The Aerowing, its head destroyed, fell to the ground—yet contrary to its size, it barely made a sound upon impact.
Intrigued, Rei drew Death Scythe from the Misty Ring once more and gripped it in his throwing hand, now empty.
He couldn't use skills that sent attacks flying outward like Flying Slash, but Death Scythe was still easy enough to wield as a pure weapon, which was reason enough to have it drawn.
A large scythe like Death Scythe would normally be an unwieldy weapon, but Rei, as if making a point of ignoring such common sense, approached the fallen Aerowing.
Though it had lost its head, the Aerowing was still perfectly serviceable as materials.
More importantly, with the torso intact, the magic stone Rei wanted was safe too.
(Well, everyone helped bring it down, so we'll need to divide the materials... but still, entering the forest and immediately running into a monster... no, there was that Orc too, I suppose.)
Rei's gaze shifted from the Aerowing's corpse to Set, who had unleashed the blow that destroyed—no, obliterated—the monster's head with Power Crush.
Set had already landed and was dragging its right front leg across the ground, scraping off the Aerowing's blood, flesh, and brain matter that clung to it.
"Rei, could you store that Aerowing in your Item Box? For now, let's prioritize heading to the settlement."
At Marina's voice from the carriage, Rei nodded and reached out toward the Aerowing's corpse.
In the next instant, the Aerowing vanished as though it had never been there at all.
"Whoa, huh? What was that!? The monster just disappeared!?"
From a short distance away, Jusura—who had played no part whatsoever in the battle—let out a cry of astonishment.
(She was barely surprised by Set, but the Misty Ring catches her off guard?)
When Jusura had first seen Set, she had certainly been shocked, her face frozen in astonishment.
But even so, her reaction was overwhelmingly muted compared to what a typical first-time viewer would display—like Odoban, for instance.
Though in Odoban's case, the reason she hadn't been particularly surprised by Set was that her wariness of Rei far outweighed any surprise at the sight of his familiar.
"Sorry to interrupt your amazement, but you'd better get back to Marina."
"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry, Marina-sama!"
Everyone other than Rei and Jusura had already returned to the carriage, and Marina was holding the door open, waiting for the two of them.
Watching Jusura scramble back to the carriage in a panic, Rei followed behind her.
But partway there, he felt something—a gaze—and came to a halt.
"...Just my imagination?"
He scanned the surroundings, but there was no one anywhere looking his way.
(Just my imagination, then.)
Muttering the same words to himself once more, he set off toward the carriage.
Even as he told himself it was nothing, he couldn't shake the feeling that it probably wasn't.
Even so, he chose not to search the area more thoroughly, because lingering here meant risking another monster attack.
Naturally, Rei himself had no problem being ambushed by an unknown monster, but he wasn't the only one here.
What's more, they had come all the way to the Dark Elf forest to treat the World Tree.
And if he was told that a missed magic attack would place even the slightest burden on the already weakened World Tree, then he couldn't exactly insist on staying behind out of selfishness.
"Rei?"
Marina's voice snapped him back to reality. He headed for the carriage immediately and climbed inside.
In the end, Rei never did find whoever had been watching him.
"Aerowing, huh. Another troublesome monster rears its head."
The one murmuring this was Vihera, who had almost no means of attacking flying monsters.
Almost—meaning she did technically have one option.
But that amounted to picking up nearby rocks and throwing them, which was hardly enough to satisfy her craving for combat.
After all, Vihera's preference was close-quarters fighting whenever possible.
"Well, it worked out fine, didn't it? At least we managed to stop the Aerowing from attacking Rei."
In a relaxed tone, Marina offered the reassurance.
Vihera looked mildly displeased at Marina's words, but said nothing further and reached for the tea on the table.
Incidentally, this tea had not been brewed by Elena, but by Jusura.
The fact that Jusura could brew tea at all surprised everyone present—even Odoban—but it was an undeniable fact that Jusura's tea tasted better than Elena's. Upon discovering this, Elena raised the cup to her lips with a distinctly frustrated expression.
Beside Elena, Rei reached for the bread baked with sweet-and-tart berries kneaded into the dough and turned to Marina.
"More importantly, the physical barrier—how long until we reach it?"
"Let's see. Monsters might appear like they just did, so I can't say for certain... but if nothing else happens, about three hours, I'd say."
"Monsters showing up isn't exactly fun, but if it's an Aerowing, I guess I can live with that."
At Jusura's remark, Marina and Odoban each nodded.
"Aerowing is delicious as a material, but it's also quite tasty as straight meat. When I fought one before, it was in a Dungeon, so it couldn't move around freely. Even so, I probably would have let it escape if Byune hadn't been there."
Saying she "would have let it escape" rather than "couldn't beat it" was a telling display of Vihera's pride, but objectively speaking, it was also the truth.
That Vihera possessed that level of skill was something everyone present understood.
Even Jusura, who had only recently joined the group, had seen Vihera's mock battles with her own eyes during their camp on the way back to this forest, and understood just how powerful she was.
That was why she grasped, clearly and firmly, that Vihera wasn't putting on a brave front—she was speaking from an honest assessment of her own limitations.
"Mn!"
Byune produced the long needle that had served her so well in her past encounter with an Aerowing, turned up the corner of her lips just slightly, and let out a proud sound.
