The fourth floor in the Exil Dungeon. Rei and the others finally reached it about an hour after the Sword Bee incident.

「So this is the fourth floor? It looks just the same.」

Elena muttered as she looked around the room where the stairs and the magic circle were.

The surroundings were still cobblestone walls and floors, more or less the same style as the third floor.

「Looking at it another way though, it just goes to show how basic the dungeon with the Altar of Inheritance was.」

「The first floor was the same, but it started to change as we went down. However, the dungeon hadn’t been around for long, so maybe that had something to do with it. Considering that, perhaps this dungeon will also change into a forest when we go deeper……」

「I hope so. As expected, it starts to get tiring seeing the same scenery all the time. ……What do we do now? Do you want to explore this floor a bit? Or do you want to head back up?」

Rei rubbed and stroked Set’s head and back as he thought for a few seconds before looking over at Elena before making his decision.

「Let’s go back for today. I’m tired from dealing with the Sword Bees and, in the end, we’ve only been in Exil for a few days. We don’t have to overdo it here.」

「I wouldn’t mind exploring a bit further……」

Although Elena said that, she understood Rei’s reasoning for ending their dungeon dive here for the day as she wasn’t fully accustomed to the dungeon environment either. Her strength on the battlefield was fine. However, fighting monsters while staying wary of traps inside dungeon, with no idea where they might appear, was a different situation. Adding on the fight with the qQueen Bee, the subsequent chase and countless Sword Bees she had killed, Elena was more tired than she looked.

「However, I do want to absorb the Queen Bee’s magic stone before returning to the surface using the magic circle.」

Rei said that after looking around and making sure there wasn’t anyone nearby. When Elena heard him, she gave a small smile, her expression changing from few seconds ago.

「Absorbing the magic stone? I would like to see that at least once, but……is that okay?」

「Am I going to hide it from you now? Don’t worry about it.」

Saying that, Rei took out the corpse of the Queen Bee from the Misty Ring. Its head and abdomen, which was where its poisonous stinger had been, had both been crushed. At a glance, it was hard to tell what the monster had originally looked like.

「Looking at it, that was definitely from Set’s attack.」

Elena murmured as she looked at the corpse of the Queen Bee.

Rei took out his dismantling knife and cut into the body of the Queen Bee as Elena watched.

The Queen Bee’s abdomen had been completely crushed, but fortunately the magic stone was still in its heart as normal, so Rei was able to remove it without any problems.

「……Do you think the wings or other materials would sell?」

「Even if you ask me, I have no idea. Well, we could take everything with us. If it doesn’t sell, we can just burn it or throw it away. Since you have an item box, Rei, the weight shouldn’t matter.」

「That is true.」

Rei nodded as he stored the corpse of the Queen Bee, which was now missing its heart, back into the item box. He then took out the Dagger of Flowing Water to wash his dirty hands and knife.

Knowing how good the water tasted, having been created with massive amounts of magic power, Elena looked over towards Rei as if she wanted to say something. However, since the water was made with Rei’s magic power and because he could make as much as he wanted, she stopped herself from saying anything. Rei didn’t seem to care at all as he finished washing his hands and knife before presenting the Queen Bee’s magic stone to Set.

「Set, you can eat it.」

「Guru~」

Hearing Rei’s words, Set grabbed the magic stone with his beak before swallowing it.

Rei gave a sigh when the familiar announcement didn’t sound in his mind after 30 seconds.

(Well, it might have been a Queen Bee, but a Queen Bee is still just a queen of E rank Sword Bees. Considering that, I guess there weren’t any skills that could be learnt.)

As Rei thought to himself, he looked over towards Elena, who was looking back at him and Set with some expectation. As if waiting for that moment, Elena voiced her questions.

「So, what did he learn? If it’s a Queen Bee, is it something to do with poison?」

Rei shook his head at Elena, who looked unusually interested.

「Unfortunately, no skills were learnt. Well, even if a magic stone is absorbed, it doesn’t guarantee that a skill will be learnt.」

「……Is that so?」

Elena gave a sigh at Rei’s reply.

Rei tapped her shoulder, covered in white armour, to encourage Elena.

「Well, there are stronger monsters the deeper down the dungeon we go. I think we will have the opportunity to absorb their magic stones, so you can look forward to that.」

「……Mm.」

Elena nodded without any change in her forlorn expression, possibly because she had wanted to see what it looked like when Set learnt a new skill.

「Kyu!」

「Gururu~」

Yellow sat on her left shoulder, comforting Elena by rubbing against her cheek while Set bowed his head at her, as if apologising.

Seeing the two of them act like that, Elena spoke up with a small smile on her face as she stroked both their heads.

「No, don’t worry about it. It’s just that I had my own expectations. Besides, as Rei said, if we continue to the deeper floors, there will be many strong monsters. More importantly, let’s go back up. We gave away all the Sword Bee magic stones, but we’ve still been collecting other magic stones. After selling them at the guild, we’ll get something to eat like yesterday before heading back to the inn. ……However, Rei, if you do meet that Vihera from yesterday, don’t you get seduced by her.」

「No, I wasn’t……」

「Did you say something?」

「……No, it’s nothing.」

At Elena’s glare, Rei couldn’t continue speaking and decided to keep silent.

Perhaps she was happy to see Rei’s reponse, Elena gave a small nod before immediately turning to head for the magic circle.

