After stepping out of the office, several tens of minutes passed. Rei stood with his back against the wall.
Under normal circumstances, going down to the first floor would have gotten him a cup of tea or something from a Guild Staff Member.
But Rei was not in the mood for that right now.
He never expected the Unbris to do something like using Teleportation—suddenly appearing beside Vihera and seeping into her body. But the fact remained that he hadn't finished off the Unbris before it could take such action.
It was a troublesome opponent that regenerated immediately no matter how many times he attacked and destroyed its body. Still, if he had kept Vihera further away during the fight, this never would have happened.
As he was thinking this, the office door suddenly opened.
The one who peeked out was, as expected, Marina.
For a fleeting moment, Rei had hoped that Vihera might casually poke her head out instead, and the wave of disappointment hit him hard.
Seeing the letdown on Rei's face, Marina invited him back into the room without any sign of anger.
Under normal circumstances, the man she loved worrying about another woman wouldn't amuse Marina. Still, if the subject of that worry was Vihera... or Elena, then strangely enough, she didn't feel all that jealous.
Of course, that wasn't because she loved Rei any less than the other two did. Rather, she understood that the three of them would all be joined with Rei.
If he were worrying about someone who wasn't Vihera, wasn't Elena, and wasn't herself, then she would have felt at least a twinge of jealousy.
Thinking such things, Marina led Rei into the office.
Vihera's figure lying on the sofa was unchanged from when Rei had stepped out earlier.
The flimsy garments—so sheer that calling them "clothes" felt like a stretch—that had been removed to examine Vihera's condition were now back in place.
But even so, there was no sign of Vihera regaining consciousness.
What could be called a silver lining was that the unconscious Vihera showed no signs of distress.
If someone who knew nothing saw Vihera's current state, it would look like nothing more than deep sleep.
If she had been letting out groans of anguish, Rei would have been unable to sit still.
Tearing his gaze away from Vihera's face, which looked as though she were merely sleeping, Rei asked Marina.
"So, how is Vihera? Do you have any idea when she might wake up?"
Marina shook her head and spoke with a regretful tone.
"I don't know. There are no physical abnormalities, and no disturbances in her magical power. She could wake up at any moment and it wouldn't be strange. As far as I can tell, there are no issues, but..."
Marina paused, then turned her gaze back to Vihera.
Rei, seeing Marina's attitude that clearly indicated there was nothing more she could do, took a potion out of the Misty Ring.
"Then would using this potion be meaningless?"
That potion was no ordinary potion.
It was a rare potion crafted using materials from the World Tree.
Compared to the potions sold in Gilm, its effectiveness was vastly different.
With a potion of that caliber, perhaps Vihera might recover as well.
At Rei's words, spoken with that hope, Marina shook her head.
"Unfortunately, I don't think it will work. If she were injured, it could heal her in the blink of an eye, but..."
Marina's words trailed off.
Since Marina was also seeing a situation like Vihera's current one for the first time, she couldn't be certain whether the World Tree potion truly wouldn't have any effect.
Even to Marina's eyes, Vihera right now looked like she was only sleeping.
So much so that it wouldn't be strange at all if she woke up this very moment, yawning.
"We could have a Recovery Magic user or a doctor examine her. What do you want to do?"
It would probably be pointless even if they did.
Marina's tone implicitly conveyed that, but considering even the slimmest chance that Vihera might regain consciousness, the option of not having her examined didn't exist in Rei's mind.
"Then could you arrange it? I know things are busy right now, but..."
The "busy" in this case didn't refer to Marina, but rather to the Recovery Magic users and doctors.
The Unbris situation that had been occurring around Gilm—or rather, had been occurring until recently.
The Leader Species that had been created were forming packs, and multiple packs were moving around the vicinity of Gilm... or more accurately, throughout the frontier.
Many adventurers had accepted subjugation requests to defeat those packs, which naturally meant there were many who got injured.
Daskar had declared that he would cover the medical expenses, since letting adventurers die because they couldn't afford treatment would reduce Gilm's defensive forces.
Thanks to that, even adventurers injured fighting the packs could receive immediate recovery treatment as long as their injuries were within a certain range—so long as they weren't life-threatening.
Of course, the free treatment was limited to adventurers subjugating packs or searching for the Unbris.
"Yes, I'll bring someone right away."
Even as she said that, there was no hint of expectation in Marina's tone.
She was likely able to predict that even if she brought a skilled Recovery Magic user from within Gilm, it would be futile.
Even so, hoping for that one-in-a-million, one-in-a-hundred-million chance, she left the room to send a Guild Staff Member to fetch a Recovery Magic user.
There was also a need to inform the lord, Daskar, that the Unbris had been defeated.
However, even though the Unbris was defeated, that didn't mean the Leader Species created by the Unbris would disappear.
No more Leader Species would be created, but the packs led by the ones already produced still needed to be defeated by the people of Gilm.
Depending on the time and circumstances, packs might clash and fight each other, or a more powerful monster might trample a pack. But conversely, the possibility that a Leader Species' pack might absorb other packs and grow even larger couldn't be ruled out either.
"Then wait here for a bit, okay?"
Seeing Marina off as she left the office with those words, Rei sat down on a different sofa from the one Vihera was sleeping on.
"...Haa."
A deep sigh escaped him, and he turned his gaze toward the blue sky outside the window.
What was there was a perfectly blue sky, typical of summer.
Gazing at that blue sky—so completely different from his own state of mind that one might even call it the exact opposite—Rei let out another sigh.
As long as they were active as adventurers, both Rei and Vihera had been prepared to face danger during requests.
Even so, standing before Vihera who had actually lost consciousness like this, there was no way he wouldn't feel anything.
