Chapter 22

A young man was shouting from far away. I closed my eyes and listened while I took stock of my situation. I was in Axel, the town for novice adventurers. Also called the “starter town,” it was where low-level adventurers gathered to look for companions. That’s right: I had left the village of the Crimson Magic Clan to go on a journey, and my first act had been to make my way here, accompanying a merchant caravan as a bodyguard. And my reward for my hard work was this inn… “I should never have come to this alternate world! I want a mulligan! I demand a do-over!” Just as I was lost in thought, the shouting started again. …Alternate world? Someone outside must be very drunk. “You think I want to do this over again, you stupid NEET?! The last thing I wanted was to be stuck with a weak good-for-nothing—give me a hero, or a handsome guy to spoil me rotten!” “Ooh, you’re in for it now, you—!” I wondered what they could possibly be fighting about. I got out of bed and opened the window to find a warm sunset illuminating the sky over Axel. I looked down at the street, which was full of adventurers done with work for the day—they looked tired, but everyone was smiling as they strolled past. They wore whatever equipment they could scrape together; most of them weren’t even in proper armor. It was also obvious that many of the parties had unbalanced structures, lacking a proper ratio of front-row to back-row members. But that was exactly what you would expect. After all, this was a town full of novices. It would be my proverbial starting line, just a place I passed through on my way to bigger and better things. I hardly expected to stay long at all. As I gazed out the window, resting my elbows on the sill, I saw one adventurer with dirty golden hair, seemingly on his way home from work, turn to the companions trailing along behind him. “Yo, we hunted way more of ’em than we expected today! Let’s go all out!” “Aww, yeah! I’m all about that Ever-Warm Emerald Neroid-and-Gelatinous-Slime combo platter!” “Whoo-hoo! It’s a cold beer and fried frog legs for me!” “Geez, guys, I think we should wait to spoil ourselves until we’ve picked up some better equipment… Eh, I guess once in a while, it can’t hurt… Beer and frog legs for me, too!” …I had big plans, plans to work my mojo as an Arch-wizard until the whole world knew my name. This town was never going to interest me for very long. “Rin! Keith! Taylor! Let’s drink till dawn!” But the adventurers around here really did seem to be having fun.