The day after their seafood feast, Rei and Set were up in the sky.
Naturally, Set was carrying the Set Basket, and inside it were Elena and the others.
They flew on through the air, though Rei regarded the sky above with a somewhat displeased look.
The sky was blanketed by rain clouds.
There was a saying about fickle hearts and autumn skies, so Rei knew full well that weather turned capricious once autumn arrived.
...Though, seasonally speaking, it was still the tail end of summer, not quite properly autumn yet.
Even so, during the nearly ten days Rei and his group had been enjoying their seaside vacation, there had been overcast days but never any actual rain.
That had been a stroke of luck for them, but all good fortune eventually ran out.
"If it keeps up like this, it'll start pouring soon, no doubt about it."
Of course, getting rained on wouldn't cause Rei or Set to catch a cold or suffer any decline in health.
Still, traveling through the rain meant getting wet and uncomfortable, so if possible, he wanted to shelter somewhere.
(With the Magic Tent, I can take shelter comfortably enough... Should I look for somewhere to set it up?)
Setting up the Magic Tent itself was possible just about anywhere.
But if he carelessly set it up in the wrong spot, there was a chance of getting dragged into unwanted trouble.
Like being attacked by bandits, for instance.
(No, if bandits attacked us, that'd actually be more than welcome on our end.)
Rei was feared by bandits far and wide, known to them as the Bandit Eater.
Naturally, if bandits dared to attack, he would repel them, seize whatever valuables they carried, and depending on the circumstances, do the same thing he'd done with the pirates at Garanka—sell them to a slave trader.
...If a slave trader couldn't be arranged on short notice, the bandits would simply end up as corpses.
"Hm? Around there, we won't draw too many eyes. Set, head for that spot in the shadow of those rocks."
"Guruu? Gurururuu!"
At Rei's words, Set began descending toward the massive rocks below.
Several sizable rocks were clustered together, and he judged that taking shelter in their shadow would keep the Magic Tent from attracting much attention.
So first, he lowered the Set Basket to the ground as usual, then Set landed beside it... and by the time the Magic Tent was set up, the rain began to fall.
"My, my, it's really coming down."
Between the rocks lay just enough space to spread out the Magic Tent in a spot where water wouldn't drip through. From the entrance of the tent, Marina watched the rain and murmured her observation.
With the Magic Tent, they could have sheltered from the rain perfectly well on their own, so there was no real need to squeeze into a gap between rocks.
But since Set couldn't fit inside the tent, they had retreated to a space where they could all take shelter together.
Fortunately, this gap was reasonably large, and even with the tent set up, there was enough room for Set to lie down.
...Though that was strictly enough to lie down; running around was out of the question.
"Kyu! Kyukyu!"
"Guruu."
Ielo was perched on Set's back, and the two were chattering about something.
Watching them, Marina glanced out from the tent entrance and murmured in surprise at the intensity of the rain.
"Couldn't Spirit Magic do something about this?"
It was Rei who voiced the question.
He asked precisely because he knew how skillfully Marina wielded Spirit Magic.
But to his question, Marina shook her head.
"Manipulating the weather itself is impossible. At least for a Spirit Mage of my level. Those who can pull off something like that would be Spirit Mages far more skilled than me."
"More skilled than you..."
As far as Rei knew, there was no Spirit Mage more skilled than Marina.
In fact, Spirit Mages themselves were extraordinarily rare to begin with.
Even ordinary mages were already quite scarce, and those capable of communicating with spirits were rarer still.
(Ah, right, there was someone in the Bestia Empire who used Spirit Magic.)
He recalled an Elf who had fought by using Water Spirits to form a Water Dragon.
Of course, he had never learned that person's name.
Rei looked at Marina with a puzzled gaze, as if asking whether Spirit Mages greater than her truly existed. Marina was pleased by Rei's faith in her abilities, yet simultaneously felt a hint of exasperation.
"Listen, there's no doubt I'm relatively good at Spirit Magic, but I'm not the greatest Spirit Mage out there, you know? Even going only by what I personally know, there are more Spirit Mages better than me than I could count on both hands."
"...The world is vast, huh."
Rei murmured thoughtfully at Marina's words.
In truth, those words were far from wrong.
In this world, there were still many things Rei didn't know, things he couldn't even imagine.
"That's true. Though, if we're talking about those superior to me, the same could be said for you, couldn't it, Rei?"
"Me?"
"Yes. You are undeniably strong. Probably ranking among the top in this country... no, in the entire world, without question. But can you say for certain that there's no one stronger than you?"
"I can't say that."
Rei answered without hesitation.
In his mind, the faces of two S-Rank Adventurers surfaced—one belonging to the Bestia Empire and the other to the Kingdom of Mireana.
Also, there were currently three S-Rank Adventurers in the world.
That being the case, it meant there was still one S-Rank Adventurer Rei had never even laid eyes on.
(Well, compatibility matters in a fight, so depending on the circumstances I might be able to win... but even so, there's no doubt they wouldn't be an easy opponent.)
Furthermore, even apart from S-Rank Adventurers, there were many Alias-holding adventurers.
