"Ah, Rei-san. Where are Seto and Nielson?"
Seeing Rei arrive in the area outside the Fairy Dwelling—more precisely, the fog-shrouded zone—Bob called out to him.
Rei hesitated over how to answer. Eventually, he spoke.
"Nielson's getting scolded by the Chief. Seto is playing with the wolf pups."
"Scolded by the Chief...? Did she do something wrong?"
"It's about the Orc incident, mostly. More importantly, I'm pretty sure there were a few fairies around when I came by earlier. What happened to them?"
Rei looked at Bob, but no fairies were in sight.
Even so, while asking the question, Rei more or less understood the reason.
He had been interacting with the fairies of the Fairy Dwelling long enough—Nielson included—to have a general grasp of their personalities.
In short... they had probably grown bored of teasing Bob and gone off to play somewhere, either back in the Fairy Dwelling or just nearby.
Sure enough, Bob's next words confirmed Rei's guess.
"They said they were tired of talking to me and were going to go play for a bit."
"I see. Not unusual for fairies, I suppose. Anyway, this is your share."
Rei produced a cut of Orc meat from his Misty Ring.
Bob stared at the meat that had suddenly appeared before him, startled.
Part of his surprise was at seeing Rei use the Misty Ring, but he was undoubtedly even more surprised by the Orc meat itself.
Bob alone would struggle to take down an Orc. And unlike the frontier, Orcs didn't appear in large numbers elsewhere, so his opportunities to eat Orc meat were few and far between.
That was exactly why he was so taken aback—not just at having Orc meat appear in front of him, but at being told it was his share.
"Eh? Are you sure?"
"Yeah. We wouldn't have found these Orcs in the first place without your intel."
That was an indisputable fact. It was precisely because Bob mentioned spotting Orcs that Rei's group had gone to hunt them. Without his information, they never would have acted. In that sense, Bob had played the most important role in the entire subjugation.
"Thank you. If you say so, Rei-san, then I'll gladly take it. Looks like today's meal will be a feast."
"Just make sure the fairies don't get at it. If they find out you have Orc meat, it wouldn't be surprising for them to come swarming over demanding their share."
"Ahaha. I'll be careful."
If it were Rei, he could refuse even if the fairies asked for the meat. Or the Chief might come out and scold them before that even happened. But Bob was soft on fairies, and more importantly, he currently couldn't enter the Fairy Dwelling because of his defilement. Rei didn't think Bob would be able to say no if fairies came asking for Orc meat in that situation.
Of course, for Bob, obtaining Orc meat at all was a stroke of luck. His original plan had been to hunt wild animals and birds in the forest for food. Naturally, a meat-only diet would be unhealthy, so he would have gathered wild vegetables, herbs, nuts, and fruit as well if he found any. Fortunately, it was autumn—the season of bounty. With even a little effort, he could undoubtedly find plenty.
"So, Rei-san. What brings you here this time? Just checking in? Or delivering the Orc meat?"
"Yeah, something like that. You look fine from what I can see. ...By the way, do you feel anything from the defilement?"
Rei asked casually, but unfortunately Bob didn't seem to feel anything in particular. He shook his head.
"Nothing special, no. ...Did something happen?"
"Just asking. If you know that kind of thing exists, you might be able to notice something different on your own. That's all I was thinking."
"I see. ...I'm sorry."
Bob had no real reason to apologize, but from his perspective, Rei was going out of his way to help with his defilement, and he genuinely felt bad that he couldn't do anything in return.
"Don't worry about it. Personally, it doesn't sit right with me that an oddball like you is suffering from something like defilement. Besides..."
Rei paused, and Bob gave him a quizzical look.
Meeting that questioning gaze, Rei thought for a moment. Deciding it would be better to mention this, he spoke.
"The reason you're being pursued—in a sense, what's likely the cause of your defilement—is that incident in the cave you told me about, right?"
"Eh? Ah, yes. Probably."
The cave incident and the defilement didn't necessarily have to be connected. But given the circumstances, it was a safe assumption. Otherwise, it would mean Bob had somehow gotten caught up in two entirely separate troubles at once.
Then again, if it were Rei, something like that wouldn't be unusual. Trouble always seemed to find him, as if he were beloved by the goddess of misfortune.
"Those guys attacked me at the same time they tried to kill you the other day."
In reality, they hadn't targeted Rei directly—they had been after Nielson, or perhaps ended up fighting Seto. But the end result was the same.
Rei only knew what the Chief had told him: that defilement was a form of malicious magical power. Because of that, he harbored a quiet hope—if he turned the tables on Bob's attackers and took down whoever was pulling their strings, he might be able to claim some kind of Magic Item.
