Chapter 246: Another Gang
———Lerim———
<9: 08 am>
“That’s… a whole wheel of cheese. Is this even allowed?” Evari asked, flabbergasted by the giant parmesan wheel on the table.
“If it wasn’t, then I would’ve been stopped already.” I pointed while I slowly melted the cheese with fire magic so it dripped onto the cracker I’m holding. “So are you guys gonna take a slice or what?”
Why is no one saying anything? There’s no way I can feasibly eat the entire wheel anyway. I might have already designated today as cheat day, but there’s no way my body can fit in an entire wheel of cheese, no matter the quality.
They are certainly being quite modest despite the scale of the party. I have never joined a party with so much going on.
“If you’ll excuse me.” The boss said before he cut a huge slice for himself. Evari also did the same but with a much more modest portion. The others are more hesitant and only take a very tiny chunk each.
The cheese is quite tasty, though It’d probably be better to grate it on other dishes and not just crackers. Good thing I got the grater as well. They have everything for us to use, which is very convenient.
*Clank* *Clack*
The sounds of people fighting in the middle of the venue continued to ring out with a more peaceful tune from the speakers scattered across the place accompanying it. It’s quite a dissonance.
“Some people are really raring to go.” Evari remarked as she took a sip of the expensive wine. “…How expensive is this thing? You know about wine prices, right? You just said it was expensive.”
“Quite expensive. Admittedly it’s far from some absolutely ridiculous prices on certain brands, but they are still expensive compared to higher-end stuff you see in stores.” He explained. “Weirdly enough, it’s the only brand I saw. I’m surprised they didn’t go all out with the truly ridiculous luxury brands.”
“Maybe it’s just a preference thing?” I don’t really know how well this brand compares to even more expensive stuff, but it’s way better than anything I ever had.
“Perhaps. I’ve tasted it before and it doesn’t seem any different than the more expensive options… No, let’s not look into this further.” Just how much money did you spend on those things!? And here I thought he’s someone who is more responsible with his spending. Maybe that’s why he’s taking his job so seriously, making sure he has a steady source of income to indulge in that expensive hobby of his.
“You do look like the time to talk about tasting expensive things. That kinda tracks.” Evari remarked. He does have the kind of composure and appearance of someone who is a bit of a snob.
“Please don’t put weird ideas in other people's minds.” He said since the other adventurers could hear the conversation just fine. Even the ones at a nearby table could easily eavesdrop the current conversation. It’ll probably sting if he came out of this with more rumors floating around, and not a particularly flattering one.
Everyone from our guild is here, so he can’t really avoid that kind of talk even when he’s focusing on work.
“It’s the burden of being a figure everyone is looking at with some reverence, I suppose.” He certainly helped in making our guild perform well enough to be invited here. Everyone who is associated with our branch gets to come here free of charge. It’s an absurd benefit no one could ever see coming, mainly because it’s technically unofficial. The ones who started the guild business probably never plan on organizing something like this in the first place. They seem like a shady bunch who probably used the materials we sold them for something nefarious, not that I can prove that anyway.
But speaking on contributing, something tells me that I am the one who carried the ranking of our guild so that we can even be invited here, that’s just a thought. I was the one who got invited here last time, after all…
Hm? Is that Crylight? I’m surprised that she’s invited considering that she was never invited to this institution before. Wonder who else got invited. It’s hard to tell who is a local and who was invited from elsewhere. It’s not really something I feel like I should take my time investigating, so let’s just leave it at that.
“This place is massive, by the way. How many people are here?” Evari asked as she looked around. The more you look at it it becomes clear just how spacious this place is even with more people coming in by the minute.
“How should I know?” Last time I was here I didn’t pay attention to the crowd at all. No way I can estimate the amount of people present, especially in such a large number. They modified the place so almost everything is on flat ground so they can scatter a bunch of tables, so there’s also that to take into account. “One thing’s for sure, this place is getting louder by the minute.”
The other guys from our guild are chatting and having fun, they’re starting to get quite loud. The guys that sat at this table with the three of us are significantly less chatty, looking quite nervous, even. All of you could just go to another table if you like, it’s not like this place is deprived of them, maybe even go talk to people from other guilds and share your grievances, I dunno.
I looked around a bit after taking my time eating through the cheese wheel, and I am seeing some recognizable faces. That mouse woman is around, and thankfully she doesn’t seem interested in starting a fight at the moment. I saw Karra, naturally. I also see that pink catlady.