They weren't as extraordinary as S-Rank Adventurers, but if asked whether Rei could beat them effortlessly... he couldn't nod right away.
In fact, the Alias-holding adventurer Rei was closest to, Elk of the Axe of the Thunder God, had once fought Rei in earnest. Rei had won that time, but it was by no means an easy victory.
Considering all of this, Rei understood that he couldn't call himself the strongest.
...Of course, even so, given that Rei possessed combat power ranking among the top in this world, to the average bandits out there, he was nothing short of overwhelming overkill.
"That's why I train every day too. ...Not mock battles like you all do, but training to raise my affinity with spirits."
"Technically, by classification I barely qualify as a mage... I should at least have my fingertips hooked on that category, at least."
Rei said as much, but not only Marina, but Vihera and Elena all directed exasperated looks at him.
Moreover, considering that even Byune, who rarely changed her expression, was giving Rei a flat, skeptical look, it was proof enough of just how foolish a thing he had said.
Faced with those stares, Rei hesitated for a moment over how to respond... and eventually, deciding that saying anything more in this situation would be pointless... or rather, would only get him talked down to further, he averted his gaze.
He used magic, that much was certain, but he understood full well that he could never call himself a mage.
To be precise, he was a warrior who could also use magic... a being that should properly be called a Magic Warrior.
"This rain isn't letting up."
"...It isn't."
Rei had blatantly changed the subject, but Marina didn't press him on it and simply let it slide.
She probably had plenty she wanted to retort with, but given the topic of strength, she likely felt that saying anything to Rei would be a waste of breath.
In truth, she wasn't wrong.
Given Rei's personality, he wouldn't so easily bend his own way of doing things.
Otherwise, he would never have built a combat style like the Twin Spear Style—wielding the Death Scythe in his right hand and the Twilight Spear in his left.
"N!"
Amidst the conversation, Byune, who had been eating dried fruit inside the Magic Tent, suddenly let out a small murmur.
It was her usual single-word utterance, but this time, those who followed her gaze understood roughly what she was trying to convey.
"Gyaa, gyaa!"
A fairly large owl came crashing in with that cry from the gap between the rocks, heading straight toward where Rei and the others were.
Could it not sense Set's presence? Rei wondered for a moment as he watched the owl, but seeing its rain-soaked feathers stained red with blood, he could tell it hadn't come here intentionally. It had likely been cornered by something and fled here out of pure desperation.
(Before that, though—an owl active during the day?)
To Rei, the image of an owl was strongly that of a nocturnal bird.
Of course, what Rei knew was only the general image.
It wasn't as though he were an expert on owls or birds.
The owl that had landed—no, crash-landed—right next to Set noticed that Set—and Ielo too, for that matter—was directly in front of it, and froze completely.
It stopped so spectacularly that if someone who knew nothing of the situation had seen the sight alone, they might have wondered if time itself had been stopped.
"Hey, what should we do? Shouldn't we treat it?"
Bistol murmured with an air that suggested he would prefer to help if possible.
Despite his appearance, his personality was that of a maiden at heart, and as such, Bistol likely couldn't bear leaving a wounded owl as it was.
What should we do? The gazes of everyone except Bistol converged on Rei.
Rei was the party leader of the Crimson Lotus Wings.
Therefore, it was only natural that this decision was his to make... or so their looks conveyed.
Meeting those stares, Rei thought for a moment while gazing at the still-frozen owl, then opened his mouth.
"Alright. You can treat it. But this goes without saying—don't let it struggle. ...Though I doubt it will."
Judging by how it had frozen beside Set, it was hard to imagine the owl would start thrashing about in this situation.
If it flailed here, that would definitely be conveyed to Set.
Not that Set was doing anything beyond watching the owl with an interested gaze.
If asked whether the owl would do something so reckless as to struggle right next to Set, anyone would normally say no.
"Leave it to me. Treatment is my specialty."
At Rei's words, Bistol happily stepped out from the Magic Tent.
Normally, the owl might well have panicked at the sight of Bistol, but perhaps due to Set's presence, it submitted to being grabbed and was brought inside the Magic Tent without resistance.
"Gyaa?!"
Perhaps because it had entered the tent and moved somewhat away from Set, the owl let out a cry.
(An owl... it is an owl, right? It doesn't seem to be a monster, at least.)
Even as he thought this, the main reason Rei couldn't fully accept the bird in Bistol's hands as an owl was its cry.
The owls Rei knew made a "hoo, hoo" call.
Never a "gyaa, gyaa" cry like this one.
Of course, the owls Rei knew were merely Earth's owls.
There was no ruling out the possibility that among the owls of this world called Elgin, there were owls with a cry like the bird before him.
"Come on, stop struggling! Look, I can't even see where you're hurt!"
Bistol tried desperately to identify the owl's injury, but the owl seemed to perceive it as a hostile act and struggled to escape from his hands.
Could it be frightened by the sight of Bistol and trying to flee?
The thought crossed Rei's mind, but whether an owl could distinguish a human's appearance was questionable at best.
"Here, hold the owl down for a bit."
Perhaps taking pity on Bistol's struggle, Marina created a mass of water in the air using Spirit Magic and called out to him.