「……Huh? You want to invite me on a Gamelion hunt?」
A few days after explaining to Daska the details about clearing the dungeon, Rei was eating breakfast at the Dusk Wheat Pavilion as usual.
He had been planning to go to the guild later that day to pick up the Gamelion meat as part of the request he posted when an adventurer, who had asked to share his table earlier, suddenly spoke to him.
「Yeah. I heard Set can fly, and there’s no greater advantage when looking for Gamelions, right? Besides, I hear you have a title and enough strength to take down a Gamelion solo.」
How about it? The man, who was in his mid-twenties with a stubbly beard, asked.
Rei couldn’t tell if he was staying at the Dusk Wheat Pavilion or had just come for the food, but at the very least, he didn’t look like an adventurer who could afford to stay here.
Though, to be fair, Rei himself looked like nothing more than an apprentice mage, short and lacking a solid build.
Unless they knew who he was, some people simply couldn’t believe that Rei was someone who could stay at the Dusk Wheat Pavilion.
This was especially true for those who had just arrived in Gilm and were only seeing Rei for the first time……but the man currently inviting him on a Gamelion hunt didn’t seem to be fooled by Rei’s appearance.
However, in a different sense, one could say this stubbly bearded man was a bit blind in other aspects.
(Wait, I only reported the situation with the Gamelions at the guild, it’s not like it was officially announced or anything, so I guess it’s not strange? Well, being out of the loop on information might be a bit unfortunate for an adventurer, though.)
Rei thought as he looked at the man, who was eating his bread as he waited for Rei’s answer.
Rei was about to refuse, but……
「Besides, you’ve already got plenty of Gamelion meat, right? So wouldn’t it be fine to help them out a bit?」
「Them?」
Rei tilted his head at the man’s words, pausing as he prompted him to continue.
The man gave a small smile and put down his bread before speaking.
「You’re the one who brought the people wanting to immigrate to Gilm, right?」
「……I see.」
「Hold up, I’m not trying to threaten you or anything. I just heard that the ones who decided to work as adventurers were going to look for Gamelions, so I thought I’d help them out.」
Even as the man said that, he seemed to have anticipated that bringing those people up would make it more likely for Rei to cooperate……or rather, he brought them up precisely because that was what he was hoping for..
Hoping that searching from the sky would make it easy to find Gamelions.
「How about it? As the one who brought them here, wouldn’t it be fine to give them a little hand?」
「……Assuming I do help with the Gamelion hunt, what’s in it for me? It’s true I brought them here, but I’m not their guardian or anything.」
「Hey now, that’s cold. No feelings for your comrades? But well, since you’re an adventurer, I suppose that can’t be helped. Then, let’s see. ……How about this?」
The man pulled something from the leather pouch at his waist. At first glance, it just looked like ordinary cheese.
「Cheese?」
「Yeah, cheese.」
「Listen, cheese is just……」
You can buy it at any store.
Rei was about to say that in exasperation, but the man didn’t let him finish before thrusting the cheese towards him.
「Well, you can complain after you eat it.」
「……It’s not poisoned or anything, is it?」
「Who knows. Maybe it is poisoned……are you too scared to eat it?」
Rei hesitated for a moment at the man’s provocative words, but eventually reached for the cheese.
He was confident he would immediately notice any ordinary poison the moment he put it in his mouth, and he was also confident that ordinary poison wouldn’t affect his body, which was created using the pinnacle of Zephyr’s magical research.
And above all, he was deeply intrigued by the cheese in front of him.
「If you insist, I’ll eat it, but you’d better be prepared if it’s just some cheese you can buy anywhere.」
「Be my guest.」
The man seemed to be brimming with confidence as he shrugged his shoulders in the face of Rei’s threat.
Wondering what gave the man such confidence, Rei brought the cheese to his mouth.
But……the moment he put the cheese in his mouth and bit down, he froze.
A rich umami flavour spread across his tongue.
From there, the intense aroma of the cheese filled his mouth and wafted through his nose.
He wanted to savour this forever. This cheese, was arguably the most delicious cheese Rei had ever eaten……including everything he had eaten back in Japan.
Rei’s sense of taste wasn’t particularly refined.
He could tell when delicious food was delicious, but he lacked the knowledge to explain why it was so delicious……he didn’t have the learning or knowledge to talk at length about the origin of the ingredients or anything like that. He could only express his thoughts as simply ‘delicious’.
Even so……no, precisely because he was like that, he honestly voiced the taste of the cheese he had just eaten.
「Delicious.」
A simple word.
But for that very reason, the word overflowed with his pure impression.
「Right?」
「……This is the first time I’ve eaten cheese like this. Where is it from? I’ve never eaten cheese this good even from stores.」
「Hehehe. Well, naturally. This is a cheese specially made at my family’s home. It takes a lot of time and effort, so we can’t make many of them, and it’s something we only supply to nobles and large merchant companies we have prior contracts with.」
「In other words, you normally can’t get your hands on it?」
「Exactly. So, back to the topic at hand. If you help with the Gamelion subjugation, I’ll pay you with a block of this cheese as a reward. However, you’ll have to give up on the Gamelion. How about it?」
A cheese so delicious it was Rei’s first time tasting anything like it.
Rei had no complaints receiving it as a reward..
But even so, he didn’t agree immediately. He looked at the man in front of him again before speaking.
「Before I answer, there are a few things I want to ask.」
Rei directed a sharp gaze towards the man, sending a chill down his spine.
Even so, he couldn’t afford to back down here as he Rei to continue.
