「They were quite weak.」

The herd of Bicorns had been in the area for a while. They were savage monsters with poisonous horns. However, they met their fate at the hands of four adventurers about to reach B rank, vanishing like butter melting on a hot plate.

At Marka’s words, Coan nodded as he replied with his usual smile.

「Individually, Bicorn’s aren’t a match for Rei and the others’ strength. But, with a Griffon like Set chasing them from behind, they couldn’t work together to fight us off either……if they had been a smarter monster, even in that situation, they might have been able to work together to save the stronger ones at the expense of the weaker ones.」

「Umu. After all, they were low ranked monsters.」

Although Marka said that, Bicorns, which were considered D rank monsters on their own and C rank in herds, were not something that ordinary adventurers could kill. This time, it was because they were all C rank adventurers, including two extraordinary factors in Rei and Set, that they had been cleared out so easily.

If ordinary adventurers had been asked to subjugate the herd of Bicorns, there would have been some injuries and, at worst, some adventurers might have died.

The two horns that grew out from Bicorn’s head were very poisonous. A strike from their hoofs also had to be considered as they were one size larger than an ordinary horse. The fangs that grew from their mouth to chew meat were also a threat.

「……Anyhow, the Bicorn herd subjugation has been completed. After this……」

Alnicht, who was listening to Marka, looked around. Seeing his gaze, Residence nodded slightly.

「From the beginning, I didn’t expect them to struggle against a herd of Bicorns. After all, one of them has a title.」

「Then, next is……」

「Yes, please do as planned.」

Alnicht and Orkide both nodded at the same time at Residence’s words.

(Although it’s necessary for the guild exam……I don’t really like to deceive people.)

Marka gave a small sigh, but she also knew that it was necessary to become a high ranking adventurer. Without saying anything more, she went over to where Rei and the others had killed the herd of Bicorns.

 

 

「Well~, that was pretty easy. Is this really B rank? Well, it’s not that strange with my skills.」

Roble proudly muttered in front of the nearly 30 dead Bicorns lying on the ground.

He had killed 5 Bicorns with his spear, and given the results, it was no wonder he wanted to brag about it.

「Overwhelmingly more Bicorns were killed by Rei than you.」

「That said, I couldn’t believe Rei was throwing spears to attack from that distance, you know? Especially considering the price of spears you don’t plan to use again. There’s no way I could afford that.」

Rei cut off the tails, which were the proof of subjugation, as well as the two horns, which were the most dangerous parts, without caring for Roble’s look towards him..

Normally, he would have wanted to skin the Bicorns, take out their magic stones and cut up their meat, but he judged that there was no time to do it during the rank up test.

Maybe he understood that, Set just grabbed the dead Bicorns with his claws before bringing them over to Rei.

(……Set can easily carry dead Bicorns but can’t fly with two of us on his back?)

Stee, muttered to herself in confusion as she watched Set.

However, Rei didn’t seem to care as he continued to cut off the tails and horns of the Bicorns that were lined up along the plain.

Even though it was just a temporary party, these were still monsters they had killed together. Since they hadn’t decided on how to divide everything up yet, the horns and tails were just put aside in one place for now.

「Thank you for your hard work everyone. I will accept the Bicorn herd subjugation, which was also the goal of your test, has been completed.」

「I think there’s still more to talk about though.」

Roble muttered at Residence’s words as he looked over towards Marka.

Marka herself listened to Residence’s words in silence without a change in her expression despite Roble looking over at her.

She probably intended to hide it, but Stee also turned to look at Orkide for a moment.

Only Ons stayed silent without a change in his expression.

Perhaps Residence wasn’t paying attention, he just took out a magic whistle from his chest and blew it to send a signal to the carriage drivers.

「Oh right, I’ll leave it to you to decide how to split the Bicorns. We can’t just leave right away, so it’s not a bad idea to take a break so you can discuss and decide.」

「Um, is it fine for us to decide on our own? I mean, this is the rank up test……」

Stee asked, but Residence nodded to tell her there were no issues before he went back to converse with the nobles.

Seeing that, the rest of the rank up test participants judged that there really weren’t any problems. They got together to decide how to split the 30 or so Bicorns.

……No one noticed that the nobles, including Residence seemed to be paying attention to what they did.

「Then, what do we do? As for me, I would like to take the Bicorns I killed as my share.」

「Wait a moment, in that case, Ons-san, who spent his time assisting us, will have too small a share. You might say that you killed a lot of the Bicorns with your spear, but did you know that Ons-san was following you to block any other Bicorns that might have obstructed your attacks?」

「Guh-, no, well, it’s true that I was able to kill the Bicorns with his help……y-yes, that’s right. What do you think Rei? After all, there’s no doubt that you killed the most this time. Especially considering Set’s contribution.」

Roble asked Rei to change the topic.

Hearing Roble’s words, Stee stopped moving.

