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nCh. 53: A Warning After the Interruption

nLoren, walking over to where the dispute was taking place after receiving Lapis’ unmotivated sendoff, was surprised when he saw the group who seemed to be the victims.

nHe knew that they were young, since he had seen them from afar, but when he got closer, he saw that they were still at an age that could be considered children.

nTo Loren, they looked around fourteen or fifteen, which was still considered as children.

nIt depended on the region, but most places considered sixteen to be the start of adulthood.

nThe group of adventurers that were bothering them were a lot older than them.

nOne of the adventurers, who was a few years older than Loren, grabbed the hand of the girl and tried to pull her away.

nThe girl getting pulled away had short black hair and looked lively, but her face was colored with surprise and confusion. The three boys that were trying to stop it from happening yet being cut off by the other adventurers was a well-built boy with a blonde crew cut, a frivolous looking boy with slightly long brown hair, and a short, timid looking boy, also with brown hair that was in a bowl cut, wearing clothes like those of a priest.

nWhile Loren looked around at them, both the kids and the adventurers froze, looking dumbfounded, as they saw him walking towards them.

n“W-who are you supposed to be?”

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nThe adventurer grabbing the girl’s arm asked him who he was.

nLoren didn’t answer him, but instead observed the face of the girl who had her arm held for a while.

nAfter a moment, as the girl looked back at him, wondering what he was about, Loren asked her.

n“You’re not playing with each other, right?”

n“N-no! They suddenly told me to drink with them…”

n“Ha! We saw some kids wandering around in the bar this late, so we just said that we’ll show you how to play!”

nThe girl tried to shake him off, but she wasn’t a match for him, and the adventurer still had a tight grip on her.

nAfter confirming the situation, he asked the three boys that were being held back by the adventurers.

n“You guys need help?”

n‘P-please help!”

n“Shut up! We don’t need help!”

n“Cloud!”

nThe one that asked for help was the well-build boy with the blonde crew cut.

nThe one who made the bullish remark was the frivolous looking boy, and the one that stopped him was the one with the bowl cut.

nThe boy with the crew cut had a better physique than the other two, but since he was the first one to ask for help, Loren guessed that he was either timid or he was that desperate, and both weren’t good tendencies.

nBut since he walked over to help them, he decided that their personalities weren’t of importance.

n“The h.e.l.l, are you? You trying to poke your nose into our business? No one called you, so back off!”

nThe adventurer holding the girl’s arm started ranting, but Loren paid no attention and grabbed his wrist.

n“I don’t think it’s smart for kids to be in a bar, you know?”

nAn ominous noise sounded from where Loren was grabbing the adventurer’s wrist.

nThe adventurer was forced to realize what the sound was before he could even start to wonder what it was.

nIt was the sound of his flesh and bones screaming.

nWhile his bones were creaking, his flesh was being crushed, blood circulation stopping, and his fingers becoming numb, Loren looked into his eyes and continued, without even batting an eye.

n“Bothering kids isn’t something adults should do.”

n“G…Gah!? Y-you! Let go! Let go!”

nThe adventurer let go of the girl, but the pressure from Loren’s hand that threatened to crush his wrist didn’t lighten.

nHe tried to shake Loren off, but he couldn’t move his hand at all, as if it was fixed in the air, and all he could do was watch as it was getting crushed inside Loren’s grip. He couldn’t bear it anymore and called out to his companions, who were still holding the boys back, for help.

n“Hey! Let go of them! Help me with this guy! My wrist is going to get crushed!”

nSeeing their companion wailing, the others realized the abnormality of the situation and surrounded Loren, but Loren paid no attention, and continued to slowly crush the wrist in his hand.

n“Stop! Let go!”

nThe adventurer screamed as he saw blood drip out through Loren’s fingers.

nIt was proof that his wrist wasn’t broken but was the crushed to the point where the bone shards were ripping through his flesh and skin, and he realized that soon enough, he wouldn’t be able to use his wrist ever again.

n“Let him go!”

nOne of the other adventurers pulled out a short blade without thinking.

nAlthough it was a bar, it was run by the adventurer’s guild.

nThe adventurer knew that he would be punished for using a weapon, but he was completely swallowed up by Loren’s presence, and couldn’t make calm decisions anymore.

n“I’ll let him go if you guys back off. So, what do you guys say?”

nEven with the white blade glistening in the dim light of the bar, Loren didn’t flinch and didn’t let go either.

nAll that changed was his gaze towards the adventurer who pulled out the blade.

nUntil now, no matter how bad their att.i.tudes were, he looked at them as people, but suddenly his gaze was one that was looking at an object.

nSince Loren was looking at them, the adventurers found that out whether they liked it or not.

nBecause they found out, they realized that they had done something irreparable the moment they drew their blades.

nIf they backed off as Loren said right now, they would be labeled as cowards who ran away even after drawing their weapons.

nBut if they attacked Loren, the outcome waiting for them would be worse than one crushed wrist.

