When Marina returned to the settlement after finishing her inspection of the World Tree, she found Byune already overseeing the disassembly of the Aerowing.
The five of them—Rei, Elena, Vihera, Ara, and Jusura, who had most likely shown up for the promise of Aerowing meat—worked through the disassembly under Byune's direction.
Byune's instructions were precise, to be sure, but the sight of everyone dismantling a monster in response to her characteristically clipped words made for a rather surreal scene.
Still, since Byune was by far the most skilled at disassembly among those present, this was only to be expected.
At the same time, Vihera interpreted Byune's intent and relayed instructions to the others like a translator.
The fact that she managed to do her own work simultaneously meant that while she wasn't on Byune's level, Vihera could safely be called reasonably skilled at disassembly herself.
(How did a former imperial princess end up like this, I wonder?)
Entertaining that fleeting thought, Marina stepped forward to lend a hand with the disassembly.
She now held the position of Guild Master of Gilm, but she had originally made her living as an adventurer.
Naturally, that had included dismantling the monsters she slew, and she was well aware that she was no slouch at it.
"Would you let me join in?"
That was why she announced herself and waded into the Aerowing's disassembly without hesitation.
"Marina-sama!?"
The one startled by Marina's appearance was, unsurprisingly, Jusura.
The others, however, accepted Marina's participation without so much as a raised eyebrow.
"My, you took your time. Is your business finished?"
"Yes. I'll share the details after we've eaten."
Giving Vihera a brief reply, Marina set to work on the Aerowing.
The first order of business—just as the others were already doing—was plucking the feathers.
Aerowing feathers were prized not only as decorative pieces but also as crafting materials.
Taken as a whole, they were likely the most valuable part of the Aerowing after the Magic Stone.
However, after plucking the feathers from one wing, Vihera furrowed her brow.
"The quality of these feathers is terrible."
"It's probably because of the World Tree's condition, I think..."
"Perhaps."
Though she tilted her head at Vihera's remark, Marina reached for the feathers nonetheless. And despite the Aerowing being a sizable monster, with this many hands on deck, the disassembly was over before they knew it.
True to Rei's claim, he received the Magic Stone, while the rest of the meat would be cooked and shared among everyone.
...As for the feathers, they were ultimately split between Vihera and Marina.
That settled, they moved on to cooking—and once again, the standouts were Byune and Marina.
It wasn't that Rei couldn't cook. He could manage simple, hearty fare—or, less charitably, rough men's cooking—and that was about it. Elena and most of the others had virtually no culinary skill to speak of.
They could scrape together something edible, but turning out a genuinely delicious meal was beyond them.
Jusura could cook to a certain degree, but even she fell far short of Byune or Marina.
In the end, those two took the lead and began preparing dishes with the Aerowing meat.
The Aerowing yielded surprisingly little meat relative to its size, but under normal circumstances, this group should have had more than enough to eat their fill.
Unfortunately, the group included big eaters like Rei and Byune—and Set consumed even more than those two combined.
The meat ran short, and Rei ended up supplementing the meal with various dishes pulled from his Misty Ring.
Ielo aside, Set couldn't fit inside the house due to its size, so the meal was held out in the yard of the house Elena and the others had borrowed.
The Aerowing meat was transformed into an array of dishes: skewers, stews, and stir-fries.
Facing the spread of food Rei had produced, Marina lifted her cup and spoke.
"Then, let us celebrate arriving at the settlement safely... safely? Well, let's just celebrate arriving at the settlement safely. Cheers!"
"Cheers!"
Marina stumbled over the word "safely," momentarily recalling the pulsation and the incident at the plaza, but pressed on without missing a beat.
Everyone raised their cups and drank.
"Ahh... delicious. Why does a drink after a hard day's work taste this good?"
Jusura drained her cup in one go and sighed contentedly, and the others nodded in agreement.
Then they reached for the Aerowing dishes.
Rei, having finished his fruit water, went straight for the skewers.
The stews and stir-fries looked delicious too, but when it came to enjoying meat in its purest form, he judged that nothing beat a simple skewer.
And not one slathered in heavy sauce, but one seasoned with nothing but salt.
The first bite yielded a crisp skin that gave way to a rush of juices flooding the mouth, paired with the springy texture of the meat. The skewering had imparted a savory, charred aroma that made it taste like something he could eat without end.
"Delicious, huh."
The words slipped from Rei's mouth with unmistakable sincerity.
Hearing that unvarnished praise, Elena quietly reached for a skewer of her own.
The salt did nothing more than draw out the inherent flavor of the Aerowing meat.
Precisely because the seasoning was so simple, there was no hiding behind it—the taste spoke for itself. It was only natural that Rei found it satisfying.
"Guruu..."
Set had been given his share of meat, but relative to his physique, it was woefully inadequate.
It was delicious, to be sure, but Set rumbled his throat, clearly wanting more.
He turned his gaze toward the darkening sky—perhaps weighing whether to go hunt down a few more Aerowings himself.
The lively meal, full of savory meat, eventually wound down. Jusura left, saying she had business to attend to. Once Ara had served post-meal tea to everyone, Marina spoke up.
"Now then, first I have some good news. That pulsation—the one that caused this whole incident—it turns out it was by no means a bad thing for the World Tree."
At this sudden, startling declaration, every eye in the room turned to Marina.
Even Set, who had been lying down a short distance away to rest, and Ielo, perched on Set's back, looked her way.
The first to speak was Vihera.
"Is that true?"
