The soft light coming in from the window fell onto Rei’s face as he slept in his bed, the glare making him toss and turn.
The way the direct sunlight bothered him was a large contrast to his feared persona of Crimson.
To be exact, he had an innocence that matched his age……or rather, his appearance.
「Mm……Mmm……」
Turning over again, the sunlight shone down on the back of his head and eventually, Rei opened his eyes.
「Ahhh……」
He found himself inside an unfamiliar yet familiar room.
Rei, who was still half asleep, recollected his thoughts as he eventually realised where he was.
「That’s right, I’m back in Gilm.」
He wasn’t in the Golden Wind inn back in Exil, nor was he inside the magic tent he used for camping.
Seeing the room he had previously stayed in for over a year, he felt a sense of relief as he stretched his body.
As the soft summer sun shone through the window, it seemed that people were already up and about. Rei could sense many people walking around.
「Well……what should I do today? Until Daska reaches a decision on what to do with the Bestir Empire, I can’t casually leave Gilm.」
Rei was somewhat concerned about the large scale bandit group he had heard about, but he also understood that he couldn’t simply leave Gilm in his current situation.
Daska has also asked him to show some restraint in that area.
「A bandit group’s hoard would be nice. ……Well, whatever. Maybe I should go on a walk with Set after breakfast?」
Muttering to himself, Rei gave another stretch before getting dressed and heading to the dining area on the first floor.
「Here, Set. This is for you.」
「Gururu~」
Although they had just finished breakfast, Rei gave a grilled skewer, which he had bought in a store, over to Set.
Seeing the skewer, Set closed his beak around the skewer before pulling all the meat off.
Of course, with all the meat in Set’s mouth, there was nothing left when Rei pulled the skewer out.
「Guru~? Gururu~, Gurururururu~」
The meat must have been delicious. Rei gave a small smile as he offered another skewer to Set, who asked for more.
「You already ate so much last night, but you can still eat? I don’t have the right to say this, but you really can eat.」
「Gururu~!」
Of course, Set seemed to say with a cry.
Involuntarily smiling at Set’s response, Rei continued to walk down the streets without any particular destination in mind.
Along the way, people at stalls and shops, shopkeepers, passers-by, children, and adventurers all smiled when they saw Set, giving him a little food or petting him. Everyone else just watched from a distance with a small smile on their faces.
「Hmm. The city hasn’t changed much.」
Seeing a 10 year old child walking along with Set in high spirits, Rei murmured those words.
Set had also become accepted in Exil, but as they had spent more than a year in Gilm, there were much fewer people here who rejected Set.
(That said……)
Rei gave a wry smile as he saw a shocked merchant out of the corner of his eyes as they looked at Set.
It was likely that they had come to Gilm after Rei left for Exil. As a Griffon walked calmly down the street, the surrounding residents didn’t seem to be afraid……on the contrary, they were happily playing around with him.
A nearby resident explain the situation to the merchant, who was frozen in shock after seeing the seemingly impossible scene.
It was probably because Gilm was at the frontier that such exchanges were possible.
Even in Exil, if a little more time had passed, similar situations might have happened.
The frontier city of Gilm and the Labyrinth City Exil, what both of them had in common was the large number of adventurers.
(Both were just as comfortable for me though. I heard that the Imperial Capital of the Bestir Empire allows tamed monsters, but I don’t think there will be the same easy going atmosphere as here. ……No, before even that, as long as I’m there, there will definitely be some commotion.)
Thinking about that as he walked along, he eventually saw the guild building.
Thinking about it for a few seconds, Rei decided to take a look to see if there were any requests he could do in a day to pass the time.
「Well, it’s not like I have anything to do in particular today. Set, I’m heading into the guild, please wait a bit.」
「Guru~!」
Understood, Set seemed to say with a cry as he headed for the space where tamed monsters would wait, alongside all the children running around him.
Adventurers leaving the guild also went over to Set as Rei went inside.
The inside of the guild was quite empty, probably because the busiest hours had already passed.
Even so, there were still some adventurers at the bar attached to the guild having a slightly late breakfast……or an early lunch.
Some of them must have really disliked the heat. Even though it was still morning, they were already drinking loudly.
Seeing such people, Rei went over to the request board as he looked over starting from the F rank requests.
Of course, as a B rank adventurer, Rei could now accept A rank requests. However, with very few exceptions, high ranking quests where almost all very difficult or very dangerous.
They included requests such as subjugating high rank monsters, collecting rare materials, and guarding places with high bandit populations.
As Rei would likely have to leave Gilm and head to Goto, where Vihera and Theorem would join up with him, he didn’t have the luxury of accepting such high level requests.
Rei was just looking through the request board to pass the time, but……he stopped in front of a certain request.
A C rank request.
The reason why the request was such a high rank was likely because the client was a noble.
The request was to train the client’s son in combat and the client’s name was Mouet Cisne
The contents of the request and the client were both familiar to Rei.
The figure of a 10 year old child with an Icebird passed through his mind.
Yes, it was the same request that Rei had received when he had been promoted to C rank.
「……It’s been so long. No, actually, it hasn’t even been a year since.」
Muttering to himself, he reached out for the request form……but as his hand was about to reach it, another hand quickly reached out from the side and took it off the request board before Rei could touch it.
