Rest lay on his back on the hill, his head resting on Yuri’s lap.
Before him stretched a high, blue sky, with clouds of various shapes drifting across it.
A perfectly gentle breeze, carrying the scent of greenery, blew in, shielded from the outside cold by the barrier.
"Haaah..."
"Well? How is it, Rest?"
"It's... nice."
"Why so polite?"
"Ah... just somehow..."
It was a good pillow.
It had just the right mix of softness and firm support, making it extremely comfortable.
And on top of that... a faint, flower-like scent wafted from Yuri’s body, which was very pleasant.
(This isn’t perfume... maybe it’s her soap...?)
"............"
"Are you going to sleep, Rest?"
"...Yeah... sleep..."
Unlike being carried princess-style earlier, this time, it felt like he might actually be able to drift off.
Rest didn’t resist the descending temptation of sleep and surrendered to it, closing his heavy eyelids.
His consciousness faded away, sinking as if to the bottom of the sea.
He felt as if he were lying on a cloud, fluffy and light. He felt he could sleep soundly just like this.
"......Su......Su..."
After a few minutes, Rest had begun breathing the peaceful breaths of sleep.
It was the third day of his dates. The outings with Viola and Primula had been enjoyable, but the fatigue must have caught up with him after all.
His exhaustion had accumulated, and he had sunk into a deep, deep slumber.
"GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
"Whoa!?"
However... his peaceful rest lasted only a brief time.
Without warning, sounds like the cries of monstrosities echoed through the air, and he was jolted awake.
"W-What is it?!"
Rest cried out, snapping his upper body upright.
"Oh, Rest. You're awake, then."
"Yuri... What happened?!"
"Well, it's those things over there... Really, they're making quite the ruckus."
"Those things... You mean monsters?"
Peering down from the hill, they could see monsters in the middle of battling one another.
"A... a snake and a mongoose...?"
The two monsters fighting were a massive serpent and a furry quadruped.
Both were as large as elephants, clashing violently with each other in a fierce battle.
"They suddenly showed up a moment ago and started fighting. They're monsters I don't recognize — you don't know them either, do you?"
"Maybe they drifted over from the Sabnock Plains..."
He had heard that as frontier development on the Sabnock Plains progressed, some of the monsters that slipped through the hunts had been fleeing into the surrounding areas.
"So far, apparently there hasn't been any major damage, but..."
"It's unsettling having that kind of large monster near the royal capital."
At Yuri's words, Rest nodded in agreement.
"If possible, we should subjugate it. Even indirectly, having damage come out of the plains development would leave a bad taste in our mouth."
"All right, then how about we do, uh... that thing. Um... fisherman's benefit?"
"Fisherman's profit, probably."
Since the monsters were already fighting each other, they would just stay put and wait for one of them to fall.
It was a despicable tactic, but... they decided to take out the weakened victor.
"GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"GISHAAAAAAARGH!"
"That said... it's going to take a while before they reach a conclusion."
"All right, then let's have some snacks while we wait!"
Yuri rummaged through his bag and pulled out a cloth bundle.
"I brought meat pies too. They got a little charred, but I guarantee they taste great!"
"Ah, wait— meat pies...!"
"Groh?"
"Gishat?"
Whether they were reacting to the smell of meat or not, both monsters stopped fighting.
Their gaze turned toward the hilltop... and they locked eyes with Rest, who was standing there.
"Groh..."
"GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"GISHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
The two beasts switched targets.
It seemed they had chosen Rest and Yuri as their prey, and they charged up the hill with ferocious speed.
Perhaps finding a common enemy had made them forget they had been fighting each other just moments ago.
"Oh, crap. I really did it this time!"
"You just had to go and do something like that, didn't you?!"
Rest was self-aware enough to know he was a troublemaker, but Yuri seemed to think he was even worse.
Before they knew it, the two of them had ended up in a fight against two large monsters.