Led by Maruka and Nicky, who had been waiting in front of the inn, Rei headed to the dining hall of the Star River Inn.
Seto, perhaps satisfied from spending the entire day with Rei, headed to the stables without any sign of displeasure.
"Huh... quite a stylish place."
Looking at the Star River Inn's dining hall, Rei murmured to himself.
It had the atmosphere of a restaurant rather than a mere dining hall.
When it came to the dining hall of a high-end inn, the Wheat Inn at Dusk—Rei's regular lodging, though he currently lived at Marina's house—also served food that rivaled top-tier establishments in taste.
However, unlike the Wheat Inn at Dusk, which anyone could casually enter even if they weren't staying guests, the Star River Inn's dining hall appeared to have a much higher barrier to entry.
Rei's impression was by no means an exaggeration.
The Star River Inn's dining hall was, in fact, restricted to lodging guests or those who accompanied them.
Well, being able to use a place like this only if you're chosen is probably enough to instill a sense of superiority... And besides, the food served in this dining hall is actually delicious.
Carrying a spoonful of stew to his mouth, Rei thought to himself.
The seasoning was close to a corn potage soup, but it was subtly different from corn.
At the very least, it was definitely a different taste from the corn grown back at Rei's home.
Now that I think about it, "kimi" was a dialect word, wasn't it... I only learned that for the first time from seeing it on TV.
While enjoying the potage of something similar to corn, Rei recalled his time in Japan.
Where Rei had lived, corn was called "kimi."
He had thought "kimi" was a word commonly used everywhere throughout Japan, but he remembered being quite surprised to learn that it was actually a dialect used only in the area near where he lived.
On a so-called travel program broadcast on TV, when they visited the area where Rei lived, a farmer had used the word "kimi," but the celebrity on the show couldn't understand what it meant.
"So, Rei. What was today like for thee?"
Carrying a piece of freshly baked bread to her mouth, Maruka asked Rei.
For Maruka, who had been curious about what Rei—absent for the entire day—had actually been up to, this was surely of great interest.
Her eyes sparkled with curiosity as she urged him to tell her.
Nicky, too, was curious about what the man he had come to admire as "Brother" had been doing, and cast an expectant gaze toward him.
Originally, Nicky was Maruka's bodyguard.
Eating a meal together would normally be inappropriate, but Nicky, who treated Maruka so casually, showed no concern about such things whatsoever.
For Maruka's part, she likely saw Nicky, who interacted with her so casually, as an easygoing companion.
She showed no particular concern about eating at the same table.
"Today... let's see. First, I went to the Dolan Workshop office and submitted an application."
"Hmm, given thy purpose, that is to be expected. And?"
The matter regarding the office was apparently easily predicted, and she prompted him to continue as if asking whether anything else interesting had happened.
"Right. I tried to meet a woman named Lindy at the Guild, but for some reason, the one there was Roger."
"Thou... when thou art already involved with multiple women, including the Princess General, dost thou still intend to increase their number?"
"No, increase or whatever—I have no such intention, and more importantly, I'm not in that kind of relationship with Elena and the others yet."
Not in that kind of relationship yet.
By stating this, Rei was essentially indicating through his attitude that he would like to be in that kind of relationship given the opportunity, but he himself seemed unaware of what his own words implied.
In contrast to Rei, Maruka was brimming with interest in such topics, but right now, her desire to hear what Rei had done today outweighed her curiosity, so she urged him on without interrupting.
"And? This Roger is the man who led those who attacked Seto yesterday, correct? For him to have been waiting for thee... was it for revenge?"
"No, that's not it. I'll skip the details, but ultimately I ended up giving Roger some monster materials from the Forest of Magic, and in exchange, I received a golem."
"As my lady, I would like to hear about that process."
For Maruka, there was strong interest in what kind of exchange had taken place between Rei and Roger.
However, judging from Rei's demeanor, she determined that even if she asked, he probably wouldn't tell her, so she stopped pressing any further.
"Still, the Forest of Magic, eh. That is quite generous of thee."
Naturally, as the daughter of Duke Quento's House, Maruka also knew about the Forest of Magic that existed in the frontier.
Including the fact that one fundamentally should not approach it.
Because of that, monster materials from the Forest of Magic were quite rare.
If sold to the right buyer, it wouldn't be strange for them to be traded at unbelievable prices.
"Generous, you say. It's not like they were A-Rank monster materials or anything. They were just monsters that showed up in fairly large quantities."
Orc Nagas were monsters that, while few in number in the Forest of Magic, acted in groups.
Because of that, Rei's Misty Ring contained large quantities of their corpses and dissected materials, so handing some over to Roger was nothing he particularly felt dissatisfied about.
Granted, that was strictly Rei's own perception, and considering they were materials from unknown monsters, it would normally be something to make a huge fuss over.
It was precisely because Roger understood their value that he told Rei he would make a defensive golem.
He had judged that the cleaning golem Rei wanted alone was nowhere near enough to compensate for the materials.
In that sense, Roger was fairly honest in his dealings.
"Then, after that, I went to the Guild and this time actually met Lindy, and after a meal, we went bandit hunting."
"Hold it right there!"
Maruka spoke as if the words had slipped out before she could stop them.
Fortunately, her voice wasn't loud enough for the customers at other tables to hear.
However, the other customers already knew Rei's identity.
