Inside the café, the conversation between Rei, Marina, and Nielson was still ongoing.
Thanks to Marina's Spirit Magic, there was no way for anyone around them to overhear it.
When the clerk brought their orders, they had stepped inside the wind spirit barrier, making it impossible to disguise the conversation—but it wasn't as though the clerk had concealed their presence while approaching.
Given that, Rei and the others could tell when the clerk was coming, so they only needed to switch to a different topic at those moments.
...The clerk, for their part, was curious about the nature of Rei and Marina's relationship and had been trying to catch even a fragment of their conversation. They were actually quite pleased to hear the decoy small talk instead.
By now, the clerk was probably on the other side of the counter, replaying the conversation in their head and stewing in frustration alone.
After all, during the decoy conversation, Marina had been wearing a smile that could captivate even other women, while dropping words laden with suggestive meaning.
"Now then, about the defilement... what bothers me is why only the Chief knew about it."
"You're asking me? I wouldn't know either. It's not like I'm particularly well-versed in that sort of thing."
Nielson replied to Marina's question.
In truth, Nielson had never known about defilement; she had first learned of it when the Chief told her.
It wasn't that she didn't think it possible she might have heard it from the Chief before—but expecting a fairy to retain complicated information was asking the impossible.
...Then again, if she recalled the Chief's punishment, it seemed unlikely she would have forgotten.
"Yeah, that's right. The first time I heard about it was definitely from the Chief."
Perhaps remembering the punishment, Nielson said as much.
Since she was conducting the conversation with only her face poking out of the Dragon Robe, Rei could tell that Nielson was trembling.
Even Rei couldn't mistake that for eager anticipation of battle.
She was undoubtedly recalling the Chief's punishment and was frightened by it.
"I see. In that case... perhaps it's a secret passed down only to chiefs? Though that in itself raises a bit of a question."
Marina knew that there existed things passed down in a manner akin to a one-on-one transmission—though not precisely the same.
As the Shrine Maiden of the World Tree, Marina herself was, in a sense, exactly such an existence.
"Probably... no, definitely that's it!"
For Nielson, the possibility that she had heard it before and simply forgotten was something she absolutely wanted to avoid.
That was undoubtedly why she insisted it was information transmitted only to the Chief.
Whether that was actually the correct answer, unfortunately, even Rei did not know.
Hearing Nielson's words, however, Rei recalled the fairies he had encountered on the Seremuse Plain... or more precisely, the Chief of those fairies.
That Chief led a different fairy group from the one residing in the Fairy Dwelling of the Treant Forest.
Given that, it was possible that Chief also knew about the defilement—or so Rei thought.
(If the defilement could destroy the continent in the worst case, then borrowing that Chief's power would be helpful... no, given that I can't even contact that Chief in the first place, it's meaningless.)
For a brief moment, Rei thought it was a promising idea, but immediately dismissed it since he had no way to reach them.
It was possible that the Chief of the Treant Forest's Fairy Dwelling might be able to contact the Chief of another Fairy Dwelling... but for now, he decided to set that possibility aside.
"In any case, the defilement, huh... If possible, I would have preferred something like this to happen after Gilm's expansion construction was finished."
"Telling me that doesn't help. If anything, wouldn't you say it's a good thing it was caught at an early stage? ...Though I couldn't say whether it's actually early or not."
From Rei's perspective, he couldn't determine whether the incident with Bob had been caught early or late.
But if he hadn't encountered Bob, he never would have noticed the existence of defilement.
Of course, just because Rei hadn't noticed it didn't mean no one else in this world would have.
If Rei hadn't stumbled upon it, someone else would have eventually—that much was certain.
Who exactly that would be, unfortunately, Rei didn't know.
Still, compared to a situation where events progressed with no one the wiser, the fact that Rei's involvement had brought the defilement to light was undeniably not a bad outcome.
Setting aside how the Rei actually caught up in the whole affair felt about it, that is.
"Perhaps so. But looking at it that way, the fact that you were outside Gilm, Rei, turned out to be not such a bad thing after all."
"Whether that's a good thing or a sad thing for me, I'm not so sure."
"Hehe. You really do have that kind of constitution, don't you, Rei."
"...It's not exactly something I'm happy about."
A constitution beloved by trouble—or perhaps a constitution beloved by the goddess of trouble.
Either way, it was a somewhat convincing explanation, and Rei himself understood that he was that sort of person.
Understanding it and accepting it, however, were two different things—and his answer to that question was a firm no.
If possible, he wanted this matter to wrap up without any further hassle.
So he thought... but considering the sheer scale of the defilement issue and its troublesome nature, he couldn't possibly imagine that someone else would resolve it while he stayed uninvolved.
(That said, there's no denying the matter is a bit too large for me to get involved in, either.)
From Rei's perspective, if he had the choice, he would rather pass on troublesome matters altogether.
After all, his current situation already kept him constantly embroiled in one crisis after another.
...There were also times when he waded into trouble of his own accord, though he had little self-awareness of that fact.
"In that case, are you heading to the Fairy Dwelling right away, Rei?"
"Looks like it. Honestly, I'd like to take it easy here a bit longer, but if I do, there's a good chance a fair number of people will gather at Marina's house. Besides... a big part of why I came to Gilm this time was the Chief's request. Given that, once my business is done, I should head back as soon as I can."
"Ehh..."
At Rei's words, Nielson visibly bristled with displeasure.
For Nielson, returning to the Fairy Dwelling meant the Chief would likely assign her all sorts of tasks again—something she probably found tiresome.
