There was nothing special about the cart that was being pulled beside Alektor. However, there were about 100 spears on it……moreover, most of the spears were either rusted or lacking spear tips. They were in such a state that they drew the frowns of adventurers, rather adventurers who specifically used spears.
The merchants who were looking at it were wondering why Alektor had bought those spears that looked like nothing more than garbage. Taenia had a bad feeling that she might be asked to use them.
In the midst of this, it was Rei who broke the silence as he took a step forward.
「I thought I said 20 or so would be fine……but you went and collected this many.」
「No, no. It really wasn"t that much trouble. As you can see, there are things which are basically useless unless repaired or were going to be thrown away. Because of that, the blacksmiths and weapon shop owners were quite happy about it. The result is this amount……actually, I don"t mind it that much since it hardly takes any money to collect thes.」
Alektor replied to Rei with a big smile. After all, the reward he needed to pay for hiring a rank C adventurer was just this garbage, so it was impossible for him not to smile as a merchant.
……But, Alektor happy thoughts would later disappear after seeing Set"s appet.i.te as well as Rei"s.
「Wai-wai-wai-wai, wait a moment, Rei! What are you going to do with all these garbage spears?」
Taenia called out to Rei, who was speaking to Alektor with a smile.
It seemed that Taenia had quite a few thoughts about the large pile of trashy spears as she used a halberd herself.
However, Rei responded to Taenia"s indignation to clear up any confusion. He didn"t feel there was anything wrong. In reality, to Rei these were just disposable weapons for throwing, so there were no issues. Since they were disposable, he was happier with the cheap spears that Alektor had bought rather than quality spears.
「What? Use them in battle of course.」
「That"s why! Wouldn"t it be dangerous to use these spears in battle!? If you stab an enemy with one, the tip or handle might break!」
Taenia warned with a serious expression. However, Rei spoke with a smile, saying that there was no problem.
「Ah, it"s okay. In the first place, as you can see, I use a large scythe, so I wouldn"t use those spears in actual melee combat.」
「……What? What are you talking about? Doesn"t that contradict with what you just said?」
Taenia looked at Rei suspiciously, not understanding what Rei had said. Receiving such suspicious, Rei immediately reached for the bag on the carriage.
「I use the spears for long ranged attacks. There are times where bandits use throwing daggers right? Think of the same thing but with spears.」
「No, but even if you said you can throw the spears……」
Because she used a halberd, Taenia had a good understanding of how much a spear weighed. A spear, even a light one, was typical 2-3kg. If it were a heavy one, it would be closer to 5kg. She knew because the halberd she used was just under 5kg.
「Hm? Ah, that"s right. You don"t know what I can do. I can do this.」
Even wearing his robe, Rei looked short and delicate. even though she had seen him fight, it was hard for Taenia to believe how strong Rei was. She had guessed that the Death Scythe was a weapon with a weight reduction effect. No, technically that was true. It was conditional as it only had its weight reduced when Rei or Set held it, but when it was, its weight would be reduced to a negligible amount. About the same weight as a tree branch, chopsticks, a knife or a fork.
「It"s faster to actually show it.」
Seeing is believing, Rei picked up a bag holding 5 spears from the cart. He then picked up one of the spears as if he was picking up a small twig that had fallen to the ground. One by one, he stored them into the Misty Ring.
To put it simply, any words that Taenia was going to say dried up. Fabel watched on beside Taenia and the merchants who were part of Alektor"s merchant group. The same went for the people who had worked hard to carry the 100 or so spears here.
While being exposed to such an astonis.h.i.+ng sigh, Rei stored the rest of the bags on the cart into the Misty Ring, all the spears were gone in under 10 minutes.
「……I, I think I"m feeling tired. I"ll stay back at the inn for a night. Please take care of the rest Fabel.」
「Ahh……of course……wait, wait a moment! Where are you going!」
Fabel grabbed Taenia"s shoulders as she tried to go back to the city. If she really went back at this point, they would have to pay compensation for dropping the request, and above all, she would have to deal with Rei, this crazy person. Her actions were based on that judgement.
「Why, how can you lift a spear so easily. How much do you think I struggled before I could use a halberd freely? This must be a dream, yes. There"s no doubt. So let go Fabel. I"m going back to the inn to have a good sleep! I"ll sleep until spring!」
「Seriously, you"re still so weak to sudden shocks. And you"re a human, you don"t need to hibernate. Come on, let"s go.」
「No-! I want to go home-!」
Fabel calmed Taenia down, who had a tendency to act like a child in situations like this and eventually got her back to normal after several minutes.
During that time, the men and women who had carried over the cart holding the spears went back, leaving the merchants, the escorting party, Rei and Set.
