Vihera had already pulled ahead of Set, leading the group as they sprinted through the back alleys.
The narrow, winding paths made navigation treacherous. They nearly collided with several pedestrians, but Rei, Vihera, and Marina each moved with first-rate footwork, weaving past those in their way without breaking stride. Set, meanwhile, bounded through the alleys by kicking off walls to dodge oncomers.
By any reasonable standard, it was an absurd way to travel—yet in this particular case, it worked.
"Grru!"
Set, running just behind Vihera, let out a sharp growl. From his behavior, they could tell the enemy was still fighting Byune.
A few seconds passed—less than ten—before they burst into a relatively open area.
There, the woman they had seen earlier in front of the Spiel Firm branch stood facing Byune.
The woman—Keena—held a rapier. Byune held Hakumo.
The two had been sizing each other up, watching for an opening, but the arrival of Rei's group did not go unnoticed.
"Tch, you're fast!"
Recognizing Rei and the others, Keena reached toward her chest with her left hand—only to hesitate. That left arm had been pierced by Byune's Long Needle moments before.
The needle itself, a hindrance in combat, had already been cast to the ground.
Byune bore a thin slash across her cheek, but it was nothing that would hinder her in a fight.
Keena, however, had her left arm pierced clean through. That pain, just for a single instant, slowed her movements.
And that single instant was all Vihera needed. She had been running at the head of the group—not Byune—and closing the gap in that fleeting opening was effortless for her.
Before Keena's hand could withdraw whatever she was reaching for, Vihera's grip clamped down on her wrist, forcibly arresting the motion.
Keena specialized in assassination built on speed and Stealth. Against an opponent like Vihera, who fought head-on, the gap in raw ability meant she never stood a chance.
"Behave yourself. We need to ask you quite a few questions. ...And I owe you for the cut on Byune's cheek."
"Heh... heheh... if you call that a wound, my left arm's in far worse shape."
"Oh, is that so? Still, for someone who just made an enemy of the Crimson Lotus Wings, the damage is surprisingly light, don't you... think!?"
Vihera wrenched Keena's restrained left arm upward.
Keena, though a woman, had honed her body thoroughly as an assassin. Carrying more muscle than an ordinary woman, she was heavier as well.
Yet Vihera hoisted her one-handed without effort—and slammed her back-first into the ground.
For a shoulder throw... that was awfully rough, Rei thought, watching the sequence unfold.
Despite facing an assassin, he felt no concern for Vihera whatsoever. That was simply because he understood her ability. Vihera would never be bested by someone of this caliber.
"Vihera, we want to question her. Leave her able to talk."
Marina called out to Vihera without a trace of worry on her face.
Having watched the combat drills conducted over winter, Marina knew full well how strong Vihera was. The fact that Keena hadn't managed to defeat Byune in the time it had taken them to arrive said everything. She was no match for Vihera.
"I know."
Vihera spoke curtly, gazing down at Keena.
That last strike had been appropriately restrained. That was why Keena, though gasping for air from the shock of the slam and reeling from the pain, was still alive—without a single broken bone, at that.
She was a hard-won lead, a potential thread connecting them to Precious. They couldn't afford to let her escape or die here.
"Rei, give me some rope."
At Vihera's request, Rei pulled a rope from his Misty Ring.
Vihera took it and proceeded to bind Keena's hands and feet while the assassin lay helpless, still paralyzed by pain and shock.
Keena remained conscious, but pinned to the ground as she was, resistance was impossible. Bound hand and foot, she was quickly rendered immobile.
Had an amateur tied those knots with no skill, Keena, as someone from the underworld, could have undone them with ease. But Vihera tied them in a way that prevented Rope Escape, leaving Keena completely and utterly helpless.
A more skilled practitioner might have managed to slip free, but at Keena's level, it was simply impossible.
While Keena lay restrained, Marina picked up the rapier that had fallen from the assassin's hand.
"Hmm... quite a fine piece. It's no Magic Item, but as a weapon, it's first-rate."
Marina murmured appreciatively.
It was true—that rapier had been Keena's trusted partner throughout her entire career as an assassin.
That was precisely why Keena couldn't bear someone else laying hands on it. Unable to even produce a proper voice, she still forced out a strained shout.
"Don't... touch... it."
"Oh? You can already talk after that impact? Maybe I held back a little too much."
Vihera looked down at Keena with mild surprise.
She didn't seem particularly angry—likely because Rei had already applied a potion to heal the wound on Byune's cheek. Since it had been little more than a scratch to begin with, even a cheap potion was more than sufficient.
Rei had initially been wary of poison, given that it was a weapon from someone in the underworld, but fortunately, that proved to be an unnecessary concern.
In any case, judging that provoking Keena further in her current state would be unwise, Marina placed the rapier on the ground—still at a careful distance from the bound woman, a sign she wasn't letting her guard down entirely.
"Well then. It seems you can talk, so let's hear what you have to say. First off—who hired you?"
"Schval."
"...What?"
"Oh, the name of the person who hired me, right? Schval."
