When asked whether he could take the Sand Serpent, Zarust gave a hesitant nod.
In truth, the one who had slain it wasn't them — it was the person standing right before their eyes.
They had been the first to encounter it, but honestly, if the battle had played out as-is, some of the rookies among the guards could well have lost their lives.
Viewed in that light, they had undeniably been saved, and Zarust had no desire to commit the shameless act of claiming ownership here.
He suddenly remembered that he hadn't yet obtained the consent of Augusto — his charge to protect and the head of this caravan — and hastily turned his gaze toward the man after nodding. But Augusto was already nodding back without a moment's delay.
He clearly understood that angering someone capable of felling a Sand Serpent in a single blow was a dangerous proposition.
(Still, judging by that small build... probably a child? The speech doesn't sound female, though...)
Unable to get a clear look at Rei's face — perhaps because of the Dragon Robe's hood — Zarust harbored his doubts inwardly.
That none of it showed on his face was a testament to his years of experience as an adventurer.
"I see. That helps. This is the first time I've seen this monster, so I wanted to secure it. If possible, it would've been nice if there was another one... but no such luck, huh."
"Y-yeah. Sand Serpents are monsters that inhabit the desert, but they're mostly active in sand deserts. This area is a mix of sand desert and rocky desert, so it's rare for one to show up here."
Trying to glean even a shred of information from the person before him, Zarust continued.
"Still, I'm fine letting you have the Sand Serpent, but how do you plan to transport it? It's quite large."
"Hm? Oh, no need to worry. ...Though, since it's a snake-type monster, the head probably had the most materials."
"That's right. Sand Serpent fangs in particular are in short supply and fetch a relatively high price. The single silver scale on the head that serves as the subjugation proof part seems to have been destroyed as well."
"...I see."
Told that even the subjugation proof part had been blown away, Rei felt a twinge of disappointment.
It wasn't as if he was hurting for money, so it wasn't a catastrophic loss by any means.
Even so, the fact that materials and a subjugation proof part he should have obtained had been annihilated by his own carelessness left a sour taste in his mouth.
(Sand Serpent fangs would have made for pretty good materials, too.)
Glancing at the Sand Serpent's headless corpse lying on the ground, Rei composed himself and walked toward it.
The creature had a body length of roughly five meters, but about half of it was still buried in the sand.
Pulling the rest out would require considerable effort — or so the onlookers assumed. But Rei approached the Sand Serpent's torso without paying their stares any mind and placed his hand on it.
As he stroked the scales, something seemed to occur to him. He turned his gaze toward Zarust and spoke.
"Quick question — can this monster's blood be sold as a material too?"
"Hah? Eh? Ah. I think they'd buy it as an alchemy material, but..."
"I see. In that case, I messed up a little."
The blood flowing from where the crushed head had been was already weakening considerably in its flow.
Which meant there was almost no blood left inside the Sand Serpent's body.
"Well, at least draining the blood was easy. ...Can't undo it now, though. Still, I knew this already, but this spear's power is a bit excessive."
Rei's murmured words were directed at the deep crimson spear in his hand.
This was the first time he'd actually used it on a living creature, and the strike had been far more powerful than he'd anticipated.
His words must have reached Zarust's ears. Keeping it from showing in his demeanor, Zarust vehemently agreed with the assessment inwardly.
Naturally. A Sand Serpent was normally an upper-tier C-Rank monster — the kind of opponent that a full party of adventurers could barely fight to a standstill.
Yet with a strange, sharp whine, most of its head had simply ceased to exist in the next instant. After witnessing that, there was no way he could disagree with the notion that the weapon was powerful.
Furthermore, though he had no idea what method was used, the spear that had destroyed the Sand Serpent's head and embedded itself in the desert sand vanished the very next moment and reappeared in Rei's hand.
(Probably... surely not unlimited, but Rei can perform that kind of attack multiple times. ...What kind of monster is he?)
Being able to repeatedly unleash attacks capable of annihilating a Sand Serpent's head in a single blow — just thinking about it sent a chill racing down Zarust's spine.
This, despite the fact that he was standing in a desert, filled with the same intense heat as always.
Just imagining what would happen if that spear were turned on him, he concluded that antagonizing Rei was something to be avoided at all costs.
While Zarust... and Augusto along with the others were all arriving at the same conclusion — that opposing Rei was absolutely out of the question — Rei touched the Sand Serpent... and in the next instant, its massive body vanished as though it had never existed.
"Eh? Hey, where did the Sand Serpent's corpse go?"
"Huh? Was I seeing things? It was definitely right there a moment ago, right?"
"...An illusion?"
As the guard adventurers and merchants erupted in confusion, unable to process what had just happened before their eyes, a few had already realized what Rei had done.
Augusto, who led the caravan, and Zarust, who commanded the guards, were among them.
But even understanding what had transpired, they couldn't easily put it into words.
The name was widely known, but those who had actually witnessed it with their own eyes were few — so that was only natural.
Gryphon, Twilight Spear, Item Box. Augusto and Zarust had been blindsided by Rei time and again in this brief span, but Rei was already thoroughly accustomed to such reactions. Without paying them any particular mind, he walked toward Set.
"Please wait!"
Augusto called out to Rei's retreating back.
It was an action born of a merchant's instinct — the certainty that if he let Rei walk away now, he would likely never cross paths with such a person again.
Hearing the voice from behind, Rei stopped and thought for a moment.
