Port City Emoshion. It was the name of the largest port city in the Mireana Kingdom. It was famous as a centre of trade that used the sea. Part of the Bestir Empire’s goal in the war that had just occurred was to take the city of Emoshion.
Due to the large number of ships that came through every, day the city’s population fluctuated day to day. However, it usually hovered between 500,000 to 600,000 people.
Ships from other countries and continents would come through this port, meaning that the city of Emoshion brought many benefits to the Mireana Kingdom.
Naturally, there were many people who targeted the wealth the city brought, resulting in the appearance of many bandits and pirates around the city.
Rei, who received a brief run down of the city from Marina, nodded as he asked.
「So, why do I have to go all that way to Emoshion?」
「Don’t misunderstand, I’m not ordering you do go. It is more like, would you like to go?」
Marina told Rei that this was more of a request from the guild rather than a directive. But for Rei, that wasn’t really the problem.
「But why?」
「Fu~……well, actually, a large monster has made appearances off the coast of Emoshion over the last half month or so. It has been sinking ships trying to enter the harbour. Of course, it’s not sinking all ships. Ones which happened to have well known adventurers on them were able to fight it off. However, they’ve still taken a fair bit of damage. Enough that the position of the port city of Emoshion will be in danger if the monster isn’t dealt with.」
Marina didn’t speak in a particularly serious tone, but the contents of events she spoke of were heavy. Given the benefits that the port city of Emoshion brought to the Mireana Kingdom, it seemed that the higher ups in Emoshion wanted to destroy the monster as soon as they could.
Hearing about it, Rei suddenly recalled what he had heard from Elk previously.
「Come to think of it, Elk previously mentioned that he had once fought a monster for several days and nights at a port city……was that at Emoshion?」
「Well, I definitely have sent Axe of the Thunder God there before. However, the difference this time is that the monster hasn’t directly attacked the port. That’s why there has been relatively little damage compared with previous times. But on the other hand, since it doesn’t come out from the sea, it hasn’t been possible to kill it, only repelling it temporarily.」
「……I see.」
At Marina’s words, Rei understood what the difficulty was.
If it attacked the port, it would have to leave the sea unless it had some sort of long range attack. That would mean that land based attacks would be effective against the monster. However, if it didn’t approach the port, that would mean that it was sitting under the sea outside the port.
Even if they tried to forcefully attack the monster, the sea itself would become a barrier that would block their attacks.
「What about using water magic?」
「I’m afraid it’s impossible. As Emoshion is a port city, there are quite a number of people who can use water magic, a mage from a B rank party also tried……but it seems that the monster itself is able to use water magic, so it had very little effect.」
「Very little? So it had some effect?」
「Yes. Somewhat……kind of.」
Marina replied vaguely.
「Were there any problems?」
「Water magic has relatively good healing spells. What I mean is……」
That was all Marina said. At that point, Rei could already guess what the problem was as he asked with a frown.
「The monster also uses healing magic?」
「Unfortunately yes. To be more exact, it’s closer to regeneration magic than healing magic.」
「……What do you want me to do against something like that?」
At the bare minimum, the monster could use the sea as a shield. With regards to the match up, there were few opponents that would be harder for Rei to fight against than this. And above all……
「As you know, I am best with fire magic. Disregarding that it won’t be effective against something that lives in the sea and that it can regenerate, I don’t even have a way of hitting it.」
Marina shook her head as she gave a sigh.
「Indeed, fire magic won’t be effective, but don’t you have other ways to attack, Rei? I heard that your magic scythe can use wind and fire magic. And above all, you have an absolute advantage that other adventurers in Emoshion don’t have.」
「An absolute advantage?」
「Yes. Don’t you have a tamed Griffon, Rei? In fact, I’ve seen you fly on it before. The ability to fly gives you an overwhelming advantage against everyone else in this case.」
「……Well, that’s true.」
Rei had experienced how great an advantage it was to fly at the Selemous Plains. But on the other hand, if flying was such a great advantage, Rei wasn’t the only one who could fly.
「Then, why don’t you send Dragon Knights?」
「A Dragon Knight costs a lot of money. If we sent one out, we’d of course have to pay for it as well.」
「But isn’t Emoshion one of the largest port cities in the Mireana Kingdom? If they take too long to kill the monster blocking the port, won’t the amount of money entering the kingdom decrease?」
「That is true. But if we used that as an excuse to send out a Dragon Knight for free, we will end up with requests from all over the country and adventurers will start to lose their jobs. After all, if they can request Dragon Knights for free, they don’t have to pay to hire adventurers.」
「I see.」
At Marina’s words, the reasoning hit Rei.
