While Dorain was taking action in Gilm, those working in the Treant Forest, beginning with Rei, were each taking action to decide what to do next.
"Alright, I'm counting on you. I doubt there'll be any problems, but just in case monsters attack—"
"Yes, our numbers are few, but we'll manage somehow."
The one who answered Rei's words was the man leading the adventurers who had been working in the Treant Forest that day.
His gaze was directed at the carriage carrying the woodcutters.
That said, one of the horses pulling the carriage had been used by Dorain when he headed for Gilm, so there was one fewer than normal.
Still, the carriage could be pulled even so, which was precisely why Rei had decided to send the woodcutters back to Gilm as a means of evacuating them from the area.
If whoever had attacked the green demi-humans ended up teleporting here, the woodcutters, who possessed no combat ability, would absolutely become a burden.
They were a rough bunch, and many of them had experience with fights in town, so to speak. But what Rei needed was true combat proficiency—the kind of skill that mattered in battles where one's life was on the line.
By that standard, the woodcutters unfortunately fell short.
Many of the adventurers were also below the Gilm average, and the majority of those assigned to guard the woodcutters were of that caliber.
Naturally, having only such people would be cause for concern in an emergency, so Rei had mixed in a few veterans among the guards.
The representative of that group was the adventurer man currently speaking with Rei.
"Then we'll be off. Once we arrive in Gilm, we'll immediately ask the guards how to handle this matter."
"Yeah, do that. Though they might end up being taken into custody for a while."
At Rei's words, even the adventurers wore subtly displeased expressions.
But given that the green demi-humans had done something as drastic as suddenly teleporting into the Treant Forest, it was only natural that the incident leaking out could cause various problems for Gilm.
To prevent that, it would be far less troublesome to round up and detain the woodcutters and adventurers who knew the circumstances.
Of course, Rei would need to handle things properly—paying them some compensation during their detention, for instance.
(Well, the idea that they came from another world is still just my guess at this point. If it turns out they simply teleported from somewhere else in this world by some means, then they might not need to be isolated so dramatically.)
It was precisely because Rei himself had come from another world—Earth—to this world that he entertained the possibility that the green demi-humans had come from one as well.
Someone unaware of those circumstances, with no concept of another world, would normally assume they had teleported from somewhere else in Elgin.
In fact, even Rei couldn't entirely dismiss the possibility that he was overthinking the other-world angle.
Watching the departing carriage, he mused that if that were actually the case, things would be much simpler.
But regardless of the reason, Rei was half-convinced that the green demi-humans had come from outside this world.
"Now then, the woodcutters have headed back, but that leaves the question of what we should do from here."
"What do you mean? Shouldn't we try to talk with those demi-humans?"
"Even if we try to talk, we can't understand each other's language. If we could communicate, we could at least ask about their circumstances, but..."
At the words of the adventurer who had remained behind, Rei muttered this while gazing at the green demi-humans.
Then, perhaps noticing Rei's gaze, the demi-human man who had spoken with him earlier approached, apparently thinking Rei had some business with him.
"●●●●? ●●●●●●, ●●●●●●●●●●?"
"Ah... yeah. Sorry, but I have absolutely no idea what you're saying."
When Rei shook his head, the green demi-human looked disappointed, his handsome face falling as he shook his head as well.
(Now that I look again, every single one of them is remarkably beautiful. Is that a racial trait?)
The first race of beautiful people that came to Rei's mind was the Dark Elves.
This was largely because he knew Marina, and had even visited her hometown to see a large number of Dark Elves with his own eyes.
But the roughly thirty green demi-humans who had teleported here were a gathering of beauties that could rival even the Dark Elves.
They were not quite at the level of Marina, who was famous even among Dark Elves for her beauty, but it was still clear that every one of them had well-proportioned features.
(In that case, could the reason these people are injured be because they were subjected to something like a slave hunt?)
If they were beautiful, their value as slaves would naturally skyrocket.
And if they were a small tribe with few numbers, that value would rise even further.
Gilm, naturally, had illegal slave merchants as well.
If these demi-humans were to be brought to Gilm, it would be necessary to remain on guard against such individuals.
Thinking this, Rei suddenly had an idea and took some bread from his Misty Ring.
It was an action born of the thought that if their stomachs were full, they might feel at least a little less anxious. But the demi-human man who was handed the bread took it in his hands, stared at it for a moment, then shook his head and returned it to Rei.
"●●●●●●●●●●, ●●●●"
As before, Rei could not understand what he was saying. But when the demi-human man pointed at a bush growing nearby, Rei could at least gather that he intended to do something with it.
Judging that there was no problem with the situation for now, Rei nodded. The man smiled happily and approached the bush.
And when he touched it... the bush suddenly grew.
Of course, saying it grew did not mean it had shot up dramatically.
But it had definitely grown by more than ten centimeters.
"...Huh?"
For a moment, Rei could not comprehend what he had just witnessed, and a dumbfounded sound escaped his lips.
That single sound carried a tangle of questions.
For instance: instead of eating bread—instead of having a meal—why was the bush growing?
