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For now, since we found our herbs, we called Mark’s group and gathered as much as we could.

Corne grass was a cactus-like plant with thorny and thick leaves and had a small red flower at its center. The difficult part was that if its flower wasn’t blooming, it was hard to distinguish from aloes that grew everywhere.

The flowers withered at dawn, but the test said we had to bring the plant itself so there should be no problem. The examiner should be able to identify them since they were assigned to this test.

“Who would think Corne grass was this stuff. I thought it was aloe.”
“Yeah, me too.”

Michelle agreed to my complaint.

We didn’t know which part of it was needed, so we rooted them out and put them inside a bag, and stuffed them in a spare leather pouch to carry it back.

We didn’t know how many to bring back, but since we decided to bring the whole samples, one or two of them per person was already our limit. But that should have been enough for the exam.

“It makes me jealous that you found yours so easily.”
“You say that, but we were just lucky here, you know?”

Mark looked at us enviously for overcoming the test quite fast. However, had we not decided to camp here, we wouldn’t have found the Corne grass. In other words, it was a result of a coincidence.

The Guild probably intentionally omitted the information so we would fail to find it and go back to reinvestigate the details.

We happened to have things necessary for camping at hand and we happened to mistake our pace and actually ended up camping. You could say our miscalculation had led to a good result.

“Even if you call it a lucky coincidence, that’s also part of one’s ability. I just…”
“Envious?”
“Well, yeah.”

Mark admitted his envy. This was an unexpectedly good side of him. Cloud would have just insisted that it wasn’t the case. Still, this should have been good luck even for these guys.

“But think carefully. We haven’t heard that these plants would bloom at night.”
“Hmm, what do you mean?”
“I mean, the Guild intentionally omitted an important detail. But what they did give us wasn’t false either.”
“Huh? So you mean they hid an important detail from us too?”
“Yeah. Yours was Moria grass, right? You heard it grew in this lake, right?”
“Yeah, that’s the case.”
“Hmm…?”

If we assume that Guild’s information didn’t contain lies, the Moria grass was definitely growing within the lake. But they couldn’t be found even after much searching. Thus, the omitted information should have mentioned where they were hidden.

The information wasn’t false, but the location was hidden, which would mean…

“I suppose they don’t grow on the lakeshore, huh?”
“Wait, you said the Guild’s information didn’t contain lies. If so—”
“The Guild’s identification manual said they grew in the lake right? It might be that they are growing deeper in.”
“But grass can’t grow without sunlight, right? And it wouldn’t reach deeper down, would it?”
“How deep is this lake?”
“Who knows?”

They were also newbie first rankers. They had apparently never been here before.

Still, this lake was the fountainhead that supplied a large city like Stollar. Normally it shouldn’t be shallow, but there was always a possibility.

“It might be better to check just in case. Fortunately, Finia can use the Breathing spell, so let’s dive down tomorrow.”
“Hey wait, we don’t have swimsuits with us.”
“Boys should be fine with just their underwear.”
“Oh come on!?”

Well, even if they were older than us, they were still youths. Michelle and I who were still children aside, they probably had reservations about showing up in their underwear in front of Finia.

“Then, in your place, Cloud will—”
“Not a chance!”
“You’re selfish.”
“Which one of us is more selfish!?”

Cloud and Mark protested in unison.

That reminded me, Cortina had once told me to go catch some fish in my previous life. I remember how she told me to do it in my underwear, but I refused it with all my might.

“Can’t be helped. I think I had my swimsuit in the luggage, so I’ll do it myself.”
“Then I will come with you too.”

Why did we have swimsuits on us? Because Finia couldn’t help but prepare them when she heard we would be visiting the lakeshore.

Michelle had also shrewdly brought hers too.

“Me too! Me too!”
“Michelle… Aren’t you useless underwater?”
“Khh!”

Michelle collapsed on her knees and hands with my sincere statement. If I hadn’t done that, she would have forcefully come along.

It was hard to move underwater so I couldn’t guarantee her safety. I wanted her to endure the urge.

Besides, her power was practically sealed underwater, but she could still shoot from the shore if she stayed here.

“Either way, we can’t search today, so let’s leave that for tomorrow. And we should have some time left to play around even after we finish our search, right?”

If we started the investigation first thing in the morning, we should be able to finish inspecting the underwater area by noon.

We just had to confirm whether Moria grass grew in deeper places, so it should not take too long.

If we fail to find it, it would mean the information at hand was not enough and would have to return to the city.

Whether we find it or not, we will finish the investigation before noon.

“Besides, I have some other work for you, Michelle.”
“Huh, what work?”
“I want you to get in the way of Cloud and Mark’s peeping.”
“Okay!”
“Hey, that’s false accusation! I won’t do something like that!”
“But Cloud will at the very least.”
“Y-Yeah.”
“I didn’t ask you to confirm it!”

I jumped and smacked Cloud in the head. This b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲ keeps growing taller…