Having finished his negotiations with Daskar, Rei returned to the Treant Forest.
The souvenirs Nielson had demanded were currently stored inside his Misty Ring.
That was fine by him, but...
Since I can't go to where the fairies live, Nielson will have to carry all the souvenirs herself. Will she be alright?
Furthermore, the souvenirs in the Misty Ring weren't limited to what Daskar had prepared. Even after leaving the Lord's Manor and traveling through the City of Gilm, Nielson had kept demanding one thing after another.
Daskar, having anticipated this, had given Rei several gold coins in advance. He truly was a capable man—though he had likely handed them over so readily because he expected returns far exceeding a few gold coins if the negotiations succeeded.
At any rate, Rei held Nielson back as she tried to dart out of the Dragon Robe, relying on Elena and Ara to purchase the items she wanted one after another.
And it truly was a wide variety of items—from sweets like baked goods and fruit to small accessories.
...For whatever reason, she even decided to purchase a cooking pot.
Naturally, it wasn't a pot meant for a fairy like Nielson to use, but an ordinary one for humans. Rei wondered why she would want such a thing, but if Nielson said she wanted it, there was no reason to deliberately refuse.
He recalled a scene he'd seen on TV back in Japan—a cat sitting inside a pot—and wondered if fairies had a habit of climbing into them too. ...But he kept that thought to himself for now.
"So, which way should I go? Since I have no idea where the fairies have settled, everything depends on your guidance, Nielson."
"I know. ...This way. Though I can't take you all the way to the final destination."
Nielson, having emerged from the Dragon Robe, wore a slightly disappointed expression. It was just short of evening, but the heat of the sun that had poured down during the day still lingered in the forest. It was hot.
Of course, it was somewhat cooler than outside the Treant Forest. Even so, it was definitely hotter than being inside the Dragon Robe, which was probably why Nielson found it unpleasant.
"What kind of lifestyle do fairies have? If you can make Magic Items and the like, I'd think your life wouldn't be all that inconvenient."
According to Nielson, it took a great deal of time for a fairy to create even a single Magic Item. Given that, Rei could predict that even if there were Magic Items meant to make life more convenient, there wouldn't be very many of them.
Sure enough, Nielson showed a subtle expression in response to his words—one that seemed to confirm Rei's prediction wasn't far off the mark.
"I can't say we never think about difficult things, but we definitely live enjoyably. In that sense, it's not a bad life."
"...And if you just didn't play pranks on others, this whole situation wouldn't have become a problem for us."
Rei muttered to himself with a heartfelt tone as they advanced through the Treant Forest.
If the fairies hadn't played pranks on the workers here, it would have taken Rei and his companions much longer to notice their existence. After all, if they weren't playing pranks, there would have been no need to wander around inside the forest—and if that had been the case, Rei wouldn't have encountered them when he returned from the world where the Centaurs lived.
If that had happened, the fairies could have continued living on their own.
"Impossible," Nielson declared, as bluntly as could be.
"I said it during the negotiations too, but for fairies, pranks are carved into our very instincts. There's no way we can just nod and say 'okay' when told to stop."
She said this with an utterly confident demeanor. Seeing that attitude, Rei couldn't help but wonder if that was really how it was.
...If this were about some other kind of behavior, he wouldn't have found it so questionable. But this was about pranks. Based on his own experience, he couldn't help but feel that it wouldn't be strange for them to simply stop if told to.
Well, when I played pranks, I never did anything that would cost someone their life.
He recalled the various pranks he'd pulled as a child back in Japan. Looking back on them in this situation, many of them could be considered quite malicious—but even so, none had been liable to kill anyone. It was precisely because of those experiences that Rei had complicated feelings about the fairies' pranks.
"I can kind of see where you're coming from... but well, that's fine for now. We've been in the Treant Forest for a fair amount of time—is it alright if I keep going?"
"That's right. You can go a little further."
As Rei and Nielson talked, Elena suddenly interjected.
"It seems the other side doesn't feel the same way."
With those words, Elena's hand moved swiftly, snatching something out of the air that had suddenly flown toward her.
It was a fruit. Not just any fruit, but one encased in a very hard skin—no, something that could be called a shell. In autumn, the shell would split open and the inside could be eaten, but in its current unripe state, it was as hard as any stone. Having one thrown at you wasn't much different from having a rock hurled your way.
Elena caught it swiftly.
...And Rei could easily imagine who was responsible.
"Nielson, your companion has made an appearance. If you don't tell them to stop these pranks, we'll have to respond accordingly."
"I know. Wait a moment."
Saying that, Nielson created a fairy ring in Rei's hand and disappeared. She was probably going to explain the situation to her companion—the one who had thrown the fruit at Elena—or so he thought, but...
