"Oh, a deer that huge appeared? Animals and monsters have been showing up in the Treant Forest to some extent before, but considering that, it feels like the danger level jumped all at once."
Marina spoke with surprise as she ate a dish made from the deer meat Rei had brought back as a souvenir.
Being a Dark Elf, Marina was well-versed in nature. So naturally, hearing that a giant deer—one roughly the same size as Set—had appeared would catch her off guard.
Of course, no matter how abnormally large it was, in the end it was just an ordinary animal, not a monster. That it ended up as food upon encountering Set was only natural.
"Deer."
Gaga murmured the word happily as he ate with his hands what could be called spareribs—ribs seasoned with salt and spices and grilled in a Magic Item pot.
The moment he said "deer," Rei tensed for an instant, thinking Gaga might also mention the tongue. But fortunately, Gaga was too busy eating the spareribs to have the leisure for that.
"Normally, deer ribs have more fat, you know," Marina said.
"Is that so?" Rei asked.
"Yes. That's why parboiling them before grilling to drain the excess fat makes them taste even better. But this deer had fat, just a moderate amount. So it was fine to grill directly with spices and salt."
"Mhm!"
Byune, who had been eating the spareribs as if determined not to lose to Gaga, let out a short cry in response to Marina's explanation.
"She says it would be a waste to throw away such delicious fat," Vihera translated as usual—though the sentiment was somewhat unexpected to Rei.
Normally, Byune would prefer dishes as healthy as possible. Well, he supposed there wasn't a woman present that the word "ordinary" suited.
Thinking that, Rei reached for a sparerib as well.
Whatever preprocessing had been done, when he gripped the bone and bit into the meat, it came away effortlessly. Parboiling beforehand might make the meat easier to separate from the bone, but these spareribs hadn't been prepared that way. Which meant it had to be something else entirely, but Rei had no idea what.
"Mmm, this is delicious. The fact that Set caught it might be part of why it tastes so good to me. I actually prefer this to the food served at some nobles' banquets."
It felt extremely jarring to see Elena, who held the title of Princess General, eating spareribs directly with her hands. But she didn't seem to care in the slightest, thoroughly enjoying the flavor.
"So, nothing else happened today? I understand the deer showed up, but... did a strong Lizardman like Gaga teleport in?"
"It was disappointing for you, Vihera, but there were no teleportations. I'm just guessing, but teleporting the entire Birth Tower probably used up some kind of power—mana or something—and it's currently recovering."
Rei replied to Vihera while savoring a sparerib.
Gaga briefly glanced at Vihera when his name was mentioned, but quickly returned his attention to the spareribs.
He really seemed to have taken a liking to them. They were delicious, true. Zozo loved fish, but I guess not all Lizardmen are fish lovers. Humans have different food preferences from person to person too, so when you think about it, it's only natural.
Or so Rei thought. But the amount of meat he had brought back as souvenirs was by no means large. Normally it would have been enough for this many people to be reasonably satisfied, but those gathered here ate more than ordinary people. As a result, the deer meat Rei had brought disappeared in no time.
"Mmm—!"
The one who let out a dissatisfied voice at the deer meat running out was Byune. From her perspective, Rei, Set, and Gaga had already eaten their fill of deer at lunch. So at dinner, they should have yielded more meat to the rest of them—to her, specifically. That was likely what she was arguing.
Hearing this through Vihera's translation, Rei quietly averted his gaze. Since Gaga had been eating so enthusiastically, he couldn't deny that Byune had been drawn in by that.
If so, he decided, he would make sure Byune got plenty to eat next time Set caught prey.
That said, Rei and his group weren't out hunting. They were on guard duty. If they were to catch deer or anything similar, it would only be when Set happened to encounter one.
However, this afternoon as well, Set had been walking around the Treant Forest with Lizardman children on his back, but unlike in the morning, he hadn't encountered any prey.
With a deer that massive around, other animals wouldn't be able to settle in the Treant Forest so easily. Even if they did manage it, upon sensing Set's presence, they would normally flee. That deer, which hadn't fled upon encountering Set and instead charged head-on, was the abnormal one.
Granted, it was a deer about the same size as the three-meter-tall Set. While it wasn't a carnivore, with that massive body and impressive antlers, winning against ordinary animals and monsters wouldn't have been particularly difficult. Believing it had no natural enemies, it hadn't fled upon finding Set, had attacked for ruining its territory, and had died from the counterattack.
"For now, if Set runs into another one, he'll bring it back as a souvenir. So just be patient and wait, okay? Does that work?"
"...Mm."
Byune didn't look entirely convinced, but she gave a small nod anyway. Seeing that, Rei debated whether he should ask Set to catch some kind of prey tomorrow.
"Look, Byune. There's barely any deer left, but there are still other dishes. I didn't make them myself, but Rei bought them, so they're guaranteed to be delicious."
Marina said this to distract Byune from the deer meat, and in truth, her words weren't wrong. What Rei purchased from food stalls and eateries to store in his Misty Ring was, as a general rule, only things he personally found delicious.
People's tastes varied widely, and it wasn't guaranteed that everyone would praise every dish Rei found tasty. But most people would find them delicious. In that sense, the people here—who had been associated with Rei for quite some time, Gaga notwithstanding—didn't find the food he brought to be bad.
"Mm."
