Chapter 33

Chapter 33. The Atmosphere Has Gone Completely to Shit

It was clear that all these people were part of the Exploration Party. After all, Balun had spotted Gregory chattering away busily in the middle of the crowd.

After muttering something for quite some time, Gregory noticed Balun and approached, his blue robe fluttering behind him.

“Oh, Lord Balun! You have arrived at just the right time!”

“Are all these people part of the Exploration Party?”

“That is correct.”

“There are too many of them.”

“Not at all. We need at least this many people to explore the ruins.”

Balun nodded. Now that he heard it, that did make sense. If they had hired escort Mercenaries while paying this much money, then naturally, the ruins had to be large in scale. It was only natural that they would need a lot of manpower.

‘It might not be a simple escort request. Maybe they are planning to make us do odd jobs while we are at it?’

With this many people, surely they would make them do some kind of work. At a glance, everyone looked as though they could use their strength well.

‘Will we be doing things like digging while we are there? Or carrying things?’

Hard manual labor was not something he had expected, but it did not particularly matter. After receiving hundreds of gold, how could he pick and choose between cold water and hot water?

“Please come this way. We were just about to speak about Lord Balun anyway.”

“About me?”

“That is correct.”

After arriving at the front of the crowd by following Gregory, Gregory began introducing Balun.

“This is Lord Balun, the Barbarian who has newly joined the Exploration Party. He possesses outstanding ability. He is the very man who crushed Wolf Blade single-handedly!”

At that, Balun was slightly flustered. What was this, introducing him out of nowhere without any warning? In front of hundreds of eyes, no less.

The bigger problem was that most of those gazes were not kind.

“Wolf Blade? That savage did?”

“That is correct. Senior Mage Banet of our Azure Tower’s Pordel branch participated as the Witness for that sacred duel. After seeing Lord Balun’s ability, he could not stop admiring him!”

“Oho.”

“Mage Banet did……?”

Gasps of admiration rose here and there.

Balun could feel a few people looking at him with shining eyes, but he did not find it very welcome.

That was because he had suddenly received everyone’s attention.

‘No, why are you praising me this much? You could have just shoved me somewhere in the back.’

He had planned to quietly blend in as though he was there and not there at the same time…….

“Lord Balun. Please introduce yourself.”

Gregory pushed Balun forward. Balun hid his unease and introduced himself.

“I am Balun. I came from the Red Fang Tribe. I look forward to working with you.”

After he said that, a little clapping could be heard. It was such a half-hearted response that it barely qualified as applause.

That was understandable. Their gazes were not kind.

Only a few people looked impressed. Most of them had eyes that seemed to say, “Where the hell did this random mongrel crawl out from?”

Balun was well aware of that fact too.

Balun was exceptionally quick at reading the room.

‘Ah, this does not feel good. These bastards all look like they want to kill me.’

Balun knew those eyes well.

Warriors from hostile tribes had looked at him like this.

Balun lamented inwardly. It seemed he had failed. He had wanted to blend in quietly, but how could he quietly blend in after drawing everyone’s attention on the very first day?

‘Gregory, that bastard, did he do this on purpose? To make me stand out?’

Setting aside that reasonable suspicion, Balun hesitated for a moment. Should he withdraw like this, or should he add something more?

If possible, he wanted to take the smooth path, but if he did that, it felt as though people would pick fights with him about a hundred times a day…….

‘Since it has come to this, let’s try to score some points.’

His hesitation was brief. As soon as he made his judgment, Balun opened his mouth.

“I know you are all great Warriors. That is why I came here. But Balun will not lose either. Watch this.”

Balun looked around. Just in time, he spotted a large stone lying on the ground. It was a paving stone from the plaza floor that had cracked and stuck out unsightly.

Balun picked it up. Then he put a little strength into both arms, and his forearms swelled slightly.

“Balun is strong. Very strong. I will show you.”

Balun put a little strength into his grip. Then the hard stone was crushed like tofu.

“Mm.”

“What in the world……?”

Surprises rose here and there. He had broken a rock with his bare hand?

