"Ah, Rei-san. The fact that you're back means... is it done already?"
After building the Earth Wall and having Marina and Mail freeze and reinforce it, Rei had returned to the Guild.
Only Rei had gone inside, though. Marina and Mail had headed off somewhere else to continue their Spirit Magic training.
"Yeah, that side of things is taken care of. For now, ordinary Cobolts shouldn't be able to get into Gilm so easily. ...Though conversely, stronger-than-average Cobolts might still find a way through."
"Understood. I'll pass that along to the higher-ups. But with this, just like you were hoping, Rei-san, it sounds like more people will shift to the Gigant Turtle dissection instead of Cobolt subjugation."
"Right. And once they realize they can make clearly more money than from Cobolt subjugation, some of them might start complaining."
The base pay for the dissection was low, but selling Gigant Turtle meat was guaranteed to fetch a substantial sum.
So much so that anyone who had participated in the dissection and tasted the meat even once would never turn down the chance to sell it.
That was exactly why it was all but certain that some would come forward feeling resentful—wondering why they hadn't been told about this opportunity before, or what all their previous hardships had even been for.
Of course, once they learned who had actually issued the Gigant Turtle dissection request, almost no one would dare file a complaint.
"Ahaha. I suppose so. In that case, the Guild will confirm the specifics of the Earth Wall on-site and revise the Cobolt subjugation request documents accordingly. Does that work for you?"
"Yeah, no problem with that. But you're actually going to send someone all the way out there to check?"
"We have to. This concerns an official request, after all. Guild policy requires us to verify the details on-site before revising the request documents."
"...Can't you just ask Marina about it? Well, she's not here right now, though."
As the former Guild Master, Marina surely understood Guild policy as well as anyone.
Rei honestly felt there was no need to send a Guild Staff Member all the way out to where the Cobolts were likely lurking.
Thanks to the Earth Wall, no more Cobolts would be getting in, but conversely, the ones already inside Gilm wouldn't be able to get out either. Given the wall's height, it wasn't impossible for them to climb over, but it would certainly slow them down.
At Rei's suggestion that sending a Guild Staff Member to such a place was questionable, Lenora smiled and replied.
"Marina-sama is the former Guild Master, but she no longer holds that position. Since we post request documents to guide adventurers, we can't make exceptions like that."
The surrounding adventurers must have overheard Lenora's words, because they trembled as if deeply moved.
"Hey, did you hear that just now...?"
"Yeah. Lenora-chan is our star of hope. ...Uuu..."
"Y-you idiot. Don't cry in a place like this! Geez, if she sees you like that, Lenora-chan's going to get self-conscious."
"You say that, but your eyes are tearing up too."
Rei could hear the exchange clearly, and since it had been spoken at a fairly loud volume, it seemed Lenora had caught it as well.
She looked down, but Rei could see that the tips of her ears and even her neck had turned red.
"My, my. It's nice that Lenora's so popular. Personally, though, I'd be perfectly satisfied with popularity from Rei-kun rather than from the masses."
Kenny said that, casting a glance at Rei.
Lenora, still looking down, visibly bristled at Kenny's remark and spoke up.
"Sh-shut up. More importantly, what about your work? You were told to organize documents earlier, weren't you?"
"Document organization? You mean these?"
Kenny smiled and held up the papers she had on hand.
Lenora skimmed through them and realized they were indeed properly organized.
"Hehe. How about that? Even I can manage this much when I put my mind to it."
"...Why can't you manage this much normally?"
At Lenora's exasperated question, Kenny gave a small shrug.
The motion set Kenny's ample bosom swaying, drawing the eyes of every adventurer in the vicinity.
The truly hopeless part was that among those captivated by Kenny's chest were some of the very same men who had just been moved to tears by Lenora's words.
Lenora and Kenny continued their bickering after that, but unfortunately, Rei still had plenty of other things to take care of.
With no other choice, he left them to it and called out to another receptionist.
"Do you know if the cleanup of the Guild's warehouse is finished yet?"
"No, unfortunately it isn't quite done yet. But they said it should be finished by evening, so by the time the Gigant Turtle dissection wraps up, it should be available without any issues."
"...I see."
Even after the Gigant Turtle dissection ended, Suchee and her companions would need to return to the Slum District once first.
They had to bring back their families, friends, and loved ones.
The danger of someone taking hostages to steal the earnings from the dissection work was far from negligible, after all.
"I'll tell them to hurry... no, actually, it seems I've already pushed them too hard."
"Not at all. Quite a few adventurers were actually glad to have some light work available."
That was what the receptionist said, but in reality, Guild Staff Members had to be dispatched not only to direct the moving but also to keep watch—making sure no one with ill intentions used the chaos as a cover to steal valuable materials.
Doing so at a Guild that was already stretched thin was undeniably a significant burden.
That said, the Guild had accepted the request precisely because they judged it would ultimately benefit them.
"I see. Understood. I'll head back to the Gigant Turtle dissection site, then. Once the dissection is done, should they come straight back here?"
"Um, let's see... We'll send someone from the Guild to guide them. It would be a problem if everyone showed up here all at once."
