After the matter with Unbris was settled, Rei and his party arrived in Gilm without any particular incidents.
The most difficult part of the journey had been figuring out how to coax forward the horse Walein was riding after it balked in fear of Set — which should give some idea of how uneventful the trip otherwise was.
In the end, Set went on ahead under the pretext of scouting, and they reached Gilm with truly nothing else of note happening along the way.
After guiding Walein and his companions to a carriage repair shop, Rei unloaded the carriage and goods stored inside his Misty Ring. Walein bowed deeply.
"Thank you very much. Truly, if Rei-san and the others hadn't been here, I don't know what would have become of us. I might have had to become an adventurer just to survive, or find work under another merchant."
"...I'm not sure why becoming an adventurer is your first thought, but either way, I'm glad you arrived safely. You've got your hands full with the carriage situation, so good luck."
"Yes. I came to the frontier fully prepared for danger to begin with."
After exchanging brief pleasantries, Rei turned his gaze toward Jacomo and Mina.
"If you're heading to the Guild, want to come along?"
The two of them had come to Gilm to work as adventurers. Rei naturally assumed they would be heading to the Guild next and offered to go together, but to his surprise, both shook their heads.
"We'll need to go to the Guild to collect our escort pay, but I think we should wait a little first."
Mina's gaze shifted toward Jacomo.
The confidence and pride Jacomo had harbored within him had been shattered by this incident.
He was hiding it in front of others, but Mina, his childhood friend, saw right through him.
She understood that if they didn't talk things through first — whether they continued as adventurers or quit — problems would likely arise.
"Is that so? Well, I won't force you. We'll be heading out, then."
"Gruu."
At Rei's words, Walein, Mina, and Jacomo bowed their heads.
If Rei and his party hadn't been there, all three of them would have undoubtedly died.
Because they understood that, they bowed to Rei with genuine gratitude.
...Jacomo envied Rei for traveling with Vihera, a woman of surpassing beauty, but even so, he hadn't forgotten the debt he owed.
Seen off by the three of them, Rei and his party made their way toward the Guild.
"You defeated Unbris? Is that true? No, Rei would never spout such nonsense. But you don't seem particularly happy about it, considering."
Upon arriving at the Guild, Rei and his party immediately requested a meeting with Marina through Lenora and were promptly accepted. Thus, they were shown into the Guild Master's office.
Today, Marina was wearing a white party dress.
The white dress complemented her brown skin beautifully, and with its deeply plunging neckline, it created a deep valley between her ample bosom.
It was Vihera, not Rei, who answered Marina as she sat on the sofa and asked with genuine curiosity.
"It's true that we... no, that Rei defeated Unbris. But according to Rei, he felt something like a sense of wrongness when he defeated it. Whether that's because Unbris isn't technically a monster and that's why he felt that way, or whether there's another reason — I don't know."
"What do you mean?"
Prompted by Marina's gaze, Rei spoke up, looking somewhat troubled.
"It's not like I have clear evidence or conviction. It's just... how should I put it. A vague sense of wrongness. Does that make sense?"
"...Yes, it makes sense."
Marina had a past as a skilled adventurer herself.
Because of that, she knew from personal experience that certain adventurers possessed a kind of intuition.
In fact, during her adventuring days, there had been several occasions where her life had been saved not by logic or reason, but by pure instinct.
Vihera, being fond of combat, surely understood the existence of such baseless intuition as well.
And Rei, perhaps due to the immense magical power he possessed, had developed senses of that nature to a high degree.
Ultimately, all three arrived at the same conclusion.
Namely, that this Unbris incident was not yet over.
There was no evidence whatsoever. On the contrary, given that Rei had defeated Unbris, it would be perfectly reasonable for anyone to dismiss his feeling as imagination.
Even so, considering the current situation, it was certainly true that defeating Unbris quickly was the better course of action. Marina spoke, looking slightly disappointed.
"Then it would be best not to announce that Unbris may have been defeated yet, correct?"
"Right. If you announced that the matter was resolved and then monster packs appeared again... you understand it wouldn't look good, don't you?"
Marina nodded at Vihera's words.
It hadn't been a particularly long period, but this pack situation had already had a significant impact on Gilm.
Enough to reduce the number of merchants coming to Gilm, certainly.
In the current climate, if they announced that the Unbris matter was resolved and then merchants and adventurers, filled with relief, were attacked by monster packs again — what would happen?
Marina, who had made the announcement, would undoubtedly be blamed. At worst, Rei's claim of having defeated Unbris might even be dismissed as a fabricated story.
In the first place, the only ones who had seen Unbris were Rei and his party, and the only ones who had defeated it were them as well.
And the fact that Marina was close to Rei was reasonably well-known. There was no guarantee that someone wouldn't draw suspicious conclusions by connecting that fact to this situation.
"I understand what you're both saying. But then what do we do? The Unbris that was the root cause this time has already been defeated... I know it's not really my place to say, but I think we should let people know as soon as possible."
His intuition told him something was still lingering, but he had nothing concrete to point to as certainty.
Seeing Rei mutter with a hint of hesitation, Marina nodded reassuringly and spoke.
"If Unbris was truly defeated, then no more Leader Species should appear, right? Of course, it's possible that a Leader Species had already been created before Rei defeated Unbris, and that it's still surviving..."
"But even so, as long as no more Leader Species can be created, the number of packs will definitely decrease. Is that what you mean?"
Marina nodded at Vihera's words.
"But if the packs don't decrease and the damage continues even under these circumstances, that would indicate this incident isn't over yet."
"Indeed."
