"Mmm... mmm..."
When Rei woke up, he found himself in a room he recognized from having stayed there the past several days.
His own room, prepared for him in Marina's house.
He couldn't, however, understand why he was in it.
Still groggy from just waking up, he glanced around... then collapsed back onto the bed.
As he fell, he felt discomfort at how hard it was to sleep in his current state and began stripping off his clothes.
He would normally be wearing something more comfortable for sleep—so why wasn't he?
A faint question crossed his mind, but in his half-awake state, his thoughts refused to fully coalesce.
Even so, the fact that he kept removing his clothes unconsciously probably meant it was simply that uncomfortable to sleep in them.
Now in lighter attire, he was about to drift off in the bed once more when—
"Rei, are you awake? It's about time for breakfast."
The voice came from beyond the door.
Rei, who had been trying to fall asleep again, raised his head at the sound... then pressed his face right back into the pillow.
"Rei, are you not up yet?"
Mmh, uhh.
Making those noises in response to the voice from the hallway, Rei nonetheless lifted his head—perhaps because the word "breakfast" had stuck in his mind.
Rei was never good with mornings, but usually not this bad.
The reason he was this drowsy today was undoubtedly because he had gotten so little sleep the night before.
When he had woken up inside the Birth Tower yesterday, the situation had been urgent, which was why he could act immediately upon waking.
Here, however, there was no need for tension, so he was probably still half-asleep.
It was proof that this was a place where Rei could truly relax.
For Marina, who had come to wake him, that would surely make her happy.
That said, waking Rei took priority over savoring that happiness right now.
"Still not up? I'm coming in, alright?"
Marina called out as she knocked several times, but Rei showed no sign of stirring even at her voice.
So, reluctantly—regardless of what she felt inside—Marina opened the door.
What caught her eye was the sight of Rei collapsed on the bed, his clothes scattered around him.
Items like the Dragon Robe, the Sleipnir boots, and the Eye of Nebula had at least been removed and placed near the bed when she and Elena had carried Rei to this room, but everything else was as it was.
...She didn't entirely dismiss the thought that since he was actually sleeping, it might have been better to strip him down and make him more comfortable. But a vague sense of embarrassment stopped her from doing so.
If it had been just Elena or just Marina alone, the momentum of the moment might have carried them to strip Rei themselves. But precisely because there were two of them, they had ended up gauging each other's reactions, and neither could bring herself to do it.
Since Rei was sleeping with his face buried in the pillow, Marina couldn't see his sleeping face.
Even so, the sight of him brought a smile to her lips.
It was not her usual smile, heavy with a woman's allure, but the smile of a woman in love. ...The fact that a trace of that allure still shone through was probably just because it was Marina.
Marina wanted to keep watching Rei's sleeping form like this—right up until he woke naturally—but circumstances wouldn't allow it.
Above all, if she stayed in Rei's room much longer, there was no guarantee Elena wouldn't come looking, suspicious that Marina hadn't returned.
After enjoying a brief moment of happiness watching Rei sleep, Marina sprang into action.
"Come on, Rei. Wake up. Breakfast is ready. Freshly baked bread, fresh salad, and sausages too."
A twitch.
Rei's body moved faintly at Marina's words.
Marina formed a complicated expression at Rei reacting to the word "breakfast" rather than to her own words, but she shook him nonetheless.
"Yeah, these sausages are good."
Having finished getting ready, Rei was already sampling the breakfast Marina had made.
For breakfast prepared by a beauty like Marina, one might easily pay several Gold Coins... or in some cases Platinum Coins, and there would even be those willing to fork over Light Gold Coins.
Rei savored and thoroughly enjoyed such cooking.
The centerpiece of today's breakfast was, as Marina had told him, sausages.
However, sausages were an ingredient where disagreements over cooking methods—nay, even fistfights—were not uncommon.
It was a topic that rivaled, if not surpassed, such great dilemmas as what to put on fried eggs or whether to squeeze lemon juice on fried chicken.
The well-known methods for cooking sausages were generally boiling and grilling. ...Back in Japan, there were also those who used a microwave, but.
In any case, those were the two main methods, though even those could be broken down further.
When grilling: do you cook them just enough that the skin doesn't split, or do you grill them until the skin bursts?
When boiling: how long do you boil them?
Beyond that, the condiments put on sausages also varied from person to person.
From those who put on nothing at all, to ketchup, mustard, Soy Sauce—which had yet to be found in this world—and salt.
People's preferences varied widely, but Rei liked boiled sausages.
And specifically, sausages that hadn't been overboiled to the point of splitting the skin.
His reasoning was that once the skin split, the meat juices would leak into the boiling water, and he felt that diminished the sausage's flavor.
Marina knew Rei's preferences, so the sausages she served had been boiled just enough that the skins remained intact.
Rei dipped a sausage in a green sauce with a spiciness and tang similar to mustard and brought it to his mouth.
Along with the crisp sensation of the skin breaking, the meat juices spread across his palate and mingled with the spicy, tangy sauce.
Follow that with some freshly baked bread or a bite of fresh salad, and his mouth became a veritable symphony of flavors.
"Rei, you're eating like it's the best thing in the world. As the one who made it, I'm happy you're enjoying it that much."
Watching Rei eat the sausages with a blissful expression, Marina smiled in satisfaction.
"Maybe it's because I slept so well, but I was starving."
"Rei, you went to sleep right after dinner yesterday and just woke up now, right? In that case, isn't it basically like you're eating two meals in a row?"
