"Ugh... ah...?"
Letting out an inarticulate groan, Rei sat up in bed.
He looked around, and eventually stopped moving.
Several minutes passed like that before the light of awareness gradually returned to Rei's eyes, which had been staring blankly at nothing in particular.
"Here is... ah, right..."
Looking around once more, Rei remembered that he was in the house he had borrowed in the Dark Elf settlement, and the events of last night finally came back to him.
How they had headed into the forest to rescue the four children who had wandered into the woods.
How they had saved the four and returned to the settlement.
How they had gone to meet Elena and the others, who had been moving in a different direction, and by then it was already nearing midnight.
How, in the end, he had succumbed to drowsiness, come back to this house, and fallen asleep on the spot.
"I slept well... no, did I oversleep?"
The sun visible through the window was already directly overhead.
It must be nearly noon. Thinking that, Rei pulled a clock from his Misty Ring to check, and his expression twisted in surprise.
It wasn't nearly noon — it was already past noon.
"I really overslept again... but it's awfully quiet for that."
He listened carefully but could barely hear any voices from the Dark Elves making noise.
Rei could easily imagine that they were still asleep due to everything that had happened the day before.
"They were up late yesterday, so that's only natural."
Muttering to himself, Rei finally felt motivated to get up. He freshened up and left the room.
Stepping out, he found himself in the living room.
And on the sofa, just as expected, As was fast asleep.
Near As, Poro was sleeping too, just like yesterday — using its nine tails as a pillow.
(Same as yesterday... surely not.)
He recalled how yesterday, starting from a similar situation, Ragdo had come running.
Hoping that strange occurrences wouldn't happen two days in a row, he was interrupted by his stomach growling — demanding food with unmistakable urgency.
"I'll think about today after I eat breakfast... no, lunch, I suppose."
As Rei muttered that, reminded that it was already past noon, Poro — curled up and sleeping — raised its head as if responding to the word.
"Porororo? Poru?"
Food? Food? Met with a gaze full of expectation, Rei smiled and gently stroked Poro.
The pleasant texture of those nine tails made him want to keep petting them forever, but... he couldn't just do that. Rei pulled his hand away from Poro and turned it toward As instead.
"Hey, wake up, As. It's about time to eat."
"Nngh... ugh... just a bit more..."
"I'd love to let you keep sleeping, but it's already past noon. At this rate, you'll end up sleeping all day. Besides, you're here to solve the forest's abnormality, aren't you?"
"Ah..."
Rei spent the next few minutes trying to wake As, but the young man only whined and showed no sign of getting up.
He had spent the day moving through the forest, and that very night he had to go back in and fight hordes of monsters. Rei understood the exhaustion and genuinely wanted to let him sleep.
Even so, as a fellow adventurer, Rei felt it wasn't right to leave As behind for the forest search that would likely take place today. He tried waking him a few more times, but...
"Fine. I've tried enough times. Don't come complaining later."
In the end, Rei couldn't manage to rouse him, and his patience ran out first. He left the house, leaving As behind.
...Incidentally, Poro hesitated about what to do but ultimately seemed reluctant to abandon its partner, choosing to stay behind.
After leaving the house, Rei headed not for the house Elena and the others had borrowed, but straight for the stable on the property he had rented.
"Gurururu"
Set must have noticed Rei's arrival. It stood up, purring happily.
Despite having been lying down, it rose instantly — very much in character for Set, who adored Rei.
"You were already awake. Hungry, too? Shall we go eat?"
"Guruu!"
At Rei's words, Set purred with delight.
Being hungry was certainly part of it, but more than that, it was probably just happy that Rei had come for it.
Rei led Set out of the stable and was about to head toward Elena's borrowed house when he suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"Guruu?"
What's wrong? Set tilted its head questioningly, but Rei said nothing as he retrieved a certain item from the Misty Ring.
Seeing what Rei had produced, Set tilted its head again.
It had absolutely no idea why Rei would bring that out here.
What Rei now held in his hands was the corpse of the Derutoroi — the owl-type monster.
Rei turned to Set and spoke.
