CH 1

"Gaile. I'm sorry, but our contract is terminated. As of today, you are dismissed from the party."

"...Huh? What?"

After finishing Dungeon Try, Gaile arrived at a corner of the inn's tavern for a meeting, where the party leader, Cash, informed him of that.

"Um... Well..."

Gaile couldn't keep up with his thoughts for a moment and couldn't find the words to say. Seeing that, Cash let out an intentionally exaggerated sigh and spoke in a loud voice that echoed throughout the tavern.

"Don't you understand? You're fired. Fired!!"

"---!"

Gaile's vision went completely white in the face of those words thrust at him once again. He could feel his heart pounding loudly, jumping.

Something... He had to say something...

"Look at this face! Hahaha!"

Melissa, a female light warrior, burst into laughter. Just a plain slut.

"My, my, what a face. Never thought you'd get fired, did you?"

Norris, a black magician with a smirk hidden behind his glasses. Just a conniving glasses-wearing guy.

"...Haven't you finished your business already? Can't you just disappear from my sight?"

Luke, a thief with a tilted stance and a handsome aura, sporting prominent buck teeth. Just a buck-toothed alcoholic.

"See? Everyone's saying the same thing. Read the atmosphere for once."

...And our esteemed leader, the Holy Knight Cash. Just a scumbag.

However, the timing of this statement seemed too calculated. It seemed that they already knew, as they remained calm as if they had known all along.

No, not as if they knew. They must have known.

"W-Wait a minute!! S-Suddenly telling me this, I don't even understand what's going on!"

"Suddenly, you say?"

Cash's gaze sharpened.

"You... Don't you understand why you're getting fired?"

"Huh...? Well..."

Gaile desperately tried to recall the cause, but he couldn't come up with anything.

For about three years since they formed the party, Gaile had always believed that he was indispensable to the group, even from the early low ranks.

However...

"Sigh... He really has no clue. I'm amazed by this guy's dullness," Cash shook his head with exasperation.

The others nodded in agreement.

"Listen here. I'll tell you since it's come to this... Your class is a [Curse Artificer], but do you understand what that means? It's the worst support class out there. The only thing you can do is use disposable curse artifacts to debuff monsters. You're useless for anything else. That's why you're the lowest level among us!"

"Well, there's a reason for that..." Gaile tried to explain.

"And to top it off, your curses are so powerful that if anyone touches them carelessly, we get cursed too!"

W-Well... That's to be expected since they're curse artifacts!

No, he shouldn't say that.

"...I know that being a Curse Artificer is a subpar class! But with my debuff items, I could weaken any monster and make hunting easier, right? A-And, I can weaken curses to some extent! With my talismans and a proper priest, we can even perform [Curse Dispel]..."

"Hah! That's fundamentally wrong! Listen up. We're already at the S-rank. We don't need to rely on cheap debuffs. Those ordinary monsters are nothing to us! And besides, the price of your disposable curse artifacts... It's outrageous!"

"W-Wait! Not all of them are disposable! T-This necklace, for example. It's a passive curse artifact designed to affect only monsters..."

As Gaile said that, he raised the eerie skull necklace hanging around his neck.

"Ugh!"

"D-Don't bring that out!"

"It's disgusting!"

Immediately, the party members expressed their disgust and disapproval.

"Ugh... Your nerve to casually wear something like that is questionable," Cash said, averting his gaze.

...Indeed, the necklace had a terrifying appearance.

It was an equipment-type curse artifact, and while wearing it would curse the wearer, it posed no problem for Gaile, a Curse Artificer.

It was made by simmering the lower jaw of a lich, the gallbladder of a ghoul, and the cerebral fluid of a dragon zombie, mixed with various curse artifact materials. It was called the "Curse of the Darkbone King," a debuff item that caused various status ailments to any monster within the range of the curse, except for undead creatures.

By the way, if someone other than a Curse Artificer wore it, they would be afflicted with the "Madness" debuff.

"You just don't get it! We can manage perfectly fine without your curse artifacts. Besides..."

Snap!

Cash snapped his fingers, and a woman who seemed to have been sitting at the bar counter appeared.

"She's Maura, a support mage who handles both debuffs and buffs, as you know."

"I'm Maura. Nice to meet you."

