The report reached the Guard Station just as the guards were searching for Rei.
One of the guards—a man with enough skill to subdue most adventurers—came racing into the station, completely out of breath.
"Hah, hah, hah, hah... g-get the men... gather everyone!"
"What happened!?"
As expected of men working as guards in Gilm, they immediately pressed for answers the moment their comrade burst through the door.
Had the person rushing in not been wearing a guard's uniform, they would have assumed it was an attack and drawn their weapons.
Given the nature of their work, guards frequently earned the resentment of those they subdued.
And with Asimov having just been attacked, the guards were naturally on high alert.
"It's Rei. He came charging through the Noble District with Set and a few others."
The moment Rei's name was uttered, every guard who heard the report stiffened.
They had received the details from Marina and retrieved Asimov... he had been made to change clothes at the clinic, but even so, the state of his garments had made the severity of his wounds painfully clear.
A friend—whether Rei himself would use that word was uncertain—had sustained wounds of that magnitude and been left unconscious.
The guards had been desperately searching for Rei's whereabouts, but they had been unable to find a man who was, in turn, hunting down the attacker who had done this to his friend.
If it had been Rei alone, they might have had a chance. But Set had vanished with him. Locating a gryphon anywhere in Gilm should have been easy—yet somehow, they still couldn't find them.
Of course, while Gilm was officially classified as a town, its population had swelled year after year until it was, for all practical purposes, a city.
...So much so that Daskar, the lord of Gilm, was holding his head in his hands over the prospect of having to expand the town in the near future.
Gilm had originally been built by the Kingdom of Mireana pouring vast amounts of national power into the project—conscripting soldiers and slaves by the thousands, and still sustaining heavy casualties during construction.
While the nation's backing had made the initial founding possible, any future expansion would have to be undertaken by the lord himself.
Naturally. The lord of this land was Daskar, and this was Daskar's domain.
The sheer labor and funding required to undertake such a project in this frontier region would be staggering.
If he reached out to other nobles for assistance, they would be more than happy to lend a hand.
And they would, just as naturally, demand various concessions and interests within Gilm in return.
The fact that this was the only frontier territory in the Kingdom of Mireana spoke volumes about its perceived value.
That was precisely why Margrave Larcus's House, which governed only the single town of Gilm, could stand as a central figure of the Neutral Faction—third in power behind the King's Faction and the Noble's Faction.
However, Daskar had no intention of granting other nobles any influence over Gilm.
That held true even for those within his own faction.
...Which was exactly why he found himself so troubled over what to do about Gilm's expansion.
Regardless, the sheer scale of Gilm meant that even when the guards fanned out to search for Rei, they couldn't find him easily... and while they were still struggling with that, the report brought in by the arriving guard was what they had just heard.
"You've got to be kidding—the Noble District!?"
One of the guards shouted almost involuntarily, but every other man in the room shared the same reaction.
Of all places, the Noble District...
As its name implied, the Noble District was a ward where many nobles resided.
There were those like the Azoth Firm's chairman and former Guild Master Marina who maintained mansions there without actually being nobles themselves, so calling it the Noble District may not have been strictly accurate.
But... thinking about it, there was a very real possibility that a noble had provoked Rei.
Just as new adventurers had flooded into Gilm come spring, there were also a handful of nobles who had recently arrived—few in number, but present.
Such people had naturally never seen Rei with their own eyes; they only knew of him through rumor.
It would not have been unreasonable to suspect that someone like that had provoked Rei.
"Any damage to the Noble District?"
One of the guards asked the man who had brought the report.
The others listened in while simultaneously preparing for immediate deployment.
Their opponent was Rei.
Even moderately heavy armor would be virtually meaningless against his offensive power.
Given that, choosing equipment that allowed for easy movement was the wisest course of action.
"No damage reported so far. According to the adventurer who relayed the report, Rei completely ignored the adventurers who tried to stop him and made straight for a single specific point."
"...That's Set, then."
One of the guards muttered as he geared up.
They had already learned from Marina that Set was tracking a scent.
While they didn't know the exact capabilities of Set's sense of smell, the fact that he was a Gryphon—a High-Rank Monster—made it more than reasonable to assume it was far superior to any human's.
"To contact Marina, we just needed to crush that water orb, right?"
The guard who had originally been briefed by Marina nodded in confirmation.
"Yeah. None of us want to deal with a furious Rei, so get Marina here right away. If anyone can handle him, it's her."
Those words were more wishful thinking than conviction, but given that the guards stood no chance against Rei in a head-on confrontation, it was a natural sentiment.
That was precisely why, in this situation, acting alongside Marina—who was likely to wield the strongest influence over Rei—was unquestionably the right call.
The water orb was crushed. Now they just had to wait for Marina to arrive while the guards made their final preparations to confront Rei.
"Carriage is ready!"
A guard who had been securing transportation to the Noble District burst into the station and shouted.
The distance from here to the Noble District was considerable.
They needed to arrive as quickly as possible, and running there would only waste stamina they might need, so a carriage had been prepared.
"Damn it, if only Captain Ranga were here. He's a master at handling Rei."
One of the guards muttered, but no one took issue with the remark.
That was because every single guard was thinking the exact same thing.