If they could get rid of monsters without needing to spend any money, or more to the point, if the military’s elite, the Dragon Knights, could exterminate monsters for them, every lord would request for them.
「Besides, Dragon Knights are a small group of elites due to the cost of training one. If they had to work continuously without taking any breaks, the Dragon Knights would be exhausted.」
「……That’s true.」
Rei nodded as he replied.
「Well, that’s why the guild in Emoshion got in touch with other guild branches in the Mireana Kingdomwith as well as guilds from neighbouring countries.」
「They want to kill the monster at sea?」
At Rei’s natural question, Marina shook her head silently.
「It’s a bit different. It is similar to calling for adventurers to fight in the war, but a large prize for killing the monster has been offered instead. It’s quite a sum of money. Right now, it will probably be given to people in the Mireana Kingdom……but if things don’t go well, the prize might end up going to the adventurer guilds of neighbouring countries.」
「……So, you want me to go for it?」
Marina nodded with a smile to confirm Rei’s question.
「That’s right. You made quite a name for yourself in the war, so if you do it again here, it would be good from my position as the guild master of Gilm. Besides, there are some adventurers from Gilm who said that they would go there, but if they’re only D or C rank, they’ll just be going to their deaths.」
「No, wait, aren’t I C rank as well?」
「You realised that? Still, Rei is Rei. From the war, it was clear that you can’t be compared to an ordinary B rank adventurer. Shouldn’t you know? You created a fire tornado that destroyed the vanguard of the Bestir Empire.」
「No, that is an exaggeration. In fact there are now rumours that I have finds and gills on my legs and hands.」
「Fufu~, in that case, that would make you a Merman.」
Marina smiled as if that would have been an interesting prospect.
Judging that he had no chance winning in an dispute with Marina, Rei gave a sigh as he responded.
「Practically speaking, even if there is a prize, I’m not pressed for money. Besides, I have no real interest in fame.」
For Rei, he had enough money to not worry about his day to day expenses. If he wanted an expensive magic item from a store, he could get enough money by completing requests or hunting monsters with Set and selling the materials and magic stones that he and Set had already absorbed. ……That said, considering the amount of food that Set ate as well as Rei’s unusual appetite, it was true that the two of them needed several time more food than ordinary people to survive.
However, Marina had expected Rei to have no interest in the money, so she added a bit more information.
「I heard that you were collecting magic stones? So you don’t want the magic stone of that huge sea monster? Plus, including everything you did in the war, if you add on this in Emoshion, you’ll be able to take the rank up test to B rank. Normally, it would require a lot of experience after reaching C rank, but with two major achievements like this, there won’t be any complaints from other adventurers or guilds.」
Rei, who had been wondering how to turn down Marina, perked up at those words.
Magic stones. They were certainly essential for Rei, given the existence of Set and the Death Scythe which had been created by the Magic Beast Art. In addition, he had experienced the fact that the magic stones of higher ranking monsters had a higher probability of giving new skills when absorbed.
And, even if it hid in the sea, a monster strong enough to have sunk several ships was sure to give him a skill.
(……I see. Thinking that way, it certainly is worth doing. In addition, there should be many other sea monsters besides the big one since it’s a port city, so I should be able to get some new skills. I also want to do it if it means I can attempt the rank up test.)
Quickly summarising his thoughts in his mind, Rei immediately changed his attitude as he nodded.
「Well, talking about magic stones, it’s true that I don’t want to miss out on such a rare magic stone.」
「Ara~? I thought you would want to do it for the rank up test. ……Well, will you be heading there then?」
She probably understood that Rei had already made up his mind. Rather than asking question, her tone was more asking to confirm his decision.
Naturally, Rei nodded.
「Yes.」
「Well, that’s good. ……But, be careful. The goal this time is to be the first to kill it. Of course, I don’t mind if you work with other people to defeat the monster.」
Though she said that, Marina knew that it was highly unlikely. Considering Rei’s character, he wasn’t one to socialise. If he wasn’t lucky, there probably wouldn’t be anyone who would work together with him.
「I see. However, I feel like it will be a lot of trouble to split the prize money, materials and magic stone. Thinking about it, I think it would be better to kill it with just Set……I’ll consider it further once I arrive. At the very least, I’ll trying fighting it once to get some information and see how hard it would be to solo……」
「I’m sure that Rei and Set will be able to escape if you wanted to. Be careful, okay? Oh right, wait a moment. I have something to pass to you.」
Getting up from the sofa, Marin took an envelope and a piece of paper from a drawer at her desk before handing them over to Rei.