Maura, her mouth covered by a hood, was a beautiful woman with a well-proportioned figure.

As Gaile watched the party members exchanging greetings with her, it seemed that they had already met long before. Gaile was the only one who didn't know.

"...Do you understand now? We don't need someone like you anymore—a person who doesn't directly engage in combat and only throws curse artifacts at monsters or uses dubious rituals to apply debuffs whose effects are uncertain. That's what we don't need," Cash said.

"Ca-Cash...!"

Being replaced.

That was the blatant reality shown to Gaile. He couldn't say anything in response and could only hang his head.

Being fired in front of the public eye of the tavern was not only sad and embarrassing...

Above all, it was a shock to be regarded that way by the members of the party he had been working together with, giving his all, as a member of the "Wolfpack of the Fang Garo" since they started as E-rank adventurers, and had recently been promoted to S-rank.

Despite contributing behind the scenes, enhancing the party's capabilities by weakening curses and embedding "cursed artifacts" into everyone's weapons...

He had thought he was contributing in his own way...

It seemed that no one had noticed Gaile's efforts... He was the only one who had mistakenly believed that he was contributing. A sense of despair engulfed him, as if the ground beneath his feet was crumbling. Even tears of frustration welled up in his eyes.

"H-Hey! G-Give me another chance...! Give me another chance on the next adventure! I-I'll contribute more, I promise," Gaile pleaded.

If they thought he was just useless, only capable of applying debuffs with curse artifacts, he would show them that he could do much more. He had prepared many hidden techniques, which he hadn't used to maintain the party's coordination.

"C-Come on, understand? Why did you approach Maura?" Cash firmly stated.

It seemed that the decision had already been made, and there was no way to overturn it...

Gaile looked at the other three party members, placing his last hope in them, but... their eyes were cold.

"No matter how much you say, it won't change anything. I'm starving more than anything else," said Melissa, the light warrior who dismissed their long-standing relationship so easily, rubbing her exposed belly over her scantily clad light armor to emphasize her hunger.

"It's troublesome, isn't it? A man who can't read the atmosphere will be disliked wherever he goes," Norris, the black mage, played with his monocle.

"To be honest, we were planning to fire you a long time ago. You should be grateful instead," said Luke, the thief, with a condescending tone at the very end.

"How about it? Do you understand now? I'll cover today's lodging expenses, so could you leave here first thing tomorrow morning?" Cash coldly pushed him away.

"H-Hey... Is there really no way?"

"No."

"A-Aren't you regretting this?"

"No."

Gaile clenched his fist tightly, feeling a surge of power.

"Oh, even if you say later that it was a mistake... I won't have anything to do with it, okay?!"

"Enough already, aren't you persistent? Go back to your room and pack your things. We're having Maura's welcome party soon."

Gaile's words, sounding like sour grapes, were dismissed with a single word, and he slumped his shoulders, feeling dejected. It seemed that no matter what he said, it wouldn't make a difference...

"...I won't say anything bad. Give up being an adventurer and focus on being a curse item merchant instead. If you deal with shady people, they'll come flocking to buy your tasteless necklace. Oh, and sorry, but... we've deducted the cost of the materials for the curse items you used from your wages this month. In other words, you won't be receiving any salary. And of course, there won't be any severance pay for your dismissal either."

Rather, I almost want compensation from you," Cash spat out.

"Hehehe! That's right, with that sense of yours, there are people who would like it, you know? Well, bye bye, Gaile."

"Hahahaha! First, sell your trash... Oops, I mean, your curse items at a stall. I'll help you with the promotion... 'Destructive Sense' of a curse item user, how intriguing."

"Heh. Well, see ya. I didn't dislike you, you know."

No one made an effort to stop them, not even the newcomer, Maura, who avoided eye contact and kept her distance. And with that, they easily announced Gaile's dismissal, and each of them placed their orders for drinks and food with the innkeeper, turning their backs to Gaile.

Of course, Gaile's portion was not on the menu.

"I see... Got it. Thank you for everything."

It was an incredibly anticlimactic ending.

Confused and saddened by the speed of it all, Gaile couldn't help but feel a profound sense of emptiness...

If that's the attitude they're going to have, then so be it. There are no lingering attachments left...
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