"Whoa... that's an awful lot you brought back."
The one who said that was Marina, upon seeing the multiple nets Rei was carrying.
Indeed, the nets Rei held were stuffed to the brim with abalone, turbo, oysters—though more accurately, shellfish closely resembling each one—as well as bizarrely shaped shells he had never seen before.
By weight, it was several tens of kilograms... no, it wouldn't be surprising if it exceeded a hundred.
Rei, carrying all of that without a care, was absurd enough, but Set, who had flown here with Rei on his back, was probably just as absurd.
"You can say that, but there are reasons."
"Reasons? And those reasons are why you came back with nets full of shells and no fish?"
"Yeah. I can't store living things in the Misty Ring. I killed all the fish, so I could store those, but I didn't know how to kill shellfish. So I figured I'd rely on your Spirit Magic, Marina."
"...Huh. I see. I've never tried it before, but... I think I can do it without any problems. For now, could you put those shells on the ground? With you holding them, I can't tell what's what."
Prompted by Marina, Rei set the nets on the ground while the others watched with curious eyes.
The sound of shells clattering against each other rang out, making it all too easy to imagine just how heavy the contents of those nets really were.
"I figured you'd be able to handle it, Marina. Really glad you actually can."
Seeing Rei's relieved expression, Marina spoke up with an exasperated look.
"Listen, what were you planning to do if I couldn't handle it?"
"In that case, I'd have roasted them into an immediately edible state, or filleted them so they'd be ready for cooking, then stored them in the Misty Ring."
That was a method possible precisely because the Item Box rendered the passage of time irrelevant for anything stored inside.
Bistol listened to Rei's words and wore a slightly envious expression.
Bistol possessed a Magic Pouch, a simplified mass-produced version of the Item Box, but it had limited storage capacity, and time still passed normally inside.
That was exactly why he spent nearly every night making dried fish.
...Of course, fish being dried like that naturally carried a fair bit of a fishy odor, and that smell attracted insects.
He fended them off with nets and such, but depending on the size of the bugs, some could slip right through the mesh.
Also, if Set was around, other monsters and animals wouldn't come near—but that was strictly conditional on Set being present.
During the day, when Set was acting alongside Rei, Set's scent and presence lingered, so most animals wouldn't approach. But even that wasn't absolute.
Animals with poor presence detection... or animals so starved that a moderate degree of danger was unavoidable—such animals, partly because Set wasn't there, sometimes wandered in.
As a result, a few pieces of dried fish had been stolen by animals or birds... but for Bistol, that was irritating rather than a real loss.
In the first place, Bistol hadn't spent a single coin on travel expenses to get here, and as for meals, Rei and the others provided the ingredients while Bistol did the cooking. ...The sight of a powerfully built, muscular man meticulously preparing meals looked, at first glance, like nothing but sheer incongruity.
Even so, the taste of Bistol's cooking surpassed even Marina's, who was the best cook among Rei's group.
No one intended to complain about such delicious food over something like that sense of incongruity.
And as for the dried fish in question, the fishing tools were borrowed from Rei, and the bait was procured locally.
The only things Bistol was consuming were the time spent fishing and the effort of making the dried fish.
"I envy that you'd manage somehow no matter what, Rei-chan."
Bistol, who had been watching the exchange between Rei and Marina, muttered that.
"Do you?"
"Of course. Honestly, you really don't know how blessed you are."
Bistol was slightly exasperated by Rei's words.
For Rei, the Misty Ring was something he had been using since the moment he arrived in this world.
Naturally, using it had become second nature to him.
"For now, it's fine to kill all the shells, right?"
As if cutting into the conversation between Rei and Bistol, Marina said that, and Rei nodded.
The moment Rei nodded, Marina used Spirit Magic and produced a mass of water.
With the sea nearby and a hot spring even closer, using Water Spirit Magic in this location was presumably quite easy.
All of the nets, packed full of shells, were enveloped by water and floated up.
"This will take a little time, so you can go do something else, Rei."
"...Are you sure? Then I'll leave it to you. Well, it does look interesting watching it like this."
Indeed, the water covering the nets containing the shells had already grown quite murky in that short time.
The grime on the shells and the impurities inside them were being extracted at a visibly discernible pace, which was remarkable.
(Asari... shijimi? Was there hamaguri too? Purging the sand normally requires soaking them in water overnight, but with Marina here, that kind of thing is done in no time.)
Looking at the shells enveloped in water, Rei thought along those lines... then gave Marina a light wave and left the area.
Marina watched Rei go, then proceeded to thoroughly clean the filth from the water-encased shells.
"My, my, you're certainly enthusiastic."
Hehehe, Bistol smiled while observing Marina's demeanor.
Marina, having been asked by Rei, looked somehow fresh... yes, it was reminiscent of a newlywed bride.
At Bistol's remark, Marina too looked pleased.
Normally, she would radiate an intensely feminine allure, but right now, she possessed not only that feminine charm but simultaneously exuded a sense of happiness.
"That's right. Adventuring with Rei is wonderful, but enjoying a relaxed holiday like this isn't bad either. ...In the first place, we've been working nonstop since the Treant Forest incident."
What Marina said was by no means wrong.
Resolving the Treant Forest incident led to the Expansion Construction in Gilm, dealing with Noble Faction Nobles who wanted to obstruct it, handling criminal organizations that tried to exploit the influx of people in Gilm, traveling all the way to another country to ensure they'd never dare interfere again... and even after that, there was truly a great deal more.