That was likely why Byune accepted Marina's words with a straightforward nod.
As Marina patted Byune's head, Vihera suddenly felt curious and asked, "It's not every time, but there have been quite a few of your home-cooked meals lately, haven't there? Why none today?"
"Today was a little busy. I got home late."
Marina replied casually, but in reality, when Vihera had returned, Marina was already inside the house. Since that was the usual routine, Vihera hadn't thought anything of it at the time. But now that it was mentioned, it wasn't as if Marina didn't look somewhat more tired than usual.
"I see. But busy—did something happen? There were... I wouldn't say there were no brawls, but they weren't particularly numerous either."
The request Vihera and Byune were handling was patrolling the town. With so many people gathered for the Expansion Construction, there were plenty of hot-blooded individuals, and naturally brawls increased as well. Stopping those was Vihera's primary job.
In practice, she also had other duties—guiding lost people, stopping those who tried to scam the uninformed, and various other tasks. But among them, mediating fights was her main responsibility.
Vihera's extraordinary beauty and clothing that resembled what Prostitutes or Dancers wore often became the cause of incidents themselves, but she didn't mind that at all.
Anyway, since she was patrolling the town, if there had been some disturbance that kept Marina busy with treatment, she should have heard about it. Yet no such story had reached Vihera, and for some reason Marina was claiming she had been busy.
"In that case, was there an accident at the Expansion Construction site?"
"If you're patrolling the town, wouldn't word of a major accident reach you, Vihera?" Rei asked.
"Not necessarily. Depending on the location, there are times when things don't reach you at all."
Vihera answered Rei's question casually. Whether that was true or she was deflecting, he couldn't tell. He didn't feel any particular need to press the issue, so he said nothing more about it.
Instead, he asked Marina the reason she had been busy.
"So, did an accident or something happen?"
"Well... yes. I think you could call it an accident, but it might be better described as a brawl."
"A brawl?"
The first to react to that word was, as expected, Vihera. But before she could respond, Elena, who had been quietly listening to the conversation up until then, spoke up.
"It may have been a brawl, but not the kind you're hoping for, Vihera. In the sense that craftsmen fought each other, yes, it was a brawl."
"Oh, how do you know about it, Elena?"
"It came up during my meeting with the nobles. The cause is the Treant Forest."
When the Treant Forest was mentioned, Rei—who was standing guard there, or more precisely at the Birth Tower adjacent to the forest—couldn't help but be concerned.
"Wait, what do you mean?"
"Simply put, they were fighting over the remaining Treant Forest lumber."
"Ah... yeah. I see, that makes sense."
Treant Forest lumber was a building material being used extensively in Gilm's Expansion Construction. Due to the Birth Tower incident, logging had been suspended yesterday. The construction was already underway at multiple sites simultaneously and was experiencing a slight lumber shortage. With logging suddenly halted, each party tried to secure as much lumber as possible, and since there were others thinking the same thing, when such individuals encountered each other... it wasn't surprising that a brawl broke out.
And when a brawl occurred, injuries naturally followed, and the wounded would come to Marina's clinic. That was probably the chain of events.
"Logging was only suspended for today, right? Even so, it came to that?"
"I understand what you're saying, Rei, but the fact that building materials were already running short is probably the biggest factor here."
"I get that they'd be running low, but it's not like they've completely run out, right?"
"That's right. But from what I heard, there's only a very small margin to spare. That's precisely why they want to secure their own portion."
"...I should have done some tree felling today," Rei muttered in response to Elena's words.
The Birth Tower had been teleported to a location right next to the Treant Forest. In other words, if Rei had wanted to, felling trees wouldn't have been difficult.
That said, trees did serve somewhat as a windbreak—in one direction, at least—and they also acted as a barrier against monsters, animals, and most importantly, attackers like the mercenaries who had previously assaulted them.
No, rather than thinking of them as a barrier, considering that enemies could use the trees as cover to approach unseen... wouldn't it be better to clear all the trees around the Birth Tower entirely?
With trees in the way, they couldn't see enemies approaching. For those guarding the Birth Tower, that was a genuinely troublesome situation. If so, wouldn't it be better to fell all the surrounding trees so the view was clear, making guard duty easier?
And the felled trees could be handed over to the Alchemists, who would process them magically and resolve the building material shortage.
Originally, the task of felling trees in the Treant Forest had been entrusted to Woodcutters rather than Rei because he had various other duties to attend to. Rei, with Set's mobility and his Misty Ring, was a valuable asset at many locations during the Expansion Construction. That was why tree felling was left to the Woodcutters as a job that could be done without him.
But right now, Rei was assigned to guard the Birth Tower, which meant he was basically idle. If so, couldn't he use that idle time to fell trees?
That's a good idea. I'll ask at the Guild tomorrow. The Guild wouldn't want the Expansion Construction delayed either. Though it would mean taking the Woodcutters' work from them.
If it didn't work out, he'd just think of something else. Making that judgment, Rei continued the conversation.
"Craftsmen brawling, huh. That must have been quite a spectacle."
"Listen, Rei. I'm telling you, it's not that entertaining. Craftsmen might be more physically fit than average, but most of them are just people who are used to getting into fights at best. That said, it is a problem that building materials are running short enough for people like that to come to blows."
Seeing Marina sigh dejectedly, Rei handed her a chilled fruit he had taken from his Misty Ring.