After choosing to leave, they regretted it.

Before coming in, he thought that either the food here was terrible, the service attitude was poor, or it was simply a shady shop, so there were no customers.

But that's obviously not the case.

The store is old and simply decorated, and the location is a bit remote, but the food is quite good, and the little girl who works as a clerk is also warm and friendly. Why is there no business?

His eyes wandered around and finally stopped at the busy little girl - since there was no problem with the hardware, the reason could only be the personnel.

"……I see."

Sure enough, Aize soon noticed something unusual.

Under the maid's headdress worn by the little girl, in her soft black hair, there was a black horn-like object that was deliberately hidden, faintly visible.

Coupled with her extremely special eye color, Aize can be sure that the other party is a hybrid of human and demon.

This war between humans and demons lasted only ten years, but the intermittent fighting in history has lasted for thousands of years, and the hatred between the two sides has long been engraved in their bones.

However, even in such a hell, there is always love that transcends race, and the result is such mixed-race children - although such beautiful stories are not absolutely non-existent, they are very few and far between.

Large-scale human and slave trade, or certain "atrocities" committed by the armies when both sides occupied each other's towns - most of the mixed-race children were born from such extremely discordant ways.

Therefore, they will not be recognized by either side of the human demon, and even their families are extremely disgusted with them. Most of them will be abandoned at birth.

Ordinary people would naturally avoid shops run by half-human-demon hybrids.

Apart from the little girl, the man who looked like the boss probably wore a hat to hide his most prominent horn-like feature.

However, this hiding seems to have no effect, and the empty store now is the best proof.

The only other guests besides me were two men sitting near the door.

"……Um?"

The moment he looked at them following his thoughts, Aize realized something was wrong.

Both of them are strong and muscular, nearly 1.9 meters tall, and their bodies are as wide as a wall of flesh.

They wore light armor that made them easy to move in, and each of them had a well-made weapon strapped to their waist. Dressed like this, they looked very much like adventurers.

Moreover, the two of them kept looking around the store with ill intentions.

As Aize was observing their every move, one of them raised his head and shouted in a very rude voice:

"Hey, kid, bring us another pot of wine, and make sure it's hot!"

"Good~"

The little girl who had just received Aize responded, and after a busy moment, she quickly walked over with the things the other party wanted.

"Sorry for the wait, please...ah!?"

As if it was premeditated, one of them suddenly kicked the little girl's leg. The girl was caught off guard and fell backwards. The wine jug in her hand hit her body and the hot liquid splashed all over her.

The two people who had done something immoral looked at each other, smiled hideously, and stood up.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong with this kid? Can't he even do something as simple as serving wine?"

The man who had just asked for wine said this, raised his foot, and stepped on the other person's leg mercilessly.

"Look, my boots are all dirty. They're made of red fire lizard skin, and they'll deteriorate if they come into contact with water. How are you going to compensate me?"

The huge size difference immediately pinned the little girl down, making her unable to move. Coupled with the pain from the burns all over her body, she couldn't stop crying.

But even so, she couldn't say anything, and even had to keep apologizing to the abuser:

"Wuwu... I'm sorry, I'm sorry... It's... It's my fault... Wuwu..."

The scene was literally unbearable to watch.

A large crowd was quickly attracted by the riot here, including many guards, but they all watched the violence unfold and no one came out to help.

In addition to being afraid of the size of these two guys, they probably also feel that it is not worth it to attack the mixed-race people. It is even possible that some radical elements will applaud this behavior.

"Guest, guest, you..."

The man behind the counter who looked like the boss and the chef who came out of the kitchen after hearing the commotion were about to do something when they were stopped by another strong man.

"What? Your shop assistant is causing trouble due to lack of discipline, and you won't allow me, your brother, to help you educate him?"

As he said this, he turned and winked at the man who was stepping on the little girl. The latter turned and looked at the crowd, and seemed to think that the crowd was large enough, so he started his next move.

He raised his hand and took off the little girl's headdress, and the horns that served as a symbol of her identity were immediately exposed.

"Wait... give it back to me..."

The little girl wanted to take it back, but her efforts were pushed back by the other party's powerful kick.

Then, the strong man proudly raised the headdress in his hand:

"Tsk tsk tsk, I was wondering why he was so stupid, look at this horn, it turns out he's a bastard!!"

"Wuwuwu... I... am not..."

"How dare you, a bastard, open a shop on human territory? Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, it's disgusting just thinking about it. Are you planning to take this opportunity to sell this city to your ugly compatriots?"

"No... Ugh—no—"

The burns all over her body and the brutal violence made the little girl's face look worse and worse, but at this moment, even her voice became weak.

"...That's enough."

Aize shook his head.

First time

This was such a disgusting scene, even compared with all Aize's experiences in the past two years, it was one of the worst, and he couldn't help but care about it.

He took out the meal money from his pocket and put it on the table, then stood up and walked expressionlessly to the rude man who was stepping on the little girl.

