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Chapter 196

「……Eh?」

He had originally been summoned by the real lord of Baar, but after being guided to the lord’s residence and meeting the person face to face, the noble had just fallen over and fainted. That was a concise summary of what Rei had just experience.

『……』

It was the same for several other bodyguards who were in the room. To put it simply, they didn’t know how to react for a moment.

The first person to take action was Comish, the person who had brought Rei here.

「Soleil-sama, are you okay?」

Even though the lord he served had fainted, he didn’t seem worried at all. No, rather it was like he felt it was truly troublesome.

At his voice, the rest of the guards returned to reality and rushed over to Soleil.

Rei just watched on until one of the guards eventually turned to look at Rei in confusion.

「Hey, you. Did you do anything to Soleil-sama?」

As a guard, he was confused when he saw what happened to his lord. It was no wonder he assumed Rei had done something. But the guards had been watching Rei since he walked in, if Rei had taken any actions, there would be no way any of them would have missed it. Although Rei was wearing a robe, he hadn’t put on his hood since he was meeting a noble. Because of that, the guards could clearly see his childlike face and delicate build. How could such a kid, who looked to barely be a mage apprentice, manage to cause their lord to faint. Those were the thoughts of the guards, so the question itself wasn’t really that serious. Naturally, those were false accusations against Rei.

「No, nothing in particular. Or rather, didn’t this happen as soon as I entered the room? What could I have done?」

The guards agreed in their minds at Rei’s casual response. However, Soleil’s reaction couldn’t be understood unless the person before them had actually done something.

「That’s true. But……」

The guard was going to press on and keep asking, but Comish placed his hand on his shoulder from behind.

「Calm down, Soleil-sama just fainted. He will regain consciousness soon. We should hear from him then. ……I’ll ask again just in case, but you really didn’t do anything?」

「Ah.」

Rei nodded at Comish’s words.

For some unknown reason, Soleil had fainted, a slightly nervous atmosphere began to form.

As bodyguards, even if Rei hadn’t done anything……no, in case that was true, they watched the surroundings in case their master was attacked by some other means. Rei was also unable to understand Soleil’s reaction upon seeing him. But……

(……Ah.)

At Soleil’s reaction at that time, Rei suddenly had a sense of deja vu. In the disturbance involving Bolton, he remembered a mage that had been unable to stand up the moment they saw Rei. If he remembered correctly, wasn’t Soleil’s response the same? From what he heard from Southernus, Diarog and Seis, Soleil was obessed with magic. In other words.

(Does he have the ability to sense magic power?)

If that were the case, it wouldn’t be surprising for him to have that ability. No, it would be quite reasonable. Rei thought that as he turned to look at Soleil, lying on the sofa.

One of the guards who could use magic was holding a warm light in his hands and touching Soleil’s head with it.

About 30 seconds the light that touched his head faded away. Soon after, Soleil opened his eyes.

He didn’t seem to understand his current situation. He spoke up as he looked around.

「……Mm? What happened to me?」

「Soleil-sama became panicked after seeing him and tipped the sofa over.」

Maybe the guard was feeling sympathetic and didn’t tell him that he fainted after knocking the sofa over and hitting his head against the ground. While Rei was thinking about that, Soleil eventually turned his fox like eyes towards Rei.

「I see. Did I faint? It’s certainly not surprising that I panicked after suddenly seeing someone with that much magic power.」

Rei reacted with a twitch at Soleil’s words.

(When I entered his view? In other words……)

As Rei thought to himself, the face of Runo, who he had met several times in the guild, passed through his mind. He was a veteran rank C adventurer who was active as a solo adventurer. The main reason for that was because he had magic eyes which allowed him to directly see magic power.

Considering the words the Soleil had just said, Rei became cautious of the man sitting on the sofa……that aside, the fact that Solei was looking at him with interest made it easy to guess that Soleil had similar eyes.

「So you are Rei, right?」

At that question, Rei wondered what attitude he should take……since he was a baron and Diarog’s boss, he decided to use more formal language.

「That is correct. I am an adventurer from the city of Gilm, Rei.」

Being told that Rei wasn’t an adventurer from this city, Soleil seemed to ignore it completely as he continued to look at Rei with interest.

「……Hmm, hmm. Is it possible because you have this much magic power? No, but I heard that the dungeon core hadn’t matured yet.」

Suddenly rising from the sofa, he began to observe Rei eagerly.

「Mm? Rei, was it? That robe you’re wearing, isn’t that a rather high quality magic item?」

「-!?」

At Soleil’s words, Rei took a breath.

From his past actions, Rei could tell that he had magical eyes that could see magic power. However, he didn’t expect him to see through the effect of concealment.

(I heard that he was a skilled mage, but it seems he was a much more skilled mage than I expected.)

Thinking to himself, Rei turned a wary eye towards Soleil.

Seeing that Rei seemed astonished, Soleil spoke with a smile.