"We'll probably head into the forest again today. But thinking about what happened last night, the chances of things resolving peacefully are slim. After all, we're working to solve the forest's abnormality, so it's definitely better if there's some kind of change. Which is why..."
He paused, took out his disassembly knife, and plunged it into the Derutoroi's torso.
What he extracted was a magic stone — the material more precious to Rei and Set than anything else.
There was only one, but that made it all the more valuable to them.
"Guruu?"
What are you going to do? Set purred. Rei used the Dagger of Flowing Water to wash his hands, the knife, and the magic stone, then paused to think.
The Derutoroi's corpse, now stripped of its magic stone, had been returned to the Misty Ring for proper material harvesting at a later date.
"This magic stone... Set should absorb it."
"Gururururu!"
Leaving Set purring happily at those words, Rei closed his eyes and reached out to sense the presence of anyone nearby.
(No sign of anyone watching us. None of the gazes like the ones I felt before from the World Tree or inside the house... well, considering yesterday's events, I can understand that most people are still asleep from exhaustion.)
Even so, it was impossible that everyone in the settlement was asleep, so there might be a Dark Elf keeping watch over them.
That thought had crossed his mind, but it turned out to be an unfounded worry.
He had Set scan the surroundings as well, and after confirming — from Set, whose detection abilities far surpassed Rei's own — that no one was monitoring them, Rei turned his gaze back to the magic stone in his hand.
(Given the Derutoroi's stealth abilities, probably...)
Rei, who had struggled more than expected in the fight against the Derutoroi, had a rough idea of what skill its magic stone would grant.
Of course, this wasn't based on any solid evidence.
It was a prediction born from equal parts reasonable deduction and hopeful wishful thinking.
Even so, he judged there would be no real harm in trying. Holding the magic stone, Rei looked at Set and spoke.
"Set, go ahead."
At those words, the tossed magic stone was caught in Set's beak as usual, and swallowed.
[Set has acquired the skill 'Optical Camouflage Lv.3']
The announcement echoed in his mind.
Hearing that voice, Rei showed no particular surprise... and instead let out a breath of relief.
"Just as I thought — Optical Camouflage got stronger."
Given the Derutoroi's ability to melt into the darkness, Rei's hunch that its magic stone might strengthen Optical Camouflage had been right on the mark.
The reason a smile spread across Rei's face was that Optical Camouflage was one of the most overwhelmingly powerful skills in Set's entire arsenal.
It was, at its core, simply a skill that made the user invisible to opponents... but when that invisible being was Set, it was an entirely different matter.
Set, already capable of unleashing devastating blows through sheer physical prowess, would become transparent.
In other words, opponents would let a hostile Set close to point-blank range without any awareness whatsoever, then suffer a Gryphon's devastatingly powerful strike before they could even raise a defense.
For anyone who knew Set's combat capabilities, it was a skill that could truly be called a nightmare.
Set also possessed area-attack skills like Fire Breath and King's Intimidation — not as potent as Rei's, but still capable of covering a wide range. Used cleverly in combination with Optical Camouflage, Set could stall or even rout an entire army if it came to that.
"Gaining Optical Camouflage is a huge boost... at Level 2, it could only stay invisible for about twenty seconds. How about now?"
"Gururu!"
At that cue, Optical Camouflage activated, and Set's form vanished.
It reappeared roughly forty seconds later.
"Forty seconds at Level 3. It was twenty at Level 2, so does it double with each level? Level 4 would be eighty seconds, Level 5 would be a hundred sixty... and so on."
"Guruu?"
Is that so? Set tilted its head at Rei's words.
It was Set's own skill, but Optical Camouflage had only just been acquired. Above all, there was no way it could agree to speculation about skills it hadn't even learned yet.
Rei must have realized he was getting ahead of himself. He smiled wryly, reached out, and gently stroked Set's head.
"Right, there's no way to know the details of skills I haven't even acquired yet... The magic stone's been absorbed, so let's go eat."
"Guruu!"
At Rei's words, Set seemed to remember its hunger. It purred insistently — let's go, let's go right now!
Pulled along by Set, Rei was about to leave the stable area when...
