Visente had spat words of resentment even as his torso was severed, but even with the power of the Holy Domain, he was apparently not monster enough to survive in such a state. He lay on the ground, already dead.
Roughly thirty seconds after Visente's life was extinguished, the bizarre space known as the Holy Domain that had spread throughout the surroundings—an entirely incomprehensible phenomenon to Rei—faded away as if its very existence had been a lie.
"So he really is dead, huh."
Visente had harbored hatred for Rei until the very end. In a world where mana existed, it wouldn't have been strange for someone to still be alive even after being bisected at the waist.
That was exactly why Rei had remained vigilant of Visente's condition, but now he was finally convinced. Breathing a sigh of relief, he dispelled the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor and the detection flames spread across the ground.
The surroundings immediately went dark.
Naturally so. The brightness just moments ago had been entirely thanks to the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor and the flames spread across the ground.
"Gurururu?"
Approaching Rei, who had let out a sigh of relief, Set rumbled its throat as if asking, "Are you okay?"
The slight awkwardness in its gait was likely an aftereffect of taking one of Visente's blows.
During the battle, it had been able to ignore the pain, but now that the fight was over and things had calmed down compared to mid-combat, the pain had become noticeable once more.
"More importantly, are you okay, Set?"
Rei had taken a few hits himself, but none were serious enough to impede his walking like Set's injuries.
Despite being clearly more badly hurt, Set was still worrying about him. Rei stroked its head as a gesture of gratitude.
"Thanks, Set. Not just for the injuries, but if you hadn't come as reinforcement, I think I would've had a rough time."
An old man who used illusions, and a Visente who excelled in close combat.
That was the combination he'd been up against—and they'd even been using a strange skill called the Holy Domain. If Rei had fought alone, there was no question he would have struggled.
It may have looked like Rei had easily defeated the illusion-wielding old man, but that was only because he had managed to fight in a way that prevented the old man from coordinating with Visente.
"Gururururu!"
I'm fine! Set rumbled, rubbing its face against Rei.
Smiling at Set, Rei produced a potion from his Misty Ring.
Since the injuries weren't surface wounds like cuts, the potion's effect wouldn't be dramatically obvious, but it was still a fact that using it would speed up healing compared to leaving it alone.
One of the moderately expensive potions among Rei's possessions produced an immediate, tangible effect as it was poured over Set.
There were more potent potions inside the Misty Ring, but as much as Rei adored Set, he wasn't about to use those.
For one thing, Set was an A-Rank monster, and its self-healing ability was incomparable to that of ordinary monsters. That was reason enough—when treating Set, even a potion of this caliber was sufficient.
"Guru, gururururu..."
It could probably feel the pain in its body fading. Set rumbled happily and nuzzled against Rei.
"Honestly, Set, you're such a spoiled thing. But it's true that I owe you this time, so I'll spoil you as much as you want."
"Guru!"
Set let out a happy cry as if to say, "Yes!"...
"It's fine to dote on it, but I'd appreciate it if you could wait until after the cleanup is done."
That voice rang out abruptly.
"!?"
No matter how much he had relaxed after the battle ended, not noticing someone until they spoke to him was unbelievable. Rei drew a sharp breath, and Set swiftly shifted into a combat-ready stance.
But realizing immediately whose voice it was, Rei stroked the growling Set to calm it down and spoke.
"Calm down, Set. This one's an ally. ...Even if he doesn't look like it."
"...Guru?"
Set turned its gaze toward Rei as if asking, "Really?"
Having just been fighting Visente moments ago, it was only natural to be highly wary of a stranger.
Especially in this battle, both it and Rei had sustained injuries, so their guard was high.
Additionally, there was another reason: as a high-rank monster, Set could instinctively sense that the person before it possessed tremendous power—far greater than Visente's, to the point of being incomparable.
Seeing Set's demeanor—likely to attack the person before it, Sardat, at any moment if Rei weren't stroking it—Rei tilted his head.
"That's unusual. I don't think I've ever seen Set this openly wary of someone."
"Well, that's only natural. I'd heard from various intelligence sources that you had a gryphon as a tamed monster, and heard the rumors too. But this is the first time I'm meeting it face-to-face, so it's only natural to be wary of a stranger, isn't it? Especially when it's to protect its master, you."
"...Hm? Ah, right. This is the first time Set's meeting you, Sardat."
At Rei's words, Sardat floated a smile and nodded.
"That's right. Well, in my case, I've been guarding you, so I've seen the sight of you and that gryphon... Set, was it? I've seen you together with Set many times, but this is the first time we're actually meeting face-to-face. Oh, and I saw it flying through the sky earlier, too."
"Sorry, I'd completely forgotten. Set, this is Sardat. He's the elf who's been acting as my bodyguard. And Sardat, this is Set. You probably already know, but this is my partner."
"Gurururu?"
Perhaps judging from Rei's words that the person before it was not an enemy, Set stared at Sardat with its round, innocent eyes.
The wary gaze initially directed at Sardat and the pure gaze now directed at him—both coming from the same creature was, even for Sardat, somewhat surprising.
To think that a single word from Rei could change its demeanor this much.
"So, what did you come here for in the end? For a bodyguard, you showed up after the fight was already over."
"Ah... yeah. Honestly, I feel bad about that. You probably know from your previous encounter, but there was one more Stigma member besides the ones you defeated. They held me up. I finally took them down and came here, but..."
He shrugged his shoulders slightly, his attitude making it clear he understood he had arrived too late.
