Having finished his conversation with Bob, Rei returned to the Fairy Dwelling.
Bob had mentioned he would soon head out to hunt... or perhaps gather mushrooms, nuts, fruit, wild plants, and mountain vegetables, and Rei could have accompanied him. But since Bob already had the Orc meat, Rei figured that should be enough for him.
Rei had no intention of tagging along, so he made his way back to the Fairy Dwelling, only to find...
"Nielson?"
"Ah! Hey, Rei! I'm never forgetting that you abandoned me earlier!"
The moment Rei murmured Nielson's name upon stepping into the Fairy Dwelling, she zeroed in on him and let loose.
From Nielson's perspective, Rei was a traitor who had abandoned his own comrade-in-arms.
...Though in all fairness, Rei couldn't exactly voice complaints to the Chief in that situation, and he figured things would have played out the same way no matter who else had been there.
"Even so. There's no way I could stick my nose into affairs inside the Fairy Dwelling, right? Besides... if I had spoken up then, the Chief might have reluctantly backed down in the moment, but she probably would've given you a much worse punishment later."
"Ugh... that's..."
Nielson couldn't argue back.
She must have realized that such a possibility was entirely real.
In that sense, she could perhaps be grateful Rei hadn't butted in... but even so, honestly thanking him for it was just too frustrating.
"Hmph... fine! I'll let it go just this once!"
Nielson forced the words out and flew off before Rei could respond.
He watched her go in silence.
If he said anything now, she'd probably take issue with it and start complaining all over again—or so he figured.
Whether that assessment was actually correct, Rei couldn't say for sure.
Best not to poke a hornet's nest, he thought, watching Nielson's retreating figure before turning back to amble through the Fairy Dwelling.
After all, there wasn't anything in particular for him to do right now.
Even with the defilement situation, the Chief was the one preparing to handle it. Rei had no role to play.
If the Chief asked for his help, he'd gladly lend a hand... but so far, there was no sign of that happening.
Which meant his only option was to pass the time casually while waiting for the Chief to call.
"Grrrrrl."
Rei had been strolling aimlessly through the Fairy Dwelling when a familiar purr reached his ears and brought him to a halt.
Curious about what its owner—Seto—was up to, Rei headed toward the sound, partly to kill some time.
When he arrived, he found two wolf pups and several fairies racing around with Seto at the center.
Both the wolf pups and the fairies were considerably smaller than Seto. Given that, they could easily treat him as an obstacle to run around.
Of course, that depended on the one being used as an obstacle accepting the role.
And fortunately, Seto seemed perfectly content with his situation.
"Ahahahaha! Wait, I said wait!"
"Hehehe, over here, over here!"
"Awooo!"
The fairies and wolf pups were happily playing with Seto—or rather, playing on Seto.
Is he actually having fun doing that? Rei wondered. But the Seto before him didn't look like he was doing it against his will in the slightest.
He was clearly enjoying himself.
If that was the case, Rei wasn't going to complain.
...If they had been forcing Seto into it, that would have been another story.
(Well, in that case, Seto would handle it himself.)
If Seto got serious, wiping the entire Fairy Dwelling off the map wouldn't be beyond the realm of possibility.
That was how much power he possessed.
That said, whether Seto was genuinely happy in a situation like this was still an open question in Rei's mind.
If he were in Seto's position, he certainly couldn't imagine enjoying it.
"Hey, Rei. Wanna play with us too?"
One of the fairies must have noticed him watching. She drifted over and extended the invitation.
Now, what to do.
Rei considered it for a moment, but since he had nothing better to do, he figured he might as well humor them.
"Sure. I'll play for a bit. ...So, what exactly are you all doing?"
"Seto-gokko!"
The fairy announced this with full confidence, but Rei's honest take was that the name didn't quite fit.
Normally, playing "so-and-so-gokko" meant fully becoming that so-and-so—like pretending to be the protagonist of a manga, anime, or game.
But this "Seto-gokko" the fairy had just described—what exactly was it supposed to be?
Unfortunately, Rei couldn't wrap his head around it.
"Seto-gokko, huh. From what I can see, I'm not really sure what kind of game that is."
"It's simple! We all play using Seto as a stage."
"...That's... yeah. It's exactly as it looks."
From Rei's perspective, the Seto-gokko the fairy described didn't seem all that entertaining.
The one saving grace was that Seto himself appeared to be having a reasonable amount of fun.
If Seto hadn't been enjoying it at all, Rei probably would have put a stop to the game.
"But unfortunately, as you can see, I might be smaller than Seto, but compared to fairies and wolves, I'm pretty big. I think playing this Seto-gokko thing would be a bit tough for me."
"That's... maybe true. But then what should we do? What should we play?"
"Instead of playing, how about we take a little break? I've got some fruit. We could eat and relax for a while."
At Rei's words, not just the fairy he'd been talking to, but all the other fairies surged toward him at once.
Drawn by the commotion, the two wolf pups trotted over as well.
And finally, Seto—who had been serving as obstacle, or rather, platform—also came padding over, apparently having caught wind of the conversation.
