"……Eh?"
Riding atop a deer, Anastasia couldn't comprehend what had just happened for a moment. Even so, she surveyed her surroundings while keeping herself ready to activate Spirit Magic at any time.
She couldn't understand how the Dragonias pursuing them had suddenly been half-destroyed—no, reduced to a state that could rightfully be called near-annihilation.
Using Spirit Magic to create a simple pitfall in the ground had been fine, but she hadn't expected it to take out many of them.
In reality, the Dragonias that tripped caused the ones running behind them to stumble, and then the ones behind those would crash into the fallen, and so forth—far more Dragonias had ended up tripping than Anastasia had predicted. Even so, it wouldn't have been strange for the ones who fell later to recover immediately.
"Anastasia, look over there!" Fana shouted, and while urging her deer forward, she looked up at the sky.
"No way…… Rei……?"
At the end of her gaze was a gryphon familiar even to Anastasia, and the figure of the man straddling it.
The moment she saw them, Anastasia halted her deer in surprise.
Fana, who had been running alongside her, brought her deer to a stop as well.
……However, the deer the two were riding were terrified of Set and trying to leave the area as quickly as possible.
For wild animals like deer, a gryphon—a predator that would devour them—was a genuine threat.
Far more so than even the Dragonias closing in to kill and eat them.
Even so, Anastasia and Fana somehow managed to keep the deer under control.
Whatever the case, it had been a fair amount of time since Anastasia and Fana had begun traveling with these two deer.
The deer must have trusted them.
Even with that trust, Set's overwhelming presence still made them want to flee.
Nevertheless, once Rei and Set closed in to a certain distance, the deer stopped trying to run.
Brought this close, they must have instinctively understood that fleeing was pointless.
That being said, for the time being, Set—having landed on the ground—had no intention of doing anything to the deer.
Retrieving the thrown Twilight Spear, Rei spoke.
"Anastasia, Fana, you're safe?"
"Rei……?"
Anastasia murmured his name just as she had before. But whereas her previous utterance had been born mostly of disbelief, this time it was a murmur of clear recognition that the person before her was indeed Rei.
Beside Anastasia, Fana was also looking at Rei and Set, but perhaps because she wore a mask, it was impossible to tell what expression she wore.
Even so, Rei could tell from her demeanor that she was glad to see them.
"Seriously…… just when I finally thought we'd found you, to think you were being attacked by Dragonias. Anyway, I'm glad you're safe."
"We're not safe. Honestly…… do you have any idea what we've been through?"
Perhaps due to the joy of reuniting with him, Anastasia's murmuring seemed to carry a hint of tears in her eyes. But since those tears appeared to vanish the very next moment, it was possible Rei had simply imagined it.
"Grrr?"
Set, meeting the two again after so long, rumbled a questioning sound—are you okay?
The deer grew even more frightened of him, but noticing this, Anastasia stroked her deer as if to say it was fine.
With that, the two deer calmed slightly—only a little, truly.
"There's a lot…… truly a lot I want to ask, but above all, I'm glad you're safe. For now, I'd like to move to the location we're using as a base and talk at length there, but……"
Rei turned to Set. "Can we get back?"
Since they had traveled following Set's instincts, it went without saying that they just needed to head back the way they came. They just needed to go back……but the problem was not flying through the sky, but whether they could travel overland and return to the grove.
Flying through the sky and running on the ground were entirely different things.
If this weren't a grassland, they could probably return almost without issue, but……unfortunately, a vast grassland stretched out in all directions.
Given that, to someone unaccustomed to grasslands, this place looked like nothing but the same scenery no matter how far one went.
Centaurs, who were born, lived, and died on the grasslands, could probably determine their bearings from even the slightest differences in the terrain.
"What?…… Don't tell me you and Set are lost too?"
"It's not quite that. We flew here through the sky, so when it comes to traveling overland……it's a bit difficult."
"That means you're lost……"
"Anastasia!"
Suddenly, Fana, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, raised her voice.
What is it? Rei looked at Fana, only to find her staring at the pile of Dragonias corpses and crying out.
He had assumed all the Dragonias were dead, but there was a faintly moving shadow among the pile of bodies.
That said, the shadow—the surviving Dragonias—was by no means unscathed.
After all, Rei's thrown Twilight Spear had impacted right where the tripped Dragonias had piled up.
Impacted……yes, the power of the spear Rei had thrown was fittingly described as an impact.
Though the Dragonias had somehow survived that attack, one of its hands was gone entirely, and the other was bent in an unnatural direction from the elbow.
Its lower lizard half had also lost several legs, its scaled skin was torn, and flesh was visible in many places.
It was hard to believe it still had any combat capability.
……However, that was only if it were an ordinary creature.
Dragonias fundamentally lacked reason and intellect, and were driven by hunger.
Even in its current state, it began to stagger one step, then two, toward Rei and his group, trying to satisfy its hunger.
"Set, take care of it."
"Grrr!"
The moment it heard Rei's words, Set kicked off the ground and charged toward the Dragonias.
