It was the day after talking with Vosk at the guild. It was the first day of bad weather since Rei and Elena had come to Exil.

The sky was covered with dark rain clouds and the weather felt like it would rain at any time as humid atmosphere covered the city.

The humidity seemed like it was foretelling the future of the nominated request they had accepted, or so it seemed.

Rei seemed to have felt something, Elena tilted her head to look at Rei as they made their way towards the dungeon.

On a side note, Yellow wasn’t present on Elena’s left shoulder or on Set’s back today.

In the end, they couldn’t bear to bring Yellow along after seeing it get hit by the desert heat the day before. Perhaps it was it was currently enjoying sleeping in the inn, or maybe it was messing around with the other horses and tamed monsters, which would have relaxed with Set gone.

(Dragons should be of a higher ranking than Griffons though. Is this the difference between a child and an adult? Well, considering the number of days between the time Set and Yellow were born, it shouldn’t be that big of a difference.)

Thinking about that, Rei shook his head and looked up at the sky again as Elena was looking at him.

「I just don’t like the weather, it seems like it’s going to rain.」

「……Is that so? We’re going into the dungeon though, so even if it rains out here, it shouldn’t have much effect right? It’s not like it will rain so much that the water will flow into the dungeon.」

At Elena’s words, the term ‘guerilla rainstorm’ that he had seen several times on TV back in Japan passed through his mind. There had been situations were heavy rain continued to fall in a short period of time and, as a result, rainwater had flooded basements. ……But, if it was a dungeon, that probably wouldn’t happen.

(No, in fact, I would be happy to see rain pouring down into the desert past the 11th floor.)

As he thought that ridiculous thought in his mind, Rei bought some Lizardmen skewers from the usual street stall.

The stall owner seemed confused at Yellow’s absence, but as there was nothing to hide, they told him that Yellow was still a child ad was susceptible to the desert heat, which seemed to convince the stall owner.

 

 

「Rei! -, Elena, you’re here too.」

Rei and Elena showed their dungeon cards to the gatekeeper and made their way to the dungeon plaza when a voice suddenly called out to them.

Turning to look in the direction of the unmistakable voice, they saw the person they expected.

They were wearing clothes that looked like thin layers of transparent cloth while exposing their attractive arms and legs to the extent that almost everything could be seen. The only equipment they had was on their hands and feet.

The weapons on her hands and feet aside, there was only one person Rei and Elena knew that dressed in a way that would have them mistaken for a dancer.

Rei gave a bitter smile while Elena gave a sigh as they greeted the provocatively dressed woman approaching them……Vihera.

「Did the Silva family invite invite you here Rei?」

「Wait a moment. Why are you only talking to Rei? I’m here as well.」

「……Oh, Elena was here as well. I was so focused on Rei that I didn’t even notice.」

「……Hah? Didn’t you just call my name earlier?」

Rei turned his gaze to the person following Vihera as he left the two of them scattering invisible sparks into the surroundings.

The 10 year old girl ignored the arguing duo as well as Rei as she went straight to stroke Set’s head.

「You look well Byune. ……But is this okay? I heard that your family and the Silva family has a lot of history.」

「Mm!」

Byune responded to indicate there was no problem as she stroked Set with her usual blank expression.

Personally for Byune, she had been doing work for the Silva family partly to avoid overbearing parties who tried to force her to join. But even with that in mind, this request paid quite well and there was also the reward payout for successfully killing the monster, so when Vihera said she would work with her, Byune decided to accept it.

However, she didn’t show it on her face as she stroked Set’s head in silence.

「Gurururu~」

Set didn’t seem to mind getting stroked by Byune as he gave a happy cry.

But, as Byune stroked Set, she looked at Rei with some dissatisfaction.

Her expression didn’t change, but Rei could still sense her dissatisfaction, a sign that Rei was getting to know Byune better.

What Byune was dissatisfied about was clear, although she was stroking Set with her right hand, her left hand was free.

「I”m sorry. Yellow is still a kid and seems to have trouble handling the desert heat, so he has the day off at the inn today.」

「……Mm.」

That’s unfortunate, Byune seemed to say before stroking Set with her free left hand as well.

Elena and Vihera were still arguing next to Rei and Byune, who while expressionless, still created a somewhat warm atmosphere.

「In the first place, we’re heading to the desert floors, so what’s with your clothes? Aren’t you going to wear a cloak?」

「Of course I brought one. There.」

Turning at Elena’s words, Vihera looked over at someone a short distance away.

Over there was a muscled middle aged man in his forties. He looked like a typical porter with a huge backpack on his back.

He was wearing a cloak himself and was holding two cloaks in his hands. It was clear who the two cloaks were for.

「Huh? You hired a porter? No, rather, there are quite a lot of porters here.」

Looking around her, Elena could see nearly 20 porters.

At the same time, there were even more adventurers around.

