Hearing the scream, Rei and Set immediately headed toward the source.
Honestly, no adventurer in Gilm would scream at a Cobolt—or so one might think. Rei knew that wasn't entirely the case, but there still shouldn't be that many. That was exactly why he had broken into a run toward the sound.
In other words, it meant there was some kind of abnormality that would normally be unthinkable, and that abnormality could be related to a Magic Item.
That was half wishful thinking on Rei's part—one could even call it optimistic speculation—but it was still better than wandering around the construction site with no clues at all.
Having arrived at the scene, Rei...
"What's this."
He muttered in disappointment at the sight spread before him.
Even so, having seen it, he couldn't just abandon her and leave a bad taste in his mouth. He took a spear out from his Misty Ring.
Not the Twilight Spear he always used, but a near-broken spear he had frequently used before obtaining it.
He felt that using the Twilight Spear against Cobolts would be a waste—that was the reasoning behind his choice.
After a few steps of run-up, he threw the near-broken spear.
The spear flew straight, slicing through the air, and detonated the head of the Cobolt that had been about to bite the female adventurer. Perhaps shifted slightly by the impact, it then pierced through the chest of the Cobolt behind it, and finally embedded itself in the torso of the Cobolt behind that one before coming to a stop.
"...Eh?"
The female adventurer, who had been in a desperate situation, let out a bewildered voice, seemingly unable to understand what had just happened.
That was only natural. The Cobolt's head right in front of her had suddenly exploded, splattering blood, bone, brains, and bodily fluid all over her face.
Without even noticing the Cobolt's eyeball that had struck her cheek and been crushed, the woman looked around.
What entered her vision then was an adventurer accompanied by a gryphon.
As someone who lived in Gilm, she naturally knew who he was.
"Crimson?"
Rei—who had killed the three Cobolts attacking the woman in a single strike, though technically the last one was still alive, in its near-death state it certainly wouldn't last long—apparently heard the mutter slip from her mouth, and approached her together with Set.
"...Sorry about that. I helped you on the spur of the moment, but I didn't think it would turn out like this."
Saying so, Rei handed the woman a cloth he had taken from his Misty Ring.
She took it... and that was when she first realized that her face—no, her entire body—was covered in Cobolt blood and various other things.
She casually touched her cheek, found the soft, warm sensation suspicious, and brought it right before her eyes.
What was there was an eyeball that had struck her cheek with the force of the explosion and been crushed.
"Kyaa... kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
The moment she understood what it was, a shrill scream erupted from the woman's mouth and echoed throughout the surroundings.
That scream was unquestionably louder than the one Rei had heard earlier.
He did think it was questionable that the scream she let out when she was about to be killed was quieter than the one she let out upon seeing a crushed Cobolt eyeball, but for the time being, he checked on the woman's condition.
Age-wise, she was about the same as Rei. In other words, mid-teens or so.
However... there was something else about her that caught Rei's eye.
(Her equipment doesn't fit? And it's quite old, with barely any maintenance done to it.)
Yes, the woman's armor was clearly too large for her body, and the longsword lying on the ground had rusty spots on it.
For a moment he wondered if it was a weapon one of the Cobolts had been carrying, but he had made sure to check the surroundings when throwing the spear, so that possibility was out of the question.
(I thought she was an adventurer, but she's not? Or maybe she just became one? If so, it's not hard to understand why she's struggling against a monster like a Cobolt.)
However, Rei also knew that those who had just become adventurers were generally only allowed to take requests within the city.
While it was true that this construction site was technically within the city, even so, Rei couldn't imagine the Guild assigning a rookie who had just become an adventurer to subjugate Cobolts—and not just one or two, but a large pack of attacking ones.
"Are you... really an adventurer?"
Once the woman's scream had settled down, Rei asked.
It was a straightforward question with nothing probing about it... but upon hearing it, the woman's body stiffened for a moment.
Just from seeing that, Rei held a strong conviction that she was not an adventurer.
"Uh... um... well..."
The woman gave the appearance of being unsure of what to say.
Even from her movements, she didn't look at all like someone who trained her body or underwent combat drills.
Not all adventurers necessarily underwent combat training.
Even so, taking on a Cobolt subjugation request—a request premised on combat—without any combat training was unnatural in more ways than one.
"Who are you? At the very least, I'm pretty sure you're not an adventurer, but..."
"I-I am an adventurer! Otherwise, why would I come to a place like this dressed like this!"
"Then show me your Guild Card. If you're an adventurer, you should definitely have one, right?"
Saying so, Rei took out his own Guild Card from his Misty Ring—a card that displayed B-Rank, with his name clearly written on it.
Even as he did so, he thought the woman before him might actually produce a Guild Card.
Guild Cards didn't have photographs attached like driver's licenses or passports, so even if she brought someone else's card and insisted it was hers, Rei couldn't judge its authenticity.
If it were the Guild or a guard station, they had Magic Items that could verify whether someone was the genuine holder.
In any case, for that reason, Rei thought the woman before him might have somehow obtained someone else's Guild Card and would present it, but...
"Um, I kind of... lost it..."
A blatant cover-up.
Rei would have been troubled if she had actually produced a Guild Card, so in that sense, it was a relief.
"Then want to go to the Guild? It'll cost a little, but you can get a replacement issued."
"I'm broke. Otherwise, why would I go out of my way to take on a request like this?"
"That's a lie."
Rei stated flatly, dismissing the woman's words.
She probably understood herself that her behavior had been suspicious.
At his flat declaration, the woman was at a loss for words.
