Helping with Adventurer Party Management - Chapter 189

There may be some carelessness on our part.

Perhaps it is because our business is off to a good start, we have connected with the influential people in town, and I feel good seeing some of the results, that we are drinking in a small group in a place that isn’t our territory.

Suddenly, Kiriku, who has been relaxed while drinking ale, changes his demeanor and stands up, placing his hand on his sword at his waist.

Surprised, I look around and realize we are surrounded by several men at a distance. Each of them is poorly dressed and has a rough appearance.

I don’t recognize any of them from the Adventurer’s Guild, but I haven’t been visiting there as often lately, so that doesn’t mean anything.

“Kenji, just be ready to run,”  Kiriku says as he stands up, and I nod in response. Sara is also getting up.

“Hey, you’re Kenji, right?” one of the men surrounding us calls out. They are dressed in filthy clothes, and their feet are either in sandals or bare. They brandish makeshift clubs and knives.

“What about it?” I reply.

“Hehe. It seems you’ve been making a lot of money lately. Let’s see if you can share some with us.”

At this, the others laugh lewdly.

Seven of them, huh? They have been scanning the surroundings for a while now, but it doesn’t look like there are any ambushes planned. I turn my gaze to Sara, and she shakes her head.

Are they really just thieves?

The man, mistaking our silence for fear, approaches mockingly and shouts loudly, “Hey, are you scared or what? You brought a big one with you…”

The man doesn’t get to finish his sentence because  Kiriku smashes the man’s face in with his sword, still in its sheath.

The man spins half a turn like a marionette and crashes face-first into the ground.

“…Huh?” The men surrounding us freeze.

I call out to Kiriku, “Don’t kill him! I want to know who’s behind this!”

“…That’s going to be tough! But!”

From that point on, Kiriku is overwhelming. He is like a tiger that has leaped into a pack of skinny dogs. Every time  Kiriku swings his sword from side to side, dull thuds echo as the men spin and fall over.

All I have to do is keep an eye out for any hidden archers or magic while protecting Sara. It feels like it takes a few minutes, but it probably doesn’t last even a minute.

The once-bustling shopfront is now quiet, with the figures of the fallen thieves lying on the ground, blood flowing from their heads and faces.

I hurry out to the shopkeeper and press some extra coins into their hand, asking them to send someone to inform the soldiers at the Sword Fangs Legion’s office instead of the guard station. With just the three of us, we can’t take all these men in, and we need to have a more private conversation later to figure out who is behind this.

“I thought this kind of riffraff was gone from the city,”  Kiriku says, returning after easily dispatching the thieves, wiping the blood from his sword’s sheath.

They are certainly a pathetic bunch. They know about me but don’t seem to know anything about the Sword Fangs Legion. Their demeanor is too inconsistent for thieves from this town. They don’t look like adventurers—could they be from another town?

I have a feeling that something troublesome is about to happen.

Unfortunately, that hunch is often right.