At Rei's question, Rarie spoke up with a puzzled expression.
"Windaging Dragonias? No, um... honestly, I don't understand what you mean."
Rarie's expression as she answered didn't look like she was lying in the slightest.
From that, Rei guessed that Rarie truly knew nothing about the windaging.
Vihera seemed to share the same assessment. Seeing Rarie's puzzled expression, she chimed in.
"What do I mean? It's exactly what it sounds like. We were going to dispose of the Dragonias corpses from last night since leaving them around would cause problems—rotten stench, plague, Undead, and so on. But when we went to check the grove, the corpses were already windaging."
Thanks to that, we don't have to worry about the stench and everything else, at least.
Rei nodded at Vihera's follow-up, though he still harbored doubts about whether it was truly safe.
In reality, there was no question that they didn't need to worry about the stench of rot.
As for the Undead, since the corpses would windage down to the bone at this rate, they didn't need to worry about Zombies or Skeletons.
That said, it wasn't guaranteed the corpses wouldn't become Wraiths or Ghosts.
But the one thing Rei was genuinely worried about was plague.
Windaging meant the Dragonias corpses were turning to dust and scattering on the wind throughout the surrounding area.
Given that, it was only natural to worry about some kind of plague spreading from that dust.
(When it comes down to it, purifying them would definitely be the safest and most reliable option. But to do that, I'd need to gather the corpses, and with them already windaging, that's impossible now.)
He even found himself wondering whether it might be more reassuring to purify and burn the entire grove. But before he could dwell on it further, Rarie asked him a question.
"Um, you said that was happening in the grove, but what about the corpses that were inside the settlement?"
Rarie knew that last night's battle had taken place inside the settlement as well, not just in the grove.
She also knew they had achieved an overwhelming victory against the Dragonias.
Given that, it was obvious there would be corpses inside the settlement—and the question was what had happened to them.
Rarie voiced the question, and Rei hesitated briefly over how to answer before deciding it would be best to just tell her straight.
"The corpses killed inside the settlement were still... fresh. I'm not sure if 'fresh' is the right word in this context, but that's what they were like."
"Does that mean... because they were killed inside the settlement and their corpses stayed inside the settlement, that's what happened to them?"
"I'm not sure. I don't know about that part, which is why I came to ask you, Rarie—since you're from this settlement, I thought you might know something."
Even as he said it, looking at Rarie's demeanor, it didn't seem like she knew anything about the situation at all.
(In other words, if anyone knew about this, it would have been the settlement's upper leadership.)
But the upper leadership had all been eaten by Dragonias. Only a handful of people in the settlement had survived.
Including Rarie, only the truly fortunate had made it out alive.
...Though if they'd been truly fortunate, they wouldn't have ended up in this situation to begin with.
"Oh, but... I was told to stay out of the grove as much as possible. When I heard that, I figured they were just telling me to keep away so the Dragonias wouldn't spot me. But if that's the case, then maybe..."
"I see. The higher-ups must have known the grove was dangerous. And if the Dragonias corpses that died inside the settlement are still fresh, then it really is only inside this settlement that's special."
Rarie thought about Rei's words for a moment, then nodded.
"You're right. While we were living in the settlement, I never noticed anything particularly strange. So I don't think there's any kind of problem inside the settlement itself."
"Your clan moved into this grove to escape the Dragonias, right? So who exactly made that decision?"
"That... honestly, I don't know. But I think it was the Chief and the people around him."
Rarie was nothing more than a commoner within the settlement.
That was why she didn't know specifically who had relocated the settlement here, nor did she know about the settlement's boundaries—how they had built defensive walls across such a wide area as protection against Dragonias and other threats.
If he could learn the circumstances behind those decisions, it would be tremendously helpful.
"It's a real loss that everyone who knew the details died. I just hope they left behind some kind of clue..."
"It would be difficult, don't you think? Most of the tents were destroyed in the battle with the Dragonias to begin with. Even if there was some kind of clue, there's no telling whether it survived."
Vihera chimed in as if picking up where Rei left off.
Even so, as a precaution, Rei asked Rarie where the Chief's tent had been located in the settlement.
He hoped, if possible, that it wasn't in an area where excavation work was underway.
If the tent had been intact, the Chief's tent would have been identifiable by being larger than the others. But unfortunately, the majority of the tents in the settlement had been destroyed—both when the Dragonias attacked and when Rei's group retook the settlement.
What's more, the tents in the excavation area, along with any others that might obstruct future excavation work, had already been cleared away.
Since some items still appeared usable, they weren't discarding everything but were gathering the materials in one place. However, being tents meant for Centaurs to live in, they were quite large.
Searching for clues amid the debris where those tents had been cleared would undoubtedly require an enormous amount of labor.
Rei would have preferred to avoid such an undertaking entirely, but the goddess of fate was cruel.
"It was already destroyed, so I think it's mixed in with the wreckage of the other tents."
Faced with Rarie's answer, Rei couldn't argue.
"Ah, well then. For now, one of today's tasks is searching for those clues. Fortunately, we've got plenty of hands."
