"So this is... a lake from another world?"
"Amazing, isn't it, Professor? To think that a parallel world, long thought to exist only in theory, would actually be real."
A man in his late twenties and a girl in her mid-teens exchanged these words as they gazed out over the lake.
A short distance away, other scholars were investigating the lake, each following their own curiosity.
Some were even observing the Slime that was still burning.
Normally, if an unknown party approached, the knight assigned here would have been obligated to stop them. But when the visitors were scholars dispatched at Daskar's request, there was nothing he could do to turn them away.
"Still... is this really safe? There might still be more of those Water Striders in the lake, and there's no telling what other monsters could be lurking in there."
The identity of the water-repellent-furred creature that Rei had spotted also remained a mystery.
Given that, letting everyone wander around as they pleased was undeniably dangerous.
...Though guarding these scholars had naturally been added to Rei's list of duties.
"Hey there, adventurer. I heard you ate some fish caught from this lake. Have you noticed anything wrong with your body? How did it taste? What was the texture of the meat like?"
One scholar was busy bombarding an adventurer who had eaten the fish with questions. Watching this, Rei felt a deep sense of relief that he hadn't eaten any himself.
Everyone who had eaten the fish reported that it was perfectly delicious, and even after some time had passed, none of them showed any signs of illness. So there probably wasn't anything to worry about on that front.
"Scholars like that, the ones who don't go wading into the lake, are pretty easy to babysit. ...But the ones over there look like a handful."
Near the scholars who had waded into the water to investigate the surroundings, adventurers stood by, ready to respond at a moment's notice.
It wasn't just the adventurers, either. Following instructions from Zozo and Gaga, some of the Lizardmen with time on their hands were also serving as bodyguards for the scholars.
...However, there were a few scholars who were far more fascinated by the friendly Lizardmen than by the lake itself.
"Oh! Look at this! This shell is a previously unknown species!"
One scholar shouted, holding a Giant Clam with both hands.
And as the fact that he was using both hands implied, the clam was enormous.
It was so large that he could barely hold it with both hands.
In terms of shape, it was a spiral shell resembling a river snail. Only its size was wildly out of the ordinary.
River snails were actually quite familiar to Rei.
Back in Japan, he had seen them many times in the river flowing near his home.
Though he had certainly never seen a river snail this large before.
After all, the river snails Rei knew were only about the size of a fingertip.
"Hey, hold on, old man. Something that huge could be danger—"
The adventurer serving as bodyguard tried to warn the scholar holding the Giant Clam... but in the next instant, he smacked the clam right out of the scholar's hands with the butt of his spear.
"What do you think you're—!?"
The scholar glared at the adventurer, furious that his find had been suddenly knocked away.
But the adventurer simply pointed his spear at the clam he had just sent flying.
"Take a look. If I'd knocked it out of your hands a second later, you can imagine what would've happened to your hand, right?"
At those words, the scholar turned his gaze to the fallen clam... and saw a sharp needle protruding from the shell.
The needle itself was about ten centimeters long.
Had the scholar continued holding the clam as he had been, the needle would have undoubtedly pierced right through his palm.
"This is..."
The scholar stared intently at the clam that had suddenly extended its needle.
"Get it now? Don't go carelessly picking up things you find lying around."
"Incredible. So this is how it catches its prey? If so, we should consider this clam to be carnivorous."
Uh... really?
Despite having nearly been injured, the scholar showed no concern whatsoever and was simply observing the needle-bearing clam with intense fascination.
To a scholar, an unknown existence was apparently just that intriguing.
He looked as though he wouldn't think twice about offering up his own flesh and blood if it meant satisfying his intellectual curiosity.
Not just Rei, but everyone else who witnessed this felt a subtle urge to back away from the scholar.
"About these fish... are there no more live ones?"
Completely unbothered by what had just happened, another scholar approached the adventurer who had eaten the grilled fish.
The adventurer, who had been subjected to an endless barrage of questions about the fish's taste and texture, opened his mouth with a hint of irritation.
"Those fish are pretty easy to catch. If you want some, I can get them right away."
Even as he said this, a look of reluctance flickered across the adventurer's face.
Until recently, he wouldn't have thought twice about wading into the lake to catch fish.
But after seeing the giant clam that scholar had been holding, he knew for a fact that the same creatures had to be living in the lake. Honestly, he'd rather not go back in there if he could help it.
However, the scholar seemed completely oblivious to the adventurer's hesitation.
"Then go catch some fish for me. Alive, preferably. I want to compare them with this world's fish."
This world? The adventurer tilted his head in confusion.
The scholars had been informed by Daskar that there was a chance—a very real chance—that the lake had teleported here from a different world entirely, which was why they had such a strong interest in this investigation.
But the adventurer hadn't been told any of this, so the scholar's words made no sense to him.
Not that it mattered much to him right now. Whether the lake was from this world or another, his problem was that he had to go wading into the water to catch fish.
(Would've been nice if we had a fishing rod.)
In a port town or somewhere near a large river, there'd probably be at least a few people who owned fishing rods.
There was a river near Gilm, but it was a fairly small one, and since this was the frontier, it was crawling with monsters. Not many people fished there.
There might be some eccentric souls in Gilm who fished for fun, but under the current circumstances, tracking one down was impossible.
