"Thank you very much!"
Rei left the shop as the clerk bowed deeply.
When he had checked with Laurie, the Guild was indeed too busy to accept dissection work as a general rule right now, which meant the Laurie Dissection Shop was also busier than usual.
Even so, while the Laurie Dissection Shop's craftsmen were highly skilled, their fees were also high, so they weren't as swamped as the more affordable shops.
According to what Rei heard from Laurie, shops that kept their fees low and made their money on volume were so busy they barely had a moment to rest.
In particular, the craftsmen those shops employed were barely better than amateurs — or rather, they were even hiring adventurers experienced in dissection to work as dissection craftsmen.
From Rei's perspective, he thought that rather than being hired by such shops, those adventurers should actively take on dissection requests themselves — but there were reasons on the receiving end too.
Specifically, the advantage of not having to find clients themselves.
Even if they went to the Guild and offered to accept dissection requests, work wouldn't come that easily.
After all, if the person posting the request was a well-known figure whose character was somewhat understood, that was one thing, but if they weren't particularly famous, there was the question of whether they could be trusted.
But if they were hired by a dissection shop, the pay might not be much, but they would never run short of work.
(Well then, they could just work as temporary dissectors as adventurers... no, dissecting monsters requires a large space to begin with. Thinking about it, it's probably hard to set that up right away. Even if they tried something like that outside Gilm, the smell of blood could end up attracting monsters and animals.)
At any rate, that was why the Laurie Dissection Shop, while not as busy as other dissection shops, was still busy, and in the end, they told him they could dissect about forty monsters.
Of course, even saying forty, monsters came in all shapes and sizes.
Counting a monster the size of a house and a small monster like a Goblin as the same one creature would be wrong in many ways.
In the end, Rei went back to the Underground Warehouse with Laurie, brought out various monsters he had defeated in the Forest of Magic, and entrusted them with the dissection of forty monsters.
"Grrrrl."
Set had been waiting near the Laurie Dissection Shop multiple times as Rei passed by, and at first he looked a little disappointed — but when Rei showed him the beef from the dissection, his mood immediately improved.
That was how strongly the memory of how delicious the beef was remained for Set.
(Since spices are available, I'd love to somehow make curry. Well, there's no rice or anything similar, so even if I could make curry, I'd have it with bread... or was it naan? Either way, I definitely want to eat beef curry. Or maybe hayashi rice. But since there's no rice, instead of rice... hayashi? No, hayashi sauce.)
Since there was no rice, even if he made hayashi sauce, Rei probably wouldn't be satisfied.
In Rei's mind, hayashi was always paired with rice.
Or else, using leftover hayashi sauce the next day as a pasta sauce.
(Pasta... it doesn't exist in this world. Well, maybe it exists somewhere.)
When it came to ingredients similar to pasta, the only thing Rei knew was udon.
Honestly, Rei didn't understand the difference between pasta and udon.
No, he understood they were different as dishes, but his only impression was that both pasta and udon were made from wheat flour, salt, and water.
In that sense, Chinese noodles were similar, but Rei vaguely remembered reading in a cooking manga or somewhere that Chinese noodles used eggs.
In reality, there was a major difference: pasta used bread flour among wheat flours, while udon used all-purpose flour.
Also, the strong flour used for pasta was mostly durum wheat, milled coarse into durum semolina flour.
That said, Rei didn't know about those details.
(With curry, there's the option of curry udon, but hayashi sauce with udon... well, maybe it'd be surprisingly tasty if I tried it.)
Thinking such thoughts, Rei headed toward the Noble District with Set.
Thanks to everything he had been doing inside the Laurie Dissection Shop, the busiest peak time of the evening had already passed.
The setting sun was already more than halfway down, and a fair number of drunkards had appeared throughout the city.
Everyone was relieved that today's work had ended safely, and they were surely recharging their energy for tomorrow's work.
Rei understood that too, but drunkards mostly lost their self-control — or had it loosened — and it was troublesome that several of them tried to accost Rei and Set.
It was still only just turning to night, so no one was deeply drunk yet, but as more time passed, those who drank heavily would surely start appearing.
Rather than being accosted by such people, Rei wanted to get back to Marina's house quickly.
...And yet, there were also shops and stalls that began operating once night fell.
Those shops would undoubtedly serve delicious food, so Rei was interested in them too... but he suppressed that desire and headed for Marina's house.
The beef dissected at the Laurie Dissection Shop.
Naturally, he wanted to grill and eat this meat.
"Gruu..."
As they walked through the city, the scent of appetizing aromas drifted their way.
Catching those scents, Set also endured, wanting to eat the beef just like Rei.
"Hey, you! You bump into me and you don't even apologize?!"
"Don't screw with me! You're the one who bumped into me!"
As they walked toward the Noble District, such voices reached them.
That said, considering it was night, this kind of brawl was not unusual.
Even those who were normally mild-mannered could become bolder when they drank.
Or rather, people with strong tempers drinking and causing brawls was also a frequent occurrence in Gilm.
