"Hm? Rei? Why are you here at this hour again? Didn't you say you'd come back this evening?"
The one who called out to Rei upon his arrival in Garanka was Pastura.
He looked as though he were about to head out fishing, harpoon in hand as he made his way toward the sandy beach.
Rei quickly gathered that this was likely because he—the very person who had made the request—had promised to buy whatever fish Pastura could catch.
As Pastura looked at him with curiosity, Rei nodded with a hint of reluctance.
"Yeah, that was the plan. But I just got asked a favor by Daskar, the lord of Gilm, regarding the pirates I captured."
"...You can talk directly with a lord? That's impressive."
Pastura seemed surprised that Rei could speak directly with a lord, but he had no apparent interest in how Rei had actually communicated with Daskar.
Then again, living in a rural village like this, opportunities to see Magic Items were few and far between, so perhaps that was only natural.
"Anyway, I have business with the slave trader. Do you know where he is?"
"Yeah, the slave trader is staying in the same house as the guards, so he's probably there. ...See that building over there?"
Rei looked in the direction Pastura pointed, but there were several similar houses lined up.
The exact location was surely different, but... it was a distinction he wouldn't be able to make unless he got up close.
Rei was about to ask for more precise directions, but hearing Pastura's name called from the sandy beach, he couldn't keep taking up the man's time any longer.
"Got it. It's one of the houses around there. I'll go up close and ask around. You go on and fish. Catch as much as you can for me."
"Leave it to me. I'll catch more fish than you could ever eat."
With that, Pastura departed with a confident smile.
(Does he actually have that much confidence in his fishing? Well, he lives in a fishing village, so there's no way he'd be bad at it.)
The more fish caught, the better it was for Rei.
In other words, Pastura's efforts translated directly into a significant gain for him.
After silently cheering Pastura on, Rei headed toward the house being used by the guards and the slave trader.
At the cluster of houses, just as Rei had anticipated, he couldn't tell which one the guards were in...
"Oh, Rei-san?"
Right on cue, a guard emerged from one of the houses, his surprise evident upon seeing Rei.
He had stepped outside intending to question the pirates, only to find the man most responsible for capturing them standing right there—it would be unreasonable to expect him not to be startled.
"What brings you here? I heard you were coming back this evening."
"Ah, I got a request from the lord of Gilm. He apparently wants to buy out all the pirates I captured and had enslaved. So I came to ask the slave trader about it."
"...The pirates? In Gilm?"
At Rei's words, the guard wore a puzzled expression.
As a guard, the man knew what kind of place Gilm was.
There was no sea nearby, and no great river of the sort that large ships could navigate existed near Gilm either.
Why would someone in Gilm—and a lord at that—want pirate slaves?
Though a major question arose in his mind, the man judged it best not to pry given his position, and instead brought up something else.
"Riroze is inside the house. Shall I call him?"
"That would help."
Recalling that Riroze was the slave trader's name, Rei made the request.
The guard was about to go inside, but...
"There's no need. I could hear the conversation from inside."
The slave trader—Riroze—appeared from within the house as he spoke.
"You're talking about wanting to purchase those slaves. I have no problem with that at all, but transporting slaves isn't free, you know?"
Riroze's words were not an attempt to overcharge Rei—or rather, Gilm—but an undeniable fact.
Even back in Japan, Rei had to pay shipping costs when sending packages.
Naturally, here in Elgin too, delivering slaves as cargo was not free.
Well, if someone came directly from Gilm to transport them, it wouldn't cost Riroze anything out of pocket.
But Gilm was already short-handed as it was, so they couldn't afford to send someone all the way here.
Alternatively, Rei could be asked to handle the transport, but... given the number of pirates, multiple round trips would be necessary. More importantly, Rei, knowing it was selfish of him, had no desire to put pirates inside the Set Basket.
(Besides, Daskar didn't ask me to handle that part either.)
For Daskar, Rei's existence—and Rei's companions—were highly reliable.
The role Rei and his group played in Gilm's expansion construction was significant.
Using such people for slave transport would be a tremendous waste. That was likely what Daskar had thought.
Of course, Daskar's honest feeling was that he would have liked Rei to bring them along when returning from this vacation, even just a few.
"I know. Just getting from here to Gilm involves all sorts of dangers."
Even traveling along the highways, there was no guarantee monsters wouldn't appear.
What's more, bandits and the like existed everywhere, and when one might encounter them depended heavily on luck.
That said, the bandits around Sablusta were currently in a near-ruined state thanks to Rei's group, so travel was somewhat safer than it had been a while ago.
However, as long as the area around Sablusta remained a prime hunting ground for bandits, it was certain they would gather again before long.
Cautious bandits would stay on guard, but those only looking to make easy money lacked the sense to be wary.
To prevent that, it would be necessary to periodically subjugate the bandits around Sablusta... but whether that could actually be carried out was doubtful.
