CH 554

11-14 minutes

After handing the letter over at the lord’s residence, Rei headed to the guild to report the completion of his request.

In the end, it was decided that Rei would go ahead to Goto after Elk and the rest of Axe of the Thunder God returned to Gilm so they could explain the situation first, which was a bit of a bother for Rei. However……he decided to just leave everything to Min to deal with.

「Gururu~?」

As Set walked alongside Rei, he turned his head over with a cry, as if asking if anything had happened.

「No, just something a little troublesome……I never thought it would be so difficult to have the right person at the right time. Rather than that, have this. It’s a little early, but there are quite a few stalls set up for lunch, so why don’t we eat something?」

「Gururu~!」

Set gave a happy cry as they stopped at various food stalls on the way to the guild.

Rei must have been a good mood after deciding to leave the matter of Elk to Min. He bought a lot more food than usual as he made his way down the street, eating with Set.

「Oh, isn’t it Set. You’re in a good mood today. Here, the skewers are grilled nicely.」

「The sandwiches here are made with a lot of summer ingredients, so it’s all fresh. See, it’s obvious how good it tastes when you see Set want to eat it too, right?」

「Wait, then my……」

『You can’t have hot soup in summer.』

In response to the last person’s words, who was at a stall selling soup, the surrounding stall owners replied in unison.

As all that was going on, Rei and Set bought various food from the stalls, including the soup, before they arrived at the guild.

(In Japan people have food and drinks to bea the heat, but maybe that isn’t the custom here?)

Thinking about that, Rei entered the guild as he saw children and a few adults immediately go over to Set.

As expected, in the two days since he had returned to Gilm, Set’s popularity, which could be described as overly enthusiastic for a while, had calmed back down and it was mostly children who would play with Set now.

Of course, there were a few adults who would be distracted by Set’s cuteness, but few would be as absorbed as Milein.

……And by few, it meant a miniscule number of people.

「Yay, Set-chan. Let’s play!」

「Yeah, I brought some dried meat, would you like to eat it?」

「I brought some fruit!」

Hearing such voices behind him, Rei entered the guild.

Naturally, the busiest morning hours had already passed, so the number of adventurers in the guild wasn’t great. The bar attached to the guild only had a few people drinking at this time.

……The reason why the place wasn’t completely deserted was what made adventurers, adventurers.

Glancing around the guild, Rei headed towards the counters as he didn’t spot anyone he recognised.

Waiting there with a big smile on her face was the Catkin receptionist Kenny as well as Lenora, who had a worried expression on her face.

Of course, there were several other receptionists, but Rei wasn’t close to anyone other than Kenny and Lenora, so he headed straight for their counters.

Kenny looked at another adventure coming over to her counter with a sharp look, but since they were only coming over to accept a request and were not trying to interrupt a conversation between her and Rei, Kenny put up a fake smile as she proceeded to speak with the adventurer.

「Good morning, Rei-san. ……Well, it’s a bit late for the morning. Anyway, I’m glad to hear you returned safely. Considering your ability, I wasn’t worried about you getting hurt when dealing with the bandits, but I did hear they were quite skilled……」

Lenora gave a sigh of relief when she saw the request form on the counter with Daska’s signature.

She knew that Rei was worth his rank……or maybe even more, but having been in charge of Rei since he had come to Gilm, he was still like a younger brother to her, regardless of his ability.

This might have had something to do with the fact that Lenora was the youngest in her family and had no younger siblings.

Lenora being the way she was, she was inevitably worried when she heard that Rei had joined the bandit subjugation force that was hunting for a skilled group of bandits that had been killing and kidnapping everyone they attacked in the vicinity of Gilm and that she had to give out the request..

「Well, I managed somehow.」

「No matter how strong Rei-san is, the other side was also quite skilled. Even though they’re only bandits, they even set up traps. ……I’m glad you’re safe.」

Rei smiled and nodded at Lenora as she gave another sigh in relief.

「Then, I will accept the request form. Regarding the reward, is it fine to put down that you’ve already received it?」

「Yeah. Fortunately, they had hoarded some good stuff. I’ve taken my reward from that.」

「Okay then, please wait a moment. I’ll take care of the request completion.」

Bowing her head slightly, Lenora went to the back of the counters.

For a normal request, Lenora would have been able to approve the completion herself, but as it was an urgent nominated request from Daska, Margrave Rowlocks, the lord of Gilm, it wasn’t a request she could list as completed with her authority.

After seeing Lenora off, Rei took a look around the guild.

As he did that, he felt the gazes that had be on him since he entered the guild move away.

(Well, I’m used to it now.)

Knowing the difference between his appearance and skills, particularly after the mock fight with the rookies the day before, he had a renewed understanding of how people perceived him.

In fact, the gazes were filled with a mix of awe and fear towards him.

「What’s wrong, Rei-kun?」

For that reason, Kenny’s casual approach to him was a great help.

Rei shook his head slightly at Kenny’s question after seeing that the adventurer she had been dealing with had left the guild after accepting a request.

「When I look around the guild, it really feels like I’m back.」

「Is that so? The guild that most adventurers think of are the busy morning and evening periods……however, Rei-kun hardly ever comes to the guild during those times.」

At Kenny’s somewhat teasing words, Rei shrugged his shoulders as he replied.

