Tatsumi sighed.
Lodging in the Capital was so expensive.
He stared down at his rapidly thinning coin purse, a wave of dismay rolling through him.
On the road here he'd cut down more than a few Danger Beasts to scrape this much money together, and he'd even meant to settle in first, then send whatever he had left back to the village.
Yet he'd been in the Capital only a handful of days, and somehow the money had already vanished.
No, no — not somehow.
He knew exactly what had happened.
He'd been robbed!
His country-boy roots had been written all over him, plain as day to those black-hearted shopkeepers.
They'd sized him up as a fat lamb ripe for the plucking and wrung him dry of every coin he owned.
"Damn it…"
Only now did Tatsumi understand that the two old men who'd given him a ride on the way in hadn't been joking after all.
The people in the Capital really were scarier than monsters. At least monsters didn't cheat you out of your gold.
'What now? No money means sleeping in the streets, and the barracks won't take me — am I really stuck doing odd jobs?'
The despair crept in.
But scraping together a little coin had never been the point. With his strength, hunting Danger Beasts alone would bring in a respectable income; survival was no trouble at all.
What he wanted was to drag his village out of the poverty it was drowning in.
If money were all he cared about, he could simply become an adventurer — but an adventurer could only look after a handful of people.
That was never going to save the whole village and everyone in it.
So it wasn't just about the money.
More than anything, he wanted to make something of himself.
Just imagine it — one day he'd be a general of the Empire, riding home in glory, transforming the village from the ground up.
The chief, every last villager, all of them overjoyed!
'That's right. I can't settle for less. I have to rise to the top!'
The self-reflection burned away days of gloom, and the old fire flared back to life in his chest.
...
Half an hour later he was standing at the barracks gate again.
This time, he'd prove what he could do!
Waiting in line, Tatsumi turned over every line he might use to win over the people inside — and that was when a figure swathed head to toe in a cloak sidled up beside him.
"Say, kid. You don't strike me as the ordinary type. Here to enlist too?"
"Hm?" Tatsumi glanced over, mildly surprised.
'He can tell I'm not ordinary at a glance — this guy must be someone special himself.'
The mysterious getup only stoked his curiosity.
The cloaked man dropped his voice.
"A man with your strength, kid — standing in this line is a waste of your talent."
That struck a nerve.
As far as Tatsumi was concerned, his strength wasn't the issue; the examiners just wouldn't give him the chance to show it before throwing him out.
'This must be what they call talent gone unrecognized.'
"Nothing I can do about it. I hear the Empire's gotten strict about recruiting these days."
"That's for ordinary men. For someone with your potential, rules like that are far too rigid."
"Ah, hahaha — is that so?" The praise went straight to his head. Back in the village they'd always told him he had a gift, it seemed the Capital had people with a discerning eye after all!
For most of his life the boy had never crossed blades with anyone but his friends, and ever since he'd brought down that big Danger Beast the praise had gone a little to his head.
Watching him drink in the flattery without a shred of embarrassment, the cloaked man smiled to himself.
The moment felt right, so he tossed out the hook.
"Here's the thing, kid. I happen to have a special connection — one that could make your name known in no time."
'Wait — really?!'
"You're serious?!" Tatsumi lit up at the mere mention of fame.
The way he saw it, all he needed was one chance to show what he could do, and they'd put him to work right away.
"Of course. Mind you, this isn't something just anyone gets to enjoy — only a rare talent like yourself."
The man let out a low chuckle. "Come with me."
Tatsumi glanced back at the line, now almost up to his turn, and hesitated.
But the pause lasted only a heartbeat before he stepped out and followed.
The alley they slipped into was tucked well out of the way, the sort of place no one ever seemed to pass through.
The cloaked man turned to face him. "Where I'm taking you next, there are all sorts of important people. The moment one of them takes a shine to you, you'll have everything you never even dared to dream of."
"Oooh!" Tatsumi cracked his knuckles, practically bouncing on his heels.
And that was when a new voice cut clean through the alley.
"Hey — you two there. Hold on a second."
"Eh?" Tatsumi turned, and an absolutely smoking-hot older woman filled his vision.
He stared, jaw nearly coming unhinged at the sight of her.
'So — so big! So this is the Capital! As expected — even the views here are on a whole other level!'
"Um, big sis, did you need something with us?" Tatsumi asked, going bashful — far too busy gawking to notice the man beside him had gone oddly tense.
The woman standing before him was none other than Leone.
