Seeing the Dragonias corpse, Daskar was naturally surprised.
Daskar had served as a knight in his youth, and now, as the lord governing the frontier of Gilm, he had seen many monsters with his own eyes.
Even for someone like Daskar, the Dragonias corpse before him was a creature he had never encountered before.
The smell of Dragonias blood drifted through the office, making it impossible to call the room a proper environment for paperwork. But the room's master showed no sign of minding it as he observed the corpse.
"This is... certainly a monster you wouldn't see around here. I can't speak for places outside the Kingdom of Mireana, but..."
"I believe it's a monster that only exists in another world," Rei told him. The world where the Centaurs lived, while indeed another world, shared many commonalities with this one.
The livestock kept in their settlement—goats, sheep, and pigs—existed normally in Elgin as well.
Most notably, Rei had been able to communicate with them without any language barrier.
Considering that the Lizardmen and Green People, who had also come from another world, shared no common language at all, it was only natural for him to find this deeply puzzling.
(Or perhaps Anastasia's strong curiosity was stimulated by precisely that fact, and she's exploring that world of her own accord... is that a possibility I can't deny?)
Knowing Anastasia's personality, expecting her not to take interest in another world—especially an unknown one where they shared a common language—would have been impossible.
Of course, whether the language was mutually intelligible was something Rei himself only discovered after encountering the Centaurs.
"Hmm. So this monster called a Dragonias is strong?"
"Yes. Even among the adventurers in Gilm, those of lower rank likely wouldn't be able to handle it."
"With a size like this, that's easy to believe."
Centaurs, with their horse lower bodies, were naturally larger than the people of this world. The Dragonias were even larger than those Centaurs.
By common sense, being large meant being strong in and of itself. Of course, exceptions existed—beginning with Rei himself.
"If I don't cooperate, there's a risk the Centaur settlement could be wiped out. Or they might relocate the entire settlement to escape the Dragonias threat."
Given the Centaurs' lifestyle of living in portable tents rather than solid buildings, moving away from the Dragonias was a reasonable course of action.
...Though as long as the Dragonias remained as they were, no bright future awaited them.
There was no telling when the Dragonias might show up wherever the settlement moved next. And if they relocated every time the creatures approached, eventually they would run out of places to flee.
Besides, yesterday Rei had been able to intercept the Dragonias as they neared the settlement. If he hadn't been there, it was unclear just how much damage the Centaurs would have suffered.
If they continued to sustain such losses every time, it wouldn't be surprising for their numbers to fall below the minimum needed to maintain a settlement.
"Centaurs, huh... I never expected they actually existed."
"Do you know of them?"
"I wouldn't say I know of them. I've only heard of them in fairy tales. They supposedly existed long ago, but... who knows."
If Elves and Dwarves existed, shouldn't Centaurs exist too? That was how Rei felt, but that was merely his own sensibility. He couldn't know what the people of this world actually thought.
"Is that so... In that case, it would be nice if you could meet the Centaurs someday too, Lord Daskar."
"I'm interested in other worlds and would like to visit one. But not with the current situation."
For Daskar, there was nothing he could do until Gilm's expansion construction settled down. After a few more months, when winter arrived, the construction would mostly be suspended temporarily, and he would have some degree of free time. At the very least, in the current situation, going was out of the question.
"It was already quite difficult just getting to the lake, so reaching another world would be difficult after all... And we can't exactly bring the Centaurs from that world here."
"Indeed. The fact that it's a different world from ours is something I want to keep as secret as possible."
Rei had decided to keep the matter of other worlds secret from the Centaurs, and Daskar accepted that judgment.
In the first place, the possibility of contact with another world had been anticipated ever since the research on the Wisp began. They had anticipated it, but even so, Daskar never thought they would be able to travel to another world this soon.
...Though this development had come about in a way that was borderline accidental.
"Understood. Then, for now, I'd like to head to the other world once I'm done talking with you, Lord Daskar. Regarding the expansion construction during my absence..."
"I understand. We'll need to make various preparations on our end, so I'll manage it somehow."
For Daskar, losing Rei's help with the expansion construction was painful. Painful, but with a larger task at hand, he needed to prioritize that.
That said, without Rei, the construction's efficiency would inevitably drop. They needed to do something about it, but that would have to be addressed by mobilizing many adventurers efficiently.
"What about this corpse?"
"I have a large number of other corpses as well, so if you'd like to examine it, Lord Daskar, I can leave it here."
The Dragonias—particularly the ones with red scales—possessed strong resistance to fire. And in Elgin, fire was one of the typical means of attack. Not only magic, but tactics like fire assaults were commonly employed.
If they analyzed these Dragonias scales and developed armor with strong fire resistance, it would become a significant asset.
...Of course, since the only magic Rei could use was Flame Magic, an increase in fire-resistant armor wasn't exactly a welcome development for him personally.
(But even if they research these scales, what they produce will likely have weaker fire defense than the Dragonias themselves.)
