The adventurers guild in Gilm. Inside the guild master’s office, Marina poured magic power into a crystal placed on the desk.

After about a minute, a familiar face was projected on the surface of the crystal.

It was the face of a man in his fifties. He had a long beard, wore a robe and had a sense of deep wisdom in his eyes.

He was a mage who had been in the same party as Marina several decades ago, Seis.

Their former party leader, Diarog, was the acting lord of the city of Baar while Seis, like Marina, was serving as a guild master.

「Marina? Are you contacting us this time about the Aurani grass powder?」

Her former party member, who usually kept a calm expression at all time, had a grave look. From that along, Marina could easily imagine the crisis that Baar was currently in. However, nothing would change even if she had a serious expression, so Marina nodded with a smile.

「Yes, we gathered a large amount of Aurani grass powder and the carrier left the city a short time ago.」
「…I see. It will take 10 days to arrive at the earliest. I hope the patients with Magic Fever will be able to last.」
「Oh, no, you’re wrong.」
「What?」

It would take 10 days for an adventurer who was prepared to run their horse to death. Seis knew that it was impossible to shorten the travel time further, he had a surprised look in his eyes at Marina’s words.

「In what way?」
「It would certainly take 10 days at best to travel from Gilm to Baar across land no matter how fast you are. I know that. ……But what if you flew instead of traveling across land?」
「……Wait. Wait a moment. Marina, you were always a person to do crazy things, but what did you do this time? As far as I know, there shouldn’t be any Dragon Knights in Gilm. Did you or Margrave Rowlocks hire a Dragon Knight recently?」

Seis’s face had a look of urgency. Hope could be seen in his eyes.

Even if they had really sent a Dragon Knight, it would be impossible to carry enough Aurani grass powder for everyone in the city. However, they might be able to help the people in danger of dying.

However, what Marina said next was unbelievable to Seis, who had worked as a mage and adventurer for many years.

「No, it’s something different. There’s a kid who registered with the guild a few months ago, he has a tamed monster that can fly.」
「What……」

Seis had a surprised expression at Marina’s words. However, he shook his head the next moment.

「No, even if he is an adventurer with a tamed monster that can fly, he still can’t carry a lot of Aurani grass powder right? Of course, I am grateful if we can get any at all. At the very least, final stage patients can receive the medicine and survive.」
「Fufu~, you’re still to naive. That kid has most of the Aurani grass powder in Gilm with him. He also has other supplies that are necessary.」
「……What?」
「Don’t be surprised. Anyhow, that kid has an item box.」
「What did you say!?」

At the greatest surprise, Seis unintentionally shouted. However, Marina continued speaking, further amazing Seis.

「By the way, that kid’s tamed monster. What do you think it is?」
「……If he has an item box, he must be a veteran high rank adventurer. Then, is it a Harpy or Wyvern?」
「In-cor-rect. The correct answer is a Griffon.」
「-!?」

Seis took a sharp breath at those words.

He took a deep breath to clear the confusion in his mind before speaking again.

「Impossible, I’ve never heard of an adventurer who has a Griffon following them. If there was such a person, I should have heard rumors about it.」
「Fufu~, it can’t be helped. That kid seems to have been brought up by a master mage in some remote place. ……In addition, his master seems to be a self styled sorcerer. Actually, that kid just came to Gilm a few months ago. Before anyone knew it, he was running up the ranks. He is the current record holder for the shortest time from registration to rank D.」
「……That is. No, I’m thankful that he has an item box. I want to ask more about it, but right now the highest priority is to deal with the Magic Fever. I hope he arrives as soon as possible.」
「Yes. ……Please tell Diarog I’m doing well.」
「Ah.」
「Also, helping with the intention of having this favour returned.」
「……Ah.」
「Well then, I will excuse myself now as I’m running out of Magic Power. ……Don’t die, if you die, it will be one less familiar face for me.」

As she said that, the face of Seis that was reflected on the crystal disappeared.

「……」

Marina gently stroked the crystal that was now silent with no projection.

The crystal allowed free conversation between people far away. It was a valuable magic item supplied by the adventurers guild. It consumed a huge amount of magic power. Even though Marina was a Dark Elf who had more magic power than most Humans, all her magic power would be consumed in just 10 minutes or so.