However, Rei had no intention of blaming Sardat for that.
He knew better than anyone, having experienced it himself, just how troublesome Stigma could be.
Even so, the skill used in the earlier battle had been nagging at him. After glancing at Visente's corpse—bisected at the waist and clearly dead—Rei spoke up.
"By the way... really just by the way, but did the Stigma member who held you up not use that strange skill called the Holy Domain either?"
Hearing that, Sardat seemed to immediately understand that the Holy Domain had been activated here. He looked at Rei with surprise in his eyes.
"The fact that you know that term means you had the Holy Domain used on you too, huh? ...I must say, it's impressive you came out of that unscathed. It's not really my place to say, but that Holy Domain is an extremely troublesome thing."
"Since you know about it, you've dealt with it too?"
As Rei asked while stroking Set, Sardat slightly distorted his handsome face and nodded.
"Yeah. In my case, I've fought Stigma members several times over the years. A few of them used similar skills. Though, deploying the Holy Domain... no, including that, Stigma's effects vary greatly from person to person. It doesn't seem like every member has a uniform set of skills."
"Now that you mention it..."
At Sardat's words, Rei's gaze shifted not to Visente's bisected corpse, but to the old man's body lying some distance away.
If everyone possessed the ability to deploy the Holy Domain, then that old man should have been able to use it as well, shouldn't he?
Initially, Rei had thought the old man used illusions because two Holy Domains couldn't be overlapped, but perhaps those illusions themselves were the old man's Stigma ability.
"The other Stigma member over there, the one cut in half, was freely using extremely elaborate illusions—so precise that I couldn't even tell if they were real or not until I physically touched them. Could that also be a Stigma ability?"
"...I'm not sure. I don't know much about Stigma's inner workings either. The Holy Light Religion is an organization with deep darkness. Even though I've fought Stigma members before, it hasn't been that many times. ...So to answer your question, all I can say is 'probably.'"
During the fight, Rei had been able to realize they were illusions mostly through instinctive intuition, but until then, he had even suspected the old man was using Teleportation Magic.
Creating illusions that elaborate was a remarkable ability even from Rei's perspective, and if Set hadn't come to help, even knowing they were illusions, he would have been at their mercy and struggled in the fight against Visente.
Once again, Rei arrived at the realization that he was standing here having defeated Stigma in near-perfect condition because Set had come and taken Visente off his hands.
Though, to be precise, Visente had been so focused on fighting Set... or rather, had been forced to focus on Set due to its strength, that the opening was exploited and Rei's attack from behind ended his life.
(Even though I technically beat Noise, good compatibility probably played a part. I hadn't intended to let it get to my head, but thinking about how this battle actually went, it's hard not to think that way. ...Haa.)
As Rei reflected on battle compatibility once more, Sardat opened his mouth.
"...Well, whatever happened, I'm just glad we're both safe. Honestly, I can't claim I fulfilled my role as a bodyguard."
"Well, there was that Holy Domain thing. ...Honestly, it's been a while since I fought an opponent that hard to deal with. I don't want to chalk it all up to compatibility, but... I guess it really was a matter of compatibility."
At Rei's sigh, Sardat offered a wry smile and agreed.
"Of course there are opponents you have bad compatibility with. Though struggling against a bad matchup is one thing, it doesn't mean it's okay to lose. More importantly, cleaning up around here looks like it'll be quite a hassle."
Sardat's gaze turned toward the battlefield where Rei had just been fighting Stigma.
Due to the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor, the snow had melted into water, and the water had evaporated into steam.
Until just moments ago, it had been sweltering hot, but now that the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor had been dispelled, the cold of the winter night pressed in, and the chill felt all the more intense because of how warm it had been.
...Though, Rei was wearing his Dragon Robe, and Set was a gryphon.
In that sense, the one suffering most from the cold was Sardat.
"Anyway, we'll handle the cleanup here. For you guys... I'd like to say you can go back to your room, but I suppose that's not going to work."
"For starters, I was attacked by those Stigma bastards while I was sleeping, so my room is pretty thoroughly trashed."
"...Let's head to Erinde for now. It seems they want to hear about what happened too."
In the direction Sardat's gaze indicated, Rei spotted a small bird he recognized.
"If it was watching us through a familiar's eyes, I feel like there's no need to explain the situation."
"Not quite. Erinde probably wasn't watching the situation here from the very beginning, either. ...Right?"
In response to Sardat's question, the small bird let out a brief chirp.
With that gesture, it indicated that Sardat was correct.
"Besides, if your room was damaged, you'd need to ask Erinde to arrange a new one regardless, right? Come on, it's cold standing around here. Let's get going."
"Hold on a second. Let me recover what I can while we're at it."
Replying thus to Sardat, Rei retrieved the Light Ore armor, gauntlets, and greaves from Visente's corpse, and similarly the armor and staff from the old man's corpse, storing them in his Misty Ring before heading toward the building that housed the headmaster's office.
Seeing this, the small bird perched on Sardat's shoulder, indicating it would accompany them.
"Ah... please, let's try to keep things as peaceful as possible."
"Chichichichichi!"
Listening to that exchange drifting from behind, Rei finally felt the reality that the Stigma members who had attacked him had been dealt with.
(The third Stigma member apparently fought Sardat, and Sardat himself is here safe and sound, so they were probably killed or captured.)
Looking at the nearly unscathed Sardat, Rei prayed that the conversation in the headmaster's office wouldn't drag on, and that he'd be able to get to sleep as soon as possible.