Today, too, the sound of hammering and shouting rang out from every direction in District 1.
Since this was where all the workshops and businesses related to manufacturing were concentrated, there were plenty of craftsmen with their own beliefs and stubborn pride. Arguments between craftsmen and customers, customers and customers, and, very rarely, craftsmen and craftsmen escalating from verbal disputes into fistfights were a common occurrence.
...But arguments between people above Level 3 were relatively rare. There was an unspoken understanding that, if things went wrong, the entire neighborhood could get blown apart, so everyone ought to let things slide in moderation.
Yes, there was.
"You son of a very severe Amazoness profanity! I told you to mark up the price reasonably!"
"Where the fuck does a severe Orario profanity bitch get off running her mouth?! The price went up this fucking much because you brought me garbage materials!"
"Hah!? I brought exactly what your bastard ass told me to bring, so what bullshit are you spouting?! Did you inherit bad hearing from your daddy and bad eyesight from your mommy?!"
"Before worrying about my parents' health, worry about your own fucking eyes and ears! I clearly told you to bring claw-type drop items from the Lower Floors or deeper!"
"I did bring them! Are those eyes of yours just for decoration?!"
"The hell you did. You brought Saber Tiger drop items and now you're trying to scam me? Scam me?!"
The voices of an Amazoness—her dark skin and cotton outfit that exposed practically her entire body made that unmistakable—and a dwarven blacksmith, which should have calmed down with time, only grew louder. Along with them, the unease of the nearby smithies mounted.
"Hey, that Amazoness... isn't she one of the Ishtar Familia's combat prostitutes? I remember her being around Level 3?"
"And that blacksmith is Fire Hammer of the Hephaestus Familia... I remember him being a Level 3 battle smith too..."
"If this goes wrong, we're going to have a big one for the first time in a while."
"Someone go to the Hephaestus or Ganesha Familia and bring someone who can stop them. If they start fighting, this place will be a mess again."
Even as the surrounding workshops whispered among themselves and began closing their doors one by one, the heat of the argument between the two showed no sign of cooling. If anything, it only burned hotter.
"Fine, then! Let's settle this to the death right here, you whore! I'll split your skull in half and cram some common sense into that head of yours!"
"Hmph. Try it if you can, shorty! This won't just be a fight to the death—it'll be a one-sided beating!"
At last, their quarrel escalated to the point of drawing weapons.
The Amazoness raised the spear she had propped up behind her, while the dwarven blacksmith drew a massive double-bladed axe with a gleamingly sharpened edge.
"...Die!"
"You're the one who's dying, bitch!"
The dark-skinned Amazoness's spear flashed forward, and the dwarf's double-bladed axe collided with it in the same instant.
Using her greater reach, the Amazoness drove her spear in with a powerful thrust. The dwarf raised the flat of his axe to block it and deflect it away, then spun half a turn, using the axe's weight and centrifugal force to target her flank.
But perhaps that was only natural between two Level 3s. Rather than retrieve her thrusting spear, she planted it into the ground, used it as a support, and vaulted clean over the dwarf's head.
"You're slow as hell, shorty!"
"Ha! Your strength is so pathetic I can't tell whether that was an attack or a feint! Your muscle stats are as meager as your tits!"
"Grrrraaah!"
In truth, her chest was flat enough that, judging only by that, one might have trouble telling whether she was a man or a woman. It went beyond a matter of taste; it was enough to make one genuinely doubt she was female... a chest comparable even to flat-chested Loki's.
Beginning with the blacksmith's remark, the battle truly began to escalate, and District 1 started filling not with the usual sounds of hammering, but with the sharp ring of metal.
Clang!
Claaang!
Kagagak!
Fortunately, they had only inflicted scratches on each other so far. Yet even though either of them receiving a serious injury could immediately trigger a War Game, neither stopped fighting.
By this point, the feeling that calling off the fight would mean conceding defeat had become too strong.
Simply put, it was a battle of pride. At first, their blood had rushed to their heads and they had tried to kill each other without thinking, but as they fought, they realized it.
If this continued, it really would become a War Game. But they could not stop.
The Amazoness for revenge over her flat chest(?), and the dwarven blacksmith for his pride as a craftsman.
The two had begun a game of chicken.
The price of defeat was merely their pride, but the price of a draw—or a collision—was a War Game between two of Orario's top Familias.
