「I didn’t think I’d be coming here the very next day.」
「Guru~?」
At Rei’s words, Set, who was walking beside him, let out a soft cry as if asking what was wrong.
Rei patted Set’s head while shaking his head to indicate it was nothing.
It was only the day after he had received his share of the Gamelion meat. Lenora had already informed Baron Cisne that Rei’s schedule was wide open, so a message had arrived at the guild early this morning, and a messenger had gone to tell Rei to head to Baron Cisne’s residence before noon.
Of course, since Rei had no particularly urgent business, aside from his plan to collect Rent’s cheese later, he had accepted the request immediately.
Now that the Gamelion matter was settled and the snow had begun to fall in earnest, Rei had nothing left to do in particular. At most, he could have enjoyed sleeping in late or visiting various street stalls to try some hot food while the snow swirled around, but those weren’t reasons enough to refuse the request from Baron Cisne’s family.
「Gururu~!」
Even though they were walking through the falling snow, Set was in a great mood as he gave happy cries. Being with Rei was certainly one of the reasons for his high spirits, but a major factor was also the Gamelion dishes served for yesterday’s dinner and today’s breakfast.
The meat that Rei had brought back yesterday had been prepared at the Dusk Wheat Pavilion, and describing the flavour as simply delicious wouldn’t do it justice. Furthermore, the meat Rei had taken home included a lot of portions that had already been finely cut up by the Death Scythe.
If the guild were to distribute the meat to the market, large blocks of meat would sell for a higher price. On the other hand, taking the smaller pieces saved Rei the trouble of cutting them up with a kitchen knife, meaning it was a situation where their mutual interests aligned. Though, Set also liked having a massive piece of meat grilled so he could bite straight into it.
At any rate, after receiving the meat that had been cut down to a manageable size, Rei had handed it over directly to the Dusk Wheat Pavilion to have them prepare meals with it for himself and Set.
「Gamelion dishes will truly become available again here on out, so the food at the street stalls is bound to get even better.」
「Guru~!」
Set gave a happy cry in response to Rei’s words.
As they walked along like that, a crowd of people naturally gathered around, eager to play with, touch, and dote on Set. Even so, likely due to the falling snow, their numbers were far fewer than usual.
Gently turning them down, Rei continued walking until they finally reached the noble district where the estates of various noble lined the streets. A patrol was just passing by the entrance of the noble district, and since the guards were adventurers, there was no way they wouldn’t recognise Rei.
「I’m heading inside, that’s fine, right?」
「Sure thing. Just make sure you don’t cause any trouble in the noble district. You stand out enough as it is……well, even if anyone recognises you, I doubt they’d be stupid enough to pick a fight with you.」
The male adventurer let out a loud laugh as he spoke, prompting the woman beside him, who held a bow and appeared to be an archer, to smack him across the back of his head.
「You idiot, if something like that actually happens, do you honestly think the two of us could do anything about it? Count me out.」
The man, whose build easily exceeded 2m in height, nodded in agreement at the woman’s words.
「Too true. If Rei ever went on a rampage, this entire noble district wouldn’t even have ashes left.」
「……What on earth are the rumours saying about me?」
Rei muttered under his breath at the man’s words.
However, the man simply grinned at Rei before replying.
「Hah, what are you talking about? I participated in the Spring War and saw you create that flaming whirlwind with my own two eyes, you know. Don’t go lumping me in with the folks who get all flustered just by hearing vague rumours.」
「I see. Well, whatever. Think what you want.」
Judging that there was no point pushing the matter any further, Rei stated just that before heading into the noble district. The adventurers silently watched him leave without saying another word.
About a minute after Rei’s figure vanished from sight, the man who had first spoken to him finally opened his mouth.
「Still, to think someone summoned Rei……I really hope a massive incident doesn’t break out.」
「Surely it won’t come to that. There’s no way anyone currently in Gilm would want to antagonise Rei……right? They wouldn’t……would they?」
The female archer grew increasingly anxious as she spoke, turning her gaze toward her companion. In response, the massive man nodded back.
