As Seto flew through the sky, Nielson called out several times to change their direction.
Following her instructions, Seto adjusted course mid-flight.
They were undoubtedly heading beyond the frontier—a fact that surprised Rei slightly.
Since it was a place where the fairies had previously lived, he had assumed it would be within the frontier's bounds.
However, though they were traveling in a completely different direction from the highway, Seto would clear the frontier before long.
"Mmm... these skewers are delicious. Oh, let me have a bit of yours too, Rei. That one has a different flavor, right?"
Nielson eyed the skewers in Rei's hand and demanded those as well.
Skewers were commonly sold in town, so their size was considerable even for Nielson.
Nevertheless, as if insisting she had a separate stomach for delicious food, she had already finished three and was currently working on her fourth.
The fact that Rei found himself wondering what on earth was going on inside Nielson's body as she ate her fourth skewer while still asking for his was hardly unreasonable.
"Don't go pulling a stunt like stuffing yourself full, taking a nap, and getting us lost, okay? I have absolutely no idea where the Smog Panther lives. You're the only one who knows that."
He could have asked the Chief for the exact location or obtained a map, but fairies had no such thing as maps, and their journey from their previous home to the Treant Forest hadn't been a straight line either.
Given that, the reality was that he had no choice but to rely on Nielson for details about the Smog Panther's whereabouts.
But if the crucial Nielson stuffed herself full and fell asleep, they would truly have no idea where to go.
"I know that. Do you really think I'd do something that stupid?"
"I do."
Rei answered without a moment's hesitation, nodding as he spoke.
Perhaps she hadn't expected to be dismissed so readily without him even bothering to think it over, because Nielson made no effort to hide her displeasure.
"Hey, Rei. What do you take me for?"
"Nielson, obviously. Considering everything you've done up until now, do you really think you're trusted that much?"
"Ugh... that's..."
He had hit the mark, and Nielson couldn't argue back.
From her perspective, she had no idea how much Rei actually knew about the things she'd done. She didn't know—but she also felt that pressing him on it might end up blowing up in her face.
"For now, the direction isn't wrong, so you don't need to worry. More importantly, the skewers! Give me the ones you're eating!"
Urged on, Rei handed over his skewer, figuring if that was all it took to fix Nielson's mood, it was worth it.
He wondered whether she could even hold skewers nearly as large as her own body—let alone two of them, counting the one she already had—but Nielson showed no concern whatsoever for his worry and held a skewer in each hand.
(Watching Nielson, my image of fairies is probably going to change entirely.)
Nielson, holding a skewer in each hand, could honestly be better described as a monster than a fairy.
He even found himself thinking as much—but fortunately... truly fortunately, Nielson seemed completely oblivious to being viewed that way.
"These skewers are delicious. Sweets are wonderful too, but I'm jealous that the human world has such tasty cooking as well."
"Just so you know, it's not like I eat delicious food like these skewers everywhere. I only buy in bulk the ones I actually think taste good."
This wasn't limited to skewers; the majority of the food stored in the Misty Ring consisted of things Rei had eaten at stalls or shops and found delicious.
The Misty Ring could store items regardless of quantity or weight, but that didn't mean Rei would deliberately store food he thought tasted bad—or even food he didn't find particularly delicious, for that matter.
"Huh, must be nice to be able to eat delicious things anytime. I wish I had something like that."
"Do fairies not have Magic Items like the Misty Ring?"
If the Magic Items fairies made were high-performance, then even if not the Misty Ring itself, it wouldn't be strange for something outperforming a simplified Item Box to exist.
Rei found himself wondering about this, but Nielson considered his words for a moment before eventually shaking her head.
"We don't have anything like that. But... there's no doubt it would be convenient if we did."
"Figured as much. I can barely live without this. No, actually, is that going a bit too far?"
Rei asked himself if that was an exaggeration, but if someone knowledgeable about him were present, they would likely point out that it wasn't an exaggeration at all—it was the truth.
The fact that Rei's lifestyle was fundamentally dependent on the Misty Ring was an undeniable reality to most people.
If he didn't have it, he would need to carry luggage on his back or use a carriage to travel.
He wouldn't be able to carefully select and carry only truly essential items, and the disposable throwing spears he collected would naturally become impossible to carry around.
(Huh? Could it be that not being able to function without the Misty Ring... is actually accurate?)
Thinking about his own situation, the notion suddenly struck him.
Whether it was actually true, Rei couldn't say for certain.
But the fact that he found himself thinking it might be was undeniably real.
"What's wrong, Rei?"
"Nothing. I was just thinking that obtaining this Misty Ring was one of my greatest strokes of fortune."
"...Your greatest fortune, and yet it's only one of them? Isn't that a little contradictory?"
Nielson asked with a puzzled expression, but in truth, Rei had been blessed with numerous strokes of fortune to reach where he was now—that much was certain.
For starters, the fact that Rei had possessed exceptionally rare magic power on Earth and that it had been discovered by Zephyle was an enormous stroke of fortune in itself.
Being able to use that magic power through Beast Magic to create Seto and Death Scythe had also been fortunate.
