Having finished her negotiation with Marina, Nielson collapsed onto the table once again.
It wasn't as though the negotiation had been particularly intense, but perhaps the lingering effects of her first encounter with Marina still hung over her, leaving her with what seemed like a healthy sense of intimidation.
It was also possible that the fact Marina was the Shrine Maiden of the World Tree played a part.
"Marina... scary..."
Nielson muttered the words while lying flat on the table.
She hadn't said it for anyone in particular to hear; it was just something that had naturally slipped from her mouth, but...
"My, how disappointing."
"!?"
Nielson's body froze at the sudden response.
Naturally—she had been overheard by the very person she had just called scary.
With a creaking motion like the grinding of rusted gears, Nielson slowly raised her head.
The person standing there when she looked up was, as expected, Marina.
"Ah... um..."
Nielson tried to say something to her.
The reason she couldn't get any words out was probably because she expected to be lectured for what she had just said.
But paying no mind to that, Marina placed a dish in front of Nielson.
In that instant, a deep, savory aroma drifted through the air.
It was a dish of meat, vegetables, and cheese piled on bread and baked in an oven.
Calling it pizza bread rather than pizza would be more accurate. Since no tomatoes or similar ingredients were used, Rei wasn't even sure from his vantage point whether it could properly be called pizza bread, but...
"You can go ahead and eat. This is my way of thanking you for settling the negotiation. Just be careful—it's fresh from the oven and hot."
"Eh? Um... is it really okay...?"
"Yes. There's also the matter of the Magic Item. Of course, I'll properly pay the promised compensation separately from this, so don't worry."
According to Nielson, it wasn't that high-performance an item, but it was still a fairy-made Magic Item.
If they were to buy one on the open market, who knows how much it would cost.
But Nielson, facing the formidable opponent that was Marina, had ended up selling it at a considerably low price.
Naturally, it was still a substantial sum of money, but...
Under normal circumstances, Marina wouldn't resort to something this forceful.
This time, however, the safety of the house—the safety of everyone staying under this roof—was at stake, and she couldn't afford to be careless.
It was certainly true that she had strong feelings about the fairy prank incident.
"Whoa, whoa, amazing! It stretches, stretches, stretches!"
The fear Nielson had felt in front of Marina just seconds ago had already completely vanished.
The only thing in Nielson's head now was the pizza toast in front of her—though whether Rei would have acknowledged it as pizza toast was another matter entirely.
Though amazed by the stretching cheese, Nielson bit into the pizza toast.
Given that it was freshly baked, it must have been quite hot.
But Nielson ate it as though the heat were nothing at all.
A masterful display of carrot and stick. Rei had seen in manga and such that police used that technique, but usually there were two people involved—the stick role and the carrot role. The fact that she pulled it off all by herself was impressive, as expected of Marina.
Rei watched the scene before him with genuine admiration.
Perhaps sensing his gaze, Marina shifted her eyes from Nielson to Rei and smiled radiantly.
However, though it was the same smile, this one wasn't the silent, pressure-filled expression she had directed at Nielson. It was a smile that exuded the intense allure of a woman.
For someone unaccustomed to it, they would instantly lose the ability to think and might find themselves drawn toward Marina in a daze. Such was the womanly allure her smile conveyed.
Rei too was momentarily captivated by Marina's smile, but fortunately—or perhaps in a sense unfortunately—he had built up a tolerance to it.
"What is it?"
"Nah, it's nothing. I'll be heading to the Treant Forest tomorrow to receive the Magic Item, so I was just thinking we only need to stay on our toes for today."
That was why he was able to reply so casually to Marina's words.
"You're right. If it's just for today, we should manage somehow. However, if he does come, today is actually the most likely day."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. You had that confrontation today, right? He'll likely act while that irritation—rather, that heat—is still lingering. If he could just vent that heat somehow, he might not come today."
Marina said that, but she never imagined that a massacre had actually occurred at the Zolgela Count House that employed Antelme.
If someone there commuted to work, someone might have noticed the incident because they were late returning, but the Zolgela Count House primarily employed live-in staff, so no one there would notice anything amiss.
"In that case, let's do this. I'll sleep in the courtyard with Set today. That way, if anything happens, I can respond immediately."
Despite being in the house, Rei chose to sleep in the courtyard rather than in a bed.
That said, the Dragon Robe he wore had a Simplified air conditioner function, and even without it, the grounds of Marina's house were kept comfortable through the power of Spirits.
The fact that not a single insect was around despite it being summer was something Rei was extremely grateful for.
When he was in Japan, Rei's house had been right near the mountains, so whenever summer came, bugs would find their way in from who knows where.
Even with screens on the windows, the insects that somehow got in were a real nuisance.
The absence of mosquitoes and similar pests was also a relief for Rei.
In that sense, the space was comfortable enough that sleeping in the courtyard posed no problem at all.
"Really? Well, that would help me too, but... Elena, is everyone else okay with that?"
Marina asked the others about Rei's proposal, but no one objected.
Given the current situation, they probably judged that it would be safer that way.
"Alright, since no one seems to have a problem, I'll leave it to you."
"Yeah."
"Wait a minute! What? What in the world happened!?"
Nielson had been absorbed in eating her pizza toast, but perhaps she had caught some of their conversation, because she spoke up in a panic.
