The subjugation of the bandits around Sablusta was, unsurprisingly, not something that would end in a day or two. Rei and his companions ended up hunting bandits relentlessly for about five days.
Granted, Rei's group stopped after five days, but only because they needed to deliver supplies to Sura and the others. The other adventurers were still continuing the bandit hunt.
Naturally, with such a large-scale operation underway, even the bandits who had optimistically assumed they were still safe—unlike those who had quickly fled based on information from the survivors of the first group Rei defeated—eventually sensed the danger and scattered.
Whatever the bandits' information network looked like, the fact that they kept arriving one after another even in this situation meant it was truly like fish swimming into a trap.
(No, rather, was it a game of whack-a-mole? There's also the possibility that the newly arriving bandits were made scapegoats for the ones trying to flee from around Sablusta...)
While mulling this over, Rei pulled supplies from his Misty Ring and stacked them on the ground.
Since these were luxury goods like dried fruit, the women present scrambled to be the first to carry them to their own carriages—but Sura's sharp voice cut through the air.
"There's no one here who thinks only they should get the good stuff, right? If there is, I'll need to have a serious talk with them later."
At Sura's words, the women who had been about to swarm the dried fruit froze in their tracks.
"You've got things organized quite well."
"Well, I did lead the Resistance, so this much is only natural."
"...So? Gimekara mentioned your numbers have dropped a bit more. Nobody died, right?"
"That's right. At a place we stopped along the way, some found work, some found female lovers, some left because their hometown was nearby. Over ten people left the group altogether."
"Huh. ...Hmm?"
It wasn't as though he had asked out of deep personal interest, but something in what Sura just said caught Rei's attention.
This group was composed of more than ninety percent women. After all, they were a collection of those who had been brainwashed by Jaya and forced into prostitution, so that was only natural.
But one of the reasons for leaving that had just come from Sura's mouth...
"Wasn't it because they found a man?"
"Fufu... Unfortunately, you're not wrong. It's because they found a woman."
Sura told him this with a somewhat weary expression that betrayed mental fatigue, and Rei handed her a fresh fruit—not from the supplies, but from his own personal stock.
Taking it, Sura bit into it not in a feminine manner, but rather like a man, without even peeling it.
"Whether they originally had that tendency, or they went down that path because they hated men... I can't say for certain. But there were a few who found a female lover and decided to live together with them."
"Ah... yeah. Well, I suppose that happens too, doesn't it?"
All Rei could do was offer that response.
Of course, Rei knew that homosexuals existed in the world. When he was in Japan, there had been no one like that around him; they were existences that only appeared in manga, novels, and games.
"Well, it's not like anyone was forced into anything. They entered those relationships naturally, so I don't have any complaints."
Even so, Sura still showed signs of lingering fatigue, eating the fruit Rei had given her as if to rally herself.
The women had been fighting over the dried fruit, but they didn't even glance at the fresh fruit in Sura's hand. They clearly understood that pulling something like that in the current situation would lead to terrible consequences in more ways than one.
Under normal circumstances, at this hour on a summer day, moist, fresh fruit would be highly desirable. Even though autumn was gradually approaching, the daytime heat was still intense—hot enough to make one want to swim, if there were a lake or river nearby.
...In fact, the reason Rei and his group had joined up with Sura's group here was because they had spotted them resting by a river.
"If the ones who left can live happily, then that's fine. ...Changing the subject, how are the ones in training doing? It's been a little while, after all."
Rei had blatantly shifted the topic, but Sura didn't seem particularly bothered and simply nodded.
"Everyone is training seriously. ...It's probably because they remember being brought here against their will."
If only they had power, they never would have ended up in such a situation. There were likely many who held that thought. And because they never wanted to regret their powerlessness a second time, the women poured their effort into daily training.
Above all, since the entire group traveled by carriage, the fact that their travel speed wouldn't drop even if they trained to near their physical limits was a major advantage.
"Then that's fine. At worst, even if there's no work for them in Gilm, they can take jobs as adventurers. ...Well, whether that would actually pan out is questionable, though."
Gilm, located on the frontier, naturally had powerful monsters in its surroundings. It wasn't a common occurrence, but neither was it unheard of for C-Rank monsters to appear near the city. Adventurers who had reached Gilm through chance, luck, or the aid of others lacked the strength to fight in places where such monsters might appear.
In that sense, even though the women had been undergoing combat training, their strength was not yet at a level where they could operate independently in Gilm. Granted, a small number had previously worked as adventurers, so if they formed parties centered around those individuals, there was a chance they could manage.
Additionally, most of the women had learned to use bows and trained almost every day. Even against strong monsters, attacking from beyond the enemy's reach gave them a chance of securing a kill—and even if they couldn't, they could create opportunities for their vanguard allies to escape. In that sense, training nearly everyone to use a bow was certainly not a mistake.
"Still, it's better than nothing. Besides, I hear there will be work from the Expansion Construction for a while, so I don't think they'll need to go outside the city."
"Well, it's better than doing nothing. Anyway, that's all the supplies I brought. The rest is up to you—"
Rei was about to tell them to divide the rest as they saw fit when a voice suddenly cut in.
"Rei-san, do you have a moment?"
"...Gimekara? What is it? I didn't think there was anything urgent we needed to discuss."
"No, that's true. However, I do have a matter I'd like to consult with you about."
