Volume 2 Chapter 26 I Hate It to the Point of Death
"Hmm... The drop from Gai Gigant. Finally managed to integrate it, and... this is impressive. The magic stability is far higher than I expected."
Horace's ultimate weapon, the 'Deus Ex Machina.'
It's an overwhelming mix of durability, strength, mobility, and offensive power. But when he defeated Gai Gigant, he claimed it was only 8% complete.
Now that it's been integrated and he's saying it's 'amazing,' the completion rate's clearly gone up.
And from what he can tell, the magic stability has been significantly improved.
"When I used my breath attack to overwrite the air, it immediately responded with a breath that had enhanced stability... Thinking about the ingot drop, it makes sense."
Horace is in the middle of a fight.
Deep inside the Great Mine of Gold World (Kinsekai).
In Area 98.
Dozens of cattle, their bodies covered in steel, charge toward Horace.
But with a single swing of his one-handed sword in his right hand, their bodies are effortlessly cleaved apart, dropping gold coins and ingots before vanishing into thin air.
The gold coins and ingots are sucked into the swirling vortex in his left hand.
"Wearing this equipment normally takes a lot of focus, but if all I'm doing is casually cutting down monsters... I could wear it all day... though, it does get a bit stuffy."
There are some air holes, but they're extremely narrow.
And since it's full-body armor, wearing it for too long traps the heat and humidity inside.
"Stability, huh... Well, it's almost over."
He touches the left ear area of his full-face helmet with his left hand, and the upper part of his head vanishes, exposing his face.
Horace closes his eyes... and when they open, he releases his aura of intimidation.
With just that, all the cattle around him freeze, as though they were crushed from above.
"...Time to go home."
Despite having just been mowing through monsters, he seems totally indifferent now.
Perhaps it's because he gathered enough ingots for his target, or maybe it's just time pressure.
With that, Horace uses his intimidation to clear the way, heading back.
* * *
By the time Horace returned to the 'upper floor' of the Great Mine of Gold World (Kinsekai), he had tucked away his armor into his Item Box and was now carrying a large leather pouch on his back instead.
As for the monsters that occasionally popped up, honestly, the 'upper floor' was way too shallow for him.
It was true that this place didn't align with his goal of gathering ingots or making money, but since everything could be finished with a single bullet, he treated it like a simple way to earn pocket change.
That's when it happened, right after he returned to the upper floor.
"Oh, finally back, huh? Hero's master. Got a minute to talk?"
A group of ten Adventurers, all grinning smugly, blocked his path in the corridor.
They stood in his way, forming a wall.
"...What do you want?"
"Heh, I figured you might be a little... dissatisfied with something."
"Dissatisfied?"
"Yeah. How do you feel about the monopoly on this country's big mine? Don't you think it's unfair to us Adventurers? We're the ones out here gathering the ores, but we barely get any ingots we can use ourselves. Doesn't that seem pretty damn unfair to you?"
"..."
Horace responded after a brief pause.
"I'm not an Adventurer anymore, and I've been granted full permission to use the ingots I collect, so I've got no complaints."
With that, he indirectly suggested, *"Are you sure you're talking to the right person?"* The leader of the group, who had been doing most of the talking, twitched his brow, but quickly returned to a neutral expression.
"But you were an Adventurer, weren't you? If that's the case, you should understand just how unfair it is to monopolize the ingots. If you've always been a Golem Master, you've gotta have been pissed off about the monopoly."
"If you want ingots *that badly*, sure, this is a good place. But I never cared much for quantity. I used to focus on expanding my range, finding new dungeons, and collecting the final boss drops. Some of these ingots have odd qualities, so sometimes, other places are just better."
As he spoke, Horace found himself slowly understanding *their* argument.
First things first, they're probably new Adventurers who joined the Cedal Alliance.
But the problem is, their methods are completely different from what's worked before, so they can't make any headway.
That's why they're so desperate to get ingots from Horace.
And they assumed Horace, just like other Adventurers, was obligated to sell a hefty amount of ingots to the kingdom.
So, they tried to build a case around the word 'discontent,' but since Horace doesn't have any issues right now, they're framing it as something like, "Wouldn't it piss you off if someone was hoarding ingots for themselves?"
If 'the hero's master' expresses dissatisfaction, the kingdom would pretty much have no choice but to listen.
That part's true.
So their plan is to provoke Horace into voicing discontent about monopolizing the huge veins of ingots, and then use that to claim the ingots they've gathered in the dungeons as their own.
But... to be honest, that's all wrong.
There's no way Horace and these guys could share the same level of frustration.
"W-Well then..."
"Ah, I get it. You guys want to make sure I understand. You can't do much in the Alliance, so you come to me, hoping to get some ingots and boost your reputation, right?"
"S-So what's wrong with that? You weren't doing everything on your own back in your Adventurer days, were you? Don't you feel like helping out the younger Adventurers who are struggling?"
It looks like they've given up on trying to push Horace's personal discontent and have shifted to this 'helping struggling Adventurer juniors' argument instead.
It's all emotional appeal──practically begging with some sense of moral righteousness.
But Horace spent years in the Diamante Kingdom's royal castle, a battleground of nobles with no sense of ethics.
So when people bring up emotional arguments or morality, Horace has a very different value system.
"Can't make sense of it, so you turn to emotional arguments? Bringing up morality? People who try to force things through with that crap are usually either 'idiots,' 'frauds,' or, most likely, 'idiotic frauds.'"
"──!!"
If he joins in on their little game, he'll just be giving them unnecessary ingredients──and there's no way that'll ever reach the "poor underdog" they claim to be.
It's plain as day they're just hoarding ingredients under false pretenses to sell to "merchants not from the Dragonstone Kingdom."
"Don't joke around! Not everyone's as strong as you, y'know! Have you ever even considered how we at the bottom feel?!"
...Horace had honed his powers of observation a bit.
What he saw was that the ten gathered here were probably around 18 years old on average, give or take a year.
And it's likely that, despite having at least 3 years of experience as Adventurers, they're all ranked E, the 'beginner' rank.
"Not strong enough? Always at the bottom? ...So you're content with a guild that doesn't chase dreams, just pandering to merchants in a sorry alliance?"
"Shut up. What the hell do you──"
"Eighteen-year-old Adventurers trying to act realistic? No wonder you guys get laughed at."
There are professions that feel like you're walking on air.
There are professions where the path ahead is so unclear, you can barely make out what's coming next.
Such professions, even if they have established norms, are always teeming with exceptions.
Being an Adventurer is one of those jobs.
It's because the path is unseen that there's potential, that there are dreams.
They're definitely not suicidal volunteers.
They're just gamblers who stake their lives on taking down monsters.
"...Shut up!"
The man barked, his fist raised──yet with just a light show of force from Horace, he crumbled to the ground.
"...uh, oooh..."
"Sigh..."
Glancing at the man sinking into himself, Horace walks past him without a word.
The pressure was only for a moment.
It's gone now.
But the man is still trembling.
Horace turns back to face them one last time...
"...I don't give a damn about your principles. Say whatever you like about right and wrong. But Adventurers like you, who don't even know how to face their dreams..."
He spoke with cold eyes.
"I hate you to death."
...Horace walked toward the dungeon's entrance without sparing them another glance.
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