Furthermore, the fact that the first town Rei had traveled to in this world was Gilm, and that its lord was Daskar.
Along with his encounters with Elena, Marina, Vihera, and others.
In many different senses, it was an undeniable fact that Rei had been fortunate.
"Really? Even a skilled warrior can die easily if not blessed with fortune. In that sense, as an adventurer... no, not just as an adventurer, fortune carries tremendous significance. That said, you can't get by on fortune alone, so you need to hone your strength too."
Or perhaps, for someone truly fortunate in the deepest sense, it might be possible to get by without barely any training at all... but unfortunately, Rei had never met anyone quite that fortunate.
"Huh. Being human sounds tough."
"I won't deny that. But there are all kinds of enjoyments to make up for it. Like developing delicious cuisine."
"I honestly envy that. These skewers, for instance—you'd never be able to eat something like this in the Fairy Dwelling."
She murmured this while gazing at the skewer she was eating—though there was scarcely any meat left on it by that point.
"In that case, why don't you spread cooking and sweets-making in the Fairy Dwelling? Fairies love eating cooking and sweets, but they're not good at making them. If that's the case, I think it would go well if you started doing that sort of thing there."
When Rei said this, it wasn't just empty talk.
He could understand that fairies possessed extremely high curiosity.
In other words, they could be thought of as a kind of hobbyist.
And when someone who became a hobbyist latched onto a single pursuit, they would dive deeply into it.
If a fairy were to become enamored with cooking or sweets-making, Rei was certain they would become absorbed in it more deeply than anyone.
That was why he felt that if cooking and sweets were introduced to the Fairy Dwelling, it would be fine for them to try making things themselves rather than just buying from outside.
...It was also undeniably true that lurking behind this expectation was the hope that if fairies took up cooking and sweets-making, they might create dishes and confections with an originality unique to fairies that humans would never conceive of.
(Though if they go in the direction of realistic insect-shaped chocolates, that would be a bit much.)
A somewhat unusual chocolate he had seen on TV while in Japan.
It was shaped remarkably like a real insect—convincing enough that even Rei, who had grown up near the mountains, found it startlingly authentic. At the very least, he had no desire to eat such a thing.
Of course, that was simply because Rei didn't have a habit of eating insects, and from a global perspective, eating insects wasn't all that rare.
Giant water bugs were commonly used as ingredients in Thailand and other parts of Southeast Asia, and in Japan too, there were regions that ate Inago tsukudani and Hachinoko.
(Well, even if people eat insects, whether they could bring themselves to eat chocolates shaped exactly like insects is another matter entirely.)
He shook his head and dispelled the thought, telling himself he didn't have the luxury to be pondering such things right now.
"Making cooking and sweets in the Fairy Dwelling... huh. That might be a little interesting. As for ingredients, I could probably find all sorts of things by searching through the forest."
"Just to check—those ingredients would be things like fruits, right? I can assume you won't be using insects or anything like that?"
"Hah? Insects? What on earth are you talking about? What I want to make are sweets! There's no way you could use insects in sweets!"
Nielson declared this with conviction. Rei opened his mouth to say something but ultimately kept it shut.
He figured that saying something careless here might give Nielson ideas about actually using insects as ingredients for sweets.
"Right. Well, good luck with that. Lord Daskar and I are in the middle of various negotiations, so when the time comes, it might be fine to include sweets ingredients among the things you and the other fairies request. ...Fortunately, there's no need to worry when it comes to plants and such."
Daskar, who had protected numerous Green People that had teleported from another world, was currently using their ability to promote plant growth to test whether spices could be cultivated as a Gilm specialty product.
Among spices, many wouldn't grow unless in hot climates or unless temperatures stayed below a certain threshold.
...No, to be precise, spices did exist naturally in the area around Gilm as well, but those varieties could be obtained ordinarily, so there was no need to deliberately cultivate them.
Using spices in sweets-making would be fine, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to have them grow fruits that normally couldn't survive around Gilm either.
"That's what I'm thinking. What do you say?"
"Spices and fruits, huh. Yeah, that might be pretty nice. Once the Smog Panther business is settled and I return to the Fairy Dwelling, I'll ask the Chief."
Nielson, who had been listening to Rei's explanation, seemed to have taken considerable interest in the idea.
She floated a smile and told him as much.
"Please do. After that, I just hope the Chief gives her permission."
"I think it'll probably be fine, but... if the Chief hesitates, you'll cooperate too, right, Rei?"
"Me? Well, I was the one who suggested it'd be good to make cooking and sweets in the Fairy Dwelling, so if you ask me to cooperate, I will. But what exactly should I do?"
"I think the Chief will agree to almost anything Rei says as long as it's not completely unreasonable. So if Rei recommends sweets-making, I don't think the Chief will say no. Besides... when it comes down to it, the Chief loves sweets... or rather, sweet things."
At those words, Rei recalled the Dwa Fruit he had given the Chief yesterday.
After receiving it, the Chief had never once let go of it—whether by skill or magic, Rei couldn't tell—but had kept it floating constantly by her side.
Thinking of that, Nielson's words carried real conviction, and Rei nodded in understanding.