Having extracted what information he could from the man, Rei walked along the main street of Mejougo, lamenting how little he had learned.
(Well, he was a thug who'd washed out of adventuring... or wait, is he still an adventurer? Either way, he was that kind of person. I didn't expect him to have any crucial information, but... even so, he had far less than I anticipated.)
If possible, he would have liked to obtain something more significant.
Rei thought this, but if someone knew something and simply refused to talk, he could exhaust every method available to wring it out of them. If they didn't have the information to begin with, however, there was nothing to be done.
Regretting this, he walked down the street, idly hoping someone else might come pick a fight with him.
However, the people who came here originally came to bed prostitutes.
There were probably those who came seeking alcohol as well, but they were undeniably a small minority.
With their goal being supreme pleasure awaiting them, there weren't many who would go out of their way to harass Rei.
Unless they had a reason like the man from earlier—whose favorite prostitute had vanished—there likely wouldn't be anyone like that at all.
"Hey there, mister. Want to have some fun?"
"No, unfortunately I still want to look around the town of Mejougo, so I'll pass."
Wearing the mask of Ren rather than Rei, he gave this reply to the brown-haired prostitute with a shoulder-length cut.
(For now, should I observe that station-like place where the organization... Jaya gathers? It's supposedly their base, so there might be some information to be found.)
Having decided on his next course of action, Rei continued down the road, being called out to by several prostitutes along the way.
He also passed a few men who had their arms around prostitutes' waists, wearing gleeful expressions. Such people naturally paid no attention to Rei.
They wore silly grins, lost in fantasies of the pleasures to come.
(Still... if it's only a few, there must be some who are content working as prostitutes. But just like Ajas did in Gilm, there have to be ones who were brought here by force, right? Despite that, none of the prostitutes are showing expressions of reluctance... What's going on?)
It was a question he had pondered when he first arrived in Mejougo, but seeing more prostitutes only strengthened the doubt.
Why did none of them harbor negative emotions—sadness, anger, or despair?
Something was definitely at work, but he couldn't figure out what.
(The base... no, the guard station. Could the guard station hold the secret to whatever this is? ...Probably not.)
Rei briefly entertained the thought, but immediately dismissed it himself.
For one thing, even if the organization called Jaya had secrets—and Rei was certain they did—would they really hide such secrets in a guard station where anyone could easily enter? The answer could only be no.
Even Rei himself, if he had secrets, couldn't imagine wanting to hide them in such a place.
(Which means they must be somewhere else after all... or wait, even if there is a secret, it doesn't necessarily have to be in Mejougo? It'd be safer to hide it deep in some mountain where no one ever comes, after all. ...Well, that's assuming they don't need to access it frequently.)
Thinking such thoughts as he walked, he headed toward the guard station he had learned about from the man earlier... and eventually found it.
It was somewhat different from the image that came to Rei's mind when he heard "guard station."
What Rei pictured was, naturally, the guard station in Gilm, which he had visited countless times.
An unremarkable, austere building with no particular distinguishing features.
But the guard station in Mejougo was vastly different from what Rei knew.
Of course, Rei could understand that there were various differences—the guards versus a shadow organization, the frontier city of Gilm versus the entertainment district of Mejougo.
However, what currently lay before Rei's eyes was a far flashier guard station than he had imagined.
The use of Magic Item lighting was understandable as a characteristic of Mejougo.
Whether it needed to be decorated to such an extravagant degree, though... he wondered, but then immediately understood.
Mejougo was, after all, an entertainment district that drew large numbers of customers daily.
Moreover, with the brothels all competing to out-decorate each other, if the guard station were plain, it would be completely swallowed up among the other establishments.
If that happened, someone searching for the guard station might well have no idea where to go.
Given that, Rei surmised that the guard station naturally needed to stand out as such.
In reality, it was equally possible that the organization's members stationed there simply wanted their own location to be conspicuous.
At any rate, having found his target building, Rei hid in a back alley where he could observe the guard station and watched.
As expected of an entertainment district, various troubles probably arose.
Less than ten minutes after Rei began observing, a man came running into the guard station.
Then several minutes passed...
"Huh."
A murmur of surprise slipped from Rei's lips.
That was because the man who had rushed into the guard station earlier emerged alongside a rather serious-looking person... at the very least, not someone who gave off the air of a low-level thug from a shadow organization.
Given that they served a role similar to guards, perhaps it was only natural, but the man had a respectable demeanor.
Someone could have told Rei he was an ordinary guard rather than a member of a shadow organization, and he might well have believed it.
(Well, if they serve the same role as guards, they couldn't exactly dress like thugs, could they?)
In Rei's line of sight, two men then entered the guard station while carrying a man who had presumably passed out drunk.
(People are coming and going quite frequently. ...I'd have liked to go inside and investigate at least once, but... that might be a bit difficult. No, I could just act like I'm in trouble and go into that guard station myself. ...But I want to avoid doing anything that would make them remember my face, at least for now.)
While Rei was deliberating, he suddenly noticed a woman heading toward the guard station.
