「Then, I’ll leave it to you.」

「……Please, Rei.」

「Ah, leave it to me.」

At the front of Gilm’s main gate, Rei nodded at Ranga and Elk from Set’s back.

As expected, he wasn’t able to get permission to fly out of the city on Set from the streets, as he had done on the way to Baar. However, Ranga did lift the restrictions of leaving the city at night with his authority as captain of the guards.

However, maybe this was a natural response. After all, their actions had to be discrete. In recent times, Rei had become quite famous in Gilm and would be very noticeable if he flew straight out of the city on Set, even if not many people were out during the night. And, for the spies of the Bestir Empire, who were probably still present in the city, those from the Mireana Kingdom, who were looking to reduce Gilm’s influence and neutrality, Rei’s absence would become an opportunity for them.

For now, guild master Marina had been granted permission by the lord, Daska Rowlocks, to expand the city’s barrier and temporarily disable all communication magic items. However, that couldn’t be deployed for long and the situation had to be resolved as soon as possible.

Rei didn’t think it was all that complicated, but Marina and Ranga, as the guild master and captain of the guards, decided that it would be better for Rei to leave through the main gate after considering it.

In addition, although Elk was worried about Min and Rhodes, maybe he hadn’t thought about the particulars that much, so he didn’t say anything about it.

Rei gently stroked Set’s neck as Ranga and Elke watched him.

「Set, to Abuero. Full speed all the way if you can.」

「Gurururu~!」

Set gave a loud cry at Rei’s request and, after a few steps of run up, flapped his wings, stirring up the cold wind and quickly disappearing into the night sky.

Ranga gave a silent prayer for the two of them. Elk bowed his head deeply as he saw them off.

 

 

The seasons were changing from winter to spring, but the nights were still cold.

If Rei had been an ordinary human, he would have been so cold that even the roots of he teeth would have been frozen. However, his Dragon Robe could basically nullify extreme temperatures. In addition, Rei’s physical body couldn’t really be called an ordinary human’s and Set was a Griffon, an A rank monster. The two of them flew through the air without any consideration so this level of coldness.

Fortunately, there was no snow or rain and the wind wasn’t that strong. Flying through what could be called the pleasant night sky, Rei took out some food from the Misty Ring that could be eaten by hand, such as sandwiches and skewers for him and Set to eat.

After all, Elk had attacked after he had returned to his inn for dinner. After communication between the two guild masters had been made and a decision made, there had been no time to eat as the situation had progressed rapidly.

「Gururu~」

Set ate the sandwich Rei gave with with a cry.

As Set did that, eating his dinner, he showed off his dexterity by continuing to flap his wings, flying at his fastest speed. At the same time.

「Guru~? Gurururu…….Gururururururu~!」

If a monster with low intelligence or a monster that couldn’t feel the threat from Set recklessly flew over and tried to attack him, Set would use King’s Awe to demonstrate their difference in strength. In addition, with his night vision, Set would actively keep a watch in all directions as he advanced towards Abuero without any hesitation.

Set used King’s Awe again as a large bat monster called a Big Bat reckless tried to attack him. As Rei watched it fall to the ground from the intimidation of Set’s magic empowered cry, he found some lights on the ground. The area, where several lights were noticeably gathered, was clearly a place where people lived.

「Set, let’s go down.」

「Gururu~」

At Rei’s words, Set glided down towards the ground. Upon reaching the ground, Set folded his wings and ran along the ground before slowing down.

「Looks like we’ve arrived.」

There was a huge gate about 100m away. It was definitely the city of Abuero.

When Rei had been escorting Alektor’s merchant convoy previously, Set had been denied entry into the city by the guards, surprised by the presence of a Griffon.

「We’ve been waiting for you, rank C adventurer Rei-san. The Griffon you’re the master of is Set, isn’t it?」

A group of people immediately appeared in front of the gate. About 10 adventurers and a guild staff member.

「Yes, have I kept you waiting in the cold?」

「No, don’t worry about it. The guild master said there are lives on the line. ……I’m sorry, but could you show me your guild card? Procedures are still procedures.」

Nodding at the guild staff member, Rei handed over his guild card, which he took out from the Misty Ring.

Nobody noticed the existence of the Misty Ring due to the dark night surroundings, unlike during the day, and no one in the area showed any surprise that would usually be seen when Rei used the Misty Ring.

「I’ve confirmed your identity. Here is a Necklace of Subservient Monster. The guild master is waiting for you, so let’s go straight to the guild. For now, the guild has gathered up some adventurers and got them to scatter around and look for suspicious people. However, it’s unlikely that they’ll find anything.」

「Ah, I understand. ……Set.」

「Guru~」

Set responded to Rei’s call and stuck out his head.

After hanging the Necklace of Subservient Monster on Set’s neck, they followed the guild staff into Abuero.

It was already night and most houses were dimly lit or completely dark as their residents had gone to sleep. Meanwhile, Rei, Set, the guild staff member, hired adventurers and guards proceeded along silently. After walking for about 20 minutes, a huge building compared to its surroundings came into view it was Abuero’s adventurers guild branch.

