Under the desert night sky, Rei made camp alongside the four members of Sand Dust Claw.
"Hmm. So even with the Sand Ship, making it to Gauche today was out of the question after all."
"Hey, our marching speed still improved a lot. On foot, we wouldn't have gotten there until tomorrow evening, but now we should arrive by morning."
Howl, the leader of Sand Dust Claw, muttered as he tossed something into the campfire in response to Rei's grumbling.
Rather than nodding at Howl's words, Rei fixed his curious gaze on whatever had just been tossed into the flames.
Noticing Rei's interest, Howl held out what remained in his hand.
"What, is this really that strange to you?"
"Well... strange or not, I'd say it's certainly unusual."
What Howl held was an object about the size of his palm, currently serving as fuel for the campfire.
But that fuel was neither dried wood nor hard-to-burn green timber.
The desert fundamentally supported little plant life, and firewood was naturally in overwhelming scarcity.
That said, in a desert where temperatures plummeted below freezing at night, going without a campfire was simply not an option. As a result, the region had developed its own unique fuel — and that fuel was...
"I never would have imagined anyone using animal or monster dung as fuel."
When he first heard about it, Rei had worn a subtly displeased expression, but he was finally relieved to find that burning it produced no foul odor whatsoever.
Even so, the idea of using dung as fuel remained nothing but bizarre to him.
"Really? It's pretty common around here. I mean, if we burned wood for fuel, the trees around the oasis would be gone in no time."
Odilon, the slim man of the party, muttered this, and Kaldina the spearwoman and Nicole the small man both nodded in agreement.
"Well, now that you mention it..."
Rei muttered to himself, wondering why he hadn't noticed the same fuel being used when he had camped with Zarust and Augusto's group. But the answer came to him quickly enough.
During that earlier camp, he had gone straight into his Magic Tent as soon as night fell, and even when he woke in the morning, he hadn't lingered by the campfire.
And since they knew Rei wasn't from Solrein, Zarust and Augusto had likely avoided using the dung-based fuel in front of him, concerned he might find it distasteful.
They were being considerate of me.
Realizing that he had made Zarust and Augusto go out of their way on his account, Rei felt a twinge of guilt.
Compared to Zarust's group, Howl and his party showed no hesitation about using dung-based fuel in front of Rei and Set — a difference born of experience, no doubt.
"There's hardly any smell, either. If nobody had told me, I never would have guessed it was made from dung."
"Well, it's not like we use raw dung. It's properly processed and dried first. If we had more money to spare, we could manage with a Magic Item instead, but those are expensive."
"Hm?"
Something in Howl's words caught Rei's attention, and he leaned in slightly.
"Are there Magic Items for campfires?"
"There are. If it's just for ignition, an everyday Magic Item will do the trick. But for a campfire — something that keeps burning continuously — the price of the Magic Item skyrockets."
"Why is that?"
At Rei's blunt question, Kaldina smiled before answering.
Since it was already night, she had removed the turban and dust mask that covered her face, leaving her features fully exposed. She was, if anything, rather attractive — a fact that had dragged her into trouble on more than one occasion in the past. That was likely why she had been so guarded when Rei first rescued them from the Sand Lizardmen.
"Naturally. Creating a spark is one thing, but if you want a fire that burns continuously, you need fuel to sustain it. In this case, Magic Stones or magic power. And that, of course, means enormous costs. If you wanted to run a campfire with a Magic Item..."
"You'd need to be either someone rich enough to throw away Magic Stones like they're nothing, or a mage. Though even a mage wouldn't want to waste magic power on something like that."
Nicole chimed in, picking up where Kaldina left off.
But for Rei, this was extremely interesting information.
After all, Rei's magic power was vast enough to be called inexhaustible.
"Tell me more about that."
"Were you even listening? I just said it only makes sense for the rich or a mage."
Compared to when they had first been rescued, perhaps because they had talked to some extent during the Sand Ship journey, the way the four members of Sand Dust Claw addressed Rei had grown considerably more casual.
Rei found their ease comfortable and replied to Nicole without missing a beat.
"You saw me moving the Sand Ship, right? I can use magic."
"Eh? That Sand Ship wasn't running on Magic Stones!?"
Kaldina was the first to cry out in astonishment, but the other three were no less stunned.
"Yeah. I may not look it, but I'm a Magic Warrior. I never have to worry about running out of magic power."
"..."
The four listened to Rei's words in blank amazement.
Mages were extremely rare, and in Solrein — a nation far smaller than the Kingdom of Mireana — they were scarcely seen at all. Gauche had a handful brought over by the Elema Trading Company with lavish sums of money, but excluding those exceptions, there were only a few.
And those few were hardly accomplished mages.
Yet here was someone whose martial ability alone already far surpassed their own, who possessed multiple Magic Items, and who could use magic on top of everything else.
"Gruuu."
It wasn't as if it could read their minds, but Set, lying down a short distance away, let out a cry as if to say, Don't forget about me.
That's right — in addition to everything they had just thought of, he also had a Gryphon named Set as his Tamed Monster.
"What... are you?"
Howl muttered quietly, looking at Rei — someone who could already be called a being from an entirely different dimension compared to themselves.
Within those words lay a tangle of complex emotions: envy, jealousy, awe.
"Just being a B-Rank Adventurer doesn't seem like it'll convince you. Let me put it in terms you'd understand easily... Would it help if I said I'm an Alias Holder?"
"An Alias Holder!?"
Four voices overlapped once more.
