A few days had passed since Rei and the others recovered Bistol's materials, and now Rei stood before the Main Gate.
He was about to head out for the same job he'd been doing lately—storing lumber felled in the Treant Forest into his Misty Ring and transporting it—when he happened to run into Bistol on his way out of Gilm.
To be precise, it was a merchant convoy led by Bistol.
Spotting Rei and Set, Bistol approached them with a joyful smile.
Just as when Rei had met him before, his physique—truly deserving of the word "muscular"—wrapped in feminine clothing, was undeniably conspicuous.
However, as if standing out were an everyday occurrence for him, Bistol showed no particular concern and called out to Rei.
"Oh, Rei-chan and Set-chan. Off to work today?"
"Yeah. What about you? You heading out of Gilm?"
"That's right~"
Even so, Bistol's tone brimmed with energy.
From his voice alone, Rei could tell that Bistol wasn't simply fleeing from Gilm.
"What's your plan from here? Last time, you mentioned gathering more combat power."
"Yes, I intend to manage that on our end. If I just back down now, I wouldn't be able to face those kids."
Rei immediately understood who Bistol meant by "those kids."
They were the ones who had fought and fallen to buy time for Bistol and the others to escape during the assault.
"So you're Rei-kun."
Rei had been talking with Bistol when a voice suddenly addressed him from the side.
He turned toward the source and found a man in his forties standing there.
He appeared to be at an age where adventurer work would become difficult—though there were plenty of exceptions—yet the man before Rei showed no signs of physical decline.
"Umm...?"
"Ah, forgive me. I am Odorusta, entrusted with guarding Bistol-san's merchant convoy. I would have liked to visit you sooner, but I've been tied up with various things."
"Ah... I can imagine."
The convoy had suffered no small amount of damage in the private military group's assault.
Compensating for that loss required a range of actions, and as head of security, Odorusta needed to replenish their reduced numbers and thoroughly coordinate with the new hires to ensure smooth collaboration.
"I understand you held a memorial service for Byui and the others. ...Thank you."
Odorusta bowed deeply.
Hearing the name Byui, Rei initially didn't know who it referred to, but the word "memorial" told him it was someone who had died in the private military group's assault.
"No need to go that far. It was just something I did on the side between requests."
"Even so, I'm grateful."
Given that he served as the guard for someone with as strong a personality as Bistol, Rei figured Odorusta must be quite a person of character himself.
(Well, I suppose nobody could guard Bistol without that kind of temperament.)
Rei thought to himself as he watched Bistol—still as intense as ever in every sense of the word—petting Set nearby.
"Well then, Rei-chan. We should be going soon. What about you?"
"Hm? Ah, I'll be heading out soon too. I need to go pick up the lumber felled in the Treant Forest."
With that, Rei parted ways with Bistol and Odorusta and headed toward the Treant Forest with Set.
Around the time Rei and Set took to the sky, Daskar irritably tossed a document onto his desk in the lord's mansion.
"Hmph. They finally talked. ...But the Noble's Faction, of all things."
Daskar spat the words out with genuine disgust.
"You're right. Honestly, I was certain this incident was the King's Faction's doing... but this was quite an unexpected turn."
The one muttering that was one of Daskar's aides.
"Just to be sure—they aren't feeding us false names, are they?"
What crossed Daskar's mind was the possibility that this might be a stratagem to pit the Neutral Faction and the Noble's Faction against each other.
Until recently, the three factions—the King's Faction, the Noble's Faction, and the Neutral Faction—had been clearly at odds.
But now, the Noble's Faction and the Neutral Faction were no longer hostile; if anything, they maintained a friendly neutrality.
If so, it wouldn't be strange for the King's Faction, finding that troublesome, to try to drive a wedge between the two.
The aide shook his head at Daskar's question.
"No, that likely isn't the case. Whether fortunate or not, the Crimson Lotus Wings captured a large number of them. Thanks to that, cross-referencing the captives' testimony isn't difficult."
"...I see. Honestly, I'd rather not clash with the Noble's Faction."
Saying so, Daskar turned his mind to the question of retaliation.
"It's believed that Duke Kerebel's House is uninvolved in this incident."
"Probably not. I'm confident I have a decent working relationship with Duke Kerebel. But... there must be some within the Noble's Faction who aren't happy about that."
Those who belonged to the Noble's Faction generally took fierce pride in being nobles.
They held the same pride in belonging to that faction itself.
For such nobles, Daskar's lenient attitude toward commoners was surely intolerable.
Well, if they were openly at odds, they could at least mock him for kowtowing to commoners.
But once they entered a friendly relationship with the Noble's Faction, that kind of behavior would—overtly, at least—become impossible.
Of course, Duke Kerebel had the discretion to separate public and private matters.
Because of that, the members of the Noble's Faction probably never expected the two factions to join hands so easily. But then came the Gilm expansion.
Until now, Gilm had been only a town—smaller in scale and lower in rank than a city in name, whatever the reality—and now it had begun expanding.
With the Neutral Faction, which had never held a city before, now possessing one, there were certainly no few people who thought Duke Kerebel might see them as a worthy partner.
