"Ahh... I messed up."
Rei couldn't help muttering to himself as he walked through town. Beside him was Set, as always.
After seeing Elena off, Rei had been subjected to all sorts of probing questions from Daskar, who was also the lord of the City of Gilm. Somehow managing to talk his way out of it, he received the quest completion documents and slipped out of the mansion. Now he was strolling through town with Set in tow.
Normally, he would have wanted to head straight to the Guild to hand in the documents and collect his reward, but it was barely past nine in the morning. Even if he headed there now, he'd likely get caught up in the crowd of other adventurers who had gathered seeking work, making it a hassle just to receive his payment. He figured it would be easier to kill some time and head to the Guild after the rush thinned out... but now he was puzzling over how to spend this awkward gap of free time.
"Hmm, what should we do, Set? There's not quite enough time for material harvesting, and going back to rest at the inn doesn't feel right either."
"Guruuu."
As Rei walked through town, watching Set nod as if in agreement, several figures suddenly caught his eye.
If it had just been a few people standing around, he would have passed right by. But when he saw four boys around fifteen—about his own age—surrounding a single child of about ten and steering him toward an empty area, he couldn't help but stop and watch.
In the City of Gilm, where rough-and-tumble adventurers were plentiful, it wasn't uncommon for people to operate on the principle that might makes right. And since children grew up watching adults' behavior, it was only natural that they'd be influenced by it. These boys' greatest misfortune, however, was that Rei happened to have time to spare. Normally, he would have turned a blind eye to a child being dragged into a back alley, but to Rei, who currently had an awkward amount of free time on his hands, this looked like the perfect way to kill some.
"Set, want to go take a look?"
"Guruu."
Perhaps Set was bored too; it let out a low cry from deep in its throat while deftly picking meat off a Big Boar skewer Rei held out, using its beak with practiced ease.
"Well, the most likely scenario is a common enough pattern... but something like that kid actually being the secret child of a noble or a wealthy merchant? Nah, that's not happening."
The four boys and the one child in his line of sight were all dressed like ordinary common folk. None of them looked like they had any special circumstances. Well, to the people involved, there might have been all sorts of complications, but to Rei—who had just dealt with something as large-scale as Viscount Sails's House betraying them to the Bestia Empire—this probably looked like nothing more than children squabbling. ...Though Rei himself appeared to be about fifteen, not so different from the boys he was watching.
He followed at a distance, careful not to be spotted by the five ahead of him. Even with that gap between them, eavesdropping on their conversation wasn't particularly difficult given Rei's physical abilities and sharpened senses.
"Kumito, did you bring what we told you to?"
"..."
"Hey, when someone asks you a question, at least answer."
"...Don't have it."
"What?"
"I said I don't have it! Like hell I'm gonna listen to you guys!"
"Guh!"
The child surrounded by the four boys suddenly produced an iron rod about twenty centimeters long and drove it hard into the solar plexus of the boy who'd been doing the talking. Then, yanking the rod back in one swift motion, he swung it toward the side of the boy standing next to him—
"Whoa, that's dangerous."
Before the rod could connect, Rei caught the child's hand and stopped the swing.
The first strike to the solar plexus had landed cleanly because it was a surprise attack, but with his arm pinned, a ten-year-old had no recourse and was easily restrained.
(Still, those kids are surprisingly skilled.)
Rei observed the sequence of events, muttering to himself inwardly. "Skilled" didn't mean they were at a level where they could make it as adventurers, of course. But compared to someone who'd grown up in an ordinary household, their movements were clearly sharper, and they had the look of kids who'd been in scrapes before.
(Well, the safest bet is they've had some training from an adventurer acquaintance or a family member.)
"Guruuu?"
Set tilted its head as if asking, "Is it okay to just leave them?"
Rei gave a small nod and picked up the empty skewer from the one Set had just finished.
"Damn it! Fighting dirty with a cheap shot like that?! I'll teach you your place!"
