Volume 9 - CH 7

"H-hey, Alec, no, Alec-san, are you having second thoughts? You survived the attack just fine. If we just end this here, maybe it'll all work out. Agh!?

The mercenary who was dragging his feet came up with some stupid nostalgia trick, so I gave him a blow.

"You're just a fool if you shake hands with someone who's always been beaten down, aren't you?"

"Even if you say so, they're a much bigger organization than you think, you know."

"What's wrong with that? I'll make sense. I'm telling you, the odds are in our favor."

I'm not bluffing.

The level of the mercenaries I just mentioned, the number of people we have, our connections to the king, and the factions in the merchant guild.

If you take all of these things into consideration, it should not necessarily be impossible.

And Janatha is hated by the adventurers.

"You've got to be kidding me. ...... They can even hire an A-rank party over there if they want to."

"So why didn't they do that?"

"That's because they thought we could take care of it on our own."

That's where they let their guard down.

That's where their carelessness lies. So we should crush them all at once before they find out.

Besides, as long as we're not up against an S-rank party like Doria and Bard, there are plenty of ways to do it.

Bard and the others have already retired, and judging from their spirit, they won't side with the White Dog.

If Sarah comes out, we can convince her.

There is only war here.

Ignoring the passersby who were staring at the main street for some reason, we arrived in front of the slave trader "Dreuro" with a stylish black sign.

As expected, Janatha is not a dumb merchant.

Seemingly having already sensed or anticipated this situation, Janatha had greatly increased the number of guards in front of the store.

Janatha is also there. Mitsurugi, the black-haired samurai hero, was also there.

"Yo, Janatha, you're looking pretty stuffy."

I smiled and greeted the shaved head in black armor.

"I knew this would happen sooner or later. But to challenge the Merchant's Guild? I didn't think you guys were that dumb either."

"You're the one who sold the dumb stuff, and you attacked us without returning the money. No matter what your excuse is, it's your fault."

"Hmm?　I'm sure we agreed to the exchange. What do you mean you attacked you?"

"Come on, say it."

"Eeekk, no, that, agh!"

I hit him once. You tried to take my life, a couple of punches is a fair payback.

"I'm sorry! Janatha-san, I attacked him at the request of Balm-san, but I was a little, hehe, turned back."

"Hmmm. ...... It seems that the mercenary is lying."

Wha!, No, no, no. It's true!"

"Well, I guess you're just going to have to come clean. If you'd apologized and said you'd pay the 50 million gold with all your ears, I might have considered it."

"You're kidding. It was Balm who did it, and I had nothing to do with it. You'll have to charge him for the payment."

"Either way. This is a war against White Dog. This is what happens when you use the Merchant's Guild as a shield to evade responsibility. Do you know what PL law--manufacturer's liability is?"

"I don't know? There's no such law in this country, but okay. I'll take it. Vidale-sensei, you're up."

"Ou"

From the back of the store, a big man wearing animal fur and looking like a hunter came out.

He had a strange air about him.

He seems to be holding a large shield in each hand, which is fixed to his arms, but this means he can't hold a sword.

It's not a two-sword style, but a two-shield style.

In addition, two warriors in full body armor and a priest came out to flank Vidale-sensei, but they all had shields on their left arms, and their style of defense was very stiff.

What does that mean?

Normally, at least one of them should be an attacker, such as a magician or a archer.

Are they planning to thoroughly stall for time and wait for reinforcements?

It is true that if the soldiers come here, they will not be able to defeat Janatha. ......

Well, it's no use thinking about it.

This is a move of attack.

I have a bad feeling about this, but when I thought about it and took a step forward.

The mercenary who was under my feet laughed.

"Haha!　It's over!　It's over, Alec!　It's time for you to pay your dues! Vidale-sensei of the Medusa is A-ranked adventure!　Now that he's here, you'll be turned to stone in seconds――"

I see. So this is the "stone snake" I've heard so much about. The other A-ranked party members had said before that they were troublesome, and that they were users of abnormal state skills.

