As the carriage made its way down the main street of Exil, Set walked beside it with Yellow on his back.

The carriage, Griffon and small Dragon attracted the attention of the surroundings, even in a city as unique as a labyrinth city.

Fortunately, the Necklace of Subservient Monster hung around Set’s neck seemed to have an effect as almost no one ran away the moment they saw him, unlike when they had been going through the procedures to enter Exil.

However, a Griffon still seemed to be a subject of much awe and Set was feeling quite down because he didn’t have anyone caring for him like back in Gilm.

「Kyukyu, kyu~!」

「Guru~……」

Yellow, on Set’s back, gave a cry to encourage him as Set gave a lonely cry in response.

Some of the people in the surroundings thought, 『What? Can they really be so cute?』. That said, having just seen Set for the first time, no one came up to pet him.

Even so, the appearance of Set and Yellow conversing with each other definitely left something in the hearts of those watching.

 

 

As Set and Yellow continued to converse outside, Rei and Elena were still discussing Labyrinth City Exil.

「There are 3 houses that govern the labyrinth city? If I remember correctly, the party of 4 who first found this dungeon was the ancestor of each house, right?」

「Yes. Until about 300 year ago, the 4 houses jointly ruled Exil. However, one has since fallen and it is now ruled by the other 3 houses. ……There are a number of conspiracies about the Mireana Kingdom, conflicts of interest between the houses internal troubles within the house……however, none of these theories have been proven.」

「Well, they might have been in a party when they first discovered the dungeon……but that was a long time ago.」

Elena shrugged her shoulders as she nodded silently at Rei.

They might have been nobles, but their house still collapsed for some reason. As someone born to the house of a duke, the highest of noble families, she was no stranger to this.

「Anyway, Exil is governed by the 3 houses. ……We haven’t come to take away their control of anything, right? We’ve simply come to go down the dungeon……I hope we don’t have to deal with the houses.」

At the end of his words, he looked at Elena’s beautiful face and shrugged his shoulders with a bitter smile.

「I heard earlier that they would be reporting your visit to the higher ups.」

「I’m not going to worry about that. Since I’ve come to Exil, it would have been known to them sooner or later.」

「Ojou-sama, we’ve arrived at the inn suggested by Barret-sama.」

As Elena spoke, Tufal’s voice came in from outside.

「Thanks for your hard work. Please deal with the necessary procedures.」

「Yes, leave it to me. However, I think it would be better for Rei-sama to directly explain Set’s situation to the inn. ……What do you think?」

In response to Tufal’s question, Elena turned to Rei and asked.

「How would you like to go about it? I think it would be better for you to explain the situation with Set directly. ……It’s a pity that our discussion on Exil was interrupted.」

「Well, I guess that would be best. I’ll be right back then.」

「Mm, be careful……that isn’t something I really need to say to you. In the first place, do you even need to explain about Set to the inn?」

Elena caught herself making a mistake she usually wouldn’t after getting a bit carried away.

Rei stepped out the carriage as he heard those words from Elena.

「Rei-sama, I’ve just completed the inn procedures, so you just need to explain Set to this person.」

「Understand. I’ll leave the rest to you.」

After Rei nodded in response to Tufal, a man in his 30’s, who was standing next to Tufal, stepped forward.

「You’re the one with a Griffon……? Huh, you’re quite different from what I imagined.」

「I’ve been told that a lot. That aside, is Set……a Griffon okay?」

Seeing Yellow go back inside the carriage, Rei asked while stroking Set, who was rubbing his face against him.

「Yes, of course. This is a very long storied inn in Exil. It’s not uncommon for nobles to stay here, so we can handle that.」

「……Is that so.」

Rei turned to look at the inn at the man’s words.

The inn was considerably larger than all the surrounding buildings and was also built facing the main street. There was no doubt that it was a high class in.

(Speaking of it’s size, it’s 3 times as large as the Dusk Wheat. ……No, it might be even bigger?)

Rei thought to himself. The Dusk Wheat, where Rei had settled down in Gilm, was a high class inn. However, in the end, it was still family run, so it had a cosy atmosphere. Compared to that, this inn gave Rei a very systematic feel.

(If the Dusk Wheat is an inn, then this feels more like a hotel.)

Thinking like that, Rei went to the back of the inn with Set, guided by the man.

At the back was a fairly large stable, about 2-3 times larger than the one at the Dusk Wheat.

「It’s quite big.」

「I guess so. It seemed that there was a guest who stayed here 30 years ago who succeeded in taming a huge snake like monster in the dungeon. The stables at the time were so small that it was impossible to fit the monster inside. After that, the owner of the inn rebuilt it as he said it would affect the reputation of the inn.」

The man spoke with a bit of pride.

Perhaps these stables was one of the inn’s points of pride to him.

That said, since Tufal had asked Barret for recommendations to inns that could accept a Griffon without any problems, it was natural in a sense that the inn would have such a large stable.

After being guided into the stables by the man, Rei saw cow like monsters with ferocious horns and giant spider like monsters alongside horses, which surprised him.

