Thresha couldn't understand what Rei was saying.
No, she understood, but the shock was preventing her mind from catching up—that would be more accurate.
Of course, she had seen the forest encroaching when she fled.
But even so, the idea that it had expanded that much in a single night was completely unexpected.
"A few minutes, you say?"
Hoping she had misheard, Thresha asked again to confirm, and Rei nodded.
"That's right. The trees in the forest were fairly large, but... if it's true that the place where you camped is exactly as you left it, then the speed at which the forest is spreading is considerable."
"No way..."
As if struck by something in Rei's words, Thresha covered her mouth and froze. After a moment, she opened her mouth again, looking timid.
"Um... my comrades' bodies... did you not see them?"
Unable to finish the question, Thresha trailed off, and Rei shook his head.
"From what I saw, there was no trace of them anywhere. If I had gone to the center of the forest, there might have been some clue... but my job was to confirm the forest's existence."
"Right. You were supposed to check whether the forest was there... but you landed in it?"
Worker sighed as he looked at Rei.
There was no reproach in it—or rather, almost none.
As far as Worker was concerned, he didn't want Rei doing anything dangerous if it could be helped.
This wasn't about favoring Rei. He understood that when it came to this forest, Rei possessed an ability that was effectively a trump card.
Rei's Flame Tornado.
As a means of attacking a forest, there was nothing more effective than that.
"Ah... sorry about that. But I saw something glinting from above the forest."
As he said that, Rei's gaze shifted toward Thresha's party's luggage.
"...I see. Still, it would help me if you refrained from acting on your own as much as possible."
If Rei hadn't entered the forest, Thresha's party's luggage would have been swallowed whole and never returned to her hands.
Knowing that, Worker couldn't bring himself to speak too harshly.
"Yeah, my bad. ...Oh, and I picked up this too."
Rei produced a single branch.
At a glance, it looked like an ordinary branch, but the fact that he had brought it out under the current circumstances made its significance clear.
Even so, just to be thorough, Worker took the branch in hand and addressed Rei.
"Could this branch be...?"
"Yeah. It's from that forest. It happened to be lying on the ground, so I grabbed it. It should be useful for investigating the place, right?"
"Yes, of course. ...But did picking up the branch have any effect on you?"
A forest that devours people—given how eerie it was, it wouldn't have been strange for something to happen.
That was the concern behind Worker's gaze, but Rei simply nodded, indicating there was no problem.
After confirming Rei's condition, Worker turned his attention back to the branch.
However, while Worker worked at the Guild, he didn't possess the kind of eye that could distinguish monster materials.
He stared intently at the branch in his hand, but that didn't mean he could discern anything from it.
If there had been some visible abnormality, that would be one thing, but the branch Rei brought looked like nothing more than an ordinary piece of wood.
"Worker, could you let me see it for a moment?"
The one who spoke up was Marina.
Judging that, as a Dark Elf, she would likely have an interest in plants—and might therefore notice something off about the branch—Worker handed it over.
Marina examined the branch for several dozen seconds before letting out a small sigh and placing it on the table.
"No good. As far as I can tell, it's not any kind of special branch. However... compared to ordinary wood, it does seem to carry slightly stronger magic."
"Isn't that exactly what makes it special?"
Vihera interjected.
But Marina shook her head in response.
"No, it's not that rare for wood to possess magic. This branch just has a bit more than usual."
"...Is that so?"
"Yes. Though, for anyone other than an Elf or a Dark Elf... oh, that reminds me."
Midway through speaking, as if something had just occurred to her, Marina's gaze turned toward Luno.
He understood that the topic of conversation was serious, but when a woman like Marina—who unconsciously radiated that kind of allure—directed her gaze at him, he couldn't help but feel nervous.
"Y-yeah. Um, give me a moment."
Luno, who had been captivated by Marina's very presence, snapped back to himself and hurriedly examined the branch with his Magic Eye.
But he immediately shook his head.
"...No good. To my eyes, it just looks like ordinary wood."
"Oh, is that so? ...Well, even if it does have slightly stronger magic than ordinary wood, perhaps non-Elves simply can't tell the difference."
Murmuring in disappointment, Marina passed the branch back to Worker.
(Like trying to tell the difference between one millimeter and two millimeters just by looking at them... something like that?)
Somehow grasping what Marina meant, Rei was startled when she suddenly glanced his way and smiled.
It was as if she had seen right through what he was thinking.
But Marina didn't say anything more than that.
Rei hadn't been thinking anything guilty, but seeing her gesture made him feel as though he had been caught thinking something strange.
"So, what do we do now? Now that we know a forest like that exists, we can't just leave it alone, can we?"
Rei asked, sounding slightly flustered, but his words were an undeniable truth.
It wasn't as though animals or monsters lived there—rather, if you carelessly entered, you would be attacked.
And that forest was expanding by ten meters each night... or perhaps moving.
No matter how you looked at it, it was undeniably dangerous to Gilm.
"You're right. ...The fact that such a forest went unnoticed until now is itself questionable, but..."
"That's probably because it's quite far from the highway. There was nothing of note in that area to begin with, so nobody would have bothered leaving the road to travel there."
