The day after his leisurely chat with the Chief, Rei woke up as usual, got dressed, and stepped out of the Magic Tent. There, he found……
"Gruu."
Seeing Rei emerge, Seto purred with a distinctly pitiful expression.
The cause was clear enough—the wolf pups were using his belly as a pillow.
If Seto moved too much, they would certainly wake.
Hence the soft, restrained purring.
"So you stayed with them even after I fell asleep."
The wolf pups had clearly taken quite a liking to Seto.
They had kept playing with him after Rei turned in for the night, and before long had apparently settled down to sleep together like this.
(Come to think of it, where do these pups usually sleep? If someone's assigned to look after them, that fairy might be worried…… though fairies don't seem the type to fret over something like that.)
Fairies were capricious and driven by curiosity.
Even if one had been told to watch the pups, whether they would actually follow through was another matter entirely.
Among the fairies Rei knew, it wouldn't be strange for them to simply forget about it altogether.
(Maybe the Chief looks after them at times like that?)
If nothing else, the Chief of the Fairy Dwelling was undeniably attentive.
As if to prove it, she kept an eye on Rei in various ways, even coming by to check whether he had any problems.
Given her nature, it wouldn't be unusual for her to care for the wolf pups when the other fairies forgot.
……Though even if he brought it up now, he doubted she would admit to it.
"For now, the question is what to do today. ……I don't have anything pressing, really."
As far as Rei was concerned, nothing was urgent.
Given that, he figured he might take a leisurely stroll around the Fairy Dwelling.
(In that case, maybe I shouldn't have left the monster dissection to the Chief……? No, even if I hadn't, it definitely would have been a hassle.)
The number of monster corpses from this incident was substantial.
Dissecting them all himself would have taken considerable time.
More importantly, the fairies would have meddled out of sheer curiosity.
Yesterday, the Chief's use of dissection magic helped, but it also mattered that Nielson had been recounting her Smog Panther stories, which kept many fairies captivated.
"Gururu."
Seto purred low once more.
Rei was watching but not helping, so the gryphon was likely asking for assistance.
That said, Rei found the sight of Seto pinned beneath the wolf pups thoroughly endearing.
If a camera existed, he would have saved the scene in a photograph.
(If Mireinu and Yohanna were here, they'd do whatever it took——pay any amount of money——to see this.)
Rei was certain of it as he pictured the faces of the two women, likely back in Gilm.
Gilm, being Rei's home ground, naturally had no shortage of people fond of Seto.
Many had gathered for the expansion construction, and even among those transplants, quite a few wanted to pet Seto the moment they laid eyes on him.
But the top two Seto devotees were, without question, Mireinu and Yohanna.
Both were so besotted with him that it wouldn't be surprising if they picked fights with higher-ranked adventurers——or even alias holders——all for his sake.
From Rei's perspective, their devotion was helpful in some ways, but it also made him wonder whether they really should be pouring quite that much of themselves into Seto.
Then again, both had Party Members and companions who would rein them in if they went too far, preventing them from spending excessive amounts on him.
"They'll probably wake before long, so just leave them be. ……Wolves have a keen sense of smell, so they'll stir once I start making breakfast. ……Though I'm not sure it's a good idea to feed my cooking to wolves——pups, no less."
Rei recalled reading somewhere that the salt content in human food was too high and unhealthy for dogs.
But that was a rule from Japan——from Earth.
This was Elgin, a fantasy world.
Earth's common sense had no reason to apply here.
(For one thing, fairies are even smaller than these wolf pups. Yet they eat the same food humans do with no ill effects. ……It might matter for ordinary wolves, but ones raised in the Fairy Dwelling can hardly be called ordinary.)
Keeping an eye on the pups still using Seto as a pillow, Rei began pulling breakfast from his Misty Ring.
Freshly baked bread, fruit, a meat-and-vegetable stir-fry, and seafood soup.
The moment the food appeared, an appetite-stimulating aroma wafted through the air.
The sleeping wolf pups' noses began twitching, and within seconds their eyes snapped open.
Upon waking, they immediately sought the source of the scent——and bolted toward Rei.
"Wau-wau!"
"Waoooon!"
Hungry. Give me that. Want food. Looks delicious.
Barking all the while, the pups raced circles around him.
Yet they never tried to steal his food outright——a testament to the fairies'…… no, the Chief's discipline.
Rei portioned out bread, stir-fry, and soup for each of them.
As he did, Seto, finally freed from pillow duty, padded over.
"Gurururu……"
Seto looked like he wanted to say he was exhausted.
He was used to playing with children and lying watchful at night.
But keeping wolf pups——not human children——entertained while monitoring his surroundings was an unfamiliar task, and it had worn him out.