In the worst case, it was entirely possible that, as before, adventurers who accepted bandit subjugation requests from Gilm would have to make the trip out here.
Of course, if that happened, the prestige of Sablusta's guild and guards would be crushed beyond compare.
After all, it would be tantamount to being told they couldn't even subjugate the bandits lurking near their own town.
"What will you do about that?"
"Hire escorts for the transport. Naturally, the costs of hiring those escorts... and the expenses of transporting the slaves, will all be covered by Lord Daskar."
"...Are you serious?"
Riroze stared at Rei, dumbfounded.
He had thought he might receive some travel expenses, but even at best, only about half—would he need to cover the rest out of pocket? That was what Riroze had assumed.
But being told that Daskar would cover all travel expenses, it would be impossible not to be astonished by such exceptional treatment.
If anything, Riroze began to question why Daskar wanted the slaves at his location so badly.
If it were simply a matter of wanting slaves, there were slave traders in Gilm as well.
So why go out of his way to come to him? He wondered, but could only think of one reason.
(The slaves need to be pirates?)
Yes, that was the only thing.
He couldn't imagine that someone of Daskar's stature as Gilm's lord had some personal business with him.
Given that, the logical conclusion was that it was the enslaved pirates Daskar had business with.
Of course, Riroze was also aware that the pirates he had enslaved were relatively decent—compared to other atrocious pirates, that is.
Still, if decency alone were the criterion, there were plenty of such slaves elsewhere.
Not the type called criminal slaves, but if one considered debt slaves, there should be a considerable number of slaves with no personality issues.
(In that case, I suppose... I should consider that Gilm somehow needs sailors... No, there's no need for me to be thinking about this here.)
It was true that not knowing things bothered him, but among Riroze's acquaintances, there were a few who had died because they stuck their noses into matters that didn't concern them out of curiosity.
To avoid that fate, the key was to maintain a proper distance in one's dealings.
(Besides, if I can travel to Gilm on someone else's money, this is undoubtedly a major business opportunity.)
To reach the frontier city of Gilm, one would normally need to hire adventurers of considerable skill.
And skilled adventurers naturally commanded high fees.
Since Gilm's lord would be footing that bill, as long as Riroze didn't make a serious blunder, he should arrive in Gilm safely.
Once there, there would be no shortage of goods unique to the frontier.
Bringing those back and selling them could earn him a small fortune... no, an even larger sum of money.
Having swiftly run the calculations in his head, Riroze eventually nodded in response to Rei's words.
"Understood. I'll accept that offer. There are things I'd like to ask about, but it's better not to pry into such matters."
"Probably. I think that would be wise."
Knowing Daskar as he did, Rei figured the man wouldn't particularly mind being probed for information.
But that was merely an assumption; there was no telling what measures Daskar might actually take.
It was not entirely impossible that Rei's prediction was wrong, and that Daskar would find Riroze's probing unpleasant and take drastic action.
"I understand the travel expenses, but what about the price of the slaves?"
"...Honestly, I'm not the one to ask about that. I sell bandits and the like to slave traders sometimes, but I've never bought slaves myself."
It wasn't that Rei was averse to slavery; in his case, he simply had enough ability to manage without slaves.
Furthermore, beyond sheer strength, he possessed many Magic Items, which was a major reason he had no need for them.
As such, he had no idea how much slaves were actually sold for.
"Hmm. In that case, I'll need to look into such matters after actually arriving in Gilm. Still, considering all the preferential treatment we're receiving, I think I'll need to offer some kind of discount."
"Probably. In the first place, you bought them out pretty cheaply, right? So it'd help if you sold them cheap."
"No, no, this is my business too. A small discount is one thing, but I can't seriously slash prices."
Riroze told him that, as a slave trader, he could never do such a thing.
Rei thought for a moment... and, judging that anything more would be meaningless, decided to stop involving himself in the price negotiations. That would be handled by Daskar—or more precisely, by Daskar's specialist subordinates.
"I won't say anything more about the price. So, when will you depart for Gilm?"
"Let's see. After returning to Jubis and making various preparations... twenty days. No, perhaps it might take a little longer."
Rei almost said something about the figure of twenty days, but reconsidering that without Set or the Set Basket as a means of transport, they would have to travel by carriage, he decided that was actually on the faster side.
In fact, considering the time it took to travel from this village to Jubis and the time needed for preparations afterward, twenty days could even be called fast.
Besides, the pirates wouldn't be needed until after the facility for building land ships was completed.
Given that, even if they rushed them to Gilm, there would be no work for them to do.
During Gilm's expansion construction, there would certainly be plenty of tasks available.
But even so... or rather, precisely because of that, it would be quite a long time before the pirates could truly demonstrate their expertise.
"I see. Well, it's not like there's a huge rush, so rather than focusing on speed of arrival, I think you should prioritize safety on the way there."
In the end, that was all Rei advised Riroze.