"We're finally here..."
Those words slipped from Rei's mouth as the Lord's Manor came into view.
After entering Gilm, Nielson had demanded they stop at various shops so he would buy her all sorts of things, much like yesterday.
...No, not just like yesterday.
Yesterday, perhaps because it was her first time in Gilm, Nielson had exercised a certain degree of restraint. But today, being her second visit, she was far more aggressive about wanting to browse different shops compared to the day before.
Moreover, since Elena and Ara had been present yesterday alongside Rei, Nielson had stayed inside the Dragon Robe, though she still chatted with them from within.
But today it was just Rei alone—well, strictly speaking, just Rei and Set.
Because of that, the task of keeping Nielson entertained, which had been split three ways yesterday, now fell entirely on Rei's shoulders.
To make matters worse, perhaps influenced by the absence of Elena and Ara and the fact that it was only Rei and Set, a large number of people wanting to pet Set gathered around them.
He somehow managed to convince them to leave since he was working, but even so, he had to stay alert the entire time in case Nielson tried to pull something.
"What, we're here already? I wanted to play a bit more."
"...Yesterday you fell asleep the instant you got into the Dragon Robe. How come you have so much energy today?"
Rei asked in exasperation, but given a fairy's personality, it wasn't surprising that she would turn out this way.
Capriciousness was a fairy's defining trait, after all.
"For now, just behave yourself. If your true identity gets out, it'll cause a major uproar. If that happens, even Lord Daskar won't be able to protect you. And more importantly, people might swarm the place where your kind lives."
"If that happened, we could prank them all we wanted. Sounds fun, doesn't it?"
"...In exchange, you'd all be hunted down."
Fairies were known to actually exist, but they were regarded as semi-mythical beings.
If it became certain that such fairies were real, naturally a great many people would flock to the Treant Forest where they made their home.
If Gilm were an ordinary town, the fairies could simply prank people one-sidedly without worrying about themselves.
But this was Gilm.
Right now, many adventurers had come seeking work from the Expansion Construction, but even so, there was still a substantial number of adventurers who had been in Gilm from the start—those who had survived on the frontier.
With such skilled adventurers, capturing a fairy would be entirely possible.
They can teleport using fairy rings, so even if caught, they'd escape immediately. But... that would be fatal for the fairies.
Fairies were extremely rare beings.
If someone captured a fairy only for it to escape, what would they think of next?
Naturally, if capturing it alive proved impossible, they would consider killing it and using it as material.
Or perhaps taxidermy.
Given the nature of fairy existence, there would be no shortage of people who wanted a fairy specimen.
And ultimately, the fairies in the Treant Forest would either be wiped out or sense the danger and flee.
That was the only future that awaited them.
Whether things would come to that depended on Nielson's attitude.
"So just behave yourself for now."
With those words, he hid the now-quieted Nielson inside the Dragon Robe and called out to the gatekeeper at the Lord's Manor.
"It's good of you to come again, following yesterday."
"It can't be helped. This is my job, after all. Besides, coming here means I get to see, hear, touch, and eat all sorts of unusual things, so it's not really that unpleasant."
"I'm glad to hear you praising my Gilm. ...So then, what about yesterday's matter?"
"Yesterday's matter—you mean the pranks and the Magic Items?"
"Correct. If there's benefit for us, we won't say anything about you staying in the Treant Forest. ...No, more than that, we could pay you by purchasing Magic Items. Gilm is interesting, isn't it?"
From Nielson's demeanor, Daskar must have understood that she held a favorable impression of Gilm.
He said this and waited for Nielson's response.
But Nielson hesitated at Daskar's words.
She had heard during yesterday's negotiations that Daskar and his people wanted Magic Items.
Also, the various goods she had brought back yesterday—the items purchased in Gilm, including the food—had been extremely well-received by many fairies besides herself.
Considering that, it was only natural that she would want a source of funds for shopping in Gilm.
But the problem was that fairy-made Magic Items required a considerable amount of time to create.
Even if an alchemist in Gilm had the time it took to make a single Magic Item, it wouldn't come close to the time a fairy needed.
In other words, there were that few of them.
In exchange, their performance was higher than Magic Items made by alchemists.
That was exactly why Nielson couldn't so easily nod in agreement to Daskar's words.
At the same time, Daskar also couldn't so easily permit Nielson and her kind to settle in the Treant Forest.
Given the current situation where many people were suffering damage, great or small, from pranks, Gilm needed a significant benefit to tolerate the existence of fairies.
If the existence of fairies weren't this rare, we could probably use them as an attraction... or rather, make money with a circus-like show featuring the fairies. If we did that, a lot of tourists would flock to Gilm. ...But given the current situation, that's not something we'd welcome either.
Watching Nielson deep in thought about the Magic Items, Rei considered the current state of Gilm—specifically, the lodging situation.
With those who had come seeking work from the Expansion Construction, nearly every inn in Gilm was currently fully booked.
Even that wasn't enough, so Gilm residents with spare rooms were also using them as lodgings. In Rei's understanding, many houses operated in a manner close to a bed-and-breakfast, and even still there weren't enough rooms, so simple communal shelters where workers could sleep together had been built near the construction sites to somehow manage.
