"We're back," Anastasia murmured, gazing at the Treant Forest with deep sentiment. In truth, she had only just traveled from this forest to Gilm yesterday.
Even so, the way she had returned to the Treant Forest with such heartfelt longing could only mean she wanted to investigate fairies that badly.
Or perhaps it was the Wisp research. Or the existence of another world.
The lake near the Birth Tower, where the Lizardmen currently lived, was also an unknown entity—more than enough to pique Anastasia's interest. Granted, the lake wasn't inside the Treant Forest but adjacent to it.
"So, we're planning to search for fairies while letting the Lizardmen—Zozo, Gaga, and the adventurers—know we're back. What about you, Anastasia?"
"That's a tough call. Still, just searching for fairies is intriguing, and I did have a reasonably friendly relationship with the Lizardmen and the adventurers, so I'll show my face there too."
Rei could understand what Anastasia was thinking.
Letting the Lizardmen and adventurers know she was safe wasn't a lie, either.
But more precisely, there was no doubt that the thought of possibly finding a fairy by walking through the Treant Forest was also a factor.
Still, they're definitely worried about Anastasia, too.
The Lizardmen aside, Anastasia was popular among the adventurers.
Being a beautiful woman alone would naturally make her popular among adventurers, the majority of whom were men.
Among them were some who had genuinely fallen in love with her—not just superficially drawn to her beauty.
Being entrusted with escorting the Lizardmen meant they were skilled adventurers trusted by the Guild, but even among such people, there were those who were hopelessly inept when it came to matters between men and women.
Of course, that didn't mean adventurers had to be accustomed to women just because they were adventurers.
If anything, falling for honey traps would be a problem in itself.
"Understood. Then let's head to the Birth Tower by going through the Treant Forest first."
Originally, the Birth Tower and the lake existed adjacent to the Treant Forest, so there was no need to deliberately cut through the forest to reach them.
Simply traveling along the edge of the forest would bring them to where the Lizardmen were.
But since they needed to search for fairies while moving this time, they intentionally entered the Treant Forest.
"Do you think we'll find any fairies?"
Elena asked from behind him.
The seating order on Set's back was, from front to back: Rei, Elena, and Ara.
Rei had guessed it would probably be fine with three people riding, and that prediction proved spot on.
Compared to Anastasia the researcher and her assistant Fana, both Elena and Ara wore armor and carried weapons.
In terms of weight, they were significantly heavier than Anastasia's group—but even so, to Set, that much extra weight was within the margin of error.
"Who knows. I don't think we'll find one right away just because Lord Daskar told us to search. But... if we don't search, finding a fairy in the first place is impossible."
"Given that it's fairies, wouldn't they come on their own to play pranks without us doing anything? That's how it tends to go in fairy tales."
Ara, listening from behind Elena, offered this thought, but Rei couldn't simply nod in agreement.
As someone who had actually made contact with fairies, he could understand that Ara's words held truth, but he couldn't imagine the fairies would so easily do as they wanted.
If anything, the fairies might understand that they were being waited for, and precisely because they knew this, they might refuse to show themselves before Rei and the others. Knowing the general personality of fairies—albeit only the one he had met on the Seremuse Plain—Rei found that possibility entirely plausible.
That said, considering that the fairy he first encountered in the Treant Forest had fled the moment it laid eyes on him, he couldn't deny the possibility that it had a different personality from the fairies he knew.
While Rei mulled over all this, the group made their way deeper into the Treant Forest.
They had entered from an area where the woodcutters weren't working, so there was no chance of running into any woodcutters or adventurers.
Rei wouldn't have minded meeting the woodcutters, but he judged that doing so might lead to troublesome complications.
And... naturally, upon entering the Treant Forest, Anastasia began searching for fairies.
Whether they would actually find any, Rei didn't know. He didn't know, but since he had seen one in the Treant Forest yesterday, it was reasonable to think they might still be in the forest today.
Of course, that was only a reasonable assumption, not an absolute certainty.
"They're not here, huh."
After they had been in the Treant Forest for a while, Ara muttered as she surveyed the surroundings.
Set and the two deer advancing through the forest were moving at a brisk walk rather than a run.
Since Set understood they were searching for fairies, it knew not to let any slip by.
Whether the two deer grasped this was unclear, but Anastasia and Fana kept them under control by whispering instructions from their backs and using hand and leg signals to keep them from bolting.
For the two deer, even though they had grown somewhat accustomed to it, walking near Set was still terrifying.
If they could, they would have bolted from the area immediately.
"Yeah. Fairies are hard to find to begin with. Plus... I heard from the fairy I encountered, so they might be cautious... no, probably not."
Normally, it wouldn't be strange for them to become cautious.
But given the personality and behavior of the fairy Rei had encountered on the Seremuse Plain, he didn't think it would act cautiously just because it had been spotted once.
If there had been a chief leading those fairies, the story might have been different.
"Is that so?"
Ara, too, only knew about fairies from fairy tales.
