「We’re here!」

Miroir raised a shout of joy when the city walls came into view.

On the afternoon of the day following their encounter with Rei and Set, they finally arrived at a city with an adventurers guild where they could prove their innocence.

However, there were other reasons as to why Miroir was so happy. In fact, the night before, she had been surprised when Rei use his magic tent. But, she hadn’t been allowed inside.

Of course, that was because the inside of the tent wasn’t actually that big, but it was also because Rei didn’t want to sleep too close to people he still didn’t trust.

In the end, Miroir and Egret ended up spending the night outside the tent with Set, who kept an eye on their surroundings.

Miroir seemed to be a little dissatisfied about that, but Egret didn’t seem to have any complaints as he played around with Set.

Whether it was good or not that Egret hadn’t heard about Griffons before, Egret didn’t seem to be afraid of Set and loved to stroke Set’s head. In that regard, Miroir honestly felt that Egret was a great partner.

「……It’s smaller than I expected.」

「What are you comparing it to? You’re probably comparing it to Gilm, aren’t you? In comparison to the only city bordering the frontier, most other cities will be smaller」

Miroir replied to Rei without thinking too much about it, but Rei shook his head.

「No, it’s not just smaller than Gilm, but also Abuero, Sabrusta and Baar.」

「Even if you say that, those are cities we’ve never been to before. The one here is basically what most cities are like.」

Being told that, Rei looked back towards the city.

The city was surrounded by a wall about 3m tall. But for people with a certain level of athletic ability, it wouldn’t be hard to climb over it. Naturally, it seemed useless against monsters, which better physical abilities than humans.

When Rei asked about it, Miroir looked back with slight surprise as she replied with a wry smile.

「That’s right. Because this isn’t the frontier, there aren’t that many monsters outside the city. Of course, it’s not like there aren’t any, but it’s basically only Goblins and the like that wander too close to the road. The walls around the city are enough to keep them out. The other problem is bandits, but the walls are also tall enough that it’s impossible for one or two of them to sneak in without being found. Then there’s that. Look at the outer wall.」

Looking over the wall, Rei saw some stone pillar like objects. They were about 1m tall and were arranged along the tops of the wall at regular intervals.

「Those stone pillars are a kind of magic item. If a person doesn’t have a matching magic item, they will get shocked by the stone pillar if they try to climb over the wall. In places like Gilm on the frontier, it’s not as useful due to its weak power, but in regions like this, it provides enough safety.」

「……Heh. That’s convenient.」

Rei’s impression from Miroir’s explanation was that they were a combination of an alarm and defence system. If it was such a convenient magic item, Rei wouldn’t stay quiet about it.

「Where can I buy that magic item?」

「Hmm, it’s probably something that’s hard to buy? It’s an important magic item used to protect cities. If you think about it, they wouldn’t want to sell it to bandits and let them figure out how it works. Even if you could buy it, you would probably need permission from the lord……I recall hearing that.」

Miroir replied as they walked towards the city. But, as they got closer, passersby that saw Rei……or rather, saw Set, took some distance from them as they looked in astonishment.

Feeling somewhat nostalgic about the reactions of the people nearby, Rei continued walking with Miroir and Egret until they reached the main gate.

Several people were waiting in line in front of the guards to enter the city, but when Rei and his Griffon came near, they immediately gave up their spots in the line.

「Is that okay? No, actually, that makes things more convenient.」

Egret, carrying his poleaxe, asked the people in line. However, they all replied with a quick nod.

「It’s okay. From what I can see, it’s tamed, but even then, if a Griffon is standing behind me……」

Oh, this again? It was a response that he had experience before, but it still didn’t feel great. However, since Rei’s intention wasn’t to senselessly threaten the city’s residents, after approaching the guards who were handling the procedures to enter the city, he called out to Set.

Naturally, the guards were surprised and told him that Set couldn’t enter the city, so it was decided that Set would wait outside until Rei left.

However, whether Set didn’t want to scare the people outside the city or if he was feeling a little hungry, he quietly flew away from the city to hunt for monsters.

 

 

「……Is that really okay?」

「What’s wrong? You’ve asked this before as well. You don’t have to worry too much. Anyhow, after I finish up things at the guild, I’ll leave the city right away. It will only be a few hours and if any monsters try to attack Set, they would only end up in his stomach.」

Rei answered Egret lightly as they walked through the city.

It was a very small city compared to Gilm, Abuero, a city just outside the frontier, and Sabrusta, a city close to Abuero. However, it was still buzzing with activity. After buying skewers from a street stall, they continued down the road towards the guild which they had been directed to. Eventually they arrived in front of the guild building.

「Now then, I’m sure you know what you’re doing……are you ready?」

That said, Rei was already half convinced that the two of them didn’t have a bounty.

In the first place, if they really had bounties, they wouldn’t go to the guild so easily.

Because of that, they were really only going to the guild for official confirmation. If Rei really had to give another reason for coming here……it would be to restock on some delicious food.

Thinking of that, he opened the guild door and the three of them went in.

Entering the guild, they could see several people at the bar, which was attached to the guild, but that was it. The reason for the small number of people inside the guild was because most adventurers were still doing requests during the day.

(Well, the size of the guild itself is quite small compared to Gilm. It’s about the same size as Baar?)

