Following my rise from my seat, as I turned toward them, the scout and the man next to him, seemingly a frontliner, stood up almost at the same time.
"What's with that face, stinky brat..."
"Wanna complain huh, you leech?!"
I briskly advanced toward their table and decked that scout — who was about to say something like 'A brat like you better stay behind his mothe—' but couldn't finish — with a punch. The scout vaulted onto the table and rolled to the other side.
Haa, all bark but no bite. He was apparently down in a single punch.
"What gave you the guts to look down on 'Apple Familia' huh, punk?"
I stared at the frontliner-like man and cross-examined him with an outlaw-ish look that I had cultivated in my recent joint work with the other explorers.
Y'know, I was dead tired and thirsty as hell, and then these punks had to come and waste my time.
The face of the frontliner turned red from rage.
"You’ve done it now, brat! You runt! Come on ya lot, surround him!"
A tank-like frontliner on my left, a mage on my right, and from the equipment, a swordsman across the table… Three people stood up at the frontliner’s call. I decided to give him a piece of my mind first of all. I nailed a punch on his stomach and then delivered a knee strike to his chin just as his body had bent in a < shape from my punch.
My recent brawls with other folks had kind of given me a keen insight into how heavy-handed I could be before it broke their bones so I could injure them just enough.
'Hmm, did I make a mistake? Was he actually a mage?' The tank apparently wasn’t so tanky and crumbled on the spot without even putting up a fight. Seems like he hasn't trained himself to take punches without strengthening himself.
Right then, the swordsman-like guy across the table stepped on it and jumped at me but he was too slow. Even taking drunkenness into account, his proficiency in body-strengthening wasn't worth a sneeze, and not much better than an ordinary person.
It didn't take much effort as I grabbed the pants from where the snail guy was kicking and hoisted him up. Being held in the air, the swordsman was unable to make a proper landing as he dropped headfirst. He was clearly not cut out for work that utilized the motor nerves unless he strengthened himself...
My hand was still grabbing the ankle of the swordsman. I used him as a sort of hammer and took a huge swing, bumping him with the mage before throwing him at the adjacent table.
It was a pain in the ass that I honestly wasn't in the mood to deal with, but it sounded like some people just didn’t like their quiet life. Then I might as well sort out all those that dared to look down on ‘Apple House’, and beat them black and blue. At least, there would be no flies buzzing around when I sat down to eat.
"What the hell are you doing, brat?!"
The group of six men who were sitting at the table where the swordsman just crashed stood up in one breath.
"... Don't think you're gonna save your ass by keeping quiet. You thought I didn't hear, huh? Just because we kept quiet doesn't mean you can take things for granted. What was it, 'If the mad hound is no more than a wet puppy, let's pick on the brats of Apple House again from tomorrow onwards', huh? You really know how to get on people’s nerves, and here I tried to ignore you. You know what happens to those who dare to look down on ?!"
I didn't hold back in body-strengthening this time as I immediately closed the distance with that man who ridiculed ‘Apple House’ earlier and slammed him onto the table.
"Make sure you learn your lesson!"
"Hah, anyone else who feels like taking a shot at 'Apple House'?"
After thoroughly teaching the ways of the world to these ridiculing punks, I shouted, roaming my gaze all over the floor.
No reply. Ascertaining that, I returned to my table, and… saw that others had already started. The Boss didn't even turn his gaze and happily gulped down his beer.
In fact, Uncle had already emptied a keg-sized beer barrel that could probably hold two liters for his first round, finishing even my share, and was about to get a refill.
"Hey, hey. Now that's a shitty move, Uncle! You know my throat is as dry as a desert! You can at least save me a cup or two, can't you!?"
"Hmph. Who told you to be a slowpoke? That's why I said look around before pulling your punches."
"You’ve really surprised me, Boy. But you're also a customer of this store. Feel free to swing by here," said Pan-san, who just bought two other keg-sized beer barrels.
Just when I thought she was going to give me a lecture over the brawl, she just accepted me as a customer... What's with this store? It'll be fine, right?
"Hmph. And which mouth just said I shouldn't bring a brat still in his diapers in this tavern bustling with explorers."
"It's what it is, I’m just following the policy of that person (Master). Well if I have to say now. He's a customer of course. Anyway, who's to foot the bill for those shattered dishes?"
Hearing that, Uncle Shell put up a grin, looking all sunny, and raised his thumb.
"Do you even need to ask? But of course, Ren, who destroyed them."
"Don't fuck with me, baldy! Who was the one who couldn't keep his mouth shut, and now shirking away? This should be where you should have acted like a hunk and said something like, 'Let the adult take care of it...'!"
"Shuddap! I said to bash these bastards in! Not the plates! Your fault, you pay! One should clean up their mess by themselves, it's the rule of this tavern!"
"I'm broke as hell! Aren't you an S-rank or something? It wouldn't hurt you to cough up some of your money!!"
"I have a policy: to not keep today's money for tomorrow."
Baldy said with a touch of pride.
So, a penniless S-ranker? I thought he was sort of a rich guy, but he turned out to be a good-for-nothing old fart...
I take a glance at the Boss. Our eyes met but he was sporting a Buddha-like peaceful face, as if he was immersed in his own world— cosmos. Yup, he had no intention to pay even a single rea either I see.
"Seriously... Not only did I lose my knife after being taken into that ants’ nest hole, but I even had to use my expensive arrow."
My head hung in dejection. Then, Uncle tapped his palm with his fist as if he just recalled something.
"Oh yeah, we just came back from hunting! Hey, Saki. We dealt with some pests today inside an ants’ nest, with a height of 30 meters and a diameter of 150 meters. We might have missed a couple of soldiers since it was night, but most should have been taken out. Have them picked up tomorrow, how much can I expect?"
Saki-san replied without a second thought.
"I guess it should be a mid-size nest, judging from the queen's honey sack earlier. Rest will depend on the soldier ants’ carapace, acid sacks, and how many unhatched cocoons there are. But I believe it should be around 100,000 rea at the minimum, after removing the cost of workers for retrieving the materials."
100,000 rea for just a couple of hours’ work!? Holy hell, that was almost ten million yen in Japan?! This amount was on par with what I had saved in the last two months from knight and explorer work after a lot of struggle, to fund the geography club.
Normally, it was a task for a fully-equipped B-rank explorer party... I really wished I could somehow get some advance for expenses and plate costs...
While I was dumbfounded hearing the estimation, Uncle Shell gave me a thumbs up with his usual dandy grin.
"My principle is to not save money, so foot the bill for today. In exchange, you can treat yourself with that amount."
"What?! We're talking about 100,000 rea! Are you sure?!"
"Yup, either way, I would just lose them in gambling so this is fine. Besides, didn't I hand over your hunter queen's honey sack? Take it as compensation for that."
"Thank you very much, Esteemed Uncle! I will follow you for a lifetime!"
Just as I regained my spirit, Uncle nodded and shouted out aloud.
"You heard it!? Ren's going to be treating you guys today! Drink yourselves under the table!"
...Haa, so the treat was for the whole store!?
However, the air in the store was a bit heavy from my outburst a while ago. I didn't think there would be any cheeky fella who would ride on his offer—
"Whistle! Truly worthy of the name Mad Hound! Yo, Sis, 5 keg-sized beer barrels for me!" Check latest chapters at 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡✶𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚✶𝙣𝙚𝙩
Or so I naively thought, but cheerfully, everyone already started ordering one after another. Even the one I had knocked down earlier didn't shy away from participating.
What a bunch of simpletons...