"Mmm... another nice day today. I mean, it's already gotten quite hot even though it's only morning... I wonder if summer is coming soon."
Anastasia muttered as she gazed up at the cloudless blue sky and stretched broadly.
It was a little too late to be called early morning, but still well within what could be considered morning.
Taking advantage of the moment, Anastasia was thoroughly enjoying the morning forest air together with Fana.
That said, just as she had mentioned, despite it being morning, the temperature was already quite high.
With the lake nearby, it was probably more comfortable than in the City of Gilm, but the day-by-day rise in temperature made Anastasia increasingly aware that summer was approaching.
"Is that so? Well, you'll get used to it eventually."
Rei said that casually, but since he wore the Dragon Robe with its simplified air conditioner function, he showed no concern about the surrounding heat whatsoever.
"What do you think, Fana?"
Anastasia, having cast a look of exasperation at Rei, turned to ask Fana.
Fana, having been addressed, was unsure how to respond to Anastasia's words.
...She was wearing her mask as usual, so it was impossible to tell what kind of expression she currently had on, but even so, the air about her made it clear she was flustered.
"Hey, Fana, you should be straightforward with Anastasia, you know?"
"Ugh..."
Already flustered to begin with, the addition of Rei's words left Fana completely unable to speak.
After a short while, Rei and Anastasia understood that pushing the matter in the current situation was pointless and stopped trying to talk to her further.
"So, you're going again today, right?"
"Yes. We're still in a situation where we understand almost nothing, but I want to advance my research even just a little."
Where they were going, what research they were advancing—without explicitly stating those things, Rei and Anastasia exchanged words.
The matter of the Wisp was top-secret information.
The number of people who knew about it was extremely small to begin with.
That was exactly why they were conversing within a range that would cause no problems even if the adventurers stationed as guards at the Birth Tower overheard them.
...Though, among the adventurers, there were some who felt jealous that Rei was talking with Anastasia and were directing their gazes at him with that in mind.
Guarding the Birth Tower was by no means a boring assignment.
From the nearby lake, unknown monsters—including delicious fish monsters—could be caught, and while the Lizardmen were not yet fully capable of communication, they were unquestionably easygoing companions.
Although they were stationed here as guards, there had not been many occasions where they actually performed guard duties.
And yet, they received a fairly substantial reward, so it was without a doubt an extremely well-paying job.
If there were one... no, two things they were dissatisfied with, it would be alcohol and women.
Given that they were undertaking a guard assignment, it was obvious that they should not drink.
It was not explicitly prohibited by the Guild, but since they were adventurers dispatched by the Guild for this guard duty, they were presumably individuals who possessed a certain level of morality.
And the other dissatisfaction was women.
It might have been different if there were women among the adventurers, but the only women here were the caretakers for the Lizardmen who had come along with the Birth Tower.
They were too different in race; even if one could recognize them as women, they were not the kind of partners one would think of trying to woo.
Into this situation, Anastasia had arrived.
In reality, Fana was also present, but in Fana's case, she wore a mask, so many had not recognized her as a woman.
For that reason, Anastasia was perceived as the only woman present by many of those here... and Rei, who was talking to her like this, was naturally subjected to jealous stares.
Though, neither Anastasia nor Rei paid any attention whatsoever to the surrounding gazes.
Anastasia's mind was already directed toward her Wisp research, and in Rei's case, he often acted together with Elena and the others, so he was thoroughly accustomed to this kind of attention.
Only Fana, who was shy by nature and therefore sensitive to other people's gazes, seemed to feel somewhat uneasy about the surrounding stares.
"Well then... shall we get going?"
"You're right. We had a proper breakfast, so I don't need to eat anything until dinner, at least."
"No, at least eat lunch."
Rei couldn't help but retort to Anastasia, who was fully intent on skipping even lunch to continue her Wisp research.
As far as Rei was concerned, he wanted Anastasia to advance her Wisp research even a little faster, but he didn't think she should skip meals to do so.
In the first place, even if she did such a thing, the time gained would be ten, perhaps twenty minutes.
Since meal times varied from person to person, he couldn't say exactly how long, but even so, he didn't think she could gain that much time.
If that was the case, then his honest feeling was that he wanted her to properly spend that amount of time eating and continue her Wisp research in perfect health.
"Fana, I'll leave the cooking behind, so when it's lunchtime, make sure Anastasia eats properly."
Rei said that, but Fana showed a slightly troubled expression.
Wondering what was wrong, Rei listened as Anastasia, who had been following the conversation, said in an exasperated manner.
"Listen, we don't have something as expensive as a clock Magic Item, so how are we supposed to tell the time?"
"...I see."
In Rei's case, he had a pocket watch Magic Item.
Also, even without that pocket watch, in Gilm, the time was regularly announced by the sound of bells.
However, the place where Anastasia and Fana would be was an underground space.
There was no way the sound of Gilm's bells would reach them, and since it was underground, they couldn't tell the time by the position of the sun either.
As long as they were in the Underground Space, checking the time... they would have to rely on things like the degree of their hunger to know it.
It was that lack of a sense of time that had led to the situation last night, where they had no understanding of how much time had passed until Rei came for them.
Rei and Set had already finished preparing dinner and were eating when they remembered about Anastasia and the others, and went to pick them up... but Anastasia, who had been concentrated on her research, naturally hadn't noticed the time, and neither had Fana, who was assisting her.
"In that case, rather than worrying about the time, we'll just eat when we get hungry."
"That's the only option, isn't it?"
"...I'll do my best."
