Having finished his dealings with the Chief in the Fairy Dwelling, Rei found himself with nothing left to do.
With time on his hands, he moved to a spot away from the fairies and retrieved Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear from his Misty Ring.
He usually trained early in the morning, but lately he hadn't been able to focus on it as much as he would have liked.
He wanted to make up for at least some of that lost ground—that was the thought behind what he was doing.
Holding Death Scythe in his right hand and the Twilight Spear in his left, he took his usual Twin Spear Style stance.
He closed his eyes and pictured Elena.
If asked why Elena came to mind, the biggest reason was probably that he had spoken with her through the Paired Orb the night before.
Of course, it also helped that Elena was among the strongest people Rei knew.
Rei faced the imagined Elena... and she swung Mirage in its whip-sword form.
The whip-like blade came flying toward him.
That horizontal sweep had an overwhelmingly greater attack range compared to its longsword state.
Rei deflected the strike with Death Scythe.
Normally, if someone tried to parry with Death Scythe, it wouldn't be surprising for the opponent's weapon to break instead.
That was just how powerful a weapon Death Scythe was.
But Mirage was a highly advanced Magic Item, even in this world.
After all, Duke Kerebel had spared no expense in creating it for his daughter.
Deflecting Mirage's strike, Rei closed the distance in a single burst.
Wielding long-reach weapons like Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear, Rei naturally had a wide attack range of his own.
If the opponent used a longsword or a dagger of some kind, he could attack one-sidedly from outside their reach.
However, Mirage in its whip-sword form had an even greater attack range than Rei's weapons.
In its longsword state, it naturally had only the same reach as an ordinary longsword, but once it became a whip-like strike, dealing with it was difficult.
At the same time, precisely because whip-form Mirage had such a wide range, it was hard to manage once someone slipped inside it.
With a spear or Death Scythe, the weapon itself was long enough that one could sweep an opponent's feet with the butt end. Mirage couldn't even do that.
One could try to aim for Rei's back with the tip of whip-form Mirage, but that was easy enough for the opponent to read.
Moreover, Rei was right in front of Elena.
If she launched Mirage's blade toward his back and Rei dodged, that strike would come crashing back into Elena, who was controlling it.
Then again, Rei was only fighting an image of Elena.
In that sense, it wouldn't be strange for her to do things the real Elena never would... but whether fortunately or unfortunately, the Elena Rei imagined was such a strong image that she wouldn't take actions the real Elena wouldn't take.
In this situation, Elena—more precisely, Rei's imagined Elena—chose to leap backward.
She likely intended to reopen the distance she had lost and unleash another Mirage strike.
Having inherited the Ancient Dragon's magic stone through the Altar of Inheritance, albeit imperfectly, Elena possessed extremely high physical ability.
But this time Rei surpassed even Elena's movement. Taking one more step forward toward the retreating Elena, he bisected her body with a single strike of the Twilight Spear.
"......Phew. Good training and all, but cutting down an image in Elena's form doesn't feel great."
He murmured as he opened his eyes...
"That was amazing! It was as if I could see your opponent clearly too!"
A familiar voice rang out unexpectedly.
He turned toward the source and found Nielson hovering there, looking as though her presence were the most natural thing in the world.
"Nielson? What is it? Weren't you telling the other fairies about your exploits?"
The last time he had seen her, before going to meet the Chief, she had been talking up her achievements—moderately, or rather, enormously exaggerated, just as Rei had said.
Why was Nielson here? That question was probably what surprised him.
"Just a little break, that's all. Even I get tired if I keep talking nonstop. Once I've talked enough, I need to rest a bit."
"Is that so?"
For something Nielson would say, that was quite unexpected.
Given her personality as Rei knew it, it wouldn't have been strange at all for her to keep bragging about her exploits endlessly.
But seeing her actually standing here before him, there was probably some reason behind it.
Then again, considering Nielson's personality, even if I asked, she surely wouldn't give me a straight answer. Better to just play along and let her bring it up herself. ...Yeah, probably.
Thinking thus, Rei stored his weapons back into the Misty Ring.
"That's just how it is. Besides, the other fairies keep gathering one after another, so waiting around for them would get pretty troublesome."
"Didn't the Chief tell you to keep telling that crowd about it over and over?"
"I wonder. But... um, speaking of the Chief, did she say anything about me?"
The moment the Chief came up, Nielson pressed him with that question.
She asked as if she was certain Rei had heard something from the Chief about her.
But Rei had no idea why Nielson would harbor such a suspicion.
"No, I don't think she said anything in particular."
"...Eh? Really?"
Nielson looked completely caught off guard by his answer.
She probably never expected that the Chief truly hadn't said anything about her.
In fact, Rei had no recollection of the Chief saying anything special about Nielson at all.
...Or perhaps the topic of Nielson had come up at some point, but it didn't seem like the kind of thing she would worry about this much.
There was that talk about how I or Seto might have influenced the power that awakened in Nielson, but that's probably not what this is about, right? Then again, considering her personality, I don't think she'd believe it even if I told her.
To begin with, he honestly wasn't even sure whether what the Chief had said was true.
