Leaving the Lord's Manor, Rei casually brushed off several merchants who tried to approach him and headed toward the Guild with Set.
Along the way, a few people spotted Set and offered him food or petted him, but it didn't take long for the two of them to arrive at the Guild.
Just like at the Lord's Manor earlier, Set peeled away from Rei in front of the Guild without him having to say a word.
Rei watched him go before stepping inside.
Perhaps because it was the middle of the day, there were few adventurers inside the Guild.
However, in the bar area, there were already those drinking despite the hour.
A smile involuntarily surfaced on Rei's face at the familiar sight as he headed toward the counter.
The receptionists noticed him, and one of them was the first to call out.
"Rei-kun, you're back! When did you get back?"
Kenny, a cat Beastman, waved as she spoke.
At Kenny's behavior, Lenora, who was organizing documents beside her, also looked up.
"Rei-san, you're back. Are you injured at all?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Things were pretty rough, but I made some profit... profit, huh... hmm."
Rei had been about to say he'd made a profit, but he stopped mid-sentence.
In a purely financial sense, thanks to the Magic Items he had seized, it was safe to say he was completely in the black.
But what Rei considered profit in this case were the kinds of Magic Items he collected or Magic Stones from unknown monsters.
Thinking about Magic Stones from unknown monsters, Rei suddenly recalled something.
Come to think of it, that Owl Rabbit I caught before going to Count Relduct's Territory still hasn't been bled or anything. Well, that has nothing to do with what's going on now.
He'd roast and eat it with Set later.
With that in mind, Rei spoke again.
"Unfortunately, I did get some things worth money, but I didn't find anything like what I was actually looking for."
"Hmm. Well, I figured you wouldn't have inadvertently taken a loss or anything, Rei-kun."
Kenny interjected into the conversation between Rei and Lenora.
But Lenora, who would normally scold Kenny for interrupting, stayed silent today.
That was because Kenny had already finished her own work.
Was it possible she sensed Rei-san was coming today using her Beastman intuition? Normally that would be unthinkable, but if someone told me Kenny did that, I'd somehow find myself convinced.
Lenora naturally knew that Kenny harbored romantic feelings for Rei.
Whether she supported those feelings was a bit more complicated, but even so, hearing that Kenny had finished her work today driven by a woman's intuition about Rei's return, she found herself accepting it for some reason.
"Anyway, please wait a moment. I need to report the details of Rei-san's request to the Guild Master."
"Yeah, got it."
"Come on, Lenora, hurry up and go make your report. I'll keep Rei-kun company in the meantime."
She was clearly delighted to have unexpectedly secured some time alone with Rei.
Though, even if it was just the two of them, there were adventurers and Guild Staff Members inside the building, so it was quite different from what Kenny might have had in mind.
"Yes, yes. I'll be going, then. Kenny, make sure you're not rude to Rei-san."
Saying that, Lenora headed toward the back of the Guild.
Seeing her off, Kenny immediately turned to Rei and struck up a conversation.
"So, Rei-kun. It seems you went pretty far for this request. Did you have any delicious food?"
She didn't ask about the request itself because, judging from the exchange between Rei and Lenora just now, she decided it would be better not to pry.
And the reason she chose the topic of food was precisely because she understood that Rei loved the act of eating.
This was something Kenny could manage because she had known Rei for several years and had a firm grasp of his preferences.
"Yeah, actually. At a village I stopped by during the mission, I was treated to a river fish hotpot, and it was seriously delicious."
"A river fish hotpot? Seems like you could eat that anywhere, though..."
"Unfortunately, the river fish used in that hotpot apparently only lives in certain areas. It was a long, narrow fish, but for a river fish, it was surprisingly tasty."
"Oh? I'm a little interested, then."
Being a cat Beastman, Kenny naturally liked fish.
However, Gilm was not located along the coast, so the fish eaten there was primarily river fish.
Of course, salted and dried sea fish did make their way in occasionally, but being far from the sea meant the prices were inevitably high.
Given that, it was only natural for river fish to be the common fare.
But at least for Kenny, it was a fact that she found sea fish tastier than river fish.
Even if river fish had lighter flesh, when it came to the pure deliciousness of the meat itself, it inevitably fell short of sea fish.
Because of that, it was only natural that she was intrigued by the river fish hotpot Rei had eaten.
Hearing Rei's explanation of what kind of dish it was, Kenny licked her lips.
Normally, that was an action that could often be taken as a suggestive gesture, but at least right now, Kenny's action wasn't suggestive—it was spurred by appetite.
"Ah... want to eat some later? I got the whole pot, just in case."
"Really!?"
For Kenny, being able to eat a hotpot dish made from a fish she had never tried before—and being able to eat it together with Rei—was extremely exciting.
Eating hotpot in the summer wasn't something she had zero reservations about.
Still, if it meant eating together with Rei, that was its own form of enjoyment.
"It really helps that you're an Item Box User at times like this, Rei-kun."
Rei nodded in agreement with Kenny's words.
Fundamentally, local specialty dishes and seasonal foods could only be eaten in certain places and during certain periods.
But using Rei's Misty Ring, they could be eaten anytime, anywhere.
Being able to eat Gamelion meat, which only appeared in winter, year-round and still perfectly fresh, was the prime example of that.
Of course, if they ate all the dishes and ingredients stored in the Misty Ring, that would be a different story.
"I'm glad to hear you say that. Changing the subject, did anything happen while I was gone?"