Continuing to stare at Vihera's face as she appeared to be in deep sleep, about ten minutes passed before a knock finally came at the office door, which was then opened.
Along with Marina, who wore her usual radiant composure, there was one other woman who entered the office.
She appeared to be in her mid-twenties. Green hair was cut to shoulder length for ease of movement.
Her well-defined features, wearing a gentle expression, could certainly be called beautiful.
However, Rei regularly saw beauties like Elena, Vihera, and Marina—women who could be described as representative of their era—so he wasn't particularly surprised upon seeing her.
The woman first looked at Vihera lying on the sofa, then turned her gaze toward Rei.
"A pleasure to meet you, Rei-san. My name is Lunamiria. ...Well, actually we've met a few times before, but this is the first time greeting you directly like this."
"We've met before?"
Looking more closely at the face of the person who introduced herself as Lunamiria, Rei soon recalled where he had seen her before.
She was a face he occasionally saw among those who doted on Set, feeding and petting him.
"I see, from Set's..."
"Yes. Set-chan has played with me several times. I never expected to meet Rei-san in a place like this, though."
Lunamiria, who had been smiling, quickly shifted to a serious expression and turned her gaze toward Vihera.
"I'd love to talk about Set-chan, but for now, treating her takes priority."
"...Please."
Nodding at Rei's words, Lunamiria approached the unconscious Vihera and gently placed her hand on her face.
In her left hand, which wasn't touching Vihera's forehead, she held what appeared to be a staff serving as a Magic Catalyst.
Then she chanted an incantation, and before long, her hand was enveloped in light, which transferred to Vihera.
As Rei watched the scene, Marina gently took hold of his hand.
Rei squeezed Marina's hand in return.
Through the warmth of each other's hands, they both understood that the other was firmly there. Eventually, the light faded from Vihera's body.
Perhaps Vihera would wake up right this moment.
Rei turned his gaze toward Lunamiria with that hope. But eventually, Lunamiria, who had been concentrating on her magic, opened her eyes, looked at Rei and Marina, and slowly shook her head. Not vertically, but horizontally.
"!?"
Both the thought of "why?" and the thought of "I knew it" existed simultaneously in Rei's heart.
The opponent was the unknown entity called the Unbris, so he hadn't expected things to be resolved so easily.
But even so, he had held onto the hope that perhaps something could be done.
"I'm sorry, but it seems there's nothing I can do with my abilities. Before that, from what I examined, there are no abnormalities in Vihera-san's body. I would say she's in perfect health."
"...Perfect health? But..."
As Rei tried to press further, Lunamiria nodded as if to say she understood.
"Yes. Even in perfect health, she won't regain consciousness. In other words, the reason Vihera-san remains unconscious is not a physical problem but a mental one, I believe."
"...In other words, using a potion made with World Tree materials would be meaningless?"
"I'm not sure. If it were an ordinary potion, since they are generally for physical recovery, I could say with certainty it would be meaningless, but..."
"Given that it's a potion made from something as extraordinary as the World Tree, you can't say for certain it would have no effect, can you."
Marina interjected into the conversation between Rei and Lunamiria.
The one among them who best understood what kind of existence the World Tree was, was undoubtedly Marina.
Not only had she been born and raised in a place where the World Tree stood, but Marina was also someone connected to the bloodline of the World Tree.
Because of that, she understood just how potent materials from the World Tree could be.
"Then do you think we should try it?"
"Even if you use the potion, it won't cause any harm to her body. So there's no problem... right?"
"Yes. However, it does mean we might end up wasting a potion made from the World Tree."
Lunamiria answered Marina's question in a polite tone.
She had been speaking to Rei in a relatively casual manner due to him being Set's owner, but she naturally adopted an appropriate level of formality toward Marina as the Guild Master.
Marina, accustomed to such things, didn't seem particularly bothered and turned her gaze to Rei.
"It seems there's no issue with using the World Tree potion, so why not try it? Though the chances of it being wasted are higher."
What will you do? Marina asked with a provocative gaze.
Materials from the World Tree were extremely rare.
They were not something that could be obtained simply by throwing money at them.
Would he use it and risk wasting it even then? Faced with Marina's silent question, Rei didn't hesitate to take the potion out of the Misty Ring.
An item that, if put up for sale, could easily be traded for a Light Gold Coin.
Lunamiria too was captivated by what could only be described as the potion's inherent prestige.
Rei brought the potion to Vihera's lips. But naturally, Vihera, who was unconscious, couldn't possibly drink it.
Well, if he forced it into her mouth she might drink it, but there was a chance she'd reflexively spit it out.
World Tree potions weren't limited to only the one Rei had on hand, but he didn't have a large supply of them either.
He thought briefly about how to administer it, and what flashed through his mind was a scene from a manga or anime he had seen when he was in Japan.
I guess I have no choice. I don't like doing this kind of thing to someone who's unconscious, though.
Making up his mind, he poured the World Tree potion into his own mouth.
Then, placing his hand on Vihera's face, he transferred the potion directly mouth-to-mouth.
He kept their lips pressed together for several seconds so she wouldn't spit it out.
After confirming that Vihera's throat moved and she swallowed the potion, he gently pulled his lips away.
Under normal circumstances, Marina would have teased them about this scene, but the atmosphere right now didn't allow for that.
Rei, Marina, and Lunamiria all watched Vihera's condition intently.
But there was no sign of her waking up. She remained asleep.
"No good... huh."
"...Yeah."
Rei muttered briefly in response to Marina's words.
As if to encourage Rei, Marina turned her gaze to his face. But what she found there was not a dejected expression, but one filled with determination.
"Vihera... I will definitely wake you up. Definitely."
He murmured.