All three vaguely understood that things probably wouldn't end here.
Having shared their understanding with one another, Marina eventually spoke.
"So no one else witnessed the scene of Unbris being defeated?"
"Yeah. There was a merchant named Walein and two adventurer escorts, but all three were waiting at a distance."
"Is there any chance they sneaked over to watch you and the others?"
Asking out of caution, for confirmation, just in case — Marina posed the question with that intent. Rei flashed a confident smile.
"If someone could approach while I, Vihera, and above all, Set were all on alert, that would mean they possessed strength on par with a high-ranking adventurer."
"...True. I can't imagine those two could pull off something like that."
In Vihera's mind flashed the image of Mina, who had taken a liking to her and looked at her with admiring eyes, and Jacomo, who had been completely captivated by her.
Vihera, dressed in sheer garments designed to provoke men, was naturally sensitive to male gazes.
Future potential aside, there was simply no way those two could have outmaneuvered them.
"In other words, only Rei and your party need to know about the Unbris matter."
As Marina let out a breath of relief, Rei and Vihera nodded once more.
"Then I'm sorry, but let's keep quiet about Unbris for a while longer. In the meantime, we'll see whether more packs are discovered... Oh?"
Marina stopped mid-sentence and turned her gaze toward the door.
Rei and Vihera did the same, detecting the presence of someone approaching the office — or rather, hearing the sound of hurried, heavy footsteps.
Naturally, since this was the Guild Master's office, it wouldn't be strange for a Guild Staff Member with business to come by.
But in such cases, they would normally just walk over. Approaching with such loud footsteps was something that rarely happened unless it was an emergency.
In other words, this meant an emergency had occurred.
"What could it be? Given the current situation, I'd really rather not have any more problems."
Marina's murmur and the knock on the door came at almost the same time.
It wasn't a normal knock, but a rough, hurried one that clearly signaled urgency.
It was obvious that something had happened. Marina, sensing her bad premonition had been correct, wore a melancholic expression as she told whoever it was to enter.
Incidentally, Marina's melancholic expression alone, if an ordinary man were to see it, was filled with a wistfulness and feminine allure that would send a shiver down his spine.
Whether fortunately or unfortunately, Rei had been focused on the door and didn't notice Marina's state.
Vihera did notice, and she cast a slightly envious gaze at the feminine allure Marina possessed — the kind that captivated even from another woman's perspective.
While this silent, barely perceptible exchange — if it could even be called that — was taking place, the door opened.
The one who rushed into the office with a pale face was a Guild Staff Member that both Rei and Vihera had seen several times before.
Not a receptionist, but a staff member who handled paperwork behind the counter. With a face tightened by tension, he spoke.
"Guild Master, I have an urgent report. Unbris has been discovered!"
"Excuse me?"
What escaped Marina's mouth was genuine bewilderment.
Of course, she hadn't thought that everything would be resolved just because Rei defeated Unbris, but she hadn't expected that Unbris could still be alive either.
"When was it discovered?"
Could it be that information discovered before Rei defeated it had only just been relayed?
That was what she thought as she asked, but the Guild Staff Member spoke with shining eyes.
"Approximately three hours ago, I'm told."
Three hours. That was around the same time Rei had defeated Unbris.
In other words, the correct conclusion was that a different Unbris — separate from the one Rei defeated — had been discovered.
(Unbris wasn't just one? It's a possibility, but... the idea that multiple Unbris were created by a magical anomaly is somewhat hard to accept.)
Originally, Unbris was only known from the incident three hundred years ago. If so, it wouldn't be strange for it to possess an ecology that Marina was unaware of.
"Who discovered Unbris? Are they reliable?"
"Yes. The C-Rank party, Scorching Wind."
"...Huh?"
The one who let out a dumbfounded voice was Rei.
Naturally. Scorching Wind was a party with deep ties to Rei.
And above all, he had even made a bet with their leader, Mirene, about who would find Unbris first.
If Mirene found Unbris before Rei, she would be granted the right to spend a day with Set — that was the wager.
The area Scorching Wind was searching was reasonably wide, given that they had Ekril, an archer with excellent eyesight, and Surnin, a mage.
But even so, their search range was overwhelmingly narrow compared to Rei's party, who had Set flying through the sky.
Given that disparity, it was absolutely impossible for Mirene and her team to find Unbris first.
That was what he had thought — which was exactly why he let out a gasp of surprise upon hearing that Mirene had found it.
"Are you certain it wasn't a misidentification? That it was truly Unbris?"
Marina asked, seeking confirmation.
Perhaps sensing something in her words, the Guild Staff Member nodded, albeit with visible confusion.
The staff member who had brought this information had expected Marina to be delighted to hear that Unbris had been discovered.
But the reaction he received was somewhat different from what he had anticipated.
"Yes. I can't imagine there being another entity like that black, mist-like existence. Well, perhaps there could be, but... given that Unbris is already present in this situation, I don't think a similar monster would appear separately. ...Is something wrong?"
"No, it's nothing. I'd like to hear more about it. Could you call Scorching Wind here?"
Nodding at those words, the Guild Staff Member left the office to fetch Scorching Wind.
"What about us?"
If their presence would be in the way, they could always leave.
When Rei offered as much, Marina shook her head.
"No, please stay. I want to hear various opinions."
Her words were vague, but Rei understood that Marina wanted him — the one who had actually defeated Unbris — to evaluate the credibility of Scorching Wind's account. He nodded in agreement.
And so...
"Excuse us."
Mirene called out as their representative, and the three members of Scorching Wind entered the office.