An Old Veteran Charges into the Labyrinth: The Legendary S-Rank Ogre 作：naow
This is Chapter 2 of the English translated version. As a reminder, I am a Japanese author using an AI translation tool, and I cannot read or write English.
I am looking for an author in the English-speaking community to take over this story from Chapter 4! If you like the interactions between Kenneth and Mugai, or the world-building, please feel free to adopt it and write the continuation!
The names of high-ranking adventurers—Rank B and above, especially Rank A and higher—tend to take on a life of their own.
Being hailed as a hero in a city you’ve never even visited is one of the tamer examples. Some are spoken of like absolute villains, rumored to have razed entire towns or driven nations to ruin.
Take Kenneth "The Iron Arm," a Rank A adventurer. Rumor had it that he was banned from the tavern district of a certain city and, in a fit of despair, fled the country. Looking at his good-natured, cheerful, and incredibly soft-hearted demeanor now, it would be hard for anyone to believe such tales.
Yet, in his case, the rumors were mostly true.
The man had a helpless weakness for alcohol, and he was a notoriously terrible drunk. Worse still, because he was a genuinely skilled adventurer, once he started a drunken rampage, absolutely no one could stop him.
If one were to add a footnote to his rumors, it would only be to clarify that he wasn't just banned from a single city's tavern district—he had been barred from the entire nation.
Nowadays, he reflected deeply on his past actions. At least when others were around, he never laid a finger on alcohol. Of course, this self-restraint stems from past reflection, but it was born from the rather pathetic reason of having learned his lesson the hard way.
Sitting in the tavern attached to the Adventurers' Guild, Kenneth tilted a mug filled with water, his mind drifting toward the thought of alcohol. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the movement of the Guild's heavy front doors swinging open.
Not particularly motivated today—having spent the afternoon merely browsing the request boards out of sheer boredom—he turned his listless eyes toward the entrance without any real purpose.
—I'm not expecting anything exciting. It's just gonna be another adventurer anyway, right? Even if one of those S-Rank monsters showed up, I’d just slip out quietly. Besides, this town isn't well-known enough yet.
Contrary to his expectations, the figure emerging from the entrance was a woman clad in the official uniform of a Guild employee. A staff member entering through the front door was a rare sight. Kenneth continued to watch her aimlessly, taking a sip from his mug to wet his throat.
—Was her name Lana, if I remember right? She looks strangely tense...
He dug through his memory. Among the Guild staff, that woman was supposed to be assigned as a floor guard.
Floor guards didn't handle adventurers at the counters. Instead, their job was to keep a watchful eye over the Guild interior and suppress any hot-blooded fools who tried to start a brawl. To restrain rowdy men who possessed a decent amount of actual strength, a floor guard naturally needed to be formidable themselves. As far as Kenneth knew, Lana possessed combat abilities that, at a low estimate, ranked around B—and at worst, scaled up to a Rank A adventurer.
And yet, that very staff member had a face completely stiff with tension.
—Well now, I wonder what kind of nightmare trouble she went and dragged in.
Driven entirely by spectator curiosity, Kenneth casually decided to sit back and watch. But the moment the next silhouette followed her into the room, his amused smirk froze instantly. He rubbed his eyes, stared again, and this time, a cold shiver ran straight down his spine.
There are some people you can never forget. Some people you must never forget.
Back in the day, Kenneth had repeatedly gotten drunk and gone on rampages. Before he knew it, he was not only banned from towns but wanted by the state, on the verge of losing his qualifications as an adventurer entirely.
In a fit of despair, he had raged without a single thought for the consequences. And then came the man who beat him down ruthlessly—no, utterly annihilated him—and went so far as to tell the knights who arrived to arrest him, "Please handle him gently."
Kenneth had suffered severe injuries that left him unable to move properly for half a year. But thanks to that, he gained a strange amount of sympathy, and his punishment was reduced to simple exile from the country as soon as his wounds healed. He still harbored a complicated mix of gratitude and resentment toward that man—a presence he would prefer to never encounter again for the rest of his days.
A brilliant bald head and white eyebrows. Eyes so narrow they looked like thin, smiling threads, making it impossible to tell if they were even open. And a white beard covering half his face.
Clad in a jet-black kinagashi (casual kimono) that didn't quite match his gentle smile.
Judging by appearances alone, no one would ever guess that this... was the man who had become a living legend.