「Was it surprising that I could tell?」

「No. I heard that you were a skilled mage.」

「Well, that’s right. It’s true that I take some pride in my skill as a mage. Or rather, if you take away my magic from me, I’m nothing more than a noble who indulges in hobbies.」

「……」

As expected, he couldn’t careless just agree with Soleil’s words, so Rei kept silent.

However, Soleil just kept talking with a smile without looking at Rei’s expression.

「Anyhow, because I was too passionate with my magic research, I kept playing truant from governing this city. There’s been a lot of fuss raised over the distribution of documents, financial statements and various other things. Because of that, I’ve handed over the position as the city’s lord to people in the city. ……No, as far as I care, I’m fine as long as I can bury myself in magic research.」

(……I see. A stereotypical research idiot. To make things worse, his talent in that area isn’t low. It’s certainly inevitable for someone with no interest in being a lord to avoid doing work.)

「So, that’s right. The dungeon core. Is it true that one appeared in this city?」

Rei guessed that he was moving onto the real topic. Soleil’s fox like eyes directed a burning gaze, resembling those of a researcher, towards Rei.

Feeling the meaning of that gaze, Rei nodded honestly.

After all, the dungeon core was something that had already been reported to Diarog and Seis. Even if Rei hid it now, it might end up doing more harm than good.

「Yes. As for the Magic Fever which spread rapidly around the city a while ago, I think it was probably due to the dungeon core.」

「Damn, I knew it. When I heard the report, I couldn’t believe it……」

As expected, he seemed to believe the words of Rei, who had seen the dungeon core with his own eyes.

With that matter, it was obvious that Rei, with his huge amount of magic power, was involved. And since someone with that much magic power had made a move.

「But, why did you simply destroy the dungeon core? As for dungeons, there are still a lot of unknowns. No, we barely know anything at all. That is to say, you have an item box, wouldn’t it have been okay to temporarily store the dungeon core into it?」

「The dungeon core was embedded into the ground of the eastern storage facility. In order to take it out, I would have to do something about the ground where the core was buried. If I did that, there would be a possibility of stimulating the dungeon core. Considering what would happen as a result, I was worried and couldn’t use that method.」

「However, isn’t that just speculation?」

Rei shook his head at what Soleil pointed out.

「There’s also a possibility nothing would happen. But, in reality, it started to produce slimes that spewed purple fog. The dungeon core may have taken that action because we discovered and approached it carelessly.」

「……I see. Considering the amount of magic power I felt from you, that is certainly a possibility. ……By the way, I stopped by the eastern storage facility before coming here but there wasn’t a single fragment of the dungeon core left there. Do you know why that is?」

At that question, Rei reacted with a twitch in his mind.

Regarding the dungeon core, it had disappeared right after Rei’s Death Scythe had destroyed it. Just like a magic stone, it had been absorbed.

But of course, he could say such a thing, he pretended to think for several seconds before speaking again.

「In order to gather the fog that had accumulated inside the storage facility, the guild master blew the roof off with a tornado. Could it be that the dungeon core remains were blown away or sucked into the tornado? ……However, in the latter case, I think they would have been destroyed by my magic.」

「I really wanted a piece of a dungeon core though.」

Sitting down on the sofa with a sigh at Rei’s words, he covered his face with his hands.

Rei waited like that for about 5 minutes. But seeing that Soleil still didn’t move after that long, Rei asked to leave.

「May I return to my inn if you don’t need me for anything else? I’m a bit tired today after everything that happened yesterday.」

「……」

Soleil didn’t seem to have noticed Rei’s question and was still absorbed in his own thoughts.

This was one of the reasons why Rei felt that he really was a research idiot.

「Ahh, well, that’s fine I guess? I might call for you again if something else comes out.」

Comish said that lazily, so Rei reached for the door……when he heard the thumping of footsteps running down the corridor. Because of that, Rei took a few steps away from the door.

What is going on? Comish and the guards all turned to look at Rei……

Gan-! The next moment, the door was smashed open with a loud noise.

「Baron Soleil! I have told you that you can’t just come back to Baar, so what are you doing so selfishly!」

The person who charged into the room immediately started yelling at Soleil when she saw him sitting on the sofa, absorbed in his own thoughts.

She wore a set of leather armour made from monster skin so as to not hinder her movements and carried a huge battle axe on her back. Rei held his breath for a moment when he saw her. He thought it might have been a mistake for a moment, but he was sure he recognised the battle axe on the back of the person yelling at Soleil. If it were just the face, there was a possibility it was just someone who looked similar, but it was a lot less likely to find a copy of a magic item that someone else owned.

Because of that, Rei called out to the person before him. To the person carrying the well maintained Power Axe on her back.

「Ara, is it?」

「The main point. Because Baron Soleil is a mage, you should act appropriately……eh?」

At the voice from behind her, her scolding of Soleil was interrupted as she turned around on reflex. Catching sight of Rei, her face turned into an expression of surprise as if seeing something incredible.

「Rei-dono!? Why are you here?」

The person speaking in shock was Ara Skarlay, whom Rei had gotten to know from a previous nominated request.