Having secured Marina's promise, Rei had intended to go inform Daskar himself—but since Marina insisted on delivering the response personally, he left it in her hands.
For Daskar, it would mean another session of being teased by Marina. From Rei's perspective, though, Daskar didn't truly hate it; he seemed to be enjoying himself even while protesting.
Not that Daskar would ever admit it if someone called him out on it.
Rei figured that if it served as even a slight change of pace for Daskar, that was good enough. Besides, there would likely be other security matters to discuss, so he decided to leave it all to Marina.
Marina probably wanted to wait until the clinic calmed down a bit, anyway.
And so, Rei headed to the Guild to take care of his next errand.
Perhaps because Set wasn't with him, the Dragon Robe's concealment effect made him look like he was wearing an ordinary robe, drawing no special attention even when people saw him.
If he removed the hood, they would likely recognize his face as Rei, but as far as he was concerned, if there was no need to draw unnecessary attention, keeping it on was simply easier.
That said, before the adventurers stationed at the Gilm warehouse, he had to remove his hood and show his face.
"Ah, it's Rei. You heading to the warehouse?"
"That's right. How are things inside?"
"No particular problems. Oh, but a little while ago, someone brought in a pretty large batch of skewers as something to snack on."
After exchanging a few brief words, Rei stepped inside.
Only someone like Rei could enter the warehouse this readily. Had a stranger tried to force their way in, the skilled adventurers hired by the Guild would have physically removed them.
That was how important the warehouse was right now.
"Oh, you're awake today."
The skewers had been brought in, so Rei had expected as much. Inside, the Guild staff were relaxing—each enjoying skewers, bread, and fruit water.
A few were examining the dissected Chimera materials with evident interest.
"Rei, you were quite late."
It was the Foreman who voiced his dissatisfaction upon seeing Rei enter.
After finishing the Chimera dissection that Rei had left behind yesterday, there shouldn't have been much else to do.
To keep information about Rei's slain monsters from spreading—and to ensure no guild staffer got any bright ideas about stealing materials—the dissection team was forbidden from leaving the warehouse until the job was done.
Still, none of them seemed to mind. The workers Worker had initially selected were highly skilled at dissection and, naturally enough, fascinated by the monsters Rei had killed.
The staff who joined later had entered the warehouse fully understanding these conditions, so they had no complaints either.
As the Slum District residents who had lived there during winter could attest, the facility was comfortable enough that daily life was no hardship.
Food was brought in promptly whenever requested.
Alcohol, however, was prohibited—to prevent anyone from getting drunk and damaging materials, or getting bold enough to steal them, and above all, to ensure no one attempted dissection while intoxicated.
Under such conditions for weeks or months on end, some people might have grown resentful. But for just a few days, no one complained.
"Yeah, I had a lot to take care of. Oh right—the festival's set for the day after tomorrow. Finish the wolf today, rest tomorrow, and enjoy the festival the day after. ...Though I expect your busiest time will come after the festival ends."
At those words, the Foreman dropped his dissatisfied expression and broke into a grin that could only be described as ferocious.
To him, this was an S-Rank monster from the Forest of Magic—a new species of dragon.
Telling him not to look forward to the dissection would have been pointless.
"You mentioned that special tools would be needed for the Crystal Dragon. What's the word on that?"
"No problems there. I asked the Guild Master, and preparations are already underway. More importantly—those Chimera materials."
After conferring with the Foreman, Rei stored his share of the Chimera materials in his Misty Ring.
The creature had been enormous, so the meat portions were substantial—a lucky break for him.
"Hmm, I wanted that tail snake... oh well."
The Foreman muttered in disappointment. The snake that served as the creature's tail had clearly piqued his interest.
But Rei had thought the snake could be used as some kind of crafting material, and after a brief negotiation, he'd claimed it.
Since ownership of all materials belonged to Rei in the first place, he held an overwhelming advantage in any negotiation. The outcome was a foregone conclusion.
"Alright then—the last one. The Giant Wolf."
Rei retrieved the Giant Wolf from his Misty Ring.
A stir rippled through the room.
At the sight of the creature Rei produced, even those who had seen it before raised voices of awe—not just the newcomers who were laying eyes on it for the first time.
As its name suggested, the Giant Wolf was every bit as massive as one would expect from the title.
The monsters the guild staff had dissected thus far had all carried the presence worthy of A-Rank creatures, but this Giant Wolf possessed a gravity that stood apart from the rest.
...In truth, there was no denying the creature had been powerful. But the accurate account was that it had made the mistake of underestimating Rei and Set, taken a barrage of devastating attacks, and been slain before it could ever demonstrate its full strength.
Even so, the sheer presence radiating from it at a glance was enough to convince anyone that this Giant Wolf had possessed overwhelming power.
"Incredible."
The Foreman's voice rang through the warehouse.
The other guild staff nodded in unison.
"I've never seen a monster like this before."
"I once dissected a giant boar monster, but even that didn't carry this kind of presence."
"I saw it before too, but looking at it again now... it really is something."
Listening to their murmurs, Rei turned to the Foreman.
