The forest had been a failure, but it wasn't like he expected it to work. In his opinion, the lighthouse was more believable than the forest; its story was way too ambiguous, unlike the lighthouse.
But the difference between the two was that the story of one was made by humans, and the other by a monster. Humans were a lot more creative than monsters; at least, in most cases, there are probably monsters that are very creative.
But on average, humans always win.
Either way, after Keres informed everyone, they were sad, of course; after all, they had gone through hell to get here, and they got nothing in return. And just like before, Keres had to come and boost their morale.
...
He found himself smiling at his words for whatever reason; it was different from before, but he didn't know why. It was just another speech.
