Following Rei's instructions, Dorain rode the horse that had been pulling the carriage used for traveling to the Treant Forest, galloping desperately toward Gilm.
He had only arrived in Gilm this spring. Back in the village where he used to live, he had been fairly confident in his abilities as an adventurer. But upon coming to Gilm, he was quickly made to realize that he was by no means particularly skilled, and his inflated ego had been thoroughly shattered.
Even so, he had bounced back quickly, taking up work as a woodcutter guard. It was while he had been earning a fair degree of trust in that role that this incident occurred.
Demi-humans appearing suddenly out of nowhere.
He had no idea what was going on, but even Dorain could grasp that this was a major incident on multiple levels.
That was why he rode so desperately, pushing toward Gilm.
He found himself deeply grateful that he had bothered to train in horseback riding back in his village. Though the horse he had practiced on back then was nothing like the sturdy one he was riding now — it had been smaller and well past its prime.
Regardless, Dorain pushed the horse as hard as he could, eventually passing through the grasslands and reaching the highway.
Given that spring had only just begun, the highway was naturally crowded with people making their way toward Gilm.
Riding a horse at full speed through such a crowd could, at worst, get him arrested by the guards for reckless behavior.
But as far as Dorain was concerned, he had been ordered by Rei to report what he had witnessed in the Treant Forest as quickly as possible. And on a personal level, he knew that what he had just seen was anything but ordinary.
For that reason, he urged the horse forward at a breakneck pace, cutting past travelers, adventurers, merchants, and trade caravans as if they were obstacles to be avoided.
Naturally, there were those who shouted curses at his reckless riding. But most people either sensed the raw desperation in his demeanor or judged that getting involved would only bring trouble, and quietly cleared the way.
By the time Dorain reached Gilm, the guards had already spotted him.
The fact that they didn't immediately arrest him was likely because his reputation for working earnestly as a woodcutter guard had preceded him, short though his tenure had been.
Dorain, whose ego had been so thoroughly humbled, was now working with genuine diligence — not necessarily as a reaction to being put in his place, but the change was real all the same.
And that had paid off.
It also mattered that Dorain's posting was at the Treant Forest.
These days, the Treant Forest served as the primary harvesting ground for construction materials needed in Gilm's expansion project. But the uproar that had erupted when the forest first appeared was something every resident of Gilm knew about. Above all, during the winter, the dissection of the Gigant Turtle that had crawled out of that very forest had been carried out right beside the city. The danger was self-evident.
"Hey, what happened! Something go down at the Treant Forest?"
"Something did!"
Even riding a horse took a considerable toll on one's stamina. And since Dorain had pushed himself to arrive here from the Treant Forest even a fraction faster, both he and the horse were thoroughly exhausted.
After dismounting, Dorain noticed that he was drawing stares from the people in the middle of their entry procedures. Keeping his voice low enough that they couldn't overhear, he addressed the guard.
"Something serious happened at the Treant Forest. Rei sent me to report to Lord Daskar."
"...What?"
The guard shot Dorain a suspicious look. It was only natural. They knew Dorain worked earnestly, but even so, they couldn't simply take a claim like that at face value.
If he had said he was reporting to the guards, that would have been one thing. But being told he needed to reach Daskar, the lord of Gilm himself? The guard couldn't just nod and accept that.
"You said this came from Rei, right? Then why didn't Rei come himself? If he flew in on Set, he'd get here a lot faster than you on horseback."
That was the obvious question for anyone who knew anything about Rei. With Gryphon Seto as his tamed monster, Rei could make the trip from the Treant Forest to Gilm in a matter of minutes. So why send someone on horseback?
Dorain's expression tightened with a flicker of frustration before he answered.
"Because if Rei isn't there, no one else can handle it if something goes wrong."
"...What?"
Only Rei could handle the situation. Hearing that something requiring that level of power was unfolding in the Treant Forest, the guards had no choice but to harden their expressions.
"Either way, Rei told me to explain the situation to Lord Daskar, find out how we should respond, and report back immediately."
"...What do you think?" the guard asked, turning to another guard nearby who had been listening in on the conversation.
"Even if you ask me..."
But the guard he turned to was equally at a loss.
In a way, this was also Rei's oversight. If he had sent Dorain with something to prove the message genuinely came from him — his Guild Card, for instance — Dorain's words would have carried far more weight.
That said, looking at the man, it didn't seem like he was spouting nonsense. The guards stationed here were responsible for screening everyone entering Gilm, and they prided themselves on their ability to spot a lie. Since two of them independently felt there was no deception in Dorain's words, whatever the underlying reason, he was almost certainly telling the truth.
The two guards exchanged a glance. After a moment of silent communication, one spoke.
"All right. We can't take you straight to Lord Daskar, but we'll run it up to our superior. He'll hear you out, and if he decides there's sufficient cause, the report goes to Lord Daskar immediately. That's the best we can do. Will that work?"
