"Please give me a glass of cherry wine, nothing else, thank you. The elven woman sat down quietly at the cleanest-looking table near the counter. "No, I'm going to take a break and keep going. ”

Lucy, the dark elf who was originally concentrating on the cards in front of her, quietly raised her head and exchanged glances with the elf woman. This action did not escape the boss's eyes, but the mage, who had been drinking all afternoon and was already a little drunk, did not notice it at all.

Then the situation at the table began to change 180 degrees.

Within two hours, the mage not only lost all the money he had won that afternoon, but also sent a lot of gold coins that had "accidentally fallen out" from the money bag next to him into Lucy's pocket. The more money he lost, the more he drank, and the mage kept asking the hostess to fill the glass in front of him, and then continued to lose. As a result of continuing to lose, the mage continued to ask the hostess to deal cards, as if he continued to play, and Rafa, the god of luck, would turn his attention to him again.

"I'll mage the mage, do you want to take a break before continuing to play?" the boss felt that the mage's luck seemed a little strange today, and kindly reminded.

"Deal. When the archmage heard the boss's words, he waved his hand completely indifferently. In the last hour, no one in the tavern could hear any words from the mage other than "deal", "wine", "raise", and "open".

The mage, who looked to have lost his eyes, reached for the money bag next to him again, trying to find a few gold coins that had "accidentally fallen out by himself", and the money bag contained half of the gold coins that the mage and the demon had exchanged for the weapons and equipment they had obtained from Neil Canyon this morning.

"I still have ...... here," the mage's words, who looked up, suddenly froze in the air. A waitress happened to pass behind Lucy on the other side, and on the polished metal tray in the hostess's hand was a glass full of cherry wine ready to be delivered to the noble elf woman, and at the bottom of the tray. But it reflects the cards in Lucy's hand. It's just Lucy's hand, which was supposed to be holding two cards. There are four cards in her hand at this moment!

The annoyed mage tossed the glass in the direction of the Dark Elf. The cuffs of the dark elves, who were hurriedly dodging, floated out more playing cards with the nimble movements of the dark elves, and it was obvious that the dark elves were cheating to dig out the mage's money bag.

The cheating was exposed, and the dark elves no longer maintained their barely normal appearance. I saw Lucy easily leap over the table that had been overturned by the angry archmage Aqiman, and the elven longbow in her hand swung directly at the archmage's chest.

After a "Ahh The Dark Elf, who had succeeded in the blow, then reached for the Archmage's Staff of Trist, which had been leaning against the table and was now lying on the ground. The mage settled down and spat out a magic spell: "...... Srak"

The skeleton on the Trist Staff seemed to suddenly glow with an eerie vitality. A stream of flame rose from the staff. Seeing that the situation was wrong, the dark elf Lucy hurriedly picked up the mage's money bag containing the rent of the dungeon and ran in the direction of the tavern counter.

“...... Tika!" the mage pronounced the last part of the incantation, and the flames on the staff coalesced into balls and flew towards Lucy's back.

"Ness!" The elven woman who had been sitting at the table next to the counter suddenly stood up. In an instant, she was in the middle of the fireballs sent by the dark elves and mages.

"Ice elves, all over the world, listen to my call, use your cold breath to reflect the attacks of the enemy in front of you, and return them to him with a hundredfold strength!"

With a pair of elves' hands. A mirror made of ice crystals appeared in front of the fireball, and the fireball immediately changed direction when it touched the ice mirror. Instead, he flew in front of the mage.

After a loud bang, the black-robed mage with his body burned beyond recognition stood there with the Trist staff in his hand, while the rest of the residents of Thor, who had been watching the excitement around the mage, were all lying on the ground.

The sound of the "Gla La-......" and "Oh no......" wooden planks and the screams of the owner of the last inn converged into a special symphony, and under the wonderful magical power, half of the last inn collapsed.

A black gas erupted from the Trist's staff and enveloped the archmage's body, so that none of the wooden blocks and debris that fell from the upper floors fell on the mage's head, but the rest of the people who had just been injured by the reflected fireball suffered a second fate. In the midst of the screams, a gust of wind blew, lifting the corners of the elven woman's clothes, and the same iron plate engraved with the Thieves' Guild appeared on the elven woman's waist.

