「Fufu~, apologies for calling you over so suddenly. I wanted to borrow your strength for something.」

Seeing her gracious smile, Rei was breathless for a moment.

Pointed ears and brown skin. Her silver hair flowed down her back. She was wearing something like an evening dress that you would wear to a party. Because she seemed to be working on some documents on the desk, she was seated in a lower position than Rei. The deep valley created by her large breasts accentuated itself greatly. Her smooth brown skin and seemingly soft twin hills would draw the gazes of men like insects to honey. Because she was a Dark Elf, Rei couldn’t tell her exact age, comparing her appearance to a human’s, she looked like a woman in her mid twenties.

「-!?」

However, Rei only looked at her enchanting valley for a moment before the figure of Elena looking at him with a cold smile appeared in his mind. He shook his head before diverting his gaze from her cleavage.

The Dark Elf woman held a surprised expression for a moment after sensing Rei’s mighty magic power, but disappeared as she spoke with a smile.

「How do you do. I’ve heard various things about you from your reputation. I am the guild master of Gilm’s adventurers guild, Marina Ariansa. As you have noticed, I’m a Dark Elf. Nice to meet you.」

After introducing herself, Rei finally turned towards the face of the guild master, Marina.

Her face was well proportioned and Rei could feel a sense of deep wisdom from her eyes, that was a characteristic of Elves.

Dark Elves.The ancestors of the Dark Elves and Elves were originally the same. However, the Dark Elves specialised more in combat. As a result, it was said that they lost the blessing from their spirits and skin and hair changed to brown and silver, compared to Elves who had whiter skin and golden hair.

Nevertheless, the relationship between the Elves and Dark Elves wasn’t bad. They had both existed since antiquity. Although they had fought against each other during the time that Zepairu was still alive, in the present time, those grudges had already disappeared. No, compared to the relationship between Humans and Elves, the relationship between Elves and Dark Elves could be considered more intimate due to their similar lifespan.

Seeing Marina smile at him, a Dark Elf with significantly longer lifespan and higher magic power compared to a Human, Rei spoke up.

「I’m Rei. I’m registered as D rank adventurer at the guild here. ……So, to get to the point, what business do you have with me?」

As expected of a guild master, as the head of an organisation, Rei didn’t talk to her in his usual casual tone but with more formal speech.

The moment she heard Rei’s words, the smile that was on Marina’s lips disappeared and she turned to Lenora.

「Lenora, thanks for bringing him here. Downstairs will be busy in a lot of ways for now, please take care of that.」
「I understand. Then, excuse me.」

Lenora gave a small nod at Marina’s words before heading back down.

When the door closed, Marina directed her dark green eyes towards Rei before speaking.

「The guild can keep in contact with other guilds using magic items, are you aware of this?」
「Yes. When I came to this city, I heard about it during the explanation on bounties.」
「In that case, I can skip forward. Actually, we received an aid request from the guild of another city. It’s an urgent request.」
「……Is the city close to Gilm?」

The first thought that came to Rei’s mind was that the city had been attacked by a large group of monster, monsters like the Orc settlement that he had fought against previously in the raid against it. They might have asked Gilm to dispatch adventurers because on the frontier the threat of monsters would be near to them as well.

However, at Rei’s question, Marina shook her head slightly.

「No, it’s far away. Even if a seasoned adventurer rushed to travel the distance, it would still take 10 days to get there.」
「……Why would a city so far away ask for aid from here?」
「Yes. In addition to that, the lord of the city that the guild is in belongs to the Nobles Faction. Margrave Rowlocks is a central figure of the Neutral Faction, normally the guild there wouldn’t ask us for aid first.」

At Marina’s words, Rei’s cheeks twitched.

According to an explanation he hard heard previously, the guild should have been an independent power group.

「I heard that the guild was an organisation independent of the country.」

Guessing that he would ask that question, Marina replied without any confusion.

「That’s right. There are no issues between the guilds themselves……that said, there are some special cases. But the circumstances are a bit different this time. Either way, it’s a request for aid from deputy feudal lord.」
「……In that case, is that okay? That it is the deputy lord and not the lord himself?」
「I heard that they’ve been driven into a corner. Of course, I’ve given instructions to contact Margrave Rowlocks as soon as possible to get his response.」
「It’s gotten to such a point for them? ……So. May I ask what is going on?」
「Of course. Or rather, if I don’t tell you, you won’t be able to help us. Your cooperation is absolutely required for this case. Also, you don’t have to force yourself to use polite speech. Though I don’t know about other guild masters, I don’t mind so please speak as you usually do.」
「…….Thanks. In that case, I will do that.」

After all, he had been forcing himself to use polite speech. He nodded in relief.

While looking at Rei, Marina took out a small bottle about 5cm tall. There was some sort of powder inside it.

「This is?」
「It’s a powder made from a medicinal herb called Aurani grass. It’s an ingredient used in medicine for some infectious illnesses, but it has a characteristic of only growing in places high in magic power.」
「……Infectious illnesses?」
「Yes, infectious illnesses. Originally, it’s an illness that should only occur in warm and humid areas where you would never have to wear long sleeved clothes, Magic Fever. However, it seems to have spread rapidly in a city called Baar even though it’s nearing winter.」
「Magic Fever?」

Hearing those words, Rei searched Zeipairu’s knowledge.

Fortunately, Magic Fever seemed to be an illness that had existed since Zepairu’s time, so it wasn’t hard to get a general outline.

It was one of the so-called feverish illnesses, an illness that would affect people below a certain level of magic power. Conversely, if the person had a certain amount of magic power, they would’t need to worry about it.

However, the level of magic power needed to ignore it varied depending on the surrounding environment. Even if it was safe it one area, it could potentially be highly infectious in others. It was basically an illness that was only seen in tropical areas.

