"The hell you say! You know who you're picking a fight with, right?!"
"I understand your frustration, but I cannot produce what we do not have... There is a limit to the Magic Items we can prepare here."
Rei and Vihera had arrived at the Magic Item shop after asking passersby about the situation, but... there was no mistaking that some sort of trouble was unfolding inside.
Rei gave Vihera a questioning look—What should we do?—but the moment he saw the entertained gleam in her eyes, he let out a sigh of resignation.
There was no doubt she intended to stick her nose into whatever trouble was brewing inside the shop.
"Just to be sure, I'm asking—what do you want to do?"
"Go inside and see, obviously."
At Vihera's immediate reply, Rei muttered figured as much and, half-resigned, reached for the door.
Since the Magic Item shop had been their destination to begin with, leaving now wasn't an option for him.
And naturally, Vihera—who was fully intent on inserting herself into the trouble inside—had no such intention either.
"Hey, we're in the middle of something right now! Sorry, but come back later!"
The man must have heard the door open, because he called out without even turning around.
What surprised Rei was that the words weren't a commanding get out.
He was shouting, sure, but he still bothered to say sorry.
From his demeanor, both Rei and Vihera could tell that the man wasn't simply harassing the clerk one-sidedly.
Though knowing that the imposing man wasn't a one-sided villain, Vihera looked slightly disappointed.
"We came to look at Magic Items, but it doesn't seem like a good time for that."
"That's right. So, sorry abou—Rei? And Vihera?"
Turning only his head to look behind him, the man murmured those words upon seeing Rei and Vihera's faces.
Given that the man looked every bit an adventurer, it wasn't strange for him to know their faces.
After conquering the Dungeon, Rei's party was famous—especially among the Fleeing Adventurers.
"Normally, on a day like today, I'd want to avoid getting tangled up in trouble..."
"Then please leave the shop. Sorry, but things are about to get troublesome here."
"Unfortunately, while I'd rather not get involved, Vihera here seems more than willing to dive right into it. So it'd really help if you quietly did as we say before that trouble turns into an even bigger headache."
Rei's words—or more precisely, his understanding that Vihera absolutely would not back down—prompted the man to cast a glance at the clerk he'd been intimidating and sigh.
Turning his gaze to Rei and Vihera, he scratched his head and spoke.
"To put it simply, I ordered a potion from this shop that works as medicine for a special illness. But it's been nearly half a year and there's no sign of it coming in. ...Even now, she's still suffering from the disease."
"Ah, I see. So that's what this is about. ...In that case, I can understand where both of you are coming from. Just to confirm—you haven't been slacking off on obtaining this special potion, right?"
"Of course not."
Despite being confronted moments ago by a man larger and more imposing than himself, the clerk answered without the slightest hint of fear.
It wasn't a bluff. His expression was genuine.
"However, the potion requires relatively rare materials to make and demands a fair amount of skill to produce. No Alchemist in Golts can make it, and there's no one nearby who can either. In other words, we had to find an Alchemist capable of making it and place an order with them."
"Well, that makes sense. Forcing an Alchemist who lacks the skill would just end in failure."
"Exactly. But in this case, the issue is finding someone above a certain level of proficiency. I say this with apologies, but Golts is the most prosperous town in this area. That means skilled Alchemists from the surrounding region naturally tend to gather in Golts. ...Though it's not an absolute rule."
Alchemists, naturally, generally made a living by using Alchemy to create Magic Items and selling them.
There were some who received funding from wealthy patrons and devoted themselves purely to research, but they were a minority.
Given such a lifestyle, they naturally required various materials.
And the fact that Golts was the most prosperous town in the area meant that materials usable for Alchemy were also easier to obtain there.
Just as with Alchemists who focused solely on research, this too wasn't an absolute certainty.
There were Alchemists operating in surrounding farming villages or smaller towns, whether for reasons like wanting to live with their families or because there were materials that could only be obtained in those specific areas.
But even so, looking at the bigger picture, the majority of Alchemists in this region still gathered in Golts.
If the Alchemists who gathered in Golts couldn't make it, it was clearly extremely difficult to produce that special potion anywhere nearby.
"Which means you'd need to go to a more distant town... one that's developed as much as or more than Golts."
"That's correct. But naturally, that would require a corresponding amount of money, and above all, there's no telling when it would arrive. There's also the possibility of being attacked by monsters or Bandits along the way. ...I explained all of that, but he just wouldn't accept it."
The clerk directed his gaze at the man as he said this, but the man, unable to contain his frustration, glared at the clerk once more.
"I get what you're saying, but she's... my little sister is suffering from this illness right now!"
Watching this unfold, Rei could understand the feelings of both the clerk and the Adventurer Man.
From the clerk's perspective, having exhausted every possible means to obtain the special potion, the honest truth was that there was nothing more he could do no matter what was said to him.
And from the man's perspective, he simply couldn't bear watching his little sister suffer.
"...What do you want to do?"
"Even if you ask me that..."
Vihera answered Rei's words with a bewildered tone.
It was likely because the situation was entirely different from the scuffle she had been hoping for.
