Rei and Vihera soared through the summer sky.
To be precise, it was Set who was flying, with Rei astride his back and Vihera dangling from his front legs—but the two of them and their griffon companion didn't seem to mind that arrangement at all.
It had been three days since Rei had let slip a challenge—a competition with Mireinu... or more accurately, with the entire Scorching Wind party—over who could find Unbris first.
Even after all that time, they still hadn't managed to catch sight of it.
Naturally, the spawning of monster packs hadn't ceased during those three days. Packs were discovered and subjugated by adventurers nearly every single day.
Goblins were the most common by far, already abundant in number, and were frequently spotted heading toward Gilm in groups with the intent to attack.
Given the climate, adventurers assigned to the Unbris search were sometimes met with looks from their peers that clearly said they should be doing real work. It wasn't uncommon for this to sour the mood.
No one in Gilm dared give Rei that kind of look, of course. But even so, as someone tasked with the search, he was eager to see some progress.
Yet if someone asked him how to find a black, mist-like entity, he couldn't produce an answer.
In the end, all they could do was circle the outskirts of Gilm on Set's back and search by eye.
Even that yielded nothing, and time slipped by uselessly.
Today, too, the sun hanging in the sky had passed its zenith and begun its descent.
"It's about time for lunch. Should we eat?"
Rei called down from Set's back to Vihera, who was gripping the griffon's front legs.
Fortunately, the ground below was a green grassland dotted with trees, so they wouldn't be short on shade to escape the direct sun.
A good spot for lunch.
Not that direct sunlight was any concern for Rei and the others while flying at a hundred meters.
"Sure. I'm getting hungry... let's eat."
Vihera replied, looking thoroughly accustomed to hanging from Set's front legs.
Naturally, Set had no objections to Rei and Vihera's mention of a meal. If anything, he descended toward the ground with unmistakable delight.
Set had always loved the act of eating.
Whether it was cooking from city stalls or the raw meat of monsters, he devoured it all with relish.
And through experience and instinct, he had come to understand that meals tasted even better when people like Rei and Vihera were nearby.
Flapping his wings, he steered toward one of the trees on the grassland. Just before touching down, Vihera released her grip on his front leg, and both she and the griffon landed smoothly.
Just as they had observed from above, no other monsters or animals were visible near the tree.
A small bird had been resting on a branch, but the moment it caught sight of Set, it bolted.
Set made no move to chase it—though a meatier bird might have been a different story—and once under the shade of the tree, Rei immediately set about preparing lunch.
Bread, soup, skewers, and other ready-to-eat dishes emerged from the Misty Ring one after another, arranged across the grass.
As an adventurer's lunch, it was a highly satisfying spread.
Those currently working the Unbris situation carried decent provisions of their own, even if they couldn't match this particular feast.
This wasn't a multi-day assignment that kept them away from Gilm; everyone returned to the city by evening.
Which was exactly why they could afford to bring along simple fare like sandwiches.
At the very least, they weren't reduced to a dreary lunch of hardened bread and dried meat like on extended expeditions.
I should probably check in on the Goblin meat situation soon, too.
As the three of them ate, Rei thought of a companion back home who was researching how to make Goblin meat palatable.
That research, unsurprisingly, had made almost no progress.
Rei had supplied spices, but those could be used generously only because he happened to have them. Buying them on the open market would cost a small fortune.
He recalled things he had seen or read during his time in Japan—tales of pepper being worth its weight in gold, and wars waged in pursuit of spices.
Spices weren't quite that expensive in Gilm, of course, but they still weren't cheap enough for anyone to buy on a whim.
Needless to say, dumping large quantities of spices onto Goblin meat would make it edible but absurdly expensive.
A spice that isn't too pricey... I've heard mint is incredibly prolific. Does it exist here too?
Mint—renowned among spices, with countless uses.
In Rei's mind it was more an herb than a spice, but he figured it still counted for these purposes.
Mint had extraordinary reproductive power and required no real effort to cultivate.
If anything, it spread so aggressively that thinning it out could become more work than growing it.
Rei had once seen a friend's older sister lose control of her mint garden, the entire yard overflowing with the stuff.
The fact that the phrase "mint terror" existed said everything about just how prolific the plant was.
Goblin meat and mint, huh. What kind of dish would that turn into? Just grilled? Steamed? Simmered? Best to leave the cooking method to a professional chef. But then there's the question of how to find mint in the first place.
Rei had seen mint running rampant across his friend's yard, and having been on the receiving end of hand-me-downs—no, practically shoved at him—he knew exactly what the plant looked like.
He was confident he could spot it immediately if it were being sold or growing wild.
But in the years since arriving in Elgin, he had never once seen or tasted mint.
Whether that was because he simply hadn't stumbled across it, or because it didn't exist here at all, or because no one recognized it as a spice or herb, he couldn't say.
Takumu's presence should mean at least some Japanese culture made it over... Well, chopsticks never caught on either. Maybe he chose not to spread certain things, or maybe he tried and they simply didn't take.
Chopsticks, in particular, would be an awkward tool for anyone accustomed to knives and forks.
Under those circumstances, it was entirely plausible that they were simply too inconvenient to catch on.