If she had been an ordinary woman, he wouldn't have paid any particular attention.
Even if she were a prostitute, he could have rationalized it as a customer causing some trouble and her seeking help from the guard station.
But the woman who approached was by no means a prostitute.
Her clothing used copious amounts of gold and silver thread, with jewels sewn in—clearly a lavish garment at a glance. However, the biggest issue was the woman wearing it.
She stood perhaps just shy of two meters tall, and her body was so heavy that she likely weighed well over a hundred kilograms.
(People often use the phrase "hourglass" to describe a figure, but this one's more like... big, big, big.)
Her face could by no means be called beautiful either—it was the sort of face that brought an Orc to mind.
Given such a woman, Rei couldn't possibly see her as a prostitute.
Of course, he considered that with all the varied tastes in the world, it wouldn't be strange for such a prostitute to exist.
But seeing the men standing watch in front of the guard station and those who had emerged from it all bowing their heads in unison toward the woman, asking him to believe she was a prostitute would be unreasonable.
What's more, the expression on the bowing men's faces was awe.
If the woman were making the men bow through someone else's influence, they wouldn't be wearing such expressions.
It was clearly apparent that the men felt awe and fear toward the woman herself, not someone behind her.
Given the kind of person she was, Rei could easily guess what position she held.
(A member of Jaya's upper echelons, huh. Reblurina was said to be a vassal state, a small nation, but look at this...)
Even from Rei's perspective, she appeared to possess considerable skill.
Her exact strength was unclear, but she seemed to be at least D-Rank... no, perhaps even on par with a C-Rank Adventurer.
From the information on Reblurina he had gathered beforehand, the existence of someone with this level of strength had been almost entirely unconfirmed...
(I guess they're where you'd expect them to be. Besides, it's a fact that Jaya is raking in enormous profits. It wouldn't be strange for someone to target that wealth, or try to get a piece of the pie.)
Rei was observing the Orc-faced woman, but perhaps sensing his gaze, she suddenly stopped.
Then she touched the mace at her hip—a vicious weapon with spikes at its tip.
However, probably because Rei immediately averted his gaze, she looked around as if to say that the sensation just now had been some kind of mistake.
"Sis, what's wrong?"
"...No, it's nothing. More importantly, no major problems have occurred, right?"
"Yessir. There were a few fights and some drunks brought in, but that's all. ...However..."
The man hesitated slightly, wondering whether he should say this.
But the woman glanced at his demeanor and spoke with a hint of irritation.
"Out with it. Even if you can't understand it, it might be relevant to me."
"Y-yes, well... actually, the coachman who brought tonight's customers from Rossi mentioned something. He said there was someone acting like they were investigating us. ...Though rather than investigating, the man looked completely ignorant of the ways of the world, so they apparently left him alone."
"...Hm, I see. Based on what you've told me, it doesn't sound like a problem, but..."
Hearing that conversation, Rei furrowed his brow slightly, realizing that he was likely the topic of discussion.
He had intended to play the role of the naive Ren, behaving as though he knew nothing, but it seemed he had still caught the coachman's eye.
(Come to think of it, the ones transporting customers are carriages, and the ones driving them are coachmen. Assigning coachmen with keen observation or sharp instincts to watch for suspicious people is only natural, isn't it?)
Perhaps he should have kept a lower profile.
While Rei was thinking this, the conversation continued.
"If Sis orders it, I can bring him in right away. What do you say?"
"Hmm. I'd like to see this person at least once, but... it'll be getting busy soon, so if he's only slightly suspicious, it might be better to let him swim for now."
"Huh? Busy? I haven't heard anything particular going on."
"Oh, that's nothing you need to know. Don't go worrying about unnecessary things. Just make sure no problems arise in Mejougo for now."
Told this, the man briefly wore an expression suggesting he wanted to ask more, but realizing that pressing further would get no answers and that learning information he shouldn't know would put himself in danger, he nodded obediently at the woman's words.
"Understood. Fortunately... though I question that way of putting it, we have plenty of prostitutes. I don't think there'll be a commotion like before about not having enough of them."
"Ah, that idiot's business. ...Honestly, why are men always so... no, never mind that. As long as no other major problems arise, I'll be going. That alright?"
Perhaps remembering the man she had encountered during the previous incident, the woman asked with a displeased look, and the man could only nod.
"Yes. Thank you for coming all the way here. Go treat yourself to something delicious."
Saying this, the man handed the woman several Silver Coins.
Normally there would be no need to hand over money here, but the woman before him was known as a skilled fighter within Jaya.
And yet, as was plain to see, her appearance was far from favorable, and she harbored a deep complex about her own looks.
Because of this, the woman had a rather neurotic and twisted personality.
Knowing this, the man tried to placate her by giving her money.
Fortunately, the woman smiled happily and accepted the Silver Coins, just as the man had intended, and departed.
The man bowed to her as she left... and once her figure disappeared from sight, he raised his head, relieved to have safely weathered the encounter.