“The Hero of the Capital City!”
I hadn’t bothered to hide my face on the way back to the mansion. Even those that didn’t recognize me definitely recognized the girls who were fighting on stage that day. Whether it was the ditzy fairy who cleared the stage, the sexy Lydia who gave a striptease, or the defiant determination of Terra, every girl had a place in their hearts. The exception was Shao, but thankfully she had kept her face mostly covered and few seemed to connect her to the demon lord. Rather, it’d be stranger if they did think a demon lord was casually walking around next to the hero who defeated her.
As we left the main area and went into the richer neighborhood, those that called out decreased. In fact, the people who were walking around decreased completely. We were soon the only people on the street. Of course, this was the rich neighborhood, so we were within sight of guard posts. This was not a dangerous area of town by any means.
However, it did make it somewhat obvious when there were three people standing in front of the mansion. There were two large men, and then a smaller man in the middle. They looked incredibly shady, and I wondered a bit why the guards had even let them get this far into the neighborhood. Although to be fair, we lived on the outskirts, in the small mansion which once used to belong to our neighbors.
“Ah… Master!” Carmine suddenly called out when she noticed the men.
“What is it?” I asked, still eyeing the men suspiciously.
“You have a lot of money, right?”
“Huh?” I glanced over at Carmine. “What are you on about?”
“You’re rich, right? Your talk about not having disposable money, you were just joking! Right? Right?”
I wasn’t joking, but I also didn’t want this woman to know how much money I had. That wasn’t the important thing. Who were these people waiting on us? She seemed to recognize them.
“I don’t know what you’re on about? Why are there people waiting in front of my house?”
“They must have heard that you came to town. They are probably waiting to… co…t mo…” The last part was so mumbled and low that I could barely hear her.
“C-collect money!” She responded in a hoarse whisper.
“What are you talking about? You were turned into a slave! Your debt was settled. I also just settled your debt with the church. So…”
She looked nearly in tears. “Didn’t I already explain? That damn elf wouldn’t give me any coins? How was I going to buy things? So, I took out some loans… or twelve… in Master’s name!”
She waved her hands defensively. “None of them were for very much! Just fifty coins here, a few coins there.”
I rubbed my temples, immediately regretting bringing her back from the church. “Just tell me, how much money do you owe these people?”
“Not that much… only 2 or 3…”
“Hundred!” I shouted out, causing the men to finally notice us.
“Ah… no Master…” she looked down guiltily. “Thousand. Three thousand gold.”