"Hmm... I see."
It was their usual dinner time.
Rei relayed to everyone present what he had heard from Ranga earlier that day.
Given the nature of the information, he had been told not to discuss it with others—but he had received permission to share it with his party members.
Of course, strictly speaking, Elena and Ara among those present weren't actually Rei's party members.
Even so, considering their positions, it wouldn't be strange for them to know about the matter. Rei felt that even if Ranga found out, he wouldn't particularly mind.
"Sacrifices, huh... Honestly, it's not a very pleasant topic," Elena said.
For the martial-minded Elena, that was indeed something unpleasant to contemplate.
But it was an incident occurring in Gilm, and if what she heard from Rei was true, then when it came to minimizing casualties, she had no choice but to acknowledge that this was the most effective method available.
That said, the reason Elena reluctantly accepted the idea was partly because the sacrifices were condemned criminals, but more than anything, it was because a definite timeframe had been set.
"Hmm... sacrifices, huh. Hey, Rei. Do those sacrifices absolutely have to be humans?" Marina asked. "I don't know what form the ritual takes, but if you think about it normally, wouldn't something other than humans work? Monsters, for instance?"
These were the words that came from Marina, who had been pondering something ever since hearing about the sacrifices.
It was an eye-opening idea for Rei as well.
Since the Red Cloth members had been the initial sacrifices, he had assumed that sacrifices had to be human.
But now that such a possibility had been presented...
Of course, there was no guarantee it would succeed.
They would need to investigate what kinds of monsters might work.
Even so, the possibility of buying time by sacrificing monsters instead of humans was significant.
"I'll run it by Ranga tomorrow," Rei said.
"I've got some business with Daskar too, so I'll bring it up while I'm there," Marina offered.
"Appreciate it, but business with Lord Daskar? Did something happen?"
As far as Rei knew, Daskar had always been weak to Marina. Not that he disliked her, though.
Thinking that Daskar might not exactly welcome Marina's visit for that reason, Rei cast a glance her way—only to find her smiling happily for some reason.
Rei had no idea what Marina was thinking.
But judging by that smile, it felt like an unfortunate event awaited Daskar.
"Ah, well, you know. Lord Daskar must be swamped with this whole situation, so don't go teasing him too much."
Harboring the thought that it was probably a lost cause, Rei conveyed as much to Marina.
Well, looking at Ranga, he's definitely exhausted from this whole ordeal. Thinking about it that way, as a change of pace for Lord Daskar... well, it's not that wrong, is it?
Sensing that thinking any deeper would only lead to trouble, Rei half-forcibly convinced himself.
Seeing his demeanor, Marina flashed a gleeful smile.
"Leave it to me. I'll make sure he gets a proper change of pace."
"...Don't read my mind."
"Oh, I don't intend to do anything like that. It's just that you wear your thoughts on your face, Rei. Besides, I make a point of reading your expressions carefully, so it comes naturally."
Marina's casual words carried more than enough power to faintly redden Rei's cheeks.
"Ah, hem. Anyway... Lord Daskar must be under a lot of strain, so a change of pace is probably necessary. Yeah."
In the end, what came out of Rei's mouth amounted to sacrificing Daskar—offering up the very man who would be offering sacrifices to the tentacles.
Rei briefly entertained that absurd thought before shaking his head to dismiss it.
"So, I understand offering sacrifices to these tentacles, and that a deadline has been set. What do they plan to do when that deadline arrives?" Elena asked, having watched the exchange between Rei and Marina.
The slightly sullen expression Rei wore was likely for the same reason Marina had just described.
"Ah, right. For now, the plan is to try luring the tentacles away from the Underground Space to another location—somewhere far from Gilm—and if that succeeds, they can be destroyed."
"...And they think something like that can be done in a short time?"
Perhaps unable to take Rei's words at face value, Elena tilted her head.
That said, Rei was simply relaying what Ranga had told him. He didn't have any definitive proof himself.
"I wonder. But since Ranga didn't tell me everything, he probably has some kind of plan."
"I'll ask about that when I visit Daskar tomorrow too. If there really are no alternatives, we'll need to figure something out."
"Yeah, please do."
Rei respected Daskar and acknowledged his abilities. But that was strictly his capabilities as a lord. Whether he was knowledgeable in matters of magic was an entirely different question.
In that case, should we come up with something on our end too? ...Relocating those tentacles somewhere... hm?
Rei had been thinking about moving the tentacles when something suddenly clicked. He stopped moving.
Naturally, the others, who had been conversing while eating, found Rei's sudden stillness odd.
"Rei, what's wrong?"
Marina called out to him, but Rei seemed not to hear her, absorbed in his own thoughts.
Moving an entity that originally can't be moved? I've done something like that before, haven't I? A spatial rift... no, that's not it. I don't think there was ever a case where something couldn't be moved that way. So it must be something else entirely... what was it?
He was right on the verge of remembering but couldn't quite grasp it.
Gritting through that frustration, he thought deeper and deeper...
"Rei, what is it?"
Following Marina, Elena also found his behavior strange and asked.
And the moment Elena spoke to him, the puzzle in Rei's mind resolved itself with ease.