In Rei's case, he had been riding Set, so he barely noticed the distance. But Thresha and her party had intentionally left the road and wandered around before arriving near that forest.
And when Thresha fled the forest, she ran nonstop from night until morning to reach the highway.
Of course, when Thresha had been traveling with Dagza and the others, they were searching for monsters as they moved, so it naturally took more time. And when she fled the forest, she was in a state of near-panic, so she probably hadn't headed straight for the highway.
Even so, the distance from the road to the forest was considerable, and if asked whether an adventurer with nothing to gain would venture there, the answer would be no.
Then again, there were plenty of eccentrics among adventurers.
Given that, it was impossible to say absolutely no one would go.
"You're right. Plus, it was winter until just recently... that's probably a factor too. People who would go out of their way to venture outside in winter... well, I won't say there are none."
Worker was likely referring to those who had failed to save enough money to survive the winter.
Rei and the members of Crimson Lotus Wings had no financial worries whatsoever, but there were those who—due to lack of ability, bad luck, laziness, or any number of other reasons—failed to save up enough funds.
Naturally, once such people ran out of money, they would need to take requests even during winter.
And adventurer work included gathering and subjugation requests.
Subjugation requests in particular could yield substantial income through Subjugation Proof Parts, Magic Stones, materials, and meat.
When undertaking subjugation requests, it wasn't uncommon to head to locations off the highway.
But even in winter, if someone like that had found the forest, they would have certainly reported it to the Guild.
Given that no such report had been made, Worker reasoned that perhaps the forest had only formed after the arrival of spring.
"Just to be sure, you didn't forget to mention this during the handover, did you?"
"No, I had absolutely no information about such a forest."
"I see."
Thresha wore a puzzled expression, unable to follow the exchange between Worker and Marina.
Noticing this, Luno, who was seated next to her, whispered quietly.
"That Dark Elf over there is Marina. She was the Guild Master until just recently. She passed the position to Worker so she could return to being an adventurer."
"What..."
To Thresha, the Guild Master was someone above the clouds in a different sense than even alias-holding adventurers like Rei.
She couldn't understand why anyone would voluntarily step down to return to adventuring.
However, anticipating that speaking up would only drag her into unnecessary trouble, she didn't say anything more.
"Anyway, Rei-san. Starting tomorrow, would you check how much the forest is spreading... or moving, once a day? The reward from earlier includes that as well."
"...Adding conditions after the fact is a bit underhanded, don't you think?"
"Perhaps. But I believe the reward from earlier carries that much value, don't you?"
Worker's words were an undeniable fact.
Considering the price of Flame Ore, the value of enough to fill a small barrel was considerable.
"...One more barrel. With that, I'll promise to check on the forest every day for a month. If it extends beyond that, I'll request additional compensation."
"Yes, that should be fine."
Worker nodded readily at Rei's words.
Seeing his demeanor, Rei realized he had made a mistake.
Judging by Worker's tone just now, he probably could have pushed a little harder and secured an even better reward.
Not being particularly skilled at this kind of negotiation, Rei had misread the situation.
(Should I have left this to Marina? Well, but...)
Being able to receive Flame Ore as a reward in the first place was thanks to Marina.
But there had been almost no negotiation involved.
That was only natural. Marina, who had been the Guild Master until just recently, knew more than well enough how much reward could be obtained.
That was exactly why Worker, having gathered information on Rei beforehand, had offered the Flame Ore he knew Rei would want.
In the end, Rei accepted the request for two barrels of Flame Ore.
"So, about that forest..."
"Treants, right? At the very least, the monsters that attacked us were Treants."
"But when Set and I approached, no Treants appeared."
"Camouflage... no, while Rei might be one thing, it's impossible to deceive Set's senses."
Vihera interjected into the conversation between Rei and Thresha, but she wasn't belittling Rei.
After all, Rei's five senses were far sharper than those of an ordinary person.
But Gryphon Seto possessed senses even sharper than his.
If it were a monster of roughly equal power, that would be one thing, but there was no way a Treant could deceive Set's senses—that was what Vihera believed. No, what she was certain of.
And it wasn't just Vihera. Marina, Byune, and above all, Set's partner Rei, knew this best.
"That's right. Even if it was camouflaged, Set should have seen through something like that. Especially since Set has encountered a Treant once before. Given that, there's no way it would have missed it. And yet, Set showed no reaction inside the forest. Why?"
"Maybe the monsters Thresha saw weren't Treants? ...Hey, Thresha, have you ever fought a Treant before this incident?"
"I have. A Treant appeared in a grove near where we were operating. But since there was only one that time, we struggled but managed to defeat it safely."
Those words only deepened Rei's confusion.
"So not all the trees forming the forest are Treants... is that it?"
"But if they weren't Treants, the forest wouldn't be able to multiply that easily, would it?"
"...Well, I suppose if you put it that way."
In the first place, the forest was already unnatural enough that plenty of things were off. It was easy to think that it didn't necessarily have to be Treants.
"Anyway... whether they're Treants or not, they're definitely a troublesome presence."
At Rei's murmured words, everyone present nodded in agreement.