n“Any longer, and he won’t be able to use his arm again.”

nDuring that time, Loren’s fingers had continued to dig into the arm further and further.

nThe bones were already completely crushed, and the bleeding had been going on for quite a while as well, but it was still at a point where if the adventurers took him to a high-ranking priest and made a large donation and received a high cla.s.s healing Divine Art, he could recover.

nThat was why Loren confronted them with a choice.

nContinue like this and face irreparable results, or risk their reputation falling slightly and back off.

nBoth didn’t let them off scot free, but Loren decided to at least give them a choice, and soon enough the adventurer that drew his blade put it away and raised his other arm towards Loren.

n“Alright…we’ll back off. So please let him go.”

n“You’re not lying, right?”

n“If we lie here, we’ll be at a point we can’t get back from. We’ll back off, so let him go! He’s already foaming!”

nWhen Loren looked back at the adventurer whose wrist he was holding, he saw that he was already unconscious, and was foaming at the mouth.

nIt seemed that the pain and the shock of seeing his bone ripping through his flesh and skin was too much for him to handle.

nWhen he let the adventurer go, his limp body crashed down on the floor, and his companions picked his body up in a hurry.

n“Going to say, ‘remember this?’ or something like that?”

nLoren asked the adventurers as they recovered their companion’s body and were about to leave, but the adventurer that drew his weapon shook his head.

n“We’d rather you forget our faces. If someone like you remembers us, we can’t even hit on girls carelessly.”

nLoren was impressed that with the way they made sure they sowed no seeds of future trouble when they decided to back off, they lived up to their names as adventurers.

nIf he were against atrocious mercenaries or some thugs, they would be foolish and say lines like what Loren had said and he would remember their faces, but Loren couldn’t help but feel the decisiveness in the adventurers’ att.i.tude of cutting ties with any sort of trouble.

n“You should choose your opponent wisely.”

n“We’ll keep that in mind.”

nThe tags swaying on the chests of the retreating adventurers were copper.

nAfter seeing that they weren’t even iron ranks, Loren couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for what he did.

nMost adventurers were iron or copper ranks, and their numbers were many.

nEven within the same rank, they ran the gamut, and Loren wondered around where they would be, but they quickly vanished from his sight.

nWhile he decided that judging from their skill there wouldn’t be any retaliation against him later, the girl that he helped nervously called out to him.

n“Umm…Thank you so much.”

n“Don’t worry about it. You guys just caught my attention a bit.”

nLoren’s decision to help them was based on his own agenda.

nLoren waved his hand at the girl, as he wasn’t looking for any thanks.

n“But you saved me!”

n“Glad that you’re safe, is what I’d like to say. But you guys are still kids, right? If you hang out at places like this, you’ll get hit on by some weird people, you know?”

nHe could’ve also said that it was because they seemed open and easy to hit on, or that they seemed easy to play around with.

nOn top of that, Loren couldn’t help but give them a warning regardless if it was none of his business because they still looked like children.

n“We’re sorr-”

n“Hey old man! Who do you think you are to scold…”

n“Stop it Cloud. He helped us, remember?”

n“Come on, Al! There’s no reason for us to get…”

n“I said stop it.”

nOut of the three boys that were walking over, thanks to the adventurers holding them back running away, the frivolous looking one started turning on him, while the one with the bowl cut was stopping him as best as he could.

nIf they were a bit older.

nIf they were, for example, Klaus’ age, he would’ve felt like educating them a bit further, but they were younger than Klaus, at an age that Loren considered as children.

nHe turned around, ignoring them since educating them wasn’t his job, but the well-built boy with the blonde crew cut jumped in front of him.

n“My name is Ain, the leader of this party. Please let us thank you.”

n“I don’t need thanks. It’s something I did on my own. None the less, you should choose where to chatter wisely. Especially if you can’t deal with things with your own strength.”

n“W-we’re sorry. We wanted to take a peek at the bar’s atmosphere as a change of pace.”

nIt seemed like they had some circ.u.mstance, but that wasn’t something for Loren to know.

nHe pushed past Ain, who was about to say something more, and walked back to the table where Lapis was waiting without looking back.

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n“Welcome back, Loren. You didn’t break anything this time.”

nLoren let out a nervous laugh at the words Lapis said to him as soon as he got back.

nIf he punched or kicked, he would’ve broken this and that, as Lapis was expecting, but Loren knew that as well.

n“I’ll dry up in no time if I keep paying fines or compensation every time something happens.”

n“No doubt.”

n“But I’m still surprised that the ones being picked on were a party as well.”

n“Is that so? If that’s the case…fate might bring us to them again soon enough.”

n“What’s that supposed to mean?”

n“We’ll see. I’m not that confident on this, so I guess we’ll have to look forward to it.”

nLoren looked at Lapis, who was still flipping through the menu, not being able to choose what to order, and sighed, thinking about how what she mentioned wasn’t something that they would want to look forward to.

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