At night, the pub that specializes in beers, Villa De Edge.

I came here alone.

There are times when I would come here by myself to enjoy in peace because of how busy I am everyday, so once in a while it"s good to come here alone.

Thinking so, I came here by myself.

The usual waitress led me to my usual spot, and I would order the Coffee Beer that I"ve been obsessed with recently.

Thus, I was looking forward to it.

[Hah…..]

Someone sighed at the table beside me.

A pub—–or more like a sigh that you would usually hear in an Izakaya.

[Eh? Well if it isn"t Leon?] (Ryouta)

[Eh? Ah.] (Leon)

The person was surprised when he saw me.

And that person over there was indeed Leon.

He ordered a pretty orthodox menu of beer and yakitori, but there was a puddle of water on the table…..the water that spilled out from a few of the gla.s.ses with 5~6 gla.s.ses being drunk, and the yakitori was never touched as well.

He only drank the beers, it was that sort of circ.u.mstances.

[What"s wrong, having such a long sigh.] (Ryouta)

[Ahh no…..Uhh, I"m thankful for what you did before.] (Leon)

[The tone of your voice doesn"t indicate that you just wanted to thank me, so what really happened?] (Ryouta)

[Eeh…..it"s true that what you did really helped us, the client was extremely satisfied, and he even asked us to continue from now on, that"s what happened.] (Leon)

[Ain"t that great?] (Ryouta)

[About that…..all the merit went into the boss alone.] (Leon)

[Un?] (Ryouta)

[Boss…..Joel-san was the only one who gained the achievement. Well, she is the boss of the family, so I guess it can"t be helped.]

Then Leon continued chugging his beer.

[So the higher ups gained the merits huh….] (Ryouta)

Leon nodded, and I caught a glimpse of his sight.

A boss that does nothing, and only when a project is completed they would pop out of nowhere, claiming that they did everything and getting the praise and achievements all by themselves.

In my previous world, the company that I worked for had a common occurence like this too.

[Well it can"t be help, it"s the boss. But still.] (Leon)

Bam! He strongly slammed the cup on the table.

His face was beetroot red, and his eyes were staring on the ground.

[And I wonder how we"ll gonna handle any future jobs. What"s more, the other families don"t wanna take such a non profit job.] (Leon)

[Aah…..] (Ryouta)

I understand what you mean.

They don"t think of the consequences, whether the job makes a profit or not, without even thinking they just accept it.

And the one doing everything would always be the lower employees…..

Leon who was. .h.i.t by such underlying techniques, came to the pub to vent his feelings, I completely understood how he feels.

I moved to sit beside him, looking at the waitress that was bringing my beer over, I gestured over to ask her to bring it over here.

Afterwards, I asked Leon.

[How about being independent? Instead of being stuck in such a family, isn"t it better to solo it? I"m sure you could still do your job as an adventurer.] (Ryouta)

[I can"t…..Within the family, I"m number 2, if I were to quit now, it"ll cause trouble to my other teammates. The younger members haven"t been taught yet, so they wouldn"t know how to operate in the family.] (Leon)

[If they even depend on you….then the more you should quit.] (Ryouta)

[Un?] (Leon)

[Why not just have all of your teammates leave and be independent?] (Ryouta)

After saying that, Leon"s eyes were wide awake.

There was a ray of light as shown in his eyes.

[Doing that—–Ah, it"s impossible…..] (Leon)

[Why not?] (Ryouta)

[Even if I"m not around, the youngins would be in debt. The debt for their equipments.] (Leon)

[Their equipments debt?] (Ryouta)

He furrowed his eyebrows! As he did that I finally understood.

