「……Huh? This is……」

Rei got up from his bed as he looked at the strange sight around him.

The room wasn’t particularly large. No, considering it was only about 4 tatami, it could even be considered small.

Looking around the room……he finally remembered where he was.

「That’s right, I was invited to stay overnight at the bar.」

Getting up, he put on his Dragon Robe and Shoes of Sleipnir before leaving the room.

「Oh, good morning. You’re pretty late.」

The owner of the bar immediately called out to Rei, but Rei’s reply was somewhat grumpy.

「I thought I told you I didn’t like to drink.」

「Did you? Well, I don’t seem to recall that.」

「You’re clearly lying……」

Yes. Even though Rei had told the man in front of him that he didn’t like to drink, the man had gathered up all the villagers at night and held a party to welcome Rei.

Rei didn’t know, but it wasn’t that unusual for this village to receive guests. However, it was true that there weren’t many guests who stayed overnight.

He had been planning to stay at an inn at first, but decided not to after the man invited him to stay over at the bar as they hadn’t been guests for a long time.

What he said was true. ……At least to the point that not many guests stayed in the village overnight.

「There’s a well out the front, so you can wash up there. After that, it will be time for breakfast.」

「Sure, I’ll do that. ……Could I ask you to prepare some food for Set as well?」

「Hmm……that Griffon eats a lot. I’ve got enough for today, but I’ll have to find something for tomorrow. The only saving grace is that it’s not too far into summer. It won’t be a problem to replenish the food supply during the rest of summer and autumn.」

At those words, the grumpy expression on Rei’s face disappeared as he felt somewhat apologetic.

After all, he knew from attending the party last night that Set’s friendliness had been accepted by the residents of this village and that he had eaten a lot of food in the bar.

The man might have been mischievous in many ways, but Rei still felt somewhat bad as the man and let him stay over out of the goodness of his heart. Reaching into his Dragon Robe, Rei took out a few silver coins from a pouch he had taken out from the Misty Ring.

「Here’s food money for me and Set for now. Please take it.」

「……Hey, hey, hey, hey, no matter what, you can’t possibly spend several silver coins for a few days worth of food……」

The man was was about to say something when he remembered Rei and Set’s appetites from the day before and choked on his words.

「Well, the thing is, I don’t know when Elena will arrive at this village. But, considering the cost of food for me and Set, it should be at least that much.」

「Ahem, if you say so, I’ll accept.」

The man didn’t show any particular signs of happiness as he accepted the silver coins.

In the first place, few merchants visited the village. The residents basically lived on their own and exchanged goods with each other in a way similar to bartering.

Considering this, taking the silver coins was probably just the man’s way of accepting Rei’s thanks.

「Anyway, I’ll cook up breakfast while you wash up, so go ahead. Oh, Set has also already been fed.」

「Okay, thank you.」

Thanking the man briefly, Rei went outside.

Looking back, it looked like an ordinary building……no, it did look like quite a fine place for the countryside, but even so, it looked like a simple house.

The only thing that indicated that this was a bar was the sign of a glass of wine near the entrance.

「Well, this seems to be a village with a lot of stories behind it……I shouldn’t worry too much about it. I don’t want to get into any trouble.」

「Gururu~?」

As Rei murmured to himself, Set, who had come over without him realising, rubbed his face against Rei as he gave a cry.

「Good morning. Did you sleep well last night?」

「Guru~!」

Set gave a cheerful cry to indicate he had no problems the previous night.

「I see, that’s good. It’s been a while since I’ve had a good night’s sleep outside of a magic tent.」

After washing up with some well water, Rei took out a few pieces of dried meat and gave them to Set.

Even though Set had already eaten his breakfast, he still ate the dried meat Rei gave to him without hesitation.

With the way Set was purring happily, he looked more like a cat than a Griffon, an A rank monster known as the reaper of the skies.

(That said, his lower body is that of a lion, so he’s definitely catlike.)

After playing with Set for about 5 minutes, stroking his head and brushing his fur, a man walked out from the bar with an exasperated sigh.

「Hey, hey, I told you I was cooking up breakfast. I was wondering if you’d left from how long you took. ……Hey, Rei! Are you going to have breakfast?!」

「Yeah, sorry. Of course I’ll have breakfast.」

「Gururu~」

Rei stood up at the man’s words and Set looked over with a sad cry.

「Don’t worry, we won’t be busy until Elena arrives. After we finish breakfast, we can relax together.」

「Gurururu~!」

At Rei’s words, Set gave a happy cry as if his lonely expression a few seconds ago never existed.

Looking at the two of them, the man was convinced that they were people related to Elena.

After that, Rei ended up having a breakfast of bacon, sausage, ham, dried meat and bread, which wasn’t really a meal you’d eat in the morning.

After eating a breakfast composed almost entirely of meat, Rei decided that his meals would be cooked from whatever he had stocked up in the Misty Ring.

 

 

「Oh, it’s you again. What are you doing here?」

After a meal of meat and bread, which would have been a treat for some, but not for others, Rei and Set were looking around the village with nothing to do in particular.

From the outside, there didn’t seem to be anything unusual about the village, it was just an ordinary farming village.

Rei decided to take a look around the farm area to see if he could find any tasty vegetables to cook with, which he could barter for using things like the Bicorn meat he had collected from the rank up test,

The first person he happened to run across was the man he had met in the fields yesterday when he asked for directions to the bar.

However, when Rei saw him again, holding his hoe……Rei’s eyebrows moved slightly.

He might have been wearing long sleeves in summer to protect himself from sunstroke, sunburn or insects, but it couldn’t hide his body’s constitution.