「Whether or not an individual is affected by Magic Fever depends on the magic power they have. Diarog and Seis should have no problems. ……If it really is ordinary Magic Fever, that is.」

Muttering to herself, different to how she had faced Seis earlier, Marina had a gloomy expression as she gently played with the crystal with her fingers.

 

 

「Tch! Monsters only seem to attack when you’re in a hurry!」

Rei made a large and sharp swing with the Death Scythe as he rode on Set.

The magic empowered blade cut through the torso of a huge 30cm long bee, splitting it in two.

Although various materials and its magic stone fell to the ground, since Rei was in a hurry, he wasn’t able to collect them. He swung the Death Scythe again at another bee that attacked him while grinding his teeth.

Sword Bees. As its name suggested, the originally needle like stinger of a bee was now closer to a long sword. It was an E rank monster, it wasn’t very strong on its own. However, because of its habit of persistently pursuing its prey, it was a monster hated by adventurers.

And right now, nearly 20 Sword Bees were flying around Rei and Set as they flew through the sky.

「Set!」
「Gurururururu~!」

Set instinctively understood what Rei meant and took a deep breath before spitting out a fire breath.

Roar-!

「Shaaar-!」

The instant it was wrapped in flames, a Sword Bee’s wings burned up and plummeted to the ground still burning.

Set swept his head while spitting out flames. Naturally, Fire Breath also swept across, wrapping several Sword Bees in flames just like the first.

「Wind Hand!」

Rei activated the Death Scythe’s skill, Wind Hand, on a Sword Bee who was coming close to attacking as Set was looking in the other direction. A transparent tentacle extended from the handle of the Death Scythe and grabbed the Sword Bee’s sword stinger.。

「Haah!」

Although it was a huge bee, it was still only 30cm in length. It wasn’t very heavy and it was impossible for it to resist Rei’s strength as it was grabbed and swung around by the wind hand.

「Shaar-!」

While hearing it’s scream like voice from its vibrating mandibles, Rei swung the wind hand without care. Being swung around by the wind hand, the Sword Bee cut off the wings of another Sword Bee with its stinger. The next moment, it pierced the body of another bee.

「Get smashed!」

Being swung around by the tentacle, it smashed its head against another Sword Bee, crushing both their heads and scattering their corpses to the ground.

『Flame, burn the enemy according to my thoughts.』

Continuing on to cast a spell, a fireball about 30cm in diameter appeared at the tip of the Death Scythe.

The spell was short to cast and had a reasonable amount of power. In addition, the spell had a wide attack range and was a convenient magic that Rei could easily use.

『Fireball!』

The fireball was released with those words and and engulfed several Sword Bees that were attempting to attack Rei and Set from below, burning them up in an instant before they could raise a sound.

10 remained. Although their numbers had been reduced to a fifth compared to when they had been first attacked, the Sword Bees showed no signs on giving up on Rei and Set.

However, although the 10 didn’t give up, they changed from constantly attacking to holding their position and waiting.

「……Tch, I can’t waste time here.」

Muttering to himself, Rei looked towards the ground.

Fortunately there were no visible people, horses or carriages on the highway below them.

「If I’m going to do it, now is my chance. Fortunately those Sword Bees aren’t attacking. Set, use King’s Awe.」
「Gururu~!」

As soon as he heard Rei’s words, Set gave a cry and took a deep breath.

「Gururururururu~!」

A cry echoed into the surrounding area. It gave off an overwhelming presence of a king.

Normally, King’s Awe should have been used when they had initially been attacked by the Sword Bees. However, the skill required a few seconds to use. As soon as the Sword Bees had appeared, Set no longer had those few seconds to use it and they ended up having to fight a battle as they flew through the air.

However, once the Sword Bees took some distance, giving them a few seconds, King’s Awe was activated. Once activated, E rank monsters were unable to withstand it.

「Flying Slash, Flying Slash, Flying Slash!」

Rei continuously fired out Flying Slashes at the Sword Bees which were now stationary. They had disastrously grouped up to watch Rei and Set, resulting in the slashes cutting, crushing and smashing their bodies to the ground.

