Though startled by Elena's sudden appearance, Rei and Set prioritized securing Adria.
If Adria had been running under normal conditions, a leg suddenly thrust into her path wouldn't have sent her sprawling. She had enough confidence in her reflexes to dodge something like that on instinct.
The reason she couldn't was simple—she'd been running with the aid of a Magic Item.
Not that she lacked mastery over it. Or rather, the fact that she hadn't fully mastered it amounted to much the same thing.
Either way, Adria—tripped so abruptly by Elena—tried to scramble away rather than let herself be caught quietly. But before she could even rise to her feet, Set's front paw pressed down squarely on her back, pinning her flat.
"Guruu!"
"Kuh, damn you... let go!"
Adria thrashed, desperate to stand, but with the center of her back pinned straight down from above, she couldn't budge. A human might have been manageable. But the one holding her down was Gryphon Set—no amount of struggling would make any difference.
"I stopped this one because she was fleeing from you, but... that was acceptable, was it not?"
Elena's white metal armor glowed warm in the sunset as she asked. Rei nodded.
"Y-yeah. That was a huge help, but... when did you get to Gilm? When we talked through the Paired Orbs a few days ago, you didn't say a word about this."
"Ara said that surprises are necessary between men and women, so I thought I would try it. ...Did I surprise you?"
Her tone was imperious, but the emotions playing across Elena's face told a different story—hope that Rei was pleased, relief that he wasn't angry, satisfaction that she had indeed caught him off guard. Above all, though, was the simple joy of seeing him again.
Rei smiled at her words and nodded.
"Yeah. You really surprised me. But the fact that you're here means..."
Elena had originally said she'd come to Gilm in the spring, so her presence shouldn't have been a shock. Rei knew that. Yet her abrupt appearance had genuinely startled him all the same. Ara's plan, it seemed, had hit its mark perfectly.
And now it dawned on him—the unusual commotion that had been rippling through town earlier was almost certainly Elena's doing.
"So, why were you chasing this one? If you were pursuing her, I can only assume you had good reason."
Elena brushed aside her golden hair—hair that looked as if sunlight itself had been woven into it—and Rei, finally snapping back to the situation at hand, spoke up.
"There's been a string of unusual incidents around Gilm lately. She's a suspect."
"Unusual incidents?"
At Elena's puzzled tilt, Rei gave her a brief rundown: the Cyclops, the Cobolts, the berserk adventurer at Gilm's gate.
"...I see. I'd rather not believe there are people capable of such things, but... what do you have to say for yourself?"
Elena turned to Adria, who until moments ago had been pinned under Set, still fighting to break free. Meanwhile, perched on Set's back at some point, the little black dragon Ielo had landed and was exchanging its usual "Kyuu, kyuu" and "Guruu" calls with the gryphon.
"Unfortunately, I don't know anything about that."
"Then why did Set pick up the stench of decay on you?"
"Decay? That's probably from passing through a site where monsters had been tearing each other apart during a subjugation."
"...Then why did you bolt? If you've got nothing to hide, there's no reason to run."
"A high-rank monster like this Gryphon suddenly appeared right in front of me. Isn't running the natural response?"
"If you're a resident of Gilm, you can't claim you don't know it exists."
"Unfortunately, I just arrived in Gilm. I had no idea about Set."
The instant the name left Adria's lips, Elena—who had been silently following the exchange—spoke.
"Wait. Why do you know Set's name? Neither Rei nor I have mentioned it. ...Rei, did you say Set's name before you started chasing her?"
Rei thought back to their conversation in the back alley and shook his head.
"No, I didn't."
"So he says. Now then—explain how you knew Set's name."
"...I just arrived in Gilm. Isn't it natural to learn the names of famous people? I panicked when it showed up in front of me and ran on reflex."
Adria's face flickered with a brief flash of alarm at her own slip, but she recovered quickly.
Nice going, idiot. She cursed herself inwardly. First the tripping, now this—that woman is troublesome in more ways than one. The Princess General... more than I bargained for.
The figure who had appeared before her was like an incarnation of beauty itself. But anyone from the Bestia Empire knew that her true nature went far beyond looks. The beautiful War Maiden known as the Princess General was, if anything, even more famous in the Bestia Empire than in the Kingdom of Mireana.
And she had appeared without warning—truly out of nowhere, with no preamble whatsoever.
Adria hadn't intended to let it shake her, but she had made a mistake she never would have made under normal circumstances. She had claimed to have fled from a Gryphon, yet she had known that Gryphon's name.
Elena held her gaze steady on Adria, who was still trying to talk her way out of it. Intimidated as she was by that stare, Adria refused to look away. To do so would be as good as admitting guilt.
"Hmm, I see. I'm sure you have your own explanations. But with someone this suspicious, we can't simply let you go."
"...What are you going to do with me?"
"Nothing complicated. We'll hand you over to the guards. If you truly have nothing to hide, then you should have no problem submitting to their questioning."
