The day after enjoying a pleasant meal with Kenny, Rei found himself in the Treant Forest.
That said, coming to the Treant Forest was nothing unusual for Rei, so there was no particular reason for surprise.
He had been hauling felled timber to Gilm almost every day—aside from when he went recruiting woodcutters—and from their perspective, since they had to transport the logs themselves whenever Rei wasn't around, his presence was a godsend.
When Rei had gone off to gather woodcutters and was absent, everyone had found the labor physically grueling.
Ordinarily, felled trees needed to be left to dry for a period as part of the process.
Naturally, drying caused the wood to lose moisture, and that lost moisture made it lighter—but the trees of the Treant Forest skipped this drying step entirely, meaning they had to be hauled while still heavy.
The woodcutters performed similar work on a regular basis, but the absence of that drying process made transporting logs by carriage inevitably more arduous.
Additionally, while they had adventurer escorts, the fact that this was Gilm—the frontier—was likely a source of underlying psychological pressure for the woodcutters who had come from outside the city.
When monsters attacked, fleeing while hauling timber took considerable effort.
Naturally, they would drop the wood and run in such situations, but if the monsters broke or damaged the logs being transported, it could potentially affect the magical processing that alchemists performed downstream.
But with Rei around, there was no need to worry about any of that, which was why not a single woodcutter opposed his presence... or rather, very few did.
Furthermore, the woodcutters Rei had brought in that spring were all favorably disposed toward him—at least on the surface—so none of them objected to him coming to the Treant Forest either.
As for the adventurer escorts, since they knew of Rei's reputation as a fellow adventurer, none of them voiced a single complaint.
Even those who might have dismissed Rei based on his appearance alone couldn't possibly say anything once they saw him traveling mounted on Set.
"Alright, good. That's all the felled wood."
"Yessir. We're always grateful for your help, Rei-san. I hate to think what it'd be like without you..."
He was clearly an adventurer older than Rei, yet he treated Rei as a superior.
This was likely proof enough that in the world of adventurers, ability was everything.
"Well, it's easy enough work for me too... Set?"
There was no problem.
Rei had been about to say as much when he noticed Set suddenly on alert, and called the gryphon's name.
For Set to be this vigilant was extremely rare.
The monsters that appeared in the Treant Forest were, by and large, weak ones.
Occasionally a High-Rank Monster would surface, but even then, D-Rank or C-Rank was the ceiling.
And naturally, such monsters would never provoke this level of wariness from Set.
...Still, this was the frontier.
It wouldn't be strange at all for B-Rank or A-Rank Monsters to appear.
Could it be that such a High-Rank Monster was nearby?
Thinking so, Rei sharpened his gaze and swept his surroundings.
The adventurer who had been speaking with Rei, along with the others who had been keeping watch, seemed to sense something ominous in Rei and Set's demeanor. Each reached for their weapon, ready to react at a moment's notice.
Additionally, several of the adventurers judged the situation dangerous and moved to gather the woodcutters still felling trees deeper in the Treant Forest.
"Gruu? Grururu... Grururururu."
Set was clearly on alert, but as if unable to pinpoint which direction the threat lay, he swung his gaze in every direction, growling low in his throat.
"Set?"
Finding this behavior unusual, Rei murmured the name quizzically while drawing the Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear from his Misty Ring, bracing for anything.
Hearing his name, Set merely let out a bewildered sound... and even then, nothing more than a growl.
(Hey, could it be... a monster with concealment abilities so refined that even Set can't detect it is approaching...? No—what if it's already here?)
A bad feeling—a truly bad feeling—gnawed at Rei as he quickly scanned the area.
Gryphon Seto possessed overwhelmingly sharp five senses, a Sixth Sense, and the ability to detect magical power.
And yet, for Set to be this vigilant and still fail to find the enemy meant the situation had become extremely dire.
Rei surveyed the adventurers around him, weighing his options.
If it were just himself, he was confident he could handle whatever came.
But if something could hide from Set, then facing such a creature while protecting everyone else became a serious problem.
Fundamentally, escorting woodcutters didn't pay well relative to how harsh the working conditions were, so skilled adventurers rarely took the job.
Some accepted it for their own reasons, but they were a small minority.
In other words, most of the adventurers here weren't quite beginners, but they were by no means strong compared to the rest of Gilm's adventurer population.
Protecting people like that while fighting a monster even Set couldn't locate was clearly a high-difficulty proposition.
(No—the woodcutters are an even bigger problem than the adventurers.)
The primary contract for the adventurers here, besides Rei, was escorting the woodcutters.
And among the woodcutters, some were hot-blooded enough to get into street brawls. But if asked whether they had ever been in genuine life-or-death combat, a few might have, but the vast majority had not.
Protecting not just the adventurers but also such individuals was extremely difficult for just Rei and Set—a single man and a single beast.
(What do I do?)
His deliberation lasted but an instant.
Since Rei was the highest-ranked adventurer present, he needed to issue orders without delay.
(Let them flee? No—this is a monster capable of evading even Set's detection. Even if I assign adventurers as escorts and get them out of here, there's a high probability the enemy will go after them instead.)