「These are?」
「This is a letter with my introduction. Anyone who is an adventurer can take on this subjugation request, but if you have a guild master’s referral letter, the procedures will be less troublesome.」
「I see, I appreciate this a lot. And this piece of paper……」
「It’s a simple map to Emoshion. I can’t give you a detailed map like I did last time, but if you have this map, you’ll be able to find your way.」
Looking at the map he had recieved, it was a simple map that pointed out the rough locations of cities. Unlike the map he had used when flying to Baar during the outbreak of Magic Fever, this was only a rough map……rather, it was a rough hand drawn map.
However, considering the importance of maps, the one that Rei had been given was still a valuable one. Of course, he wouldn’t get the death penalty for losing this one like what would have happened with the other map, but it was still one of importance that would usually only be obtained by those who held a certain level of position. For example, this would be something impossible for a merchant to obtain.
「Once you get to Sabrusta……no, nevermind. Anyway, you’re going to be flying on Set, so you don’t have to follow the roads. If you fly straight south from Abuero, you can fly over the forest and take a shortcut. If you continue flying after that, using the cities along the way as a guide……it might not take that much time.」
Travelling from the city of Gilm to the port city of Emoshion would usually take about a month if you hurried. However, for Rei, who had his partner, Set, it was clear the travel distance could be drastically reduced since he could fly and ignore the roads.
(It’s quite a big advantage to be able to take shortcuts and avoid areas that would be dangerous on foot.)
「What do you think? Are there any problems?」
「No, no problems.」
Shaking his head at Marina’s words, Rei stored the map into the Misty Ring.
「Right then. I’ll make a final confirmation. You will be heading to Emoshion?」
「Yes.」
「This isn’t a request, so you understand that if you don’t kill the target, there’s no reward, right?」
「No problem.」
「……Okay. Then, I’ll leave it to you. Fortunately, I’ve finished the work that had been piled up from the war. I’m not saying you aren’t, but I’ve got several other good adventurers around for now, so I hope you can take your time.」
「……Take my time?」
「Ah, don’t mind it. You must be tired from the war, so go to the port city, take a break and relax.」
Although he had some doubts about Marina’s attitude towards this event, Rei nodded as he made up his mind to visit the port city.
Port City Emoshion. It was the name of the largest port city in the Mireana Kingdom. It was famous as a centre of trade that used the sea. Part of the Bestir Empire’s goal in the war that had just occurred was to take the city of Emoshion.
Due to the large number of ships that came through every, day the city’s population fluctuated day to day. However, it usually hovered between 500,000 to 600,000 people.
Ships from other countries and continents would come through this port, meaning that the city of Emoshion brought many benefits to the Mireana Kingdom.
Naturally, there were many people who targeted the wealth the city brought, resulting in the appearance of many bandits and pirates around the city.
Rei, who received a brief run down of the city from Marina, nodded as he asked.
「So, why do I have to go all that way to Emoshion?」
「Don’t misunderstand, I’m not ordering you do go. It is more like, would you like to go?」
Marina told Rei that this was more of a request from the guild rather than a directive. But for Rei, that wasn’t really the problem.
「But why?」
「Fu~……well, actually, a large monster has made appearances off the coast of Emoshion over the last half month or so. It has been sinking ships trying to enter the harbour. Of course, it’s not sinking all ships. Ones which happened to have well known adventurers on them were able to fight it off. However, they’ve still taken a fair bit of damage. Enough that the position of the port city of Emoshion will be in danger if the monster isn’t dealt with.」
Marina didn’t speak in a particularly serious tone, but the contents of events she spoke of were heavy. Given the benefits that the port city of Emoshion brought to the Mireana Kingdom, it seemed that the higher ups in Emoshion wanted to destroy the monster as soon as they could.
Hearing about it, Rei suddenly recalled what he had heard from Elk previously.
「Come to think of it, Elk previously mentioned that he had once fought a monster for several days and nights at a port city……was that at Emoshion?」
「Well, I definitely have sent Axe of the Thunder God there before. However, the difference this time is that the monster hasn’t directly attacked the port. That’s why there has been relatively little damage compared with previous times. But on the other hand, since it doesn’t come out from the sea, it hasn’t been possible to kill it, only repelling it temporarily.」
「……I see.」
At Marina’s words, Rei understood what the difficulty was.
If it attacked the port, it would have to leave the sea unless it had some sort of long range attack. That would mean that land based attacks would be effective against the monster. However, if it didn’t approach the port, that would mean that it was sitting under the sea outside the port.
