"Hahahahahahahahaha!"
"Man, this is good. Really good. I'm so glad I signed on for this job!"
"Well, with booze and food this tasty, of course."
The woodcutters were all drinking and eating to their hearts' content.
There were ten woodcutters in total—the number Rei had gathered after visiting several villages and towns starting from the first one.
With this many people packed inside, the Set Basket was naturally quite cramped, leaving them barely able to move. So they would fly for about an hour, then land on the ground for a short break—repeating this pattern until, before they knew it, night had fallen.
The Set Basket was originally designed to carry around five people, so that was only natural.
Rei had expected they would be camping outdoors tonight, though, so he had come well prepared with food and alcohol.
The food was what Rei already had stored in his Misty Ring, and as for the alcohol—given that they were shutting people up in a cramped space—he had purchased a considerable quantity of highly praised brew to keep the woodcutters from getting surly.
Naturally, the cost of that alcohol was covered by the Guild and Gilm's upper administration.
And so the woodcutters were currently holding a banquet as if to blow off the frustration of being stuffed into the Set Basket all day.
If the Set Basket were a little bigger, I could bring even more people along.
Rei, who wasn't much for drinking, ate the food he had taken from his Misty Ring alongside Set as he mulled this over.
Of course, the Set Basket's capacity of five to six was only in the sense that everyone could relax comfortably without stress. Taking that into consideration, squeezing in ten woodcutters even if it was a bit tight shouldn't have been that unreasonable.
At the very least, it seemed considerably more comfortable than the packed commuter trains Rei had seen in the cities back in Japan.
That said, Rei was traveling on Set's back, so he had no need to suffer through such cramped conditions himself.
"Alright, then I'll go first!"
Among the woodcutters who had been drinking and making merry, one suddenly stood up and began to sing.
What surprised Rei was that the woodcutter's singing was by no means poor—no, it was actually quite good.
It was a song about a childhood friend who had gone missing in the mountains, and a woodcutter who set out into the dark peaks to search for them. Slaying monsters, defeating bandits, and finally finding a woman lost in the wilderness.
In the woman's hand was a flower—one that bloomed only on the night of a full moon, once every few years. She offered that flower, the kind used to confess one's love, to the woodcutter who had come to find her. And the woodcutter embraced the woman and confessed his love in return.
The woodcutter sang the ballad with a delicacy that belied his rough appearance, earning thunderous applause from the others who had been listening.
Rei applauded genuinely. The woodcutter's singing was—indeed—better than that of a mediocre bard. There was something about it that left no room for doubt on that point.
Wouldn't he earn more as a bard than as a woodcutter? Well, the fact that he's among the skilled woodcutters I was sent to gather probably means he's good at this job too.
Rei was mildly impressed by the unexpectedly versatile woodcutter.
Of course, being called versatile by someone like Rei would probably leave the woodcutter with mixed feelings.
From an outsider's perspective, Rei was an alias-holding High-Rank Adventurer, the only person known to have a Gryphon as a Tamed Monster, the possessor of an extremely rare Item Box, a wielder of various magics beyond fire—actually Death Scythe's skills, but still—and on top of all that, a first-rate warrior.
It would only be natural for the woodcutter to feel a bit conflicted about being praised as versatile by a man like that.
"Alright, then I'm next!"
Following the first woodcutter, another began to sing, though compared to the first, his skill was clearly rougher. Even so, seeing him sing with such heartfelt enthusiasm, everyone couldn't help but break into fond smiles.
The banquet carried on like this for about two hours before Rei finally spoke up.
"We've got an early start tomorrow, so it's about time to sleep. I brought some mantles with me, so use these as blankets. But even inside the Magic Tent, with this many people it's going to be pretty tight. Anyone who doesn't like that can sleep outside the tent near the campfire."
The Magic Tent Rei owned had a fair amount of space. But some people couldn't sleep with others nearby, or couldn't sleep with too many people around, so he figured he'd mention it just in case.
And sure enough, four people said they would rather sleep outside the Magic Tent—so Rei's consideration hadn't been misplaced.
Of course, the real reason those four opted to sleep outside was that they weren't sleepy yet and wanted to keep messing around outdoors for a while longer.
"Alright, Set. I'm counting on you to stand watch. Keep an eye on those four too."
"Gruu!"
Set let out a cry as if to say he understood.
The woodcutters had been afraid of Set at first, but after spending some time with him, they seemed to realize that he was by no means a frightening presence. At the very least, they understood that he had a friendly disposition so long as no one harmed him. While they hadn't completely let their guard down since it was only the first day, they had apparently come to trust him to some extent.
Set understood this as well, so he lay down at a slight distance from the woodcutters gathered around the campfire, keeping watch on the surroundings.
This area wasn't near Gilm or anything resembling the frontier, so fundamentally, there were no particularly strong monsters about.
Fundamentally—meaning that occasionally, oddly strong monsters did turn up.
In places outside the frontier, what mattered was—
"Oho, saw a light, so you folks were camping out here after all. Hey now, setting up camp in a place like this is dangerous, you know? Don't you need a bodyguard or something?"
What emerged from the surrounding bushes and said this was a man in his twenties.
To an outside observer, it might have sounded like a well-meaning warning.
"Grrrrrrrl."
Just as the man finished speaking, Set rose to his feet with a growl rumbling in his throat.