「If there’s anyone in Gilm who doesn’t know how terrifying Rei can be, it would have to be someone who arrived recently. But the families that recently moved to Gilm are……ah……」
「There is one, isn’t there. ……I’m suddenly getting a really bad feeling about this.」
The person who crossed the female archer’s mind was a noble who had arrived in Gilm just a few weeks ago. Word was that he had been sent as a check against the Neutral and Aristocratic Factions, who had been growing closer lately due to the civil war within the Bestir Empire.
Under normal circumstances, adventurers wouldn’t pay much attention to political matters, but since they had accepted a request to guard the noble district, they needed to be aware of the local situation.
「I really hope this noble district doesn’t actually turn to ash.」
The massive man muttered in a voice trembling with an anxiety that completely belied his large frame. The noble in question was someone who perfectly fit the description of a petty villain. He was a textbook example of a corrupt aristocrat in the worst possible way, and he had looked down on adventurers with pure contempt.
Since he had been sent as a check, his goal was clearly to stir up a problem here and use it as an excuse to impose some sort of punishment on the Neutral Faction. If a person like that were to cross paths with Rei, what would happen? The image of this residential district literally burning to the ground flashed vividly through the minds of the adventurers.
「……What should we do?」
「Even if you ask me, it isn’t something the two of us can handle anyway. All we can do is report this to our employer.」
「Understood. I’ll go right away. I leave things here to you.」
The man who had first spoken to Rei stated that and quickly sprinted away, silently praying that nobody would do anything foolish.
「It hasn’t changed at all.」
Meanwhile, completely contrary to the adventurers’ anxiety, Rei had arrived in front of Baron Cisne’s residence without any issues.
Just like when he had visited last year, there were no guards stationed outside the mansion.
「As careless as always.」
「Gururu~……」
Set gave a low cry from his throat as if agreeing with Rei’s words. As he turned his gaze toward the mansion, the front door opened, and a maid emerged from inside. Recognizing her, Rei lightly raised a hand and called out to her.
「If I remember right, you’re Ashie, aren’t you?」
The maid called Ashie lightly bowed her head upon seeing Rei.
「It has been a long time, Rei-san. Please, come inside. I will go call the Master and the young master right away.」
She had likely already been informed that Rei would be visiting today. She spoke without showing the slightest hint of surprise at his presence.
「Yeah. Is it fine if I let Set play in the garden?」
「That is perfectly fine, but……in this weather? Won’t he be cold?」
Ashie asked the question as she directed a concerned look towards Set, but the Griffon simply turned his round eyes toward her and tilted his head as if asking what was wrong.
His display was nothing short of adorable, and if Milein or Johanna had been present, they would have been instantly knocked flat on their backs. Of course, it wasn’t that Ashie disliked cute things, but she couldn’t exactly abandon her duties for them.
「Don’t worry about it. Set doesn’t mind this level of cold at all. If anything, he actually quite likes playing in the snow.」
「Is that so?」
Ashie turned her gaze toward Set to confirm Rei’s words, but the Griffon was simply gave a cry in a great mood.
Although she still seemed a little skeptical, she likely judged that Rei wasn’t lying based on the look Set was giving her. She guided Set into the garden, then showed Rei inside the mansion, leading him directly into the reception room.
「I will inform the Master and the young master of your arrival, so please wait here for a moment.」
Stating that, she placed some herbal tea and dried fruit on the table.
「Yeah, understood. I’ll make myself at home.」
「Well then, excuse me.」
Watching Ashie bow her head and leave the room, Rei scanned his surroundings. While there were certainly no expensive pieces of furniture anywhere, the room was spotlessly clean.
(They still don’t seem to have any money to spare, but……it’s strangely comfortable here.)
Compared to the lord’s residence or the guild master’s office, it was a space where he could visibly unwind and relax. A handmade sachet was placed in the room, and on the wall hung a painting that, although clearly not done by a famous artist, captured the estate’s garden and fit the atmosphere of the room perfectly.
While admiring the painting that appeared to depict a garden in spring, Rei brought the cup of herbal tea to his lips.
(Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure she mentioned before that she makes this herbal tea herself. For an amateur’s handmade blend, it’s remarkably good. If that’s the case, then this dried fruit must be homemade too. ……That’s pretty impressive in its own right.)
