"Uwaaaaah!"
Rei turned his gaze toward the Magic Tent's entrance at the sudden shout.
"Rei? What was that voice just now?"
Elena, on the other end of the Paired Orb, asked with genuine curiosity.
After finishing dinner with time to spare, Rei had been using the Paired Orb to chat with Elena when the scream rang out. Her confusion was only natural.
"I don't know. I'll go take a look. ...I just hope it's not one of Nielson's pranks."
"Hey, what exactly do you think I did? Don't blame me for everything."
Whether she had overheard him or not, Nielson spoke in a displeased tone.
She was sitting a short distance from the table where Rei had been using the Paired Orb, snacking on dried fruit.
"I figured if it was you, you might do something like that. ...Anyway, given the circumstances, something definitely happened outside. I'm going to check it out. What about you?"
The scream just now hadn't been some prank Nielson had set up.
If that were the case, it meant without a doubt that some kind of trouble had occurred.
The problem was what kind of trouble... To Rei, the real question was simply: what could possibly have happened in this situation?
"There's a carnivorous fish monster at the riverbank where you're staying, isn't there? Isn't it possible that someone entered the river without knowing about the monster and got bitten?"
Rei felt Elena's theory was a stretch.
But considering the old saying that truth is stranger than fiction, it wouldn't be strange at all if that were exactly the case.
"Who knows. I'm hanging up for now. I'll contact you again if anything happens."
"Very well. Be careful, Rei."
With those parting words, Elena's figure vanished from the Paired Orb.
She had likely disconnected on her end before Rei could.
Rei stored the Paired Orb in his Misty Ring and immediately stepped out of the Magic Tent.
Nielson naturally followed after him.
Stepping outside, they found a man who had collapsed in fright at the sight of Seto.
Seeing the man, Rei briefly wondered if he was a bandit, but immediately dismissed the thought.
The fact that he didn't have the look of a bandit was a major factor, but more importantly, the man's aura was nothing like that of a bandit.
Of course, not all bandits necessarily carried such an aura.
Among them, there could be those who had only recently turned to banditry, or those who only handled menial chores rather than killing people.
Above all, the fact that Seto wasn't baring any hostility was proof that the man was not a bandit... or anyone harboring ill intent.
"Hey, what's going on? From the looks of it, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal."
Nielson, hovering right beside Rei's face, voiced the question of what had happened.
Rei had various thoughts about the man's demeanor, but judged him to be non-hostile.
"Looks like he wandered in here by mistake. There don't seem to be any villages or towns around here, so he probably got lost, spotted the light... something like that."
As he said that to Nielson, Rei's gaze drifted toward the campfire a short distance from the Magic Tent.
Since it was night, the firelight naturally stood out.
"Y-Yes. That's right, exactly! I was lost and then I saw a light— Gyahhhhhhh! A-A fairy!? You're a fairy, aren't you!?"
Jolted back to his senses by Rei's words, the man blurted that out in a panic.
He had likely judged that staying in front of Seto would be dangerous.
As he responded to Rei, he spotted Nielson flying beside Rei's head and let out a loud scream.
For Rei, encountering fairies on the Seremuse Plain and meeting Nielson and her companions had already established their existence as fact.
Also, those associated with Rei had interacted with fairies before, so they wouldn't be surprised by one.
However, that only applied to Rei and those around him.
There were many people like this man for whom seeing a fairy up close was a first.
Given that, it wasn't particularly strange for the man to cry out in surprise upon seeing Nielson.
It wasn't strange, but that was exactly why Nielson's presence being discovered was undeniably problematic in more ways than one.
"Why did you just come out like that, Nielson?"
"I couldn't help it. I never expected anyone to come to a place like this."
Then what did you think that scream was?
Rei had been about to say that, but the man spoke up first.
"Excuse me! Um... I have absolutely no intention of catching or eating a fairy, so please rest assured!"
"Eating... Hey, what exactly do you think a fairy is? If you said you wanted to keep me close because I'm adorable, I could have accepted that, but eating? What do you mean, eating!"
For Nielson, the thought of being seen as some kind of ingredient had never even crossed her mind.
She shouted in confusion.
...Rei felt the same way.
If there were people who wanted to put fairies on display, that he could understand.
Or perhaps treat them like pets.
Fairies possessed extremely adorable appearances, Nielson included.
Because of that, there were many who wished to keep them close.
And yet, to have "eating" presented as an option.
The man must have realized that the word he had let slip had angered Nielson.
He shouted in a panic.
"S-Sorry! I never meant that from the start! It's just that in my hometown, there's a legend like that!"
The man shouted desperately.
He probably understood that angering Nielson any further would undoubtedly spell trouble for him.
In fact, that judgment was correct.
Fairies originally loved pranks, but those pranks could often be fatal for the ones on the receiving end.
