The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

The street out front, where Klaus and the thugs had gone, was getting noisy. Loren patted Lapis, who was still carving steaks next to him, on the shoulder before getting up and heading outside.

It was hard to imagine that Klaus would be harmed in any way, but there was a chance that he might be. Moreover, Klaus was outnumbered; someone who had been raised well like him might get the wrong end of the stick in such a situation.

A waiter approached Loren, and he pointed out that his friends were still eating before stepping out of the restaurant. There was a crowd in the corner of the street, and Klaus was in the middle of a standoff with four beastmen in the center of the crowd.

Amidst the irresponsible yells of 'Do it!' and the like, Loren observed Klaus' body language with interest. As expected of an iron rank adventurer with a promising future in the country, his movements were quick and precise, and he showed no signs of being at a disadvantage in a one-man battle against four.

Nevertheless', Loren thought to himself.

If they were fighting with weapons, Klaus would have easily cut down the four beastmen and put an end to this, but now they were fighting barehanded. It was not the kind of fight where one punch would be the end of the fight, but a fight where unless they were knocked down unconscious, they would hit back or grab at each other. In short, it was a brawl. And from Loren's point of view, Klaus, although accustomed to fighting, did not seem to be accustomed to brawling.

Loren's concern soon became reality.

As Klaus knocked one of the beastmen to the ground with his punches and prepared to deal with another one, the knocked-down beastman, whom he thought he had defeated, grabbed him by the leg.

The reason why Klaus could not finish off the beastman was that he was not used to brawling and did not really know how hard his strikes should be to make the beastman stop attacking. He also did not have much experience in barehanded combat to begin with. Furthermore, beastmen were stronger than humans, with sturdier bodies, so some minor damage was not enough to make one incapable of fighting.

And just as expected of those who were partly beasts, Loren was impressed to see that Klaus, who had been grabbed by the leg and had his mobility hindered, began to be attacked by the remaining three. The strikes that Klaus had been able to avoid with his brilliant footwork were now unavoidable as his legs were rendered immobile, and he was forced to use only his arms to fight and defend himself, making it impossible for him to handle the attacks of all three.

"Good! Don't let him go!"

"You're giving us a hard time! I'm gonna beat you till your face changes shape!"

Klaus had even managed to shake off the beastman clinging to his leg once, but he was unable to free himself completely; the beastman who continued to cling desperately to him would not let that happen.

Loren thought using here would be a good idea, but if Klaus were to try to activate such a rare blessing in the presence of others, he might find himself in more trouble than a brawl. Still, Loren believed that it would be better for him to use it, considering that he might be beaten up and stripped to the ground by the ill-mannered beastmen otherwise, but Klaas did not seem to have that kind of resolution.

"That's why I don't like dealing with males!"

Klaus grumbled and tried to attack with his fists several times to shake off the beastman clinging to his leg, but he was unable to land any effective strikes on the beastman, who was crawling on the ground and keeping only his legs immobile. Instead, his frantic struggle made him lose his balance and, and he fell on his buttocks on the spot. Immediately, the beastman clinging to Klaus' leg raised the leg he was holding onto higher so that he could not get up, and the remaining three rushed to hold Klaus down to the ground.

Klaus somehow managed to make counterattacks from his disadvantageous position, but attacks from such a stance fiercely drained his strength, and his movements were gradually becoming lackluster.

"Heh, you're a persistent one for a human."

"Why don't you just give up? Or do you want to have an even more painful experience?!"

Klaus, who had been pulled down to the ground, was no longer able to defend himself, and was in a position to take several pretty good hits to the face. Yet he was still resisting, and the beastmen were unable to contain their irritation at his relentless struggle. One of them grabbed him by the chest, pulled him toward himself, then slammed him down to the ground with force.

"Gah!"

The beastmen's fists slammed into Klaus's face, causing him to scream in pain. Blood poured from his lips, as if he had been cut inside the mouth. Yet he still moved his arm to fight back, and one of the beastmen slammed him into the ground once more and said with annoyance:

"Can't eat after all this anyway. Let's just finish him and give the women inside a good time for the damages he caused us."

Although it was a four-on-one situation, the beastmen had also suffered quite a bit. They were beginning to think that it would not be worth it to beat Klaus until he lost consciousness to take what was in his pocket. Loren began to walk rather leisurely toward the beastmen holding Klaus down, thinking that at least two of the women inside were much more fearsome than Klaus.

"Klaus, you're surprisingly weak, aren't you?"

"C-cause I'm a lady-killer."

Looking at Klaus with a puzzled look for making such a joke while being held down by the chest, Loren called out to the beasts who were glaring at him as if to ask what he was doing.

"Felt better after beating him up that bad? I'll tell him to at least pay the medical bills for your injuries, so let's let him go."

"Don't be ridiculous. Do you think we'll be satisfied with such a small amount of money?"

One of the beastmen snarled back, and Loren let out a sigh as he reached for the beastman's chest and casually grabbed it, just as another beastman had done to Klaus. Faster than the beastman could resist, Loren put some strength into his arm and the beastman's body was lifted up with considerable force, and his feet easily left the ground. Although the beastmen had rather large builds, Loren was somewhat taller than them. Furthermore, by being grabbed by the chest, the beastman's body was lifted even higher.

"Wait, hey! Let go of me!"

"Klaus, you don't seem to be used to brawling, so let me teach you something. How to fight a brawl."

Letting the beastman flail his legs and try to escape from his arms, Loren spoke to Klaus, who was still lying on the ground.

Klaus looked up at Loren with a puzzled expression. The beastmen holding Klaus down also looked at each other, unsure of what was about to happen, and alternately looked at their flailing companions and Loren's face.

"This is how it's supposed to be!"

