By the time Rei and his group returned to the campsite after destroying the Goblin settlement, it was already nearing evening.
Under normal circumstances, they could have made it back much sooner. But with the women rescued from the Goblin settlement in tow, their pace had inevitably slowed.
The wounds from having their hands and feet pierced by wooden stakes were manageable enough—Rei had potions on hand to treat those. But there was nothing he or anyone in his group could do about the fact that the women had been violated by the Goblins.
If there had been a woman among Rei's party, things might have been different. But the only women at the campsite were the female Lizardman from the Birth Tower, along with Anastasia and Fana, who had come to investigate the Wisp.
Of those, Anastasia and Fana were currently in the underground space where the Wisp resided. And as for whether the female Lizardman could care for women of this world—women who had, moreover, been violated by Goblins—that was an entirely different question.
In the end, Rei had no choice but to entrust the care of the other women to the one among them who was still in relatively good spirits. The only thing he could do himself was provide water with the Dagger of Flowing Water.
For a brief moment, he did wonder if the water comprising the Water Wolf's body might serve the purpose. But to the women, Rei was apparently the more reassuring presence.
After treating their injuries and letting them wash up, they set out for the campsite—but the women had no shoes.
No, even their clothes had been torn away by the Goblins, leaving them completely naked, or at best half-naked.
Once again Rei came through, handing out cloth from his Misty Ring. The women tore it into makeshift garments as best they could.
Given the state they were in, the slow pace was unavoidable.
Rei did consider whether transporting them in the Set Basket might be faster. But with some of the women still teetering between sanity and madness, that was far too dangerous. In a worst-case scenario, one of them might throw herself overboard mid-flight, or panic and start lashing out inside the basket.
There were even adventurers who argued that putting them out of their misery would be the kinder thing to do.
Even so, Rei decided to bring them back and leave that judgment to the knight in charge. And so they had taken their time getting here.
"Rei! Glad you're safe. You were gone so long I started to worry."
One of the adventurers left behind on guard duty called out as he spotted the group returning. He knew Rei's strength well enough not to seriously think anything could have gone wrong against a Goblin settlement. Still, given how long they'd been gone, he must have wondered if something unexpected had come up.
And in truth, it wasn't so much unexpected as it was foreseeable—the delay was caused by the rescue of the women held captive in the settlement.
"Yeah. We're all fine. No casualties, obviously, and the injured only took minor wounds."
A few light cuts, some bites, a couple of bruises—wounds so trivial that even calling them minor felt generous—and those had already been healed with potions.
"Good, that's a relief. ...You don't look too happy about it, though."
"It's that."
Rei gestured toward the women gathered a short distance away. One look at their haggard faces and the adventurer understood. His expression hardened with anger directed at the Goblins.
"I see."
"Yeah. On top of that, we couldn't kill the High-ranking Species or Rare Species that was commanding the settlement. It most likely slipped away in the chaos. Which means it could found a new settlement somewhere else."
A High-ranking Species or Rare Species Goblin, still alive. The adventurer's expression soured at the news, and he shot Rei a look that carried a faint edge of accusation.
From his perspective, the idea that Rei, Set, and the Water Wolf together could let the settlement's leader escape was, by any normal reasoning, unthinkable. He must have concluded that some kind of mistake had been made.
And given the strong likelihood that a High-ranking Species or Rare Species had been the one behind the meat shields, the adventurer's reasoning wasn't necessarily wrong.
"Sorry, but I want to get the women resting first. I also need to file a report. ...And I have to go pick up Anastasia and the others."
All in all, Rei had a lot on his plate.
The immediate problem was figuring out how to get the women settled. With only men at the campsite and no women except the Lizardman, the women would have to look after each other.
Fortunately, a few of them were still steady on their feet. And some who had been at their breaking point, both physically and mentally, had recovered at least somewhat now that the settlement was destroyed.
Rei's plan was simple: let the women manage among themselves tonight, then put them on a carriage to Gilm in the morning.
(Anastasia and Fana might be willing to help care for them... but I wonder.)
Anastasia would probably be too absorbed in her research, and Fana was already the type to keep to herself. Which meant that even with the two of them present, Rei doubted they'd be much use in tending to the women.
Leaving the adventurer behind, Rei made his way toward the knight.
"Rei."
The knight had clearly been anxious for news. The moment he spotted Rei, he came striding over.
"How did it go?"
"Not the worst... but not the best, either."
Rei said this while watching the Water Wolf make its way back toward the lake. Despite having devoured every last Goblin corpse at the settlement, its body hadn't changed in the slightest.
(Did the Goblins it dissolved inside its body flow to the lake through the Water Rope?)
Setting that question aside, Rei gave the knight a full account of what had happened at the settlement.
The knight was visibly disappointed that the commanding Goblin had escaped. Still, there was no denying that the annihilation of the settlement was a significant success.
