"......Huh?"
At the sight before his eyes, the sound slipped unbidden from Rei's mouth.
But there was no mistaking it—the ten men and women at the end of his gaze, still bound to the trees, were dead.
The man leading the group had spoken those cryptic words. Honestly, Rei hadn't understood what specific meaning they held. And precisely because of that hesitation—in the few seconds it took Rei to process what was happening—every last person tied to the trees died.
"It seems they have passed on," the Chief murmured, her tone flat and even.
At her words, Rei looked once more at those bound to the trees. But just as the Chief said, there was no doubt that all of them were dead. Blood oozed from their eyes, noses, mouths, and ears, and their eyes remained wide open with no sign of closing. Dead, without question.
Seeing all ten in such a state, Rei finally understood.
"Suicide to avoid giving up information? Did they have poison hidden in their back teeth?"
"No......"
The Chief shook her head at Rei's words.
Not that? When Rei shot her a questioning look, the Chief spoke with a grave expression.
"There is no doubt they took their own lives to avoid revealing information. However, what they had hidden in their back teeth was not poison. Well, if pressed on whether it was a drug or a poison, I would have no choice but to call it poison, so you are not entirely wrong."
"Make it simpler."
"Defilement."
The Chief answered Rei's request with blunt brevity.
Defilement? The question flickered through Rei's mind for only an instant before he grasped the meaning.
"In other words, the back teeth—or wherever they had it hidden—it wasn't poison but defilement?"
The Chief nodded and opened her mouth to say something, but then...... the arms, legs, faces, and bodies of those who should have been corpses twitched faintly.
"Eh?"
"They have taken defilement into their bodies. Anything could happen now. ......Still, I honestly did not expect this. Nielson."
"Y-yes!? What is it, Chief!"
Whether she hadn't expected to be called upon at a moment like this, a strangled sound escaped Nielson's throat.
"Please restrain their movements. From the looks of it, they will likely come back to life."
"......Come back to life?"
Those were words Rei could not afford to let slip by.
The reason Rei had taken an interest in the Magic Items the men carried in the first place was the possibility that a resurrection-type Magic Item might exist. But from what the Chief had just said, it seemed they had died by ingesting something related to defilement—and resurrected as a result.
"Looking at their state, would you not agree that seems to be the case? ......For now, there still seems to be some time, so Lord Rei, please store the Magic Items."
Seeing the sense in that, and unsure what would happen to the Magic Items left as they were, Rei swiftly stowed them into his Misty Ring.
Meanwhile, following the Chief's instructions, Nielson worked her magic, reinforcing the bindings with plants. Whether she could still call them corpses was something Rei wasn't sure of—these resurrected things—but regardless, she tightened their restraints with plant growth.
"So...... what do you think happens to people who consumed defilement and ended up like that? Do they become Undead?"
Having stored the Magic Items along with all weapons, Full Plate Armor, tools, and sundry equipment into his Misty Ring, Rei turned to the Chief.
Given that the dead were resurrecting in this situation, calling them Undead wouldn't be far off. But since defilement was what had put them in this state, Rei didn't think they would become just ordinary Undead—even if they technically qualified.
"Undead...... is it. Let me see. If we consider only the phenomenon itself, you might call them that. And since corpses have begun to move, calling them Undead would not be incorrect."
They looked like Undead, but were not truly Undead—or so the Chief was telling him. Rei decided to treat them as Undead for the time being. They might be something else entirely, but watching them with his own eyes, they could only appear as Undead.
"Understood. Either way, now that they've ended up like this, there's no question we'd be better off putting them down quickly."
"Yes...... I do think defeating them would be best. However......"
"However?"
The Chief's hesitation caught Rei off guard. She detested defilement—no, she seemed to actively loathe it. He had assumed she would insist that anything transformed into a likely-Undead by defilement should be destroyed as swiftly as possible. So why was she hedging?
Perhaps she felt pity for them, watching as they began transforming into Undead...... into monsters. But when Rei studied the Chief's gaze as it rested on the changing figures, there was no pity in it. What dominated her expression was anger and uncertainty.
What was she thinking to wear such a face? Rei wondered—until, noticing his confusion, the Chief spoke with a troubled look.
"Defeating them is perfectly fine. However, those people have been transformed by defilement. Which is to say, if we defeat them, I fear the defilement might scatter across the surroundings."
Hearing that, Rei understood exactly what the Chief was worried about.
Simply defeating them probably wouldn't be all that difficult. Rei had that much confidence in his own strength—not to mention his partner Seto, Nielson with her support magic, and above all, the Chief who governed the Fairy Dwelling. The enemy numbered ten—or perhaps, given that they were turning into monsters, it would be more accurate to call them ten creatures—but while that was more than twice Rei's group, that was all they were.
"But you're saying they might scatter defilement if defeated...... so what's the plan? We can't just keep them pinned down with Nielson's magic forever. Well, it might not be impossible, but——"
"H-hey, what are you talking about, Rei! No way, no way, no way! That's absolutely impossible!"