If he had broken it with his fist, that would have been one thing, but he had simply crushed it with the strength of his grip.

“Did you see? Balun can do this. So I will be very helpful.”

Balun began crushing the remaining fragments of stone one by one.

As if he were wearing disposable gloves and crushing tofu, he held each stone fragment in his hand and applied force.

When Balun opened his palm, no stones remained. They had all crumbled into gray powder and scattered across the ground.

“From now on, all of you are my comrades. I want to get along well with you. Let us be friendly. That is all.”

Balun lightly lowered his head and stepped back, checking their reactions. It seemed to have worked rather well. Every single one of them looked surprised.

He felt quite satisfied, thinking he had expressed friendliness in a fairly refined manner.

Of course, that was only Balun’s misunderstanding.

To Gregory, he looked like nothing less than a madman.

‘He is completely insane. To show off his strength in front of all these skilled people. Is he saying he will kill them if they touch him?’

Gregory was rather flustered. In truth, he had intended to create a moderate sense of competition. That was why he had deliberately introduced Balun.

But Balun was far more insane than Gregory had imagined. Far from dancing to Gregory’s tune, he seemed about to leap straight out of the board Gregory had designed.

‘He will not be as easy to control as I thought. I will have to regulate this very carefully.’

It was true that Balun was a strong warrior, but the others who had joined the Exploration Party were by no means inferior.

Among the Mercenaries, Bronze Badge was the minimum, and there were quite a few Silver Badges as well. There were also skilled Rogues.

And was that all? There were Knights in the Exploration Party too.

The martial prowess of Knights was on an entirely different level from mere Mercenary riffraff. Perhaps the Knights might even find Balun laughable. Being strong did not mean someone was powerful in every way.

That was why Gregory was worried.

He was worried that this insane savage might rampage like a beast and end up suffering an accident at the hands of the Exploration Party members.

What he had wanted was to create a suitable competitive structure, not break the entire board.

If the board broke, there would be no point in having paid hundreds of gold to include him in the Exploration Party. Gregory would not be able to achieve his goal of observing the savage’s performance and studying his power.

“That was quite an explosive self-introduction. As I heard, you are truly remarkable! Hahaha!”

Gregory stopped thinking and stepped forward. For now, it was time to smooth over the situation.

“Well, that is precisely why it is good! Is he not manly and Warrior-like? Our Exploration Party needs someone like him. I have no doubt he will be of tremendous help to us!”

Without revealing his panic, Gregory skillfully packaged the situation and moved Balun to the back.

However, even he could not do anything about the cold sweat running down his spine.

***

Was it because of Balun’s shocking self-introduction, or was there another reason?

There was no way to know the answer. But one thing was certain.

The mood of the Exploration Party was no joke.

It was so frosty that even the air seemed cold.

‘The atmosphere has gone completely to shit.’

Of course, Balun did not care. It was because no one bothered him.

His strategy of seizing the initiative seemed to have worked fairly well.

Though it seemed he had failed to appeal to their friendliness.

‘So what if the atmosphere is chilly? If I can travel comfortably, that is even better.’

However, his ears were a little noisy.

They chattered like sparrows about a smelly savage this and an arrogant show-off that.

And their gazes were no better.

They were extremely irritating.

He truly did not know why they were glaring at him like that when he had barely done anything. Truly.

“Hey, Barbarian brother. That was some impressive strength. It was remarkable. Heh heh.”

“What is it?”

“I just took a liking to you, brother. Ah, I am Michael. You are Balun, right?”

“That is right.”

“This must be fate, so let us shake hands.”

“Very well.”

There were also some who treated him warmly. Most of them were Mercenaries with no affiliation. Like Balun, they seemed to have joined the Exploration Party alone, without anyone they knew.

Among them, Silver Badge Mercenary Michael in particular seemed to have taken a liking to Balun, because he kept talking the entire half-day after they left Pordel.

“Those stiff-necked bastards were all stunned speechless and could not say a word. Ah, that felt good. It felt very good! You threatened them properly!”

“Do you not get tired?”

“Tired? Of what?”

