"Here is the payment for the slaves."
With those words, one of the guards in a senior position handed Rei the money for the bandits.
The amount enclosed was somewhat below average.
Rei didn't seem to mind.
If he had taken the trouble of transporting them to another town or putting them up for auction, the bandits would have fetched a higher price. But Rei had never intended to make a significant profit from selling them, and hauling them to another city was too much of a hassle. He settled for a reasonable price.
The result was the money now in his hands.
And the other reason Rei accepted this price...
"Please take good care of the women who were held by the slave trader."
"Of course. It is extremely discreditable to us that a slave trader was operating near our town. We'll make sure every one of them is sent home."
As the man before him had just said, the guards had firmly promised to return each of the women from the slave trader's carriage to her hometown.
Fortunately, most of the women captured by the slave trader were from nearby villages and towns. The financial burden of sending them home wouldn't be all that significant. If they had all been from distant places—requiring months of travel by carriage—returning every one of them would have been impossible.
"By the way, regarding the slave trader... it seems there's nothing more to it. We examined the body and belongings, and it looks like he was working alone, or with a few accomplices at most."
"I see."
Rei felt a small wave of relief at the guard's words.
Given that it involved slavery, the incident in Reblurina from a while back had inevitably come to mind. He had suspected a connection, but knowing that wasn't the case took a weight off his shoulders.
"That completes all the paperwork. Once again, thank you for subjugating the bandits and the illegal slave trader."
The guard bowed deeply to Rei.
He wasn't bowing out of deference to the authority of Rei the Alias-Bearer, the former Gilm Guild Master Marina, or the renowned Princess General Elena. It was a purely genuine expression of gratitude for eliminating a dangerous threat near their town.
"Don't worry about it. It was mostly circumstance... and I did get the bandits' treasure. Besides, I had a small score to settle with them."
"A score? If you don't mind, could you tell me about it?"
Since it wasn't anything worth hiding, Rei told him about the special potion.
Hearing this, the guard furrowed his brows in displeasure.
The fact that a special potion meant to treat illness had never reached its destination because of bandits was naturally not a pleasant matter for the guards either.
"Then... we're all the more grateful you took them out."
"It was a coincidence, though. I never expected them to be based around here."
"Ahaha. You're known as the Bandit Eater. There's no way it was just a coincidence."
Seeing the guard laugh as he said this, Rei gave up, figuring anything else he said would be pointless.
This was probably just another drawback of being famous as an alias holder.
With that in mind, he stepped out of the guard station, where Set and... Reliu were waiting for him.
"Sorry to keep you waiting?"
"Gruu!"
At Rei's words, Set let out a happy cry. Reliu, however, looked slightly disappointed that his time with Set was over.
Noticing Reliu's reaction, Rei offered a small smile and petted the approaching Set on the head.
On the way from Gilm to Golts, Reliu had still been somewhat restraining himself when it came to doting on Set, trying to hide from Rei and the others that he was a Set fan.
Of course, there was no way he could hide it completely, and they had found out almost immediately. Still, he hadn't been quite so blatant about it at first... but now they were on their way back to Gilm.
Once they arrived in Gilm, the male Set fans like Reliu would inevitably feel out of place among the likes of Mirene and the other Set enthusiasts.
That was surely why Reliu wanted to dote on Set as much as possible before they reached Gilm.
He had already stopped bothering to hide his affection for Set.
(Well, I feel like he stopped hiding it back when we were heading to Golts.)
Perhaps envious of Rei's closeness with Set, Reliu's gaze carried a hint of longing.
Understanding this, Rei nevertheless asked, "So, what about the inn? How's that Dark Elf doing?"
The women who had been captured by the slave trader had already been handed over to the guards, with instructions to return them to their hometowns, just as Rei had discussed.
However... the Dark Elf woman who had been severely beaten had been temporarily taken in by Marina. That was likely due to a strong sense of kinship as a fellow Dark Elf.
"Her wounds are treated, and she's sleeping now to recover her strength, apparently."
"I see... Taking her in is fine, but what do you think she'll do with her?"
Rei asked as he and Reliu headed toward the inn.
Naturally, Rei, Reliu... and Set drew the attention of the townspeople. Fortunately, the reaction wasn't as extreme as it had been in Saumis, which was a stroke of luck for Rei and Set.
"You're asking the wrong person. I originally tagged along as reinforcements for you guys. I try not to get too involved in that sort of thing."
Rei nodded at Reliu's words... and soon, they arrived at their destination.
An undeniably high-class inn for this town. It wasn't that Rei and his party had chosen it out of a desire for luxury, but simply because its stables were large enough to accommodate Set.
They left Set with the inn staff and went inside...
"Oh, Rei. That was fast. Are you done with the paperwork?"
Vihera, who had been sitting in a chair talking with Byune, noticed Rei and Reliu as they entered the inn.
