「……So, what was the cause of the argument.」

At the guild bar, as the three adventurers were treating him, Rei asked about the menus before ordered a 50cm long shrimp cooked with vegetables and sauteed in butter as he asked what the problem was.

The three adventurers, two male and one female, looked at Rei somewhat grudgingly. The woman in a swimsuit, who was the main culprit for dragging Rei into this mess, was in a bit of a daze as she looked at Rei and not the adventurers.

There was no helping it. That was because the sauteed shrimp that Rei was currently eating was one of the most expensive dishes on the menu in this bar.

Normally, it was common to crack open the shell with a hammer or something similar. However, Rei was tearing the shell off with his bare hands as the woman started to speak after Rei’s prompt.

「I’m Rocha. I’m a fisherman here in Emoshion. That said, I only fish in the port and don’t go out to sea on my boat.」

「I see. So, why is a fisherman like you arguing with adventurers?」

「That is……」

One of the male adventurers tried to speak up but was immediately interrupted by Rocha.

「These guys were doing a subjugation request and attacked me while I was diving in the water! If it was just that I would have forgiven them, but they destroyed my net that had all the fish and shellfish that I had caught……thanks to that I made a big loss!」

「That’s why we apologised! We didn’t attack you just because we felt like it!」

「If you hadn’t apologised, I would have called the knights or the guards. Anyway, what I’m saying is that I will forgive you only if you pay for the fishing equipment you destroyed and the amount I would have earned from my harvest today.」

「Don’t be ridiculous! 7 silver coins is outrageous!」

This exchange made Rei understand where the problem was.

However, what surprised Rei more was the fact that this woman went diving in the sea despite the monsters that could be found there.

Elgin had many monsters. As Rei had seen off the coast yesterday, the sea was no exception. Yet, the woman in front of him, without any armour, would go diving into the sea by herself as if it were natural. To Rei, he felt she was nothing but reckless.

「So, Rocha, was it? I understand your points. What do you guys have to say?」

「……We don’t have anything to say. It’s entirely our fault.」

「Wait a moment! Sure, I’ll admit we are at fault, but asking for 7 silver coins is being too greedy! Even now, we’re running out of savings you know!?」

At the accusing words from one of the adventurers, the woman in a swimsuit looked like she didn’t care……no, rather she gave a snort as she replied.

「I was diving, which already is risky work. I was then almost killed while diving. And, it was by adventurers who had come all the way to Emoshion from other cities. ……Do you want to settle this before I go the guild and the city administration? Or would you rather not pay me and take the risk of being kicked out of the city? Of course, the other adventurers in the city will also look down on you for not taking responsibility for the trouble you caused. Especially these days when you adventurers from outside have been causing so much trouble.」

「W-Well, that is……」

Rei brought the last shrimp to his mouth as he looked at the silent female adventurer.

Wiping his dirty hands and looking at the surroundings, Rei spoke.

「I’ll decide the settlement. Pay her 5 silver coins, which covers the trouble you caused her as well. Even if you say your savings have been decreasing, you can still afford to pay that much, right?」

A female adventurer, who hadn’t spoke up until now, called out to Rei as he stood up to leave after finishing his role.

「We’re treating you right now, can’t you be a bit more lenient?」

「Think of the food as the fee for taking up my time. And……look around. You should know when you have to pay up.」

『Eh?』

At Rei’s words, the three of them looked around.

What they saw was the rest of the guests at the bar looking at them as if blaming them for something. Since the bar was attached to the guild, it was clear that most of those people were also adventurers.

Some of them had always been active around Emoshion while others had come here for the bounty, like Rei and the three adventurers. The sight of all those adventurers staring at them gave the three adventurers a sense of pressure.

For the adventurers who had always worked around Emoshion, they didn’t want other adventurers to cause them to lose respect. And as for those who had come here for the bounty, they didn’t want others to making their work in this city difficult due to their actions.

The fisherman woman looked at Rei with complaining eyes as Rei had told them to pay out less than she had asked for. However, she kept quiet and didn’t say anything.

Seeing that, Rei turned back to the three adventurers.

「You get it, right? I feel the same as well. I don’t know what you guys did to make that mistake, but I don’t want to bothered by you guys because of something you did.」

Rei quickly left the place.

The three adventurers and fisherman woman silently watched him leave.

In the end, after some more discussion, the adventurers eventually paid the woman 3 silver coins and made up the remaining amount by working for her.

 

 

「Set, did you wait for long?」

「Gururu~?」

Leaving the guild, Rei called out to Set, who had been facing a bird monster about 1m in size before he turned around and gave a happy cry.

However, Rei’s attention was drawn to the bird monster rather than Set.

「……An Icebird?」

Yes, the monster was an Icebird, a monster that Rei had fought before.

It was a D rank monster that wasn’t that powerful. Howeve, Rei’s attention was focused on the necklace around it’s neck. Necklace of Subservient Monster. It was the exact same as the one around Set’s neck. In other words, the Icebird in front of Rei was either a tamed or summoned monster.

「……Even so, this Icebird is still fine even in this season……ah, I see.」

From the strange feeling Rei got from the ring around it’s right leg, it was probably some sort of magic item.

「I’ve never seen a tamed monster aside from Set. ……No, I guess a Dragon Knight’s Wyverns count?」

The Dragon Knights he had fought in the war flew on Wyverns. Even though they were raised from eggs, they were still technically tamed monsters.

(I’d like to talk with the person who tamed it, but right now, the sea is a higher priority.)

「Guru~?」

Are we not going? At Set’s questioning expression, Rei left the guild and headed for the port.

