The day after the subjugation of the abnormal species. At the Golden Wind inn, Rei and Elena went to the dining area to eat breakfast.

Rei was concerned that the dining area was strangely noisy, but what caught his attention more was the food that several guests were eating for breakfast. Namely……

「Is that, udon?」

Yes, what the guests were eating was definitely udon. The ingredients and broth were slightly different to what Rei knew, but there was no mistaking that it was udon, the first noodle dish to be introduced to Elgin.

「Oh, you know of it? It was a dish that was recently introduced to Exil. The story is that it was invented in Gilm, the famous frontier city.」

「……I see.」

A waiter, who had heard Rei’s murmurs, replied and Elena gave a small nod when she realised what Rei was surprised about.

Gilm and Exil were quite far apart in terms of distance. It could take several months to make the journey on foot.

He was probably surprised that a dish invented in Gilm had made it to a place so far away.

Of course, that was one of the reasons, but not the only one. Udon was originally a dish popularised by Rei, and whether it was popular trend or because of the chef’s skill, udon had become a common dish in Gilm and its surroundings. That said, Rei was genuinely surprised to find the food he taught had spread to Exil.

(Don’t tell me that seafood okonomiyaki will spread all over the country soon as well?)

As he thought about that, he and Elena both ordered udon to try it out and took a seat.

A few minutes passed. Although it was udon, it was still on the thinner side, so it was boiled in a few minutes and brought to them in a bowl with other ingredients and a rich broth.

As expected of a first class inn, all ingredients used were first class. The meat came from a C rank monster called Armoured Sheep, which lived in the deeper layers of the dungeon. There were also young Aruraune shoots and other rare ingredients simmered in the broth to create a morning dish. Despite the strong seasoning, the taste was so good that it made you want to eat as much as you could.

(Even if it’s udon, it’s very different from the udon I knew.)

Most of the udon that Rei knew was the kind served in popular eateries. However, what he was eating now was a dish that could only be described as a high class dish made with rare ingredients and prepared by a first class chef who had put in a lot of time and effort.

「Huh, this is delicious.」

「Yeah. Up to this point, it looks similar, but the taste is completely different.」

Using a fork, he savoured the noodles along with the meat, that melted in his mouth as soon as he bit into it while retaining just the amount of elasticity.

As if copying Rei, ELena also tried the udon with the young Aruraune shoots.

They focused on eating without talking to each other and after about 10 mintues, their bowls were empty.

Bringing the last spoonful of soup to his mouth and giving a sigh in satisfaction……Rei could finally afford to listen in to the noisy conversations around him.

「Is that story true!?」

「Yeah. No doubt. As soon as I woke up and heard about it, I sent someone to check it out. The warehouse has definitely burnt down. The surrounding buildings were taken out as collateral damage as well.」

「But why……is there anything that could have caught fire there…..?」

「About that. I’ve heard that there were corpses found, so it’s probably not an accident. Someone probably attacked them.」

「An attack? But why would anyone attack something there?」

「The thing is, apparently the Silva family had rented the warehouse that was at the center of the fire.」

「Wait a minute. The Silva family? Then……」

「Yeah. There will definitely be retaliation against the person who caused the fire, because most of the dead are adventurers who were working for the Silva familiy.」

「……A storm is coming……」

「Yeah. It might be better to quickly leave Exil. We don’t want to get caught up in the mess of the retaliation.」

「Should we do that as well? But the very act of leaving Exil might cause the Silva family to judge us……」

「You’ll have to make your own choice regarding that. Would you rather stay in Exil and risk getting caught in the retaliation or leave Exil knowing that you might be suspected of being involved in this matter?」

Such stories could be heard everywhere in the dining area.

Because the Golden Wind inn was well known as a luxury inn in Exil, most of the people here were wealthy merchants, nobles, and high ranking adventurers. Because of that, it wasn’t uncommon to see people discussing with their acquaintances on how to escape the uproar that would shortly take place in Exil.

「……Elena.」

「Yeah. I heard. But the warehouse, huh?」

In response to Rei’s call, Elena replied with a frown.

Both of them knew what was being talked about. What was the warehouse where corpses were found after it was burnt down, as discussed in the conversations around them?

It was the warehouse where they had brought the corpse of the abnormal species Spear Frog the day before.

「If the warehouse was attacked, then probably……」

He didn’t speak any further as he looked towards Elena.

Elena nodded silently, agreeing with Rei’s line of thought.

They both agreed that the person who had been creating the abnormal species had probably attacked the warehouse to destroy the evidence.

(But……who was it? The Levisor and Marschel families. Both of them have been buying up magic stones, so it wouldn’t be surprising for it to be either of them.)

While gathering his thoughts in his mind, Rei could only come up with one conclusion.

Namely……

「The Levisor family.」

「That is certainly the most likely scenario. But……」

Elena nodded hesitantly at Rei’s words.

She had never met the person called Pree, the head of the Marschel family, but as far as rumours went, she was at least better than Schaffner.

Considering that, she naturally thought that an attack like this one, which was a blatant attempt to destroy evidence and keep people’s mouths shut, would have been carried out by Schaffner.

