CH 552

「We’re leaving soon, keep an eye out for monsters.」

『Yes sir.』

At Ranga’s words, the soldiers of the subjugation force responded in unison.

It was a few hours after the Goblin attack. Luckily, that was the only attack to take place, and the subjugation force welcomed the morning without any further commotion. Finishing a simple breakfast, they left the forest to return to Gilm.

Of course, all the members of the Bloody Blades were with them.

「You want me to deliver this letter?」

「Yes, if you could.」

As Ranga gave out orders, one of the knights handed Rei a letter.

A report on everything that had happened was written inside and Rei, who could fly on Set, was asked to return to Gilm in advance and pass the letter to Daska.

「I’m not really worried for you, but I’ll tell you to take care anyway, just in case.」

「What’s with your way of saying that? Understood, I’ll make sure it gets to Daska-sama properly, you can leave it to me.」

「That’s true. I might have felt a bit anxious leaving it to you, but it looks like it’s in safe hands.」

「I did tell you.」

Exchanging light words with the knight, Rei smiled as he waved towards Ranga, who raised in hand in greeting, before getting on Set’s back.

The knight looked up at Set from the ground as Set ran up into the sky. He had a somewhat envious expression on his face.

For knights, the only way to fly was to become a Dragon Knight. Rei, who could fly as much as he wanted on Set, was an enviable existence for the knights.

In addition, the knight had admired Dragon Knights greatly since he was small, which probably contributed to his envy of Rei.

(One day, I will too……)

Murmuring to himself, as he thought of his dream to become a Dragon Knight in his heart, he came back to his senses when a fellow knight called out to him.

Now was not the time to be lost in his dreams, it was more important to bring the captured Bloody Blades back to Gilm.

「……Alright.」

Talking to himself, the knight returned to Ranga and his fellow knights.

Flying over the highway, Rei could see a group of nearly 20 people below him.

「It can’t possibly be bandits again, right?」

As he thought of that and looked down, he saw someone waving their hands towards him.

Rei immediately knew who the visibly excited person was.

Milein, the leader of Scorching Wind, was probably the highest ranking person in terms of affection for Set.

「Oh……I see.」

Come to think of it, Milein had told him that there would be an outing to hunt down the remaining Goblins.

「Guru~?」

When Rei had been testing the skills of the rookies, Set had been lying down outside the guild, playing around with adventurers and residents, so he gave a confused cry.

Rei spoke to Set with a wry smile while gently stroking Set’s neck.

「No, their goal is probably the Goblins we killed last night. ……I’m sure there are still survivors though, since they are Goblins.」

Rei asked Set to land, since he couldn’t really ignore them now that they had been seen.

「Gururururu~!」

With a loud cry, Set flapped his wings as he descended.

Seeing Set come down, Milein became incredibly excited. Sulunin let out a sigh while Ekril had a wry smile.

Among the other adventurers who were also participating in the hunt for the Goblin remnants, those who had spent more than a year in Gilm all smiled at Rei and Set, some even waved at them.

Contrary to the veteran adventurers, about half of the rookies who had been sent out for the Goblin subjugation as combat training had only recently come to Gilm. They looked at Set come down with shock, fear, and awe.

「It’s fine, Set is cute, quiet, and friendly.」

「……I heard that he is quite ferocious when hunting monsters.」

「Hey, I’m calming them down, so don’t say any unnecessary things.」

「Set-chan is so cute, isn’t he? I want a tamed monster like that as well.」

「You could use summoning magic?」

「Yeah, calm down. That Griffon is a well known friendly monster in Gilm. As long as you don’t try to mess with him, you’ll be fine.」

「Some company owner tried to get his hands on Set and was ultimately ruined.」

「I just told you not to say anything unnecessary!」

As the group of adventurers conversed like that, Set finally landed as he took several steps forward.

「Set-chan~!」

Rei ignored Milein, who jumped out of the group of adventurers and straight towards Set, and headed towards Sulunin and the others.

Seeing several people head over to Set as well, following after Milein, Rei raised his hand in greeting.

「Is this the Goblin remnants subjugation squad?」

「Yeah. What have you been up to since Daska-sama called for you yesterday?」

「Exterminating bandits. So, since that has finished, I was on my way to report back in Gilm……」

Sulunin asked Rei after seeing a strange expression on his face, as if struggling over something.

「Is anything wrong?」

「Yeah……no, that is……after capturing the bandits, we spent the night in the forest……but, we were attacked by a group of Goblins.」

「Huh.」

Ekril had been looking at Milein play with Set while Grusso, Courage, and Conomir were very confused by completely different Milein they were seeing now compared to yesterday. However, they and the rest of the adventurers all turned their attention to Rei at his words.

Receiving such gazes, Rei spoke up with a slightly uncomfortable expression on his face.

「So, of course, it wasn’t just me and Set, the rest of the bandit subjugation squad was there as well……but since it was just Goblins, we overwhelmed them.」

「Ahh……well, we can’t really tell you to not fight back after being attacked.」

Although Sulunin responded like that, he couldn’t stop the feeling that they were just wasting their time from spreading.