Of course Rei and Set bought and enjoyed various seafood from street stalls and eventually arrived at the port after eating enough that they wouldn’t need lunch.

Arriving at the port, the first thing Rei saw were the ships that were anchored there. Some were huge open sea voyaging vessels while others were ones that travelled along the coast. There were also ships used by fishermen docked at the port. Of course, they all weren’t anchored here because they liked it. Rather, they were left here because of the risk of being attacked by the Lemrace if they left the port.

However, even if they anchored at the port, it wasn’t free. Above the cost of the berthing fee, the owners of the ships suffered losses from the delay in transporting goods. Of course, Emoshion had no need to force them to pay the berthing fee for now as the cost was cheap. However, even dust would accumulate over time and the berthing fees would eventually mount up. Because of that, the ship captains’ would eventually have to resort to desperate actions.

Aside from the ships, there was also a large number of people wandering around the port. Labourers looking to haul goods, sailors looking out towards the sea and adventurers aiming to collect the Lemrace’s bounty all gathered around the port.

Especially the adventurers, many of them had no way to head out to sea and had no choice but to use the tactic of waiting in the port. Of course, whenever the Lemrace appeared, some of them would head out on ships in hopes of killing it. However, they were all either one-sidedly attacked without being even being able to see the Lemrace and were turned into flotsam, wasting their time without finding the Lemrace or attacked constantly by other monsters. Because of that, no ship owners would easily lease out their ships now.

Now, the only adventurers that could go out to sea were the small number of rich adventurer parties that either owned magic ships or bought ships instead of renting them.

Especially with regards to the latter, they had paid considerable sums of money depending on the size of the ships, so they looked out for the Lemrace with sharp eyes as they kept a watch on their rivals.

But, in the end, they only accounted for a small number of adventurers in Emoshion. Most adventurers were either waiting for the Lemrace in the harbour or doing guild requests to earn some money first.

In the midst of all this, Rei sat on Set’s back as numerous people looked at them with jealousy, envy, hope, hatred and pleading eyes.

「Well then, Set, please.」

「Gurururururu~!」

At Rei’s request, Set dashed forward several steps before flapping his wings and rising into the sky as if running through the air.

Set continued out until he got to the place where the had been attacked by the Lemrace the day before.

There were several ships around the area hoping to find some clues, just like Rei. Those on board the ships looked up as they noticed the shadow flying over them and looked at Set with eyes of envy.

As expected, none of the people here were surprised by Set since they had been engaging in rescue work together the day before. Everyone gathered here could be considered a high ranking adventurer.

Finding a familiar face among the magic ships, Rei let Set descend.

「Did you find any clues about the Lemrace?」

「No, there’s nothing new.」

Answering Rei’s question was the leader of the adventurer party that had conversed with him several times during the rescue operation yesterday.

The rest of party hadn’t forgotten Rei and his Griffon either and they greeted him amicably.

However, the other adventurers on board the magic ships or ships that had been bought from the port looked at Rei as if shunning him.

For the other adventurers who could only travel by boat, Rei, who could fly through the sky on Set, was considered a strong rival aiming for the bounty. Because of that……

「Hey, kid, you came here late, don’t think you can just ignore us.」

The adventurers on a docked ship they had probably bought called out to Rei.

「If you’re going to sleep talk, you should go to sleep first.」

Since it their words were belligerent from the beginning, Rei responded to them in kind.

Naturally, they couldn’t keep quite hearing that and glared back at Rei with furious eyes.

「Hey, you. Just because you’re on a Griffon……」

As the adventurer was talking, Set suddenly flapped his wings and rapidly moved away from his previous position. And the next moment……

『Wha-!?』

The shocked voices of the adventurers echoed out.

Yes, that was because a water spear went through the space where Set had been until a moment earlier.

「Tch, let’s go! Set, let’s get away from here.」

「Gurururu~!」

Glancing at his surroundings, Rei saw that it would be pointless to deal with the adventurers any further and gave instructions to Set.

When Set heard that, Set flew away from where he was, flapping his wings as he gave a high pitched cry.

「Hey, wait a moment! You want to collect the bounty all for yourself!?」

The voice of the man who had been shouting at Set echoed into the surroundings, but Rei ignored him as he flew away on Set.

As if following Set’s trajectory, several water spears pierced through the air

「Damn it, hey, you guys, we’re following after him! I can’t let him take the bounty all for himself-!」

Telling his companions, they turned the ship to follow after Rei and Set. However, it was impossible for them to keep up with the massive difference in speed between Set, who was travelling in the sky, and the ship, that was sailing through the sea.

 

 

「As far as I can see to the bottom of the sea……it’s not there.」

Set tilted his body again to avoid a water spear. Rei gazed into the sea while firmly holding onto Set’s body to stop himself from falling off.

The sea was clear enough to see through to quite a depth, even though it wasn’t possible to see the bottom. However, Rei still could not see any monster that could be the Lemrace anywhere.

「The sea……the sea-!?」

Rei suddenly looked up towards the sky when he suddenly thought of something. However, there was nothing suspicious in the sky, only clouds and seabirds.

「Tch, I thought it might be a monster flying in the sky that was just pretending to be a monster in the sea……」

Set tilted his body to avoid another water spear.

The Lemrace used water magic to attack them. However, it didn’t mean that it had to be in the water to do that. Because of that, Rei had a thought for a moment that it could be a monster flying in the sky. But, seeing that his guess was off the mark, he gave a small sigh.

Set had been avoiding the water spears for about 5 minutes when the attacks suddenly stopped, as if the Lemrace was saying it was no longer interested.

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