[They"re a lot of those who come in bringing nothing but themselves, at first they would provide a weapon for them, but it usually breaks immediately. Then they"ll have to stomach their own weapons…..and that"s when they"ll have to borrow money to repair it.] (Leon)

[From Joel?] (Ryouta)

[Not directly from her. Boss would usually be the guarantor(mediator(?) middle man(?)) of the Dungeon a.s.sociation to borrow some cash.] (Leon)

[That Dungeon a.s.sociation…..They even do these kinds of things huh.] (Ryouta)

[Since it"s from the guarantor herself…..to escape from this family, if you don"t pay off all your debts, it"s impossible to leave. Plus we don"t have that kind of money….] (Leon)

Leon sighed further, and drank his beer in one go.

Even though he wants to change job, but because of various reasons he can"t, to summarize it in one sentence, it"ll be [trouble with money].

With a debt on your shoulder, you would live an unsafe life, and your salary would drop from time to time.

In many cases, [money] is always the cause of it.

I slightly thought about it, and asked Leon.

[Follow me.] (Ryouta)

[Eh? W, where to.] (Leon)

[Just come.] (Ryouta)

Without replying Leon, I went ahead.

The location, Dungeon a.s.sociation.

In the middle of the night, plus both me and Leon who smelled like booze came and meet up with Clint.

Inside the Chairman"s office, Clint was asked me while hiding his surprised on top of his smile.

[What"s wrong Satou, coming here so late at night.] (Clint)

[I heard that the Dungeon a.s.sociation lends money to people.] (Ryouta)

[It"s different from just lending money,  It"s a mutual aid for the adventurers. We even offer lower interests than the neigbouring countries. Of course we would like some trust in our adventurers too when lending money to them…..] (Clint)

Clint then looked at both me and Leon simultaneously.

[I don"t think Satou would be in need of some cash right?] (Clint)

[No, not me.] (Ryouta)

I shook my head, and talked about what happened to Leon.

One of Joel Family"s member, he wants to be independent but the debt of his teammates were strangling their necks, which made them unable to leave.

[I see…..that Joel"s….] (Clint)

[That?] (Leon)

[That.] (Clint)

Clint nodded, Leon stared at him, and said.

[Although it"s good to offer bad weapons and armors to newcomers for free, but after it"s broken, the famous saying "You better buy a better equipment then", and she makes you buy more expensive equipments. It"s technically not ripping somebody off, but if given to newcomers, then they"ll usually get stuck by this loop for a really long time.] (Clint)

[Is that so?] (Ryouta)

[…..] (Leon)

Leon heavily nodded.

[Because it could be used for a long time, and it"s not like you"re lying to them…..] (Clint)

[But the malice is there.] (Ryouta)

[…..] (Leon)

Leon kept quit, I"m sure the person himself understands the most.

I turned around and looked at Clint.

I could pay, if there is no choice then I could pay for the extent of breaking the loans for any new adventurers.

Though, I thought of something different.

Looking at Clint, I discussed about the idea that I just came up with.

[Since Joel is the guarantor of this debt, can I instead be the guarantor for them?] (Ryouta)

[Normally it"s impossible.] (Clint)

[Normally?] (Ryouta)

[Yeap.] (Clint)

Clint who immediately replied, one could see that Leon was discouraged which was conveyed through his expressions.

After he heard the word [normally] he was discouraged, but I could read between the lines of Clint.

If it really was impossible, he himself wouldn"t have said [normally] to begin with.

[Can you please do something about that.] (Ryouta)

I bowed my head down.

[Wh, what, you don"t have to go that far—–] (Leon)

[I got it.] (Clint)

Clint said, and Leon was like [Eh?] as he was surprised.

He didn"t know that it was just for show, and why we had to make such a roundabout why to agree to such things.

[…..]

When I saw Leon"s eyes clouded with deep emotions, I was convinced that he could remove any obstacles in his way.

A few days later, rumours circulated throughout Shikuro town that everyone in the ridiculous leader"s family left.

TLN Note: Sorry for the delay on level 1 guy, semesters gonna start again and I’m preparing on some paperwork to be done for my upcoming intern. Plus, Weiss Schwarz is a great game to waste my time and money….