"...So in the end, Rei, you just played in the river with Set?"
Met with exactly the kind of withering stare one would expect from Marina, Rei averted his eyes slightly in the yard of the house Elena and the others were borrowing and nodded.
"Yeah, that's how it ended up."
"Guruuu..."
Seeing Rei's state, Set, who had been playing in the river alongside him, purred worriedly.
But when Marina's gaze turned toward Set as well, it quietly hid behind Rei.
It was a gesture like a child hiding from a scolding mother.
Marina felt her heart stir just a little at Set's behavior, but she decided that scolding Rei took priority. She turned her gaze back to him and opened her mouth.
"It's true that today was quite hot for spring, and I understand wanting to play in the river. And if you got covered in the blood and flesh of a monster that attacked you, I understand wanting to wash it off. I wouldn't particularly mind if you just played in the river a little. But..."
Marina, wearing a smile, paused her words. But to Rei, the smile on her lips seemed like nothing so much as a mask to conceal the intense emotions churning within her.
"What time is it right now?"
As Marina directed her gaze toward the sky — toward the sky dyed red by the setting sun — Rei averted his eyes once more.
...Yes, what spread out above them was a sunset sky.
From any angle, it was unmistakably evening.
In other words, Rei and Set had been playing in the river for hours.
Of course, it wasn't as though they had been playing the entire time since entering the forest — there had been the battle with the Aerowing, the absorption of the Magic Stone, and testing the newly acquired Tornado.
Even so, there was no denying that they had spent a long time playing in the river, and with Marina pointing that out, he had no counterargument.
"It's evening."
"That's right, it's evening. About the time when you start wanting dinner, isn't it? ...So, Rei. Do you have any words of excuse?"
"Sorry about that."
Rei bowed his head as he said it.
"..."
The one who looked slightly surprised at Rei's behavior was As, who had been watching the exchange from a distance.
Given the achievements Rei had racked up so far, he hadn't expected him to apologize so quickly.
As had been to various towns, villages, and cities, and most adventurers tended to have strong pride. And there were more than a few who couldn't easily admit their own mistakes.
Of course, there were also many who could properly acknowledge their mistakes and apologize.
"Haa, well, fine. It was hot today, and Set couldn't be stopped from playing in the river either, right? ...Putting the playing aside, were there any abnormalities in the forest?"
At Marina's words, deciding to set aside her anger for now, Rei realized the lecture was finally over.
He thought about whether there had been any abnormalities in the forest, but truthfully, the only things he and Set had done today were confirming skills they previously couldn't use and fighting the Aerowing.
As for anything unusual, the only thing that came to mind was Set reducing the Aerowing to chunks of flesh with Power Crush and raining down blood and meat everywhere.
He couldn't exactly call that an abnormality, so Rei thought for a moment and shook his head.
"No, there wasn't any particular abnormality. Though the fact that there were fewer monsters than expected might count as one."
"Really? On my end, a few monsters showed up. Orcs and other not particularly strong ones."
Vihera, who had gone to search the forest just like Rei, reported, but the only thing in her tone was dissatisfaction.
Fighting monsters was one thing, but she was unhappy that they hadn't been powerful ones.
"On my end, a few Goblins showed up, but after we took down a few of them, they must have judged they couldn't win and ran away."
"Porururu!"
Poro proudly declared that it had defeated them with its electricity, waving its nine tails, and everyone including Marina smiled.
"But Goblins are entering the Barrier of Lost Ways too. They probably came in during the period when it was weakened before Rei poured his mana into it... How troublesome."
Goblins could be called the very poster child of weak monsters, but in contrast to that weakness, their reproductive capacity was remarkably strong.
Before you knew it, one could become ten, ten could become a hundred — such growth was not uncommon.
And the area where the Goblins were located was the space between the Barrier of Lost Ways and the Protective Barrier.
It had a certain amount of space, but naturally it wasn't so vast that it stretched on endlessly.
If that were the case, what would happen if Goblins multiplied there?
Elena, who had been listening to Marina's words, imagined the sight of Goblins overflowing throughout the forest and showed a genuinely disgusted expression.
(Of course, for Goblins to increase, females are absolutely necessary. In that sense, it's rare for them to multiply that much... but still.)
The fate of females of other monsters — or women of humans, Elves, Beastmen, or Dwarves — captured by Goblins was a conclusion so horrific that even calling it "the worst" would be generous.
"Goblins, huh. Killing them isn't a problem, but the numbers are a hassle. And the moment they think they're at a disadvantage, they immediately run."
The one who muttered this, looking displeased and annoyed, was Rei, who had been getting scolded moments ago.
Vihera and Elena smiled faintly at the sight of him acting as though he'd never been lectured at all, even looking like he was putting on a brave front.
"That's right. I'm sorry, but starting tomorrow, I'd appreciate it if you prioritized killing Goblins. And Orcs too."
The one Marina's gaze turned toward was Rei.
Partly because among those here, he had the abilities best suited for one-versus-many combat, but also for another reason...
"It goes without saying, but we're in a forest, so don't use the Flame Magic you specialize in, Rei."
"I know. It's not like I can't use magic other than fire."
In reality, he was a mage specialized in the fire attribute, but using Death Scythe's skills, it wasn't difficult to mimic magic of other attributes.
More than that, Rei wanted to practice controlling Flying Slash, whose level had risen to five and whose power had increased dramatically.
Great power meant that much more skill was required to wield it.
Rei felt he had been managing Flying Slash up to level four reasonably well, but level five's Flying Slash looked like it would be quite difficult to master.
But... that was exactly why numerous but weak opponents like Goblins were ideal practice partners.
