Testing My Luck in the New World

By the time we got back to the dungeon, there was a long line waiting for us. I impatiently tapped my foot while I waited for the Adventurers to hurry it up and tell the General where they needed to be sent before he slowly cast his Dimensional Step spell for them, as if he had all the time in the world to do so. And as Yua suggested yesterday, there were a few people that didn't have the Adventurer class waiting to get in, but they were taking even longer to decide where to go than the rest.

Why the hell didn't they decide before they got here? If you're here to risk your life, you ought to at least know what you're doing!

"Master, maybe you should calm down," Yua pleaded, tugging on my sleeve.

"What are you talking about? Just a few minutes ago, you looked like you wanted to kill him."

Yua, somehow, managed to forget some or maybe most of her anger as soon as we got to the dungeon. More and more of it seemed to dissipate the closer we got to this place. Like her anger was based entirely on her proximity to Alphonse.

But not me. Not after what I heard. Yua pressed her lips into a thin line, looking as though she wanted to seek permission for whatever she was about to say before saying it anyways.

"Master, you can't go into the dungeon so... mad. It's not safe. If you let your emotions get the better of you while you're in there..."

"How can you stay so calm?" I interrupted. "He made all that shit up about his wife just to mess with us. He still thinks he has us beat. We have to prove him wrong."

The ring's sale was still our best and only bet at doing so, but we still needed to make up enough gold to cover our costs should it sell for the bare minimum. I knew Yua was right in saying that my emotions could get the better of me in a fight, but I wasn't her. I wasn't some battle junkie that could just forget such things the second the thought of doing something fun popped into my head.

I don't know what sort off training she went through to be able to do so herself, but where she stood now, she looked as though the only significant emotions she's worn all day was that warm smile she woke me up with. That, except, for the fact that she now gazed at me with confusion strongly mussing her beautiful features.

"Um, Master, he wasn't making up that stuff about his wife."

"... What do you mean?"

"He said it himself, right? It's not exactly a secret. Besides, I heard how calm his heart was when he told us. He wasn't lying."

Hearing those same word come from her peachy lips instead of his jogged my memory enough to make me want to slap myself. He did say exactly that. Once again, I let myself think I got the better of him, got distracted and didn't notice the obvious, only for him to pull the wool over my eyes. Why does this keep happening?

"I don't know much about it myself since I'm not from Amoranth myself," Yua continued. "But the other slaves told me stories of the things he's done since opening the slave house. From what they said, he went around using his knowledge and influence to ruin each and every business that was related to those that stole his wife in any way. In any way, no matter how remote the connection. He even went after the businesses of their loved ones and the like. He broke them financially and enslaved them all. And, from what I've heard, there were several more involved than what he told us just now."

When she finished, I felt a chill strangle my spine at the thought of the man we were up against. I thought that he was just a greedy merchant with a heart so black that it might as well have been a black hole from the moment he was born, but now everything made sense. Forget the power and money he must have needed to do so, if he had the brains to financially topple who knows how many businesses, then the man must be a genius. And after all my blundering these last few days, it was obvious why he'd taken advantage of me. He saw from the, probably from the moment we met, that I was an easy mark.