Dragonias corpses were scattered all across the grassland.
Naturally, gathering them all by himself would have been a daunting task for Rei alone, but upon seeing this, the Centaurs instinctively began collecting the corpses and bringing them to where he stood.
"Sorry to trouble you."
"Not at all."
Rei expressed his gratitude to a still-young Centaur—though one who appeared older than Rei nonetheless—who had carried over a Dragonias corpse.
Hearing this, the Centaur responded with those words, looking visibly pleased despite himself.
To the Centaurs, Rei was a being truly worthy of respect. He had demonstrated the power to overwhelm the Dragonias—those atrocious foes who had driven them to the brink. Even though he was not a Centaur but a creature with only two legs, such a trivial detail did not matter given his level of strength.
Having received words of gratitude from such a person, it would have been impossible not to feel delighted.
Rei stored the Dragonias corpses brought by the other Centaurs into his Misty Ring one after another.
Dratt watched this scene from a distance.
His dislike of Rei had not changed since their first meeting. But even so, having had that power displayed before him, it was an undeniable fact that he could not simply ignore it.
That said, having been shown this much power, he had no intention of trying to do anything to Rei through force. He understood that if he tried to oppose Rei with strength, he would be the one to lose.
Furthermore... though Dratt himself would never admit it, there was also the fact that he had directly confirmed Rei's strength with his own eyes and ended up acknowledging his ability.
The same was true for those currently around Dratt.
That said, whether all of them felt that way about Rei was another matter entirely.
Among them were some who had seen Rei's power up close and still could not comprehend it. To most, what such individuals were thinking was completely beyond understanding. But since those individuals were still comrades, abandoning them was equally out of the question.
"Dratt, are you really going to just leave that guy called Rei be!?"
That was precisely why, even when someone spouted such nonsense, they could not simply be cast aside. In the current situation, anyone who tried to eliminate Rei would find themselves eliminated instead.
Why could they not understand even that much? Dratt glared at the man, his irritation getting the better of him.
But the man he glared at could not understand why he was receiving such a look, and he opened his mouth in bewilderment.
"D-Dratt?"
"You idiot. You had better learn to properly read the situation around you. Try taking a hostile attitude toward Rei in this climate. If you're not careful, we'll be driven out of the settlement."
"That can't be!"
The man who had been insisting he disliked Rei wanted to say Dratt was being absurd no matter how you looked at it... but when he saw the others around him nodding in agreement, he could not say another word.
In truth, there was likely no one among the Centaurs present who wanted to oppose Rei. There might be some who wanted to fight him, to test their skills against him, but that would stem purely from respect for his ability, not from any desire to stand as his enemy.
As for those in the settlement, they might not know what had happened outside its bounds, but there were surely those among them who had seen the scorching hell Rei had created, even from within the settlement walls. Furthermore, once they heard accounts from those who had actually fought, there might be some who wished to reject Rei out of resentment or gratitude, but... while not nonexistent, they would truly be a minority. And even such individuals would absolutely not want to make an enemy of him.
"Besides. We managed to annihilate the Dragonias today, but considering their overall numbers, what we defeated was truly only a fraction. At best, it was something like a vanguard unit that had pushed ahead of the main force."
"That's..."
At Dratt's words, those around him wore grim expressions.
Dragonias surpassed Centaurs in individual ability, but they also outnumbered them. No—perhaps initially the Centaurs had been more numerous, but the battles over the grassland had drastically reduced their numbers. The survivors of those battles had gathered at this settlement.
(If possible, I'd want the other surviving settlements to join us as well... but that's probably unlikely.)
Dratt sighed as he surveyed the Centaurs around him.
Nearly all the Centaurs on this grassland had gathered at this settlement. But "nearly all" was not "all." There were small settlements whose inhabitants knew nothing about the Dragonias, and there were also those—like the remnants of settlements destroyed by the Dragonias—who believed that they could win a head-on fight.
The former aside, the latter would never truly grasp the Dragonias' real strength, terror, and alien nature unless they fought them personally, no matter how much they were persuaded.
"Dratt?"
"No, it's nothing. More importantly, when I think about what comes next, we may need to relocate the settlement."
"But the Dragonias that attacked us were completely wiped out, right? Then wouldn't the information about this settlement never reach the others?"
"I wonder about that. Rei's magic was certainly powerful. But considering the Dragonias' abilities, there might be survivors."
That was a possibility that could not be denied. Precisely because he had experience fighting Dragonias, no one could dismiss Dratt's words.
"Dratt."
A voice called out to him.
Turning toward its source, Dratt's expression soured.
Standing there was Zai.
To Dratt, Zai was a rival. No—more precisely than "rival," he harbored a deeper, fiercer sense of competition. And yet, when it came to battle, they often fought side by side. ...Which only stoked Dratt's competitive spirit further.
"What do you want, Zai?"
"It's about time we returned to the settlement. We need to report this matter to the Chief and the Old Woman."
Dratt gave a silent nod.
Himself and Zai. Despite being nearly equal in ability, people naturally gravitated toward Zai. People gathered around Dratt too, but among them, the capable ones were never numerous. Furthermore, it was Zai who was on good terms with the powerful outsider, Rei.
