"...Huh?"
Daskar let out a bewildered sound upon hearing Rei's words.
It was only natural. Rei had come to him in the middle of his morning work and suddenly announced he wanted to bring a fairy to Marina's house.
The one stroke of fortune was that Rei had come to see Daskar alone today.
Elena and Ara had been here yesterday, and Vihera the day before. But today, it was just Rei.
That was exactly why Daskar had let his guard down—and that was when the fairy matter surfaced.
"Are you serious?"
"I said the same thing to Marina yesterday. Followed it up with 'are you in your right mind?' too."
"You're the only one who could get away with saying that."
Daskar spoke with heartfelt sincerity.
If Daskar were to say something like that to Marina, it would undoubtedly cause trouble. She would tease him about his dark history, for one thing. Anyone else who knew Marina's track record would never dream of making such a remark.
"Is that so? ...Putting that aside, what do you think? By the way, if you refuse here, Lord Daskar, I imagine Marina will come persuade you next."
"That sounds like nothing but a threat. ...But Marina suggested it, so it's not mere selfishness, is it?"
"No. There's no doubt she wants to meet a fairy, but she also figures that if she interacts with one herself, the negotiations might go more smoothly."
"...Marina does? Well, if Marina says so, it must be true."
Daskar readily believed Rei's words. She was a childhood acquaintance, a formidable opponent who knew his dark history—but when it came down to it, she was unquestionably someone he could trust. Given that, he could bring himself to simply take Marina at her word. This kind of response was only possible because of their long-standing relationship.
"Yes. Honestly, I have no idea how Marina will interact with the fairy, though."
"That's just how Marina is."
That alone was enough to satisfy him. Seeing that, Rei was suddenly reminded that he, too, was sometimes dismissed with a similar 'because it's Rei.'
"Shall we just bring Marina to the Treant Forest, then? ...Though with the clinic situation, that might be difficult."
"Indeed. If a Spirit Magic user of Marina's caliber were gone, the clinic would become unmanageable. As it is, the summer heat means more people are making careless mistakes, and there are those who get irritable and pick fights."
As the lord of Gilm, Daskar naturally understood the city's situation. Or perhaps it was from his experience as a knight in the Royal Capital before becoming lord. Either way, in summer like this, more people suffer injuries, and some even collapse from heatstroke. For that reason, there was no way they could pull Marina away from the clinic during the day.
Marina knew this as well, which was exactly why she had proposed having the fairy brought to her house rather than going to meet it herself.
"So, what will you do?"
"What will I do, you ask. Do you think I can refuse? Well, I could if I really wanted to, but complying obediently will undoubtedly yield the best outcome. Provided Nielson consents, of course."
"I understand. ...Besides, the fairies, including Nielson, have teleportation abilities using fairy rings, so we can't exactly force one to come along."
In that sense, even if someone tried to capture and sell a fairy, the fairies were somewhat safe. ...Not that Rei intended to declassify information about them so readily.
"Right. ...Anyway, I understand about the fairy. Are you going alone to pick up Nielson today?"
"That's right. Elena said she'd be meeting with people who requested audiences today too. ...Though she looked disappointed about it."
Elena had truly wanted to spend a few more days searching for fairies. More accurately, she had wanted to go on a date with Rei in the Treant Forest under that pretext. ...Even if it was a date, Ara had been with them.
For Ara, a day or two would have been manageable, but anything beyond that would lead to complications—which was why finding the fairy yesterday had been both welcome and regrettable... a complicated feeling.
"Lady Elena, huh. She seemed busy while you were away in the other world."
Daskar trusted Elena not to do anything strange, but as the lord of Gilm, he still needed to gather a certain amount of information. Not because Elena might scheme something, but because there might be someone who would try something untoward against her. Given the current situation, it was hard to imagine anyone doing such a thing. But hard to imagine didn't mean Daskar could afford to let his guard down.
That was why information about who Elena met with reached Daskar—and even from his perspective, she had been spending fairly busy days. Given that, he couldn't completely fail to understand the feeling of wanting to spend time leisurely with Rei, who had returned after so long.
"Is that so? ...Well, if it's Elena, I get the feeling she could manage that much somehow."
Daskar found himself at a loss for words. In truth, he probably felt that Elena really could manage that much somehow.
"Well, for the time being, Ara is with Elena, so I don't think we need to worry."
In reality, Ara was also the type who might go out of control when it came to Elena... but even so, given the current situation, it was reasonable to expect she would serve adequately as Elena's restraint.
Whether Daskar had arrived at the same conclusion as Rei, or judged that nothing he said would matter under the current circumstances, he didn't say anything further on the subject.
"Well then, I'll be heading to the Treant Forest soon. I need to bring Nielson. ...Though I have no idea what kind of reaction we'll get in the negotiations."
"Right. Settling in the Treant Forest is fine, but we need benefits on our end as well, like Magic Items. And as for the pranks..."
"Ah."