After being infected, the patient’s magic power would gradually decrease over time. It was an illness with a very high mortality rate if the patient’s magic power ran out. It seems the symptom was discovered when people died after trying to use magic power to resist it.

There was a medicinal cure for it that could be made using a medicinal herb called Aurani grass. If the medicine was used, patients would recover in a night.

The incubation period of the illness was about 1 week. If no symptoms showed after that period of time, it meant that the magic power of the patient had been able to suppress it.

Rei grasped the contents from Zepairu’s knowledge and raise his eyebrows.

「Surely in this season……rather, it would normally be impossible for Magic Fever to appear anywhere in this area.」
「Yes. That’s the whole reason for the aid request. It can’t be helped but Baar didn’t keep a stock of Aurani grass.」
「However, it’s also the reason why Magic Fever spread so rapidly.」
「Yes. And, the closest area to Baar with a high concentration of magic power is Gilm.」
「The Forest of Monsters, is it.」

When Rei heard Marina’s words, he remembered the plains he had gone to to hunt Gamelions.

According to Hasta, the grassland didn’t wither even in winter due to the influence from the Forest of Monsters.

「Correct. That is the reason why we fortunately have a certain stock of Aurani grass powder in this city. It is pretty much used only for medicine against Magic Fever, but still has its uses in alchemy. That’s about it.」

Looking at the small bottle Marina held, Rei gave a small nod. It was also because he realised the reason Marina, the guild master, had invited him hear.

「I see, so that’s why you asked me to bring Set along. ……By any chance, do you want me to bring the Aurani grass powder to the city of Baar?」
「That is correct. Fortunately, you have an item box so you don’t need to worry about carrying a lot of baggage. Furthermore, because you have a Griffon as a tamed beast, its speed will also be much faster than anyone else in this city.」
「I want to ask a question. Is this a nominated request?」
「Yes, of course.」
「If so, can I expect a reward?」

At Rei’s words, Marina looked towards the office walls as if she had expect that question.

At the end of her gaze was a single spear that was decorating the wall.

Part of the handle and blade were dark green. It was a spear that was dyed in a colour that would be best described as dark green.

「……It’s not just an ordinary spear is it?」

Although Rei couldn’t sense magic power, he still felt an attraction towards the spear. But what was strange was that he didn’t notice it at all until Marina looked at it.

At Rei’s pondering, Marina nodded with a thin smile.

「Correct. That spear is a magic item. It’s also quite powerful. Rei, I heard that when you normally fight, you use a Scythe that is also a magic item. But you also use spears for long distance throwing don’t you? I think such a spear would go well with that?」
「Specifically?」
「Wait a moment. I think it would be faster to show you that to explain it.」

Getting up from her chair, she moved to the wall and picked up the spear.

While doing that, the evening dress that Marina wore boldly exposed her back, asserting the sexy curves of her brown skin.

Rei was slightly troubled over where to look, but Marina reached out for the spear regardless of it.

Picking up the spear with her hand, she swung it lightly as if she was holding something that didn’t weigh much.

Vum~, the sound of the air being split proved that the spear actually had a reasonable amount of weight to it.

(If it were a normal spear, it should weigh about 5kg……as expected of a Dark Elves that specialise in combat. I never thought she’d be able to swing a spear like that with her thin arms.)

While admiring her in his mind, he watched Marina’s actions.

「Ready? Take a good look.」

Saying that, she held the spear with both hands and made a quick thrust while using magic power.

The speed of the thrust itself wasn’t that fast, but that was because she was trying to show the effect of the spear to Rei.

「……What?」

Rei unintentionally raised his voice when he saw the tip of the spear.

At the end of his gaze, several sharp thorns stretched out from the spear tip, piercing through the air. They moved about in the air for several seconds before disappearing as if it had all been a hallucination.

At Rei’s surprised expression, Marina explained the effect of the spear with a small smile.

「The name of this magic item is Thorns Spear. As you can see, when you supply it magic power, it has the ability to grow thorns from the tip of the spear to restrict your enemies. This time, I showed it in an easy to understand way. Usually it’s activated after the tip has been stabbed into something in order to restrain the enemy with thorns. Please note that the thorns can only be used for restraint. For example, even if you produce thorns after stabbing the tip into an enemy, you cannot use the thorns to attack the insides of the enemy. ……However, it is possible to hurt their skin while they are restrained by the thorns.」
「Is it only possible to produce the thorns while you are holding onto the spear? For example, it is possible to throw the spear and make the thorns grasp onto the enemy after it hits them?」
「Of course that can be done. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a good reward for you would it? The amount of magic power supplied to the spear will change the time when the thorns appear, you will get used to it after using it.」

At Marina’s answer, Rei smiled.

To restrain an opponent by throwing a spear at them and tangling them in thorns, for Rei, it was a pretty good magic item.

(It certainly is more than enough for a magic item to have this effect. If I have over a certain level of magic power, it seems I won’t contract Magic Fever, so I’m safe from that as well. ……No, maybe I should ask that first.)

After looking at the Thorns Spear, Rei turned to look back at Marina again.

「Although Magic Fever has spread rapidly in the city of Baar, are all the inhabitants infected?」
「No, only those with low magic power have been infected. To be exact, roughly 40% of the city’s inhabitants. ……However, that’s only what I’ve last heard.」

(40% of the city’s residents. It’s no different from the information I have that only people with low magic power are affected. The probability of me getting infected is quite low. Since it’s the source of Magic Fever, I should stay therefor a week or so. Although its probably a pathogenic bacteria, I should probably wait for it to die out before coming back.)

Thinking to himself, Rei nodded after looking at the magic item a second time.

「I understand. This request, I will accept it.」

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