(Besides, Pork... no, Orcs seem to have infiltrated quite a bit too. In terms of gathering meat, I'd rather prioritize killing Orcs over Goblins.)
He still had a large stock of Orc meat stored in the Misty Ring, but both Rei and Set ate more than ordinary people.
For emergencies, he wanted as much Orc meat as he could get.
"...So, putting the Goblin matter aside, what happened with the World Tree situation?"
At Vihera's words, Marina, Elena, and Ara — the three who had been active in the settlement today — all shook their heads in unison.
"Unfortunately, we found no clues. I did investigate the Protective Barrier, but there were no signs it had been breached. ...Well, it's possible the culprit breached it with a precision we couldn't detect and then repaired it. ...Or it's possible that the damage to the Protective Barrier was restored by yesterday's incident..."
Considering the dazzling light the World Tree had emitted, Marina's words were by no means exaggerated.
Even if the Protective Barrier had sustained some damage, given that the World Tree had possessed that much mana, it wouldn't be strange for it to have been repaired all at once.
That said, if it wasn't just minor damage, it wouldn't be difficult for the Dark Elves to find it either.
"No leads in that direction, huh. In that case, it's probably safe to assume other leads are being eliminated too."
"Guruuu..."
At Rei's words, Set, who had moved to a slightly distant spot at some point, purred in agreement.
Rei had been scolded by Marina over the river play incident, but Set had gotten off with only a light warning.
Rei found that quite enviable.
Also, when Rei had tried to argue that Set was the one who started playing in the river, he was told that managing one's Tamed Monster was the Tamer's responsibility — a perfectly sound argument that left him with nothing to say in return.
"Then, what should we do from here? If there were an enemy we should defeat, that would be one thing, but not having an enemy to fight directly like this is rather unsatisfying."
The one who muttered with slight dissatisfaction was Ara.
Being more inclined toward combat, having no opponent to fight in this situation likely caused frustration to build up.
"Calm down, Ara. If the enemy's presence could be found that easily, the Dark Elves of this settlement wouldn't have been unable to do anything all this time."
"...That's true."
Marina agreed with Elena's words, but a bitter smile crossed her lips.
Naturally — she was essentially being told that the people of her own settlement hadn't been able to find them.
"So what do we do starting tomorrow? I took the request to investigate the forest's abnormalities, so I'd like to resolve it if possible."
As spoke while looking at Poro and Ielo, who had settled on Set's back and fallen asleep at some point.
Originally, As hadn't expected things to turn into such a big deal.
He was supposed to just investigate what kind of abnormalities existed in the forest and report back... but despite saying various things, As had no intention of pulling out now.
Partly out of the simple decency of not wanting to abandon the Dark Elves, but also because he saw this as a trial on his path to becoming a hero.
"All right. ...Vihera, could you assign Byune to our side tomorrow? Even things we might not notice, a thief might pick up on."
"...Without Byune, finding enemies will be harder... but, well, that's true. Resolving the World Tree situation is the top priority. How about it?"
"Nn."
In response to Vihera's words, Byune gave a brief reply indicating she had no problem with it.
(Putting Byune in is fine, but will communication be all right?)
As Rei looked toward Marina and Byune, that question suddenly arose in his mind.
Currently, the only person who could fully communicate with Byune was Vihera.
Rei and Elena, who had known Byune for a reasonably long time, had come to understand to some degree what Byune was trying to say, but if asked whether that was perfect, the answer would be no.
And when it came to whether Marina, who had known Byune for an even shorter time, could communicate with her, no matter how he thought about it, the answer could only be no.
"Hey, Marina. If you're bringing Byune, does that mean you're bringing Vihera too?"
"Eh? Me?"
Since Vihera had been planning to hunt monsters in the forest again tomorrow, Rei's question caught her completely off guard.
But she must have immediately understood what Rei was getting at. With a sour expression, she opened her mouth.
"If you absolutely need me to, I can join that side tomorrow instead?"
"...Hmm, I wonder. Honestly, I'd rather not reduce our outside combat power either. As I said earlier, there's the Goblin problem too."
"It's not like we have to deal with the Goblins ourselves, is it? There are skilled fighters among the Dark Elves too."
She was probably recalling the training ground where Rei had fought Optis. Vihera said as much, but in response, Marina wore a troubled expression and fell into thought.
(In terms of sheer numbers, having Dark Elves deployed instead of Vihera would be quicker. That's a fact. But...)
She didn't know the reason. She didn't know, but Marina had a conviction — something like certainty — that right now, it was better not to let Dark Elves go outside the settlement.
A woman's intuition... or perhaps something stemming from her bloodline connected to the World Tree.
"...No. If possible, I'd rather not let Dark Elves outside the settlement right now. I can only call it... intuition."
Normally, if someone made decisions based on intuition, they would often receive looks of exasperation.
But as a silver lining, perhaps, nearly everyone who remained here possessed a certain level of skill, and they were all people who had experienced firsthand that such intuition could save their life in a crisis.
Even Byune, who had the lowest combat ability in the group, had experience diving into Dungeons solo since she was young — though she was still quite small now.
Because of that, she valued intuition perhaps more than anyone else present.
As too, having overcome numerous crises in his experience so far, would never make the mistake of taking intuition lightly, nor could he.
"Then, tomorrow—"
"Wait."
Rei stopped Elena as she was about to say something.
He had sensed something... no, someone running and approaching this house.
As Rei turned his gaze toward the direction leading to the yard, the others followed suit.
And nearly all of them sensed the approaching presence just as Rei had... and before long, a group of Dark Elf children came running into the yard.