The morning after their encounter with the non-hostile flying jellyfish, everyone at breakfast looked utterly exhausted.
It was hardly surprising. They had all been roused in the middle of the night under the assumption of an enemy attack.
In the end, what the lookouts had spotted was the jellyfish's glow. When Rei went to investigate, he brought back one of the creatures, and it captivated nearly everyone who saw it.
In truth, the jellyfish hadn't danced in front of the adventurers for very long.
Even so, the fact that so many people looked this sleepy likely meant the sight of the drifting jellyfish had been fantastical enough to leave a lasting impression.
They had simply been too excited to sleep.
Adventurers were no strangers to catching rest wherever they could — outdoors during a request, or even on the battlefield itself. But even for people accustomed to such conditions, the spectacle of glowing jellyfish dancing before them was apparently exciting enough to drive away sleep.
"Hey, what we saw last night... that wasn't a dream, right?"
"Yeah. I remember it too. As long as it wasn't some kind of hallucination, it was definitely real. And with Rei and Set here, I think it's safe to rule out someone casting illusions on us."
At those words, the adventurer who had been speaking glanced toward Rei and Set.
Many of the other adventurers looked drowsy, but Rei, unlike everyone around him, showed no particular signs of fatigue.
This was despite the fact that he, too, had been woken up in the middle of the night — and had seen the same jellyfish as the rest of them.
If anything, Rei had ridden Set directly into the heart of the swarm, so the experience should have left an even stronger impression on him than on the others.
In other words, it wouldn't have been strange for him to be just as excited — if not more so — and unable to sleep, making the morning just as rough. Yet Rei appeared completely unbothered.
This was, in a sense, one of Rei's natural traits.
Had he not been on an active request, he might well have surrendered to drowsiness and gone back to sleep, lingering in a groggy haze even after waking.
But he was in the middle of a job, and that alone allowed him to wake naturally and sharply.
After rising slightly earlier than the others, Rei had set about preparing breakfast while enjoying a quiet moment with Set.
He was also half-serving as a lookout, of course — ready to react the instant anything happened.
The adventurers weren't sure whether to be impressed or exasperated by Rei's composure, but they went about their morning preparations all the same.
...That said, since Rei was the one handling breakfast, there was no particular need to rush anything.
Without him, they would have had to boil water, grill bread or meat, throw together a simple soup — or simply eat preserved rations like dried meat as-is.
"Whoa, that smells amazing... Rei, what is this?"
For breakfast, Rei served a soup made with Orc meat — and not just any Orc meat, but Orc bacon.
Bacon technically counted as preserved food, but its flavor was a far cry from simple salt-cured meat.
This particular soup came from a restaurant that charged a fairly high price for its dishes, so the bacon used in it was naturally an appropriately expensive product.
Loaded with that bacon and plenty of vegetables, the soup reminded Rei of something like tonjiru.
It wasn't seasoned with miso, it used bacon instead of pork, and the vegetables were quite different from those in the standard tonjiru Rei knew.
Even so, when he tasted it, it reminded him of tonjiru — a Western-style tonjiru, perhaps.
Though that was simply how Rei personally felt about it.
Whatever the case, having taken a liking to the soup, Rei had paid a little extra to buy the entire pot.
The fact that he served his favorite soup this morning likely had something to do with the lingering impression last night's flying jellyfish had left on him.
(With tonjiru, you'd really want onigiri to go with it. But I've never seen rice around here... Still, since it's a Western-style soup, it's not like it doesn't pair well with bread.)
Savoring the bacon's umami and the sweetness of the vegetables dissolved into the broth, Rei reflected on this quietly.
The others were similarly enjoying the soup, praising it between mouthfuls.
While they ate, they discussed the day's plans.
"Last night's incident needs to be reported to Lord Daskar."
The knight said that between bites of bread.
With a disturbance that large, not informing Daskar simply wasn't an option.
The real question was what to do about the jellyfish going forward.
At the very least, the jellyfish that had drifted near Rei the previous night had shown no signs of hostility — if anything, they were friendly enough to be called affectionate.
Given those circumstances, Rei's hope was to treat them as amicably as possible, and the others present — those who had witnessed the jellyfish with their own eyes — agreed with that stance.
Whether everyone truly agreed from the bottom of their hearts was another matter entirely.
But the fact remained that no one voiced any open objection.
"Tell Lord Daskar I'd appreciate it if he handled them amicably."
"...No, if anyone should go, it's you. I'd go myself, but having no one left here as Lord Daskar's representative would be a problem. Besides, you need to transport the Treant wood, right? Between one thing and another yesterday, you barely managed to carry away any of the felled trees. They must be piling up."
"Ugh."
That was an undeniable fact.
The temporary halt to logging in the Treant Forest — caused by the situation with the Birth Tower and the lake — had created a shortage of the construction materials used in the expansion construction currently underway in Gilm: building materials produced by applying alchemical treatment to timber felled in the Treant Forest.
That was precisely why the woodcutters had been working so urgently once operations resumed.
When the lake teleported in, several people had worried that the woodcutters' work would be suspended again... but fortunately, that hadn't happened.