Under normal circumstances, those terms would have been acceptable—if she truly had nothing to hide. But Adria couldn't afford to be caught here.
What do I do? Fighting is out of the question at this point.
She had a fair amount of confidence in her skills, but even she didn't delude herself into thinking she could handle Rei, Elena, and Set—two people and one monster. She couldn't imagine beating any one of them, let alone all three.
Which means running is the only option...
But that was equally impossible as long as Set had her pinned. She had a Magic Item that generated smoke for several minutes on contact with air, but with the gryphon's paw on her back, even that wouldn't help.
So I have no choice but to play along for now. At least Zboz is absorbed in his research—he won't come outside to check on the commotion.
If Zboz had been here, he would have undoubtedly reacted to Rei's appearance. And once that happened, escape—whether she wanted it or not—would become impossible. Adria was confident she could slip away from anyone other than this group if she were on her own. But with Zboz in tow, he'd be dead weight. That was only natural. Zboz was an Alchemist, not a fighter like her. First-rate as his alchemy might be, whether those skills translated to actual combat was an entirely different question.
Still pinned beneath Set, Adria breathed an inward sigh of relief that Zboz wasn't present, then spoke.
"Fine. I'll stay put until the guards arrive. Go fetch them, and be quick about it."
"Don't worry. Gilm's guards have been quite diligent lately. With a commotion like this..."
Elena didn't even finish her sentence before the guards arrived—perfect timing.
The matter of a Bestia Empire Alchemist causing disturbances was known only to Ranga, the Captain of the Guard Force, and a handful of those around him. Even so, under Ranga's orders, the guards had been working with far more zeal than usual. Just as Elena had said, they responded to disturbances with unusual speed.
"What's all this about! ...Rei? Set? And..."
Four guards pushed their way through the crowd of onlookers, shouting as they came. Recognizing the familiar faces, one of them cast an inquiring glance at Rei.
"This woman is connected to a Nomination Request I received from Lord Daskar. To be precise, she's a companion of the target I was asked to capture—and she likely knows where the real one is hiding. If I say she's someone your Captain Ranga is looking for, does that paint the picture?"
The moment Ranga's name came up, the guards stiffened. They had seen with their own eyes how their normally mild-mannered captain had been wearing a stern expression over the past several days.
"Captain Ranga... Understood. Should we take her to him, then?"
"Yeah, that's probably best. Interrogation isn't really my thing. Better leave it to the professionals."
Rei—having said something that would have made the Bandits weep in protest—nodded readily at the guard's suggestion.
With Rei's approval, the guards approached Adria, still held beneath Set's paw.
"Set, you heard them. Can you hand her over?"
"Guruu."
Having listened to the exchange, Set had no intention of defying the request. It waited until the guards had secured Adria's limbs, then lifted its front paw from her back.
"My, my. Don't know how to handle a woman, do you? A real man would be a little more gentle."
Adria, regaining a sliver of composure now that Set's paw was off her, offered the remark with a smirk. The guards ignored her completely. The fact that Set had been needed to pin her down told them everything they needed to know about how dangerous she was.
Adria noticed they weren't letting their guard down one bit. Though she kept it from her face, it irritated her.
I'd heard Gilm's guards were well-trained and strictly disciplined. Being on the receiving end, I can see it's true. Still—even if I wanted to run, with Crimson, the Gryphon, and the Princess General all here, it's hopeless. I suppose I'll behave for now.
Outwardly nonchalant, inwardly she was already bracing for the first opportunity to escape.
"Rest assured, we won't make the mistake of underestimating anyone Rei and Set saw fit to capture. Stay quiet and we won't rough you up. Keep that in mind."
"Yeah, yeah. It's not like I want to be manhandled either. I'll behave. I'm not about to throw away a chance to prove my innocence."
Watching Adria flash a smile as she said it, Rei recalled how fast she'd been when she fled.
"That woman—whether she's using some kind of Magic Item or a Body Strengthening skill, I'm not sure. But she was unnaturally fast. Be careful. Once she gets away, catching her again won't be easy."
"...Understood. We'll take her straight to the guard station. Rei, thanks for the help."
Rei shook his head at the guard's gratitude.
"Don't mention it. I'm not exactly uninvolved. Also, there might be clues at the Magic Item shop further down this street. I'm going to head over there."
With that, Rei took Set and Elena and headed back toward the back alley.
The guards watched them go, then grabbed Adria by both arms and hauled her to her feet. They tried to remove her Magic Items per Rei's advice, but as rank-and-file guards, they had no way of telling which items were magical. For now, they simply gripped her arms firmly from both sides.
"Alright, let's move. We've got plenty of questions for you."
"Yeah, yeah, I heard you. Let's get this over with, shall we?"
Showing not the slightest trace of tension, Adria was led away through the bustling evening crowd on the main street, drawing stares from pedestrians and onlookers as the guards marched her off.