「Ah, it’s Set! He really did come back!」
「Oh, it really is Set. I heard rumours he came back yesterday but……I guess Gilm is about to get lively again.」
「No, no, it’s not like Gilm was gloomy just because Set wasn’t around.」
As Rei and Set walked through the city, voices like that rose from those who saw them.
Among them, the food stall owners seemed especially happy.
It was already close to noon, and the stalls were busy preparing for the lunch rush. Despite that, the stall owners called out to Set while cooking in the cold, steam rising all around them.
「Oh, if it isn’t Set. It’s been a while. Here, want something to eat? The skewers are grilled perfectly!」
「Set, it’s been a while. When it’s cold out, how about our soup filled with plenty of vegetables and meat?」
「Set, we have sandwiches, want some? The bread is freshly baked, once you take a bite you won’t be able to stop!」
「We’ve got stewed udon over here! It’s not chewy, but it’s incredibly soft and delicious to make up for it!」
Responding to the voices from the surrounding stalls, Set went back and forth, happily receiving food.
……Of course, it wasn’t free. Rei paid them each time and bought his own share as well.
However, Rei was given far more food than what he actually paid for. The reason the stalls gave Rei such massive extra portions wasn’t just because he was an excellent customer who bought a lot at once, but also because he always ate their food looking like it was truly delicious.
Anyone who saw the sight of Rei and Set eating would immediately want to eat as well, given how deliciously they ate. The fact that it was lunchtime and many people were already hungry only added to the effect.
(If Milein were here, she probably would have bought up most of the food at the stalls by now. And if that continued, she wouldn’t have enough money to survive the winter and would end up tearfully taking on winter requests to scrape by.)
Remembering the figure of his friend who had rushed off to inform her two companions that the Seed of Contract inside her body had been removed, Rei gave a small smile.
(As expected, even Milein chose having the magic removed over staying with Set……well, it’s only natural.)
Satisfied that despite her obsession with Set, she hadn’t forgotten her duties as the leader of a C rank party, Rei headed towards the guild while doing a massive amount of shopping at Gilm’s food stalls for the first time in a while.
The closer they got to the guild, the more stalls there were targeting adventurers, and naturally, the number of adventurers increased as well.
With that being the case, there were many who directed their gazes at Rei and Set……
「Hey, that’s……Rei, isn’t it? When did he get back?」
「Ah……from what I heard, he apparently got back yesterday.」
「As usual, he doesn’t look like a B rank adventurer at all just from his appearance. We can tell because Set is with him, but if Set wasn’t there, it wouldn’t be strange to mistake him for some beginner wandering around.」
「Well, there is that. If he took his hood off we could tell by his face, but he usually keeps it on.」
The adventurers who knew of Rei exchanged words with their respective companions.
Since Rei had appeared in this city, for better or worse, he had been involved in numerous massive disturbances. Because of that, to the adventurers operating in Gilm who had seen it all, he was recognised as someone they shouldn’t carelessly mess with or antagonise.
That said, many thought that he wasn’t such a bad guy if you just talked to him normally, and the sight of him with Set was somewhat heartwarming.
However……it was also a fact that Rei didn’t look strong purely from his outward appearance……
「Hey, hey, is that really Crimson? Aren’t the rumours heavily exaggerated? No matter how I look at it, I can’t believe such a short, delicate guy is that strong.」
「Right? ……He probably got this famous thanks to that Griffon, right? Hah, being carried by his tamed monster. Must be nice.」
「But, if you think of him as a tamer who subdued a Griffon, isn’t he pretty skilled?」
「Huh? What are you saying? After all, a tamer is just someone who can only hide behind their monster, right? A guy like that, we could take him out in one hit. One hit. ……How about we just beat up that kid Rei and take his Griffon?」
「Idiot. No matter how weak that Rei is, a Griffon is a Griffon. Do you think you’d get off easily if you messed with a monster like that?」
A short distance away, a group of adventurers who had arrived in Gilm while Rei was away in the Bestir Empire, and so were likely seeing him for the first time, gathered as talked with each other.
In a way, it was a familiar sight in Gilm, and those who knew Rei looked at those new adventurers with somewhat pitying eyes.
……Although, there were some who directed sharp glares at those who talked about targeting Set.
The appearance of such people was somewhat unavoidable in Gilm.
Gilm was located on the frontier, and aside from those who grew up in the city and became adventurers naturally, everyone else who came to Gilm from other regions possessed a certain level of skill and the confidence that came with it.
Since skilled adventurers gathered in Gilm, newcomers were often treated as rookies, but naturally, they had a corresponding amount of pride because they were confident in their own abilities.
Well, if it was just pride it would be fine, but there were many who firmly believed that their skills would naturally cut it even in Gilm. Precisely because their half-baked skills had worked for them up until now, there were many who couldn’t comprehend an existence that was completely beyond their imagination.
To such people, regardless of Rei’s ability to tame a Griffon, they judged that his actual strength as a fighter was just exaggerated rumours. ……They couldn’t help but assume so.
Of course, rumours that Rei’s own strength was extremely high had spread, but looking at his small stature and apparent lack of muscle……seeing Rei like that, even if they didn’t think all the rumours were lies, it couldn’t be helped if they assumed that the results of the Griffon’s battles had been mistakenly attributed to him.
In that case, they could be the ones to expose his true colours.
With that thought in mind, several adventurers tried to step forward and call out to Rei, but……
「Hey, give it a rest. There’s no way people with your level of strength could beat Rei. Besides, messing with him leads to all sorts of troublesome things.」
At that voice, the several adventurers who were about to call out to Rei stopped in their tracks.
They reflexively tried to shout back at the words that seemed to be looking down on them, but when they realised the person in their line of sight was a heavily muscled giant who clearly possessed immense strength, they swallowed their words along with their breath.