Given that, it was only natural that they would want to get acquainted with him if possible.
In the end, Maruka's voice went unheard, but there was no doubt that many were watching the scene.
That said, the people being watched showed no sign of caring about those gazes whatsoever.
"What is it?"
"What is it, indeed. I can understand having a meal and going shopping. Or even having a meal and... heading to some inn, I would accept. But why does it become bandit hunting from there? What dost thou think a date is?"
"No, it wasn't a date or anything like that."
For Maruka, this was a case of being built up with expectations only to be thoroughly betrayed.
She had probably been expecting a sweeter, more romantic development.
For the result to be this instead, it would have been more unreasonable for her not to feel dissatisfied.
"Look, I can guess what you're misunderstanding, but Lindy and I aren't in that kind of relationship, okay?"
"Mmph... then why did it come to bandit hunting?"
She hadn't completely accepted Rei's words, but still, holding onto the thought that perhaps maybe..., she prompted him to continue.
"Do you know about how the bandits around Egginis have been suddenly disappearing lately?"
"Ah, I know that. I was looking into various things for the young lady's business, after all."
Nicky, who had been enjoying his meal while listening up to that point, said this in response to Rei's words.
"Hmm, now that thou mention it, I feel like I may or may not have heard about that from Nicky before."
"No, I definitely explained it properly, didn't I? ...Anyway, the bandits around Egginis suddenly disappearing is starting to become a rumor."
"Starting to? That's awfully late. From what I heard, the bandits had been disappearing for quite a while now.... Ah, of course the perception would differ between the bandits who are actually disappearing and the residents of Egginis."
When it came to bandits disappearing, for the bandits working around Egginis, it directly meant danger to themselves, making them sensitive to rumors.
By comparison, for the residents of Egginis, bandits disappearing was important to their daily lives, but the fact that it was someone else's problem was the bigger factor.
...Though for the workshops actually selling golems, it was far from someone else's problem.
However, as Rei had experienced today, even when bandits disappeared, they were immediately replaced.
Considering that, it couldn't be helped if the residents of Egginis didn't notice that bandits had vanished.
"Has it been going on that long?"
"Yeah.... But at the same time the bandits disappeared, just as many—or even more—bandits have been coming to Egginis. Enough to feel unnatural, in fact."
"That's..."
Nicky must have also thought something was off from Rei's words.
Maruka as well, looking puzzled, opened her mouth.
"Does that mean someone is intentionally bringing bandits to Egginis?"
Confirming that no one around Rei was eavesdropping, he nodded at Maruka's words.
Relieved that, with the distance between tables being so wide, their conversation wouldn't reach the people around them.
"Yeah. That possibility exists."
"But why would anyone do something like that?"
"If I knew that, it wouldn't be so troublesome. But obviously, doing something like this isn't free, either. It costs a considerable amount of money and time.... Not to mention, if it became known that someone was intentionally gathering bandits in Egginis, getting caught by the guards would be certain."
If that happened, they would be severely interrogated about why they had done such a thing... and depending on the circumstances, could even be subjected to torture or the like.
If that's the case, I really can't imagine someone doing this just as some kind of thrill-seeking crime. In other words, it means they're doing this with some kind of objective in mind.
He could reason that far, but when he tried to think about why there would be a need to go to such lengths to bring bandits here, nothing came to mind.
"What reason do you think there could be for gathering bandits in Egginis?"
"Hmm, let me see. The first reason that comes to mind would be that it's the doing of some noble."
"A noble, huh.... That's possible."
Even during Gilm's Expansion Construction, Noble Faction nobles had caused interference time and time again.
Rei had dealt with that interference on several occasions, and ultimately it was Elena, the Princess General who served as the symbol of the Noble's Faction, who came and put an end to it.
It was possible that even without Rei's knowledge, some form of interference was still happening in ways that even Elena's presence couldn't uncover, but the overt interference had at least ceased.
The possibility of a noble extending their reach toward Egginis was entirely plausible.
"They did say the golem industry was profitable. It wouldn't be strange for someone to want Egginis as their own territory rather than an autonomous city. If that's the case, the suspicious ones would be the nobles adjacent to Egginis, but..."
"Hmm, that is unlikely. I say this as the one who suggested it, but if it were only a matter of gathering bandits, that possibility would exist. However, how dost thou explain the incident of the bandits disappearing?"
"Yeah, that's the part I don't understand."
"Ah, then could it be something like this? There's a noble trying to claim Egginis, and at the same time, there's another noble trying to prevent that, and a shadow war is being fought between those nobles.... I think it's a real possibility."
Put that way, Rei also thought it was possible.
He thought so, but there was still a reason he couldn't readily agree.
"If the one defeating the bandits is a noble, why don't they make it public? If they made that public, they could openly criticize the noble who's meddling with Egginis."
"Maybe... they don't have solid enough evidence?"
"Even so, if they're a noble, there are other methods they could use.... Am I wrong?"
"I won't deny it."
As befitting the daughter of Duke Quento's House, Maruka was also well-versed in matters concerning nobles.
From Maruka's knowledge, there were any number of means to denounce an opponent even without evidence.
"In any case, the bandits disappearing is the biggest problem.... The information I heard was also from a bandit, so I didn't have detailed information, and it's probably the same for the residents of Egginis. If that's the case, there might be various complicated circumstances involved."
Murmuring this, Rei reached for his meal.