Re:Zero - Jobless Reincarnation: Succubus Sword God? I don't recognize it!

Chapter 585 Message Upon Entering Town
Pepin, located in northern Basilant, is the third largest city in the country.

Even the third, being located in the barren far north, is far less prosperous than the slightly more developed cities in the Kingdom of Asura.

If we have to compare their areas, they're roughly the same size as Roya.

Because it is near a forest teeming with monsters to the north, the city is covered in snow and horse manure, the roads are narrow, and the population is sparse, mostly consisting of desperate outlaws, well, only brave adventurers are willing to gather here for a long time.
"Hey, isn't this the new rookie adventurer team? I heard you went to Silver Dragon Snow Valley a week ago, looks like you came back empty-handed."

"The carriage is gone! Oh dear~ This trip has left us with nothing but our underwear. So many adventurer teams have returned empty-handed from Silver Dragon Snow Valley over the years. What makes you think you can defeat Silver Dragon?"

"Well, there's no other way. We came to Pepin before the blizzard season. Without some savings, you can't even afford charcoal. We can only take a gamble."

"Haha, hey little girl, although you look rather frail, I'm a very tolerant person. If you don't have much money, why not stay with me for the winter? There's a fire and food. As long as you treat me well, I'll..."

"If you dare say that again, I'll tear your mouth apart!"

Wherever there are people, there is society.

There will inevitably be competition between adventurer teams.

For the adventurer teams that have been based in Pepin for years, the relationships among them are relatively harmonious. It's not that they help each other out, but over the years, everyone knows which adventurer team's captain is a great swordsman, which adventurer team's vice-captain is a powerful magician, and which adventurer team's captain has betrayed which adventurer team's captain.

Based on the power pyramid, there is a certain tacit understanding regarding the distribution of benefits.

But a new team of adventurers arrived.
Haha, anyone would come and try riding one.

Some people are simply malicious, while others are putting on airs to test the limits.

What? What if a conflict actually occurs?
That's great.

It's a mule or a horse, pull it out and run around.

Adventurers, let your strength speak for itself.

If you lack strength, those malicious attempts to test the waters may actually come to fruition, right?
For example, at this moment
Sarah and her companions continued walking straight towards the Adventurers' Guild after entering the city.

Having endured ridicule and sarcasm the whole way, Sarah finally couldn't take it anymore when they were almost at the entrance of the Adventurers' Guild. She snapped back at the burly, scarred man leaning against the wall, who was as big as four towers like her.

Sarah found it very difficult to endure the taunts from her opponent, which were always clearly malicious.

The latter was taken aback, as if she hadn't expected Sarah to dare to talk back, and the surrounding adventurer teams all looked over.

The scene fell silent for a moment.

Susanna glanced warily at the captain of the A-rank adventurer team, who was standing about two meters away from them. She put her arm around Sarah's shoulder, switched places with her, and moved closer to the scarred man. At the same time, she gestured for Sarah not to stop causing trouble and to keep walking.

Sarah took two deep breaths, a hint of annoyance showing on her face for causing trouble for Susanna, and could only lower her head and play the victim.

Scarface is very strong; we shouldn't get into a conflict with him just for the sake of a verbal argument.

And
He must have done it on purpose.

Mr. Reiner has already saved everyone once. If he goes along with Scarface's wishes and a conflict arises between the two sides, he certainly won't stand idly by, but that would waste his time.

Sure enough, the scarred man by the wall straightened up, touched the curved knife at his waist, and followed them, calling out with great interest:

"You little vixen, you're so foul-mouthed. All you can do is talk, right? Dare to come to my house? I can let you have your fill of verbal sparring."

"you!!"

Scarface swore and lewdly groaned, but his eyes never lingered on Sarah's waist, hips, or legs. Instead, they turned to Susanna and Timothy, who stood behind her with his head bowed and looking dejected.

"Hey, you silent passersby, what's wrong? Still not going to say anything? If you don't speak up, I'm going to take her away."

Susanna wanted to speak, but she held back, only protecting Sarah. Sarah bit her lip, her face flushed, while Timothy lowered his head and walked away without saying a word.

Scarface snorted, "Don't call it Counter-Arrow, call it Rat Hole, you bunch of cowards." As he spoke, his gaze shifted to Dilik, who was frowning and looking at him from behind the two men.

"And you, a high-ranking nobleman? So fallen that even your master has been kidnapped? What are you looking at? I'll gouge your eyes out!"

