"Oh! Rei, you're back. Feels like it's been a while. You're staying here tonight, right?"
The adventurers and the knight welcomed Rei and Set back to the area around the Birth Tower with visible delight.
Though the area was safe for now, there was no denying it lay outside Gilm.
A high-rank monster could appear at any time, and unknown creatures could emerge from the lake.
Given that, Rei's formidable combat power and Set's sharp senses made them unquestionably reliable assets.
"Yeah, that's the plan. Right now, this is the most unpredictable place around Gilm. ...Still, it's burning even now, huh."
The burning slime had already become something of a local landmark.
Rei had expected as much, but sure enough, it was still going even now that he'd returned.
I'd think it would've burned out by now, but it's stubborn. And I can't even tell if its volume has decreased.
If it was burning, it wouldn't be strange for the slime's volume to shrink.
Yet there was no sign of that at all—which likely meant... no, almost certainly meant the slime was still resisting the magic Rei had used.
A slime was, fundamentally, nothing more than a weakling.
But even such a creature, if it grew to the size of a hill or a small mountain, could presumably gain a certain degree of power.
This one's the same—I don't know if it's a Rare Species or a High-ranking Species, though.
The Wisp in the underground space beneath the Treant Forest was also thought to be either a Rare Species or a High-ranking Species.
Though Rei had judged it to be a Rare Species rather than a High-ranking Species.
"Yeah, I'm staying here tonight. Did any monsters attack from the lake yesterday?"
While talking with an adventurer, Rei scanned the surroundings.
If enemies had attacked from the lake last night or while Rei was away, there should have been some trace of it.
Fortunately, from what Rei could see on his patrol, nothing seemed out of place.
Reassured, he judged that there likely hadn't been any attacks.
"Yeah. Nothing like those lizards or the water strider—or any other monsters—came at us."
"Good to hear. ...By the way, did you find any Green People?"
Rei had encountered Lizardmen teleported from the Gran Dragonia Empire by the Wisp in the Treant Forest.
Based on past experience, Green People had been teleported alongside Lizardmen every time, so there was a chance some had been taken in without anyone realizing.
That was what prompted the question, but unfortunately the adventurer shook his head.
"No, unfortunately we haven't found any Green People. I heard about it from you, so I looked around the area when I had free time. But at that level of effort, I couldn't turn anything up."
"I see. ...Well, if they weren't found, it can't be helped."
He would have preferred otherwise, but the top priority remained guarding the Birth Tower.
That was far better than leaving the tower to search for Green People, only for the guard force to thin out and suffer an attack—from the lake or from one of the frontier's own monsters—that harmed the Lizardman children or eggs.
"Sorry about that."
The adventurer offered a brief apology, but it wasn't something Rei needed to dwell on.
He dismissed it with a light shake of his head.
"The Green People situation aside, was there anything else? For instance, did someone come snooping around?"
The magic Rei had used to defeat the slime had produced extremely powerful flames.
Powerful enough to be plainly visible even from Gilm.
Naturally, anyone even slightly perceptive would try to gather information in a situation like that.
And once they got close enough, they'd find the lake and the Birth Tower.
...Considering that, it wouldn't be strange for someone to show up here at any time.
Daskar and his subordinates were doing their best to keep people in Gilm from heading out, but that didn't guarantee they could halt all movement.
No—if anything, it wouldn't be surprising if someone concluded something was out here and grew even more curious.
"No, nobody like that so far. But it's a sure thing someone will show up sooner or later, right?"
Rei couldn't deny it.
After all, he knew full well that something of that magnitude was sitting right here.
...If anything, Rei figured it might be better to draw attention with this lake and the Birth Tower than to have someone take an misplaced interest in the underground space where the Wisp dwelled, at the heart of the Treant Forest.
"When guys like that show up, it's our turn anyway, right? They've probably been told from above to keep people away. If anyone comes, we should be fine to capture them."
"Probably. ...With Set here, even if someone approaches, we'll almost certainly spot them."
Given Set's five senses, approaching undetected would be extremely difficult.
Unless they were an extraordinary existence like an alias holder, the chances of slipping past Set were virtually nil.
...And even among alias holders, a combat-focused one like Elk would find fooling Set's senses all but impossible.
"That's right. That's why we're so glad Set's back. Oh, and you too, of course, Rei."
"Am I just Set's plus-one? Though I'm guessing the real reason you're glad I'm back is because the food gets better."
At Rei's words, not just the adventurer he'd been talking with but the others as well all averted their gazes in unison.
That reaction was all the proof needed that Rei had hit the mark.
"Gurururu?"
Are we eating? Set, who had been watching the conversation, purred at the mention of food.
Fundamentally, Set could eat without limit.
Normally, out of consideration for those around it, Set held back—though even then, by human standards, it ate quite a lot—but in this situation, it likely hoped it might get to enjoy a variety of things.
Rei pulled a skewer from his Misty Ring and handed it to Set.
