About thirty minutes had passed since Rei and Nielson started eating the stall food.
Eventually, someone's presence approached the room.
Noticing this, Nielson hid behind the pot once more, and Rei quickly stashed the food from the table into his Misty Ring.
A knock came at the door... and when Rei realized the person entering was Daskar, he felt he hadn't needed to rush quite so much.
"What is it? I heard you have an urgent matter, but... it smells rather good in here. The kind of smell that stimulates the appetite."
Daskar sniffed at the lingering scent in the room and cast a meaningful glance toward Rei.
The meaning behind that gaze was obvious without a second thought.
"Sorry. The truth is, Nielson said she wanted to eat the food she bought at a stall, so..."
"Ah! Hey, don't pin this all on me! You were eating it too, Rei!"
Once she realized it was Daskar who had entered the room, Nielson emerged from behind the pot and protested loudly.
She clearly couldn't tolerate having the stall food eating pinned solely on her.
And since Rei had indeed been eating the food as well, he couldn't argue with her.
"Ah, right. My bad. But you were the one who ate the most, weren't you, Nielson?"
"U-uh, well..."
"Let's leave it at that. I'm not going to say anything just because you were eating while waiting for me. Besides, it's my fault for making you wait in the first place. ...I also heard it's an urgent matter. May I hear the details of what exactly is going on?"
Daskar settled onto the sofa across from Rei and asked.
For a moment, Rei considered having a maid bring tea for Daskar, but given Nielson's presence, he wanted to keep as few people entering the room as possible.
With that in mind, he handed Daskar some cold fruit water from his Misty Ring and began to speak.
"Actually, I went to obtain a monster's magic stone as requested by the Chief of the Fairy Dwelling, and on the way, I picked up a strange fellow."
With that, Rei launched into an explanation about Bob.
How Bob's life was being targeted by someone that even Seto couldn't detect until they were right on top of him. How the Chief of the Fairy Dwelling had said that Bob was carrying defilement. And how defilement was extremely dangerous—in the worst case, the entire continent could be at risk.
He covered various other details as well, and by the time he finished, about twenty minutes had passed.
"I see. I understand the situation. But... while defilement is something I'm hearing about for the first time and is certainly a problem, there's a more pressing issue that precedes it. Regarding the Fairy Dwelling, I believe I told you that fundamentally, its existence must not be known to people. Fortunately... truly fortunately, it seems this man called Bob didn't attempt to capture the fairies upon seeing them. But if he had been someone consumed by greed, there's no doubt the Fairy Dwelling would have suffered harm."
"That's..."
Rei couldn't argue against Daskar's words.
In reality, if Bob had been that kind of person, it would have certainly become a serious problem.
"Wait a minute."
The one who cut into the conversation was Nielson.
At those words, Daskar shifted his gaze from Rei to Nielson.
Noticing the attention on her, Nielson stopped eating and spoke up—not as an envoy of the Fairy Dwelling, but as Rei's friend.
"I was the one who said we should bring Bob to the Fairy Dwelling. So it's strange for Rei to take all the blame."
Hearing Nielson's words, Daskar pondered.
It was true—Nielson was the one who had suggested bringing Bob to the Fairy Dwelling.
Rei had simply agreed, reasoning that if Nielson said so, then it was fine.
For Nielson, whose curiosity had been stimulated by Bob's existence, she probably thought bringing him to the Fairy Dwelling would be interesting.
In fact, thanks to that decision, the Chief had detected the defilement dwelling within Bob, which was what had brought Rei and Nielson to Daskar in the first place. So Nielson's judgment itself was by no means wrong.
If Nielson hadn't brought Bob to the Fairy Dwelling, there was a high probability they would have remained completely ignorant of defilement.
And the defilement issue could lead to the destruction of the continent in the worst case.
Given that, if they had remained unaware, there was even a possibility that the continent could have been destroyed without anyone ever knowing what was happening.
In that sense, Nielson's decision to bring Bob to the Fairy Dwelling had carried tremendous significance.
That said, from Daskar's perspective, the fact that Rei had brought Bob to the Fairy Dwelling still warranted a reprimand.
It was fine that Nielson had come up with the idea and proposed it.
However, Rei knew full well that Daskar was keeping the Fairy Dwelling as secret as possible from outsiders.
Like the lake in the Treant Forest and the Birth Tower, the Fairy Dwelling was something Daskar wanted kept just as secret as a passage to another world.
Rei had known that.
And yet he had still brought Bob to the Fairy Dwelling, which made it difficult for Daskar to accept.
"You're right. Looking back on it now, it may have been thoughtless of me. But Bob already knew about Nielson's existence. Given that, it's highly likely he would have quickly deduced that the Fairy Dwelling—where fairies live—was somewhere nearby."
"Even if he knew the Fairy Dwelling existed, I don't think he would have known specifically where it was, though?"
"Given that I was traveling with Nielson, it wouldn't be difficult to guess that the Fairy Dwelling is somewhere in the frontier... near Gilm. And if so, the recently appeared Treant Forest would be the most suspicious candidate. ...Well, whether Bob could explore the Treant Forest on his own is another question entirely, and the answer to that would be no."
Bob was not an adventurer, but a hunter.
He was fairly skilled as a hunter, but even so, his abilities were only at a level where he judged he couldn't win against a handful of Orcs.
For such a person to explore the Treant Forest alone would be nearly impossible.
Given that, even if Bob suspected the Treant Forest, Rei didn't think he could actually do anything about it.
"Hmm, I see."
Perhaps finding merit in Rei's words, Daskar nodded.
