The expression on Rei's face as he descended to the fourth basement floor was nothing short of thoroughly unpleasant.
Naturally so. In every room other than the one where Rezel had been, there was no longer a single pregnant woman left alive.
In the end, they had to burn the giant infants in the other rooms along with the devoured corpses of the pregnant women they had scattered across the floor.
It wasn't that he hesitated to kill at this point, but burning the bodies of women who had been nothing more than pawns used by Jaya was still not a pleasant experience.
And while Rei, who had carried out the act directly, felt miserable about it, Elena and the other women shared the same feeling of disgust.
Being women themselves was likely a major reason they harbored such emotions.
"The second basement floor is where they keep the pregnant women on standby, and the third basement floor is where they actually give birth. If the Black Crystal is on the fifth basement floor... what do you think is on this fourth basement floor?"
"...If you think about it normally, wouldn't it be a room to keep the giants on standby? Rezel mentioned 'shipping,' right? Then they'd need a room to hold the giants until it's time to ship them out."
Marina answered Rei's question.
It was an answer that no one could argue was wrong.
However...
"From what I can see, it doesn't look like there are any giants here."
Indeed, the fourth basement floor was narrower than the third, a space with essentially only one room.
In other words, the staircase led directly down into the room, but what they saw could be described as an empty room with nothing in it.
Even if they had shipped the giants out, it wouldn't be strange for there to be some stationed as guards, like the ones Rezel had summoned earlier.
And Rei found it hard to believe that only three giants had been assigned as guards.
If that were the case, there should have been giants in this room...
Rei wasn't the only one with such doubts. The others likely felt the same way. They looked around the room with curiosity, yet remained vigilant, ready to respond immediately should anything happen.
The first thing that caught their eye inside the room was the staircase leading to the fifth basement floor.
Beyond that, there was truly nothing—just empty space stretching out before them.
"A warehouse for Magic Items... personally, that's what I was hoping for."
"But in the end, the Magic Items Jaya was using weren't made by their own alchemists, right? Then even if there were Magic Items here, they probably wouldn't be anything particularly meaningful, would they?"
Rei nodded weakly at Marina's words.
Naturally, Rei had anticipated that as well.
But he had been considering the possibility—however slight—that it might be otherwise.
After all, the primary reason Rei had accepted the retaliation quest against Jaya was to acquire Magic Items.
They had possessed a large quantity of Slave Collars, so he had expected various other Magic Items as well, but in reality, that wasn't the case.
"The Black Crystal is apparently a fairly rare Magic Item, but... it seems like a cursed kind of Magic Item."
Rei muttered, visibly exhausted.
There was no doubt that the Black Crystal exerted a powerful influence over the vast area of Mejougo.
But the nature of that influence was that it turned women into prostitutes—though Rei suspected that aspect could be modified—and that any pregnancy occurring within its range would produce giant children.
It was not something Rei had any desire to use himself.
(Well, infiltrating a hostile country and planting the Black Crystal there... that kind of use is possible, I suppose? No, but to activate the Black Crystal's effects, you need Slave Collars, so you'd have to use them as a set. Which means it'd stand out.)
If he were to use the Black Crystal in an enemy nation, he would somehow need to use Slave Collars as well.
That would require resorting to measures like forcibly attaching Slave Collars, just as was being done here in Mejougo.
Alternatively, since the Slave Collars compatible with the Black Crystal didn't look like Slave Collars at first glance, they could potentially be popularized as fashion accessories.
...Of course, Rei wasn't well-versed in those particulars, so he couldn't be certain whether that was actually feasible.
Besides, if asked whether he wanted to use the Black Crystal that badly, Rei would shake his head.
(Which means the remaining possibility is utilizing the Black Crystal itself as some kind of material? ...Using it as a material would likely produce all sorts of troublesome Magic Items, which is a bit frightening.)
Thinking such thoughts, Rei headed toward the staircase leading to the fifth basement floor.
"For now, it seems there's nothing on this floor. Let's head to the fifth basement floor."
"Right... I never expected it to be this empty, so it was a rather unexpected sight."
Vihera muttered as she walked beside Rei.
For her part, Vihera had fully expected to find a horde of giants here.
But upon actually arriving, there were no giants in sight, likely because they had already been shipped out.
That was the biggest reason for Vihera's dissatisfaction.
(Though the idea that only those three were assigned as guards... is a bit questionable. If Jaya is aware of our existence, they should have tightened security. Thinking about it, there's something unnatural here.)
Rei wasn't the only one thinking this. Elena and Marina remained vigilant as they headed toward the staircase.
Byune, naturally sensing the mood of those two, swiftly checked the surroundings as befitting her role as a thief.
In the end, however, nothing happened, and Rei's party arrived at the staircase.
"...I certainly didn't expect nothing to happen at all."
Elena murmured earnestly, and everyone agreed with that sentiment.
If the information Rei's party had obtained was correct, the Black Crystal was on the fifth basement floor.
It wouldn't be strange at all to wonder whether something that important should be so easily accessible to them.
"Indeed. It wouldn't have been strange for there to be some kind of trap, and with this much space, it's a place where one couldn't ask for a better setting to launch an attack."
Rei muttered as he surveyed the area once more.
For giants to go on a rampage, their massive bodies required a certain amount of space.