"Foreman, I'm entrusting the dissection to you. With a body this massive, should I come back to the warehouse tomorrow? Or would this evening work?"
"Hard to say. It's a huge creature. Finishing today would probably be... difficult. Come back this evening for now. If it's not done by then, it'll be tomorrow morning."
"The festival's the day after tomorrow, so tomorrow works fine for me."
Rei preferred a careful, thorough dissection over a rushed and sloppy one.
Of course, he knew from past experience that the Foreman and his team were highly skilled.
Given that, saying anything that might insult their craftsmanship would have been pointless.
"Leave it to me. We'll do it right. ...How long are you all going to gawk? Let's get to work!"
After reassuring Rei, he barked at the guild staff still buzzing over the Giant Wolf.
At the Foreman's command, they immediately returned to their tasks.
Dissecting this Giant Wolf was nerve-wracking, but the chance to work on a creature like this was rare even in the frontier town of Gilm.
For people who made their living dissecting monsters, telling them not to get excited would have been unreasonable.
"Do your best."
With those parting words, Rei produced several tart—but also plenty sweet—fruits from his Misty Ring and left them in the guild staff's living area.
They were cold now, but by the time the staff took their next break, the chill would have faded.
Even so, tart fruit would taste plenty good to a tired body.
Judging that staying any longer would only get in the Foreman's way, Rei stepped outside.
He exchanged a brief greeting with the adventurer guards and departed from the Guild.
Normally, Set would be out front, being fussed over by a crowd of admirers. But Set was currently at Marina's house, playing with Ielo.
(I wonder how things are at Marina's house today. From what I heard yesterday, there should still be a fair number of people seeking an audience, but they said the numbers were definitely dropping.)
Those who wished to meet Elena, those with business to conduct, those coming to buy and sell information—all sorts of people came to see Elena for various reasons. But yesterday and today, there was no doubt that the majority came hoping to meet Rei.
Making Elena deal with such people left Rei feeling somewhat guilty.
But since they used an audience with Elena as a pretext to see him, Elena had to be the one to handle them. That was simply the reality.
...What kind of emotions Rei harbored toward such visitors requires little imagination.
Moreover, Rei showed no mercy to those who made enemies of him, even if they were Nobles.
The Nobles who came seeking audiences like this would uniformly be judged by Rei as unwelcome characters.
Since they were troubling Elena, that was only natural—but Ara understood exactly what kind of people these visitors were.
And Ara would report that to Rei.
Mulling this over, Rei made his way down the main street.
All across town, voices discussing the day-after-tomorrow festival reached his ears.
Rei was the protagonist of that festival, yet he himself had no particular feelings about it.
Well, in the sense of enjoying a festival, he was no different from anyone else around him.
(A festival, huh. Still, the only thing I really look forward to is the food stalls. Lottery-style stalls too... well, if there were enough prep time, maybe, but with so little of it, there's not much that can be done.)
Continuing to walk while turning this over in his mind, he eventually arrived at Laurie's Dissection Shop.
Before heading down to the underground warehouse, he stopped by the shop on the ground floor.
"Welcome. Rei, right? The dissection's finished."
Rei nodded at the clerk's words, paid the fee, and received his receipt.
"Busy today too?"
"Yeah. Your large order was part of it, so it's been pretty hectic. Plus we've got regular customers' orders coming in too."
"Does the festival have something to do with it?"
"Probably. A festival means food stalls pull in more sales than usual. That means they need to stock up on more ingredients, so a fair number of requests should be going to the Guild. Did you not know that?"
"Yeah, the warehouse aside, the Guild itself must be swamped right now."
This was no exaggeration—just the plain truth.
From what Rei had seen on his visit, many guild staff were sorting through mountains of documents.
That wasn't all. Even the receptionists, who should have been tending to adventurers, had been pulled into document-sorting duty. That alone showed just how enormous the volume of paperwork flooding the Guild had become.
That was exactly why Rei didn't want to interfere with their work.
Kenny would have been thrilled if he showed his face at the Guild, and she might have thrown herself into her paperwork to show off for him.
Thanks to her lighthearted demeanor and outfits that emphasized her appeal, Kenny was often dismissed as not taking her work seriously. In reality, she was a highly capable receptionist.
That was precisely why her uninhibited behavior was tolerated to the extent it was.
Even so, the fact that Lenora was positioned as her stopper suggested that the Guild management had its own concerns about Kenny's personality.
"For the festival, is Laurie's Dissection Shop planning anything special?"
"Anything special? In this line of work, what exactly are you expecting?"
"Let's see... how about showing off a monster dissection?"
What Rei had in mind was the tuna-cutting shows that sushi restaurants sometimes put on—though he'd only ever seen them on TV.
"A monster dissection? Would people actually enjoy that?"
"Just that, probably not. But what if you partnered with a food stall—dissected the monster publicly, then had the stall cook and sell the meat right there?"
"...I see."
The idea that came out of Rei's mouth was apparently unexpected. The clerk spoke as though impressed.
He fell silent, turning the notion over in his mind, and before long broke into a full-faced smile and offered Rei his heartfelt thanks.