One of the reasons he nodded was likely because it had been Nielson, not Rei, who had voiced the desire to bring Bob to the Fairy Dwelling in the first place.
"Understood. For now, let's consider the matter closed. ...However, don't forget that if those who know nothing of the Fairy Dwelling learn of its existence, they may come flocking to it."
"It'll be fine. Even if those sorts of people come gathering, there's no telling whether they'd even be able to reach the Fairy Dwelling."
Nielson said this with full confidence, and Rei couldn't deny her words either.
The Fairy Dwelling was located deep within the Treant Forest to begin with, and just getting there was fairly arduous.
The territories of monsters and animals in the Treant Forest weren't yet firmly established, so depending on one's luck, it might be possible to reach the Fairy Dwelling without encountering powerful monsters or ferocious beasts. But with bad luck, one would cross paths with them and end up in a fight.
Even after clearing that hurdle, the next obstacle was the fog drifting around the Fairy Dwelling, with wolf packs lurking within it to attack intruders.
And as the final line of defense, there was the Chief.
When he thought about it like that, the Fairy Dwelling was not a place one could reach so easily.
...Though it wasn't absolutely impossible, given that people like Rei and Seto had managed to arrive.
"Perhaps so, but as someone who trades with the Fairy Dwelling, it's still a concern. ...In any case, let's put the Fairy Dwelling matter aside... defilement, huh."
Daskar's demeanor suggested he would have preferred to avoid the topic entirely.
Precisely because he hadn't wanted to touch on it, part of the reason he had reprimanded Rei for bringing Bob to the Fairy Dwelling was to steer the conversation away from it.
It was clear he had strong feelings about the very existence of defilement.
"The destruction of this continent... the scale is so massive that the lack of any real sense of it is troublesome in its own right. Of course, even if it came down to the Mireana Kingdom or Gilm being annihilated, that would also be undeniably troublesome."
"I understand not having a real sense of it. When the Chief told me about it, I didn't fully grasp it either. But... as long as something called defilement exists, there's no doubt in my mind that something has to be done about it."
If they could simply pretend defilement didn't exist, it would make things far easier for Rei.
But having seen the defilement emerge from Bob's body with his own eyes, he couldn't just dismiss it as if it never existed.
"So it comes to that after all. But... the problem is that I know nothing about this thing called defilement. My family has governed this frontier for generations. Precisely because it's the frontier, there are things known here that aren't known elsewhere—but among all of that, there is nothing about defilement."
Daskar sifted through his own knowledge once more, searching for anything remotely similar, but as expected, there was no information about defilement to be found.
In other words, defilement was something entirely new—not just to Daskar, but to his ancestors before him.
"Even in the Fairy Dwelling, only the Chief knew about defilement. ...And Nielson was with Bob the whole time, yet she didn't even notice its presence."
Nielson was a successor candidate to the Chief—was that really acceptable?
So Rei thought, but the person in question simply floated through the air, averted her gaze, and whistled.
Rei considered calling out her blatant deflection, but it wasn't just Nielson—he himself had failed to notice it. And even Seto, with his sharper five senses, Sixth Sense, and ability to detect magical power, hadn't picked up on the defilement either.
In that sense, he couldn't exactly blame Nielson alone.
"Anyway, that's the situation with defilement, and someone who's using it for some reason is targeting Bob. ...What do you think we should do?"
"You're asking me that? That sort of thing is your area of expertise, Rei."
From Daskar's perspective, Rei excelled at the rough work.
And that wasn't wrong. Up until now, Rei had survived countless battles as an adventurer.
Even though only a few years had passed since he arrived in this world, he had experienced—multiple times—the kind of battles an ordinary adventurer might encounter only once in a lifetime, if at all.
Moreover, since he treated bandit hunting as a hobby, he had extensive combat experience in that arena as well.
Given the kind of person Rei was, Daskar wouldn't have found it strange to think that intercepting those targeting Bob wouldn't be too difficult for him.
"I'm not sure what you mean by 'normal,' but if they were just your average adventurer or bandit, it wouldn't be a problem. The enemy, however, appears to have the ability to approach right up close without being detected by Seto. Whether that's a Skill, magic, or a Magic Item, I don't know. But that's what we're dealing with."
For Rei, this was the most troublesome point.
He could sense presences and killing intent to a certain degree.
But even more skilled at scouting than Rei was Seto.
When traveling with Seto, Rei basically left the surrounding vigilance to him.
The fact that even Seto hadn't noticed the enemy's presence until they were right on top of them was nothing short of shocking.
Furthermore, it wasn't as if Seto had clearly identified the enemy once they closed in. Rather, he had sensed something was off, felt that something was strange, and attacked as a precaution—that was the more accurate description.
"Seto didn't notice? ...I see. When you put it that way, they're quite a formidable foe. But how are we supposed to find an opponent that even Seto can't detect?"
"All I can say about that part is 'do your best.' ...That said, the enemy probably can't stay invisible at all times, so I think it would be better to search for them from a different direction than what I or Seto can manage."
From Rei's perspective, searching for the enemy using the same methods as Seto didn't seem possible to begin with.
Fundamentally, a frontier lord like Daskar and an adventurer like himself had different tools at their disposal.
Since Daskar had numerous subordinates, he needed to make effective use of them.
"That's true. And also... if the story about defilement is true, we'll need to contact the Royal Castle as well. Things are busy enough as it is, and I'd rather not have the Pro-Kingdom of Mireana Faction sticking their noses in, but..."
Can't be helped, Daskar murmured.