"Byune's attack method is so versatile. Honestly, I'm jealous. Hey, Byune, if you're willing, could you teach me how to use that long needle sometime?"
"Mn."
In response to Odoban's inviting words, Byune shook her head.
Just as Odoban and Jusura had come to understand Vihera's abilities over their time together, Byune understood what could only be called Odoban's proclivities.
And by proclivities, it wasn't meant in the sense of any actual danger to anyone's virtue.
What Odoban enjoyed was, at most, looking at beautiful women and girls and lightly touching them for her own amusement—she wasn't romantically interested in women. At least, that was the understanding.
At the very least, that was how the traveling party saw it.
Perhaps sensing that the conversation was about to take a dubious turn, Elena spoke up to preempt it.
"How should we divide the Aerowing? I don't particularly need anything from it..."
"I don't need the materials, so I'll take the magic stone, and... the meat, if possible. Though for the meat, just 'if possible' is fine."
The first to claim anything was, naturally, Rei.
Whether for use with Death Scythe or to feed to Set, a magic stone from an unknown monster was something he absolutely wanted.
As for the meat, if it was said to be delicious, his desire to try it was strong.
"I know you've been collecting magic stones, Rei, so I don't mind."
"Right. No objection from me either."
As Marina and Vihera each nodded, the others followed suit with nods of their own, raising no objections.
Byune hesitated briefly, but ultimately decided to yield the magic stone to Rei.
She judged that being stubborn here would mean missing out on Rei's delicious cooking—and that was simply unacceptable.
"Then, as for the meat... honestly, there isn't as much edible meat as you'd expect given its size."
Marina said with a sigh, but her words were by no means inaccurate.
The Aerowing itself was large, yes—but that included its wings.
Without the wings, its size was halved... no, reduced to about a third.
Naturally, that meant the edible portions were slim.
"Instead of letting one person monopolize it, how about we save it for when we all eat together?"
Everyone nodded at Jusura's suggestion, and Rei decided that would work well enough, settling the matter of the meat.
After that, the Aerowing's materials—particularly the feathers covering its body, which were apparently useful for making bedding and clothing—became the subject of a rather heated contest.
The one who wanted the feathers most was Marina, and Vihera, opposing her, showed no sign of backing down.
Odoban and Jusura also wanted the feathers, but ultimately deferred to Marina. Elena showed no particular interest, and Byune seemed faintly tempted but apparently judged it impossible to insert herself between Marina and Vihera, so she contented herself with eating dried fruit at the table.
"Vihera, you're dressed like that—what would you even use Aerowing feathers for?"
"Oh my, the same could be asked of you, Marina. Where on that dress of yours would you use them?"
The two keeping each other in check was, in a sense, a battle of women.
Rei found himself idly thinking as much, but judged that getting involved would only lead to trouble, and so he turned the conversation to Elena instead.
"The horses pulling this carriage are massive. Looks like they'd trample monsters to death without a second thought. You mentioned something like that before, too."
"Hm? Ah, they've been thoroughly trained since they were young. Horses are naturally extremely timid creatures."
Even hearing that, few—no, no one—could look at the horses pulling this carriage and accept it as fact.
That was how enormous they were, with visages that looked downright ferocious at a glance.
Against a low-rank monster, they had more than enough power to trample it under their hooves the moment it appeared.
"Hehe, I can tell what you're thinking, Rei, but they do have their cute sides, you know?"
"...They do?"
"Yes. Ara is the main one who looks after them, but I help out sometimes. When I do, they become remarkably docile. Not quite as affectionate as Set or Ielo... but they do warm up to me."
The image of the carriage horses flashed through Rei's mind.
Their appearance would be better described as some other creature that merely resembled a horse... and the thought of such beasts acting affectionately toward Elena was something he simply could not picture.
"Hm? It seems you can't imagine it. Well, others make the same face when I tell them, so I more or less expected that. But, you know—since you have Set, Rei, those two might just warm up to you as well. Want to give it a try sometime?"
"Sure, that does sound a little interesting."
Rei's experience with horses had only begun after coming to Elgin.
And among all the horses he'd encountered, the two currently pulling his carriage were special in more ways than one.
He'd seen plenty of trained horses before.
But even compared to those, these two were in a class of their own.
Sensing Rei's willingness, Elena beamed with joy.
For the person you loved to come to like the same things you loved was a very—yes, a profoundly joyful thing.
It was a moment of unexpected happiness, but such moments never last long.
"My, Elena, you look quite happy. Did something good happen while I was talking with Marina?"
Vihera smiled and called out to Elena...
"Hmm. Say, Rei, did something good happen with Elena? It doesn't really have anything to do with me, but having that kind of atmosphere in the same carriage does make me a little curious."
Marina leaned toward Rei, emphasizing the deep valley of her cleavage.
At Marina's display, even Vihera, who had been about to close in on Elena, came to a halt.
"Hold on, Marina. Why are you coming on to Rei? Seduction is forbidden."
"Hmm. Is Marina not being a little shameless? A bit more... restraint, perhaps."
Elena and Vihera were so perfectly in sync that it was hard to believe they had been at odds with each other mere seconds before.
Facing the two of them, Marina merely floated a smile brimming with composure and smoothly deflected their accusations.