With all the secrets of the island seemingly solved, Auren and the entire expedition now focus on planning their next and final steps, as their mission is nearing its completion.
Auren and Kieran are waiting in the largest 'toy' house.
"How long do you think the testing will take, Vice-Leader?" Kieran asks.
"How should I know?" Auren replies, shaking his head. "Leira and the support staff want to test it on various animals first. Since the... rice can't be fully analyzed by Leira's Oculus, we need to take a few more precautions. After they're done, they'll come here, and someone will try it while I stand by, just in case something happens."
"Do you really think..." Kieran begins to say, gulping. "It could really be Nitro Rice?"
"Probably... not," Auren replies. "Simply because I was sent here by someone... I doubt he'd just give the location away if that were the case. That guy is... pretty skilled. Somehow I doubt he'd miss such a thing, although this island is huge... who knows? He might not have the capabilities to exploit the resources here. It takes a lot of effort to set up a farm and then transport things out of here. Maybe... he... well, forget it, it's too soon to think about these things if there is a possibility that he might not have found the secret of the island. I'll be asking more questions of our prisoner to find out whether he was spotted."
"So why are we bothering with it then?" Kieran replies, seeming a little demotivated.
"He called it a worthless weed... I also remember him calling it fifth-rate or something. It might not be Nitro Rice... but it could still be useful. Or maybe, similar to the Hellbells, it's simply a devolved form of it," Auren guesses. "He managed to survive solely consuming it; it should be a decent food at least. We'll find out the rest."
A few minutes later, Leira, followed by Rosa and Mola, enter the room, a pleasant smell coming with them.
"No animal has shown any side effects... we feel we're ready to try it out," Mola says.
"Just do your Voodoo thing if things go wrong, okay?" Rosa asks, stepping forward.
Voodoo...
"Hearing someone who should know better call Nen Voodoo really rubs me the wrong way. If you don't want another toilet duty, drop the silliness." Auren warns her.
Rosa glares at Auren, clenching her fist. "... arrogant... damn... Rakshala's... bad taste... unfair."
How petty can you get?
Leira steps forward, ignoring the banter. "I am pretty sure it's safe to consume."
"I guess we could simply wait, take it with us and run tests back 'home' but... I want to know as well. Who will volunteer? I can do it myself, but I'd rather stand by in case something goes wrong. If I black out, I can't heal myself afterwards," Auren argues. "You know... the limitations of Voodoo."
"I'll do it," Rosa says, appearing confident. "Just... don't leave me hanging, okay?"
If it's her, I have to think about it.
"Sure... Voodoo is highly reliable," Auren replies. "Will you just swallow it raw? Or do you cook it?"
"We already boiled it... it's relatively soft now, and it smells quite appetizing," Leira says, revealing a small pot of steaming rice. Despite the weight, due to the large size of the rice, there are only a couple of hundred grains of rice inside.
Gulping, her stomach churning, Rosa steps forward and grabs a grain of rice between her fingers.
Carefully, she sniffs it, her face looking quite awkward, holding it right over her mouth.
"Sniffing isn't gonna do much! It obviously smells good. Eat it already," Auren urges her, crossing his arms.
"... I want to beat you up so badly... if the Leader weren't so in—" Rosa mutters, but Mola immediately raises her voice.
"Rosa!" She yells, her Aura flaring up.
What was she about to say? I think I need to talk to Rosa alone at one point... preferably with a lot of alcohol or that computer Nen user.
Out of shock and surprise, Rosa accidentally drops the grain of rice, and it lands in her mouth. Still confused, she immediately swallows it without chewing, her face twisting weirdly.
"Are you stupid?" Auren asks her. "You have to chew it... even if there's something wrong with it, we don't know yet, and not chewing will make the process even slower. Do you want us to wait an hour or two?"
"... He is right," Leira comments, looking a little helpless.
"..." Looking like she's about to cry, Rosa takes one more grain of rice and puts it in her mouth, biting down with her teeth.
"It's..." Rosa mutters, chewing. "It's... quite tasty. Needs salt though... it's sweet, I don't like sweet."
Auren sighs. "We are not interested in the taste... but it doesn't come as a surprise... it smelled quite good, and the Gatekeeper carefully cultivated it, after all. Who likes to eat disgusting food?"
After chewing a few more times, Rosa swallows, greedily looking at the remaining rice.
Auren, however, grabs her hand and guides her to sit down on a chair.
He kneels beside her, activates Azure Restoration, and gently guides his Aura into her.
Feeling nothing wrong with her, and in fact noting that her body is in great condition, Auren stops.
"Pretty sure she's in the clear," Auren says, approaching the pot of rice in Leira's hand and grabbing three grains of rice for himself, each one as large as a fingernail.
They really smell good.
Gently putting them into his mouth, Auren begins to chew carefully before swallowing.
Using Zetsu, he can't quite feel any significant change yet.
"I can't tell if it's working..." Auren announces, sighing. "We celebrated too early."
"These things take time, Auren," Leira reminds him. "We'll test it... and since the Gatekeeper was keeping a huge farm, we have to assume he ate a lot of it."