Nielson shrieked, frantic. From her perspective, keeping up her current effort indefinitely was simply beyond her. A few hours, maybe. But screaming through an entire day—let alone several days—in this state was out of the question.
"I figured. I agree. They can only be restrained because they're mid-transformation, but once it's complete, I have no idea what they'll be capable of."
And once the transformation finished, there was no telling exactly how powerful they would become. That being the case, maintaining the restraints indefinitely was clearly not viable.
"In that case...... this is a problem. It would be ideal if Lord Rei could store them as he did the Magic Items."
"That's...... hmm, I wonder?"
Magic Items aside, Rei recalled that ordinary golems could be stored in the Misty Ring back in Egginis. Normal monsters couldn't be stored, but existences like golems could. So could opponents attempting to resurrect as Undead also be stored? The thought crossed his mind for an instant—then he dismissed it.
(If Undead could be stored, would that mean Grimm could be stored too? ......Or rather, fundamentally speaking, those people aren't exactly Undead in the first place.)
What Rei saw before him looked like Undead but wasn't, in truth, Undead. They appeared to be resurrecting after death the way Undead would, but what drove the process wasn't mana or anything like it—it was the power of defilement. So even if true Undead couldn't be stored in the Misty Ring, what about beings whose bodies were currently being resurrected by defilement?
"Lord Rei? Um, I wasn't being serious about that."
The Chief's voice carried a note of alarm. She had floated the idea of storing them in the Misty Ring, but she hadn't seriously believed such a thing was actually possible. Yet Rei seemed ready to attempt it. Stopping him was only natural in her position.
"I know you weren't serious, but we can't just leave them like this, can we? Besides, you just warned that defeating them carelessly could scatter defilement everywhere."
"That is......"
Whether defilement would actually scatter was something that couldn't be known without testing it. But if the result of that test was defilement being unleashed across the Treant Forest—home of the Fairy Dwelling—that would be the worst possible outcome. If the Treant Forest became contaminated, they might even be forced to relocate the Fairy Dwelling entirely. If so, letting Rei try was the best option, but......
"Chief, if it's Rei, I'm sure he can manage something. And if it doesn't work out, we just think of another method. So let's at least give it a shot, yeah? I mean, it's already getting harder to keep those guys pinned down with my magic!"
Nielson shouted, desperate. Listening to her cries, the Chief at length turned to Rei with an apologetic look.
"Then, could I ask you to do it? Of course, that is only if it is possible. If it does not work, we will think of another way. Nielson should be able to hold out for that much time, at least."
"H-hey, Chief!? Were you even listening to me!? I'm at my limit—I'm almost at my limit already!"
Nielson screamed desperately, but the Chief ignored her completely. From long experience, she understood that Nielson performed at her true best only after a bout of complaining.
Rei didn't know the history behind that dynamic, but even so, judging by what he saw, he decided it would be best to stay out of it. He ignored Nielson's outburst as well and spoke up.
"Alright. I'll give it a try. ......Don't worry. If it doesn't work, I'll come right back."
That last remark was directed at Seto, who was watching Rei with obvious concern. If these were ordinary monsters—Undead, for instance—Seto wouldn't be this worried. But Seto understood that these opponents were not mere monsters. They were beings transformed by defilement, an unknown entity. That was why he was anxious about Rei approaching them.
Rei gave Seto a single reassuring stroke, then advanced toward the figures bound by his own ropes and further immobilized by Nielson's magic—vines and grass coiled around their feet.
These were beings whose state could be described not merely as "transformed" by defilement...... but "contaminated" might be the more honest word. With no way to know what lay within them, Rei proceeded with deliberate caution, ready to react instantly if they made any unexpected move.
As he drew closer, a sense of wrongness settled over him.
(Sure enough, these people give off something different from what I'd sense from ordinary Undead.)
He couldn't say exactly what was different. But the difference was unmistakable.
Rei had fought all manner of Undead before. Grimm, who doted on him like a grandchild, was himself Undead. He had come into contact with more Undead than he could count. Yet even from Rei's well-versed perspective, the things before his eyes were clearly, fundamentally wrong.
"Might as well ask...... Can you understand my words?"
Even resurrected through defilement—or Undead, as the case may be—they might retain some shred of intelligence. That was his reasoning. But unfortunately, there was no reaction to his words whatsoever. Which meant that regardless of whether they were Undead, any trace of intelligence...... or sense of self was already gone.
"No intelligence or ego means their behavior is unpredictable, and that's a problem. They might lunge and bite when I touch them. Well, biting is something ordinary Undead do too, I suppose."
Mulling this over, he reached not for the head...... but the foot. If there was a risk of being bitten, there was no reason to go near the head. All that was required to store something was contact with any part of the target.
Keeping his hand on the foot, he willed the storage the same way he always did, and——
"Whoa, it actually worked."
The corpse vanished, leaving behind nothing but the ropes, vines, and grass that had bound it to the tree. Rei stared at the empty space and muttered the words under his breath.