Volume 1 - Chapter 23

The Man Picked up by the Gods - Volume 1 Chapter 23

TL Note: So I heard you guys wanted action…

Volume 1 Chapter 23

Break Time

Ryouma was eating by himself in a corner where the adventurers were gathered after he received his portion of lunch.

As for Jeff-san and the others, they went with the other adventurers to exchange information while eating, but since Ryouma didn’t know what to talk about with other adventurers, he was by himself.

“Even though I can talk normally now, it’s not like my fear of strangers has been cured… oh yeah, now that I think about it I did keep my conversation with other people to a minimum… it was normal for me to wait until someone talked to me…

As Ryouma dropped his head to his own cowardice, a group of men came over and spoke to him.

“Hey.”

“Eh? Ah, yes, is something the matter?”

Although Ryouma felt the men come close to him, he didn’t expect them to actually talk to him, so his response ended up being late.

“You’re wearing a pretty nice armor, huh?”

“My armor? Well, yeah, it was quite expensive.”

“Wow, bastards with money really have it nice.”

“Won’t you give some of that to us?”

At the start, Ryouma responded normally. But with those two comments, Ryouma finally realized that these adventurers were up to no good.

Adventurers would normally make a party of up to six and move as such. In the instance where they have to fight a lot of monsters or a particularly powerful prey, then they would gather more members and become an even bigger group. That kind of group normally disperses as soon as the job is over, but there are some rare instances where adventurers who worked in the same town would work together for a long time.

These people belong to that kind of group. The members of the adventurer group who calls themselves, The Fang of Orbtem, are famous in the Town of Gimuru. Not because they’re strong, but because of their bad deeds.

When they find beginner adventurers and lower level adventurers with plenty of money, they do things like what they’re doing right now, and try to extort money and equipment. There are plenty of beginner adventurers who give up their money after being threatened because of the difference in numbers. And even if they were to fight back, because there’s simply too many, they still end up being stolen from.

Right now, the prey of this group is the lonely adventurer who has no friends beside him, eating food by himself. When they saw this weak looking adventurer, well they just couldn’t help themselves. And so, they planned to do their usual stuff, but…

“Sigh… extortion… I thought there were people who finally came to talk to me, but it turned out to be extortion…”

Muttered Ryouma as he sighed disappointedly.

For Ryouma, being caught up with people like this was an everyday occurrence for him in his student days. Because of that, he didn’t feel anything anymore in situations like this.

Seeing the Ryouma who was acting boldly and sighing, the six faltered a bit. That’s because it’s normal for people to resist. Well, at the very least that’s how it was for the adventurers they’ve extorted from until now.

“That’s cruel, man. This isn’t extortion, we’re just…”

“You said you wanted money right? I won’t give you any, you know? Please work honestly and make money for yourselves.”

Ryouma has always been entangled with people like this during his school days. But amongst those countless times he was being harassed, not once did he give money to them.

There were many who would give their money and live peacefully, but Ryouma didn’t give in to extortion. He could have beaten them up, but because he was forbidden by his father to fight, he lived his days irritating the bullies and being hit.

Because of his bad habit from those days, Ryouma also acted rude in response to the six people. And as one would expect, they were enraged and started trying to threaten Ryouma. The voices of the six people reached even the ears of the surrounding adventurers, catching their attention.

“You have some guts, don’t ya…? Don’t fuck with me you shitty brat!! You think I don’t know? The only job you’ve taken till now is a measly cleaning job! A fucker like you who doesn’t know how to fight only needs to do what he’s told!”

“Don’t fucking get cocky just cuz you bought some nice armor!! You’re just a fucker who can’t do anything but loiter around in a weird outfit!”

“I’m telling you to just hand over the fucking cash! You want to make this difficult?”

“You went against us, so leave your armor and your weapons!”

“It’s better than getting hurt ya know?”

“What, can’t you hear me!?”

“I am able to hear you just fine even without you shouting. Or are you perhaps unable to hear? In any case, I will not be handing any money to you people. Nor will I hand my weapons and armor.”

As he said that, he went back to eating his meal. Seeing that, the six people took out their swords. As expected, Ryouma was alarmed and he steeled himself for battle.

Ryouma generally didn’t fight back in his previous life, but there were exceptions. That exception being when his life was in danger. In cases like that, Ryouma fought back. As for why he would only fight when his life was in danger, that’s because he was bad at holding back.

Even if he was forbidden by his father to fight, he was still given permission to defend himself. Only, the difference between his strength and his opponents were too much. So if Ryouma were to try to fight back, it would only end up as excessive self-defense. The techniques Ryouma had learned from his father were meant to efficiently destroy one’s opponents. And those techniques were ingrained into him by his father’s strict training.

