It was a place enveloped in a faint light.
The carriage came to a stop before that light. From within emerged the three Dark Elves—Marina, Odoban, and Jusura—followed in turn by Rei and the others.
"So this is the physical barrier... I never imagined it would be this plainly visible."
"Guruuu..."
Set, having moved alongside the carriage, rumbled in agreement with Rei's words.
"True enough. 'Physical barrier' is a fitting name for it. I wonder if making it so plainly visible is meant to put intruders on guard," Vihera mused.
"But as long as it exists as a wall of light, it inevitably stands out. If that's the case, wouldn't it be reasonable to assume there are monsters drawn to this light?" Elena replied.
Listening to their exchange, Rei casually reached his hand toward the wall of light with apparent interest—only for Marina to gently catch his hand and stop him.
"No, Rei. I believe I told you when we fought the Aerowing—if you were to touch the World Tree's barrier with your magical power, it could weaken the World Tree all at once. If that happened, there'd be no point in bringing you here, would there?"
Marina spoke in the tone of someone lecturing a child, but whether consciously or unconsciously, the gesture inevitably exuded a woman's allure.
For Elena and Vihera, naturally, there was no way they could just watch that and let it pass.
"Marina, rather than that, I would appreciate it if you focused on letting us through the barrier for now," Elena interjected.
"That's right. We've come all this way, and we'd rather not waste time here," Vihera agreed.
"Oh, I suppose you're right. ...In any case, Rei, please act with a firm understanding of just how powerful your own magical power is."
Marina herself probably hadn't meant to flirt. Once called out by Elena and Vihera, she distanced herself from Rei without any fuss.
Approaching the physical barrier, she murmured just a few brief words—as she had when undoing the bewilderment barrier—and a hole opened in the wall of light, large enough for them to pass through.
"...As expected of Marina-sama," Odoban murmured.
"True. She should have been away for quite a long time, yet she opened it so effortlessly..." Jusura added.
Vihera apparently couldn't understand what the two of them found so surprising. Speaking up on their behalf, she asked, "Hey, you two. Why are you so surprised? Dark Elves can come and go freely through the barrier, can't you?"
The one who immediately answered was, unsurprisingly, Odoban.
For Odoban, attending to the beautiful woman before her was more important than the fact that she had fulfilled her mission of bringing Marina back—along with two people possessing enough magical power to potentially restore the World Tree.
No—it might be more accurate to say that precisely because she had safely brought back the personnel needed to save the World Tree, she could now indulge in her own interests.
In any case, for Odoban, that was the greatest reward she could ask for.
"As Marina-sama mentioned at the bewilderment barrier, the World Tree has two barriers including this physical one. The bewilderment barrier isn't all that powerful, but this physical barrier is different."
Odoban's gaze turned toward the wall of light, where the hole had opened wide enough for the carriage to pass through.
"Beyond this physical barrier lies the settlement where we Dark Elves live. And above all, the World Tree itself is there."
"...Hold on a moment."
Odoban, who still looked like she wanted to continue, paused at Ara's words.
If it had been some random man passing by who said that, she might have ignored him. But since Ara was attractive enough to qualify as a beauty in Odoban's eyes, she couldn't bring herself to disregard her.
"What is it?"
"I know it's a bit late to realize this, but the World Tree is on the other side of this barrier... inside the Dark Elf settlement, right?"
"Yes."
As Odoban nodded as if it were obvious, Ara pressed on with a puzzled expression.
"Then why can't we see the World Tree from here? Given that it's called a World Tree, I naturally assumed it would be a massive tree."
"Nn!"
Byune voiced their agreement with Ara as well.
With the gazes of those two—and Rei, who had held the same question—turned toward her, Odoban offered a small smile and spoke.
"I think you'll understand clearly once you enter the barrier."
Rarely—yes, truly rarely—despite noticing that Rei was looking at her, Odoban did not reveal the awe or fear she had shown up until now.
Rei thought she had finally grown accustomed to him, but quickly shook his head.
It was probably the fact that she had returned to the land where she was born and raised—that was what made the difference.
Given that, Rei judged it better not to get too involved with her, and once again turned his gaze toward the wall of light before him.
Marina was already on the other side, urging them with her eyes to hurry.
"Come on, let's go. Marina-sama is frightening when she's angry, after all."
At Odoban's words, everyone nodded and proceeded to cross the wall of light—the physical barrier—walking behind the carriage.
The barrier should normally only be passable by Dark Elves, but it seemed that those recognized by Dark Elves could also pass through.
(If that's the case, I'd think anyone who wanted in could just trick a Dark Elf into letting them through... no, I should assume there's some countermeasure against that.)
Rei immediately dismissed the question that had popped into his mind and pressed forward.
The carriage leading the way, with Ara at the driver's seat, passed through the hole in the physical barrier with a tense expression—and made it through without incident.
"Eh? Eh? Eeeehhh!?"
The moment they appeared to have entered the barrier, Ara's scream rang out.
It wasn't the kind of scream born of fear—it was thick with astonishment.
That was precisely why Elena tensed for a moment, but even so, she didn't rush headlong through the barrier.
Once the carriage had fully entered, Elena, Vihera, Byune, and the others followed after it.
The last ones remaining were Rei and Set. And Ielo, sleeping belly-up on Set's back, perhaps exhausted from the journey.
(Won't its wings get hurt? No, it's a dragon. Something like that shouldn't affect its wings.)
