That night at Marina's house, Rei reached for a sandwich on the table while recounting the day's events.
Listening to him were Marina, Vihera, Ara... and Elena.
A short distance away, Set was chasing and playing with Ielo under the moonlight.
Elena and Ara had originally planned to stay at the lord's manor, but in the end had followed Marina's suggestion and taken up lodging at her house.
Given that it was Marina's proposal, Daskar didn't raise any particular objections.
No—more likely, he thought it was better for them to stay at Marina's house than under his own roof.
In fact, Noble Faction Nobles who had caught wind of Elena's arrival in Gilm had visited Daskar that very day seeking an audience.
For Daskar, dealing with such people was a nuisance, and more importantly, the expansion project had given him more than enough work to keep him busy.
Finishing that work took priority.
...Naturally, there were also those among the Noble Faction Nobles who learned Elena was staying at Marina's house and came to call.
However, Marina's house had no hired staff to speak of.
Its upkeep was handled entirely through Spirit Magic.
As a result, with no gatekeeper, most visitors simply turned back.
A few did try to enter Marina's house uninvited, but such people were dealt a miserable time by the spirits.
Most, at least, had the sense to leave a letter and be on their way.
At any rate, for these reasons, Elena and Ara were spending their time comfortably at Marina's house.
Fortunately, ever since the Relduct incident, Duke Kerebel had issued strict orders, and no further trouble had come from the Noble Faction.
With the caveat of "so far," that is.
"Come to think of it, I saw a strange woman at the Guild today."
Rei, who had been recounting the story of how a few Orcs had shown up at the new wall site the previous night—how the adventurers who slew them immediately began butchering and roasting the meat, only for monsters to come drawn by the scent before they could barely enjoy any of it—suddenly changed the subject.
"Strange? Well, it's not just adventurers. With this many people flooding in, having one or two odd ones wouldn't be surprising, would it?"
"Mn."
Byune, who had been eating steamed Orc meat wrapped in steamed vegetables—shaped like lettuce but mottled red and blue—dipped in a sharp, fruity sauce, nodded in agreement with Vihera.
In truth, Vihera's observation was by no means wrong.
With this many people gathered together, a certain number of eccentrics mixed in was only to be expected.
"Hmm, but she was strange in a different way than that."
"At the Guild, you mean?"
At Rei's words, Marina murmured, apparently recalling what had happened.
"Yeah. Strange... no, peculiar would be the better word."
"I wouldn't go that far... well, even so, she did seem a bit different from the norm."
At Marina's meaningful murmur, the others turned their gazes with evident interest.
Rei and Marina, on the receiving end of those looks—and in the end, it was Rei who spoke about what had happened.
"There was a woman in the Guild who was trying to draw her weapon."
"...That's it?"
Toward Vihera, who implicitly conveyed her disappointment, Rei shook his head and continued.
"If she'd been some hot-headed adventurer, or someone showing off their weapon to brag, I wouldn't bother mentioning it. But what if the one reaching for a weapon was an ordinary woman?"
"No, she was armed and in the Guild. She wasn't ordinary—she was an adventurer, right?"
"Do you think so, Marina? From where I stood, she didn't look like she had anywhere near the ability to survive in Gilm. Even if she is an adventurer, I'd bet she just tagged along with some party."
"But would someone like that draw a weapon in the Guild?"
Elena, who had been following the exchange between Rei and Marina, murmured the question aloud.
For a beginner—someone close to a complete amateur—it should have been easy enough to imagine just how dangerous drawing a weapon in the Gilm Guild was.
"Exactly. But she was giving off killing intent. Crude, yes, but real enough. This wasn't a game."
"Killing intent, huh. Pulling something like that in the Gilm Guild takes some nerve."
Vihera murmured thoughtfully.
"And the person she was directing it at hadn't even noticed her. Well, with this many adventurers packed in, maybe that's unavoidable, but I just hope it doesn't blow up into something ugly."
"Well, with this many people gathered, problems are bound to happen."
Marina said it as if to comfort Rei, then handed him a glass of fruit water chilled with Spirit Magic.
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it. ...So, what do you think will happen to that girl?"
For Marina, a Dark Elf, even someone who appeared to be an adult on the outside was still treated as a child.
And yet she herself was in love with Rei, who looked even younger.
"You're asking me? What happened in the Guild doesn't really concern me."
"The Guild doesn't intervene in disputes between adventurers, so it'd be nice if it doesn't turn into a mess. Marina, you're a former Guild Master—can't you do something about it?"
"Listen here, Vihera. If it were only Gilm-specific Guild rules, that'd be one thing. But how am I supposed to do anything about rules common to every Guild?"
"...So you could do something about Gilm-specific rules?"
Ara, who had been listening to the three of them, turned a gaze toward Marina that was equal parts surprise and reluctant conviction.
Given that Marina had served as Guild Master for years, there was the question of whether she still wielded that much influence—and a curious, instinctive trust that if anyone could pull it off, it would be Marina. Two feelings, tangled together.
"Fufu, I wonder about that."
Toward Ara, Marina merely offered a smile, putting an end to any further questioning.
Ara, too, seemed to understand that pressing further would only lead to trouble. She didn't broach the subject again.
The one who spoke next was Elena.
