"I'm home!"

"Welcome back."

As I returned to the inn and opened the door to our suite, the maid greeted me as if she had been waiting for this exact moment. She had never once missed her timing.

"Wafuーーーーー!"

At the same time, Nir pounced on me.

"Whoa!"

He must have been really bored because he knocked me over and started licking my face all over.

"Ugh, alright, I get it! Stop that!"

"Ahaha!"

This was hopeless. Tomorrow, I’d take him out to play to his heart’s content.

"We're going out to have fun tomorrow!"

"Wafuu!"

And so, the next morning, we went straight to the spacious area Fleur had told us about. The northeastern part of the city had rolling hills, with tall mountains visible in the distance. Once inside the dips of the hills, we were completely out of sight. This should be fine even if we got a little wild.

"Still, better to be safe than sorry."

"Got it. I'll set up a barrier."

"Thanks."

Rio moved away from us and set up a wide-range defensive barrier. As I felt the surge of magical energy, a high-pitched ringing sound echoed. This seemed to be a spatial isolation-type spell. It looked like we could use fairly powerful magic without any issues. However, the sky wasn’t enclosed, so we'd have to be mindful of that.

Even if we were just playing, Nir was still a contracted beast. He wouldn’t be satisfied with simply fetching a thrown ball. Besides, considering the future, it was important to be able to fight alongside him. The quickest way to gauge our abilities was a mock battle.

"Alright, here I come!"

"Wau!"

I leaped toward Nir and aimed a probing thrust at his jaw—but he wasn’t there. Suddenly, claws swung down at me from behind, forcing me to roll forward.

As Nir charged at me, I barely had time to raise my arm in defense before her attack sent me flying. Landing on the barrier wall with both feet, I kicked off and lunged back at him.

Our battle raged on, neither of us landing a decisive blow. We gradually incorporated magic into our attacks, but all it did was carve up the ground. Before we knew it, we had moved into the air, our movements shifting into a three-dimensional battle.

At some point, I realized I was also able to kick off the air and keep myself airborne. An unexpected but welcome discovery.

"Alright, that’s enough!"

Just as I was getting into it, Rio’s voice rang out, calling for a stop. Looking around, I saw that the ground within the barrier had been torn up, with some areas now featuring massive craters.

"That was getting good, but I guess it can't be helped."

"Wafuu…"

Nir looked dejected, but even that expression was endearing. He was supposed to be an S-rank monster, but honestly, he didn’t seem that scary to me.

Then, as if shaking off his disappointment, he ruffled his fur to shake off the dust before pouncing on me again and licking my face all over.

"Alright, alright! I get it! We'll do this again next time!"

I held Nir back with my hands and gave him a good scratch around the neck. Once he settled down, I used water magic to wash my face and then earth magic to smooth out the damaged ground.

"That wasn’t even enough to be considered a warm-up, but I guess this is fine."

Even with the barrier up, going any further would have seriously messed up the landscape.

After that, we spent the rest of the day racing to the mountain foothills in the distance and hunting the monsters we found there.

The next day, I took Nir around the central plaza and its surroundings, indulging in a tour of the food stalls. Of course, we also checked out other stores, but after seeing the items at the auction, everything else felt underwhelming.

"Maybe we should have explored the city before the auction."

"Too late for that now."

By the way, we also stopped by the Commercial Guild to check my account balance. When I saw that the numbers had reached eleven digits, my brain momentarily froze. Luckily, I had obtained a guild card before coming to the city, so checking my balance wasn’t an issue.

Four days had passed since we arrived in the commercial city. It was about time I did some work.

And so, after being seen off by our ever-reliable maid, I headed to the Adventurers' Guild in the morning.

I felt like I was getting more attention than the last time I was here—probably because of Nir.

"Hopefully, there’s a simple request available."

"If there was, someone else would have already taken it."

"Maybe some low-paying ones are still left."

"Ahaha."

The area around the request board was crowded with adventurers looking for jobs. There were many different types of requests, most of them unique to a commercial city—material gathering, escorting merchant caravans, errands for trading companies, and so on.

"Excuse me."

"Yes?"

As I browsed the requests, a voice called out from behind.

"Are you two, by any chance, Shu and Rio?"

Turning around, I saw a guild staff member. He glanced at Nir, a little wary, but at least he wasn’t freaking out.

"Yeah, that’s us. What do you need?"

Talk about bad timing. We had just come to look for a request, and now we were getting interrupted. Couldn’t they have waited until after we picked something up at the counter? We weren’t in any urgent need of work, but good requests might get taken while we were distracted.

"The Guild Master wants to see you. He says to come right now."

Right now?

"Eh, no thanks."

The staff’s complete disregard for our schedule made me refuse on reflex.