The man hadn't noticed Set's presence. Seeing the gryphon suddenly stand up, he froze.
"Grrrrrl!"
Set barked, and twenty Wind Arrows materialized around him.
Set's skill—Wind Arrow.
The arrows flew not toward the man who had appeared, but straight into the surrounding bushes.
"Uwah!"
"Wha—ow, ow!"
"Damn it, what the hell just happened!?"
"How should I know!? More importantly, that cry just now sounded bad! We're getting out of here!"
Voices rang out, followed by the sound of several people crashing through the underbrush as they fled the area.
The man who had first spoken to the woodcutters must have heard his companions scattering. He took off at full speed.
"...Bandits, maybe?"
"Gruu."
At the woodcutter's words, Set purred as if to say that's right and settled back down in his spot.
If Set had been alone, he might have actually pursued the fleeing bandits. But Rei had also tasked him with protecting the four woodcutters here. Even though there were no signs of anything but wildlife nearby, it was definitely better not to give chase.
"Wh-whoa? What was that just now?"
"Think those were bandits?"
"Huh? Seriously?"
The woodcutters, who had been able to do nothing but watch the entire episode unfold, muttered to one another in stunned disbelief. They understood what had happened, but hadn't fully grasped it.
It wasn't as if the villages and towns where the woodcutters lived had never suffered bandit attacks. In fact, in areas outside the frontier where monster-related incidents were minimal, banditry was actually the more common threat.
Even so, bandits rarely attacked entire villages. The overwhelming majority of victims were individuals or small groups traveling toward a settlement.
In that sense, woodcutters being targeted by bandits was extremely rare.
It was obvious when you thought about it. Most woodcutters, by the very nature of their work, were visibly muscular. The average bandits attacking them would very likely find themselves repelled. And yet, what could be gained from attacking woodcutters was pitifully little.
Merchants carried money and goods, but all that could be had from raiding woodcutters was... axes and other tools, at best. If someone had the muscle for it, they could be sold as illegal slaves, but even so, the payoff as prey was remarkably slim.
Given all that, it was only natural that woodcutters were rarely targeted.
At the very least, that was how things worked where these woodcutters lived.
"What do you think they were planning to do, attacking us? And... from the looks of it, the number of ones that fled after Set's attack seemed pretty large."
One woodcutter muttered this while glancing nervously toward Set, and the others chimed in.
"Setting us aside, Rei's got Magic Items, so it wouldn't be surprising if he was the target. ...Though I can't imagine ordinary bandits being able to do anything to Rei."
"Yeah... well, if they'd seen what he can do."
The woodcutter said this, recalling the time he had arm-wrestled Rei during dinner.
He had known Rei was an alias-holding adventurer, but appearances were still appearances. Among everyone here, based on looks alone, Rei was the least imposing of the bunch.
So they had tried arm-wrestling him. Naturally, every single one of them had lost without effort. Even when two or three of them had challenged Rei at once, they hadn't been able to beat him.
That said, understanding that was only possible because they had experienced a fraction of Rei's strength firsthand. The bandits wouldn't have had that context.
"Well, considering they came at this hour, looks had nothing to do with it. They probably just saw the campfire and came for us."
"Probably. Otherwise they wouldn't have gone after Rei, the guy they call the Bandit Eater."
"...Bandit Eater? What's that?"
"Hm? You don't know? Unlike the Crimson alias, the bandits supposedly call Rei that and fear him, on account of his habit of hunting them down."
"Hunting bandits... well, I guess for an adventurer it wouldn't be that unusual, but..."
For the woodcutters, encountering bandits and fighting them off was something they could wrap their heads around. Going out of one's way to hunt bandits down, though—that was something they couldn't begin to understand.
Even so, since Rei was actually doing it, they had no complaints.
Bandits were nothing but a menace to ordinary folks trying to live their lives. As such, the existence of someone like Rei who actively went after them was something everyday people should welcome, not resent.
Though they did wish he'd prioritize the bandits lurking around their own villages first.
"Anyway... thanks, Set. You really saved us."
"Gruu?"
One of the woodcutters called out to Set, who was lying down a short distance away.
It was precisely because Set had been at that distance that the bandits hadn't noticed his presence.
"We didn't sense them approaching, and we didn't even realize we were about to be surrounded. If Set hadn't been here, we'd definitely have been hit. At best, we'd have wound up as slaves. At worst, we'd be dead. The only reason that didn't happen is because of Set, right?"
"Gruu."
Set purred as if to say that's right, nodding in acknowledgment.
No matter how physically demanding their daily work was, and no matter how much stronger they were than the average person, the woodcutters were still ordinary people at the end of the day. They might hold their own in a brawl, but seriously fighting—and winning—against bandits who were seasoned in combat and ambushes was not impossible, but undeniably very difficult.
Given that, even if they had felt intimidated by Set, he had saved their lives. Expressing gratitude was simply the right thing to do.
Seeing that woodcutter's attitude, the others followed suit, offering words of thanks to Set one after another.
Set hadn't helped them expecting gratitude. He had simply done what Rei asked of him. But even so, being thanked naturally made him happy.
And so, though not completely, Set had succeeded in bonding with at least some of the woodcutters—a development that would surprise even the other woodcutters who emerged from the Magic Tent the next morning, and Rei himself.