The men Rei had attacked inside the cave were unsurprisingly unremarkable in strength, and now lay unconscious on the ground.
Of course, calling them weak was only from Rei's perspective as their attacker. Considering they had infiltrated and operated in what amounted to hostile territory — a frontier teeming with all manner of monsters — they were likely quite formidable by general standards.
At any rate, after a brief glance at the unconscious men, Rei surveyed the interior of the cave once more.
Lumber, stone materials, and metal ingots filled the space, clearly in considerable quantities.
(Come to think of it, when I infiltrated, they said something about the cave being full. Does that mean today wasn't the first time they pulled this?)
Rei had heard that the merchants attacked today were transporting a significant amount of materials.
Even so, this volume seemed excessive.
Naturally, he couldn't entirely dismiss the possibility that they really had been carrying this much.
"Well, either way... confiscating all of it is a given."
He muttered to himself and began storing the materials into his Misty Ring one after another.
Though he could store items simply by touching them, the sheer volume made it a time-consuming task.
In the end, it took roughly ten minutes to stow everything away.
"Mn!"
Just as he slipped the last stone material into his Misty Ring, that familiar voice reached him from the cave entrance.
Rei didn't need to think about who it belonged to.
"Byune, does you coming here mean the outside is taken care of?"
"Mn."
Seeing Byune nod, Rei nodded back. That was about what he'd expected.
To begin with, the Crimson Lotus Wings were essentially a combat-oriented party. Given that even Byune — ostensibly their thief — possessed combat ability far beyond what her age would suggest, no one could argue otherwise. Vihera was a battle maniac, and with Rei and Set in the mix, it was only natural that people saw them as combat specialists.
In reality, they had plenty of strengths beyond raw fighting power — Set's keen five senses, Marina's knowledge and Spirit Magic, to name a few.
...Still, their combat ability was undeniably their most outstanding trait, and that was inevitably how they would be perceived.
"Right, let's go then. ...Actually, before that, we should tie them up so they can't escape if they come to. ...Though the real problem is how we're going to transport them."
"Mn?"
Rei pulled rope from his Misty Ring and bound the hands and feet of the men on the ground.
He used a special binding technique that wouldn't be easily escaped through ordinary rope skills — but that was only by general standards. If these men were something akin to a special forces unit, even this binding might not hold. The possibility of them breaking free was real enough.
(Should I get an Alchemist to make some kind of restraint Magic Item? ...But Alchemists are so busy right now they could use every spare hand available.)
The biggest reason for that, needless to say, was the lumber being logged from the Treant Forest.
Even before the Gigant Turtle was defeated, a fair amount had already been harvested. After its defeat, they were logging massive quantities every single day.
Considering that one of Rei's primary jobs was transporting wood from the Treant Forest, it wasn't hard to grasp just how much he was carrying.
...Though, given that he had the Misty Ring, it was faster to have Rei transport logged wood than to do it conventionally, so even if the volume wasn't that large, there was a high chance he would have been asked regardless.
At any rate, the wood itself wasn't particularly special in its raw state.
However, through Alchemical processing, it could be imbued with a degree of magical defensive capability.
And since Alchemical processing was required, there was no limit to how many Alchemists could be put to use.
As a result, Gilm's Alchemists found themselves swamped with work.
Of course, there was also the option of summoning Alchemists from other towns or villages, but the Treant Forest lumber was a critical component of Gilm's expansion. Because of that, Gilm's leadership wanted to avoid letting outsiders know the details.
In fact, among Gilm's own Alchemists, those whose behavior was suspicious — those believed to have deep ties to other towns, villages, or cities — were kept entirely out of the loop.
This only added to the burden on the Alchemists who were entrusted with the work.
"Mn!"
After binding every last unconscious man in the cave, Rei let himself be ushered outside by Byune.
Looking around the cave's surroundings, every man from the hideout lay unconscious on the ground.
To neutralize this many people without a single casualty spoke volumes about Rei and his party's strength.
"Ah, Rei. How was it inside the cave?"
Seeing Rei emerge, Vihera greeted him with a smile.
A short distance away, the man who had been called the Captain lay collapsed. Judging by Vihera's good mood, Rei felt relieved that her fight with him had been satisfying.
(Besides, he's alive.)
Vihera's Magic Impact Palm now had the ability to detonate a target's body from the inside.
While that made it an extremely reliable skill for killing, it was by no means suited for taking prisoners.
That was why Rei had harbored a faint worry that the Captain might be dead. Fortunately, no part of the man's body showed signs of internal explosion — he appeared to be simply unconscious.
Reading his thoughts from his expression, Vihera's smile turned slightly displeased as she spoke.
"What, did you think I might have killed him?"
"Ah... no, nothing like that. I was just glad you got a satisfying fight out of it."
"Right. I didn't use Magic Impact Palm like Rei was worried about, nor did I use my Hand Gauntlet claws or Greave Blades. It was a purely bare-handed fight."
