That day, Kenny tasted both happiness and sadness.
The happiness was natural—Rei had returned to Gilm for the first time in roughly two months. Given his strength, she figured there was no real reason to worry, but since he had traveled all the way to the distant city of Gracial, seeing him safe and sound with her own eyes brought genuine relief.
But the moment she caught sight of the others Rei had brought along, Kenny froze in her tracks.
First, there was a man who appeared older than Rei. He wasn't a particular concern.
Though Rei preferred working solo, Kenny had seen with her own eyes that he occasionally teamed up with other adventurers.
Having observed countless adventurers over the years, Kenny didn't think the wolf beastman was especially strong. The wary glances he was casting around the room, though, were typical behavior for a boastful newcomer fresh off the road.
Next was a girl of about ten.
She was unmistakably lovely at a glance, but while girls that age normally wore their hearts on their sleeves, this one's defining feature was how her expression barely moved at all—nearly stone-faced.
From the lightweight gear she wore, clearly chosen for mobility, Kenny pegged her as a thief of some kind.
Despite her youth, the girl's movements carried a seasoned precision.
Kenny felt a pang of pity for her, but she didn't let it show.
Adventurers operated on self-responsibility. The girl had presumably made her own choice to become one.
Even so, Kenny cared enough that she wanted to throw the girl a lifeline the moment anything went wrong.
...The other receptionists besides Lenora and Kenny seemed curious about the girl as well, stealing glances her way while going about their work.
And then... there was the woman standing beside Rei as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Kenny had a fair amount of confidence in her own beauty.
That was only natural—becoming a guild receptionist required above-average looks, after all.
And as she often reminded Lenora, she was also confident in her figure, chest size included.
But the woman at the end of Kenny's gaze possessed a beauty that shattered that confidence to pieces. She was clad in thin garments like a dancer or a prostitute might wear, as if deliberately flaunting every curve of her body.
If Kenny had to name the most beautiful women she had ever met, the first to spring to mind would be Marina, who also served as the Guild Master.
Marina had looks that could be called flawless, and a beauty capable of hooking any man if she so chose.
She carried a slightly decadent air that might give some people pause, but that number had to be vanishingly small.
Her being a Dark Elf likely played a role, but she was also a highly skilled former adventurer and possessed a sharp intellect.
Yet for all that, she had an approachable quality, casually striking up conversation with those under her.
To Kenny, she was the very picture of the perfect woman.
Then there was Elena—whom Kenny had never met in person but had seen and spoken to through the Paired Orbs Rei used at his regular inn, the Twilight Wheat Pavilion.
Anyone living in the Kingdom of Mireana would have heard the alias Princess General at least once.
Hair of gold that looked as if sunlight itself had been given physical form, contrasting perfectly with Marina's silver.
A beauty like a rose in full bloom that could certainly hold its own against Marina.
Though they had only spoken through the Paired Orbs rather than face to face, Elena's dignified presence had still come through clearly.
If Marina symbolized night, then Elena was a figure who seemed to embody day.
Those two had been the most beautiful women Kenny had ever encountered—but the woman standing beside Rei now was every bit their equal, if not more.
Even through Kenny's seasoned eyes, she couldn't gauge the woman's exact strength, but it was considerable. If someone told her the woman had power on par with an A-Rank adventurer, she wouldn't bat an eye.
A person of that caliber could only mean one thing to Kenny: a new rival.
A sense of crisis gripped her—equal to, perhaps even greater than, what she had felt when she crossed paths with Elena the previous year.
Driven by that sense of crisis, Kenny demanded to know who the person beside Rei was.
"Hm? Ah, this is Vihera. Uh... just a casual acquaintance."
"Oh, just a casual acquaintance? I wouldn't mind becoming something deeper, you know."
"...O-Oh. Rei-kun, you're as popular with the ladies as ever."
There was no way Rei could blurt out that she was the former second imperial princess of the Bestia Empire who had fled her country and was now living as she pleased. So while he hesitated over how to introduce her, Vihera spoke up first.
Naturally, hearing words that amounted to a confession of affection, Kenny was anything but amused.
Beside her, Lenora—who had been listening in—only reinforced her internal assessment of Vihera as a bad bug.
"Fufu, maybe I teased a bit too much. Don't worry. For now, Rei and I aren't in that kind of relationship yet."
Vihera spoke as though to calm the two before her, but the implication lurking beneath those words was clear: eventually, she and Rei would be.
"More importantly, here. The signature for completing the request."
What she held out was proof of a completed escort request—something they had received from the Merchants.
"...Please give me a moment."
With that document presented, Lenora had no choice but to prioritize work.
Letting personal feelings take precedence over her duties was simply not something she could do—not with her pride as a receptionist on the line.
Kenny, however, was another story. Her paperwork was already finished and she had no pressing tasks.
What she really wanted was to ask Rei directly how he felt about her, but she couldn't bring herself to say something like that in front of him. She wavered over how to even broach the subject.
Just as she finally steeled herself to speak...
"Hey, miss. Let me take this request."
The wolf beastman who had come with Rei slapped a request sheet onto the counter.
"...Show me your Guild Card."
"Hm? Ah, here."
The card he held out identified the man before her as a D-Rank adventurer.
After confirming his rank, Kenny shoved the request sheet back without a second thought.
"Unfortunately, someone of your rank can't accept B-Rank requests."
"Hah!?"
"Threatening me won't work. That sort of thing is explained when you register at the Guild, isn't it? Don't tell me you weren't listening?"
"Guh, th-that's..."
Until now, acting tough had usually been enough to get his way.
But Kenny rejected his words without showing the slightest hint of fear.