"Ara, is it okay not to send people to the excavation work?"
"We've got Set for that, so it'll be fine."
"Gruu!"
At Rei's words, Set purred as if to say, Leave it to me!
For Set, digging into the ground wasn't particularly difficult.
With Set's extraordinary strength, it could easily dig using its front legs alone.
...For the others participating in the excavation work, it wouldn't be surprising if they found that extremely enviable.
In fact, even from Rei's perspective, he couldn't help thinking that Set alone might be sufficient for the actual digging.
That said, it was equally true that the more people digging, the faster the excavation progressed.
The only drawback was that while not as large as Dragonias, Centaurs were considerably bigger than ordinary humans like Rei and Vihera—though neither of them was, strictly speaking, an ordinary human.
Because of their size, when Centaurs handled excavation work, there were inevitably fewer of them working compared to if humans were doing it.
...For Zai and the other Centaurs, that was simply normal.
But for Rei, the impression was hard to shake: having Centaurs meant fewer hands could participate in the excavation.
Also, given that they did have a slight surplus of personnel, redirecting the spare hands toward searching for clues didn't seem like a bad idea at all.
Rei explained his reasoning, but Vihera cast a somewhat suspicious glance his way.
"Hey, are you sure about this? There are definitely people with hangovers out there."
"That's..."
Since they'd be searching for clues, careful attention was naturally required.
There was no way anyone could manage that while hungover.
"I didn't intend to give them that much to drink..."
Rei muttered with lingering doubts. But since he didn't drink himself, he had no idea how much alcohol it took to get Centaurs drunk.
What's more, without realizing it, he'd handed over a barrel of particularly high-proof alcohol among the ones he'd distributed the previous day.
That strong alcohol was largely to blame for the Centaurs' hangovers.
Rei had simply bought whatever alcohol he could find without paying much attention, so he wasn't well-versed in the different varieties... and as a result, high-proof liquor had ended up being served.
Then again, that also meant there was a chance the expensive alcohol stored in his Misty Ring could have been served instead.
Though the "expensive" alcohol in Rei's Misty Ring wasn't all that high-end to begin with.
In Japan—no, on Earth—wines costing millions of yen per bottle existed.
Even the finest alcohol in Rei's Misty Ring didn't reach that level.
In any case, completely unaware that he'd served high-proof liquor, Rei thought for a moment before speaking.
"In that case, I'll assign the ones without hangovers to search for clues, and the hungover bunch to excavation. Working up a sweat should help cure their hangovers too."
Rei recalled that back in Japan, his father used to go to the sauna to sweat out a hangover, and he said as much.
...In reality, going into a sauna with a hangover was extremely dangerous and absolutely shouldn't be done.
What a hangover actually required was large amounts of water—making the person drink about a liter or so.
Whether fortunately or unfortunately, Rei had hardly ever dealt with hangovers—his own or anyone else's—since coming to Elgin, so he had zero knowledge on the subject.
"Really? Well, if you say so, Rei, I don't mind. Besides, since we never know when new Dragonias might show up, having them stay hungover would be a problem."
Rei nodded in agreement with Vihera's words.
If Dragonias appeared from the grove like they had last night, there was no telling where they'd breach the settlement.
If at a critical moment like that, the fighters couldn't protect the noncombatants because of hangovers... only the worst possible outcome awaited.
Failing to protect noncombatants because of a hangover was something no Centaur would even want to contemplate.
With that settled, Rei brought Vihera, Set, and Rarie along and headed toward the hungover group.
"Set, do it."
"Gurururururururu!"
'Nuoooooo!'
Set's roar suddenly thundered across the area where the hungover Centaurs lay.
The hungover Centaurs groaned at the sound reverberating through their skulls.
But Rei, paying them no mind, called out to the Centaurs sprawled on the ground like beached tuna.
"Wake up. It's time for work. Like I said last night, whether you're hungover or not, you're working. First, anyone who isn't hungover, raise your hand."
Following Rei's instructions, about ten of them raised their hands.
Out of that entire crowd, only ten.
Rei wasn't quite sure how to react, but he decided to at least be grateful there were ten sober ones.
"You lot—search through the wreckage of the Chief's tent and look for any information about this settlement."
"Um, what do you mean by that?"
One of the Centaurs asked, not understanding what Rei was getting at.
He probably couldn't grasp why they needed to investigate the settlement so thoroughly.
Rei explained to them what he had seen outside the settlement—in the grove.
Naturally, they couldn't just accept the explanation at face value. But if they actually stepped outside the settlement and looked at the grove themselves, it was plainly obvious that the Dragonias corpses were windaging.
Faced with the evidence, even the skeptics had no choice but to believe.
And the corpses still inside the settlement showed no signs of windaging whatsoever.
Considering all of that, it was an undeniable fact that something about this settlement was special.
That was surely why Rei was telling them to investigate—something the sober Centaurs must have understood as well.
"So... what about us...?"
A hungover Centaur asked, clearly hoping to be told they could rest.
But Rei, mercilessly, ordered those Centaurs to do excavation work.