The other party glanced at the skinny pretty boy with displeasure.

"Huh? Who are you talking to? Get out of the way!"

"I'm not in your way, you're the one blocking my way."

“You are looking for death!!!”

A fist as big as a sandbag was raised and smashed down on Aize's head at an extremely fast speed - although they were just thugs, the strength of these two guys was definitely not weak.

However, compared to a former hero, it is still a little bit lacking.

Aize dodged lightly, but tripped slightly, and the lump of flesh immediately lost his balance and fell to the ground with a thud.

The huge force of the punch was fed back to his body, causing him to fall down with blood all over his face and several teeth broken. He was unable to stand up and could only crawl on the ground.

Seeing this, another strong man who was blocking the others immediately rushed forward aggressively:

"What did you do!?"

"Nothing, he fell down by himself."

Aize shrugged expressionlessly, but his obvious provocative attitude made the other party very unhappy. He grabbed Aize's collar and lifted him up.

Then--

"Cough cough - cough cough cough - puff ha -"

Almost at the same time, Aize started coughing violently and even spat out a mouthful of blood, which scared the strong man who was holding him. He couldn't help but let go of him and took two steps back.

Ai Ze, pretending to be seriously injured, knelt on one knee, clutching his chest, wiped the corner of his mouth in a dramatic manner, pointed at the other party, and said in a slurred voice as if he was coughing up blood:

"You...hit me really hard..."

"No, no, no, I didn't—"

"Ahhhhhhh-"

Without waiting for the other party to explain, Aize picked up a stool at hand and hit the other party on the head. The strong man shook his body and collapsed to the ground.

End.

Qualitatively speaking, Aize was definitely trying to scam someone. Considering that there were quite a few guards among the crowd, he wanted to leave as little evidence as possible.

Moreover, the problem has not been solved yet.

Looking at the two people lying on the ground, Aize frowned.

The two adventurers planned and coordinated with each other. They were not simply causing trouble, but were most likely hired.

But why?

Aize couldn't figure it out.

The stunned little girl slowly stood up with the help of the table. She had not yet fully recovered from the violence and stared blankly at Aize who looked frail.

"Big brother, are you... okay?"

"Yeah, it's okay, ahem—bye."

Without stopping, Aize pulled up the two people lying on the ground, threw them into the trash can on the side of the road as if they were some dirty things, and then hurriedly disappeared into the crowd.

Chapter 7 Uninvited Guests

Having temporarily solved his physiological problem (referring to hunger), Aize returned to the bench in the square and lay there to continue drying salted fish... He continued to think about life and review his previous behavior.

The conclusion is that -

“That’s outrageous.”

Aize is not someone who likes to meddle in other people's affairs. Doing this kind of thing is seriously inconsistent with his past style.

Moreover, hiring two not-so-weak adventurers to destroy a store would cost even more than the shabby store itself.

So, this is by no means as simple as hatred of mixed race or commercial competition.

According to his previous style of doing things, the best way is to trick those two guys into a quiet place, control them and use the memory recovery technique to slowly deal with them.

As a result, I lost my temper and simply beat up the other person.

It will not only not solve the problem, but also put yourself in danger.

Considering the usual level of the hero Aize, this is really a bit cheap.

"I feel like even my way of thinking has changed since I stopped being a hero... Is this just an illusion?"

I probably just haven't adapted to the rhythm of leisure yet.

To put it another way, the feeling of beating up someone just because you dislike them is surprisingly good. When I was a hero, I didn't have this opportunity.

"Let's go."

After a short rest, Aize stood up, stretched himself, and began to think about the next arrangements.

"First, I need to find a place to stay, a cheap hotel or something. Then, I need to find a job. I also need to go to the library to look for records related to the witch's curse... Hmm?"

The familiar black color appeared again in the corner of his vision. Aize turned his head and saw the same black cat he had seen before, squatting on the edge of the flower bed in the same posture as before, staring at him quietly.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"……Well?"

The eyes of the man and the cat overlapped, and the scene of them staring at each other in silence in the center of the bustling crowd was inexplicably funny.

Just when Aize wanted to get closer to take a look, a big hand suddenly landed heavily on his shoulder.

Turning around, I saw another middle-aged man. He was tall and strong, wearing quite sophisticated armor. There was a huge burn mark on his face, and he looked very tough.

Behind him, there were several other people, including the two adventurers he had dealt with not long ago.

There was a bloody nose on his face, and he smelled like garbage, which was terrible. He looked at himself with resentment on his face.

The leader who was holding Aize's shoulder raised his hand with a malicious smile and pointed to the dark alley beside him.

"Hey, young man, these two guys of mine need you for something. Can you come over for a moment?"

Aize sighed, nodded, and allowed himself to be escorted there without saying a word.

I expected him to come for revenge, but I didn't expect it to happen so soon.

There must have been someone in the crowd keeping watch, following me all the way here.