Though Rei wasn't entirely convinced, the decision had been made, and they were about to move into action to take down the Orcs—when, at that very moment, Rei spoke up sharply.
"Wait."
Seto reacted instantly to Rei's command and stopped. Nielson, who had leapt out from the bushes where she'd been hiding, quickly darted back.
Bob had been told to hide from the start, so hearing Rei's voice posed no problem for him.
"Rei, what on earth—ah, I see."
Nielson, who had jumped out of the bushes, went unnoticed by the Orcs thanks to her small size and made it back to Rei's position. She was about to complain about why he'd stopped them so suddenly.
But mid-sentence, movement rippled through the Orc group, and she understood exactly why Rei had halted their advance.
Two new Orcs had appeared where about ten had already been gathered.
They carried a fox corpse in their hands—likely prey hunted by the newcomers.
(More of them? Though two more won't make a difference.)
Even so, having enemies suddenly appear mid-battle would definitely be a nuisance.
Keeping watch for any further arrivals... several minutes passed.
After confirming that no more Orcs emerged, Rei spoke again.
"There probably aren't any more enemies. Let's go."
With that, Rei finally stepped out from the bushes.
This wasn't a duel or anything of the sort, so he didn't announce himself before the monsters. He simply closed the distance to the Orcs.
In his hands he held Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear, drawn from the Misty Ring, in his usual Twin Spear Style.
"Buhiiiiiigh!"
One of the Orcs—the one carrying the fox corpse—was the first to notice Rei's presence and let out a cry.
Rei couldn't understand the Orc's language, so he had no idea what it was saying.
It might have been a cry of surprise, or perhaps a warning to its allies that an enemy had arrived.
But... that cry came too late.
Rei had kicked off the ground and was already within striking distance of the Orc group by the time the shout rang out.
"Die!"
The word was short, decisive, and absolute in sealing their fate as Rei swung Death Scythe.
The strike, infused with magical power, cleaved three Orcs clean in half—top to bottom.
Using the recoil from that blow to spin, he crushed another Orc's skull with the Twilight Spear.
Having killed four Orcs in the blink of an eye, Rei searched for his next target.
But by then, Seto had already claimed one Orc with a foreleg strike and crushed another's head with his beak.
Several others had their feet tangled by grass that suddenly erupted from the ground—Nielson's magic—stopping them dead in their tracks.
The immobilized Orcs were nothing more than easy pickings for Rei and Seto.
Death Scythe, the Twilight Spear, forelegs, and beak—the Orcs' lives were extinguished one after another.
"Whoa... I can't believe it..."
The battle—or rather, what could more accurately be described as a one-sided rout at the hands of Rei's group—ended with the Orcs annihilated, unable to mount any response.
Given their small numbers, a few Orcs had tried to flee, but Nielson's magic cut off their escape.
Some had attempted to fight back, reasoning that they could manage against just one person and one creature. Those were the first to die.
As the battle came to a close, Bob emerged—timidly, half in a daze.
For the record, Bob never ended up providing support with his bow. But against opponents of this caliber, arrow support would have made little difference to Rei's group either way.
...Not that having support wouldn't have been welcome, of course.
"You say you can't believe it, but it was only this many Orcs, you know? For me, it's nothing worth getting worked up over."
This wasn't an exaggeration. Rei was simply stating the truth as he saw it.
For someone who had fought high-rank monsters including Dragons, Orcs were nothing more than monsters with delicious meat.
If they scattered in every direction, wiping them all out would be difficult.
But in a situation like this—a surprise attack, with Seto fighting alongside him and Nielson's support cutting off any escape—killing a little over ten Orcs was effortless.
"When I run into an Orc, I can barely manage one... and only if I catch it completely off guard with an ambush..."
For Bob, whose only weapon was a bow, close combat with an Orc was out of the question.
And while his bow had enough power for wild game, it wasn't the kind of heavy bow that could kill a monster like an Orc in a single shot.
Bob's bow was designed for hunting, not for slaying monsters.
Still, a bow was a bow. If an arrow struck an Orc's head, it could bring the creature down in one hit.
A shot through the heart would do the same.
...Though whether one could actually pierce an Orc's heart, buried beneath layers of thick fat and muscle, was an entirely different matter.
"For now, let's secure the Orc corpses. As for the dissection... I'll try asking the Chief. If that doesn't work, I'll handle it myself."
"Huh? Wait, Rei. Are you serious?"
Nielson stared at Rei in disbelief at the suggestion that he would ask the Chief for dissection so casually.
For her, making such a request to the Chief so nonchalantly was something she could never bring herself to do.
The fact that Rei would do it so easily was reason enough to regard him with astonishment.
That said, since the Chief was already dissecting monsters for him—including Smog Panthers—Rei could only see it as nothing new.
"Of course I'm serious. That said, I don't know whether the Chief will simply go along with our request. She's undoubtedly busy with various things."
The Chief was using the Smog Panther magic stones Rei had obtained to complete the Fog Sound, and she also had to prepare for the purge of Bob's defilement.
In that sense, the Chief was perhaps inadvertently the busiest person in the Fairy Dwelling right now.
Even so, since the Chief was the only one who could use Dismantling Magic, Rei had no intention of holding back from asking.
