"Thank you very much, Rei-san. Thanks to you defeating those monsters right in front of us, the villagers are feeling relieved."
The village chief offered those words, but Rei couldn't simply accept them at face value.
The village chief speaking with him so civilly was one thing, but the majority of the other villagers had clearly shown signs of fear and awe toward him.
Given the situation, the chief's words were probably close to flattery.
Of course, Rei also knew that his own power was quite extraordinary.
Moreover, since this village had no Guild, the villagers had almost never witnessed the power of adventurers—let alone high-rank adventurers.
That was why he could at least understand the villagers' attitudes, considering the current circumstances.
It was certainly not a pleasant feeling, but since there was no need to remain in the village after this, he decided not to let it bother him.
"Then, with five monsters defeated, that completes the request, correct?"
"Yes, that is fine. Thank you very much. And I apologize on behalf of the villagers."
The village chief bowed deeply as he said this.
The chief might have been astonished by Rei's strength, but he didn't let it show.
At the chief's demeanor, Rei shook his head.
"Don't worry about it. Considering this is a rural place with almost no contact with anyone outside the village, this kind of reaction is only natural."
Almost no contact with outsiders naturally meant there was at least some.
Specifically, people like traveling merchants.
There were inevitably things that couldn't be self-supplied in village life, so relying on traveling merchants for those goods was only natural.
Rei briefly wondered if the villagers acted curt even toward such merchants, but in the case of traveling merchants, they were familiar faces who had visited the village many times despite being outsiders, so it probably wasn't an issue.
It wasn't that the thought hadn't crossed his mind that traveling merchants might have adventurers as escorts... but the adventurers a traveling merchant coming to this village would hire as guards would naturally not be high-rank adventurers like Rei, but rather rookie or veteran-level ones.
Such adventurers would naturally never wield the kind of overwhelming power Rei and Seto had just demonstrated.
Rei judged that staying here any longer would only invite trouble, so after exchanging brief parting words with the village chief, he set off toward the forest.
Fortunately, all of Rei's belongings were inside the Misty Ring, Seto was with him, and Nielson was inside the Dragon Robe, so there was no need to return to the village chief's house.
(Thinking back, Nielson insisting on coming outside with me instead of staying at the village chief's house was the best choice. ...Come to think of it, Nielson went silent during the battle. What happened?)
Rei was slightly bothered by it as they headed toward the forest on Seto's back, but the village chief was still visible back toward the village.
Sensing the chief's gaze on him, Rei refrained from calling out to Nielson until they had entered the forest and were hidden from view.
(There's Nielson, but there's also the dissection of the two-headed rhinos. I need to dissect three in total—one leader-type and two Normal Species—and thinking about it, I can't just do it the moment we enter the forest. I'll want water to wash off the blood, so it'd be ideal if there's a river or something.)
If he dissected the two-headed boars right at the edge of the forest, the scent of blood might attract new monsters from deep within.
If that happened, the village could suffer damage.
...Depending on the circumstances, it wouldn't be strange for people to think it was Rei's retaliation for finding the villagers' attitudes unpleasant.
To avoid such a situation, it was better to refrain from dissecting them near the village.
It wasn't purely out of consideration for the village, either. There was also the concern that unknown monsters might be drawn in by the scent of blood.
In particular, he wanted to encounter the three types of monsters he'd heard about from the village chief—spiders, deer, and lizards—sooner rather than later.
"Grururu?"
As they entered the forest, Seto purred, asking which way to go.
Rei stroked the back of Seto's neck and directed him deeper in.
Now that they had entered the forest, he called out to Nielson, who had been silent inside the Dragon Robe.
"Nielson, hey, Nielson. Can you hear my voice?"
He called out several times, but Nielson showed no sign of responding.
At her silence, Rei had a bad feeling—could it be...—and carefully slipped his hand inside the Dragon Robe to feel his own body.
Since nothing was dirty or wet, he was at least relieved that Nielson hadn't vomited or had an accident inside the Dragon Robe, and he took her out.
"Kyu."
On Rei's palm, Nielson let out that faint sound, completely unconscious.
"I figured. It would've been better to take her out of the Dragon Robe during the fight. ...But then again, I didn't have that luxury, and more importantly, the villagers were watching."
Many villagers had watched Rei and Seto battle the two-headed rhinos.
That was why they were awestruck by Rei, who possessed the power to one-sidedly crush creatures they could never hope to defeat themselves.
Under those circumstances, what would have happened if Rei had pulled Nielson out of the Dragon Robe?
Having witnessed Rei's strength, no one would have tried to steal the fairy Nielson from him.
However, it was almost certain that it would have led to another troublesome situation nonetheless.
Someone might casually ask him to hand over the fairy, or throw a banquet to get Rei drunk and then try to steal Nielson in the opening.
Not every villager would think that way, but a few definitely would.
If it was just thinking, there would be no problem—but if they actually tried to act on it, Rei would have to respond accordingly.
Thinking about it that way, keeping Nielson inside the Dragon Robe during the fight had undoubtedly been the best choice at the time.
"Ah, Seto. If you find a river, head that way. We need to dissect the monsters we just killed, right?"
