"So? In the end, the mastermind going around distributing red cloth wasn't found today either, huh?"
Rei nodded while eating freshly baked bread, responding to Vihera's words as she savored a summer vegetable soup.
Naturally, the reason they were able to eat a soup made with fresh summer vegetables in this already wintry season was because they used ingredients stored in Rei's Misty Ring.
It was precisely because he had purchased and stockpiled large quantities during the summer that they could still eat fresh summer vegetables even now in winter—vegetables so fresh they could be believed to have been picked that very morning.
The soup Marina made using those summer vegetables was exquisite enough to be called a masterpiece.
...Though if you asked her personally, she claimed it tasted better than usual because it contained a secret ingredient called love.
"It seems the guy distributing the red cloth is extremely cautious. There are plenty of people who received red cloth from him, but when you ask where he lives or which inn he's staying at, nobody knows."
"This might not be the best way to put it, but it's like a passing fling, isn't it?"
"Isn't that a little different?"
Vihera retorted to Marina's remark, made while she enjoyed a dish of white fish wrapped in herbs and baked in a Magic Item oven.
"You haven't forgotten that we depart in three days, have you?"
"Yeah. Either way, I don't particularly have anything I need to prepare."
In response to Elena's words, Rei looked at his own right arm.
Rei was staying at the Wheat Inn at Twilight, but there were almost no personal belongings inside his room.
Normally, if someone stayed at the same inn for a long period, various personal items would gradually accumulate in their room... but in Rei's case, he stored nearly all of his belongings inside his Misty Ring.
That was why the room was so clean.
...Because the room was clean, it was extremely easy for Lana, the proprietress of the Wheat Inn at Twilight, and the other staff to clean, which was one of the reasons they held a favorable opinion of Rei.
"If we're going, I could leave right this instant, honestly. ...Right, Set?"
"Gruu? Grururururu!"
Leave it to me! said Set, eating a whole roasted Yellow Bird with obvious relish.
Beside Set, Ielo—who was also eating alongside it—glanced at Rei for just a moment with a Kyu? but immediately returned to the food.
The whole roasted Yellow Bird was not, as the name suggested, simply something that had been roasted plain.
Rei had asked a familiar eatery to prepare it; it was a dish stuffed with mushrooms, nuts, and vegetables before being slowly roasted over a low flame.
A sauce containing honey was brushed onto the surface of the Yellow Bird, over and over again... a dish that had taken a generous amount of time to create.
Naturally, since that much time and effort had been spent on it, the cooking fee was correspondingly expensive.
But a single bite of that dish would convince anyone without a doubt that it was worth every coin.
Looking at Ielo frantically and single-mindedly devouring the food made that abundantly clear.
"At times like this, I envy someone in Rei's carefree position."
Looking at Rei and Set, Elena murmured wistfully.
Being someone who bore the alias of Princess General, Elena needed to properly inform the relevant parties even if she were only temporarily leaving Gilm.
No, if she could leave Ara behind as she had when traveling with Rei and the others, she wouldn't need to worry so much... but this time, she was officially leaving Gilm with Ara included.
Given that, she needed to inform not only Daskar, the lord governing Gilm, but also the members of the Noble's Faction staying in Gilm of her departure, as well as notify relatives of important figures in the King's Faction.
...Elena surely found these exchanges to be nothing but a hassle, but if she carelessly cut corners here, it would lead to her father, Duke Kerebel, being looked down upon, so she couldn't afford to slack off.
"That sort of thing depends on the person. If anything, there are people who actually enjoy that kind of groundwork. ...Though I can't really understand it myself."
As a former princess of the Bestia Empire, Vihera had seen more than enough nobles before she fled.
Among those nobles, there were those who enjoyed doing groundwork.
By engaging in such behavior, they were probably able to strongly feel that they were nobles.
To Vihera, her honest feeling was that she couldn't believe anyone would go through such troublesome effort.
"I know that. But still..."
Elena trailed off and brought a sandwich to her mouth.
Though she didn't put it into words, what Elena wanted to say still got across to everyone.
In the end, Elena's true nature was that of a warrior, not a noble. ...Though when Rei was involved, she reverted to a woman.
Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate for Elena that she could nonetheless handle her duties as a duke's daughter flawlessly was hard to say.
"Come to think of it, the snow is late this year."
Perhaps feeling pity for Elena's state, Rei blatantly changed the subject.
Strictly speaking, with light snow already fluttering about, snow was already falling, but he meant it in the sense of snow accumulating.
Granted, Rei wasn't particularly fond of snow, so he actually preferred things the way they were now, without the hassle.
"Snow, huh. It's falling right now, but at this rate it doesn't look like it'll stick."
Marina directed her gaze into the distance.
The courtyard was protected by Marina's Spirit Magic, preventing cold, snow, rain, and wind from entering.
When they wanted a slight breeze, they only had to ask Marina, and she would ask the Wind Spirit to blow wind for them, so they could control that sort of thing freely.
As for lighting, they currently had a lighting Magic Item brought in, so even at night they could see outside the space enclosed by Spirit Magic without issue.
Beyond that space, there was the sight of light snow fluttering about, something that had occasionally been visible over the past few days.
But, as Marina said, it was far from enough to accumulate.
By tomorrow morning, it would undoubtedly have melted.
