If Set flew at full speed, reaching Gilm would not take long.
That held true even when he was not carrying Rei on his back but instead gripping him in his front legs.
Normally, Set would land a short distance away from the Main Gate, but today he touched down right beside it.
Right now, Rei had little margin to spare, partly because of Vihera lying unconscious in his arms.
The fact that Ranga, the Captain of the Guard Force, was busy today and not at the Main Gate was also a fortunate coincidence.
...Though truthfully, the Captain of the Guard Force being present at the Main Gate was largely a personal habit of Ranga's to begin with.
And naturally, when his primary duties became demanding, he had no choice but to focus on those.
With multiple packs of Demi-human Monsters actively roaming the outskirts of Gilm due to the Unbris, it was only expected that the Captain of the Guard Force would be busy.
"Rei!? And..."
A guard shouted, startled by the Gryphon's sudden descent. Surprise colored his voice, though it fell short of outright astonishment.
They had already seen and understood that Set was flying through the sky, so the presence of Rei on his back was only to be expected.
What slight surprise they did feel likely stemmed from the fact that Rei, who usually rode on Set's back, was instead being held by Set's front legs—and above all, from the sight of Vihera cradled in Rei's arms.
"Sorry, process our entry quickly."
Whether it was fortunate or not, the number of people coming to Gilm had dropped due to the Unbris situation.
Not having to wait in line to enter the city was a stroke of luck for Rei.
"Understood."
The guards must have judged from Rei's demeanor that this was no ordinary matter.
Without stopping to ask questions, they quickly processed his entry into Gilm.
Thanks to the trust the guards placed in Rei, he could get away with pushing things like this.
Under normal circumstances, a man carrying an unconscious woman would be regarded as nothing but a suspicious individual.
Before any paperwork, they would have been questioned about what happened first.
That they processed his entry without a single question was surely the result of all the requests Rei had carried out in Gilm thus far.
Moreover, the fact that the woman he carried was Vihera, who had been operating alongside Rei of late—and whom the guards knew well—made a significant difference.
...After all, Vihera was extremely conspicuous, thanks to her beauty and her thin garments, which resembled those of a Prostitutes or Dancer.
"I don't know what happened, but be careful."
Before Rei stepped through into Gilm after the paperwork was done, a guard called out to him.
Rei nodded at those words and entered the city with Set.
Deciding that carrying Vihera in his arms would draw far too much attention, Rei lifted her onto Set's back.
While flying was out of the question, walking or jogging posed no problem at all for Set.
It was not uncommon for children—and sometimes adult women, or even grown men—to ride on Set's back. Even with Vihera resting there, bystanders might find it slightly odd upon realizing she was unconscious, but it would amount to nothing more than that.
As Rei and Set made their way through the streets, the usual crowd—children wanting attention, adults fond of Set, and Abuelo Stall Owners—called out to them. But Rei simply gave curt replies, saying he was in a hurry, and pressed forward.
At that moment, a faint irritation simmered within Rei.
Vihera was unconscious, yet the people approaching him were so brimming with energy.
Of course, Rei understood that the irritation welling up inside him was nothing more than misplaced frustration.
He knew full well that the people calling out to him harbored no ill intent whatsoever, but even so, he could not suppress the annoyance rising from within.
The most he could do was keep that irritation from surfacing while keeping his exchanges brief.
His destination was the Guild.
He had initially considered taking Vihera to a doctor or a Recovery Magic user, but with the Unbris having invaded her body—not swallowed, but fused as though assimilating with her—he could not imagine that medical techniques or Recovery Magic would do any good.
Besides, given that the Unbris had not appeared in three hundred years, he judged it wiser to have someone knowledgeable about such matters examine her. That was why he headed for the Guild.
(Besides, Marina is a Dark Elf. She might know something about this sort of thing.)
If anything, that was his primary objective.
Upon arriving at the Guild, Rei lifted Vihera from Set's back into his arms once more.
"Gurr..."
Set rumbled with concern but obediently waited at his usual spot.
"It'll be fine. I'll definitely save Vihera... no matter what it takes."
Rei made that vow to Set, then entered the Guild with Vihera still cradled in his arms.
Because so many adventurers were out dealing with the monster packs, there were few adventurers inside the Guild.
A handful had stayed behind to eat or to handle requests that had piled up outside of the pack situation, but upon seeing Rei, those adventurers wore expressions of sheer astonishment.
"H-Hey. Look at that. That's Rei, right? And Vihera is..."
"Whoa, you're right. I wonder what happened. ...For Vihera to end up in that state."
A pair of male and female adventurers who spotted Rei exchanged words.
Vihera had not been in Gilm for very long, but her beauty, her provocative clothing, and most of all, the fact that she operated alongside Rei meant her name was well known.
Their voices reached Rei's ears, but he had no time to deal with them now and headed straight for the counter.
Given how few people were inside the Guild, the Guild Staff Members had naturally noticed Rei and Vihera as well.
Lenora, who handled Rei's affairs, and Kenny beside her hurriedly spoke up as Rei approached.
"Rei-san, what on earth happened!?"
"Rei-kun, are you hurt?"
To the two women worried about him, Rei spoke while suppressing the impatience burning within.
"I'm fine, but Vihera isn't. Something went wrong when I defeated the Unbris, and she ended up like this. ...Could you contact Marina for me?"