At first glance he might look like a farmer, and he was definitely a farmer, but Rei was pretty sure the man had been a fighter before becoming a farmer.

As he thought that, he had known since yesterday that this village held some secrets relating to Duke Kerebel, so he didn’t pursue the matter further as he told the farmer what he wanted.

Actually, if you have any summer vegetables, I’d like to have some. Of course, not for free. I’d like to exchange some Bicorn meat for it.」

「Hmm. I guess I have some potatoes I just harvested. Is that okay?」

The farmer turned to look at a nearby hut. It seemed to be the place where he had harvested his potatoes.

After being harvested, the potatoes would be left to dry in the shade to stop them from rotting, after which they could be stored for almost a year.

That said, dried out potatoes tasted much worse than ones which were freshly harvested. Knowing this from his life in Japan, Rei nodded as he took out some Bicorn meat from the Misty Ring.

The 30kg chunk of Bicorn meat was still quite fresh despite the fact that it had been stored in the Misty Ring for quite a few days.

(Well, it was stored in the Misty Ring……but while it won’t decay, there’s also no way to age anything.)

The more magic power a monster had, the better its meat tasted. Rei wondered how good the meat would taste if it were aged, but as an adventurer, he couldn’t think of a place where he could age meat.

If there was one possible place, it would be Hasta’s dismantling hut, but he couldn’t casually ask to use it if it would interfere with Hasta’s dismantling work. Above all, there was also the problem of controlling the temperature.

(No, if it’s temperature control system, the Dusk Wheat should have at least one? In that case, next would be the highest ranking monster meat I have. That would be the Lemrace. Given how much meat I have, I could probably use some.)

The Lemrace was a sea serpent that was over 30m in length. The head might have been blown up and some meat given to the adventurers who helped to dismantle it or served to others during celebrations, but there was still a considerable amount left in the Misty Ring.

There was enough for Rei and Set to eat for over a year.

「Ohh, this is great. This Bicorn meat. If I can get this much, I wouldn’t mind trading potatoes for it. In fact, I’d ask you to trade it with me.」

「Is that so, then I’d like the potatoes.」

「Sure, how much do you want?」

「I don’t mind, just as much as the meat.」

The farmer looked quite shocked at Rei’s words, but didn’t seem to have a problem with it as he guided Rei to the hut.

 

 

 

「This is……amazing.」

Inside the hut, there were potatoes, potatoes and more potatoes. It was close to what you could call a carpet of potatoes.

(They look more like potatos than a sweet potatos. ……But I guess that’s natural as this was harvested in summer.)

Nodding, Rei stored about 30kg of potatoes into the Misty Ring.

Although it was the same weight’s worth, 30kg of potatoes was still a considerable amount and it took him about 20 minutes to store it all away.

「Then, thanks for the meat.」

After being seen off by the farmer, Rei and Set went back to exploring the village.

They spent the rest of the day wandering around, collecting vegetables and catching fish in the river when some children invited them.

(Come to think of it, it’s been more than a year since I first came to Elgin.)

Rei thought to himself as he vaguely looked towards the summer sunset in the distance.

Rei didn’t regret coming to Elgin from Japan. After all, if he hadn’t he would have died.

For that Rei held no grudges towards Zepairu.

「Guru~」

Seeing Rei like that, Set, who had a deep connection with him, seemed to sense something. He rubbed his head against Rei as he gave a small cry.

Petting Set’s head, Rei looked over at some green ears of wheat, which were the symbol of summer, as he gave a small smile.

Nothing happened in particular. But at that moment, he remembered that the green ears of wheat he saw weren’t the same as the green ears of rice he knew.

Rei spoke as he scratched Set’s head, who was looking at him with concern.

「I haven’t had the chance to relax in such an idyllic farming village since I came to Elgin. Maybe I’m a bit sentimental because of that.」

「Gurururu~」

It was true that Rei had stopped by farming villages before. Especially on his travels during the war with the Bestir Empire, he had stopped by many farming villages. However, there was no way that he could have taken the time to watch the summer sun slowly set, hence his sentiments.

Set was in a good mood, having his head scratched, and gave a cry.

The two of them watched the summer sunset with a somewhat emotional atmosphere……when suddenly, they noticed a big stir near the village entrance.

「……What?」

Rei muttered to himself as he looked towards the village entrance questioningly while petting Set.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that a large number of villagers had gathered near the entrance. However, they didn’t seem to be in a frenzy and many of them had joyful expressions on their faces.

Rei was curious about the villagers’ reaction, so he naturally headed for the village entrance with Set.

There, they saw a luxurious carriage pulled by two warhorses approaching the village.

Even if the carriage was luxurious, it wasn’t the same kind of garish luxury that Rei had seen during the rank up test. It was luxurious in the sense that the carriage itself was a magic item.

Rei was familiar with the carriage and immediately understood why it had caused such a stir.

However, the next moment, his understanding turned into confusion.

The reason was that the carriage driver wasn’t someone he knew.

If it had been Ara or even Machen, who he had met during the Bestir Empire war, he would have known who was inside immediately.

However, the carriage didn’t seem to care for Rei’s confusion as he came closer, eventually stopping at the village entrance……

「Thank you everyone for your hard work. I heard an adventurer called Rei had come here?」

The person who got out the carriage was a beauty with a dignified aura.

「Kyukyu~!」

Along with that person, a small chibi dragon also appeared from inside the carriage.

It was Elena, the famed General Princess, and her familiar, Yellow, who was created using Dragon Language magic.

In other words, they were the two that Rei had been waiting here for.

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