Loren slammed the beastman's body he was lifting to the ground with force.

The unlucky beastman squeezed out something like a strange moan as his back slammed into the ground, but Loren hadn't finished yet. He stomped his heel into the chest of the beastman as he lay limp on the ground. More strange moans came from the beastman's mouth and some blood splattered out; the sound of something being broken could definitely be heard from the area where Loren stomped on. The arms and legs of the beastman flapped for a while, then finally flopped to the ground and did not move at all.

"Those who don't think ahead are stronger."

After another stomp to finish the job and confirming that the beastman had completely stopped moving, Loren drew his leg back and gave the beastman's body a proper kick.

Without showing any further interest in the beastman, who was now in such a state that he should be more concerned about whether he was alive than worrying about the extent of his injuries, Loren looked around at the beastmen holding Klaus down and asked casually as if he were inviting them out for a walk.

"Who wants to be next?"

"Y-you! Don't you care about what happens to him?!"

In response to Loren's question, one of the remaining beastmen pulled out a small knife and thrusts it at Klaus, perhaps as a threat.

The metal gleamed, and Klaus stared at the blade with wide-open eyes, but Loren did not seem bothered, nor did he respond to the threat. He grabbed the beastman who had pulled the knife by the chest, pulled him away and swung him around at once, then slammed him into the ground with momentum.

The beastman, who was unable to even take a passive stance due to the sheer force of Loren's attack, slammed into the ground with his entire body. Without making a single sound, his eyes rolled back, and the knife he had pulled out fell from his powerless hand, making a dry, clattering sound.

After confirming that the second beastman he slammed into the ground was completely unconscious, Loren kicked the knife lying on the ground, appropriately enough, toward the onlookers. Seeing the flying knife, the onlookers just watched the situation, unable to raise their voices.

"Which one of you wants to be the third one?"

Loren's question, which was neither a joke or full of anger, but merely confirming, caused the two beastmen holding Klaus down to move away as if in a hurry to distance themselves from Loren.

After regaining his freedom, Klaus stood up, rotating his arms as if to loosen his body and rubbing the parts where he had been hit. He smiled wryly at Loren.

"Even if I tell you to copy that, you won't, I guess."

"Well, it'll be impossible to copy that kind of arm strength."

Klaus may have workout, but not as much as Loren. Even if he were to try using the greatsword that Loren used, it would probably be impossible for him to wield it satisfactorily.

"I don't want you to copy what I just did. Just learn how it works."

Loren looked down at the beastmen, who seemed to have completely lost their will to fight and were sitting on the ground, looking at him as if they were looking at something terrible.

"If you think too much, your moves will be dull. It's a crime to kill your opponent in a brawl, but if you're not willing to let that happen, you shouldn't be in a brawl in the first place."

"Rather than scary, that's terrifying."

Finally realizing that they had gotten involved with the wrong person, the two sitting beastmen began to tremble. The two beastmen who had been knocked to the ground, were not dead; they coughed violently and moaned as they tried to raise their bodies, but the damages were too severe and they were not able to move properly. They ended up writhing clumsily on the ground

The onlookers, too, were rendered speechless by Loren's display of power of swinging and slamming beastmen of reasonable size with only one arm, and they only looked at the scene of the brawl from a distance.

"Looks like we've pulled quite a crowd huh? What are we going to do about this?"

"Someone will report this, and the guards will come. I'll explain the situation to them, they'll take me away, and it'll be over."

It had somehow become a big deal.

The guards who would rush to the scene upon receiving the report would not be able to disperse the crowd without taking anyone away, so it was likely that one of the parties involved would be taken away. But two of the beatsmen who started this were seriously wounded, and Klaus, who was picked on, was also injured in various places. Loren thought that he, who was completely uninjured and the culprit of two seriously injured people, would be the suitable choice to be taken away, but then someone called out to him.

"It won't be necessary. They have a pretty good idea of what's going on. I'm sure they'll find out soon that you are not at fault."

Both Loren and Klaus turned their heads at the same time, but Klaus's reaction was clearly quicker. By the time Loren had finished turning around, Klaus had already walked up to the owner of the voice and was smiling so brightly that it was hard to believe that he had just had a fight.

While he was appalled that the man still had not learned his lesson, Loren was able to take a closer look at the owner of the voice thanks to Klaus's more forward step.

She must be from what was called a primitive clan among the beastmen, Loren believed. Her face was very similar to that of a cat. The beastmen he had just beaten looked similar to cats, with cat ears and tails on their human bodies, but this one certainly looked like a cat that had been transformed into a humanoid shape and was walking on two legs.

Her clothes were well-tailored women's clothes that seem to be easy to move in, and her breasts were also well-developed, but all the parts where her skin should be exposed were covered with fur.

"Pretty lady, I would like to know your name. I am an adventurer of the human race, and my name is Klaus."

"Th-Thank you very much for your kind words. My name is Minuet Shingapul. I am a member of the primitive cat people, and I am the Lord of this city."

What in the world was a Lord doing, being on a street like this? Loren felt something fishy there, but he couldn't bring himself to interject when Klaus' eyes were shining at the reality that the primitive beastwomen he was after were right in front of him and Minuet was becoming rather timid in front of the guy's reaction.

"Minuet, is it? Even your name is beautiful. I'd love to get to know you…"

"No, I'd like to talk business first… I understand that you are the victims, but we can't just let you go scot-free without an investigation. Turn yourselves in, plea…"

"Yes, I will go wherever you tell me to go."

"That's not what I meant…"

Minuet flinched, but Klaus didn't seem to be listening at all. At any rate, it was not going to be possible to just say yes, bye and leave; the girls were still in the middle of eating in the restaurant. Lorren scratched his head and wondered how he was going to explain it all.