"With this, the third group's treasure is done too."
"Rei, shouldn't we head to Gilm soon? The Main Gate is open late right now, but we'd be better off entering a little early. Any later and it'll definitely be crowded."
Marina called out to Rei as he stored the bandits' hoarded treasure into his Misty Ring.
The faint exasperation in her eyes was probably because he had hunted too many of them.
It had been a few hours since he arrived at Sablusta—no, more accurately, since he first spotted the bandits operating near the town.
In just that short span, he had annihilated three separate bandit groups. Given his enthusiasm, it was no wonder Marina looked at him the way she did.
Annihilating three bandit groups naturally meant he had taken that many bandits' lives, but she didn't reproach him for it.
Elena, Marina, Vihera, and Byune—all four of them had been through considerable experience. None of them possessed the kindness... no, the naivety, to think that lives must never be taken, even when dealing with bandits.
Under different circumstances, bringing them to Sablusta as slaves would have fetched a higher price. But since the goal this time was to terrorize the bandits lurking in the area, he hadn't bothered.
He killed the bandits, and the few he kept alive for interrogation, he released afterward so they would spread word of the groups' destruction.
That way, he could secure safe passage for when Sura and the others eventually passed through this area, even if that was still quite some time ahead.
"Hmm, you're right. It's getting toward evening, and factoring that in, this is about the limit."
It had been only a few hours since he'd decided to hunt bandits.
Hearing that three groups had been wiped out in so little time, the remaining bandits in the area would surely think twice before making any careless moves.
Of course, the actual time spent in combat during those few hours totaled less than twenty minutes across all three encounters.
What consumed the most time wasn't interrogation, but rather getting them to confess where they had stashed their treasure, having them guide him there when necessary, and storing everything into his Misty Ring.
If there had been captives, it would have taken a lot longer, but fortunately there weren't any.
Rei felt relieved about that, though it wasn't due to luck. For the bandits operating in this area, selling captives as slaves simply carried too much risk.
When selling someone into slavery, there was always the chance of being traced back to the sellers themselves.
If attacking merchants yielded meager profits, then taking such measures might have been necessary. But since raiding merchants alone brought in substantial earnings, they had apparently judged there was no need to deliberately increase their risk of getting caught.
Of course, even then, there were times when captives were kept. Young women, after all, were in demand for an entirely different reason.
Fortunately, among the bandits Rei had hunted this time, there were no such captives anywhere. If there had been, he certainly would have had a headache figuring out what to do with them.
"Then shall we head to Gilm?"
Nodding at Elena's words, Rei emerged from the forest, boarded the Set Basket, and set off for Gilm.
"Oh, Rei-kun. It's been a while."
The one handling Rei's entry at Gilm's Main Gate was a stern-faced man—the sort of role that would normally have fallen to Ranga, who commanded the Guard Force.
"You're one to talk. I haven't seen you around at all lately. How have you been?"
He was a man who seemed perpetually entangled with Rei, yet lately his face had been entirely absent.
For one thing, Rei's trip to Reblurina accounted for part of why they hadn't crossed paths. But the truth was, they had hardly seen each other even before the Expansion Construction began.
"I was away from Gilm for work."
"Now that you mention it, something similar happened before, didn't it?"
Rei recalled the time Ranga had been dispatched as Daskar's special envoy to deal with a matter involving a certain noble Rei had gotten tangled up with. Ranga nodded, a smile breaking across his stern features.
"Come to think of it, something like that did happen."
To anyone who didn't know better, Ranga would look exactly like a bandit himself. In fact, a man who appeared to be a merchant, standing a short distance away, was trembling as he watched Ranga talk with Rei.
Another merchant who recognized Ranga leaned over and explained that despite his appearance, Ranga wasn't actually that frightening—so long as one had nothing to feel guilty about.
"Oops, no point keeping you here. The paperwork's done, so you're free to go in."
Perhaps noticing the stares around him, Ranga hurriedly waved Rei through.
Rei gave him a brief parting greeting, collected his Tamed Monster's collar, and entered Gilm with Elena and the others.
"I don't know where Ranga went, but if he's back, does that mean something big is about to happen?"
"Hard to say. He might have simply gone somewhere on Lord Daskar's orders. Truth be told, as a guard, Ranga is quite capable. It wouldn't be strange for someone to have requested his assistance elsewhere."
Rei accepted Marina's reasoning.
Her words were no lie. When a problem arose among the nobles of the Neutral Faction—specifically one involving some manner of crime—it was not uncommon for Ranga to be dispatched.
Ranga himself actually enjoyed processing the entry and exit procedures for people coming through Gilm, making him a textbook case of personality and ability not necessarily aligning.
"I see. Ranga has it rough too. So, what do we do now? Should we go greet Lord Daskar first?"
"There's no need for that. Last time we had to explain the Reblurina situation, so meeting Daskar was necessary. But there's nothing in particular to report this time, is there?"
Rei thought it over for a moment.
When he actually considered whether there was anything to report, not much came to mind.
How much work had piled up during the few days they'd been away would become clear the moment they visited the site.