Fana added that to Anastasia's words, but Rei wondered whether doing her best would actually help her gain a sense of time.
If it were just a few minutes, she might be able to manage somewhat.
But without something like the sun to inform her of the passage of time, when she truly had to rely solely on her own senses, if asked whether she could tell the passage of tens of minutes or hours, that would be difficult.
"Anastasia, you don't have a clock? You're a researcher, so I'd think you'd have something like one."
"Hmm, I have one in the Royal Capital, but that wouldn't do any good here."
"...Don't you think you'd need a clock or something when traveling?"
"Normally, people don't pay that much attention to the exact time."
Hearing that, Rei suddenly recalled the time he spent in Japan.
It was something he had seen on TV—about how in Japan, trains ran without even a minute's deviation, whereas in other countries, it was not uncommon for trains to be delayed by several minutes to over ten, and in terrible cases, even tens of minutes.
Thinking about it, he realized that the Japanese sense of time was indeed ingrained in him.
(But even so, lending my pocket watch is...)
The pocket watch Rei possessed was an extremely valuable item. ...Though, in his case, he hadn't bought it; it was something he had obtained from bandit hunting.
Being a mithril pocket watch, its price was quite high.
Even for Rei, it was not something he could lend out casually.
"It can't be helped, so just go with the earlier proposal and eat when you get hungry. I'll make sure to come pick you up properly by evening."
In the end, that was how the matter was settled.
"Anastasia-san, I don't know what kind of research you're doing, but good luck."
The man who had been desperately appealing to Anastasia last night called out to her as she straddled Set's back.
The riding order on Set was the same as last night: Fana, Anastasia, then Rei.
Perhaps because the three of them had ridden Set together yesterday, Fana seemed accustomed to the situation as well.
In any case, the man directed a jealous, envious gaze at Rei, who appeared to be embracing Anastasia from behind.
Misunderstanding something in that gaze, Rei nodded back to the man.
"I'll make sure to deliver Anastasia safely to her destination, so don't worry."
"Ah... yeah. Right. Good luck."
The man replied with a somewhat deflated tone, as the response he received was completely different from what he had expected.
From the man's perspective, Rei was currently the person in the closest relationship with Anastasia.
That was exactly why he had been burning with a sense of rivalry toward Rei... but from Rei's perspective, not understanding such feelings from the man, that was simply how he had responded.
"Leave it to me."
Saying that, Rei signaled Set to depart.
"Now then... We've safely delivered Anastasia, so what do we do from here? Want to go collect wood from the woodcutters after all?"
"Gruu? ...Grururuu."
In response to Rei's words, Set let out a cry as if to say either was fine.
For Set, as long as he could be with Rei, he was happy no matter where they were or what they did.
...Though, if possible, he would have liked to go monster hunting.
As if understanding Set's demeanor, Rei said they would head to where the woodcutters were.
Hearing Rei's words, Set immediately broke into a run.
The speed was higher than when he had been carrying Anastasia and Fana.
After running for a few minutes like that, the woodcutters eventually came into view.
The adventurers serving as the woodcutters' escorts noticed Rei and Set running toward them.
"Heeey! What's up? You're pretty early again today."
"Nah, I just had some business over here. The trees felled after my last visit yesterday... and it looks like there are some cut this morning too."
"Yeah. The woodcutter guys are working hard today too. ...Listen."
Saying that, the adventurer told him to listen carefully.
Naturally, Rei could already hear the sound—the sound of woodcutters swinging their axes to fell trees.
"By the way, what happened about the woodcutter shortage? Have their numbers increased?"
"Hm? Ah. Aside from the ones Rei worked hard to gather, Gilm's upper leadership apparently took various measures too. Compared to before, there are a lot more now. ...Though, it takes time for them to get used to the Treant Forest, so it'll probably take a little longer before they're truly useful in a real sense."
"I see. With their numbers increasing, we'll be able to carry large quantities of felled trees back, so it should make things easier on Gilm's end too."
After exchanging a few light words with the adventurer and parting ways, Rei began storing the felled trees into his Misty Ring one after another.
"Gruu... Grururuu!? Gruu, grururuu!"
Set had been watching Rei store the felled trees into his Misty Ring from nearby, but suddenly, upon seeing a rabbit emerge from among the felled trees, he gave chase.
Of course, by rabbit, this was not a monster like a Gamelion, but an ordinary rabbit.
The rabbit, the moment it saw Set's figure, tried to swiftly flee the area... but Set, who had quickly closed the distance, swung his front leg and sent it flying sideways.
"Gruu!"
For someone who only knew Set as he usually was in the city, there might have been some who would scream at this sight.
After all, Set had killed the adorable rabbit in a single blow.
The rabbit that had been sent flying struck a nearby tree, breaking its neck, and was already dead.
Carrying that rabbit in his mouth, he showed it off to Rei as if to say, "How about this? How about this?"
For Rei, a rabbit was prey without much to eat.
He had eaten them a few times when he was in Japan, but the impression was that they had a lot of bones.
That said, it was also a fact that it was prey Set had caught, so he decided to make it today's dinner and stored the rabbit's corpse in his Misty Ring.
(All things considered, quite a few animals have started appearing around here.)
Thinking such thoughts, Rei stored the trees into his Misty Ring one after another... and eventually, he rode Set and headed for Gilm.
Since it was Set flying through the sky, they arrived in Gilm in the blink of an eye, and after completing the entry procedures, they entered the city, but...
"Hm?"
Suddenly feeling a strange sense of incongruity, Rei looked around at his surroundings.