"I see. So the other world is quite a dangerous place. Or rather, if not for the Dragonias, would it be all that dangerous?"
Elena spoke quietly, having finished listening to Rei's account.
Her gaze was fixed on the courtyard visible from the living room, where Set and Ielo were playing.
Though her words carried a hint of menace, the sight of Set and Ielo chasing each other seemed to soften her mood somewhat, and her expression was not severe.
...She likely understood that the Dragonias were genuinely dangerous, but she also believed that with Rei and Vihera's strength, they could handle them easily enough—and since they had actually done so, she probably wasn't worried on that front.
That said, there was no mistaking her displeasure at having been left behind.
"Yeah, it's definitely a dangerous world. Honestly, it's only because it's me, Vihera, and Set that we can take down Dragonias so easily. Your average adventurer, though... I'm not so sure about that."
From what Rei had observed, in terms of pure stationary combat, the average strength of adventurers in the frontier town of Gilm—excluding those who had arrived for the Expansion Construction—would likely surpass that of the average Centaur.
However, it was also an indisputable fact that when it came to actually fighting Dragonias, Centaurs were better suited for the task than Gilm's adventurers.
After all, putting aside stationary combat strength, the Centaurs were undeniably superior in terms of mobility.
And when fighting Dragonias, leveraging that mobility was the optimal approach.
In that sense, it was probably fortunate that it was the Centaurs who had been attacked by the Dragonias rather than someone else.
...Though from the Centaurs' perspective, they could hardly be expected to rejoice at having been the ones targeted.
"I see. That strong, huh. In this world's ranking system, would that place them around C to B rank?"
"Probably. Each individual would be somewhere around upper C-Rank or lower B-Rank. And they attack in packs, which makes them extremely troublesome. What's more, depending on the color of their scales, some have a strong resistance to magic."
"The fact that even your magic couldn't kill them, let alone scratch them... even hearing it directly from you, I find it hard to believe."
Elena knew full well just how much power Rei's magic wielded.
Because of that, even hearing it straight from Rei himself, she couldn't simply accept it at face value.
That said, she didn't think Rei was lying, either.
Even so, the fact that she couldn't readily believe it was an undeniable truth.
And Rei accepted Elena's reaction without protest.
Elena had witnessed Rei's battles with her own eyes countless times.
Given that, it was only natural that she would struggle to believe him when he said there existed an opponent who had survived his magic.
(Honestly, I was surprised too when I saw them survive my magic.)
That said, Rei and Set's attacks were not so forgiving that something like that alone would be enough to get by.
The red-scaled Dragonias that survived Rei's Flame Magic were soon annihilated by direct attacks from Rei and Set... with the Centaurs' cooperation as well.
And once it became clear that pure Flame Magic was ineffective, the next step was the Fire Whirlwind.
Broken blades and the like were mixed into the Fire Whirlwind, and on top of that, the bodies of the Dragonias caught within it became weapons themselves.
No matter how much resistance they possessed to withstand Rei's magic, that applied strictly to fire. Against anything else—physical impacts—it was a different story.
Well, actually, the scales themselves possessed higher defensive capability than shoddy armor, and Rei had indeed witnessed Centaur attacks being deflected by those very scales.
But... those were Centaur attacks. If another Dragonias's body, swept up in the Fire Whirlwind, came crashing into them at high speed, dealing with that was another matter entirely.
"Well, if you really want to see for yourself... you'd have to actually go to the other world, but that's difficult too."
At Rei's words, Elena nodded, though she still looked dissatisfied.
Vihera was a former princess, but the key word was "former"—currently, she was nominally treated as a mere adventurer.
That was precisely why she had been able to pull off a stunt like this, but... as the price for that recklessness, Daskar had suffered no small amount of damage to his stomach.
If even Vihera's absence could cause such a state, then if Elena—bearing the alias of Princess General and serving as the very symbol of the Noble's Faction—were to disappear from Gilm, the damage to Daskar's stomach would surely be fatal.
What's more, Grimm was maintaining the spatial hole, so it should be fine, but that was only the case for now.
For some reason or another, there was a possibility that the hole could vanish. Rei believed that possibility was extremely unlikely, but it still wasn't absolute.
If that happened, there was a chance that Rei, Elena, Vihera, Set... that entire group could be stranded in the other world.
For Daskar, if that came to pass, it would be nothing short of catastrophe.
...Even setting aside Elena and Vihera, if Rei alone were left behind in the other world, it would undeniably be a critically devastating event for Daskar.
"It would be nice if I could guarantee that the hole connecting to that other world would absolutely never disappear, but... that's not possible, is it?"
"No, it's not. As long as we can't make Grimm's existence public, the official story is that a Magic Item I possess is what's holding the hole in place. And that's probably another reason Lord Daskar can't fully trust it."
Elena nodded in agreement with Rei's words.
As long as they couldn't reveal Grimm's existence, they had no choice but to frame it that way.
But that framing brought its own set of problems.
"We'll need to persuade Lord Daskar."
"Yeah... you're right about that. But I think he'd rather you didn't go, if possible."
"So only Vihera gets to go?"
"Given our positions, it can't be helped. Besides, in your case, Elena, there are people who come to see you, right? There were some earlier too, it seemed."
"That's..."
At Rei's words, Elena found herself at a loss for words.
