"Man, this is handy..."
So said one of the adventurers tasked with guarding the Gigant Turtle dissection.
When Rei had first created the earth wall, they had been astonished, wondering what on earth he had done and how he had managed to produce such a thing — but that was merely surprise at the incredible Earth Magic — actually his Terrain Manipulation skill — that Rei had used to create it.
However, once Cobolts actually started arriving and the wall slowed them down even a little, they truly grasped just how convenient it was.
Cobolts were weak monsters — opponents that any adventurer who had accepted the escort request for the dissection workers could defeat with ease.
Even so, being swarmed by a massive number of Cobolts would clearly become troublesome.
But merely having the earth wall there forced the Cobolts to act individually.
There was no doubt that this made things extremely easy for the adventurers.
"Well, obviously. That's Crimson Rei, you know? There's no way an adventurer with a title would do anything that wasteful."
"Ah... well, that's true. He was really amazing when he fought this morning, too."
The monster he had fought that morning was a Snow Cyclops, a B-Rank Monster.
Even adventurers who could effortlessly defeat mere Cobolts faced an entirely different story when it came to a B-Rank High-Rank Monster.
Yet Rei had slain such a creature effortlessly — without struggling in the slightest.
Since they worked as adventurers in Gilm, they of course knew just how powerful Rei was... but even so, the sight of him overwhelming a monster was something they were seeing for the first time.
"Defeating a monster like that alone... no, even with Set, doing it so easily. Honestly, disbelief is the stronger feeling."
"Can't deny that. ...Oh, while we've been talking, more Cobolts have arrived."
Saying that, the handful of men who had been conversing grabbed their weapons and broke into a run toward the newly arrived Cobolts.
Watching the backs of those escort adventurers, the people working on the Gigant Turtle dissection continued talking without pausing their hands.
"Really amazing. This huge turtle — Gigant Turtle, was it? He took this down too, right? Thanks to Suchee, we've had it good from the start this year."
"Ahaha. old man Garada was right after all. We really have to thank Suchee. We can sleep somewhere without cold drafts at night, too."
Two people who knew Suchee through mutual acquaintance said this while stripping skin from one of the Gigant Turtle's leg sections, and the Slum District natives around them nodded in agreement.
In truth, merely being able to receive Cobolt corpses was already a tremendous help, yet this dissection work provided proper wages, Gigant Turtle meat, and — on top of that — the possibility of being hired by the Guild from spring onward if they worked diligently.
Knowing that, telling the Slum District residents not to work hard would have been impossible.
"Still... I wish I could do the dissection over there, too."
One of the Slum District residents muttered as he glanced toward the Snow Cyclops being dissected.
It wasn't that he disliked working on the Gigant Turtle dissection, but after continuously dissecting such an enormous monster, it was natural to occasionally want to work on a different one.
However, the Snow Cyclops, at five meters tall, was many times smaller than the Gigant Turtle — they couldn't even be compared.
With that in mind, it was only natural that more people were assigned to the Gigant Turtle dissection.
What's more, unlike the Gigant Turtle, the locations and types of materials within the Snow Cyclops were already known, so entrusting its dissection to those accustomed to dismantling monsters as adventurers was the obvious choice.
"Don't be unreasonable. I tried asking around, and apparently that monster is quite a strong one. Far more so than the Cobolts we've been dissecting."
"Obviously. I mean, you saw it eating Cobolts alive this morning, didn't you?"
Even while talking like that... the fact that their hands never stopped was proof that everyone had grown accustomed to the dissection work.
"What did you say!?"
At the voice that suddenly reached them, everyone present turned their gazes in its direction.
Standing in the direction of the voice was an extraordinarily beautiful woman who had been coming to this dissection site for the past several days.
That beautiful woman was now saying something to the Guild Staff Member with an expression that clearly showed she was angry.
Aside from the initial shout, her voice wasn't loud enough to carry, but it was obvious she was furious.
"I wonder what happened."
"...Huh?"
One of the women muttered, but the man next to her had been so captivated by the beauty of the woman speaking to the Guild Staff Member — Vihera's beauty — that he hadn't immediately noticed the voice.
Sigh.
Seeing the man like that, the woman let out a heavy sigh.
This is why men are... Thinking that, she repeated what she had said before.
"I said, I wonder what happened."
"Oh... um, right. I heard someone saying that woman was going on about fighting strong opponents or something, so thinking about it, it's probably about the Snow Cyclops. ...What a waste."
To the man, he probably couldn't understand why a beauty like Vihera would be so absorbed in fighting.
After all, he figured that if she wanted to, she could live comfortably without any difficulty.
"Hey, mister, miss. Don't just talk — make sure you keep your hands moving too!"
The man and woman who had been conversing were called out by a child who was stripping skin from a sliced Gigant Turtle leg nearby, and they hurriedly returned to their own work.
...Meanwhile, Vihera, who was being talked about...
"Seriously. Rei gets all the luck. ...So, there's a possibility that the Snow Cyclops could come again tomorrow morning?"
"Y-yes. If there had been only one Snow Cyclops, the number of Cobolts would raise various questions, so of course, it's also possible that it was simply a coincidence that there were few Cobolts last night... but..."
She was speaking with the Guild Staff Member.
Just as Rei had predicted, Vihera had arrived at the site around ten in the morning, and upon seeing the headless Snow Cyclops corpse there, she was utterly frustrated from the bottom of her heart.
