The killing intent directed at him.
At the whistling sound of something cutting through the air that reached him in the same instant, Rei's body moved reflexively.
A moment later, a shaft was buried in the ground right where he had been standing.
Spotting the fletching on its tail end, Rei identified it as an arrow—and understood that this was an attack aimed at him. An assassination attempt.
He turned his gaze toward the direction the arrow had flown from, but several Officer Academy buildings stood in that direction. A grove of trees bordered the buildings as well, making it impossible to pinpoint the shooter's location at a glance.
Rei drew his Death Scythe from the Misty Ring and called out sharply.
"Set!"
"Guruuuuuu!"
Responding to Rei's call, Set shifted from its resting position to full combat readiness the instant the arrow struck the ground, then launched itself forward.
As Set charged straight toward the school buildings, every student nearby stared in astonishment.
But the students weren't the only ones watching. Grink, who co-taught the mock battle class alongside Rei, had seen Rei suddenly move—and in the next moment, watched an arrow punch into the ground with his own eyes.
"Rei-san, are you injured?"
"Yeah. Luckily, whoever fired it was broadcasting killing intent loud and clear, so I sensed it in time. But I never expected someone to target my life inside the Officer Academy."
"I apologize. I'll report this to the Headmaster immediately."
"Please do. ...Also, it's better if no students are near me right now. Fortunately, they don't understand why I suddenly pulled out the Death Scythe. Or maybe they think it's punishment for the snowball fight—which, under the circumstances, is actually convenient."
Thanks to Rei's body blocking the line of sight, the students couldn't see the arrow embedded in the ground. Which meant, from their perspective, Rei had simply drawn the Death Scythe out of nowhere for no apparent reason.
"H-hey. That scythe... could that be..."
"Yeah. The magic item known as Crimson's trademark."
"But why would he suddenly pull out a weapon like that? ...Don't tell me."
"Whoa, Team C is dead meat."
"Wait, last place hasn't even been decided yet. Why?"
"You've gotta be kidding me. ...Hey, do we seriously have to fight that Rei? The one holding that absolutely menacing scythe?"
"Hmm? Huh? The gryphon's gone. Where did it go?"
"Weren't you watching? It took off toward the school buildings."
"...Why?"
"Who knows? There's no way I'd understand what a gryphon is thinking."
"Hey now, don't tell me the gryphon is attacking students or something... that's not what's happening, right?"
Listening to the students chatter among themselves, Rei turned to Grink.
"They were focused on the snowball fight, so the arrow went unnoticed. Can you handle things here?"
"Yes, right away. ...What will you do, Rei-san?"
"I should hang onto the arrow for now. I'll need to bring it to Erinde at the Headmaster's office as evidence later. We might be able to pull some information from it."
To Rei's eyes, it looked like an ordinary arrow, but there was a chance that its construction, arrowhead, or fletching could yield useful details. Of course, that assumption was largely based on the simple logic that since Erinde was an Elf, she would be knowledgeable about bows and arrows.
Besides, I'm not fully conscious of it myself, but I'm supposedly in a position where I've been caught up in the King's Faction's troubles and am under their protection. In other words, I was attacked at the very place where I was supposed to be protected... which points back to the King's Faction, doesn't it? I utterly humiliated them, and now a storm of disciplinary purges is raging as a result.
With the students watching, Grink spoke on Rei's behalf.
"Everyone, thank you for your hard work in today's class. Normally, we would be administering punishment to the last-place team, but both Rei-san and I have some business to attend to, so class is dismissed for today."
"Waaaah!"
The ones who erupted in cheers at Grink's words were, naturally, Team B and Team C—the teams at risk of finishing last in the snowball fight. The other students cast complicated looks at those two teams. The envy, the resentment at unfairness, the half-hearted congratulations—all likely because they understood all too well the harsh punishment they themselves might have faced.
An atmosphere of relief spread through Teams B and C, and through the rest of the students as well... but as if to shatter it, Rei spoke up.
"The punishment is only on hold. Next class, I'll deliver an appropriate penalty to one team... or both. Be ready. That's all. Dismissed."
Having just experienced the whiplash of falling from heaven to hell, the students of Teams B and C trudged back toward the school buildings with dark expressions.
A few students seemed to sense something faintly off about the demeanor of Rei, Grink, and the others, but they headed inside without raising any questions. Some appeared concerned about Set, but in the end, no one voiced it. Partly out of fear that speaking up might earn them the same harsh treatment as Teams B and C, and partly because the falling snow was cold and they wanted to get warm as quickly as possible. No amount of daily training at the Officer Academy made cold weather any less cold.
"...They're gone."
"Yes."
Once they confirmed that all the students had returned to the buildings, Rei and Grink turned their attention back to the arrow embedded in the ground.
The shaft had punched through the accumulated snow and driven into the earth. The snow around the impact point was discolored a vivid purple. It was immediately apparent that this was no ordinary arrow—it had been coated with some kind of poison.
"It's a good thing the students didn't see it... Rei-san, thank goodness you're unharmed."
"Yeah. It all happened in a split second. The purple is probably this vivid partly because it's seeping into snow. Poison soaks in easily."
"I suppose so. But still, the fact that they're using a poison this potent..."
