The day after Rei dealt with the Necro Golem incident, he set off down the main street with Seto at his side, just as he'd told Nina the previous day.
The group sheltered by Fusetsu—including Anne and Lindy—looked genuinely disappointed to see him go. But once it became clear his mind was made up, no one pressed the matter further.
To Anne and the others, Rei was an invaluable ally.
And when they thought about just how invaluable... he had rescued them from the Dolan Workshop, shattered Dailas's ambitions, and destroyed the Necro Golem. He was, by any measure, an overwhelmingly dependable figure.
Lindy, for her part, was grateful that Rei's decision to crush the Dolan Workshop had led her to find Golias.
Given everything they'd been through, it was only natural that his departure left them feeling anxious.
...Not that there weren't a few who welcomed the news, like the young man sweet on Anne.
Such individuals were very much in the minority, though. Most were plainly uneasy about Rei leaving.
He assured them he'd be back in Egginis before long, and they accepted that.
The fact that he had commissioned Roger to craft a golem but hadn't yet received it was reassuring enough for those still harboring doubts.
Golems were, by nature, extraordinarily expensive.
That alone gave Rei's explanation—that he would return to collect it—considerable weight.
In truth, Rei didn't desperately need a golem. He saw it as a convenience more than a necessity, which meant he had no real obligation to come back for it no matter what.
But saying so would only cause trouble, so he kept that to himself.
If a smooth parting was possible, that was best for everyone.
"Gurururu?"
Seto, padding along beside him, purred as if to ask, "What's the plan?"
Rei stroked Seto's flank as he surveyed the surroundings.
The main street had taken significant damage from the Necro Golem incident.
Yet compared to what he'd seen the day before, recovery efforts had clearly progressed.
The large number of people helping clear rubble was a major factor, but the golems played an even bigger role.
Cleaning golems scooped up small debris one piece after another, while larger models hauled away heavier wreckage.
The ability to deploy numerous golems of all sizes as a labor force was something that set Egginis—a city built on the golem industry—apart from any other city.
The workshops, trading companies, and even nobles who happened to be in Egginis weren't lending their golems out of charity. Robel and Dwanda were covering operating costs and offering bonuses on top.
And since those who contributed their golems during the city's hour of need would see their reputations rise accordingly, few chose to sit on the sidelines.
"At this rate, the main street should be cleared up pretty quickly. Though after that comes repairing and rebuilding everything, which will keep them plenty busy. The carpenters will be screaming in joy so loud it'll get obnoxious."
A surge of work was undeniably a boon.
At the same time, Rei wondered whether the carpenters already in Egginis could handle the workload alone.
Even so, the work had to be done, so the local carpenters would just have to manage.
Or perhaps, like with Gilm's expansion construction, they'd bring in temporary help from neighboring villages and towns.
Using golems as construction labor would give them a serious boost... but honestly, I wonder how practical that is.
Golems capable of hauling building materials didn't come cheap.
Whether a carpenter could purchase one and still turn a profit was doubtful.
Long-term, Rei felt sure it would pay off.
If Egginis's leadership created a program to subsidize golem purchases or offer discounts to stimulate the industry... then maybe, just maybe, it could work.
Dismissinging the thought as wishful thinking, he continued down the main street—until a cluster of children suddenly came toward him.
Wondering what they could possibly want, Rei watched as the children stopped in front of him and Seto, then bowed in unison.
"Thank you very much!"
They spoke together, voices overlapping.
Rei needed no time to grasp why.
These children were thanking him for the Necro Golem incident.
He hadn't expected gratitude from children like these.
He hadn't... and yet, being thanked like this didn't feel bad at all.
"Don't worry about it. It was part of my job as an adventurer. ...As long as your families and friends are safe, that's all that matters."
The Necro Golem incident had claimed a fair number of lives.
A significant number of people had ignored evacuation orders after hearing that the Necro Golem would pass through the main street.
Under normal circumstances in Egginis, a golem running amok wasn't especially unusual.
But the Necro Golem was different. Touching it meant being absorbed, and even without contact, those too slow to flee often died from the rot fluid and poison smoke.
That was precisely why a fair number of those who had dismissed the orders ended up dead.
If someone told Rei that children among those bowing to him had lost family or friends, he could easily believe it.
Still, the children were smiling, so he figured that probably wasn't the case. ...Though being children, the possibility that they simply hadn't yet grasped what death meant couldn't be ruled out entirely.
"Rei-niichan, you're amazing! You beat that huge golem!"
