"Grrrrrrrrrrr!"
Set's cry echoed across the surroundings, the griffon overjoyed by the sight of a familiar town—Gilm—coming into view ahead.
Hearing Set's cry, Rei turned his gaze forward as well.
There, without a doubt, lay Gilm. The sight filled Rei with the unmistakable feeling that they had returned.
Of course, the time Rei and his party had spent away from Gilm to travel to Golts amounted to less than a month.
Even so, the sense of homecoming he felt was surely because Rei understood that Gilm was the place he was meant to return to.
"Ah, looks like they heard Set's cry."
With that thought, he shifted his gaze to the ground, where he could see people startled by the cry that had suddenly rang out over the road.
...The fact that most of them merely ended up startled was perhaps because they recognized the cry as Set's... or perhaps because, while they heard the cry, its source was nowhere to be seen, and they dismissed it as coming from somewhere far away.
Granted, a few were on the verge of panicking in confusion, but the people around them quickly calmed them down.
Amidst all this, there were also those who rejoiced at the sound.
For example... the workers hauling felled timber from the Treant Forest on their carriages.
Since they had frequently worked alongside Rei and Set during the Expansion Construction, they likely guessed right away that the cry belonged to Set.
If they had been mistaken, it could very well have caused a commotion, but none of them imagined that everyone here would misidentify Set's cry.
It wasn't entirely impossible that a gryphon other than Set had appeared, but unfortunately, an A-Rank Monster gryphon wouldn't so readily show itself before people.
However, this was Gilm, a frontier region.
Given that fact, the possibility of a gryphon other than Set appearing couldn't be completely ruled out.
In the first place, considering a gryphon's travel speed, it wouldn't be strange for one to appear anywhere, not just in the frontier.
"Well... keeping hidden like this is a bit much. I guess we should land soon."
A fair number of people were looking up at the sky, searching for Set, but since the Set Basket blended into the surrounding scenery like a chameleon thanks to its ability, picking it out was difficult.
Strictly speaking, the Set Basket didn't instantly adopt the scenery around it—it projected an image from about a minute prior... but while flying through the air, spotting that discrepancy was hard.
Of course, it wasn't absolutely impossible. With a certain level of attentiveness, finding it wasn't out of the question.
"Set, Gilm's getting close, so we're heading down to the ground."
"Gruu!"
At Rei's words, Set rumbled his throat and began descending toward the ground.
Since many people were traveling toward Gilm on the road and in the surrounding area, he aimed for a spot slightly away from the traffic.
Then, at a location off the main road, Set descended as low as he could and lowered the Set Basket he was carrying.
A heavy thud echoed through the area, and those who had been searching for Set spotted the Set Basket.
Once the Set Basket was on the ground, confirming Set's form was no difficult task.
Many watched as Set soared back into the sky.
With all eyes upon him, Set eventually descended toward the ground once more... and touched down safely.
By that point, Elena and the others had emerged from the Set Basket.
"Hm... the Set Basket is reasonably comfortable, but even so, being outside and able to move freely like this is—"
Leaving the sentence unfinished, Elena looked up at the sky and stretched broadly.
Her hair caught the sunlight and shimmered. To those watching from around the area, it looked as if she had woven sunlight itself into her hair, or as if gold had been spun into silk.
Following Elena, Marina, Vihera, and Byune appeared, along with Ielo cradled in Byune's arms.
Up to this point, they were known in Gilm as Rei's companions, so aside from those who knew nothing about them, no one was particularly surprised.
...There were some who were startled to see Elena, who bore the alias Princess General, traveling with them, but the fact that Elena accompanied Rei was already fairly well-known.
However... when Reliu appeared after the rest, everyone watching from a distance was stunned.
Reliu, who bore the alias Gale, was naturally known by name and face to many in Gilm.
The fact that he operated solo—somewhat unusual for an adventurer—also helped spread his name.
Of course, bearing an alias meant possessing some outstanding ability.
Partying with someone of such caliber demanded corresponding ability from the party members.
And naturally, there were not many who possessed that level of skill.
Given that, alias-holding adventurers often operated solo under normal circumstances, forming temporary parties only when the need arose.
"O-oi. Don't tell me that's... Reliu the Gale?"
"Yeah, no mistake about it. I've talked with Reliu before. I can tell you for certain—that's definitely Reliu."
"Wait. Does that mean Reliu is joining the Crimson Lotus Wings? Even now, people say the Crimson Lotus Wings have excessive combat power. Adding another alias holder to that... what does that mean?"
"A weak little country could probably be taken down by the Crimson Lotus Wings alone."
"...Nah, if it's a small country they're up against, they wouldn't even need the Crimson Lotus Wings. Crimson Rei alone would be more than enough to handle it."
"Ah... can't argue with that."
Reliu's appearance set off a flurry of freely voiced opinions from the onlookers.
Naturally, Rei could hear the chatter around him, but he had no intention of saying anything in response.
Rather, if he spoke up here, there was no doubt he would be swarmed by a crowd demanding an explanation.
With that in mind, Rei stowed the Set Basket into his Misty Ring and headed toward those who were beyond overjoyed at their arrival... namely, the familiar adventurers hauling lumber from the Treant Forest.