「If you’re scared just looking at me, there’s no way you can beat Rei.」
Having those words thrown at them, the newly arrived adventurers in Gilm were spared from receiving Rei’s harsh baptism.
「……Well, whatever.」
Rei muttered as he watched the several adventurers who had directed malicious glares at him being led away by an adventurer he remembered seeing in the guild a few times.
If they had kept messing with him, he was planning to fight them under the guise of self-defence, knock them out, and strip them of some weapons or armour……he had his eye on a spear one of them was holding in particular. However, judging that it was fine since the trouble was gone, he continued shopping at the food stalls while heading towards the guild.
By the time he arrived in front of the guild, he was already holding an unmanageable amount of food. He kept out a portion for Set to eat and stored the rest into the Misty Ring, as it would be a waste if it got cold.
「Well, this might take a bit of time……no, I suppose you won’t be bored.」
「Gururururu!」
At the usual waiting area for tamed monsters and carriages, Set gave a cry in a good mood while lying down.
Nearly twenty residents, ranging from five-year-old children to elderly people in their sixties, had already gathered around Set, each trying to pet him, talk to him, and feed him.
「Set-chan, Set-chan, Set-chan!」
Rei felt like he saw a face he had just seen in the stables of the Dusk Wheat Pavilion among them, but telling himself it was probably his imagination, he entered the guild.
Because it was already close to noon, there weren’t many people inside the guild.
Many adventurers had already finished their preparations for winter, and their absence was likely the reason there were fewer people than a usual afternoon.
Perhaps to make up for it, there was a fair number of people eating and drinking in the tavern attached to the guild.
「Rei!」
As he looked around the guild, that voice echoed out.
Turning his gaze towards it, Rei saw the figure of a cat Beastkin jumping right over the counter.
It was Kenny, the cat Beastkin receptionist who had a crush on Rei.
Despite pulling a stunt like jumping over the counter, her short skirt didn’t flip up at all. According to Kenny, this sort of thing was also part of a receptionist’s etiquette.
「Hey, Kenny!?」
Lenora shouted as if to reprimand Kenny for her sudden action.
However, Kenny didn’t seem to care about her friend’s voice at all and ran right up to Rei’s side.
「Rei, I heard you went to the Bestir Empire, were you okay? I was told you were with Daska-sama, so I was really surprised when you weren’t there when he came back!」
「Ah…… yeah, sorry. I had a bit of business to take care of over there. Things just kind of happened.」
「Things happened…… well, fine. Are you hurt anywhere?」
Saying that, Kenny reached out to touch Rei’s face and his body under the Dragon Robe to check for injuries.
If it were someone trying to steal from him, Rei would have stopped them immediately, but knowing she was just worried about him, he silently accepted her actions.
Confirming that Rei wasn’t injured, Kenny breathed a sigh of relief……but soon, her eyes became glued to Rei’s hand.
In her line of sight was the ring sitting on Rei’s finger.
Normally, a ring was something given to a person of the opposite sex one had feelings for. There were individuals who wore them as a fashion statement, but Rei, at least, didn’t have the kind of personality to care about fashion.
In other words, someone had made a move on Rei.
Reaching that conclusion in an instant, Kenny slowly turned her gaze back to Rei with a rigid movement that practically screamed with a creaking sound.
……Incidentally, many of the adventurers in the guild, though few in number, had been watching the exchange between Rei and Kenny with interest. But the moment they saw Kenny’s movement just now, their bodies inexplicably froze. This was despite the fact that there were not only low rank adventurers, but even C rank adventurers present.
「……Hey, Rei. What’s with this ring? Did you get it from someone?」
However, Rei, entirely oblivious to the terrifying atmosphere Kenny was giving off, replied without any hint of tension.
「Yeah, I got it from Theorem.」
「……Eh?」
Kenny froze, as if time had stopped.
The reason she froze this time was completely different from when she first saw the ring.
Naturally. No matter how you looked at it, Theorem was a man’s name.
In other words, Rei was wearing a ring given to him by a man……
Somewhere in the guild, a few women who had been eavesdropping on their conversation let out high-pitched squeals they couldn’t suppress.
In an instant, Kenny’s eyes shot a sharp glare at the adventurers and guild staff who had squealed, silencing them instantly.
What was radiating from Kenny, enough to silence even veteran adventurers, could only be described as a demonic aura.
Even so, the fact that the demonic aura vanished completely when she turned her gaze back to Rei was very much like Kenny.
「Hey, Rei. Um……why did someone named Theorem give you a ring?」
For Kenny, the question was accompanied by an ominous premonition. Could it be that Rei, the person I like, has no interest in women?
She asked as if it were nothing, but behind her tone, she was incredibly tense.
But Rei, noticing none of Kenny’s inner turmoil, answered simply.
「I had a small request in the Bestir Empire. I got this magic ring as a reward for resolving it.」
「……I, see.」
Hearing those words, Kenny let out a deep sigh of relief.
She had been so upset seeing Rei wearing a ring that she had completely forgotten, but she finally remembered that Rei had a massive hobby of collecting magic items.
He was wearing bracelets as well as the ring, but the fact that her eyes had only been drawn to the ring was likely because Kenny was a maiden in love.
「Thank goodn—Ouch! Hey, what was that for!?」
Just as Kenny was about to let out a sigh of relief, Lenora’s fist came down hard on her head.
Kenny was about to complain, but she swallowed her words when she saw the smile on Lenora’s lips.
「Kenny, jumping over the counter……just what on earth were you thinking?」
Faced with Lenora, who was smiling but whose eyes weren’t smiling at all, all Kenny could do was force a polite, twitching smile.