The boy who'd been doubled over from the strike to his solar plexus stood up and moved to kick the restrained child in the face—
Whiz!
In that instant, the skewer Rei had swiftly thrown grazed the boy's cheek and continued onward, embedding itself deep into the brick wall of the house behind him.
"...Huh?"
Not understanding what had just happened, the boy gingerly touched his cheek. There was a cut a few centimeters long, and blood smeared across his palm.
"W-who did that?!"
The shout came not from the boy who'd been about to kick the child, nor from the one pinning him down, but from one of the remaining two.
"Hmm? Ah, that was me. ...Is there a problem?"
Stepping out from the shadows was Rei. Set, however, was nowhere to be seen. A gryphon appearing in a place like this would cause a massive commotion, so Rei had told it to wait quietly in the shadows some distance away before showing himself.
"O-obviously! What the hell was that for?!"
The boy shouted boldly, judging from Rei's stature that he was about their age—or maybe even younger. But the last boy standing next to him was staring dumbfounded at the skewer lodged in the brick wall.
Under normal circumstances, a wooden skewer piercing a brick wall should have been impossible. It was precisely because the boy understood this that he couldn't comprehend what had just happened.
(...Nailed it.)
Rei muttered inwardly. He had infused the wooden skewer with magical power and thrown it. Normally, unless it was made of a special metal capable of conducting magical energy, any magic forced into an object would dissipate almost immediately. But Rei possessed an extraordinary amount of magical power, and by forcing it into the skewer through sheer brute force, he'd achieved the impossible: a wooden skewer embedding itself in brick.
"Hmm, what's the line for this kind of situation again? Ah, right. 'To see what is right and not do it is to lack courage,' or something like that."
"Huh? Quit spouting nonsense. What, you picking a fight with us?"
"No, just killing time."
He'd just quoted the saying—"to see what is right and not do it is to lack courage," meaning that knowing something is just yet failing to act shows a lack of courage—only to flatly state his real motive.
Apparently taking this as mockery, the boy who'd been pinning the child released him and stepped forward.
"Listen, we're busy as you can see. Sorry, but you're in the way. Why don't you get lost? You don't want to get hurt either, right?"
"Hmm... I'd give that about a twenty out of a hundred."
"Huh? What are you—"
The boy started to speak, and in the next instant, Rei's fist hung motionless before his eyes. To the boy, it had been a fraction of a second—no, less than that. Rei's fist had simply appeared in front of his face.
"With your level of skill, you should be able to tell the difference in our strength. Still want to go?"
"!?"
The boy's breath caught. He clenched his fists but hesitated to lunge at Rei. As the most skilled of the four, he understood that the robed man standing before him was no ordinary fighter.
...Though that was exactly what Rei had intended by deliberately letting the boy gauge the gap between them.
"...What's it going to be?"
"! Let's go!"
"H-hey! Why? There's just one of him. If we all gang up, we can take him!"
"Just shut up and let's go!"
The boy spat the words out. The one whose cheek had been grazed by the skewer and the one who'd been staring at the skewer in the wall followed after him. The last remaining boy, apparently deciding he had no chance on his own, spat on the ground and chased after his companions.
"Well, that's that. ...Hey, you alright?"
Rei watched the four boys retreat, then turned to the child who'd been pinned to the ground.
"..."
The child stood up without so much as a word of thanks, brushed the dust from his clothes, and looked at Rei.
"Mister, you're really strong."
"Hm? Ah, well. I'm an adventurer, so I've got enough strength not to lose to guys like those. ...Besides."
Rei glanced behind him. Following his gaze, the child looked past Rei and involuntarily caught his breath at the sight of a gryphon that had appeared there at some point.
"Is that... a gryphon?"
"Yeah. Never heard of it? It's fairly popular around the City of Gilm."
"No, I only came to this city recently. ...Will it bite me?"
"You'll be fine as long as you don't approach with ill intent."
"...Can I pet it?"