Even when Vihera had fought the three giants earlier, the space probably hadn't been large enough for them.
Of course, Rei's honest opinion was that even if they had fought in a sufficiently spacious area, there was not one chance in ten thousand that Vihera would have lost.
"Anyway, it's undeniable that the absence of even a single trap was fortunate for us. With that being the case, all that's left is the fifth basement floor. We don't know what awaits us down there, but let's stay sharp."
"There's that Magic Item called the Black Crystal down there, right? Then nobody's going to let their guard down in a place like this."
Vihera's demeanor suggested she lived and breathed the battlefield, but for someone like her who loved combat, that was likely a natural mindset.
Seeing Vihera like that, Rei couldn't help but smile.
...However, the smile apparently didn't sit well with Vihera. She directed a slightly displeased look at Rei and spoke.
"What?"
"No, it's nothing. I was just thinking that when it comes to combat, having Vihera with us gives me peace of mind. Right?"
When Rei turned his gaze to the others, they all nodded without hesitation.
Vihera looked as though she had plenty to say about their reactions, but apparently decided that saying anything would only leave her unsatisfied.
Though wearing a dissatisfied expression, she closed her mouth.
As if that were the signal, Rei's party proceeded down the staircase.
Unlike the previous ones, this was a spiral staircase.
However, there were no traps like the first staircase, where the steps had suddenly disappeared and turned into a slope.
For those who had set these traps, having already deployed the same trap to no effect whatsoever, they likely judged that activating a trap here would be meaningless.
In fact, they weren't wrong.
Even if the stairs suddenly vanished here, Rei's party would simply land on the fifth basement floor without so much as a scratch.
...Had they been injured by the earlier trap, things might have been somewhat different...
As Rei's party continued down the staircase, what they eventually laid eyes on was... a massive... Black Crystal, easily three meters tall.
It had a jagged, spiky shape with a sharply pointed tip.
True to its name, its color was black.
A jet-black crystal that seemed as though it might swallow even the light of the Magic Items illuminating the fifth basement floor.
Even knowing it possessed abilities that could only be described as evil, Rei's party was momentarily captivated by the Black Crystal's beauty.
However... in the next instant, their faces were enveloped in astonishment.
Because surrounding the Black Crystal were several giants.
They were curled up and sleeping, but what was there was unmistakably none other than giants.
(So they weren't on the fourth basement floor—they were here.)
Why things had turned out this way, Rei couldn't understand.
But for some reason... looking at the giants gathered around the Black Crystal, he felt no sense of incongruity.
He didn't understand what meaning lay behind this situation, yet he felt no dissonance.
It was a scene as though their presence there was perfectly natural.
Gazing at those giants, Rei—belatedly, truly belatedly—harbored a question.
(Giants would naturally eat a lot. If so, they'd obviously need massive amounts of food... how are they managing that?)
Rei's party had made their way down to the fifth basement floor, but he had no memory of seeing food for the giants along the way.
There had been something like dried meat in the warehouse on the first basement floor, but that was meant for humans.
It was nowhere near enough to feed the giants.
Rei had witnessed the sight of newborn giants tearing through their mothers' bellies at birth and devouring their entire bodies, but it was impossible that they needed no food after that.
Though Rei harbored such doubts, for the time being, he turned his gaze to the Black Crystal and the giants curled up sleeping around it.
Given that the Black Crystal appeared to be growing from the ground, Rei could understand that what they could see now was probably only about half its full size.
(Anyway, we need to do something about that Black Crystal, but... there's no way those giants are going to stay docile. Should I give up on stealing it and just destroy it here? ...Even then, I have a feeling that would trigger some troublesome event.)
Rei's party had been observing the fifth basement floor from the upper portion of the staircase, but they now began discussing what to do next.
Rei was certain that if they fully descended the staircase and arrived completely on the fifth basement floor, the sleeping giants would awaken.
It wasn't a conviction born of any specific reason, but rather what one might call instinct forged through countless battles.
Or perhaps he was also envisioning the classic progression from manga he had read back in Japan.
"What do we do?"
"What do you mean, what do we do...? If we don't do something about that Black Crystal, it'll cause all sorts of problems, right? Besides, as retaliation against Jaya, there's no better course of action."
The first to say that was Vihera.
Her battle with the giants on the third basement floor must have been reasonably satisfying.
She gazed at the giants curled up and sleeping, as if hoping a fight might not break out after all.
"If a battle breaks out here, won't the Black Crystal be destroyed? If so, we might as well attack the giants right here and now. That way, we can reduce their numbers to some extent, and by drawing the giants' attention to the attack, we can prevent damage to the Black Crystal."
"Hey, Elena. We finally get to fight the giants to our hearts' content, so if possible, could you let us fight them normally?"
"...I understand what Vihera's saying, but if we do that, there's a chance the Black Crystal could be damaged, you know?"
"I'll fight while being careful not to let that happen. ...No?"
At this point, Vihera was already imagining the battle with the giants, her eyes glistening with excitement.
Radiating an overwhelming allure, Vihera turned her gaze toward Rei, but...
"No."
She was flatly rejected.
If the Black Crystal had been located further away... he might have nodded at Vihera's words.
But considering the rarity of the Black Crystal... and what might happen if it were broken, he simply couldn't agree with her.
Rei glanced at Marina to see if she had any objections, but she simply nodded, indicating she had none.