"Well now... hmm. You've really done quite a thorough job."
Rei had come to the underground warehouse of Laurie Dissection Shop, and after handing over his claim check, he murmured in admiration as he surveyed the state of the monsters he had left for dissection.
Every monster had been properly dissected, with usable materials, edible meat, and magic stones all carefully separated and sorted.
Since these were monsters from the Forest of Magic, the majority were unknown species. With no way to know which parts could be used as materials or which were edible, essentially everything from the dissection had been laid out there.
The stomachs and intestines had been thoroughly washed and cleaned, but with this much meat and organs on display, a distinctive smell still lingered in the air.
That said, this was a dissection warehouse.
The people working here were accustomed to the smell, and the warehouse itself was equipped with deodorizing facilities and Magic Items.
With this many monster corpses lined up at once, those facilities and Magic Items didn't seem to be operating at full effectiveness, but it was enough.
"Most of them were unknown monsters, so being able to dissect them wasn't a bad deal for us either. When you do this kind of work, you never know when you might be asked to dissect some strange creature."
Dissecting unknown monsters was, in itself, a significant source of profit for the craftsmen working here.
In that sense, they had nothing but gratitude for Rei.
...In truth, Rei had no idea how much dissection fees for such a large order would normally cost, so he never noticed—but the fee had actually been heavily discounted from the standard price.
The reason was precisely the existence of those unknown monsters.
At Laurie Dissection Shop, when asked to dissect unknown monsters, the dissection fee was discounted as an information exchange.
That said, precisely because they were unknown monsters, the possibility of a dissection failure couldn't be entirely ruled out depending on the case.
Of course, the craftsmen at Laurie Dissection Shop were all skilled enough to justify their prices, so botching a dissection and rendering materials unusable was essentially not a concern.
"That saved us."
"No, I've said this many times, but we got to dissect unknown monsters. Besides... the meat you left for us yesterday was incredibly delicious."
At the man's words, the others nodded in agreement.
Truly—from the bottom of their hearts, that meat had been delicious.
Given that, working hard for the person who had given them that meat was only natural.
Some among them were secretly hoping they might receive more of that beef, but Rei had no intention of doing any such thing.
Recalling the taste of the steak he'd eaten yesterday, cutting into his own share was simply out of the question.
If anything, he wanted to secure more of that beef so he could eat it whenever the craving struck.
Rei had eaten all kinds of delicious meat since coming to this world.
But that beef was, even for someone who had tasted the meat of countless different monsters, undeniably among the best.
Furthermore, the monster itself wasn't particularly strong.
...That said, it was only because it was Rei and Set that he could make that claim so confidently.
As a monster inhabiting the area around the Forest of Magic, it was questionable whether average adventurers could hold their own even if they attacked in a group.
Gilm had many skilled adventurers, so such people might be able to defeat one... but the fundamental rule was that one must not approach the Forest of Magic, so getting close was no simple matter.
By the time someone traveled near the Forest of Magic, who knows how many monsters they would be attacked by and how many battles they would have to fight along the way.
Rei, however, had no need to worry about such things.
Riding Set through the sky, he could travel overwhelmingly faster than moving on the ground, and the number of encounters with monsters dropped dramatically as well.
There were a fair number of flying monsters, but to begin with, not many would detect Set's presence and choose to attack.
And above all else, the biggest advantage was the Misty Ring that Rei possessed.
Even if a skilled adventurer managed to kill a bull near the Forest of Magic, hauling its massive carcass back would be difficult due to its sheer size.
If they happened to own a budget version of an Item Box, they might barely manage to bring back one—and even that budget Item Box was a considerably expensive Magic Item.
Otherwise, the only option was transport by carriage, but given the bull's weight, they couldn't carry many at once.
More importantly, there was no guarantee that the carcass wouldn't attract hordes of monsters. If the horses pulling the carriage were killed, they'd have to haul it themselves—and that would seriously delay their ability to respond to further monster attacks.
Ultimately, defeating bulls and securing a sufficient supply was nearly impossible for anyone other than Rei and his party.
...Yet the fact that it couldn't be declared absolutely impossible was likely a testament to the high caliber of adventurers gathered in Gilm.
"It would be nice if we could raise monsters, though. That bull was a fairly high-rank monster, so even here in Gilm it would be difficult."
Saying that, Rei vaguely recalled having once discussed a Goblin ranch with someone, and concluded that a bull ranch would be even more out of the question.
Being a high-rank monster, the bull's attack power was extremely formidable.
That meant even if a ranch were built, the bulls would easily smash their way out and escape—or worse, depending on the situation, Gilm's residents could be harmed.
It was simply not something that could be done so easily.
(If we were to do it, and Lord Daskar seriously committed to it as the lord, it might... just might be possible. But right now, that kind of situation is nowhere in sight.)
Currently, Daskar had no shortage of work by any measure.
The Expansion Construction and Festival preparations were the main items, but there was also the matter of the Green People's spice fields, the Land Ship factory, and other such projects.
Considering all of that, starting a high-rank monster ranch was out of the question.
To begin with, if they wanted to start a ranch, they would need to bring bulls from the Forest of Magic.
Not killed—alive.
