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ARCELIA RIGOT

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*****

「――Don't move!」

At Arcelia's sudden shout, Rob instinctively reached for the gun at his hip but managed to hold himself back at the last second.

Right on cue, the source of the presence burst from the grasslands with a loud *Gawrrr!* It gave Arcelia's face a massive, wet lick with its giant tongue before plunking itself down on the spot.

Rob had been on high alert because of the Alfar's ominous warning, but looking at the scene before him, he realized his worries were completely missing the mark.

The beast looked a lot like a Tyrannosaurus rex, except it had a pair of tiny, underdeveloped wings and was covered from head to toe in fluffy, chick-like down. Even though it possessed a massive set of jaws and fangs that looked fully capable of swallowing the petite Arcelia whole, its eyes didn't hold a single trace of aggression. Instead, it curled its massive body up as small as possible, sitting there as good as gold.

「Don't worry, it's completely harmless. This little guy is a Drachenos, one of the Beasts of the World Tree.」

Arcelia gestured for the Drachenos to come closer.

The Drachenos perked its tail straight up in pure joy, lowering its head to nuzzle its snout against her. Replying in kind, Arcelia gently stroked its massive jaw.

As if drawn out by the creature's blissful purring, other presences hiding in the grasslands began popping their heads up one after another, gathering around Rob and Arcelia.

「...I get that they're harmless, but aren't they being a little *too* defenseless? Well, I guess it makes sense how these guys can live a self-sufficient life if things are this easy.」

Rob cast the cold, calculating gaze of a hunter over the approaching Beasts of the World Tree.

Instantly, the Drachenos and the other massive beasts shuddered in fear, freezing in their tracks before taking a few steps back.

「Hunting is strictly forbidden here! Honestly, Rob, please stop looking at them like that.」

The moment Rob thoroughly dropped any idea of hunting them, the giant beasts cautiously approached once more.

A ten-legged dog, a fluffy-furred serpent, a cat with spiraled horns—all sorts of massive, bizarre creatures affectionately nuzzled up to Rob, completely unfazed by the fact that he had been sizing them up as prey just seconds ago.

「They don't have a single drop of wild instinct in 'em. I'm shocked poachers haven't wiped them out.」

Despite his complaints, Rob already had his left arm happily wrapped around the giant, sheep-furred serpent while using his right hand to scratch behind the ears and snout of the ten-legged dog lying down beside him. The fur of both creatures felt incredibly soft and plush, as if they were professionally groomed.

「Just like the Alfar, these creatures possess Mind Reading. They simply won't approach anyone harboring bad intentions.」

「Well, they're a hell of a lot more hospitable than the Alfar, that's for sure.」

「No matter how affectionate they are, they are still beasts at the end of the day. To them, it's simple: friend or foe. That's all.」

The complex lust or jealousy that humans direct at one another meant absolutely nothing to the Beasts of the World Tree, nor did people project human drama onto them. As far as the beasts were concerned, as long as a person wasn't trying to hunt them, they were perfectly fine. However, if someone harbored murderous, predatory, or thieving urges, the creatures would shun them completely and refuse to go anywhere near them, exactly like the Alfar°.

「Well, put it that way and I guess it makes sense.」

「Furthermore, their food supply never runs dry. By combining and planting the ten types of seeds dropped by the World Tree, they can grow an endless variety of crops.」

「Talk about an all-inclusive paradise...固」

A nature-loving race devoid of worldly greed, perfect mutual understanding achieved through Mind Reading and Mind Opening, a flawless food supply, and entirely harmless beasts. Though their unique traits made them highly exclusionary, it didn't cause a single issue because the Alfar were the only ones living in this entire world.

「Yes, indeed. Some people even refer to this world as a utopia.」

Yet despite her positive words, Arcelia's tone lacked her usual sense of pride.

Once, long ago, this world had been pushed so far to the brink by a Demon King that the Alfar were the only ones left standing. It happened so far back in the past that it predated even the Alliance's thousand-year-old archives. While it remained a mystery whether a summoned Hero had slain the Demon King or if the Alfar had somehow done the deed themselves, the threat had been successfully neutralized.

Shortly after that, the world made contact with a newly formed Interworld Alliance, but rumor has it that this entire social ecosystem had already been fully established by then. One theory claims that the Hero ascended to godhood to create the world as it exists today, but there wasn't a shred of proof, and even among the Alfar, it was passed down as nothing more than an ancient myth.

In short, this world owed absolutely nothing to the Alliance. This made it a bit of a headache for Arcelia, who was desperate to sell the benefits of the Alliance to Rob, but she couldn't exactly skip out on her touring duties either. That was why she'd been so conflicted when she first spotted the station name on the itinerary.

「However, surviving Alliance records do mention a few instances of societal chaos during the early days—」

「—I seriously have to question your sanity for hanging out in a place like this.」

Out of nowhere, Berta Andele, the World-Crossing Witch, was standing in the grasslands with a thoroughly displeased look on her face. The instant she saw her, Arcelia moved to activate her extraordinary ability, but she stopped herself at the absolute last second.

