"Hey, what do you think you're doing!"
Struck by a nut, Anastasia turned on Rei—the culprit—with eyes blazing.
Normally, being approached by a beauty like Anastasia would have been a welcome thing, but being approached when her eyes were blazing like that was not amusing at all.
If anything, her sheer intensity made Rei take a few steps backward.
Even so, he somehow managed to explain why he had thrown the nut.
"You ask me what I'm doing, but when I see you trying to lick the Wisp, isn't it only natural that I'd try to stop you? For that matter, what were you thinking trying to lick the Wisp in the first place?"
A beauty like Anastasia had been sticking her tongue out, trying to lick the Wisp.
From Rei's perspective, the sight could only be described as bizarre.
"What are you talking about? The Wisp isn't normal—it's a Rare Species, right? Then it's only natural we need to test it in various ways, isn't it?"
"...And tasting it is one of those tests?"
Rei replied to Anastasia's words with a hint of... no, a considerable amount of exasperation, and his gaze shifted to Fana, who was wearing a mask.
Even though she was masked, Fana apparently couldn't face Rei's gaze head-on and quietly averted her eyes.
Like Rei, Fana must have questioned Anastasia's attempt to lick the Wisp.
However, as far as Fana was concerned, since it was Anastasia doing it, she hadn't tried to stop her and had simply watched.
As a result, if Rei had arrived even a little later, Anastasia's action would likely have succeeded.
(What on earth did she do while I was gone? I feel like I'd be scared to ask... No, Anastasia is a researcher. Whatever she does in that regard probably doesn't mean anything to me anyway. ...Yeah, it shouldn't. I don't think it does. ...I hope it doesn't.)
Rei thought such things, but still lacked the courage to ask Anastasia what kind of investigation she had been conducting while he wasn't around.
For now, he set that aside and opened his mouth as if changing the subject.
"More importantly, it's already evening. We're heading back to the Birth Tower soon, so get ready."
"Eh? Already? ...Well, yes, I suppose. The fact that you're here means that's the case, but... it was faster than I expected."
Anastasia said this with a disappointed expression.
She would probably prefer to continue researching the Wisp for much longer.
After all, the Wisp possessed the ability to summon things from another world.
It would have been more impossible for it not to pique a researcher's interest.
But if she focused on it too much, she could easily end up suffering from malnutrition or dehydration.
Also, while Anastasia focused her attention entirely on the Wisp when it was right in front of her, that was only the case when the Wisp was actually there.
In a place without the Wisp, she behaved with the composed attitude of a mature woman.
In fact, among those who were camping out near the Birth Tower for guard duty, there were some who had fallen for Anastasia despite not having known her for very long.
...The adventurers assigned to guard the Birth Tower were skilled individuals trusted by the Guild, but when it came to matters between men and women, perhaps it was a different story.
"Come on, they should be getting hungry over there waiting for us by now. They're probably getting impatient, eagerly waiting for us to arrive."
"I suppose... it's a little disappointing, but let's call it a day. Fana, what about the research data?"
"It's all organized."
"Good. Then that's fine."
"Should I bring it?"
"Hmm, it's not that I don't want to review it tonight, but considering emergencies, it's better to leave it here. Getting into this underground space would be difficult, after all."
Is that okay? Anastasia asked with her eyes, and Rei nodded.
(Actually, since the passage connecting to here is hidden, getting here would be quite difficult.)
Moreover, this was the center of the vast Treant Forest.
Coming all the way here and finding the hidden entrance to the passage leading to the underground space where Rei and the others currently were would be extremely difficult.
(Though, that's only if things were normal. If someone had already connected their own laboratory to this underground space from the start, then it's not a matter of hiding passages or anything like that.)
Rei nodded to Anastasia's proposal because he genuinely believed this place couldn't be found by others, and also because he thought Anastasia's research data might be of some use to Grimm.
Considering Grimm's personality, whether he would actually look at Anastasia's research data was a delicate matter, though.
"Well then, that's that. ...Shall we go? Rei, what's for dinner tonight?"
"There's a vegetable soup with lots of toppings. I also have yaki udon, so I plan to bring that out too. I could also put out sandwiches and skewers."
At those words, Anastasia smiled happily.
"I've had yaki udon once before, and it was quite delicious. I'm glad I'll get to eat it again."
"I see. You were lucky."
"...Lucky?"
"Yeah. As you know, Gilm is the birthplace of udon. Because of that, there are many stalls that serve udon, but just as many have unskilled hands... in other words, there are quite a few that serve bad udon."
Naturally, shops and stalls that served bad udon wouldn't prosper, would lose customers, and eventually go out of business.
Even so, incidents where someone ate bad udon and caused a commotion were fairly common, and it was often the guards or patrolling adventurers who had to restrain them.
That was why Rei described it as luck that Anastasia hadn't eaten bad udon.
"Is there really that much bad udon?"
"Well, yeah. The really terrible ones can't even bind the wheat flour together."
Despite being called udon, rather than taking the form of noodles, they were just small lumps of wheat flour—Rei's impression upon hearing that was whether something like that could even be called udon.
