「Rei-san, good morning.」

「Kikyi, kyi-」

By the time the 9am bell rang, Rei had met up with Hendeka as the guild reached its peak hour.

「Gururu~」

As Shen, the Icebird, jumped onto Set’s back, Set turned around to give a cry in gretting.

「Ah, I’ll be relying on you again today……is what I’d like to say, but I need to talk with you about something.」

「……Eh?」

Hendeka held his breath at the words he hadn’t expected.

As a low ranking adventurer, working together with Rei was nothing short of lucrative. After being told that Rei needed to talk with him only on their second day working together, it wasn’t a surprise that he would be tense.

「So, what did you want to talk about? Could it be that you don’t want to work with me anymore?」

Rei shook his head with a wry smile at Hendeka’s fearful question.

「No. In the first place, I haven’t received any requests to attract the Lemrace’s attention today. Well, if I went to the port, someone might ask me on the spot. But actually……」

Rei stopped speaking when he sensed several adventurers, who had been about to enter the guild, start to pay attention to them.

Rei was now quite famous for many things in Emoshion. There were also quite a few people looking for information about him to make some money.

After all, he had a Griffon, an item box and a title. Furthermore, in the case of the Lemrace, the biggest problem for Emoshion right now, the Lemrace seemed to pay a lot of attention to him. Ships would pay him a lot of money to attract the Lemrace’s attention while they left the port, so there was no reason he wouldn’t become well known.

Despite some danger remaining, Rei was the reason that ships docked at port could still leave and the initial sharp gazes from the guards had already calmed down somewhat.

「Well, you can be assured that I’m not planning to stop working with you. I’ll tell you the details as we at a stall somewhere after the people I’m waiting for arrive.」

「……It hasn’t been that long since I had breakfast, so I’m not that hungry.」

「Breakfast was more than an hour ago though? You have quite the small appetite Hendeka.」

「That’s just compared to Rei-san! The amount I eat is normal for ordinary people.」

「Is that so?」

「……That’s right. We can’t just eat more food just an hour after breakfast. You and Egret and the only ones who could do that.」

It was Miroir who interrupted the conversation between Rei and Hendeka. Behind her, Egret could be seen bringing a fish skewer to his mouth as he enjoyed the delicious taste.

「Hmm, I feel Rei is right. Adventurers should eat when they need to eat. Isn’t that right?」

「Well, I agree with that opinion.」

Rei nodded back at Egret’s words while Miroir and Hendeka both looked each other in the eye in mutal understanding.

「At any rate, all the people we need are here now. Let’s move somewhere to finish the story. Do you know anywhere good? Somewhere with simple food and tea where not too many people will hear us.」

「Ah, then I know a place I guess. It’s a short walk from here, but it’s a shop that sells delicious snacks, tea and rare fruits. It’s in an obscure part of the city though, so it’s not that popular.」

「I see, then I’ll leave that to you. Are you two fine with that?」

Egret and Miroir nodded silently at Rei’s question.

Egret was more interested in the delicious snacks that were mentioned while Miroir was more interested in the fruit. With their agreement, Rei followed Hendeka down the road.

 

 

「Heh, this is definitely not an easy place to find.」

「I mean, it’s only natural that it won’t be popular in a place like this. Does the owner not want to do business?」

「That’s right. From what the owner told me, he seems to be doing this as his hobby, so as long as he wasn’t making a loss he was fine with it.」

Hendeka replied to Rei and Egret’s murmurs.

Looking at the three of them……or rather three people and two monsters, Miroir entered the shop.

It was located on a back street and there were no signs. If you didn’t know this shop existed, you would never notice it.

「Then, Set. Please wait here a moment.」

「Shen, wait with Set.」

「Gururu~」

「Kikyi!」

The two of them responded, as if asking for their owners to bring something back for them when they were done. Rei and Hendeka looked at each other with wry smiles before entering the shop as well.

「Oh, over here.」

The shop was only large enough for 10 visitors and definitely looked like a shop that the owner was only running as a hobby.

Taking a seat next to Egret and Miroir, they ordered some desserts, tea, sanwhiches and fruit as they faced each other.

Miroir had only just been saying that they had already eaten earlier, but seeing her order dessert firmly, sweet things might not have counted.

As each order arrived, Rei was the first to speak out.

「Hendeka, these two are Miroir and Egret. Both of them are B rank adventurer. This is Hendeka, the person I was talking about yesterday.」

「B rank!? A-Ah, pardon me. Pleased to meet you! I’m Hendeka, a D rank adventurer.」

「Oh, nice to meet you. I’m Egret. As you can see, I’m a warrior.」

「I’m Miroir. I’m also a warrior, like Egret.」

A whip wielding warrior? Although Hendeka looked a bit confused for a moment, he didn’t question Miroir, who was a much higher ranked adventurer than himself.

Seeing the three of them like that, Rei felt that the introductions had been good enough. Taking a sip of chilled mixed fruit juice, he started to explain.

「So, that’s it. As for why I asked you to meet with these two, it’s to defeat the Lemrace of course.」

「……But, the only ones who can fly in the sky are just Rei-san on Set and Shen? Will Miroir-san and Egret-san take a ship?」

「No, I managed to get a powerful magic item with a bit of help. It can forcibly transfer the Lemrace onto land when I use it.」

「Hah?」

Hendeka couldn’t understand what Rei had just said. He turned to Rei, expecting more information.

