Once his conversation with Bob ended, Rei returned to the Fairy Dwelling.
Inside, he spotted Nielson recounting her exploits to the other fairies—how she had found the Smog Panthers and distinguished herself in the fight.
Nielson must have noticed him approaching, because she waved broadly and called out.
"Hey, Rei. Why don't you stay and chat for a bit? You're free, right?"
"Don't just assume I'm free."
That said, Rei couldn't deny that in the current situation, there wasn't anything in particular he needed to do.
If he had to name something, it would be going to check the results of the dissection he had entrusted to the Chief.
Or he could go see how Seto was doing, playing with the wolf pups.
(I could contact Elena with the Paired Orb... no, she's probably busy right now.)
Rei considered talking to Elena, but unfortunately it was still daytime.
She was almost certainly in a meeting with someone who had come to visit her.
Elena held the alias of Princess General and was the daughter of Duke Kerebel, who led the Noble Faction.
There was no shortage of people who wanted to forge a connection with someone like her.
...Still, a fair amount of time had passed since Elena came to Gilm, so Rei couldn't help but think it was about time she might have some free moments.
However, Gilm saw a heavy flow of people in and out.
With the expansion construction underway, that flow had only increased, and as a result, the number of people who wanted to become acquainted with Elena naturally grew as well.
Once winter came, the expansion construction would settle down. Many workers would return to their hometowns, and fewer new people would arrive in Gilm—giving her some breathing room.
Though, naturally, that would also mean more people hoping for a second meeting.
Once, then twice, then three times... repeating visits like that would naturally strengthen the impression the other party held of them, and one could make those around believe they were close with Elena.
Whether Elena would tolerate that was another matter entirely, though.
"Then do you have something to do?"
For a fairy, it was probably just a casual question.
But to Rei, being asked that made it feel like she was casually calling him a jobless layabout with nothing to do.
"Ugh... no, I need to meet with the Chief. There's something I asked her to handle that I need to sort out."
It was something he'd blurted out on the spot, but it wasn't a lie.
Specifically, the dissection work he had asked the Chief to do for him.
There had been a considerable amount, so once it was all dissected, there would naturally be an array of materials, magic stones, subjugation proof parts, meat, and so on.
If he just left it all there, what would happen?
Naturally, fairies with an interest would come over and start meddling.
Rei didn't want them playing pranks on the dissected monster meat.
If it were the material-type parts, that would be a different story.
(Come to think of it, I need to take the internal organs with me to some extent. Since I don't know which parts will sell, I can't exactly throw them all away. There might even be some rare materials in there.)
Rei generally discarded monster internal organs.
But it was also true that a fair number of usable material parts could be found among them.
After all, when fighting unknown monsters, there was no way to know which body parts would serve as materials.
If the Monster Encyclopedia had an entry on the monster, he could have judged which materials were worthwhile... but unfortunately, it wasn't listed in the Monster Encyclopedia he owned.
That said, the Monster Encyclopedia he'd bought was years old.
New editions had been published since, and he couldn't deny the possibility that those newer ones might contain an entry.
Of course, monster encyclopedias of all kinds were produced by scholars, researchers, mages, alchemists, and many others.
And since they were fundamentally handwritten, manuscript copies were the norm.
In that sense, it wasn't uncommon for different books to say completely different things.
"Rei? What's wrong?"
"Hm? Oh, no. Nothing. I was just thinking it's about time I go see the Chief. Are you coming too?"
When Rei asked her, Nielson shook her head immediately—without a moment's hesitation.
"N-no, I'm fine. I still have work to do—telling everyone about my exploits in the battle against the Smog Panthers. If you're going to see the Chief, go by yourself."
Nielson was clearly afraid of meeting the Chief.
...More than that, for some reason, even among the fairies who had been listening to Nielson's story, there were some who seemed afraid.
(So it's not just Nielson. Well, the saving grace is that the Chief isn't only feared.)
If the Chief were purely a figure of terror, the fairies would have fled the Fairy Dwelling long ago.
The fact that they still obeyed her meant their feelings toward her weren't purely one-sided fear.
Of course, whether the fairies could be kept together without the Chief's existence was another difficult question entirely.
"Alright then, I'll go see the Chief for now. Oh right—Bob will be camping near the Fairy Dwelling for up to two days, so visit him if you feel like it. Should I say fortunately or not... Bob was actually eager to camp out."
Bob was a hunter.
When pursuing prey... or when unable to find any, camping out in woods, forests, or mountains was not uncommon for him.
Given that, camping just outside the Fairy Dwelling wasn't anything particularly unusual.
In fact, Bob hadn't seemed all that nervous about camping there.
...Though for Bob, the chance to interact with fairies might have been more exciting than the camping itself.
"Bob will? Yeah, okay. I'll drop by later then. Bob would probably enjoy meeting me too."
It sounded like a rather condescending remark, but Rei could understand that Nielson held the superior position between her and Bob, having seen them interact several times.
For Bob's part, he probably wanted to hear even a little of what Nielson had to say, or perhaps his naturally humble personality simply led him to take a deferential stance.