It's a nuisance, that's for sure.

――If I didn't know any better.

Both of Vidale's eyes lit up, and I quickly used my sword to break his gaze so that he wouldn't see me.

"You talk too much, you idiot. It's the best way to make sure you get it right the first time. It's a good idea to make a name for yourself. Janatha, don't hire someone who will drag you down like this."

Vidale turns around and says.

"I'm sorry. I didn't hire him. But, well, if you turned five people to stone in your first attack, you've done well."

"Tsk."

I checked behind me and saw that Lily, Nene, Jouga, Fianna, and Luka were all gray and had been turned into stone sculptures.

Half of the party. It was especially painful that Fianna, who was in charge of recovery, was get hit.

The mercenary who told me the story was also turned to stone, but I don't really care about him.

"Don't look him in the eye!　Saki, go get me an item to de-petrify them."

I'll give the order right away.

"Got it!　I'll be right back. Wait for me, darling."

Saki starts running towards the tool shop.

In the meantime, I'll spend 14,000 points to raise my [Petrification Resistance Lv2] to max level.

【Petrification Resistance　Lv５】New！

I'm fine now, but I don't have enough points left to make all the other members of the party take up the resistance.

There is no choice.

"Well, this isn't our only trump card, don't get me wrong."

Vidale said that, but he was definitely bluffing.

If there were similar first-time killers, they wouldn't be saying that every time.

"Serina! Ione! Letty!　You guys take care of the small fry. Meena, you protect our allies."

"""I understand!"""

I judged that their life would be in danger if they were destroyed in their petrified state, so I left one of us to protect them.

Even so, Letty and I are still free, so we have more room in terms of numbers.

"Starlight Attack!"

Serina unleashes a special move against the warrior in full body armor.

As soon as the glittering rainbow stars scattered from the sword, the armor of the enemy was ripped in half.

"Guahh!"

"What!?"

Hmph, It's not like you're the only one who can kill them at first sight, you know?

"That's interesting."

Vidale still has room to maneuver, but Vidale's friends clearly didn't like Serina and slowed down their attacks. The position also becomes more drawn out.

I was wary of the hero Mitsurugi standing beside Janatha, but he seemed to remain motionless with his eyes closed.

He was Janatha's personal bodyguard, so I guess I should leave all the attacking to Vidale's party and share the responsibility.

Because I could move freely, I was planning to take advantage of the opportunity to kill Janatha at once, but it won't be that easy.

"Where do you looking at, your opponent is me. Look at me!"

Vidale yelled, but I'm not interested in his face.

He's going to try to petrify as many of his enemies as he can within range. So I'm not giving him that chance.

I don't want any of my party members to get involved.

If the petrification attack could be done like a series of flashes, he would have already done it, and I saw that the attack, it can't be fired continuously.

"Kyaaa!"

Meena was hit by the warrior's blow. It wasn't fatal, but it was a wound that needed to be treated as soon as possible.

It's hard to see the warrior's line of sight when you're defending against Vidale's eye attack, so it's inevitable that your evasion rate will drop.

I want to settle this as soon as possible, but I don't want to be hasty.

Ione, who has been fighting with her eyes closed and using [Mind's Eye] from the beginning, has successfully taken Meena's cover.

It seems that our party has reached a level where we can compete with A-ranked adventure.

In terms of their individual skills, some of them are probably even better than the others.

However, the person with the strongest trump card in the party has stopped.

"Serina, what are you doing?"

She's not petrified.

"That's what you say. Attacking this guy's, I've got no chance."

Serina, who was chasing after the enemy priest, had stopped in front of Mitsurugi.

With your Starlight Attack, you would win in one shot if you hit any guy.

Well, you never know what a quiet samurai might do.

So, I'm going to create an opening for her.