Rei passed out fruit he'd retrieved from his Misty Ring to the fairies and wolf pups.
He'd figured the wolf pups wouldn't be satisfied with fruit and would want meat, but fortunately, they dug right in.
(Wolves eat fruit too, huh. Well, actually, maybe it's not that surprising.)
Wolves were living creatures, after all. That meant they couldn't survive on meat alone.
Moreover, wolves and dogs were omnivores that ordinarily ate vegetables too.
Of course, there were certain vegetables that were harmful to them depending on their species.
At any rate, right now everyone was happily munching on the fruit Rei had produced.
"Grrru."
Seto crunched into his fruit and purred with satisfaction.
The others were also cheerfully eating away.
"Seto, you looked like you were enjoying yourself earlier. Was it really that fun?"
"Gruu?"
Seto gave Rei a puzzled look, as if asking why he would even question it.
For Seto, the Seto-gokko just now hadn't been boring at all.
From Rei's perspective, he couldn't imagine enjoying a situation like that. Yet Seto was clearly happy, which only made it more baffling.
"Well, if you're that happy about it, I guess there's no problem. Here, have another."
He pulled out more fruit and passed it to Seto.
Rei still wasn't sure whether Seto had actually been playing or not, but either way, he figured properly eating fruit was better than whatever that had been.
"By the way, tomorrow's going to get pretty busy for you too, Seto. Keep that in mind."
"Gruu?"
Seto cocked his head, seemingly unsure what Rei meant.
Then again, honestly, Rei himself didn't know exactly what would happen tomorrow.
All he knew was that they were going to deal with Bob's defilement.
In the first place, Rei didn't really understand what "defilement" actually was.
The Chief had only described it as something like evil magical power.
But since the Chief herself called it evil magical power, the question was whether that power might cause problems.
Depending on the circumstances, the magical power itself could run amok and wreak havoc on the surroundings.
To handle that possibility, having Rei and Seto on standby was the right call.
(It's called defilement, so maybe it'll possess something and turn into a monster... no, I wonder about that? If it becomes a monster, would it have a magic stone? That would actually be...)
If the defilement transformed—or evolved—into a monster for some reason, that would mean a chance to obtain a magic stone. From Rei's standpoint, that wouldn't be a bad deal.
...Of course, just how powerful a defilement-turned-monster would be was something he wouldn't know until he actually fought it.
"Tomorrow's defilement business could turn into a pretty big incident, depending on how things go."
Rei wasn't saying this to Seto without reason.
The Chief who led this Fairy Dwelling was naturally a step or two—or perhaps even more—above the other fairies in power.
And yet the Chief had needed two full days to prepare for dealing with Bob's defilement.
That fact alone meant defilement was an extremely troublesome existence.
Given the nature of it, the possibility of things turning into a major incident couldn't be dismissed.
"Eh? What's that? What are you talking about?"
One of the fairies who'd been eavesdropping on Rei and Seto's conversation piped up, fruit still in hand, clearly intrigued.
For fairies, who were driven by curiosity, talk of defilement must have been fascinating.
(Wait, was this a mistake?)
If the Chief hadn't told the fairies about the defilement, then Rei bringing it up here could have been a misstep.
That thought crossed his mind for an instant, but he reconsidered—it was too late to worry about that now.
By tomorrow, the Chief would naturally inform everyone about the situation.
More importantly, if the Nielson incident was any indication, he doubted the fairies would do anything to provoke the Chief's wrath.
...If they did, ending up punished like Nielson wouldn't be the least bit surprising.
The fairies understood that defying the Chief was dangerous, so they generally didn't cross her.
...That was generally speaking, of course. If their curiosity got the better of them and they slipped into a half-berserk state, that would be an entirely different matter.
"It's about Bob. You've heard from the Chief that he's not allowed inside the Fairy Dwelling, right?"
"Oh, I know that! I haven't met him, but there's a guy named Bob staying near the Fairy Dwelling, right?"
"I went to see him! He was pretty interesting! He even gave me meat!"
That wasn't Orc meat, was it?
Rei nearly blurted the question out, but then he remembered he'd only given Bob the Orc meat a short while ago.
Given that, the chances were close to zero.
Still, these were fairies he was dealing with.
Depending on the circumstances, it wouldn't be beyond them to use a Fairy Circle to teleport over just to pull a prank.
"By the way, what kind of meat was it?"
"Hm? Bird."
Rei breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
Though a question still nagged at him.
(Bob ate bird meat this morning, right? But this fairy wasn't around when I visited... oh, right. It's not like bird was only on the menu today. Bob could have eaten bird meat last night too, for all I know.)
Bob was a skilled hunter. Catching prey wasn't particularly difficult for him.
That was why bagging a bird would be easy enough for him.
"I see. But that's Bob's food, so you shouldn't take too much from him. Bob would probably insist it's fine, though."
From where Rei stood, Bob was soft on fairies.
More precisely, Bob himself was highly curious, which probably made it natural for him to grow close to Nielson and the other fairies.
At Rei's words, the fairy looked slightly put out... but the moment he mentioned the Chief, she nodded immediately.