「Will this many people be participating in the hunt?」

「Of course they are. If you kill the abnormal species, you’ll get two platinum coins. You’ll also get ownership of all the monsters you kill before finding the abnormal species. Furthermore, they will buy the materials and magic stones at a higher price than what the guild offers. There’s also the gold coin as advance payment. This is a direct request from the Silva family, one of Exil’s three rulling families. Of course, there are some achievement and strength requirements to receive this request, that is necessary. But, considering that you could use this to build connections with the Silva family, I think most of the people who were asked would have accepted it.」

「I’m surprised you accepted this request though.」

Elena muttered as she glanced over at Vihera.

However, Vihera just shrugged her shoulders as she smiled back.

IT was just a small action, but it caused her large breasts to shake, grabbing the eyes of the men around her.

However, maybe because she was already used to such gazes, she didn’t seem to care at all.

It might have been a different story if one of them had recklessly tried to hook up with her, but most of the adventurers here were those with a certain level of skill and had heard about the Mad Beast. Even those that didn’t could tell how strong she was.

Because of that, fortunately for the future of this particular request, there was no tragedy from someone becoming too dazzled by Vihera’s beauty and body, which she used as bait to attract fights.

But, even if there had been such a daring man, it was doubtful whether he would have done anything in front of the the presence of Set.

Vihera clicked her tongue seeing such a situation as she understood that everyone around her had a certain level of strength.

(Well, I’ve heard the abnormal species is supposed to be strong. So I might get a good fight there.)

Vihera diverted her gaze from the adventurers looked at them without a change in her expression.

Unaware of Vihera’s thoughts, Elena turned to look at the adventurers around them again.

She had a magic pouch and Rei, who she usually partied with, had an item box. Because of that, they had no problems not having a porter. However, for ordinary adventurers, unless they had some special circumstances like Byune’s communication issues or a lack of money to pay for a porter, they would generally bring a porter with them.

For Vihera, who enjoyed the dungeon as a place to fight and probably shouldn’t have any issues with money, when partying with Byune, she wouldn’t bring a porter. However, while the Spear Frog, the target of Vosk’s request, would be carried away by Vosk’s men, they would have to carry the materials and magic stones of monsters of other monsters they killed themselves.

As normal, if they collected a fair amount of materials and magic stones, they could return to the surface first……but in that case, there was a risk that other adventurers would kill the Spear Frog first. As a result of those thoughts, Vihera probably decided to hire a porter just this once.

「But, with Rei here, we might not have to hire a porter.」

「We won’t necessarily be working together with you though.」

Elena realised that Vihera had assumed Rei would work together with her for some reason as she retorted. However, Vihera just walked over to Rei, who was talking with Byune, as if Elena’s words were nothing more than wind.

「Hey, Rei. Why don’t you work with us for today’s request? You would like to have an attractive beauty like me at your side, right?」

「……Well, I don’t know about that.」

It was true that Vihera looked very good, she was definitely one of the top three most beautiful people Rei had ever seen. However, aside from being beautiful, she was also a combat maniac who loved to fight. And, since the main reason for Vihera’s attraction towards Rei was to fight, he couldn’t casually accept her offer, no matter how attractive she looked.

In addition, there was a scary look it Elena’s eyes, which was why Rei didn’t just give in to Vihera.

(In the first place, she’s publicly said that she would give herself over to anyone who could defeat her. Her favour towards me is definitely not one between men and women but just for fighting. There’s no doubt she’s just seeing me as a fight to enjoy.)

「……Mm……」

Byune tilted her head without change in her expression at Vihera’s words.

If they could defeat the abnormal species by themselves, the profit would just be split between the three of them, and that was if they included the porter.

However, if they worked together with Rei, their profits would decrease but their strength would increase overwhelmingly. They wouldn’t even need to hire a porter as Rei had an item box.

It was a difficult choice, but in the end, Byune shook her head at Vihera.

For Byune, their party should have enough strength to kill the abnormal species. As someone who knew Vihera’s combat strength, she felt that they had enough power to kill the abnormal species.

While Byune herself wasn’t that good at direct combat, she was confident in her agility as a thief. It wasn’t conceit, she knew she had the ability to take advantage of an enemy’s weakness to launch surprise attacks, or at least provide support for Vihera.

「Is that so? Well, if Byune doesn’t want to, it can’t be helped, I’ll give it up.」

Even though Vihera wanted to work with Rei and Elena if possible……or watch them fight up close to be exact, if Byune didn’t want to, she could only give up the idea.

(Besides, there’s no point in watching those two fight up close if I can’t resist the urge……)

Thinking to herself, Vihera recalled the sight of Rei and Elena fighting inside the dungeon and the memory of her fight with Rei under the moonlight.

「Ahhh……」

A look of ecstasy appeared on her face for a moment. Fortunately, it was only for a moment and no one saw it. If someone had seen it, how would they have felt?

They would either have been distracted by the lustrous smile that would suck away their soul or be frozen if they noticed the danger under her smile.

「If you have received a request from the Silva family, please gather here! Each party must register before moving to the 11th floor! As for rewards, you will all be paid in bulk after today’s exploration is over!」

A guild staff member shouted out near the dungeon and the adventurers who heard them immediately started heading over.

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