When he fought back during his school days, even the person who suffered light injuries had the hand he was holding a weapon with broken. That was the best Ryouma could do to hold back in his student days.

This also means that in situations where Ryouma’s life isn’t in danger, he won’t fight back.

But this time, his opponents tried to take out their swords. If he were to be hit by those swords, his life would be in danger. Ryouma is the kind of man who wouldn’t hesitate in a situation where his life was in danger.

While Ryouma had his guard up, and as the men tried to take out their swords, someone called out to them.

“What are you guys doing!!?”

That voice came from the man standing in the middle of the onlookers surrounding them from a distance.

The guild master of the Adventurer’s Guild, Wogan.

Wogan glared at the six guys as he walked over to Ryouma.

“You guys, I can still let you off if you’re only arguing, but I won’t approve of you taking your swords out.”

“Why is the guild master…?”

“Withdraw!”

“Even if it’s break time, we’re still in the middle of a job. So stop fighting with your fellow adventurers!”

“Fight? There’s nothin’ like that. We’re just teachin’ this brat a lesson.”

“Cuz this kid don’t have a single inkling of respect towards his senpai adventurer.”

As the two men brazenly said that it was education, Ryouma said this while he was eating.

“You can’t call extorting money, then getting mad when refused and trying to threaten me to get my armor and weapon, ‘education’, you know?”

At those words, four of the men were startled and two of them stared at Ryouma with resentful eyes. Naturally, having something like that said while the guild master was around was bad.

Of course, Wogan responded to those words,

“Certainly, that isn’t education. What’s the meaning of this?”

“Hey, hey. It’d be problematic if you misunderstood us… what we were trying to do was for you…”

“Exactly how is trying to take my money, armor, and weapons, for my sake?”

“You fucker! Stop trying to slander us!!”

“I’ll fucking kill you bitch!”

The previously calm four, started to shout angrily at the few calm words Ryouma spoke. And then,

“Duel me!”

Ryouma thought he had heard wrong at those sudden words and asked,

“What did you say?”

“I said to duel me you brat!”

“Why?”

“Because you fucking falsely accused us is why!!”

“If you lose you have to give us your money, armor, and weapons!”

“Consider it payment for the class, brat. Because we’ll be teachin you exactly how cruel adventurers are.”

Ryouma opened his eyes, shocked. And then after his shocked had lessened, he said what he thought,

“This is the first time I’ve seen someone ask for a duel.”

Those words that didn’t carry a hint of tension caused the six to become irritated.

“Who cares about something like that!?”

“Are you going to accept?! Accept or not, which is it!?”

“There’s no way I would accept something like that, right? Trying to justify your crimes is meaningless, you know?”

“You scared, you brat?”

“This fucking coward!”

“You’re pathetic!!”

This time, the six started to shower Ryouma with jeers.

Although Wogan tried to stop that, he couldn’t completely stop it. As Ryouma was gloomily thinking of that, he suddenly thought,

(Now that I think about it, Jeff-san said that if I don’t fight them and show my strength, that I’ll be looked down on.)

Having remembered the words he was told this morning, Ryouma thought a little.

Why won’t I fight them? Well that’s because I’m bad at holding back. It’ll just end up as excessive self-defense.

But this world is different. If one is attacked, as long as it’s for self-defense, then it’s legal even if you kill. This is a world where the fracture Ryouma caused in his school days when he held back wasn’t even worth mentioning. This is a world where you can’t avoid fighting if you want to protect your daily life and your rights.

And also, the opponents right now have a good build, unlike the kids he faced back then. Even if they’re a bunch of thugs, they are adults that have trained how to fight.

What’s more, is that compared to his school days, Ryouma can hold back better now. As he was thinking that, he thought again,

(Oh yeah, I was pretty unsatisfied back in my previous life, huh?)

Although Ryouma had endured the extortion and bullying, it’s not like he didn’t feel anything.

It hurt when he got hit, and when he was spoken ill of, it also hurt. So he also thought of wanting to let loose. But by muttering to himself about excessive self-defense, he was somehow barely able to keep that urge. In other words, he had always wanted to beat those guys up.

Having noticed that, Ryouma heard the jeers of the other men again.

“Coward!!”

“Don’t run, and accept it!”

“A scared adventurer that can’t accept should just retire!!”

At those words, Ryouma said this,

“I understand, I’ll accept it.”

The moment he said that, the jeers stopped. And the onlookers watching all looked at Ryouma.

However, Wogan, wanting to confirm Ryouma’s intentions, asked with a serious face,

“Ryouma, you plan to fight?”

“Yeah, it’s no use even if I kept doing this.”

Like this, Ryouma accepted the duel of the six members of the adventurer group, The Fang of Orbtem.