"Huh, so that's the place... Being in a grove, it probably would be harder for the Dragonias to find."
Rei murmured that as he gazed at the grove in the distance.
Having learned the location of the settlement from the Centaurs who had been pursued by the Dragonias, he had come here on the off chance of finding some clue about the Dragonias headquarters.
Not much time had passed since the women had fled their settlement, and with the Dragonias headquarters believed to be in this direction, they had encountered Dragonias several times on the way here.
However, the number of Dragonias was never large—nothing on the order of a hundred. Even at most, the count fell short of twenty.
Given that, even without Rei's group fighting, Zai and his companions alone were sufficient to defeat them. To let them gain as much real combat experience as possible, the battles against the Dragonias were generally left to Zai and the others.
They continued fighting their way forward... and eventually arrived at this grove.
Though it was called a grove, compared to the ones Rei knew, it was considerably larger.
But it was still too small to be called a forest—a grove of that sort.
"With this grove, there's no doubt it'd be hard for the Dragonias to find," Dolf said beside Rei.
Rei could agree with those words.
Dragonias were originally larger than Centaurs.
And this grove had fairly dense tree growth, which served as what could be called a natural defensive wall.
...Even so, the fact that the women's settlement had been attacked by Dragonias meant the Dragonias had likely forced their way through this grove.
"Do you think the Dragonias are still here?" Rei asked.
"Hard to say. The settlement was said to be near the center of the grove, so... if you're curious, why not ask directly?"
At Dolf's words, Rei turned his gaze toward the female Centaurs who had fled from the settlement in this grove. They were currently staying with the Centaurs responsible for cooking and chores a short distance away.
Ideally, they should have been sent to some other settlement... but when they themselves asked to accompany the reconnaissance unit, Zai, who led the unit, likely couldn't refuse.
In fact, even if they were to be sent to a nearby settlement, the possibility of encountering Dragonias along the way wasn't zero, and they couldn't spare an escort from the reconnaissance unit to accompany them.
Additionally, the women who had fled were likely anxious about the current state of their settlement.
As a result, they were now traveling alongside Rei's group.
"Um... not that much time has passed since we fled, so... there's a possibility they might still be there."
Perhaps hearing the conversation between Rei and Dolf, one of the female Centaurs approached and said so.
The strong look of worry in her eyes was likely because she was concerned about what had become of her settlement.
If her words were to be believed, most of the warriors who could fight had been killed and eaten in the battle against the Dragonias.
However, in a grove like this, it wouldn't be strange for someone to have fled the settlement and hidden somewhere.
...Whether Rei's group could find them was another matter entirely.
"Still... did the Dragonias really go into this grove? The paths look pretty narrow. Even for us, it seems like it'd be hard to move freely."
One of the Centaurs muttered, and the others nodded in agreement.
In truth, the gaps between the trees growing in the grove varied—some wide, some narrow.
In the wider spots, the Centaurs could move through with plenty of room to spare, but the narrower spots were borderline for whether a Centaur could pass at all.
For Dragonias, which were larger than Centaurs, to have entered such a place could only be astonishing to anyone watching.
...Naturally, Set, who was larger than the Centaurs, would also be unable to enter.
Rei and Vihera alone could go in without any problem at all.
(In that case, should we just go from above? No, if we encounter Dragonias inside the grove, things could get messy.)
Just how many Dragonias had attacked this settlement was something even the Centaur women who fled from here didn't know.
And whether a silver-scaled Dragonias had been among the attackers was also unknown.
Though Rei thought the latter possibility was quite low.
"Anyway, let's move further in. If we find where the Dragonias entered, there might be a path carved out... Hm? Wait. Why is the grove intact?"
Rei was surprised that the grove existed there at all, and questioned why.
As far as Rei knew, Dragonias would eat anything to satisfy their hunger.
Naturally, the trees growing in the grove, the animals and birds that likely inhabited it, and perhaps even insects, should all have been good food for the Dragonias.
But the grove currently before Rei's eyes had not been devoured.
Based on Rei's experience—though admittedly it had been only a short time since he'd had any involvement with Dragonias—this was something that should be called abnormal.
"Now that you mention it, that's true... Maybe the trees growing in this grove just didn't suit the Dragonias' tastes?"
Zai said that half-jokingly, but Rei couldn't tell how serious he actually was.
That the Dragonias would leave edible things behind and simply move on was something Rei found hard to believe at all.
Understanding that Zai probably wasn't being entirely serious either... he still found himself wondering: then why on earth were the trees in this grove unharmed?
"Did the Dragonias not eat these trees?" Rei asked.
"Huh? Right. I haven't heard anything about that."
The Centaur woman who had fled from the settlement in this grove said so, and to confirm, she turned her gaze toward the others who had fled with her.
But those she looked at naturally shared the same opinion, only saying they had never heard of such a thing.
"Then... what do you think the reason is?"
"If even Zai doesn't know, there's no way I would. But speaking purely as a baseless guess, the possibility is either that these trees are something the Dragonias dislike, or there might be some problem with this land itself."