"Got it. I'm sure Bob will be happy if you visit, so do your best."
With that, Rei headed deeper into the Fairy Dwelling—toward where the Chief was dissecting the monsters.
He encountered a few fairies along the way, but simply saying he was going to see the Chief was enough to prevent any meddling.
Seeing how the fairies reacted told him just how feared the Chief was.
Making his way through the Fairy Dwelling, Rei eventually arrived at his destination—the place where the Chief was.
The dissection of the monsters Rei had pulled from his Misty Ring was already finished, with everything neatly separated by body part.
"This is... really incredible."
"Is it? I'm glad to hear you say that. It makes my hard work worthwhile."
She was probably pleased that her magic had been praised.
The Chief replied, looking genuinely happy—truly delighted from the bottom of her heart.
"These internal organs and such... well, I don't know which ones might be useful, so I'll take them for now. You've already done all this for me, so if there's any material here you want, feel free to take it."
"No, receiving the Smog Panther magic stones is more than enough. Truly... I never expected you to bring back this many Smog Panthers."
The Chief murmured, sounding impressed and just a little proud.
Her pride likely came from understanding that Nielson had helped defeat these Smog Panthers.
(Seeing this, it's hard to understand why the Chief is feared by Nielson... and the other fairies too. Or maybe the Chief just deliberately makes herself feared.)
Harboring such questions, Rei took advantage of the Chief's words that she wanted nothing but the Smog Panther magic stones, and began storing the assorted items laid out before him into his Misty Ring.
(I really am envious.)
From the bottom of his heart—truly from the bottom of his heart—Rei envied the magic the Chief used.
With dissection via magic, the user didn't get dirty.
That alone was incredibly enviable.
After all, when dissecting normally, it wasn't uncommon for the blood and bodily fluids of the prey to get on one's hands, body, and face.
Of course, it washed off easily.
That was precisely why dissection near rivers or ponds—anywhere with water—was preferred, and in Rei's case, he could produce unlimited water with the Jet-Black Dagger.
There was no doubt he could wash it off, but even so, it was only natural to dislike getting covered in blood and bodily fluids.
"Hey, no harm in asking... like I mentioned before, even if it takes a long time, would you try making a Magic Item that can use dissection magic?"
"I don't mind, but... I really can't say how long it will take. Also, I have no idea how many materials will be required."
For the Chief, dissection magic wasn't particularly difficult.
But fairy magic—and among it, this was undeniably a rather special type of magic.
Given that, she honestly had no idea how long it would take to complete as a Magic Item.
Just as she had said before, it wouldn't be surprising if it truly took on the order of a century.
"Yeah, looking at this... I want that Magic Item, no matter how long it takes. But... right. I don't know if this will help shorten the time, but you don't have to set a limit on the mana required to activate the Magic Item. Wouldn't that make things somewhat easier?"
"That's... certainly not wrong."
Mana was also necessary when creating a Magic Item.
That said, most Magic Items didn't require that much mana to use.
If they could force activation using Rei's mana, then some degree of... no, given Rei's mana capacity, even quite a bit of strain could be managed.
"Taking that into account, how long do you think it would take?"
"I can't give you an exact figure. But what was on the scale of a century might perhaps come down to around fifty years."
"Still fifty years, huh. Well, no... cutting it in half is already quite something."
For Rei, it seemed extremely convenient for times like dissecting something as massive as a Gigant Turtle—a monster roughly the size of a town.
Of course, dissection of the Gigant Turtle, as had been the case last year, also served as work for people like the Slum District residents who struggled to survive the winter. ...In truth, he hadn't planned it that way from the start; it was more accurate to say it had naturally taken that shape last year without him really noticing.
If Rei were to quickly dispose of the Gigant Turtle's dissection using a Magic Item, or pull it out here and have the Chief do it, the number of people in the Slum District who would fail to survive the winter and freeze or starve to death this year would definitely increase.
(If it comes to that, I could just have her dissect ordinary monsters instead... no, that won't work. It's precisely because the Gigant Turtle is such a massive monster that even Slum District residents with no dissection skills can manage it.)
When dissecting smaller monsters, one needed to cut meat along the bones, or extract internal organs without damaging them.
Sometimes one also had to cleanly dissect the interior of a body that was difficult to see due to blood and bodily fluids.
With the Gigant Turtle, its sheer size meant that no skill was required for the task of cutting meat into portions.
Of course, if one carved it up carelessly, the meat fibers would end up ragged and the texture when eaten would suffer.
The Chief probably wasn't reading Rei's mind, but she spoke up as if she had.
"If you'd like, you can bring monsters here and I'll dissect them with my magic."
"Sounds good. I'll take you up on that when the monsters pile up beyond what I can handle. ...Besides, it's almost Gamelion season."
The season had already turned to autumn.
There was still a little time to spare, but soon enough it wouldn't be surprising for Gamelions to start appearing.
Wondering whether he would be able to participate in this year's Gamelion Hunt, Rei spoke those words.