"Damn it, we managed to get the young master away, but there are way too many of them! How the hell did they round up this many people in the City of Gracial!?"
The man shouted in frustration as he swung his longsword, deflecting the blade of an attacker coming at him, then immediately reversing his edge to cut the assassin down.
Even though both wielded the same weapon, the gulf in skill was so stark that anyone watching would have marveled at the difference—though in truth, it wasn't that the guard was exceptionally skilled, but rather that the assassins were simply poor.
"They must have prioritized numbers! Quantity over quality!"
The archer loosing arrows from beside him also shouted, equally displeased. Yet the unwavering speed at which he fired was proof enough that this man possessed more than respectable skill.
"It's good we got Lord Ealand away, but a few of them went after him. We need to finish these guys off and go after him."
Everyone nodded at the spearsman's words.
Ealand possessed a certain degree of combat ability as a noble, but only a certain degree. If asked whether he could hold his own against multiple assassins, none of them could have nodded with confidence.
After all, the assassins attacking them were people who relied on sheer numbers. For someone like Ealand, who had little real combat experience—especially against human opponents—it was entirely possible he might suffer an unexpected defeat. That was precisely why they needed to dispatch these assassins and catch up to Ealand as quickly as possible. But they numbered only five, while the other side still had nearly twenty.
It was at that moment that Ealand appeared at the scene—bringing Rei along... or rather, being led by Rei.
"Ealand, I'm going to charge in and cut through them. Follow right behind me. If possible, link up with your guards and let them take over protecting you."
"I'm a burden, then?"
"That's right."
Had these been Ealand's own guards, they would have softened their words and avoided calling him a burden outright. But Rei declared it without a hint of hesitation, as if it simply didn't matter, and pulled the Death Scythe from the Misty Ring.
They couldn't possibly have overheard Rei and Ealand's conversation, yet several of the assassins suddenly turned around. Their gazes landed on a small figure wielding a scythe taller than himself—and on Ealand, who should have been their target.
The men who saw Rei and Ealand wondered for a moment if they were looking at some kind of illusion. And no wonder—the target who had fled from them was now returning, even though staying here meant certain death.
Killing the target should have been their top priority, yet most of those present had stayed behind because they couldn't leave the guards unattended. ...Though the guards' provocation had played no small part in that decision.
Genuine, first-rate assassins would never have risen to such cheap provocation. But the men here were far from first-rate—not even second-rate, but thoroughly third-rate. They had taken the bait and ended up brawling in a back alley, yet even men like these remembered their true purpose when the target appeared before them.
"H-He's—"
But unfortunately for them, Ealand now had Rei at his side.
The assassin who tried to be the first to shout that Ealand had appeared was blown away by a single swing of Rei's Death Scythe, crashing into the backs of the other assassins still fighting Ealand's guards.
"That was the Death Scythe, but it was a back-strike, so don't worry. Though five or six bones are probably broken."
"More accurately, you're bludgeoning them with the shaft rather than the back of the blade," Ealand murmured.
But that was irrelevant to the assassins. All that mattered to them was that Rei, having appeared out of nowhere, was a terrifying threat.
"What? The target showed up!? Hey, you guys in the back! We'll handle these guards—hurry up and kill the target! Once he's dead, these ones will give up too!"
"Bullshit! How the hell are we supposed to fight a monster like that!?"
Several of the men near Rei shouted reflexively. Someone about their own height had been sent flying several meters by a single swing of a scythe—and not just in any direction, but hurtling sideways through the air in a straight line. How much strength it would take to do that was completely beyond their comprehension.
Fight, and die. Even if it didn't come to that, being sent flying like the man before them would mean far more than a broken bone or two. They screamed with desperate urgency because they understood this perfectly, but those who hadn't directly witnessed Rei's power only grew irritated, wondering what they were so afraid of.
"Just shut up and do something about it! We've been fighting here for a while now. The city guards could show up any moment—damn it!"
Exploiting the shouting man's opening, one of Ealand's guards loosed an arrow at him. But as expected of someone issuing orders to the rest, he was their leader and had a measure of skill—he cut the incoming arrow out of the air with his longsword.
"Everyone, you're all safe!"
As if seizing on the chaos, Ealand shouted, and the guards' morale surged. Under normal circumstances, the protectee returning would have prompted the question of why he came back at all. But right now, Rei stood at Ealand's side.
Rei, Bearer of the Crimson Moniker, possessed more than enough power to serve as a decisive fighting force in this situation. Moreover, there was also the simple pride that they couldn't leave the person they were sworn to protect in the hands of an outsider, no matter how skilled.
The result was immediate. The guards rallied and charged at the assassins. Caught in a pincer from front and back, the assassins descended into confusion.
Had they kept their wits about them, they would have realized that even pinned between two forces, their superior numbers should have prevented any immediate catastrophic losses. And if they had focused their attack on Rei striking from behind, he was only one man—a good number of them should have been able to escape. Even for Rei, this was a back alley... no, precisely because it was a back alley, he couldn't freely use the wide-area annihilation magic he excelled at.
But hardly anyone retained enough composure to make such judgments, and even those who did couldn't calm the panicked men around them. In the end, wiping out the nearly twenty assassins took very little time.
"You're safe, young master!"