"Hey, one came at me too."
Rei caught the same kind of fruit that Elena had grabbed, now thrown at him. The speed was hard to believe a fairy could achieve... but while an ordinary person might struggle, dodging it wasn't difficult for someone with a certain level of skill. And since Rei was well above average in ability, catching it was no challenge at all.
"Ara... actually, I don't even need to ask."
Rei called out to her, assuming she would also be in danger since they'd been pranked—or in a sense, attacked. But despite his concern, Ara had already caught her fruit.
Though somewhat overshadowed by the likes of Elena and Rei, Ara was a splendidly capable fighter by general standards. She possessed the kind of strength that even adventurers gathered in Gilm would struggle to overcome.
That was why Rei wasn't particularly surprised to see her handle it effortlessly.
And with the fruit thrown at Ara as the last, no further pranks occurred.
Seems Nielson managed to convince them. Good—no need for us to make any counterattacks.
Nielson, who had teleported away, must have explained the situation and stopped the fairies. Just as Rei was feeling relieved, she came flying back from beyond the tree branches.
Even though she had disappeared via teleportation, she returned by flying through the air.
While finding her behavior puzzling, Rei spoke up.
"So? What happened in the end? We established that I can't go where you live... which means you'll have to carry everything you bought in Gilm from here, right?"
"...Huh?"
Nielson let out a surprised gasp. But her face quickly drained into despair.
Naturally. The items she had purchased in Gilm, food included, amounted to a considerable quantity. If she were human, she might have managed to carry them somehow, but with a fairy's small body, transporting them was next to impossible. And if Rei wasn't permitted to approach the fairies' settlement, then the luggage was clearly Nielson's responsibility.
It's Nielson's luggage, but it's not like she alone has to carry everything. There are other fairies too, so she should be able to get them to help... probably.
Rei decided there was no need to worry for now. Whether the other fairies would actually listen to Nielson's request was another matter entirely.
Since it was possible to transport the goods with help from fairies other than Nielson, Rei decided to stop thinking about it. Dwelling on it any further would only lead to trouble.
"Then, since we can't go any deeper, I'll leave the luggage we were carrying here. I think it should be fine since it's near where the fairies live, but monsters might be drawn by the smell of cooking, so be careful."
Among the items Nielson had purchased in Gilm were skewers. The meat grilled with tare spread an appetizing scent—but in a place like this, that meant it would attract animals and monsters. Still, since fairies lived here, it was highly likely some kind of barrier was in place. Judging that it would be fine as long as the goods were within that barrier, Rei began taking out the luggage.
"Huh? Ah, wai—Rei, wait a minute!"
"Even if you say that, I can't go any further, right? Then you have no choice but to carry it yourself. Besides, it doesn't have to be just you. If you bring other fairies along, you should manage somehow."
"That's true, but... still..."
"What? What's wrong~?"
As Nielson lamented, a voice suddenly rang out. Turning his gaze toward it, Rei saw a fairy about the same size as Nielson.
Unlike Nielson, however, this fairy exuded a soft, easygoing aura. Radiating an atmosphere quite unlike that of a prank-loving fairy, she looked at Nielson before turning a curious gaze toward Rei and the others.
"Nielson-chan, why are there people here~?"
From the way she asked, she didn't seem particularly angry about their presence. She had asked purely out of innocent curiosity.
"Rabinara... it's unusual for you to come out here."
At Nielson's voice, tinged with mild exasperation, the fairy called Rabinara smiled with an "Ahaha~" and spoke.
"I was just flying around for a change of pace~. And then I spotted Nielson-chan."
"...I see."
Nielson seemed to have plenty she wanted to say, but perhaps judging that saying anything to Rabinara would be pointless, she left it at that.
"Gruu?"
Set, who had been watching the exchange, suddenly turned around with a purr. For a moment, Rei wondered if it was an enemy—but Set showed no sign of hostility. In other words, whoever was approaching wasn't an enemy.
Rei trusted Set's senses, so he couldn't believe the approaching party was hostile.
"What is it?"
"Seems like another guest. From Set's reaction, though, there doesn't seem to be any hostility. ...Anastasia?"
The first person Rei could think of who might appear in this situation was Anastasia. But as the presence drew closer, he determined that wasn't the case. The number of presences wasn't one or two—it was more than ten.
If it were two, it would be Anastasia and Fana. If four, those two plus the deer they were riding. But the number of approaching presences was far too large for that. Considering this, it was absolutely not Anastasia and her group.
And since Set wasn't on alert, they weren't enemies either. Rei couldn't determine who—or what—it was.
And then... what eventually emerged from the bushes was a pack of wolves that Rei recognized.