The men had managed to close to a considerable distance without Seto noticing. Rei could guess it was magic, a Skill, a Magic Item, or something else entirely, but he considered a Magic Item the most likely possibility. In truth, he had no concrete basis for this—it was simply that if it were a Magic Item, he might be able to claim it for himself. Honestly, he just hoped it was one.
"Guys like that usually carry some kind of treasure. Far more valuable than what your average bandit would have."
"Eh... don't tell me you're trying to steal it?"
"'Steal' makes it sound a bit harsh. 'Confiscate'... no, that's not quite right either. Either way, that's the general idea."
Rei tried to think of a less damning word, but nothing milder came to mind, so he let it go with a vague brush-off. The end result was the same action anyway.
"So that was the reason. ...But if you do something about my defilement, won't the people after me lose their ability to find me?"
"Hard to say. If it comes to that, then fine. It's not like I absolutely have to go after the defilement crowd. It's more of an 'if I get the chance' thing."
To Rei, there wasn't much difference between the people targeting Bob and ordinary bandits. At best, they were a superior variant—that was his guess. If Bob's pursuers heard themselves compared to common bandits, they would undoubtedly fly into a rage. But to Rei, the distinction was negligible.
"I see. Then... I'm hoping you'll deal with the people targeting me as soon as possible, Rei-san."
"Yeah, that works. That said, once the Chief does something about your defilement, I do wonder what your pursuers will do."
Part of Rei actually hoped they would keep coming after Bob. But if the reason they could track him was the defilement, removing it would make finding Bob extremely difficult. If this were Earth, with its networked infrastructure, they might still locate him even without that clue. But in Elgin, where no such means existed, searching for someone with no leads and no idea where they were was—not impossible, but undeniably difficult.
"For me, the best outcome would be if they just gave up searching and left me alone."
"Is that really what you want? As long as they're still out there, you never know when or where they might find you. Well, if you lived deep in the mountains or out in the countryside where there aren't many people, it probably wouldn't be an issue, but..."
"Urk... th-that's..."
Bob fell silent.
He made his living as a traveling hunter, selling his prey to support himself. Living that lifestyle meant he naturally had plenty of occasions to visit populated areas. If someone was searching for him, that would make him easier to find. And since he was an oddity who traveled as a hunter rather than registering as an adventurer, his pursuers could use that as a distinguishing marker.
"You see the problem, right? Well, if you operated as an adventurer and worked in disguise, you probably wouldn't need to worry... but you don't want to do that, do you?"
Bob nodded.
For him, traveling and working as a hunter rather than an adventurer was a matter of personal conviction. Rei couldn't understand the point of it himself.
Of course, not being an adventurer had its merits. For instance, when danger threatened a village or town with a Guild, adventurers could be forced to cooperate, but since hunters didn't belong to the Guild, they had no such obligation.
Naturally, there were downsides too. Many places charged a fee to enter a village or town, but adventurers could have it waived by showing their Guild Card. Hunters had to pay every single time. There were various other pros and cons, but from Rei's perspective, the drawbacks seemed to outweigh the benefits overall—though perhaps that was simply because he was an adventurer himself.
"I guess having you defeat the ones who attacked me really is the best option, Rei-san."
Bob decided that relying on Rei was better than compromising on his principles.
"I hope that's how it plays out. Like I said, they seem to be carrying various treasures. Also, regarding the defilement—if we got an alchemist involved... no, never mind."
The Chief had described defilement as malicious magical power. Thinking about that, handing over defilement-imbued materials to an alchemist seemed like a terrible idea. Especially the alchemists in Gilm who processed Treant Forest lumber into construction materials—there was no telling what they might do. They might conduct reckless experiments and end up causing catastrophic damage to Gilm. The city was already in the middle of expansion construction, with huge numbers of people gathered seeking work. If a defilement experiment caused a major incident during all that... Rei didn't even want to think about it.
"Rei-san?"
"It's nothing. I was just thinking about what to do if we obtained the source of your defilement—presumably something in that cave you visited."
"What would you do with it?"
"It seemed like it could be useful, but either destroy it... or store it in the Misty Ring."
It wasn't necessarily the case that the defilement was imbued in an item, but if such an item were destroyed, there was a high risk the defilement would scatter and cause all sorts of problems. By contrast, storing it in the Misty Ring would stop time inside, effectively sealing it away.
Of course, the Misty Ring was itself a Magic Item. It had been created by Esta Nor—a member of the Zephyle Clan, regarded as the greatest alchemist in history—using the very pinnacle of her craft. The fact that she had created an Item Box, which normally only existed as OOPArts from the Ancient Magic civilization, was likely proof enough that her reputation was well deserved.
But even the Misty Ring wasn't indestructible. Thinking about what might happen if it were ever destroyed, Rei wondered whether storing the defilement inside it was really the right call either.