As he proceeded down the road, what drifted toward him was the stench of iron rust.
Rei knew all too well what that was.
He had been drenched in the source of that smell countless times before—so many times it seemed to have seeped into his very body. It was only natural.
Thanks to the spear-wielding man from earlier fleeing this way and Zarust chasing after him, Rei was able to move in a straight line without needing to avoid anyone.
The fact that it was daytime and there were few people around probably helped as well.
Rei kept running and soon arrived at a place where people had gathered.
"Who's there!?"
One of those gathered noticed Rei approaching and shouted instinctively.
He held a dagger in his hand, but his grip was trembling and his stance was poor—making it obvious he had never received proper training.
Still, seeing that the person before him was a robed figure with a hood pulled up, he tried to protect his superior from a suspicious intruder... and then finally noticed Set standing behind Rei.
Once he recognized Set, it was only natural that he would realize the robed man alongside the griffon was Rei.
"R-Rei-san!?"
"Yeah. ...Where's Augusto?"
"...Over here."
The man called out to the people gathered around, telling them to make way.
Rei stepped into the cleared space and saw Augusto lying there, bleeding from his abdomen.
It was clearly a single thrust from the spear earlier, and a pool of blood had formed on the ground.
(The blood on that spear tip... so it really was Augusto's.)
Thinking that, he turned his gaze to the person treating Augusto's wound.
There stood a monkey beastman he had seen before.
"How is he?"
"Ah, Rei-san..."
Muttering those words, the monkey beastman quietly shook his head.
"His internal organs..."
If the man who attacked Augusto had been wielding a longsword, perhaps things might have turned out differently.
But the weapon the man used was a spear, and he had thrust it into Augusto's abdomen.
If they were lucky, the spear might have slipped between the organs... but unfortunately, no such fortune could be expected this time.
"At this rate..."
The monkey beastman murmured sadly, and the people gathered around wore expressions of grief.
"Ha...haha...s-sorry about this, Rei-san. Showing you such a pathetic sight..."
"...The one who tried to kill you has been captured. You can question him later."
"Hehe, u-unfortunately, I won't have the time for that..."
"Shut up."
Rei cut off Augusto's words.
Several of those nearby shot him hostile glances for interrupting what could have been final parting words, but Rei paid them no mind and spoke.
"Do you have any potions?"
One of the men nearby shook his head.
"Gauche's alchemy level isn't high. Potions powerful enough to heal an injury this severe aren't sold here. The only ones who might have them would be..."
"The Elema Trading Company, huh."
The man nodded.
"And there's no way Daridora would hand over a potion to heal Augusto's wound. Or rather, perhaps..."
The man trailed off mid-sentence—he had probably been about to say that the man who attacked Augusto was an agent of the Elema Trading Company.
"Wait, calm down."
Rei stopped the man from uttering the definitive accusation, then turned his gaze back to Augusto... and deliberately pulled a single potion from his Misty Ring.
It was obvious at a glance that the potion was of such high quality it could never be purchased in Gauche—evident from the bottle containing it.
Despite being a bottle meant to hold a potion, it featured intricate decorations and carvings.
The potion, which could almost be mistaken for a work of art, was something Rei had received from Asimov.
Naturally, it was a potion of considerable value, but since it was a Magic Item that could be useful in combat, Rei had kept it in his collection and stored it in his Misty Ring for emergencies...
(Well, it's not like I get injured often anyway.)
Rei's combat ability was extraordinarily high, and his fighting style emphasized evasion rather than tanking enemy attacks.
Furthermore, when he did take hits, he could block with the Death Scythe, and he also had the Dragon Robe as armor.
Of course, the fact that Rei had taken damage on various occasions in the past made it clear he couldn't dodge every attack.
He had been saving that potion for such moments, but he judged that this was precisely the time to use it, and uncorked the bottle...
(Hmm? What should I do when internal organs are injured? Apply it directly to the organs? No, in this case...)
Rei hesitated for a moment over how to use it, but decided that a potion would be most effective when ingested, and brought the bottle to the mouth of Augusto, who was lying in a pool of blood.
Augusto must have realized what Rei was trying to do. He opened his mouth to tell him to stop, that it was pointless... but paying no attention to Augusto, Rei forced the bottle between his lips and poured the liquid down his throat.
Naturally, the potion flowed into Augusto's mouth, and struggling to breathe, Augusto swallowed the extraordinarily foul liquid—one so vile it seemed capable of destroying one's sense of taste.
"Cough, cough!"
Augusto was about to choke, but Rei forcefully clamped his hand over Augusto's mouth to prevent him from spitting the potion out.
(Did he choke because the potion went down the wrong pipe, or was it the taste after all?)
The fact that potions tasted foul—so foul that the taste impairment lingered for days—was as unchangeable a truth as Goblin meat tasting terrible.
...Though in the case of Goblin meat, Rei was at least trying to do something about it.
(I really need to have potions made using the Drop of the World Tree.)
If it were just for himself, he wouldn't need that many potions, but considering emergencies, he figured it would be better to have a powerful potion or two on hand.
Potions capable of healing moderate wounds could be obtained in Gilm, albeit at a somewhat higher price.
But a severe injury like having one's internal organs pierced couldn't be called a moderate wound, and a potion sold at a random shop wouldn't bring about a swift recovery.
"H-hey! Look! Look at Augusto's wound!"