“Does your mouth not hurt?”

“It does not. I could talk all day.”

Michael was tall and had a rather thin build, and Balun felt as though he knew why this man was so thin.

If he chattered nonstop like this, his calorie consumption had to be enormous.

“All of their expressions were worth seeing, but among them, I found the Jackdaw bastards the most satisfying.”

“What is Jackdaw?”

“The Jackdaw Mercenary Company. Do you really not know them? They are the Mercenary Company led by Gold Badge Mercenary Jaden. Anyone who has been rolling around in this line of work could not possibly be ignorant of their name.”

“I became a Mercenary not long ago.”

“Even so, if you have lived by the blade, you would know them. Ah, now that I think about it, brother, you are a Barbarian. Then you might not know.”

“Do you know Golden Fang?”

“Golden Fang? Ah, those bastards who all got killed recently?”

“Is Jackdaw stronger than them?”

“Of course! They cannot even be compared to such a rabble!”

To Balun, Michael was quite bothersome, but he did not push him away. The things Michael rambled about were quite helpful to Balun.

Since Balun listened without showing displeasure, Michael grew even more excited. He kept talking to Balun and showed off his knowledge.

It was mostly information about the various groups belonging to the Exploration Party.

Which groups had joined this Exploration Party. How impressive they were. How strong they were. Whom he should be careful of.

Thanks to that, Balun was also able to roughly understand the structure of the Exploration Party and its members.

According to Michael, there were more than ten groups inside this Exploration Party, and all those groups had some degree of reputation.

“So there are no nobodies here.”

“Exactly! That is why I am telling you to be careful too, brother. Everyone seems to disapprove of you.”

“Why?”

“Why else? Because Gregory is shielding you.”

“What is wrong with that?”

“Think about it. A mage from the Blue Magic Tower specifically singles out and protects one person, and that one person is a Barbarian with no affiliation at all. Do you think they can endure not being jealous of that rolling stone?”

Balun could only feel puzzled.

A mage had merely given him some convenience, and that was a problem?

Was the name of the Azure Tower really that impressive?

“Moreover, that Barbarian even showed off his strength and provoked them. Naturally, they must be itching to pick a fight.”

“It was not showing off. I was showing my ability. I was saying we should get along.”

“You may think that way, brother, but they will not.”

“It does not matter. Balun can beat them all. I will split them all.”

In truth, that was a lie. He was not confident he could beat them all.

‘Ah, did I show off my strength for nothing? I could have simply said let us get along and stepped back.’

Perhaps it would have been better to lower his head a little and move along, even if it was somewhat bothersome.

‘No, did I threaten them or something? I just said we should get along. Showing off my strength is something I can do. It was like a talent show.’

Balun’s sense of injustice only grew.

“If you say so, brother, then I suppose it does not matter. Well, if someone has ability like you, I guess it really will be fine.”

Without knowing what Balun was thinking, Michael raised his thumb and praised him.

“Ah, right. Unless you have to, do not mess with the Knights. They are the real thing. They are on a different level from Mercenary riffraff like us.”

“Are they strong?”

“Of course they are. Need you ask? They are monsters in the truest sense.”

“I see.”

Michael shuddered. It seemed he did not even want to think about it.

“I recommend that you do not answer back no matter what they say. That is the proper way to deal with Nobles.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

“Well, there will probably be no occasion to exchange words with them in the first place. They hate even speaking with lowborn rabble like us.”

Balun turned his head diagonally. He saw several people riding horses.

‘They do certainly look a little arrogant.’

They had walked for more than half a day and seemed to have rested about four times, but during that time, Balun had not once seen them speak with any other group.

They spoke only among themselves. When they had something to convey to the Mercenaries, they had an attendant relay their words.

That was not all.

‘They did not even glare at me. Far from anger, they did not even get mad. It means they do not care about me at all.’

How should he put it? They seemed like people who lived in another world.

‘So this is what it means to be Nobles.’

Nobles. Balun chewed over that word. Now that he thought about it, this was the first time in his life that he had seen proper Nobles.

