In the end, Rei wound up handing over the Dwa Fruits to the fairies.
And not just a handful — the majority of what he had stored in his Misty Ring.
...It had already been more than enough for a single person to eat, but to the swarm of fairies, even that amount wasn't enough; the fruit had simply become that popular.
"Aah! Hey!"
Her share of the Dwa Fruits was vanishing before her eyes.
Judging the situation at a glance, Nielson plunged into the swarm of fairies gobbling up the fruit, determined to eat even a little more.
"Whoa..."
"Gruu."
Rei let out a weary sound at the sheer excess of the scene before him, while Seto rumbled with obvious disappointment, clearly wishing he could have had some Dwa Fruits too.
To Seto, the fruit must have been every bit as delicious as the fairies made it seem.
"Until that commotion settles down, there's not much we can do either, so let's just wait for now. That's fine with you too, right, Seto?"
"Gurururu."
Seto gave a cry of understanding at Rei's words.
Under normal circumstances, Seto would have loved to charge right into the crowd of fairies to get his own share of Dwa Fruits.
But doing so would inevitably injure the fairies.
Given that, Seto had no choice but to endure.
Perhaps feeling sorry for him, Rei reached into his Misty Ring and pulled out some dried meat.
This wasn't the standard dried meat made purely for preservation — it was properly seasoned with spices and used quality cuts, though still lean rather than fatty.
Not the long-shelf-life rations that adventurers relied on outdoors, but dried meat that somewhat wealthy individuals might enjoy — more of a luxury treat than a practical foodstuff.
"Gruu, Gururururu... Gururu!"
Seto purred happily as he ate the dried meat.
To him, it must have been a flavor worth eating endlessly.
Rei brought a piece to his own mouth as well.
The aroma of spices spread across his palate first, followed by the deep umami of the meat.
How exactly it had been dried was a mystery even to Rei, but the flavor seemed to linger perpetually, coating his mouth with its taste.
It was the kind of dried meat that truly made one want to keep eating forever.
Unfortunately, Rei wasn't much for alcohol, but if someone who loved drinking tried this dried meat, it wouldn't be surprising if they found themselves able to drink endlessly.
Such was the overwhelming umami packed into it.
"Hey. Rei. What exactly are you eating?"
As Rei and Seto savored the dried meat, one fairy's curiosity apparently got the better of her.
A fairy who had barely managed to get any Dwa Fruits posed the question.
Her eyes gleamed with intense curiosity, her body language making it plain that she wanted to try whatever Rei was eating.
Given the whole incident with the Dwa Fruits, Rei would have preferred not to hand out dried meat to a fairy, but he felt sorry for the one who had missed out on almost everything because she had been too slow. He broke off a small piece of what he was eating and shared it with her.
(I never really pictured fairies as meat eaters... but the fairies in this Fairy Dwelling eat meat normally. It's true that a lot of them prefer sweets and fruit, though.)
In Rei's mind, the image of fairies was that they either ate nothing at all or perhaps sipped flower nectar.
However, that was purely Rei's image — or more accurately, it came from the manga, anime, and games he had consumed back in Japan.
In Elgin, a fantasy world of swords and magic, that kind of knowledge was undeniably useful.
But there were also plenty of cases where it fell completely flat.
For example, Rei had always pictured elves as eating nothing but vegetables and nuts, but in reality, they ate meat just like anyone else.
"Oh my, this is delicious. It makes you want to keep eating it forever."
The fairy who had tried the dried meat said so with obvious satisfaction.
That was fine with Rei — in fact, he was rather pleased that the dried meat he found delicious had earned such praise. But naturally, the other fairies overheard and immediately grew interested.
"Hey, give me some too!"
"Ah, no fair! I called dibs first!"
"No way, I want more too!"
In the blink of an eye, Rei was surrounded by fairies, but...
"That's enough."
The moment that voice rang out, the fairies who had swarmed around Rei pulled back.
Stepping forward to appear before him was someone Rei recognized well.
"Chief, it's been a while."
"Yes, it has.... I apologize for the trouble these children caused you."
The Fairy Chief, slightly larger than the other fairies, offered a smile in response to Rei's greeting, though she also apologized for the chaos the others had caused him.
"I don't really mind that much. ...Oh, right. Here, this."
Reaching into his Misty Ring, Rei produced a single Dwa Fruit and offered it to the Chief.
Only a few Dwa Fruits remained in the Misty Ring, but Rei figured that if the other fairies were this thrilled over them, it would serve perfectly well as a souvenir for the Chief.
The Chief hesitated briefly before accepting it.
She held the position of Chief, but she was still a fairy herself.
She maintained a composed demeanor because she was responsible for managing the others, but she was naturally curious, and expecting her not to be interested in a fruit that all the other fairies were eating so joyfully was simply unreasonable.
"Are you sure? This is a precious fruit, is it not?"
"Yeah. It's certainly on the rarer side, no question. But that's exactly what makes it good enough as a souvenir for the Chief, right?"
"...Very well. Thank you."
With a smile, the Chief accepted the fruit from Rei.
The other fairies had seemed to struggle just to carry one, but as expected of the Chief, she didn't hold it directly. Instead, she levitated the Dwa Fruit in the air using magic — or perhaps a power like Psychokinesis.
"Ah! The Chief's the only one being unfair!"
At the sight, one of the fairies cried out almost involuntarily, but that was nothing short of stepping on a landmine.
"Oh my, is something the matter? Did I do something?"
Don't embarrass yourself any further.
Conveying that message without words, the Chief turned to the fairy who had spoken up with a radiant smile.