"So? What exactly are you? I can tell you're not an adventurer from your equipment and how you carry yourself... so why do something like this?"
"That's..."
The woman still tried to think of some way to deflect, but judging from the look Rei was giving her, she concluded that nothing she said would work anymore, and let out a sigh of resignation.
"I'm Suchee....I'm from the Slum District."
A person from the Slum District.
Hearing that, Rei wasn't surprised—rather, he nodded in understanding and looked anew at the woman who had identified herself as Suchee.
Perhaps to pass as an adventurer, her face had been thoroughly wiped clean of dirt.
While not quite at the level of being called peerlessly beautiful like Elena and the others, she had fairly attractive features.
If you asked ten people, it wouldn't be strange for at least half to call her cute.
(With looks like this, she could easily make a living as a prostitute... but from the looks of it, she doesn't have any inclination toward that.)
Thinking such thoughts, Rei opened his mouth again.
"The corpses of Cobolts that adventurers defeat here are basically collected by the folks from the Slum District, who strip them for materials and eat the meat. In other words, there's no need for you to pretend to be an adventurer and kill Cobolts yourself, so why go to the trouble?"
It was a pure question.
As Rei had said, Cobolt corpses slain by adventurers were basically left here after the Subjugation Proof Parts and Magic Stones had been stripped from them.
It wasn't that no one stripped materials from them, but securing Subjugation Proof Parts and Magic Stones by defeating even one more Cobolt yielded more money in the end than spending time stripping materials.
For that reason, the Cobolt corpses had become something the Slum District residents could obtain for material stripping and meat consumption.
Naturally, the residents had to come collect the corpses themselves, so at that time... even if it was at night, there was the danger of being attacked by Cobolts, but ultimately, that was the extent of the danger.
At the very least, there was no need to do something like killing Cobolts herself like Suchee was doing. They should be able to make a sufficient profit, and even if the meat wasn't great, it wasn't as bad as Goblin meat, so it could be used for food.
So why go out of the way to do something so dangerous?
If Suchee had some degree of fighting ability, it wouldn't be impossible to understand why she would do such a thing.
"What do you mean why... I need money, obviously."
"Isn't it enough to just collect the Cobolt corpses?"
"No. There are lots of little kids at home, so we need as much food as possible."
Even a single Cobolt was around fifty kilograms... and depending on the individual, some were even larger.
While the internal organs and bones needed to be removed, and not all fifty kilograms would be edible, it was still a substantial amount... or so Rei estimated.
(And yet it's not enough? Just how many kids are there? Well, given that there's no telling how long these Cobolt attacks will continue, maybe she's trying to make dried meat and preserve at least a little food.)
Thinking along those lines, Rei looked at the three Cobolt corpses lying on the ground.
The first one's head had been detonated, so its Subjugation Proof Part probably couldn't be recovered.
The Cobolt some distance away that had been pierced through the chest must have had its Magic Stone destroyed along with it.
Only the last one, critically wounded with the spear embedded in its torso, still had both its Subjugation Proof Part and Magic Stone intact.
Considering she was fighting Cobolts to earn money, this method of killing them was definitely problematic in various ways.
Of course, considering that Suchee's life had been in danger, she was lucky that Rei happened to be nearby and could save her.
"...Well, I more or less understand the reason. In other words, you wanted the Subjugation Proof Parts and Magic Stones because the Cobolt corpses left by adventurers don't have them."
"Magic Stones, to be precise. Subjugation Proof Parts can only be cashed at the Guild."
"Ah... I see. Now that you mention it, that's true."
Fundamentally, Rei sold materials and Magic Stones at the Guild.
Since he cashed in the Subjugation Proof Parts at the same time, he'd only ever had the awareness that this was the normal way of doing things. But while Subjugation Proof Parts aside, Magic Stones and materials were also bought by shops other than the Guild.
Depending on one's negotiation skills, one could even get a better price than at the Guild.
...However, that also meant that if one was poor at negotiating, they would be bought back at a lower price than what the Guild would offer.
It required detailed checking of the condition of materials, negotiation regarding that, and various other negotiations... Rei found all of that troublesome, so he sold his materials and Magic Stones at the Guild, even if the prices were somewhat lower than what such shops might offer.
Even if the prices were slightly lower, in Rei's case, he could defeat large quantities of monsters, so the fact that he had no complaints about the buyback prices was a significant factor.
Whether Suchee understood from Rei's demeanor how he normally handled the monsters he defeated, she wore a dissatisfied expression.
"An Alias Holder like you couldn't possibly understand the struggles."
"You're right. I won't deny that."
In reality, Rei had skipped over the kind of hardships that adventurers normally experienced during their early years.
Having Set was a major factor, and the fact that an Orc settlement had formed near Gilm not long after he started operating there, where he killed the Orc King, was also significant.
Furthermore, as a result, he gained the favor of those above and was able to meet Elena.
Thinking about it that way, it was only natural for Suchee to envy Rei.
Of course, becoming famous brought its own share of troubles—that was also true.
Just like how, when he went to subjugate the Orc settlement, an adventurer had attacked him targeting his Misty Ring.
"Gmh... anyway! I need to defeat Cobolts and earn money! I can't afford to waste any more time entertaining you! See ya!"
As Suchee shouted that and tried to leave, Rei called out to her back.
"You don't want those Cobolt corpses?"
"I didn't kill them. You saved me, so I can't very well steal them from you on top of that."
"...Then, a trade. I'm gathering some information. I want any information you have on that."
At Rei's words, Suchee wore a skeptical expression, but she stopped in her tracks.