Rei couldn't help but glance at the child's face at the sudden request, especially since the boy had only just seen Set for the first time. Plenty of people asked to pet Set after interacting with it enough to learn its gentle temperament, but it was exceedingly rare for someone to ask on first sight.
"Gururuuu."
Set seemed to feel the same way. It looked at the child, made a happy sound from deep in its throat, and settled down on the spot to make itself easier to pet.
"..."
Slowly but surely, the child reached out a hand toward Set's head...
"Whoa, it's soft."
...and began to stroke it. The child continued petting Set for a while until Rei eventually broke the silence.
"So, what are you going to do? Want me to ask why those guys were hassling you?"
"...No. This is something I have to settle myself."
"Fair enough. I just stuck my nose in to kill time, so if that's how you feel, I won't pry."
"Yeah, um... it's a bit late, but... thanks for helping me."
"Don't worry about it. Like I said, it was just killing time."
Rei smiled at the child, who bowed his head, then pulled a freshly grilled skewer from his Misty Ring and held it out.
"Here, eat this for now."
"Ah, okay. Thanks."
Rei took out a skewer each for himself and Set. The two of them sat down on some empty crates nearby, while Set sprawled out on the ground beside them and dug into its skewer.
"Mmph, mmph... it's good... but this is freshly grilled, isn't it? Where'd you pull it out from?"
"Hmm, I've got a magic item that can store things like this."
Rei answered between bites of his own skewer, and his eyes suddenly caught sight of something lying on the cobblestones.
It was the object the child had used to stab one of the boys in the solar plexus earlier. Not a bladeless knife or anything of the sort, but a simple, slender iron rod—a short baton, essentially. At about twenty centimeters, it was a bit short, but based on Rei's knowledge, it was probably some kind of truncheon.
Intrigued, he picked it up and examined it closely.
"Ah..."
The child, who had been focused on his skewer, must have noticed. He reached out in a panic.
"G-give it back!"
Since Rei had no intention of keeping it, he handed the baton back without hesitation.
"Hm? Ah, here. Still, that's an unusual thing to carry. Was it made for you?"
"Yeah. My dad made it for me. He said this city can be pretty rough, so just in case."
"Your father made it? What, is your dad a blacksmith or something?"
"That's right. He only moved to this city recently, but he's already getting a reputation for being good. Have you heard of Pamidor?"
The child looked up at Rei with hopeful eyes, but Rei shook his head.
"Sorry, I only got back to this city yesterday. After that, I was so tired I just passed out at the inn."
"Oh..."
"I'll drop by if I get the chance. By the way, where's his shop?"
"Um, there's a library nearby!"
After getting the details, Rei confirmed it was about a ten-minute walk from the library. That put it well within his usual range, so he had a rough idea of the area.
(Then again, my weapon is the Death Scythe, made with Beast Magic. If it were a normal magic item, I'd probably need to get the blade sharpened... well, no. But thinking about my dismantling dagger and throwing spears...)
"Right, I'll drop by next time I get the chance."
"Okay. I definitely won't lose to those guys, so you'd better come!"
From those words, Rei could roughly guess why the child had been targeted. Those boys had probably been pressuring him to bring them weapons or something his father had made. Being a blacksmith's kid, he could sneak things out without his father noticing, and being a child, he wouldn't be able to defy them—his elders.
(Just a guess, but I'm probably not far off.)
Finishing the last piece of his skewer, Rei stood up from the crate.
"Well, I've accomplished my goal of killing time, so I should get going... what about you? Won't those guys hassle you again if you stick around here?"
"Maybe. I'm heading home too."
"Good idea."
Rei nodded and was about to leave the back alley with Set, who had also polished off several skewers, when—
"Mister, tell me your name!"
—the child called out from behind.
"Rei. And this gryphon here is Set."
"Rei-oniichan, Set, thank you for saving me! I'm Kumito!"
Rei waved lightly at the voice, and he and Set walked out of the back alley.