"Other than that, even if the noodles are properly formed, sometimes the soup is seasoned in a way that doesn't match the udon."
"That's... but there can't be that many shops that are that terrible, right?"
"Yeah, I won't deny that."
In reality, there weren't that many shops or stalls that were that terrible; most were just slightly bad, or the udon was boiled too long and became too soft. Shops and stalls like that made up the majority.
Such udon wasn't something you could rave about as delicious, but it wasn't so bad that it was inedible.
That said, for shops selling udon, having such udon sold in Gilm—the birthplace of udon—was something they couldn't tolerate.
(Udon, huh... udon. Come to think of it, Inaniwa udon was dried noodles, wasn't it? How are those dried noodles made? Can you just dry udon to make them? If dried noodles could be made, it wouldn't be strange for it to become a major food revolution.)
If dried udon noodles could be made, adventurers could carry them as preserved food, and they could even boil udon in soup.
Of course, there would also be people who found cooking in the middle of work troublesome, so even if dried udon became available, there would probably be those who wouldn't cook.
(Ah, but if it's dried udon, it'd probably break during a fight.)
Dried noodles were advantageous for storage, but extremely fragile.
In combat... or even just during strenuous exercise, it wouldn't be strange for them to break.
As an adventurer, Rei felt that there were many who wouldn't care even if their udon was broken.
"Anyway, you should just remember that udon is basically delicious. ...More importantly, you're both ready to go, right? Let's head out."
At Rei's half-forced conclusion to the conversation, Anastasia and Fana each nodded to indicate they had no issues.
As the three of them were about to leave the underground space, Rei had Anastasia and Fana go ahead first, remaining behind by himself.
"Grimm, you can look at the research data."
Saying that, and hoping he could be heard, Rei was about to follow after the two when—in an instant—a bone arm, presumably Grimm's, extended from the space in front of Rei's line of sight.
"Whoa!"
Rei was startled by the arm, but it showed no concern for his reaction, gave a light wave, and disappeared.
"...That surprised me."
Looking at the spot where the bone arm had been just seconds ago, Rei muttered.
He knew that Grimm excelled at Space Magic, and had actually been saved by his teleportation magic before.
But Rei hadn't expected that Grimm could extend only a part of his arm to his location.
(Space Magic, huh... that's convenient.)
Being able to instantly teleport to a place of his choosing was something Rei found extremely enviable.
Thanks to Set, Rei's travel speed could be said to be unrivaled by anyone else, but even so, travel still took time.
In contrast, with teleportation, one could move instantly.
No matter how you looked at it, Teleportation Magic was naturally faster.
"Well, do your best for now. Any additional information about the Wisp would be appreciated on our end too."
He wasn't sure if Grimm could still hear him, but Rei said that briefly and went after Anastasia and Fana.
Walking a little faster, he caught up to them before they emerged above ground.
"My, you were a little slow. Did something happen?"
Perhaps something had happened with the Wisp. Anastasia asked with that thought in mind, but Rei shook his head in response.
"No, it would have been nice if something had, but unfortunately nothing like that happened."
"...I see. That's disappointing."
Anastasia murmured, looking genuinely disappointed, just as she had said.
But Fana, judging that they couldn't leave Anastasia like this forever, tugged on her clothes.
"Let's hurry and go outside. Otherwise, it seems like things will get troublesome."
"...Troublesome?"
Anastasia looked slightly puzzled by Fana's words, but apparently deciding that staying here wouldn't accomplish anything, she resumed moving through the underground passage.
As they emerged to the surface, Set immediately approached Rei.
The way he purred happily, despite having only been separated for a short time, showed just how lonely it had been for him.
"Set really does love you, Rei."
"Gruu!"
At Anastasia's words, Set let out a cry as if to say "Of course!"
For Set, simply being with Rei was enough to make him happy.
That was why Set loved his current life.
As a guard for the Birth Tower, he could stay right beside Rei while Rei rested in the Magic Tent.
Or, at Marina's house, he could sleep in the courtyard near the room where Rei slept.
Compared to that, at the Wheat Inn at Dusk, he couldn't be by Rei's side no matter what.
It had a larger stable compared to other inns, which was nice for Set, but not being able to be near Rei was definitely quite disappointing for him.
"There, there. Well, we can't stay here forever, so let's head back soon."
The surroundings were already getting quite dark.
The sun was setting, and this was inside the Treant Forest on top of that.
It inevitably got darker here compared to outside the forest.
"Gruu!"
Leave it to me! Set purred as he lightly crouched down.
The three of them climbed onto Set's back, and he stood up and began to run.
At first, slowly, as if confirming that the three on his back were all right.
But gradually, his speed increased.
He ran through the forest at a speed that no ordinary monster or animal could possibly keep up with.
Running through a forest full of trees at such speed would normally be tantamount to suicide.
But Set continued running as if that were of no concern whatsoever...
(Ah, there are some goblins.)
Rei, with his Night Vision, spotted a few goblins in the forest, but they showed no sign of noticing that Set had run past nearby.
Thinking he'd mention the goblins to the woodcutters or their adventurer escorts tomorrow, Rei went along with Set as he ran freely.