The day after speaking with Grimm, Rei had naturally accompanied Anastasia to the Underground Space at the center of the Treant Forest.
Originally, Rei should have simply escorted Anastasia here and been free to leave.
And he could have, but given his conversation with Grimm the previous night, he was worried about whether any traces of Grimm might be found in the Underground Space. That was why he had come along with her.
"Rei, you don't have to stay with me, you know? You're busy with all sorts of things, aren't you?"
Anastasia voiced the question, but Rei shook his head.
"This Wisp is genuinely fascinating. An existence from another world. ...Expecting me not to take an interest in it would be impossible, wouldn't it?"
"That's... true enough."
Rei's words carried enough conviction to persuade Anastasia.
What he said was by no means a lie.
The Wisp's ability to teleport things from another world was something Rei found deeply fascinating.
The fact that the Wisp never attacked despite being a monster was another reason for his interest.
"Right? At present, it's probably only connected to two worlds at most, but there's no telling what will happen from here on out. ...If we could get a solid grasp on that, I think it could lead to some interesting developments."
Anastasia seemed to agree, nodding while keeping her eyes on the Wisp.
To her, Rei's words signaled that he shared her own opinion. She offered a friendly smile, not taking her eyes off the Wisp as she spoke.
"That's right. An existence from another world. ...That is something I'm deeply interested in."
"If we could learn to control this Wisp and make it do our bidding, there's no doubt it would be a tremendous asset to Gilm."
"...I would have preferred you framed that as benefiting not just Gilm, but the entire nation. The entire race."
Anastasia, who had glanced away from the Wisp toward Rei for just a moment, made the remark.
For Anastasia, she understood that researching this Wisp would benefit Daskar, but the idea of only Gilm reaping its benefits was something she could not accept.
From Rei's perspective, however, letting anyone outside of Gilm use this Wisp was not a particularly appealing prospect.
It was only natural. Anyone could see that given the Wisp's abilities, things would absolutely become troublesome.
If anything, there was even a possibility that a large-scale conflict could erupt over the ownership of this Wisp.
"If word gets out about how useful this Wisp's abilities are, plenty of people will want to claim it for themselves. Lord Daskar would naturally never hand it over, and I feel the same. In that case, depending on how things play out, it could even trigger a civil war."
"That's..."
The reason Anastasia couldn't refute Rei's words was probably because she herself already knew it to be true.
As an elf, she had lived a long time and interacted with people for just as long.
Not everyone was like that, but she knew full well that among the nobility, there were those who would not hesitate to sacrifice others if it served their own interests.
It was an undeniable fact that one of the reasons Anastasia had come to Gilm was that she had grown tired of dealing with such people.
Though Rei didn't know about Anastasia's circumstances, he somehow sensed as much and spoke up.
"It sounds like you have some idea of what I mean. In other words, that's exactly why I'd rather not make this matter too public. ...Of course, that's just how I feel. It's not impossible that Lord Daskar might decide to announce it."
Even as he said that, Rei figured the likelihood was practically zero.
Daskar had a thorough understanding of his own situation as the lord of Gilm.
The King's Faction already meddled at every turn. Under these circumstances, it was obvious what would happen if he let word of this Wisp slip.
If anything, it'd make things easier for us if a Tamer could just Tame the Wisp. ...But I suppose it wouldn't be that simple. To begin with, there's no telling whether a Tamer would be cooperative with us. It'd be a disaster if a Tamer belonging to a faction hostile to Lord Daskar managed to Tame it. ...Though the number of Tamers has been growing.
In Gilm, there were currently quite a few people who wanted to become Tamers.
Among them, some had even managed to Tame monsters of some kind.
Needless to say, this was the influence of Rei and Set.
There were those who, charmed by Set's cuteness, wanted to Tame an adorable monster of their own.
Then there were others who figured that if they could Tame a High-Rank Monster like Set, it would undoubtedly be a major asset in their work as Adventurers.
As a result, Gilm had a fair number of people either actively working as Tamers or aspiring to become one.
The possibility that someone among them could Tame the Wisp couldn't be completely dismissed.
...Though it was only a possibility.
"Anyway, wouldn't it be better to focus on researching the Wisp for now instead of worrying about what comes later?"
"...You're right."
Looking slightly reluctant at Rei's words, Anastasia nonetheless resumed her research on the Wisp.
Rei watched Anastasia and the Wisp for about five minutes. Once he confirmed that she wasn't thinking about anything unnecessary and had completely immersed herself in her research, he turned his gaze to the surroundings.
In last night's discussion, Grimm had said he would use Magic Items made from the dried fruit of a plant called Dasulnika—a rare plant said to be extinct in the present day—to render his placed items unrecognizable.
Their effect... He looked around once more to check, but...
"Ge."
The sound slipped out of Rei involuntarily.
That was because, in the direction his gaze was currently pointed, the space there appeared to be distorted.
Oi oi, Grimm. What's going on?
Spatial distortions like that, right above the ground—one, two, three, four.
At the very least, even from where Rei stood, four of them were visible.
"What is it? If you could, I'd like you to focus over here for a bit."
It was probably because Rei had made a noise.