I don't want to wait... so I might as well.
Auren suddenly grabs the pot and swiftly eats the remaining amount of rice, stunning the others.
Finally, he feels a warm and comfortable sensation in his stomach. He also feels just a little energized.
"I think it's working..." Auren says. "I'm not talking about something as vague and mysterious as lifespan, but I definitely feel energized. This would help recovery, and it would work for training as well. The health effects put aside."
Everyone's expression turns visibly excited after hearing that.
"Leira... I fear you'll have to stay a while longer," Auren says. "I'll talk to Rakshala, but we need to maintain the farm, analyze it, and definitely keep it running. We should also try to expand it and, if possible, replicate it elsewhere. This island should have places with similar conditions elsewhere. Can the rice grow anywhere on the island? If yes... the potential of this island is immense. When we leave, we'll take some of this rice with us. If it can be grown everywhere, not only on this island, it doesn't matter, but if these swamps are special... we definitely need a large base here."
"It could also work as a training base," Kieran says. "Even with the tree gone, the wolves, Hellbell, and round beasts won't disappear. In fact, that barely changes a thing. The ecosystem is still perfectly stable and self-sustaining."
"Good," Auren says, leaving the room with Kieran.
Together with Kieran, Auren excuses himself, and they approach a certain member of the support staff, a middle-aged woman who is smoking outside and looking quite bored. She has black hair that is slowly fading to gray, and she still looks thoroughly unmotivated.
"Is it time?" she immediately asks, perking up a little, nodding at Auren and displaying at least a token amount of respect.
I've seen her a couple of times, but it's hard to know so many members....
"I'll prepare myself," she says, running into the airship and returning with an ornate mirror so large that she can barely carry it.
They walk into a nearby toy house and enter a small room. The woman places the mirror against the wall and stands before it.
"How does that work?" Auren asks, pointing at it.
"You'll see... in just... a second," she says confidently, gathering her Aura. "I haven't tried it out over such a distance, so I probably won't be able to do it again for at least a few weeks."
As she gathers her Aura on the mirror, Auren sees the surface change. It no longer shows her, as it did a second earlier, but instead reveals a dull gray surface.
"Lady Rakshala," the woman speaks up, her voice raised, but still polite.
Just a couple of seconds later, Auren indeed sees the image of Rakshala in the mirror.
"Dani, that's rather early. Did something happen that needs to be reported right away?" Rakshala says, a hint of worry on her face.
"Vice-Leader," Dani says, stepping aside.
Auren steps in front of the mirror, and Rakshala's face immediately changes, a soft smile forming on it. "It's nice to see you, Auren. I'm glad the journey was successful, and nothing happened."
"Well... I'm here to report," Auren replies. "Sadly, we lost two good soldiers," he continues, starting with the worst event.
"That's regrettable," Rakshala replies, still calm, "but well below what we expected. They'll be buried as heroes, and their families will be well taken care of."
"Good..." Auren replies. "In any case, since we don't have much time, I'll get to the point. Please let me talk for a little while, then you can ask questions."
Auren swiftly and accurately goes over the events, describing the island, the wolves, the other beasts, Hellbell, the mysterious tree, and finally their meeting with the Gatekeeper and his moth. He then goes over the interrogation, the Gatekeeper's home, the farm, and his own experience with the rice.
"I thought the risk was well worth it... so I imprisoned the Gatekeeper... well, not really a Gatekeeper... the former Gatekeeper who was exiled here," Auren clarifies.
"The rice... are you sure about the effects?" Rakshala asks, her face completely serious, her eyes a little more open.
"I don't know what it does, but I tested it myself, and it's definitely doing something. Though the effect might be limited, the rice should definitely be out of the ordinary... the Gatekeeper's long survival is a good hint. That guy just did two things here. Farm rice, and then desperately try to breed those wolves. His farm was enormous for one person, so I expect he ate a whole lot," Auren clarifies. "We don't have much time... what do I do with the prisoner? And how should we proceed?"
Rakshala stays silent for a minute. "Harvest as much ripe rice as you can without causing any damage to the farm or the upcoming harvest, then return with part of the combat team. Leave most of the support staff there. Even without the rice, we need to set up a permanent base. The support team should focus on the elevated ground; the small island doesn't matter much anymore; a small harbor and outpost is enough. Leira should stay; the moths should be raised there if enough food is available."
Thinking for a second, she continues. "After collecting the rice, return with our prisoner. Feed him some so he doesn't perish... You can proceed with the questioning, but please record yourselves."
"Vice-Leader..." Dani says, her face twisted. "It's more draining than expected. I can't... keep it up!"
These Nen users are all great... but they lack endurance. That guy interrogating our prisoner was the same.
"We'll do as told; we'll bring home the rice, our other spoils, the prisoner, and some of the soldiers. Kieran will take care of the details," Auren repeats.
"Good job," Rakshala says, smiling. "I'll be seeing you so—"
However, before she can end her sentence, the connection disappears, and the mirror returns to its original state, Auren's own image being reflected.
"..."
"We'll return... we'll leave one airship here for emergencies, as well as most of our supplies, and we'll head back," Auren declares.
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