"Rei-kun, Rei-kun, Rei-kun, Rei-kun!"
"Rei-san, Rei-san, Rei-san, Rei-san!"
The moment Rei entered the Guild, he was immediately cornered by Kenny and Lenora.
It didn't take much thought to figure out why—they were clearly after details about the Crystal Dragon corpse.
...Just how massive an impact that corpse had on everyone around them was obvious from the fact that even Lenora, usually the picture of composure, was calling out to Rei with the same excitement as Kenny.
Rei himself hadn't been quite that aware of it. He knew it was fairly impressive, sure, but he simply hadn't expected Lenora—Kenny aside—to get this worked up. Somewhat overwhelmed, he opened his mouth.
"C-calm down. Just calm down for now."
That said, even with Rei telling them that, the two excited women showed no signs of settling.
If anything, they didn't even seem to notice that Lord Daskar, Guild Master Worker, and former Guild Master Marina were all right there on his side, as they continued pressing in on him.
"It'd be rude to interrupt, so let's head upstairs. ...We probably have plenty to discuss, too."
"Eh? Hey, is that alright, Marina? Leaving Rei behind in this situation..."
"Oh? Then would you like to stop those two yourself, Daskar? I'm fine with that if you are."
"I'm busy right now, and as Marina says, there are things we need to discuss."
At Marina's words, Daskar made the decision to readily abandon Rei and headed toward the far side of the counter.
Worker followed behind him without a word.
Hey! Rei shot Worker a glance that said, Lenora and Kenny are Guild receptionists, so do something about this, but Worker desperately pretended not to notice and simply averted his gaze.
Worker, too, had probably judged that he didn't want any part of trying to stop Lenora and Kenny in their current excited state.
After all, it wasn't just Lenora and Kenny who wanted to hear the details from Rei.
Since those two were close to Rei, they had been entrusted with the role of questioning him, but plenty of other Guild staff wanted to hear the story as well.
What was fortunate was that the adventurers who had been in the Guild and the tavern had all gone to watch the ceremony held outside, so the only adventurers still remaining in the building were... those who had passed out drunk in the tavern, and naturally, people like that weren't going to wake up over anything minor.
In that sense, it was only the Guild staff who wanted to hear details from Rei, which was in a way fortunate.
Though exactly who it was fortunate for was an entirely different matter.
"Ah... look, calm down. I'm not going to run away, alright?"
He wasn't going to run away—but as he said this, he resentfully thought about Marina and the others, who had offered him up as a sacrificial offering and made their own swift escape to the second floor.
Still, seeing that his words had at least somewhat subdued Lenora and Kenny's intensity, Rei felt slightly relieved.
That said, the subsiding of their intensity was only slight, and from Lenora and Kenny's perspective, they wanted to hear everything from Rei as quickly as possible.
Or perhaps, if the people here had been ordinary citizens rather than Guild staff, they might have been excited but wouldn't have been this desperate.
But this was the Guild.
It was a place where many adventurers gathered, where monster materials and magic stones were brought in, and where—because it was a frontier—information about all manner of monsters was collected.
That was why, when it came to information about an S-Rank monster... and a new dragon species at that, it was only natural that the staff would want to know even a little.
"I had heard that you defeated an A-Rank monster in the Forest of Magic, and I also knew that some of our strongest dissecting staff had been taken away. But... to think you defeated an S-Rank monster, and a new dragon species at that..."
Lenora said this while simultaneously pulling off the impressive feat of wearing expressions of both surprise and exasperation.
To Lenora, Rei was the adventurer she was in charge of.
Because of that, it was only natural that she would be both surprised and worried that Rei had fought an S-Rank monster... and defeated it solo, even with Seto present.
And considering that he had risen to B-Rank at an unprecedented pace and earned the alias of Crimson, perhaps she should have expected it.
"For the record, I didn't go out of my way to fight the Crystal Dragon, okay? I encountered it by chance while operating in the Forest of Magic, and a fight broke out as a result."
In reality, the Crystal Dragon had appeared, drawn by the scent of the monsters that Rei and Seto had killed, which had led to the battle. But Rei judged it better not to give those details and kept his mouth shut.
"You just happened to run into a dragon while walking around...?"
Kenny muttered in response to Rei's words.
She hadn't completely believed him, but since it was the Forest of Magic, she probably thought it was at least possible.
"Yeah, that's for certain. I encountered various other monsters too, but those have already been dissected at the Guild."
On that point, both Lenora and Kenny seemed satisfied.
The Guild staff who were skilled at dissection had all vanished at once.
Since that had increased their own workload, there was no doubt that some task had been assigned to those who had disappeared.
However, the monsters the Foreman and his team had dissected were strictly the A-Rank monsters among those Rei had defeated. The rest had been left to the Laurie Dissection Shop, or were still stored in the Misty Ring.
In that sense, it wasn't as if he couldn't show them the monsters from the Forest of Magic.
"So... you're unharmed, right, Rei-kun?"
"Yeah, I'm here safe and sound in front of you, aren't I? That's all that matters."
In reality, he had taken damage and sustained injuries. But the biggest toll had been the mental fatigue, after all.
He had encountered an S-Rank monster dragon and, together with Seto, defeated it.
Expecting no mental fatigue from that would have been unreasonable.
