If Vandalieu were to hear this, he would be quite shocked upon objectively realizing that his mental age had regressed, however.

Vandalieu was almost eight years old. Including the time that he had spent on Earth and in Origin, he was in his mid-forties, approaching late middle-age.

"And it seems that he gets depressed when people call him scary or 'Monstrosity,'" said Kasim. "Let's make sure we don't act scared of him."

"Kasim, weren't you the one who screamed after unexpectedly meeting Vandalieu in a bathhouse the other day?" Zeno pointed out.

"No, that was... It can't be helped, right?! You guys were scared as well!"

One time, while Kasim was submerged in the bath, Vandalieu, who had actually entered the bath earlier with his head submerged (having not learned from last time), had silently risen up right next to Kasim. He had apparently had his eyes closed while submerged and simply come up to breathe, but it was still surprising for Kasim nonetheless.

Kasim couldn't be blamed for saying that his reaction couldn't be helped.

"Well, I suppose you're right. I didn't notice him either, even though I have the Detect Presence skill..." Remembering this memory that hurt his pride as a Scout, Zeno began to feel depressed.

"Either way, let's make sure we don't say anything like, 'scary,' about him."

"You're right."

And so the three of them decided on how they would treat their friend, who was also the king of Talosheim.

--------------------------------------------------

It was now dusk, and the sunlight reflected by the mercury mirrors had weakened.

The three of them, who were heading towards the place where they had agreed to meet Lina, had their interest drawn by a crowd that had gathered near where they were passing by.

Over a dozen children were playing on a playground that had been built on a space of open ground.

Kasim and his friends were accustomed to seeing this. On Earth, the sight of healthy children playing on the typical sandboxes, slides, jungle gyms and iron bars might bring a smile to one's face.

However, the same could not be said for the sight of a group of children all with the same face playing on a playground, moving silently without letting out a single laugh, looking as empty as dolls.

"Scary..." Kasim and his friends whispered.

At the same time, Vandalieu noticed them. "Oh, what a coincidence."

At that moment, the outlines of the countless Vandalieus faded and gathered together at the one physical Vandalieu.

Fortunately, it seemed that he hadn't heard what Kasim and his friends had whispered.

"Umm, what were you doing?" Kasim asked.

"I built a park for people to relax and children to play at, so I was just testing whether there were any problems with the play equipment I installed," Vandalieu replied.

Talosheim had never had a park to begin with, so it seemed that Vandalieu had said, "I'm just going to move these a little to the side," dismantled and rebuilt the buildings in their new locations and used the newly-made space to build a park.

And he had apparently been testing the playground equipment he had made by changing the shapes of materials using Golem Transmutation himself.

"A park, huh... Are there places like this in big cities?" Zeno asked.

"Who knows? There weren't any in Nineland. But it's convenient to have places like this," said Vandalieu.

"So that's how it is."

Kasim and the others couldn't really understand the reason for making the effort of building a park or see its value, but Vandalieu had simply thought, "It would be nice to have one," so he couldn't really give a detailed explanation, either.

Parks had all kinds of benefits, being places where children could play within their parents' sight, where the parents could interact with each other and where various recreational activities could be held.

"So, have you finished inspecting it?" Fester asked.

"Yes," said Vandalieu.

"Then how about having an early dinner with us? We're going to go and meet Lina now," said Fester.

"If you don't mind eating at the royal castle," Vandalieu replied. "I'm planning to use my new cookware to try and make new dishes today."

"Are you serious?! Lucky us!" Kasim exclaimed.

"So, what are you making?" Zeno asked.

"Curry and naan."

"Eh? Curry and what?"

"I'm making naan."

TLN*: ナン/Nan = Naan as in naan bread, but 何/Nan means "what" in Japanese.

It seemed that Vandalieu had built a tandoori oven and was intending to make Indian curry before Eastern curry.

"I said I would make it when Fester and Lina got married," Vandalieu explained. "By the way, we've almost finished completing the first stage of information gathering, so the Cream Expedition is going to start in earnest. What are you three planning to do?"

"Ah, that. Lizardmen, huh... We still want to train ourselves more."

Discussing the new dish that Vandalieu was planning to make and the upcoming expedition, the four of them smiled as they headed to the place where they were meeting Lina.