"Let's see. Since you weren't here, Rei-kun, there were apparently quite a few difficulties, but it seems they managed somehow. However, transporting lumber from the Treant Forest is inevitably taking a lot of time."
"Yeah, I figured."
Unlike Rei, who could store things in his Misty Ring and fly to Gilm on Set, without him they had no choice but to prepare dedicated horse-drawn wagons and have a large number of people transport it.
If they had High-Rank Adventurers, they could probably easily carry freshly cut logs with one hand, but Gilm currently didn't have the leeway to assign High-Rank Adventurers to such a task.
"But Marina-sama has been using Spirit Magic to help out, so while it's not as easy as when you transport it, Rei-kun, it has gotten somewhat easier. If anything, the fact that Marina-sama is helping has boosted the motivation of the woodcutters."
"Yeah, I bet."
Rei uttered the exact same words he had spoken seconds earlier, but the emotion behind them was completely different.
A hint of exasperation was mixed in.
Still, Rei could understand that when working alongside a bewitching beauty like Marina, the predominantly male woodcutters would be highly motivated.
"Oh, right. You can use earth-type magic, can't you, Rei-kun?"
Noticing Rei's demeanor, Kenny suddenly changed the subject and asked that.
Earth magic? Rei was momentarily bewildered, but then he remembered that his skills were also passed off as magic. He quickly nodded.
Originally, Rei was an existence specialized in Flame Magic, with zero aptitude for any other attributes.
However, Death Scythe's skills were incredibly diverse.
To cover that up, Rei had made it so that, while not to the same extent as Flame Magic, he could also use other magic to a reasonable degree. At least, that was the public-facing story.
"I'm not that great at it, but I can manage somewhat."
"Oh, you're just being modest. I've heard you can manipulate large areas of ground exactly as you wish."
From Kenny's words, Rei quickly understood which skill she was expecting.
The Terrain Manipulation skill possessed by Death Scythe.
It was a skill that allowed him to raise or lower the ground within a fifty-meter radius, centered on himself, by about one meter.
Even for those who used earth-type magic, it wasn't a spell that could be used so easily, but Rei could use it freely as a skill.
For a mage, Rei's existence was so unfair that it wouldn't be strange for them to want to say exactly that.
At any rate, there were times when Rei was regarded as someone who could use earth magic on a fairly large scale, despite it not being the truth.
"In other words, this is related to the expansion construction."
"Yes. Of course, it's not just you, Rei-kun. We're also gathering various other people who can use similar magic. In that sense, it was perfect timing for you to come back today."
"I feel like it would've been better if I'd come back a little later."
Rei muttered that somewhat absently in response to Kenny's words.
"Don't say that. Once the wall is torn down, we need to move as quickly as possible."
"Hm? Ah, so the preparations on that end are finally ready?"
Until recently, various preparations had been underway, such as demolishing buildings near the wall and gathering the materials necessary for the expansion work.
At the same time, many Carpenters and craftsmen were supposedly arguing over how to proceed with the construction, but fortunately, it seemed those discussions had been settled while Rei was away from Gilm.
"Yes. Originally, there was an opinion about whether we should leave the post-demolition work to you as well, Rei-kun. But there were also opinions that relying entirely on you wasn't ideal, and that taking work away from other adventurers wasn't great either, so in the end, someone else will be handling that side of things."
"Is that so? Well, I don't really mind, but... ah, I would like to take the larger wall fragments, if that's alright?"
"Huh? I think it's probably fine, but I'll check with the higher-ups later. But what are you going to do with something like that?"
"I have various uses for it."
For Rei, who could fly through the sky, massive objects—especially ones that wouldn't matter if they broke—were extremely powerful weapons.
Set always flew at an altitude of one hundred meters.
What would happen if a massive wall fragment were dropped from that height? It could honestly be called a proper bombing run.
Of course, since the dropped wall fragment wouldn't explode or anything, calling it a bombing might technically be inaccurate.
If the enemy was a horde of monsters, or perhaps a military from some country, or even just a bandit gang, it would be an extremely powerful and effective means of attack.
Or it could be mixed into the technique Rei excelled at—no, the technique that was already his calling card: the Fire Whirlwind.
If wall fragments were mixed into that, it would become a heinous attack method that would tear skin, gouge flesh, and shatter bone.
She probably hadn't grasped what Rei was thinking, but Kenny thought for a moment before nodding.
"Well, if you're willing to cooperate on your own, Rei-kun, I think it'll be fine. But it's also work for other people, so don't go too overboard, okay? Besides, we have something we want you to do after the wall is torn down."
"Yeah, basically I just need to level the ground, right?"
"Yes. Of course, others will do it too, but when it comes to magic, you're the one, Rei-kun."
"No, you're overestimating me. I'm confident in Flame Magic, but honestly, I'm not that great at other types of magic."
Kenny directed a look of exasperation at Rei's words.
Kenny had never actually seen exactly how much magic Rei could use.
But even so, hearing the reports and rumors made it easy to imagine the scale he was dealing with.
It was no joke or exaggeration—there might not be anyone alive who could use more magic than Rei.
That was spoken of as a near-certainty among the adventurers in Gilm, something only the man himself was unaware of.
Though, since there were currently more adventurers in Gilm than usual, it wouldn't be strange if some idiot who didn't know any better tried to pick a fight with Rei.
"Anyway, I'm sure we'll be putting a lot of burden on you, Rei-kun, but I'm sure rewards commensurate with that will be prepared, so..."
Kenny was about to continue, but upon seeing Lenora return, she let out a disappointed sigh, realizing her time alone with Rei had come to an end.