It was better to clear up the misunderstanding before being subjected to one.
Moreover, Nielson had awakened to new power during the battle with the Smog Panther.
What specific effects that power could produce, Rei did not know.
What Rei had seen was her forcibly materializing the Smog Panther's Commander Individual from its fog state.
What would happen if she used it on a person?
It would be a lie to say he wasn't curious, but he couldn't possibly suggest testing it on a man who had wandered in by accident.
"Hey, calm down, Nielson. You can tell just by looking at him that he never seriously intended to eat you, right? He's not the type who could pull something like that off. ...More importantly, even if it's just a legend, eating fairies is surprising. Would you tell me about it?"
"Eh? Ah, yes. If my story is good enough. But, um... could you tell the gryphon not to attack me?"
In response to Rei's words, the man spoke with a timorous look.
He had never expected to suddenly encounter a gryphon—a high-rank monster.
Encountering such a being, even for an adventurer, would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience at best.
...Of course, if the one encountered was a wild monster rather than Seto, that once-in-a-lifetime could very well mean the last moment of one's life.
"Don't worry. Seto is my Tamed Monster. As long as you don't do anything strange, it won't attack you."
"A gryphon... a Tamed Monster? Huh? Wait a minute. I know this is incredibly late to ask, but are you perhaps Rei-san, Bearer of the Crimson Moniker?"
"What, you hadn't realized? If you suddenly encounter Seto in the dark, it's only natural to panic before you could even think about something like that."
Seeing Seto and immediately connecting it to Rei was no easy feat.
Well, if he had seen Seto together with Rei in a city and thought so, it might still be understandable. But right now, they were at a river... or rather, a place with trees growing thickly enough to fall somewhere between a grove and a forest.
Getting lost in such a place, finding a light, coming upon Seto, and being able to recognize it as Crimson Rei's Tamed Monster—that would be the strange part.
"Um... is that so? But, um, why are you in a place like this? Ah, is it because you have a fairy with you?"
The man seemed to think that because of the fairy, Rei couldn't stay in a normal town.
That assumption itself wasn't entirely wrong.
In fact, letting Nielson appear in front of people was not something that could be done where there were those unaware of the circumstances.
But that only meant she shouldn't appear in public.
In other words, as long as she stayed inside the Dragon Robe, there was no problem at all.
Nielson had entered Gilm that way, and she had also been able to enter the village where Rei had been tasked with subjugating the Two-Headed Rhinos.
Doing so naturally meant she couldn't move freely through town, but being able to enter a town or village at all was still a fact.
Even so, Rei judged that rather than carelessly saying something here, it would be better to simply agree with the man's words, and he nodded honestly.
"Basically, that's not far off."
"Wha— mmph..."
Nielson, looking dissatisfied, tried to say something upon hearing Rei's words, but Rei held her down.
Naturally, doing so would raise questions in the man's mind.
However, he seemed to understand that pressing the issue with Rei in this situation would only backfire. He showed no sign of bringing up the matter of Rei holding Nielson down.
Still, that was only regarding that particular matter.
Regarding the fairy herself, he still looked like he very much wanted to ask more.
But Rei had something to do before listening to the man's story.
"So, putting aside why we're here, why did you come here?"
"Eh? Like I said, I was lost and found a light just now..."
"That's not what I mean. I know there are no villages or towns around here. Under those circumstances, why did you deliberately come into this area? You came in with some kind of objective, right?"
"Ah, that. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I got lost while hunting..."
Saying that, the man directed his gaze toward a bow and quiver lying a short distance away.
He had probably dropped them when startled by Seto.
"A hunter? ...I see. Then it's not strange for you to be here."
From what Rei could see, there were some monsters, but ordinary animals were more numerous.
Of course, considering the fish monster in the river, it was by no means a place to let one's guard down.
If one slipped and fell into the river, they would be attacked immediately.
"Yes, exactly. And since I'm a traveling hunter, I thought there might be some good prey here... but unfortunately, it doesn't seem like there's anything like that."
The man let out a sigh, looking utterly dejected.
Seeing the man like that, Rei felt a slight pang of interest.
The story about eating fairies was intriguing, but beyond that, a traveling hunter was an existence Rei was encountering for the first time.
Traveling merchants he understood. Even adventurers he could comprehend. But a traveling hunter—naturally, he was curious about what kind of life they led.
"Why do you do something like that? A hunter basically operates in forests and mountains they know, right? It's easier to track prey that way. Being a traveling hunter under those circumstances seems like a lot of trouble, doesn't it?"
"That's true. The groves, forests, and mountains I pass through while traveling are all places I'm visiting for the first time, so it's quite difficult to find prey. But... even so, I've never felt that this lifestyle is a hardship."
Saying that, the man smiled.