「I had thought that tamers were rare, but there seem to be quite a few.」

「It might be safer to form a party with large number of people, but the individual rewards would be reduced in return. Considering that, it has become quite popular to use tamed monsters as support. However, I think it’s just a passing fad. It’s true that you won’t need to split the rewards with other people, but in the end, monsters are monsters and many of them are not that intelligent. In other words, many won’t even reach the level of touching an adventurer’s feet. ……That said.」

The man glanced over at Set, who was looking around the stables.

Many of the monsters and horses seemed to be holding their breaths, perhaps out of fear of the Griffon that had just entered the stables.

「A high ranking monster like the Griffon you have might be better at judging situations than your average adventurer.」

「I guess so. ……Well, I’m glad that there are many tamers.」

Rei muttered.

Rei and Set’s relationship was like a master and tamed monster, but it wasn’t really. In truth, Set was a monster created using the Magic Beast Art. That was why Rei felt that he wouldn’t stand out as much with that many tamers around.

……Unfortunately, as long as he walked around with Set, there was no way he wouldn’t be conspicuous.

「Then, please take care of Set.」

「Leave it to me. I’m more than happy to take care of an A rank monster. Normally I’d be too scared to do so, but this Set looks smart and seems to understand words.」

「Gururururu~」

「In that case, Set, I’m going back to the inn. Take your time to relax in the stables.」

As Rei patted his back and left, Set gave a cry and went inside the stables.

Seeing him go in, Rei left Set with the man and returned to the inn’s entrance.

The carriage had already been moved and could no longer be seen. A man who seemed to be an inn employee bowed his head when he saw Rei.

「Rei-sama. Welcome to the Golden Wind. We have heard from Elena-sama and Tufal-sama. We will guide you to your room right away.」

As expected of an employee of a high class inn, his bow was very polite, if not as good as Tufal’s.

In actual fact, there were slight differences, but Rei, who lacked knowledge in this area, didn’t notice such small differences.

「Ah, I’ll be in your care. About the accomodation fee……」

Saying that, Rei tried to take out a bag of coins from the Misty Ring, but was stopped by the man.

「We have already received the accommodation fee from Tufal-sama.」

「……What?」

Rei hadn’t expected that and responded on reflex.

The inn was a high class inn and it would be priced as such. That said, Rei wasn’t afraid to have to pay that much. ……Rather, he had enough wealth that even if a family played around and lived in luxury until they died, they still wouldn’t be able to use up all his money. Why did Tufal pay for him……that was what Rei thought, but before he could say anything, a voice called out to him.

「In a way, this is my own selfish outing. Because of that, why shouldn’t I pay for your accommodation?」

「Elena……」

Rei turned towards the owner of the voice.

Elena continued with a smile after seeing Rei’s gaze.

「I’m the daughter of a Duke and the General Princess in charge of knights. I’m working with an adventurer, so it’s only natural that I pay for you. ……Can you let me pay for you without any issues? There is also the problem of my respectibility as a noble.」

Elena and Rei’s eyes met for a few seconds and it was Rei who turned away first.

He wasn’t much for aristocratic pride or respectability, but he wasn’t willing to push any further after being told that by someone he liked.

「I understand, I’ll accept your offer this time.」

Elena gave a sight of relief at Rei’s words.

Elena as an individual wanted to show her good side to Rei, but as the daughter of a duke, if she didn’t pay for people following her, it would reflect badly on her from the outside.

Because of that, it was fortunate for Elena that Rei gave in easily/

「Thanks, that’s a great help. That’s right, I would like to enter the dungeon tomorrow. Is that fine with you?」

「Yeah, I’ve told others that I would be back to Gilm before winter, so it would be best for me to enter the dungeon as soon as possible.」

「Fufu~, it’s the same for me as well. Ara aside, Machen regularly comes to me with more paperwork to sign off. ……That aside, after we check our rooms, why don’t we go straight to the guild? It seems we have to register at the guild to enter the dungeon.」

At Elena’s words, Rei closed his eyes to recall something……before nodding.

「Yeah, I heard from the guild back in Gilm that there was such a rule.」

Normally, it was an adventurer’s own responsibility to take care of themselves. Even at the dungeon that Rei and Elena had gone to previously, they only needed to show their guild cards as ID and there was no need to go through a separate procedure at the guild.

However, in Exil, there were many more adventurers who would go down the dungeon because of unique characteristics. The number of adventurers was incomparable to the dungeon Rei and Elena had previously gone to, so in addition to a guild card, a special dungeon card was also issued to keep track of how many adventurers had gone into the dungeon.

Rei had heard that it was like this so that people who weren’t registered with the guild, such as nobles or knights, could also enter the dungeon. However, he suspected that it probably had more to do with the self interests of the 3 houses that governed the city.

In fact, this rule had only been put in place after one of the original 4 houses had fallen, so that was likely the case.

Even so, the Mireana Kingdom made no particular comments about it as it did make it convenient for those without a guild card to enter the dungeon.

(That said, I heard that quite a few stories of giving bribes to get let in.)

Elena nodded in response to Rei as she recalled the rumours she had heard when she had been in Gilm.

「The process shouldn’t be difficult, especially in my case because I come from a Duke’s house. Even so, it will likely still take some time. Rather than wasting tomorrow, it’s a better idea to get it done now. ……What do you think?」

Rei didn’t want to waste any time either, so he nodded at Elena’s words and checked where his room was located before heading to the guild.

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