Before the roughly twenty bandits whose wrists were bound behind their backs, Rei flaunted the Death Scythe conspicuously.
Unable to move, with a giant scythe bearing a blade roughly one meter long right before their eyes—it went without saying how much terror gripped the bandits.
Incidentally, only the bandits' wrists were bound; their feet were left untied. Considering they would later need to be escorted all the way to Gilm, tying their feet as well would have rendered them completely immobile, so it was only natural.
Of course, to prevent the bandits from escaping individually, their hands—tied behind their backs—were linked together with a single long rope. This meant that if the bandits tried to flee, they would all have to coordinate and run in the same direction, matching each other's pace as they went. There was no way people who lived as bandits could pull off something like that, making escape all but impossible unless something extraordinary happened.
"Hii, hiih! W-What the hell! What the hell are you!"
"You don't know me? ...Sounds like you're low-class bandits."
"Well, they're bandits, so they're low-class to begin with, right?"
One of the escort men who caught Rei's murmur interjected, as if unable to help himself.
"Is that so? ...I suppose you're right."
Rei knew of the existence of a righteous thief named Egg, but he had no intention of bothering to bring that up here. That Egg, too, was now serving Daskar with his subordinates, functioning in a spy-like role.
(Doing bandit work near Gilm means you're either someone confident in your skills or a thoughtless fool who got cocky... looks like it was the latter. No, the fact that they don't even know about me suggests they weren't originally bandits from around here, either?)
Even if not from the immediate vicinity of Gilm, any bandits operating around Abuelo or Sablusta would naturally know of Rei. Even if they didn't know Rei himself, the adventurer who commanded a Gryphon was known as an untouchable existence. Rei was called the Bandit Eater—meaning one who stole from bandits, who themselves stole from others—and was that famous in the surrounding area.
No, his notoriety had spread not just through the surrounding area but quite far beyond. To put it another way, he stood at the apex of a food chain: commoners, bandits, and then Rei.
And yet, the bandits before him who knew nothing whatsoever about Rei were, in other words, woefully ignorant of information.
(Was this a mistake?)
What Rei wanted was information about an alchemist who was doing things like giving magic items to monsters. He had naturally captured these bandits on the premise that someone among them might be at least somewhat well-versed in information, but now he was starting to wonder if it had all been completely meaningless.
(But the Cyclops incident, the Cobolt incident, and even the adventurer who was subdued in front of Gilm's gate—all of them happened near Gilm. And overwhelmingly closer to Gilm than to Abuelo. Lord Daskar should have sent word to Abuelo as well...)
Troubled as he was, he decided that hearing what they had to say took priority, and he addressed the bandits.
"I'm going to ask you a few questions now. If you answer honestly, I won't do anything. If I hear an answer that properly works to my benefit, I might consider letting that person go."
At Rei's words, the bandits' eyes lit up with hope. But at the same time, the escort men wore expressions that said he was saying something outrageous.
The escort men let their displeasure show on their faces but didn't actually voice it—likely because they recognized that capturing these bandits had only been possible because Rei and Set were present, and that without them, the worst would have surely come to pass.
Rei, now receiving stares from everyone present—the bandits, the escorts, and the two women alike—swung the Death Scythe in his hand as if to sever those expectations.
A sharp slash that seemed to cleave through the very air itself. Seeing it, the bandits bit back screams in their throats as they imagined that very strike being swung at them.
"If you lie just because you want to escape... you understand what will happen, right?"
What Rei's words implied was painfully obvious after witnessing the Death Scythe's slash just now. If it were only their lives being taken, that would be one thing—but in the worst case, they could be subjected to torture with that great scythe.
After waiting for that fear to sink into every last bandit, Rei finally spoke.
"Now then, a question for you lot who've been operating around here. Have you seen anyone suspicious nearby recently? ...'Suspicious' is a bit vague, but specifically, I mean someone acting alone or in a small group of a few people."
That alone apparently wasn't enough for them to understand exactly what Rei was getting at, so he continued.
"Those people probably can't enter towns like Gilm or Abuelo, so they'd be camping outside the city, just like you. Setting up a base somewhere. And likely in a fairly spacious location."
Rei's words were met with silence all around. He glanced at the escorts as well, just in case, but the only response was apologetic shakes of their heads. As escorts who could stay in towns, they rarely needed to camp out in areas like this, so it couldn't be helped that they weren't privy to that kind of information.
"So? What about you lot? Does anyone have any information?"
At Rei's words, the bandits looked at each other's faces, but no one opened their mouth.
"Do you truly not know anything, or do you know but won't say? ...By the way, as things stand, you're all going to end up sold as slaves, so you'd better think carefully about that."
"I know something!"
The instant the word "slave" was spoken, one of the bandits raised his voice.
"...Is that true? If it's a lie just to escape your current situation... you understand, right?"
The imposing presence of the Death Scythe being brandished—amplified by its sheer size—left no doubt that if Rei were so inclined, he could sever their bodies in an instant. Better to be a slave than die from telling a lie, right? Faced with Rei making that attitude unmistakably clear, the man frantically opened his mouth.
"I-It's not definite! It's just information that it's probably those guys, but is that still okay!?"
"Probably, probably... With no certainty, I feel like you could say just about anything. ...Hey? What do you think over there? Is the guy who says he has information someone you can trust?"
Rei directed his question at the man tied up next to the one who claimed to have information, and the man hastily nodded.
"Th-This guy's known as the information-savvy one among us! So I don't think he's lying!"
