"So, are the Golems manufactured in that city called Egginis strong?"
"...Well, I'm not sure about that. They said the Golems move in a way that's close to humans, so if you think about it in terms of strong or weak, they're probably strong, I'd say."
At dinner that night in the courtyard of Marina's house, Rei recounted the story about Golems that he had heard at the eatery.
Hearing this, the first to ask whether they were strong was, naturally, Vihera.
"Hmm, but if they move smoothly in a way that's close to humans, wouldn't their appearance also be close to human? If that's the case, I don't think they'd be strong enough to satisfy Vihera's expectations."
Marina said this while tasting the slightly early autumn vegetable soup.
"I didn't know about the city of Egginis in the first place. If it's thriving in Golems, wouldn't it be more famous?"
"It is famous. But if anything, it's more of a place known only to those in the know."
From her tone of speech, Elena also seemed to know about Egginis.
...As the daughter of Duke Kerebel's House, it wouldn't be strange for her to know at least that much.
"It's thriving in Golems, right? And yet it's only known to those in the know?"
"Yes. To begin with, Golems are things made by mages and alchemists, but naturally they are extremely expensive. In a way, the entire body is like a Magic Item, so that's only natural."
"Now hold on, isn't that a bit of an exaggeration? Since their bodies are made of rock and such, I'm a little doubtful about Elena's claim that the entire body is a Magic Item."
The one who responded to Vihera's words was Elena... or rather, Marina.
"If you think about it normally, that would be the case, but the Golems manufactured in Egginis—not all of them, I should say, but many of them—are coated with magic metal on the surface. Thanks to that, their deterioration is apparently less than normal."
"That's... then wouldn't they be expensive?"
"Yes. That's probably one of the reasons Egginis isn't very well known."
When one spoke of magic metal, Mithril, Orichalcum, and Adamantite were very famous, but there were many others as well.
Which of those magic metals they used, Rei did not know.
However, if they truly coated their Golems with magic metal as described, he could understand why they would be extremely expensive.
"In other words, they're so expensive that normal people can't buy them, so they're not that famous? ...But regardless of whether one can buy them or not, if Golems are thriving there, it seems like they should be famous. Or rather, I'm surprised that the Kingdom of Mireana had that kind of technology."
"It seems they have a technical partnership with Ozos. The fact that they're not famous probably has something to do with that as well. Though, it might be more accurate to say they're deliberately keeping it from becoming famous..."
At Marina's words, Rei thought it made sense if Magic City Ozos was involved.
True to its name of Magic City, Ozos had extremely high magical technology, including alchemy.
...Of course, when it came to alchemy, the Bestia Empire had been rapidly improving in recent years, so it wasn't a case of Ozos being the sole dominant power.
"For something known only to those in the know, there are quite a few people who know about it, like the ones Rei heard at the eatery."
Vihera said with a hint of doubt, and Rei felt the same way.
However, he quickly shifted his thoughts, deciding it was fine as long as he recognized it as that kind of thing.
"After the Festival ends, I'll definitely be busy. Nobles, merchants, and all sorts of other people will come seeking meetings with me. So I was thinking of going somewhere as a form of escape, and Egginis might be a good choice."
If Rei were simply becoming an A-Rank Adventurer, there would be people coming to see him, but it wouldn't be such a massive crowd.
But at the Festival, along with Rei's promotion, the Crystal Dragon would also be publicly displayed.
And once it became known that Rei held ownership of the Crystal Dragon, naturally many people would come to negotiate for its sale.
Rei's basic intention was to use the Crystal Dragon only among his inner circle, and unless something extraordinary happened, he had no intention of selling it to anyone.
Because of that, turning down everyone's requests would be troublesome, so he planned to leave Gilm and take shelter somewhere until the commotion settled down.
Fortunately, the Expansion Construction had reached a point where it could proceed to some extent without Rei and his group.
There were still various issues, such as the Wisp in the underground space beneath the Treant Forest, the lake, and the Lizardmen.
Even so, it was only natural to want to escape from trouble.
"Golems, huh... I'm definitely a little interested. However, it might be a bit difficult for me to go."
Marina said regretfully.
In the currently ongoing Expansion Construction, Marina's Spirit Magic was greatly useful in treating injured workers.
If Marina, who could be called the central figure of treatment, were to disappear, injured workers' return to the site would be delayed, and depending on the situation, there was even a possibility that someone with severe injuries might die because treatment couldn't reach them in time.
Most of the Expansion Construction that Rei and his group had been involved in could now be handled by the Fleeing Adventurers as replacements.
However, the reason Marina still worked at the clinic was that there was no one else who could use Recovery Magic as powerful as hers.
There were others besides Marina who could use Recovery Magic.
But even compared to such people, Marina's Spirit Magic had vastly superior recovery speed and lower mana consumption.
And Marina, as a user of peerless Spirit Magic, could even perform feats like using Recovery Magic on multiple people simultaneously.
In that sense, Marina's absence from the Expansion Construction site would be a tremendous loss for Gilm.
Also, Marina had lived in Gilm for many years and had attachment to the city, so it was certain she also felt that if her Spirit Magic could be of use in the Expansion Construction, she wanted to help.