Just then, a figure stepped out from behind Dilik, brushed past his shoulder, and passed by.

Scarface's vision blurred, and he lost sight of Dilik's face, but what came into view was a pair of pupils that glanced over indifferently.

It is a rare jet-black color never seen before in the far north.

They parted in an instant, their gazes following the wind, disappearing from sight.

Scarface paused, stopping in his tracks. He stopped chasing after the counter-arrow to provoke it, and a hint of doubt flashed in his eyes as he looked at the figure that suddenly appeared beside Dilik.

Strange. Who is this guy? Has he been following these useless guys from the very beginning?

But how come I didn't notice that there was someone following them?
The other adventurer teams around him chimed in, egging him on: "Scarface? What's wrong? Scared?" / "Weren't you going to take that little wench home and have some 'verbal sparring'? Why are you standing there like that?" / "No way, Scarface, are you a man?"

Spurred on by the words, Scarface instinctively took a step to chase after him, but as soon as he lifted his foot, his gaze involuntarily shifted to the back of the figure wearing a tightly stitched black overcoat, leather boots, and black silk trousers.

Something's off about this person.
Just then, the group of Counter Arrows walked further and further away. Susanna turned her head and whispered to comfort Sarah, who lowered her head and trembled with anger.

The man suddenly stopped and turned his head to look over.

He had white hair and was still handsome, but his dark eyes looked a bit unsettling.

Scarface stared into the other man's eyes, silently thinking:

There's nothing particularly special about it, so why does it feel so strangely out of place?
! ! ! !
Whoosh! The snow, carried by the wind, suddenly smacked him in the face with a loud thud!

The black pupils that were still six meters away from him met his gaze, but in the blink of an eye, they reappeared and were already in front of his face with the wind!

Even those who were close enough could see the look of doubt in each other's eyes.

Scarface was startled and jumped back, bending his knees. At the same time, he put his hand on the hilt of his knife at his waist. But before his toes could leave the ground, his opponent struck him on the shoulder and pressed him firmly to the ground.

The boot heel slammed into the ground with a crack, creating a ring of fissures in the ice.

The expressions of the several adventurer team members who had been watching the show changed, and they swarmed around them.

The man looked down at the scarred hand gripping the hilt of the knife:
"you know me?"

Scarface paused, hesitated for a moment, then quickly released his grip on the knife: "I don't know him."

"Then why are you looking at me?"

"I...I'm a little curious."

What style of martial arts do you belong to?

"Water flows like a divine stream."

"No wonder even lowering my presence was detected; I actually managed to touch the edge of a flow of energy. No one bothered to ambush me along the way." "Wh-what?"

The man raised his eyes, and instead of answering, asked, "One last question: are you an apostle of God and Man?"

Scarface was taken aback: "What apprentice?"

The man waved his hand: "It's alright, let's go."

The voice went from strong to weak, and was blown away by the wind and snow.

Scarface still wanted to speak, but where could anyone be seen?

Looking up, the white-haired man was already standing behind the group of Counter Arrows at the entrance of the Adventurers' Guild.

Susanna was still comforting Sarah, Timothy was still looking down like a dead man, and Dirich looked anxiously at the entrance of the Adventurers' Guild.

So far, no one noticed that the person had come or gone.
Only then did Scarface belatedly realize where that sense of unease came from.

He looked around and saw that the adventurers who had been watching had all fallen silent, some with fear, some with envy, some with confusion, and some with astonishment as they stared at the white-haired man in the distance.

Snowflakes fell on their clothes, leaving patches of water stains.

The dry winter winds whipped everyone's hair into a tangled mess, like dry straw.

The edges of their trousers were in a terrible state, covered in mud and snow, and even the edges of their shoes were stained with horse manure.

That person is different.
He was completely free of any dirt or grime.

Even the shoe uppers were so neat.
He looked down at the ground.

The footprints left by the group that just passed by the counter-arrow were clear, indicating three people and six legs.

There were no fourth person's footprints.
"Team leader?? Is this guy a ghost?"

"This is the first time I've seen the Water God Style apply its fighting spirit; it's the work of a master."

".this."

"Stop probing. Stay away from the counter-arrows in the future and try to avoid conflict. Pepin deserves a place for them."

The team members were all taken aback, their faces showing some worry:

"That mysterious swordsman who came from the west a while ago, the captain said he was a master. We gave him a spot, even though he didn't seem to want to become an adventurer. But recently everyone has been racking their brains about whether to give him some 'hunting' territory."