"Guruu!"
At Rei's request, Seto purred as if to say, Leave it to me.
Seto was also somewhat directionally challenged like Rei, but his five senses were extremely sharp.
While moving through the forest, if he could pick up the sound of water flowing, the faint glimpse of water between the trees, or the scent of moisture, it wouldn't be difficult to head straight toward the river using those as guides.
"That leaves Nielson... It'd be a problem if she started moving around freely during the dissection, so I guess I don't need to wake her up."
Not just Nielson, but fairies in general were extremely curious.
If she saw Rei dissecting the two-headed rhinos, she would no doubt pester him with all sorts of questions to satisfy that curiosity, or fly around and get in the way.
Since that would be a hassle, Rei didn't force her awake and left her as she was.
He asked Seto to head toward water—a river, a lake, or maybe a swamp. Any place with water—and continued through the forest.
(Birds... there are quite a few.)
Rei was traveling through the forest on Seto's back, and even so, a fair number of bird calls reached his ears.
There was also ample evidence of wild beasts moving about actively.
That indicated this was a rich, fertile forest.
The village chief had mentioned that the village hunters didn't venture deep into the forest, but in a forest this lush, hunting birds and beasts or gathering fruit, nuts, and wild vegetables clearly wouldn't be all that difficult.
(It's precisely because it's a rich forest that there are so many wild beasts and birds. The fact that it's already early autumn might also have something to do with it. ...Do beasts and birds get the autumn appetite too?)
Once autumn arrived, it wouldn't be long before winter came, and in Gilm, it would be Gamelion Hunt season.
Until now, skilled adventurers had taken on the Gamelion Hunt, so there hadn't been many injuries or deaths.
But the current Gilm was different.
Many people had come for the expansion construction, and among them, those seeking to strike it rich would challenge the Gamelions.
Even skilled adventurers active in Gilm could be injured or, in some cases, killed in battles against Gamelions.
Though it was a rabbit monster, the Gamelion possessed a vicious attacking power utterly unimaginable from the adorable creature known as a rabbit.
What would happen when adventurers who had only managed to reach Gilm thanks to the expansion construction challenged such an opponent?
Naturally, it would produce a large number of casualties.
The silver lining was that since many adventurers came for the expansion construction, even if the death toll rose, the overall headcount wouldn't decrease.
...Of course, since those people would have to learn the expansion construction work from scratch, efficiency would naturally drop.
"Guruu!"
As Rei was thinking about Gamelions, Seto suddenly purred.
Startled back to his senses by the sound, Rei turned his gaze in the direction Seto was looking. There, through the gaps in the trees... he could see a river.
"Oh, you found a river. Let's dissect them there, then. ...Nielson's still unconscious... or rather, she's completely asleep."
Hearing her steady breathing, Rei cast a look of exasperation at Nielson, who was sleeping on Seto's back in front of him.
That said, it was better for Nielson to be unconscious—no, asleep—rather than awake during the dissection, so he didn't make an issue of it.
Above all, there was the matter of absorbing the magic stones obtained from dissecting the two-headed rhinos.
When it came to Beast Magic, he couldn't let Nielson find out.
If Nielson discovered it, knowing her curious nature, she would undoubtedly press him for every detail. And if he were to tell her, there was no telling how far that information would spread.
That was why he wanted to keep Beast Magic a secret.
"Grururu"
They pushed through the forest, wove between the trees... and before long, arrived at the spot Seto had found.
It was a river about four meters wide, and from what Rei could see, only knee-deep.
Since it was a river, the depth wasn't uniformly knee-deep—it would be shallower or deeper in places.
He could also see fish swimming in the water.
"All right, I can dissect them here without any issues. Seto, I'm going to get ready, so keep watch around us. If any enemies show up, I'll leave them to you."
"Guruu!"
At Rei's request, Seto purred as if to say, Leave it to me.
Judging that Seto could handle it, Rei moved Nielson to a shaded spot and immediately began preparing for the dissection.
What he pulled out first was not the giant leader-type two-headed rhino, but a normal-sized specimen.
Even a normal specimen was still about the same size as Seto, so it was quite heavy.
"It wasn't in my Monster Encyclopedia either... right?"
Just to be sure, he took the Monster Encyclopedia out of the Misty Ring and checked, but as expected, it wasn't listed.
That said, just because it wasn't in the Monster Encyclopedia he owned didn't mean it wouldn't appear in others.
Monster Encyclopedias didn't have a fixed format, so each one had slightly different content.
In that sense, although it wasn't in the Monster Encyclopedia Rei possessed, the possibility that other Monster Encyclopedias contained information about the two-headed rhinos couldn't be ruled out.
"Well, even so, thinking about it now would just be a waste of time. I'll dissect it by intuition for now."
First, to drain the blood, he slashed through the neck in a wide stroke and tossed the head into the river.
Letting the blood flow into the river carried the risk of fish monsters eating the meat, and the meat would inevitably absorb water, causing the flavor to drop slightly... but this was the most practical method for draining blood from five two-headed rhinos in total.
And so, Rei took out the two-headed rhinos one after another and submerged them in the river to drain their blood.