Naturally. An Alias Holder was a title, close to a decoration, granted only to adventurers who had achieved exceptional feats.
In Rei's case, it had come about spontaneously during the war with the Bestia Empire.
There were those who adopted self-styled aliases, but unless they possessed truly exceptional ability, they were generally just laughed off the stage.
"Yeah. Though it doesn't seem to have reached here yet. Have you ever heard the name Crimson?"
He asked, but seeing all four shake their heads, he could only think, Figured as much.
"Well, my reputation should reach these parts eventually... I think. Yeah, probably."
Looking at Rei with his hood down as he currently was, he didn't look remotely like an Alias Holder.
Even so, having seen with their own eyes just how powerful Rei was, they couldn't bring themselves to doubt him.
Despite having named his alias with full confidence, the fact that it was entirely unknown here left Rei feeling somewhat embarrassed, and he hurriedly changed the subject.
"More importantly, tell me about your group. Looking at you, you seem like a pretty solid party."
"Hm? Well, you can tell that much just by looking."
Even so, being praised didn't feel bad. A faint, pleased smile surfaced on Howl's face.
"From what I can see, you don't have a mage, but you've got a bow for ranged support."
The slim Odilon carried a bow, the small Nicole served as a thief, Howl wielded a scimitar, and Kaldina carried a spear.
Two warriors, an archer, and a thief. With close-range, mid-range, and long-range capabilities plus a scout, there was no denying it was a well-balanced party.
Being praised by an Alias Holder clearly pleased them — all four wore happy expressions.
And the party's cohesion was strong too — that was obvious from watching them flee the Sand Lizardmen.
Had relations within the party been hostile, it would have been entirely possible to leave someone behind as a sacrificial pawn, offering them up to the Sand Lizardmen to buy the rest time to escape.
Seeing them all cooperate and flee together without resorting to such measures spoke volumes about their bond. However...
They were saved this time, but everyone fleeing together isn't necessarily the best choice.
Rei reflected inwardly.
If he hadn't arrived, the Sand Lizardmen would have caught them — that much was certain.
Being attacked by a pack of Sand Lizardmen while already exhausted from a desperate flight — the outcome needed no imagination.
If someone had stayed behind as a decoy, the pursuing Sand Lizardmen would have been forced to stop, giving the remaining three a strong chance of escaping.
That is, assuming they could have dealt with the Sand Lizardmen lying in ambush ahead of them.
"Still, one is one thing, but I never expected to be swarmed by that many Sand Lizardmen. If it had just been one or two, I would have carved them up with my scimitar."
Saying this, Howl rose from the campfire and drew his scimitar from its sheath — or rather, from both sheaths: the one at his hip and another on his back that Rei hadn't noticed before.
"Dual-wielding?"
Rei murmured at the sight of Howl holding a scimitar in each hand.
"Yeah, it's a bit unusual, right? But these scimitars aren't as heavy as they look. Even one-handed..."
Howl eagerly launched into an explanation of his dual-wielding style in response to Rei's words, but Rei wasn't listening.
He simply stared at his own hands, deep in thought.
"Dual-wielding... I see. So that's the approach..."
Seeing Rei lost in thought, Howl — still holding both scimitars — gave him a puzzled look.
But Rei showed no sign of noticing and continued his deliberations before finally rising to his feet.
At the serious expression on Rei's face, the four members of Sand Dust Claw cast doubtful glances at him, wondering what had come over him.
The reason they didn't immediately assume a monster was approaching and shift into combat readiness was because Set, resting a short distance away, hadn't stirred from its position.
Set did raise its head when Rei moved, but after a single glance in his direction, it closed its eyes again.
With the eyes of all four Sand Dust Claw members upon him, Rei walked a short distance away and came to a halt.
Not a single cloud marred the sky. A large moon poured soft light over the desert, while countless stars made their faint presence known. Only the sound of wind filled the air.
Reaching into his Misty Ring, Rei drew out the Twilight Spear.
Since he had used it earlier that day against the Sand Lizardmen, the four members of Sand Dust Claw assumed he meant to train and watched with casual interest.
But what surprised them came in the next instant.
Rei shifted the Twilight Spear from his right hand to his left, then reached into his Misty Ring once more and drew out the Death Scythe.
Twilight Spear in his left hand, Death Scythe in his right.
Both were long weapons — the kind that would normally require two hands to wield even one of them.
What's more, though the four of Sand Dust Claw didn't know it, the Death Scythe weighed nearly a hundred kilograms when held by anyone other than Rei or Set.
Even without knowing that specific figure, it was a weapon with a two-meter shaft and a one-meter blade. It didn't take much imagination to guess how heavy it was.
Under their watchful gazes, Rei first swung the Twilight Spear in his left hand, then attempted to follow up with the Death Scythe in his right — but the first swing had already thrown off his balance, making the Death Scythe's swing extremely awkward.
"Whoa!"
The weight of the Death Scythe itself was, to Rei, lighter than a random dead branch.
But light or not, the Death Scythe remained a long, massive weapon.
And if he were gripping it with both hands, that would be one thing. Instead, Rei was holding the Twilight Spear — equally a long weapon — in his left hand at the same time.
Until now, he had always wielded a single weapon with both hands. This time he was holding two different weapons, one in each hand, and both of them long reach arms — a spear and a scythe.
Naturally, mastering the movements to use both simultaneously was not something that could happen overnight. And so, before the watching eyes of Sand Dust Claw, Rei continued to fumble through an awkward dual-wielding — or rather, a "dual-spear style," though one of them was a scythe — training session for some time to come.