"I'm leaving the rescued women in your hands. My suggestion would be to put them on tomorrow's carriage and send them to Gilm."
"Right. That would be for the best."
The knight nodded readily, apparently relieved that Rei had a plan—he'd clearly been at a loss himself over how to handle the women.
With that settled, Rei got to his feet.
"Then I'm off to pick up Anastasia and Fana. I'll leave the rest with you."
"Wait—"
The knight started to object, but Rei cut him off.
"I'm the only one who knows where Anastasia and the others are. And since it's already evening, every minute we spend here is a minute later I'll be picking them up. Unless you'd like to be the one to explain to Anastasia why she was left waiting."
In truth, even if he was late, Anastasia would never complain. If anything, she'd probably welcome the extra research time with open arms. But saying that out loud would give the knight the perfect excuse to keep Rei here and pile more tasks on him—especially the matter of caring for the women. So Rei kept that to himself.
Leaving the knight where he stood, Rei called for Set and headed toward the center of the Treant Forest.
They ran into a handful of Goblins along the way, but to Rei and Set, they were barely worth acknowledging. Given the distance from the settlement, these Goblins likely had no idea their home had been destroyed. Rei killed them in passing and moved on.
There were only a few corpses, so he left them where they fell. Bringing them back would have pleased the Water Wolf, but stopping to collect them was more trouble than it was worth. They might rise as Undead, but Goblin Undead weren't anything to worry about—and there was always the chance that animals or other monsters would scavenge the flesh before that happened.
Cutting down Goblins as he encountered them, Rei pressed on toward his destination.
"Oh, you're here already?"
Those were the first words out of Anastasia's mouth when Rei appeared in the underground space.
Getting exactly the reaction he expected, Rei replied with thinly veiled exasperation.
"You say 'already,' but it's been evening for a while now."
"...Oh. So you've finally arrived? You're late."
"It's a little late to rephrase it now."
Shooting back a dry retort, Rei surveyed the underground space. Nothing in particular seemed to have changed. Various items on the work table used for experiments and writing had shifted positions, and the table itself had been moved slightly—but that was about it. And around the Wisp, there was nothing visibly different.
"Any progress on the research today?"
"There was, if you want to call it that. But also not, depending on how you look at it."
"...What does that mean?"
Knowing Anastasia, if there had been no progress, she would have said so outright. The fact that she was being evasive was enough to make Rei think something had actually turned up.
"Hmm, well. I can't say for certain yet, but the magical power being released through the Wisp seems slightly different from normal. That said, I haven't had many opportunities to observe Wisps, so I can't be definitive."
"Released, huh... Well, it does summon things from another world, so thinking about it that way, it might not be so unusual."
"Since I still don't know the specific mechanism it uses to teleport things from another world, I think that could be the key. The frustrating part is that I can't say for certain whether that's actually the case."
"If you could confirm that, would it maybe open up the possibility of teleporting things we want from the other side—or even sending people through from ours?"
"Who knows. I won't know until I've spent more time looking into it. But if that turned out to be the case, it would be fascinating."
A fierce curiosity burned in Anastasia's eyes as she spoke. Seeing it, Rei finally understood why she'd greeted him with "You're here already?" It wasn't her usual complaint about wanting more time for research. She had found what might be the key to unlocking the Wisp's abilities, and she hadn't wanted to be interrupted.
"I can't claim to know how you feel... but either way, we're heading back today. There's something I need to ask of you and Fana, too."
"Ask of us? What happened?"
"The Goblin settlement."
With that, Rei launched into an account of what had transpired. Having already explained it once to the adventurer and then again to the knight, the words came out smooth and practiced. But smooth delivery didn't make the subject matter any less revolting.
"...I see. The Goblins..."
Anastasia's reply was short, but unmistakable anger simmered beneath her quiet tone. Fana's face was hidden behind her mask, but even so, her fury was apparent from her body language alone.
"That's the situation. We're sending them to Gilm by carriage tomorrow, but until then, there's no one to look after the women. You see the problem?"
Anastasia mentally ran through the people at the campsite and nodded in understanding.
"Then it can't be helped. ...But Rei, one question. You did annihilate the Goblins responsible, right?"
"Annihilated... well, we killed most of them. But the settlement was large, our numbers were limited, and since we were inside the Treant Forest, large-scale magic was off the table."
"In other words, you didn't annihilate them."
"That's right. It was a daytime raid, so plenty of Goblins were outside the settlement too. We actually got attacked by strays on the way back here. But... honestly, letting the one that was running the settlement get away hurts. I wanted to finish it there if at all possible."
"Then I wish you had."
Anastasia looked openly displeased. To her, the very existence of Goblins was evidently something she could never abide. Rei understood that well enough. But what was done was done, and no amount of regret would change it.
"Next time we find one, I'll kill it if I can."
In the end, that was the only thing he could say.