「……Phew. Mm?」

Finally able to take a break, Rei saw several people on the ground. He also saw a relatively big city.

Rei had a spark in his mind and took the map he had received from Marina out of the Misty Ring.

On the map, the name of the city closest to Gilm was written as Abuero.

「Is that city Abuero? Well, if I ask I should be able to find out. Set, land somewhere near to those people.」
「Guru~」

Set nodded at Rei’s words and descended to the ground while fluttering his wings.

The people who were looking up at Set realised that a Griffon was coming down towards them. They tried to run away at first but stopped moving after noticing Rei sitting on Set’s back.

(I see, are they adventurers?)

Rei thought to himself as he saw the people were wearing armour, thick clothes and equipped with swords and bows. He jumped to the ground when Set was several meters off the ground and landed on the highway.

Staying silent, he approached the group that seemed to be an adventurer’s party. They seemed to be surprised after noticing his age.

Although he looked young, he was the same age as Hasta, in his late teens.

「……Stop!」

Seeing Rei approach, a man who looked like a warrior gave a shout as he stretched his hand to the sword on his back.

He looked really impressive, wearing a bright sky blue scale mail that seemed to be made from the scales of a serpentine monster.

It would be problematic if they got into a fight, so Rei stopped and spoke out.

「Relax, I’m an adventurer from Gilm.」
「……What?」

The city of Gilm. The adventurers rustled at Rei’s words.

The city of Gilm was famous on the frontier for a variety of reasons.

Even seeing the self proclaimed adventurer with a Griffon in front of him, he felt that it would be understandable if he came from Gilm.

Although the man blanked out for a moment when Rei said he was an adventurer from Gilm, he still couldn’t fully believe his words and spoke with some doubts. As expected of a true adventurer, he kept his hand on the handle of his sword.

「Sorry, but could you show me your guild card? If you are really an adventurer from Gilm, there shouldn’t be any problems right?」
「Ah.」

Giving a small nod, Rei put his hand into his robe and took his guild card out from the Misty Ring before throwing it to the man.

He usually wouldn’t hide the existence of the Misty ring, but if he was found to have an item box here it would probably get troublesome and he might lose some time.

The man checked the guild card that landed onto the highway and finally released his guard.

And with that, the party naturally had some curiosity about him.

「Hey, is that really a Griffon?」
「What is an adventurer from Gilm doing all the way out here?」
「Wow, hey. That kid is younger than us.」

Maybe he was still scared of Set, the man kept his eyes on Set as his party asked questions without pause before he eventually spoke in a loud voice.

「Stop pestering him with questions! ……Well, they don’t mean any harm. Leaving that aside, what do you plan to do with the Sword Bees you killed? The quality isn’t great, but you can still strip some materials from them.」

While saying that, the warrior looked towards the Sword Bee corpses scattered around the ground.

Seeing that, Rei could guess what the man was thinking about and thought for a few seconds before speaking.

「I would like to ask, is the name of the city over there Abuero?」
「Mm? Ah. That is correct.」

The man blanked out for a moment, not expecting to be asked about the name of the city. He replied with a small nod.

「Okay, then my journey is going well.」

Muttering to himself, he didn’t his usual knife for dismantling but instead used the Mithril Knife at his waist to cut out the magic stone from a Sword Bee’s heart. He repeated this to get a second magic stone before turning back to the adventurers.

「I’ll just take these two magic stones, as thanks for answering the question, you can do as you like with the materials and proofs of subjugation.」
「……Are you sure?」
「Ah, I’m in a hurry at the moment. Set, let’s go.」
「Gururu~!」

Nodding at the man, Rei hopped back onto Set and flew back into the sky in the opposite direction from Gilm.

「Who on earth was that」
「……Ah.」

Meanwhile, seeing Rei leave, the female archer spoke up as if remembering something.

「What’s wrong?」
「No, I remember hearing from a merchant that there was a Griffon that was pretty much the mascot of Gilm.」
『……』

The party looked up at the figure of the Griffon in silence, which was already getting smaller and disappearing from sight.

In their minds, they were all thinking the same thing. 『It truly is the frontier.』

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