"Thank you very much."
The Slave Trader bowed deeply to Rei and his group.
From the trader's perspective, the gratitude was only natural—he had been able to purchase slaves at a bargain price.
Moreover, there was considerable demand for such slaves, whether for working them in mines or using them as meat shields on the battlefield.
"Don't worry about it. We sold them for more than we expected, and the treasure the bandits had was decent too. Plus, we got the five bags of flour as promised," Rei replied.
Few of the bandits Rei's group had defeated had sustained fatal injuries.
However, "few" did not mean "none."
For instance, the first bandit Rei had struck and sent flying with the Death Scythe had shattered ribs as expected, the fragments piercing his internal organs.
In the end, potions had to be used on those individuals.
However, since the injuries were internal, healing them required having the patients drink the potions rather than simply pouring them on the wounds. The result was that those who drank them thrashed about violently due to the terrible taste.
At any rate, the use of potions did lead to a slight discount, but since the acquisition cost for criminal slaves was originally zero, even a reduced price posed no problem.
Rei would have been unhappy with an blatantly excessive markdown, but the slave traders didn't attempt anything of the sort.
They no doubt reasoned that if they did, Rei would simply sell to a different trader.
And that was an indisputable fact.
Additionally, after interrogating the bandits and extracting the location of their hideout, the treasure found there amounted to a sum Rei found reasonably satisfying. There was also a fair amount of weapons and armor, making it a not-inconsiderable income for him.
Consequently, having confiscated the bandits' treasure and completed a transaction that left both sides satisfied, Rei now stood outside the city, seen off by the slave traders, guards, and townsfolk.
"Grrruuu!"
With Rei on his back, Set took a few running steps, flapped his wings, and soared into the sky.
Those left behind directed puzzled looks at Vihera, who for some reason had been left behind by Set.
It was a look that asked: what on earth was she going to do?
But before anyone could voice their confusion, the airborne Set dove toward the ground...
"Well then, around here is fine."
Vihera spoke briefly, leapt upward, and grabbed onto Set's front legs as he descended to a lower altitude.
Even with Vihera clinging to his legs, Set didn't lose his balance. He simply gained altitude once more.
"Adventurers really are amazing."
Someone among those seeing them off muttered this, but a nearby adventurer desperately insisted on not being lumped in with them.
"So, Rei. What's the plan? We've got the potions we came for, so should we head back to Gilm soon?"
"Yeah, I guess so. I would've liked to look around a bit more, but there weren't any particularly good Magic Items anyway."
They had visited several shops to purchase potions, but none of the Magic Items on offer were anything Rei wanted.
There were a few mildly interesting ones, but not enough to justify spending his own money on them.
Since that was all the shops had to offer, it was a bit disappointing given the rare opportunity of being outside Gilm—he would have liked to pick up at least a few Magic Items.
"But Magic Items that you'd actually want are hard to come by, you know? You'd have to search somewhere like Gilm out on the frontier, or a place that draws large crowds like the Royal Capital."
Put that way, Rei couldn't argue.
After all, the primary purpose of this trip—though it looked like it would be a day trip—was to buy potions.
Having accomplished that main objective, any further detours risked making him late for the Promotion Exam.
Since he didn't have any specific Magic Item he wanted, he judged it better to just return to Gilm quietly rather than go out of his way to visit another city. He called down to Vihera.
"Right. Let's head back to Gilm, then. Once we're in Gilm, there'll be plenty of other things to take care of. And you have work too, Vihera."
"Oh my, are you worrying about me?"
Vihera looked pleased, but Rei couldn't tell whether she was happy about his words or simply excited at the prospect of going to the Treant Forest with Byune and Nielson.
Then again, either way struck him as very much in character for Vihera.
"That's definitely true. ...Set, let's head for Gilm. We just need to follow the route we came, so no problem, right?"
"Gruu!"
At Rei's words, Set purred happily and flapped his wings.
"...We're here, aren't we."
As Gilm came into view, Vihera murmured, weariness creeping into her voice.
Noting her state, Rei felt a twinge of guilt and spoke with a slightly apologetic tone.
"Yeah. We made it back safely."
"...The Promotion Exam is tomorrow, you know."
At Vihera's resentful murmur, Rei averted his gaze, fully aware that she was still clinging to Set's front legs.
It had been three days since restocking potions and setting out to return to Gilm.
They had gone to buy potions the day after being told the Promotion Exam in the Forest of Magic would take place in five days. Counting from when he had seen Worker at the Guild, today was the fourth day.
In other words, the Promotion Exam began tomorrow.
"Ah... well. Hey, we made it back in time, right? There was the bandit group attacking the village, the Beastman unit targeting them, the Elf's revenge quest—a lot happened, but we arrived safely, so it's fine, isn't it?"
All of those were incidents Rei's group had been caught up in over the past three days.
Originally, they had planned to restock on potions and return straight to Gilm, but after rescuing merchants attacked by bandits along the way, trouble had come at them one after another.
Enough trouble, in fact, that just these three days alone could probably fill several books' worth.
Nevertheless, Rei's group had forcibly—by sheer force—dealt with each problem as it arose and safely reached Gilm.