Rei mused while gazing at the peacefully sleeping Ielo—and then, the instant he stepped through the hole in the physical barrier and entered the Dark Elf settlement.
Thump. Something pulsed.
For a moment, Rei thought something within himself had pulsed, but a glance at his surroundings made it clear that wasn't the case.
Elena and the others who had entered first, Marina and the other Dark Elves, as well as several Dark Elves who had apparently been inside the barrier all along, invisible from the outside—all of them wore expressions of surprise as they looked around.
"That just now... wasn't an ordinary reaction, was it."
That much was obvious from the state of their surroundings, and it was equally clear from the fact that the astonished Dark Elves' gazes were gradually turning toward Rei.
"H-Hey. Could that just now have been..."
"Wait, look at that!"
"A g-griffon!? Then, that pulse was because of the griffon..."
"I don't know. I don't know, but..."
"H-Hey. I don't know what that pulse was, but is it really okay to just leave that human be? Shouldn't we capture him before he does something?"
"No, but he's got a griffon under his command! How are we supposed to—"
"Either way, we can't just leave things as they are. Call Growler-sama."
"You idiot. Growler-sama is away at the Forest of the Elf-kin in the east regarding World Tree matters, remember?"
"Then what do we do? That man? Woman? No, judging by the way he moves, probably a man—but we can't just leave him be either."
"I'll go to the Elder's place for a bit. Hold the line here. Don't you dare let him escape!"
One of the Dark Elf women gave her companions a brief instruction before departing.
Rei, whose five senses were sharper than an ordinary person's, naturally heard those words as well—but he was hesitant about what to do.
He understood that staying here would lead to trouble, and since he had come to treat the World Tree, causing a commotion would weigh on his conscience toward Marina.
Looking around, the Dark Elves were watching him intently, making sure he didn't escape.
The fact that they didn't try to use force was likely because they understood from Rei's bearing that he possessed considerable power.
Even in such a situation, the reason they wouldn't let him leave was their fierce conviction that this was their homeland.
...Though the fact that Rei was deliberately refraining from violence was also a major factor.
(Still, what was that pulse just now? The cause remains unknown, but... thinking about it normally, it's probably related to the World Tree.)
Rei's gaze, as he muttered to himself, turned toward a single point.
A massive tree that couldn't be seen from outside the physical barrier.
It appeared to be at least two hundred meters tall, and its trunk was proportionately thick.
Rei wondered why such a tree hadn't been visible from outside, but concluded that the physical barrier was likely responsible.
"...Well, what should I do about this."
"Gurururuu."
Set rumbled in response to Rei's words.
Normally, Set would show no mercy to anyone harboring hostility toward Rei, but right now he was calm—partly because Rei himself wasn't showing any concern about the Dark Elves' gazes.
That could be called fortunate for the Dark Elves.
If they had tried to forcefully subdue Rei here, a massacre would have undoubtedly occurred on the spot.
In that case, before any talk of the World Tree's illness, there was a very real possibility that Rei and Set would have destroyed this entire settlement.
Especially for Odoban, who had directly felt Rei's magical power and harbored feelings of awe and terror, the tension was so extreme she felt as though her heart might burst.
In stark contrast to Odoban, Marina was racking her brain over what to do about the situation.
Capturing Rei was out of the question, but at the same time, she couldn't just ignore the pulse that had occurred.
She needed to thoroughly investigate what had happened—and in particular, what effect it had on the World Tree.
"Haa, haa, haa. ...Where is he, that man!"
"It's that man! He's beside the griffon!"
"A man? ...A man!? Oh, no. ...Phew."
The woman who had headed toward the settlement earlier returned, bringing about five Dark Elves with her.
The man who appeared to be their leader turned his gaze toward Rei at the woman's words, and for a moment hesitated over whether Rei was male or female.
But he quickly judged that this wasn't the time for that and spoke.
"Are you... the cause of that pulse just now?"
"I can only say 'probably.'"
The words from Rei's mouth apparently sounded like they were evading the truth. The Dark Elf's gaze sharpened, and the others who had come along gripped their spears more tightly.
The spears were likely designed for Dark Elf use—thinner than ordinary spears for easier handling—but that also meant they couldn't fully suppress the trembling of their wielders.
In response, Set let out a low growl beside Rei. The Dark Elves flinched for a moment but quickly tightened their grip on their spears, fighting down their fear.
Seeing this, Rei patted Set's head to calm him and spoke once more.
"I didn't do anything intentionally. It happened the instant I entered this barrier."
"...You have no hostility toward us, then?"
"Yeah. I—"
"Tortos, Rei was brought here by me."
The one who cut in with those words was Marina.
The man called Tortos wore an expression of astonishment upon seeing her.
Having received a shock equal to the one he'd felt from the pulse earlier, Tortos spoke with a tentative look.
"Marina...?"
"Yes, it's been a while."
"...Then, is this man here for the World Tree?"
He likely knew that Odoban had left the forest to go to Marina in order to treat the World Tree. Turning his gaze toward Rei, Tortos asked Marina, but...
"That's right, but it's not just that."
With a smile, Marina gently stepped closer to Rei and slipped his arm between her ample bosom.
(I'm sorry.)
Keeping her eyes on Rei, she mouthed the words of apology without sound—and then sealed Rei's lips with her own.
A few seconds later, she slowly pulled away. In the sunlight, a bridge of silvery threads formed between them.
"As you can see, Rei is my precious person. You may want to investigate what happened with that pulse, but please respond with that understanding."
So she declared.