He certainly couldn't tell the scholar to wait here while he ran back to Gilm, hunted down someone with a fishing rod, borrowed it, and came back. Even if he did suggest it, the scholar would undoubtedly reject the idea.
And so...
"Clams don't usually move, right? So as long as I can see where the clams are in the lake, I should be able to manage. ...Please, please don't let there be any."
Muttering these words to encourage and comfort himself, the adventurer waded into the lake to catch some fish.
The only thing in his hand was a longsword.
Normally, a spear would be far better than a longsword for catching fish, but unfortunately, he didn't have one on him.
...If he'd asked Rei, he might have been able to borrow the harpoon he'd acquired a while back.
In any case, the adventurer waded into the lake... and swung his longsword.
Since the scholar specifically wanted live fish, there was no way he could draw the blade from its scabbard.
He was careful enough to hold back his swings, making sure not to crush and kill the fish with the scabbard.
Rather than striking, it looked more like he was scooping them up with the scabbard. The fish he flung out of the lake landed on the ground by the water's edge, where they flopped around vigorously.
A testament to just how fresh they were.
"Oh, impressive. Sorry, but could you get me a few more?"
Whether those words pushed him into a state of resignation, the adventurer continued to swing his scabbard again and again.
The ease with which he caught the fish was proof that he was a skilled adventurer.
Two, three, four, five.
The fish that the adventurer sent tumbling onto the ground with his scabbard were, naturally, all still alive, flopping energetically across the dirt.
The scholar happily gathered up the fish.
(Even if he catches them alive, we don't have a tank or a bucket or anything. Isn't it impossible to bring them all the way back to Gilm alive? Besides, even if we tried to head back right now, the other scholars would probably want to stay here longer.)
As he watched the scholar gleefully collecting the fish, these thoughts crossed Rei's mind.
In his line of sight, Rei could see other scholars running the adventurers ragged.
One was walking around the lake, picking up stones from the ground and scribbling notes as he collected them.
(Are they surveying for ore? ...I have no idea if there's actually any ore in the lake, though.)
Technically speaking, there were probably all sorts of minerals to be found.
But if you asked whether any of them were valuable enough to sell, the answer was usually no.
Of course, since this lake had teleported from another world, it wouldn't be strange if it contained minerals that didn't exist in this one.
"Gruu?"
Set let out a questioning purr, as if asking Rei what was wrong as he observed his surroundings.
From Set's perspective, he probably couldn't understand why Rei was just standing there silently, watching everything without doing anything.
...Though truthfully, Rei didn't have any particular reason for doing so.
"Nah, it's nothing. I was just watching the area. There are way more scholars here than I expected."
It had been Rei who asked Daskar to send scholars.
Even so, he never expected this many to show up.
He appreciated Daskar's swift action, but watching all these scholars in action... he couldn't help feeling a bit overwhelmed.
The scholars investigating the lake reminded him of alchemists.
Like the alchemists who would swarm him when he delivered felled wood from the Treant Forest, or the ones who pestered him to hand over materials from the giant Eyeball monster he defeated in winter.
(They're actually pretty tame compared to the alchemists, though.)
At the very least, none of them were demanding he hand over his materials.
In reality, they probably just had no idea how many materials were actually stashed inside his Misty Ring.
"Rei-san, do you have a moment?"
One of the scholars—a woman in her late twenties—called out to him.
She was the one who had been analyzing the lake water.
"Yeah, sure. What is it? Did you find something?"
"Yes. Though it's far from a full-scale investigation... for now, I can confirm that this lake water is safe for human consumption."
"Huh."
Raw water was generally dangerous to drink.
For this lake water to be perfectly safe to drink was certainly surprising enough for Rei.
"Are you absolutely certain about that?"
"Yes."
To Rei's follow-up question, the woman stated it with absolute confidence.
She must have been quite sure of herself, but Rei still had his doubts as to whether everything could truly be analyzed in such a short amount of time.
Still, if she was willing to go that far, he simply nodded.
"Understood. When we use it, we'll boil it first anyway, so that's fine, right?"
"That's right. I'm confident in my analysis, but considering the slim chance of error, I'd recommend it."
Even though Rei hadn't fully trusted her analysis, he certainly hadn't expected her to validate his caution. That surprised him.
His thoughts must have shown on his face, because the woman looked at him curiously.
"Is something wrong?"
"...No. I just didn't expect you to acknowledge my skepticism about your test results so readily."
"I did conduct an investigation, but it was only within the scope of my own knowledge. It was a relatively simple analysis. I was able to determine that the water doesn't contain any lethal toxins, but I won't know the finer details without a more thorough examination. That's why I recommend boiling it if you intend to use it as drinking water. ...Though, if you're truly concerned about safety, I see no reason to use lake water at all."
Her words made perfect sense.
Whenever food supplies were brought in by Carriage, barrels of water were transported along with them.
With those on hand, there was no need to worry about drinking water.
"Even so, with this much water right in front of us, it feels like a waste not to use it. If this water is safe to drink, we could use the Carriage space normally reserved for drinking water to carry other things."
If it was just drinking water he needed, Rei already had the Dagger of Flowing Water.
The water created by his magic was so delicious it could be called a Celestial Nectar.
...Of course, it wasn't as though tasting that water would make all other water undrinkable, but regular water did feel rather bland for a while afterward.
Thinking about it that way, it was definitely better to just drink regular water.
Rei spent a little while longer exchanging words with the woman about water.