"Yes, I ran into Rei while fleeing. Fortunately, he lent me a hand. Thanks to him, I'm unharmed."
Noticing that Ealand truly had no injuries anywhere, the guard speaking with him—the same man Rei had talked to when the carriage wheel was stuck—checked him over and let out a breath of relief.
"Thank goodness. It seems you really are unhurt."
At those words, the other guards finally relaxed as well.
"So, what do we do with these guys? Hand them over to the city guards? I'd appreciate it if you could, actually."
"Hm? Why is that?"
The guard who had been speaking with Ealand turned a curious gaze toward Rei. The rumors the men had heard about Rei included the fact that he showed no mercy to his enemies. Why would a man with such a reputation choose to spare the assassins and hand them over to the city guards?
Or maybe rumors are just rumors, and he's actually the type who values life? ...Though he doesn't exactly look like a humanitarian.
Unaware of what was being thought about him, Rei rested the butt of the Death Scythe against the ground and spoke.
"Truth is, ever since I came to the City of Gracial, someone's been targeting me too. I figured if these men are from the Underground World, they might have some useful information. I already asked an acquaintance to hand over the ones who chased Ealand to the city guards."
"An acquaintance?"
When the guard asked, it wasn't Rei who answered, but Ealand.
"Instructor Grink."
"...Come to think of it, I wondered this earlier too, but calling Grink 'Instructor'—does that mean you're a student at the Officer Academy?"
"Hm. Various circumstances put me on leave for a while, but I'm scheduled to return tomorrow. ...Wait. The fact that you're asking about Instructor Grink—does that mean?"
Reading something into Rei's words, Ealand asked as if to confirm. Rei understood exactly what he was getting at. He nodded and spoke.
"Until spring, I'm working as a mock battle instructor. Only for the Third-year and Fourth-year S-Class, though."
"...I see. In this case, should I be glad I was saved, or disappointed? I'm in the Second-year S-Class, you see."
"I see. That is unfortunate."
Rei and Ealand exchanged only a few brief words before the guard interjected.
"Young master. In any case, if we're handing these men over to the city guards, we should call for them sooner rather than later. Right now they're all either dead or unconscious. The dead won't be a problem, but there's no telling when the unconscious ones might wake up."
"You're right. Then let's get the city guards here quickly—"
Ealand had gotten that far when it happened.
A chill ran down Rei's spine, and he spun around reflexively.
At the same time, a tremendous impact.
Before he knew it, Rei's body was hurtling through the air. Judging that he would slam into the alley wall at this rate, he somehow managed to rotate mid-flight. The strong jolt that shot through the soles of his feet told him that if he had crashed back-first into the wall as he'd been sent flying, even the Dragon Robe wouldn't have absorbed the full force.
Rei managed to land safely on the ground, but he had no idea what had just happened. He understood that someone had attacked him, but he never expected assassins of that caliber to land a hit—let alone send him flying this far.
Thanks to the Dragon Robe, he'd avoided a fatal injury, but it couldn't completely negate the impact. It could block direct strikes, but the shock from the blow still traveled through.
"Ugh... damn it, what was that?"
Even after taking a hit powerful enough to send him flying, he hadn't loosened his grip on the Death Scythe—an instinctive recognition that it was his lifeline. Judging that staying crouched was dangerous, he pushed through the dull ache in his ribs and stood up.
What met his eyes as he rose were three figures. One in his twenties, one in his thirties, and an old man who looked to be around sixty. All three were men, each clad in gleaming golden metal armor. The man in his twenties bore a tattoo-like mark on his right cheek, the man in his thirties on the back of his left hand, and the old man on the back of his right—each carrying a single such mark.
The man in his twenties lowered his gaze to the fist he had just swung and murmured approvingly.
"Oh? You can stand up immediately after taking my fist? You certainly live up to being someone we were ordered to dispatch."
A polite tone, not unlike Grink's. But while Rei was one thing, Ealand and the guards who heard those words couldn't move even slightly. They instinctively understood that the beings standing before them were opponents they could never, under any circumstances, match. It was the absolute relationship between predator and prey—and there were three of them with such power.
No matter how they struggled, it was meaningless. Like a single person trying to hold back a landslide—something so overwhelming it couldn't even be called a difference in power.
"May I ask who you are?"
Rei, Death Scythe in hand, fixed a sharp gaze on the man in his twenties who had spoken. He had a tattoo on his right cheek, but even accounting for that, his features were handsome. The man in his thirties had a physique like solid rock, while the old man was so slight he looked as if he might snap at a touch—a build not far removed from Rei's own.
"Yes, you may certainly ask. Whether I answer, however, is another matter entirely."
A calm expression, a gentle tone. Going by appearance alone, he might pass for nothing more than a pleasant young man. But no one present saw him that way.
"...I see. Then I'll just have to force it out of you. I also need to return the favor for that blow. Ealand, fall back with your guards. I'd tell you to get out of here entirely, but they don't seem inclined to allow that. Whatever you do, don't get caught in my attacks."
"Rei?"
Ignoring Ealand's voice, Rei concentrated his mind to activate the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor—and in that moment, an arrow fell suddenly from the sky, plunging into the ground between Rei and the tattooed men as if to separate them.