"With the land?"
"Yeah. For example, there might be some kind of trap underground in this grove that the Dragonias hate, something like that."
"...That's a possibility. At the very least, when you think about why the Dragonias wouldn't eat the trees, that explanation makes the most sense."
Zai said that, but if asked whether he was truly convinced from the bottom of his heart, he couldn't honestly nod in agreement.
"Anyway, it's not a bad thing that the trees are intact. The question now is how to get to the settlement."
"Since those women came from the settlement, we should be able to go too if we wanted... though it looks like it'd be difficult for Set."
At Asdena's words, Rei turned his gaze to the others.
It was clear from the current atmosphere that everyone wanted to enter this grove.
Given that, he decided they might as well go in for now.
"Gruu..."
"Sorry, Set. It looks like it'd be hard for you to get inside, so wait around here for us."
"Gurururu, gruruu..."
At Rei's words, Set rumbled disappointingly.
Set considered using Size Change, but since there was no telling how far the grove continued, that too would be difficult.
The effect duration of Size Change was fixed.
Precisely the kind of scenario where, while advancing through the grove, the effect of Size Change suddenly wore off and he got stuck between trees, unable to move... was something he wanted to avoid.
"Sorry, Set. But we'll come back as quickly as we can. Just... if any Dragonias show up, take them down."
"Gurururu!"
At Rei's words, Set rumbled as if to say, Leave it to me!
To the Centaurs, the Dragonias were creatures they had to stake their lives to fight, but to Set, they probably seemed like nothing more than a way to pass the time.
The Centaur woman, the only one here who didn't know Set's true strength, wore a questioning expression at Rei's words, wondering if that was really okay. But the other Centaurs who had heard Rei showed no particular sign of alarm or surprise.
"Hey, are you sure this is okay?"
A younger woman who had fled the settlement alongside the Centaur woman asked with concern.
It was clear enough from the short time they'd spent together that this group was centered around the bipedal man and woman, and a monster called Set that they had never seen before.
But... that was exactly why it was a problem if one of the central figures got into danger. That was what she seemed to want to say.
"Hahaha. No need to worry. Set is strong. Actually, you could say he's too strong. Strong enough to take down an entire group of Dragonias all by himself."
A Centaur man who knew Set's strength told her that with a carefree tone.
The fact that they were both four-legged creatures, and the explanation that Set was strong, were probably favorable reasons for his attitude.
"Um... I know it's a bit late to be asking..."
When the Centaur woman asked who Rei's group really was, those who were asked shook their heads.
They knew that Rei's group was here searching for two women named Anastasia and Fana, but where exactly they had come from was not known.
...Rei couldn't exactly say he was from another world, so he remained silent on that matter.
Still, in this grassland where Centaurs made up the majority, the presence of bipeds stood out.
It was only natural that everyone wanted to know who Rei's group was.
But they didn't press the question, likely because they didn't expect Rei to answer, and also because of Rei's strength.
For the Centaurs, who prized strength, being strong alone made one worthy of respect.
...Though there were some who became arrogant about their own power and acted however they pleased.
"Alright then, is everyone ready? We're going into the grove. There's probably nothing to worry about, but make sure you don't let your guard down."
Following Zai's instructions, the party—everyone except Set—entered the grove.
"Gururururu!"
Set rumbled encouragingly, as if wishing them well, as he saw them off.
He was disappointed that he couldn't act together with Rei, but he probably intended to keep watch over this place as Rei had asked.
With Set's cries behind them, the group entered the grove, and as expected, they wore troubled expressions at how difficult it was to advance.
They had anticipated it, but the gaps between the trees were quite dense, and there were many spots that were hard for the Centaurs to pass through.
"You really fled through a place like this?"
"We were desperate."
When one of the reconnaissance unit spoke up, one of the women who had fled replied with sadness.
She was probably worried about what had become of their settlement.
...As they advanced toward the settlement, there were many places where traces of blood faintly marked the tree trunks.
Those spots were invariably where the gaps between trees narrowed, and it was easy to imagine that because they had run through those gaps by force, their skin had torn and left blood behind.
It showed just how desperate the Centaurs who had fled from here must have been.
"The Dragonias too... they really managed to find this place. If they didn't eat the trees, nobody would normally think there was a settlement inside this grove, right?"
"One possibility we can think of is... maybe the people who went out on reconnaissance were followed?"
"No, but do Dragonias even have that kind of intelligence?"
"If it were a silver-scaled Dragonias... but..."
The one who trailed off mid-sentence likely felt something was off about the idea of a silver-scaled Dragonias ordering the search for this settlement.
In fact, while it was known that silver-scaled Dragonias possessed the intelligence to command regular Dragonias, ordering them to specifically head deep into this grove still felt like a stretch.
"Anyway, we might learn something once we reach the settlement. Let's hurry."
Navigating through the gaps between trees, the Centaur leading the way brought the conversation to a close.