"Yeah... yep. Just as I thought."
That voice slipped from Rei's mouth in the morning, right after he emerged from the Magic Tent and headed toward the area where the Centaurs had gathered.
Just as he had expected, most of the Centaurs hadn't returned to their own tents and were instead sleeping right there on the spot.
Being Centaurs who originally lived on the plains, their bodies were sturdier than those of ordinary humans.
Besides, it wasn't cold enough to wither the grasslands right now, so spending a night outdoors was hardly difficult.
Thinking of it that way, the scene currently spread before Rei's eyes was, in a way, understandable.
"That said, managing to drink this much alcohol without a single dish to go with it..."
The faintly exasperated expression on Rei's face was only natural.
What Rei had given the Centaurs last night was strictly the alcohol in the barrels.
He hadn't provided any kind of food to eat while drinking.
After all, he had offered it as a nightcap to calm their post-battle excitement.
...But even so, the Centaurs had launched into a full-blown banquet to blow off all their accumulated stress.
Even then, since Rei—who was in charge of the food—had only provided alcohol, it should have been a truly alcohol-only affair...
Following that thread of doubt, Rei's gaze landed on what appeared to be dried meat, though he couldn't tell what kind it was.
Seeing that, he naturally understood what they had been using as snacks for their drinking.
Fundamentally, food supplies were managed collectively using Rei's Misty Ring, but that was strictly for the group's overall provisions.
For instance, if the Centaurs had brought dried meat and similar items as personal supplies when they departed from their settlement, Rei wouldn't have had anything in particular to say about that.
As long as it was a personal possession, if they used that dried meat as snacks for the banquet, he would simply accept it as one of those things.
"The real problem is whether these guys are going to have hangovers."
For the time being, Rei had told them before bed last night to keep it to a level that wouldn't cause hangovers, and he had also informed them that even if they did get hangovers, he wouldn't give them the day off work.
Above all, they needed to gather and burn the Dragonias corpses scattered through the grove.
If left alone, there was a possibility they could become Undead, so it was only natural for Rei to think that way.
As he considered how to wake the sleeping bunch...
"Hey, Rei!"
That voice came from the direction of the grove.
Vihera's call was clearly one of high urgency—not something like wanting to spend some quiet time alone with Rei.
Did something else happen? While thinking that, Rei judged that Vihera's voice took priority over the Centaurs who were down with hangovers. He told Set to stay here and headed in that direction. And then...
"This is..."
In the grove not far from the settlement—specifically, the exact spot where Rei and Vihera had defeated the swarm of Dragonias last night—what escaped Rei's mouth was a voice of astonishment.
That was how bizarre the scene currently spread before Rei's eyes truly was.
Originally, what should have been spread out there was a large number of Dragonias corpses.
Corpses with their torsos severed by Death Scythe, their heads crushed by the Twilight Spear, their insides destroyed by Magic Impact Palm—corpses that looked clean from the outside, or corpses slashed apart by claws and blades of magical power... or even corpses beaten and kicked to death.
It would have been strange for such a massive number of Dragonias corpses not to be present.
No, the corpses themselves were still there in the grove.
A vast quantity of corpses, as if filling the spaces between the trees.
But... the problem was the state of the corpses.
Originally, since they were freshly created corpses from last night, to put it bluntly, they should have been fresh.
However, the corpses currently in Rei's line of sight had clearly already begun to weather.
Furthermore, the smell of blood and viscera drifting from the corpses was, for some reason, almost nonexistent.
It wasn't completely odorless, but it still wasn't the kind of stench of death that would make one furrow their brow.
Such an abnormality in smell was understandable once one saw the corpses that had begun rapidly weathering.
"What do you think?"
"Even if you ask me... the only possibility I can think of is that something buried beneath the settlement is involved. That's all I can say."
"Some animal or monster took the opportunity to eat the Dragonias corpses?"
"Do you think other animals or monsters would survive in a place where Dragonias are present? Birds aside."
For anything on the ground, Dragonias would gleefully try to devour and kill them.
But Dragonias were, after all, creatures that lived on the ground.
Additionally, their offensive means were limited to close-range attacks like claws and fangs, and they had no effective way of attacking birds flying in the sky.
...In reality, since Dragonias did have hands, they could have used attacks like throwing stones found on the ground, but for Dragonias dominated by hunger, the thought of performing such an attack never occurred to them.
"Then... it really is the underground that's the issue, isn't it? But if that's the case, why were we inside the settlement completely fine?"
"Until just yesterday, Centaurs were living normal lives in that settlement. Thinking about that, it's not strange that we're fine."
"Then is this... the difference between being alive or dead?"
"Probably. I considered that it might affect non-Centaurs too, but we were perfectly fine."
If whatever was in this land intended to harm them as well, it would have inflicted some kind of damage on them too.
Vihera also agreed with Rei's words.
"For now... not having to dispose of the Dragonias corpses is a good thing for the Centaurs too... hm? Huh?"
"What is it?"
Perhaps sensing Rei's sudden halt in speech, Vihera looked at him with a puzzled expression.
In response to her gaze, Rei thought for a moment... then decided it would be better to confirm directly, and returned to the settlement.
Vihera followed Rei with questions in her mind.
