The next day.
I had no particular plans for today either, but I went out into the town to run some errands. As I walked along the streets, the passersby were all discussing the three S-rank adventurers who had arrived the other day. Word of them had clearly already become the talk of the town.
While that was only natural...
"I hope nothing's gone wrong..."
I had no need to worry excessively, nor any obligation to look after them. Even so, all the relevant parties had made quite a commotion as soon as their arrival was decided, so it lingered on my mind. I had time to spare, so I decided to go check on things for just a moment.
With that lighthearted intention, I dropped by the Adventurer Guild—
"Huh?"
When I stepped inside and opened the door, there was not an adventurer to be seen. Not only that, but there was only a single staff member at the counter. Normally, even during the quieter hours, at least a few adventurers would be lounging around, but today the lobby was truly deserted.
Feeling a twinge of unease, I approached the counter, and the woman who had been busy writing looked up.
"Ah! Ryoma-san!"
"Hello, Paena-san. It's been a while."
The person at the counter was Paena-san. While capable, she had a rather timid personality, making her far better and faster at handling paperwork behind the scenes than dealing with front-desk reception duties. In the spirit of placing the right person in the right job, I had heard her appearances at the front desk had become rare lately, but was she really the only one here?
"It's remarkably quiet today. Did something happen? Don't tell me a dangerous monster showed up?"
"No requests requiring a full mobilization of adventurers have been posted. If that had happened, it would be sheer pandemonium. Though in a sense, it might still be dangerous..."
"Meaning...?"
"Well... To be honest, S-Rank Glen-sama, who arrived the other day, got into a bit of a dispute with some of the local adventurers here in Gimul. Since a short while ago, they've been holding mock battles in the rear training grounds under the Guild Master's supervision."
"Ah..."
I had come by wondering if something was amiss, and sure enough, trouble was already brewing.
"Getting into a brawl only two days after arriving is one thing, but to think someone actually challenged him..."
"The Guild Master said it was something of a turf war. Glen-sama may be an S-rank, but he's a newcomer to the Town of Gimul, and some people took offense, feeling his attitude was far too arrogant. When the Guild Master caught wind of it, he stepped in, figuring it would be best to let them blow off some steam under proper supervision... Glen-sama was more than eager, and the other side wouldn't back down—or rather, they'd reached a point where they couldn't back down. The rest of the adventurers who heard the news went to the back to watch the matches and haven't returned since. Except for me, the entire staff has been deployed to manage the spectators and treat the injured."
So all available hands had been pulled over there, yet they couldn't simply leave the front desk unattended. That explained why Paena-san was holding down the counter.
"By the way, regarding this matter, the Guild Master left instructions stating that if Ryoma-san showed up, I should tell you: 'I'll pay you based on the workload, so help treat the wounded, and lend a hand to stop things if it gets out of hand.'"
"...I came to check on things anyway, so I might as well head over."
"Thank you so much!"
Could it be that Wogan-san had planned this early venting session right after hearing about Glen-san from me? Feeling slightly as though I had poked my nose where it didn't belong—including by showing up at the guild in the first place—I made my way toward the training grounds out back.
"WOOOOOO!!!!"
"Go for it! Right there!"
"You idiot! Don't try to take him on alone! Rush him all at once!"
"Hold on, hold on, hold on! Ahh, it's over! My money... Damn it all!"
"Hey, hey, even if the guy's an S-rank, is the gap really this absurd?!"
It seemed soundproofing magic tools had been set up around the training grounds. The moment I stepped through the threshold, the previous silence vanished as if it had all been an illusion, and the deafening cheers and shouts of the adventurers battered my ears.
Judging by fragments of their yelling, along with spectators clutching handfuls of coins and slips of paper, bets were clearly being placed. Adding gambling to a high-stakes clash between an S-rank and the local adventurers' pride made the explosive excitement easy to understand.
