Rest had been welcomed with a celebratory feast after rescuing a fisherman attacked by the sea monster, but... he spent another night at the inn.
After the feast wound down and he had a chance to catch his breath, he soaked in the hot springs and relaxed in his room to ease his fatigue.
There were no surprise encounters at the hot springs that day.
Relieved... yet somehow disappointed... it was a complicated feeling.
"Terrible, Count! It's terrible!"
The next morning, however, while Rest was in the middle of breakfast, a villager came rushing into the inn.
He didn't know the man's name, but... it was the fellow who had pressed drinks on him at last night's feast.
"What happened? Is it a monster again?"
"Ah, ah... no, it might not be. Either way, could you come take a look?"
"I don't mind, but..."
"All right, this way!"
The man took the lead, ushering Rest out of the inn.
Perhaps it was from drinking together the night before, but the man seemed strangely lacking in any sense of restraint.
Rest, a former commoner, didn't particularly mind, but if a high-handed noble had been treated this way, they would likely have flown into a rage.
"Where is this...?"
The man led him to a stretch of coastline a short distance from the village.
There, thick wooden poles had been driven in, and some kind of structure had been built out over the water.
However... a portion of the structure had been savagely destroyed, with splintered wood washed up onto the shore.
"This is a shellfish farm."
The villager stared at the half-destroyed wooden structure and spoke, frustration clear in his voice.
"Aquaculture? You were doing aquaculture!?"
"Yes, we were farming oysters. It was Countess Sanada's idea, actually."
"Shoko's... and oysters, of all things?"
"Yeah... they'd hang weighted ropes from the poles set up out in the sea, and raise the baby shellfish there. They were still experimenting, and had just started seeing results..."
"So someone destroyed it..."
The identity of that someone was beyond question.
The monster they'd fought yesterday.
"How awful... Was this supposed to be revenge for yesterday?"
Yesterday, Rest had fired lightning magic to drive the monster away.
Could this be retaliation — the monster destroying the oyster farm in response?
"If it knew this was a place precious to humans, then it's got a truly vile nature..."
Rather than fleeing or slinking away in defeat, it had gone out of its way to harass them — that was what made it so contemptible.
That monster was truly a danger to this village.
Even if they drove it off, it would only go somewhere else and cause trouble for humans. They had to defeat it — no question.
"Lady Sanada was looking forward to having oysters grown here... She invested her own personal funds, all for the sake of the village...!"
Queen dowager — Shoko Sanada apparently hailed from a rural seaside town, and oyster farming had likely been practiced in her hometown as well.
It did not sit well with Rest that Shoko's resolve — to use that knowledge for the village's benefit — had been trampled upon like this.
"Looks like we'll have to go after it after all... The question is how to beat it."
When it came to a water-attribute enemy's weakness, lightning was the natural answer — but firing lightning directly into the sea would simply disperse on contact and deal negligible damage.
While it might have an effect of driving them off the way you'd shoo away sharks, actually defeating them would be difficult.
[Star Eater] could only be used in close combat, and [Amaterasu]'s laser would scatter upon hitting water, significantly reducing its power. [Flame Progenitor] might be able to take them out, but... the collateral damage would be enormous, potentially causing secondary harm to the village.
(An explosion of steam would trigger a tsunami, or the marine life would die off and decimate the fish catch... It's easy to see how nothing good comes of it.)
"By the way, are there other aquaculture farms like this one in other locations?"
"Yes, there are. They're not fully up and running yet, but there's a pearl farm over there."
"So there are."
Come to think of it, wasn't this village actually remarkably progressive?
Rest let out a sigh, half exasperated and half impressed, and set to pondering how they might defeat the monster.