She had heard from Rei well in advance that monsters were gathering at the Gigant Turtle dissection site at dawn, drawn by the scent of blood and traces of flesh.
Despite that, she hadn't cared at all since the only ones present were mere Cobolts... but if she could have fought such a formidable opponent, waking up early would have been worth it, and she felt deeply regretful.
For Vihera, the only saving grace was what the Guild Staff Member was saying — that the Snow Cyclops Rei killed might not be the only one, and there could be more of them.
"I'll need to wake up early tomorrow."
Vihera's eyes, as she said that, were likely already fixed on tomorrow's battle.
She directed her gaze at the Guild Staff Member with a look that harbored a ferocious fighting spirit.
The Guild Staff Member, subjected to such a gaze, unconsciously retreated several steps.
Working at the Guild, he had countless opportunities to see hot-blooded adventurers... but Vihera seemed similar to such people, yet was clearly different in some fundamental way.
That was why he had taken that action — having half-understood as much.
(Please come back soon...)
He could only pray that Rei, who had said he was just going to check on the earth wall and had left the site, would return as quickly as possible.
"Hm?"
Suddenly feeling as though someone had called him, Rei looked around.
But all that surrounded him were materials to be used for the Expansion Construction that would take place once spring arrived, and there was no sign of anyone calling him.
"Grurru?"
Seeing Rei like that, Set tilted its head as if asking what was wrong.
Rei stroked Set and spoke.
"No, I just felt like someone called me. Looks like it was my imagination after all."
At Rei's words, Set purred softly as if asking "Really?" and looked around once more.
Rei followed Set's lead and surveyed the surroundings as well.
Since Set possessed sharper five senses than Rei, if someone had truly called out to Rei, it wouldn't be strange for Set to notice it before he did.
But since Set showed no sign of having noticed anything like that, Rei concluded that the earlier feeling was indeed his imagination, and he looked around once more.
What spread out before him were the supplies for the Expansion Construction.
That was unchanged from yesterday, but the one major difference... was the absence of adventurers.
No, it wasn't that there were none at all. He could see the figures of several adventurers in the distance.
The reason for the clearly decreased number of adventurers compared to yesterday was, as expected, the earth wall Rei had created.
Thanks to the wall, Cobolts were no longer able to enter Gilm.
...Though that wasn't perfect either, and Rei couldn't tell how they had gotten in, but there had been signs of battle at several locations.
The Guild, too, had inspected the earth wall and assessed that the likelihood of Cobolts getting in was low, and as a result, the number of those accepting Cobolt subjugation requests had plummeted starting today.
That said, since battles were still occurring in several places and Cobolt infiltration hadn't been completely eliminated, they still needed a certain number of adventurers.
(Ah, but come to think of it, I wonder what's happening with the rewards for Cobolt subjugation requests. Apparently they've been balancing things by keeping the dissection pay lower...)
While thinking about such things, he continued toward the earth wall... and without encountering any Cobolts, Rei and Set arrived in front of it.
However, spotting the wall from a distance, Rei noticed the figures of what appeared to be several adventurers standing in front of it and felt puzzled.
That said, having come to inspect whether there were any abnormalities, he couldn't just stand and watch from afar, so he continued forward.
Then, the adventurers in front of the wall must have noticed Rei approaching. They directed their gazes toward him.
(Hm?)
The people who appeared to be adventurers in front of the earth wall numbered about ten, men and women combined.
Sensing that the gazes of several among them carried killing intent — well, perhaps not quite that far, but hostility — Rei felt puzzled.
Rei had done all sorts of things up to now, so he had no delusions that no one held grudges against him. If anything, he understood that it wouldn't be strange for hundreds, or even thousands, of people to want him dead.
That was why, even with such hostile gazes directed at him, he approached the earth wall and the gathered adventurers without any particular concern.
Since there were no familiar faces among them, Rei paid no mind to their gazes and walked past them...
"Hey, wait a minute!"
Suddenly, one of the men who had been standing in front of the earth wall called out to Rei.
The owner of that voice was one of those who had been directing hostile gazes at him.
Still, since he hadn't drawn a weapon or anything of the sort, Rei didn't take a stance and simply looked his way before speaking.
"What is it?"
"What do you mean, what is it!? You're the one who made this earth wall, aren't you?"
"That's right. It's a problem if Cobolts get into Gilm, so I went ahead and did that. Is something wrong?"
To be precise, the biggest reason was that he wanted more manpower for the Gigant Turtle dissection, but he judged there was no need to explain that much to someone directing hostility at him.
"Of course something's wrong! I've been earning money by killing Cobolts here this whole time. But because of this thing, the Cobolts stopped coming in. What are you going to do about it?"
"In other words, you're saying it's fine for Cobolts to enter Gilm and cause damage in the city, as long as you can make money?"
"I never said that! I was taking out all the Cobolts before they reached the city. So there shouldn't have been any problem, right?"
The man's words carried confidence.
An intense confidence that he would never lose to mere Cobolts.
Though, since most adventurers in Gilm possessed the ability to defeat Cobolts with ease, that was perhaps only natural.
"You shouldn't assume things will always stay the same. What if a Rare Species or a High-ranking Species showed up? What would you do if a monster like that reached the city? For that matter, if you just want to fight Cobolts, you can do that by taking Gigant Turtle dissection guard duty. Why aren't you accepting those requests?"
At Rei's words, the man fell silent.