Rest tried the skewered meat and soup made from worm flesh. Both were so delicious they nearly made him lose consciousness—far better than their grotesque appearance suggested.
"Thank you for the meal… That was really good. Both of you."
Rest thanked Yuri and Urla for preparing the food.
"Who knew a worm could transform into something like that? I don't even know how to describe it… It was so good I almost astral-projected to the other side of the moon."
He had very nearly reincarnated into another world for the second time.
The flavor was as mysterious as the cosmos itself, but upon savoring it more carefully, well—it was delicious, so he'd let it go.
"Right then… I'll be heading off to supply mana to the barrier…"
"Hold on, Rest."
Rest was about to rise from the table, but Yuri's voice stopped him in his tracks.
"Dessert hasn't been served yet."
"………"
He knew.
He knew perfectly well and had been planning to slip away unnoticed, but it seemed his escape route had been cut off.
(No… I understand. I'll admit it. Yuri, you're something else.)
In his mind, Rest praised the friend before him.
(Your culinary curiosity is genuine. Your ability to sniff out delicious food is the real deal. I'll acknowledge that. But… I'm terrified of when you're going to blow up in my face…)
No matter how much of a natural-born gourmand Yuri might be, there was no guarantee that would last forever.
Someone who advanced on instinct alone, without any foundational knowledge, was bound to make a catastrophic mistake eventually.
Rest had come to understand this through two lifetimes of experience.
(Seriously, you eat the flesh of bugs and monsters and whatnot, and yet your body looks like that? Your chest is huge, your thighs look soft, and your rear is nice and plump… If you keep saying silly things, I'm going to grab that chest of yours…)
"Hm?"
Rest tilted his head.
He felt like he'd just conjured up something incredibly sleazy in his head… but had he really been thinking such perverted thoughts on a regular basis?
"Mm… jelly."
Urla slid something toward him—a trembling, hemispherical mound sitting on a wooden plate. It was pink jelly.
"Jelly? How did you even make that?"
Rest's eyes went wide in disbelief.
Was jelly even something you could make from scratch?
"Yeah. I'm not really sure myself, but… I was heating and cooling and mixing and kneading the worm meat, and something like this just came together. I tasted it and it was good, so give it a try."
"You just… stumbled onto this by accident…?"
He wanted to tell her not to feed people things like that.
What kind of alchemy were you performing on a worm that resulted in jelly?
"Eat it."
He would have refused if he could, but Urla was looking up at him from beneath her long bangs with those wide, earnest eyes, and her unwavering gaze left no room for rejection.
(Guh… She's still a kid, but she's going to be a real beauty someday. Now that I look closely, her development isn't bad for a child either, and before long she'll be ready to harvest…)
"No… What's wrong with me today?"
Once again, he'd caught himself thinking something completely inappropriate.
He was genuinely baffled by what had gotten into him today.
"…You're not going to eat it?"
"No… I'll eat it."
Rest gingerly accepted the plate of jelly and the spoon.
It didn't look bad.
It was a pretty pink color—in fact, if someone told him it was peach jelly, he'd have believed it.
"………"
He looked around for someone to save him, but… Yuri was watching him with the same excited expression as Urla.
"…Please, don't be shy. Go right ahead."
"Have some. It's pretty."
Urla's attendant, Earlie, of course showed no signs of intervening and gave a thumbs-up instead.
Ostley was still tripping on the other side of the moon and showed no sign of returning.
Nobody was going to throw him a lifeline… With no other choice, Rest plunged his spoon into the jelly.
It was translucent and wobbly, looking perfectly fresh and inviting.
The fact that it looked so appetizing was precisely what made it terrifying.
"I'll have some…"
Steel in his heart, he brought it to his mouth… and the jelly slid from his lips down his throat with a soft slurp.
"………!?"
It had no flavor.
It wasn't bad, nor was it good. Completely tasteless and odorless.
But… what was this? The moment he swallowed it, a searing heat surged up from the deepest recesses of his body.
(It's like I just swallowed a lit ember… What on earth did I just eat!?)
"Oh, looks like the effects are kicking in."
"Big success."
Y Yuri and Urla exchanged glances and broke into grins.
"Wh-what… What is this exactly…"
"It was made from the worm's bodily fluids and reproductive organs. Rest, you've been working nonstop and look exhausted, so this'll definitely perk you up!"
"………!?"
Come to think of it… the heat generated by the jelly was exerting a powerful influence on a very specific part of his body.
"Perk me up, you say… It's perking me up in the wrong way…!"
Come to think of it… ever since a little while ago, he'd been having unusually lewd thoughts.
Could it be that worm flesh had some kind of revitalizing, tonic-like effect, similar to a leech?
"Now that'll take care of your fatigue, and you'll be able to sleep soundly tonight!"
"Like hell I'll be able to sleep!"
Rest couldn't help but raise his voice and shout at Yuri, who was puffing out her impressive chest in pride.