"Oh? A boar showed up? The Treant Forest has been getting quite a lot more animals lately."
As usual, it was dinnertime at Marina's house.
When Marina wondered how the boar meat being served as tonight's ingredient had been obtained, and Rei mentioned what had happened that morning, those were the words that came from Marina's mouth.
As a Dark Elf, Marina was likely pleased that the forest was gaining more animals—more life.
Marina was smiling happily, but in contrast, Vihera didn't look particularly interested.
For Vihera, her honest desire was probably for powerful monsters rather than ordinary animals—specifically, the kind of powerful monsters unique to the frontier.
It was typical of Vihera, who relished battles against strong foes.
"Yeah. It was a fairly large boar. Though Zozo brought it down effortlessly with a single strike."
Zozo, who had been eating steamed fish with a sour sauce rather than the boar meat, looked up at Rei's words.
Indicating that it was nothing with his demeanor, Rei continued.
"With this incident, it's safe to say trust in Zozo has gone up."
"I suppose so. He shared the prey he brought down with everyone. ...At the very least, I doubt anyone started disliking Zozo because of it, wouldn't you say?"
Rei nodded at Marina's words.
...In truth, Rei hadn't thought that deeply about it when he did what he did.
He had simply thought that since it was a boar, he'd rather everyone enjoy a delicious boar dish together for lunch.
The soup made with the organs and various cuts of meat, as well as the skewers, had certainly been quite delicious.
That it resulted in raising Zozo's friendliness and favorability was simply good luck.
"Could it be that you didn't think that far ahead?"
Elena, who had been observing Rei's demeanor, asked him with a hint of suspicion.
Receiving looks from Marina, Vihera, Ara... and even Byune, Rei quietly averted his gaze elsewhere.
"Mn!"
Byune was the first to speak up toward Rei.
That said, it wasn't really about the Zozo situation. She was simply indicating through her demeanor that she had wanted to eat delicious boar dishes too.
There was still a fair amount of boar meat left, but the organs had all been used in the soup and fully consumed.
Byune probably wanted to try dishes made from boar organs.
Rei couldn't fully grasp what Byune was trying to say, but he understood that she had some dissatisfaction regarding this matter, so he quietly passed the dish he had on hand—a plate of roasted boar meat—to Byune.
"Mn."
Byune accepted the plate, seeming slightly mollified by Rei's attitude—though her expression didn't change—and savored it thoroughly.
"Fufu. Even Rei is no match for Byune, huh?"
Vihera, who had been watching the exchange, said with a smile.
Rei himself had no such intention at all, but from an outside perspective, it was understandable that it might look that way.
"Putting that aside, could Spirit Magic somehow detect the teleportations occurring at the Treant Forest?"
Sensing that the conversation was heading in an awkward direction, Rei forcefully changed the subject.
"Huh? With Spirit Magic? Hmm... let me think..."
Marina seemed slightly caught off guard by Rei's words, but after thinking for a moment... she eventually shook her head.
"Probably impossible. For one thing, detecting teleportation itself is highly difficult. Besides, I'm busy with various things too, so I can't just stay at the Treant Forest."
"Then what about something like remote monitoring? The Spirit Magic protecting this house is still effective even when you're not here, right?"
"Oh, come on. You're a mage, Rei. You should understand how difficult that would be, shouldn't you?"
"...Well, my magic and Spirit Magic are different, aren't they?"
What Rei had originally wanted to say was that he, who could only use Flame Magic, was different from Marina, who used Spirit Magic.
However, Ara and Byune, who were unaware of Rei's circumstances, were present.
Zozo, of course, also didn't know about Rei's circumstances, but since he could barely understand any words in the first place, there was no need to worry about that.
"I suppose so. But think about it and you'll understand, won't you? Even I'm not sure I could do it if I were there, so monitoring from an even greater distance... the spirits might start behaving strangely. It would be better to just have someone else stand watch at the Treant Forest, wouldn't it?"
"...Now that you mention it, I suppose so. Still, being outside Gilm at night is..."
Going outside Gilm at night was nothing short of suicide unless one possessed considerable skill.
Monsters didn't appear often in the Treant Forest, but it wasn't as though they never appeared at all.
Given those circumstances, dispatching someone was difficult.
(In that sense, Vihera would be perfect.)
If it were Vihera, who relished battles against strong foes, she would probably accept the request without a second thought.
But if something happened to Vihera in the Treant Forest at night, Rei felt that he and the others wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
Vihera enjoyed fighting and possessed strength befitting that passion, but she wasn't invincible.
If she faced a High-Rank Monster or simply a monster with a bad compatibility, even Vihera could very well lose.
Thinking of that, Rei couldn't bring himself to assign Vihera to stand watch in the Treant Forest at night.
In a way, that might mean he didn't believe in Vihera's abilities, but to Rei, Vihera was someone he should protect—one of his own precious people.
"What? Just so you know, I'm not going, okay?"
Rei was looking at her, so Vihera understood what he was thinking, but the words that came from her mouth were completely unexpected to Rei.
"Eh? You're fine with that?"
"Oh, did you perhaps not want me to go?"
"It's not that. I just thought that knowing you, Vihera, you'd say you wanted to go."
