He lifted the still-unconscious Lugdus in his arms and stepped out of the bushes.
Seeing Rei do so, Set trotted straight over to him.
"Set, sorry, but could you carry this guy on your back?"
"Guruu."
At Rei's words, Set rumbled its throat and turned its back toward him.
Carrying anyone other than Rei in flight was difficult, but a single child was manageable — and above all, since they would be traveling along the ground rather than through the air, there was no problem at all.
"Niichan, niichan."
A Dark Elf child tugged on Rei's Dragon Robe, looking up at him with worried eyes.
Patting the child's head, Rei took out from his Misty Ring the whistle he had been given before setting out to search for Lugdus and the others.
"You don't need to worry either. I can protect you all on my own, but besides that, I'll be calling some people you know too."
"Really? Everyone's coming!?"
"Yeah. A lot of adults from the settlement came out into the forest to search for you. ...Brace yourselves, though. When you get back to the settlement, you're definitely going to be scolded."
At those words, the three children squeezed their eyes shut tight.
They were probably imagining how badly they'd get in trouble.
Rei gave each of them a light tap on the head, a small smile forming on his face.
He remembered doing reckless things and getting scolded by his parents when he was a child too, recalling the days he had spent in Japan.
"But you didn't panic and scatter blindly. You protected Lugdus properly. That deserves praise."
"Well, but..."
One of the children glanced at the smallest among them — the little one who had taken to Rei, calling him "niichan."
"With Mirus here, I couldn't just run off on my own... right?"
"Yeah. If we'd done something like that, this kid definitely would have died."
"U?"
The smallest child, called Mirus, tilted their head as if to ask, "Did you call me?" and looked over.
Lugdus was injured protecting them, and they had Mirus — someone they needed to protect — so that's why these two didn't panic. Ordinary humans would definitely have lost their heads, each one running off wherever they pleased and ending up as monster fodder.
As expected of Dark Elves, their mental maturity was higher than their appearance suggested. Rei found himself readily convinced of this.
"Anyway, you all did well. ...Oh, right, we haven't properly introduced ourselves yet. Like I said earlier, I'm Rei, here on a request from Marina regarding the World Tree. And this is Set."
At Rei's words, the Dark Elf children each spoke up.
"I'm Ian."
"I'm Kalja."
"U? Mirus!"
Hearing the three introductions, Rei spoke again.
"Until we get back to the settlement, you might go through some scary experiences. I'm not telling you to trust me. We've only just met, after all. But—"
"Niichan, I believe you!"
Before Rei could finish, Mirus made the declaration.
Not expecting to hear something like that, Rei's face briefly showed an expression of genuine surprise.
If anyone who knew Rei even slightly had been present, they would have been astonished to see him like this. He was normally composed and unperturbed — that might be saying a bit much, but he was still not the type to be easily caught off guard.
"Yeah, I believe you too, Rei-niichan. You came all this way to help us, after all."
"I believe you as well."
"...You guys are an odd bunch. Well, setting that aside."
Scratching his cheek, which had turned slightly red from embarrassment, Rei continued as if to brush past the moment.
"I'm fairly confident in my abilities, but even so, if you ask me whether I can perfectly protect all of you, I can't necessarily say that's the case."
Originally, Rei was by no means suited for escort duty.
Given his personality and the existence of Set, he was better suited for offensive roles — assault, skirmishing, surprise attacks. Of course, since he possessed Fire Whirlwind, a wide-area attack, he wasn't necessarily unsuited for point defense either.
...If anything, he was even better suited for point assault.
If Rei and Set were to suddenly infiltrate a fortress under cover of darkness and unleash Fire Whirlwind inside it, what would happen? That fortress would suffer tremendous damage before anyone could do a thing about it.
Naturally, a large fortress would often have some kind of barrier, like a city or town, but for Rei and Set, forcing their way through wouldn't be difficult either.
"Ugh... so there are things even Rei-niichan can't do."
Since Rei had come to save them, from Ian's perspective, it seemed like there was nothing Rei couldn't do.
Kalja, too, was casting an anxious gaze at Rei and Set.
Influenced by the two older children, Mirus also looked around with something like unease.
Rei gave each of the three a light pat on the head and lifted them onto Set's back one by one.
With Lugdus already there, adding three more children — even small ones — made it extremely cramped.
But someone needed to hold Lugdus in place so he wouldn't fall, and more importantly, there was the critical fact that children simply couldn't keep up with Rei and Set's movement speed.
"Alright, listen up. I'm going to blow the whistle now to call the Dark Elves in the forest. But obviously, blowing it will draw attention, so there's a very real chance monsters will attack. If something happens, we'll move immediately, so don't get off Set's back. And hold Lugdus steady so he doesn't fall."
At Rei's instructions, the three each nodded and held Lugdus in place.
Confirming that, Rei brought the whistle to his lips, took a deep breath, channeled mana into it, and blew. A high-pitched sound rang out through the surroundings.
The whistle Rei held was no ordinary whistle. It was a type of Magic Item called a Magic Whistle — one of the most commonplace Magic Items that could be found anywhere, but even so, it was sufficient for this situation.
The sound of the whistle echoed high and far from Rei's location.
As if responding to it, whistle calls came back from several points throughout the forest.
Alright. Now I just hope as few monsters as possible come this way...
It was certain that monsters would be drawn to the sound of the whistle, but Rei's honest hope was that they would be lured by the whistles sounding from other locations rather than his own.
With four children to protect on its back, Set couldn't move freely.
