My Glasses

Chapter 176 – Glasses boy resigns himself to facing Zett

“Contestants, please assemble! Please assemble!” I heard a loud deep voice raise itself above the noise and the music of the festival.

Seems like it’s about time.

I looked up to the sky and saw that it was high up in the vast blue sky. Before I realized it, it was almost noon.

Guess I eavesdropped conversations for a bit too long, but… Well, it was worth it, as I gathered a lot of information.

I don’t know if any of it will be useful, but I don’t think I wasted my time, as one can never know when this kind of information may come in handy.

… Though honestly, most of it will most likely be worthless to me.

“I’m leaving first.” The therianthrope girl said.

She had been idly talking about something, but as soon as we heard the announcement, with a swift movement, she quickly disappeared into the crowd.

As expected of a therianthrope, her body is as light as her personality… Well, the personality might be more of a her thing than therianthrope thing.

Still, it’s easy to get along with people like her. She didn’t get too close, didn’t talk about heavy things that would bother me, nor did she make any troublesome requests.

Though at the same time, it would be hard to develop a trusting relationship with her because of that.

But well, that doesn’t really matter. I’m sure we’ll meet up again in the Tower of Bryne, so now is not the time to worry about that.

Let’s just go buy some Destroyer Horse skewers from a nearby stall, then head towards the voice that called out to the contestants.

… Oops, I almost forgot. I should take off my glasses for the time being.

******

I bought a skewer and moved onwards, though I felt a bit surprised that I had once lived in such a blurry world where I could hardly see anything.

The horse skewer was using some herbs that I didn’t know as spice, but it was quite good. The surface of the meat may be slightly burnt, but the insides of it are still red. It seems like the key to making this meat tasty is to not overcook it.

But well, while being painfully aware of how great my glasses are, me and my blurry vision went to a place where armed men were gathering.

It seems like we just need to be somewhere around that point… And well, I don’t want to mix up with them, so I’ll watch from a bit further away.

After all, there are dozens of big, strong, and violent-looking people there… They honestly gave off a feeling of people who got too tired of the capital’s adventurer’s guild and decided to make their own. They really felt way too similar to adventurers.

“We’ll win!” One group said.

“No, we will.” Another replied.

“We won’t lose to any of you.” A third group said.

“I made a promise to my sick little sister, so I have to win.” One person said.

“I’m going to win because I can’t cure my lover’s illness without the prize money.” Another person said.

They were making quite a bit of noise, but… Suddenly, they went quiet.

When I tried looking around a bit to see what caused it, I saw a young man with many tattoos on his body.

“What’s wrong? You can keep on talking.” Zett said.

He’s here… He’s finally here.

******

With Zett’s arrival, the already tense area suddenly escalated to a very dangerous mood, and it felt like a fight would break out at any moment.

Zett really was here… Moreover, he was already half-naked, exposing his body’s tattoos.

As in, he is in fighting stance already. He is prepared to attack anyone at any moment.

“Hah! What’s this!? A gathering of losers that I have already beaten before? Is it that fun for losers to band up like that?” Zett taunted.

Wow… He is seriously picking a fight against dozens of armed people… Scary. He’s way too scary. I really don’t want to get involved with him.

“… Hah?” Zett suddenly said.

… Just as our eyes had met.

Our eyes met perchance while he was looking at the hunters near him.

And while the hunter were filled with murderous intent, Zett just had an amused smile on him.

It would have been fine if our eyes had simply met, but… His gaze is still fixed on me.

Damn it! Did the strategy of taking off my glasses to fool him not work…?

“Oh my. We’re meeting again in a truly unusual place, aren’t we?” Zett commented as he approached me.

Ah… He now has that dangerous, irrational look in his eyes…

He was emanating a really heavy pressure now. It made me start sweating a lot, more than when I first hunted a Demon Beast.

My stomach hurts…

Even though he looks more like a thug than even Chace does, Zett seems to have a pretty good sight… I guess he is quite sharp, even if he looks like that.

… Okay, calm down. Let’s talk calmly. Like this is just a normal conversation.

I knew he was coming, after all. I was ready for this.

“What do you mean? Don’t you think you’ve gotten the wrong person? I’m pretty sure I’m not the one you’re looking for.” I told him.

“There’s nobody else that could give out this kind of shameless answer.” Zett replied.

… Did I just dig my own grave?

I never thought I’d dig my grave with my usual calm replies…

“You’re still as much of a playful woman as ever, aren’t you? Should we go at it before the hunt?” Zett asked.

Oh well… I expected that something like this might happen.

“It’s been a long time since that night…” I commented.

Since things are going like this, I have no choice but to try turning the discussion in a direction that is favorable to me.

“Oh, I had plans of meeting up with you again, but I was busy. Did I make you wait?” Zett asked.

No, I wasn’t waiting at all. In fact, I very much hoped you’d never come again. I really wished to stay away from you.

“Like I said that night, if we do it properly, then you’ll just finish it in no time and it won’t be any fun. I think it’s better for us to have some warm-up first.” I replied.

Zett’s gaze was already making me feel like I was in great danger, but now he seemed to be even more insane than before.

“Just how many Gifts do you even have?” Zett suddenly asked.

Ah, now that is no good.

I took a step forward and glared hard at Zett from an extremely close range.

“If you speak any further about it, I’ll talk about your eating thing.” I whispered in his ear.

This was also something I had anticipated.

If Zett discloses any information about my Glasses, then I’ll have no choice but to fight him… Fight with everything I have, to silence him, no matter how desperate and life-threatening that decision might be.

My only chance would be to crush Zett before he can seriously start using Iron Eater. That was the best plan I could come up with.

Because if people find out about my Glasses, then the rest of my life will be impacted by it.

So, now is the time when I need to take hold of my own life. If I don’t move now, it will be too late.

I prepared myself for it, but I really hope that things won’t get to that point…