Whether she had recovered from the shock or simply had a resilient constitution, Keena delivered the name without coughing or any visible distress.
Convenient for interrogation, certainly—but the name that came out of her mouth was one Rei didn't recognize at all. He had been fully expecting the name Precious.
"Schval? Who's that?"
"Who knows? Unfortunately, I don't look into my clients' backgrounds. As long as the conditions—including the reward—are agreeable, I take the job."
"Someone who says that, yet here you are, spilling their information so readily."
"Well, yeah. You're Rei, aren't you? There's no one else who travels with a Gryphon. I have no intention of mounting some pointless resistance against an Alias Holder adventurer."
"...Then you were genuinely hired by this Schval?"
"Yes. That's what I've been saying, isn't it?"
Keena delivered the reply with something close to a smile. In terms of nerve alone, she was a professional through and through.
But she had picked the wrong opponent.
"I see. Then this has nothing to do with us. In that case, we don't have time to waste here... let's wrap this up."
Rei muttered the words, glanced at Marina, and drew Death Scythe from his Misty Ring.
The massive blade pressed against Keena's neck.
All Rei had to do was put a little force into the hand holding Death Scythe, and Keena's head would part from her body in the next instant.
Understanding this, a single bead of sweat rolled down Keena's cheek.
The killing intent radiating from Rei was no joke. She understood—plainly and unmistakably—that he was genuinely trying to kill her.
"Goodbye."
At that murmur, Rei's grip tightened. Keena's eyes slammed shut.
Death Scythe's blade bit into Keena's neck, parting skin. A thin line of blood welled up—
"Wait."
Just as the blade was about to sever flesh beneath the skin, Marina's voice cut through the air.
"What is it?"
"This may not involve our business, but it's obvious this woman is connected to this incident. Rather than disposing of her ourselves, shouldn't we hand her over to the guards?"
"...Are you serious? Just because she says so doesn't mean she actually isn't involved."
"True. But it doesn't mean she isn't, either. The best course is to turn her over to the Guard Force handling the Spiel Firm case."
"You're insisting on this?"
"I am. Even from the standpoint of a former Guild Master, I think that's the right call."
At Marina's words, Keena's expression softened, just slightly.
She had believed she was going to die. The thought that she might actually survive was enough to make her cling to that hope.
...What she didn't notice, bound as she was and unable to see behind her, was Vihera watching the exchange between Rei and Marina with a faint smile.
"Fine. I'll defer to Marina's judgment here. Then rather than dragging her along, it'd be better to bring the guards here. Should I go call them?"
No one voiced any objection to Rei's question.
Keena, in particular, was all for the departure of the man who had just tried to kill her so casually. She kept her mouth shut, but inwardly, she wanted nothing more than for Rei to be gone.
"Yes, Rei would be fine. But just in case, could you leave Set here with us?"
"Sure. ...Set, I'm going to go fetch the guards. Can you stay here and look after Marina and the others? Though I doubt anyone would be fool enough to try anything."
Set's very presence made it obvious that the people here were Rei's associates. Anyone foolish enough not to know that and try something would regret it. And anyone who did know wouldn't dare.
"Grruru!"
Rei gave Set a light pat as the gryphon rumbled in acknowledgment, then turned and left.
The moment Rei's figure disappeared from view, Keena exhaled a breath of genuine relief.
She knew full well that as an assassin, she was not someone who could survive in normal society. But even so—she had never felt death so directly, so tangibly, before.
That was why the disappearance of Rei, who to her had become the very symbol of death, inevitably allowed relief to seep into her heart.
Marina and Vihera, watching Keena, quietly exchanged glances.
Byune leaned her weight against Set's body, as if recovering from the fatigue of the recent fight.
Silence settled over the surroundings.
It was a back alley—people did pass through from time to time—but anyone who had witnessed the battle had already fled the scene. The fighting was over, but tension still hung heavy in the air, and no one felt inclined to step into it.
After a while, Marina broke the silence.
"You took quite a reckless gamble."
"...Whatever do you mean? Until you all showed up, there was no problem at all."
"Did you not know that Rei and the rest of us are involved in this matter? Given the situation, if you struck at the Spiel Firm, it was only natural we'd show up."
"Besides, if you'd just left the area after finishing the job, that would've been the end of it. Why were you still loitering in front of the branch?"
Vihera added, echoing Marina's point.
There had been a considerable interval between Keena's attack on the Spiel Firm branch and Rei's group arriving. Yet Keena had still been lingering nearby. She'd been blending into the crowd, true, but even so—it was careless.
"I couldn't help it. I never expected you to arrive so quickly."
"Really? I don't think it was all that fast."
"It was. Judging from everything I've experienced, there should have been more time."
Keena shot back at Marina's words.
With Rei—the man who had pressed the weight of death upon her—gone, and Marina, who had seemingly shielded her, now striking up conversation, Keena found herself responding almost without thinking.
Marina, seeing things unfold exactly as she'd anticipated, continued the conversation with a smile.