"Was it? I thought it took quite a while."
"Considering you handed over that many people, plus the slave trader situation, it was remarkably fast. So? How was the profit?"
"Decent enough. I wasn't trying to make money off this anyway, so it's fine."
"I see."
Vihera neither grew angry nor praised him at his words. It hadn't been a topic she was deeply interested in to begin with.
Rei understood this, so he approached Vihera and the others without particularly minding her attitude.
...Naturally, Vihera stood out remarkably in the inn.
It was already nearing evening, and the inn's guests—both those staying there and those returning—were catching their breath at Vihera's beauty and the curvaceous figure wrapped in clothing resembling a prostitute or dancer's attire. They were eyeing each other, keeping one another in check over who would approach her.
In that atmosphere, Rei ignoring all of them to speak to Vihera—or rather, Vihera calling out to him—made his presence far from welcome to the men waiting for a chance to talk to her.
The only reason none of them tried to pick a fight with Rei was because Reliu beside him clearly looked like a formidable adventurer.
Unlike Rei, whose strength didn't show on the surface, or Vihera, whose attire emphasized her appeal as a woman over her strength, Reliu was unmistakably a proper warrior.
Among those who had been about to approach Vihera, the adventurers took one look at Reliu and hesitated, instantly judging themselves to be out of their league. The merchants, seeing the adventurers they had hired as bodyguards or those who clearly looked the part falter, decided it would be unwise to approach and held back.
As a result, nothing escalated into a major disturbance. Though, the parties involved hadn't paid the slightest attention to their surroundings anyway.
"How is the Dark Elf doing?"
"According to Marina, thanks to your potion, she'll be fine by tonight."
At first, Rei didn't quite understand what Vihera was referring to. But he quickly remembered the potion he had handed to Marina—half as a way to deflect her ill mood away from himself—the one he had received from the Magic Item shop in Golts.
"That potion shouldn't have been all that high-ranking."
In fact, the effects Rei had heard about from the shop clerk were supposedly only moderate. How could it produce such strong results? It was a mystery to him.
"That's probably due to Marina's Spirit Magic. Water Spirit Magic can heal, after all."
"A synergistic effect, huh... But if that were true, you'd think word of it would have spread more."
"You can ask me, but I wouldn't know the details. Why don't you go to the room and ask Marina directly? I was thinking of heading back soon too."
Told this by Vihera, and feeling no particular need to stay, Rei readily nodded.
"Got it. Let's go, then. I should ask Marina what she plans to do with that Dark Elf, too... She's not from the same settlement as Marina, right?"
Rei asked, recalling the settlement where the World Tree stood. Vihera nodded.
"Apparently not. But Elves and Dark Elves have a strong sense of solidarity simply because their numbers are so small. That's probably why."
"Well, races with smaller populations than humans naturally develop stronger cohesion."
Reliu muttered as he listened to Rei and Vihera, and Byune silently nodded in response... while Rei and Vihera shifted their gazes, feeling slightly uncomfortable.
That was because, within the Crimson Lotus Wings led by Rei, Byune was the only one who could be called a proper human.
Rei went without saying—he was an artificial human, crafted with the utmost skill of the Zephyle Clan. Marina was a Dark Elf, and Vihera was a former human who had absorbed Unbris. Elena wasn't a party member, but having inherited an Ancient Dragon's magic stone, she could no longer be called human either. In that sense, the only proper humans among Rei's companions were Byune and Ara.
(Come to think of it, the non-human ratio is pretty high. Well, it's not like it matters, though.)
As far as Rei was concerned, he had come to a fantasy world, so he had no intention of fixating on race. The others likely felt much the same.
With those thoughts, they headed up the stairs.
...Lamentations could be heard from behind them, mourning the loss of Vihera—a sight for sore eyes if there ever was one—but Rei and his group paid them no mind.
Arriving at the door, Rei gave a light knock, and the door opened to reveal Marina.
Not letting them inside was probably because she didn't want them to see the Dark Elf's sleeping face. If it had been Elena or Vihera, she would have welcomed them in without issue.
"Oh, Rei. What's up?"
Marina, calling out to him, seemed considerably calmer. She wasn't fully composed yet, of course, but at the very least, she wasn't radiating the kind of pressure those around her had felt earlier.
Rei spoke, relieved by this.
"I came to ask how the captured Dark Elf's injuries are doing, and also, we're departing tomorrow. What's the plan for her?"
"Oh, that's nothing to worry about. I spoke with her a little when she woke up, and she seems to be fairly strong. She said she can return to her settlement on her own... though she also said she'd be careful not to get tricked again."
"...Tricked?"
"Yes. Apparently, when she visited a town, someone treated her to a drink. She fell asleep after having it, and before she knew it, she was already in the slave trader's custody."
"Ah... right. I'm not sure what to say. My condolences?"
With those words, Rei offered a smile to mask his discomfort.