From Nielson's perspective, she had come to stay at this house only to find that Marina was actually the Shrine Maiden of the World Tree, had various dealings with her, and then—just when she was relieved that it was over and was enjoying her meal—what she overheard was a troublesome-sounding story.
Naturally, she couldn't help but be curious.
Ah, come to think of it, Nielson was asleep when I had that run-in with Antelme.
In the first place, if someone told Rei to hand over Set, he would normally have crushed Antelme right then and there.
Without any hesitation, even if the opponent was A-Rank.
The only reason he hadn't done that today was because Nielson had been sleeping inside his Dragon Robe.
But since Nielson had been asleep, she couldn't have known about that.
Even later, when the situation was being explained, Nielson had been collapsed on the table, so she probably hadn't heard the conversation.
Considering those circumstances, it wasn't surprising that she hadn't heard.
"Right. I should explain that too. It's not exactly someone else's problem for you either, Nielson."
"Eh? Wait, it's not someone else's problem for me either—what does that mean? How did things end up like that?"
"You ask how, but... it's because you were asleep when the incident with Antelme happened, right?"
"I was asleep? ...Ah, that time!?"
Understanding that he was referring to when she had been sleeping inside Rei's Dragon Robe, Nielson let out a loud voice.
For Nielson, this entire situation was completely unexpected.
That said, Rei's feelings were more along the lines of "so what?"
"Right. So I'll go ahead and explain the situation."
With that, Rei recounted the incident with Antelme.
Upon learning that his target was Set rather than herself, Nielson showed a slightly relieved expression, but she quickly turned serious again.
Still, I thought she was listening when I mentioned Antelme along with the Magic Item... but she didn't catch the part about Antelme and only heard about the Magic Item?
Rei had that question, but regardless, there was no doubt that Antelme was a dangerous existence for Nielson the fairy.
Since he wanted Set, if he found Nielson, he would naturally take an interest in her as well.
It was also possible he might think that while he wanted a gryphon, he didn't care about a fairy... but if asked which way to bet, Rei would immediately bet on him taking an interest in the fairy.
"Wait, such a dangerous opponent... you're sure it'll be fine, right? The place where we live in the Treant Forest does have proper measures in place for that sort of thing, but... that doesn't mean it's safe, you know?"
"In that case... though it's not really my place to say when Lord Daskar is in the middle of negotiating, why don't you just leave the Treant Forest? The reason you might be targeted by Gilm's adventurers—guys like Antelme—is because you're in the Treant Forest. If so, there's no need to be particular about staying there, right?"
"That's true, but... don't ask for the impossible."
"The impossible?"
Where in what he had just said was the impossible?
Rei had that question, but he could easily guess that it had something to do with the fairies, so he judged that even if he pressed here, they probably wouldn't tell him.
The most likely possibility was that for some reason, the fairy Chief couldn't leave the Treant Forest. The fact that the Chief hadn't shown up at all during negotiations and had left everything to Nielson was strange in itself.
Nielson certainly had a calmer personality among the fairies.
Not only that, she also possessed high intelligence for a fairy. In fact, most of the fairies Rei had encountered so far had wisdom but lacked intellect, which was probably why he felt that way all the more.
The ones that had left the biggest impression were undoubtedly the fairies of the Seremuse Plain.
That incident had firmly solidified Rei's image of fairies—that much was an undeniable fact.
"Anyway, regarding the Antelme situation... would filing a complaint with the Guild help?"
"It would be difficult. If it were a request through the Guild, we could try talking to them about it, but this time it's a Nomination Request that didn't go through the Guild, right? In that case, I think it would be difficult unless something extraordinary happened."
In reality, that something extraordinary had already happened, but of course Marina knew nothing about it.
"Then... is Lord Daskar out of the question?"
"That would be even more impossible. If it were an adventurer based in Gilm, there might be some way to manage... Moreover, from what you told me, Rei, he's a person with an extreme noble-centric mindset, right?"
"Yeah. He had this air about him like you're not human unless you're a noble."
"That sort of thing seems more common in the Noble's Faction than the King's Faction..."
When Vihera, who had been listening to Rei and Marina's conversation, said that, Elena and Ara showed uncomfortable expressions.
Ideally, they would have liked to say that no such people existed in the Noble's Faction, but the truth was that a considerable number of such people were indeed in the Noble's Faction.
In the first place, the very reason Elena was in Gilm was because such nobles were interfering with the Expansion Construction, so they couldn't refute Vihera's words.
"Well, let's put the Noble's Faction matter aside. The point is, given that kind of personality, he would harbor hostility toward Daskar of the Neutral Faction, but never respect."
Marina's words carried strong persuasiveness.
Thinking about the current situation, if Antelme spoke with Daskar, it wouldn't be surprising even in the worst-case scenario if he did something like kill Daskar.
At the very least, when Rei had looked at the man called Antelme, he had sensed that kind of danger.
"In that case, we have no choice but to handle it ourselves, huh."
Even as he said that, there was no sense of grim determination in Rei's words—probably because when he looked at the man Antelme, he was confident he could win with his own abilities.
Beyond that, his companions—Elena, Marina, and Vihera—also had sufficient strength to contend with an A-Rank adventurer.
Ara and Byune hadn't quite reached that level yet, but.
Thinking such things, Rei continued the conversation... and when the meal preparations were ready, he enjoyed Marina's cooking.