The word 'pranks' slipping from Daskar's mouth reminded Rei of yesterday's incident. But that single 'Ah' must have given Daskar a bad feeling. ...Since it had come from Rei's mouth, it wasn't unreasonable for him to be on guard. That was Daskar's expectation based on past experience. And his prediction wasn't far off the mark, as Rei's next words proved.
"Actually, yesterday, after I dropped Nielson off at the Treant Forest, I went to the Underground Space to check on Anastasia..."
In reality, he had gone to hear the results of an experiment—whether Dragonias corpses left in the other world could become usable as materials—and also because he wondered if Grimm might know something about fairies. But since he hadn't explained about Grimm to Daskar, he needed to deflect like that. Rei did intend to tell the truth eventually, given that he was based in Gilm.
"Hmm, and?"
"On the way back, a fairy had set up a barrier to make people lose their way."
"That's... you're lucky you escaped safely."
"Yes. Fortunately, the barrier itself wasn't that strong, so when Set took to the sky, it broke easily. However, it seems some woodcutters had been trapped by that barrier and gotten lost."
At the mention of woodcutters getting lost, Daskar's expression turned displeased.
In Gilm's Expansion Construction, wood felled in the Treant Forest was an extremely important building material. The lumber shortage caused by the time it took to transport it during Rei's absence had finally been resolved with his return—only for woodcutters to go missing again would make things extremely difficult to handle. Most importantly, while Rei was in the other world, the problem had been a shortage of adventurers to transport the wood. This time, the woodcutters who felled the trees were the ones getting lost... in other words, they couldn't work. That would cause even greater delays to the Expansion Construction than when Rei had been away.
(The fact that other woodcutters and Fleeing Adventurers were searching for the lost ones was probably a significant factor in this case as well.)
Woodcutters might not warrant concern, but the possibility that a lost woodcutter could be trapped where a felled tree had fallen... was something that couldn't be ruled out. Considering those circumstances, woodcutters going missing was indeed a major issue.
"For now, try bringing that up when you meet Nielson today. If that doesn't work... we'll have to count on Marina."
"Huh? Ah, yes."
Count on Marina. That was all Rei could manage to say after seeing the look on Daskar's face the moment he said those words. Faced with that dark... all-too-dark smile, that was about the only reaction he could muster.
"Umm, well then, I'll be heading to the Treant Forest now."
What exactly would Marina do to Nielson? He wanted to ask, but at the same time, it was frightening. After saying that, Rei tossed a sandwich from the table into his mouth and left the Office.
"Now then, we're going to pick up Nielson. Do you remember where we were yesterday?"
"Gruu!"
In the Treant Forest, Set let out a cry as if to say 'Leave it to me!' in response to Rei's words.
Just Rei and Set—until recently, this had been their usual formation, but it had been quite a while since they'd paired up like this. Usually, there would be someone else besides Rei and Set.
"Got it. I'm counting on you, then. ...Shall we go?"
Nodding at Rei's words, Set pressed forward through the Treant Forest. On Set's back, Rei stayed alert to his surroundings. He wasn't on guard against monster attacks—he was on guard against fairy pranks.
Judging from Nielson's demeanor yesterday, there was no way she would follow his requests. No, given that pranking was a fairy's instinct, the more accurate way to put it was that she probably couldn't stop even if she wanted to.
"So far, no fairies in particular... hm?"
There were no fairies. Rei was about to say as much, but upon seeing some bushes at a slight distance sway unnaturally, he wondered if a fairy was about to meddle with them again. That was what he thought, but...
"Woof..."
What emerged from the bushes was a wolf. And it was probably the same wolf Rei had encountered yesterday. More precisely, the one that had been leading the pack—a wolf with strangely high intelligence, perhaps even approaching human-level intellect.
That was the wolf that now appeared before Rei and Set.
"...Are you alone today?"
He looked around, but the only one present was the single wolf before him. What happened to the pack it had been leading? Had it gotten a taste of yesterday's outcome and come seeking food again? That was what Rei thought, but the wolf in his line of sight was clearly different from yesterday. What had been nothing but skin and bones now had solid flesh on its body after just one day.
No matter how much it ate, could it really gain that much muscle in a single day? Rei wondered. But the wolf before him had undeniably put on enough meat that one might question whether it was the same wolf as yesterday. He even considered whether it might truly be a different wolf entirely—but seeing how it showed no fear or awe before Rei and Set, it was hard to believe there were multiple such wolves.
"What did you come here for?"
"Woof!"
At Rei's words, the wolf barked like a dog and walked ahead of Set. As Rei and Set watched the wolf's behavior... eventually it stopped and let out another 'Woof'—a bark so dog-like that one might question whether it was truly a wolf.
But watching the wolf's demeanor, Set seemed to vaguely understand what it wanted and began following their guide. Rei had various thoughts about the wolf's behavior, but if it was willing to lead the way, that was helpful enough. He had nothing more to say.