"…Hm?"
Thanks to the pleasant breeze drifting through the forest—and the fact that he hadn't slept well the night before, having stayed on guard against Antelme—Rei drifted off without realizing it.
Since he'd fallen asleep near the fairies' settlement, it wouldn't have been surprising to find himself the victim of some fairy prank. But perhaps Nielson had said something on her way out, or maybe the fairies simply weren't in the mood; either way, no pranks came, and Rei slept peacefully.
As far as Nielson was concerned, Marina—the Shrine Maiden of the World Tree—had explicitly told her not to cause any trouble for Rei.
To fairies, the Shrine Maiden of the World Tree was a figure of immense importance—and simultaneously, someone to be feared.
…Even without that, Marina's personality alone made her someone Nielson couldn't help but dread.
Set, too, understood that Rei was sleeping and deliberately chose not to wake him, letting him rest undisturbed.
Rei slept soundly—until he sensed someone approaching and snapped awake instantly.
Had he been at an inn or Marina's house, he might have lingered in a groggy haze… but fortunately, perhaps because he was outdoors, no such carelessness overtook him.
Opening his eyes, Rei registered the presence moving slowly toward him—and—
"Huh?"
A startled exclamation escaped him at the sight before him.
It was only natural. The figure approaching him was Nielson… which was fine—but Nielson was sitting on top of a wolf's head.
And the wolf Nielson was perched on was one Rei recognized.
It was the very wolf he'd been thinking about before falling asleep—a wolf with unusually high intelligence for a wild animal, one that had fought desperately to keep its pack alive.
"You… what are you doing here?"
"Woof."
As if responding to Rei's words, the wolf let out a bark.
Then Nielson, still seated on the wolf's head, puffed up with a triumphant look and spoke.
"Heheh. Surprised, aren't you? …I was surprised at first, too."
From the sound of it, even Nielson hadn't known the wolf was at the fairy settlement.
"So—what exactly happened, and how did this come about?"
"Simply put, it seems the fairies hired it as a guard."
"…A guard?"
If it had been a monster, that would be one thing. The wolf before him possessed remarkable intelligence, but in terms of raw strength, it wasn't particularly formidable. At least, that was how it appeared to Rei.
"That's right. I know what you're worried about, Rei. But the Chief decided it was fine. And these wolves welcomed the arrangement, since they no longer have to worry about food."
"…Is that how it works?"
Rei still had plenty of questions, but he figured that if the fairy Chief had made that judgment call, there probably wasn't a problem.
Besides, given the wolf's evident intelligence, it wouldn't cause any real trouble here. The wolf had been starved to the point of being nothing but skin and bones—but now it was being properly fed.
(How the fairies actually procure their food, though… yeah, I'll set that particular thought aside for now.)
With fairy magic, they could certainly catch small animals. And things like fruits and nuts should be easy enough for fairies to gather on their own. All of that was fine—the real concern was the food they obtained through other means.
Specifically: stealing the lunches of woodcutters and adventurers working in the Treant Forest.
Naturally, they would do so in the form of magical pranks. Being palm-sized and capable of teleportation using a Fairy Ring—
If it were something their victims carried on their persons, that would be one thing. But items left unattended at a work site? Stealing those wouldn't be particularly difficult at all.
…Assuming, of course, that the adventurers didn't possess a Magic Item like Rei's Misty Ring.
(Ah, but being assigned here means they must be trusted by the Guild and recognized as skilled adventurers. They might not have an Item Box, but it wouldn't be unusual for them to have obtained a Simplified Version like the one Elena uses, would it?)
He considered this for a moment—but the Simplified Version had limited storage capacity. Whether there'd be room for a lunch in there… was hard to say.
"Well… look. If you're not unhappy about it, then I suppose that's fine. Guarding the fairies… are you really okay with essentially becoming a kept wolf, in a manner of speaking?"
"…Woof…"
The wolf's response was a distinctly lukewarm—genuinely halfhearted—bark.
It seemed the wolf had no more desire to be kept by fairies than one would expect. Even so, the fact that it accepted the arrangement was surely because it couldn't let its pack starve.
"If you've made peace with it, then that's fine. Do your best guarding the place. …Now then, Nielson—the promised item?"
Rei concluded that since the wolf wasn't being forced into the role and had accepted it on its own terms, there was no issue. He turned his attention to Nielson.
The main reason Rei had brought Nielson here today was to safely return her to the settlement—but beyond that, his real objective was to obtain the Magic Item the fairies had crafted.
"I know, I know. …Here."
Saying so, Nielson produced a green stone roughly half her own size from the wolf's back.
Emeralds were the most famous green gemstones, but what Nielson held was no gem—it was simply a stone.
"…Is this the Magic Item?"
"Yes."
"This is really it?"
"You're persistent. This is absolutely, without question, the Magic Item meant for the Shrine Maiden of the World Tree."
Sensing Rei's suspicion, Nielson replied with evident displeasure.
But having been caught in fairy pranks more than once, it was only natural for Rei to question whether this was genuinely the item in question. At the very least, it certainly didn't look like any particularly important Magic Item from where he stood.
According to what Rei had been told beforehand, the Magic Items fairies created were typically quite powerful. For something fitting that description, the green stone before him didn't exactly look the part.