Right now, most people were out working—largely on Cobolt subjugation—but by the time the Gigant Turtle dissection ended, many other adventurers would be returning to the Guild as well.
Considering that, having fifty or so Slum District residents gathering in front of the Guild, even if they didn't go inside, would clearly invite all manner of trouble.
Among adventurers—and even among ordinary residents—there were plenty of people who would distrust someone simply for being from the Slum District.
Taking all of that into account, directing them straight to the warehouse was undoubtedly the best option.
Judging from the receptionist's demeanor, Rei seemed to have grasped the general situation. He nodded.
"Got it. I'll make sure they follow that arrangement."
With that, he left the Guild.
Behind him, Lenora and Kenny's bickering was still audible, but Rei didn't pay it any particular mind.
"Well, this is... I expected as much, but I didn't think this many would come flowing over here."
The Gigant Turtle dissection site sat a short distance from Gilm.
What greeted Rei upon arrival was an enormous pile of Cobolt corpses.
Unable to enter Gilm thanks to Rei's Earth Wall, they had clearly been diverted here instead.
There were also spectators who had been watching adventurers slay monsters drawn in by the dissection and the scent of blood. Those same people now regarded the mountain of Cobolt corpses with visible unease.
They had seen Cobolt corpses yesterday too.
But even with the same Cobolt corpses, today the numbers were on an entirely different scale.
That was surely why so many of them were experiencing a sense of wrongness, fear, or plain disgust.
(If there's just one bug, you don't really mind it. But when there are dozens, hundreds... it's the same feeling as getting sick to your stomach, I suppose?)
Thinking along those lines, Rei also felt that this might actually be a positive trend in a way.
Anyone living in Gilm surely knew by now that Cobolts had invaded the city, and there were undoubtedly those who felt anxious about it.
But among them were some who had simply assumed the adventurers would take care of everything and hadn't given it a second thought.
For people like that, seeing a large horde of Cobolts actually attack and get cut down by adventurers right before their eyes was a firsthand lesson in the danger these monsters posed. It had definitely given them food for thought.
That said, a single Cobolt wasn't a particularly formidable opponent.
The real problem, as always, was the sheer number of them.
In this world, quality could easily surpass quantity—but that only applied to a select few, such as Alias Holders.
For ordinary people like the spectators here, being swarmed by dozens of Cobolts was synonymous with death.
(Well, if this makes them develop a strong sense of caution toward Cobolts, that's fine, but... it's a little late for that.)
The Earth Wall was already in place, and most Cobolts could no longer get into Gilm.
Feeling threatened by Cobolts now was, just as Rei had thought, slightly belated.
Not that it was entirely meaningless, of course.
As long as they lived in Gilm, a healthy fear of monsters was essential.
(Besides, the fact that Cobolts can no longer enter Gilm means that many more of them will end up coming to this Gigant Turtle dissection site. When you think about it, it was lucky that fewer people were traveling in and out of Gilm during the winter.)
Mulling that over, Rei watched Byune slit yet another Cobolt's throat with Hakumo... and then sensed a presence approaching him.
"Rei, I heard you had some errand to run. Is it finished?"
It was Vihera who asked.
She had probably seen him return to the site and come over to check in.
Vihera was here partly as Byune's caretaker, but ordinary Cobolts were no longer any match for Byune.
She had been hoping for stronger specimens—Rare Species or High-ranking Species among the Cobolts—but from what Rei could see, nothing of the sort had appeared so far.
(That Cobolt I took down at the Expansion Construction site... what was it, in the end? Well, I could probably guess it was simply a battle-hardened Cobolt, but...)
The Cobolt that had been fighting the greatsword-wielding adventurer was clearly stronger than a normal one.
And perhaps because it had been fighting barehanded, its claws were longer and sharper than those of an ordinary Cobolt.
That was why Rei had been convinced it was a Rare Species or High-ranking Species and had fed its Magic Stone to Set... but in the end, no announcement had echoed through his mind.
Of course, absorbing a Magic Stone from an unknown monster didn't guarantee a skill acquisition. So it was possible—only barely possible—that the Cobolt really had been a Rare Species or High-ranking Species.
"You look bored."
"Yeah. It feels like only Cobolts have been attacking us since a while ago."
"Ah... figured. I sealed off Gilm so they couldn't get in, so they've been diverted here instead. Though I have to say, the fact that their numbers haven't decreased at all despite being killed day after day is a little abnormal."
"So it was your fault after all. ...Well, Cobolts may not be as bad as Goblins, but they're still Low-Rank Monsters. When you think about it, it wouldn't be strange for them to have high reproductive rates."
With that, Vihera's expression turned gloomy.
They were in the middle of dissecting a High-Rank Monster like the Gigant Turtle, yet the vast majority of monsters drawn to it were Cobolts. She clearly had feelings about that.
"For what it's worth, I'll be praying right alongside you for something stronger to show up."
Rei said that, but he also knew that if an unknown monster actually did appear, he or Set would need to land a hit to satisfy the conditions for Beast Magic—and if that happened, Vihera was bound to get a little displeased.