The owner, the hostess, and the other guests who were not affected rushed forward to try to rescue the people who had been hit by the force of the fireball and then crushed by the collapsed half of the hotel. No one noticed that the elf who cast the magic that reflected the fireball back and the dark elf who had snatched the mage's money bag had quietly disappeared from sight.

The mage, who had suffered both physical and financial blows, remained in place, and although the owner of the inn was tempted to try to ask for some compensation for the destruction of the inn, he did not have the guts. Even before the bill for the mage's food and drinks for half a day had been delivered, the mage did not say a word, and regardless of the wounds on his body, he took the Triste staff and turned away, and disappeared into the dark night streets of Thor.

―――――――――――――――――――――――――

While the demon Amtils and Goblin Set were eating, they heard from the mouths of the hostess, who was lucky not to be injured when half of the inn collapsed yesterday, and heard a qiē that happened yesterday in the last homecoming inn.

"What a hapless Mr. Akiman. After hearing what happened to the mage yesterday, the goblin gave this comment softly.

But the demon's opinion seemed to be a little different: "Dare to gamble with the rent, why didn't the reflected fireball roast him on the spot? At least we can get a few days of food, which is better than the gold coins are gone and the mage has slipped away." ”

"But. Mr. Acheman doesn't look like a man who can run away. "Actually, the relationship between the goblin and the mage is not bad. So at this time, Seth couldn't help but speak up, and the mage who usually occasionally told him a little adventure common sense.

"Hmph. The demon refused. And by the way, he shifted the conversation to the other side: "Do you have any money on you? Go pay the bills, Seth?"

Goblins have never been a wealthy race. And Seth is even worse than his people who have been struggling with poverty for many years, after all, his boss, the dungeon lord and demon Amtils, has not paid Goblinset a single copper coin for more than half a year.

So, when the owner of the inn in Thor's last home arrives with a bill, the demons and goblins have the only option to flee. The most basic reason for this situation is that the demon who is the master of the dungeon currently has the same amount of coins in his pocket as the goblin's wallet, while the two guys, who are not named on their bodies, have ordered more than ten gold coins of food and wine in the final inn, which is even worse. The bill sent to them by the shopkeeper contained several more items, including compensation for the half of the inn destroyed by the archmage's fireball (albeit bounced back by the ice mirror magic) last night, the food and drink ordered by the archmage for half a day, and the cost of a few generous drinks for the whole party, and the figures on the account that even the demon could not afford to pay if he had not lost his wallet.

The persistent pursuit of compensation has caused the owner of the inn to become immune to the demon's seduction, but the demon's movement is impossible or unstoppable.

The demon is not as skilled in all kinds of magic as the archmage, but once cast, his magic is usually effective, and this time was no exception: in the blink of an eye, the demon and the goblin had appeared somewhere outside their dungeon, on the head of Caesar the Red Dragon, the owner of Mount Thor, to be exact.

The goblin, which was originally green, turned red in an instant, and the demon that was originally red did not look anything unusual from the outside, except that the clothes all over the body were on fire. After all, it's a red dragon that keeps fire and lava all year round. Falling on its head unsuspectingly is no different from burrowing into an oven yourself.

"It's good if you're back, if I'm not mistaken. Today is the deadline for rent payments?" The red dragon, who had been sticking his head out to speak to the Dark Knight Salas leaning against the gate of the dungeon, raised a claw, swept the demon to the ground, and by the way, caught the almost burned goblin on the ground.

It was evident that the red dragon had also cast an additional spell to protect against the heat, and the goblin turned from red to normal green in an instant. Compared to the goblins, who looked like they were normal except for a few scorched clothes, the demon didn't have this treatment. I don't know if he was busy saving the fire from his clothes, or he was in a hurry to use magic to resist the heat around him, but the demon actually ignored the red dragon's question.

"This does not bode well. The Dark Knight scrambled around the demon, only to find it empty.

The dragon was not in a hurry, but lay down in the open space in front of the dungeon gate.

"Where's the money bag?" asked the Dark Knight, who searched the demon's body and couldn't find a single copper coin.

"I didn't find it. The demon gave a simple, clear answer.

