Having finished stripping the goblin magic stones and subjugation proof parts, Rei and his group headed toward Gilm.
"No, no, truly, thank you. If you hadn't offered to escort us, Rei-san, I dread to think what might have happened."
"Don't worry about it. The number of merchants willing to come to Gilm has been dropping lately."
"Ahahaha. But that's exactly why it's worth making the trip."
The merchant who had introduced himself as Walein smiled from horseback and bowed his head once more to Rei, who was walking on the ground beside him.
The carriage had overturned and its axle was broken, but fortunately the horse had come through without any real injuries. Since Walein had the least stamina of the group, he was the one riding it.
"Thanks to you, Rei-san, it looks like we'll get away with almost no losses."
Walein said happily, and it was only natural that he was pleased.
Take the carriage, for example. It had overturned in the goblin attack, and the axle had snapped. Under normal circumstances—especially given the current situation—a broken axle would mean abandoning the carriage on the spot. And once that happened, most of the cargo inside would have to be left behind as well.
But Rei had stored the damaged carriage in his Misty Ring.
An axle was a critical component of any carriage, and repairs didn't come cheap. Even so, fixing the existing one was clearly far less expensive than building a new carriage from scratch. The same logic applied to the goods stored in the Misty Ring—most of them could still be sold in Gilm. Not everything had survived unscathed, of course. Some items had been rendered unsellable by the impact of the overturn. But being able to salvage what would normally have been abandoned was no small consolation.
Without Rei, the losses would have been devastating enough to end Walein's career as a merchant entirely. Thanks to Rei, the damage was kept to a minimum. And since Rei had also handed over all the goblin magic stones and subjugation proof parts, there was a chance the whole venture might even turn a small profit by the end.
The relatively clean condition of the goblin corpses played a role in that.
"Clean" was relative, of course. Many of the goblins had been bisected vertically by Rei's Death Scythe, split horizontally through the head, or outright decapitated. Others had their skulls and bodies shattered by Set's strikes, convulsed and foamed at the mouth from Poison Claw, or been burned by Fire Breath. Some had their torsos slashed open by Vihera's blows, spilling entrails onto the ground, while more showed no external wounds at all—dead nonetheless, killed by Magic Impact Palm.
Even with the thick stench of blood and the slick feel of viscera, being able to harvest magic stones and subjugation proof parts intact was a stroke of luck. Had Rei done what he often did lately—riding Set and raining Flame Magic down from the sky to incinerate the goblin pack—the corpses would have been reduced to ash entirely. The raw power of Flame Magic that could turn not just subjugation proof parts but even the magic stones embedded in their bodies to cinders was astonishing, but when it came to harvesting materials, Rei's magic was simply too powerful.
Of course, this time had been entirely a stroke of luck for Walein. If the carriage had still been under active pursuit by goblins when Rei arrived, he would have had no need to distinguish friend from foe and would have simply unleashed Flame Magic from above as usual. In that case, neither the goblins nor the goblin leaders would have been in any condition to be harvested.
"Honestly. He always claims he doesn't like dealing with people, and then he pulls something like this."
Rei walked on the ground; Walein rode beside him on horseback. Watching the two of them, Vihera muttered under her breath.
Her words were laced with complaint, but the look in her eyes as she watched Rei was the tender gaze of someone in love.
"...I-Is that so?"
Mina, the female adventurer who had been momentarily captivated by Vihera's beauty, asked the question as if trying to deflect from something. The other escort, a man named Jacomo, was so thoroughly mesmerized by Vihera's looks that he couldn't string a word together at all.
"Yes. Rei normally travels by riding Set. Why do you think he's walking instead?"
"Huh?"
Caught off guard, Mina tilted her head and looked at the pair ahead—two people and one horse.
"When you unhitched the horse from the carriage, it was calm, wasn't it?"
"Now that you mention it, yes. It was extremely agitated during the goblin attack. Maybe it just wore itself out thrashing around...?"
"No. Well, that might have been part of it, but the bigger reason is Set. As you know, Set is a gryphon—an A-Rank monster. And an omnivore, one that leans toward preferring meat. So with that in mind... you understand, right?"
"Ah."
Put that way, Mina understood. To a horse, a gryphon was nothing short of a natural predator.
"Of course, Set is intelligent. He wouldn't attack a horse that belongs to someone. But the horse doesn't know that. If they spent enough time together, it might figure things out, but they've only just met, right?"
Vihera had seen it countless times—horses that were initially terrified of Set gradually growing accustomed to his presence as they traveled together. The most prominent example was the Wheat Inn at Twilight in Gilm. The stable there, larger than most inn stables, housed many horses besides Set. Those horses had been afraid of him at first too, but after a few days of cohabitation, they apparently realized he posed no threat. Even with Set inside the stable, they would relax and rest at ease.
Vihera had witnessed such scenes many times, but even so, unless a horse had received special training, none would remain unfazed by Set's presence from the very start.
After explaining all this, Vihera turned her gaze back to Rei, who was walking ahead.
"Knowing that, Rei sent Set ahead to scout. He did it so the horse Walein is riding wouldn't panic."
"...Rei-san is kind, isn't he?"
Mina murmured sincerely.
Seeing her expression, Vihera's smile shifted to something more ambivalent.