Even in its half-dead state, the Dragonias noticed Set approaching and opened its jaws to sink its fangs into his flesh—
"Gruu!"
—but in the next instant, its head was crushed by a single strike from Set's front leg.
Even in perfect condition, a normal Dragonias couldn't defeat Set.
Given that, in its current heavily damaged state, there was no way it could fight Set head-on and win.
Having defeated the Dragonias with a single blow, Set came over to Rei, seeking praise.
While patting Set's head, Rei looked toward the pile of Dragonias corpses.
The Dragonias just now had sustained significant damage, but there might be others that were merely unconscious.
However, checking them one by one would be a hassle, so……Rei drew Death Scythe from his Misty Ring and began to chant.
"O flames, thy power is my power. Burn thy magic at my will and scorch mine enemies. Thy nature is spreading, hellfire. Use my magic as kindling to increase thy blaze."
Along with the chant, ten fireballs appeared around Rei's—more precisely, Death Scythe's—vicinity.
"Ten Fireballs."
The magic activated, and the ten fireballs flew straight toward the cluster of Dragonias……and the moment they struck, they generated a massive inferno.
As expected, there had been unconscious individuals among the Dragonias, and their cries echoed from within the blazing flames.
Rei watched as the Dragonias corpses burned, observing even those being burned alive, but he never once let his guard down.
Knowing the hunger that drove the Dragonias, there was no guarantee one wouldn't suddenly burst from the flames.
That was why, even while they burned, he remained vigilant until they finally collapsed into charcoal.
Indeed, from among the burning Dragonias, sounds that could have been groans or screams could be heard.
……The fact that they were crying out meant they were suffering from the flames, and considering that, the red-scaled Dragonias—which possessed strong resistance to fire—must have been killed outright by Rei's Twilight Spear strike.
"For now, we can rest easy for the time being. I'll ask just in case, but there aren't any more pursuers coming, right?"
"Right. For now, it should just be these ones.……We don't know how Dragonias think, so there's a possibility more could come, though."
That was something Rei understood well enough, having had groups of Dragonias sent to the grove settlement time and time again.
He nodded with an unpleasant expression at Anastasia's words.
"The ones that come after are a pain. They show up one after another without any break."
"Rei?"
Anastasia turned a questioning gaze toward Rei, who was murmuring with a knowing air.
Toward Rei, who was showing every sign of knowing the Dragonias well.
"Anyway, the details can wait. For now, we're getting out of here."
The expression he had worn moments ago vanished effortlessly, and Anastasia nodded at Rei's words.
Fana, too, tugged at the hem of Anastasia's clothes, indicating that they should leave this place at once.
And so they prepared to move, but……
"Piiiigh……"
"Piiigh!"
The deer that Anastasia and Fana had ridden here were terrified of Set and refused to approach him at all.
They didn't panic violently out of their fear, but it was clear they could not possibly travel alongside him.
"If we had a little more time, the deer would probably get used to Set.……What should we do? Are we releasing these deer here? For the record, Set can carry both of you, Anastasia and Fana."
Back in Gilm, Set had carried Rei along with both Anastasia and Fana to the center of the Treant Forest, so Anastasia well understood what Rei was saying.
But even so, she shook her head at his words.
"No, we need a means to move around freely. Besides……I've grown attached to these ones."
Fana nodded in agreement.
Since the two deer had clearly grown attached to Anastasia and Fana despite their fear of Set, Rei was unsure what to do……and ultimately offered a compromise.
"Then I'll go on ahead with Set, and you two follow on the deer from a distance."
"Understood."
Just how far apart did they need to be for the deer not to fear Set?
And even if they separated and freed the deer from that terror, would they accept following in the direction Set moved?
Judging from how the deer feared Set, the latter seemed particularly unlikely.
That was what Rei thought, but even so, Anastasia and Fana insisted on bringing the deer along.
As they themselves had said, their attachment to the deer likely played a part.
Rei didn't actually know when Anastasia and the others had acquired the deer.
But they were a means of transportation and pets obtained in an unfamiliar world.
Given their mental exhaustion—though Anastasia seemed rather full of curiosity about this world—it wouldn't be strange for them to find emotional comfort in the deer.
Rei had heard the term pet therapy back when he was in Japan.
He only knew the general concept, but regardless, it seemed certain that Anastasia and Fana were treating the deer in such a manner.
(Well, it's not just about the deer. There are plenty of other things I need to consider.)
Specifically, whether he could return to the grove by traveling overland with Set.
It was still around midday, but having found Anastasia and Fana, he needed to return to the settlement as quickly as possible.
To be perfectly honest, having accomplished his goal of rescuing Anastasia and Fana, Rei had no reason to remain in this world.
However, he himself had also spent time with Zai and several other Centaurs, and had grown attached to them.
He was also interested in the Dragonias themselves—or rather, the entity that was likely creating them.
That was why Rei had no intention of simply returning to Elgin given the current situation.
(Knowing Anastasia's personality, I doubt she'll quietly go back to the other world anyway.)
Thinking this, Rei set out to return to the grove settlement.