However, for some reason, despite feeling so sure, she couldn’t believe that this was the right answer.

A subtle sense of discomfort. Something that couldn’t be explained by circumstantial evidence alone. Elena had such a feeling.

「What’s wrong? Is there something you’re worried about?」

「……There is something, but there’s no evidence.」

Compared to Elena, Rei was completely convinced that this was a bold by the Levisor family.

Yes, just as planned by the person who had ordered the attack.

「In that case……what should we do about it? If this had nothing to do with us, we would have left it alone.」

Rei sighed as he brought a glass of chilled fruit juice from the table to his mouth.

If the attacked warehouse had simply been a place to study monsters, or if it had been a facility belonging to the Silva family that was doing something completely unrelated, they wouldn’t have worried about it. They would have just gone to the 12th dungeon floor to continue clearing it.

However, what had been attacked this time was a facility for dissecting and researching abnormal species. For Rei and his Magic Beast Art, this wasn’t something he could overlook.

「Well, why don’t we ask the Silva family then? We were the ones who killed the abnormal species this time. If the warehouse where the corpse was stored was attacked, it wouldn’t be strange for us to ask about it. Besides……there are some things that concern me.」

The main reason Elena wanted to head to the Silva family wasn’t because of her concern for Rei, but rather a sense of discomfort that had been bothering her for a while.

That said, Elena’s words were a blessing in disguise for Rei. He knew how detrimental the existence of abnormal species could be to himself.

「Would you like to head over right away? Even Vosk would like to secure as much strength as possible after being attacked.」

Thus, Rei and Elena changed their plans for the day from entering the dungeon to visiting the Silva family. After breakfast, both Set and Yellow left the inn with them as they weren’t heading for the dungeon.

 

 

「……Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of angry people.」

10 minutes out from the Golden Wind inn. As they walked through the city as usual, the main street felt very restless.

The reason for this was probably due to the presence of seething adventurers.

The city was full of people who served the Silva family, those who were indebted to them, and those who admired Vosk.

The reason there wasn’t any commotion despite this was perhaps due to the high level of leadership that Vosk possessed.

「That’s true, but I don’t see any brawls or fights happening as a result of that.」

Elena must have noticed the same thing as Rei. She nodded while impressed.

Whether it was Rei or Elena, they were adventurers and knights who fought as part of their living. That was why they weren’t too bothered by the fact the the city was filled with adventurers who seemed to be on the verge of murder. However, to the average person, these adventurers were very threatening and they moved quickly to avoid getting tangled up with them.

「Anyway, I don’t think there’s anything we can do about this. The Silva family was in the north of Exil, right?」

「Yeah.」

The Silva family. The moment he said those words, the eyes of the adventurers in the surroundings were drawn to Rei. But, it seemed that it was reasonably well know that the Silva family and Rei were close, so most of them quickly averted their gaze.

Some of them weren’t aware and tried to go up to Rei, but they were quickly quieted down and informed of the situation by the other adventurers around them.

The adventurers weren’t looking for random people to fight, but rather those that had something against the Silva family. Because of that, none of them bothered Rei or Elena.

In this restless city, they caught a public carriage, similar to the one they had taken on the way back from the Levisor family, and made their way to the north of the city where the Silva family was.

The fact that there were fewer glances than usual towards Set, who was following behind the carriage, was probably due to the fact that adventurers and even ordinary citizens who worked with the Silva family were too concerned with other matters.

「Here as well? I think it will be like this for a while.」

Elena murmured with a sigh as she looked out the carriage window.

From her window view, the number of murderous adventurers grew the further north they went.

It was an expected situation as they were heading in the direction of the Silva family’s residence.

(If rubbed the wrong way, they’ll probably go out of control.)

Rei thought the same thing as he looked out the window.

It was no surprise as the Silva family was filled with rowdy people, as could be seen from the incident at the eatery where he had first encountered Vosk.

If someone tried to fight them, they would end up having to fight every single adventurer related to the Silva family in the vicinity.

(I wouldn’t like to lose……but it would be a massive hassle.)

While thinking like that, they got off the carriage and made their way to the Silva family residence, a large mansion that could be seen from where they were.

As expected of the home base of the Silva family, the number of adventurers increased as they approached the residence.

Even so, no one was suspicious of Rei’s group as they probably knew of his relationship with Vosk.

Considering that they have been called by the guild for private discussions with him twice……they were considered close guests, if not directly related.

In a sense, this place could be considered the safest place in Exil right now, but even then, not many people would want to come here.

No matter how safe it was, it was clear that not many people would like to spend their time in such a tense environment.

Looking at the surroundings as he thought to himself, they eventually arrived at the Silva family residence, their destination.

Because it was the residence of one of the three families that governed Exil, it had to look the part. In front of Rei’s group was a mansion so large it was hard to believe it belonged to Vosk, it was a building of quality and sturdiness.

It was comparable to the Levisor mansion, which Rei’s group had once been summoned to.

Two men, both over 2m tall and wearing full plate mail, stood as gatekeepers.

Rei called out to them.

「I would like to meet with Vosk about last night’s incident. Can you tell him that?」

[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] [Next Chapter]