The Silver Fruit Inn—Rei's party's base of operations in Rossi.
Having purchased a large quantity of Panyan, Rei and his party returned to the inn, but...
"I never expected there'd be no one here."
Rei muttered while lying on the bed in his room.
He thought that if he had known, he would have played with Set a little longer, but somehow he wasn't in the mood for that right now.
Besides, he could guess that Set was probably enjoying a nap in the stables around this time.
...Granted, from Rei's perspective, it was a familiar sight to see the horses in the same stable tense up because Set was there, but still.
Of course, it wasn't particularly good for horses to remain tense, but after a few days, they would usually understand that Set was not a hostile presence, and thus stop being quite so nervous.
That said, they would only stop being quite so nervous—it wasn't as if they wouldn't be tense at all.
"If Ielo were here, we could have played together."
Ielo had still been asleep when Rei and the others left, partly due to yesterday's events, but when Rei returned, it was nowhere to be found.
Whether Elena had taken it along, or it had gone off somewhere on its own... Rei didn't know, but he wasn't worried about it being forcibly abducted by anyone.
Of course, Ielo, the Child of the Black Dragon, would probably look like a mountain of treasure to anyone who knew its true value.
However, Ielo could fly, boasted a robust defense thanks to its scales, and even possessed the ability to turn invisible. Capturing it would be exceedingly difficult.
That being the case, if it were someone like the skilled adventurers in Gilm, it might be a different story, but it was safe to say it would be virtually impossible for anyone in Rossi.
With ultimately nothing else to do, Rei lay on the bed and waited for someone to return.
Lying there, the sleep-deprived Rei—partly due to last night's events—was assailed by drowsiness, and there was no way he could win. His consciousness rapidly sank into darkness.
"...Hey, Rei. Wake up. How long do you plan on sleeping?"
"Ngha? ...Mmn... Hmm?"
Rei, who had been sleeping on the bed, felt himself being lightly shaken and heard a voice calling out to him, causing his consciousness to stir.
However, unless it was an emergency, Rei was generally poor at waking up.
He did wake up now, but like someone who still hadn't grasped his surroundings, he surveyed the area with bleary, half-asleep eyes.
No, he probably wasn't even conscious of the fact that he was looking around.
"Oh my, how cute."
A familiar-sounding voice reached him, followed by the voices of several people chatting among themselves as if in agreement.
About a minute passed like that, and Rei transitioned from his drowsy state back to his normal one.
In the morning, it usually took him about five minutes to shake off his grogginess upon waking, but this time it only took a minute or so. That was probably because it was merely a nap, and he hadn't been in a deep sleep like he would be at night.
"Hmm? ...So you're all back."
Having finally returned to his normal state, Rei glanced at Elena, Marina, Vihera, Byune, and Ielo, who were in his room, before turning his gaze out the window.
When Rei had returned to the Silver Fruit Inn, it was still too early to be called night.
He remembered seeing the people walking on the streets sweating as they endured the summer sunlight.
However, the scene outside the window that Rei was looking at now was already dyed in a red sunset.
A sunset that had stained the entire sky red, so intense that one might wonder if a fire had broken out somewhere.
Realizing that he had been asleep not for about an hour but for several hours, a slightly sheepish smile appeared on his face.
Seeing Rei's smile, Elena and the others exchanged smiles that seemed to say they couldn't really blame him.
A warm atmosphere persisted for a few minutes after that... before Rei opened his mouth as if to shift gears.
"So, where did you all go?"
"Information gathering. ...Though I can't say we managed to obtain anything particularly important."
"Ah... I see."
They already had a fair amount of information regarding Jaya, including what they had received from Unchuu.
Still, wanting to gather as much information as possible was only natural given Rei's party's position.
However, as Vihera had stated, it didn't seem like they had gained any crucial intelligence.
If anything, fending off unwanted attention had been the greater struggle for Elena and the others. Elena spoke up with a thoroughly exasperated expression.
"Honestly, not doing the work they should be doing and instead hassling us like that... They lack all discipline."
Listening to Elena's dissatisfied murmur, Rei could more or less guess what had happened.
In the first place, if there were beauties like Elena and the others around, it wouldn't be strange for someone to want to try their luck at wooing them.
Of course, for women as beautiful as Elena and the group, one would normally expect suitors to feel intimidated.
What's more, there were three women of the same caliber gathered together—and in addition, Byune, who could easily be called a beautiful girl as well.
Even in that situation, the fact that men still lost their senses meant it was only fitting to describe all three as having a bewitching beauty, wasn't it?
Rei briefly thought such a thing, but kept his mouth shut since saying it out loud would likely lead to all sorts of troublesome situations.
After that, while discussing various things, the conversation eventually shifted to the topic of Mejougo, which Rei had scouted.
"So? Was there a place that leads to the underground facility?"
"Yeah, there was a place that looked the part. However, approaching the spot where stairs leading down to the underground facility were likely located would be pretty tough. There appeared to be multiple defensive structures in place."
"I suppose Jaya is cautious about that area. ...Still, I can only say they were unlucky this time."
Rei nodded at those words.
Instead of traveling on the ground, it was possible to descend directly from the sky to right in front of the building that led to the underground facility.
No matter how well-fortified their ground-level defenses were, there was nothing they could do against an aerial assault.
In that sense, Marina's words about them being unlucky were not wrong.
"But we'll be cooperating with the Resistance, right? In that case, don't we need to deal with the ground-level facilities as well?"
"Yeah... how we cooperate is itself an issue. I'd like to settle that part as soon as possible, too."
Rei's party wanted to settle things with Jaya—to make them pay and settle accounts—as quickly as possible and return to Gilm.