Even if they tried to forcefully attack the monster, the sea itself would become a barrier that would block their attacks.
「What about using water magic?」
「I’m afraid it’s impossible. As Emoshion is a port city, there are quite a number of people who can use water magic, a mage from a B rank party also tried……but it seems that the monster itself is able to use water magic, so it had very little effect.」
「Very little? So it had some effect?」
「Yes. Somewhat……kind of.」
Marina replied vaguely.
「Were there any problems?」
「Water magic has relatively good healing spells. What I mean is……」
That was all Marina said. At that point, Rei could already guess what the problem was as he asked with a frown.
「The monster also uses healing magic?」
「Unfortunately yes. To be more exact, it’s closer to regeneration magic than healing magic.」
「……What do you want me to do against something like that?」
At the bare minimum, the monster could use the sea as a shield. With regards to the match up, there were few opponents that would be harder for Rei to fight against than this. And above all……
「As you know, I am best with fire magic. Disregarding that it won’t be effective against something that lives in the sea and that it can regenerate, I don’t even have a way of hitting it.」
Marina shook her head as she gave a sigh.
「Indeed, fire magic won’t be effective, but don’t you have other ways to attack, Rei? I heard that your magic scythe can use wind and fire magic. And above all, you have an absolute advantage that other adventurers in Emoshion don’t have.」
「An absolute advantage?」
「Yes. Don’t you have a tamed Griffon, Rei? In fact, I’ve seen you fly on it before. The ability to fly gives you an overwhelming advantage against everyone else in this case.」
「……Well, that’s true.」
Rei had experienced how great an advantage it was to fly at the Selemous Plains. But on the other hand, if flying was such a great advantage, Rei wasn’t the only one who could fly.
「Then, why don’t you send Dragon Knights?」
「A Dragon Knight costs a lot of money. If we sent one out, we’d of course have to pay for it as well.」
「But isn’t Emoshion one of the largest port cities in the Mireana Kingdom? If they take too long to kill the monster blocking the port, won’t the amount of money entering the kingdom decrease?」
「That is true. But if we used that as an excuse to send out a Dragon Knight for free, we will end up with requests from all over the country and adventurers will start to lose their jobs. After all, if they can request Dragon Knights for free, they don’t have to pay to hire adventurers.」
「I see.」
At Marina’s words, the reasoning hit Rei.
If they could get rid of monsters without needing to spend any money, or more to the point, if the military’s elite, the Dragon Knights, could exterminate monsters for them, every lord would request for them.
「Besides, Dragon Knights are a small group of elites due to the cost of training one. If they had to work continuously without taking any breaks, the Dragon Knights would be exhausted.」
「……That’s true.」
Rei nodded as he replied.
「Well, that’s why the guild in Emoshion got in touch with other guild branches in the Mireana Kingdomwith as well as guilds from neighbouring countries.」
「They want to kill the monster at sea?」
At Rei’s natural question, Marina shook her head silently.
「It’s a bit different. It is similar to calling for adventurers to fight in the war, but a large prize for killing the monster has been offered instead. It’s quite a sum of money. Right now, it will probably be given to people in the Mireana Kingdom……but if things don’t go well, the prize might end up going to the adventurer guilds of neighbouring countries.」
「……So, you want me to go for it?」
Marina nodded with a smile to confirm Rei’s question.
「That’s right. You made quite a name for yourself in the war, so if you do it again here, it would be good from my position as the guild master of Gilm. Besides, there are some adventurers from Gilm who said that they would go there, but if they’re only D or C rank, they’ll just be going to their deaths.」
「No, wait, aren’t I C rank as well?」
「You realised that? Still, Rei is Rei. From the war, it was clear that you can’t be compared to an ordinary B rank adventurer. Shouldn’t you know? You created a fire tornado that destroyed the vanguard of the Bestir Empire.」
「No, that is an exaggeration. In fact there are now rumours that I have finds and gills on my legs and hands.」
「Fufu~, in that case, that would make you a Merman.」
Marina smiled as if that would have been an interesting prospect.
Judging that he had no chance winning in an dispute with Marina, Rei gave a sigh as he responded.
「Practically speaking, even if there is a prize, I’m not pressed for money. Besides, I have no real interest in fame.」
For Rei, he had enough money to not worry about his day to day expenses. If he wanted an expensive magic item from a store, he could get enough money by completing requests or hunting monsters with Set and selling the materials and magic stones that he and Set had already absorbed. ……That said, considering the amount of food that Set ate as well as Rei’s unusual appetite, it was true that the two of them needed several time more food than ordinary people to survive.