It still had enough skills to serve as a fixed turret, so it wasn't completely helpless, but fighting differently from Set's usual style was unavoidable, and there was also the fact that Set wasn't accustomed to such a fighting style.
That was exactly why Rei hoped the Dark Elves who heard the whistle would gather as quickly as possible, but...
"Tch — Flying Slash!"
Sensing multiple presences approaching, Rei saw five Cobolts emerge from the bushes armed with spears, and unleashed Flying Slash simultaneously with his click of the tongue.
Whether due to the abnormality in the forest or simply because they were excited by the abundance of Dark Elves — potential prey — in the night forest, the Cobolts ran with bloodshot eyes, drooling and foaming at the mouth, their breathing ragged.
Had they recognized that what stood in their line of sight was a Gryphon, under normal circumstances they would have fled at once.
But the Cobolts were in an excited state now, and it looked as though they would charge without hesitation even if their enemy were a Dragon.
"Waoooooooon!"
"Gruaaargh!"
The five Cobolts raised their howls and lunged at Rei's group, but as if to steal the initiative, Flying Slash flew forth.
Having reached Level 5, its power had increased dramatically — enough to cleave through trees too large for an adult to wrap their arms around, and even green, living wood at that.
If they had possessed powerful natural Armor like Dragon Scales, that would be one thing, but for Cobolts whose only covering was the fur growing over their bodies, there was no way they could block such a Flying Slash.
"Gyan!"
The Cobolt that lost an arm and managed to let out a scream was perhaps the lucky one.
Several Cobolts were bisected vertically through their torsos without even being able to scream, their upper halves falling to the ground while their lower halves stumbled a few steps forward before collapsing.
Intestines and blood spilled from each cross-section, but... the fact that it was nighttime was a blessing for the three children.
Dark Elves had Night Vision, but that didn't mean they could see better than they could during the day.
Even so, Ian and Kalja both caught their breath, gripping onto Set and unable to make a sound.
Only Mirus, still young and perhaps not understanding what had happened, let out cheerful squeals of delight.
I couldn't exactly tell them to close their eyes when there's a chance of being attacked by monsters.
With Death Scythe in hand, Rei approached the Cobolt that had lost an arm and was still screaming, then swung the massive blade to effortlessly snuff out its life.
"That takes care of things for now... I suppose?"
"Guruu!"
As if responding to Rei's words, Set cried out.
Those five Cobolts must have been the closest ones. We got lucky. What I don't want showing up in this situation is Goblins, with their large numbers. If I didn't mind burning down the forest, I could manage somehow, but...
Rei scanned the surroundings with Death Scythe in hand.
...Then, Set, carrying four children on its back, suddenly moved its neck and directed its gaze toward the bushes.
An enemy? Rei tightened his grip on Death Scythe's handle, but when he saw who emerged from the bushes, he let out a breath of relief.
What appeared there were two Dark Elves with bows in hand.
"You found them!"
Rei nodded to the Dark Elf man who spoke the moment he saw Rei's face, then turned his gaze toward Set.
Following Rei's gaze, the two Dark Elf men saw four children on Set's back and let out sighs of relief.
Having found the four who had gone missing, relief was only natural, but Rei addressed the two with a serious expression.
"Lugdus was apparently hit by a Goblin. Judging from the wound, it was probably a club or something like that. He was struck in the head, so I felt that carelessly using a potion might do more harm than good. If possible, I think it'd be better to have someone with proper knowledge examine him before healing. He hasn't been bleeding much either."
"!? ...I see..."
One of the Dark Elves who heard Rei's explanation showed a slightly grim expression, but upon hearing that the injury itself wasn't that severe, he quickly shifted to a look of relief and spoke.
"So what do we do? Do we wait here a while longer for the others to gather?"
"I wonder. Like I said, it'd be best to get him treated as soon as possible. If we wait for people to gather here, that'll delay things."
"Then shall we head for the settlement as we are? If we blow the whistle periodically while moving, some people should join up with us along the way. How about heading to the settlement while gathering people like that?"
Rei considered the Dark Elf's proposal for a moment, but...
"If that works for you, I'm fine with it. You'd know far more about Dark Elf matters than I would."
"...We're going?"
Kalja, riding on Set's back, asked with a hint of fear.
Though what she was afraid of was probably not being scolded upon returning to the settlement, but rather the monsters in the forest.
"Yeah. Kalja, Ian, Mirus — I'm glad you're all safe. It's unfortunate that Lugdus got hurt, but don't worry. A wound like this will heal in no time. It might actually take longer for the 'wound' of being scolded when we get back to the settlement to heal than this actual injury."
Probably to calm the frightened children like Ian and Kalja, one of the Dark Elves said this with a hint of a joke.
Because they were tense, even a story like that was amusing enough — Ian and Kalja couldn't hold back and let out laughs.
Mirus, who was beside the two, didn't really understand the situation, but since the other two were laughing, they laughed as well.
Seems like I can leave dealing with the children to them.
Rei wasn't particularly good with children to begin with.
No — it might even be fair to say he was bad with them.
Rather, Set, who regularly played with them, was the one good with children.
With adults here and the children calmed down... all that's left is to make it back to the settlement safely.
Gripping Death Scythe, Rei called out to the other Dark Elf man — the one who wasn't talking with the children.
"We just need to head straight for the settlement from here, right?"
"Yeah. Like he said, the others should gather while we're moving. The more our combat power grows, the more advantageous it is for us. ...Please look after us a little while longer."
Rei nodded to the Dark Elf man, who bowed deeply, and then...
"Alright, then let's take a little stroll through the night forest."
With those words, he stepped forward into the forest at night.