It was obviously wrong to compare the guild of an ordinary city to Gilm, which had a population of over 100,000 people, but Rei still thought of that as he went over to a counter.

There, a middle-aged woman in her 40’s, who was a bit hard to call a receptionist, looked at Rei as if he was a bother.

「Boy, have you come to make a request?」

Seeing Rei’s appearance, she didn’t think that he was an adventurer. She asked, guessing that he had come to post a request. However, Rei shook his head as he turned to Miroir and Egret, who were standing behind him.

「I want to know if these two have a bounty on them.」

「……Hah? A bounty?」

Perhaps unable to stand her confused expression, Miroir spoke up.

「To be exact, this kid suspects the two of us have bounties on us. So we stopped by the guild to prove our innocence.」

「Hah, looks like it’s been a lot of trouble for you to be caught by such a kid. Well, I’m free right now. Show me your guild cards.」

Hearing that, Miroir and Egret put their guild cards on the counter.

Seeing their cards, the receptionist had a slightly surprised expression when she didn’t recognise the name of the last city they had completed a request in.

「Huh, it certainly can’t be helped that you were suspected of having a bounty on you. Why haven’t you taken up a request in so long? Hey, bring me the list of bounties.」

After the receptionist called out to a young male guild employee who didn’t have any work, Miroir shrugged her shoulders as she replied to why they hadn’t done any requests recently.

「There’s no real reason. Simply speaking, there just wasn’t an opportunity. Well, as you can see from our rank, it’s quite high. We didn’t have any particular issues with money as we have a fair bit of it.」

「Well, being B rank means that you have a considerable level of skill.」

At the receptionist’s words, the few adventurers who remained inside the guild started to buzz.

In this rural city, even the highest ranking adventurer was only C rank, so it wasn’t unreasonable.

Finishing looking through the list before long, the receptionist nodded as she returned the guild cards to Miroir and Egret before looking towards Rei.

「These two aren’t on the bounty list. They’re just ordinary adventurers……no, skilled adventurers. It’s easy to misunderstand if you look at their guild cards, but you shouldn’t try to mess with B rank adventurers. Fortunately, these two were good mannered, so it was fine. If they weren’t, you might have been killed by them.」

「……Is that so. It was wrong of me to doubt you without any clear evidence. Sorry about that.」

Rei bowed his head towards Miroir and Egret at the receptionist’s words.

However, the two of them who had been half convinced they were dead after the fight in the forest didn’t appear to hold any grudges against Rei after all the doubts were cleared out.

「Well, is the misunderstanding is resolved, then that’s fine. But, you know. If you really want to apologise, you should treat us to a meal. It’s past noon and I’m hungry already. Are you fine with that, Egret?」

「Hm? Yes, that’s fine with me.」

Egret nodded at Miroir’s suggestion and the three of them left the adventurers guild.

At the guild entrance, they passed by several adventurers on the way in, but they didn’t pay any attention to them as they went into the city looking for a place to eat.

They didn’t realise the adventurers look back at them with shocked expressions.

 

 

「Hey! Who were the adventurers who left just now!?」

After Rei and the others left, one of the adventurers who came in as they went out asked the receptionist with a hurried expression.

No, maybe it would be better to say that his expression was more excited than anything. The receptionist was surprised as she asked the adventurer.

「Why are you so flustered? You’re one of the best in this city’s guild, so you have to show some composure.」

「That’s fine! Tell me why those adventurers were here just now!」

A female adventurer behind the man responded with almost just as much energy.

Seeing that the rest of them looked the same, the receptionist replied with a confused expression.

「They said the kid just wanted to know if the two of them had bounties on their heads. In the end, there wasn’t.」

Hearing that, the adventurers looked at each other unintentionally.

With a puzzled expression, the receptionist asked the adventurers.

「So, why do you care about those adventurers so much? Those two were B rank, so maybe they are famous?」

B rank adventurers. If that were the reason, it wouldn’t be surprising that the party in front of her, one of the best in the city, would raise such a fuss about it. The receptionist asked thinking that, but the reply from the adventurers was unexpected.

「No, we’re not talking about the two adventurers, but the kid in the robes.」

「……That kid? Why?」

「That kid is Rei. He’s an adventurer from Gilm that participated in the war against the Bestir Empire, which we participated in last time. He burned up the enemy’s vanguard and also participated in an ambush force that attacked the enemy’s chief commander. After the war, he was given the title of Crimson.」

「……Hah?」

At the adventurer’s unexpected words, the receptionist’s mouth went wide as if she didn’t understand.

After a short while, she finally recollected herself and asked.

「A title? You’re joking, right?」

「It’s true. In fact, if you had seen the fire tornado he created, you would understand that it fits him well.」

「Yeah, that was amazin.」

「Rather, it was more scary than amazing.」

「……It’s a fact that I’m glad he wasn’t an enemy.」

The party nodded in agreement to the man’s words.

The receptionist continued to look at them in a daze.

 

 

「Huh? What did you say?」

「As I was saying, you’re going to Emoshion, right? Then take us with you. It’s a bit ironic that after clearing it up that there wasn’t a bounty on us, we’d now go after a monster with a bounty on it.」

As they ate a large amount of food in a eatery in the city, Egret asked after hearing Rei’s destination and purpose.

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