Of course—he had encountered that person when he dived into the dungeon at the Altar of Inheritance with Elena.
And in Port City Emosion, that person had teleported the giant monster called Lemures to the surface.
It was a creature that could only be described as a giant Sea Serpent, but even a monster of such enormous bulk was no challenge for a Lich—no, for Grimm, whose true power warranted the title of Lich Lord.
Rei had some reservations about relying on someone else for matters beyond his own capabilities, but considering Gilm's current situation, this was no time to be preoccupied with his own pride.
Daskar claimed he would buy time using sacrifices, but given the damage the tentacles had sustained during yesterday's battle, there was no guarantee that plan would succeed.
If that was the case, then relying on someone who could definitively get the job done was the clear choice. There was frustration in not being able to resolve the situation with their own hands, but weighing the alternatives required no deliberation.
"Which means... the question is how to persuade Lord Daskar."
So deeply absorbed in his own thoughts was he that Rei muttered this without realizing it.
Had he been alone, it would have been nothing more than an idle mutter.
But Elena and the others were here.
Naturally, they would wonder what he meant.
"Rei? What do you mean by persuading Lord Daskar?"
"Huh?"
Elena's words made him realize he had spoken aloud.
For a brief moment, regret flashed across Rei's face.
But Grimm was someone Rei should maintain contact with going forward should anything arise—though in practice, it was currently a one-sided arrangement with Rei relying on him.
For that reason, Rei reconsidered. Perhaps it would be better to tell Elena, Marina, and Vihera—the three who were in his party... no, the three who loved him—about borrowing Grimm's power.
But I'll only tell those three.
It was fine to tell the three who would likely remain at his side for years to come about borrowing Grimm's power this time.
Ara and Byune, however, were another matter. Byune especially was currently operating as part of the Crimson Lotus Wings, but it was a given that she would eventually return to Labyrinth City Exil.
For that reason alone, telling them about Grimm was something to be avoided if at all possible.
Given the myriad methods that existed for extracting information, Rei's judgment was simple: if they didn't know in the first place, they couldn't possibly reveal anything.
Ara did sometimes charge ahead recklessly, but she knew about Grimm, and her devotion to Elena meant Rei could trust her to stay quiet if Elena ordered it.
Also, unlike Byune, she could be treated as a responsible adult, which was a significant factor.
...Even so, there was still a danger of information being stolen through some means or another. But strangely, Rei couldn't imagine Ara carelessly leaking anything, even in such a scenario.
Even if drugs, magic, or Magic Items were used on her, he felt she might power through them through sheer devotion to Elena.
Setting aside the incident when Vihera had lost consciousness, while this situation was near-fatal for Gilm, for Rei personally, it wasn't that devastating a blow.
In these circumstances, borrowing Grimm's—undead—power carried the risk of becoming fatal for Rei, Elena, and Marina if word got out.
"Rei? What's going on?"
"...There might be—and I truly mean might be—a way to deal with the tentacles in the Underground Space."
When Rei finally spoke, not only Marina but everyone who heard him was naturally taken aback.
Even Byune stopped eating and turned a wide-eyed gaze toward him—a testament to just how astonishing his words were.
"Really?"
"Yeah... But honestly, it would require using a fairly precarious method."
He would be asking an acquaintance—someone who had become undead.
Precarious was an understatement. If he explained the details, it would clearly be seen as problematic.
Rei's words weren't just wrapped in a sugar coating—they were bundled up in an entire furoshiki on top of that.
"What kind of method is it?"
Knowing Rei's evasiveness, Vihera asked in Marina's stead.
Having fought the tentacles directly in the Underground Space, she probably didn't think whatever Rei was suggesting could be pulled off so easily.
At the same time, she didn't believe Rei would make such claims out of vanity or lies.
That was exactly why she was intensely curious about what method he intended to use.
But Rei, feeling the weight of Vihera's gaze—and everyone else's—remained vague.
"This really is a delicate method. That's precisely why I want to avoid any possibility of it getting out. To be specific, I only want to tell Elena, Marina, and Vihera. Of course, after hearing it, if each of you decides to share it, that's your call."
With that, Rei directed his gaze toward Ara and Byune.
The meaning behind his gesture was obvious. And naturally, being sidelined like this was not something they took well.
"Wait just a moment. Are you saying that Byune and I might leak information to someone!?"
"Mm!"
Byune voiced her agreement with Ara's accusatory outburst.
Rei could certainly understand how they felt.
They had fought alongside each other all this time—why was he shutting them out?
"I get how you feel, but in this world, there are methods to extract information through means you'd never imagine."
Magic, drugs, Magic Items, and honey traps... Rei ran through the list mentally, but then remembered that the two people standing before him were Ara and Byune, and concluded that honey traps were a non-issue.
Ara was quite attractive, with looks that could genuinely be called beautiful.
But whether due to her devotion to Elena, she showed zero interest in men.
Byune, for her part, could barely manage to communicate with men in the first place.
Taking those circumstances into account, Rei was thoroughly convinced that honey traps were off the table as he opened his mouth to explain himself.