Part of the reason he'd intervened was his desire for the Magic Stone of an unknown monster like the Sand Serpent, and he'd also wanted to test the Twilight Spear in action. He'd helped them because abandoning them would have left a bad taste in his mouth. But the root cause of his journey to Gauche in the first place was being hounded by merchants.
Recalling those recent events, Rei turned around.
"What is it? I'd like to head to Gauche."
"...Well, it's not really my place to say this, but Rei-san, you aren't very familiar with Gauche or the desert, are you?"
"Well, I won't deny that."
Rei's knowledge of deserts amounted to what he'd learned clearing the Desert Floor of the Labyrinth City Exil. There was also the knowledge he'd picked up while in Japan, but that wasn't particularly useful in his current situation.
Seeing that Rei hadn't denied his words, Augusto allowed a smile to surface and pressed on.
"In that case, what do you say? We're also heading to Gauche — would you care to travel together? I believe I can offer useful information about the surrounding area."
"In exchange, you want me as a guard."
Augusto didn't bother denying it. He simply nodded.
"Yes. What do you say?"
The attitude was a far cry from the merchants who had swarmed him in Gilm.
If it had been the Gilm merchants who had relentlessly pressured him to sell the Twilight Spear, they never would have so plainly admitted to wanting his protection or let him pin them down on using him — they would have danced around the subject.
That might have been the prudent approach for a merchant, but from Rei's perspective, they were insufferably tedious to deal with.
Of course, Rei understood that not every merchant in Gilm shared that temperament.
The merchant from the Azoth Firm, with whom Rei had previously clashed, now conducted his dealings with honesty. While his past reputation hadn't entirely faded, the residents of Gilm had at least begun to reassess him.
Rei was also on reasonably good terms with several other merchants, and those individuals now made a point of dealing with him sincerely.
Naturally. The current Rei was an alias holder, boasting such renown in Gilm that there was virtually no one who didn't recognize his name. And his tamed monster, Set, was practically the city's idol.
If someone dealt dishonestly with a person like that and word got out — well, it wouldn't go so far as to make it impossible to run a shop in Gilm, but their foot traffic would certainly take a hit.
Rei himself remained blissfully unaware of just how much influence he wielded.
At any rate, to the merchants of Gilm, Rei was simultaneously a valued customer who made large purchases and a figure who could never be taken lightly.
But the merchants who had swarmed Rei were not individuals of that caliber.
Well, perhaps some among them did understand the situation, but they were likely willing to bear the risk if it meant acquiring the Twilight Spear.
For Rei, who had grown weary of dealing with such people, Augusto's straightforward admission that he wanted to employ him as a guard felt almost refreshing.
That was probably why. He could have simply continued on to Gauche with Set as originally planned, and yet...
"Understood. I'll do it."
Those were the words that left his mouth.
The one surprised by them was Augusto.
He'd made the proposal thinking it would almost certainly be rejected — that there was no harm in simply asking. And yet it had been accepted without resistance.
"Eh? Are you sure?"
His reflexive surprise was only natural.
"What are you saying, at this point? You're the one who invited me, aren't you? Besides, I've had some experience in other deserts, but this one is my first. It'd help if you could fill me in on the local details."
"...Y-yes. Of course. I'll share everything I know. To be able to hire an adventurer of Rei-san's caliber with nothing more than that sort of information... Truthfully, I've been dealing with various difficulties, so I'm the one who should be grateful."
"Difficulties?"
Sensing something behind Augusto's words, Rei glanced over at Zarust and the other adventurers.
To Rei's eyes, nearly all of them — Zarust included — appeared to be competent hands.
There were a few whose faces suggested they hadn't been adventurers for very long, but they were a small minority.
Rei had killed the Sand Serpent, but he couldn't imagine Zarust and his men actually losing to one.
(Well, a few of the rookies might have ended up dead.)
Perhaps reading Rei's thoughts from his gaze, Augusto smiled and continued.
"Along the road to Gauche, desert-specific monsters can appear. It's not unheard of for something even more powerful than the Sand Serpent that Rei-san defeated to turn up. ...Normally, that wouldn't be a concern, but..."
Rei vaguely grasped the nature of what Augusto was reluctant to say.
There was likely some circumstance behind it.
Ordinarily, hearing that someone had "circumstances" would make a person want to pry, but Rei didn't press any further.
For whatever reason, Rei crossed paths with people who had circumstances on a frequent basis, and as a result, he'd grown quite accustomed to such encounters.
"Well, we can leave that for now. More importantly, since we're traveling together, what's the formation? How long until we reach Gauche?"
"Hah? ...Um, well... I've left the formation to Zarust, so please take it up with him. As for Gauche... let's see, I'd expect us to arrive sometime tomorrow during the day."
When traveling through a desert, the general rule was to avoid walking around during daylight hours.
But traveling by carriage was another matter entirely.
In particular, the camels Augusto owned were a breed specifically improved for desert conditions, and the carriages themselves had been outfitted with various modifications, including Magic Items, to enable desert travel.
Additionally, Rei recognized the robes that Augusto and his people were wearing.
They were the same type used when clearing the Desert Floor back in Exil.
It was precisely because they had made so many careful preparations like these that they could travel through the desert even under the midday sun without issue.
"I see. Tomorrow during the day. ...Understood. Then let's get moving. What should I do?"
As he posed the question to Zarust, a conviction-like premonition took root in Rei's mind — that the moment they arrived in Gauche, he would inevitably be swept into trouble once again.