「Come on Rei. Let’s go.」

Elena said that as she held Rei’s hand.

 

 

「I would like to sell these.」

Rei immediately went over to the the materials sale counter after returning to the guild. He took out magic stones, proofs of subjugation and a small number materials from the from the Misty Ring and placed them onto the counter.

They had gone to the guild at a later time compared to the previous day, but it was still before 4pm, which was the busiest time. Because of that, they were able to quickly sell off everything, except for the Queen Bee, which didn’t have any saleable materials, without having to line up. Just as they were about to leave the guild.

「Pardon me, Rei-san, Elena-san. There are some people looking for the two of you, do you have some time?」

The person who called out to them wasn’t the one who they had handed in materials over to, but a receptionist from the request counter.

「Looking for us?」

Rei didn’t recall causing any issues recently, especially in Exil, which was why he asked, wondering if there had been a mistake.

However, the receptionist shook her head in response.

「They are definitely looking for Rei-san and Elena-san. They’re waiting upstairs in the innermost meeting room.」

「……Who is it?」

「It’s Vosk Silva-san.」

Hearing that name, Rei recalled what had happened in the dungeon.

(I see, is it related to that?)

Thinking about that, he recalled the giant 2m tall Vosk, who he had seen briefly back at the eatery. He also recalled the huge claymore than Vosk had carried at his back.

(Well, I wonder what he wants……if possible, I don’t want the discussion to turn sour.)

As Rei thought about that, he and Elena went up the stairs to the second floor and made their way to the room at the very back.

「I wonder how things will turn out.」

Rei muttered as he knocked on the door, after which there was an immediate response.

『Come in.』

Hearing that, Rei opened the door, finding the man he had seen the day before.

As expected, a claymore was too much of a hindrance to carry around inside the room and was casually placed on the table.

No, it would only appear casual to most people. To those with a certain level of skill, they could see that it was in a position where Vosk could instantly swing it.

……Even if there were nearly 30 skewers on the table.

「Hey, I’ve been waiting.」

Vosk greeted Rei by raising his left hand as his right hand reached out for a skewer.

Bringing the skewer to his mouth, he bit into the meat closest to his hand and pulled the skewer out in one go, putting all the meat in his mouth.

Next, he reached out for a cask of wine, which he casually poured into a cup the size of a bowl before pouring it into his mouth alongside the meat.

「Hmm……pardon me, there’s a lot of work in governing this city. Thanks to that, I’m eating what can be considered something between a lunch and a dinner. ……So, you already know why I called you two over, right?」

「Yeah, is it about what happened in the dungeon today? News moves fast.」

「That’s right. I’m a young man after all, being fast on my feet is one of my selling points.」

With a smile on his face, he stood up from his chair and walked over to Rei and Elena.

After a few seconds of silence……

「Thank you very much for helping my brothers!」

Saying that, Vosk gave a deep bow.

It was not something Rei or Elena had expected. They had never thought that one of the heads of the three families governing Exil would bow his head so easily.

Although Rei and Elena had though that he was just thanking them for the sake of appearances, the sight of Vosk actually bowing his head made them realise he was serious.

At the very least, the bow looked serious to Rei and Elena.

「This is a surprise.」

「……That I’m bowing towards you?」

Vosk raised his head at Rei’s words.

「Yeah. I didn’t think you would do something like this considering your attitude yesterday.」

「Under normal circumstances, that’s definitely true. I know that better than anyone. But this time is different. They are my younger brothers who rely on me and love me. They are my biggest asset. Much more important than money.」

「……Huh.」

Elena seemed to like Vosk’s reasons and looked impressed as she stood next to Rei.

「So. This is my gratitude. Please accept it.」

Saying that, Vosk took out several gemstones from his waist pocket. They weren’t big in size, but there were still a total six rubies, emeralds and turquoise gems.

Rei immediately understood what the number of gems represented. It was the number of adventurers that Rei and Elena had helped out in the dungeon.

「Are you sure?」

「Yeah. It’s not all mine anyway. Half of them are from the people you helped out as thanks for saving their lives. In fact, this was only possible because you gave them all the Sword Bee magic stones, I didn’t force them to give these to you.」

「Well, appearances aside, they’re quite responsible.」

Vosk gave a hearty smile at Rei’s reply.

Looking at Vosk, Rei was reminded of Elk, the leader of Axe of the Thunder God, for some reason.

(Are they similar? ……Well, if you ask me if they’re similar, they’re definitely similar. Especially the part where they highly value their friends.)

Rei thought about that as he received the gems from Vosk, who handed them over in a small bag.

Normally, this could be considered an excessive rewards for saving the lives of several adventurers. In another sense, it could be said that the lives of adventurers were cheap, but the person who handed over the reward didn’t seem to care as he nodded in satisfaction.

After that, Vosk just returned to his seat and started stuffing skewers into his mouth.

That was the end of the matter, at least that was probably the case.

However, as Rei and Elena were about to leave the room, Vosk called out to them again.

「Hey, what are Crimson and the General Princess doing here in Exil?」

「Is there a problem? We just came here for the dungeon.」

「……Really?」

「Well, who knows. But, at the very least, there’s no other reason. I just have a hobby of collecting magic items and magic stones, I don’t plan to do much else in this city.」

They didn’t know what Vosk took from Rei’s response, but he didn’t ask anything more as the two of them left.

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