In the first place, there was a reason Elena was in Gilm.
The Expansion Construction currently underway in Gilm had been subjected to sabotage on several previous occasions.
The Noble's Faction was behind it, and Elena had been dispatched to address the situation.
Originally, the Noble's Faction and the Neutral Faction had maintained a friendly relationship recently—specifically, ever since Rei and Elena first made contact.
Naturally, the Noble's Faction viewed the domain of Gilm—governed by Daskar, who led the Neutral Faction—undergoing Expansion Construction and growing from a town into a city-scale settlement as a welcome development.
However... there were those within the Noble's Faction who possessed pointlessly inflated pride.
To such individuals, the very existence of the Neutral Faction was nothing but a nuisance.
That was why they had been working in the shadows to sabotage Gilm's Expansion Construction... and when that came to light, Elena had been dispatched to prevent it.
What would happen if sabotage activities were carried out in a place where Elena—the symbol of the Noble's Faction—was present?
If the Neutral Faction had discovered it, they could have played dumb and dismissed it as a baseless accusation.
But if Elena caught them, there would be no talking their way out of it.
As a result, sabotage by the Noble's Faction had decreased lately. It hadn't disappeared entirely, but...
Even the remaining harassment was mostly not carried out openly, instead taking forms where, even if discovered, it would only result in a warning.
It was precisely because Elena was in Gilm that the harassment and sabotage stayed at that level, but if Elena's presence vanished from Gilm entirely, what would happen was painfully obvious without needing to think about it.
"Nngh."
Perhaps because Elena immediately understood what Rei was getting at, she let out a reluctant groan of resignation.
Seeing Elena's reaction, Rei smiled...
"Rei."
A single word from Elena's mouth instantly erased that smile.
It wasn't as if Rei's smile just now had been at Elena's expense, but that was something only Rei would understand.
How Elena had interpreted it was something only she herself could know.
"Right. Umm... Marina might actually want to go to the other world, though."
Rei offered that to change the subject, but it was nothing short of shooting himself in the foot.
Elena absolutely couldn't go to the other world, but Marina, if she wanted to, could go at any time.
Of course, considering Marina's role at the clinic, she couldn't simply take time off so easily.
Marina's Recovery Magic using Water Spirits was a tremendous asset at the clinic.
Because of that, Marina couldn't just casually close up shop.
Given her inherently caring nature, that was only natural.
Or rather, if there were a danger of Rei dying without her there, she might go to the other world no matter what—but short of that, it was unlikely.
"Excuse me. Lady Elena, Lord Rei, I've brought some snacks. Would you care for any?"
With a delicate atmosphere lingering in the room, Ara entered, saying just that.
Rei sent Ara a grateful glance, as if she had rescued him.
Ara flashed Rei a smile and placed sweets on the table—baked confections, fresh fruit, and dried fruit.
"Ara..."
"Look, there are baked sweets here that Lady Elena is fond of. These particular ones were made by a cook employed by a certain noble, and they're quite famous for being delicious."
A cook? Rei wondered for a moment, but in this world, there was no distinct profession of pâtissier.
Those who made baked goods were, fundamentally, cooks.
There were cases of amateurs making them as a hobby, of course, but by and large, it was cooks who handled such things.
"Oh?"
Elena looked at the baked sweets with apparent interest at Ara's words.
Though called the Princess General and speaking in a military-like manner, Elena was still a woman, and she had a fondness for sweets.
That being the case, hearing that there were famously delicious baked sweets was more than enough to spark her interest.
Forgetting the look she had been giving Rei, she reached for the baked sweets.
And when she brought one to her mouth...
"!?"
For an instant, a look of surprise crossed her face, and then she slowly savored it.
Judging by her reaction, there was no mistaking that Elena had taken a liking to the baked sweets.
As the daughter of a duke, Elena had attended many parties—not always by choice—but even so, she hadn't eaten baked sweets of this caliber very often.
Rei, who had been watching Elena, also grew interested in the baked sweets, picked one up, and brought it to his mouth.
"Huh... these are good."
After just one bite, Rei was also impressed by the flavor.
Baked sweets... essentially, they were nothing more than cookies.
But these cookies were extremely delicious even compared to the ones Rei knew.
The cookies Rei knew... were, specifically, the various cookies he had eaten while in Japan.
The quality of Japanese sweets was world-class, and it was not uncommon for foreigners, upon tasting them, to be astonished that such confections could be sold at those prices.
Of course, compared to cookies made by a true, first-rate pâtissier, they would fall short in flavor.
But cookies that could be bought for a hundred yen or so still possessed that level of taste.
For Rei, who had grown up eating what could arguably be called the world's finest cookies since childhood, he could confidently declare that the cookies on the table were undeniably delicious.
What was curious was that while they felt like firm cookies when held, they crumbled away as if melting the moment they entered his mouth.
He had eaten cookies with a similar texture before, but the sensation when holding them was completely different.
"It seems both Lady Elena and Lord Rei are quite satisfied."
"Yeah, these are good."
At Ara's proud words, Rei offered that simple reply.
And Elena nodded in agreement with Rei's assessment.
The reaction from both of them was more than enough to satisfy Ara.
"There are a few more of these baked sweets left. Shall I bring them?"
When Ara asked, Elena and Rei nodded in unison.
With something this delicious, it was only natural to want a little more if possible.