Even Stee had to admit that Rei had played the biggest role in the Bicorn subjugation. However, conversely, if Rei decided to split the Bicorns based on the number they had each killed, she couldn’t really oppose him either. After all, from Rei’s point of view, they might be seen as stealing what he deserved.

However, Stee’s worries were immediately resolved by Rei.

「Well, we don’t really have to care about who killed what right? We’ll just split it up normally. I’ll take any leftovers as Set’s share.」

「……Well, if Rei says so, then I guess it doesn’t matter.」

Roble spoke as if he was dissapointed, but if he just got the number he killed, he would only have 5. However, if they split everything up equally, he would get 7, so the increase in his share put a small smile on his face.

「So, that’s what Roble has to say about it, but is that really okay Rei? If we just split it based on what we killed, you and Set would have gotten a lot more.」

「I don’t mind. It’s fine as long as I get at least two magic stones. That said, I am a bit interested in the Bicorn meat.」

「Gurururu~」

The reason why Rei was interested in the meat was more about Set than Rei. In fact, Set gave a happy cry as he looked over to the dead Bicorns lying on the ground.

However, if Rei had directly asked Set if he was interested in the Bicorn meat, he wouldn’t have admitted it.

「If Rei, who hunted the most Bicorns, says so then I guess that’s what we’ll do. Any problems Roble?」

「I don’t like the feeling of conceding, but well, it’s better to make a profit.」

Roble still seemed somewhat disatisfied, but it wasn’t a problem since his share was increasing. He nodded at Stee’s question to indicate he had no issues.

「How about Ons-san? Um, I’m a bit sorry that I just left all the support to you……」

If anything, Ons had been left to follow Roble, who would make abrupt decisions, or protecting Stee, the archer, against any approaching Bicorns. Ons nodded without any particular objections.

Like that Rei’s opinion was accepted.

They had no idea that Marka and Coan, who had been listening into their conversation, both gave a soft sigh of relief.

「So, Set and I have 9, everyone else has 7. What do you want us to do? We don’t have time to strip all the materials here.」

Residence nodded naturally at Rei’s question, which was more of a request for confirmation than an actual question.

「I’m sorry, but please take the Bicorns back on your own.」

「Wait a minute! You’re telling us to take them back, but what do I do with 7 of them!」

Bicorns were larger than regular horses and weighed well over 500kg. Using some simple calculations, 7 of them would weigh about 3.5 tons. Thinking about it normally, it was impossible for them to bring back so much individually. Even with a carriage, it wouldn’t be possible to carry that much.

……Yes. Normally that is.

「Haah. ……Rei, could you please?」

「Okay. For now, I’ll store them all in the item box and we’ll divide them back up in the city later.」

「Yes, that’s fine.」

「……Oh. So that’s it.」

Roble, who finally remembered about the item box, gave a sigh of relief.

Next to him, Rei started to store away the Bicorns which had been lined up along the ground.

Of course, he didn’t just store the corpses, but also the horns and tails that had been cut off in advance.

Everything was stored into the Misty Ring in less than 10 minutes.

「Well then, let’s go back to Gilm. After that, we’ll interview you each one by one.」

「……Huh-!?」

「Eh?」

「What?」

At Residence’s words, Roble, Stee and Rei’s voices were raised in that order.

Only Ons remained silent without any particular exclamation.

However, even if he heard the 3 of them, Residence just shrugged his shoulders as if it were nothing as he made his way into one of the carriages that had come over……

「Hey, wait a moment! Why do we still have to have an interview!? Wasn’t the rank up test just subjugating the herd of Bicorns!?」

「Sure, subjugating the herd of Bicorns was part of the test, but that’s not all of it. It’s just one part of the test. In general, the rank up test to B rank isn’t something that can just be decided by subjugating D like Bicorns, C rank if they’re in a herd. And, in addition to the interview……」

At Residence’s last words, Roble went silent as he didn’t understand what it meant.

However, both Rei ans Stee nodded in response.

It was because they hadn’t expected the contents of a B rank test to only be at this level to begin with.

(No, rather than that, this is probably just one of many tests. As Residence said, after each test is completed, there might be new tests announced suddenly. ……It’s quite a nasty series of tests.)

Rei muttered to himself as he looked at Roble, who was grinding his teeth in chagrin.

However, it seemed that Rei didn’t need to say anything to him as Roble had a sharp minded lover.

「Come on, Roble. Quickly get on the carriage. You don’t want to have points deducted in a place like this do you?」

The latter part of her words was said in a whisper so that only Roble could hear, whose eyes widened after hearing that, before they got on the carriage.

……The same garish carriage that had brought them here.

Rei stepped back into Duke Quent’s carriage, where Marka was, while Ons likewise got into the guild’s carriage.

When the three carriages were ready, they left the site where they had slaughtered the Bicorns while Set walked alongside.

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