Furthermore, the Neutral Faction exclusively reaping the enormous profits from the frontier was likely another source of displeasure.
What's more, for those within the Noble's Faction with access to a certain level of information, it was not difficult to learn that Elena Kerebel—Duke Kerebel's only daughter, the symbol of the Noble's Faction, known by the alias Princess General—was close to Rei.
In reality, most believed their closeness was merely that of friends, nothing romantic. Even so, they were a man and a woman.
Furthermore, Elena had publicly declared she would only give herself to a man stronger than she was, and Rei had demonstrated his strength during the war with the Bestia Empire.
While many believed those accomplishments were only possible because of Set—because of a Gryphon—there were some with the discernment to see the truth.
Combined with various other reasons, many viewed Rei as a threat.
And since Rei was based in Gilm, it was only natural that hostility toward the Neutral Faction would intensify.
(But there are matters that have worked out precisely because Rei is here. Most recently, the Treant Forest. The Gigant Turtle, was it? That was a troublesome monster.)
Naturally, there were other adventurers with high combat skills besides Rei.
But whether they could have defeated it without taking casualties was questionable.
Daskar had confirmed in the reports that Rei's victory over the Gigant Turtle was largely due to his ability to fly and attack from above, as well as the power of the Magic Items he carried.
"Well, fine. I'll investigate why they launched this attack against us... no, there's no need to think about that. Which means we need to return the favor for them carelessly reaching their hand toward us... but how? Is relying on Rei the best option here?"
Flight gave him exceptional mobility, and on top of that, he possessed overwhelming firepower as an individual.
With the ability to take on an entire army single-handedly, Rei would be more than sufficient to retaliate—or rather, return the favor—for the obstruction they had carried out this time.
"However, without Rei, the expansion work will face significant delays."
Rei's Item Box had been a major asset in the expansion work currently underway—or more precisely, in the preparatory stage leading up to it.
If Rei were pulled away, there was no doubt that the work going forward would suffer serious delays.
Daskar considered this for a moment, then eventually shook his head.
"This time, thanks to Rei coincidentally being present, there was no major damage. The stolen materials were safely recovered. But if things stay as they are, there's no guarantee the same thing won't happen again. Especially not from the one who orchestrated this incident."
"In that case... what about contacting Duke Kerebel? For him as well, the current situation can't be agreeable. If we report this to him, wouldn't he be forced to act?"
"...You're right. That much is certain. But in exchange, I'd be incurring a debt to Duke Kerebel. And I'd come to be seen as an easy mark."
Letting out a small sigh, Daskar scratched his head in annoyance and spoke again.
"No, if it's just me being underestimated, I don't mind. The problem is that being underestimated invites people to try something underhanded against Gilm."
(Daskar is just an easy target; even if we push a bit too far, he won't retaliate. Well, we'd need to keep it moderate enough not to draw attention from above, but—)
Thinking along those lines, those who would try to meddle with Gilm would only multiply.
They were already extremely busy with the expansion work as it was.
Under normal circumstances, he would be confident in handling any minor meddling on his own, but right now was not the time for that.
To prevent such a situation, he needed to retaliate on his own, even if it meant stretching himself thin.
"Still, haven't you been using Rei a bit too freely lately? What if he grows tired of it and moves his base to another city?"
Normally, receiving a request from a noble—especially a lord—was an honor for an adventurer, not something to resent.
But that applied to ordinary adventurers—those of C-Rank or D-Rank.
Once it came to B-Rank or A-Rank, the more skilled the adventurer, the more idiosyncratic their personality tended to be.
Of course, there were good-natured adventurers among them too, but it was a fact that more of them were the type to go their own way.
And Rei naturally fell into the latter category.
"I know that. ...But having Set is huge. He has both mobility and firepower, and on top of that, Rei has the Item Box and various Magic Items. You'd think, 'Why is one person so completely self-sufficient?'"
If these qualities were spread across separate individuals—a person with a Gryphon as a Tamed Monster, a person with high combat power, a person with an Item Box, a person with many Magic Items—then it would be much easier for Daskar to make various requests.
Instead of burdening a single person, he could distribute the load among several.
But there was no point lamenting that now.
As long as there was only one Rei, requests would naturally concentrate on him.
(If the Item Box were something anyone could use, whether Rei would lend it aside, I could at least ask him to.)
But since only Rei could use it, that was out of the question.
(And they say Set won't let anyone but Rei ride on his back. Well, there's always the option of clinging to his legs like Lady Vihera or Marina, but... that's not something just anyone can pull off either.)
Flying while clinging to his front legs required considerable grip strength.
On top of that, wearing armor would add extra weight, and gripping Set too hard would hurt him.
Above all, Set was affectionate and deeply attached to Rei.
Telling him to operate separately from Rei would be unreasonable in more ways than one.
"...No good, after all. In terms of combat power, there are those equal to Rei—well, maybe not equal, but quite strong. But they simply can't match his speed of movement."
"It can't be helped, then. I had hoped to avoid delays in the expansion work, but..."
Daskar's aide let out a quiet sigh and began mentally working out arrangements to keep the construction preparations moving forward, even if only a little.