"There you are! Rei, were you planning to leave me behind!? That's pretty cruel, don't you think?!"
He ran straight into As, who came bursting out of the house in a panic.
"...Ah, yeah."
At As's sudden appearance, Rei briefly caught his breath.
The timing had been so perfect that for a split second, he wondered whether As had seen Set use Optical Camouflage.
No — even if someone had seen Set use Optical Camouflage, it wouldn't really be a problem.
Set was a rare species of Gryphon and could wield a variety of skills. Anyone even slightly informed about Rei and Set already knew that.
As for Optical Camouflage specifically, Set had used it during last year's civil war in the Bestia Empire — and in front of a large number of soldiers, no less.
If so, the spread of that information was only a matter of time, and in all likelihood, it had already spread.
(Though Set turning invisible would probably inspire even more fear. More importantly, considering As's personality, he'd definitely say something if he'd seen it. The fact that he hasn't means he probably didn't.)
Drawing that conclusion from As's demeanor, the two people and two creatures headed for the house Elena and the others had borrowed.
As they drew closer, a wonderful aroma drifted toward them, and it wasn't just Rei whose stomach growled.
"Porororo!"
"Gururururu!"
The two creatures cried out as if dragged along by pure instinct, urging everyone to hurry, hurry.
...Though Poro was perched on top of Set's head.
Poro usually rode on Set's back, but right now its desire to see as far ahead as possible — to catch sight of Elena's house — must have been overpowering.
Rei and As both smiled faintly at the sight of their partners, exchanged a glance, and picked up their pace even more.
When they arrived in front of the house Elena and the others had borrowed, it was Marina who stepped out to greet them.
"My, good morning. Arriving right when the food is ready — you must have been quite hungry."
"Marina... did you stay over here again last night?"
"No. I came over after I woke up.... Come on, let's go inside. Time for breakfast."
Marina showed them through to the courtyard, quite naturally.
She had anticipated that Rei's group would come, and since Rei coming meant Set would inevitably come too, breakfast had been set up outdoors accordingly.
"Good morning, Rei. As, did you sleep well last night too?"
The first to call out was Elena, who had just set a basket of freshly baked bread down on the table.
If anyone learned that a duke's daughter was preparing meals, they would stare in disbelief.
And Elena wasn't just any duke's daughter. She was also known by the alias Princess General.
Even if someone who witnessed this scene described it to others, unless the listener already knew what kind of person Elena was, they would find it utterly impossible to believe.
Then Ara, Vihera, Byune, and the others brought out the rest of the dishes... and before long, breakfast was underway for everyone.
"This bread is delicious. Freshly baked and soft."
As Rei muttered that between bites, Marina smiled and nodded.
"Of course. It was made by a craftsman known as the master bread baker in this settlement."
"...To bake fresh bread the morning after a night like last night — that's impressive."
Baking bread meant starting from kneading the dough, which inevitably took time.
Considering that most of the Dark Elves in the settlement had been awake until the middle of the night, the baker must have had almost no sleep at all.
When Vihera pointed that out, Marina nodded with a slightly troubled look.
"That's true. But they said they'd sleep soundly once the bread was done, so they're probably fast asleep by now."
Everyone nodded in understanding at those words... and at that exact moment, a pulse — the same kind they had felt before — struck the entire Dark Elf settlement.
【Set】
'Water Ball Lv.3' 'Fire Breath Lv.3' 'Wind Arrow Lv.3' 'King's Intimidation Lv.1' 'Poison Claw Lv.4' 'Size Change Lv.1' 'Tornado Lv.2' 'Ice Arrow Lv.1' 'Optical Camouflage Lv.3' new 'Magic Eye of Shock Lv.1' 'Power Crush Lv.4' 'Sense of Smell Enhancement Lv.1' 'Bubble Breath Lv.1' 'Crystal Breath Lv.1'
Optical Camouflage: An ability that can make the user's figure disappear. However, at Lv.3, the user can only remain transparent for about forty seconds, and approximately thirty minutes are required before it can be used again. Additionally, objects the user is touching can also be made transparent, but if a person is made transparent simultaneously, the effect wears off in about twenty seconds.