「Sorry, requests are first come first served.」
It was a woman about 20 years old, older than Rei. She was clearly a warrior, wearing leather armour to deal with the head while allowing ease of movement.
She had been in Gilm for just about a year, and given that she had never seen Rei in Gilm, she was probably a newcomer who had only arrived while Rei was away.
However, since Rei also disliked crowds, he generally stayed away from the guild during peak hours.
With that in mind, she possibly had just never seen Rei before……
Still, there was no doubt that the female warrior……as well as other three men and one woman in her party, which she ran over to, were new to Gilm.
After all, she had just stolen a request from right under Rei, who was considered someone who should never be touched in Gilm.
An adventurer based in Gilm would never do that.
One of the three men, who had been about to receive the request picked up by the female warrior, suddenly turned to look at Rei.
He froze as sweat dripped down his forehead, visible to those around him.
He had been the only person to join the party after the other arrived in Gilm and had already been staying here for several years.
Thanks to that, he knew Rei’s face and quickly reached the conclusion that their actions had angered Rei.
「Hey, what’s wrong? You’re suddenly sweating so much. It’s definitely hot, but you’re still sweating a bit too much, aren’t you?」
The female warrior asked the man after he still didn’t accept the request she held out for a while.
「…….Hey. Don’t you sense anything strange inside the guild?」
「Eh? What?」
The woman looked around while holding the request form in her hands at the man’s question.
Perhaps she was a bit confused, but the female warrior didn’t seem to notice anything was off around her.
If it had been at a time when more adventurers gathered at the guild, maybe she would have noticed something unusual.
But, whether she was lucky or not, the number of adventurers around them were few.
Before long, the man who had been about to accept the request took an awkward step forward.
Not to the female warrior, but towards Rei instead.
「Hey, wait a moment. What’s wrong?」
The man stood before Rei and bowed his head deeply, ignoring the voices behind him.
「I’m sorry, they just came to Gilm. Can you somehow forgive me this time?」
Seeing the man bow his head deeply, the people most surprised was not Rei……but rather the man’s fellow party members.
For the rest of the party, the man bowing before Rei was a very reliable person from Gilm.
He had just joined the party and wasn’t officially the leader. However, he still had a standing among them that could be considered a leading position.
Seeing such a person bow his head deeply towards a child in his mid teens who didn’t seem to be that physically fit, it wasn’t unreasonable for them to be surprised.
But……
「……Raise your head for now.」
Rei was at a bit of a loss on what to do seeing the man bowing his head.
Sure, he might have been a bit annoyed when the female warrior snatched the request from under him, but requests were first come first serve and the woman hadn’t been in the wrong.
It might have been a bit rude, but it wasn’t unusual for adventurers.
Rei was aware that other adventurers feared him, but he hadn’t expected things to have gone this far.
Hearing Rei’s words, the man tentatively raised his head.
「Will you forgive me?」
「I’m not mad about it. But there are a lot of short tempered adventurers here. If you keep doing things like that without thinking, you’ll eventually get hurt.」
The man gave a small nod in response to what Rei told him.
「I’m sorry, I’ll make sure to teach them properly.」
Seeing the man leave after apologising again, Rei let out a small sigh.
He no longer felt like accepting a request after what happened and headed straight for the bar.
There were undoubtedly many residents and adventurers fawning over Set right now, even if he were to leave.
(I’m feared while Set is loved……isn’t it usually the other way around?)
An A rank monster or an adventurer. If you were to ask which one was usually more feared, it would naturally be the monster.
(Well, I guess it’s not that unreasonable considering Set’s friendliness.)
Thinking like that, Rei ordered a light meal at the bar to pass the next hour.
The man who had bowed his head to Rei gave a sigh of relief when he saw Rei head towards the bar.
The female warrior who had first taken the request from under Rei nervously called out to the man.
Seeing the exchange between the man and Rei, she seemed to realise that Rei was dangerous in various ways.
「H-Hey. Who was that kid……?」
At the woman’s question, the man spoke with a deep sigh.
「……You know, that kid……no, that adventurer, is Rei. A C rank who was titled Crimson in the Spring War. ……Wait, it’s B rank now. Anyway, he’s a high ranking adventurer.」
「……Eh?」
The woman let out a voice as if she didn’t understand what had just been said.
Similarly, the eyes of the other party members all went wide.
「Crimson……did you say?」
「I heard he has a Griffon with him?」
「……A kid like that?」
The unfortunate situation for the party was that they had been in the guild before Rei arrived.
If they had arrived after Rei, they would of course have seen Set in the guild’s waiting space for tamed monsters, as well as those taking care of Set.
「……If you’re going to make it in Gilm, remember this. There are quite a few high ranking adventurers here, but that Crimson is not a patient person. Rumour has it that in the Spring War, he even killed a noble that was on the same side because they antagonised him. Despite that, he was still acquitted of any wrongdoing. You can tell how strange he is, can’t you?」
Hearing what the man said, the rest of his party members couldn’t help but hold their breaths.
After spending about an hour at the bar, Rei left the guild.
「Set-chan Set-chan Set-chan Set-chan!」
And, just like last night, Milein could be seen hugging Set’s neck.
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