The stall owner who received Rei's advice about curry udon looked surprised, as if to say, "I didn't think of that!"
From Rei's perspective, curry udon was already a dish he knew. The udon sold in Gilm came with various soups, so he didn't find the concept all that surprising.
Regardless, the stall owner was grateful for the advice, and Rei looked forward to the possibility of trying curry udon (provisional name) someday. In that sense, it was a mutually beneficial exchange.
Satisfied with the curry-like soup, Rei headed toward the Guild.
"Whoa..."
Naturally, once evening rolled around, adventurers who had finished work for the day flocked to the Guild, making it crowded.
After using the bull's magic stone, Rei and Set had played together before returning to Gilm slightly before evening.
If they had gone straight to the Guild, it might have been somewhat crowded with people who had finished work early, but it still would have been before the peak hours.
Instead, after entering Gilm, Rei had been drawn in by the curry-like fragrance of intricately blended spices. He had waited in line for the soup, waited again to buy a decent amount in bulk, and discussed curry udon with the owner.
All of that had eaten up enough time that what was previously late afternoon had turned into full evening.
At the Guild, many people couldn't even fit inside and were waiting outdoors.
Among them were some who were irritated that they'd finished work and wanted to head to a tavern but had to wait outside the Guild like this. Others had apparently anticipated the crowd from the start—some had bought alcohol on their way and were already having a light drink.
Seeing this, I really don't want to come to the Guild when it's this packed.
The Guild was making various efforts to manage, for what it was worth. For example, workers at the expansion construction site were now paid directly by the site manager on duty.
Despite these measures, this many people still flocked to the Guild.
It was proof of just how many people were currently gathered in Gilm.
Rei couldn't help thinking it might be better to set up a temporary branch office in a larger space and redirect people there. Naturally, the Guild had already considered and rejected this idea due to various issues with facilities, resources, and documentation.
Accepting that this situation would likely continue every day for the foreseeable future, Rei left Set in his usual spot, bypassed the line, and headed for the warehouse.
Being able to reach the warehouse without going through the Guild proper was something he deeply appreciated at times like this.
As he approached the warehouse, he found different adventurers standing guard than the ones from his midday visit.
They shot him sharp glances at first, but quickly recognized who was approaching and softened their expressions.
Rei reflected that it had been the same during the day. Still, with A-Rank monster dissection underway inside, he felt more at ease with strict security in place.
Of course, security this tight would inevitably draw suspicion. People would start questioning what was going on inside that warehouse.
"Thanks for the hard work."
As a token of gratitude, Rei pulled sandwiches from his Misty Ring and handed them to the adventurers.
"If you get hungry, have these."
"Oh, much appreciated. That really helps," one adventurer said, immediately bringing the sandwich to his mouth.
A few others accepted theirs but didn't eat right away—whether they weren't hungry yet or simply planned to save them for later.
Figuring that varied from person to person, Rei stepped inside the warehouse.
The scene inside was the same as his daytime visit. The guild staff members, including the Foreman, were asleep in a corner of the warehouse.
The only difference was that the number of people had grown somewhat.
They probably brought in reinforcements because they were short-handed. ...I hope things aren't getting too busy on the Guild's end.
Just gathering this many guild staff members here had undoubtedly reduced the workforce by that amount, and the Guild side must have been feeling the strain.
Since these were guild staff members whose primary job was dissection, the actual work was probably less than what clerical staff dealt with. But even so, they were still an important workforce for the Guild in its current state.
Having even more staff pulled away on top of that must have been a significant blow.
Or maybe they weren't called in because of a shortage. Maybe they were just envious of the Foreman and the others getting to dissect A-Rank monsters and came on their own.
Whatever the reason, having more people with dissection skills wasn't a bad thing for Rei either.
Even with the Queen Bee dissection finished, there was still the Chimera and the Giant Wolf remaining—and above all, the Crystal Dragon was still waiting.
Regarding the Crystal Dragon, though, if the Guild took too long with the dissection, exactly the kind of people who would think up shady ideas might come sniffing around.
No, depending on the circumstances, even the adventurers hired as guards might get ideas of their own.
An S-Rank monster—and a new species of dragon at that. It was perfectly plausible for someone to be tempted into doing something foolish, no matter the danger.
"Foreman, you awake?"
"...Yeah."
Whether in response to Rei's words or not, a voice drifted from the direction of the sleeping guild staff members. The Foreman stood up and made his way over to Rei, lightly kicking a few of the sleepers along the way to rouse them.
"A nap... it's already evening, but the fact that you were all sleeping like that means the Queen Bee dissection is finished, right?"
Rei asked the question, but when he had brought out the Queen Bee earlier, he had been told they were fairly accustomed to dissecting bee-type monsters, so he hadn't been worried.
The Foreman nodded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Finished sorting the materials too. There was nothing left to do, so we were resting up for the next dissection. ...Can't leave the warehouse right now, after all."
Rei offered his gratitude to the Foreman, who nodded as though this were perfectly natural.
"I see. Sounds like I've been causing you all quite a bit of trouble. Sorry about that."
