Rest had rescued the fishermen from the sea monster and was honored with a welcoming banquet, yet he spent another night at the inn nonetheless. After the festivities wound down, he soaked in the hot spring, slowly soothing his exhaustion in his room.
No unexpected encounters occurred in the baths that day. He felt a complicated mix of relief and, perhaps, a tinge of disappointment.
"This is a disaster! Lord Count, it’s a disaster!"
The next morning, however, a villager came charging into the inn while Rest was eating breakfast. Rest didn't know his name, but he recognized him as the man who had persistently offered him drinks during the previous night's banquet.
"What happened? Is the monster back?"
"Ah, well... No, maybe not. Regardless, could you come with me for a moment?"
"I don't mind, but..."
"Good! This way!"
The man took the lead, ushering Rest out of the inn. Perhaps because they had shared a drink, any sense of formal reserve had completely vanished. As a former commoner, Rest didn't particularly care, but an arrogant aristocrat likely would have been incensed by such informal treatment.
"What is this place?"
He was led to a stretch of coastline a short distance from the village. Thick wooden poles were lined up along the shore, and a series of structures had been built out over the water. However, parts of these apparatuses had been ruthlessly smashed, and jagged fragments of wood were washing up on the beach.
"This is our shellfish farm," the villager said, staring at the half-wrecked wooden structures with a look of bitter frustration.
"A farm? You're practicing aquaculture?"
"Yes. We were farming oysters. It was Madam Sanada’s suggestion."
"Shoko's...? And you're doing oysters?"
"Yeah. We hung weighted ropes from those poles out in the water to raise the spat. We were still in the middle of a lot of trial and error, but we were finally starting to see results..."
"And someone decided to destroy it, I see."
There was no need to wonder who that "someone" was. It was the monster he had fought the day before.
"That's cruel... Does it intend this as revenge for yesterday?"
Rest had blasted the creature with thunder magic to drive it away. It must have demolished the farm in retaliation.
"If it did this knowing how much the humans value this place, it's a truly malicious beast."
The fact that it hadn't just fled or hidden, but had gone out of its way to commit this act of spite, was revolting. Clearly, the monster remained a direct threat to the village. Even if he drove it away again, it would undoubtedly cause trouble for people elsewhere. He would have to kill it.
"Madam Sanada was so looking forward to the first harvest of oysters... She even invested her own private funds into this for the sake of the village!"
The Queen Dowager—Shoko Sanada—had apparently been from a seaside town in the Japanese countryside. Oyster farming must have been common in her original home. Rest found it deeply unpleasant to see Shoko’s legacy—her efforts to improve the village’s prosperity—so casually trampled.
"I have to hunt it down. The only question is how."
Thunder-attribute magic was the natural weakness of water-attribute enemies, but firing lightning directly into the ocean would only cause it to dissipate, dealing negligible damage. It might act as a repellent, like a shark deterrent, but it wouldn't be enough to finish the creature off.
Star Eater was only effective in close-quarters combat, and the lasers from Amaterasu would be scattered by the water, significantly reducing their lethality. Kagutsuchi could likely kill it, but the collateral damage would be immense, potentially triggering a secondary disaster for the village.
(A steam explosion would trigger a tsunami, or the sheer heat would kill off the marine life and decimate the local fishing industry... Nothing good would come of that.)
"...By the way, are there any other farms like this?"
"There are. They haven't quite gotten on the ground yet, but we have a pearl farm further down that way."
"...You do?"
Honestly, this village was surprisingly advanced. Rest let out a sigh that was half-exasperation and half-admiration as he began to contemplate a way to slay the monster.