine, s’long as it brings in the dough. It’s not like joinin’ the Babel Roulette earns me anything. In fact, I’ll be earnin’ more money just doin’ other things.”
“By other things...you mean you’re going to do a normal job?”
“What else can it mean?”
“No, it’s just...I can’t imagine you actually working, Mr. Haring.”
“Are you not satisfied until you piss me off every time we meet...!?”
His body quivered in wrath once again, but after sensing that Yuri truly didn’t know, he ultimately sighed and continued.
“There are all sortsa jobs a duelist can do, you get me? Simple jobs give small rewards, and you get more money the more work required. Collectin’ materials in the purgatory district is an especially lucrative business.”
“The purgatory district... I haven’t been there yet.”
The purgatory district was a region to the west. Yuri regularly dropped by the residential district to eat and sleep, and the sightseeing district to visit Elias’s shop, but he had yet to so much as set foot in the northern artisanal or western purgatory districts.
“Well, you’d better get a good look while you still can. During the entry period, the other folks are all busy gatherin’ members and practicin’ coordination. It’s rare to see the place so deserted.”
“I see, meaning you’re aiming for when no one’s there to make a killing in the dungeon!”
“...So you can be perceptive when you wanna be.” Haring grimaced. He hadn’t meant to explain that part. “Anyway, you see how it is. I’m busy scourin’ the dungeon and I don’t plan on enterin’ the Roulette. Go bother someone else.”
“Eeeh...but if you don’t join us, Mr. Haring, we won’t be able to finish gathering members, so we won’t be able to join you in the dungeon...”
“Not my problem. In the first place, why are you even invitin’ me?” Unlike before, Haring seemed genuinely curious when he asked this. “You know how that stupid fox and shrimp spirit react to me. If I say I’m gonna join, they’ll definitely be against it. Worst case scenario, your team could fall apart.”
“Yeah...that’s because those two don’t know too much about you, Mr. Haring.”
“You don’t know jack about me either.”
“Oh no, oh no. I do know you’re a good person, Mr. Haring,” Yuri declared, his teeth glistening in a radiant smile. “I mean, you happily taught me the rules of the duel city when we first met, didn’t you!?”
“The hell...? That was just me shakin’ you down for loose change.”
“But it’s the most important thing to know here. It’s why I knew I had to fight Mr. Elias and prove I wasn’t wrong.”
No matter the details, it could be said that Haring was the first duelist to teach him the rules of the duel city. And that wasn’t all.
“You also refused to duel me.”
When Haring closed in on him, threatening a duel, Yuri readily accepted. But strangely, after seeing this reaction, Haring obstinately declined. While Athena stepped in right after, Haring had been trying to tell him something.
“I didn’t know until Ms. Mirka explained it to me, but in the duel city, ‘any fights outside of duels are heavily punished.’ If we fought then and there, I would have been kicked out of the city before even becoming a duelist.”
Indeed, the duel city imposed a heavy punishment for any fist thrown outside of the official dueling system. This rule was applied not only to duelists but to tourists and anyone taking a temporary stay, with the first one to raise a hand considered at fault and given the heavier sentence.
Of course, extenuating circumstances could be taken into account, but if Haring hadn’t stopped him, he would’ve at best had to pay a fine and at worst been forcefully deported back to the human continent.
“When I saw you were trying to tell me something, I got the feeling you weren’t a bad person... And when I heard about the rules, I was certain of it!”
In contrast to Yuri’s sprightly tone, Haring’s eyes widened, befuddled. Eventually, he nodded, a meek look on his face.