「Everyone, don’t forget the high fertility rate of Goblins. It’s true that Rei-san and the others might have killed a certain number of them yesterday, but it’s too early to say that all the Goblins that escaped the settlement have been killed.」

「……Well, that’s true. If you take your eyes off them for a while, they’ll multiply in no time.」

A man in his late 20s, who seemed to be part of the group of adventurers serving as guardians, spoke out.

With those words, the rookies seemed to understand that they weren’t going to be wasting their time as their morale rose back up.

「I definitely can’t say we killed all of them. ……Ah, that’s right. There was a Hobgoblin leading the Goblins that escaped yesterday, so just keep in mind that there might be more.」

The adventurers, including Sulunin, showed slight expressions of surprise when Rei spoke of the Hobgoblin that had been cut down in a single strike by Everogi.

They must have judged that a group of Goblins led by a Hobgoblin would be troublesome to deal with.

In reality, the Hobgoblin that Everogi had killed had been the only one to safe escape the settlement……but Rei had no way of knowing htat.

However, thanks to that, the rookies’ guard, which had loosened, tightened back up. The veteran adventurers, including Sulunin, had no complaints about that.

「Understood, thanks for your advice. ……Did you all hear that? There’s a possibility that the enemies aren’t just Goblins but also Hobgoblins. Don’t let your guard down.」

Rei, who had been watching Sulunin tell that to the rest of the Goblin subjugation force, suddenly turned to look at Milein hugging Set, who had a confused expression on his face.

(Looking at her, would anyone think that Milein is the leader of Scorching Wind?)

She’s probably fine. With a wry smile on his face as he thought of that, Rei spoke to Sulunin.

「Then, I’ll be heading off……is that okay?」

「Oh, yes. Thank you for the information. It goes without saying, Rei-san, but take care.」

「Will do, there’s not likely to be anyone that can do anything to us in the air though. The only way would be a magic or bow attack from the ground……if there was anyone like that thought, your party leader would probably cut them down.」

「Ah-Ahahaahah. It’s hard to deny that something like that would happen.」

Ekril gave a silent nod beside Sulunin, who replied with a wry smile.

After exchanging smiles, Rei went back over to Set.

「Hey, Milein. You have a job to do, don’t you?」

「Ehh……I know, I know, but……」

Milein seemed distressed as she hugged Set’s soft, feathered, neck…….before eventually, slowly leaving Set.

「Guru~?」

Are you leaving already? Set seemed to say as he tilted his head and looked at Milein with round eyes. Milein’s fingers shook, as if she had withdrawal symptoms……and, as if to cut away her feelings, she grasped her hand tightly as she averted her gaze.

「Sorry, Set-chan. I have to get back to work now, so if you see me in Gilm again, please play with me.」

「Gurururu~」

Set looked at the ground as he gave a sad cry.

Milein seemed to decide that continuing to see Set like that would be unbearable for her and immediately ran away.

All why shedding tears from her eyes.

(……For now, it seems her self awareness as an adventurer has prevailed over her affection for Set, huh.)

Rei thought to himself as he saw Milein run off.

「Have you had enough fun with Milein?」

「Guru~!」

I wanted to play a little more, Set seemed to say with a cry as Rei scratched his head.

Set found it a lot of fun to hang out with someone who like him.

However, Rei apologised to Set.

「I’m sorry, Set. Right now, we have to go back to Gilm and let Daska know about the Bloody Blades. Besides, Milein and the others have to go hunt the remaining Goblins.」

「Gurururu~……」

Hearing Rei’s explanation, Set looked down regretfully.

It was no wonder. After all, when they returned to Gilm, they would head off to the Bestir Empire shortly after, so he would be away for a while.

「Hey, I’ll be with you, won’t I? I’ll buy you some grilled skewers when we get back to Gilm.」

「……Guru~!」

Set hesitated for a few second after hearing Rei’s words, but eventually lowered himself to let Rei get on his back.

「Sorry about this.」

「Set-chan, see you later!」

Set stood up with Rei on his back as Milein called out to him from a distance.

「Gurururu~!」

Giving a cry in response to Milein, Set ran up into the sky after a few steps as he flapped his wings.

At the same time, when Rei looked at the ground, he could see Sulunin grabbing Milein by the collar and pulling her back, as if she were a mother being separated from her child.

Sometime after parting with Milein and the others, the walls of Gilm came into Rei’s line of sight.

「It seems like we made it back without any issues.」

「Guru~!」

Of course, I’m here! Set seemed to say with a cry as Rei stroked his neck with a smile.

In fact, they had seen several flying monsters, but they all quickly retreated when they became aware of Set’s presence.

They must have understood they stood no chance of winning in a fight.

「That’s right, with you, we don’t need to worry about that.」

AS Rei said that, Set flapped his wings and landed on the ground.

He landed away from the main gate and headed towards the main gate, which was quite crowded since it was still early in the morning,

Unusually, most of the people at the gate had seen Set before, so they made their way to the lord’s residence after completing all the procedures without much trouble.