Inside the settlement, it looked like several people were finally starting to wake up, but Rei, walking ahead of Vihera, paid no attention to those Centaurs and headed in a certain direction... before eventually coming to a stop.
"Just as I thought."
What's just as I thought? Wondering that, Vihera followed Rei's gaze, and what lay at the end of it was... a Dragonias corpse.
Yes, it was the corpse of a Dragonias that had entered the settlement from a different location while they were fighting in the grove last night, and was killed by the Centaurs.
Seeing that, Vihera was naturally surprised as well.
The Dragonias corpses they had just seen in the grove had already begun to weather.
At this rate after just one night, they would probably turn to dust and vanish by tomorrow... no, even by the end of today.
And yet, the Dragonias that had died in the same way last night remained as corpses like this.
It wasn't that the weathering was slower, either—unlike the corpses outside the settlement, it clearly wasn't being affected by anything.
That the corpse was still fresh was apparent just from looking at it.
"This... what in the world is going on here?"
"Who knows. I don't understand the reason either. But the fact that it's turned out like this must mean something. If we think about it normally... is it because they're outside the settlement?"
"But... this settlement was built by the Centaurs on their own, right? If so, I can't really imagine that carrying any kind of significance."
Vihera's words were something Rei could strongly agree with as well.
That said, if they tried to think of a reason, they could come up with some conjectures.
"What if, when building this settlement, the Centaurs chose a place like this because they were influenced by something beneath it... what do you think?"
"That's... well, it's a possibility, I suppose?"
Vihera looked as though she might agree with Rei's words, but she didn't seem truly convinced.
In truth, given the current situation, Rei's theory was somewhat plausible, but fully accepting it was impossible... or rather, it would definitely be a rather forced explanation.
At the very least, Vihera didn't sense anything in particular while being inside the settlement like this.
If Rei's theory were correct, it wouldn't be strange for some kind of influence to affect them as well while in this settlement.
But even after spending a night inside this settlement, nothing in particular seemed to have happened to Vihera.
Given that, it was difficult to completely believe Rei's theory.
"Maybe it's some other factor? I think Rei's theory is a bit of a stretch."
"Even if you say that. Do you have anything else that seems plausible?"
"Then why don't we just ask Rarie? She's from this settlement, so wouldn't she know a lot of details about that sort of thing?"
Rarie? Rei tilted his head at the name that came from Vihera's mouth, but quickly recalled who it referred to.
It was the name of the Centaur woman who had been among those who fled this settlement and encountered Rei's group—someone who had acted as a leader figure and spoken with Rei multiple times.
Reminding himself that was her name, Rei looked around.
He was searching for Rarie, but unfortunately, she was not among the Centaurs sleeping as if they had collapsed.
"She's not here."
"Of course she isn't. Her homeland was destroyed, you know? It can't be helped if she didn't feel like joining in on some foolish banquet. She's probably resting in her own tent right now."
"Is that how it works? ...I suppose it is. Given the Centaur temperament, I would have thought they'd actively throw a banquet at times like this."
"That's just something that varies from person to person, I suppose."
"Anyway, we need to hear from Rarie. ...Do you remember which tent it was?"
"Who knows? But it's not like there are doors or anything, so can't we just look around?"
At Vihera's casual remark of just looking around, Rei accepted it as one of those things.
It wasn't that he didn't have the concern that he might get scolded for intruding on a sleeping woman, but he figured maybe Centaurs didn't mind that sort of thing.
"Then let's go. ...Hope Rarie knows something."
"I'm the one who suggested asking, so I feel a bit awkward saying this, but don't get your hopes up too high. From what I heard, Rarie didn't hold any important position in this settlement, and her parents weren't in any particularly important positions either."
"In other words, she was strictly an ordinary person."
"Right. Even so, she was reasonably respected by everyone, and she had a strong sense of responsibility, so it seems she was able to keep fleeing from the Dragonias until she joined up with us."
"...Is that how it is? In a way, that's amazing."
Rei voiced his honest impression.
If she had acted that way for some assigned role, that would be one thing, but she had led numerous people out of the settlement of her own volition, navigated through the grove where the trees were an obstacle, and then fled across the plains.
Meeting up with Rei's group had been luck, but that luck was something Rarie had seized precisely because she had desperately kept running.
While acknowledging that, Rei went around checking the campsite tents together with Vihera... and with Set, who had approached after Rei returned.
Naturally, most of the Reconnaissance Unit had been drinking and were asleep.
As a result, the number of people properly sleeping in tents was by no means large.
"This one... no good."
Confirming no one was inside, he moved to the next tent.
Since most of them had been drinking and were asleep, finding Rarie was difficult, but...
"Found her."
While searching the tents separately, Vihera hit the mark.
When Rei went to where Vihera was, Rarie was indeed there.
Not just Rarie, but the child Rei had rescued from the collapsed tent was there as well.
"What is it?"
Whether she had been woken by Vihera's voice, or had already been awake.
Rei couldn't tell which, but in any case, it was a relief to have found Rarie.
"I wanted to ask you a few things about this settlement. The Dragonias that attacked last night are already starting to weather in the grove. Do you know anything about why that might be?"
At Rei's question, Rarie wore an expression of bewildered surprise, as if she had been caught completely off guard by something she didn't understand.