A Rowdy Run-in With The Rowdy Boys

“....”

“....”

So there I stood in front of Zoe at the receptionist desk, unable to form words after what happened last night. What gotten into me, am I really embarrassed over something small like-

“Come On Love Birds! Say Something Already!”

I turned around to see my fellow guild goers start laughing at my plight, I can’t help but feel pathetic watching the whole guild laugh at me. As if to say that enough, a dry cough resounded from the receptionist desk.

“A-HEM!”

The noise in the guild came to an abrupt halt, everyone began going back to their usual selves. I turned back to face Zoe, only to be greeted by her flushed appearance. I guess she was embarrassed too, sorry Zoe I’ll make this up to you later. I decided to bite the bullet and get my business over with.

“E-rank adventurer Sota reporting in, here’s the requested drop item.”

“*Sigh* It really took you five minutes just to say that one simple sentence.”

“...Y-Yes, sorry for the trouble!”

Finally it’s all over, now let’s find a simple quest to take care of and-

*SLAM*

The door to the guild was slammed open, and you could hear complaints coming from the entrance.

“I swear, why does a man of my caliber have to hunt for someone’s cat? We’re adventurers, where’s the adventure in searching for lost pets?”

“Hehehe, maybe you wouldn’t be so miserable if you were searching for a pussy of a different kind?”

“Huh?”

“D-Don’t mind him boss! And you, don’t irritate the boss anymore than he already is!”

Those guys look like trouble makers, I guess their coming back from a chore quest. What did they expect? Did they think there’d be video game rules, and that they could replay the same quests over and over again. Not to mention these guys are typical guild hall bad guys. The leader of the trio was a biker looking guy with a blond mohawk. His friend who tried messing with him was a lanky guy with spiked hair, he wore brown overalls and wore gauntlets with terrifyingly long claw tips. Then there's the plump one that stopped the gang from fighting, he wore a white shirt with yellow pants and shoes. Wait, is that an octopus tattoo peeking through the bottom of his shirt? The poor guy might need to buy a larger size- Wait a minute? Haven’t I seen these guys before?

“On the bright side at least we’re all-”

The biker guy saw me and our eyes crossed, yeah I’ve seen this guy before. Where did we-

HEY! WHO BUMPED INTO ME!

…Uh-oh, no wonder I assumed I saw this guy. It’s him, the weirdo from my first day here!

“So, it appears we meet again Fresh Meat Bo-”

“MOHAWK MAN! IT’S YOU!”

The trio of men sat there dumbfounded as I called the mohawk guy by the nickname I made for him. Can you blame me, I haven’t been in this world for that long. Immediately the guild erupts into laughter again hearing my nickname for Mister Mohawk. I hope this doesn’t turn into-

“WHO THE HECK ARE YOU CALLING MOHAWK MAN! MY NAME IS ROWDY! R.O.W.D.Y. ROWDY!”

“Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you Mister Rowdy.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it-Is What You Thought I’d Say! You cocky little twerp!”

Oh no, don ‘t tell me this is gonna turn into a fight. Luckily for me though before Rowdy could put his hands on me, an aura of extreme cold emanate from behind me.

“You got a lot of nerve trying to start something right in front of me. So much for losing your nerve.”

“Oh! Hello Zoe, I didn’t notice you there!”

Wow he must really fear Zoe, his sweat is pooling beneath his feet…Wait, that’s sweat right? With his trembling hands, Rowdy handed over the quest papers to Zoe. Zoe looked up from the paper and smirked at him.

“Your payment for this quest has been denied.”

“Huh? But why? WE SPENT A WEEK WASTING TIME ON THIS!”

“Exactly, the deadline for the quest was three days, you spent an extra four days searching. You didn’t even inform the client to ask for an extension, because of that the guild has confiscated the funds you would’ve earned.”

“This is Bull! All this over a lousy c-”

“That cat you’re speaking of belonged to the client’s son, the poor boy could barely sleep at night due to the worries he had over his beloved friend. Due to you dragging your feet, you endangered the welfare of the client's child. We’re lucky that the client didn’t cancel the request and withdraw his funds, what do you have to say for yourselves?”

