"This is delicious. I hunt Mountain Birds fairly often myself, but I'm amazed that the preparation can make it taste this good," Bob murmured in surprise after taking a bite of the herb-roasted Mountain Bird Rei had prepared for breakfast.
As a hunter, he often caught Mountain Birds.
He would also sell those birds to butchers in villages and towns, or to eateries and food stalls.
There were times when he was even served the Mountain Bird meat he had sold at such establishments, but it had never tasted this good.
Much less the Mountain Birds he cooked himself, which were merely edible and nothing more.
...In reality, even with that level of cooking skill, Bob was still better than Rei.
However, Rei had the Misty Ring.
Inside it were vast quantities of delicious dishes like this herb-roasted Mountain Bird.
In that sense, Rei had no particular need to cook for himself.
He himself knew that he had culinary knowledge from watching TV and reading manga back in Japan, but he didn't believe he could put it into practice himself.
That sort of thing was best left to professional cooks to recreate and popularize, just as he had done with several dishes including yaki udon.
"This was... somewhere or other. A dish I bought at an eatery in a town that wasn't Gilm. The prep work on the Mountain Bird matters, but the herbs stuffed inside are what really make it."
Mountain Birds, depending on the species, could have quite a strong odor.
To eliminate that gamey smell — or rather, to harness it and bring the dish together — herbs were essential.
Ideally, using proper spices would be the best approach, but spices were fundamentally expensive.
In Gilm, they were currently sold at reasonable prices on a trial basis thanks to Daskar, who had taken in the Green People — but that was only possible because he had protected the Green People, who possessed powerful abilities over plants.
In other villages and towns, spices were naturally expensive.
...Once spice production in Gilm began in earnest, spices around Gilm might become somewhat cheaper.
Regardless, spices were by no means cheap, so when cooking with as few spices as possible, herbs were convenient.
Of course, herbs had their own drawback in that basically only fresh ones could be used.
There was a method of drying them for use, but drying inevitably caused a decline in flavor, and in some cases, the taste changed entirely.
In that sense, the Mountain Bird dish Rei and his companions were currently eating had undoubtedly made excellent use of herbs.
"Delicious... so you were hiding tasty food like this all along, Rei!"
Nielson's outcry echoed through the surroundings.
At those somewhat accusatory words, Rei felt a slight pang of dissatisfaction, wondering why he was being spoken to like that.
As far as Rei was concerned, he hadn't been hiding these dishes at all.
It was true that he had them ready to eat at any time, but that was a different matter entirely.
"Listen, I wasn't hiding this food. Everything I've fed you so far has been delicious too, right?"
"Ugh... well, that's... true."
Nielson couldn't argue with Rei's words.
After all, there was no denying that every dish Rei had prepared had been delicious.
"Gurururu."
As if agreeing with Rei's words, Seto purred as well.
Naturally, Seto was eating the same meal as everyone else present.
Given Seto's size, the quantity it consumed was considerable, though.
"Now, that aside. From the looks of it, last night's enemies didn't come back to attack us after all. In that sense, we were lucky... or maybe I should say, it's thanks to Seto doing his best."
"Guru? Gururururu..."
At Rei's words, Seto shook its head from side to side.
From Seto's perspective, it felt disappointed that it couldn't properly carry out the watch Rei had entrusted to it.
That was why Seto looked apologetic in response to Rei's words.
Understanding Seto's feelings, Rei stroked it and told it not to worry.
In truth, even Seto hadn't noticed the enemy's presence until they got close. If anyone other than Seto had been on watch — even if Rei himself had been keeping watch — there was a high possibility they wouldn't have noticed either.
If anything, the fact that they were able to detect the enemy despite being approached that closely was precisely because it was Seto.
Comforted by Rei in that way, Seto perked up a little.
Once the meal was finished, Rei stored the Magic Tent in his Misty Ring and took out the Seto Cage.
"Whoa! This is... something really incredible!"
A voice of astonishment slipped from Bob's mouth upon seeing the Seto Cage.
He had heard that such a thing as a Seto Cage existed, but even so, he never expected it to be this large.
Given the current situation, Bob should have been worrying about the fact that someone was targeting him before getting excited about the Seto Cage... but unfortunately, his intense curiosity was focused on the Seto Cage rather than his own circumstances.
"Whoa!"
"What is it!?"
At a considerable distance from where Rei and his group were, among the men gathered there, a shout of surprise erupted from the man whose vision was linked with Bob's — or rather, since only the man could one-sidedly see what Bob was seeing, it would be more accurate to say he was spying on Bob's vision.
One of the men nearby asked what was wrong.
It should be noted that among the men, there were many who were injured.
They had been sustained during last night's attack, when Seto had seen through their presence and combat had broken out.
Some had been struck in vital spots and died, but their corpses had already been disposed of.
They were now resting to treat their wounds and recover their strength, but amid all that, the man whose vision was linked with Bob's had closed his eyes to spy on Bob's vision in order to detect their movements.
With a scream suddenly escaping from that man's mouth, it was only natural that not just the man who had spoken to him, but the others as well, were curious about what had happened.
The man opened his mouth while still keeping his eyes closed.
"No, it's... Crimson... Rei, was it? He suddenly pulled out a huge... what is this? Some kind of container? Something that several people could fit inside... yeah, I'm not sure if this is the right comparison, but it looks like just the passenger compartment of a carriage. The shape is quite different, though."
