LEGEND

Chapter 228

「Rei-kun! ……Phew, I’m glad. You’re okay.」

Rei arrived back at Gilm after deciding on the distribution of the Icebirds and escorting the two remaining carriages back.

The guards, including Ranga, came out as if waiting for them and greeted them with a surprised smile.

「Has the request from the guild been settled?」

Rei asked as he gave his guild card over to Ranga.

「Ahh, it is being handled of course. As it was an emergency, you were also permitted to fly directly out of the city with Set. Because an application was submitted by the guild, you don’t need to worry about any penalty of flying straight out of the city.」

Ranga replied as he checked Rei’s guild card before returning it.

At the end of his line of sight was the Necklace of Subservient Monster that was hanging on Set’s neck, that would normally be handed over when leaving the city.

「That aside. A flock of Icebirds. Does this happen often?」

「No, no. There have been quite a few sightings of Icebirds, but it is rare for them to form such a large flock.」

「……In that case, this is a rare occurrence?」

「Probably.」

As Rei and Ranga conversed with each other, the merchants, escorting adventurers, Milein, and other adventurers who were sent to support them proceeded to enter the city. Meanwhile, one of the portly merchants called out to Milein, who was looking over at Set.

「Pardon me, who on earth was that person? Looking at his face, he only looks like a child mage apprentice in his mid teens. But, he had a Griffon, a high ranking monster, following him. He also showed overwhelming combat strength, and even magic. ……I can’t believe it.」

The other merchants and escorting adventurers listened in at the merchant’s voice.

Child adventurers weren’t uncommon and neither were monster tamers, mages and warriors. However, it was unusual for an adventurer to be all of them, and it would have been strange if there had been no interest.

Milein knew that, and even if she mislead them, Rei was pretty famous in Gilm. If they just asked shopkeepers around Gilm, they would be able to easily gather some information.

Milein quickly thought about it in her mind before turning a hand to the merchant.

An information fee. It was clear what she was asking for.

As a merchant, he understood the importance of information and handed over a silver coin to Milein without hesitating.

Milein had been thinking that the merchant would only give her some copper coins, so was quite amazed at the amount of money the merchant had given her. However, she spoke into the merchant’s ear without revealing her surprise. To the merchant, to get information on a adventurer of that strength, it wouldn’t have been a loss for him to give a gold coin, let alone a silver coin.

「His name is Rei. The Griffon is Set-cha……no, Set. It’s been only half a year since he arrived at Gilm, but right now he’s the most well known adventurer in Gilm. He holds the record for the fastest rank up time from registration to rank D. ……Oh, that’s not right. After finishing his request with Baslero, he’ll be rank C. Well, it is true that Gilm’s adventurers are historically one of the fastest to rank up. Any how, he defeated a rank B Orc King while he was in rank G.」

「……That’s a lie right?」

The merchant asked Milein involuntarily as if he couldn’t believe it.

However, it wasn’t unreasonable. If you had any common sense, you wouldn’t believe that a rank G adventurer would have beaten a rank B monster. It was such a feat.

「Oh, I know. I’m sure the rumors are exaggerated. Rumors often have a life of their own.」

Milein shook her head silently at words of the merchant.

「Some might be rumors, but there is no doubt about the Orc King. That’s because he killed it in front of me.」

「……That is……」

「Well, as I said before, I can guarantee his combat strength. Right now, he’s in rank D, but other adventurers have said he can probably fight evenly with rank A adventurers. In fact, I’ve never seen the limits of Rei’s combat strength. It……」

At that moment, at the back of Milein’s mind was the number of special abilities that Set displayed, that a Griffon shouldn’t normally have, during the battle with the Orcs.

But, of course, she didn’t speak about that. After all, a magic seed made from the spell 『Seed of Contract』 had been placed inside all of the members of Scorching Wind, including Milein.

「No, never mind. As you saw in the battle, he has a lot of magic items. It seems he had a hobby of collecting magic items for himself. ……You could make some money there, couldn’t you?」

Milein grumbled a few complaints. In recent times, Set had had a crazy influence on Milein resulting in her grumbling as she was short on money, let alone money to buy magic items.

「Magic items? I see. I should be able to do something about it then……」

The merchant nodded as he muttered something about magic items to himself.

Milein continued to speak to the merchant.

「Besides that, he also collects magic stones. But, strangely, he collects two of each type. I asked him about it and he had that one is for ornamental purposes while the other is for conservation.」

「……Magic stones? No, it’s not that weird to have a hobby of collecting magic stones.」

「Aside from that, he also seems to be familiar with cooking. The udon noodles that were popularised in the city some time ago were also thought up by him.」

「Udon, is it?」

「Yes. Well, they sell it at food stalls, so if you’re interested, try it. The Satisfied Stomach is the restaurant whose owner Rei had taught directly, so if you want to eat it properly, you might want to go to the Satisfied Stomach.」

「Haa……still, to be the adventurer with the fastest rise in ranking and to have real skill. And yet to also be knowledgeable in other things. What kind of superhuman is that Rei?」

Rather than being impressed……the merchant seemed to be more amazed as he turned to look towards Rei, who was talking with Ranga.