The current situation was absolutely intolerable to Dratt.
...That said, if Dratt had been the one to encounter Rei first, there was a high possibility that the Centaur race would have made an enemy of Rei in addition to the Dragonias. Faced with a stranger—and a two-legged one at that—Dratt would never have chosen to respond amicably.
Then again, Dratt was also a first-rate warrior. He could properly comprehend Rei's ability, and in that sense, had he been the one to spot Rei, it was highly likely he would have simply walked away without attempting to make contact.
"Once we return to the settlement, I intend to discuss what comes next. You should join us, Dratt."
"Understood."
Seeing Dratt nod, Zai departed.
They were by no means friendly, but given that Dratt had nodded, Zai judged that he would certainly not skip out on the discussion.
"Tch."
Dratt directed a sour glare at Zai's retreating back, but he understood that faced with the overwhelming threat of the Dragonias, they had no room for a full-blown falling out among themselves. Much less now, when that monstrous two-legged creature called Rei was also cooperating with Zai.
"We're heading back to the settlement. Whatever we do next, we first need to report to everyone that this incident has been safely resolved."
So declaring, Dratt led his Flunkies back toward the settlement.
"The Dragonias have been annihilated! The settlement is safe now!"
Zai shouted, but even upon hearing those words, while some looked delighted, many were half in doubt—no, two parts believing and eight parts doubting.
Those gathered at this settlement were people whose own homes had been destroyed by the Dragonias. They knew the Dragonias' strength all too well. Being such people, there was no way they could so readily believe the creatures had been annihilated.
Zai must have understood their mindset as well.
He turned his gaze toward Rei and Set, who were observing the situation from a slight distance, and spoke.
"My new friend, Rei. He's two-legged, but his strength is the real deal. Even among those in this settlement, there must be many who witnessed the scorching hell he created from here, were there not?"
At those words, every Centaur in the settlement turned their gaze toward Rei and Set.
Suspicion colored those gazes heavily.
(This settlement... no, maybe it's just the Centaur race, but they seem to believe that having fewer legs means being weaker.)
Having been called "two-legged" and "two-legged" endlessly, Rei could predict at least that much. Given that, he felt there was nothing to be done about being regarded with such looks right now. At the very least, those who had participated in the battle would never doubt Rei's ability based on their own experience, so as for the rest, he simply needed to earn their trust going forward.
He wanted to gather information on Anastasia and Fana as quickly as possible, so he hoped that "going forward" would come as soon as possible.
"He's lying!"
Such a voice suddenly rang out.
Lying? Rei and the others turned their gazes toward the source, and standing there was a face Rei recognized.
One of Dratt's Flunkies pointed at Rei and continued.
"It's him! He's the one who called the Dragonias here!"
Those words sent a shock through the listeners.
Why had the Dragonias come here? And why had Rei so conveniently been present? In reality, it was nothing more than a product of coincidence, but to those who knew nothing, it would not be strange to believe the claim that Rei had summoned them.
"Hey, did you just hear..."
"No, but can a two-legged person even summon or control Dragonias?"
"Hey, Mommy. Did that person kill Daddy?"
Such whispers rose from nowhere and spread in the blink of an eye...
"Don't give me that crap!"
"Gah!"
Along with that shout, a fist swung by Dratt sent the man who had accused Rei of summoning the Dragonias flying.
It must have been a strike with considerable force behind it, as the man went airborne and tumbled across the ground. He raised his head... and upon seeing who had struck him, he shouted as if to ask why such a thing had been done.
"Dratt, why!"
Dratt said nothing.
...No, to be precise, it was not that he had nothing to say, but that he could not say it. If he opened his mouth here and now, he would undoubtedly end up cursing the man before him from the bottom of his heart.
But the settlement was in a precarious state. If he did such a thing under these circumstances, there was a possibility the settlement itself would collapse entirely.
Thinking that, Dratt desperately tried to suppress the anger within him.
Those around him had no idea what had just happened or why. One of their comrades had suddenly accused a two-legged outsider, and in the next instant, he had been sent flying by Dratt's fist—their bewilderment was only natural.
"That two-legged one... Rei, is certainly a guy I can't stand. But he put his life on the line for this settlement. It's no exaggeration to say that the Dragonias were defeated almost entirely by Rei's hand alone. Saying that Rei saved this settlement is no overstatement."
"But! That man, a mere two-legged, acting all high and—guhah!"
"Who said you could open your mouth!?"
It was generally said that leg strength was three to five times that of arm strength. Of course, there were individual differences, and racial differences as well.
For Centaurs, whose lower bodies possessed the physique of horses—a creature specialized for running—just how powerful was that leg strength? And just how devastating was the impact when one was kicked by it? Only the one on the receiving end could truly know.
...Well, even those watching could estimate the force when they saw a Centaur sent tumbling.
"If Rei hadn't been here... I won't say we couldn't have defended this settlement. But if Rei hadn't been here, the settlement escaping unscathed would have been impossible. Am I wrong!?"
Faced with Dratt's roar, the man who had been kicked could say nothing at all.