Night time. As the moonlight poured down, as if to congratulate the winners in the fighting tournament, Rei brought a skewer to his mouth at the stables of the Eternal Sky Pavilion.

「Guru~」

Set, whom Rei was leaning against, was also digging into a pile of meat that had been prepared for him, stretching out his beak to enjoy the taste of grilled Fang Boar meat, seasoned with salt and other spices.

About an hour ago, they had held a pity party for Mosst at the inn’s dining area, but now that it was over, everyone had gone to do their own things.

「It’s true that the tournament rules are rough for a pure mage to survive.」

「Gururu~?」

As Rei ate the meat and vegetables on his skewers, Set turned from his meat to Rei as he seemed to ask with a cry.

「Yeah. After all, when speak your incantation, you’re basically defenseless. ……Isn’t that right?」

As Rei replied to Set, he turned to look into the darkness.

「Ahaha. Rei-san is certainly right.」

The one who walked out of the darkness while scratching his head in embarrassment was the one they had just been talking about, Mosst.

In his hand was a basket filled with many different sandwiches.

「It’s true that I wasn’t able to win today’s battle, even after using my trump card, Atacante’s Bracelet.」

Atacante’s Bracelet. Rei had heard during the pity party that it was the name of the one time use magic item that Mosst had used in today’s match, which had the effect of strengthening the users body.

「Even if it had limited uses, a magic item that can strengthen a mage’s body would be a blessing for mages.」

Rei nodded at Mosst’s words as he picked up a sandwich from the basket Mosst offered.

Seeing Rei’s actions, Set stretched out to ask for a sandwich as well.

As he ate a ham and cheese sandwich, Rei turned back to Mosst.

「It was a pretty nice item, where did you get it?」

「From a peddler who stopped by a village I was in for a subjugation request. According to the merchant, it seems like he had bought it in Ozos.」

「Ozos……the Magic City near the center of the continent?」

Mosst nodded as Rei recalled the information he had previously heard.

「That’s right. Now that I think about it, it’s impressive that the peddler was able to bring items from Ozos all the way to the Bestir Empire.」

Ozos was a country located in the direct opposite direction to the Bestir Empire, through the Mireana Kingdom.

However, while called a country, it would be better described as a city state, which had the largest magic academy on the continent.

Many mages gathered in Ozos to learn magic and, as that happened, magic related technology naturally developed.

Even though the Bestir Empire had rapidly progressed in magic related technologies in recent years, the only area that they had caught up to Ozos in was alchemy.

「Ozos, huh? I’d like to go there someday.」

「Ahaha. I guess so. For someone like Rei-san, who likes to collect magic items, Ozos would be considered a heaven in various ways. ……I’m told there are a lot of troubles there as well though.」

「Troubles?」

Rei asked as he stroked Set’s back, feeling his smooth fur. Mosst prefaced his explanation by saying that he had heard about it from another merchant before starting to speak.

「It seems like there are quite a lot of different factions. Among the factions, there are some who believe in mage supremacy and that you aren’t a person if you aren’t a mage. Such people have been causing a lot of problems.」

「Normally speaking, wouldn’t the other factions try to stop them? Since there aren’t that many mages in the first place, wouldn’t something like that cause mages to be discriminated against?」

Hearing Rei’s words, Mosst nodded as he reached for a vegetable sandwich in the basket.

「I think it’s because they are so few in number that some of them turned to radical ideas. Well, I haven’t actually been to Ozos, so I can’t really say much. They also use illegal methods to conduct magic experiments. Apparently, there are also scams involving mages and magic items.」

「Are they people with no dreams or hopes?」

「No, no, of course I’m only talking about a small number of people. There are many good mages there as well. ……I think.」

Most of the things Mosst was talking about were just stories he had heard from people about Ozos.

In fact, there was a possibility that the stories were just made up and that Ozos didn’t have any of those problems at all.

(Well, things like that are bound to happen when a large number of people gather.)

Thinking like that in his mind, Mosst finished the last of his vegetable sandwich as he stood up.

「Well, anyway. I lost in the first round, but I wanted to tell you that I want you to win as a representative of mages.」

「……Yeah. Of course, I have no intention of losing to anyone.」

「Ahaha. That’s just how it is. It seems like there are several other mages participating, but they all have a reputation of being tough.」

As a mage in the form of a magic warrior like Rei, he was able to deal with opponents who tried to interrupt any invocations he might try. However, many pure mages couldn’t deal with that.

Of course, it wasn’t easy to balance being a mage and a warrior either.

Considering that, Mosst was already in the better group, being somewhat capable of using a dagger.

「Then, I’ll be heading off. Thanks for supporting me today. I’ll be supporting you in your matches as well.」

「Sure. Even if you don’t have any physical injuries, the mental injuries will still remain. Get some good sleep tonight.」

「Will do. See you later.」

Saying that, Mosst left.

Rei didn’t miss what appeared to be tears of frustration in Mosst’s eyes, but he decided that saying anything more would be more of an insult to Mosst, so Rei just saw him off in silence.

「Guru~?」

Is he okay? Set seemed to ask. Rei patted him on the head while eating a sandwich to tell him it was fine.

Like that, Rei and Set spent a relaxing time under the autumn moonlight.

 

 

The next day. Rei looked out of his room’s window and saw a cloudy sky, completely different from yesterday’s weather.

After getting up and opening the curtains, he frowned at the clouds.

The sky was gloomy and it seemed like it would rain at any moment.

Fortunately, not all the first round matches had finished yet, so Rei didn’t have one today.