"I knew you had a tendency to get dragged into trouble, but this was beyond what I expected."
Vihera murmured with feeling.
As someone who was well aware of his reputation as a troublemaker, Rei couldn't argue with her words.
...It would have been nice if all those troubles had at least resulted in acquiring some special Magic Item, but the only thing that had increased was their potion stock.
(Well, the treasure we took from the bandits increased too, I suppose.)
Between encountering bandits several times one way or another, the accumulated treasure had grown to a fairly substantial amount.
In that sense, the past three days were by no means meaningless... but still, it wasn't what he should have been doing with the Promotion Exam—and a Promotion Exam to A-Rank, no less—only days away.
(Well, putting myself aside, even one fewer person suffering at the hands of bandits is a good thing. I did my part. Yeah, I did my best.)
He thought to himself, half forcing the reasoning into his own mind.
"Alright, let's head to Gilm for now. Elena and the others are probably worried."
For his part, Rei had been using the Paired Orbs to converse with Elena at night.
But even so, it was only natural that Elena and the others would want to see Rei in person.
Most importantly, tomorrow was the day of the Promotion Exam.
Elena and Marina had repeatedly told him yesterday to make absolutely sure he returned today without being late.
Being able to keep that promise was, for Rei, a satisfactory outcome in itself.
"Alright, Set. Take us there."
"Gruu!"
Set purred in acknowledgment and headed toward Gilm.
As they proceeded in the usual manner—though, due to the Expansion Construction, the line to enter the city was even longer than usual—Set began descending toward the ground.
Before long, the people lined up in front of Gilm noticed the descending Set, and a commotion arose.
Then again, it was business as usual for someone to be startled by Set.
Continuing the descent until close to the ground, Vihera, who was still clinging to Set's front legs, released her grip and landed on the ground.
"Ooooohhh!"
At the sheer smoothness of that maneuver, everyone watching raised voices of astonishment and broke into applause.
Part of the reason she drew such admiration was the beauty of the landing itself, but Vihera's thin, gauze-like clothing likely made her appear almost celestial—a heavenly figure descending from the sky.
In truth, the sight had been like a kind of artistic performance.
While Vihera basked in the applause, Set descended in turn.
Those seeing Set for the first time were startled, but among the people who had visited Gilm before, many had already seen him at least once.
Even so, the majority were still surprised, likely because unlike in Gilm where Set walked on the ground, here he had been flying through the sky.
Walking on the ground was one thing, but a creature like Set flying through the air possessed undeniable presence.
"Set!? And Rei, haven't seen you for the past few days—where did you go? And that beauty over there, I don't recognize her face either."
Among those in line, someone who recognized Rei's face snapped back to his senses and asked with a surprised expression.
The fact that he was already asking about Vihera made it clear that the questioner was a man.
He knew Rei but not Vihera.
He might have seen her face at some point, but he didn't know her name.
Rei hesitated over how to respond to this person, but before he could open his mouth, a guard approached.
"Rei! You're late! Where have you been!?"
"I mean, just a little..."
"Rei's hobby of bandit hunting."
As if cutting off Rei's words, Vihera supplied that answer.
Rei gave Vihera a questioning look.
It was true that they had been hunting bandits this time.
But their primary objective had been to purchase potions, so why?
Meeting Rei's gaze, Vihera shot him a brief glance that clearly said: keep quiet about it.
Don't mention that Gilm is running low on potions.
If Rei were to mention right here that Gilm was short on potions, the merchants among those listening would undoubtedly stock up in bulk the next time they came to Gilm.
That wasn't necessarily a bad thing—not at all—but the merchants who had already gathered information on their own and concluded that there was a shortage would presumably be procuring potions already.
For the merchants who lacked such resourcefulness and would rely solely on Rei's words spoken here to stock up, Vihera had likely judged the situation to be dangerous for various reasons.
Whether she thought that merchants who bought potions would be stuck unable to sell them if Gilm already had plenty by their next visit, or whether she was trying not to interfere with the merchants who were currently in the process of procuring potions—Rei couldn't tell.
"Yeah, that's right. I heard a rumor that the number of bandits was on the rise in a certain area," Rei said, following Vihera's silent instruction for the time being.
Not that the words were a lie by any means.
Thanks to Rei's actions this trip, a considerable number of bandits had either died or been sold to slave traders as criminal slaves.
"Bandit hunting? ...Well, fine. Lord Daskar was concerned about your absence, you know. Go show your face at the Lord's Manor."
Rei hesitated briefly over what to do, then nodded.
From Daskar's perspective, just as the A-Rank Promotion Exam had been arranged, the man in question had suddenly vanished from Gilm.
It wouldn't have been strange at all for Daskar to wonder if Rei had fled to avoid taking the exam.
And since Daskar had been the one to urge Rei to take the exam in the first place, it was only natural for him to be concerned about Rei's disappearance.
"Right, got it. I'll go show my face at the Lord's Manor. ...If Lord Daskar isn't too busy, he'll see me."
At Rei's words, the guard could only direct a look of exasperation at him.