...Setting aside the fact that the defilement had been isolated into a flower-shaped jewel, Rei knew that Nielson had failed when attempting to process it.
He had also witnessed Nielson being subjected to punishment for that failure.
Knowing all that, Rei understood why Nielson wouldn't want to return to the Fairy Dwelling.
He understood... but even so, he couldn't simply nod along with her protests.
"Knowing the Chief, there's no telling how she might learn about this incident. You can't rule out the possibility that she's watching this very moment through some unknown means."
"Eh... no way... but then again, if it's the Chief..."
Nielson looked as though she desperately didn't want to believe Rei's words, but even Rei—who had only said it as a joke—found himself thinking that, considering the Chief's abilities, perhaps it really was possible.
Whether the Chief could actually pull off such a thing, he didn't know.
But even if the Chief told him she couldn't, he knew he wouldn't be able to simply accept those words at face value—not when they came from her.
The Chief undoubtedly possessed something of that caliber.
Fortunately, Rei was recognized by the Chief as a benefactor, and as long as he didn't do anything foolish, there was no need to worry about ending up in a fight with her.
In that sense, Rei was still safe.
Nielson, who was regarded as the Chief's successor, was another matter entirely.
"Anyway, once we're done talking here, I'm heading back. When I went to the Guild warehouse, I made a point of leaving through the area with the taverns so I wouldn't be recognized, but even then, someone was tailing me. I shook them off on the way here."
He had gone to the trouble of shaking off his tail precisely because being identified would cause problems.
Given that, it wouldn't be surprising if those tailing him had already recognized Rei for who he was.
After pulling a stunt like that, it was entirely possible his identity was already known.
"Why did you go to all that trouble?"
"Well, if those kinds of people were lurking around while I met Marina, it would cause all sorts of problems. From their perspective, they already suspect I'm Rei. If they saw me meeting with Marina, what do you think they'd conclude?"
If Marina hadn't gotten into that altercation with the adventurers, it might not have been necessary to go to such lengths.
Of course, in that case, Rei would probably have just gone straight back to Marina's house without meeting her here at all.
"That's true. In that case, it seems this whole situation was unavoidable. At the very least, let's enjoy ourselves a bit before you head back to the Fairy Dwelling."
"Umm... hey, just so we're clear, don't forget I'm here too."
Perhaps sensing that the two of them were about to create a certain atmosphere, Nielson cut into Rei and Marina's conversation.
Rei merely gave Nielson a quizzical look, wondering what on earth she was going on about. Marina, on the other hand, simply turned her gaze toward Nielson with a radiant smile.
Watching her, Rei couldn't tell what Marina was thinking at all.
He did, however, have a distinct feeling that saying anything here would only lead to trouble, so he kept his mouth shut.
(I wonder if Seto is behaving himself. Well, Ielo is with him, so I doubt he'll get lonely.)
Rei pictured Seto and Ielo playing together—an act that bordered on escapism.
Of course, the fact that he was genuinely worried about Seto was also true.
"The only ones who know you've returned are me and Elena, right? In that case, we should probably call Vihera too... but she should be at the Birth Tower today, so it seems she just missed you."
"In that sense, the two people I'm most likely to run into are actually Vihera and Byune. ...I should have stopped by the Birth Tower on my way here. Too late for that now, though. But why is Vihera at the Birth Tower?"
If she had gone to the underground space at the center of the Treant Forest, Rei wouldn't have been all that surprised.
Or if she had come to check on the woodcutters, that wouldn't have surprised him much either.
But the Birth Tower raised questions.
There wasn't much of a connection between Vihera and the Lizardmen, after all.
Gaga, the strongest among the teleported Lizardmen, had held a mock battle with Vihera, so that might have been the reason.
"Apparently there was a request from the Guild."
"In that case, escorting supplies? ...But would they really need to specifically hire Vihera as an escort?"
Food, alcohol, and other daily necessities were being delivered nearly every day to the adventurers stationed to protect the Birth Tower and the lake.
What reason could there be for enlisting Vihera to escort those supply transports?
Unfortunately, Rei couldn't fathom the reasoning behind it.
"You're asking me? There's no way I would know. I may be the Former Guild Master, but right now I'm nothing more than an adventurer."
Worker, who had inherited the position of Guild Master as Marina's successor, would naturally not share information with Marina simply because she was the former Guild Master.
If that was the case, it wouldn't be strange for Marina not to know the reason behind this matter.
"It's Worker, after all. He probably wouldn't discuss it with you."
As it happened, Rei and Worker went back a fair way.
Worker had originally been the person in charge of the Guild's branch office at the dungeon located not far from Gilm.
Their first meeting was when Rei headed to that dungeon on a request from Elena.
In that sense, Worker was without a doubt an acquaintance from around the same time as Elena and Ara.
Of course, while the relationship was long-standing, only a few years had passed since Rei came to Gilm, so they weren't actually all that old of acquaintances in the grand scheme of things.
However, even after the dungeon incident, Rei had continued to see Elena frequently, whereas he hardly ever crossed paths with Worker.
In that sense, while they had become acquainted at roughly the same time, the relationship itself wasn't all that deep.
"Worker is earnest, after all. He can be flexible when something comes up, of course."
Marina spoke warmly of Worker.
Having chosen him as her successor for the Guild Master position, Worker was clearly someone Marina trusted to a reasonable degree.
Of course, that didn't mean Worker would share information with Marina in a situation like this as a general rule.
With such thoughts in mind, Rei continued his conversation with Marina and Nielson.