If anything, Daskar's honest feeling was probably that he wanted to give the woodcutters time off.
But with brawls already breaking out over the shortage of building materials, he couldn't afford to keep them from working.
As a result, the woodcutters had continued even after the lake's arrival.
Mind you, the woodcutters and their escort-cum-assistant adventurers were strictly forbidden from approaching the lake... or the Birth Tower.
Additionally, whether there was some connection or it was mere coincidence remained unclear, but since the lake teleported over, there had been no further teleportations of Green People or Lizardmen.
Whether the teleportation of such massive entities as the lake and the Birth Tower had depleted whatever energy fueled the teleportations, or whether it was simply a coincidence, Rei couldn't say.
"So, I'll leave the wood transport and the report to Lord Daskar in your hands. Honestly, if something else happened while you and Set were away, it'd be a real problem."
What the knight had in mind was, predictably, last night's jellyfish incident.
The light that had suddenly appeared over the lake.
Rei and Set had gone to confirm it, but if they hadn't been there yesterday, how exactly could anyone have investigated that glow?
Without Set, no one here could fly — which meant they would have had no way of knowing what that light meant.
Swimming out for a closer look might have been an option, but given their experience with the Water Strider and the long-snouted lizards, swimming in the lake at night would amount to suicide.
In other words, without Rei and Set, they could have done nothing but watch the jellyfish's glow from a distance.
Fortunately, the jellyfish were friendly.
But what if they hadn't been?
An enemy that could freely use the water as a defensive barrier and attack with full preparation — compared to such a foe, the people waiting here would have been at a severe disadvantage.
Thinking it through, the knight genuinely wanted Rei and Set to stay.
At the same time, he understood that plenty of others needed them just as badly.
That was why he decided to entrust this matter to them.
"With Set's speed, you can be back here from Gilm in no time, right?"
"I won't deny that."
In practical terms, it was a fact that they could make the trip from Gilm in a matter of minutes — sometimes less.
If anything, handling various errands within Gilm itself would take longer than the flight.
The alchemists, in particular, still harbored an intense interest in the Eyeball material Rei carried.
"Then I'm counting on you. Those jellyfish were friendly, but you understand that if someone who doesn't know any better gets a strange idea, it could turn into a real mess?"
Rei understood exactly what he meant.
The jellyfish had been friendly yesterday, but if someone tried something foolish — like capturing a rare monster, especially one that didn't fight back, to sell to the highest bidder — there was no guarantee the creatures would respond the same way they had the night before.
To prevent that from happening, it was absolutely necessary to get Daskar fully briefed.
...In practical terms, given the size of the lake, he understood it wasn't something that could be easily exploited.
(Ah, but the jellyfish yesterday were near the center of the lake... or somewhere far from here, at least. If that's the case, wouldn't anyone trying to poach them need to fly or be skilled enough to fight off monsters while swimming?)
That thought occurred to him — but then again, given how affectionate those jellyfish were, and assuming they remembered yesterday, they might well approach on their own if they spotted people on the shore.
If so, something needed to be done about that.
"Got it. Once I finish eating, I'll gather the felled timber with Set and head to Gilm. If anything happens, I'm counting on you."
With that said to the knight, Rei turned his attention back to enjoying the taste of the soup — a Western-style tonjiru, one might say.
"I see."
The Office in the Lord's Manor in Gilm.
After handing the lumber over to the alchemists, Rei had come to the lord's manor to explain the events of the previous night.
Not just the jellyfish incident, but also the pack of lizard monsters that had attacked, and the fact that those lizards had possessed no magic stones.
What came from Daskar's mouth after hearing all of it was the troubled remark he had just made.
With one problem piling on top of another already, it would have been stranger if he hadn't looked conflicted.
Still, the silver lining was that the lake monsters lacking magic stones was something Daskar had likely anticipated when he first heard about the Water Strider the day before.
The appearance of yet another magic-stone-less monster was troublesome, but given that the existence of such creatures was already known, it came as no great shock.
The jellyfish situation was also troublesome in its own way, but since they were friendly toward Rei's group, it wasn't a matter requiring urgent action.
Of course, it couldn't be entirely ignored — not with Rei and the knights concerned about potential poachers.
Under the current circumstances, the fact that it could be set aside for the time being was something to be grateful for.
At the very least, it was far better than a crisis suddenly demanding an immediate decision.
...Even so, it was virtually certain to lead to all manner of headaches down the line.
"So, what will you do?"
"Those glowing jellyfish are friendly toward us, correct? Then there's no need to force any action here. However, don't forget that they are ultimately monsters. They may be friendly now, but that won't necessarily last."
"From what I saw, I think they'll stay that way... but setting that aside, I understand what you mean, Lord Daskar. So we're taking a wait-and-see approach for now?"
"Yes. However, if anyone tries to lay a hand on those jellyfish, stop them by whatever means necessary. As long as they are a friendly presence, I have no wish to be the one to break that truce. If necessary, you may kill anyone who tries something."
Rei nodded in response to Daskar's sharp words.