As the morning sun illuminated the streets of Gauche, Rei was swinging the Death Scythe in his right hand and the Twilight Spear in his left near the stable where Set lived, on the grounds of Augusto's mansion.
If he were holding only the Death Scythe or only the Twilight Spear, he could move with the grace of a martial display that would captivate any onlooker — but that was only when wielding one or the other.
With both the Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear in hand as he was now, his movements could hardly be called a display.
If anything, they were the kind of movements that would make anyone watching groan in exasperation.
He unleashed a strike with the Death Scythe and tried to follow up with one from the Twilight Spear, but immediately lost his balance.
The Death Scythe felt virtually weightless to him, while the Twilight Spear weighed about the same as an ordinary spear.
If he were attacking with only one of them, he would never lose his balance — but using both simultaneously made it extremely difficult, and he inevitably toppled.
"Whoa!"
Even now, the difference in weight threw off his balance again, and he barely managed to catch himself before falling.
"Guruu?"
Set, purring as if to ask if he was all right, was watching Rei with concern. It was lying down as usual, but its eyes had been fixed worriedly on Rei, who had been practicing the Twin Spear Style for a while now.
The Rei that Set knew was something close to a genius. Someone who could do anything the moment he set his mind to it — that was the image Set held of him.
In truth, there had been almost no instances where Rei had struggled this much. Mastering the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor and the Overlord's Armor had also taken considerable effort, but the current Twin Spear Style was proving to be incomparably more difficult.
But that was only to be expected. Someone had actually demonstrated the Overlord's Armor for him in person, and the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor was merely an evolution of the Overlord's Armor.
The Twin Spear Style was different. It was entirely Rei's original creation. He called it the Twin Spear Style, but in reality it was a combat method of wielding a spear and a great scythe one-handed.
Howl's Dual Sword Style served as a reference, but swords and the long-reaching spear and great scythe felt completely different. Starting from the very fundamentals of how to use the weapons, Rei had to figure out on his own how to master them.
Regaining his footing after losing his balance, Rei smiled at Set, who was watching with concern, to signal that everything was fine.
"Don't worry. I can't say for sure whether nobody's ever done it before... but at the very least, I have to come up with a fighting style I've never seen anyone use myself. I knew from the start it was going to be a struggle."
There was no hint of discouragement on Rei's face as he said this. He understood full well, having actually trained with it, just how difficult it was. But at the same time, it was also true that forging his own original combat method gave him a deep sense of fulfillment.
If it were a literal two-spear Twin Spear Style, there might have been practitioners before him. In fact, in the anime, manga, novels, and games Rei had seen back in Japan, there were a few characters — a small number, but present nonetheless — who used a two-spear style.
By comparison, he had never seen or heard of anyone using the lopsided combat style of a spear in one hand and a great scythe in the other. Especially given that the great scythe felt almost weightless, Rei didn't know of a single opponent who used such a fighting style.
(Actually, wait — could the samurai who dual-wielded with a katana and a wakizashi be a reference? ...Well, I've never seen a real samurai, so it probably wouldn't help.)
It was a fleeting hope that crossed his mind for just an instant, but it vanished immediately.
(Besides, there's a weight difference between a katana and a wakizashi, but not as extreme as between the Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear.)
One of the things Rei was struggling with right now was the disparity in weapon weight. In addition, since both were long weapons, their attack ranges naturally overlapped, and it was not uncommon for them to collide. Colliding meant that when swinging both weapons, they might crash into each other.
"Well, that part's just a matter of getting used to it."
Taking up the Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear once more, Rei began moving his body slowly.
First, he moved the Death Scythe in his right hand slowly. As if tracing its trajectory, he then moved the Twilight Spear in his left hand. Both movements were extremely slow, evoking the image of set forms performed within a fixed flow.
Slowly swinging the weapons while confirming he could move them freely with both hands... once that movement was complete, the next thing Rei did was perform the same movements slightly faster.
After that, a little faster, then faster still... but the moment he reached a certain speed, a high-pitched metallic clang rang out through the air.
"Whoa!"
The speed had been gradually increasing, but it still wasn't particularly fast. He forcefully suppressed the recoil from the Death Scythe and Twilight Spear colliding, using the raw strength of his arms.
"...Come to think of it, maybe because I'm the one holding it, but the Twilight Spear doesn't feel the Death Scythe's true weight when they collide."
The Death Scythe's true weight was roughly one hundred kilograms. Even for the Twilight Spear, colliding with a weapon of that mass should have sent it flying — but in reality, it was barely deflected at all.
"That's actually a pretty important discovery."
Rei murmured, turning his gaze back to the Death Scythe, when... he suddenly sensed a presence approaching him.
He recognized that presence, and since Set showed no sign of concern despite presumably having detected it as well, Rei waited for the approaching person without bracing himself.
"Rei, lunch is ready. Let's eat."
The one who said that was Cathy, the wife of Augusto, the master of this mansion. When Rei had returned yesterday, she had cried and rejoiced to a degree that surprised even him. She had initially called him "Rei-san," but now she simply called him "Rei."
Given how Cathy was, if Rei said he was heading back out into the desert, she would naturally object. Under normal circumstances, Rei wouldn't need to pay that much attention to her concerns, but considering that Cathy was genuinely worried about him, he judged that he should kill time like this for at least a few days.
It wasn't purely out of consideration for Cathy — he also needed to refine the Twin Spear Style, and from that perspective, the timing worked out perfectly. Plus, being able to eat Cathy's excellent cooking was another major point in favor.