"What... is that?"
Even with the explanation, they had absolutely no idea what it was, or for what purpose he had taken out such a thing.
Still, considering the current situation, it was a fact that it was nothing favorable for them.
"If I had to guess, maybe they're getting inside it to fortify their defenses?"
"No, but... what would that accomplish? If they don't move from there, they'll eventually starve or die of thirst since they have no food or water!"
"There's a river nearby, so water should be fine. And I hear Crimson Rei has an Item Box. The food is probably in there."
At those words, the men who had been listening wore thoroughly displeased — genuinely disgusted expressions from the bottom of their hearts.
There was no knowing how much food was inside the Item Box.
If that were the case, even if they decided to barricade themselves — not in a castle, but still — they couldn't count on the enemy running out of food.
The men's predictions were wrong in many ways, but if there was one thing they got right, it was that there was food — no, prepared dishes — inside the Misty Ring.
Enough that if Rei wanted to, he wouldn't need to buy food for a long time.
The one who knew that was the man spying on Bob's vision, who had seen Rei take out multiple servings of herb-roasted Mountain Bird from the Misty Ring.
While they were resting in a place like this to heal their wounds, Rei and his group had been eating dishes from a city eatery — no, not an ordinary eatery, but the kind of food sold at a renowned establishment known for delicious cooking.
Since they needed to monitor Bob's situation, the man could do nothing but watch silently as Bob and the others ate that food.
The one small mercy was that the connection with Bob was visual only — smell and taste were not linked.
If those had been connected as well, the man might have been unable to function properly due to hunger.
Well, setting aside smell, if taste had been connected, he would have been able to eat herb-roasted Mountain Bird himself, so he might have been somewhat satisfied.
"Anyway, if the enemy is going to barricade themselves, that's not bad for us. They probably judged that moving while burdened with dead weight would be impossible — well, perhaps Crimson could manage, but not with the others."
The Leader said that with a smile.
He likely believed that what they had been doing was not in vain.
The others felt the same way, and many among them held the belief that last night's attack, despite the injuries they sustained, had been a success.
However... the Leader's words would be negated in the next moment.
"Eh? No way... you're kidding! Why would they do that!?"
Once again, a shaken voice came from the man whose vision was linked with Bob's.
Naturally, the others who had been watching turned their gazes toward him, wondering what had happened.
"Did something change with their barricade?"
One of the men asked, but the man whose vision was linked with Bob's immediately shook his head.
"No! Their goal wasn't to barricade themselves in the first place!"
"Huh? Then what in the world are they..."
Though he hadn't seen the scene himself, from what the man linked with Bob's vision was saying, it had only seemed like they were planning to barricade.
To have that suddenly denied — it would have been impossible not to question the account.
However, the man whose vision was linked with Bob's couldn't immediately figure out how to explain what he was seeing.
That was just how unexpected the scene before his eyes was.
"Calm down."
When the Leader said that, the man linked with Bob's vision finally managed to settle his confusion, at least somewhat.
"S-sorry. The thing is, what I mentioned earlier — the container Rei took out... Bob got inside it, and it seems like that container is being carried by Rei's Tamed Monster, the Gryphon."
"What... did you say...?"
The Leader, who had just told everyone to calm down, was now the one who was surprised.
He had thought they were going to barricade themselves, so the idea that Bob was being transported while inside that container — the Seto Cage — was completely unexpected.
"Wait a minute! Why would they do that!? If they're going to fly through the air, they could just put him on the Gryphon normally without going to such lengths!"
One of the men who had been listening with an expression of incomprehension shouted, but the others felt the same way.
In reality, while Seto could carry someone by grabbing them with its legs, the only person it could carry on its back besides Rei was a child.
It was absolutely out of the question for Seto to carry a grown man like Bob on its back while moving.
The Seto Cage was, in fact, a Magic Item created precisely as a countermeasure for that, but such details were impossible to understand unless one was close to Rei and Seto or possessed exceptionally high information-gathering abilities.
Naturally, the men, who knew only the general rumors circulating about Rei, had no hope of comprehending such detailed information.
The one thing they did understand was that they had been completely outmaneuvered.
"W-wait... what do we do now? Given the Gryphon's flight speed, there's no way we can do anything about this!"
"That's why I said we should've attacked again right after retreating last night! If we had, we could've caught them off guard when they thought we'd pulled back and let their guard down!"
"Don't be ridiculous! What's the point of saying that now!?"
Such an argument broke out among the men.
Given the current situation, they had no idea what they were supposed to do.
They had cornered Bob all the way to this point... and not only that, they had been on the verge of obtaining the Fairy's Heart they so desired.
That was how it should have been, yet they had been completely outmaneuvered like this.
"Calm down!"
Amidst the chaos, the Leader's voice rang out.
Those words, laden with Intimidation, were more than enough to calm the shaken men.
"Calm down."
The word came out of his mouth once more. Unlike before, there was no Intimidation in his voice, but with that second utterance, the men present truly settled down.
"Having them escape is painful. But as long as our vision is still linked with Bob's, we should be able to tell where he is. At any rate, we're leaving here. Be ready to act the moment we know where they are."
At the Leader's words, all the men who had been listening nodded obediently.