Rei couldn't imagine they would be able to create armor or magic items with the exact same performance as these scales. In the first place, Dragonias were beings from another world. Could their materials be used as ingredients for equipment or magic items just like this world's monsters? That was, honestly, a questionable point in Rei's estimation.
Having a hobby of collecting magic items, Rei was more knowledgeable than a layperson in such matters, but he still couldn't match a professional. Ultimately, he was only an amateur.
"Indeed. Let's examine it here for now to see if it can be used for something. You can leave it here."
"...If you'd like, I could move it somewhere?"
"There's no need for that. We need you to take care of the otherworld situation as soon as possible, Rei."
Implicitly told to hurry to the other world, Rei reluctantly concluded that he should give up on visiting the Slum District today as well.
The underworld organizations that had targeted his life should still exist, and his honest feeling was that he wanted to deal with them if possible. However, listening to Daskar's words, it seemed there was no room for such things.
(Well, there's also what happened yesterday... I think it's more likely they've already withdrawn from Gilm. Ideally, I'd want them to still be around until I crush them. But if malicious underworld organizations survive, that just means more victims. In that case, maybe it's better if they're already gone?)
Thinking they were a lucky bunch, Rei decided to forget about the underworld organizations for now.
He did have personal feelings about it, but considering the current situation, he simply didn't have the leeway to attend to that. So he would leave them alone for now and crush them if they were still in Gilm after this matter was settled. That was the conclusion he reached.
"Understood. Then I'll be heading to the other world."
"Ah... no, wait a moment."
Rei, who had been about to leave the office, stopped at Daskar's voice.
Was there something else? With that thought, he turned his gaze toward Daskar, who reached into his desk drawer, took out a fist-sized leather pouch, and tossed it toward him.
When Rei caught the pouch, there was a hard sensation in his hand. Checking the contents, he found gemstones of various colors—blue, green, red, yellow, black.
Not being particularly knowledgeable about gemstones, he couldn't tell which was which. Or perhaps they weren't gemstones at all but some kind of ore—that thought crossed his mind as well.
"What is this?"
"You don't have currency from that world, right? This world's money certainly wouldn't be usable there. In that case, you need to bring something with high exchange value. There are gemstones inside, so you should be able to exchange them... though I don't know if these Centaurs place any rarity value on gemstones."
"That's... probably fine, I think. At the banquet, many of the Centaur women were wearing various accessories, and some included gemstones. But is it really okay to give me this much?"
Even without expertise in gemstones, Rei naturally knew they were valuable items. And there was enough to fill more than half of the fist-sized pouch. If he sold them, even he couldn't guess how much they would be worth.
...Of course, considering how much money Rei had earned up to now, it wasn't an amount worth making a huge fuss over.
"I don't mind. I've been asking you to do various unreasonable things, Rei. On top of that, I can't very well tell you to provide your own funds for activities over there. At least let me do that much."
At Daskar's words, Rei thought for a moment before nodding and storing the leather pouch of gemstones into his Misty Ring.
Honestly, he felt that if he went to the Centaur settlement, he could probably procure funds immediately. But he judged that if Daskar was offering gemstones, it was better to accept them.
"Understood. I'll gratefully put them to use."
"If you can't use them all, you don't need to return them. Not just for this matter, but you've shouldered various troubles for me, Rei. Consider it extra income and keep it. Also, I'll notify Marina's group about this situation on our end."
Daskar was being extraordinarily generous. If Rei hadn't been earning as much as he had, he would have been genuinely overjoyed.
...Of course, if he were too greedy, he would try to avoid using the gemstones in the other world as much as possible and hoard them instead.
In that regard, considering how much Rei earned—and the fact that bandit hunting was his hobby—Daskar didn't need to worry too much.
"Thank you very much."
Bowing his head for both reasons, Rei left the office.
On the way, he passed several maids. Having visited the lord's manor many times, he exchanged light greetings with them before leaving the area. He thought he heard a scream from a maid who had entered the office, but for now he pretended he hadn't heard it and exited the manor.
"Gururu!"
Set immediately approached Rei, purring. It had probably sensed with its sharp senses that Rei was coming out.
...Of course, considering the smell of some kind of cooking drifting from Set, it was certain the griffon had been enjoying itself until Rei appeared.
"Alright, Set. Let's head over there."
Set seemed to understand what "over there" meant. It purred happily.
After exchanging light greetings with the gatekeepers, Rei and Set headed toward the main gate.
Along the way, they bought and ate food from a random stall, exited the main gate... and once they did, the rest was quick. For Set, who could fly, reaching the center of the Treant Forest took no time at all.
Rei wondered whether he should tell the woodcutters and adventurers that he'd be away for a while starting today. But since Daskar had said he would handle that, Rei decided to leave it to him.
Arriving at the center of the Treant Forest, Rei headed toward the underground space through the now-familiar passage.
Naturally, Set couldn't fit through the underground passage, so it waited on the surface. For Set to enter the underground space, Grimm's power was needed.
(Ideally, that passage would widen so Set could fit through... no, that won't do. If it did, it would be easier for someone to discover when they came.)
Thinking such thoughts, Rei descended toward the underground space.