A while ago, a group of filthy bastards arrived. The captain said they were not to be trifled with, so they should also be given a place.

Now look what's happened, another counterattack has come. It's never going to end."

Scarface flew into a rage and slapped the speaking teammate on the head:
"I'm doing this for your own good! Tell me, which one of you can afford to offend?"

"That counter-arrow"

"Don't even think about it. I'd rather offend the two groups of people in front than offend the one from before."

"How skilled is this person?"

Scarface watched as the white-haired man, along with the group of counter-arrows, entered the Adventurers' Guild, closed the door, and the hem of his robe disappeared from sight with each step.
"Very high, the kind where you can't see the top."

-

As soon as Fu Yi entered the Adventurers' Guild, a wave of warmth washed over him, instantly dispelling the chill outside.

It brought with it the smells of leather, coal, smoke, and perfume, and even a faint, animalistic scent similar to that of a puppy.

Inside, adventurers standing in front of the notice board, hoping to find some small quests to take on during the blizzard season, were startled by the cold wind that rushed out when the door opened.

They shrank back, glancing around with some displeasure. When they discovered that it was the Counter-Arrow group who had returned safely from Silver Dragon Snow Valley, they all showed a hint of surprise.

"Ah, I'm finally back! The warmth of the fireplace has come back to life."

Sarah rubbed her icy hands, and the resentment from being maliciously mocked earlier eased slightly with the comfort that came from her body.

Following behind her, Allen closed the door behind him and observed the structure of the Adventurers' Guild in this far north.

The association's interior was square, with a hole cut into the floor in the center to house a stove that would take three people to encircle. Next to it were huge wooden barrels filled with shiny black, stone-shaped anthracite.

On the left is a notice board almost the size of a wall, which is the free area, covered with various messages and notices. On the right is the quest area, where simple mercenary quests posted by townspeople or simple monster-hunting quests are displayed.

To the right was a counter, behind which leaned a curly-haired woman in a low-cut, off-the-shoulder uniform with bright red lipstick.

Perhaps it's because the Adventurers' Guild is so powerful that its staff are essentially civil servants in this other world, but they are all girls from privileged backgrounds, and most of them are beautiful and stunning, with large breasts and long legs, conforming to the universal aesthetic standards of this world.

When the clerk saw someone come in, she lowered her head, touched her hands, and without looking up, lazily said:
"Please ensure your attire is appropriate before entering the Adventurers' Guild. Thank you for your cooperation!"

Allen felt a warmth under his feet and looked down.

The entrance hall is a square pit that has been dug out. The floor is made of openwork iron railings. The 30-centimeter-high steps next to it have holes in the cross-section, which seem to be connected to a stove and release amazing heat.

The heat scorched Sarah and the others' boots, and they quickly washed the surface of their boots with water from the basin next to them. The dirty water flowed down the iron railing into the sewage ditch and disappeared into the distance. Then they stood in front of the hole to dry their legs, all showing comfortable expressions.

Dilik hurriedly used water balloon magic to wash himself, frequently glancing at the notice board on the left wall.

According to Dilik, the kidnappers would leave a message on the website, indicating the rendezvous point, and then hand over the kidnapper in exchange for their release.

Allen nodded secretly. He had never seen any descriptions of the Adventurers' Guild when he read novels back then. But after visiting many Adventurers' Guilds recently, he realized that not all guilds were set up the same way.

The adventurer culture is prevalent in the far north, and the guild is much wealthier than the guild in the Warring States Zone that extends to the Dragon Kingdom. They don't need to open a restaurant or bar on the ground floor to make a living, yet they still spend so much on cleaning.

Without cleaning his boots, he stepped onto the stairs and walked toward the notice board on his left.

A slightly disgruntled, yet restrained, sweet voice came from the side, trying to stop her:
"Hello, please abide by the Adventurers' Guild's rules."

Allen turned and glanced at the sales clerk.

The other party also noticed that Allen's appearance was unusually tidy.

At that moment, Allen noticed that she had also subconsciously made eye contact with him.

Upon seeing the latter's white hair and overly handsome and neat appearance, he was first taken aback, then glanced at the hilt of the secret sword at his waist, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.

Allen looked away and walked to the notice board, searching for the corresponding message.

Dilik, having already dried his pants, hurried over to help him search. Suddenly, his eyes lit up:
"here!"

(End of this chapter)