As expected, the guild was still lit up at this time, but the there was no noise from the guild bar, unlike what would be heard in Gilm.

Seeing Rei look puzzled, the guild staff member spoke to Rei as he turned his eyes towards him.

「Adventurers and thieves who have a lot of experience in covert operations have been sent out. The remaining adventurers have closed the guild bar to use in urgent meetings for this operation.」

「I understand. ……Set.」

「Guru~」

Even if he didn’t say it all out, Set knew what Rei wanted to say. Set’s tail shook lightly before he headed for the area where tamed monsters stayed.

「Set, if you notice anyone watching the people from the guild, capture them. I’ve heard that there aren’t too many of them here, so I don’t think it will be easy for them to do that, but there’s nothing such as being too safe.」

「Gururu~」

Set gave a short cry at Rei’s words.

As they entered the guild, the guild staff member looked at Rei with a surprised expression.

「Well, that was surprising. I heard that Griffons were smart, but I didn’t think they could understand human language.」

「I don’t know about ordinary Griffons, but it’s because Set is special.」

「So that’s why. He was raised specially as a tamed monster.」

Rei knew that it was caused by the Magic Beast Art, but since he couldn’t really say that, Rei just went along with the guild staff member’s misunderstanding.

And, as Rei entered the guild, he was greeted by someone unexpected.

No, considering the series of events, it wasn’t really that unexpected. The person was Tirage, the guild master of Abuero’s adventurers guild.

「Hey, it’s been a while. Still, it only took you a few hours to get to Abuero from Gilm. As expected of a Griffon.」

Rei gave a small bow towards Tirage who had called out to him with a smile.

「I’m Rei, a rank C adventurer from Gilm. Thank you for your cooperation this time.」

Rei used formal speech, which he wasn’t used to, as he was talking to a guild master from another city, but Tirage immediately shook his head with a smile.

「You can talk with me like you do with Marina. I’m not such a great person that you have to speak formally with me.」

「……Understand. It’s really helpful for me to not use words I’m not used to.」

As Rei raised his head as he replied, the staff members inside the guild all looked startled.

Even though he had been told he didn’t need to use formal speech with the guild master, they didn’t think he would use such casual language.

Although Rei didn’t know, Tirage, who had been selected as guild master purely for his organisational management, had quickly demonstrated his skill after his arrival by shutting down departments that were wasting resources and catching staff that had been embezzling money from the guild. He had taken several steps to reorganise the complex and inefficient guild as well as removed the bad apples from the staff to restore its reputation. Despite his shabby appearance, he was known for his brilliant skill and was much loved by the adventurers in Abuero.

Because of that, some people looked at Rei with harsh gazes for using casual speech with the guild master, despite being permitted to do so. But as for Rei, having been exposed to these gazes quite often, he just ignored them without a care.

As a result, several of the people who had been ignored looked at Rei with even more animosity. This was one of Rei’s major shortcomings, who was basically only well known within the city of Gilm.

Although Rei had met with the guild master of Baar before, fortunately or unfortunately, he had met with Seis during a bad situation. As a result, the people in the area at the time were in no state to be angry with Rei due to the outbreak of Magic Fever.

「……Shall we talk a bit more in my office? I’d like to share the results of our search in the past few hours.」

Maybe he had sensed the dissatisfaction of a few staff members. Tirage brought Rei to his office.

 

「Well then, please. Come in.」

Tirage invited Rei in as he opened the door.

At Tirage’s invitation, Rei entered the room. Inside, it was very different the offices of Marina and Seis, which he had visisted so far.

Marina and Seis were both adventurers, so their offices had a focus on practicality. Swords, spears and wands were displayed on their walls. However, Tirage’s office had his desk at the back of the room and many other desks arranged in a regular manner.

(It’s like a school classroom.)

That was Rei’s first impression when he entered the room.

That said, the office wasn’t really that large, at least not as large as a classroom.

「Ahhahaha. Are you a little surprised? It’s very different from Marina’s office. After all, my role is more of a coordinator than a guild master. Because of that, various documents come through here and it ends up like this.」

Tirage scratched his head with an embarrassed smile.

「I was surprised, but if you work in this office, then I think it’s fine to make it easier to do your work.」

「Thank you for saying that. Others usually are stunned when they enter this room. Now, take a seat. Unfortunately, I’m not good at brewing tea and we can’t drink any alcohol with how things are so I can only serve plain water.」

As he said that, Tirage touched a pot that was placed at the side of his desk, alongside some utensils for making tea, and poured some magic power into it. Then, the next moment, the water in the pot immediately heated up and steam started to rise.

「A magic item?」

Rei murmured when he saw the water instantly boil.

Tirage smiled and nodded at Rei’s words.

「Yes. As you can see, there are a large number of people working around here. Because of that, this was prepared in order to make tea at any time. However, as I said before, I can only serve plain water as I’m not good at brewing tea. Let’s go to the sofa over there.」

「Pardon me and thanks.」

Rei sat down on the sofa that was offered as Tirage placed a cup of plain hot water in front of him. As he did that, Tirage took a seat opposite Rei.

「So, let’s talk about the information we’ve gathered.」

Tirage spoke as he brought a cup of hot water to his mouth.

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