If anything, those who knew more about fairies would be adventurers—who took on numerous requests and traveled to all sorts of places—rather than Ara, a noble.
In fact, Rei's encounter with a fairy could, in a sense, also be said to have happened because of a request.
"Yeah. Though I've only encountered a fairy once myself. In that sense, it's not something I can say with full confidence."
"Just encountering one once is impressive enough, I think."
Ara said this, and she was right.
If you asked anyone else, nearly all of them would agree with her.
That said, strictly speaking, "impressive" was probably the wrong word.
Meeting a fairy was purely coincidental, not something Rei had achieved through his own ability.
They say luck is a form of ability too, so thinking of it that way, one could call it Rei's ability.
"I agree with Ara as well. Just meeting a fairy is surprising enough."
"True. I've seen people who put fairies on display before, but it was really just a doll with insect wings forcibly stuck to it. Compared to that, I'm jealous."
Anastasia agreed with Elena, looking thoroughly unimpressed as she dismissed it as ridiculous.
"That's... how should I put it, pretty cliché."
Rei had heard of side shows and had seen a few himself.
But fundamentally, side shows and the like never displayed anything real.
The customers knew that too, and there was an element of watching them as a kind of joke. So it wouldn't be strange for them to display a doll with insect wings—specifically, something like dragonfly wings stuck to its back—under the title of a fairy.
"Right. Some of the other customers were laughing, too."
But it wasn't funny to me.
As Rei listened to Anastasia, he scanned the surroundings...
"...Huh!? ...Never mind."
He caught sight of something moving on a tree branch and for a moment thought it might be a fairy, but it was just a bird.
"A bird?"
Elena, having seen Rei sitting in front of her briefly project a sharp intensity, followed his gaze and caught sight of the bird taking flight from the branch—perhaps startled by his presence.
"Yeah. Unfortunately. ...And unfortunately for us too, we're almost at the Birth Tower."
It had been quite a while since he had last visited the Birth Tower's location, but seeing the scenery within the Treant Forest grow somehow familiar, he muttered with genuine disappointment.
That said, Rei hadn't expected to find a fairy in such a short time either, so while he was disappointed, he wasn't deeply so.
If anything, Anastasia was the more disappointed one.
Unlike Rei, Anastasia needed to research the Wisp.
Of course, the Wisp was undeniably a fascinating subject for her as well.
But with the existence of fairies suddenly appearing right before her eyes, it was inevitable that her attention would be pulled in that direction.
The Wisp showed no signs of disappearing anytime soon. Fairies, on the other hand, were capricious beings—there was no telling how long they would remain in the Treant Forest.
Given that, it was only natural for Anastasia's curiosity to lean toward the fairies.
Personally, I'd rather not get involved with fairies, though.
They loved pranks—and not just minor ones, but the kind of outrageous, no-laughing-matter pranks like those on the Seremuse Plain.
But when it was a direct request from Daskar, it was hard for Rei to refuse.
Gilm currently had many adventurers with limited skill, unlike before, and if such people fell victim to fairy pranks for some reason... in the worst case, they could die.
What was fatal to a human might be nothing more than a light prank from a fairy's perspective.
If low-skilled adventurers—let alone woodcutters who weren't even adventurers—were subjected to such pranks, the consequences could be lethal.
In that case, I should make sure to properly warn the Lizardmen too.
Just as Rei had this thought, they emerged from the Treant Forest.
They had glimpsed it through the gaps between the trees, but now they could confirm the Birth Tower and the lake with their own eyes.
Not only that...
"It's still burning?"
Looking at the slime that continued to burn by the lake, Rei muttered with a touch of surprise.
This slime, which could be called the lake's master, had been set ablaze by Rei—but just how much time had passed since then?
Seeing it still burning despite all that, he could only stare in exasperation.
The Dragonias Queen had an incredible Regeneration Ability too... Should I just burn it to ash the same way with the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor? But if I go that far, I'll probably collapse again.
He recalled the Dragonias Queen, who had consumed not only his mana but even his life force, and whom he had burned so thoroughly that not even ashes remained.
In reality, the reason his life force had been consumed was that he had already been using the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor for an extended period before fighting the Queen. But even so, considering that he was about to search for fairies, he couldn't risk trying it when there was a high chance of passing out.
I'll try it once the fairy matter is settled and I have some breathing room. As long as the slime just keeps burning without moving, maintaining the status quo should be fine.
For now, both the Birth Tower and the lake were hidden from most of the people in Gilm.
Perhaps some had obtained the information through other means, but entering the Treant Forest was prohibited for all but certain individuals by Daskar's people.
But naturally, they couldn't keep it that way forever.
Eventually, anyone would be able to visit the Treant Forest freely.
When that time came, a burning slime might become one of the tourist attractions.
Whether a burning slime would actually become a tourist attraction was a fair question, but for ordinary people, the sight of such an enormous slime ablaze was undeniably rare enough on its own.
As Rei was thinking about all this, the Lizardmen and adventurers eventually spotted him, and several of them came running toward the group.