It was clearly an insufficient portion for the griffon, but Set ate it happily nonetheless, simply because Rei had offered it.
"Hey, Rei. Tonight's dinner is..."
A different adventurer from the one earlier asked Rei.
Rei had only been gone since yesterday.
But even so, the food brought along as resupply was by no means delicious.
Not that it was unusual for an adventurer—rations eaten in the field while working requests were perfectly adequate fare.
But the food Rei pulled from his Misty Ring was without exception dishes he had personally eaten and judged to be good.
Compared to carelessly prepared meals, the difference in taste was overwhelming.
Taste was highly subjective, so what Rei found delicious wouldn't necessarily suit everyone. It didn't have to—but fortunately, no one so far had a dramatically incompatible palate, so it had never become an issue.
"Tonight's dinner... let's see. A hearty stew loaded with toppings—Orc meat, Mushrooms, and vegetables."
"Ooh."
At a dish that sounded delicious just from the description, everyone listening let out happy voices.
Hmm, is this okay? Actually, since everyone gathered here is a skilled adventurer, they're naturally earning a commensurate income. They should've eaten food better than what I prepare, normally speaking.
Not that Rei wasn't earning well himself.
Given that Bandit hunting was his hobby, he was probably among the top earners in Gilm.
Of course, there were those in Gilm who earned even more efficiently.
But the food Rei brought was, at the end of the day, just food he'd found tasty and stocked away—many were dishes sold at ordinary eateries.
That was exactly why skilled adventurers like the ones here could eat whatever they wanted if they went into Gilm.
Gilm already had a high number of restaurants to begin with, but with the population swelling further due to the Expansion Construction, even more establishments had opened targeting those newcomers.
Factor in the stalls as well, and the number of dining options grew larger still.
Considering all that, picking out only the good food from among that sea of eateries was no easy task.
Rei could manage it simply because his body could eat more than most, allowing him that much trial and error.
...There was also something of a knack for sniffing out promising shops, and in the most literal sense, Set often found places that smelled good.
Additionally, since Rei frequently bought from stall owners, they'd tip him off about unusual dishes, new restaurants, and new stalls—a perk of his patronage.
"In any case, there's still time before dinner, so we need to stay sharp on guard duty."
Everyone nodded at that and returned to their posts.
When it came down to it, the one who controlled the stomachs was the strongest force.
"Lord Rei, thank you for your hard work."
Seeing that Rei's conversation with the adventurers had wrapped up, Zozo approached and addressed him.
He hadn't actually spoken the words—the Stone Tablet translated them.
"Yeah. Anything unusual on your end? From what the adventurers told me, everything was quiet."
"Yes. The children have also stopped playing at the lake. ...However, it's troublesome that the moment we take our eyes off them, they try to head back there."
"...Well, they are children."
Being children, even if told the lake was dangerous, they probably couldn't fully grasp it.
Above all, they hadn't witnessed the lizards or the water strider attack.
If they had seen that, things might have been a little different.
"Yes. ...Should we show them, just once? If they went to the lake knowing nothing and were attacked by a monster, that would be unbearable."
"True. Thinking ahead, I think it's better to do exactly that. Especially right now, when we have absolutely no idea what might happen in this Treant Forest."
With the Wisp's teleportation in play, anything was possible.
Depending on the circumstances, the possibility that the children alone could be teleported somewhere... couldn't be completely ruled out.
Fortunately, no one teleported to this world had been teleported again by the Wisp so far, so that particular worry of Rei's might have been overthinking things.
"It's also a good idea to decide in advance how to act in an emergency. What to do when something happens, which route to take, where to head—things like that."
What Rei had in mind was the so-called evacuation drill.
The evacuation drills he'd done in elementary school, middle school, and high school back in Japan.
That said, the drills conducted in Japan were mostly designed with fires in mind.
It might have been different in a big city, but at the very least, the drills Rei had experienced were of that nature.
But... that was strictly an evacuation drill in Japan.
Here in Elgin, monsters existed in countless numbers.
Especially here in the frontier city of Gilm, where monsters now emerged from a lake that had arrived from another world.
Deciding in advance how to act in an emergency was by no means a bad idea.
That said...
Rei shifted his gaze from Zozo to the Birth Tower.
The tower still held numerous eggs.
If they were attacked by monsters and had to flee, there was also the question of what to do with those eggs.
At the very least, Rei didn't know what the best course of action would be in such a situation.
He wondered if they could simply be put into the Misty Ring, but fundamentally, living creatures couldn't be stored inside it.
...Whether eggs counted as living creatures was a rather gray area, though.
"In any case, you all should probably discuss what to do about that among yourselves. Gaga doesn't seem like he'd be much help in situations like this."
"No, that's not..."
Zozo moved to defend Gaga, but with Gaga in his line of sight—effortlessly dominating several Lizardmen at once in mock battles—he somehow found himself unable to say anything more and fell silent.