「……He’s gone. Phew.」

Marina took a deep breath after she saw Rei leave the Guild Master’s office.

From a bystander’s perspective, Marina seemed to have her usual attitude when dealing with Rei. But even among Dark Elfs, who were known for their ability to handle magic, her ability to sense magic power was only second to powerful mages. Because of that, she inevitably felt a great deal of pressure from Rei’s enormous magic power.

That said, it wasn’t that hard for her to hide it since she had lived for so long. In addition, she had come in contact with Rei several times already and understood his personality.

「In addition……fufu~」

His reaction to being tempted made him look like a naive boy, in contrast to the enormous magic power within his body. This imbalance greatly reduced the pressure felt by Marina.

「Anyhow, Rei has decided to go to Emoshion as expected. I’ll need to clean out Gilm while he’s there.」

While muttering to herself, Marina took out a letter from her desk. The letter had been sent from the Royal Capital two days ago using a summoner’s bird. The sender had been Daska Rowlocks, the lord of Gilm.

「Seriously, as soon as the war finished, the faction conflicts began……the Royalists are surprisingly carefree about it.」

Murmuring languidly, after casting a short spell, the letter immediately caught fire. After a few seconds, the letter was completely reduced to ash without even the slightest burn on her fingers.

「Well, Emoshion should be an interesting place for Rei in various ways. And above all, it should take some time and effort to kill a monster that stays in the sea. Considering his travel time, I should have at least half a month. If it takes him a long time, maybe a month. That should be enough to do something about the request from Margrave Rowlocks.」

Marina recalled the contents of the letter that had already been turned to ashes.

Among the nobles from the mainstream Royalist faction, several of them had sent out their subordinates into Gilm to learn about Rei’s abilities and to draw him over to their side. Of course, Daska already didn’t like people trying to draw Rei away using ordinary means. But this time, the people that had been sent over were very problematic. They were people who would do the dirty work for nobles, using whatever means necessary……they would achieve their goals even if it meant resorting to measures such as threatening people.

Did they despise Rei for being an adventurer, or were they convinced that he wouldn’t make a move against a noble? Those who took part in the war knew that the only result would be like what happened to Renodis, but for those who hadn’t participated, it seemed impossible for them to understand. As a result, they decided on such a reckless path.

Whether or not Marina had been asked by Daska, she wouldn’t have wanted to give up such a good adventurer to another branch. More to the point, she didn’t want someone like Rei to end up in unpleasant situations. Her favour towards Rei wasn’t so much something between a men and a women, but more that of friends.

Because of that, while Rei, the cause of all this, was out of the city, she would take action.

Fortunately, as Rei had agreed with himself, the problem in the port city of Emoshion was a good reason for him to leave Gilm. No, rather, if they didn’t deal with the monster lurking off the coast, the damage the Mireana Kingdom would suffer would be enormous, so Marina hadn’t lied.

「First of all, I’ll need to work with the Knights. And the Prairie Wolves, was it? I was sure that there was a bandit group under that name……I wonder how they were pulled in?」

As she tilted her head, Marina used her years of experience to think up a plan to deal with the people wanting to bring more trouble to this frontier city.

 

 

「Ah, Rei-kun. Have you finished your business with the Guild Master?」

It was Kenny who greeted Rei after he left Marina’s office and went back down to the first floor.

Rather than interest……she seemed to be worried that Marina might have tried to tempt him away. Rei noticed that, but just nodded lightly without worrying about it.

「Ah. It looks like I’ll be going to another city.」

「……Eh?」

Those were unexpected words. But, it wasn’t unreasonable. In the first place, Marina had called Rei up to pass him a magic item. Why had the topic suddenly changed to leaving the city? Not just Kenny, even Lenora, who was listening in from the side, couldn’t understand.

「Wait! Is Rei-kun leaving this city!?」

Kenny’s loud shout echoed through the guild. At the same time, she was heard by the few adventurers who were still in the guild during the day.

「Hey, just now……」

「Rei is going to another city? No, but as an adventurer, there’s no place better than here, right?」

「Hmmm, maybe the Labyrinth City?」

「Ah, a dungeon? ……But if it’s a dungeon, there’s one near here as well, right? It hasn’t even been captured yet.」

「But the dungeon there isn’t that big yet. Maybe he wants to go to a bigger dungeon?」

Although there weren’t that many adventurers who were close to Rei in Gilm, he was still one of the most well known adventurers after making a name for himself in the war. He was a representative of Gilm……it might be too early to say that, but he had still become famous among the people who had participated in the war, particularly within the Mireana Kingdom and the Bestir Empire. No, in fact, Rei’s name was actually more widespread in the Bestir Empire, which had suffered directly from him.

There was a buzz when they heard that Rei would soon be leaving Gilm, but Rei immediately shook his head to deny it.

「No, I’m not saying I’m not coming back. It seems that there’s a monster rampaging and sinking ships off the coast of the port city of Emoshion. I’m just going there to kill it.」

Lenora and Kenny both looked relieved at Rei’s words.

It was true that they both held different attitudes towards Rei, but they both had goodwill towards him.

However, maybe as expected of a receptionist, Lenora immediately recalled the general information about the matter.