Naturally, their weapons began targeting each other's weapons rather than their bodies, their objective becoming to force a surrender by destroying the other's weapon.
They spoke less and less, until only the sound of their weapons crashing together burst through the air.
Clang!
Claaang!
Kagagak!
Kiiing!
As those sharp sounds echoed in all directions and filled the street, only one thought remained in Jule's mind.
["Please, somebody stop them...!"]
But anyone who could stop them had already fled deep inside their shops long ago. Now, all he could feel were gazes watching the pair from hiding.
Just as the battle gradually reached a stalemate and the heat began to die down...
Clank—
The sound of armor moving could be heard.
Clank—
The distinctive metallic sound of full plate armor, something that had become difficult to find anywhere in Orario.
Clatter—
The spear-wielding Amazoness's face twisted slightly, while the dwarf's brightened.
There was not a single other member of the Ishtar Familia who wore full plate armor, and only one person in this city wore armor heavy enough to make that sound.
Talos [Colossus of Lemnos] of the Hephaestus Familia, who had ranked up to Level 4 roughly three months ago.
A heavily armored knight who had been made vice-captain as though the position had been waiting for him the moment he reached Level 4, announcing that the Hephaestus Familia's fighting strength in Orario had increased.
"Ha, you're finished now! Our vice-captain is here, so now—!"
KWWWWWWAAAAAANG!
Before the dwarven blacksmith could finish speaking, a gigantic axe flew down between the two and embedded itself in the ground.
A tremendous double-bladed axe that dwarfed even the blacksmith's in size.
A huge black double-bladed axe, as large as the fans servants in faraway desert lands waved for their masters.
Seeing the axe that had smashed apart the neatly paved road and buried itself in the ground with a terrifying boom, the two swallowed without letting the other notice.
"Fuck... Do you bastards ever learn any restraint...? I just finished three days of all-nighters doing paperwork and wanted to sleep comfortably in my workshop, but you had to make all that noisy clang, clang, clang..."
"N-No, Vice-Captain, it was this bitch—"
"I don't give a shit whose fault it is. The noise you two were making woke me up just when I'd finally managed to fall asleep, so I'm feeling an extremely, extremely, extremely severe Orario profanity and greeting to one's parents right now, got it?"
"...Gulp."
"So, no more and no less. Each of you gets hit once at full force."
"Eek...!"
The instant he said that, the Amazoness fled at full speed. Fortunately, it seemed that the suit of full armor intended to hit his fellow blacksmith first, because all that followed was the sound of the dwarf squealing like a slaughtered pig and a tremendous crash.
She was running at full speed, yet the goosebumps spreading across her back never ceased, and she never felt the danger leave.
Rather...
Clatter, clatter, clatter.
The sound of metal only drew closer.
She ducked into back alleys, ran across rooftops, and hid somewhere to wait motionlessly.
But that sound simply continued approaching.
Clatter, clatter, clatter.
"Eeeek! Don't come any closer!"
"...Don't make this difficult. Just take one hit. Yeah? I want to sleep too."
Clatter, clatter, clatter.
She even entered Daedalus Street in an attempt to shake him, but somehow he knew the paths better than she did, and she found herself being hunted down instead. She could not escape him.
Clatter, clatter, clatter.
"Now... there's nowhere left to run, right?"
Before she knew it, she had been driven into a dead end.
If it had come to this...!
"...Die, you black bastard!"
She thrust her spear at the visor of his helmet!
But, just as expected... with nothing more than a single step, he easily evaded the attack of the Level 3 Amazoness, then seized her by the neck and stopped her in midair.
"All right. Fire Hammer took one hit, so you'll get along nicely and take one too... take it!"
Even while holding her by the neck, he steadily twisted his waist and drove a punch straight into her stomach...!
"Oooogh, urk!"
The instant the blow struck her abdomen, all strength drained from her stomach, and her brain could no longer maintain control over her body.
Trickle, trickle, trickle.
A yellow puddle had formed beneath her as she hung in the air by her neck in one hand. Her body convulsed violently, and foam spilled from her mouth.
"Don't ever fight on Workshop Street again. Got it?"
"...Y-yesh."
"Tch. I'll leave a potion beside you, so drink it yourself."
Leaning against one wall, Kalusa watched the black armor walk away through hazy eyes.
Gathering the last of her strength, Kalusa forced out a single sentence.
"...Yesh, darling~♥"
The blood of the Amazoness had submitted to overwhelming strength.