「When I was in the Labyrinth City Exil, I had been to the guild when it was crowded several times.」

「Heh……that’s rare for Rei-kun.」

「It’s a city with a dungeon after all. It sometimes just happens inevitably, given the time of day.」

Rei talked with Kenny as he recalled the adventurers guild in Exil, which was purely a guild with no bar attached. But, before long, he noticed Lenora coming back as he turned to look at her.

Rei looked a little confused at Lenora’s somewhat unsettled expression.

His role of assisting in the capture of the bandits……or rather, the Bloody Blades mercenary group, could not have been better done.

It was not an exaggeration to say that Rei had done most of th work.

Even Daska, the client, had recognised that.

So why did she have such an unsettled expression on her face?

Kenny seemed to have noticed it as well. She asked Lenora with a strange expression.

「What’s wrong? Did something bad happen?」

「Did something happen you ask……Rei-san, the guild master wants to see you.」

「Marina?」

Hearing Lenora’s words, the figure of Gilm’s guild master, Marina Ariantha, came to his mind.

She was a Dark Elf with silver hair and brown skin. With a long lifespan, she held a sex appeal that ordinary human could not have.

For some reason, she had the hobby of wearing clothes like party dresses and, whenever Rei had met with her, she had always worn a party dress that showed off her chest and back while wrapping around her body as tightly as possible.

Kenny seemed to sense what Rei was thinking of as her mood visibly worsened.

Was it because she knew that her sex appeal, which was her greatest advantage, was beaten by someone superior?

「……Ahem, but why does the guild master want to see me?」

「Why? I was just asked to bring you over. So, if that’s okay, I’ll guide you up Rei-san.」

「Understood.」

Perhaps because she had just seen another adventurer heading for her counter, Kenny quietly withdrew without saying anything more.

Lenora prompted Rei to come around the counter while being a little surprised at her friend’s response.

「This way. I’m sure you already know where the guild master’s office is, Rei-san, but just in case, I will show you there.」

As Lenora told him that, she saw Kenny using her eyes to appeal to her to not leave Rei and the guild master alone together as she dealt with the adventurer.

「Pardon me, guild master. I’ve brought Rei-san.」

「Come on in.」

Hearing the reply from the other side of the door, Lenora opened the door.

The layout of the office didn’t seem to have changed since the last time Rei had visited.

「Thank you for your hard work, you may leave.」

When Marina saw that Lenora and Rei had entered, she looked back down at some documents before speaking.

「Eh, but that is……」

She wasn’t sure how Kenny would respond if she went back down like this. With that thought in mind, Lenora spoke up, but……

From just those words, Marina was able to understand what Lenora……or more accurately, Kenny, was worried about. She spoke with a happy smile as she placed the documents she had been reading onto her desk.

「It’s fine. I won’t try to tempt him.」

Lenora involuntarily lowered her head as Marina responded with a small smile.

It was because she knew that her thoughts had been seen through.

「Um, uh……I’m sorry.」

In the end, she couldn’t argue any further and left the office.

As Rei saw the Lenora leave, he spoke up.

「Don’t bully me too much.」

「Ara~? This is called being cute, you know? ……But take a seat. There’s something I need to tell you.」

Saying that, Marina left her desk as she invited Rei over ot the sofas.

Today, she was wearing a dark green party dress that left her chest and shoulders open.

After working with Vihera, who was just as beautiful as Marina and clothes that seemed to belong to a dancer, Rei was able to sit down across from Marina without looking as embarrassed as before.

Seeing that, Marina gave a small smile, as if noticing something, but she didn’t speak up as she just looked at Rei.

Silence spread through the room, but the two didn’t seem to care about the silence……no, rather, they seemed to enjoy the silence between them.

However, that silence was soon broken.

「Hey, Rei. I heard you’re going to the Bestir Empire, is that true?」

「You have quick ears.」

Marina gave a small sigh at Rei’s response, which indirectly acknowledged her question.

「I’m just asking, but you know what the Bestir Empire thinks about you after the Spring War, right?」

「With regards to that, I don’t think you need to worry too much because I will be following Daska-sama as an escort.」

「That may be true, but that’s just the surface, isn’t it? You don’t know what kind of tricks they will play behind the scenes. In the first place, why do you want to go to the Empire like this?」

Marina’s words led Rei to judge that the Dark Elf in front of him wasn’t fully aware of the details of the situation.

However, it was only natural that there were things that could be said and some that couldn’t, even for Daska.

「Where did you get this information from, Daska-sama?」

「Well, that’s pretty much the case. I got the general gist of things when Daska-sama asked to nominate you for the bandit case.」

Hearing Marina’s response as she shrugged, Rei understood the situation in his mind.

Since Daska would be going to the Bestir Empire, it would take some time to go there and come back. Since that was the case, it was decided that Rei, one of Gilm’s most skilled adventurers, would stay with Daska for a while. Event were probably explained somewhat along those lines.

(Although, as expected, he hasn’t seemed to have said anything about Vihera and Theorem.)

Thinking of that, Rei continued his conversation with Marina.