Normally, those adventurers would have been delighted too.
With Rei's Misty Ring, the logs they were struggling to transport could be moved effortlessly.
But today, they couldn't afford such an approach.
That was because following Rei, Elena and the others—particularly Reliu—were right there.
With Rei, they had spoken fairly often, so they could converse normally without any nervousness.
But that was solely because it was Rei... though they would never say it to his face for fear of being scolded, the fact that Rei had an adorable, feminine face and didn't look the least bit like a skilled adventurer had something to do with it.
Adventurers assigned to the Treant Forest wouldn't make the mistake of underestimating someone based on Rei's appearance.
Still, precisely because his face was so disarmingly feminine, it was undeniably easier to approach him.
Into this atmosphere came someone like Reliu—a first-rate alias-holding adventurer in both name and reality, with a presence that matched his reputation. It was only natural that interacting with Rei as they usually did became difficult.
But Rei, without paying the slightest mind to the adventurers' demeanor, spoke up.
"Maybe not long enough to say 'it's been a while,' but I suppose it has been. Are you hauling these logs? They're from the Treant Forest, right?"
"Eh? Ah, yeah. That's right... no, wait. Why are you with Reliu the Gale?!"
The Adventurer Man had almost replied normally to Rei's utterly typical greeting, but he quickly caught himself and shouted.
The shouted-at Rei showed no particular sign of being troubled. Instead, looking genuinely puzzled about why he was being yelled at, he responded.
"What do you mean why? I had him come with me to conquer a dungeon, that's why."
"A dungeon... eh? A dungeon? I was wondering why you hadn't been around lately—you went to a dungeon?!"
"That's how it is."
"And the fact that you're back already means... perhaps..."
His words trailed off, but Rei understood what the man before him was trying to say.
There was no need to go out of his way to announce that he'd conquered a dungeon, but it wasn't something he needed to hide, either.
No—since the fact that a dungeon had been conquered would become known through the Guild in various ways, hiding it here wouldn't accomplish much. That was the more accurate way to put it.
"That's right. We cleared the dungeon. Though it was a newly formed one."
"...For all that, it was a dungeon with all sorts of things that were far from standard," Marina murmured.
The others nodded in agreement.
Indeed, with the Garangiga and everything else, there was no mistaking that it was a place hard to believe had only just formed.
At the very least, compared to the dungeon that had appeared near Gilm before—the one they conquered during Gamelion season—it was undeniably far higher in difficulty.
That it was a newly formed dungeon was certain, just as Rei said. It was certain... but there was a lingering doubt about whether it was really fair to simply categorize it as such.
"Um, is that so?"
The adventurer who had been talking with Rei naturally knew about Marina as well.
Among the adventurers who had come to Gilm after the Expansion Construction began, there were some who didn't know Marina... but fortunately, this man had been active in Gilm for a long time.
That was surely why her words gave him pause.
"Yes... However, if we discuss it here, we'll draw quite a bit of attention... You'd be better off asking Rei about that later. Come, Rei. Let's head to Gilm."
No one objected to Marina's words. After Rei stowed the felled logs into his Misty Ring, he set off toward Gilm with everyone present.
Naturally, the guards in Gilm had clearly witnessed Set's descent, so the entry procedures were completed without issue.
Thus, the first place Rei went was neither the Guild... nor the lord's manor, but the storage site where the felled logs were delivered.
Of course, bringing Elena and the others to such a place would only cause an unnecessary commotion, so they had been sent ahead to the Guild to explain the situation to Worker, who had originally brought them this request.
And Reliu went off to report to Daskar, who had asked him to take on this assignment.
...Though it was plain to see just from watching that Reliu wanted to finish his report as quickly as possible and return home to where his wife Schmine was waiting.
"Oh, the lumber... hmm? Rei and Set? You're back? I heard you'd be away for a while?"
The person in charge, spotting Rei and Set, called out in surprise.
Of course, since he worked this post, he had plenty of opportunities to interact with Rei and Set, so he wasn't particularly startled by the sight of Set.
"Still, it's almost winter, yet you've hauled in quite a lot of lumber."
"Hm? Ah. Well, they want to process as much of the wood for spring use as they can during winter. They're probably trying to stockpile whatever they can now. The work to do during winter increases by that much, too."
"Is that how it works? ...So, where should I put the logs?"
"I'll show you, come this way. Hey, you guys come too."
He led them inside the storage area.
Compared to the last time Rei had seen it, a considerable number of new logs seemed to have been added.
"Whoa... looking at it again, we really hauled a lot of logs, didn't we."
"Nah, most of these have got to be the logs Rei hauled, right?"
"Ugh... w-when you put it like that..."
As those voices carried over, the gathered gazes naturally settled on Rei.
"It's not like I brought all of them in myself, so isn't that fine?"
"Eh? Really?"
"...If you go bragging about that and regret it later, don't say I didn't warn you."
"Urk!"
The Adventurer Man, who had been thinking about bringing a clerk from a tavern he frequented to this spot and trying to woo her by claiming he had hauled these logs, found himself unable to say another word.