"You're right. A while ago, I might have done just that. But lately, I've been able to have mock battles every morning, and above all..."
Vihera paused there, deliberately drawing out the moment as she brought a spoonful of vegetable-rich soup to her lips.
"Lack of sleep is the enemy of beauty. ...Right?"
"Indeed."
"That's right."
Elena and Marina agreed with Vihera's words as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Their coordination left absolutely no room for Rei to interject.
That said, Rei naturally knew why Vihera was doing this... whose sake she was caring about her beauty for.
He had no complaints about Vihera's behavior—nothing but happiness.
"Ah... yeah. If you say so, it can't be helped."
"That's right. It can't be helped."
At Rei's words, Marina said so with an amused smile.
Rei was about to say something to Marina, but before he could open his mouth, Marina changed the subject.
"Gilm currently has quite a number of adventurers, and there are some skilled ones who could be called eccentrics, right? In that case, how about relying on someone like that?"
Skilled, yet eccentric.
More accurately, it should be "eccentric because they're skilled."
Among capable adventurers, there were many who were somewhat abnormal.
In that sense, Rei was on the more normal side among adventurers considered skilled.
...At least, that was what Rei himself claimed.
Of course, whether other adventurers would agree was an entirely different matter.
Most likely, even those whom Rei considered eccentrics would not readily admit to being eccentric themselves if asked.
Then again, there were some who understood they were eccentric and still carried on their activities regardless.
"That's not something for me to judge. Lord Daskar and Gilm's upper leadership are probably already considering something like that, so I should leave it to them."
That was what Rei said.
Daskar, in particular, would certainly understand such things.
That was why Rei judged it better not to make any unnecessary remarks, and brought a spoonful of the vegetable-rich soup to his mouth.
It was a soup with almost no meat used, but perhaps because the sweetness and umami of the vegetables had been fully drawn out, the soup was thoroughly satisfying in flavor.
"If you say so, Rei, then that's fine. ...But with these teleportations happening every day, it's going to cause all sorts of problems from here on out. Considering how things have been up to today, they'll probably teleport in again tomorrow, won't they?"
"Probably. It's almost certain."
"...As a practical matter, what do you think is the reason they're teleporting here?"
At Marina's words, everyone—not just Rei, though Byune was focused on her food and Zozo couldn't understand the words so he didn't follow—pondered the question.
If it were only once, some kind of coincidence could be considered... something like a magical runaway, for instance.
But with teleportations happening every consecutive day like this, it clearly suggested the intention of someone or something.
Then again, considering that the Green People and Lizardmen were teleporting in together...
(Could whoever that someone is be teleporting them because they want the Green People saved?)
Given that in many cases the Green People were being attacked by Lizardmen when they teleported in, Rei felt his idea was by no means off the mark.
However, considering that there had also been teleportations where the Lizardmen weren't attacking the Green People, that theory wasn't absolutely correct either.
"Rather than what's causing the teleportation, the real problem is how they're teleporting. Is it an ability of the Green People or the Lizardmen? Or is there some reason at the location where the Green People were? Or perhaps they have some kind of item... I'd rather not think it's something like coincidence, though."
Rei didn't want to consider that they were teleporting by coincidence.
In the first place, Rei suspected that the Green People and Lizardmen were not beings from this world, but beings from another world.
If so, that would mean the Green People and Lizardmen had coincidentally teleported to this world.
For such a coincidence to occur not just once, but repeatedly, could no longer be called a coincidence.
(There was a saying that if a coincidence happens three times, it becomes inevitability, wasn't there?)
Thinking of that, the number of times Lizardmen had teleported in had already exceeded three.
There was sufficient reason to be convinced it was inevitability, not coincidence.
"In that case, what comes to mind would be a Magic Item... no, perhaps the effect of an Artifact?"
An Artifact, the word Vihera had uttered, referred to items excavated from ruins or Dungeons of the Ancient Magic Civilization—Magic Items that could not be created with current technology.
For example, the Paired Orbs that Rei possessed would be one such item.
The ones Rei had were excavated from a Dungeon, though.
"Or perhaps, rather than an Artifact, the effect of the ruins themselves?"
Marina continued.
Precisely because she had been active as an adventurer for a long time and had also served as a Guild Master, she likely had some knowledge of such ruins.
"So there are ruins like that too."
"Yes. Though, living ruins are quite rare."
While having that conversation, Rei and the others finished their meal.
...Praying, if possible, that this incident was not Grimm's doing.
After the meal, Rei, Elena, Marina, and Vihera were in a room they had used before.
Byune was playing with Set and Ielo, and Ara was finishing up paperwork.
Zozo seemed to want to stay with Rei, but bringing him into this room... more precisely, to prevent Zozo from seeing the person they were about to contact via the Paired Orbs, he had been asked to wait in the hallway.
Since they couldn't communicate with Zozo, they couldn't accurately grasp what an Undead like Grimm meant to him.
If Zozo saw Rei and the others talking with Grimm and recognized him as an enemy, then started going on a rampage, it would be extremely problematic.
"Grimm, can you hear me? Grimm."
Would there be no response, just as there had been none up through yesterday?
While calling out to the Paired Orbs with that thought...
"What is it?"
Suddenly, a familiar skull was reflected in the Paired Orbs.