Grink looked at Rei with apparent concern. Despite his intimidating features, there was something undeniably sincere in the way he worried.
Well, just because someone has a scary face doesn't mean they can't be genuinely worried.
Rei mused inwardly. The fact that he wasn't wearing a particularly grave expression despite being the target of a poisoned arrow was likely due to his confidence in his body's poison resistance.
"Anyway, there's no point staying here. It would've been ideal if Set had managed to catch the assassin, but... looks like that didn't work out either."
In the direction Rei was looking, Set was trudging back toward him, shoulders drooping in unmistakable dejection. Rei stowed the arrow in his Misty Ring, then reached out and stroked Set's head to comfort it.
"Don't worry about it. Anyone bold enough to attack me in a place like this would've had an escape route planned in advance. Something that even your nose couldn't track."
"...Since it's a gryphon, most people would anticipate its sharp senses and plan accordingly."
Grink added his own words of encouragement. He didn't pet Set the way Rei did, however. Not out of fear, but simply because such gestures weren't his style.
"I'm going to see the Headmaster... Set, what about you?"
"Guruu?"
Set tilted its head as if to ask what he meant.
"Are you coming to the building where the Headmaster's office is, or going back to the stables? You're still not well-known enough around here, so I can't have you wandering around freely. Sorry about that."
"Gurururu..."
Set shook its head as if to say not to worry, then pressed its face against Rei.
"Sorry. ...So, what'll it be? If you come to the Headmaster's building, I'll need you to wait somewhere out of sight."
"Guruu!"
Set affirmed with a decisive cry.
Someone had targeted Rei—the person Set loved above all else. Understanding that full well, Set wanted to stay as close to Rei as it possibly could. So that no matter what happened, no matter when, it could protect him.
Set knew better than anyone—better than anyone in the world, it believed—just how strong Rei was. But that didn't matter. Rei was its partner, its master, its friend, its brother. Wanting to protect someone it loved in so many ways was only natural. To convey that feeling, Set rubbed its face against Rei once more.
As if understanding, Rei smiled warmly and stroked Set's head over and over.
"Shall we go, then?"
At Grink's words, watching the pair, Rei nodded.
"Yeah. Killing time here would only give the enemy more room to maneuver."
The attack had been carried out, fortunately, by someone who was not a professional—or at least not highly skilled—which had allowed Rei to dodge the arrow with a degree of composure. The trade-off, however, was that they had failed to apprehend the would-be assassin.
What consequences this would bring, Rei couldn't yet say. Carrying a measure of unease about the future, Rei, Grink, and Set made their way toward the building that housed the Headmaster's office.
Besides, if the Headmaster really does use a small bird to patrol the academy grounds, there might be some kind of clue.
He held onto that faint hope.
"Hahh... hahh... hahh..."
The man gasped for breath.
He was alone. No one was around to hear the raggedness of his breathing, but had anyone been present, they would have immediately known something was terribly wrong. After several minutes of desperate panting, he finally regained enough composure to think clearly.
"Damn it! His attention wasn't supposed to be focused this way! How the hell did he dodge my arrow in that situation!? Damn it, damn it, damn it! I even used Tears of Heaven... that monster!"
In his frustration, he stomped hard on the magic circle drawn on the floor.
If he had stayed hidden at his firing position, he would have been caught without question. The gryphon charging straight toward his location had made that abundantly clear. If he had been even a moment slower with the Teleportation Stone, he would have been dragged before Rei by now.
"I need to take that bastard's head, but with a gryphon standing guard... what the hell am I supposed to do? Do I really have no choice but to wait for reinforcements?"
He fought to calm his frustration and drew a deep breath. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale—repeating the cycle until his irritation gradually subsided and he could think about what came next.
"Right. It's regrettable that I failed to kill Rei—our great enemy—this time. But I survived. To repay the one who leaked his information to us, I can't afford to give up so easily. ...That's right. Yes. I can do this. I can definitely do this. I have the blessing of the holy Goddess of Light."
He looked down at the bow in his hand and pulled a small bottle from his breast pocket. The poison coating the arrowhead was an extremely potent toxin known as Tears of Heaven. He had been certain that even a scratch would guarantee his victory.
It was a poison born of the Goddess of Light's power—something, he had been told, that was never to be used casually under normal circumstances. The priest had bestowed it upon him specifically because the target was an enemy of their faith... one classified as a great enemy.
"And yet... to fail in delivering divine punishment upon our great enemy... Was my faith simply not strong enough? Damn it! ...But this isn't over. There are more than a few believers of the Holy Light Religion hiding in this land. Going underground because of the persecution that started around last autumn—that's turning out to be useful after all."
There's always next time. And the time after that, the man told himself. His voice echoed through the dark room, sharpening his focus ever further.
"I will kill the great enemy. I will definitely kill him. I will kill him with these hands. With the power of my faith, there is no way I cannot eliminate even an alias-holding adventurer. Heaven's punishment from the Goddess... no, divine punishment. Crimson, you shall know the mercy of the great Goddess of Light amidst your regrets."
He gently clasped the bottle. To the man, that bottle was poison and yet not poison. It was a blessing from God—proof that he was watched over by the Goddess of Light.
"All is beneath the mercy of the holy Goddess of Light."