"A consultation? I've pulled out all the supplies, and there's nothing else I need to do, so sure. ...That alright with you?"
When Rei glanced at her for confirmation, Sura nodded to indicate there was no problem.
"So it seems there's no issue. What do you need?"
"This way. It's a matter I'd prefer not to have others overhear."
"...I should tell you upfront, I don't take on shady jobs like assassination."
"That's not it at all! What do you take us for, Rei-san!?"
At Gimekara's outburst—looking as though he'd been unfairly judged—Rei recalled what the Zorgeh Merchant Guild had done up to now. They had forced women brought against their will into prostitution with Slave Collars and made them give birth to Giant children. It was the Zorgeh Merchant Guild that had traded with Jaya to do exactly that.
What's more, Gimekara had even declared during negotiations with Daskar that once they established a foothold in Gilm, they would do business with criminal organizations.
"No, given what you all have done up to now, I think that's a perfectly reasonable assessment."
Hearing that, Gimekara couldn't find the words to argue back. He probably could have rebutted if he'd wanted to, but he understood that pointlessly objecting here would only sour Rei's mood.
"In any case, it's not anything shady, but there is something I'd prefer others not hear. So, may I?"
"Ah... I see."
It wasn't Rei who showed understanding at Gimekara's words, but Sura. Nodding as if to say she could guess what the consultation was about, she nodded once more toward Rei.
"It's no problem. I'll guarantee it's nothing shady. So why don't you hear him out?"
With Sura going that far, Rei couldn't imagine that Gimekara was plotting anything strange in the current situation.
"Fine. Let's go, then."
Thus, Rei let himself be pulled along by Gimekara toward a less crowded spot.
In their line of sight, Elena, Vihera, and Byune—along with Rocks, who oversaw the group's escort—were putting the women through training. Meanwhile, Marina was teaching archery to a large group of them. Watching all this, Rei and Gimekara headed for the shade of the trees.
"Forgive me for the suddenness. Actually, I believe we discussed this briefly before. It's about a dish that only Rei-san knows."
"...Ah. Right. So it's about that. You dragged me all the way out here, so I was wondering what it was. Why bring it up again so suddenly?"
"Well, the food I ate at a village we stopped at a while back was more delicious than I expected..."
"So you panicked a little?"
"I wouldn't say I panicked, but delicious cuisine is a powerful advantage in business."
"Well, I can understand that."
The shops serving dishes Rei had come up with—such as udon, nikuman, and pizza—had all seen rising sales. Humans couldn't live without eating, so if they were going to eat anyway, it was only natural to want something delicious. The profits from food might be smaller in scale compared to trade with nobles or trade with Jaya, but in the sense that they could be earned every single day, they were significant.
Thinking of it that way, Rei could understand why Gimekara was this desperate. The problem was, understanding his feelings didn't mean a suitable dish would immediately come to mind.
Thinking that far, he was suddenly reminded of the matter with Goblin meat. He hadn't shown his face there recently due to being busy with one thing or another, but Rei had been researching a way to make Goblin meat palatable with a certain individual.
(No, that won't work.)
The person Rei was cooperating with was, after all, affiliated with a merchant company. Even though Rei had contributed funds and provided potential ingredients and spices, if they succeeded in making Goblin meat palatable, it would naturally be that company selling it. Given that, he couldn't bring Gimekara into the fold now.
If so, what he could easily think of was... something he'd thought of a little while ago...
"Natto."
The moment that word left Rei's mouth, Gimekara's gaze sharpened like a bird of prey spotting its target.
"So, what kind of dish is this natto?"
"What kind of dish, you ask... It's not a dish, really. More of an ingredient, maybe?"
Rei didn't know the formal distinction between a dish and an ingredient, but since there were various dishes that used natto, he figured calling it an ingredient was probably not wrong.
However, an ingredient was apparently even more interesting to Gimekara than a dish, as he turned a beaming smile toward Rei.
"Not a dish, but an ingredient. That is fascinating. But... can it be obtained around Gilm?"
"Yeah, no problem. It's made from beans, so it should be possible to make normally."
Having come this far, Rei resigned himself to the fact that withholding the information would be more trouble than it was worth, and he continued his explanation, recalling everything he knew about how to make natto.
"What you need is beans... they're called soybeans, but it's hard to explain exactly what kind of bean that is, so for now, just experiment with various types."
Edamame were soybeans, and Rei knew this—but unfortunately, he had never seen anyone in Elgin eating edamame, so it was questionable whether that knowledge would be of any use.
"The only other thing you need is straw. That's it."
"...Straw?"
Hearing that, Rei suddenly realized. What he knew about was straw from rice stalks... but he wondered whether natto could be made with anything else, like wheat straw.
But since he didn't know the detailed manufacturing process to begin with, he decided to just have them do their best with wheat straw. If it didn't work, they would probably give up.
"Yeah. First, you boil the soybeans, then wrap them in straw and leave them alone. After enough time passes, the beans will become sticky and stringy. That's natto. I think that's roughly how it's made. But this is only a general outline, so you'll just have to make it yourself and learn from there."
"Sticky and stringy... isn't that, well, rotting?"
"Technically, it's fermentation. Similar to cheese and the like. Well, it's apparently quite divisive in terms of taste, so take your time making it."
Hearing that it was not rotting but fermenting, Gimekara finally showed a slightly relieved expression.