If he provided useful information, he might be spared—driven by that thought, the shouting bandit was glanced at by Rei, who then turned his gaze back to the man who claimed to know something and spoke.
"I'll hear you out, at least. If he's trustworthy, I'll consider it as promised. ...Talk."
"Y-Yeah. Um, do you know the forest a little ways away from this copse?"
"...Yes."
That the word "forest" came from the bandit's mouth gave Rei a small measure of hope. The Cyclops incident, the Cobolt incident, and the man who had been rampaging in front of Gilm's main gate obtaining a dagger—all of them had taken place in the forest. In other words, there was a degree of credibility to what the man was saying.
"There's a river flowing through that forest, and a few days ago I saw a pair heading upstream along it. I don't know if they're the ones you're looking for, but..."
"...What's the possibility that those two were just ordinary adventurers?"
If they were adventurers, entering the forest to fulfill some request wouldn't be unusual. In fact, Mirene and her party had also entered the forest on a request to subjugate the Cyclops.
But to Rei's words, the man who said he'd seen the suspicious figures shook his head.
"They probably weren't adventurers. Well, one of them might have been an adventurer or something, but the other one didn't look like an adventurer at all."
"In what way did they not look like an adventurer?"
"They weren't wearing armor or anything like that."
"...If not wearing armor is the standard, then the same goes for me."
What Rei wore was the Dragon Robe, which boasted defensive power far beyond compare with ordinary metal armor. Even so, it was a fact that it wasn't "armor."
At Rei's words, the bandit hastily continued.
"I mean, the guy had several glass bottle-looking things hanging from his belt! Would a normal adventurer carry fragile stuff like glass bottles on their waist? They'd break just from bumping into a tree before any fighting even started!"
"Glass bottles, huh."
If they were ordinary glass bottles, they would shatter in no time if bumped against something, just as the bandit said. But if it was glass reinforced by magic, that was a different story. It wasn't uncommon for magically reinforced glass containers to be used for preserving materials like monster organs or eyeballs.
For an adventurer... no, for anyone who knew at least a little about such things, even a bandit ought to have heard about that—but the man who told Rei didn't know, despite being touted as the group's information expert.
(Well, this bandit group apparently came to the frontier overestimating their own abilities. So this is what passes for "information-savvy" with them. Still, this information is quite welcome. Carrying several magically reinforced glass bottles on your belt does seem very alchemist-like. A river... upstream, at that?)
Just as he was thinking that far, something caught Rei's attention—but when his gaze happened to fall on Set, who was keeping watch over the bandits nearby, the question resolved itself.
(Right, back when those Bestia Empire agents had infiltrated Gilm, they tried to escape with Teleportation Stones, but Set charged in and accidentally teleported to a cave. Could that be the place? If they had originally planned it as an escape route, it wouldn't be strange for them to have enough supplies and facilities to get by there.)
The cave he had visited once before due to Set's incident came to mind. Since they had traveled by flight, he didn't remember the exact route, but as long as he knew it was upstream along the river, Set—who could fly—would reach it in no time.
"That's quite good information."
"R-Really! Then you'll save me, right!?"
The bandit shouted, desperately trying to grab hold of the single thread dangling before him. At those words, the women who had been attacked by the bandits just moments ago faintly furrowed their brows.
But in stark contrast to the women, the escorts didn't particularly change their expressions. Knowing that Rei was feared and called the Bandit Eater, they believed that even if he had been given information, the option of simply releasing the bandit was out of the question.
"Let's see. Even if I let you go, I don't think you'd be able to accomplish much on your own, but considering you claim to be information-savvy, there's a possibility you could spread unnecessary damage... right? Sorry, but I can't let you go after all."
"W-Wait a minute! What's that about! You said you'd save me if I gave you information!"
"Save? I said I'd consider whether to let you go, but I don't recall saying I'd definitely release you. And after considering whether or not to let you go, I simply concluded that releasing you would spread pointless damage, so it's better not to."
Hearing Rei's words, the bandit—unable to accept it—shouted that he had to be joking.
"No way, help me! I'm begging you, come on! I gave you the information you needed, right!? Then let me go as you promised!"
"I told you, I never said I'd save you. I only said I'd consider it."
"You've gotta be... you've gotta be kidding me! What the hell! There's no way I can accept that!"
Toward the shouting bandit, Rei let out a sigh before speaking.
"Accept it, huh. Then did everyone you lot have attacked up until now accept it? If so, I might be willing to humor you a little."
"...Y-Yeah. Of course. We don't take lives needlessly! We have that much discretion!"
"And yet, when I arrived, it looked like you were about to beat them to death?"
"That was... that was just making it look like that!"
"Is that so. Then make sure you say the same thing during the guard's interrogation. ...Can I leave the rest to you?"
Paying no mind to the bandit still shouting about being unable to accept it, Rei called out to the escorts.
"Y-Yeah. But the money from when these guys become slaves..."
"Divide it among yourselves. From what I can see, the carriage is broken, and your equipment looks fairly damaged as well."
The escorts, who had been subjected to the bandits' attacks until Rei arrived, had sustained no small amount of damage to their armor and weapons. Judging that repairing them would cost a fair amount of money, Rei's words left the escorts momentarily stunned—but they soon bowed their heads.
"That would help."
"Don't worry about it. Also, it might be worth trying to extract the location of the bandit hideout from them. ...Set."
"Gurururu!"
At Rei's call, Set immediately came over. As Rei leapt onto its back, Set took a few running steps and, with a beat of its wings, soared up into the sky.