Rei had been teaching Zozo words while felling trees in the Treant Forest for a little over ten minutes.
During that time, five trees had been felled, their branches trimmed by the idle adventurers to shape the logs, and then stored in Rei's Misty Ring.
"Come to think of it, you didn't really need to start with the word for cutting trees," Vihera muttered.
The others who heard her nodded in agreement.
In truth, it wasn't that the choice was wrong.
Rei had taught Zozo the word for cutting trees somewhat on impulse, but any other word would have been perfectly fine.
"Wood's in short supply for the expansion construction, so it's not really a problem when you think about it, is it?" Rei muttered, somewhat deflecting.
As far as he was concerned, it had genuinely been on a whim that he ended up teaching the word for cutting trees. He hadn't done it with any particular intent.
Given that, it wasn't strange that he now felt a little embarrassed.
What rescued Rei from that moment was a carriage that came rumbling toward them.
It stopped a short distance from Rei and the others, and the door opened...
"●●●!"
Lunora appeared and called out to his companions, who were huddled together a short distance from Rei's group.
For the green demi-humans who had teleported here today, they had suddenly found themselves in an entirely unfamiliar place, surrounded by many beings different from themselves—humans, a beastman, a dark elf—and even a lizardman named Zozo.
That alone would have been enough to provoke a sense of crisis, but then Rei had arrived riding a gryphon and, as if showing off to Zozo, cut down a tree.
Not a thin sapling, either, but one thick enough that a grown adult could barely wrap their arms around it.
In a way, it wouldn't have been strange for them to perceive it as something close to a show of force.
Indeed, there were shades of awe and fear in the gazes the green demi-humans directed at Rei.
With Lunora arriving in the midst of all that, it was only natural that the green demi-humans who had teleported in today were surprised and overjoyed.
They must have been acquaintances of Lunora. Rei could even hear them happily chattering away.
Several of the green demi-humans cast brief glances in Rei's direction.
"Looks like they're all fascinated by you, Rei," Vihera observed.
"You think? That seems less like fascination and more like..."
Rei trailed off in response to Vihera's remark.
In truth, only the individuals themselves would know what kind of gaze they were directing at him.
"Now that Lunora's here, won't that kind of misunderstanding fade?" Marina offered.
"I hope so."
Rei was confident he had built a decent level of trust with Lunora.
Lunora had been present when Rei subdued Zozo, so the impression should have been strong.
That said, just how deep that trust ran was something even Rei couldn't be certain of.
"Honestly, the fact that more people teleported in today was surprising in itself."
"Did you think the teleportations were over after yesterday?"
"I thought it was a possibility."
In truth, after Zozo and the others had teleported in yesterday, no one else had followed.
Because of that, they had asked Vihera to stand by here in case someone else came through—but no one appeared, which had put her in a sour mood.
Even so, Vihera's displeasure had since vanished, thanks to the arrival of new teleporters and, more importantly, the satisfaction of venting her frustration in this morning's mock battle.
"True. I thought so too, honestly. But if more arrivals are teleporting in today, troublesome times probably lie ahead."
At Vihera's words, Rei and the others who had been listening nodded in agreement.
As a practical matter, someone teleporting in again meant there was a high probability of further teleportations to come.
Given that, some form of countermeasure would be necessary.
Something like permanently stationing skilled adventurers here, as they were doing today.
"If it were only green demi-humans teleporting in, it wouldn't be that big a problem, would it?" Marina remarked.
"I won't deny that," Rei said, nodding to Marina—not as a stand-in for Vihera, but offering his own agreement.
"In any case... am I correct in understanding that you'll be transporting the newly arrived green demi-humans to Gilm by carriage?"
"Yes. I have been instructed to do so by Lord Daskar."
The man replied with a butler's poise—or rather, he was in fact a butler whom Rei had seen working at the lord's manor on several occasions.
Hearing this, Rei felt relieved that he wouldn't need to transport the green demi-humans himself.
Returning to Gilm while serving as an escort was extremely tedious for Rei, who was accustomed to traveling on Set's back.
That said, since it was only the day after yesterday's events, just for today he was to travel together with the woodcutters under the pretext of escorting them—both when coming to the Treant Forest in the morning and when returning to Gilm in the evening.
...With Zozo present, even setting aside the escort duty, there was a need to travel together on the ground anyway.
"I see. Then I'll leave it to you. We'll be standing by here to see if anyone else teleports in."
"Understood. Please take care, everyone."
The butler bowed and then made his way toward Lunora, who was conversing with his fellow green demi-humans.
One of the green demi-humans near Lunora noticed the butler approaching and directed a slightly wary, cautious gaze at him.
So they're not all pacifists—some of them do stay vigilant around strangers.
Rei was mildly surprised by this, but thinking about it, if every single one of them were a pacifist who never suspected others, they never would have survived this long.
"Then, shall we head to Gilm soon? I imagine the others won't be able to settle down if they remain in the forest indefinitely... Or would you and your companions feel more at ease in nature, Lunora?"
