"Hmm, I see. Things are going smoothly for now. But... it's not like we have unlimited budget on our end either. We need to economize a little more, you see."
"Oh? Isn't it better than negotiating to save money and ending up with shoddy goods, or worse, having the trade itself called off?"
Illuminated by the campfire in front of the Magic Tent, Daskar looked at his conversation partner, Marina, through the Paired Orb with visible displeasure.
As the proverb went, many a little makes a mickle—even gaining a little extra travel time would undoubtedly shorten the time until their arrival in Gilm by a considerable margin.
Knowing this full well, Daskar could not press the matter too strongly.
"But, as I said earlier, we don't have that much leeway in our budget either. Especially right now, the expenses going out for the expansion construction are significant. You understand that well enough too, don't you, Marina?"
"True. The expenses must be substantial... but the revenue coming in is substantial as well, isn't it?"
Crack. The sound of fire popping in the campfire echoed through the surroundings.
Amidst the sound of insects chirping from all around, Daskar on the other side of the Paired Orb maintained his silence.
"Oh my, what's wrong? Was there something wrong with what I said?"
"Gnuh."
At Marina's words, Daskar let out a short groan.
He wanted to say something back. But if he said anything here, it would come back at him three or four times over.
Knowing that, Daskar could do nothing but groan.
Smiling at Daskar's demeanor, Marina opened her mouth again.
"In any case, that's the situation. We're currently making our way back to Gilm while gathering carriages and horses along the way. If we can continue collecting them smoothly, we might arrive on your end sooner than planned. Though, once we've made sufficient preparations, we'll be returning to Gilm first, of course."
"Yes, that's the plan. ...From our end, we'd like you back as soon as possible. Is it still impossible to hire adventurer escorts?"
"It would be impossible while we're in Reblurina, I'd think. For one thing, the adventurers in this country aren't particularly skilled to begin with. If anything, we'd be better off leaving this country and hiring capable escorts in another town or village."
"When it comes to that, you know more about adventurers than I do, Marina. So I'll leave that judgment to you."
"Yes. I'll do that. ...So, do you have any idea when we might rendezvous with the envoy party coming from Gilm?"
"How would I know? We didn't give them anything as convenient as a Paired Orb. Still, they departed considerably earlier than you did, and their carriages are custom-made. They should be quite a bit faster than normal travel... but even so, considering the distance to Reblurina..."
Traveling by carriage normally, the distance from Gilm to the capital of Reblurina, Rossi, was roughly one month.
And it had been barely any time at all since Rei and his group had arrived in Reblurina.
Considering that, if Rei's group continued at this pace, it would likely be quite a while before they encountered the envoy party.
No matter how special the envoy's carriages and horses were, joining up immediately should have been all but impossible.
"I suppose so. Once we rendezvous with the envoy party, I'll send word. We'll need to exchange information with each other, after all."
"Please do."
And so, Daskar and Marina... along with the others providing various information, finished their communication via the Paired Orb after about thirty minutes.
It wasn't exactly that a quiet atmosphere returned to the surroundings...
"Someone's approaching."
Rei muttered, directing his gaze toward the highway.
During the day, the sky had been a cloudless summer expanse, but now some clouds had rolled in, concealing the moon.
Even under those conditions, Rei noticing the presence of someone approaching was, as expected, due to his high physical abilities and his accumulated experience.
If Set had been here, he likely would have detected the approaching presence even sooner, but unfortunately Set was inside the Sand Ship's captain's cabin.
At present, no one had gotten any strange ideas about entering there, but nonetheless, as a precaution, someone still needed to be stationed in the captain's cabin.
"Who could it be...? Well, anyone approaching at this hour of night must have some kind of circumstances."
Vihera muttered, her voice carrying a hint of anticipation that combat might break out.
The others also began preparing for battle, albeit halfheartedly.
However, since the approaching presence was singular and showed no signs of comrades lying in ambush nearby, Rei's guess was that they were likely not bandits.
(Jaya assassins pursuing Ryutas... is that a possibility?)
Rei glanced briefly toward the Sand Ship where Ryutas was sleeping, but eventually, in the faint moonlight leaking through the clouds, he was able to clearly make out the figure of the approaching person.
However, upon seeing the approaching figure, Rei and his group's wariness was immediately eased.
Of course, they hadn't completely dropped their guard; they maintained a minimum level of vigilance.
The approaching man, too, must not have thought that approaching of his own accord in the dead of night wouldn't invite suspicion.
He stopped at a slight distance and opened his mouth.
"Excuse me, could I have a moment?"
The voice was that of a still young man.
However, its soft quality suggested to Rei that he came from a good upbringing.
Since Rei was the only man in this traveling party, he needed to speak with the man as the representative to avoid being taken lightly.
"What is it? If you're looking for the highway, it's back the way you came, not here."
"Yes, of course I know that. But it's not the highway I have business with—it's you. By the way, would you mind if I came a little closer? Since I've gone to the trouble of meeting you, Rei-san, I'd like to speak face to face."
"...Huh."
Rei narrowed his eyes slightly at the mention of his name, despite never having introduced himself.
Of course, for the past several days they had been deploying the Sand Ship each night to use as lodging, and more importantly, they were a group of nearly a thousand women traveling together... many of them dressed in prostitute attire.
There was no way such a group wouldn't attract rumors.