Her gaze slid right past Tatsumi to the cloaked figure at his back, and it was him she spoke to.
"Take some advice, kid — don't go trusting strangers so easily. This one makes his living hunting country boys like you. He's a slaver."
'Huh?'
Tatsumi froze.
He turned to look at the cloaked man, his mind a tangle of question marks.
'A slaver? Targeting me, specifically? She's got to be joking.'
"Tch." The man took a long step back, glaring at Leone through gritted teeth. "Who the hell are you, butting in other people business like this? Keep it up and you'll regret it."
Leone threw her hands up. "Ooh, so scary, so scary."
The mockery in her voice was what finally made it click.
Tatsumi rounded on the man. "So you were lying to me this whole time?!"
The cloaked man sneered. "Hmph. Country bumpkins really are stupid — swallowing a line like that whole. Not that it matters. Any young man fetches a decent price."
And like a magician pulling a trick, a fistful of daggers appeared in his hand out of thin air.
'Fetches a price—?'
Tatsumi's breath caught.
The instant the weapons came out, he ripped his own sword from his back and gave ground fast.
Even as he retreated, his eye caught the way the man was gripping the daggers — not a normal hold, not reversed, but pinched between the knuckles.
'That's a throwing stance—!'
Whip — whip — whip!
The man's arm snapped forward again and again, every dagger leaving his hand at once.
Tatsumi saw at a glance that the blades weren't only flying at him — half their paths curved toward the gorgeous woman behind him.
He shifted his footing, sword whirling so fast it wove a glittering net across the space in front of them both.
The daggers rang off the steel, ping, ping, ping, and clattered away.
Seeing the boy had shielded her along with himself, something in Leone's eyes shifted — a flicker of real appreciation.
"Oh? So you've actually got a little something to you. Heh — new plan. Forget selling you to those old biddies! The underground fighting cages will pay a lot more for a kid like you."
"Wait — what old biddies?!" Tatsumi shouted, sword still raised, suddenly desperate for the answer.
From behind him, Leone seized the opening to explain.
"His usual buyers are a pack of aunties with a taste for fresh young meat — and not one of them weighs under three hundred pounds."
Three-hundred-pound aunties…
Tatsumi swallowed hard. 'What is that even supposed to—'
The truth landed, and his fury boiled over!
He leveled his blade at the cloaked man and let him have it. "You bastard! What did I ever do to you, that you'd try to ship me off to something like that?!"
He sprang forward, the blade hoisted high in both hands. "I'm not letting you off!"
Clang!
The sword came down, splitting the air — but the man was light on his feet, twisting clear of it, and the moment he'd slipped past he whipped out two fresh daggers and lunged.
Tatsumi threw his sword up in front of him just in time.
Steel scraped steel, sparks hissing where the edges met.
Tatsumi leaned in, pouring more weight into the blade — and the man feigned weakness, letting the sword press toward him, then bolted out from under it at the last second.
The blade slammed into the ground with a ringing crack, and Tatsumi's whole body pitched forward.
For one breathless instant he was about to go down — then he sucked in air, locked every muscle in his core, and somehow caught himself on raw abdominal strength alone.
He drove off his back foot, threw himself at the man, and before the startled slaver could so much as react, brought the flat of his blade down across his skull with everything he had.
The man dropped like a sack, out cold, a fat lump already swelling on his head.
"Whoa — nicely done, kid!" Leone clapped without a hint of restraint, cheering the boy's win.
She could have ended a thug like that in the blink of an eye, but she had to admit — the kid had backbone.
Tatsumi let out a long breath and looked down at the slaver he'd flattened, a thrill running through him.
Real combat against a human opponent was a rare thing for him — and against a slaver, no less.
Taking down a genuine villain with his own two hands made him feel, just a little, like a hero of justice!
"Heh, that was nothing. Honestly, I didn't even break out my full strength back there." Tatsumi rubbed at his nose while talking big.
Leone only smiled and let him have it, saying nothing.
Then she made her move. "Thanks for covering me back there, kid. Let me buy you a meal — call it a thank-you."
"Huh?" Tatsumi shuffled his feet. "Is — is that really okay?"
"Of course it is. What's the problem? You're my savior, you know. Don't be shy now."
"Ha, hahaha — well, if you insist. Though you bailed me out too, you know. Otherwise I'd have been dragged off somewhere truly bizarre…"
The image of three-hundred-pound aunties cradling him lovingly in their arms rose unbidden in his mind, and a full-body shudder ran through him!
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