The butler asked, but of course there was no way Lunora could understand such a long string of words.
Knowing this, however, the butler used gestures to indicate that they should board the carriage and head toward Gilm.
"●●●●●"
Eventually, Lunora must have grasped what the gestures meant. He nodded and led his companions toward the carriage.
Though the words themselves were incomprehensible, the instruction to board was clear enough to the onlookers, Rei included.
And with Lunora—the one among them who best understood the situation—boarding the carriage, the other green demi-humans followed suit.
The single carriage was somewhat cramped, but everyone managed to squeeze in, and they set off for Gilm.
"I wonder how many companions Lunora has in total," Rei murmured.
"Hard to say. Hundreds would be manageable, but if it reaches the thousands, things will get quite complicated," Marina replied.
"Housing them in Gilm with numbers in the thousands would require a dedicated district," Elena added in agreement.
"Even in the hundreds, preparing living quarters for them would be a lot of work."
"But considering their abilities, it's only natural that people would want to keep them all close. I, for one, would love to have some dispatched to Anesis."
"Take that up with Lord Daskar, not me. He's the one sheltering Lunora's group."
Rei said this, though in reality he could already predict that most of the people who had gathered intelligence on Lunora's group would likely demand that Daskar dispatch some to them as well.
After all, the ability to freely grow plants—and doing so without placing any burden on the vegetation—would undoubtedly bring enormous profit.
That said, there are plenty of nobles who would likely treat Lunora's group as tools. Thinking about it that way, they can only be entrusted to reliable parties—and more importantly, there's the question of whether Lunora and the others would even consent.
Daskar was treating Lunora's group strictly as guests.
Because of that, he fundamentally would not force them into anything they opposed.
Of course, that was because he knew they would bring great profit to Gilm. Without that incentive, he might have imposed some degree of coercion.
"Anyway, Lunora and the others are on their way, so we'll keep standing by around here for a while. I'm going to go collect the felled trees—watch things here for me."
Seeing everyone nod, Rei started toward the deeper forest where the woodcutters were working. He had meant to bring Set along, but upon seeing the gryphon playing with Ielo, he headed in alone.
Zozo wanted to come too, but Rei used gestures to indicate he wouldn't be going far. This seemed to reassure the lizardman enough to stay behind.
...The fact that the others were teaching him words was also a significant factor in keeping him content.
Though it was deeper in the forest, it was still an area the woodcutters had been actively felling and clearing.
There shouldn't have been trees blocking the way as he walked...
"No, it's the stumps that are in the way."
That said, with the green demi-humans present, digging up these stumps was clearly out of the question.
A tree with a stump versus a tree without one. If asked which was more likely to sprout anew, the answer was obviously the former.
Thinking about it that way, I need to watch my footing from here on too. Catch a stump carelessly and there's a very real chance of injury.
Picking his way deeper into the forest, careful not to catch his feet on stumps or snag his Dragon Robe, Rei eventually came across several fallen trees.
The woodcutters and the adventurers assisting them had already trimmed the branches, leaving the logs ready to be stored in the Misty Ring.
Rei touched each one in turn, storing them away.
The woodcutters understood that Rei would collect whatever they felled, so they no longer needed to gather the logs in one place.
That did mean Rei had to walk around searching for them, but since the woodcutters clearly marked each felled tree, there was little chance of him overlooking any.
Hauling felled timber was arduous work for the woodcutters and the adventurers helping them.
Normally, felled trees would be left for a period to allow the moisture trapped inside to drain.
But the trees of the Treant Forest would undergo magical processing by alchemists without that step, so they actually needed to be transported while still full of moisture.
"It's a hassle, but—"
"Uwaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Before Rei could finish his sentence, a scream pierced the air.
He broke into a sprint toward the sound.
There were fundamentally no monsters in the Treant Forest, but creatures from other areas could still wander in and settle down.
And since this was the frontier, there was always a chance, however slim, that something powerful might take up residence—something ordinary adventurers had no business tackling.
That said, because of the teleportation situation, the adventurers stationed in the Treant Forest today as guards—including those assigned to protect the woodcutters—had been selected for their proven skill.
Which was precisely why a scream like that, raised despite capable fighters being present, meant something had appeared that was beyond the guard adventurers' ability to handle.
Elena and the others had undoubtedly heard the scream too, so they would be mobilizing on their end.
Even so, Rei was closer. He had to act first.
Stumps littering the ground kept getting in his way, but he ran without catching his feet—and in under ten seconds, he burst into the clearing where the scream had come from.
"Lizardmen!?"
The word tore from his throat at the sight before him.
Adventurers and lizardmen were locked in a face-off, weapons drawn.
The one stroke of fortune was that no actual fighting had broken out yet.
One of the woodcutters behind the adventurers was sitting flat on his backside—clearly the source of the scream.
But what startled Rei more than anything was the armor the lizardmen wore. It was identical to Zozo's.