After hearing the situation from Ara—namely, that the people at Marina's house had come to get close to Rei, now that he was an A-Rank Adventurer—Rei decided he wanted none of that trouble. He gathered all the food on the table and headed out into the town with Set.
"Gurururu."
Set purred happily as he ate a steamed Orc dish topped with a sweet and savory sauce, sandwiched between bread—something not unlike a teriyaki sandwich.
Rei too, watching Set's contented behavior, brought the teriyaki sandwich to his mouth.
...They had eaten a meal before leaving Marina's house, but even so, he apparently still had enough appetite to eat a teriyaki sandwich right away.
Perhaps because a night had passed since his return, Rei wasn't drawing as many stares as he had yesterday. Even so...
"Hey, did you hear? They're throwing a festival."
"So it seems. But what kind of festival?"
"Who knows? I have no idea, but if it's a festival, we'll get alcohol and food too, right?"
"You... that's all you're after?"
"Yeah, yeah, it won't just be alcohol and food, right? At a festival, women naturally get in an open mood. And then what happens? You can hit on as many pretty women as you want!"
"Ugh, men."
"You say that, but you're planning to make a move on your crush too, aren't you?"
"Of course! It's a festival. I'm not stupid enough to miss an opportunity like that!"
Such exchanges reached Rei's ears as he walked down the street.
That's right—this morning Daskar had made an announcement about the festival, and the people of Gilm had accepted it with surprise but also delight.
With the temperature still at the peak of summer day after day, a festival was something to look forward to as a way to blow off that heat.
Or perhaps, as Rei had just overheard, there were those fired up thinking, "This summer, I'll get a sweetheart!" while others simply wanted to enjoy a fleeting summer romance.
(This is like that thing, isn't it? When events like festivals, school trips, or Christmas get close, a lot of couples form, but then break up soon after the event ends.)
That wasn't Rei's personal experience, but rather knowledge he had gained from anime, manga, and games.
Though some stories from his classmates were mixed in as well.
"Well, if I'm not drawing attention like this, it's not a bad thing for me."
"Gurururu."
Set purred as if agreeing with Rei's words.
For Set, receiving attention from others was something he was used to, but even for him, yesterday's incident had probably given him quite a bit to think about.
Thus Rei made his way through the bustling streets, animated by news of the festival, and arrived at the Guild.
"Alright, Set. I'm going to head in for a bit, so wait here for me."
"Guruu."
Leaving Set, who purred to indicate he understood, in front of the Guild, Rei headed not toward the Guild building itself, but toward the Guild warehouse.
The Guild warehouse didn't require entering the Guild building to reach. That was only natural. If you had to go through the interior, what would happen to monster carcasses hauled in by cart?
For Rei, who had his Misty Ring, there was no need to worry about such things, but ordinary adventurers couldn't easily manage that.
That was precisely why the warehouse was accessible from the outside as a matter of course.
...That said, the Guild was currently busy with the Expansion Construction and generally wasn't accepting dissection requests.
The exception was Rei, who had brought in the corpses of A-Rank Monsters and an S-Rank Monster.
Given the situation, the area around the warehouse was quiet.
"If there weren't soundproofing or something like that, it might actually be loud."
The first dissection Rei had requested was for the Dark World Tree.
Being an A-Rank Monster and an unknown species at that, the Guild Staff Members entrusted with the dissection should have been working on it desperately.
However, the Dark World Tree was mostly in a tree state, with some parts turned to charcoal and ash by Rei's magic.
Thinking about it, while the dissection work itself might be demanding, judging the quality of the materials probably wouldn't be all that difficult—or so Rei predicted.
(The question is how much of the materials to sell. Being a tree, it seems like it'd be useful for a lot of things.)
The branches could be used to make staves, and beyond that, they could likely be adapted into weapons like arrows and clubs.
It also seemed like they could be used as ingredients for medicine or as materials for Magic Items.
Thinking about the Dark World Tree, Rei pressed on and eventually arrived at his destination: the warehouse.
Several adventurers stood guard in front of it.
Given what was being dissected inside, such guards were naturally necessary.
The fairly skilled—probably B-Rank Adventurers—initially directed sharp glances at Rei as he approached, but once they recognized him, the edge left their eyes.
They had likely been told whose defeated monster was currently being dissected in the warehouse.
These guarding adventurers were there to ensure that the materials and Magic Stones from the monsters Rei had killed weren't stolen by anyone.
Naturally, being entrusted with such a task by the Guild meant these adventurers were undoubtedly highly trusted.
Rei trusted the Guild's practices in this regard, so he had no particular complaints about the arrangement.
"How are things going with the dissection?"
"It's quiet."
"...Quiet?"
The adventurer's words were enough to make Rei question this.
He had assumed that, given it was the dissection of an A-Rank Monster, the Guild Staff Members inside would be making a racket.
"Yeah. ...So, what'll it be? Are you going inside? They said it's fine to let you in, so no problem there."
"Of course."
Currently in the warehouse was only the Dark World Tree.
All the other A-Rank Monsters and the Crystal Dragon were stored in Rei's Misty Ring.
Given that, even if they wanted to start another dissection right now, there was nothing to work on.
"Alright then, keep up the good work guarding."
With that, Rei entered the warehouse.
"Oh."
He let out a sound of surprise upon seeing the interior.
The Dark World Tree, now reduced to its material components, was laid out there.