"He is. If you're asking whether he's kind, then yes, he's kind. But it's also an undeniable fact, as Rei himself says, that he's poor at dealing with people. In reality, he shows zero mercy to anyone who opposes him."
Vihera had heard various accounts of the incidents Rei had been involved in. For example, during the war with the Bestia Empire, he had severed the limbs of an allied noble who had attacked him. Later, when she gathered more accurate information, it turned out to have been both arms rather than all four limbs.
Vihera was well aware that stories grew exaggerated as they spread. But gathering the details had taken considerable effort, and she had ended up spending not just gold coins but even platinum coins. It was only natural—very few people had actually been present when a noble's arms were severed. The fact that she'd been able to obtain the information at all meant someone had leaked it. According to the man who sold it to her, the noble himself had asked him to do it, and simultaneously, an acquaintance of his who served under Margrave Larcus and had caught wind of the affair had asked the same. So he'd played along with a little scheme. He'd laughed as he told the story.
But if anyone was the most pitiable in all of this, it was that noble. When Vihera had asked Rei about it, he had genuinely forgotten. Only after she told him everything she knew about the incident did he finally recall it.
"Opposed him, you say? Would anyone actually choose to make an enemy of someone as strong as Rei-san?"
Having witnessed Rei's combat power firsthand, Mina couldn't imagine anyone willingly opposing him. At the very least, she had absolutely no desire to ever do so.
"Yes. With that personality of his, it's inevitable that he makes plenty of enemies."
Some time had passed since Vihera had come to know the man called Rei. She knew full well that it was not uncommon for him to be regarded with hostility by various people.
Though it's also a fact that there are people who genuinely appreciate that attitude of his.
For example, herself. For example, Daskar.
"Grrrrrrrrrruuu!"
Her thoughts were interrupted as Set's cry suddenly rang out from ahead.
"Rei!"
"I know!"
Even before Vihera could finish, Rei had already kicked off the ground and broken into a sprint toward the source of Set's cry. Vihera immediately chased after him.
"I'm going to check on the situation. You two, protect Walein! If any monsters show up, call us!"
She shouted the instructions to Mina and Jacomo—stay alert while Rei focused on whatever lay ahead, and call for them if anything appeared.
"H-Hey. What do we do?"
Left in charge, Jacomo asked his partner Mina, his voice thick with worry. He'd taken the job of escorting Walein to Gilm during a time like this, which meant he had some confidence in his own abilities. But the shock of being ambushed by a goblin pack and having the carriage overturned had been too much. He sounded rattled.
"Listen, it's not like they're telling us to protect Walein-san all by ourselves forever. We just need to hold out until Vihera-san and the others come back. Walein-san!"
"Yes. Please take care of us, escorts."
Walein urged his horse closer to Jacomo and Mina, smiling as he spoke. Even with Rei and Vihera gone, he showed none of the panic that Jacomo did. Whether that was a matter of natural nerve or the simple calculation that being on horseback meant he could flee at the first sign of trouble was anyone's guess. Whatever the reason, Walein was far calmer than his own escort.
Seeing her partner like this, Mina sighed.
"Come on. Let's just stay alert and keep watch around here."
"But think about it. If more goblins show up, we don't have the carriage this time. Without cover, we're—"
There was no chance of winning. Jacomo's expression was one of pure despair. The desperate standoff against the goblins had broken his spirit.
When Vihera-san was around, he was too busy staring at her... No, he was fixating on Vihera-san to avoid confronting his own weakness. And it's true—the carriage is gone.
Before Rei had arrived, Mina and the others had used the overturned carriage as a shield, positioning themselves in front of it to prevent attacks from behind. But that carriage was now inside Rei's Misty Ring. If goblins attacked again, they'd have to worry about being surrounded on all sides. Mina wanted to avoid that at all costs.
But...
She turned her gaze toward where Rei and Vihera had gone. This time, if they called, Rei and the others would surely come running. That was far more reassuring than fighting with a carriage at their backs.
"It's not a given that monsters will attack us again! Come on, for now we just need to stay vigilant!"
If it came down to it, there was combat power they could rely on without fail. Taking comfort in that thought, Mina did her best to rally her partner.
Time rewound slightly.
It happened while Set was scouting ahead of Rei and the others, keeping his distance so as not to spook the horse.
Instead of flying through the sky as usual, Set was making his way along the road on foot when he suddenly fixed a sharp gaze on a lone tree nearby.
If it had been just a tree, Set wouldn't have given it such a piercing look. But his eyes were locked onto something hiding behind it.
What was sticking out from behind the trunk was unmistakably a tail. Given its height and—more tellingly—the familiar scent drifting from it, Set knew without a doubt: it was a Werewolf.
Werewolves usually lived in packs, so finding one alone was unusual. Since it was hiding behind a tree, Set assumed it was preparing to ambush them.
"Guruu?"
He tilted his head. The scent drifting from behind the tree had changed slightly in the past few seconds. Alongside the beastly musk of a Werewolf, there was now the acrid smell of someone sweating heavily.
When he activated Sense of Smell Enhancement, the difference became unmistakable.
Intrigued, Set used Optical Camouflage and crept toward the tree. Behind it, he found a Werewolf—its body enveloped in black mist. Unbris.
Having found the very entity they had been searching for, Set let out a loud cry to alert Rei.