Shipping Day.
That, naturally enough, meant shipping Giants.
To Rezel... no, to the members of Jaya, Giants were a product. An extremely powerful product whose buyers were already decided.
Even as he suspected as much, Rei felt a wave of disgust.
Even from Rei's perspective, Giants possessed nothing resembling intellect. Like monsters, they were incapable of communicating with humans at all.
Thinking that, a single question suddenly surfaced in his mind.
(Hmm? Can't communicate? Then how are they transporting the Giants? ...Ah, right. That whistle from earlier.)
He recalled that Rezel had blown a whistle when summoning the Giants. In actuality, it was a special whistle inaudible to normal humans, but Rei's body had been created using the Zephyle Clan's technology. Hearing it was no problem at all, and the other members aside from Byune were all, to varying degrees, beings that could be called non-human. In Marina's case, being a Dark Elf, she was literally non-human.
"Shipping Day, huh? If you're shipping Giants, that naturally means you're shipping them within this country, right?"
"That would be the case. Originally, this town was built for that very purpose, after all."
"Despite that, it seems like you're making quite a lot of money."
Given that they were impregnating women turned into Prostitutes with Slave Collars with Giant children, there was no doubt they were raking in a hefty profit through brothels and bars.
"Even with the nation's backing, Jaya is ultimately an underground organization. As long as that's the case, they'll naturally make money wherever they can."
"Well, something like that, I suppose."
It probably served as a form of camouflage, too—or so he left unsaid, as Rei once again addressed Rezel.
"So, about this shipping of Giants—where exactly are you gathering them? Given their size, I don't think you can just leave them lying around anywhere."
"Thinking normally, wouldn't it be the castle in Rossi?" Vihera, whose battle excitement had settled, suggested, but Rezel shook his head.
"According to the Prime Minister, that was the original plan, but since there are easily over a thousand Giants, there was no room to fit them all in the castle. Moreover, some among the upper echelons were afraid of having Giants nearby."
"They're afraid of the Giants they created themselves? Well, I suppose it might be difficult to completely let your guard down around a creature called a Giant." Even so, a hint of contempt surfaced in Elena's gaze.
They had created the Giants for their own convenience, yet feared them—she likely thought that was beyond absurd.
However, Marina, who had been listening to Elena, opened her mouth and said that it couldn't be helped.
"Elena, it can't be helped. If they could understand our words, it would be one thing, but Giants can't comprehend language, right? Then there's no telling when a Giant might go on a rampage."
"But still..."
Elena still seemed unsatisfied, and she stroked Ielo on her right shoulder.
For Elena, who had brought Ielo into existence through Dragon Language Magic, the fact that Giants had been created only to be treated as a nuisance was something she simply could not accept.
Understanding Elena's feelings, Rei shook his head.
"Ielo and Set are different from Giants. I don't think you need to worry about it that much, Elena."
"Rei..."
Elena still looked as if she wanted to say more, but she must have understood that pressing further would be pointless. Though she still held some lingering dissatisfaction, she said nothing more about the treatment of Giants.
Confirming this, Rei turned his gaze back to Rezel.
"So, if not the castle, where are the Giants? With that size, you can't carelessly station them in the middle of town, can you? Besides, Giants are alive too. They'd need food and such."
"Just how much do those Giants eat in a day? At the very least, they'd need to eat an amount that's incomparable to what we consume. Well, not counting Rei and Byune, that is." Elena's voice reached him, but Rei paid it no mind as he watched for Rezel's reaction.
Under normal circumstances, this would undoubtedly be highly classified information that should never be leaked to anyone. But Rezel, whose spirit had been shattered, had no option to refuse answering Rei's question.
"You know there are several groves along the highway between Jaya and Rossi, right? One of those groves has an Underground Facility smaller than this one, and the Giants are...?! Wha..."
Rezel, who had been speaking so glibly until just seconds ago, suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
Wondering what had happened, Rei and the others looked toward Rezel—only to find blood streaming from every part of his face: eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.
The sight was reminiscent of the Giant from earlier that had taken a Magic Impact Palm to the head.
Rei and his party reacted swiftly. They immediately took up their respective weapons and went on alert, scanning their surroundings.
However, after keeping watch for over ten seconds, no attack came.
"Not an attack...?"
"No arrows, poison needles, Long Needles, or anything like that, I think." Marina denied Rei's suspicion.
Next, Vihera, having heard this, spoke up. "Then, magic?"
"That's the only thing left, but... if magic was used directly here in this space..." Marina paused mid-sentence and used Spirit Magic to survey the surroundings.
Furrowing her brow slightly, she eventually shook her head.
"In a sealed-off place like this, relying on Wind Spirits is quite difficult for various reasons. At any rate, there's no one observing this area or anyone trying to flee in a hurry."
"Which would mean a remote attack from another location?"
"I wonder about that. There are various conditions involved, but that seems a bit hard to believe. Besides..." In response to Rei's words, Marina directed her gaze toward the floor.