Given such a situation, if they publicly announced the existence of fairies on top of that and then put on something like a circus, what would happen?
It would unquestionably exceed Gilm's capacity and cause a breakdown.
When he considered just how many people would come for the fairies alone, there was a high probability that Gilm would be overwhelmed even after the Expansion Construction was finished.
"Hmm, it's true we want money, but we don't have that many Magic Items to spare. There are also things we need for daily life, so what we can sell would be even fewer."
Nielson's words left Daskar dissatisfied.
From Daskar's perspective, he had placed that much expectation on the Magic Items that Nielson and her kind possessed.
Above all, Daskar's gaze shifted toward Rei.
Since Rei collects Magic Items, having Magic Items available as rewards would be helpful.
Fairy Magic Items possessed extremely potent effects.
Given that they were such Magic Items, Daskar predicted that Rei would unquestionably be interested.
Rei had a hobby of collecting Magic Items.
There was no way he wouldn't be intrigued by fairy-made Magic Items.
...Though the Magic Items Rei collected were strictly those usable in actual combat, and he had no interest in ornamental ones.
Daskar knew that as well, but even so, it was natural to hope that fairy-made Magic Items might appeal to him.
"It would help us if you could do something about that."
"What's impossible is impossible. Of course, as I said earlier, one or two... and only simple ones at that, well, that's a different story."
Nielson told him as much, but it was certain that Daskar couldn't accept those terms.
That said, he understood that telling her to sell what she didn't have was meaningless.
More than anything, to Daskar, fairies were both a troublesome existence and beings who could bring great benefit to Gilm.
Thinking that way, there was no need to make unreasonable demands here.
With that in mind, Daskar shifted the topic.
"Come to think of it, I don't know much about the fairy race. What kind of race are they, specifically?"
That was an honest question for Daskar.
Of course, Daskar also knew about the fairies that appeared in fairy tales.
...No, given his position, he had also seen reports from people who claimed to have seen fairies, as well as testimony from those who asserted they had made contact.
But those were secondhand accounts, not things he had heard directly from the fairies themselves.
The reason Daskar had suddenly brought this up was because, during yesterday's negotiation with Nielson, he had been told that pranks stemmed from fairy instinct.
Daskar also knew that fairies were fond of pranks.
In fairy tales, such stories were not uncommonly featured.
Daskar had assumed it was a matter of preference, and that fairies could stop if they put their minds to it.
However, if it stemmed from instinct, it wasn't something that could be stopped so easily even if they tried.
Fairy pranks coming from instinct... if I informed fairy researchers about this, what would happen? Would they rejoice, or would they be skeptical?
Daskar thought about this while continuing his conversation with Nielson.
Fairies definitely existed, but they were a race that could be called phantoms.
That was precisely why there was no shortage of people researching them.
For fairy researchers, the fact that fairy pranks stemmed from instinct rather than hobby would be an extremely significant discovery.
The biggest problem would be how to convince them while hiding how Daskar had obtained that information.
"I see. So fairies like sweet food."
"That's right. There are all kinds of fairies, but I've never seen one who dislikes sweet food."
"Then, today... no, you're staying at Rei's place today, aren't you?"
Without making it obvious, Daskar asked Rei.
He probably wanted to hide the fact that they had arranged this beforehand.
That was why he went out of his way to ask Rei like this.
It wasn't just acting; there was also the matter of whether Rei had actually gotten permission from Nielson to bring her to Marina's house.
And so, the conversation continued for about an hour.
Daskar seemed to want to talk more, but as the lord of Gilm, he had work he had to do.
...Rather, Rei was surprised that Daskar had managed to spare this much time given his enormous workload.
"Forgive me, but I still have work to attend to. ...And please, take care of the barrier issue."
"I understand, but just because I ask them doesn't mean it's guaranteed, you know?"
In this case, the barrier in question was the one that had disoriented them after they exited the Underground Space yesterday.
Because Set was with them, they had been able to destroy the barrier easily, but if woodcutters alone had been inside that barrier, escaping would have been virtually impossible.
If they had someone with the ability to sense magic, they might have been able to escape, but.
Daskar considered that a serious problem.
In Gilm, where the Expansion Construction was underway, the woodcutters who felled trees for building materials were critically important.
Because of that, trapping woodcutters inside barriers was unacceptable.
"Besides, even among fairies, few can use barriers, and it requires a considerable amount of magic power. Once used, I don't think they can use it again for a while, so rest easy."
"...Asking me to rest easy after hearing that is the unreasonable part."
Letting out a heavy sigh, Daskar left the room.
He had wanted to talk more with Nielson about various things, but right now he needed to deal with his work first.
Given that, he had no choice but to leave the rest to Nielson... and to Marina, who had told him to let Nielson stay at her house.
What Marina actually intended to do by housing Nielson at her place, even Daskar didn't know.
But he trusted Marina, whom he had known since childhood.
...Not that he could ever say something like that to her face, though.
"Well then, what'll it be? Shall we head outside? We can't stay here forever."
Saying that, Rei felt a twinge of regret as he realized that visiting Grimm today to hear the results of yesterday's experiment was no longer possible.