Shifting his gaze swiftly, Kenneth scanned the surrounding adventurers. The vast majority paid no attention to the grim reaper who had just walked through the door, but a few were casting curious glances at the frail-looking old man.
—Fools... you better not be thinking of picking a fight with him. That old man is bad news. Don't you dare do anything stupid.
Kenneth felt his heart race with anxiety. Thinking calmly, the old man was being escorted by a Guild staff member—and a highly capable one at that. If anyone dared to mess with him at this timing, they would be slammed into the floor instantly, and that would be the end of it.
The other adventurers seemed to realize this as well, and none made a move to step forward. Even so, Kenneth kept his attention fixed on the surrounding atmosphere while his eyes tracked the old man.
Coming to the Adventurers' Guild meant the man was transferring his base of operations here. The realization made Kenneth hesitate for a fraction of a second, wondering if he should pack up and find a new town.
Yet, his hips wouldn't lift from the chair.
Though Adashino was a newly established town, the nearby Adashino Dungeon was deep and vast. Exploration had barely progressed, which meant it was the perfect labyrinth for making a massive fortune.
He needed to buy alcohol in bulk, take it deep into the mountains where he wouldn't bother a soul, and drink to his heart's content. To do that, he had to earn coins, no matter what. More than anything, the thought of enduring total sobriety during the journey to another location felt completely unbearable.
—The bottom line is, as long as I don't get stupidly drunk in this town and end up needing that old man to "take care" of me, I'll be fine.
Trying to soothe his own nerves with that thought, he downed the remaining water in his mug.
***
"T-Thank you for waiting. Your base transfer procedure is... complete."
A stiff voice coupled with a strained smile. Lana's hands trembled as she returned the guild card across the counter.
—Good grief. No matter where I go, once my name gets out, it always ends up like this.
Stroking his bald head, Mugai let out a quiet sigh.
He had traveled to this remote, newly built town specifically because he loathed being dragged around by high-profile designated requests. Yet, seeing a Guild staff member reduced to this state by a mere glance at his card made him worry that his judgment might have been severely flawed.
Even so, the paperwork was already done, and traveling to yet another town at this point was far too much hassle. Rumors that a labyrinth deemed one of the largest in the kingdom had been discovered on the frontier had already spread, heavily embellished. Powerful adventurers would undoubtedly show up in this town sooner or later. Once that happened, an old man like him wouldn't stand out much... or so he had reasoned.
—Still, this is a whole lot better than being pushed around by meaningless requests back in the Royal Capital.
As the ceiling lights reflected off his bald head, Mugai brushed away his gloomy thoughts.
A frontier, newly rising town. The place was bustling with adventurers burning with ambition. Beside him stood the young floor guard who had escorted him this far. Though not as paralyzed as the counter receptionist, her face remained taut with tension. Judging by her bearing, she seemed to be a decently capable fighter. As long as this girl was around, the young brats who didn't know his face probably wouldn't pick a fight unthinkingly.
—A bit boring, honestly.
He was well aware of the several gazes locked onto him. Among adventurers, there were plenty of thugs who believed they could do whatever they pleased to anyone they deemed weaker. Skilled Guild staff were stationed precisely to keep those elements in check, and the thugs knew it. Because they knew, no idiot would dare pull a stunt right in front of a floor guard.
Even if some irredeemable fool did try something, they would be pinned down by the staff in a heartbeat, stripped of their adventurer license, thrown out of the Guild, and that would be the end of their story. Once a cocky adventurer ceased to be an adventurer, their ultimate fate was easy to guess. No petty criminal wanted to get caught over something so trivial when they could do as they pleased in the shadows. The rules were certainly succeeding in suppressing the small-time thugs.
However, that didn't mean these slightly clever idiots were actually reformed.
...They couldn't easily commit misdeeds inside the Guild branch or within the town. But out there, the dungeon awaited.
"Well now. Thank you for your help. I think I'll head out for a little stroll and see if I can earn some pocket money."
When he turned around, the staff member blinked in surprise and straightened her posture in a flash. He really wished they would just treat him like any ordinary adventurer on the street, but even when he tried to convey that, it always turned out like this.
"N-No, it's my job, please don't mention it... Pocket money, sir?"
While responding with perfect posture, a question mark practically danced at the end of her sentence—sounding less curious and entirely anxious. This girl, too, had likely heard the countless legends attached to his name.