LEGEND

Chapter 455

After Rei and Elena came out from the Silva family residence, Set sensed them and came over from the garden before they boarded a carriage that took them to a place close to the guild.

Although his face was hidden by his hood, Rei had a smile on his face, probably because Vosk had purchased the corpses of the suspects, their dungeon cards, and the Cactus Mimic for the high price of four platinum coins.

For Rei, he couldn’t absorb the magic stones, the key to his Magic Beast Art, from abnormal species as it would cause a phenomenon of magic power back flow, with Set being an exception. As a result, he wanted this case to be resolved as soon as possible. He had been hoping to sell everything for a few gold coins, so he hadn’t been expecting platinum coins……let alone four.

However, when Rei muttered that out loud, Elena heard him and shook her head.

「I think it’s because he know this issue will be bad if he doesn’t resolve immediately. After all, it was an incident caused by one of the governing families of Exil. It’s not just any incident either. It is serious enough to place the status of the labyrinth city in jeopardy.」

Saying that, Elena frowned slightly.

(However, from Vosk’s reaction, there seems to be someone pulling the strings from behind the scenes.)

Elena thought to herself as she recalled the conversation between Vosk and Sanctions.

Rei didn’t seem to have noticed, but he also nodded his head as he looked around.

「I see. So it was because the Silva family made a move first that there hasn’t been that big of a commotion.」

「Yes. It doesn’t look like the Marschel’s want to make a move, and if the Silva family didn’t do anything, in the worst case scenario, the Kingdom might have intervened. After that, various additional interventions would happen. That might be why they wanted to avoid that situation.」

「But……then, why doesn’t the Marschel family make a move? I haven’t met them yet, but shouldn’t the head of the Marschel family also want to avoid the Kingdom intervening?」

「Well, I don’t know. I can’t say for sure unless we meet the family head, Pree Marschel.」

「In the meantime, we’ll just have to hope that the issue of the abnormal species will be resolved as soon as possible.」

「Gururururu~」

As Rei and Elena were walking down the street and talking, they suddenly heard Set give a cry.

Turning over to take a look, they saw Set staring at a shop.

A sweet aroma drifted out from the shop.

「Is that……bread or something similar?」

「Yeah, it smells sweet and nice. ……What would you like to do? Do you want to stop by for a bit?」

Acting like someone her age, Elena seemed to have set her eyes on the sweet bread. Although she asked Rei, she had already started walking over to the bakery.

Seeing that, Rei, who didn’t dislike sweet food……or rather, was also fond of them, nodded his head before they entered the store.

As soon as they opened the door, they were met with an even sweeter aroma than the one they had caught outside, stimulating their sense of smell.

「Welcome, welcome to Dasley’s Bakery.」

As Rei and Elena looked around, they were greeted by the bakery assistant.

The bakery wasn’t that big and the door wasn’t that wide, so Set couldn’t fit through and could only stick his head in as he gave a few envious cries.

「Guru~……Gururu~, Guru~, Gurururururururu~」

The bakery assistant must have felt sorry for Set at his sad cry. The assistant, a woman in her early twenties, a little older than Elena, turned her head to Rei.

It was the first time Rei had visited this shop, but the assistant didn’t seem to be afraid of Set because she had seen him in the city before.

She had been charmed by Set when she once saw him eat a large sausage before giving a happy cry towards Rei.

「Sir, if you don’t mind, may I give him some bread? Looking at him like this, I feel sorry for him……」

「Hm? Oh, I don’t mind……」

Receiving Rei’s permission, the assistant brought out a few pieces of bread from the kitchen that were out of shape or overcooked and couldn’t be sold before giving them to Set, who was looking into the store with round eyes.

「Gurururu~」

Can I eat it? Set seemed to ask as he tilted his head with round eyes.

The bakery assistant seemed to have completely forgotten that she was dealing with an A rank monster as she tore pieces of the bread by hand and fed them to Set.

「Ahhhhh, what are you doing, even though we have customers to serve?」

A middle aged man in his forties called out in dismay as he came out from the kitchen.

However, there was affection mixed into his voice and considering that his face looked somewhat similar to the bakery assistant who was feeding Set, their relationship was implicity understood by Rei and Elena.

「I’m sorry, customers. Anyway, all of our bread is delicious, so don’t hesitate to buy some. If a beautiful woman like that young lady were to eat some, it would be worth it for me to bake it.」

The owner of the bakery only looked at Elena briefly without staring.

His attitude was new to Elena, who was aware of her eye catching face, and she felt quite good about it.

「There was a sweet aroma outside the shop, what kind of bread was that?」

「Hm? Oh, that aroma. Give me a moment. It will be ready in a minute.」

Saying that, the man returned to the kitchen. After about a minute, he came back again.

This time, he was holding a wooden tray lined with bread, from which a sweet scent drifted out int the surroundings.

The bread was topped with several kinds of jam and fruit, honey was also drizzled all over the fruit.

There were also several kinds of fruit, coloured red, green, black and so on. It was bread that could also be enjoyed visually.

「This is……amazing.」

「It is, isn’t it, but it’s a little on the expensive side because it uses a wide range of carefully selected ingredients.」

「How much?」

「1 silver coin per piece of bread.」

「……That is expensive.」

Rei, who had been listening in to their discussion, couldn’t help but mutter out loud at the price.