"That'...... Where's the money bag on the mage?"

"Stolen. ”

"Where's the mage?"

"Slipped. ”

"What about the rent?"

“............”

The simple and straightforward answer was that the Dark Knight immediately understood the situation he was in, and the Red Dragon, who was staring at the demon, seemed to know that the tenants of his land would never be able to pay the rent.

"Look at what you see, it's not like staring at me, and you have the money to hand it over. "The Dungeon Lord, Demon Amtils, did not hesitate to immediately adopt a policy of cheating.

"I don't care, if you can't collect the rent today, you will move out immediately. The Red Dragon's stance was so tough that he even spat out a fireball at the demon's head to show it.

The demon hurriedly threw out the flames on his head, and although he grew in the abyssal demon realm full of magma, it was no fun to let a fire burn on his head. "But no money is no money, and we don't want to move away, so what if we don't want to?" replied the demon, who had managed to extinguish the fire.

The red dragon's reply was unusually crisp, and another fireball fell on the demon's head.

Seeing this, the Dark Knight Salas hurriedly called out to his skeleton horse: "Taxis, let's go pack our bags." ”

The goblin, who had just escaped from the horror of being surrounded by heat, stood in place. Watch the flames on his dungeon master's head extinguish and rekindle.

"You don't need to be so ruthless. Anyway, we've been neighbors for half a year. The demon who extinguished the fire again began to change his strategy. Instead, he tried to make friends with the Red Dragon.

"But you haven't paid a single copper coin in rent for half a year, no. A puff of green smoke came from the red dragon's mouth.

The demon hurriedly pulled up the burned shirt on his body and put it on his head: "You see, if the mage hadn't absconded with the money, we could have paid the rent now......" The demon began to try to blame all the reasons for not paying the rent on the archmage who was judged in absentia.

"Although he absconded, but the mage didn't bring the money?" The goblin, who was rarely clever once, heard the loophole in the dungeon master's words, and told the truth in passing: "The mage should have gone after the two dark elves who stole the money bag, right?"

At this moment, the skeleton Mataxis with a package on his back walked out of the dungeon gate, and the Dark Knight who followed it added in passing: "You lost half of your money yourself, didn't you?" boss. ”

"Ah......h "But the money is lost, isn't it? When you pity it once, delay it for a few more days, right?"

Looking at the appearance of the charred demon on his chest crawling on the ground, the red dragon Caesar did not continue to spray fireballs on him, "Then you say, when can you pay the rent?"

"Three months...... One month!...... Two weeks, okay?" the demon, who was unable to stand up in pain for a moment, began to bargain, but this was only a unilateral price reduction as the green smoke gathered around the dragon's mouth. "Anyway, before you die......" the demon added as low as he could.

However, the red dragon did not miss the last sentence, and a giant fireball larger than the previous fireballs combined appeared in the red dragon's mouth. And the only reason why this fireball didn't fall on the demon was because of the goblins that suddenly ran in front of the demon.

"Don't!" Seth tried to spread his short arms, trying to hide the form of the demon lying on the ground in the eyes of the red dragon.

The Dark Knight, who had not expected Seth's move at all, froze in place, and the fireball in the red dragon's mouth was terrifying. But it has never been so easy to kill the demon who has been accompanied by flames and heat since childhood, and as for the goblin, I am afraid that any fireball that just landed on the demon's head and chest can kill him instantly.

"Go away. I'd like to see this old dragon...... "The demon was still stubborn, but the rest of the words were unspeakable because the Dark Knight was covering his mouth as he rushed over. The Dark Knight Salas wasn't worried about the demon's safety, but he was just afraid that if the fireball from the red dragon's mouth fell, it would affect the goblins standing bravely in front of the demon.

The fireball did not fall, but rolled into the red dragon's mouth as it tilted its head. "Little one, do you want to pay the rent on behalf of this bastard dungeon master of yours?"

There was a hint of sarcasm in the Red Dragon's words, and the eyes of the Demon and the Dark Knight were immediately focused on Seth, who had never expected the little goblin to have such a good friendship with the dragon.

In the face of the red dragon's question, the goblin did not answer immediately, but carefully saw that there was no green smoke floating out of the red dragon's mouth, and then slowly pulled out the tattered small backpack that usually hung on his waist and no one had ever paid attention to it, and began to gently take out the things collected inside, a few small cloth bags.