Especially now, many people had come to Gilm seeking work from the expansion construction.
Naturally, among them were plenty who were quick to fight.
"Gruu?"
What do we do? Set purred at Rei.
But since brawls were a frequent occurrence, the guards or adventurers patrolling the city as their assistants should handle it even without Rei doing anything.
Of course, if that brawl caused some disadvantage to Rei or Set, he had no intention of staying out of it.
"Kyaaaaaaaaah!"
The moment he thought that, a scream reached them.
If this had been the screaming of the men from earlier, Rei wouldn't have paid it any mind.
But when it was a woman's scream, ignoring it as too much trouble when he had the power to do something would leave a bad taste in his mouth.
And above all... along with the scream, a strong, appetizing aroma drifted over.
That aroma was clearly not coming from a stall or shop, which he could guess from the scream just now.
In other words...
"They were fighting and destroyed a stall, huh? And on top of that, overturned a pot of soup?"
"Grrruu!"
Whether he agreed with Rei's words, Set purred with indignation.
For Set, anyone who would waste delicious soup was utterly unforgivable.
"Set, let's go."
"Gruu!"
And so, the men who had been fighting, without knowing it, ended up calling forth the worst possible opponents — Rei and Set — through their own actions.
Rei and Set advanced along the street, making sure not to bump into people.
Set, whose body length exceeded three meters, was prone to hitting people due to his size, but managing somehow was very much like Set.
...In reality, he was subtly using the Size Change skill, but the change in size was so slight that no one noticed.
It was already night, and while there were some lights, it was darker than daytime, and there were many drunkards about.
Under those conditions, distinguishing the slightly size-changed dimensions of Set's body was difficult.
...Not impossible, but difficult, because this was Gilm, where there were many high-rank adventurers.
Among the high-rank adventurers, it wouldn't be strange for someone to notice Set's size change even while drunk.
Upon arriving at the scene, the sight that spread before them was as expected... no, worse than expected.
After all, one stall was completely destroyed.
The pot of soup that had likely been sold at that stall was scattered on the ground, and other side dishes were also scattered about, being trampled by the fighting men.
Seeing such a sight, naturally Rei... and Set as well could not forgive it.
"Set."
"Gruu."
At Rei's words, Set purred, and the two of them stepped forward from among the onlookers watching the fighting men.
Naturally, someone taking such an action would stand out.
Especially when those stepping forward were Rei and Set, who were famous even in Gilm.
In fact, the two men who were fighting were too absorbed to notice, but the men who appeared to be their respective companions recognized Rei and Set, and their faces twitched.
Rei was wearing the hood of his Dragon Robe, and since it was already night with little light, his expression was unreadable.
However, Set, who had appeared alongside Rei, was purring with obvious displeasure.
As C and D-Rank adventurers, the men were somewhat confident in their own skills, but even so, they didn't think they could do anything against Rei or Set.
What's more, while the initial fistfight was one thing, they thought that destroying a stall was going too far, so they considered what they should do in this situation... and those who were confident in their speed immediately tried to flee — and suddenly, their feet stopped.
Because Rei had directed his gaze at those trying to escape.
There was no particular killing intent infused in it, nor was any magic or skill being used.
It was truly just a glance, yet those who tried to run stopped in their tracks.
They themselves had no idea what had happened or why their bodies wouldn't move.
They didn't understand, but they judged that trying to force their bodies to move would only lead to a miserable outcome, so they stayed still.
After preventing those involved from fleeing, Rei approached the two men who were still oblivious to his presence and trading blows.
They probably had some alcohol in them, but perhaps because they were adventurers of a certain rank, the skill level of their fistfight was incomparably higher than a common thug's brawl.
The one measure of restraint they showed was that they were fighting strictly with bare fists — though kicks were also being used — and had not drawn any weapons.
That was proof they still had a minimum of judgment.
(If that's the case, they should at least not cause trouble for the others around them.)
Thinking in exasperation, Rei approached the two fighting men with Set in tow.
"Set, you take that guy. ...You can give him some minor injuries, but no serious wounds."
"Gruu."
At Rei's words, Set purred in dissatisfaction.
For Set, holding back that much against someone who wasted food was not amusing.
And beyond that, the greater reason for Set's dissatisfaction was that the woman who appeared to be the stall owner was a familiar face — someone who had doted on him and given him food many times before.
For Set, that alone made him want to not forgive these men, but...
"Set."
When Rei said it again, Set had no choice but to nod, albeit reluctantly.
Hanging from Set's neck was a tamed monster collar, signifying that Set was someone's tamed monster.
If Set caused a problem, it would fall to Rei to take responsibility.
That said, that only applied if Set caused problematic behavior; in a case like this where he was stopping someone else who had caused problems, it wouldn't be an issue.
...However, if Set intentionally inflicted serious injuries on the opponent, there was a possibility it could become a problem.
That was why Rei cautioned Set not to go too far.
And so, Rei and Set took action to stop the fighting men.