It was the day after the fight with the abnormal species skeleton, after which its corpse and four magic weapons were sold to the Silva family. Rei could be seen on the streets of Exil.

What was different from usual was that he wasn’t heading for the dungeon, but for Exil’s main gate.

Above all, the biggest difference was that Elena and Yellow, who Rei had spent most of his time with in Exil, were not with him.

Originally, Elena was supposed to go with him to assist with stripping materials. However, she had suddenly received and invitation from the Marschel family and her status required her to accept.

Of course, Rei had some concerns about Elena visiting the Marschel family residence on her own.

Unlike the Silva family, led by Vosk, the Levisor family, formerly led by Schaffner, and the Fraut family, which Byune was part of, they had never had any contact with the Marschel family.

They were one of the three families that governed Exil. However, the number of people they hired was small and they could be considered Exil’s most mysterious family.

(And……I’m pretty sure they have something to do with the abnormal species situation.)

Rei thought to himself as he ate some Fang Boar skewers that he had bought.

Among the members of the adventurer party that had initally found Exil’s dungeon, the Marschel family were the descendants of the mage. For that reason, Rei didn’t believe that they had nothing to do with the abnormal species situation.

That all said, Elena had been the only one to receive an invitation and Rei also had to handle the request he had submitted to the guild the day before to strip materials.

He had considered just dumping all the monsters out before following Elena, but since the monsters were going to be dismantled outside of Exil, it meant that someone had to keep an eye out for monsters. He had also planned on learning how some monsters were dismantled.

Above all, Elena had told him to leave it to her.

After hearing that, Rei still tried to argue back. However, Elena believed she could handle it and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Eventually, Rei just went to the main gate along with Set.

「Gurururu~?」

Is everything okay? Set seemed to ask with a cry as he walked beside Rei. Rei gently reached out to stroke Set.

「You’re right, there’s no point in me worrying. Besides, Elena is far more accustomed to communicating with nobles than I am.」

「Guru~!」

Accompanied by Set’s cries, Rei arrived at the main gate.

There was already a group of more than 10 people waiting impatiently for Rei to arrive.

To be precise, there were the 10 people who had accepted the request the day before and the four adventurers that Rei had saved, Tivia, Esetus, Nakuto, and Goto, 14 people in total.

「……Huh.」

Rei’s voice of surprise was from seeing Tivia who was missing her right arm.

Even though she had been severely injured, she was already able to walk normally again the next day. As far as healing methods were concerned, Elgin’s was far superior to what was available in Japan as Rei remembered.

Thinking of that as he approached the group, whose gazes were focused on him and Set, Rei spoke up.

「Thank you very much for coming. Are you the people who accepted the request to strip materials that I put up in the guild? If anyone has something to say, please step forward.」

Hearing Rei’s words, no one raised any questions.

To tell the truth, there were still some who didn’t think much of Rei’s appearance and had though about forcibly raising the reward. But, seeing Set with Rei, as expected, they didn’t have the courage to say anything and kept quiet.

「……Alright, looks like everyone is here. Oh, some of you might be wondering why there were only 10 people in the request, but there are 14 now. The additional four will be assisting me for free. Because of that, the individual reward will not decrease even if they help out, so don’t worry about it.」

Hearing his words, several adventurers let out sighs of relief.

The request had only been recruiting 10 people, but more people had arrived than expected.

「It was written in the request, but there are five types of monsters that need to be dismantled. Bloodydiles, an Earth Crab, a Spiral Rabbit, Kobolds, and Desert Lizardment. However, regarding the Bloodydiles and Kobolds, there are quite a lot of them. That said, as the names of the monsters were written in the request form, can I assume that you all know how to dismantle each of them?」

At Rei’s words, which seemed like a test of sorts, everyone nodded, sniffed, or smiled in the affirmative.

「Okay then, the monsters will be dismantled in a forest outside of Exil. I had wanted to do it in a field if possible, but it would be a bit of a problem if people on their way to Exil gave me strange looks. As a side note, with regards to keeping guard as we strip materials……Set.」

「Gururu~」

At Rei’s call, Set looked at the adventurers with a cry.

From Rei’s perspective, Set’s eyes looked round and adorable. However, each adventurer seemed to have a different expression.

「Since Set will keep watch, there shouldn’t be any worry of monsters approaching due to the smell of blood. If they still attack though, I will…….」

Pausing his words there, Rei took the Death Scythe out of the Misty Ring before swinging it.

The sight of the 2m long scythe swinging around with enough force to slice the air gave the adventurers a different sense of fear compared to Set.

「With my title of Crimson, I will repel them responsibly. You all know what will happen if you try to steal any materials, right?」

Rei spun the Death Scythe before resting it on his shoulder as he spoke.

His goal was to threaten them with what would happen if they tried to steal any materials to stop anyone from trying.