「Alright, ask me anything. I’ll answer what I can.」
The man resolved himself, determined to drag Rei into the Gamelion hunt no matter what. Facing him, Rei’s first question was……
「You mentioned a block of cheese, but how big is it, specifically?」
It was regarding the cheese he would receive as a reward.
Of course, it was regarding his own reward, so it was only natural to ask for details about it, but even so, the man seemed to have been caught completely off guard.
Since he had asked with such a serious expression, the man had expected him to ask about something else entirely.
He felt slightly let down, but the fact that he was asking about the block of cheese meant he was interested.
Judging it to be a positive outcome, the man replied.
「Let’s see……would you understand if I said it’s just about the right size for you to hold in your arms, Rei?」
「That’s a bit hard to picture. For example, is it about half the size of this table?」
The tables in the dining room of the Dusk Wheat Pavilion were rectangular, large enough to seat six average-sized people, with two facing each other on the long sides and one on each end.
「I-It’s not quite that big. Let’s see, maybe about a quarter of this table.」
「……I see, that’s still quite sizable.」
It wasn’t enough for him to eat as much as he wanted to his heart’s content, but it was still sufficiently large.
Though, that was only true for Rei and Set.
Cheese was generally eaten a little bit at a time.
Like cutting it into small pieces to pair with wine.
「How about it? I’ll make this the reward, so will you take on the Gamelion request?」
「Well, I suppose I don’t mind accepting, but……one last question. The cheese you’re giving me, if it tastes this good and isn’t even sold on the market, it must be worth a considerable amount of money. More than what you could earn from a Gamelion, even.」
Generally, the purchase price for materials at the guild was fixed, but it was different during emergency situations.
For example, like a while ago, the materials for the Magic Fever medicine that Rei was dispatched for, or the recent Gamelions scarcity, although it wasn’t really an emergency.
But……even so, the price of such things was entirely different from a cheese that only nobles and wealthy merchants could eat, and which wasn’t even sold on the open market.
From Rei’s perspective, the man in front of him seemed to be taking a one-sided loss.
That was why he wondered if there were some shady circumstances behind it.
Especially since the people who had migrated here with Rei were all people who had lived in the Bestir Empire, could it be that forces opposing Daska had set some kind of trap? Even Rei, who was dense about these things, thought that it wouldn’t be a strange possibility.
However, at Rei’s words, the man suddenly covered his cheeks and averted his gaze.
Yes, as if trying to hide his embarrassment.
(……Huh?)
Rei was a little puzzled at the completely unexpected reaction.
However, he didn’t want to keep staring at a blushing, stubbly bearded man, so he got straight to the point.
「You……don’t tell me you’re not planning something shady, but rather……」
「Aaaargh, yes, exactly! I fell in love with that woman, Johanna, at first sight!」
The man shouted while slamming his hands on the table.
Despite being in a noisy dining room, his voice echoed strangely clearly around them.
『……』
For a moment…… no, for several seconds, the dining room undeniably fell into silence.
The man must have noticed. He glared at the people around him looking at him, as if asking if they had a problem.
The people the man glared at quietly averted their gazes. ……Though their lips still curved into smiles.
Unlike the people around them, Rei looked at the man with a somewhat exasperated gaze.
It was because he naturally recognized who Johanna was.
Of course he did. She was the one among the guerrilla force who doted on Set the most, leaving an incredibly strong impression on Rei.
She was someone that Rei felt very strongly about absolutely never letting meet with Milein, who also doted on Set……or rather, loved him blindly.
「……Yeah, well, I understand how you feel. It’s going to be tough in various ways, but good luck.」
「Don’t look at me with those gentle eyes! Don’t look at me like that!」
The man shouted at Rei’s words.
At the entrance to the dining room, Lana poked her head in and sent a gaze filled with deep compassion towards the man.
The man must have noticed it. He fell silent, not uttering another word.
Seeing the man fall silent, conversations gradually resumed in the dining room.
However, silence continued to reign at the table where Rei and the man sat.
The silence lasted for more than 5 minutes……before Rei decided it was about time and spoke.
「So, to get back to the main topic……well, if you say there are no ulterior motives, I don’t mind helping out. Actually, considering how delicious that cheese is, I should be the one asking if I can help.」
At Rei’s words, a smile returned to the man who had been wearing a disgruntled expression just a moment ago.
Seeing his smile, Rei hesitated whether he should say it or not, but ultimately decided it was better to say it now than have him find out later.
「I don’t know if you know this, but Johanna absolutely adores Set. To the point where she actually asks why she wasn’t born a Griffon. So, what do you think will happen if you bring Set along to someone like that? She’s definitely going to become completely engrossed in Set and won’t pay you any attention, you know?」
「Yeah, I suppose so. But to find Gamelions, getting help from Set, who can fly, really is the best option. Besides, if I show her my skills fighting a Gamelion, Johanna might take an interest in me too.」
To be able to declare that so confidently meant this man himself was also a C rank adventurer or higher, either working solo or as a member of a C rank party.
(It’s true that looking at him without any preconceptions, his body is well-trained. You can even see it in his slight movements. Let’s see then……)
Knowing that the man in front of him possessed a certain level of strength, Rei seemed to become interested as well. He held out his hand.
「Understood, if you’re fine with that, I’ll cooperate. Once again, I’m a B rank adventurer, Rei.」
「I see. That’s a great help! I’m a C rank adventurer, Rent. Looking forward to working with you!」
He firmly grasped the offered hand, and just like that, Rei’s schedule for the day was set for Gamelion hunting.