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10. [Altora] Life’s Greatest Chance/Start

“Then, when the dragon was frozen solid, I used my [Sword Saint] to slash it!”

While drinking wine at a bar near the guild, Altora, leader of the S-class party “Divine Silver Sword,” slammed an iron cup onto the table as if swinging his sword. The adventurers around him took a step back as droplets flew around.

A maid boy yelled out from among them.

“Well done Altora-san! There’s nothing that the [Sword Saint] can’t cut!”

“Smart boy. If only Marge hadn’t betrayed me, I could have made a triumphant return… Damnit! I thought he was my friend and trusted him, and yet!”

Altora’s face contorted in frustration. The boy next to him was saying “How dare he!” with a look on his face as if he had just bitten something sour.

The boy’s daily allowance was one silver coin, or 1,000 yen. Reference price: 700 yen for a glass of wine.

“So, Altora, why was the King’s corpse nowhere to be found? What was it made of?”

“Even if Marge made surprise attacks, how did he manage to take down four S-class adventurers?”

“Ugh, looks like I’ve drunk too much and got too drunk… I’ll continue next time.”

Seeing Altora slumped down on the desk, the people around him shrugged their shoulders and dispersed.

“Didn’t you raise the skills that Marge lent you? If that’s the case…”

“Don’t be stupid. He can only lend you the skills he has learned, right? It takes at least three months to learn one skill, and it takes years at most.”

“Even if you spend six years, you’ll only get 10 or 20 at most. Even with that many normal skills, you won’t be able to compete with four people with unique skills…It’s strange.”

The customers and staff around him whispered, but their voices were drowned out by the pouring night rain outside. All Altora heard was the sound of his fake snore.

Sitting across from Altora, Eria munched the food in her mouth, and next to her, Tina turned her eyes exhaustedly towards Altora without even brushing her blonde hair away from her face.

“He’s able to lie so well, isn’t he?”

“It’s nice to be a fool. But more importantly!”

It was a week ago that Altora and the others were found collapsed near the end of the dungeon, frozen in a funny pose, and were carried out.

Marge didn’t say much. He took his own share of the dungeon raid bounty and the standard severance pay, and left town. Thanks to that, even though Altora made up the story based on only his memory of ”a dragon carving on the door” and the mining team’s report that “the inside of the room was frozen,” he was able to win over the people of the city.

It was actually not that far from the strategy Marge actually used to defeat the dragon — something Altora and the others don’t know about — so there hasn’t been any major contradictions thus far.

“Marge, you bastard? Where the hell did you go!”

“It had already been three days since he left when we woke up…”

“For some reason we collapsed in the dungeon, and when we woke up, the dungeon had already been conquered. And Marge was the one who reported the dungeon capture to the guild? What’s going on! Hey woman, bring me ale!”

“Please stop speaking so rudely. If the people’s impression on me deteriorates, the church will hear about it, you know?”

While cursing the missing member, Altora violently called out to the store staff. The staff’s reaction to his daily arrogant attitude was cold.

While chugging down on the ale which was rudely placed before him, Altora started to pick a quarrel with Eria who was sitting across from him.

“Hey Eria!”

“Fuwhd?” *What?

“Don’t talk while eating! Is there anything you’ve figured out yet? It doesn’t matter whatever it is! You should use your head for more than just shooting magic once in a while!”

It was a very unreasonable statement, but Eria didn’t complain and put her hand on her chin and thought for a few seconds.

“This is the knowledge I obtained earlier.”

“What, tell me?”

“Eat the bread by dipping it in corn soup. It’s so delicious it’s out of this world.”

“So what!?”

There have been several times in the past where Altora wasn’t sure what Eria was thinking. However, he wondered if she had always acted like such an idiot. The mage in front of him simply tilted her head slightly.

“Is it not delicious…?”

“I mean, I think it’s a delicious way to eat, but…”

“This year’s biggest discovery. Delicious. Delicious.”

“Oh my, you’re spilling so much…”

Tina, who was sitting next to her, took a step away from her.

“What…?”

It was eerie. The scene before her was heartwarming. A beautiful, delicate girl smiling peacefully.

However, Elia possessed a unique wisdom skill. She is a genius who excited the academic world with her complex paper titled “Multidimensional Interpretation of Uncertainty Noise Occurrence During Mana Attunement.” It was a little eerie to see such a talented woman stuffing her mouth with bread while getting her face dirty.

Altora didn’t think she was joking or teasing, and felt something cold about her and looked away.