In that sense, a man like this making contact had come later than Rei had expected.
After all, a merchant had already approached them the very day after they first used the Sand Ship.
However, those were people who had seen the Sand Ship and decided on the spot that contacting Rei's group would benefit them. They were decidedly not like the man before them now, who appeared to have been dispatched from some organization.
"So then, what do you say? Of course, I don't come empty-handed. I've prepared a small token of goodwill, if you will."
"A token, huh. Well, if you're going that far, I don't have any particular reason to refuse. ...Just a fair warning, though—for your own sake, don't try anything funny."
Rei released a brief flicker of killing intent, and the man slowed his approach toward the campfire.
That the man's feet didn't stop entirely was likely because he understood he would not be harmed as long as he took no actions detrimental to Rei's group.
Eventually, slightly slowing his pace, the man came within range of the campfire's light and revealed himself.
He appeared to be around his mid-twenties. His features gave a gentle impression, though at the moment he showed signs of slight tension.
The reason for that tension was, needless to say, the killing intent Rei had released... though Rei showed no sign of concern about it as he said so.
The man himself, fully aware of his own suspiciousness, hastily spoke up.
"A-absolutely. I have no hostility of any kind toward you. I merely thought that if I could be of service to you all, that would be wonderful."
"Of service to us, huh. Specifically?"
"Carriages and horses. Also food and clothing... and if you wish, I can arrange for escorts as well."
"...What?"
The man's words were entirely unexpected to Rei.
That was precisely why Rei, who had been watching the man's demeanor, froze for an instant.
What the man had named was, without a doubt, exactly what Rei's group wanted.
Indeed, Rei's group had been planning to purchase such supplies in the towns and villages they would visit along the way.
The reason they hadn't tried to procure everything in a single village or town was simply because Rei wanted a quantity that exceeded what any one village or town could provide.
Yet the man before them had declared he would provide exactly that.
In Rei's stead, Marina addressed the man, prompted by his surprising words.
"Are you from Reblurina? No offense intended, but I can't imagine that a small country like Reblurina could prepare the supplies we're looking for."
Strictly speaking, if the nation itself got serious, they could procure that much easily enough.
But that was only because they were a nation; it was not something a merchant guild could readily arrange.
Well, perhaps some merchant guilds could manage it if they really tried, but one couldn't expect a guild to do something that wouldn't benefit them.
That being the case, she simply couldn't believe that a Reblurina merchant guild would lend a hand to Rei's group.
(More importantly, all the major merchant guilds in Reblurina should have been under Jaya's strong influence. Which means, for us who are hostile to Jaya... no, Jaya lost to us, and the upper echelons of the country are trying to cut Jaya loose... I see.)
Quickly organizing her thoughts, Marina turned her usual smile upon the man.
...Though it was her "usual" smile, that was only "usual" from Marina's perspective.
In other words, it was a smile that radiated an overwhelming feminine allure.
The man, needless to say, could not possibly remain composed under such a smile.
The moonlight pouring through the gaps in the clouds and the campfire illuminating Marina's figure created an impression of raw femininity that could not have been more intense.
Even for a man with strong resistance to such tactics—so-called honey traps and seduction ploys—Marina's feminine allure was not something easily handled, and he somehow managed to resist being captivated by her beauty.
He was here representing his merchant guild.
This deal had to succeed no matter what. So he told himself.
Taking a small, deep breath to calm himself, he spoke.
"Yes. I am from the Zorgeh Merchant Guild in Reblurina. My name is Gimekara."
"Oh my, one of the major merchant guilds in Reblurina. I hear you were deeply involved in the Mejougo incident. Is it really alright for you to be speaking with us like this?"
Without hiding anything—not the fact that they were the group that had escaped from Mejougo, nor that they were hostile to Jaya—Marina posed the question to Gimekara before her.
Since he had gone out of his way to make contact with them, she understood that he was acting with full knowledge of who they were.
"Yes. Of course. My actions here are on direct orders from the Guild Master."
"Huh. How did that come about, I wonder?"
"Let's see. To be perfectly honest, I have no intention of staying on a sinking ship."
With that single remark, Marina... and everyone else, understood why Gimekara had come to make contact with them.
"In other words, you're abandoning Jaya... no, in this case, perhaps Reblurina? You're cutting them loose? Is that it?"
"'Abandoning' has a rather unpleasant ring to it. If you could phrase it as seeking better conditions and pioneering new business opportunities, I would appreciate it."
At Gimekara's words, Rei, who had been listening to their exchange, gave him a look of exasperation.
"You did whatever you pleased alongside Jaya all this time, and now that you think you're in danger, you're cutting ties? Honestly, I can't trust people like you."
"That's a misunderstanding. It's true that we... no, the Zorgeh Merchant Guild, has done business with Jaya. But it's not as though we partnered with them. That was strictly commercial trade."
"That may be so, but the fact remains that you lent your support knowing full well what Jaya was doing, doesn't it? If the people who were in Mejougo learned that someone like you is now cooperating with us, trying to escape destruction alone... what do you suppose they would think?"
Saying that, Rei turned his gaze toward the Sand Ship, now illuminated by moonlight as the clouds cleared.
Gimekara had nothing to say to Rei's words... and so, only the sound of insects chirping and the campfire burning echoed through the surroundings.