"When snow falls, all sorts of things become a hassle. If possible, I'd like it to stay just like this."
Everyone present nodded honestly at Rei's words.
If it were the child Byune, she might have been happy that snow was falling... but in Byune's case, perhaps due to the hardships she had endured since she was young, she showed no sign of joy when snow fell.
Then again, Byune's home... the House Flaut estate was fairly large, and if it snowed, they naturally had to shovel snow, so it wouldn't be strange for Byune to have come to dislike snow.
"Why not just use Marina's Spirit Magic to make all of Gilm like this courtyard?"
"Oh come on, Vihera. Don't ask for the impossible. If it were only about the size of this courtyard, then maybe... but..."
Marina immediately told Vihera not to ask for the impossible.
Of course, Vihera hadn't said it because she actually thought such a thing was possible; she had only mentioned it as a conversation piece.
...Though if Marina had said she could do it, Vihera might have seriously asked her to.
While watching the two of them, Rei also wondered if there was some way to deal with this snow.
If this were just a place they happened to be staying at, Rei wouldn't have thought about it so much.
But this was Gilm, Rei's base of operations.
If it could become more livable, nothing could be better than that.
Granted, he couldn't think of any way to deal with the falling snow at all.
(Cover all of Gilm with a roof, like a dome? No, that's unreasonable. Besides, if you cover it with a roof, snow and rain aside, wind and sunlight wouldn't get in either. Which means, a retractable one?)
Rei pictured a scene where a giant roof existed above Gilm's sky, opening up when spring came... but while it was easy to imagine, actually doing it seemed extremely difficult.
Especially since Gilm was currently planned to expand to 150% of its present size through the Expansion Construction.
Rei couldn't possibly believe that covering all of that with a roof was something that could be done.
If anything, the difficulty would be even higher than the Expansion Construction currently underway, and there would surely be technical issues as well.
"Impossible, huh."
"Hm? What's impossible?"
Perhaps catching Rei's murmur, Marina suddenly asked.
...Though part of it was probably that she had grown tired of indulging Vihera's topic.
"No, I just thought that if we wanted to do something about the snow and rain, we could just put a roof over all of Gilm. But doing something like that would be even harder than the Expansion Construction."
"That's... well, true. I just didn't think there'd be someone who would actually think of something like that."
Marina's voice carried a mixture of amazement and admiration, as if Rei's suggestion was truly unexpected.
Elena, Ara, Vihera, Byune, and the others were also directing similar gazes at Rei.
"Don't look at me like that. I just thought of it. Whether it can actually be realized is a completely different story."
"I suppose not. If you ask whether it could be realized... well, if you don't consider the labor, it might be possible. But then you could keep out the snow and rain, but you'd also be shutting out sunlight and wind. That would cause all sorts of problems."
"That part could be handled by making the roof foldable, or retractable, and only putting the roof up in winter... I know, I know it can't be done. That's why I told you, right? I just thought of it."
Seeing the gazes turning toward him again—this time with the proportion of exasperation clearly greater than admiration—Rei said so without finishing his sentence.
"Ah, but even if putting a roof over all of Gilm is impossible, wouldn't it be possible to at least put one over the main street?"
What came to Rei's mind as he said that was the shopping arcade in his hometown when he was in Japan.
It was what was commonly called an arcade shopping street.
Even if covering all of Gilm with a roof was impossible, Rei thought it might be possible for just the main street.
And deploying an arcade roof only on rainy and snowy days was probably... truly probably, but it shouldn't be impossible.
"Hmm... well, if it's just the main street, they might be able to manage it if they really pushed for it... but a retractable one would be a bit difficult, I think. It would take too much effort. You'd need to hire adventurers, like mages, for that."
There might be people willing to do it as free volunteer work, but if that became the norm, it could cause problems for adventurers and the Guild in the future.
If so, they would still need to hire adventurers.
But hiring adventurers every time it rained or snowed was a hassle, and more importantly, it required payment.
If they could expect sales exceeding that cost, they could bear it... but many shops wouldn't see much difference in foot traffic whether it rained or snowed or not, and for such shops, there would be no point in paying money for it.
"...I feel like if the shops don't discuss it thoroughly amongst themselves and decide, it'll cause all sorts of problems in the future."
Perhaps having reached the same conclusion as Rei, Vihera muttered so.
"There are quite a few former adventurers out there, so it feels like something could be worked out on that front."
"Ah, there are people like that too, aren't there."
Adventuring was primarily physical labor.
Naturally, as they aged, there were those who could no longer push themselves.
Of course, not everyone was like that; there were some who continued working on the front lines as adventurers even into old age, but those were only a rare minority.
Additionally, it was not uncommon for adventurers to lose limbs during a request, or even if it didn't go that far, to become unable to move due to lingering aftereffects of injuries.
What did those who quit adventuring for such reasons do?
Some would return to the countryside, but there were also those who couldn't do so for one reason or another.
It was not uncommon for such people to use the money they earned during their adventuring days as capital to start some kind of business, or to be hired by a shop.
That was why, when it came to whether Rei's proposal was feasible, it was probably possible.
"Right. I'll try mentioning it to the Guild. Of course, that decision ultimately rests with the people on the main street, and we'd need to ask the Carpenters whether something like that could actually be done."
Marina, having grown slightly enthusiastic, said so.