"Good work, Seto. Here, eat up."
To console the weary gryphon, Rei produced a chunk of raw Gamelion meat.
Naturally, it wasn't from this year's hunt but from last year——or perhaps even earlier.
Still, having been stored in the Misty Ring, the meat was as fresh as the day it was cut.
"Gruu!"
Gamelion was one of Seto's favorites. He began eating happily, purring with delight.
"Wau……"
"Wafuu."
Seeing Seto eat with such obvious relish, the two pups lifted their heads from their own meals and whimpered enviously.
There was meat in their stir-fry, but a great slab of flesh visibly different from their portions was clearly far more appealing.
"Gurururu? ……Gruu, Gurururururu."
Seto, savoring his Gamelion, noticed the pups' reaction.
He tore off a strip of meat with his beak and dropped it onto their plates.
The pups purred happily and devoured the offering.
(Is raw meat all right for them? Well, wild animals eat it raw without any cooking, so I suppose this is normal enough.)
Watching the three of them eat, Rei turned to his own meal.
The seafood soup, laden with ingredients, yielded a rich dashi that delivered an intensely savory flavor.
The fish in it was steeped in that concentrated taste.
This was not the seafood used to make the initial stock——that had been fully removed——but fillets added afterward specifically as toppings.
In a sense, it was an extraordinarily extravagant seafood soup.
Using more ingredients than usual put it firmly in the high-priced category.
Yet Rei, having fallen for the flavor, had bought it by the pot——several pots, in fact.
He was thoroughly satisfied and had no regrets about the cost.
"Ah, hey, Rei. You're eating something delicious, aren't you. Share some with me."
The voice came suddenly as he was enjoying the soup.
He didn't need to think about who it belonged to.
"Nielson. You're up already. ……Here, have this."
He handed her a plate of stir-fry.
Nielson accepted it and dug in with evident enjoyment.
To her, the dish was perfectly tasty, and she ate cheerfully.
"So, what are your plans for today? Sounds like you were telling just about everyone about the Smog Panthers yesterday."
"Hmm, I wonder. There's nothing I particularly need to do. By yesterday, most of the fairies had already come to hear about the Smog Panthers."
"Most…… meaning some didn't?"
"Yes. Fairies who aren't interested in that sort of thing, or ones too absorbed in something else to bother listening. There's a fair number like that."
Even among fairies, not everyone shared the same temperament——something Rei could readily accept.
"In that case, you're in the same boat as me. Nothing to do today."
"Put that way, it makes me sound like someone with too much free time, which I'm not thrilled about."
Rei's phrasing had apparently rubbed her the wrong way.
Still, the fact remained that she had nothing pressing.
"For the record, fairies don't typically have assigned work. So in that sense, you could say I've simply returned to my everyday routine."
Nielson stated this without reservation, entirely confident in her words.
Rei opened his mouth to respond, but ultimately let the matter drop and changed the subject.
"Did you go see Bob yesterday?"
"Eh? Oh, yes. I checked on him. Though…… it seemed like quite a few other curious fairies visited him too."
"That's……"
Rei already knew from Nielson's case that Bob got along well with fairies.
But Bob currently carried defilement.
He likely meant no harm, but there was no guarantee it wouldn't affect the fairies somehow.
"What's wrong?"
Noticing Rei go quiet, Nielson tilted her head.
Rei hesitated briefly over whether to explain about the defilement.
But if the Chief hadn't mentioned it, he decided it was better left unsaid, and shook his head as though it were nothing.
"I was just wondering if you got scolded by the Chief, given how many fairies went to see him."
Naturally, the Chief had at least a partial understanding of everything happening in the Fairy Dwelling.
One or two visitors would be one thing, but if many fairies had come into contact with Bob, she would certainly know.
Yet she had shown no sign of discouraging those visits——which suggested she believed mere contact with Bob wouldn't spread the defilement.
Or perhaps the defilement threatened not individual fairies, but the Fairy Dwelling itself——the land.
"Hey, Rei. Why don't you come visit Bob with me?"
"Me? Sure. I'd like to ask if he's had any trouble camping. If he has, I wouldn't mind helping out a bit."
"In that case, you could share some of your cooking with him."
Nielson eyed Rei's meal as she said this, but he had no intention of coddling Bob.
If Bob had been allowed inside the Fairy Dwelling and was camping alongside Rei, he would have prepared a portion for him.
But Bob had been barred from entering because of his defilement, forcing him to camp separately.
Since they weren't eating together, Rei felt no obligation to provide meals——unless, of course, Bob was going hungry because he couldn't catch prey.
With that in mind, Rei decided he would check on Bob once he finished eating.