Meanwhile, the Resistance felt that after fighting Jaya for so long, they didn't want their victory snatched away by newcomers like Rei's group.
In particular, Rei and his party possessed the combat power to take on dozens, hundreds... perhaps even thousands of enemies single-handedly.
Of course, it depended on each person's fighting style, but there was no doubt they were exceptionally skilled warriors.
Given that they were such individuals, what would happen if they fully turned against Jaya?
The Resistance understood this all too well, which was why they couldn't simply leave everything to Rei's party.
However, in reality, the Resistance had recently suffered significant combat losses at the hands of Jaya... and the upper echelons of this nation.
Given that, they wanted Rei's party's combat power desperately—enough to reach out their throats for it. Unfortunately, Rei's party knew next to nothing about those circumstances.
"For now... shall we eat? Byune seems hungry too."
"Mhm."
Byune gave a short response to Vihera's words.
At Byune's response, the others seemed to remember their own hunger as well, and no objections arose.
Rei had eaten Panyan before his nap, but the Panyan in his stomach appeared to have been fully digested while he slept, leaving him feeling slightly hungry.
"Right. Let's do that, then. The food here is pretty good."
"Naturally. This Silver Fruit Inn is one of the premier luxury establishments in Rossi. If the cuisine served here were poor, there would be no shortage of people voicing their complaints."
Agreeing with Elena's words, Rei and the others headed to the dining hall on the first floor.
"Well... I figured this would happen. The one saving grace is that this dining hall is only for staying guests, I suppose."
As Rei and his party entered the dining hall, the patrons' gazes naturally turned toward them.
No, to be precise, it was Elena, Marina, and Vihera who drew the attention.
There were some who directed their gazes at Byune as well... but only a very small number.
Almost no one looked at Ielo, and as for Rei, absolutely no one did.
Granted, that was because Rei had the hood of his Dragon Robe up. If he took it off, a certain amount of attention would certainly gather on him, too.
At any rate, without appearing bothered by the stares of the people in the dining hall, Rei and his party sat at an empty table and casually ordered their dinner.
The Silver Fruit Inn was one of the high-end establishments in Rossi, and naturally, many of those staying there possessed the corresponding financial means.
In other words, there weren't zero people who would hassle them out of a desire for women... but there should still be far fewer than at a tavern.
Being the center of attention like that, they began eating the meals that were brought out.
There were a few distinctive dishes, but fundamentally, the food wasn't much different from the cuisine eaten in the Kingdom of Mireana.
Naturally. A great deal of culture had flowed into Reblurina from the Kingdom of Mireana.
And within that culture, the cuisine, ingredients, seasonings, and so on were naturally included.
Of course, they weren't simply imitating everything from the Kingdom of Mireana; there were also dishes that had evolved independently in this country.
The Panyan that Rei had taken a liking to was a prime example of that.
Besides, precisely because the food was familiar, there was nothing that Rei and his party couldn't eat, and the fact that they could enjoy every dish with peace of mind was another benefit.
(When I was in Japan, I remember seeing or hearing somewhere about going to a foreign country where the food didn't suit my palate at all, but I could still eat hamburgers from a fast food restaurant... Is it something like that?)
While thinking about such things as he ate grilled lamb skewers, Rei noticed someone approaching their table.
For a moment, Rei thought it was going to be a troublesome situation again, but when he saw the face... or rather, the expression of the approaching man, a puzzled look appeared on his face.
He was around his mid-twenties with a solid build. He was a man who had undoubtedly received some kind of training as a warrior.
No, if that had been all, Rei wouldn't have been particularly bothered.
There was no shortage of men with terrible personalities who were trained as warriors, after all.
However, the man currently approaching the table where Rei and his party sat was not wearing the kind of vulgar expression that would suggest he was trying to make Elena and the others his own.
Of course, there were people in the world who could mask their expressions and hide how vile their character truly was.
But Rei was somehow convinced that the man approaching their table was not one of them.
"Excuse me. If you don't mind, would it be alright if I joined you for a meal?"
That was probably why. Rei nodded at a proposal he would have normally declined without a second thought.
Elena and the rest of the party also nodded in response to the man's words.
The only exception was Byune, who felt slightly wary that her own share of food might decrease. She exuded a faintly dissatisfied air, but it didn't show on her expression.
Seeing the party's reaction, the man gave a small bow and took a seat.
The surrounding patrons who had been watching the scene wore expressions of astonishment, having assumed that anyone who tried to approach them would just get rejected.
"For now, just bring whatever you have."
Saying that, the man handed a few silver coins to the shop clerk.
Receiving one silver coin as a tip, the shop clerk looked pleased and headed off to the kitchen.
Observing that exchange, Rei and the others concluded that the man was accustomed to interactions in such establishments.
Granted, since he was a guest staying at the Silver Fruit Inn, it was only natural that he would be used to this kind of exchange, but still.
Observing the man's demeanor, Rei had already formed a general idea of whose camp this man belonged to.
Of course, there were several candidates, so he hadn't been able to narrow it down completely.
The most likely was Jaya.
Since this was their home ground, it wouldn't be strange for Jaya to have obtained the information that Rei had visited Mejougo yesterday.
In that case, the purpose was likely to establish a personal connection with Rei.
The next possibility was a messenger from Ryutas, whom Rei had saved today.
Rei, having sensed the presence of those who came to rescue Ryutas, could understand that Ryutas was someone with a complicated background.
As thanks for being saved today, inviting him to their home was something they could plausibly do.
And... the final possibility was...
"I've come on a referral from Unchuu."
The man stated, and Rei understood that his final prediction had been correct.