However, Marina had expected Rei to have no interest in the money, so she added a bit more information.
「I heard that you were collecting magic stones? So you don’t want the magic stone of that huge sea monster? Plus, including everything you did in the war, if you add on this in Emoshion, you’ll be able to take the rank up test to B rank. Normally, it would require a lot of experience after reaching C rank, but with two major achievements like this, there won’t be any complaints from other adventurers or guilds.」
Rei, who had been wondering how to turn down Marina, perked up at those words.
Magic stones. They were certainly essential for Rei, given the existence of Set and the Death Scythe which had been created by the Magic Beast Art. In addition, he had experienced the fact that the magic stones of higher ranking monsters had a higher probability of giving new skills when absorbed.
And, even if it hid in the sea, a monster strong enough to have sunk several ships was sure to give him a skill.
(……I see. Thinking that way, it certainly is worth doing. In addition, there should be many other sea monsters besides the big one since it’s a port city, so I should be able to get some new skills. I also want to do it if it means I can attempt the rank up test.)
Quickly summarising his thoughts in his mind, Rei immediately changed his attitude as he nodded.
「Well, talking about magic stones, it’s true that I don’t want to miss out on such a rare magic stone.」
「Ara~? I thought you would want to do it for the rank up test. ……Well, will you be heading there then?」
She probably understood that Rei had already made up his mind. Rather than asking question, her tone was more asking to confirm his decision.
Naturally, Rei nodded.
「Yes.」
「Well, that’s good. ……But, be careful. The goal this time is to be the first to kill it. Of course, I don’t mind if you work with other people to defeat the monster.」
Though she said that, Marina knew that it was highly unlikely. Considering Rei’s character, he wasn’t one to socialise. If he wasn’t lucky, there probably wouldn’t be anyone who would work together with him.
「I see. However, I feel like it will be a lot of trouble to split the prize money, materials and magic stone. Thinking about it, I think it would be better to kill it with just Set……I’ll consider it further once I arrive. At the very least, I’ll trying fighting it once to get some information and see how hard it would be to solo……」
「I’m sure that Rei and Set will be able to escape if you wanted to. Be careful, okay? Oh right, wait a moment. I have something to pass to you.」
Getting up from the sofa, Marin took an envelope and a piece of paper from a drawer at her desk before handing them over to Rei.
「These are?」
「This is a letter with my introduction. Anyone who is an adventurer can take on this subjugation request, but if you have a guild master’s referral letter, the procedures will be less troublesome.」
「I see, I appreciate this a lot. And this piece of paper……」
「It’s a simple map to Emoshion. I can’t give you a detailed map like I did last time, but if you have this map, you’ll be able to find your way.」
Looking at the map he had recieved, it was a simple map that pointed out the rough locations of cities. Unlike the map he had used when flying to Baar during the outbreak of Magic Fever, this was only a rough map……rather, it was a rough hand drawn map.
However, considering the importance of maps, the one that Rei had been given was still a valuable one. Of course, he wouldn’t get the death penalty for losing this one like what would have happened with the other map, but it was still one of importance that would usually only be obtained by those who held a certain level of position. For example, this would be something impossible for a merchant to obtain.
「Once you get to Sabrusta……no, nevermind. Anyway, you’re going to be flying on Set, so you don’t have to follow the roads. If you fly straight south from Abuero, you can fly over the forest and take a shortcut. If you continue flying after that, using the cities along the way as a guide……it might not take that much time.」
Travelling from the city of Gilm to the port city of Emoshion would usually take about a month if you hurried. However, for Rei, who had his partner, Set, it was clear the travel distance could be drastically reduced since he could fly and ignore the roads.
(It’s quite a big advantage to be able to take shortcuts and avoid areas that would be dangerous on foot.)
「What do you think? Are there any problems?」
「No, no problems.」
Shaking his head at Marina’s words, Rei stored the map into the Misty Ring.
「Right then. I’ll make a final confirmation. You will be heading to Emoshion?」
「Yes.」
「This isn’t a request, so you understand that if you don’t kill the target, there’s no reward, right?」
「No problem.」
「……Okay. Then, I’ll leave it to you. Fortunately, I’ve finished the work that had been piled up from the war. I’m not saying you aren’t, but I’ve got several other good adventurers around for now, so I hope you can take your time.」
「……Take my time?」
「Ah, don’t mind it. You must be tired from the war, so go to the port city, take a break and relax.」
Although he had some doubts about Marina’s attitude towards this event, Rei nodded as he made up his mind to visit the port city.