One of the people watching the exchange between Rei and Augusto happened to glance at Augusto and cried out.
What lay before them was the sight of the spear wound in Augusto's abdomen healing automatically before their very eyes.
The healing itself was a good thing, but from an outside perspective, the speed of the regeneration was almost unsettling to watch.
The reason nobody felt unsettled was likely because they understood that the person healing was Augusto, and the reason for his recovery was a potion—and a plainly high-quality one at that.
"Grrrrrrrgh!"
As for Augusto himself, he was groaning as if enduring something.
The people around all watched Augusto in silence... and after a few minutes passed, the groaning that had been coming from Augusto's mouth suddenly ceased.
'...'
As everyone watched with bated breath... Augusto suddenly pushed himself upright from his prone position.
And not weakly—he sat up with a vigor that showed no sign of any injury.
'Eh?'
That was probably why. Those words slipped from everyone's mouths in unison.
Just a few minutes ago, this was a person who wasn't merely on the border between life and death... but was thought to be certainly dying. And now he had sat up this effortlessly.
"Umm... huh?"
And the most confused of all was arguably Augusto himself.
He sat up, looked around, and touched his own abdomen where he had been stabbed by the spear moments ago.
There was no longer anything that could be called a wound.
"I was... on the verge of death, I think..."
He must not have been able to believe what had happened to him. He turned his gaze back to the ground where he was sitting.
There lay the pool of blood that should have flowed from his body.
As long as that pool of blood existed, the fact that he had been near death was no dream.
"It's a potion."
Rei spoke to the bewildered Augusto.
In his hand was the bottle that had contained the potion.
Seeing it, Augusto must have recalled being force-fed the potion while on the verge of death, and reflexively pressed his hand to his tongue... no, to his mouth.
What his sense of taste must be like right now... he had probably recalled a flavor that made even the word "foul" feel like an understatement.
"Th-th-th-thank you..."
Even while understanding that his taste buds had been wrecked, Augusto managed to endure it and express his gratitude to Rei—perhaps because he knew that the potion used on him was of tremendous value.
If it had been Daridora, who controlled the Elema Trading Company, it might have been one thing, but for Augusto, whose business was far smaller than the Elema Trading Company, it would have been a sum he could never hope to afford.
In fact, the potion Rei had received from Asimov—technically as payment for Set's materials—held a value that would make purchasing it with gold or silver coins impossible.
"Don't worry about it. I'd be in trouble if my landlord died. Besides, I'd lose access to good food."
It seemed like the latter reason carried more weight, but Augusto bowed his head to Rei once more regardless.
The people around had been watching Augusto, when suddenly one of them muttered.
"Still, why would anyone do something like this... targeting Augusto directly..."
"Yeah. Who would hold a grudge against Augusto?"
"There's only one person."
Given that Augusto had made a name for himself as an honest merchant, the list of people who would hate him for his character was extremely short.
And the one at the top of that list was...
"Daridora."
Who was it that spoke those words?
Even Rei couldn't tell, but the moment Daridora's name came up, the gazes of everyone present turned harsh.
"That's right. There's no need to even think about who would do this to Augusto."
"Exactly. The one who hates Augusto the most right now is without a doubt Daridora."
"Damn it, just because the Elema Trading Company is big, they think they can do whatever they want."
"I won't forgive this... I absolutely won't forgive this!"
The people around Augusto each spoke words of frustration.
Daridora had carried out numerous acts of sabotage against them before.
But the recent sabotage couldn't even be called sabotage anymore—it was a direct attempt on Augusto's life.
He had lent a Sand Ship to Sand Bandits to target Augusto's caravan, and when that failed, he came to kill Augusto directly like this.
Because they admired Augusto, the people around him could not forgive Daridora.
At this rate, they would lose control and might even storm the Elema Trading Company.
Fearing exactly that, Augusto hastily spoke up.
"Wait, please! There's no proof that this incident was the work of the Elema Trading Company... or Daridora!"
"But, Augusto..."
One of the men nearby tried to argue back with dissatisfaction.
But Augusto spoke to calm him down.
"Please calm down. ...To begin with, it isn't even clear whether this was truly Daridora's doing. We don't have any evidence."
"...Would this guy not count as evidence?"
With those words, a man's body was thrown to the ground.
"Zarust-san, this guy is!"
One of the men nearby shouted at Zarust, who had just appeared.
It was only natural. The unconscious man was the very one who had attacked Augusto moments ago.
"Well, the one who caught him wasn't me, it was Rei."
Zarust said with a small shrug, glancing at Rei.
The surrounding gazes gathered on Rei, but Rei simply gave a small shrug in response.
"In any case, to hear why this man attacked me, we'd need to hand him over to the guards... but we can't do that."
It was Augusto who said that.
Considering that the Sand Bandits who had attacked them were all killed the very same day they were handed over to the guards, they couldn't afford to be careless.
However, that didn't mean he thought he could extract information from the unconscious man himself.
What should he do...? As Augusto was thinking that, he noticed a group of people approaching, shouting about something.
Could it be another attack like the one from the man before him, targeting him? He briefly thought so, but that was not the case.
"Hurry! Lord Daridora has been attacked! We need reinforcements immediately!"
"Damn it! Who would do such a thing!?"
"How should I know! Just hurry up!"
Talking like that, several men ran past Augusto and the others.
"...Daridora was attacked?"
A stunned voice escaped Augusto's lips.