That explained why the Captain was unharmed. Since Vihera seemed satisfied, Rei decided there was no need to press further and risk souring her mood. He changed the subject.
"So, what do we do now? Don't you think it'll take a while to bring these guys back to Gilm?"
"...Right. Once they realize they've been captured, they'll naturally try to escape."
Marina, who had been checking the area for survivors — though no one had actually been killed — cut into their conversation.
"Gururururu!"
Set was right beside her.
"Huh? You called Set back?"
"Yes. It doesn't look like anyone managed to escape, so there was no need to keep him on aerial standby."
"...I don't think we can be certain these are all the enemies, though."
Rei pointed out that someone might be hiding somewhere, waiting for an opening. In response, Marina flashed a confident smile — the kind that could make anyone, man or woman, involuntarily melt — and spoke.
"If there were someone who could escape my Spirit Magic, then sure, there might still be enemies lying in wait."
"Ah... right. I see. Got it. ...Spirit Magic is as ridiculous as ever."
"Is it? Though very few humans have the aptitude for it, and getting Spirits to move exactly as you want is quite difficult."
"Not very convincing coming from someone who uses it so masterfully right in front of us..."
Marina's skill with Spirit Magic was, as far as Rei knew, among the very best.
He had once encountered an Elven Spirit user in the Bestia Empire who shaped Water Spirits into a dragon for combat, but when it came to freely controlling Spirits, Marina was clearly superior.
(Besides, if Marina wanted to, she could probably create something even larger than that Water Dragon using Spirits.)
Rei thought about this deeply, and Marina tilted her head slightly at his demeanor.
"What's wrong? Did something happen?"
"...No, nothing. Anyway, everyone who was here is definitely down. We're good, right?"
"Yes."
"Right."
"Mn!"
"Gruu!"
The three people and one creature each responded.
Hearing that, Rei reached into his Misty Ring for more rope.
"In the end, tying them with rope is the safest bet until we get them to Gilm. ...Let's bind them while they're still out. Everyone scatter and tie them all up at once. Set, I'm counting on you to check if anyone's coming to."
"Gruu!"
Set purred happily at Rei's words.
Until now, he had only been circling above the grove. He understood it was an important job — keeping watch to make sure no enemies escaped.
But even so, flying through the sky doing nothing was dull for Set.
What's more, even when he spotted several monsters in the grove below, as a lookout, he couldn't exactly break formation to go deal with them.
Because of that, checking whether the people lying before him had regained consciousness felt like a genuinely rewarding task for Set.
Especially given his superior sensory organs — hearing, smell, and sight — seeing through those feigning unconsciousness or on the verge of waking was right in his wheelhouse.
"Alright, let's move."
With those words, the members of the Crimson Lotus Wings each took rope from Rei's Misty Ring and fanned out.
Rei headed toward a man lying unconscious a short distance away.
He bound the man just as he had the ones inside the cave...
"By the way, Rei. You've already recovered the materials from inside, right?"
Marina, who was binding the hands of an unconscious man a short distance away, called over to him.
"Yeah, that's taken care of. Everything's in my Misty Ring, so the minimum requirements of the quest are fully met. ...All that's left is delivering these guys, and we'll complete the quest with the highest rating."
"...Well, I suppose so. Whether that actually gets the highest rating, though, isn't certain yet."
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"When it comes to quests, there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes that adventurers never hear about. Let's just say that whether this gets the highest rating or not, it'll definitely receive a very high evaluation."
As a former Guild Master, Marina undoubtedly knew many things Rei didn't.
But the fact that she deliberately chose not to elaborate meant it wasn't something he needed to know.
Accepting that, Rei didn't press further and continued binding the man's hands.
Unlike the men he'd tied up inside the cave, he left their feet unbound — they needed to walk back to Gilm, after all.
Tying their feet for the journey would make their pace excruciatingly slow, and since they wanted to return to Gilm as quickly as possible, that was absolutely something to avoid.
"Still... it really makes you wonder, who exactly are these men? They don't seem like ordinary bandits at all. Well, the fact that they kept talking about missions makes it certain they're not, but..."
"Right. But those details should come to light once we bring them back to Gilm. ...Daskar is fundamentally fair and open, but that doesn't mean he won't resort to torture when necessary."
Daskar was a former Knight with a bold and magnanimous personality, but as the lord of a domain, he wouldn't hesitate when it came to interrogation or torture.
He wouldn't hold back from gathering information to protect his territory.
These men, in particular, had acted with the explicit purpose of obstructing Gilm's expansion.
As Gilm's lord, he couldn't afford to be choosy about his methods.
Daskar's position was not his alone.
The people living in the city of Gilm, those serving Margrave Larcus's House... and as a central figure of the Neutral Faction, one of the Three Great Factions, the livelihoods of countless people depended on him.
If there was something he could do for their sake, he had no reason to hesitate.
"These guys should've known better than to mess with Gilm."
Watching the men begin to stir back toward consciousness, Rei muttered with a trace of pity.