The Wheat Inn at Dusk—it was the inn Rei used as his regular lodging in Gilm.
Lately, he often ate his meals at Marina's house, and since it had a fair number of rooms, she had once jokingly suggested he move in with her. Even so, Rei had no intention of moving away from the Wheat Inn at Dusk.
Part of the reason was simply that the inn was comfortable. But more than that, it was where he had stayed ever since he first arrived in Gilm, and he had grown attached to it.
The fact that it had a stable where Set could stay without issue was also a major factor.
Marina's house was reasonably spacious, but there was nothing like a stable for Set.
Of course, in Marina's case, the courtyard was kept comfortable by her Spirit Magic, so in that sense, a stable might not have been strictly necessary.
"Oh, welcome back. So you've returned," Lana said. Seeing Rei's figure, the proprietress of the Wheat Inn at Dusk offered a warm smile and called out to him.
For Lana, Rei was without a doubt a good customer.
He had caused a few problems here and there, but more often than not, the trouble had stemmed from someone other than Rei.
Plus, the fact that he always ate his meals with such obvious enjoyment made him a welcome guest in her eyes.
"I heard you went to Anesis. What was it like?"
Even as she spoke, Lana swiftly completed the paperwork at the reception desk and handed Rei his room key.
Since he had a long-term contract and paid his lodging fees in advance, there was no need for any complicated procedures. Much less so given that, all things considered, Rei had spent less than a month in Anesis.
"Yeah. It was big. Gilm is doing expansion construction too, but reaching that size would be... a bit difficult. Though I suppose it's only natural, considering Anesis is called the second city of the Kingdom of Mireana."
"Oh, is it that large? I hear Gilm will become quite a bit bigger with the expansion construction going on right now, though."
"Yeah, about that. Cobolt packs have been showing up recently, right? Even today, when I was flying through the sky with Set earlier, I saw adventurers fighting Cobolts at the expansion construction site."
At those words, Lana's expression turned slightly sour.
It wasn't that she was displeased with Rei—rather, her expression reflected her distaste for the current situation: Cobolts invading Gilm.
As a resident of Gilm, Lana understood that the town was more dangerous than an ordinary city. She understood that perfectly well, but... even so, hearing that monsters like Cobolts were infiltrating the place she called home was hardly something she could be happy about.
"Yes, that's right. It seems Cobolts have been slipping in through the expansion construction site from somewhere for a little while now. For the time being, the adventurers are keeping things under control, so there's no immediate problem, but... if it were only Cobolts, that would be one thing. When I think about what might happen if other, more powerful monsters follow them..."
"It's worrisome," Lana said.
Rei understood how she felt.
Right now, only Cobolts were coming through, and given the skill of Gilm's adventurers, they were being dealt with easily. But if a High-Rank Monster were to wander in, even the adventurers would suffer casualties.
This was the frontier. It wouldn't be strange if C-Rank or B-Rank monsters—or in some cases, even A-Rank Monsters—suddenly appeared.
Hmm, in that case... would it be better to set Set loose at the expansion construction site? That way, any normal monster would sense Set's presence and stay away, unless it was incredibly stupid.
Whether all the adventurers would want that, however, was another question entirely.
For those who hadn't managed to save enough to get through the winter, being able to fight Cobolts in town—where it was far less dangerous than outside Gilm—and specifically at the expansion construction site, where there were hardly any people around, was practically a bonus stage.
Cobolt materials, Magic Stones, and subjugation rewards were all quite cheap. But for people with no money to their name, even if the payout per kill was small, they could simply make up for it with volume.
If Set were brought to a place like that and kept the Cobolts from appearing, those adventurers would naturally feel resentful.
Ah, maybe I should have gone to see Lord Daskar with Elena after all. I wanted to hear how he wants to handle the current situation as the lord of the territory.
If he had heard things from that direction, he might not have needed to agonize over the matter. With that thought lingering in his mind, Rei accepted the key from Lana and headed toward his room.
Come to think of it, how are Vihera and Byune doing?
As he unlocked the door, Rei's thoughts drifted to the two other members of his party.
Vihera and Byune should both have been staying at the Wheat Inn at Dusk as well.
After he had rested a little, it might be nice to go visit them.
With that in mind, he opened the door...
"...Why are you here?"
The scene that spread out before him—the two faces he had just been thinking about seconds ago—left him speechless for a few beats before he finally managed to ask.
Sure enough, Vihera and Byune were standing right there in his room—the very two people he had just been thinking about.
Vihera's expression flickered with brief surprise at the sight of Rei... and then, with a smile, she spoke.
"Oh, welcome back. I thought it would take you a little longer."
Seeing Vihera say that without the slightest concern for his bewilderment, Rei decided that saying anything more would be pointless.
The door should have been locked... Well, with Byune involved, it doesn't even bear thinking about. No, the fact that she was able to unlock the Wheat Inn at Dusk's door means her skills in that area have improved, I suppose.
The Wheat Inn at Dusk was one of the higher-end inns in Gilm.
Given that, the security was naturally strict. The lock looked ordinary at first glance, but it employed quite advanced technology—or so Rei remembered hearing from Lana at some point.
If Byune had managed to open a lock like that, her skills as a thief had undoubtedly improved.
Until now, she had been a combat-oriented thief, but it seemed she hadn't simply been idling about while Rei was away in Anesis.
...Though having learned about it in this particular manner, Rei wasn't entirely sure he could celebrate the news in good faith.
