Chapter 2: Chap 2 – I’m not a fake hero

After finishing their talk, Nathan's group made money off their loot.

They walked through the streets until they reached the market area near the castle. There, they met up with two men from a shop called the Adventurer's Guild. These guys ran the city's major business, selling everything adventurers might ever need.

One of the merchants greeted them while the other one took their inventory. After confirming each item, he handed over a paper listing the price of every item. Then he explained that the amount listed was just an estimate. They could haggle the prices down if necessary.

Next, he asked if they wanted to buy potions or magic stones. Since both of those products were used by high-level adventurers, the store sold them for extremely expensive amounts. It wasn't uncommon to spend half a month's wages on a potion or stone.

Finally, after handing over all their items, the merchant told Nathan and his party they earned thirty gold coins. He also mentioned that they needed to pay taxes, so their total earnings would be only 28 gold.

In addition, there was a small fee charged for using the service of the Adventurers' Guild. This cost 1% of the sum of the goods, meaning that the total tax would come to 2%. The fee was split between the buyer and seller.

If you bought anything, the fees went into a common pot, which the guild used to run it’s operations. As such, most customers didn't mind paying the extra costs since they got a lot of benefits in return.

Once again, the adventurer's guild collected a sizable portion of the taxes themselves, and that made their profits very healthy.

Nathan paid the bill and received twenty gold pieces in exchange. Next, he handed the rest of the coins to Meren, who promptly left the shop with the money.

Now that the transaction was complete, they returned home and began preparing dinner together.

Nathan was concerned because Merentiel was refusing to eat. He seemed to be avoiding any contact with food altogether.

He looked at him and asked, "Are you feeling alright? You haven't been eating much lately."

Meren nodded sadly. "I guess you noticed... Yeah, something's wrong.”

His words sent shivers down Nathan's spine. He knew exactly what Meren meant.

The reason behind his friend's refusal to eat was clear: He was still angry about the quarrel.

"I thought we had that settled," Yuuki said before they started arguing again.

"But we never really resolved it!"

"Then let's discuss things properly," suggested Nathan.

As expected, Yuuki immediately objected, saying, "That's impossible now. Let's forget about it and move forward."

Shizuku and Yumina exchanged looks, each clearly planning to step in if the conversation took a serious turn.

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"There's no way I'm going to be able to set this conversation aside, Yu. Whenever I go out in public, people accuse me of having a fake S rank and say that I am using my best friend to get rank up.”

Yuuki sighed as he watched him continue ranting. He was right; he couldn't avoid these kinds of situations forever.

Even though he tried his hardest not to show it, he felt bad whenever someone called him a cheater.

"Meren, I had no idea you were going through this...”

Merentiel wept openly when he heard Nathan speak. His eyes turned red, and tears dripped onto the table.

This time, everyone understood why he was acting this way. Nobody blamed him for it. However, nobody could help but feel sorry for him too.

Yumina offered to take care of the dishes, and she even cleaned the kitchen afterward. She did all of that without complaint. Shizuku helped too. Even Meren joined in, doing his part despite his depression.

This time it was Nathan who kept thinking about the quarrel.

Nathan's worry drew Shizuku's attention, and she came over to offer support, and asked, "What are you worried about? You don't have anything to apologize for, do you?"

"No, but I want to apologize anyway! Why does this keep happening? Every time I try to resolve our differences, things just escalate instead!"

Shizuku placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled gently, and told him, "Meren is just having some problems; he's kept a lot to himself." She then added, "Don't force yourself to deal with this alone."

She gave him advice based on her experience. That must've been how she managed to overcome her own issues.

It sounded like good advice.

However, Nathan didn't think it was enough to solve the problem.

What should I do...? He wondered.