"Don't worry about it. We're here doing the dissection fully aware of that. ...Better to dissect monsters in this warehouse than do unfamiliar clerical work back at the Guild."
As they talked, Rei and the Foreman made their way over to where the Queen Bee's materials were laid out.
"So these materials—half goes to the Guild, right?"
Rei nodded at the Foreman's words.
In the Queen Bee's case, there was no meat. Well, it wasn't that there was none at all, but the edible portions were few, and Rei wasn't particularly enthusiastic about it.
Even in Japan, depending on the region, there were stories of people eating hornets and their larvae. Unfortunately, in the area where Rei had lived, such practices hadn't existed.
Of course, Rei didn't know the dietary habits of everyone he had lived with, so there may have been some who did eat hornets and their larvae.
Would Set eat this Queen Bee, I wonder?
He mulled this over as they worked out how to divide the materials.
Among the Queen Bee's materials, the most valuable was the venom stinger.
There were other seemingly valuable parts—the wings, the beak, some internal organs—but fundamentally, when it came to bee-type monsters, the most expensive material was always the venom stinger.
Moreover, this Queen Bee was an A-Rank monster and a new species. Given that, with no way of knowing what each material could be used for, it was only natural that Rei wanted to secure as many materials as possible beyond just the venom stinger.
After going back and forth with the Foreman, the deal was ultimately settled with Rei taking the larger share.
The ones who performed the dissection were the Foreman and the other guild staff members, but the one who had slain the monster was Rei, and naturally, the ownership of the corpse belonged to him.
Position-wise, Rei inevitably held the stronger hand.
...That said, the Guild also wanted as much as possible, dealing as they were with an unknown monster.
Rei understood this, which was exactly why he had gone along with Worker's arrangement and temporarily entrusted the magic stone to them.
"Well then, that wraps up the Queen Bee. ...Shame there's no magic stone, but that can't be helped. I wish you could have brought this one's magic stone."
"Even if you say that, honestly, given the Queen Bee's strength, I never imagined it was an A-Rank monster. Besides, you took some of the materials with you, so you can investigate those, right?"
"True enough, but a monster's magic stone holds a great deal of information. There are some things that can only be learned from examining the magic stone itself."
"Then why doesn't the Guild go to the Forest of Magic and slay one? ...I suppose that's impossible."
"Of course it is. They don't have the resources for anything like that, and above all, permission to approach the Forest of Magic would never be granted."
While continuing the conversation, Rei received a claim receipt from the Foreman and stored the Queen Bee's materials in his Misty Ring.
"I'm so jealous..." one guild staff member murmured.
He hadn't been here when Rei came around midday, so he was likely part of the reinforcement team brought in after Rei had entrusted the Queen Bee to them.
I can understand the feeling, though.
With a Misty Ring, dissection work became considerably more convenient. Store something inside, and it wouldn't rot even as time passed. Processed materials naturally took up space when set aside, too.
Right now, since Rei was the only one using this warehouse, space wasn't a problem. But if a large number of monsters were brought in, they'd quickly run out of room for the materials.
With a Misty Ring, they could simply store the stripped materials inside—extremely convenient.
Then there were the parts that were neither useful materials nor edible—the waste that could only be discarded. Dealing with that waste was surprisingly troublesome for the Guild. But with a Misty Ring, storage was no issue, and if leaving it inside bothered anyone, they could simply take the ring somewhere else and dump or burn the contents.
Thinking about it that way, Rei could understand why the guild staff members envied the Misty Ring.
The reason Rei didn't show any displeasure was that they wanted it purely as a professional tool—to do their dissection work more efficiently, or so he understood.
If they had directed greedy, materialistic stares at him, thinking they could sell it and get rich, Rei would have felt uncomfortable.
Well, is wanting something because you'd use it for work also a form of greed? Even so, it doesn't feel obnoxious, so I don't mind.
With that thought, Rei turned his gaze to the Foreman.
"Right then, the Queen Bee's materials are settled... next up is the Chimera."
"Yeah. It's fairly large, and considering the time, bring the Giant Wolf tomorrow. The Chimera is the last one for today."
"Got it. The rest can wait till tomorrow. ...Anyway, I'll bring the Chimera out now."
Saying that, Rei moved a short distance away from the guild staff members and retrieved the Chimera from his Misty Ring.
"Whoa!"
Seeing the Chimera pulled from the Misty Ring, the newly added guild staff members let out cries of surprise.
The staff members who had been involved with Rei's monster dissection from the start had seen it once yesterday, so they weren't as startled as the newcomers.
Even so, seeing it a second time still brought a certain degree of shock.
"This one's going to need special tools for dissection. Worth saving it for last," the Foreman murmured, gazing at the Chimera with genuine feeling.
In truth, fighting the Chimera had been quite a struggle. Thinking back on it, the monsters up until now might have been, in a sense, just the opening act.
"Do your best. ...Oh, and eat these whenever you get hungry."
With that, Rei pulled out sandwiches, cheese, ham, fruit, and the like from his Misty Ring, and then left the warehouse.