Rowdy and his cronies were quiet after that, the whole guild hall watched them with disgust. It’s understandable, I feel bad for that poor kid who had to wait all that time. Still, it’s kinda pathetic when you think about it.

“Who wastes a whole week searching for a cat?”

I quit pondering to myself and look up only to see the entire guild hall look at me, why is everyone looking at me. Don’t tell me, did I just think out loud again!

“You little brat, who do you think you’re talking to? I AM ROWDY! I’M A C-RANK ADVENTURER, AND THE LEADER OF THE GROUP THE ROWDY BOYS! SHOW US THE RESPECT WE DESERVE!”

“...heh, Rowdy Boys, what a funny name.”

…Crap, I’ve really done it now.

“WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY PUNK!”

“Oh! S-Sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. It’s just, your team name was a bit funny. What’s next your gonna tell me that you guys have rhyming names.”

“How the heck did you know my name was Howdy!”

I looked puzzled at the lanky guy from Rowdy’s group, so his name is Howdy. I was right their names really do rhyme, which means…

“So your name must be Poutty then!”

I pointed at the plump man in their group, in response the man looked down and sighed.

“My name is Doug, are you gonna make fun of me now too?”

I couldn’t help but feel guilty looking at how my words hurt Doug, but before I could apologize I noticed another wave of laughter from the guild hall. Looks like I made things worse again, but before I could apologize, Rowdy grabbed me by the collar and started shaking me.

“YOU GOT A LOT OF NERVE LITTLE BOY!”

“NO PLEASE! I’M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!”

“LISTEN UP, THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN BULLY SUGAR TITS IS ME! I HOPE YOU’RE PREPARED FOR A RIGHT RUMBLE!”

Rowdy pulled his fist back and I gritted my teeth for the impact, only to be saved at the last second by the sound of something being slammed down. It was Zoe, in her hand was a request form.

“Since you idiots want something to keep yourselves busy, you can try this. It should be easy enough for you to handle.”

“A forest investigation, well that sounds just about right. You see twerp, this is work befitting of a C-rank adventurer. It must be far better than what you’ve been-”

“Oh yeah, I’m E-rank now so I can do more quests too!”

“...huh?”

Rowdy stared at me for a while before motioning his guys to follow him out. Why does he look mad? After he left with his cronies, Zoe tapped me on the shoulder and whispered to me.

“Rowdy is a special case, it usually takes about a week for an F-rank to graduate but it took him far longer to do so.”

“Uh-oh, does that mean I provoked something again?”

“Don’t worry about it, in all honesty that request wasn’t even a real request. I was annoyed so I wrote down something random, and sent them away.”

Isn’t that illegal Zoe? Oh well, at least it worked in my favor. With Rowdy and his boys gone I decided to get back to searching for a request. Still, I can’t shake the feeling that things are about to get worse for some reason.

****

“Hey boss, are you okay?”

There goes Doug again asking me useless junk like always. I look over at Howdy and he has his head up in the clouds like usual. I swear, brats like that twerp piss me off. Being all cutesy and naive, and trying to encroach on my territory. I shouldn’t even be stuck at C-rank, I deserve to be A-rank and nothing less. That’s it, desperate times call for desperate measures.

“You guys, I think it’s time to do it.”

“It? Boss what’re you-”

“Oh, you mean we’re gonna enter the area we found.”

“What! Boss I thought you said we were gonna report the area to the guild. We would make some serious bank off of it, you said.”

Doug is too simple minded, he has to start thinking of the bigger picture, that said.

“Doug, shut up and listen. This is the chance of a life time, when we unearth the treasures of the zone we found we’ll finally be able to break into A-rank territory. Tell me to you really wanna lose this chance.”

“Well, I-”

“I don’t think so, now shut up and follow me. By the time we make it back to town, we’re gonna be legends.”

With this in mind, me and my crew started changing our route. Heading for the area we discovered the other day, an area lined with mushrooms and fungus.

****

BAD LUCK COUNTER: 13