That said, the first round would finish today. The second round would start the next day and, as Rei’s first round match had taken place on the first day, his second round match would also start on the first day.

「Rain, huh? Apparently, due to the ancient relic, rain won’t get into the arena, but……it still doesn’t feel great. I don’t particularly dislike it from indoors……but I really don’t want to go out in the rain.」

As no one he knew had matches today either, he didn’t really have much to do. With no need to go to the stadium, he decided to take a break as he headed to the dining area.

 

 

「Heh, taking it easy today?」

「Yeah. It looks like it’s going to rain.」

As Rei ate breakfast with the three members from Wind Dragon’s Fang in the dining area, they talked about their plans for the day.

Rei was going to be resting in the inn, Luzi was going to the stadium, Vaycul would be heading to the adventurers guild, and Mosst was going to visit an acquaintance in the Imperial Capital, so it was quite spread out.

「Besides, I want to take care of Set as well.」

Hearing Rei’s words, Mosst, who had been with them for a bit last night, seemed puzzled.

Rei could see that Mosst had somewhat overcome his frustrations from yesterday, although not completely.

「Weren’t you with Set last night, was that not enough?」

「That’s right. Basically, he’s a spoiled child. Since I came to the Imperial Capital, I’ve been busy with the fighting tournament and other things, so I haven’t been able to pay much attention to him. I’d like to take care of him when I have the time. Also, being with Set makes me feel better.」

「Ah, I think I get it. I was a little scared at first when I heard about a Griffon, but after going to the stables to let the horses out, I found that he was very friendly.」

Luzi nodded in response to Vaycul’s words and spoke as he reached for some bread.

「That’s right. I’m starting to wonder if he’s a real Griffon, being so friendly and all.」

The impression of Griffons to the general public were that they were ferocious, A rank monsters.

And, they weren’t wrong.

「I raised Set since he was a baby. So he’s gotten used to people. ……I will say, don’t treat other Griffons the same way, okay? I’m not joking, you will die.」

「No. I don’t think I’ll have the chance to run into any Griffons other than Set.」

Vaycul spoke with a bit of surprise as Rei agreed with her.

It wasn’t that easy to run into B rank monsters, let alone A rank monsters.

As for S rank monsters, finding one would almost be a miracle.

(Well, where I was born……or whatever you call it. In any case, it seemed like Dragons were quite common there.)

As Rei thought about that, they continued conversing before going their own ways after finishing breakfast.

 

 

「Guru~!」

Set gave a happy cry when Rei showed up at the stables.

As one of the highest class inns in the Imperial Capital, the guests that stayed here were top class as well. As a result, the tamed monsters and horses that stayed in the stables didn’t go into a panic at Set’s cries.

……However, that didn’t mean they completely forgave Set for that either.

「Hey, calm down. I had just been with you last night, right? I made sure to get you some food as well. ……What would you like to do? Do you want to go out? We can’t leave the inn, and it might rain, but still.」

「Gurururu~!」

Rei left the stables, accompanied by Set, who gave a cry as if to say, let’s go outside.

Rei was sure that it wasn’t his own imagination that the other tamed monsters and horses seemed relieved to see them leave.

「Guru~, Gurururu~!」

Set gave cries in a good mood as he ran around the space near the stables.

Fortunately, the stables were located behind the inn and couldn’t be seen from it, Because of that, there was no particular commotion, but if guests in the inn had seen it, there might have been a fuss.

The inn was quite large, so even if nobles with limited funds couldn’t stay here, there was still a fair number of guests at this time of the year.

Among the guests, there were still a few that didn’t know that Rei was staying here.

What would guests who didn’t know about Crimson think if they saw a Griffon, an A rank monster, running around freely, albeit close to the stables.

「KYAAAAAAH-, a G-Griffon!?」

Of course, it was only natural that such cries would echo out.

Turning towards the direction of the voice, Rei saw a young woman there. She was in her late teens and was dressed in clothes that were easy to move in. That said, the tailoring of her clothes looked very expensive.

She was probably the daughter of a noble or a rich merchant. That was the conclusion Rei reached when he saw the young woman.

「Guru~?」

Set tilted his head towards the young woman who screamed, but the young woman, who had only seemed to realise that Set was a Griffon, instinctively took a step back.

Seeing that, Rei decided taht it would be unpleasant for things to stay as they were, so he got up from where he had been sitting and approached the young woman.

Noticing Rei’s presence, the young woman started to alternate her gaze between Rei and Set.

Rei spoke up to reassure the young woman that things were okay.

「Don’t be scared, Set…….as you can see, this Griffon is my tamed monster. There’s a Necklace of Subservient Monster around his neck, see?」

Necklace of Subservient Monster. Hearing that, the young woman covered her mouth as she gently turned her gaze towards Set.

Indeed, the necklace, the sign of a tamed monster, was hung around Set’s neck, so it was clear that the Griffon was a tamed monster.

However……she still couldn’t believe that a Griffon had become a tamed monster as she seriously looked at Rei and Set……before timidly speaking up.

「Um, is it really a tamed monster?」

「That’s right. ……Set and I should be pretty famous in the Bestir Empire. Did you not know?」

「Y-Yes. I don’t go out of the house that often.」

Even as they conversed, her fear still seemed to prevail. After seeing her take a few more steps back, wanting to leave, Rei decided that holding her back any longer would only make her more nervous as he saw her off.

……A few hours later. The young woman would come back to spend some time with Set, attracted by his cuteness, but that is a story for another time.

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