If he told Nielson something like that, she probably wouldn't believe him anyway.
"Hmm, I see. I thought since she was talking with you without me there, she might have said something about me. But well, from the looks of it, I won't be getting scolded, so I can rest easy."
Ah, so that was it. Rei understood now.
He had assumed Nielson wanted to hear more about what the Chief had said regarding her, but it was actually about whether the Chief would scold her or not.
Considering Nielson's personality, that made a certain kind of sense.
"Whether you get scolded or not depends on your own actions, doesn't it? Be careful you don't get summoned later."
"Hey, what exactly is that supposed to mean? You didn't say something strange to the Chief, did you?"
"I didn't say anything strange, so don't worry."
That implicitly meant he had said things that weren't strange, but Nielson didn't seem to catch that.
Eyeing him with some suspicion, she nonetheless accepted his words for the time being.
"If you say so, I'll believe you for now. ...Hey, more importantly, that battle just now... battle? Those movements you were making with your weapons. Could you maybe show that in front of everyone?"
"Even if you say that. That wasn't a Sword Dance or anything like that, you know? Well, I don't use a longsword, so Sword Dance isn't quite right. Great Scythe Dance? Spear Dance? Twin Spear Style Dance? ...None of those fit. If I had to call it something, I'd say it was more of an exhibition performance. But anyway, it wasn't that kind of exhibition, so I don't think it would be very interesting to watch."
"That's not true at all."
Nielson declared it with a serious expression.
In truth, Rei's movements just now had been clearly magnificent even from Nielson's perspective... more than enough to captivate her.
Given that, it was only natural for her to want the other fairies to see it too, not just herself.
The person who had actually performed it, however, had no such intention.
From Rei's perspective, that was by no means an exhibition or anything of the sort. He had simply been training against an imagined Elena.
As such, being told to do it in front of a crowd only troubled him.
It was an action purely for his own training, not something meant to be shown to others.
If it had been an exhibition from the start, performed with the intent of showing others, things might have been a little different.
But since that wasn't the case, Rei was undoubtedly reluctant.
"So, please? Can't I ask you? I'm sure the other fairies would be delighted to see Rei's exhibition."
Nielson asked him again, but Rei still couldn't muster any motivation for it.
If it had been an exhibition from the start—a performance danced for the purpose of showing others—it might have been a different story.
But what Rei had been doing was, imaginary or not, a mock battle with Elena.
Having it turned into a spectacle was unappealing.
If it weren't being turned into a mere spectacle—if, for example, someone were to watch Rei's movements and train through observation, a kind of observational learning—then he might have accepted.
"Sorry. I think I'll pass."
"...I see. That's a shame."
Nielson understood that since Rei wouldn't accept even after being pressed this far, asking any further wouldn't get her anywhere.
If she forced the issue, it would only sour his mood.
And if that happened, what kind of punishment would Rei dish out...? Or worse, if the Chief learned of the incident, what would happen to her then?
With those thoughts in mind, Nielson couldn't possibly push the matter any further.
"Why don't you try asking someone who's better at that sort of thing? ...Well, even if you could find someone, it'd be meaningless if you couldn't bring them to the Fairy Dwelling."
To begin with, the very existence of the Fairy Dwelling in the Treant Forest was even more highly classified than the Birth Tower or the Otherworld Lake.
Rei did wonder whether it was really more sensitive information than the existence of beings from another world, but the Birth Tower and the Otherworld Lake were right there in plain sight, impossible to conceal.
Given that, completely hiding them was honestly impossible.
The Fairy Dwelling, however, was different.
It had been established in the Treant Forest at some point without anyone noticing, its surroundings shielded by fog generated by the Fog Sound, and even wolves stood guard.
Without knowing it was there, finding it would be exceedingly difficult.
Wanting to hold an exhibition in such a place was a tall order.
And this wouldn't be some street performer's routine—it would be even harder to arrange a mock battle of the sort a powerful fighter like Rei would have when facing an imagined formidable enemy.
"Come to think of it, don't you need to go see Bob?"
"I'll check on him after this. Though I'm not sure it's my place to say so, but is it really okay? Even if it's only for two days, camping out in the fog seems harsh."
"Probably. I think so too. That's why I told him I'd take him to town and call for him again once two days had passed. But Bob himself said he was fine with camping outdoors. I couldn't exactly drag him all the way to town against his will, could I?"
With Rei's strength, he could have knocked Bob unconscious and carried him to Abuelo.
But considering Bob's personality, even if he were taken to Abuelo, Rei felt like he would just find his way back to the Treant Forest on his own.
Given that, letting him camp quietly outside the Fairy Dwelling was undoubtedly the better option.
"Now that you mention it... that might be true. The wolves are there too, so it probably won't be dangerous."
Nielson said as much... and perhaps feeling a little anxious from their conversation, she declared she would go check on Bob and flitted away.
"No need to go right this second, but... ah, well, maybe Bob would be happier if you did? Either way, that's not really my concern."
With that, Rei returned to his training.
This time, however, the opponent he imagined was not Elena, but Vihera.