Rei and his party, having accepted the Emergency Request, naturally headed first toward the cliff where the dungeon was located.
They had heard the bird monsters came flying out of it, but with no information on where they had gone, the dungeon was the only place that might offer a hint — that was the reason.
At present, several adventurers were out searching for where the bird monsters had gone.
This too took the form of an Emergency Request, and since it was nothing more than a search, the reward was meager. Even so, many of Golts's adventurers accepted it, determined to protect the town — and the surrounding villages — from harm.
...Admittedly, consideration for other villages and towns played a part. But it was equally impossible to deny the possibility that if they botched things here, other settlements would use that as a pretext to muscle in on the dungeon's profit rights.
In any case, it had been agreed that they would raise a smoke signal the moment anything happened, and so they had scattered in all directions searching for the bird monsters.
"...The cliff, huh."
"The cliff, indeed."
Marina responded succinctly to Rei's words.
Indeed, what currently lay in Rei's line of sight was a place that could only be accurately described as a cliff.
The cliff face was quite high, and roughly halfway up was what appeared to be the dungeon.
A hole gaped open in the rock, and Rei could easily accept that a fall from that height would mean certain death — even for monsters like Goblins, Cobolts, or Orcs.
It was truly a sight that could only be called a cliff.
"I'd heard about it, but man, to think a dungeon popped up in a place like that."
Reliu murmured, his voice tinged with deep wonder.
"I'd love to show Schmine this view, too."
Naturally, the fact that his wife's name immediately left his mouth showed that he was as devoted a husband as ever.
Knowing that humoring Reliu would only lead to an endless stream of boasts about his wife, Elena called out to Rei.
"So, what do we do now? Coming to the dungeon is all well and good, but we don't know if the bird monsters will come back here."
"Yeah, true. But we don't have any other leads either... they say 'a hundred visits to the crime scene,' right?"
"...Do they?"
What Rei had said was a line that commonly appeared in the manga and dramas he watched back in Japan, but there was no reason it would resonate with Elena and the others.
"Anyway."
Clearing his throat softly to cover his embarrassment, Rei spoke again.
"Anyway. There might be some kind of clue here, and depending on circumstances, the bird monsters might actually come back. ...So, Set, keep your presence hidden as much as possible."
"Gruu!"
At Rei's words, Set purred as if to say, Leave it to me!
Suppressing its presence was something it always did when hunting, so it was well-practiced.
Rei stroked Set as if praising it... and Reliu watched with just a hint of envy in his eyes.
Of course, Reliu was an Alias Holder adventurer too. He was not so careless as to dote on a monster in the middle of a job.
"In that case, shall we start by checking the nearby trees for any bird monsters?"
Rei was about to respond to Marina's suggestion, but before he could, the Golts adventurers who had been there before Rei's party arrived shook their heads.
"We did check, but there weren't really any clues worth mentioning, sir."
His tone was somewhat obsequious, but given that Gryphon Seto was right there, that was only natural.
Back at the Guild, it was precisely because Set was absent that Rei hadn't been recognized at first.
"Is that so? Well, I'll check anyway. It won't take much effort."
The adventurer, who had been tense, tilted his head in puzzlement at Marina's words.
Below the cliff, there were several patches where trees grew.
To thoroughly inspect every one of those trees would naturally require climbing them — a considerable effort.
So why? the adventurer wondered, quietly averting his gaze from Marina's smile — one that stirred desire in men.
But his question was resolved in the very next moment.
As Marina chanted a short incantation, a somewhat strong gust of wind blew past.
"!?"
Perhaps sensing something in that wind, Reliu scanned the surroundings with a sharp gaze... then, seeing Marina's demeanor, he released the hilt of his longsword with a sigh of relief.
"Hey, could you maybe not do that sort of thing?"
"Oh, sorry. But a normal person wouldn't notice at all. ...See?"
In response to Reliu's complaint, Marina flashed an alluring smile and turned her gaze toward the Golts adventurers.
Indeed, the adventurers she looked at were tilting their heads, clearly having no idea what had just happened.
This, perhaps, was the difference between a rural adventurer and an Alias Holder.
Reliu had been watching those adventurers, but they — not understanding why they were suddenly being looked at — merely tilted their heads in confusion.
"See?"
"...Fine, I get it. So, what did you find in the end? Any clues?"
"Unfortunately, just like they said, I couldn't find anything resembling a clue. There were what looked like bird nests, but they belonged to ordinary Mountain Birds and such."
"Which means—"
"Gruurru!"
Just as Rei was about to say what they would do next, Set let out a cry as if to draw everyone's attention.
A sharp cry — yet one that only those nearby would likely hear.
The Golts adventurers merely looked puzzled, unable to fathom what Set's cry meant. But Rei, who had been with Set for a long time... and Elena and the others, immediately readied their weapons.
"Shaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"Shaah, shaaaaah!"
"Shaaaaaaa!"
The cries came from nowhere in particular.
From the gaps in the cliff, from between the trees — Rei could make out what kind of creatures were producing those sounds.
They had yellow feathers, and as if to prove they were no ordinary birds, they possessed wings — two on each side, four in total, two pairs.
Furthermore, though they were still far enough away that he couldn't see them clearly, he could tell they were quite large.