Seeing the Chief's expression, the fairy must have immediately judged that saying anything more would end badly for her.
She shook her head vigorously, making it clear with her body language that it was nothing.
Seemingly satisfied, the Chief then moved off, carrying the Dwa Fruit with her...
"Rei, please come with me as well."
She paused and called back to him.
She must have figured that leaving Rei here would only result in the fairies causing trouble for him again.
"Got it. What about you, Seto?"
"Gururu? Gururururu."
When Rei asked if he wanted to come along, Seto seemed to think for a moment, then shook his head.
He did want to go with Rei, but he apparently also wanted to explore the Fairy Dwelling.
Seeing Seto's response, Rei turned to the Chief.
"Seto wants to look around inside the Fairy Dwelling. Is that alright?"
"Let me see. Seto should be fine. However, I'm sure you already understand, but this Fairy Dwelling is a place with various special qualities. Please make sure he doesn't do anything like breaking things."
"Gruu!"
At the Chief's words, Seto purred, as if to say, "Leave it to me!"
Seeing Seto respond so eagerly, the Chief apparently decided there would be no problems.
She smiled and told him he was free to explore.
To the Chief, Rei and Seto were benefactors.
Who knows what would have happened if this place had been discovered by someone with ill intent before.
Of course, the fairy race was by no means weak.
They might be physically frail, but in magical terms, they were quite powerful.
Recalling what the fairies had done on the Seremuse Plain where Rei first encountered them, no one could afford to make light of fairies just because of their small stature.
That said, there were still people who, upon seeing fairies, would try to harm them — and some who would even attempt to capture them for profit.
Moreover, the Magic Items that fairies created were undeniably of extremely high quality, and it wouldn't be strange for someone to assault the Fairy Dwelling in order to seize them.
In any case, to the fairies, Rei — who had protected this Fairy Dwelling from selfish and tyrannical adventurers — was a benefactor.
...For all that, the first fairy he had met today hadn't recognized him, or perhaps simply hadn't remembered him.
"Now then, this way please."
Rei had been watching with warm amusement as Seto trotted off to explore, a few fairies perched happily on his head. The Chief's words brought him back to himself.
"Sorry. Lead the way."
Rei followed the Chief as she drifted ahead to guide him.
The Fairy Dwelling didn't seem all that different from his last visit.
Rei didn't remember every detail perfectly, so some things might have changed without him noticing.
"Looking at it like this, it's quite a scene befitting a Fairy Dwelling."
"Are you praising it?"
Fairies perched on tree branches, others dozing on flowers.
A considerable number of fairies had come seeking Dwa Fruits earlier, but it was clear from this view that not every fairy living here had turned out.
"I'm certainly praising it. To those who live here, this might be an everyday sight. But to someone seeing it for the first time, the very fact that fairies are everywhere like this makes it undeniably fantastical. If it were safer to get here, I think it could even work as a tourist destination."
At Rei's words, the Chief opened her mouth with a complicated expression.
"If it becomes a tourist destination, it will without a doubt become troublesome. For both sides."
Among the tourists, there would certainly be those targeting fairies.
Some would resort to brute force, while others might use clever words to deceive and carry them away.
Of course, fairies had skills like Fairy Circle that allowed them to teleport, so even if deceived, as long as the fairy had the presence of mind, she could escape immediately.
If anything, it would be the tourists who might come off worse.
The fairies' pranks were generally harmless and adorable, but among them were some that were truly no laughing matter.
Depending on the situation, there were pranks that could even be life-threatening.
If the Fairy Dwelling were opened to the public as a tourist spot, the fairies would certainly play pranks on visitors.
Even if the Chief told them not to, they would probably only listen for so long.
When that happened, Rei wouldn't be surprised if tourists ended up dead.
(In that case, if the Fairy Dwelling became a tourist destination... let's see. Have visitors sign contracts in advance stating that death or injury in the Fairy Dwelling is their own responsibility? But nobles, wealthy merchants — the kind of people with real power and money — if they signed a contract and then died or got hurt while sightseeing, they'd probably just forget about the contract and cause a scene anyway.)
Large merchants might honor contracts professionally, as merchants should.
It wouldn't be strange, but precisely because they were large merchants, it also wouldn't be strange for them to find things not going their way simply unacceptable.
As for nobles, Rei certainly didn't think the typical sort he despised would honor a contract just because they had signed one.
"Yeah. I've thought about it from every angle, and making this place a tourist destination is a bad idea."
"I'm glad you understand. Besides, we really don't want too many people coming into the place where we live."
"Am I an exception?"
"Well... Rei-san is special in a number of ways."
In this case, Rei couldn't tell whether "special" referred to the fact that his body had been created by the Zephyle Clan and was technically not human, or whether it meant that based on his actions thus far, he was considered a friend of the fairies despite being human.
Asking for details seemed like a good way to dig his own grave, so he didn't press the matter.
"Ah, right. That aside — the reason I came here."
"It's about the Fog Sound, isn't it?"
"Of course, that too. But... aside from that, I'm currently caught up in a bit of a troublesome situation. The dragon I defeated turned out to be an unknown species, and people are demanding I sell the information, the materials, you name it. So I was hoping you might be able to shelter me here for a while."
"I see. That's perfectly fine, Rei-san. However... well, it's somewhat presumptuous of me to say this, but regarding the Fog Sound... I would like to ask you to lend me a hand."
"...Huh?"
The Chief's utterly unexpected request drew a blank, dumbfounded sound from Rei's mouth.