If it were just the adventurers, they might manage to flee as a group, but with the woodcutters in the mix, panic could easily erupt, and people could scatter in every direction.
Given that, keeping everyone close was definitely the safer option.
"I don't know what kind of enemy is coming, but I'll handle it. If even Set's detection can't pinpoint it, it's too dangerous for the rest of you to fight. I need you all to guard the woodcutters."
Several adventurers reflexively bristled at the implied assessment that they were weak, but the adventurer who had been speaking with Rei earlier cut them off.
"Understood."
It was the same adventurer who had been talking with Rei moments before.
Having been addressed first, the man effectively silenced any complaints from the others.
...The fact that he also served as the de facto leader of the adventurers present today was probably a significant factor.
"Appreciate it."
"But if there's an enemy out there, it doesn't seem to be attacking. Maybe it went after the woodcutters instead?"
"No. That's not it."
Rei denied it instantly, his eyes on Set.
The fact that Set was still on high alert like this convinced Rei that the enemy was undoubtedly on their side.
"If the enemy had moved off, Set would know. The fact that he hasn't means the enemy is definitely still nearby... Most likely, it's waiting for an opening."
"If Set can't pinpoint the enemy's location, I think there's a chance there isn't one at all."
"That much should be fine. If the enemy slipped away, Set would know it too—and more importantly..."
Rei let the sentence trail off as he shifted his gaze from the depths of the Treant Forest to the woodcutters sprinting toward them.
The adventurer who had gone to fetch them led the way, scanning his surroundings so he could respond immediately if attacked.
That said, since he was no bandit, his tracking skills were only marginally better than nothing.
Even so, the fact that they had reached this point without being attacked confirmed Rei's conviction that the enemy was still somewhere close by.
Though if even Set couldn't determine where, Rei's own abilities were nowhere near sufficient to find it.
(Where on earth is it? Refusing to show itself like this—is it trying to wear us down through tension? Or is there some other reason...)
Rei was still mulling over the enemy's objective when the woodcutters arrived at his position.
"...Hey, Rei! What's going on!"
Gripping two long weapons—the Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear—Rei radiated an extraordinary intensity.
The woodcutters momentarily caught their breath, but one of them still managed to blurt out the question. Rei's reply was characteristically brief.
"Didn't he tell you?"
"He said something about a monster, but that's it. If it's a monster, you can take it down, right, Rei?"
Gauging that they understood the broad strokes, Rei spoke while continuing to survey the area.
"That's right. If it were some ordinary monster, or if it would just show itself, we could fight it. But look at Set."
At Rei's words, the woodcutters... and the adventurers too, turned their gazes toward Set.
But Set was still doing the same thing as before—glancing at a tree to the right, then shifting to the grass on the left, looking straight up, then staring at the ground, over and over.
It was painfully clear that Set knew something was nearby, but was bewildered by his inability to identify what.
"This is..."
The woodcutters wore expressions of pure bewilderment, but as adventurers, they could easily grasp just how capable Set truly was—and what it meant for even him to be stumped.
Rei watched this exchange from the corner of his eye, then turned his attention back to his surroundings...
"Grururururururu!"
Suddenly, Set let out a cry.
This was not the wary growl from before. This was a cry of certainty—he had found the enemy.
Rei concentrated every fiber of his being, ready to react the instant anything happened, and followed Set's gaze... then froze.
Because there was no monster there.
It wasn't exactly a replacement, but what occupied that space defied description.
...Yes. What could only be described as ripples were spreading through the air itself.
Ring-shaped ripples, like the ones that form when a single drop of water falls into a full glass.
Such ripples were currently hanging in the air—many of them. Easily a dozen or more.
Under normal circumstances, such a sight would be utterly impossible to believe.
But for those who lived in the world of Elgin, witnessing phenomena beyond their comprehension happened from time to time.
For adventurers in particular, encounters with the unknown weren't exactly everyday occurrences... but they were by no means unheard of.
That said, the adventurers gathered here weren't particularly skilled, and more than a few were shaken by the sight they witnessed following Rei and Set's line of sight.
And for the woodcutters, the scene before them was utterly impossible no matter how one looked at it. Panic was only natural.
"W-Wah! W-Wait, what the heck is that!"
One woodcutter's shout set off the rest, and the group erupted into agitation—
"Silence!"
Before that panic could crest into full-blown chaos—before anyone could start screaming and scattering in a blind attempt to flee—Rei's sharp bark cut through the air.
It was a voice utterly unlike his usual conversational tone, charged with overwhelming force.
Hearing that voice, which carried the unmistakable weight of an alias-holding adventurer, everyone present froze mid-motion.
"Woodcutters, don't panic. Gather in one place. Adventurers, guard them! Whatever comes out of those spatial ripples, Set and I will handle it!"
He issued the orders in rapid succession.
Had an enemy emerged from the ripples at that very moment, battle would have erupted instantly.
But nothing showed any sign of emerging from those rifts in space.
That was the only reason Rei had the breathing room to issue commands. But then, the ripples began to glow faintly—and Rei cut himself off mid-order, shifted into a ready stance, and waited... until at last, the ripples hanging in the air flared with a blinding burst of light.