Partly to shield Ara—but also because she was genuinely curious.
"Rei, come to think of it, it's been about ten days since I arrived in Gilm. How goes the wall?"
"For now, the areas I was responsible for excavating are done. The rest is just waiting for the other mages to handle their parts."
Using Terrain Manipulation, he had sunk every section that could be sunk.
With that done, the rest was out of his hands.
Though since Rei had used Terrain Manipulation to carve out that first meter, the other mages felt the difference was enormous.
"I see. Then what is Rei doing now?"
"A lot of odd jobs. The big one is hauling lumber from the Treant Forest."
"...Figures. The difference in cost and manpower between hauling felled trees the normal way and having Rei do it is enormous."
Marina murmured with feeling.
While Rei had been away in Count Relduct's Territory, Marina had been using Spirit Magic to assist the woodcutters.
But even with Marina's extraordinary—perhaps even abnormal—mastery of Spirit Magic, it took incomparably longer than when Rei transported the felled trees himself.
...Naturally so. Rei could store felled logs in his Misty Ring just by touching them, and for travel, he could ride Set from the Treant Forest to Gilm in a matter of minutes, if that.
No matter how skilled Marina was with Spirit Magic, expecting her to compete with that was simply unreasonable.
Of course, compared to woodcutters felling trees and hauling them to Gilm on their own, the benefits of Marina's Spirit Magic made the work overwhelmingly easier.
The problem was simply that the person she was being compared to was in a league of his own.
Then again, given that the majority of woodcutters were men, if asked whether they'd rather work alongside Rei or Marina, the answer would undoubtedly be the latter—no deliberation needed.
In fact, the longer transport time meant more extended contact with Marina, something quite a few of them considered a wish come true.
The prime example was a woodcutter named Danza, who had previously tried to pick a fight with Rei.
Having experienced firsthand just how powerful Rei was, however, Danza now focused earnestly on his woodcutter work, and his habit of throwing his weight around with others had noticeably diminished.
"The Treant Forest... come to think of it, that's been the subject of quite a few rumors."
The one who reacted to those words was Elena.
Even as a frontier tale, a Treant Forest that kept spreading day by day was more than enough to fuel rumors.
What's more, a giant monster called the Gigant Turtle had ultimately emerged from that forest—there was no way that wouldn't become the talk of the town.
And if anyone had gathered even a scrap of information about Gilm, there was no way they hadn't heard the story.
"Indeed. I have heard that Lord Rei and the adventurers defeated a giant monster."
As if to pick up where Elena left off, Ara relayed this.
"Yeah, the Gigant Turtle."
"Oh, that reminds me."
Vihera, who had been eating a salad of summer vegetables and cheese, cut in upon hearing the name.
"Actually, after I finished work today, I spotted a somewhat dicey situation."
"Dicey?"
"Yes. A female adventurer who looked like she'd only just arrived in Gilm was wandering aimlessly down the road leading toward the Slum District. And before she even reached the Slum District, she was being harassed by former adventurers."
"Ah... so it's that kind of problem."
People who came to Gilm seeking work, only to find it harder than expected, or who couldn't get along with their coworkers, superiors, or subordinates...
For all sorts of reasons, there were those who stopped working—or couldn't—and fell by the wayside. Rei was well aware of this.
Naturally, such people couldn't earn enough to pay for a night at an inn.
Some even resorted to threatening Gilm's residents to rob them, but not only the Guards—adventurers like Vihera were also patrolling those areas.
The Slum District residents, too, understood that if unnecessary trouble flared up in the current climate, they'd be the ones to suffer the consequences down the line.
And as for the underworld elements, they absolutely refused to tolerate fallen adventurers gathering anyone with a modicum of strength and forming a new faction.
For all these reasons, those who threatened the town's residents came under attack from multiple directions and were driven out.
The one small mercy was that "attack" in this case didn't mean "kill."
At any rate, since the existence of such people was a fact, something had to be done about them.
...In fact, this was part of what had been troubling Daskar lately.
"Hey, Rei. Come to think of it, what about disassembling the Gigant Turtle? You said the Guild would put out a call for workers once the adventurers started running out of jobs, right?"
The Gigant Turtle, needless to say, was currently stored inside Rei's Misty Ring.
But Rei shook his head at Vihera's words.
"No, it's too early for that. Or rather, if we're talking about people looking for work, there are plenty of other jobs besides what they've been doing. Those are the type who won't touch those. Even if Gigant Turtle disassembly went up as a request, they probably wouldn't show up."
In truth, Gilm currently had no shortage of work.
Beyond the expansion construction, there was material gathering, escorting merchants and travelers, and the like.
At worst, there were plenty of odd jobs available within the town itself.
One could also hunt monsters and sell the materials, magic stones, and subjugation proof parts—but since Gilm was a frontier where high-rank monsters could appear right outside the walls without warning, that was no easy task for anyone without a certain level of skill.
"Hmm, when you put it that way, maybe you're right. But then what happens to people like that?"
"Honestly, there's nothing to be done about them."
If they had any intention of working, Gilm right now had more jobs than they could handle.
A boom, by any reasonable measure.
But if they had no intention of working in the first place, there was nothing anyone could do.
At Rei's blunt assessment, the others looked disappointed—but in the end, they could only nod in agreement.