(Times like this, a dissection Magic Item would be really handy... well, I just have to trust it'll be possible someday.)
Rei had handed over a considerable amount of various monster materials from his Misty Ring to the Chief.
He had asked her to use those materials to create a dissection Magic Item.
If they could also aid in crafting fairy-made Magic Items, that would be perfectly fine as well.
Among the materials stored in the Misty Ring were many that an alchemist would have coveted desperately.
If the alchemists in Gilm—especially those who processed Treant Forest wood to enhance its magical defense—learned of this, it wouldn't be surprising for them to demand why Rei hadn't given the materials to them instead.
Then again, Rei was rather fed up with Gilm's alchemists, so even if he hadn't given those materials to the Chief, he still wouldn't have handed them over to the alchemists.
"Anyway, we've taken down the Orcs we came for. Let's head back soon. We can't stay out here indefinitely."
Storing the Orc corpses into his Misty Ring one after another, Rei made the call.
Bob looked like he wanted to say something about the bizarre sight, but realizing it would be pointless, he kept his mouth shut.
"I can see!"
Rewinding to the time when Rei was searching for the Orc base, guided by Seto.
The men were traveling by carriage toward the frontier when, among them, a man who had his eyes closed suddenly shouted.
These were the men who had attacked Rei—or more precisely, Bob.
The link to Bob's shared vision had been suddenly severed, leaving them with no idea where Bob had gone after taking to the sky. But since Rei had been with him, they deduced he was likely heading toward the frontier city of Gilm, and were now en route... when, without warning, the visual connection returned.
At those words, the men inside the carriage stirred.
Initially, they had feared the worst—that the visual link had been permanently severed by some unknown means.
Fortunately, that concern proved unfounded.
In truth, most of them hadn't believed such a thing was possible.
But since the connection had indeed gone dark, they had braced for the worst just in case.
"Phew, I see. So the link was still intact."
The Leader also let out a breath of relief at those words.
But the reprieve lasted only a moment.
He immediately asked about Bob's current situation.
"So, where is he now?"
"In a forest... it looks like. Crimson, the Gryphon, and... that fairy from before are all with him!"
The man's voice rang with delight, his eyes still closed.
Killing Bob was one objective, but the men also coveted a Fairy's Heart.
That was why the restoration of the visual link—and being able to confirm his surroundings—was immensely valuable.
"A forest, huh. Should we assume it's near the frontier, near Gilm, after all? The problem is which forest."
The Leader frowned as he considered it.
There were several woods and forests scattered around Gilm.
Given that, where exactly should they go?
With multiple possibilities, it wouldn't be surprising if, even after reaching the frontier, they ended up searching in a completely wrong location.
If Rei's group turned out to be in an ordinary forest rather than a frontier one, that would be fine.
But a frontier forest carried the very real possibility of unknown monsters that only existed in such untamed regions.
Every man here had a fair degree of confidence in his skills, but that confidence had its limits.
If asked whether they could fight and win against the high-rank monsters that roamed the frontier, the answer was a firm no.
"A frontier forest... information is what decides everything. First and foremost, we need to pin down exactly where Rei's group is."
Once they knew Rei's group's location, they would have multiple options.
They had brought several Magic Items, so approaching while erasing their presence with a candle like before wasn't impossible.
Of course, doing so carried the risk of being detected by Seto again, making countermeasures essential.
"Ah... it looks like Bob—no, Rei's group is targeting Orcs."
The man whose vision was linked with Bob spoke up.
Through Bob's eyes, he could see that Rei had located the gathering of Orcs, readied his weapons, and charged in—only to suddenly stop.
The watcher understood this was because new Orcs had appeared.
Then Rei plunged into the Orc pack once more...
"Whoa..."
At the sheer one-sided brutality of the carnage, a stunned voice slipped from the man linked to Bob's vision.
Hearing it, the surrounding men were naturally curious.
"What happened? What's going on?"
"Well... Crimson Rei is massacring the Orcs."
If Rei himself had heard those words, he might have taken offense at the unflattering characterization.
But the scene visible through Bob's eyes was one where the word "massacre" was entirely appropriate.
The man sharing Bob's vision suspected that most who witnessed the sight would share his impression.
Then again, since it was Orcs being slaughtered, not many would object.
There were people in the world who argued that since monsters were living creatures, killing them was wrong.
Yet those same people typically ate monster meat without a second thought.
In the end, the majority of those who preached that killing even monsters was immoral were likely those who stood to profit from the stance.
Of course, a handful genuinely possessed hearts of compassion and refused to eat monster meat.
Instead, they ate wild game or fish, and saw no contradiction.
Or even if they ate only plants, when confronted with the argument that plants were also alive, they would produce some rationale only they found convincing and consider the matter settled.
For the man watching the Orc massacre, however, he had absolutely no interest in any of that.
"That's an Item Box..."
Watching Rei stash Orc corpses into the Misty Ring one after another, the man murmured.
He had witnessed Rei use the Misty Ring many times before, yet the fact that it still amazed him was proof of just how extraordinary the item was.
The man continued observing Rei's group... but as they approached the Fairy Dwelling and fog rolled in, the vision severed once again.