Anastasia, who had been concentrating on her research of the Wisp, turned toward him with a mildly irritated look and asked.
"...Did you find something?"
"Ah, no. Hold on a second."
Though she had been annoyed, Anastasia's curiosity got the better of her and she tried to look in the direction he was staring... Rei scrambled to stop her, but unfortunately, he was too late. However...
"What? There's nothing there. I was sure the Wisp had teleported something in."
She said that to Rei.
Eh? Wait? Rei found himself questioning Anastasia's reaction, but since she wasn't making a fuss, he decided to play along.
"Sorry. I thought I saw something move."
"Really? But this was a sealed room until that underground passage was dug, right? That would mean someone broke through that Spirit Magic and got in here..."
Seeing Anastasia begin to seriously ponder the implications, Rei hastily shook his head and walked back his own words.
"No, it's probably just my imagination. I think I just mis saw a shadow or something caused by the Wisp's light."
"Are you sure? Well, if that's the case, then fine."
With that, Anastasia returned to her research of the Wisp.
Watching her go, Rei turned his gaze back to the direction he had been looking—and the direction Anastasia had also looked.
But there was undeniably something there that could only be described as a spatial distortion.
That distortion—Anastasia definitely saw it too... right?
Anastasia had followed Rei's gaze and looked in the same direction he was looking. There was no way she could have missed the spatial distortion that existed there.
And yet, she hadn't noticed it.
In other words, I'm the only one who can see that spatial distortion? ...But why? No, even if I ask why, there's only one reason I can think of.
Who was it that had built his body in the first place?
Considering that, the fact that he could see spatial distortions was something he could accept without much difficulty.
That said, why now? I've seen things that looked like spatial distortions a few times before, but usually other people could see them too... right? If so, then again—why now?
Thinking it over... he arrived at a single conclusion.
The Dasulnika fruit?
The Magic Items that Grimm had reportedly made using the Dasulnika fruit.
Had they awakened some new ability that had lain dormant in Rei's body? Or had they simply granted him the ability to perceive Dasulnika and nothing else?
He couldn't tell which of the two it was, but Rei would have much preferred the former.
He decided in his heart to ask Grimm about it later and turned his attention back to surveying the Underground Space.
The first spatial distortions he spotted were only four, but as he walked around and checked, he found that a considerable number of them had been placed there.
That Grimm bastard... did he just scatter them everywhere because they became unnoticeable thanks to the Dasulnika fruit? ...No, that's not it. Before Anastasia arrived, Grimm was freely using this place. Thinking about it that way, there's no reason he'd go out of his way to do something like that now.
In other words, this many Magic Items and various other things had likely been placed here for a long time.
It was simply that Rei hadn't noticed them before.
"So it's only the Dasulnika fruit after all."
Rei had walked around the Underground Space, but in the end, he couldn't find anything else of particular note.
That meant, among the possibilities he had considered, it was likely the less interesting one—his eyes reacted only to the Dasulnika fruit.
If it had been before the Dasulnika went extinct, it might have been a useful ability. But in this day and age, it was practically useless.
Well, it might have been useful in the era when Zephyle was around. ...Thinking about it that way, is it possible my body has strange abilities that even I don't know about?
The more he thought about it, the more anxious he became, so Rei decided to stop thinking about it for the time being.
Since it wasn't an ability that would manifest in the current situation, there was no point in worrying over it.
...He himself knew that he was only shelving the problem.
Anyway, having set the matter of his own body aside for now, he approached Anastasia, who was still researching the Wisp.
Whether she noticed Rei approaching or not was unclear.
Without paying the slightest attention to her surroundings, Anastasia was conducting all manner of investigations on the Wisp.
That said, if she were to suddenly touch the Wisp, there was no telling what effect it might have.
Given that, she had decided to start with careful observation.
Front, back, left, right, below.
...If she'd had a means of flying, she would have surely observed it from above as well.
The sight of Anastasia—who could fairly be called an intellectual beauty—crawling beneath the Wisp that floated in the air, wearing a dead-serious expression as she examined its underside, carried a certain humorous quality.
Though the person doing it was undoubtedly serious.
"Anastasia, did you figure anything out?"
"...No good. I can't learn a thing just by observing like this. But... I can't carelessly touch it either."
Anastasia crawled out from under the Wisp and shook her head as she said that.
"Figured as much. If there were a few more of these Wisps around, you could try other methods."
If she were to carelessly touch the Wisp and trigger something irreversible, what then?
If a Wisp—a discovery worthy of being called the discovery of the century—were to vanish, he wouldn't even know how to begin reporting it to Daskar.
That being said...
"But it's also true that we won't learn anything in the end if all we do is observe."
"...That's right."
Rei had no choice but to nod at Anastasia's words.
In fact, since Anastasia had begun observing the Wisp—or rather, since Rei had started exploring the Underground Space—nearly thirty minutes had passed.
Despite observing the Wisp for that long, she had learned nothing.
Of course, in situations like this, it was not uncommon to observe over long periods—hours, days, weeks, even months.
"For the time being, I'll move on to the next stage."
Saying that, Anastasia reached out her hand toward the Wisp.