Thinking about it normally, it would mean the green demi-human man was imparting some kind of energy to the bush, which made it seem as though he was expending energy rather than eating to recover it.
And yet, for some reason, the demi-human man wore a satisfied expression—like someone who had eaten something and felt slightly less hungry.
Furthermore, making a bush grow was, from Rei's perspective, completely incomprehensible.
If he had used a skill, magic, or some kind of Magic Item, Rei could have at least understood. But there had been no such gesture; he had truly just touched the grass growing from the bush.
(No, maybe he activated some kind of skill the moment he touched the bush? But what kind of skill? If it were a skill that absorbed life force, it would make sense for the bush to wither, but in this case it clearly grew.)
As Rei grappled with these questions, the demi-human man nodded in satisfaction and then approached him again to speak.
"●●●●●●? ●●●●? ●●●●"
He pointed at the other demi-humans and asked something.
As before, Rei could not understand the words, but he could more or less grasp the intent through the man's gestures, so he nodded.
The man was likely asking whether his companions could do the same—whether it could even be called a meal, Rei was not sure—as he had just done.
(There's a possibility that these demi-humans' feeding could negatively affect the Treant Forest, but... honestly, this forest can't be called normal in many ways.)
Normally, for a forest like the Treant Forest to form, one or two years would not be enough.
No, even ten or twenty years would not suffice.
But this forest had been completed in less than a month.
Considering that, it was impossible to call it a normal forest.
Of course, precisely because it was not a normal forest, the trees of the Treant Forest were being heavily utilized as building materials for the Expansion Construction.
Rei's honest feeling was that it would be somewhat troublesome if the green demi-humans used some method to disrupt the Treant Forest's ecosystem.
That said, matters like that were for someone in a higher position—someone like Daskar—to worry about. For now, Rei's stronger impulse was to establish even a slightly friendly relationship with these demi-humans first.
"Oh!"
As the green demi-humans touched the bushes and trees around them, satisfied smiles spread across their faces, and simultaneously the bushes' grass and even the trees grew—slightly, but unmistakably.
The other adventurers who witnessed this all raised voices of astonishment in unison.
Indeed, there was no denying that the sight before them was genuinely astonishing.
Absorbing something like a plant's life force to satisfy oneself was surprising but still acceptable.
But watching them share their own life force with plants to promote growth—while somehow feeling satisfied themselves—left the onlookers with nothing to do but stare in disbelief.
Several of the green demi-humans looked puzzled, as though they could not understand why everyone was so shocked.
Perhaps in the world they came from, this kind of feeding was ordinary, and processing plants into things like bread to eat was not something they did. That was Rei's working theory.
Of course, the demi-human man he had first handed bread to had shown no particular surprise upon seeing it, so it might not necessarily be the case that they had no concept of bread at all... or so he reasoned.
As these thoughts ran through his mind, Set, who had been vigilantly watching the surroundings, suddenly growled.
At Set's abrupt behavior, several of the green demi-humans shrank back in fear. But Set was looking toward the area outside the Treant Forest, and above all, showed no sign of aggression.
Rather, his demeanor was almost joyful.
(Is it someone working for Lord Daskar? That would be awfully fast, though.)
Judging that it was at least not an enemy, Rei turned his gaze in the direction Set was looking.
Noticing Rei's reaction, the green demi-humans anxiously peered in the same direction.
It was only natural. From their perspective, they understood that they had come here uninvited.
They had been incredibly fortunate to find an ally in Rei, but given their current situation, harboring all manner of anxieties was only to be expected.
As Rei, Set, and the green demi-humans looked that way, the remaining adventurers naturally turned their gazes in the same direction. Before long, everyone could see a carriage approaching.
Seeing that the coachman was a guard, Rei hesitated over how to react.
If Daskar had dispatched knights or soldiers, he could have accepted it without question.
But if it was guards, then there was a possibility—however slight—that they had come to capture the green demi-humans.
That said, he couldn't exactly go on a rampage against the guards.
No, rather—if the guards were taking them into protective custody, it might actually be safer for the green demi-humans than staying exposed in an unsecured location, at least in the sense that shady characters would not be able to lay hands on them.
"●●? ●●●●●●"
Watching the approaching carriage, the demi-human man who had conversed with Rei many times now asked him something, his expression puzzled and tinged with anxiety.
As before, Rei could not understand the specifics of what he was saying, but through the man's tone and gestures, he could still grasp the general intent.
...That said, even Rei had no idea how to explain what kind of beings the approaching guards were.
They had managed rough communication through gestures, but that was exactly it—rough, and ill-suited for detailed exchanges of intent.
They could manage to ask things like "Do you want to eat this?" but when it came to conveying that the approaching party was Gilm's guards, Rei had no idea how to express that through gestures alone.
Even so, he gestured to indicate that everything would be fine.
Seeing Rei's attitude, the green demi-human man wore a slightly anxious expression but nevertheless called out something to his companions.
Rei naturally could not understand the words, but seeing the other demi-humans settle down, he let out a breath of relief and waited for the carriage to arrive.