When Rei arrived at the Treant Forest with Set, an astonishing sight awaited them.
Numerous trees had been felled, all toppled toward the outside of the forest.
Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't be a particularly strange scene. But given that this was the Treant Forest, it was undeniably a mysterious one.
"Gururu?"
"Ah, land down there where all those trees have been knocked over."
Rei answered Set, who was looking at him with round eyes as if asking what to do.
Set descended toward the ground.
Even as they landed, the sound of axes striking tree trunks echoed throughout the surroundings. And not just from one or two places—the sounds came from all over.
(Officially, this was supposed to be a guard job for the loggers... Well, no monsters are showing up, so I guess that can't be helped.)
His task, for the time being, was to transport the felled trees somewhere near Gilm.
With that in mind, Rei touched down and addressed the gathered loggers and adventurers.
"I'm the one who's supposed to take the felled trees. So, is it fine if I just take the trees that have already been knocked down?"
"Huh? Ah, yes, that's right. However, we'll still be cutting more trees, so..."
If possible, they wanted him to come again.
A man who appeared to be the loggers' representative conveyed this to Rei.
The adventurers also wanted Rei to return, since every tree cut meant more money for them.
...However, the adventurers knew what kind of person Rei was, and since none of them were particularly close to him, they kept their mouths shut.
Some among them were newcomers to Gilm who only knew Rei by rumor, but regardless of his appearance, once they saw the Gryphon he was riding, they understood that it was no situation to make careless remarks. They silently watched the exchange between Rei and the loggers.
In stark contrast to the adventurers, the loggers didn't see Rei as someone to fear.
It wasn't uncommon for them to feed Set when they ran into him in town, and on such occasions they would exchange a few light words with Rei.
Between the adventurers and everyone else, the attitude toward Rei was completely different. This was undoubtedly influenced by Rei's everyday behavior.
"Got it. Even after I transport these trees... let's see, I'll come back here in a few hours. Oh, and I'll be taking the felled trees as they are, so make sure to mark them somehow so it's clear who cut which tree."
Rei told them he had no desire to deal with disputes over who cut which tree later.
The loggers and adventurers likely understood that as well. They began carving marks into the tree trunks or attaching clearly written labels to make it easy to tell who had cut which tree.
Starting with the trees whose preparations were complete, Rei touched them one after another and stored them in his Misty Ring.
Rei using his Misty Ring wasn't a rare occurrence. In town, he frequently used it to store entire pots, plates, and frying pans after ordering food.
But... even so, watching an entire tree vanish like this was astonishing to behold.
Even those who knew of Rei felt that way, so the astonishment of those who had just arrived in Gilm was extraordinary.
"Whoa, storing a whole huge tree like that... the rumor that the Crimson is an Item Box User was true."
"Yeah, seems so. Well, aside from his own strength, he's got a Gryphon as a Tamed Monster. Even if someone had an Item Box, there aren't many fools out there who'd try to steal it."
"And yet, every now and then one shows up."
A veteran adventurer who had been active in Gilm for several years spoke to a newcomer who had just arrived.
"Ugh, seriously? There are actually idiots who'd try something like going after an Alias Holder?"
"Yeah. But even among Alias Holders, Rei earned the Crimson alias during the war with the Bestia Empire. Before his name became widely known, even though he had a Gryphon, he got underestimated a lot."
Hearing that explanation, the adventurers listening all wore expressions that said "yikes..."
By now, Rei's abilities were widely known. Not just rumors—many had witnessed Rei in the war against the Bestia Empire and other battles.
Given that, unless they had a clear reason, none of them wanted to go out of their way to make an enemy of Rei.
"So what happened to the guy who went after Rei?"
At the timidly asked question, the adventurer who had been explaining about Rei made a gesture as if slashing his own throat.
Seeing that, it wasn't difficult to imagine what had happened to the person who had gone after Rei.
"Better not make an enemy of Rei, huh."
"Yeah."
They kept their voices low... quiet enough to be called whispers.
But the moment they made eye contact and silently communicated with each other...
"That's right. If you could avoid being hostile toward me, it'd help me out too."
From a short distance away, Rei, who had been storing felled trees in his Misty Ring, called out to them.
The two adventurers, never imagining that their conversation was being overheard, froze for an instant.
They turned toward the adventurer who had been teaching them about Rei, seeking help... but the person who had been there just seconds ago was nowhere to be seen.
(He ran!?)
A terrifying Danger Detection Ability... or so they thought, though it was only natural to feel they had been abandoned.
Even so, Rei showed no sign of saying anything further to the two adventurers and simply reached for a nearby felled tree.
"It's convenient having the trees gathered close together like this. Makes collecting them easier."
"Yeah. Though since we're cutting them in order from the outside, it's only natural it turned out this way. ...Still, this forest keeps getting bigger every day, right?"
The logger who had cut down the tree Rei had just stored muttered curiously.
"Hm? Ah, right. At this rate, I'd say by tomorrow there'll be trees growing here again."
"That's what I mean. The forest expanding overnight is one thing. I mean, normally it'd be impossible, but considering this is the frontier, you can accept it. But the fact that all the trees in the expanded forest are above a certain thickness... what's up with that?"