「Emoshion, is it? There is no official request for it, but the first person to kill it will be rewarded……it was like some kind of event with a prize.」

「That seems to be the case.」

Rei nodded at Lenora’s words to indicate she was right, but maybe it was the first time she had heard about it, Kenny’s eyes were wide with surprise.

「If it’s attacking ships, then that means it has partially sealed the port, right? But, why are they doing to do such a casual event? Shouldn’t they just put out a request to kill it?」

「Even if you ask me, I’m not the one who decides whether to put out a request……but, according to what I heard, it seems to be complicated in various ways?」

「Complicated?」

「Yes. It seems there are various interests involved. The adventurers guild in Emoshion has it’s own honour to uphold, so they want to kill it themselves. However, from the perspective of the lord of Emoshion, he would expect other higher ranking adventurers from other guilds to kill the monster seeing that Emoshion’s guild has already failed to kill it several times. Of course, the guild in Emoshion won’t like that, but if the lord tell them to……it’s like that.」

「……From what you said, it looks like there really are various difficulties. But, is it okay for Rei-kun to go to such a place? You might get dragged into some strange situations with other people.」

Kenny looked anxious, but Rei didn’t intend to quit here because of it.

「I might be able to get the magic stone of a rare monster.」

「……Your hobby of collecting magic stones, I honestly don’t know what to think about it……」

Kenny, who had feelings for Rei as a woman, couldn’t understand his hobby of collecting magic stones.

She also didn’t understand Rei’s other hobby of collecting magic items.

There were quite a few people who held an interest in collecting magic items, but considering their price, most of those collectors were nobles, owners of large companies or high ranking adventurers. Such an expensive hobby wasn’t something that Kenny could understand.

However, as a receptionist, Kenny knew how much money Rei made, so it wasn’t that strange for him to have such a hobby. However, understanding why he would have such a hobby was a completely different matter.

「Well, whether it’s collecting magic stones or magic items, I can’t say much since each person has their own hobbies.」

「Thank you for your understanding. Any how, I was just going to let you know I will be going to Emoshion.」

Realising there was no way to hold him back, Lenora pulled on the hem of Kenny’s uniform and shook her head before asking Rei.

「So, Rei-san, when will you be leaving?」

「Today……I probably can’t do that, so it will be tomorrow morning.」

「Is that so? ……Rei-san, I believe this will be your first time dealing with monsters in the sea. Especially in this case, it has sunk several ships, so it’s probably a fairly large monster.」

「Ah. In my case, I have Set. If I run into any danger, I’ll be able to escape right away. ……Well, thank you for your concern regardless.」

When Rei said that, Kenny suddenly spoke up.

「Now you mention it, I’ve been working for quite some time. Don’t you think it would be good to get some time off?」

Kenny spoke meaningfully as she glanced at Lenora. It was clear what she was asking as their eyes did the talking.

However, Lenora’s response to Kenny was to roll up the documents in her hand and swing them down on the back of Kenny’s head. A light smack echoed out.

「Ouch-! Hey, what are you doing!」

「What do you think you’re doing! You know we’re busy, don’t you? But that is the same for all guild staff!」

Lenora yelled at Kenny, who was protesting after being smacked in the head.

In fact, it was true that the guild had been quite busy after the war had ended. However, as Lenora said, everyone was still busy, so if Kenny was the only one who got to rest, of course Lenora would explode in anger.

「Uu……but what if Rei-kun get’s caught by some strange woman in Emoshion? Don’t you care about that Lenora?」

Kenny tried to persuade Lenora by saying that, but Lenora’s response was simply to smack Kenny with the documents again.

「Gyah-!」

It might have just been some rolled up documents, but it felt like Lenora had poured all her power into it as Kenny sank into the counter.

『……』

As expected, that was quite the shocking scene. The other guild staff, a few adventurers and Rei all turned to look towards Lenora.

Feeling all those gazes on her, Lenora put her hand over her mouth and smiled as she apologised.

「Ah, I’m sorry, I showed you something unsightly.」

Using an expression that would usually be seen as someone laughed with an ‘Ohohoho’, she tried to calmly sit down at her seat.

After a few seconds of silence, the usual noise returned to the guild. It depended greatly on the person, but most people just decided to pretend nothing had happened.

Meanwhile, Rei looked over towards Lenora as well as Kenny, who was still sunk down at the counter.

「Well, I’ll get going now. I have to get ready for tomorrow.」

「Eh? Ah. I understand. Sea monsters are completely different from the monsters Rei has fought so far, so please be careful when fighting them.」

「Ah, no problem. It will be quick……」

Saying that much, he suddenly paused.

(Well, it’s a port city……so, there must be many monsters unique to the sea. In that case, it wouldn’t be bad to collect magic stones for month or so, right?)

「Rei-san?」

「It’s nothing. I’m heading to the sea anyway, so I thought it might be good to relax for a while.」

「The south sea……beaches……liberal women……enemies……」

「Shut up.」

Kenny was hit at the back of her head with more documents as she muttered and tried to prop herself up.

「Guh……even if you beat me, a second and third will appear. I will not……」

「Shut up and act properly!」

A strike from the Holy Sword to destroy the Demon King. Seeing Lenora swing the documents down at Kenny’s head, such thoughts passed through Rei’s mind.

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