"Yes. After we parted at the plaza earlier, I went to check on the World Tree. I found that it had grown just slightly more vigorous. The change is so minuscule that I doubt anyone other than myself could even notice it, but..."
"...In other words, what? Rei was confined, and you were publicly denounced by that man Ragdo—all for absolutely nothing. Is that what you're saying?"
Elena murmured, her brow slightly furrowed, radiating as much displeasure as her words conveyed.
It was only natural. The pulsation had actually benefited the World Tree, and yet—even if they hadn't known that at the time—Ragdo had publicly dragged both Rei and Marina through the mud before a crowd.
If asked whether it was forgivable, the answer was an emphatic no.
But Marina simply smiled at Elena and spoke.
"I'm happy that you're angry on my behalf... no, on both Rei's and mine. But Ragdo, for all his posturing, genuinely cares about this settlement. It's just that his methods leave something to be desired."
"If we don't address that, won't he just keep interfering every time we try to do something?"
At Vihera's words, Elena, Ara, and Byune all nodded in agreement.
Rei alone remained silent—perhaps because his confinement had been comfortable enough that he harbored no particular grudge.
"It's fine. I'm planning to have him pour mana into the World Tree tomorrow, and I intend to ask Ragdo to be present as a witness."
"Eh!?"
The words from Marina's mouth were clearly unexpected. Ara's eyes went wide as a sound escaped her.
But when she glanced around and realized she was the only one surprised, she closed her mouth, looking faintly embarrassed.
(Did Byune understand what Marina was thinking, too?)
Was she perhaps less perceptive than Byune? The thought briefly crossed Ara's mind—until she noticed that Byune wasn't paying the slightest attention to the conversation. She was just frantically peeling the skin off a piece of fruit served as a teatime snack.
Breathing a quiet sigh of relief at the sight, Ara let the matter drop. Meanwhile, Vihera spoke up with a knowing nod.
"I see. So that's why you went to check on the World Tree."
"That wasn't the only reason. I wanted to confirm with my own eyes that the pulsation hadn't caused any real abnormalities."
"Even so, bringing that man Ragdo in was part of your plan from the start, wasn't it?"
Picking up where Vihera left off, Elena fixed Marina with a pointed look.
All three of them possessed beauty befitting the title of one of the greatest beauties not merely in a single nation, but in all of Elgin. The sight of the three of them silently exchanging and confirming intentions through glances alone was, in its own way, extraordinary.
(There'd be no shortage of people willing to trade places with me right now.)
Sipping his tea, letting the faint bitterness wash away the lingering sweetness of fruit on his palate, Rei mused.
Those who wished to be in his seat would include men who'd readily part with a few Gold Coins... and women, for that matter.
Beyond the path of Rei's wandering thoughts, the silent exchange of intentions eventually concluded. All three smiled and nodded.
"In other words, Ragdo gets to be a convenient clown."
A wicked little smile played at the corners of Elena's mouth as she spoke, but neither Vihera nor Marina made any move to deny it.
Calling him a clown was perhaps a touch harsh, but since Ragdo—who harbored such strong suspicions—would be forced to watch Rei treat the World Tree right before his eyes, they judged the label was, if anything, generous.
"Well, anyway. All I need to do tomorrow is pour mana into the World Tree, right?"
"Yes. I'm confident that will restore the World Tree without fail."
"...I see. Then does that mean we'll be leaving this settlement as early as tomorrow?"
"No, I'd like to stay and monitor the situation for a few days, if possible. Besides, there's the matter of the abnormalities spreading through the forest due to the World Tree's affliction."
"Now that you mention it, they did say they wanted that dealt with too. But if the World Tree's illness is cured, won't that take care of itself?"
It was a reasonable assumption on Vihera's part—if the forest's abnormalities stemmed from the World Tree's weakening, then curing the tree should resolve them.
But Marina shook her head.
"After the World Tree's treatment is complete and a long time passes, the abnormalities might resolve themselves. But that would undoubtedly take a very long time. Years, decades, or even longer, potentially. If possible, I'd like to take care of it ourselves before it comes to that."
A sincere earnestness colored Marina's voice.
She was asking for their help, because solving the forest's abnormalities with her power alone would take more time than she could afford.
Faced with that gaze, Elena, Vihera, and even Rei found it hard to refuse.
Had she been the type to issue haughty demands, they would have turned her down without a second thought.
With tomorrow's plans roughly settled, the conversation naturally shifted to other matters.
Elena and Vihera, who had been drinking their tea, each set their cups down on the table.
The table had originally been inside the house, but bringing it outside was trivial for Rei, who had the Misty Ring at his disposal.
He'd resorted to the Misty Ring because his first attempt to carry it out by hand had revealed that the table was wider than the doorway.
Rei did briefly wonder how the table had been brought inside in the first place, but concluded that they were Dark Elves and had probably managed it with magic. With that, he stowed it in the Misty Ring without further concern.
In any case, having finished their meal at the table thus transported outdoors, they were now enjoying post-meal tea when—
"Marina. Let me ask you again—what exactly was the meaning of what you did to Rei today?"
"That's right. We need to get that sorted out here and now."
Elena and Vihera fixed Marina with deadly serious stares.
Even Ara and Byune were watching her with keen interest.
What those looks signified was, of course, something Marina understood perfectly well.
After all, speaking purely in terms of experience as a woman, Marina had literally lived more years than either Elena or Vihera.
Naturally, she had also studied the subtleties between men and women in far greater depth.
...And that was precisely why Marina shook her head at the two of them.
"To prevent Rei from being subjected to unfair treatment. I have no other intention beyond that."
That was all she said.