Chapter 124 - I Demand A Satisfaction!

"They are back," Claudia announced, pointing in the distance with her chin. "Are we going to call them out?" she asked while holding her hand on her stomach. 

When buying the food, Tom considered a set of two meat skewers per person a proper amount. And looking at the girl right now with her stomach bloated from double that portion, it appeared that his initial idea was pretty spot-on. 

"I guess so," Tom said, standing up. Used to go for a long time without food, something that his life on the minimal amount of food money taught him, he dropped two out of four skewers that he got for himself. 

'I know wasting food is bad, but it would be even worse to be handicapped because of overstuffing myself,' he thought, casting away the guilt that this action made him feel. 

"Well, let's not waste any time, then," Claudia said, standing up from the bench they were sitting on. Yet, as soon as she did so, her cheeks pumped up in an expression known to anyone who partook in the drinking parties that went wrong. 

"Are you okay?" Tom asked, placing his hand on the girl's back just in case she needed urgent support. 

"Yeah," Claudia muttered, swallowing back whatever made its way up her throat. "I guess I ate a bit too much," she said before raising up and walking ahead. 

'Trying to ignore the problem won't make it disappear, you know?' Tom thought, ultimately holding himself back from saying those words out loud. 

Amidst other things, Tom was a fervent believer in the blessing of vomit. While he never tried to artificially make himself throw up for no reason, while he could understand why others didn't like it, ultimately, it was one of the functions of the body. 

And there were hardly any things about one's body that were unnecessary. 

As such, whenever Tom felt bad enough for the feeling of nausea to start welling up, he wouldn't bother with holding it in. Since his organism was telling him that there was something wrong with what he ate, the best course of action would be to get rid of the problem in the quickest and safest way instead of forcing it to be digested first. 

"Hey, you are already back," Claudia said while raising her hand to make it easier for the other party to notice her. 

"Yeah," Krater nodded his head in a greeting. "Did you go to the guild already, or did you wait for us?" he asked.

As the two groups met once again, Celestia was quick to hide herself behind the back of her teammates. It appeared that she still couldn't overcome the fear ingrained in her soul after what she saw in them back in the dungeon. 

"We already dealt with our stuff," Tom said, joining the discussion. Even though he would prefer to just stand back and observe how the rest of Karter's party would act and react, he couldn't just let Claudia reveal her own interpretation of what happened in the building. 

"Do you want to wait, or are you going to get in with us?" Krater asked. 

Just as Tom was about to answer, the other party moved. As if swaying away from the incoming attack, they all backed down from the center of the street, giving way to the approaching party of three. 

With the mess already created, Tom quickly caught Claudia's hand before pulling her back as well. 

'Who are they?' he asked himself, watching how a burly man in a full plated armor, a scrawny man with an impressive bow on his back, and a young girl in wizard-looking robes passed between the two parties.

For a moment, Tom felt an urge to kick up another mess. Not for any rational reason, but just for the sake of testing out his strenght. 

From the way that Krater's party reacted, it was clear that this trio had some sort of massive fame in the town or at least in the adventurer's guild. With that in mind, having them as his opponents would give Tom a great chance to see just how strong the people at the top of the local community were. 

"So? Do you want to come in with us or not?" Krater asked once the two groups met in the middle of the road once again. 

"Lead the way," Tom replied, purposefully avoiding the topic of the party that just passed right through them. Given how they were heading for the guild as well, he opted to give himself some more time to analyze the situation. 

'All in all, I should be able to judge their strenght even without starting a fight,' he thought, already paying a huge fraction of his attention to the residual mana stirred by the powerful aura of the trio. 

Ultimately though, there wasn't enough time for Tom to get any accurate guesses. With Krater's party leading the way, Tom and Claudia were already back at the guild before he could make any real observations. 

"What are you doing here?" Tom moved his eyes towards the source of the voice. And as expected, the same lady in the same plain clothes as before stared at him with her eyes wide open. 

"Just accompanying some friends," Tom smiled before sending the guild master a wink. 

"And here I was worried you didn't cause enough trouble for the day," the woman said, putting a light smile on her face. "Well, go on, then," she said before moving her eyes back to the people she was talking with before. 

"Already popular, huh?" Krater said. A small smirk appeared on his face, only to disappear a moment later when he approached the guild's reception desk. "I'm here to report the last dungeon exploration..."

"Why are we even here?" Claudia asked, pulling Tom's attention away from the events at the reception desk. For the locals, it was likely just a simple administration task, one of the many enforced by any advanced civilization on those who were a part of it. Yet, for Tom, it was an invaluable source of information about how this place worked in normal circumstances. 

He could use it as soon as he would appear in a different city with a different guild and potentially a different dungeon. 

"Because we need to learn where some good inns are," Tom replied offhandedly. There was no way for him to pay much mind to such a simple question if it meant losing the ability to eavesdrop on the talks at the counter. 

"If a good place to stay is what you need..." the guild master approached them, clearly feeling uneasy about their presence in her building alone, "then I can help you out with that," she said, putting a lovely smile on her face. 

"I'm sorry, but we are not interested," Tom replied, unable to be bothered to act respectfully. "Who knows what kind of unspoken details such a deal would contain," he added, seizing the woman from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. 

"I..." The woman hesitated before hanging her head low. "I understand. I'm sorry to be a bother," she added, taking a step back. 

'Is it the money?' Tom thought, curious about the reasons for the woman's retracted behavior. Given the face she showed him just a few moments ago during their first visit to the guild, he expected the guild master to actually be a little pushier with her agenda. 

"I don't like the way you talk to the master," a man suddenly appeared by Tom's side. With just a single look, Tom could tell that those words came from his heart rather than from some random wish to stir up some trouble. 

"I don't like dogs barking in my face, thinking I will pay attention to them because of the noise they make," Tom replied despite recognizing the man before him. 

It was the same, scrawny guy that he saw walking through the very middle of the street just a moment before. 

'Am I going to witness some kind of cliche development?" Tom asked himself, more curious than worried about such occurrence. In fact, it felt like if the scrawny guy just offered him free candy. 

After all, he was more than happy to test his strenght against the guy, something that he had to previously give up due to the lack of potential justification for stirring up yet another mess. 

'There has to be a limit to how far the guild master will allow me to go before snapping,' the young man thought before shaking his head. 

"What did you say?!" the scrawny man asked in a deadly calm voice as he reached for the handle of a massive knife strapped to his belt. 

"Can someone please take this dog away?" Tom said out loud, already preparing himself mentally for the fight that was clearly about to come soon. 

"Can you please act calm and composed for once?" the guild master requested in a low, annoyed voice. Yet, despite how clearly upset she was about Tom's actions, she didn't condemn them in the slightest. 

"Do I really need to bring another story to explain why I won't allow some lowlife to treat me in such an unreasonable way?" Tom asked before a wild, genuine smile appeared on his lips. "Or can we just skip the details and get this over with?" he asked, turning his face back to the man in front of him. 

"You are courting death," the man said, squinting his eyes even further. He moved his right hand up, revealing a small glimpse of light reflecting from the blade of his weapon. 

"Do you really want me to consider your words an open threat?" Tom asked, looking at his potential adversary with hope-filled eyes. 

"Take it however you want," the scrawny man replied before tightening his hands into palms. "Because it won't change the reality," he added.. Then, he pulled down a glove off his hand and threw it to the floor, right at Tom's feet. "Since you refuse to act respectfully towards your betters, I have no choice but to ask for satisfaction!"