Rei had stopped Ajas and Lebejev in their tracks, but a commotion suddenly caught his ear.
Both men were already captured, and Haston had lost everything below his right knee. Jestal and his gang had been seized as well. Despite all that, what kind of disturbance could there possibly be? When he turned his gaze toward the sound...
"What are you doing! Ganging up on a man who's lost a leg... He doesn't even have the strength left to resist!"
For some reason, Melan was standing in front of Haston, shielding him from the Intelligence Unit.
From Melan's perspective, he had probably come here to save the prostitute who had been abducted right before his eyes. But upon seeing the fight unfolding before him, he must have concluded that Haston needed protecting.
Acting immediately on such a conviction was both Melan's greatest strength and his greatest weakness.
He had moved to save Haston before even thinking about rescuing the prostitute.
(No, more importantly — why is Melan here in the first place? Don't tell me he followed Ilse? Even so, coming to this exact spot without a single clue is hard to imagine.)
While keeping Ajas and Lebejev pinned, Rei hesitated over what to do.
Thinking about it rationally, the best course of action would be to make Melan quiet down.
But doing so would require stepping away from his position.
Of course, given the people present, he could confidently say there was no risk of anything going wrong... but he couldn't help wrestling with the fundamental question: did Melan really need to be rescued here?
While Rei was still turning that over in his mind, the situation shifted.
"You idiot! Do you have any idea who you're protecting?! That man is a criminal!"
"Even so, he doesn't have the strength left to resist, does he? If we just make him surrender peacefully..."
"No! That's not—"
The Intelligence Unit members were trying to figure out how to get Melan away from Haston.
Dahl knew at least a little about Melan.
But among the Intelligence Unit, hardly anyone else did.
That was hardly strange. Melan was only tangentially involved in this affair — and even then, only barely.
It was only natural that no one would expect someone like him to show up at a scene like this.
As a result, they couldn't comprehend Melan's aberrant behavior... and there was no way Haston would miss that opening.
Blood was pouring from his right knee, but he could still barely manage to move.
(Tch. So we got caught.)
What he saw was the figures of his companions, held at scythe- and spear-point by Rei.
If their opponent had been an ordinary, run-of-the-mill adventurer, Ajas and Lebejev could have managed something. But against a top-tier adventurer and Alias Holder like Rei, that was simply not going to happen.
What's more, near Rei stood the members of the Crimson Lotus Wings, along with fighters whose prowess was evident at a glance even though Haston had never seen them before — and above all, the gryphon Set, one of Rei's symbols just as much as the Death Scythe.
Under those circumstances, there was no way he thought Ajas and Lebejev could escape.
And he himself had lost a leg below the right knee.
Because he had been trying to intimidate the Intelligence Unit members in that state, his blood loss was considerable.
In fact, even now, the moment he let his guard down even slightly, his consciousness began to fade.
That he was holding it off through sheer willpower alone spoke to Haston's formidable mental fortitude.
But even that was nearing its limit.
In the current situation, if he could create even the slightest opening for Ajas and the others to escape — and fueled by the desire to strike back at least one blow — Haston thrust his longsword into the back of Melan, who for some reason had turned away from him and was shielding him from the men who had attacked: the Intelligence Unit.
That Haston, missing a leg and fading in and out of consciousness, could manage such a movement was likely a power born from burning his very life itself — much like a candle flaring up intensely in the moment before it goes out.
Of course, what Haston was aiming for — whatever the reason, with his consciousness hazy and barely able to hear Melan's words, let alone comprehend them — was not to kill Melan, who was standing in front of him.
Haston held no grudge whatsoever against this person called Melan... but conversely, he didn't feel any debt of gratitude either.
What he needed was a blind — a screen to hide his movements from the men who had attacked him.
In that sense, Melan standing in front of Haston was the perfect shield.
The Intelligence Unit was not limited to the members in front of Melan.
They had deployed in a formation surrounding Haston, so naturally they had no intention of missing such a movement from him.
"Look out!"
Someone who caught Haston's movement shouted, but it was too late.
The thrust Haston delivered with his longsword pierced through Melan's back... and the blade's tip continued on, sinking into the body of the Intelligence Unit man who had been standing in front of Melan.
It was fortunate for the Intelligence Unit man that he had been wearing chainmail beneath his Leather Armor, which was made from monster hide.
Thanks to that, although the tip of the longsword did stab into his abdomen to some degree, it was by no means a fatal wound.
But... that was only the case for the Intelligence Unit man. The same could not be said for Melan.
Pierced through the back from behind — and in that moment, his heart run clean through by the longsword. That wound could only be described as fatal.
Haston hadn't specifically been aiming for Melan's heart, but it was a strike launched with literally every ounce of his being while missing a leg.
Given that, it was hardly surprising that the tip of the longsword had nowhere to land but somewhere within the broad target of his back.
"Gah... w-what... why..."
Those were the only words Melan could manage as his back — his heart — was pierced by the longsword, and he collapsed to the ground.
Yes, still impaled on the very blade that had run through his heart.
The impact of hitting the ground further destroyed what remained of his heart, but Melan was no longer able to perceive it.
He could only lament the sheer absurdity of why something like this was happening to him.
He hadn't done anything wrong. And yet, wasn't this outcome far too cruel? So he thought — but with his heart completely destroyed, he could no longer form words properly.
The last thing Melan saw was the surrounding men swarming the man behind him — Haston.