Probably because he was looking at Rei with his mouth wide open, the tea he had drank just a few second ago started dripping from the corners of his mouth.

It seemed that she felt sorry for Hendeka, so Miroir interjected from the side.

「Hendeka, was it? Well, I know you’re shocked as well. But, Rei doesn’t have any reason to trick us, does he? That’s the way it is. So, what do you plan to do? Join us? Quit? I don’t mind either way. After this, we are going to look for a place to move the Lemrace to, so you need to make up your mind quickly.」

「Eh? No, I’m not……well, what do you want me to do? I’m just an ordinary D rank adventurer. I can’t fight a Lemrace like you B rank adventurers.」

Confused by the sudden turn of events, Hendeka looked at the three of them with his mouth shut.

It the end, it was Egret, who was called a muscle brain by Miroir, that got annoyed with Hendeka’s attitude.

「What, don’t bother me about that. Anyhow, just decide whether you’re going to do it or not. The only thing I’m expecting you to do is for your Icebird to provide support from above. All you need to do is to shoot arrows from a bow and you’re good to go.」

「Eh? A bow?」

At Egret’s words, Hendeka gave a happy smile for some reason.

However, it was true that it was much easier to shoot arrows from the rear than to be told to fight a monster like a Lemrace, which no one had even seen yet at this point.

(He probably came here for the bounty after all……)

As Rei thought to himself, he seasoned a steamed scallop and prawn sandwich before bringing it to his mouth.

Enjoying it’s taste and texture, he swallowed it before speaking again.

「Honestly speaking, what I’m expecting from you is not your own strength, but Shen’s strength, since he can attack enemies from the air. As the Lemrace is a sea monster, it definitely shouldn’t be able to fly in the sky. If it could, it wouldn’t be at the bottom of the sea. If we can attack it from the sky, it won’t be able to fight back……probably.」

「……I see.」

Rei’s explanation seemed to be enough to convince him. Nodding at Rei’s explanation without saying anything further about his own ability, he thought for a few seconds before asking.

「In that case, what about the rewards?」

「Since I’m using my magic item to forcibly transfer it, I will take the monster’s magic stone.」

「That’s not a problem for me. I want materials. If there’s anything that can be used to make a powerful weapon, I want that.」

「I’d like the money after all.」

Rei, Egret and Miroir said what they each wanted in turn before turning to look at Hendeka.

「Ehm, I would like the money. If I could get a share of that.」

「It would be best to share out the bounty. Of course, since Miroir and Hendeka would rather have the money than anything else, they’ll get a bigger share. ……What does everyone think?」

Every just replied silently after Rei asked them for final confirmation.

「Alright, that’s all then. Let’s go find somewhere to transfer the Lemrace. Fortunately, it’s still morning, so we have plenty of time left.」

Thus, the unique party set out from the city of Emoshion.

 

 

「……Somebody is following us.」

About 30 minutes out from Emoshion, Rei suddenly spoke up.

「Who is it?」

「Well, I don’t know, but it’s not just one or two people. At least 10 or 20.」

「What do we do? Do we wait for them? I don’t know what their goal is, but if we stay here, it will definitely be trouble.」

Egret asked Rei as he reached for the poleaxe on his back. However, he was hit in the head by Miroir, who was walking behind him.

「Don’t be stupid. If we attack them, we’ll be the bad guys. I am absolutely sure they would report to the guild and we’d end with the highest bounty instead of the Lemrace.」

「No, but what do we do then? Are we still going to look for a place to transfer the Lemrace to while they are following us? In that situation, we might be interrupted while fighting the Lemrace. And after the fight is over, they might try to take it away from us.」

「……That’s true. That is definitely possible.」

Hendeka nodded in agreement with Egret’s opinion.

「What do we do then? This time, Rei is leading us, so let him decide.」

「Yes, it’s not going to be great if they get in our way……hm?」

As Rei muttered, he looked back again as if noticing something. Eventually, a smile came to his face.

「Rei? What’s wrong?」

Thinking that he must have noticed somehting, Egret asked Rei. However, Rei just shook his head with a smile.

「No, we don’t need to worry about it anymore. Well, I guess it makes sense if they just walked around in a large group like that?」

「Rei?」

Following after Egret, Miroir also asked him the same question. Rei just shrugged his shoulders as he replied.

「You know, I don’t think those guys will be able to continue following us any more.」

Saying that, they continued moving along to find a place where they could fight the Lemrace.

 

 

「Hah-, shit, these Goblins just keep coming at us!」

A long way behind Rei and the others, about 20 people were fighting a group of Goblins.

However, most of them were only D rank adventurers with some C ranks among them. There were more Goblins than there were adventurers, but in terms of pure strength, the adventurers should have won. In fact, as their leader saw, they were able to kill most of the Goblins with barely any injuries.

If things continued the way there were, they would win without taking any real losses. That was what the leader thought……

「Hii-Hiii-!」

The leader shouted at the cries of the merchants who had hired them.

「You lot shut up and stay out of the way!」

The men, who had received a secret request to steal Rei’s item box, had no choice but to give up on their attempt, at least for today.

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