However, spacious as the guild's rear grounds were, the area had never been designed as an arena for spectators. The viewing conditions were far from ideal, offering little more than a sea of backs and heads—well, aside from the man who had just been sent sailing through the air... but that didn't change the fact that I couldn't see what was actually going on.
Wondering what to do next, I scanned the area and noticed a relatively empty space slightly removed from the commotion. When I approached, I found a makeshift first-aid station.
"Hm? Well if it isn't Ryoma."
"Ah, Roche-san!"
Turning around at the sound of my footsteps was Roche-san from the adventurer party Guidance Light, who had looked after me in the past. What was more, his entire party was assembled right behind him.
"It's been a while. Are all of you participating as well?"
"We're on medical duty."
"Even if we stepped up, there's no way we could hold our own against him right now."
"I figured taking on an active S-rank would be a tall order, but that guy's simply in a league of his own."
"If we were five years younger, we might have at least thrown our hats into the ring."
Lucy-san, Mimir-san, Howard-san, and Lucas-san. The five of them, including Roche-san, focused primarily on mentoring younger adventurers and took on almost no other requests these days. Since they were effectively semi-retired from active adventuring, it made sense that they were sitting out the mock battles.
"Are you hopping in, Ryoma?"
"No, the Guild Master left a message asking me to help with treatment."
"Ha, so the Guild Master roped you in too, did he?"
"When you say 'too,' does that mean Wogan-san made a request to your group as well?"
"Yeah. A little while back, he told us that Glen was coming and that trouble would probably brew, so he'd set something like this up when the time came. He didn't know exactly when it would happen, but he asked us to cooperate as much as we could."
"...I only just found out about it, but to think you all had a strategy meeting in advance."
"Come to think of it, you're acquainted with that Glen, aren't you, Ryoma? The Guild Master mentioned you were the one who told him the guy prefers straightforward solutions."
"Yes. We crossed paths before."
"Taking all that into account brought us here. That man isn't Guild Master just for show, after all. He keeps a sharp eye on every single adventurer. He's remarkably perceptive about their moods and quirks, and breaking up brawls is second nature to him. The reason he left you a message without explaining anything beforehand was probably because he wagered the odds were high you'd be dropping by more often anyway."
"For someone who despises paperwork, the man is surprisingly thorough. Still, you can see the results for yourself. At first it was just a petty grudge match with both sides whining endlessly, but the atmosphere isn't half bad now, is it?"
Indeed. Just as Howard-san said, while the spectacle was certainly aggressive, the atmosphere felt remarkably like a festival. In terms of mediating a dispute, one could safely say it had been settled in the best possible way.
"The mock battles are restricted to C-rank and above, and the Guild Master is acting as referee, so nobody's suffered any grave injuries. Why don't you just sit back and enjoy the show, Ryoma-kun? We'll have you lend a hand if any wounded come our way, of course."
"Then I'll gladly take you up on that—"
"That's enough!!"
"WOOOOOO!!!"
Just as I settled into a seat at Lucy-san's invitation, another massive roar erupted from the crowd. A match had just concluded, and naturally, the victor was Glen-san. Standing at the center of the ring with an effortless demeanor, he waited for the next batch of challengers to rotate in.
...Looking closely, the next group included Jeff-san and Asagi-san, who had both helped me on numerous occasions. Both wore dead-serious expressions, brandishing weapons that were decidedly not meant for training.
"Jeff and Asagi are stepping up, which means this is the final match."
"Is that so, Roche-san?"
"Up until now, the groups were organized starting from the lower ranks. Since the other two new S-ranks don't seem to have shown up, Asagi's squad should be the last."
Once the participants finished entering the ring, the clash between the newcomer S-rank and the local top-tier forces—bearing the pride of Gimul on their shoulders—began.
"Begin!"
"Wo—"
"SHAAA!!"
At the exact moment of Wogan-san's signal, the adventurers swarmed Glen-san from all sides. Yet, with a simple, sweeping spin of his outstretched arms, he blew away the incoming attacks in every direction. In half a turn, he parried their weapons away; in the other half, he slammed his forearms into the nearest challengers, eliminating half the squad in a single breath.