No, focus on mint. Unless your family runs a farm, or you live in the countryside with a big yard, or someone in the family is into herbal tea or cooking, you normally wouldn't encounter it.
For the record, Rei's friend's older sister had apparently gotten deep into herbal tea and decided to grow mint in her garden.
Naturally, there was no way she could use up an entire yard's worth of mint through herbal tea and cooking, so she foisted it on anyone within reach, and eventually resorted to mint baths to work through the surplus.
At the time, Rei had wondered why she didn't just pull it up and throw it away, but apparently that was unacceptable to someone who had poured the effort into growing it.
At any rate, if they could just find mint, propagating it wouldn't be difficult, and Rei entertained the idea that, if things worked out, it might even become a new local specialty of Gilm.
Though given its aggressive growth, other towns and villages could probably start cultivating it just as easily.
"Rei, what's wrong? You drifted off there."
"Oh, I was just thinking about how lucky I am to be able to carry around good food like this. Your average adventurer probably can't eat a meal this fancy. It's usually just dried meat and hardened bread, right?"
Fancy as it sounded, everything laid out before them was food you could get normally within Gilm.
But taken outside the city walls, it suddenly became a spread worthy of the word extravagant.
"...True. When I was diving into Dungeons with Byune, that's what we ate too."
"Looking back, I'm impressed you could endure a diet like that."
It was something Rei sometimes forgot, but Vihera was of Imperial Family stock from the Bestia Empire.
The meals served there were the height of luxury, and Rei's honest reaction was amazement that someone raised on such cuisine could make do with preserved rations like dried meat and hardened bread.
At his words, Vihera tore off a piece of the remaining bread, popped it into her mouth, and smiled.
"It wasn't so bad. At least I didn't have to worry about taste-testers and all that. Made things easier. No matter how extravagant and delicious a dish is, fresh is one thing, but once it goes cold..."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, that's how it is. ...Hey, Rei. Look over there."
Mid-conversation, Vihera's expression shifted from a smile to something taut.
Rei followed her gaze and saw what she was looking at: a Goblin.
If that had been all, there would have been nothing surprising about it.
Lately they appeared in large packs, and he saw them every day until he was sick of the sight.
Whenever Rei spotted a pack, he would rain magic down from Set's back as they passed overhead, burning the entire group to ashes.
But the reason Vihera's face changed upon seeing this particular Goblin was immediately clear to him.
The creature was stumbling through the grassland with an unsteady gait, wreathed in black mist.
No—"wreathed" wasn't quite right. It was more accurate to say that remnants of black mist still clung to its body, giving it that appearance.
Even apart from the mist, there was something distinctly off about the Goblin.
"...What do you think?"
"We're not letting it go, that's for certain. We've been searching for Unbris long and hard. I want whatever information we can get."
Rei nodded in agreement.
He quickly stowed the remaining food in the Misty Ring and readied himself to give chase.
Set looked slightly disappointed that his meal had been cut short, but he rose to his feet without protest, following Rei and Vihera's lead in pursuing a lead on Unbris.
The three of them set off after the Goblin—not by air, but on foot.
They kept their distance, advancing carefully so they could react at a moment's notice no matter what the Goblin did.
The Goblin continued its halting trek across the grassland.
"Judging by that Goblin's state, something is clearly wrong with it..."
"Right. The question is when it came into contact with Unbris. If it was only a few hours ago, Unbris might still be somewhere close by. But looking around from here... there's no sign of it, is there?"
Set rumbled softly in response to Vihera's words.
Sight, smell, hearing—none of his sharpened senses could detect Unbris anywhere nearby.
But Unbris was inherently difficult to detect given its nature. Even if it were right beside them, finding it wouldn't be easy.
"I'd like to do a thorough sweep of the area and find Unbris if we can, but... that's looking unlikely."
"Right."
"Guruuu."
Set let out a low, apologetic whine.
Rei and Vihera both stroked him, silently telling him not to worry.
But the comforted griffon seemed ashamed that his own abilities weren't enough to find Unbris. He didn't bounce back to his usual spirits as quickly as he normally would, still not fully himself.
They continued through the grassland, Rei's hand on Set's back, until the Goblin ahead of them—the one lurching forward with a gait so unsteady it could fairly be called a drunken stagger—came to an abrupt halt.
It hadn't stopped of its own accord. It was as though someone had pressed a pause button.
The way it stopped was visibly wrong, and that was exactly why Rei, Vihera, and Set watched the creature in rapt silence, ready to move.
Ready to act the instant anything happened—specifically, the instant Unbris showed itself.
Unbris, born of a magical anomaly, was immune to physical attacks.
That was only natural, given that it had no physical body to begin with.
And as an entity where the phenomenon of a magical anomaly itself had taken form, it also boasted formidable magical defense.
The best way to deal with such a creature would be for Rei to overwhelm its magical defense through sheer magical power—a brute-force breakthrough. At least, that was the theory.
Poised to act no matter what happened, they kept their eyes fixed on the Goblin—and without warning, the black mist surrounding it began to fade.
As though it were being drawn into the Goblin's body.
"Gyaaaaaaaah!"
The instant the last of the black mist was absorbed, the Goblin unleashed a roar—and its body had visibly swelled larger than it had been mere seconds before.
A Goblin Leader had been born.