Creaaak.
Ur pushed open the wooden doors. A wave of noise and vulgar chatter crashed over him, and he couldn't help but frown.
Though both the Party Tavern and Fairy Tail Guild were rowdy places, there was a stark difference: the noise in Fairy Tail carried an air of cheerful chaos. The Party Tavern? It was just plain rowdy and crude.
"Welcome!" A voice greeted him almost immediately.
Following the sound, Ur saw a provocatively dressed waitress flashing him a warm smile.
He glanced at her for a second, then looked around the tavern, at all the misshapen mugs of human beings that filled the place.
Suddenly, he realized... this waitress might be the only decent human being in the entire establishment.
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His arrival didn't cause much of a stir.
A few people near the entrance looked up when they heard the waitress's greeting, casually casting a glance in his direction.
Then, their gazes locked on.
As mentioned before, in a town like Stygog, a good-looking face was like a lantern in the dark—impossible to ignore. And in this tavern, that was especially true. Because a pretty face like Ur's came with another implication:
Easy target.
In every sense of the word.
As Ur moved deeper into the tavern, everyone who saw his face paused whatever they were doing. All eyes converged on him, many wearing the same look.
"This'll be fun."
Sure enough, Ur hadn't taken more than a few steps into the tavern before a large, ugly brute rose from the crowd and swaggered right into his path, arms crossed, a mocking grin on his face.
"Hahaha! I knew it! When it comes to bullying newcomers, no one's more eager than Hand!" Someone laughed from the crowd.
"You lose. Pay up!"
"Bah! Lucky bastard! Here!"
More laughter followed the disgruntled voice, rolling through the crowd like a tide of mockery. The betting hadn't even been subtle—everyone had heard it.
But Ur didn't seem to notice or care. He kept walking, head slightly lowered, as if he hadn't seen the brute blocking his way at all.
As the distance between Ur and the thug shortened, the mocking smiles in the crowd only grew more expectant.
Bam!
Ur, still in motion, bumped right into the guy's chest. Only then did he pause, look up just a little, and speak as if genuinely confused.
"…Did you just bump into me?"
"???"
Not only was the crowd stunned. Even Hand, the brute himself, was momentarily thrown off.
"Wait, what?"
"Is this guy… serious?"
The same thought flashed across every spectator's mind.
Then Ur spoke again. His face shifted in an instant. From mild confusion to outraged fury, as if he'd just suffered the gravest injustice imaginable.
"You dare bump into me? You bastard! Are you looking to die?!"
Bang!
With that furious shout, Ur threw a punch straight into the man's stomach.
A sickening thud rang out.
The force of the blow folded Hand in half like a shrimp. He dropped to his knees, clutching his abdomen, choking on pain.
The man doubled over in pain, hands clutching his abdomen, his knees giving way as he collapsed to the floor with a grunt.
The entire tavern froze.
It felt like watching a low-budget stage play where the actors had gone completely off-script.
Nobody expected this.
In their minds, the pretty-boy newcomer should've either stepped aside or begged for mercy. No one imagined he'd be the one to attack first!
"You, you coward! That was a sneak attack—cough cough!" Hand wheezed out as he slowly tried to recover.
"A sneak attack?" Ur snorted.
"How was that a sneak attack?"
"You bumped into me—that's a clear provocation."
"Provoking me means you're asking for a fight."
"And if you're asking for a fight, am I not allowed to hit back?"
"At best, that was self-defense! And you have the nerve to call it a sneak attack?"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Ur's mouth ran like a machine gun, his tone rising with each word. The more he spoke, the angrier he seemed. By the end of it, he completely lost control again and delivered another brutal beating to the stunned brute lying on the floor.
The tavern fell silent.
Everyone watching felt a chill run down their spine.
"…This guy's intense. Hand's toast."
Veterans of Stygog knew better than to judge someone by looks alone. Usually, when people picked fights, they already had a target in mind—someone they were confident they could handle.
But occasionally, someone like Ur would show up. Someone whose appearance completely betrayed their strength, and if you happened to be the unlucky soul who picked that kind of fight...
Well, tough luck.
And today, that unlucky soul… was Hand.
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Ur didn't stop pummeling the guy until his arms were sore.
Finally letting out a breath, he walked over to the bar.
"Just something cheap," he said casually, ordering a drink and striking up small talk with the bartender.
"Hey, not bad, kid!" the bartender chuckled after a few words. He was a friendly sort, and it didn't take long before he and Ur were chatting like old friends. "Which guild are you with?"
"Fairy Tail. Ever heard of it?"
"Fairy Tail!? So you're a mage?" The bartender looked surprised.
"Yup. By the way, have you seen a guy named Jeris lately? Been trying to get ahold of him, but he's gone silent."
Ur deliberately used the name "Jeris," the alias Gu Yi had mentioned, rather than the official name on the bounty, Jericho.
He had a hunch this might be the smarter play.
And sure enough, when the bartender heard the name "Jeris," he didn't react strangely at all.
The bartender showed no change in expression and casually replied, "Jeris? Oh yeah, he skipped town. Heard he stole some kind of treasure a while back. Word is, he fled to the Kiyin Kingdom."
"…He fled the country?" Ur was taken aback. That was not what he'd expected.
"Well, that makes things… complicated."
The mission was turning into more of a headache than he'd signed up for.
After asking a few more questions about Jericho, Ur finally stood up and left the Party Tavern.
Not long after Ur left, three new faces stepped through the tavern doors.
"Hey, hey, check it out! What's with today? Another batch of newbies? And—whoa—two of them are hotties!"
The moment the trio entered, the tavern erupted again.
Meanwhile, Hand was finally recovering, groaning as he sat up. But the instant he heard the word "hotties," his swollen eyes lit up.
"Hold it! Let me handle this one!" he shouted, hobbling to his feet. "No way I'm getting it wrong twice in one day!" Chest puffed out, he swaggered toward the door.
A gust of wind blew the tavern doors wide open. Sunlight poured in, casting long shadows of three figures across the floor.
One man. Two women.
Short golden hair. Flowing crimson hair. A long white ponytail.
Three different hair colors, shining under the sun like a radiant warning flare.