A silver coin wasn’t a price one would normally pay for a piece of bread.

However, the man just shrugged his shoulders wryly at Rei’s words.

「It’s definitely expensive, but whether it’s the fruit or honey, it all comes from a very deep level in the dungeon. To be honest, even a single silver coin barely covers the costs.」

「Why would you bother with selling something with such a marginal profit?」

It was certainly bright and sweet, one whiff of it would make you want to take a bit unless you didn’t like sweet things.

But when Rei asked him if it was a mistake to sell something that barely made any profit, the man spoke up with a smile on his face.

A confident smile that was neither bitter or cold.

「I just want people to eat delicious bread. ……But, I can’t bake that many since I still need to make a living. What would you like? If you want some, you’ll have to buy it quickly.」

Saying that, the man glanced out the shop.

The sweet aroma of the bread had become much stronger by the fact it had been taken out to the storefront, causing passersby to stop in their tracks…

Several of them were about to step over to the shop.

It was needless to say what those customers would be looking for.

Not wanting to get in the way of business, Rei and Elena bought a few pieces bread made with jam, fruit, and honey.

Normally, each person was only limited to one piece, but they were able to buy three pieces, including one for Set, thanks to the insistence of the bakery assistant rather than the shop owner’s favour.

Anyway, having bought the precious sweet bread, Rei’s group walked around the city as they savoured it.

The outside had a crisp texture similar to puff pastries while the inside had a soft texture.

The fruit jam……or rather simmered fruit, had a strong acidic taste. However, the honey on top had a rich sweetness that balanced it out nicely.

The fruit juice and crispy outside of the bread crust mixed together in the mouth when eaten, soaking into the bread.

It had to be said that the techniques used to bake the bread were top notch, but more than that, the true essence of the bread was still the fruit and honey, all ingredients that were sourced from the dungeon.

「This is……delicious……」

One bite wasn’t enough for Rei and he only stopped after eating another two to three bites before speaking.

It was the same for Elena. Her usual dignified look was gone and she had a fascinated expression as she looked at her piece of bread that had been half finished.

No, it was already good that there was still some left. Set, for example, had already finished his because it had been so much tastier than he had expected.

「Guru……」

Set gave an envious cry when he saw the bread that Rei and Elena still had, but the two of them didn’t care as they spent their time blissfully tasting their share of the bread.

After finishing their portions, they both gave a sigh.

It was a result of their desire to eat more if they could.

However, turning around, they could already see several people leave the bakery with disappointed looks on their faces.

It was clear that it had already sold out.

The bakery also had a rule that each person could only buy one portion. So even if there was some left, there was no way they could have bought any more.

「For something that tastes that good, a silver coin is certainly acceptable……no, it’s cheap in fact.」

At Elena’s words, Rei nodded silently while Set gave a cry in agreement.

「If we get another chance……no, I’ll definitely come back to buy it again.」

「That’s right. ……Would it be okay to stop by here before going back to the inn?」

As Rei was recalling the taste of the bread as he walked, he saw a weapon shop. The shop didn’t seem to be that popular as there weren’t many customers.

Elena was a little confused at Rei’s words.

She didn’t mind stopping by a weapons shop. However, she wondered why this one in particular.

「Why that shop? There are quite a few others that have a lot more customers.」

At Elena’s natural question, Rei shrugged his shoulders.

「I don’t want good weapons……no, I might buy one that I can use, but my main goal is cheap spears.」

If Rei were to use ordinary quality spears, the cost would increase in many ways. Since he only used them for throwing, cheap spears or spears that were lacking full tips worked fine. Using his physical strength, he could throw spears that would normally be unusable as weapons to strike fatal blows, albeit at the cost of the spear being destroyed.

It was something that only Rei could do, taking advantage of his Misty Ring.

That said, although throwing spears could be used as a powerful attack, it wasn’t something that could be done without a spear to throw.

His stock of throwing spears, which were stored in the Misty Ring, was starting to run low and Rei had been thinking of replenishing his stock for some time.

Judging that there would be more cheap spears in an unpopular weapons shop like this one, he decided to take a look.

「Welcome……」

Leaving Set outside the shop, they were greeted unenthusiastically when they entered.

Looking at the shop clerk, it was a boy about the same age as Rei, who was looking at Rei as if he was a bother.

However, he became distracted the moment he saw Elena.

As Rei expected, there were no other customers inside the shop, it was as if the bustle outside was just a lie.

He took a look around as he heard the buzz from outside the shop.

There was a section for weapons which had some kind of defect and were being sold at a discount.

Some had been used for a long time and were likely to break soon while others had been modified in ways that made it easier to wield for a specific user.

These weapons were often bought by adventurers who were tight on money or to be used as disposable weapons in training or other reasons.

Rei took all the spears he could find, ending with 10 of them.

「I would have liked to buy a few more if possible……」

Rei gave a sigh as he muttered to himself.

Although there was demand for such weapons, it was only from a small number of people.

Because of that, the number of discounted weapons was small so Rei, who only wanted spears, ended up only buying 10 before leaving the shop.