"...Bird monsters? The yellow ones with four wings?"
"Y-yeah, that's them!"
An adventurer immediately confirmed Rei's words.
Hearing that, Rei understood that the flock heading their way was the monster that had emerged from the dungeon — the D-Rank monster, the Yellow Bird.
"I'm glad they came back, but why did they return? A homing instinct, maybe?"
Perhaps the Yellow Birds didn't particularly care that they had left the dungeon.
Maybe, like crows and other birds returning to their nests at night, they had simply come back — or so Rei thought.
And what Rei could imagine, the others could imagine as well. Elena and the others — Reliu included — wore expressions of understanding. ...Byune alone looked the same as always, though.
"So, Rei. What's the plan?"
"What's the plan, you ask. I'm sure you've already figured it out, Reliu."
The very monsters they had gone out of their way to search for had shown themselves of their own accord. It was only natural to take the opportunity to defeat them.
At Rei's words, Reliu flashed a ferocious grin and nodded.
Seeing that grin, Rei addressed everyone present once more — the Golts adventurers included.
"So then, fortunately for us, the subjugation targets have returned here of their own accord. And since they are our targets, we need to take them down now that they've come back. ...Now then, who among us has the means to attack those Yellow Birds as they try to enter the dungeon?"
Elena was the first to raise her hand. Marina followed, then Byune raised hers as well...
"Hm? Vihera, you too?"
"Yes. Though I'm not sure if you could really call it an attack method."
Saying that, Vihera picked up a stone from the ground.
Ah... I see. Several people nodded in understanding as they watched.
Indeed, throwing stones was a simple attack method that anyone could manage.
Of course, there was the question of whether those thrown stones could actually hit the target — in this case, the Yellow Birds — and whether they could be thrown with enough force to deal effective damage on impact.
The Yellow Birds were flying higher than the dungeon entrance, and Rei estimated the distance to that point on the cliff face to be at least fifty meters.
For someone with Vihera's level of strength, it might be feasible, but for the Golts adventurers, whether they could land a stone with sufficient force on a Yellow Bird was a dubious proposition.
(Then again, there's a chance they might get a lucky hit to a Yellow Bird's head, and the distraction serves a purpose too, so I could let them try. ...But if they just throw a huge number of stones, it could get in Set's way.)
Since Set, like the Yellow Birds, could fly freely through the sky, throwing a large quantity of stones would naturally risk hitting it.
Even if the stones didn't hit Set directly, they could still easily interfere with it when it went on the attack.
With that in mind, Rei decided it might be best to limit the other adventurers' stone-throwing to the initial volley, then turned his gaze to Reliu.
Marina, with her Spirit Magic, went without saying. Elena had the Sleipnir boots that let her walk through the sky, the whip-sword Mirage, and other magical attack methods. Byune was skilled at throwing to begin with, Long Needles included.
Unlike those three, Reliu — though an Alias Holder adventurer — was a pure swordsman.
Rei had assumed that, like Vihera, his only means of attacking a distant opponent would be throwing stones...
"Hm? Oh. At that distance, I can probably manage."
Reliu, meeting Rei's gaze, declared that with full confidence.
His words came as a surprise to Rei... but the Yellow Birds were drawing closer, and there was no time to inquire about the details.
He was an Alias Holder adventurer too. They hadn't known each other long, but Rei didn't think he would tell a lie so easily seen through. So he simply nodded without pressing further.
"Understood. Then I'll leave the attacking to you as well, Reliu. Elena?"
Elena, suddenly brought into the conversation, seemed to immediately grasp what Rei was getting at, and nodded to indicate it was no problem.
"I shall attack from the sky alongside Rei."
"Good. Then it's settled. We'll take out as many Yellow Birds as we can from here and thin their numbers — keep that in mind. Marina, you take charge of the ground assault. Set."
"Gruu!"
At Rei's words, Set gave a short cry, lifted Rei onto its back, and rose into the sky with Elena gripping its forelegs.
The Yellow Birds, it seemed, had not yet noticed Set's presence. They were still flying as a flock of several dozen toward what appeared to be the dungeon.
Moving to a position even higher than the Yellow Birds... Rei and Elena both leapt from Set at the same time.
In Elena's case, it was less a leap and more releasing her grip on Set's forelegs.
In any case, as they plummeted from the sky, Rei drew the Death Scythe from his Misty Ring.
Elena, likewise, shifted Mirage into its whip form.
"Flying Slash!"
The strike unleashed from the Death Scythe cleanly severed a Yellow Bird's neck.
Having lost its head, the Yellow Bird's body naturally plummeted toward the ground.
Elena's Mirage strike similarly decapitated another Yellow Bird. Activating her Sleipnir boots, she kicked off the air itself to launch into another leap, swinging Mirage again and again to bring down more Yellow Birds.
The ground assault was also proving effective — stones thrown by the adventurers struck several Yellow Birds, inflicting damage.
Additionally, Marina's Spirit Magic stripped Yellow Birds of their ability to fly, sending them crashing to the ground.
Set's strikes sent heads scattering in bursts... and as the number of Yellow Birds began to dwindle, Rei saw it.
A slash — the spitting image of Flying Slash — erupted from the longsword Reliu swung... cleaving through a Yellow Bird's wing and sending it crashing to the ground.