「He seems to have been brought up by an eccentric magician since birth. Because his training was completed or something, he was thrown out to become an adventurer or something.」

「Really……there are such people as well. ……I was glad to be able to some beneficial information. Thank you. I’d like to thank you for this later.」

Giving a bow, the merchant sat back into the carriage with his companions and entered Gilm.

Although Milein thought to herself that she might have said a bit too much as she saw the merchant leave, she headed over to Ecryll when she was called over.

「Young master!」

When Rei and Baslero entered the guild, a shout echoed out.

「A-Ashie!?」

Baslero instantly realised who the voice belonged to, but before he could react, his small body was hugged by Ashie, preventing him from moving.

「Young master, outside the city……what do you think you were doing, going to fight monsters! And sneaking there on a wagon! How do you think I felt when I came to pick you up and heard about that……」

As she hugged Baslero tightly, her face was filled with tears.

「Wai-Wai-Wait a moment! Why does Ashie know about it!?」

The 10 year old finally escaped before he suffocated inbetween the two moderately size hills and asked Ashie with a shout.

The shout gathered the gazes of those who were drinking at the bar, but they immediately looked away once they saw the girl wearing a maid uniform and the 10 year old boy. The reason for that was because they also saw Rei, Milein and the other adventurers from the rescue team standing nearby.

「You didn’t come back at the usual time, so I went over to pick you up. But the reception said that there weren’t any kids around.」

「Yes, but you wouldn’t normally consider that I would sneak into a wagon right? I could have just stopped by somewhere on the way back right?」

「I don’t think young master would do such a thing when Rei-san had gone to help the people attacked by monsters!」

Ashie said that with absolute conviction and Baslero unconsciously stepped back at that power.

「And my maid’s intuition told me that young master had sneaked into a wagon.」

「No, at least make it a woman’s intuition.」

Milein, who was listening to their conversation, abruptly interrupted them.

At the sudden retort, Ashie looked around in a panic.

Up until now, she had been too preoccupied with making sure that Baslero was safe, she couldn’t help it.

「Ah, that……pardon me. My name is Ashie, a maid who serves Baron Cisne. This time, the young master has troubled you……」

「Oh, that’s fine. The only one hurt by Baslero’s actions was Rei. And even then, Rei didn’t seem to be too injured.」

Of course, Milein had seen Rei’s Dragon Robe blocking the ice arrows from the Icebird. However, she had no intention of mentioning that. After all, Rei was an extraordinary person. Since she knew that he was collecting magic items, it wasn’t surprising that the robe he was wearing was a magic item.

「Rei-san!? Are your injuries okay!? Healing magic……」

「No, there’s no issue since I’m not really hurt. As Milein said, I’m not injured. Rather, it would be best to bring Baslero back to the mansion. Today was the first time he’s seen dead monsters and humans. It would be better for Baslero to take it slow and rest today. I’ll head over to the mansion tomorrow.」

Seeing Rei say that with a straight face, Ashie judged that he really wasn’t injured and immediately placed the short wand she used for healing magic back at her waist.

「Is that so. ……Then in that case, pardon me and the young master. Thank you for protecting him.」

Ashie gave a deep bow of thanks and Baslero gave a bow to follow.

「Again, no need to worry aobut it. If you asked me if this was part of the combat instruction, I’m not entirely sure. ……It might have been a little early for Baslero to experience this.」

「Such a thing! I think it was a good thing for me to see it with my own eyes. It’s not teacher’s fault……」

Baslero responded in a panic, but Rei just put his hand on Baslero’s head to tell him not to worry.

「Any how, you might not realise it, but you’re tired. Go back to the mansion and rest.」

「Yes. ……Then, we will be waiting tomorrow.」

Giving a deep bow, the two of them left with Ashie holding tightly onto Baslero’s hand.

「When you look at them like that, I can only see her as a good sister.」

「I see that as well. More importantly though, Kenny is calling you. It’s about this urgent request.」

At Milein’s words, Rei, who had been watching Ashie and Baslero leave, turned to look towards the reception counter. Over there, he could see Kenny beckoning him over. Considering that the other adventurers with Milein were deflected over to Lenora if they went over, she was doing it quite skillfully.

The other adventurers didn’t find it as amusing that they were being ignored. However, they didn’t show it as Kenny was a popular receptionist and the one she was calling over was Rei. The ones that just wanted to head over to a bar or brothel early quickly finished their procedures and ignored what was going on.

「Look, go on, go on. Your beloved Kenny is waiting for you.」

「It’s not like I’m in love with her. Though it’s true she’s taken care of a lot of things for me……」

At that moment, a certain General Princess passed through Rei’s mind, but he dealt with post-processing of the request with Kenny without expressing it. In the end, the reward was only 5 silver coins, not really matching the effort required for the request. But in the first place, Rei wasn’t really that troubled for money and was happy enough getting his hands on two Icebird magic stones, a new type of monster.