Thinking about it, there was nothing strange about taking it easy here for a while, and no one would blame them for it.
Of course, if they relaxed too long here, things would undoubtedly get hectic back in Gilm.
(About ten more days... I suppose. That's about how long we can relax here.)
Thinking such thoughts, Marina smiled.
"Pwahh... yeah, cold fruit water really is the best in summer."
"Gruuru."
At Rei's words, Set rumbled his throat in agreement.
Rei, with the hood of his Dragon Robe lowered, and Set, whose fur was wet, had just come from the hot spring.
Since they had chosen this place as a base camp precisely because there was a hot spring, making the most of it was only natural.
They hadn't actually swum in the ocean, but spending hours out near the open sea being buffeted by salt breezes naturally left one's hair and skin sticky.
And as a post-bath drink, cold fruit water tasting beyond delicious was only to be expected.
"Gruu? Gru-ruu."
Just one more, please. Set rumbled at Rei, asking for a refill.
Giving in to Set's request with an "alright, fine," Rei poured more fruit water into the vessel in front of him.
(Maybe I should preserve fruits harvested in spring, summer, and autumn, then freeze them with snow in winter and store them in the Misty Ring. ...No, if I just asked Marina, she could probably handle that effortlessly with Spirit Magic.)
With Water Spirit Magic, she could probably manage ice just fine too.
Though he couldn't have possibly noticed Rei's thoughts, Set briefly paused from drinking his fruit water and turned his gaze toward Rei.
"It's nothing. Just something that crossed my mind."
"Gru-ru-ruu?"
Really? Set rumbled, and apparently satisfied by Rei's words, he began drinking his fruit water again.
Stroking Set's body, Rei quietly closed his eyes.
As his field of vision went dark, his hearing sharpened... and the sounds around him came through clearly.
Elena and the others' voices, the sounds of work. But what Rei wanted to hear was not those... it was the sound of the night insects.
Perhaps because summer was drawing to a close, the insect chorus seemed to have grown considerably sparser compared to a little while ago. But once the season progressed a bit further, the autumn insects would noisily begin asserting themselves once more.
(Even when I was in Japan, summer and autumn were loud.)
Where Rei had lived was right near the mountains... an area that, depending on who you asked, might even be described as being inside the mountains.
Naturally, that meant a great number of insects as well, and on summer and autumn nights, what could only be called an insect concert was held almost every evening.
...No, the insect concerts weren't held only at night.
During the day, the cries of cicadas echoed loud enough to be a nuisance.
Why, somehow, he found himself recalling the time he spent in Japan.
Even Rei himself didn't know the reason, but the insect sounds still thoroughly delighted his ears.
As he enjoyed the sound of insects, partly because he had his eyes closed, drowsiness came over him.
The fact that Set was nearby—ready to react instantly should anything happen—probably also played a role.
Eventually, the hand that had been stroking Set came to a stop, and with his weight resting against Set, Rei offered no resistance to the drowsiness and drifted off to sleep.
"Oh my, hey. Look at that. Rei-chan, of all things."
Her words might have sounded like a mild complaint, but the light dwelling in her eyes was somehow gentle.
At Bistol's remark, those who heard her voice followed Bistol's gaze and understood what Bistol meant.
Since he had taken off his Dragon Robe hood, given his usual personality, it was an expression that should never have suited him... but there, sleeping with a face that could only be described as innocent, was Rei.
An expression so innocently naive it was hard to believe, given Rei's usual demeanor.
Since he originally had a feminine face to begin with, that innocence appeared even more pronounced to those watching him.
Bistol, in particular, possessed maternal instincts that were among the strongest of anyone present.
Seeing Rei's sleeping state, Bistol couldn't help but think he should cover him with something so he wouldn't catch a cold.
In reality, though summer was nearing its end, it was still plenty warm.
Moreover, the Dragon Robe functioned like a simplified air conditioner, and since Rei was leaning against Set, there was no need to worry about him catching a cold.
...In the first place, since it was Zephyle who had built Rei's body, unless he did something like sleeping naked in extreme cold, sleeping in this kind of temperature wouldn't affect him at all.
"Stop right there. If you approach him forcibly, you'll end up waking Rei."
To Bistol, who had been about to approach Rei with a blanket in hand, Elena said that.
Why? Bistol tilted his head, and Elena, with a slightly smug smile, spoke.
"If someone approaches while he's sleeping, Rei will wake up. ...Though if it's one of us, he won't."
That meant that even while asleep, Rei unconsciously scanned the presences around him.
And the reason Elena smiled with a hint of pride was that it showed—even unconsciously—Rei placed his full trust in her existence... and in Marina and Vihera as well.
"Oh my, how enviable."
Though Bistol spoke words that sounded like jealousy, he wore a smile brimming with maternal warmth.
Given his stern face, reading maternal warmth from it would have required considerable familiarity.
However, Elena and the others, having traveled alongside Bistol for several days now, had become more than capable of reading it well enough.
"That's right. But we're not giving him up."
At Marina, who said that with a mischievous laugh, Bistol put on an exaggerated show of disappointment before speaking.
"What a shame. If it's a good man like Rei-chan, I'd dedicate everything to him without a second thought."
"I'm sorry, but Rei is more than satisfied with the three of us. You'll have to find someone else, Bistol."
From Marina's words, the conversation expanded, and for a while after, what could only be called a girls' talk unfolded.
...Though, admittedly, calling some of the participants "girls" was a bit of a stretch.