There's a crunching sound around me.
　It was a man in his 40s who did it.
　And the one who was beaten is still young... that's a young woman who's not even in her twenties.
　She has a face that is described as cute, not beautiful, but now her cheeks are swollen and her mouth is bleeding.
　If she were just a woman, she would cry if she were hit in the face.
　But the woman glares at the man in front of her, bleeding from the corner of her mouth.
　In the eyes of a woman, in contrast to her cuteness, she has a vicious intent to kill.
　glare at a man with eyes that don't match his appearance
　Still, the man doesn't seem to be particularly frightened by his murderous gaze, perhaps knowing that women won't touch him.
　On the contrary, they cry out even more irritatingly toward women.

"What are your eyes! Do you know where you stand? You couldn't. You do it! Why do you think you keep a woman like yourself for a time like this?"

　The man screams, but the woman looks at it with absolutely no patience.
　Then a few tens of seconds passed, staring at each other... and then the woman spoke.

"I can't. My partner is Ray in crimson. What can I do with a different name?"
"This is a request from Mr. Veen! You don't do it, you have to do it!"
"...if you want me to do it, I can't do it alone. I need to get more people... and I need to get more talent."
"I'm telling you to do it because you can't do it. ... You know? If you don't do it, I won't have to buy your brother's medicine, either."

　with a thud
　The woman's gaze at the man makes him even more murderous.
　Until now, he had no particular problem with women's murderous gaze, but now his gaze is different.
　take a few steps back unconsciously
　But he didn't realize that he had retreated, and now he raises his fist again, saying that he was never pressured by the woman in front of him.
　the rasping noise that reverberates into the room
　The woman, bleeding more than ever before, glares at the man and opens her mouth.

"If anything should happen to Lanta... you won't keep her alive."
"Really? Then you're going to work hard, too. Don't forget? Your brother won't last long if he doesn't have the medicine I'm going to prepare, and I'll see the results of your work and decide how much medicine to buy."

　When women are told so, they can't object at all.
　In the first place, it was a woman who agreed to the contract on such terms.
　...a blessing of misfortune for a woman was that the man in front of her was not interested in her body.
　Thanks to you, chastity is still managed to be preserved.

"All right, but I won't say enough people, so get some people ready to use it. Ray has a demon called Seto. I can't do anything by myself."

　A woman understands her ability.
　If you're with someone around you, you can do something with your ability, and if you hide your true character and take advantage of a man's good appearance, you can do something even if you're a little better than yourself.
　But... Ray and Sett, one and one, are completely beyond the realm of color.
　Moreover, besides Ray and Seto, there are party members of the wing of the Red Lotus, Elena, who is not a party member but nicknamed General Hime, and Arra, Elena's bodyguard.
　It's not a problem that you can do by yourself, because you're aiming for Ray in that situation.
　I wonder if the man knows that... he gives the woman a bag of dozens of silver coins.

"If you're in the slum, that's how it should work out. ... A lot of people are grateful to Ray for the gigant turtleneck, but if you're in the slum in the spring, that's how much you can pay. Use that as a meat shield."

　She frowned a little at the so forthright opinion of a meat shield, but said nothing more.
　To offend the man in front of you is only to the detriment of a woman.

"Okay, so I'll try... but is that OK? If Ray is harmed, the upper management of Gillum will move, wouldn't it be dangerous?"
"Well, I never expected Francois to worry about me,"

　Woman... says the man teasingly, as if he had forgotten Francois's command had made him feel better, or that he had just taken a few steps back from his murderous gaze.
　But Francois responds grumpily to such a man's words.

"I'm not going to do it for Trippala. I'm going to do it for her... Lanta."
"I don't mind. If you can help me, that's enough. And if Mr. Veen learns well, there's a lot of profit. Then you'll end up getting more medicine for your brother, won't you?"

　If you say so, Francois cannot disagree.
　Tripara's medicine is needed to make use of Lanta, the only remaining family member.
　Francois can't deny it if you say it will help him get as much of the medicine as possible.

"Well... I'll go to the slums right away. It's nighttime now, and the people in the slums who are guilty are moving."

　As he spoke, Francois was leaving Trippala's room.





"Well... I'd like to look into those jellyfish."

　Anastasia mutters as a jellyfish drifts on the lake at night and looks as if it were close to Ray.
　Even in the eyes of Anastasia, the jellyfish today did not look like a regular monster.
　...however, it's a lake that has moved from another world, and the monsters there are very few, but they can't be called ordinary monsters.