"Understood, right away."
Perhaps because he mentioned defeating the Unbris, Lenora hurriedly disappeared into the back of the Guild.
Rei could tell she had headed for the Guild Master's office.
"What exactly happened? ...It doesn't look like Vihera-san has any injuries."
Kenny asked, eyeing Vihera with concern.
Vihera was an extremely formidable romantic rival for Kenny.
But precisely because of that, Kenny also respected and admired Vihera.
Besides, as a Receptionist, she could gauge to some extent just how strong Vihera was through the rumors circulating among adventurers.
Of course, she did not believe every one of those rumors was true, but she could at least understand that Vihera was stronger than most of the adventurers in Gilm.
For someone like Vihera to be in such a state—it was only natural for Kenny to have questions and worries.
"Like I told Lenora, there was a problem. To resolve this, we'll probably need Marina's help."
"...I see. She'll be okay, right?"
"Yeah."
At Rei's brief response, Kenny directed a worried gaze toward Vihera.
Normally, Kenny would have been justified in feeling jealous of Vihera being held in Rei's arms, but she understood that this was not a situation where she could afford such feelings.
Then, after several minutes of silence between them, Lenora returned from the back of the Guild, having presumably spoken with Marina.
"Rei-san, the Guild Master will see you. Please go to her office."
"Got it."
Answering curtly, Rei carried Vihera past the counter and headed deeper inside.
The Guild Staff Members who watched him go wore pained expressions as they saw him off.
"...I wonder what's going to happen."
At those muttered words from one Guild Staff Member, another nearby shook his head.
"Whatever happens or doesn't happen, right now we just do the work we're supposed to do. ...It's frustrating, but that's all we can do."
With that, the Guild Staff Member returned to his duties.
The others took that as their cue and resumed working as well.
Among them, only Lenora and Kenny—the two who had the most opportunities to interact with Rei—were unable to move.
Precisely because they dealt with Rei so often, they could sense that he was harshly blaming himself.
"Lenora, how did the Guild Master look?"
"She was shocked. I think it was completely unexpected for Vihera-san to end up like that."
"I see. ...I hope Rei-kun can hold it together."
"Yes. I don't really want to see Rei-san looking so down."
They felt that way, but there was almost nothing either of them could do in this situation. Wanting to help somehow, yet knowing they could not, the two returned to work.
Marina was speechless when she saw Rei enter the room, Vihera cradled in his arms.
She had absolutely no idea what could have caused this.
She knew the Unbris was responsible, but even so—why, and how...
"Lay her on the sofa."
"Got it."
Rei, who had been carrying Vihera, approached the sofa at Marina's instruction.
Normally, if anyone approached Vihera while she was sleeping, she would wake instantly.
This was partly because failing to wake when a monster approached meant instant death, and partly because there was always the possibility that a man might assault her—sexually—while she slept.
That was why it was simply natural for Vihera to wake the moment anyone approached, even in her sleep.
At the very least, it was unthinkable that she would remain unconscious while being carried through the city.
"Wait a moment, please."
Saying that, Marina retrieved several tools from a cabinet in the office. She approached the sleeping Vihera, then looked at Rei and spoke.
"So, specifically, how did this happen?"
"I found what looked like the Unbris's leader—the main body, so to speak—and tried to destroy it. But it suddenly teleported in front of Vihera. Maybe because it was cornered, it seeped into her body and vanished."
"...In other words, like when a Demi-human Monster evolves into a Leader Species?"
"I'm not sure. The Goblins and Werewolves I saw were wreathed in black mist, like Unbris residue, but Vihera didn't have anything like that."
"Could that be related to the fact that what entered Vihera's body was something like the Unbris's main body?"
To Marina's question, Rei shook his head.
"I don't know. To begin with, the Unbris has hardly ever appeared before now, right? For some reason, this time it did something like splitting and produced so many of them."
"You're right. ...If it had the ability to split three hundred years ago, that information should have been properly recorded. Could it be that they simply never noticed it had split?"
"I wonder. If there are multiple Unbris, you'd think it wouldn't be unusual for several to be found at the same time."
To defeat an Unbris, one had to break through the powerful magical defense it possessed—a consequence of being born from a magical anomaly.
But he could not imagine there were many people capable of that.
In a place like Gilm, where skilled adventurers gathered, that would be a different story.
Rei did not know the details of what kind of place the Valley of a Hundred Demons was, but even so, he doubted it had adventurers as skilled as those in Gilm.
If that were the case, the Unbris would have been impossible to defeat, splitting and multiplying endlessly... and if it could split, it would be strange for there to be no record of that ability.
"Oh, right. I have a potion made from the materials obtained during the World Tree incident... Would you mind if I used it?"
"Wait. Let me look into this a little first."
Saying that, Marina reached for Vihera's thin garments... and then stopped.
After a few seconds, she turned her gaze to Rei and spoke.
"Rei, please step out of the room for a bit."
Rei was not so oblivious that he failed to grasp what those words meant.
He nodded at Marina's instruction and left the office.
Seeing him off, a small smile surfaced on Marina's brown face.
(If it were Vihera, she wouldn't mind showing her bare body to Rei... no, she'd probably do it gladly. But if she's going to do that, it should at least be when Vihera is conscious.)
With that thought, Marina began examining Vihera's body for any abnormalities.