After years of dealing with Gilm's adventurers, it was hardly surprising that run-of-the-mill intimidation didn't faze her.
At the very least, she wasn't about to cower before someone trying to puff himself up beyond his actual ability.
"Gh!?"
Apparently convinced that she had humiliated him, Magita opened his mouth to yell at Kenny—
"Calm down."
Rei placed a hand on Magita's shoulder, snuffing out his anger before it could erupt.
"...Tch, fine. If you say so, master."
A stir rippled through the nearby adventurers who overheard Magita's words.
The word "master" from his mouth was met with no small amount of surprise.
Those present knew at least something about what kind of person Rei was, so the notion that he would take on a disciple was completely unexpected.
Rei had accepted training requests before, of course.
But those were strictly short-term arrangements.
A formal disciple meant training alongside Rei day in and day out...
"Hey, Rei-kun. Did you seriously take someone like this as a disciple!?"
As if scattering the surrounding buzz, Kenny's voice cut through the guild.
To Kenny, the wolf beastman before her looked like nothing more than a bad influence on Rei.
What she was feeling was close to the parental sentiment of "don't play with the wrong crowd."
"I told you, I'm not your master. Stop giving everyone around you the wrong idea."
Since he couldn't reach Magita's head, he gave his back a light pat instead.
Of course, "light" was purely by Rei's standard. To Magita, it felt like being punched.
"Geho!"
Rei glanced at the coughing Magita, then spoke again.
"Whether you call me master or do whatever you please, I have no intention of training you. Besides, if you take requests and work in Gilm, your skills will improve whether you like it or not. ...Tell you what—once you become a B-Rank Adventurer like me, maybe I'll spar with you every now and then."
Hearing this, most of the adventurers concluded that Rei had no real intention of training the wolf beastman called Magita.
A B-Rank Adventurer was unquestionably high-ranked, and Gilm didn't have many adventurers at that level.
Well, to be precise, compared to other villages, towns, and cities, the number was actually quite large. But as a proportion of the adventurers based in Gilm, it was by no means high.
Naturally. Above B-Rank sat only A and S, and S-Rank consisted of just three people in the entire world.
In practical terms, the highest rank an adventurer could reach was A, with B sitting one tier below.
Someone of that caliber wasn't just lying around on every street corner.
But hearing Rei's words, Magita spoke up with dead seriousness.
"Really? You're serious? If I become a B-Rank Adventurer, you'll really be my master?"
"Don't deliberately misunderstand me. I might teach you for a short period, but I have no intention of becoming anyone's master. What I'm saying is that once you reach B-Rank, I'll spar with you occasionally. At your current level, you're not even at the point where fighting me is on the table. Train in Gilm for a while."
"...Got it."
With that, Magita headed back, request sheet in hand.
Several of the adventurers watching him go cast envious looks his way.
Rei's standing in Gilm was, in many ways, a study in extremes.
Those with shady pasts wanted as little to do with him as possible, while others came to him for cooking advice of all things.
Surprisingly, his reputation among children wasn't bad either. ...Though that had far more to do with Set than anything else.
And there were those who simply wanted to talk to Rei—not many, by any means, but not zero.
The adventurers eyeing Magita with envy belonged to that minority.
"...Now then, it seems we got a bit sidetracked, but I've confirmed the request's completion. This is your reward."
"Yes, thank you."
Watching Vihera accept the pouch containing her reward, Rei asked about something that had only just occurred to him.
"Come to think of it, what's your rank, Vihera?"
"C."
"Lower than I expected."
Given Vihera's combat prowess, it wouldn't have been strange for her to be B-Rank or above, as Rei had just implied. Vihera simply smiled faintly and shrugged.
As she did, her ample bosom swayed—and a sharp glint flashed through Lenora's eyes for just an instant. Vihera didn't seem to notice as she spoke.
"In Exil, I was always diving into dungeons. I didn't really take requests or anything like that, except for the occasional exception, so my rank just never went up easily."
"Exceptions, huh."
Rei figured those exceptions were probably subjugation requests, but he nodded in understanding all the same.
Considering Vihera's personality, it wasn't hard to see why.
"Yes. ...Now then, with the escort request safely finished... what should we do? I have somewhere I need to go. Byune, want to come along?"
"Mm!"
Seeing Byune nod, Vihera smiled and patted the girl's head.
"It might be a boring conversation, but having Byune with me makes things easier."
"Hey, calling it a boring conversation..."
From his earlier talk with Ranga, Rei had a general idea of where Vihera was headed. His unspoken message was clear: she was about to meet a lord, for heaven's sake. But Vihera was—even if formerly—imperial family of the Bestia Empire.
As such, meeting a noble who held the title of Margrave wasn't anything she needed to get worked up over. Rei accepted that.
"Which inn are you staying at, Rei?"
"The Twilight Wheat Pavilion. Good inn, great food."
"Then Byune and I will stay there too. Could you reserve a room for us? ...My business might take a while."
"Yeah, got it. It's a well-known place, so just ask someone and they'll point you... But listen, try not to cause too much of a commotion. Should I just come with you?"
Looking at Vihera's outfit, it was painfully obvious that without Rei and Set by her side, she would wind up in some kind of trouble.
But Vihera shook her head.
"Trouble will happen sooner or later whether I want it to or not, so I might as well get it over with early. Ah, and if you'd like, I wouldn't mind sharing a room with you, Rei?"
With those parting words, Vihera cast an inviting gaze at Rei, then left him standing there as she and Byune walked out of the Guild.
"Ah."
Watching the two of them go, Rei belatedly found himself wondering whether Vihera even knew where the lord's mansion was.
...It would be a few more seconds before Rei noticed Kenny and Lenora standing right beside him, both radiating distinctly foul moods.