From the Exploration Party Leader to the Knights under his command, all of them were Nobles.

‘Their speech did sound refined, certainly. Their intonation also felt like British aristocratic English.’

Balun looked at the Knights for a long time. Envy lay in his gaze.

It was not that he envied the appearance of the Knights. He envied the land and property they possessed.

Ah, if one was as much as a Noble, just how much money would one have?

FWEEEEET!

At that moment, a whistle sounded. It was the signal to stop.

A person ran over from the front and made some hand signals. After seeing them, Michael’s expression brightened.

“It is the order to set up camp. Good timing! I was hungry anyway. We are going to have dinner!”

Judging by that, it seemed to be mealtime.

Soon after, the campsite was set up quickly. Tents were pitched, and food was prepared.

That evening’s meal was stew.

Balun did not know what kind of stew it was. There were things inside the thick broth, but he could not identify what they were. Judging by the look of it, it seemed to have been made by throwing all sorts of ingredients together.

Balun quickly stood in the distribution line as well.

The people in front each received a piece of dried-out black bread and a bowl of stew, then sat near the campfire and eagerly spooned up the stew.

Balun also received his share quickly and sat down. Michael then took a seat beside him and grumbled.

“Damn it, this really looks tasteless.”

“Is it bad?”

“Of course it is bad. They call this food?”

Balun quietly looked down at the stew and bread.

It only looked delicious to him. There were plenty of ingredients too, so it seemed generous.

“Those damn Noble bastards. They have so much money, so why do they serve food this awful?”

“You have a refined palate.”

“It is not that my palate is refined. It is that this is trash.”

“Still, eat it. You have to eat to have strength. Do we not have to walk for two more days?”

“I suppose so. Tch.”

The place where the ruins were located was called the Delpuram Mountain Range, and it was said to be three days on foot from Pordel.

Moreover, the Delpuram Mountain Range was a mountain range where Monsters appeared.

There would definitely be fights.

Balun quickly took a bite. A broth with a rich meat flavor. It was a fairly familiar taste.

‘Damn, this pork-and-rice soup is insane.’

He did not know how they had seasoned it, but it tasted just like the pork-and-rice soup of his memories.

Balun’s eyes grew distant. How long had it been since he had tasted such a nostalgic flavor?

Balun soon lifted his spoon. Just as he was about to scoop it up and eat, the bowl was suddenly overturned.

‘Huh?’

The hot broth spilled all over the ground, and the ingredients rolled across the dirt.

Balun stared blankly at the overturned bowl.

Not a single drop remained.

‘Ah, my pork-and-rice soup…….’

“Oh my, I accidentally overturned it. I am terribly sorry about that.”

Balun raised his head. A man with striking snake-like eyes was scratching his head.

Balun’s eyes narrowed.

It was because there was not the slightest hint of apology on Snake Eyes’ face.

“What should we do? There is no food left, so they will not give you another bowl. How about chewing on some grass roots over there instead? For a savage like you, that should be familiar, like food from your homeland.”

Snake Eyes smiled in a slippery way. His swaggering manner made him look like a neighborhood thug.

Laughter broke out here and there. It was unmistakably mocking laughter.

However, Balun did not hear that mockery. He could only see the overturned bowl.

Balun glanced at Snake Eyes.

If he had looked somewhat strong, Balun probably would have hesitated, but fortunately, this man was slender and looked as though he would not be able to use much strength.

Balun’s weakling-detection sensor had lit up.

His innate instinct was telling him that this man was weaker than him.

“You. Give back my pork-and-rice soup.”

“Pork what?”

“If you cannot, then give me your food.”

“I am sorry about that. I already ate mine.”

“Then I will have to make you vomit it up.”

“What kind of nonsense is…….”

Grab!

“Gack!”

Balun abruptly reached out and seized Snake Eyes by the throat. Snake Eyes’ eyes flew wide open, and he let out a violent groan.

“Guh, gack!”

Balun shoved the man’s face straight into the spilled stew broth on the ground.

“Aaaargh!”

At the hot sensation touching his skin, Snake Eyes screamed wildly.