"It's been a while... Lord Rei."
Though the voice came in halting fragments, Rei looked at the one who had spoken and was stunned.
That was because the words had come from Zozo — a Lizardman utterly devoted to him.
Until now, this was someone who had always communicated through written text rather than speech.
Rei had never expected they would be able to converse like this, using spoken words.
"You can speak now?"
"I can... spealk... your words."
"Close. It should be hanasemasu, or hanasu koto ga dekimasu — something like that."
Zozo could communicate to a certain degree, but it still wasn't perfect, so there were a few stumbles here and there.
That said, when Rei had gone to the other world to rescue Anastasia, Zozo could barely speak at all. Considering that, his progress was nothing short of astonishing.
At the very least, from Rei's perspective, it was more than sufficient.
(It kind of reminds me of learning English in school... is this what a foreigner hears when a Japanese person speaks English?)
The thought crossed Rei's mind briefly during the conversation, but either way, even if Zozo was still a little unsteady, he felt that if they kept talking, it would come naturally and conversations would flow much more smoothly.
Rei had heard more than once that even someone who knew no English at all would inevitably pick up the language if they lived in a foreign country.
Whether that was actually true, Rei honestly couldn't say.
But since there were real examples of it happening, he supposed he had no choice but to accept it as fact.
...In Rei's case, though, he couldn't imagine pulling off anything like that himself.
"Rei."
Rei had been marveling at Zozo's progress, but when Elena called his name, he snapped back to reality at once.
He remembered that he had come here with a few things to take care of.
He had gotten so caught off guard by words coming from Zozo's mouth that he hadn't attended to those errands yet... but Elena's words reminded him of the situation at hand, and he opened his mouth.
"Zozo, sorry, but let's talk more later. I was surprised that you can speak now. Keep it up."
At Rei's words, Zozo's expression brightened.
He probably hadn't understood every word, but even so, he seemed to grasp that Rei was praising him.
Leaving Zozo where he stood, Rei called out to a nearby adventurer.
"Got a minute? There are a few things I'd like to ask you about."
The adventurers stationed at the Birth Tower hadn't changed much since Rei's last visit.
A few unfamiliar faces were mixed in, but those were likely reinforcements newly dispatched here.
The adventurers camping at the Birth Tower as Lizardman escorts were, by and large, those the Guild recognized as trustworthy and highly skilled.
However, no matter how promising they were, they couldn't camp around the Birth Tower indefinitely.
Life in the field inevitably wore you down.
There was a lake nearby, and the fish caught there were... for the most part, safe to eat.
The lake was home to many other unknown entities, but among them were some friendly ones.
For example, there was the cluster of light that had emerged from the lake during Rei's previous stay.
That light, shifting through various colors, was clearly a friendly presence toward Rei and his group.
Of course, there were also plenty of monsters that attacked, so it wasn't as though things leaned entirely one way.
"What is it?"
A familiar adventurer replied to Rei's question.
"Recently, has anything strange happened — specifically, any odd pranks or anything like that?"
Rei wanted to keep talking with Zozo, but as far as he was concerned, he needed to ask about these things first.
Since this place sat right next to the Treant Forest, it wouldn't be difficult for fairies to pull all manner of pranks if they set their minds to it.
He had asked just in case... but he had been fully convinced that some kind of prank must have already occurred.
"No? Pranks, you say... I don't particularly remember anything like that."
That was exactly why the adventurer's answer was completely unexpected.
"Huh? Really?"
Just as Rei was taken aback by the adventurer's response, the adventurer was equally startled by Rei's question.
From the adventurer's perspective, it was as though Rei had stated the obvious.
His expression held no trace of concealing anything.
At the very least, studying the adventurer's face, Rei didn't get the slightest impression that he was lying.
"Hmm, then there are no issues?"
"...Yes."
The adventurer naturally understood that Elena was with Rei.
But he clearly hadn't expected her to address him directly. Startled, he hurriedly nodded in response.
"In that case..."
Without paying particular mind to the adventurer's flustered reaction, Elena turned her gaze toward Rei.
Rei understood what Elena was trying to say without needing words.
The fairies hadn't made it this far.
(But why? The woodcutters, their escorts, the adventurers working as laborers — they were all falling victim to fairy pranks.)
For just a moment, he wondered whether the fairies simply couldn't reach this place.
Even lumping it all together as the Treant Forest, the area was vast.
If fairies were roaming about within that enormous expanse, it wouldn't be strange if they were unable to venture beyond its borders.
That was what he thought — but he dismissed the idea immediately.
The fairies Rei knew of would think nothing of leaving the Treant Forest if it meant pulling pranks.
Yet despite that, this place had suffered no prank damage, which meant...
(The possibilities I can think of are that they sense something about the Lizardmen's presence, or it's the Birth Tower, the lake, or the still-burning Slime. ...There are actually quite a few candidates that fairies might dislike.)
The area around the Birth Tower could be called special in more ways than one.
If the fairies disliked whatever made it special, Rei could completely accept that.
That said, he could just as easily accept it if that something had piqued their interest and drawn a large number of fairies here.
Fairies were driven by curiosity.
In that respect, they were somewhat similar to Anastasia.
Thinking along those lines, Rei turned his gaze toward Anastasia, who was surrounded by several people.