The areas that hadn't burned completely and had turned to charcoal were bundled together as charcoal, and all the branches had been cut and similarly bundled.
The main body of the tree—the part that could be called the trunk—lay in the warehouse without having been cut or otherwise modified.
Considering the situation, the dissection itself had probably been straightforward... and at the same time, Rei understood the words of the adventurers guarding outside.
Of course, the Dark World Tree was quite large, so dissecting it would have taken a fair amount of time.
But still, the tentacle—no, the vine portions had all burned away, leaving only the wooden parts.
When dissecting that kind of monster, it wouldn't take all that much effort.
(I see. The dissection itself is done, and they were probably noisy while analyzing the monster. Then either that settled down, or maybe they got sleepy, but either way that's why it was quiet.)
Having understood this, Rei looked around the warehouse again and noticed the figures of Guild Staff Members sleeping on the floor, covered with blankets, in a corner.
Even from a distance, they looked thoroughly satisfied in their sleep, which suggested the discussion had run its course.
In that case, Rei hesitated over whether he should wake the sleeping Guild Staff Members.
That said, having come all this way, if he were to leave without depositing the Queen Bee's corpse—which was next in line for dissection after the Dark World Tree—the Guild Staff Members would surely be angry once they woke up.
"Right. I guess I do need to wake them."
Reaching that conclusion, Rei headed toward the Guild Staff Members sleeping on the floor.
The man in his fifties who was called Foreman was also sleeping on the floor alongside the others.
Seeing the situation, Rei wondered if it was really all right.
Though he had a sturdy build, the Foreman was already in his fifties.
A human couldn't fight against age.
For a man like the Foreman to sleep directly on the floor like this could well affect his health.
It was only natural for Rei to think so.
If his health deteriorated, it would also affect the dissection of monsters.
The Vampire required no dissection, and the Dark World Tree's dissection was also finished.
But the Queen Bee, the Chimera, the Giant Wolf... and, although the dissection would come after the festival, the Crystal Dragon still remained.
The Foreman and his team needed to be in good shape to do their work properly.
For that reason, Rei felt apologetic about waking them from their sleep, but he approached the sleeping Foreman and his team while deliberately making noise with his footsteps.
The Foreman must have heard Rei's footsteps.
He reacted immediately, sitting up.
That reaction was more fitting of an adventurer—no, a High-Rank Adventurer—than a Guild Staff Member.
(I knew it.)
Rei was certain his assumption—that the Foreman was a former adventurer, and not just any adventurer but a High-Rank Adventurer—was correct, though he wasn't particularly surprised.
Originally, there were three broad paths to becoming a Guild Staff Member.
The first was to simply take an exam and pass.
People like Lenora and Kenny fell into this category.
The second was to show up with a letter of recommendation attesting to being an outstanding candidate and be hired as a Guild Staff Member.
This type further split into those who were genuinely exceptional individuals, and sons of nobles or major merchants who leveraged their connections.
And the last was those who had been active as adventurers but could no longer push themselves due to age, or who could no longer work as adventurers due to injuries or various other circumstances, yet were judged by the Guild as excellent personnel and taken on as Guild Staff Members.
Being former adventurers, they knew the field well and had their moments when problems arose.
For the adventurers' part, the work of an adventurer wasn't something that could be continued for very long, so being able to be employed as a Guild Staff Member at such a time was very reassuring.
...Of course, not just anyone could do this; one needed the appropriate ability and a trustworthy character, or the Guild wouldn't reach out to them.
And the man called Foreman was without a doubt someone who had gone from adventurer to Guild Staff Member.
"Hey, Rei. ...You're pretty late."
"I overslept a bit."
He had just returned from the Forest of Magic and had spent late into the night explaining to Elena and the others about the forest.
After that, he had slept soundly, so sleeping until nearly noon was unavoidable—or so was Rei's excuse.
The Foreman probably sensed the circumstances from Rei's demeanor.
He didn't press the matter any further.
For one thing, they themselves had been awake until recently, examining the Dark World Tree in various ways.
If Rei had come during that time, they would likely have been too absorbed in that to deal with him.
In that sense, he had arrived at just the right time.
"I see. Well, that's fine. Better than showing up in the middle of a dissection. So... I'll explain for the record: the materials lined up over there are from the Dark World Tree."
"Yeah, I checked. ...The Magic Stone?"
"Hm? The Magic Stone is being analyzed by specialists on the Guild's side, separate from us. Or rather, wasn't that the arrangement you had with the Guild Master?"
"Was it? I remember promising about the Crystal Dragon's Magic Stone, but... no, come to think of it, they did say something about that after extracting the Crystal Dragon's Magic Stone."
Rei had intended to acquire a skill using the Magic Stone as soon as he received the Dark World Tree's Magic Stone.
The fact that he had completely forgotten his arrangement with Worker was probably because, after all was said and done, he had simply been exhausted yesterday.
"Right? So, what are you doing with those materials? Taking all of them?"
"No, just half is fine. The Guild has a lot of expenses, right?"
"Figured as much. Though handling these materials will be a job in itself."
After all, the Dark World Tree was a new species.
...To Rei, since the Vampire had raised it as an experimental subject, he had the impression of it being a cultivated monster.
Regardless, being a monster that hadn't existed before, there was no information on what each material could be used for, and they would have to start by analyzing that aspect. In that sense, it would certainly fetch a high price if sold, but preparing for that would take considerable effort.
As for whether the Guild had that kind of leeway right now, that was a difficult question.