The supplies to bring and the number of escorts to take along for the next reunion with Sura's group would require some consultation with Daskar, but...
"Leave the detailed negotiations to me."
Rei decided to take her up on it.
In truth, he was by no means skilled at negotiation. He excelled at the kind that shoved power to the forefront—something bordering on coercion, like what he'd done with the bandits—but he obviously couldn't pull something like that with Daskar.
In that sense, leaving the talks entirely in Marina's hands was the best move.
For Daskar, who had things that could only be described as dark history known to Marina in various ways, having her as his negotiation partner likely stirred up complicated feelings. But if the negotiation would disadvantage Gilm, he would never back down, even if his embarrassing past were dragged into the conversation.
Conversely, that meant if the deal posed no disadvantage to Gilm—or better yet, brought benefit—it would almost certainly proceed entirely at Marina's pace.
Rei was well aware of all this, and it was on those exact terms that he had asked her.
"Then I'll go talk things through with Daskar right away. What about the Set Basket?"
"There's no particular adjustment needed, right? Last time was the first time we used it, so that made sense. But there were no issues this time around."
The Set Basket that had been adjusted and modified previously was functioning without any problems. If that was the case, there was no need to haul it over this time—that was Rei's take.
Perhaps Marina had only asked to be sure. She didn't press the matter further and simply turned her gaze toward him.
And when that gaze fell on him, what Rei said was...
"For now, shall we grab something to eat?"
Everyone agreed—Byune in particular.
They had thrown themselves into bandit-hunting today, moving around far more than they had while escorting Sura's group. It was only natural they were hungrier than usual.
Food, huh. I need to restock on supplies before long.
The cost of the meals provided to Sura's group was naturally treated as a necessary expense. But being a necessary expense didn't mean food could be procured on demand just because funds were available.
A meal or two was one thing, but what Rei needed was an entire cauldron of stew, or bread by the thousand.
There were nearly a thousand people in Sura's group. Stew and other dishes aside, a single loaf of bread was nowhere near enough. And since they had been training hard in combat lately, their appetites had only grown.
Rei had stockpiled a good amount of food, but even so, this excursion had visibly depleted his stores.
Besides, what was stored in his Misty Ring wasn't just food from any shop. It was strictly dishes from restaurants Rei himself found delicious, so the supply was inherently limited.
"The Full Belly Diner... at this hour, it's probably packed."
Cheap, delicious, and generous portions—the Full Belly Diner was as close to paradise as a restaurant could get for an adventurer. But naturally, such a place was popular and never short of customers.
With the influx of people brought by the Expansion Construction, the crowding was easy to imagine.
If Rei and his party walked in there now, commotions were guaranteed. Woodcutters would swarm Rei, artisans would flock to Marina, those with shady dealings would gravitate toward Vihera, and so on.
And with Elena—undoubtedly the most famous among them—present as well, going there would be tantamount to diving headfirst into chaos.
"In that case, how about eating at my place? No unwanted interruptions there, and Set can relax too."
Marina's gaze had drifted to Set, who was playing with a group of children that had appeared at some point.
Given the situation, bringing Set into just any restaurant was sure to cause a scene.
"Right. I'm all for that. If Yohanna shows up, things are bound to get noisy again."
Mirene was away from Gilm, serving as an escort for the Reblurina envoy, but Yohanna was still around. The last time they'd returned to Gilm, she had sensed Set's presence from out of nowhere and materialized on the spot.
To avoid a repeat, heading to Marina's house in the Noble District now was the best option for everyone.
"Set, we're heading out!"
"Gruu!"
At Rei's call, Set purred and pulled away from the children he'd been playing with.
The children had known Set long enough to understand that while he would play with them, Rei's word came first. They let him go without complaint.
Every now and then there was a child—or even an adult—who would throw a tantrum and insist on playing with Set longer. But today there was no such person, and Set trotted quietly back to Rei and the others.
"If it's your group, there's no problem letting yourselves into my house. Go on ahead. I'll wrap up the negotiations with Daskar first."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. Your group has come to my place more times than I can count, hasn't it? It's set up to deal with trespassers using Spirit Magic, but if it's you all, there won't be any issue at all."
Rei nodded at Marina's matter-of-fact response.
He was mildly curious about the Spirit Magic security setup, but asking about something like that in a crowded area would be problematic for any number of reasons. He let it slide and asked something else instead.
"Got it. We'll do that, then. So, what do you want for dinner? If there's anything you're craving, we can get it ready."
"Hmm, pizza after all. The pizza you make is delicious."
"If that's what you want, it's less work for us. You sure, though?"
Rei's pizza was baked in the Pizza Oven, a Magic Item. Heating it was effortless since it was a Magic Item, and pizza itself wasn't a particularly labor-intensive dish.
We finally made it back to Gilm—wouldn't she want something even better? At Rei's question, Marina flashed a smile of such intensely alluring feminine charm that it could stop a man in his tracks.
"I want your home cooking. Is that so wrong?"
And with that, dinner was decided.