……In addition, some of the merchants who saw Taenia acting like a child felt slightly uneasy.
「Oh, Rei-kun. So you took up an escort request? Well, that"s rare」
「That"s the way things worked out. You know, the last time I helped out with that Icebird attack.」
Rei spoke to Ranga as he handed over his guild card and the Necklace of Subservient Monster. Nearby, the other guards checked the merchant carriages for anything suspicious or if there were any issues with their ident.i.ties. After all, the Bestir Empire had caused several incidents within a short period of time, so the checks at the city"s entrances and exits was more stringent than ever. Ranga, who was the commander of the guards, was here to deal with any situations that might arise, in addition to his usual work here.
「Ah, come to think of it.」
Ranga must have recalled the incident a few days ago. Rei nodded in reply.
「Has there been anyone attacked by monsters since then?」
「About that, not since then. After all, there are few people who would come to Gilm in this season.」
Ranga replied, implying that merchants like Alektor were rare. That was also why their ident.i.ty checks were much stricter.
「I see. Well, I don"t think there will be any issues……with regards to that, I"ll leave it to the experts.」
「Ah, that would be a great help.」
While conversing like that, the security check finally finished with no issues.
「Okay, you can pa.s.s. ……Rei-kun, be careful.」
With those parting words, Rei and the others left the city.
「Well then, I"ll be on the left of the caravan. Fabel will be on the right. Louise is an archer, so she"ll keep an eye out for monster or bandit attacks from the middle. Rei, I"ll leave the back to you. Because Set"s sense of smell is sharper than the rest of us all, he"ll know immediately if something tries to attack us from behind.」
Taenia started to give instructions. You wouldn"t guess that just 10 minutes ago, she had been acting like a kid.
The expressions on the merchants also changed from unease to relief.
(Oh no……I didn"t think I would get so embarrased back there. Thank"s to that, all the looks from the merchants……this is all Rei"s fault. Doing something that crazy.)
「……Hm? What"s wrong?」
As direct by Taenia, Rei started to head to the back when he noticed a gaze.
Taenia seemed to be looking at him as if she was holding a grudge.
「No-Nothing. Rather, the rearguard is a very important place for an escort, so be sure to stay wary!」
「Is it fine to give me such an important location?」
「Because you have Set.」
Rei thought that it might have been because they were lacking in numbers, but as he had never received a merchant escort request before, he gave a sigh thinking it couldn"t be helped. As it had been up to now, he asked Taenia what he had been wondering about.
「The merchants are in the carriage, but are we walking?」
Hearing that question, Taenia replied to Rei with a somewhat shocked expression.
「What, you want ride comfortably in the carriage as an escort? If you stay inside the carriage, you won"t be able to respond quickly to monster attacks.」
「I understand that, but if everyone just rode on the carriage and travelled faster, the risk of an attack would be lower.」
「It"s true that some parties have taken that approach. In short, the trade off is that the number of attacks is reduced, but the response of the escort is a lot slower when they are attacked. That"s why we stay outside.」
「So that"s why. It"s definitely true that if you"re inside the carriage, the response to an emergency event will be a lot slower than if you were walking outside.」
Rei nodded at Taenia"s explanation. At that moment, Alektor came by and added in a few words.
「As I said in the guild, because of the Icebird attack, we lost a carriage and one of the escort parties. That"s why the carriages are loaded to the limit with products from Gilm. I"m sorry but the merchants are actually crammed in to the point that they can barely squeeze in themselves, so that"s why we can"t afford to let any of the adventurers ride inside.」
「……Is what he said. Understand? Go on then, head to your position! It"s almost time to leave the city, so we have to get our formation together.」
「Understood. Set, let"s go. We"re at the back.」
「Guru~」
Set gave a cry at Rei"s words and turned to head to the back.
While stroking Set"s head, Rei recalled that he still hadn"t used the magic stones from the Icebirds yet.
With the carriages lined up in a row, Rei and the rest started on the road from Gilm to Abuero.
That said, although they were lined up, there were only two carriage. It was a situation where Rei and the others were just serving as guards in the surroundings Taenia directed as she walked to the front and back.
「……Hm, it"s getting much brighter.」
「Guru? ……Guru~」
Both Rei and Set looked up at the sky. At the end of their line of sight was the dazzling sun. Fortunately, it wasn"t snowing, a fine winter day.
「Well, I can"t do anything about the cold.」
When he looked to the roadside, he would see several ice needles on the ground. With a mischievious thought, Rei stepped on one of them. A clear crisp sound was heard.
「Guru?」
Seeing Set give a cry, saying that he would like to try himself, Rei immediately remembered his role as an escort and headed back towards the carriage.
From behind, he could hear Set crush the ice needles with a happy cry.