Rei's Misty Ring could store corpses, but it could not store living beings.
Bringing bulls back alive from the Forest of Magic.
And not just one or two, but enough to stock a ranch.
Thinking about it normally, it was utterly impossible.
With those thoughts, Rei finished everything he needed to do in the underground warehouse and headed above ground.
"Well then... what should I do next? I was originally supposed to show my face at the Treant Forest."
But today, Set wasn't with him.
Given that, even if he wanted to visit the Treant Forest or the lake, he'd have to make the trip on foot.
...The Woodcutters and Fleeing Adventurers all traveled on foot every day, so it wasn't as if Rei couldn't do the same.
But once a person grew accustomed to convenience, giving it up was no easy matter.
Walking a distance that Set could cover in mere minutes held no appeal for Rei.
"In that case... hmm?"
Walking down the street and mulling over what to do next, Rei suddenly stopped in his tracks.
A stall in his line of sight had caught his attention for some reason.
However, it wasn't the food being sold that interested him—it was the stall's owner.
Of course, it wasn't because the man was handsome or a powerfully built giant.
In appearance, he was of average build, a man in his twenties or thirties with a face that was neither handsome nor ugly—an entirely forgettable, average face.
The kind of man you could glance at and later be completely unable to recall what he looked like.
For such an unremarkable man, his eyes were different.
While calling out to passersby, the man's gaze swept the surroundings with an intensity that gave Rei the impression of a predator searching for prey.
(Is it just my imagination?)
He considered that it might simply be a sharp gaze, or that the man was just desperate to attract customers. But something about the man's behavior nagged at him... and as if sensing the stare, the man suddenly looked in Rei's direction.
The mere fact that Rei could sense the man's gaze confirmed that the stall owner was no ordinary person. At the same time, stalls were often run by adventurers as a hobby.
Viewed in that light, the man sensing Rei's gaze wasn't particularly strange.
"Right. There's no point just observing from here, and I'm a bit hungry. In that case... I suppose I'll buy something."
Muttering to himself, Rei walked toward the stall.
The man showed a flicker of surprise at seeing the person who had been staring his way now approaching, but once he judged Rei to be a customer, he broke into a smile and spoke.
"Welcome. What would you like?"
At the owner's words, Rei surveyed the food displayed at the stall.
What sat there were skewers.
Skewers were a very common type of food.
With this many stalls around, naturally there were plenty selling skewers too.
That meant a stall needed either superior cooking skill, rare ingredients, or some other selling point—low prices, distinctive seasoning, something. This particular stall had no notable selling point whatsoever; just like the owner's appearance, the skewers were thoroughly mediocre.
The price was no cheaper than other skewer stalls either. And indeed, perhaps because it was just that kind of stall, even from Rei's perspective it didn't look particularly popular.
"Let's see. I'll take one skewer... no, make it three."
"Thank you for your business."
He paid, received the skewers, and immediately brought one to his mouth... and as expected, the taste wasn't something that could sustain a stall as a business.
Those running stalls as a hobby were one thing, but for anyone doing it as a profession, the competition was fierce.
Despite that, the skewer Rei bit into... wasn't terrible, but it couldn't be called delicious either.
Perhaps because the meat prep was sloppy, a faint gamey smell lingered, and while it wasn't raw, the grilling was uneven, with quite heavily charred spots in places.
A little char wasn't unusual given the nature of grilled skewers.
But the skewers Rei had bought had a large area of charring.
...Still, they were being sold at a stall, so it wasn't as if they were inedible if you made the effort.
(Come to think of it, I remember seeing somewhere that eating burnt food makes you more prone to cancer... I wonder if that's true?)
Perhaps because the charred area was so extensive, Rei found himself recalling that tidbit.
But whether he'd heard it in conversation with someone, or seen it on TV or somewhere else... he had no memory of that at all and tilted his head in puzzlement.
In reality, charred food did contain carcinogenic substances, and there were experiments where mice continuously fed charred food developed stomach cancer. But converting that amount to a human equivalent would require eating a bowlful of char every single day for decades—so in practice, it was something that could be essentially ignored.
Rei, knowing none of this, ate the heavily charred skewers without a second thought.
As far as Rei was concerned, his current body was a creation forged by the Zephyle Clan pooling all their strength and expertise.
He couldn't possibly believe that eating some burnt food would give him cancer.
"How is it?"
"Let's see... ordinary."
"Ordinary, huh."
Perhaps the word "ordinary" triggered some unpleasant memory, because the owner's face fell with visible disappointment.
From Rei's perspective, if the man was going to look that disappointed, he should either hone his cooking skills or get his hands on some unusual ingredients.
Thinking this, he continued to observe the owner closely.
Perhaps because Rei was standing right there, the predatory look from earlier had vanished from the owner's eyes.
The owner himself likely understood that Rei was onto something, but he didn't let it show in his demeanor.
...If anything, the fact that his attitude didn't waver at all even under Rei's scrutiny only deepened Rei's suspicion.
"Ah, if you're going to run a stall in Gilm, you should put more effort into it... that is, if running a stall is truly your purpose."
"Eh? What do you mean?"
At Rei's pointed words, the man put on a bewildered expression.