Following her line of sight, Rei discovered that Rezel's Flunkies—those who had lost consciousness from Rei's killing intent—were also dead, bleeding from their faces just like Rezel.
"This is..."
"You understand, don't you? If only Rezel had been targeted, it would be one thing, but the others as well. They cleanly killed everyone except us. If so, rather than attacking from afar, they most likely set some kind of condition, and when that condition was met, the magic would activate."
"I see." Marina's explanation was something Rei could readily understand. After all, Rei himself had magic that activated when certain conditions were met. For instance, magic like the 'Seed of Restraint' or the 'Flame of Condemnation.'
However, some of the others apparently couldn't fully grasp it, tilting their heads in confusion.
"For example, magic that activates when someone attempts to divulge certain information, judging them as a traitor and triggering the spell—something like that."
"But despite that, Rezel had been telling us all sorts of information?"
"I understand what Elena means, but in this case, the trigger for the magic's activation was probably where the Giants were being shipped to. There was more I wanted to ask him, too."
If they had extracted the information, Rei would likely have killed Rezel anyway. That was how unforgivable Rezel's actions were in Rei's eyes, and the other party members felt the same.
But having him disposed of before they could extract the crucial information was extremely troublesome.
"Do you think the one who planted that magic knows Rezel died because we were trying to extract information?"
"They almost certainly know. It wouldn't be surprising at all for them to have set that kind of trap."
"How troublesome. I didn't think Reblurina had a mage that powerful."
Rei muttered in annoyance, but hearing sounds coming from nearby, he turned his gaze in that direction.
There, every last pregnant woman had already been torn apart from the inside, and the newborn Giants had emerged.
The women whose bellies had been torn through naturally died, but the Giant infants had even begun eating their mothers' corpses.
The only sound that could be heard now was the sound of Giant infants devouring their own mothers' remains.
Following Rei's gaze and realizing what was happening, Elena spoke as if to suppress the emotions raging within her.
"Rei, please."
What she was asking of him—Rei understood perfectly. No, seeing the scene spread out before them, it would be stranger not to understand.
Rei glanced at his other companions just in case, but the response was, naturally, only nods of agreement with Elena's words.
Confirming this, Rei drew the Death Scythe from his Misty Ring and concentrated his mind.
'Flame, manifest destruction, one of thy rightful forms, upon thyself. Thou art that which burns all to ash, erases, and annihilates. Bring forth great destruction, and thereby become the sacrifice for new rebirth.'
As he chanted the incantation, a single Fireball was generated upon the Death Scythe. However, this was no ordinary Fireball—it was one charged with considerable magic power.
Setting the range that the Fireball would burn, the magic was completed.
'Scorching Hellfire!'
The Fireball released with those words flew toward the center of the room.
After confirming the Fireball's trajectory, Rei led Elena and the others out of the room.
Then, several seconds after exiting and closing the door, a roar echoed throughout the surroundings.
From beyond the door, screams could be heard. Or perhaps they weren't actually screams, but even so, they reached Rei's ears as screams.
(Well, even if they were screams... they'd be the screams of the Giant infants, I suppose.)
As far as Rei had seen, every pregnant woman strapped to a bed was already dead. There was not a single one with the vitality to still be alive after having her belly torn open.
"What an unpleasant feeling." The one who murmured softly was Marina.
Having spent years as an adventurer and afterward as a Guild Master, Marina had witnessed many gruesome scenes, but what was being done inside that room was something even she could never accept.
The others felt the same. What was currently being burned inside the room was undeniably the worst possible sight imaginable.
"Losing Rezel was a painful blow. Even if we were going to kill him, I wanted to extract more information first."
At Rei's words, spoken to change the subject, the others nodded.
"He was definitely set up so that if he spoke about any kind of information, he would die. Ah, not magic—maybe he had a Magic Item like that."
Elena said as much, but with Rezel already dead, there was nothing that could be done about it now no matter what anyone said.
What Rei and the others could do now was somehow deal with the Giant situation. Doing so would undoubtedly deal a major blow to both Jaya and Reblurina.
"Also, there's the Black Crystal said to be in this facility. It's precisely because this Black Crystal exists that Giants are born. Which means, if we do something about the Black Crystal, no more Giants will be born. What happens to the women who are currently with child, though, I don't know."
"That's right. Without the Black Crystal... it's a real long shot, but there might be a possibility that the children don't become Giants."
Vihera muttered as she kept watch on the surroundings.
At those words, Rei turned his gaze to Marina.
Marina understood what was being asked of her, but even so, all she could do was shake her head at Rei's look.
"There's a possibility it could turn out as Vihera says, but there's also a possibility it won't work at all. For starters, we don't even understand what kind of effects the Magic Item called the Black Crystal actually has."
After saying that much, she took a small breath before speaking again.
"If things go well, the children of the pregnant women might be born as normal children. But if things go badly, the Black Crystal's effects could run wild, and they might be born as Giant children immediately. Of course, in that case, they wouldn't be born after fully growing."
In other words, even if born, they would die immediately.
That was what Marina continued to say, and Rei and the others listened in silence.