When it came to dried fruit, the one Rei was most familiar with was dried persimmon. This was because back when he lived in Japan, there had been a persimmon tree in his yard.
In the Kanto region, sweet persimmons can be eaten normally off the tree, but in the Tohoku region, even if you plant a sweet persimmon tree, it often turns astringent, meaning they generally have to be dried into dried persimmons or treated with alcohol to remove the bitterness before eating. At any rate, for reasons like that, dried fruit to Rei meant dried persimmons, which were completely black.
To anyone who didn’t know better, their appearance made it look like something that could hardly be considered food. But the dried fruit prepared before Rei now, though shrivelled from the drying process, still retained a vivid colour.
(Does it look like that naturally, or is Ashie just that skilled at making them? ……Given the price of dried fruit, I’m leaning toward the latter.)
Fruit that kept such a vivid colour even after being dried seemed like an expensive variety in Rei’s mind. Considering that, it felt to Rei like her technique was precisely what kept the colours so bright. Popping a piece of dried fruit into his mouth, a rich sweetness spread across his palate.
Once the sweetness coated his mouth, he took a sip of the herbal tea. It washed his palate clean with remarkable efficacy, leaving only a faint hint of tartness as an aftertaste.
As he was enjoying this simple sweetness, there was a sudden knock on the reception room door, and a child appeared. The child, who looked to be around 10 years old, spotted Rei drinking herbal tea in the reception room, and his eyes lit up as he spoke with pure joy.
「It has been a long time, Rei-san!」
「Long time no see, Baslero. ……Oh?」
Exchanging those brief words, Rei looked at Baslero and nodded in admiration. His physical build hadn’t changed all that much compared to a year ago. While he had grown taller, he hadn’t put on an extreme amount of muscle or anything of the sort.
Even so, compared to a year ago when he had been close to an amateur regarding physical movement, his stance and coordination were undoubtedly far more refined. It was clear at a single glance that he had trained diligently over the past year. Of course, that didn’t mean he was at a level where he could immediately fight monsters, but still.
「It looks like you haven’t been slacking off this past year.」
「Yes! I’ve practiced every single day without fail. There was no one as skilled as you around, Rei-san, but even so, I occasionally had adventurers train me.」
Baslero’s response to Rei’s words was remarkably polite, just as it had been a year ago. To Rei, the boy’s demeanor made it hard to believe he was still just a child.
(A noble’s child, huh. I guess there are all kinds of nobles out there. Elena and Lord Daska are nobles too, after all.)
Rei generally lacked a good impression of nobles, but it was an undeniable fact that there were nobles out there he could genuinely respect.
「So, the reason you summoned me this time was because you wanted me to train you again?」
「Ah, no. About that……」
Just as Baslero was about to reply to Rei’s question, a voice called out at the perfect moment. Turning his gaze toward the door, Rei saw Mouet, the head of the Cisne family, entering alongside the maid, Ashie.
Mouet still appeared somewhat frail to Rei, but he could feel that the man possessed a firm inner core, likely due to the sharp light in his eyes.
「It has been a while, Mouet.」
Rei stood up and bowed his head.
If anyone familiar with Rei’s usual behavior had witnessed this display, they would have been utterly shocked. After all, Rei, who maintained a thoroughly arrogant attitude even toward nobles holding far higher titles, was lowering his head, even if his casual choice of words remained unchanged.
His deference was undoubtedly born from the first impression he had formed of Mouet last year. His current actions were because he recognised Mouet as a figure worthy of respect.
「It has been a while, Rei-kun. It has been a year, but I am glad to see you are doing well. Word of your various exploits has reached my ears too, you know. I must say, becoming an adventurer with a title is exactly what I would expect from you. Well, please, take a seat.」
Prompted by his host, Rei sat back down on the sofa. Once Mouet and Baslero took their seats opposite him, Mouet wasted no time in speaking.
「The truth is, the reason I asked you to come today is partly because Baslero wanted to see you, but also because I would like you to see just how much his skills have improved. Unfortunately, I am completely hopeless when it comes to that sort of thing myself.」
「……I see.」
Turning his gaze toward Baslero and seeing the look of eager anticipation in the boy’s eyes, an expression of understanding surfaced on Rei’s face.