"I'm warning you—if this turns out to be a fake, Marina will absolutely lose her temper, you know?"
Nielson flinched.
At the words "Marina will lose her temper," she froze for an instant. After yesterday's incident, she must have had some inkling of exactly what would happen if Marina truly flew into a rage.
Rei understood that as well—which was exactly why he didn't actually believe the Magic Item was a fake.
"It's fine. It's the real thing."
"…Got it. So—how do you use it?"
"I'll teach that directly."
"…Huh? No, I mean, you're going to teach me, right?"
"What are you talking about? I'm obviously going to teach the Shrine Maiden of the World Tree—Marina—directly."
"Hold on."
Unable to parse what Nielson meant, Rei thought for a moment before speaking again.
"Don't tell me—you're planning to stay at Marina's house again today?"
"Huh? Well, of course."
Nielson said it as though it were the most natural thing in the world, looking genuinely bewildered as to why she was even being asked.
But since Rei hadn't heard a single word about this from Marina, he couldn't help wondering when exactly such an arrangement had been made.
"'Of course'? Just to be clear—you did actually get Marina's permission, right?"
"Naturally. Did you really think I'd just show up unannounced?"
To Nielson, Marina was someone she absolutely must not anger.
…Why she'd want to stay at the house of such a person two nights in a row was beyond Rei's comprehension.
No—to be precise, he did understand the reason. For Nielson, Gilm was probably a far more exciting place than the Treant Forest.
Precisely because he understood that, Rei reasoned she was willing to stay even at the home of someone as formidable as Marina.
Whether going that far was truly necessary was another matter—but there was no mistaking her resolve.
"If you've got Marina's permission, then I don't have anything to say about it…"
After all, the place Rei was currently staying was, ultimately, Marina's house. If Marina as the homeowner had given her approval, Rei had no grounds to object.
(Besides, with Marina around, Nielson won't be able to pull any strange pranks, either.)
So long as she wasn't pulling dangerous stunts, Rei didn't particularly mind Nielson being there. The one real drawback was that visiting the Underground Space had now become considerably more complicated.
(But that's the biggest issue. I couldn't go yesterday, and skipping out two days in a row would cause problems. …Then again, bringing Nielson along is absolutely out of the question.)
A fairy—curious, willful, and unpredictable. If she caught wind of a place connected to another world, she'd likely dart through to the other side before Rei could even open his mouth to stop her.
And if the flying Nielson reached that vast grassland world… what would happen next didn't bear thinking about. Finding her would be far more difficult than the time they'd gone to rescue Anastasia and the others.
In that sense, Nielson was someone who absolutely must not be brought to the Underground Space—even more so than Anastasia.
(In that case… do I leave her with someone? But then—who?)
For starters, very few people even knew about Nielson's existence—that is, about fairies in general.
From the standpoint of preventing information leaks, Daskar's decision had probably been the right one. But precisely because of that, Rei now found himself agonizing over who to entrust Nielson to.
(Elena and Ara are at the house, but other nobles have apparently been coming to visit—if Nielson is spotted there, there's nothing I can do about it. Marina is… busy at the clinic, of all places. If Nielson pulled a prank there, people could actually die. And besides, Nielson is terrified of Marina. Vihera and Byune are doing town patrols, so the odds of Nielson being discovered would be high.)
Running through the possibilities, Rei realized that every single one of his companions was a dead end.
Which meant the next person to come to mind was Daskar.
Or rather—Daskar was the only one left, to be precise.
He was Rei's last resort—but if Rei showed up with Nielson, it would unquestionably turn into a headache.
Anastasia, who knew at least a little about fairies, was… in the Underground Space, making her the last person Rei wanted to involve.
In fact, if introducing Nielson to Anastasia were acceptable, he wouldn't need to worry about leaving her with anyone at all.
(Thinking it through, I really can't go to the Underground Space today. So should I use the Paired Orbs to contact him tonight? At least that way I could hear what Grimm has to say. …Still, seeing the experiment results with my own eyes would make things a lot clearer.)
For Rei, confirming whether Dragonias corpses were viable as crafting material carried enormous significance. After all, his Misty Ring currently held vast numbers—an uncountable quantity—of Dragonias corpses.
Given those stakes, Grimm's experiment would determine whether those corpses became a valuable resource or entirely worthless junk. It was, quite literally, a fork in the road.
What's more, a considerable number of high-value specimens were also stored inside, including the seven-colored Dragonias—which only elevated the importance that much further.
(Yeah. It's better not to get in Grimm's way. Instead of going to the Underground Space directly, I'll ask through the Paired Orbs.)
If he brought Nielson to the Underground Space, there was a real chance Grimm would discover her. And if that happened, Rei was fairly certain Grimm would eliminate her without a second thought.
With all that weighing on him, Rei—half-forcing himself to accept the conclusion—set off to leave the Treant Forest.
"Woof."
…And yet, for whatever reason, the wolf leader was trailing alongside Rei, Set, and Nielson.
"You sure it's all right coming with us? Seems like you ought to stay and look after your pack."
Rei put the question to the wolf, but it simply padded alongside him all the way to the forest's edge, as if to say that escorting them was its duty.