Chapter 75: Arm-wrestling

“Rick! Are you okay?” Alicia asked, worried when she saw me lying on the ground.

My nose throbbed from the impact, and I could feel blood running from my nostril. Even so, I managed to tell her, “I’m fine, Alicia.”

“Oh, my bad,” the man who had opened the door said, looking down at me.

He was tall, with brown hair and a sturdy beard—probably around two meters tall. His body was muscular, like that of a man accustomed to hard physical labor.

I got up from the ground and said, “No, the mistake was mine. I shouldn’t have been standing right at the entrance of someone else’s establishment.”

The man looked Alicia and me over for a moment and then asked, “Hmm, I don’t recall seeing you two around here. Are you travelers?”

“Y-Yes,” I answered.

“If that’s the case, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t go around speaking badly about our town over a small accident. My name is Joseph, the owner of this tavern. I can offer you and the young lady a free dinner as an apology. What do you say?”

Alicia and I broke into wide smiles at the same time. How could we refuse free food when we were this hungry?

“We would be very grateful,” I told him. Then I introduced us. “My name is Richard Forster, and this is Alicia Smith.”

Alicia followed my lead with a simple greeting. “Nice to meet you.”

“Come on in and make yourselves comfortable,” the man said as he walked back into the tavern.

We stepped inside the tavern, lit by oil lamps, and sat down at one of the many empty tables. The tavern was more rustic than Ms. Grace’s, but it was clear that it was well cared for. I could easily picture it as the kind of place where the miners would gather to relax after a hard day’s work.

It wasn’t that the tavern was empty—most of them were men—but they weren’t sitting. Instead, they were gathered around one particular table, watching intently whatever was happening there.

So many men were crowding around that I couldn’t see what was going on, but it looked like some kind of competition. Every now and then, a loud thud echoed against the table, followed by shouts of excitement.

Joseph soon approached our table again with two bowls of soup. “You’re in luck. My wife just made it, so it’s still nice and hot.”

“Huh, thanks,” I said, my eyes still fixed on the table across the tavern.

Joseph noticed where I was looking and said, “Aaah, that. It’s an arm-wrestling competition.”

“Arm-wrestling?”

“That’s right. There used to be more men in the bar, but with the city emptying out, there aren’t many left. Still, we need to blow off some steam somehow, and this is the best way.”

“I see.”

“Are you interested?” he asked with a challenging look. From his point of view, I probably looked like a weakling. If I were a normal human, that would make sense—my body was smaller than his and not nearly as muscular. But since I was Awakened, the situation was different.

Still, depending on an Awakened’s class, comparing strength with a normal human could be an unfair contest. I doubt an Alchemist would be much of a problem, but a class focused on physical strength would make it downright unfair. When I took my stats into account, it almost felt cruel. Even so, I was interested in the competition.

“A little,” I replied.

“Go take a look then! But let me give you a piece of advice,” Joseph said, leaning closer to Alicia and me as if he were sharing a secret. “Don’t compete at that table.”

“Why not?” I asked curiously.

“Normally, I’d encourage you, even if I think you wouldn’t stand much of a chance…” he said bluntly.

“Sorry for not looking like much,” I replied in a sour mood, remembering the door that had slammed into my face earlier.

“But this time is different. You’d just be wasting your time against the new contender,” he finished.

“New contender?”

“That’s right. There’s a new competitor in town. Undefeated so far. As you’d expect from an Awakened.”

“An Awakened?” I asked, dumbfounded. “Why are you even competing against an Awakened? That’s just stupid,” I added bluntly.

Joseph paused for a moment, surprised by my honesty, but then he burst out laughing. “You really don’t hold back, huh? Yeah, it’s stupid. But we didn’t have much of a choice.”

“Now I’m even more confused.”

“We had a monster problem earlier, and there isn’t a single Awakened in our town. She showed up out of nowhere and helped us. We tried to offer her a reward, but she refused. However, she got interested in the arm-wrestling when she saw the guys competing, so I suggested that the prize money would be the reward we intended to give her anyway. This time, she accepted,” he explained with a grin.

My eyes widened when I heard it was a female Awakened. Right after we had agreed to reunite in this city. That was too much of a coincidence. A competition to prove who was the best was exactly the kind of thing she would jump into.

’That’s so like her—refusing a reward for doing a good deed,’ I thought, already imagining who the undefeated champion on the other side of the table might be.

“Rick, maybe it’s—” Alicia began to say, but the scraping of my chair against the floor cut her off. I had already stood up and was heading toward the arm-wrestling table.

I could hear cheers erupting, signaling yet another victory. As I drew closer, I heard a familiar voice, teasing and mischievous.

“Hey, hey! Are you really going to let a woman take the prize home?” the competitor said, still hidden from my view.

I quickened my pace. There was no doubt in my mind—it was her.

I pushed my way through the wall of men surrounding the table, and that’s when I saw it again: a ponytail, red as fire. Its owner was smiling proudly after her latest victory, but she froze the moment she noticed me standing right beside her.

“Rick,” Sarah said, and it didn’t take long for her to abandon the table and wrap me in a tight hug, her smile growing even wider. “Rick, I finally get to see you again!”

“I’m happy to see you again too, Sarah.”

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