"Yeah, got it. Set, I'll see you later."
"Gururu..."
Saying that, he pulled out a block of Orc meat for Set's lunch while the griffon looked slightly lonely.
Rei asked if he should cook it, but Set shook his head, indicating that he wanted it raw. Through his life with Rei, Set had grown quite accustomed to human food, but it was still a Gryphon. Naturally, it craved raw meat every now and then.
Wanting to ask what had happened to the lonely demeanor from seconds ago, Rei left Set there gnawing on the block of Orc meat and headed into the mansion with Cathy.
"It was an Item Box, right? ...It's so convenient, I'm jealous. You can keep raw meat fresh as-is, can't you?"
"You can even store cooked food and it stays warm. It's really convenient."
"I thought so. If you could preserve food, you could stock up when things are cheap. Try doing that in Gauche, and it'll usually go bad before you get around to eating it."
The Item Box — a Magic Item that anyone who understood its value would want to obtain by any means — was, in the eyes of Cathy the housewife, appreciated for one point alone: it meant ingredients wouldn't spoil.
(From a housewife's perspective, I guess that's only natural. Especially in a desert like this.)
Rei wore the Dragon Robe, so he was barely affected by the heat, but Cathy had no such convenient Magic Item, meaning securing ingredients was an extremely important matter for her.
(There might be Magic Items like refrigerators, but they'd be quite expensive given that they're Magic Items. Augusto's household isn't that wealthy, so they probably can't afford one. ...Well, they do spend quite a lot on food, so maybe they could if they wanted.)
Harboring that mild curiosity, Rei entered the mansion and headed straight for the dining hall.
Lunch was already laid out there, and Günter the gatekeeper was also present.
"Hey, Rei. I've already started eating."
"...Couldn't you have at least waited until Cathy got here?"
Rei didn't particularly mind that Günter had started first, but he still thought the least the man could do was wait for Cathy to return...
"It's fine, Rei. Günter needs to work hard as the gatekeeper, after all."
"That's right. More importantly, why don't you hurry up and eat too? Well, in your case, you can't go outside the city anyway, can you?"
Cathy said that, and Günter floated a teasing grin as he added his own remark.
Since Cathy, who had cooked the meal, was fine with it, Rei took his seat at the table.
The food laid out consisted of hard-baked black bread, skewered grilled meat, and a richly spiced soup. Compared to the meal he'd had when he first arrived in Gauche or the one he'd eaten after returning yesterday, there were fewer dishes — but each one had clearly been carefully prepared by Cathy to elevate its flavor. It was food far tastier than what you'd get at an average restaurant.
"...So, what are you going to do this afternoon, Rei? More training?"
"No, I was thinking of heading into town for a bit..."
Rei started to say, but Cathy wouldn't let him finish.
"The town is dangerous, you know?"
"...For the record, I'm classified as a high-ranking B-Rank Adventurer. I even have an alias."
Normally, Rei wouldn't listen to someone telling him such things. But in this case, he understood that Cathy was genuinely worried about him, so he couldn't bring himself to just force his way through.
"I know that, but you only just got back yesterday, right? Wouldn't it be better to take it easy for a while and let your body rest first?"
The reason Cathy voiced her concern so anxiously also had to do with Rei's appearance. He was visibly small in stature, and in Cathy's mind, he was still of a size more fittingly called a child.
Of course, she had heard from her beloved husband that Rei was strong. Rei had the self-confidence of an adventurer who had properly survived this long, and in fact, even here in Gauche — no, in all of Elgin — there probably weren't many people who had led as eventful a life as Rei had over the past few years.
But even so, when it came to Cathy, who had been treating him like a child from the very start, Rei couldn't help but lose his composure.
Günter, understanding this, watched the exchange between Rei and Cathy with a somewhat amused smile.
"At least stay home for today. ...All right?"
Because her words came from genuine goodwill, Rei couldn't bring himself to refuse.
(I wanted to do some dismantling of the Sand Lizardmen, though. ...Hm? Wait, that's it. It doesn't have to be inside a building — well, but if I do it on the empty lot, the blood and such might make a mess...)
Rei wavered briefly, but given that he'd been told not to leave the mansion grounds, there weren't many things he could do. Namely, outside of dismantling the Sand Lizardmen, the only option was practicing the Twin Spear Style.
(But the Twin Spear Style isn't something I'll master today. It requires training over a long period of time.)
What he was about to learn was, under normal circumstances, an absurd endeavor that most people wouldn't even consider. The kind of combat method where it wouldn't be strange to give up the moment the idea occurred to you. That was exactly why he needed to train and master it little by little.
"In that case, is it all right if I dismantle the Sand Lizardmen where I was training earlier?"
"Yes, there's no problem there."
"Then I'll do that this afternoon. ...I don't think I'll be able to dismantle all of them, though."
There were more than ten Sand Lizardman corpses currently stored inside his Misty Ring. Dismantling all of them by himself wasn't impossible, but it would be a tremendously tedious undertaking.
(Well, two, I guess.)
For the time being, he'd dismantle two Sand Lizardmen to obtain two Magic Stones for absorption. Having settled on that as his afternoon plan, Rei finished his lunch and stood up.
"I'll provide some Sand Lizardman meat for tonight's dinner, so I'd be happy if you could make something delicious with it."
"Yes, leave it to me. I'll put extra effort into making a wonderful dinner."
Leaving Cathy with a smile on her face, Rei exited the mansion together with Günter, who had been the last one remaining.