As a logger, that was something he couldn't help but be bothered by.
To Rei, the very fact that the forest was expanding and trees were growing was already abnormal, so the uniform thickness of those trees was a trivial discrepancy by comparison.
"Is it really worth worrying about?"
"...As a logger, yeah, it bothers me."
For the logger speaking with Rei, it was genuinely something of concern. He stared intently at Rei with serious eyes as he asked.
"Even if you say that, I'm not that knowledgeable about the Treant Forest either. All I know is that it probably gets dangerous at night. Actually, yesterday I found traces of a party that had apparently been wiped out further ahead."
Thresha's party, and the party of the owner of the luggage found at what appeared to be an abandoned campsite Rei had discovered the day before.
Based on those two, he was only guessing that nights were probably dangerous.
"Rei-san, is that true!?"
Hearing Rei's muttered words, cries of astonishment rang out around them.
That voice belonged not to the logger who had been talking to Rei just seconds ago, but to Thresha, who had been standing a short distance away.
Until moments ago, she had been watching Rei store trees in his Misty Ring in stunned silence, but she wasn't about to let the words that had just come from his mouth slip by.
"Thresha? And Luno too... you two also took this request? For all that, it doesn't look like you've been cutting trees."
"Ah. I'm just helping Thresha out. ...You get it, right?"
The one who answered Rei's words was Luno, who had been standing beside Thresha.
But Thresha, hearing those words spoken next to her, paid no mind to what Luno said and stepped forward.
The words that had just come from Rei's mouth undoubtedly held crucial meaning for her.
There was no doubt she had been attacked at night.
But... that alone was not yet conclusive proof that attacks happened when night fell.
No, thinking about it normally, monsters were more active at night, so it wouldn't be that strange... but without certainty, there was nothing she could say for sure.
That was exactly why she couldn't afford to miss Rei's words just now.
"Is that true?"
"Hm? Yesterday... no, the day before yesterday, another party was attacked? Well, there was no evidence or anything like that, but it's probably a safe bet."
The reason Rei couldn't state definitively that they had been attacked was because Set had been unable to pick up the scent of blood at the location where the luggage was found.
Set was a Gryphon with the Sense of Smell Enhancement skill, so if even a single drop of blood had been spilled, there was no way Set would have failed to detect it.
And yet, at the site where the luggage was found, Set hadn't picked up the scent of blood.
That meant something in this forest could completely erase scents, to the point that even Set couldn't detect them.
For Rei, who relied on Set's sense of smell when searching for something, it was an extremely troublesome adversary.
"I... see."
At Rei's words, Thresha murmured softly, then fell silent, unable to say anything more.
Rei wondered for a moment if something was wrong, but considering what Thresha had been through, there was nothing more he could say.
Having your entire party wiped out was something that significant.
If Rei's own party... if Marina, Vihera, and Byune were killed, he wouldn't know what he'd do either.
(Well, I really can't imagine those three dying so easily.)
Marina had years of experience as an A-Rank adventurer, and as a Dark Elf, she excelled in Spirit Magic and archery.
Vihera loved battle and might seem like she'd be in danger, but her wild instincts... or perhaps what one might call a woman's intuition, allowed her to instinctively avoid fatal danger.
Byune's various abilities were lower compared to the other two, but having worked as a thief, she possessed high Danger Detection Ability.
(Hm? Come to think of it, does that mean I actually have the lowest Danger Detection Ability among the Crimson Lotus Wings? Well, I have Set with me, though.)
Glancing at Set in the distance, Rei gave a small shake of his head.
Rei had confidence in his own abilities, but when it came to the senses, he didn't think he could beat Set.
Set, for his part, was currently being given dried meat by the loggers and a few adventurers, looking happy as they petted him.
Even the adventurers who had various thoughts about Rei acted differently toward the friendly Set.
Rei felt a slight question about that, but deciding that storing the felled trees in his Misty Ring took priority for now, he focused on that.
Even as they spoke, the sound of axes striking tree trunks echoed from the forest, and the sounds of trees snapping from their trunks and crashing to the ground resounded throughout the surroundings.
However, unlike the loggers whose profession was felling trees, the adventurers weren't as skilled at bringing trees down.
Every tree the loggers cut fell cleanly toward the outside of the forest. Convenient for Rei to store in his Misty Ring... Originally, this was done to save effort when loading trees onto horse-drawn carts for transport.
But compared to the trees felled by the loggers, the trees cut by the adventurers were far from neatly toppled.
Even those that fell toward the outside of the forest each went in different directions.
That was still the better outcome.
Some trees had fallen not outward but inward toward the forest.
Thanks to the still-standing trees, many couldn't even reach the ground and ended up leaning against others in a propped-up state.
(The difference between professionals and amateurs, huh. ...Well, actually making a tree fall where you want it to isn't as easy as it looks.)
Back in Japan, Rei had helped his father cut down trees to expand their farmland.
They weren't as thick as the ones in the Treant Forest, but even so, he hadn't been able to fell them the way he wanted.
(Well, I'm storing them in the Misty Ring, so it doesn't really matter.)
Once he had stored all the trees the loggers had felled, Rei headed toward where the adventurers had cut down theirs.