In fact, with the threat of Set, the Death Scythe, and Rei’s title of Crimson, the adventurers were scared enough to give up any thoughts of stealing materials.

「……Well then, does anyone have any questions?」

After confirming that no one had any questions, Rei pulled down his hood and frowned for a moment at the sunlight before speaking.

「If there are no questions, we will head out of Exil right away. Oh, you don’t have to worry about lunch. We will have monster meat from the Desert Lizardmen and Bloodydiles after stripping all the materials for lunch. As for seasoning, there will be sauce and salt.」

In this case, it could be considered a carrot and stick of sorts. All the fear and awe the adventurers had for Rei faded away when they were told they would be feasting on monster meat.

Although the carrot wasn’t as good as the stick was in punishment, it was still enough to get the adventurers moving.

「Alright, let’s get out of Exil first.」

With Rei’s words, they all headed out the main gate.

 

 

Travelling about 30 minutes away from Exil by foot, they reached a place filled with trees that was closer to a forest than woodland.

Rei and rest of the group decided to dismantle the monsters here.

In addition, this location was also some distance from the road leading to Exil, so if they dismantle monsters here, they wouldn’t be seen by anyone heading for Exil.

There was also a small river running by, which softened the summer heat somewhat.

That said, of all the places that Rei had heard from the staff at the inn where monsters could be dismantled, Rei didn’t chose this place for the coolness provided by the river. Rather, he couldn’t deny that he hadn’t considered that, but the main reason was so they could wash their hands of the blood after dismantling all the monsters.

The only drawback was that there were mosquitoes and other bugs in the forest, but that could be handled without problem using some insect repellent magic items that the adventurers had brought.

「Okay then, let’s split into groups. Two people will handle the Desert Lizardmen, two will handle the Earth Crab, one will deal with the Spiral Rabbit, four will dismantle the Bloodydiles, and everyone will work on the Kobolds. Once we’re done with the Kobolds, please help out the other groups that haven’t finished yet.」

Saying that, Rei took out the monsters from the Misty Ring, one after another.

Most of the adventurers had wide eyes at the sight of of the monsters coming out of the Misty Ring.

The only people who weren’t surprised were the four who had seen Rei use the Misty Ring in front of them yesterday.

Of course, the information that Rei had an item box was already well known, but even so, seeing it with their own eyes was something different.

「Haha. Don’t forget to hand all the materials, magic stones, and proofs of subjugation back to Rei-san.」

For some reason, Tivia ended up being the one in charge as everyone dispersed into their groups while conversing with each other.

「Rei-san, the Kobolds are small and there are a lot of them, so I think they’ll be finished up quickly. Because of that, it might be better to have more people work on them first.」

「Oh, that’s true.」

Even though she had lost her arm just the day before, Tivia gave instructions to everyone without worrying about it. The other adventurers also followed her instructions obediently.

Rei was a little confused about how the situation had turned out as such, but as there weren’t any particular problems right now, as long as the monster dismantling went smoothly, Rei left it to Tivia.

Although Rei and Elena weren’t aware of it, Tivia’s party was somewhat well known in Exil. Due to the name of their party, the other adventurers were willing to follow them obediently.

「The number of Kobolds……is this fine for now?」

Rei turned to glance at the five Kobolds he had taken out from the Misty Ring as he asked Tivia.

「Yes. I don’t think we are overstaffed with that many. You can take out more when we’re done with these.」

「Sure. ……Set, I’ll leave the watch to you.」

「Gururu~?」

Seeing Set tilt his head and give a cry, Rei understood what he was trying to say as he nodded back with a small smile.

「Yeah, don’t worry, I’ll definitely call you for lunch. The Earth Crab will be saved to eat with Elena and Yellow, but you can have any of the other monster meat.」

「Gurururururu~!」

At Rei’s words, Set gave a happy cry before leaving.

With all the trees growing in the area, it wasn’t possible to keep watch from the sky. Because of that, Set decided to use his five senses and magic power to keep watch for any monsters from a distance so as to not disturb the adventurers.

Seeing Set leave, the adventurers started to dismantle the monsters with feelings of relief.

「Don’t scratch the skin of the Bloodydiles. It’s not just useful as armour, it can also be used as a decoration.」

「Fangs, the fangs. First of all, make sure the fangs don’t get in the way of striping materials.」

「Hah-!? I always do it like this though?」

「The Earth Crab has a hard shell, but fortunately most of its legs and claws have already been removed.」

「The proof of subjugation for Kobolds are their right ears.」

「Hey, Desert Lizardmen skin is a material right? I’ll strip it off the tail, so please help me hold it there, the legs are in the way.」

As they conversed like that, material stripping proceeded smoothly for the next hour or so……

「GURURURURURURU~!」

Set’s cry of alarm echoed into the surroundings and one of the adventurers looked up into the sky to see what the cause of alarm was before shouting out.

「It’s a Wyvern, there’s a Wyvern in the sky!」

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