But Ranga was not in Gilm right now.
By Daskar's order, he had been dispatched to Abuelo on business.
Of all times, it had to be now... was the honest sentiment shared by nearly every guard.
Still, lamenting Ranga's absence didn't mean they could afford to sit idle.
That was why they were doing everything they could at this very moment.
"Going to the Noble District is one thing, but the men patrolling other areas should stay at their posts, right?"
"Yeah. Rei's situation is important, but we can't guarantee there won't be trouble elsewhere in town, either."
This was one of the bitter realities of being a guard.
With their duty to maintain public order in Gilm, they couldn't pull every guard off their patrol route.
...Though the fact that contacting and assembling every guard scattered across Gilm would take considerable time was also a major factor.
And so, just as the guards finished their preparations...
"Am I late?"
Marina appeared at the Guard Station.
"No, you're fine. We were just about to head out."
"Good—the carriage out front, right?"
"Yes."
After the brief exchange, the most skilled among the available guards boarded the carriage.
Naturally, not every guard deploying could fit inside.
Only the most capable rode in the carriage; the rest would run to the Noble District on foot.
Once several guards had climbed onto the driver's seat as well, the carriage rolled out.
"So, where was Rei in the end?"
Marina murmured inside the carriage.
Since the entire purpose of using the carriage was to bring as many guards as possible, it was packed to capacity... no, well past capacity.
In such conditions, a few men inevitably found themselves pressed flush against Marina. Those unfortunate souls, feeling her soft body and fragrance at close range, were completely frozen in place despite being fully aware of the gravity of the situation.
The guard who had been speaking with Marina glanced at his comrades in that state and, caught between envy and pity, opened his mouth to answer.
"The Noble District."
"...I see. The Noble District, huh."
Given that her own mansion was located there, Marina was naturally quite familiar with the area.
And as someone who had served as Guild Master until today, she also knew full well what kind of chaos newcomers arriving in Gilm each spring were liable to cause.
There was also the matter of the information she had received from the person she'd been speaking with right before the guard summoned her with the Spirit Magic water orb.
But... there were things that explanation alone couldn't account for.
"While I was searching for Rei, a strange person approached me."
"A strange person?"
The guard tilted his head at the sudden remark.
In the frontier town of Gilm, all manner of people gathered.
Among them were certainly no shortage of individuals who could be described as strange without raising any eyebrows.
After all, even Asimov—the victim in this very incident—was regarded by those around him as a strange person.
"Yes. I'm not sure how to describe him... he looked as though the words 'ordinary' and 'average' had taken human form. Average height, unremarkable features... that sort of person."
"That's certainly..."
The guard's words faltered slightly.
Being ordinary meant the person wouldn't look out of place virtually anywhere.
In a crowded street, they would be the perfect person to blend into a crowd.
Precisely because he was a guard, he understood exactly how dangerous such a person could be.
The other guards who had been listening in also tightened their expressions.
"Regardless, that person brought me a message. The current incident is an attempt to pit Rei against the Azoth Firm."
"...I see. So that's why the Noble District."
It was common knowledge that Galahat, the Chairman of the Azoth Firm, maintained his mansion in the Noble District.
The guards immediately understood why Rei had headed there.
"But, Marina—if someone is trying to pit them against each other, does that mean this incident isn't the Azoth Firm's doing?"
"At the very least, that's what the person who contacted me claimed. Of course, whether that's actually true, I can't say. I can't imagine Galahat would do something as reckless as antagonizing Rei, but I can't guarantee every member of the Azoth Firm feels the same way."
"True. Frankly, if we had to suspect the entire Azoth Firm, this would turn into a massive operation. I'd certainly hope that's not the case."
The guard muttered as he recalled the disturbance between Rei and the Azoth Firm several years prior.
That incident had ultimately ended with the capture of an Alchemist dispatched from the Bestia Empire, resulting in a modest advancement of the Kingdom of Mireana's own Alchemy.
But in direct proportion to those results, the guards had been run ragged.
Given their position, it was true that when a disturbance broke out, they were the ones expected to handle it. But that didn't mean they had any desire whatsoever to proactively seek out a life of chaos.
"Hehe, true enough. Gilm certainly was a lively place back then."
Marina smiled as she reminisced.
Naturally, the guards hadn't been the only ones swamped with work back then. The Guild had also endured an extremely hectic period.
As they continued to recall events from years past, the carriage entered the Noble District.
Being a guard carriage, no one raised any objections to its presence.
If anything, the adventurers in the area were too busy rushing to inform their noble employers about Rei's charge through the district to pay the carriage any mind.
"It'll still be a bit further to the Chairman's mansion... do you think everything will be all right?"
The guard's concern was clear: would Galahat's mansion even still be standing by the time they arrived?
"Rei has sharp instincts despite appearances, and he won't assume the Azoth Firm is working against him. I think we'll be fine. At the very least, he won't attack unconditionally—he'll investigate whether the Azoth Firm is truly involved first."
Marina's words proved correct. When they arrived at the mansion in question, the scene that greeted Marina and the guards was Rei standing calmly at the Main Gate alongside Galahat, explaining the situation to guards, nobles' private soldiers, and adventurers.