Chapter 2: The Old Man Gets Stiffed on His Reward

In any case… here were people like that, having an argument.

The other adventurers in the room must have thought it was the perfect entertainment to go with their drinks.

Smirks, curious glances… expressions like these bloomed on their faces.

Every one of them was a sign that they were ready to enjoy my trouble.

“Oi… that Mikami guy… is he causing trouble again?”

“Pathetic bastard. Hitting up those rookie girls for money…”

“Even for a perpetual F-rank, you’d think he’d have a shred of pride…”

“Well… can’t be helped. All he can do is run away. I couldn’t keep doing something that pathetic for ten years.”

“You got that right. ‘Coward Mikami’ suits him perfectly.”

“Heh! He’s just a guy who gets by on the Guild’s pity. Why does Guildmaster Emma-san even give a guy like that work!”

I could hear the other adventurers insulting me one after another.

If you’re going to talk trash, at least have the decency to do it quietly enough that I can’t hear you…

Unfortunately, this was another world, and these guys were adventurers.

There was no way they’d possess manners like that.

Well… I’m an adventurer too, I guess… an F-rank one, at that…

But whatever.

They were having the time of their lives, practically shouting their insults to make sure I heard them.

They were, in fact, roaring with laughter in booming voices.

Seeing the reaction of the crowd, the Celesties must have felt they’d won the day.

With even more vigor than before:

“You didn’t face any danger at all, Mikami-san, and you’re just going to take the money?! That’s not fair!”

“You let us, a group of women, take all the risks while you just run away. And you still have the nerve to demand money…? As a grown man, have you no shame!”

The other women who had just been glaring before—the priest and the mage—now joined the fray, rattling off their complaints about me one after another.

Watching them, the surrounding men started egging them on with loud shouts.

“Yeah! You tell him, girls! Give him what for!”

And just like that, I was completely surrounded by them, trapped with no allies.

I let out a heavy sigh in my heart.

Seriously… how in the world did my life in another world end up this miserable…?

Well, no… the reason is perfectly clear.

Yes… the root of all evil is my skill, ‘Flee’.

As you can imagine from the name, it’s a completely useless skill.

Still, it is a unique skill, and I’m also a “Transferred Person.”

‘Transferred Person’ plus ‘Unique Skill’ should have equaled… a cheat skill. That’s the going rate.

At least, that’s how it was in the web novels I used to read.

So I had my hopes up, but…

Those hopes were smashed to smithereens.

In reality, my unique skill ‘Flee’ has no effect other than what its name implies.

In other words, it literally only lets me… flee from battle. That’s it.

What’s more, the escape rate isn’t 100% or anything… it can fail, and often did.

Well… after a lifetime of running, I can now escape with certainty, but…

However, my unique skill is completely unsuited for combat.

In fact, my stats have never gone up.

Well, no… I guess that can’t be helped since I’ve done nothing but run away and have never properly won a single fight…

You don’t get experience points unless you win.

You don’t get them if you run.

It’s just common sense.

Apparently, that was true not just in the world of games, but in this other world as well.

And so, my stats are still at their initial values.

It’s become so ridiculous to even look at them that I haven’t checked in years…

To check your stats, you have to ask someone with the ‘Appraisal’ skill every single time.

And since the ‘Appraisal’ skill is fairly rare, it naturally costs a good bit of money.

There was no way the stats of a guy who does nothing but flee from battle would ever increase.

In any case, I’m still unable to stand up to even the lowest-ranked magical beasts around here.

I can dodge their attacks, and I can even land a blow myself.

But there’s no point in hitting them when my attack power is a 3.

Well… it’s not like I’ve even tried to attack a monster in the last few years, though…

Anyway… as a result, my rank obviously never goes up.

That’s why I’ve continued to work as a perpetual F-rank adventurer all this time.

But even so, I had no choice but to survive in this world as an adventurer.

I’m a foreigner with no abilities, no money.

The only thing a guy like me can do is become an adventurer, a job that doesn’t care about your origins.

And for someone like me, nobody’s going to help you, not in my old world and not in this one.

And so, for the past ten years, I’ve taken on cheap, F-rank jobs day after day.

You can’t make a living on cheap F-rank jobs alone, of course.

But in that respect, I was blessed with a little bit of luck with people.

That’s because I’d get the occasional job referral from the Guild.

Even a useless skill like this has a small, niche demand.

It’s due to circumstances unique to the adventuring industry.

The rate at which rookie adventurers go missing is particularly high, even for the dangerous business of adventuring.

That’s because, like the Celesties, rookie adventurers often don’t understand their own limits.

Because of that, they often take on explorations that don’t match their level.

As a result, they frequently encounter monsters they can’t handle and lose their lives.

The Guildmaster of this town—Emma-san—was concerned about the persistently high rate of missing rookies.

It was in this context that my ‘Flee’ skill was chosen.

If I accompany them, even if they encounter an unexpected monster, they can reliably ‘Flee’.

In fact… the non-return rate for rookie adventurers should be lower, at least for this town’s Guild, but…

“Anyway! We are absolutely not paying a reward to someone who just ran away, Mikami-san!”

The female swordswoman who was their leader slammed both hands on the table and stood up.

Slam

It seemed this was her final ultimatum.

In reality, there was probably no point in arguing with them any further.

As for the onlookers, they were watching me with smirks on their faces.

Honestly, I didn’t want to stay in this place, on pins and needles, a moment longer.

“Alright… I get it… Let’s just call it a day for now.”

When I couldn’t take it anymore and said that, their faces broke into triumphant grins.

“As long as you understand.”

“…Well then… I’ll be—”

“Ah, Mikami-san, please wait. We agreed that the cost of supplies like medicinal herbs prepared for the expedition would be split among the party, didn’t we? Please pay your share.”

I didn’t use any of the herbs, and the entire stock of herbs should be theirs now…

For a moment, I thought about protesting, but one look at the crowd made me give up.

More than anything, I was tired.

Not physically, but mentally…

“…Fine…”

And so, with slumped shoulders, I placed my meager copper coins on the table.

Then, I trudged out of the tavern.

As I left, I glanced back over my shoulder on a whim.

And I saw them, raising their glasses in a toast with smug looks on their faces.

And I also saw the crowd of adventurers surrounding the Celesties, making a drunken racket…

“Gahaha! Well said, ladies! This round’s on us! Hey, look at that! Look at that pathetic loser Mikami!”

“I’ve had it up to here with that ‘Coward Mikami’ too! Why the hell does the Guildmaster… why does Emma-san keep a guy like that around the Guild…”

It seemed there was no end to the adventurers’ insults…

It was at that very moment.

Suddenly, a male adventurer burst into the tavern, looking flustered.

“H-hey! You guys! This is no time to be drinking! A magical beast! A magical beast has appeared in the nearby forest!”

“Oi, oi, what’s got you so worked up? Magical beasts show up all the time. I, the strongest of the C-rank adventurers, hailed as the ‘Mighty Sword,’ will make short work of it.”

“It’s n-not just any magical beast! It’s an S-class… a disaster-level divine beast! A Fenrir has been spotted nearby!”

“A F-Fenrir, you say…? Wh-why is a monster like that here… They’re only supposed to be deep in the Great Forest.”

“How should I know? Anyway, Emma-san is calling for an emergency summons, so you all need to get to the Guild.”

“N-no… but even for the ‘Mighty Sword,’ a Fenrir is…”

“U-um… We, the ‘Celesties,’ are still rookies, so—”

The adventurers, who moments ago had been ridiculously worked up, perhaps thanks to the alcohol.

But now, their faces were quite pale.