His style is as crude as ever, yet his raw strength is utterly absurd...
Still, being the final match, Gimul's adventurers were all seasoned veterans. Those who were knocked out didn't limp over to the first-aid station; instead, they lingered at the edge of the stage, determined to burn Glen-san's every move into their memories. Meanwhile, those who had successfully evaded quickly reformed their broken perimeter, pressing the attack in rolling waves.
At the heart of the skirmish was Asagi-san. While the others unleashed their own strikes, Asagi-san maintained a position directly in front of Glen-san at all times, surging onto the offensive to draw his attention whenever Glen-san shifted focus toward anyone else. As a result, the brunt of Glen-san's brutal blows targeted him, but he endured by slipping past every strike by a hair's breadth—
"Whoops."
"Tch, does he have eyes in the back of his head?"
"That was a close one just now!"
Capitalizing on the moment Glen-san was focused on Asagi-san, Jeff-san drove a full-force thrust from behind. Under normal circumstances, the timing would have guaranteed a clean hit. Yet just before the blow could land, Glen-san leaped away without rhyme or reason, leaving the spearhead to pierce empty air.
A tremendous amount of Qi had clearly been channeled into the tip of the spear, so it certainly would have pierced him had it connected. However, whenever an attack posed genuine danger, Glen-san's Intuition kicked in, reflexively driving him to evade. Conversely, half-hearted strikes were easily shrugged off by his Qi-strengthened body, making them completely useless even as distractions.
"He dodged, which means our attacks can hurt him! Keep pouring it on!!"
"Show him what Gimul's adventurers are made of!!"
Deafening cheers shook the arena from the spectator area. The crowd's fervor was staggering.
Even so... Glen-san was fighting completely bare-handed while everyone else wielded live steel, yet I still couldn't picture any scenario where he could lose.
"He's still like this even against Asagi and the others... Ryoma, as an acquaintance of Glen, what do you think?"
"He's having fun... is my impression. He's the type who gets more motivated the stronger his opponent is, so this is proof of just how capable Asagi-san and the others are... but when I saw him fight in the Sea of Trees, he displayed physical abilities far beyond what he's showing now. To be blunt, if you're going to fight Glen-san, I think it's best to treat him as a monster rather than a human being. He's simply that far removed from the realm of normal people."
"Indeed... I thought his combat style looked like a messy street brawl, but calling those physical traits and reflexes beast-like might be far more accurate. On that note, if someone actually wanted to beat him...?"
"You would need to land a strike powerful enough to overcome the defense of his strengthened body, and do so in a position where he cannot evade. To make that possible, you'd have to enhance yourself with Qi or magic just to keep pace with his movements. I'd say that's the absolute bare minimum. Honestly, thorough preparation beforehand is essential. I don't believe he's the kind of opponent anyone could beat on the first try."
While we shared that conversation, challengers dropped out one by one... until only Asagi-san and Jeff-san remained. The two fought on with incredible tenacity, but unable to withstand the relentless onslaught of a Glen-san who could now focus all his power solely on them—
"That's enough!"
"...OOOOOOOO!!!!"
Wogan-san called the match just as the two were blasted backward almost simultaneously, bringing the contest to an end. After a momentary pause, the crowd erupted into a roar of mingled disappointment and awe.
Losing the mock battle was likely a bitter pill for Gimul's adventurers to swallow. Even so, Glen-san had demonstrated prowess truly worthy of an S-rank. And judging by the atmosphere alone, it was clear that many of them now held genuine respect for him.
While no one could say for sure how their relationship would develop from here, this had undoubtedly laid the foundation for Glen-san to be accepted by the adventurers of Gimul.
"Hm?"
"Ah."
Lost in those thoughts, I had let my guard down.
With the battle over, the participants who had postponed their medical care to watch the match began trickling toward the first-aid station... and as Glen-san's gaze traced along the line of approaching men, his eyes locked straight onto mine as I watched from the medical tent.