The cloth bag was carefully spread out, and there was neither gold nor precious stones in it.

A sun-dried four-leaf clover, the skeleton Mataxis brought to the goblin with the legendary little grass that would bring luck to the goblin after carefully washing all its bones again and again;

A small bone of unknown origin, carved with the mark of a Holy Knight's rose, which Seth begged the Dark Knight Salas to carve for him in his spare time;

A black silver necklace with a four-leaf clover pendant on it that had been set with inferior gemstones, which had been turned over from a garbage heap thrown by a mage, who generously gave it to him on the spot, and the goblin never wore it around his neck after spending three months of rest to pick it up;

A rusty dagger that was cut in half, the goblin usually held it to send the dream of becoming the head of the Holy Knights, the demon Amtils kicked the goblin from the third floor of a certain hotel to the ground when he was in a bad mood, and later gave this to the goblin as atonement, which was also the only gift the demon gave to the goblin for many years;

A few of the most common glass beads in the hands of street children, without any toys or dolls or the like, goblinsette picked them up in the grass when they were very young, and has been carrying them with them ever since, for fear of being laughed at by others, these glass balls were taken out of the goblin's backpack for the first time.

That's all the treasures of goblins.

The Red Dragon's eyes slowly swept over the objects on the ground, and his face seemed to begin to be covered with a layer of black smoke, while the Demon and the Dark Knight stared blankly at the goblin, they really didn't expect the goblins to keep these things they had sent out so carefully until now; Skeleton Horse Taxis gently shook off the Dark Knight's package and walked over to the goblin, if the skeleton horse still had flesh, he must have begun to lick the goblin's face with his tongue at this moment.

Looking at the red dragon's gloomy expression, Seth carefully untied the small bow and arrow he was carrying behind his back and put it on the ground, and the Dark Knight was surprised to find that the bow and arrow that he had found in Neil Canyon that day seemed to be a child's toy had been wiped unusually clean at the moment, as if it had just been taken out of the arsenal.

Tears began to ooze from the corners of the goblin's eyes: "Mr. Caesar, I know these things are worthless......"

The red dragon leaned his head over the goblin, listening to the goblin's choked voice.

"But here we are...... Mr. Amtils digs the hole hard every day...... Mr. Salas, and Mr. Aqiman, they are ...... I don't want to move...... If they move away, who will help Mr. Caesar keep an eye on the treasure hunters...... And Mr. Amtils' dream ......"

The Dark Knight couldn't take it any longer, and Salas stepped forward, gently placing his sword on the ground, and began to unarm himself and the skeleton Mataxis.

Suddenly, the famous Trist Staff appeared out of thin air in front of everyone, and fell to the ground in front of the red dragon along with the demon's scythe, leaving the red dragon to choose from along with the goblin treasures.

Archmage Aqiman, who was scarred all over his body and even had a large bruise on his face, appeared in front of the dungeon: "Mr. Red Dragon, please take our weapons as collateral, we will definitely pay the rent in two weeks." ”

The mage spoke the words of the Dark Knight and the demon, and the momentum of the head held high emphasized the mage's determination even more, although this momentum and expression appeared on the mage's injured face, which looked very comical.

However, the Red Dragons did not pledge their weapons and equipment of inestimable value, as the mage said, nor did they investigate why the mage who had absconded with the money in the demon's mouth appeared at this time. What the red dragon did was to bow his head and pick for a while, and then pick one out of the goblin glass beads: "I'll come back in two weeks." ”

The flying figure of the red dragon had disappeared into the sky, and the demon Amtils, who was still sitting on the ground, still echoed in his ears the words that the red dragon telepathically said to him before leaving: "This time it's for the sake of the little one's face, if I don't receive 150 gold coins in two weeks, I will clean up your bastard boy instead of your mother." ”

The Dark Knight put the package back on the skeleton horse, and the goblin didn't bother to pack up the things on the ground and pounced on the archmage: "Mr. Achman, you...... Are you alright?"

The archmage gently tugged at the corner of the black robe and wiped the scars on his face: "I found those two dark elves. (To be continued......)