Without anyone so much as sparing him a glance, Melan was about to quietly breathe his last in the Slum District... and at the very end, in the moment before his eyes closed completely, he caught sight of Ilse, who happened to be present, looking at him with a gaze one might spare for a stone by the side of the road... and then his consciousness fell into darkness.
"Mm."
"Yes, you're right. Let's go."
Ilse glanced at Melan with disinterested eyes — at Melan, whose face in death bore an expression that could be described as sorrowful, disbelieving, or perhaps one of sheer anguish — then, prompted by Byune, moved forward.
It wasn't that she felt nothing about Melan, but standing before Ajas... standing before the enemy who had killed her kind parents and her brother took priority above all else.
"Gah! Damn it, let go! You reek!"
Pinned down by the Intelligence Unit members, Haston continued to thrash.
His stamina should have been at its absolute limit, yet he was still fighting with the last dregs of his strength.
...And so, potion was poured onto the severed wound at Haston's right knee.
Naturally, the reason they were treating him was not out of any belief that even a criminal's life was precious. It was simply because if he died here, unraveling the full truth of this incident would take considerably longer.
Leaving Haston and the Intelligence Unit members to their business, Ilse made her way toward Rei's position alongside Byune.
There were Intelligence Unit members present there as well, of course, but none of them tried to stop Ilse when they saw her coming.
They likely knew why Rei was cooperating in this operation.
"Hah, haha... To think I'd be cornered like this by a little girl."
"It seems you were trying to escape somehow, but that last desperate struggle of yours was your undoing. Not that I would have let you get away even if you'd kept running."
With a cold expression, Ilse addressed Ajas directly.
The gaze she had directed at Melan was like one might spare for a stone by the roadside.
But the one she turned on Ajas was cold — and yet simultaneously seething with the hatred burning within her.
Dismissal and hatred.
Which was the more unbearable gaze, no one could say for certain.
But at the very least, Ajas, who was on the receiving end of it, certainly didn't feel any pleasure in it.
"Now then. It seems you've been abducting quite a few women. I'd like you to tell me what your objective was. You're not about to tell me it's because you simply love women, are you?"
"Hah, good guess. I'm a ladies' man. That's why I needed so many of them."
At those words, Rei withdrew the Death Scythe he had been holding to Ajas's neck, exhaling a sigh.
Why? Ilse wondered, watching Rei's actions — but in the next instant, the Death Scythe in Rei's hand swung with nothing more than a flick of his wrist.
And yet, the Twilight Spear he held leveled at Lebejev hadn't moved so much as a hair, making it abundantly clear just how astonishing that feat was.
"Gah—!"
The Death Scythe, swung with just his wrist — that was something only possible because it was Rei.
Given that the Death Scythe normally weighed roughly a hundred kilograms, even being struck by a motion as slight as a flick of the wrist carried tremendous force. Ajas was sent flying several meters.
Bouncing off the ground multiple times and rolling over and over, by the time he finally came to a stop, he had taken considerable damage.
"That's a laughable joke. So funny it stops being funny."
"Hah, haha... Glad you found it amusing, at least."
Propping his upper body up on his arms alone, Ajas — even after taking that blow — still managed a smile as he spoke.
"So? I'll ask one more time. Why did you do something so conspicuous? It seems you were specifically targeting people who recently came to Gilm for the expansion work, not longtime residents. But even so, you didn't actually think it would go unnoticed, did you?"
Holding the Death Scythe, Rei asked the question without the slightest sign of exertion.
From Ajas's perspective — having experienced firsthand just how heavy that weapon truly was — it was an unbelievable sight.
Without knowing the Death Scythe's Special Ability, having taken a direct hit from it only made Rei's unfathomable nature leave an even more intense impression on him.
It was truly as if he were facing something beyond comprehension. That was how Ajas looked at Rei.
Of course, before coming to Gilm, he had gathered intelligence on Rei beforehand as one of the key figures to watch.
The organization that had ordered Ajas to carry out this operation possessed high intelligence-gathering capabilities by its very nature.
The war with the Bestia Empire, the Lemures incident, the turmoil he caused in the Labyrinth City Exil, the martial arts tournament and civil war in the Bestia Empire, and on and on.
A man who had been involved in all manner of incidents and seemed to have overcome them through sheer overwhelming force, without employing any particular strategy.
They had obtained such intelligence, but still — hearing about it and witnessing it with his own eyes were two vastly different things.
"Hm? What's wrong? Couldn't hear me? Then you won't be needing those ears. Ilse, cut them off."
"Yes, with pleasure."
At Rei's words, Ilse — who had been glaring fixedly at Ajas — smiled without the slightest hesitation, drew her dagger from its sheath, and stepped toward him.
Ilse would turn her blade on him without a moment's hesitation.
He knew that, and yet Ajas didn't move.
More precisely, it wasn't that he chose not to move — it was that the blow from the Death Scythe had left him unable to.
Even if he tried to stand, the damage from that strike moments ago prevented him from rising.
With Ajas's level of skill, he could have easily defended against whatever Ilse attempted in his current state.
...But that was only if Ilse were acting alone.
Present were Rei and the members of the Crimson Lotus Wings, Elena and Ara, and beyond them, a large number of Intelligence Unit members.
Under these circumstances, there was no way he could neutralize Ilse.
But that didn't mean Ajas intended to quietly surrender his ears, either...
"Now then, let's start by relieving you of those ears, shall we? ...Here!"
Under the moonlight, her green hair streaming behind her, Ilse swung the dagger down — and Ajas, by rolling across the ground, barely managed to evade the strike.