"Ah... well, yeah. Right. I'm back."
Rei had mixed feelings about the whole situation, but even so, being greeted with "welcome back" and replying in kind brought him a small sense of comfort.
"So, what were you doing coming into my room while I was away? There shouldn't be anything interesting in here."
For an ordinary adventurer, staying in the same room long-term—on the scale of years—it wouldn't be unusual for all sorts of personal belongings to be lying around.
But in Rei's case, he had the convenient—perhaps excessively convenient—Misty Ring, so his personal effects were fundamentally stored inside it.
That wasn't to say the room had absolutely nothing in it, but compared to what one would normally expect, there was remarkably little.
Being in such a space was no different from sitting in an empty room, so what could possibly be interesting about being here was Rei's honest question.
If this were a manga, they'd probably be rummaging under the bed or something... but there's nothing like that in this world. Well, it might exist, but it's more accurate to say I've never come across any.
So-called treasures for a boy going through puberty simply didn't exist in this world.
Of course, it wasn't exactly a replacement, but there were brothels and many individuals working as independent prostitutes, so it was impossible to say definitively which world was better off.
"I was a little bored, so I came to hang out in your room. ...I didn't expect you to come back right at this time, though."
"Even if you come to my room, there's nothing particularly interesting here, right? I'd think you already knew that."
It wasn't as if this was the first time Vihera or Byune had come to Rei's room.
They had visited countless times before, so they should have known perfectly well, without even giving it a second thought, that there was nothing particularly interesting laid out here.
Despite that, Rei still asked "Why?"... but Vihera simply smiled and spoke.
"Oh, isn't it only natural to be interested in the room of the person you love?"
At those words—so blunt there was no room for misinterpretation—Rei hesitated for a moment over how to respond.
"I see."
In the end, he left it at that, keeping his answer brief.
Perhaps finding his reaction amusing, Vihera smiled and steered the conversation elsewhere.
"So? What about Elena?"
"Hm? Ah... right. She said she was going to stop by Lord Daskar's place for a bit."
Rei was slightly thrown by the sudden shift in topic, but he managed to respond without too much trouble.
"Ah, considering Elena's position, she'd have to do that. ...Besides, Elena is staying at Marina's house, so it wouldn't be strange if she didn't come here at all."
"Right. ...So, Vihera, aren't you going to join the Cobolt subjugation? It looked like they were fighting at the expansion construction site even now."
"They came again?"
At Rei's words, Vihera erased the smile she had been wearing moments ago and replaced it with a displeased expression.
Byune, for her part, didn't change her expression at Vihera's attitude, but she was radiating a distinctly dissatisfied air.
I see. So Vihera doesn't care for fighting the Cobolts, but Byune wants to go into battle... something along those lines, I take it.
Rei already knew that Byune wanted to earn even a little money, so that part didn't surprise him.
If anything, it was Vihera—someone who loved battle—choosing not to participate in the fight against the Cobolts that caught his attention. But considering that Cobolts were Low-Rank Monsters, Rei reconsidered; given Vihera's personality, taking such an attitude was only natural.
Vihera loved battle, but that love wasn't about trampling weak opponents. It was about savoring fights against strong foes.
That was why she likely had no interest in facing Low-Rank Monsters like Cobolts.
"So the Cobolts weren't to your liking? Well, they are Low-Rank Monsters, so it can't be helped."
"Right. I showed my face a few times, just to check... If there had been High-ranking Species or Rare Species, it might have been at least somewhat entertaining, but all that were there were ordinary Cobolts."
So that was the root of her dissatisfaction, Rei understood.
That said, hearing this raised a question.
"But the Cobolts have been attacking for more than just a day or two, right? To keep that up, the pack must be quite large. And it's only natural to assume that whatever is leading them would be a High-ranking Species or a Rare Species."
"Right. I think so too, and the other adventurers participating in the battle felt the same way. But... unfortunately, even when we searched for them, we couldn't find a thing. Byune tried hard, too... right?"
"Mm."
At Vihera's words, Byune replied with her usual single syllable.
"I don't know exactly how many Cobolts are being killed every day, but it's not a number like ten or twenty, right? Thinking about it that way, there seem to be quite a few suspicious points."
"I think so too. But the fact remains that if they're not there, there's no way to find them. ...A lot of the thieves participating in the combat are frustrated about it, you know."
Byune included, Vihera added, poking Byune's soft-looking cheek.
Without showing the slightest sign of minding Vihera's finger, Byune kept focused on trying to pick the lock in her hand.
"I see. ...So, what about Marina? If she used Spirit Magic or something, couldn't she track down the one leading the Cobolt pack?"
"No. Marina tried, but it didn't work."
"...Really?"
Rei couldn't help but think, You've got to be kidding me.
To Rei, Marina's Spirit Magic left an impression of being truly extraordinary, just like his own magic.
He had seen other Spirit Magic users a few times before, but compared to Marina's, theirs had been overwhelmingly underwhelming.
The phenomena she produced by freely manipulating spirits made him wonder if she had reached the very pinnacle of Spirit Magic.
If even Marina couldn't find the one leading the Cobolt pack...
Most likely, that Cobolt simply wasn't physically within Marina's search range. Though how it's managing to lead the pack from outside that range, I have no idea.
With that thought, Rei smiled. What he had initially dismissed as an ordinary Cobolt raid was beginning to look a little more interesting.