"Hey, hey, have you fought other strong monsters before?"
"Oh, I want to hear your stories too!"
The children clustered around Rei and Seto, chattering excitedly.
Rei watched them with Seto for a while before patting a nearby child on the head.
"I've got some errands to run, so I'm heading out. Sorry, but I can't stick around to chat. Here—eat these and help out with the rubble cleanup."
He pulled the fruit he'd bought the day before as a souvenir for Seto from his Misty Ring and handed them to the children.
At first, the children didn't seem to understand what they'd been given. Then one of them recognized the fruit and cried out in delight.
"This... is a Dwa Fruit!"
The words "Dwa Fruit" sent a ripple of surprise through the others, who stared happily at the fruit in their hands.
A fruit that grew sweeter in the heat—but once the temperature climbed past a certain point, turned bad.
The previous day, when temperatures had spiked sharply from the residual heat of Rei's magic after he burned the Necro Golem, Rei had bought every last one at peak sweetness and stashed them in the Misty Ring, where time stood still.
By now, after a full night had passed, the heat from his magic had faded considerably, and the temperature had dropped to only a few degrees above seasonal norms.
Even so, the fact that it remained higher than usual spoke volumes about just how powerful his magic had been.
In that sense, Rei felt a twinge of guilt about the lingering heat... but at the same time, he'd had no choice if he wanted to destroy the Necro Golem. That much was undeniable.
"It's going to be hot today too, so drink water the moment your throat feels dry."
Research into heatstroke, dehydration, and related conditions was still in its infancy in this world.
Depending on whom you asked, some people held views reminiscent of an older Japan—that collapsing from heat was a sign of insufficient willpower, or that frequent hydration was nothing more than slacking off.
Not everyone thought that way. Some, drawing on experience, made a point of drinking water regularly.
Hoping these children wouldn't end up among the casualties, Rei said his goodbyes and headed toward the Main Gate.
The children were already biting into their Dwa Fruit, letting out delighted exclamations at the sweetness.
Rei and Seto made their way to the Main Gate, where...
"Huh. It's already been completely cleared up."
The gate itself was still heavily damaged, but the wreckage was almost entirely gone.
When Rei had returned the previous day after defeating the Necro Golem, a considerable amount of debris had remained.
"That's obvious. This gate is the face of Egginis. They can't exactly leave it in ruins. Even putting aside appearances, there's a heavy flow of people—supplies coming in, people going out. They got golems prioritized for the job and had it cleared up by yesterday."
The voice belonged to a guard.
His friendly attitude was likely due to the fact that many of the guards who'd been in the Dolan Workshop's pocket had been rounded up the day before.
Under normal circumstances, having colleagues arrested would be far from pleasant.
But the guards who had thrown their weight around using the Dolan Workshop's authority had been a headache for the honest ones—those who hadn't taken bribes.
Having those elements swept away was undoubtedly a relief.
"To let people into the city, they'd need to clear it first. That should speed up the overall recovery, then."
"Exactly. The more visitors, the more money flows in. And not everyone comes just to buy things—mainly golems, of course, but there are also merchants bringing in and selling all sorts of goods that Egginis needs right now."
"Like construction materials—the more, the better."
"Right. They have golem materials, but you can't build with those. From what I hear, they're setting a limited window, but merchants who do business inside Egginis during that time will receive various incentives. They're moving fast."
Rei had no idea who had pushed through such a policy.
But he guessed it was probably Robel or Dwanda.
"In that sense, the merchants arriving in Egginis right now are lucky."
A policy of favoring visiting merchants would have started today—or yesterday at the earliest.
Meaning the merchants currently showing up had done so at just the right moment, blissfully unaware of the opportunity they'd stumbled into.
To succeed as a merchant... no, it's not just merchants—to succeed at anything, you need luck. Someone with bad luck will struggle no matter how capable they are.
Rei considered himself reasonably fortunate.
...Though "bad luck" might be the more accurate description, depending on how you looked at it.
Given his track record of getting swept into one incident after another wherever he went, calling himself lucky in any straightforward sense felt like a stretch.
"Anyway, you're leaving Egginis, right? Then you'll need to go through the paperwork. Doesn't matter how famous you are here—you still have to complete the departure process. Especially with things the way they are now."
Rei couldn't exactly argue with that.
The tightened entry and exit controls were plain to see, a direct result of the incident.
They were clearly on guard against criminals exploiting Egginis's current state to slip inside.
Rei nodded without protest at the guard's words.