「Seriously, what an incredibly annoying world.」

「...What are you doing here?」

Arcelia glared at Berta's smug, all-knowing attitude with a look of bitter frustration.

「Oh, nothing in particular~」

There was no way Arcelia could take Berta at face value, but it was equally true that she couldn't lay a finger on her here. While this world was technically part of the Alliance, they hadn't signed off on the bounty system for wanted fugitives. Because of that, even an official investigator like Arcelia had absolutely no legal authority to arrest Berta here. To the Alfar, notorious criminals and the bounty hunters or investigators chasing them were all cut from the same cloth—just an unwelcome bunch of troublemakers disrupting their social peace.

「—Though, I suppose I could do this.」

Exuding a thoroughly grumpy yet seductive aura, Berta casually waved her arm. A magic circle immediately rippled across the grass, and her bipedal dog familiars came popping out one after another.

「Go on, have some fun~」

Granted permission by their mistress, the dog familiars bounded forward without a shred of fear to play with the Beasts of the World Tree. The Beasts of the World Tree welcomed them with open arms. Tiny furballs and massive furballs rolled around together until you couldn't even tell where one ended and the other began, keeping their movements gentle so they wouldn't crush the smaller bipedal summons as they sniffed and groomed each other. Getting thoroughly slathered by giant, wet tongues, the dog familiars leaped up to return the favor, playfully licking the massive snouts right back.

Suddenly, the dog familiars spotted Rob lounge-sleeping against the belly of the ten-legged dog, and they let out a sharp growl, baring their fangs. The little guys clearly hadn't forgotten their beef with him. While the Beasts of the World Tree hovered around anxiously with worried looks, Rob just chuckled under his breath and stood up, still cradling the ultra-plush giant serpent.

「Unsanctioned force is strictly prohibited!」

Completely ignoring Arcelia's warning, Rob activated his extraordinary ability, hoisting a massive cylinder onto one shoulder and pulling the trigger.

*Thwump!* A ball went sailing through the air. In a flash, the ten-legged dog bolted forward, snapped the ball out of the air mid-leap, and trotted right back.

「Good boy.」

Rob vigorously scratched its chin with one hand, prompting the ten-legged dog to immediately nudge him for another throw. After Rob repeated the routine a few more times, the dog familiars—who had been locked in a fierce mental battle between pride and instinct—utterly folded to their base desires and started chasing the ball too.

The Ball Bazooka. It was a bazooka designed to launch soccer-ball-sized projectiles, but at the end of the day, it was just a literal toy with absolutely zero lethality or special status effects. His "Phantom Firearms" included several variations of this toy gun lineup—like the Punching Gun and the Magic Hand Gun—all of which were entirely harmless and meaningless, yet still retained infinite ammo even after his ability degraded.

Watching the dogs scramble over one another to fetch the ball, Rob burst out laughing.

「Bwahaha! You're nothing but dogs after all! You can't fight nature!」

It was a triumphant cackle that screamed pettiness, an obvious payback for the trouble the dogs had given him before, but when all was said and done, he was really just playing with them.

Seeing that Rob was actually surprisingly good with animals, Berta skittered over and whispered right into his ear.

「—Oh, by the way. That girl used to be a plain old desk clerk, you know?」

Fighting to keep a straight face as a sweet shiver ran straight down his spine, Rob asked back.

「...You mean Arcelia?」

「Yep.」

Apparently, Arcelia had failed to qualify as a full investigator for the Omniverse Agency's Investigation Division when she was twenty, so she took a job as a standard clerk instead. She spent the next ten years undergoing rigorous training on her own dime, submitting transfer requests to become a field investigator every single year only to get rejected every time. It wasn't until her eleventh year that she finally managed to secure the position.

(So she's actually older than me... Well, if she's basically an elf or a fairy, I guess that tracks.) Once they get past twenty, humans can't tell an elf or a fairy's age to save their lives. For that matter, even other elves and fairies couldn't tell them apart.

Berta blinked in surprise at Rob's completely unexpected takeaway.

「I don't see anything wrong with Arcelia's resume. What exactly are you trying to accomplish here?」

First she exposes the underbelly of the penal slavery system back in the Kingdom, and now she's spilling Arcelia's background. Rob couldn't wrap his head around her endgame.

「I mean, doesn't it strike you as bizarre that they'd send a lone rookie investigator to escort an actual, legendary Demon King Slayer? There are barely ten of you guys left alive across the entire multiverse right now. Even if you look at the entire history of the Alliance, there've only ever been a hundred or so in total, you know?」

These days, the Alliance frequently works hand-in-hand with individual worlds to take down local Demon Kings, but those who pull it off aren't praised as true "Demon King Slayers." That legendary title is strictly reserved for individuals who were involuntarily summoned to unmonitored worlds and managed to slay a Demon King either completely solo or by rallying the native population. In other words, Berta wanted to drive home the point that the Interworld Alliance was treating Rob like total garbage.

「—That is absolutely not true!」

Having overheard the entire conversation thanks to Berta's deliberately malicious audio-link magic, Arcelia stared straight into Rob's eyes with her wide gaze, desperate to show that there wasn't a single shred of deceit in her words.

*****

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