Because of that, it was very unfortunate for Marina... but even so, she couldn't leave on a journey with Rei.
Nevertheless, Marina didn't look all that dissatisfied.
It was regrettable that she couldn't go on a trip with Rei, but she had already secured a promise for a date with him.
In that sense, Marina appeared satisfied.
"As long as I am here as a member of the Noble's Faction, I probably cannot go with you either. Besides, someone needs to handle the people who come seeking meetings with you, right?"
Though saying she couldn't go with Rei just like Marina, Elena showed an expression of disappointment that was the exact opposite of Marina's.
"As for me... hmm, I wonder. I think I could go if I wanted to, but I'm worried about leaving Byune alone."
If this were like before, when she was patrolling the town as an auxiliary to the Guards, Vihera would have been able to go on a trip with Rei without any issues.
Just like when Vihera went to the world where the Centaurs lived.
But the work Vihera and Byune were currently doing involved checking on the Wisp in the underground space beneath the Treant Forest, caring for the researchers studying it, monitoring the Birth Tower and the lake, and similar tasks.
If it were town patrols, even Byune—who was poor at interacting with others—could manage because others would speak on her behalf.
But when it came to work in the Treant Forest, that wasn't the case.
Moreover, the Treant Forest was currently in a state where various monsters would appear and then disappear, as if trying to secure their own territory while monsters arriving later attempted to seize it from them.
What would happen if Byune got caught up in that?
Byune had received combat training from many people, including Vihera.
Among those her age, even among bandits, there probably weren't many stronger than Byune.
But still, when the opponent was a monster, there was no telling what kind of monsters might be present.
Depending on the situation, there was even the possibility that a High-Rank Monster might make an appearance, and that couldn't be ruled out.
Considering those circumstances, everyone could understand why Vihera showed reluctance to leave Byune behind.
"Mm."
At Vihera's demeanor, Byune uttered her usual single word.
For Byune, there was likely a feeling of frustration that her own lack of strength was tying Vihera down.
That was precisely why she offered a brief word of apology to Vihera.
The others besides Vihera had known Byune for a long time, so they immediately understood that the word that came from Byune's mouth was an apology.
While patting Byune's head, Vihera turned toward Rei and spoke.
"So that's how it is, I can't go along this time either. ...It's disappointing, but."
"Then it's just me after all. ...Ara is..."
Ara was the only one among them who hadn't yet decided what she would do, but from the moment Rei called out to her, he already understood what her answer would be.
"I have my duties as Lady Elena's assistant."
"Figured."
The words that came from Ara's mouth were exactly as Rei had expected, so he had no particular dissatisfaction.
Since Ara was fundamentally an Elena-first person, Rei could easily predict that she would absolutely never go on a trip with him if Elena wasn't going.
"Then it's just me and Set."
"Guru?"
Set, who had been eating, raised his head at hearing his name called and tilted his head as if asking what was wrong.
At Set's demeanor, Rei smiled and spoke up.
"After the Festival the day after tomorrow ends, I was thinking of going to a city called Egginis for a while, just me and Set. Would you dislike that?"
"Guru? Grurururu."
At Rei's words, Set shook his head side to side and purred happily.
Being together like this with Ielo and everyone else was fun, but for Set, going somewhere with Rei was something that brought him joy.
Considering that just a few days ago he had gone to the Forest of Magic with Rei, it wouldn't be strange to think, "Again, right after coming back?"
Even so, Set was definitely looking forward to going somewhere with Rei.
"I'm glad you're happy about it, Set."
At Rei's words, Set purred happily once more.
"Still, since we're going to Egginis, I'd like to buy one of those rumored Golems if possible. I don't know what they'd be useful for, though."
As had been mentioned in the topic earlier, the Golems sold in Egginis were expensive and not something that could be easily purchased.
However, that was only the case for an ordinary person.
In Rei's case, he had a large amount of money in his Misty Ring, and if needed, he could even pay with materials from Forest of Magic monsters.
If Golem development was thriving, it would naturally not be strange for them to need monster materials.
Or if they made Magic Items other than Golems, Forest of Magic monster materials would be something alchemists would want so badly they could taste it.
...Of course, that applied to monsters like the Water Bear whose material uses were somewhat known, but in the case of completely unknown monsters, they would have to start by researching what kind of material they could even be used as.
For alchemists, it was something that made their hearts race with excitement, but at the same time, there was the possibility that the materials might turn out to be useless.
Considering those circumstances, it could seem almost like gambling in a sense... but Rei even thought he wouldn't mind offering a little extra if it was one of the many materials he had.
After all, the materials currently stored in Rei's Misty Ring... or rather, the undissected corpses, numbered quite a lot.
Even though he had entrusted a fair amount of work to the Laurie Dissection Shop, the Laurie Dissection Shop couldn't take on only Rei's work.
Especially now that the Guild wasn't accepting dissection requests, the Laurie Dissection Shop had more customers than usual.
(Besides... if they're cooperating with Magic City Ozos, there must be many Magic Items besides Golems for certain. Just being able to buy those alone makes going to Egginis worthwhile for me.)
Without recalling at all that he had forgotten about Ozos, Rei thought this.