He decided to keep that to himself for now.
He understood that mentioning it would only worry Kenny, Lenora, and the others.
"...You're right. Looking at you, you don't seem to be injured anywhere."
"Hey, Lenora!? Knowing Rei-kun, he might be hiding something again, you know!?"
Again, for certain.
For Rei, those were somewhat unpleasant words coming from Kenny's mouth.
That said, pursuing the matter seemed like it would lead to things that wouldn't be amusing for him either, so he let it slide.
"It was a Crystal Dragon, right? Was it really that strong?"
"Yeah. Even setting aside the fact that it was an S-Rank monster, it was strong."
Dragons were counted among the strongest species in this world as well.
Having fought such a dragon, Rei's impression could only be called light.
That said, Lenora and Kenny fully understood that this was simply how Rei was.
They figured they should at least be glad that Rei was safe, and continued the conversation.
"So now you're a Dragon Slayer too, Rei-kun. ...An Alias Holder and a Dragon Slayer... huh."
Kenny murmured with a sense of deep emotion.
However, an Alias Holder who was also a Dragon Slayer was not actually all that rare.
Well, it was undeniably an overwhelming minority when looking at adventurers as a whole.
But to begin with, an alias was something bestowed upon those who had accomplished some great feat.
For example, Rei's alias of Crimson came from having single-handedly inflicted massive casualties on the Bestia Imperial Army during the war with the Bestia Empire.
In other words, most Alias Holders fundamentally possessed tremendous combat power.
That was why fighting a dragon solo and winning wasn't exactly easy... but it wasn't impossible, and as a result, Alias Holders becoming Dragon Slayers happened with some regularity.
That said, it was also true that dragons were not so easily found to begin with.
They talked about the Crystal Dragon and the Forest of Magic for about ten more minutes, but they couldn't stay there chatting forever.
"Sorry, but I need to discuss various things with Worker and the others. So let me head up to the second floor."
"Aww..."
Kenny showed clear dissatisfaction at Rei's words, but Lenora nodded.
"You're right. They're probably waiting for you on the second floor. And we can't keep you here forever."
"Sorry about that."
For Lenora, she would have liked to hear more from Rei if possible.
But considering Rei's position, she judged that she couldn't keep him detained here any longer.
Because Rei understood Lenora's feelings, he expressed his gratitude to her.
...At that, Kenny showed an envious expression.
That said, Kenny didn't voice any complaints.
The other Guild staff who had been in the building, apparently satisfied after hearing a fair amount from Rei, didn't try to hold him back and saw him off.
Of course, there were naturally some who still wanted to hear more, casting expectant looks at Rei.
If he'd had a little more time, Rei wouldn't have minded talking a bit more, but unfortunately, given the current situation, he couldn't afford to take it that leisurely.
Rei saw right through those gazes and headed for the staircase at the back of the counter.
While Rei was inside the Guild, out on the stage in front of the building, many people were still looking at the Crystal Dragon corpse.
"That merchant is suspicious too. Keep an eye on him."
One of Egg's subordinates said this, looking at a merchant... or more precisely, someone who was likely disguised as one.
The subordinate who had been ordered couldn't understand what was suspicious about the man.
But he couldn't go against his superior's words for no reason, and headed toward the merchant.
"The crowd's thinned out quite a bit, but there's still a fair number. ...What a pain, really."
The man said this to a colleague, not a subordinate.
Indeed, compared to when Daskar had been holding the ceremony, the number of people had decreased significantly.
However, those who had heard about it from the ceremony participants still gathered, unwilling to miss the chance to see an S-Rank monster... and a new dragon species' corpse at that.
Naturally, among such people, there were many suspicious ones.
That said, they were naturally inferior to those who had been here from the start.
After all, the fact that they were only showing up now meant they were people who had been unable to obtain the information about the Crystal Dragon corpse being put on public display.
Information was important in the front world, but the same held true in the underworld.
Those who had been unable to obtain such information were inevitably one or two steps behind the people who had been here from the beginning.
Of course, there were also those who left information gathering to their organization or partner that had dispatched them, and only moved when it was time for action, so in that sense, it wasn't absolutely safe either.
"Well, it's only today that things are this busy. Tomorrow it'll be back to normal. You can rest easy then, right?"
Told this, the man who had been straining his eyes rubbed them and replied, "Yeah, you're right."
Under the intense sunlight, the man, thoroughly fed up with it, turned his gaze back to the crowd.
In doing so, his gaze nearly drifted toward the Crystal Dragon corpse, but he deliberately looked away.
For the man, the Crystal Dragon corpse, in the sense that it drew the eye, was a hindrance to spotting suspicious individuals.
That was how overwhelming the presence of the Crystal Dragon corpse was.
(If even a corpse looks like that... what would it have been like when it was alive...?)
The reason the corpse looked so vivid, as if it might start moving at any moment, was because Marina's Spirit Magic was being used.
However, to those who didn't know such things, it wouldn't be strange for there to be people so overwhelmed by the Crystal Dragon corpse that they stood with their mouths wide open.
From time to time, someone would approach the stage as if drawn in, but such people were stopped by the adventurers and Knights standing guard in front of it.
(Just a little more... huh. I just hope it ends without incident at this rate.)
Thinking this, the man focused his attention on searching for suspicious individuals.