Vihera, who had been enjoying her vegetable soup, voiced the question.
As for Vihera herself, she had had a mock battle with Gaga after dinner yesterday, and another one with Gaga early this morning.
She had also been training Byune, but that wasn't nearly as intense.
The mock battles with Gaga were extremely strenuous exercise, so she ate a solid breakfast—about three people's worth, in fact.
On top of that, she had eaten a proper midnight snack yesterday as well.
That she didn't gain weight despite eating so much was partly due to her constitution, but more than that, it was because she moved her body so much.
After all, if you burned more energy than you took in, you wouldn't gain weight.
"Even when I'm sleeping, I still get hungry somehow."
"Is that not normal?"
Elena said in response to Rei's words.
Elena also ate a proper breakfast.
No, to be precise, everyone here ate a solid breakfast.
In a physically demanding line of work, skipping breakfast guaranteed you wouldn't last until lunch.
...Though, unlike Rei and the others, Elena's main duties consisted of audiences with nobles, and she didn't move her body all that much.
Even so, she never neglected her combat training, so she did get her share of physical activity.
Rei had wondered—since Elena had inherited an Ancient Dragon's magic stone, wouldn't it be unsurprising if changes had occurred in that regard too?—but he had judged it better not to ask, and so he hadn't.
"●●?"
Gaga, who had been eating in silence, directed a puzzled look at Rei.
But even with that gaze fixed on him, Rei couldn't fathom what Gaga found so questionable.
If Zozo were here, he could use the Stone Tablet to translate—but Zozo was staying overnight at the Birth Tower, serving as the bridge between humans and Lizardmen.
(Lord Daskar said he'd try to find a Magic Item similar to the Stone Tablet Zozo uses... but finding one will probably be difficult.)
The Stone Tablet Zozo used was something Grimm had possessed.
Even Grimm only had the one, so finding a similar tablet... no, finding any Magic Item with a comparable ability wouldn't be easy.
Even in the frontier of Gilm, one couldn't obtain just anything.
If anything, it was safe to assume that this sort of Magic Item would be easier to acquire in a place like the Royal Capital.
(No, right now, figuring out what Gaga is trying to say takes priority over how to obtain a Stone Tablet. ...The table?)
What Gaga's massive hand was pointing at was the table.
But beyond that, Rei couldn't grasp what Gaga was trying to convey.
He wondered if Gaga wanted more to eat, but the food in front of him still remained, so it didn't seem like he was asking for seconds.
Then maybe he was telling them to hurry up and finish? Rei considered that too, but from the look of Gaga, he didn't seem to be in any rush.
"...What do you think?"
"Even if you ask me... Hmm, maybe he wants more soup?"
At Marina's words, Rei looked at Gaga's soup bowl on the table—though calling it a bowl was generous, given its size.
But there was still plenty of vegetable soup left in it, and it didn't look like Gaga was clamoring for more.
Incidentally, the soup in Gaga's bowl was the same vegetable soup Rei and the others were having, but with the added step of flaking leftover grilled fish from the previous night's meal into it and bringing it back to a boil—a special preparation.
This was Marina's doing, knowing that Gaga, while not as obsessed as Zozo, was fond of fish.
Rei was somewhat curious about the taste of that soup himself, but right now, reading Gaga's thoughts took priority.
(He doesn't look angry, so thinking about it... is he happy because the soup is delicious?)
Indeed, from all appearances, Gaga didn't seem displeased but rather in high spirits.
If so, Rei could only conclude that Gaga was rejoicing over how good the soup was.
"Isn't he just happy the soup is tasty?"
Perhaps arriving at the same conclusion as Rei, Vihera chimed in.
Judging from Gaga's demeanor, everyone else seemed willing to agree, and they accepted her assessment. As a tentative gesture, Rei pointed at the soup bowl in front of Gaga, then raised both hands to express astonished delight.
...Whether that actually conveyed the intended message was somewhat doubtful even to the one performing it, but fortunately, Gaga nodded in satisfaction upon seeing Rei's gesture.
Since it was an exchange conducted entirely through gestures, whether true communication had been achieved was uncertain even to Rei himself.
"Do you think it got through?"
Rei asked somewhat tentatively, but whether he was truly communicating with Gaga was something no one else could determine either.
"Even setting Gaga aside, you've had the longest relationship with these Lizardmen, including Zozo. Shouldn't you be able to read that sort of thing?"
"Don't ask for the impossible, the impossible."
Rei shot back at Vihera's words.
If this were Zozo, there might have been a chance of understanding even without the Stone Tablet.
But unfortunately, the one currently appearing to rejoice before his eyes was not Zozo but Gaga.
Rei had hit it off with Gaga through their mock battles, but even so, they couldn't hold a conversation.
"If anything, Vihera, you've had multiple mock battles with Gaga. Wouldn't you be the one who understands what he's saying?"
"Even if you say that. In the middle of a fight, there are times I can sort of sense what the opponent is thinking, but..."
Not right now.
Told that flatly, Rei had nothing more to say.
"For now, as long as he's not angry about something, I'll ask Zozo when we get to the Birth Tower."
At Rei's words, everyone—except Gaga—nodded.
From the look of it, it wasn't an urgent matter, so it would be shelved for the time being.
Rei somehow managed to convey through gestures that he'd listen later... whether Gaga actually understood that, or simply decided that nodding would suffice, he said nothing more and returned to his meal.