“Freak... You’re really gonna eat that?”
“What’s wrong? They’re all filled with protein, you know?”
“I didn’t ask about their nutritional value!”
“I’ve tried them all before, so they should be safe! There are a few poisonous ones, but they’re generally fine as long as you remove the poisonous organs!”
“How ’bout you notice the more fundamental problem here...!!”
Haring’s protests fell upon deaf ears, as Yuri began crushing the bugs between his teeth, his head in a curious tilt. The fearsome squelching noises quite nearly caused the dragon man to lose his appetite.
After witnessing such a scene, Haring listlessly stretched out over the ground.
“...Good grief. If I wasn’t being paid so well, I’d be gone by now.”
“Come to think of it, Mr. Haring, are you acquainted with Ms. Mirka?”
“Acquainted? I wouldn’t go that far. That lady’s always at the reception desk, so we see each other a lot, is all. More importantly,” Haring muttered, narrowing his eyes, “What’s your relationship with her?”
“I wouldn’t call it a relationship... I’m the freeloader, and Ms. Mirka is the landlord?”
“Hah? Pull the other one! Who the hell pays that ridiculous amount for a freeloader?”
Honestly, this request reeked to high heaven. It was oftentimes the case that being a dungeon guide was a high-paying request. Not only was the guide themself placed in danger, they would have to lead a clueless liability around with them. At the very least, a guide’s fee would be ten times the cost of the day jobs posted at town hall. On top of that, they were generally allowed to keep half of the collected materials.
The market value of a guide was high, and this request paid close to five times that.
That wasn’t all. The job listing was, specifically, to “lead the individual to the deeper levels without any assistance aside from explanation,” and this was to be strictly adhered to even if the individual was on the verge of death.
The guide was allowed to claim rights over every single thing collected apart from the designated herbs. Meaning materials collected along the way went straight into Haring’s wallet.
Despite all this, Yuri simply tilted his head and groaned.
“Hrmm... Ms. Mirka’s a pretty enigmatic person...”
“You can live with someone that mysterious...?”
“Well, I know she’s not a bad person. She helps me out in things besides my living situation as well, so I have to get stronger to meet her expectations!” Yuri forcefully answered, clenching his fist.
The sight caused Haring to ask what had been floating around his head. “You, kid, why are you so obsessed with strength?”
“Why? Well...getting stronger is what makes me happy, and fighting is fun, isn’t it!?”
“Hah... Sorry, you lost me there.”
Haring wasn’t putting up a front; those were words from the heart.
“I’ve never thought I wanted to be strong, and I’ve never found fightin’ any fun. It just turned out duelin’ was the job suited for me, and I knew it would make me some coin.”
It wasn’t as if everyone was like Yuri, coming to the duel city with dreams of being a duelist. That was precisely why...looking at someone like Yuri irritated him to no end.
“Not like anythin’ you do’s gonna change how the world ticks.”
When Haring was about to voice his frustrations—
“You lost me! I don’t get that way of thinking at all!” Yuri beamingly replied, his words filled with confidence. “I mean, of course, nothing’s going to change if I do nothing. But if I take action, at the very least, it creates the possibility for something to change.”
He spoke with sparkles in his eyes.
“And if the possibility exists, I’ll try out anything. I know it’ll all stay the same if I don’t at least go that far.”
A mix-blood, the weakest existence. Yuri understood better than anyone how reckless it was to try and overturn this reality. But Yuri’s actions had created a possibility, his tremendous effort allowing him to grasp at it, faint as it was, and overturn the title of weakest.
“I want to have fun fighting. If I want to have fun fighting alongside Athena and Fram, I have to get much, much stronger than I am right now...meaning, you get how it is!”
Perhaps due to the passion he put into it, Yuri’s words were becoming completely incoherent. But...perhaps that was precisely what allowed him to surmount the walls set before him.
“You’re the same as me, aren’t you?”
“Hah? What makes you say that?”
“I mean, you’re trying to earn a lot of money, aren’t you? Getting stronger, making money, the point is, it’s a means to a goal. That’s why, Mr. Haring, you must have a goal, right?”
Yuri cast his words while directing pure and radiant eyes at Haring. He was making a convoluted sort of sense. Earning money was a means to achieve the goal of living, and not many people would call making money in and of itself their goal.
“Who knows? Don’t know if I’d call it a goal.” After speaking those self-deriding words, Haring turned his back to play it off. “Talk over. I’m gonna sleep.”
“Eeh!? I still want to talk about all sorts of things!”
“Shut it. Go bother someone else.”
“But you’re the only one here.”
“Then try talkin’ to the trees and grass. Who knows? They just might talk back.”
“Are you, by chance, treating me like a crazy person!?”
“It’s the truth, ain’t it? If you don’t like trees, then go trap a monster and—”
The moment Haring was about to offer some arbitrary words, a large clamor broke out from somewhere nearby. At the same time, a vine near Yuri gave off a twang as it was pulled taut.
This was topped off by a woman’s hysterical shriek of, “—Whoah!? What in the world happened to me!?”
The two exchanged a look before Yuri tried reeling the vine in. It wasn’t long before a glimmer of gold emerged from the thicket. The form of a young woman, both her arms entangled, crawling along the ground. Tell-tale pointed ears sprouted through the gaps in her hair.
“Urgh...hic, I’m a failure... To be caught in such a trap is my life’s biggest blunder...”