Dorain wasn't entirely satisfied, but it was better than being stuck here. He nodded.
"Fine. But please, make it as fast as you can. Rei and the others are still out there in the Treant Forest, and we have no idea what's going to happen next."
"...Got it. Come with me."
Without wasting even the time it would take to process his entry, the guard quickly handled the paperwork and led Dorain toward the guard station inside Gilm.
"So? What happened that's got you in such a rush?"
In a room at the guard station near the Main Gate, the platoon leader sitting across from Dorain fixed him with a direct question.
Having received a preliminary report from his subordinate, the platoon leader had already sent a messenger to the Lord's Manor as a precaution. Now he wanted to hear the details straight from the source.
Dorain was itching to get the information to Daskar as quickly as possible, but he knew there was nothing he could do to speed that up at the moment. He had no reason to avoid talking to the platoon leader.
Though he did feel a twinge of unease about whether it was all right to relay this to the platoon leader before Daskar had heard it.
Still, he decided it was better to tell someone — anyone — just to convey the magnitude of what had happened.
"So, we were at the Treant Forest. The woodcutters were doing their usual logging work, and we were guarding them. Then Set, who'd come along with Rei, suddenly started growling, on full alert."
"Set went on alert?"
The platoon leader knew about Set, of course. The griffon was beloved as Gilm's mascot, but as a Rare Species, its combat abilities were extraordinarily high.
"Yes. But it wasn't focused on any one direction. It was like it couldn't pinpoint where the threat was coming from."
"...And then?"
Set had been unable to locate the enemy it sensed. The platoon leader's expression darkened, and Dorain pressed on.
"Then, well... it's hard to describe. Ripples appeared in the air itself — like disturbances in space — and about thirty green-skinned demi-humans just came pouring out."
"Space Teleportation?"
"Probably. But I've never seen demi-humans with green skin before. Green blood, too."
The platoon leader's face grew grimmer at the mention of green blood.
"Hold on. How do you know their blood was green? Did a fight break out?"
"No. They were already wounded when they came through. Rei tried to offer a potion to one of the injured, but they couldn't understand a word he said."
"...They couldn't understand him?"
"Not a thing. Green skin, green blood, and a language we can't make heads or tails of — honestly, it was hard to believe."
Dorain delivered all of this, but the platoon leader's expression only continued to darken.
At the same time, it clicked into place — why Rei hadn't come to report in person, and why he'd sent Dorain, who could ride a horse.
Though what the platoon leader was imagining at that moment was much the same as what Dorain had thought: that some small, unknown tribe had teleported here. The notion that they might have come from another world didn't even cross his mind.
"They can't communicate, huh... Wait. But you said Rei used a potion on them? How did he manage that if they can't talk?"
"Gestures. Fortunately, they weren't hostile toward us, and we'd lowered our weapons on Rei's orders. I think they figured out we were willing to talk."
"...I see."
The platoon leader had his doubts about whether gestures alone could bridge that kind of gap. But then he found himself thinking, It's Rei, after all — and the explanation somehow made perfect sense.
"Once they'd recovered from the potion, Rei decided this was beyond what he could handle alone. He said we needed to get someone who could ride to Gilm as fast as possible, and that someone ended up being me."
"So Rei stayed behind because the ones who attacked those green demi-humans might come through after them."
"Something like that, yeah."
Teleportation itself wasn't unheard of. It was rare, but not unprecedented. The Bestia Empire had already developed a practical method of teleportation using Magic Items, albeit one that required preparation and came with significant limitations. The platoon leader could tell that whatever the demi-humans in the Treant Forest had used was clearly something else entirely.
He also understood that, as things stood, the Treant Forest had become a dangerous place in every sense of the word.
"For now, Rei's call was the right one."
The platoon leader said it firmly, and Dorain felt a rush of relief he hadn't realized he'd been holding in. If he'd been told that Rei's judgment had been wrong — that Dorain had overreacted by riding here in such a frenzy — he wouldn't have known what to do.
"Regardless, the specifics are up to Lord Daskar. But there's no question something happened at the Treant Forest. We should probably send people. Though depending on Lord Daskar's decision, they might be ordered to pull back right away."
"Really? That would be a huge help. And, um — if possible, send someone strong. The ones who attacked the demi-humans might follow them. Besides, the only reason I was chosen to come is that I was the strongest one there after Rei."
"Hm. Understood. But there's no one on par with Rei, so it'll have to be someone reasonably capable."
"That's fine. Please."
As Dorain bowed deeply, the platoon leader considered who to dispatch. If something was going to come through after the demi-humans, they needed people with the skill to handle it.
Tough call. Who's available right now who can actually fight...? Let me think. But if what Dorain says is true, we need to gather bodies as fast as possible.
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door.
"Platoon Leader. A messenger from the Lord's Manor. They want Dorain brought there immediately — on the double."
The platoon leader nodded. He sent Dorain toward the Lord's Manor, and set about mobilizing himself.