I’d imagine someone with an ulterior motive would love to know the faces and characteristics of these high profile adventurers and other individuals that attend this party. Most of them are just regular folks, some more rowdy than others, and for the most part the faces of strangers just became a blur with so many people I don’t recognize walking into view.
One thing I do appreciate about this current visit is not being in the spotlight. Normally I would love that, but being seen as a strong fighter and not much else bruises my ego quite a bit. Seriously, when was the last time someone complimented my beauty? Especially in a more tasteful manner?
Anyway, at least I’m not a center of attention in a way that is getting old at this point. There’s no world where I can be praised for being strong forever anyway, that hierarchy changes every single second and trying to keep up is a losing battle. Being super beautiful though, not that many people can boast.
…No, I’m not gonna acknowledge that the scythe maniac has a somewhat ethereal beauty to her, that just seems like we’re allowing someone who won the lottery. Just pure luck of being born like that. Besides, it’s not like people are usually competing to be the most beautiful person in the world anyway, that’s a fool’s errand with how subjective beauty is in comparison to strength. I think pursuing something that doesn’t even have an objective metric is fine, it’s more forgiving. Yeah. That’s why boasting about my beauty is more important than boasting about my strength.
That tangent aside, what else is there to say or do aside from keep eating and relaxing? Perhaps I need to make sure it doesn’t look like my belly is bulging out. That sounds absolutely scandalous, and I wasn’t wearing a loose dress to obfuscate it either, I don’t even have that as an excuse.
I guess I could also at least look at the fight happening in the pit, as they called it. It’s not really a bloody fight, and how they prevent fatal injury is a mystery. I think it’s probably simpler than what others might be thinking in their own head, but that’s nothing more than a hunch on my end. It’s a lone source of entertainment outside of the food.
It’s clear why they’re structured this way. It’s meant to be a venue to welcome everyone who has access. It’s not a party with a show or announcement or anything of the sort. It certainly looks more important than it actually let on. You’re supposed to come in for the food and drinks then dipped. No one is actually expected to even fight. They’re just doing it for fun at the moment. Certainly hard to imagine a year ago, people fighting more for pleasure than any rewards. There was definitely a shift in some people’s perception of a battle. I can only hope it doesn’t escalate into people joining wars for the fun of it.
“...By the way. I just realized something. How do they even keep track of who to invite?” Evari asked as she sipped the wine.
“The whole operation is a mystery. I wouldn’t dig into it if I were you.” Boss pointed out. “Lerim, you know the most out of all of us, do you have a clue?”
“Nope. I’m just as clueless as you lot are.” There is simply not enough for me to go off on despite my contacts. “It’s best to just stop thinking about it for maybe a few years. That’s my advice.”
“That’s such a long time though…” Evari complained. She’s talking like we don’t have anything else to do in the meantime.
“I think by that point, a lot more interesting things will come up for you to focus on.” Not that said ‘interesting things’ will be any good news from my own expectation. We’ve all heard the news of another city being completely destroyed at this point. Who knows how many people died there. Something like that is gonna happen more and more until… No, maybe that’s a bit too pessimistic considering where we are right now. Besides, the world seems to be quite unpredictable at the moment, there’s no way to accurately tell what would happen without being a clairvoyant.
“Speaking of interesting things…” One of the adventurers spoke up. “Does the guild even have enough cash to give out? I mean, with more stuff coming out of the dungeon, won’t they have to be worried about not having enough money for trade?”
“That is something I haven’t heard any updates on personally.” The leader explained. “I’d imagine they have been caught flat-footed just like we are. Expecting a response so soon would be foolish.”
If anything, we probably have more information than them. At least the opportunity to know more, since someone here obviously knows about it ahead of time.
I look at the people in the VIP section of the venue, all of them looking at us from down below with disinterest. They definitely know something, but I can’t really ask them, and I doubt they’ll tell me without some sort of price to pay.
It’s weird to be in the proximity of someone who actually could tell you all of the answers you had about everything that has happened since last April. It’s really, really tempting. I know I’m not the only one. I’m pretty sure even at this moment, some people have that exact same thought.
No one is actually going to act on it though. The people who realized who actually knows everything, are also aware that they are not in the position to bargain.
“...It feels like we’re being left out a bit.” Evari remarked as she came back with a plate of sushi.
“Yeah. It’s only natural since we don’t know the locals here.” Our leader remarked. Any of us actually chatting with the people here would be nothing more than a fleeting moment. Tomorrow we can’t even access this place anymore… Technically I can, but I have better things to do than come here to chat with people from a place that isn’t my home.
Anyway, back to focusing on our group here, and… many of them already have bloated stomachs. You guys didn’t even get to the variety of desserts yet…