(Back in Japan, I remember seeing news about troubles where packages weren't delivered on schedule, escalating into physical violence... but compared to this case, that was mild.)
Half in escapism, Rei thought to himself.
Compared to Japan, which had a well-developed transportation network, traveling between towns, villages, and cities in Elgin carried considerable danger.
There were threats from monsters and Bandits, and the possibility of accidents occurring was by no means low.
Given that, packages failing to arrive was by no means rare.
The Adventurer Man surely understood this as well... but even so, watching his sister suffer, he couldn't help but lash out at the clerk who had taken the potion order.
"She's... Muness is only ten. And even though she's in pain, all she does is worry about me..."
If the man before him was in his mid-twenties, that meant his sister was more than ten years younger.
Rei found this slightly puzzling, but accepted it—such things happened.
"...Rei."
It was Vihera who called his name.
But the way she called it was different from before.
There was something almost reliant in her voice.
The fact that the man's sister was a ten-year-old girl surely had something to do with it.
Vihera had fled the Bestia Empire and eventually ended up in the Labyrinth City of Exil, where by pure chance she encountered Byune.
Upon learning that Byune, still a young girl, was diving into the Dungeon solo, Vihera couldn't just abandon her... and ultimately, they ended up traveling together.
Because of that, for Vihera, the thought of a young girl suffering from illness—a potion that could cure her existing but failing to arrive—was something she couldn't just ignore.
Of course, if there were something she could do herself, Vihera would do it.
But in this case, what was needed was the ability to cover the distance to a distant town and safely bring back that potion.
"Ah... this means our date is over for today. Are you okay with that?"
Rei, too, when told that a small child was suffering, couldn't just look the other way—it would leave a bad taste in his mouth.
If he hadn't known, he probably wouldn't have given it a second thought. But now that he knew... even aware it was somewhat hypocritical, he couldn't bring himself to abandon her.
"Yes. ...Thank you."
As a gesture of gratitude, Vihera shifted Rei's hood slightly and kissed the cheek that was revealed.
...The fact that she kissed his cheek rather than his lips was presumably because they were in public.
"...Um."
"Ah..."
The clerk and the Adventurer Man faltered, at a loss for words at what they had just witnessed.
A kiss on the cheek wasn't really all that remarkable.
At a tavern where one became a regular, a female clerk might do something similar as a token of celebration if something good happened.
But this time, it was Vihera—a person of rare beauty—who had done it, and that was what stunned the clerk and the Adventurer Man.
Of those two, Rei addressed the clerk specifically.
"So, how far away is the town where an Alchemist who can make this special potion is? And what about the materials?"
At those words, the clerk and the Adventurer Man finally seemed to realize what Rei was trying to do.
They turned astonished gazes toward Rei.
(At first I thought she might be expressionless like Byune, but I guess not.)
As Rei thought this, the clerk shifted from surprise to an expression of exasperation and spoke.
"Are you sure? I understand that you two travel by riding a gryphon, but this isn't a request or anything, you know?"
"That's right. Even so, knowing there's a child suffering from illness... you think I could just go on enjoying a stroll through Golts with Vihera after this? ...Right?"
The clerk seemed to accept Rei's words.
After a moment of thought, he spoke.
"This matter isn't a formal request. However, since I'd be imposing on Crimson Lotus Wings, I don't think it's right to ask you to work for free. If it's a Magic Item from this shop up to a certain price, I can offer it as compensation. What do you think?"
"What's your angle here?"
The Adventurer Man muttered with dissatisfaction at the clerk's swift change of attitude.
He had been pleading for help all this time, and the clerk had paid him no mind whatsoever—so why was it that when Rei said something, the clerk caved this easily? That was what he was thinking.
But for the clerk, that reaction was only natural.
The reason the clerk had been so helpless until now was simply because there had been no means to resolve the situation.
If it turned out the clerk was secretly a skilled adventurer, then perhaps things would have been different, but the clerk wasn't someone who trained his body or anything of the sort—just an ordinary person.
At a time like that, Rei happened to appear and offer to go to the town with an Alchemist in his stead. Of course the clerk was grateful.
It wasn't as if the clerk had some personal grudge against the man and had claimed the potion was unavailable out of spite—it was purely because the potion genuinely didn't exist that he had been forced to say so.
"The Magic Item offer is a pleasant bonus for us, so that's fine. ...So, where is this town? We're planning to leave Golts tomorrow, so I'd like a detailed map if possible."
"Generally, you should be fine if you follow the main road. Unfortunately, I don't have a map."
At those words, Rei recalled that in this world, maps were extremely scarce.
Detailed maps in particular were treated almost like strategic resources.
In fact, when Rei had borrowed a map from Marina before, he had been thoroughly briefed on these circumstances and warned repeatedly not to lose or damage it, let alone make a copy of it.
After hearing the location of the town he needed to visit, the name of the shop, and receiving the required materials and a letter for the Alchemist, Rei looked at Vihera.
"Sorry, Vihera. That's it for today. I need to go outside Golts and call Set."
"Understood. ...Be careful."
With that, Vihera flashed a radiant smile as if to encourage Rei.