"Don't be silly. That jellyfish, as you can see, is quite friendly to us. If you behave in a way that makes such a person uncomfortable, that's not interesting."

　That jellyfish is friendly, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's less aggressive.
　It could have been a pretty high-ranked monster.
　What would happen if you acted in a way that would offend such a person pointlessly?
　At least Ray didn't want to try it.
　...no, I don't think it's Ray's business to offend the person he's fond of.
　Anastasia nods grudgingly, wondering if Ray's words felt anything.

"All right. ... But if that jellyfish ever comes to my mind, can I do some research?"
"Well, that's not something I can stop you from doing, but to be honest with you, I think you'd better stop it."

　That jellyfish seemed to have a certain level of intelligence, regardless of its appearance.
　That being the case, if for some reason Anastasia has a friendly relationship and wants to study it, there is a good chance of understanding the language.
　But as long as the other person's understanding may not be what Ray and Anastasia thought, it could really be... but in some cases it could be a big problem."And Anastasia is Wi... well, you know what? I honestly don't think it's good to turn to another subject when you haven't studied that subject enough."

　Ray manages to mislead it when he almost says Whisp in front of everyone.
　I don't think anyone else is eavesdropping on Ray's story, but all the adventurers here are capable of it.
　It's no wonder that some one accidentally overheard Ray's words.
　That's why Ray misleads the story while not saying the word whisp.
　I didn't know if I understood Ray's concern, but Anastasia nods to him, albeit a little reluctant.

"Well... I'm afraid it will, but I'm sure that the jellyfish is a pretty attractive research partner."
"You can tell me that. Besides, there are other people besides Anastasia who are doing research on this lake, so why don't we leave it to them for now?"

　Anastasia looked a little surprised, but it was only natural that researchers should be sent to investigate the lake.
　If you do so, more and more people will know about the lake.
　It was an inevitable path, as Anastasia knew, but still needed to investigate the lake.
　...but the researchers are also most important about their research, more specifically to satisfy their intellectual curiosity.
　If I told anyone else about this lake, I might never be able to come back to it again as punishment.
　And someone else could have investigated this unknown lake on his behalf and learned a variety of secrets.
　There is also a possibility that more researchers will come to this lake if they are able to come here.
　That could have led the researcher to unravel his doubts.
　It's not interesting to researchers.
　It was the s*x of the researchers, though slightly different, that they would rather not talk about this lake than do so.
　...that's why Anastasia had no intention of telling anyone about the underground space and Whisp except her assistant, Fana.
　Although Wisp, who has the ability to transfer people and objects from other worlds, is overwhelmingly more confidential than this lake, Dusker, who commissioned Anastasia, will not allow anyone else to talk about it.

"By the way, don't do strange things about that shiny jellyfish; I don't want to harm Anastasia either."
"...I know,"

　With a slight reluctance, Anastasia nods to Ray's words.
　If Ray were to say that much, he would rather not say anything more.
　Ray changes the subject if he sees Anastasia and decides that he won't poke his nose into the glowing jellyfish for now.

"What kind of researcher is Anastasia? Is it about monsters?"
"What? Well... I didn't know exactly what to do. I guess I'm going to study what I'm interested in one after another."
"...that'said he.

　He is what we call a genius researcher.
　Since I was entrusted with the research of Whisp, I was wondering if he specialized in researching monsters.

"Oh, let me tell you, if you're a human being, I'm an elf. I have more time to learn than a human being. In that sense, an elf might be a good fit for researchers."

　Anastasia's words convince Ray.
　Since there are geniuses like hearing one thing and knowing ten things, the elf is not necessarily better suited for researchers, but overall, the elf, who has more time to learn, is definitely more advantageous as a researcher.

"In that sense, I envy the elves,"

　Ray told me so, but Ray's body was made by the techniques of the Zepail family, and he doesn't know exactly how long he will live.
　However, given that he hasn't grown any taller since he came to this world, it's probably impossible to assume that he's the same life expectancy as any other human being.
　Elena, Marina, and Vihela, among Ray's companions, clearly live longer than humans.
　In that sense, it's safe to say that the Reys are outsiders in many ways.

"Yes. But the longer you live, the worse it is. For example, I'm curious, so I came out of the woods like this, but quite a few elves have worn out their minds and lost all curiosity."

　The explanation gives me a subtle feeling.
　For Ray, it seemed meaningless to have a long life expectancy.
　...maybe it was because I knew Grimm was there that made me even more so.