Ever since the Wisp had connected the Centaur world to this one, Anastasia and Fana hadn't returned here.
Sensing the moment the worlds linked, Rei had ridden Set straight to the Wisp's location. But for those who had remained behind, it had been a long while since they'd last seen Anastasia and Fana, so it was only natural that the people who had been worried about them would gather around.
...Granted, among them were some who approached Anastasia not out of concern but with ulterior motives...
"Pi!"
"Uwoah!"
While the other adventurers were chatting, an Adventurer Man who had reached his hand toward Anastasia's backside noticed that a nearby Deer was taking aim at him with its impressive antlers, and he barely managed to dodge.
He was known as a womanizer with quick hands, but he also possessed enough skill to be entrusted with guarding this location by the Guild.
The Deer's antler strike startled him, but even so, evading it wasn't particularly difficult for someone of his caliber.
...Though having dodged it, the man — having seen those antlers up close — hastily put as much distance between himself and Anastasia as he could.
"Piieee!"
Watching the man flee, the Deer let out a triumphant cry.
The onlookers burst into laughter at the sight.
"Lord Rei, should I... tie someone up?"
"...You mean nanika shimasu ka, right? And no — you're really asking that, right? You're not saying you want to tie that man up, are you?"
"Please... speak... slowly."
It seemed Zozo still couldn't catch Rei's words properly — or perhaps he found it difficult to process them in his head after hearing them — because he responded with a bewildered look.
Rei nodded and opened his mouth, reassuring himself that at the very least, Zozo wasn't trying to tie up the person who had tried to grope Anastasia.
"Don't worry about it."
What exactly Zozo was worried about, Rei couldn't tell.
But he figured that saying this would be enough for now... and Zozo seemed to grasp the gist of what Rei meant, offering a nod in return.
"Rei, it's been a while. How about it? Want to have a mock battle with me?"
The one who called out while Rei was talking with Zozo was Gaga.
Zozo's brother — and also the brother of Zaza, who was currently locked in the underground cell at the Lord's Manor.
Rei had always pictured him as a warrior type, but seeing that he spoke more fluently than even Zozo suggested his mental sharpness was a cut above his brother's.
...The way he suddenly challenged Rei to a mock battle, though, was business as usual.
"Not a chance. ...If Vihera were here, maybe, but not me."
"What about Vihea?"
"Vihera. Not a — ra."
Gaga could speak more fluently than Zozo, but since these were still words he wasn't accustomed to — or perhaps simply found hard to pronounce — he still stumbled on occasion.
After correcting Gaga's pronunciation of Vihera's name, Rei explained why she couldn't be here.
"Vihera is on patrol in Gilm. ...Do you know what Gilm is?"
Since Rei had no idea how many words Gaga had picked up, he needed to choose them carefully.
But Gaga opened his mouth as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"It's the name of the place where we were before, right? Personally, I feel more at ease at the Birth Tower."
"I see. ...Oh, by the way, I'd like to ask you something too, Gaga. Has anyone pulled any pranks on you recently, or anything like that?"
Gaga stood nearly twice Rei's height, so Rei had to crane his neck upward to talk to him.
Slightly worried about whether his neck would start aching, he waited for Gaga's response...
"No, nothing like that in particular."
Hearing the same answer he'd gotten from the adventurer earlier, Rei's conviction that the fairies hadn't ventured out this way only strengthened.
"I see. ...Sorry, but I've got a lot on my plate right now and can't spare time for a mock battle. Keep sparring with the Lizardmen and the adventurers."
In that instant, the gazes of every Lizardman who had learned to speak — and every adventurer hired to guard this place — snapped toward Rei.
They were filled with something like What have you done!, their eyes half-drowned in despair.
(Ah... sounds like there's been quite a bit of trouble. He was probably having mock battles with the adventurers and Lizardmen while I was away...)
Gaga currently possessed the greatest strength among all the Lizardmen who had teleported to Elgin.
His skill was such that even the adventurers entrusted with guarding this location by the Guild would find beating him a tall order.
On top of that, mock battles — or more accurately, since he loved growing stronger, he challenged as many people as he could.
The most troublesome part of all was that Gaga had become able to understand and speak this world's language.
When he couldn't speak, they had needed Zozo as an interpreter to communicate — but now that he could talk freely, he could challenge people to mock battles in his own words.
In that sense, Gaga having learned to speak was a significant disadvantage for the adventurers. ...Even so, when it came to emergencies, it was better that he could understand the language.
"I see. That's a shame."
Muttering with what sounded like genuine disappointment from the bottom of his heart, Gaga turned and walked away.
Rei's long-awaited return to this place apparently wasn't all that important to him.
Rei considered calling out something to Gaga's back, which somehow looked a touch lonely... but he judged that doing so now would only raise expectations for no reason, and held his tongue.
"Sorry, but I need to head back to the Treant Forest right away. I just came by to let you all know that I've safely got Anastasia and the others back."
"...Got back?"
The adventurer who heard Rei's words felt something was off about that phrasing.
It was true that Anastasia had been missing, but even so, "got back" wasn't an expression one would normally use here.
Seeing the adventurer's reaction, Rei realized he had chosen the wrong words as well...
"There are some things you're better off not knowing."
To gloss over it — and at the same time, to convey that it was better for them this way — that was what Rei told them.