"They're here, you bastards! Don't hold back! Attack with everything you've got! But don't kill them!"
Attack seriously, but don't kill. The orders that came from Zelsturi's mouth were unquestionably unreasonable.
But even so, when they came from a superior—and not just any superior, but the third-highest-ranking individual in what could be called the giants' staging facility ahead—the soldiers had no choice but to comply.
Some did wonder why he had lied about being the person in charge here. But regardless, the soldiers who had just been ordered to attack the people before them had no leisure to ponder such questions.
Fortunately, the people standing before them didn't look like particularly strong opponents at all. If anything, three of the five were beauties so stunning that even the phrase "top-tier" felt insufficient.
And Zelsturi's interest was directed not at those three, but at one of the remaining two—a girl who could only be described as a child.
That Zelsturi held such tastes was a fairly well-known fact around here. Given that was the case, if they defeated the five before them, the three beautiful women would presumably be theirs.
Under normal circumstances, they might have harbored such thoughts about a group that clearly looked suspicious... well, they would have felt it, but they wouldn't have actually acted on it. But fortunately, this time they had orders from a superior, so there was no need to hesitate.
"Haaaaah!"
The first soldier to move targeted the person whose only armor consisted of Hand Gauntlets and Foot Guards, clad in thin garments like a dancer or a prostitute. She was a woman who flaunted an extremely alluring figure and directly stimulated male desire.
"Oh, you're targeting me first? But... that won't work."
With those words, Vihera easily deflected the man's spear thrust.
"There's not a shred of killing intent. Let alone using the spearhead, thrusting with the butt end... honestly, I even doubt your will to fight."
Even as she said this in exasperation, Vihera transitioned fluidly from deflecting the spear with her Hand Gauntlets, stepped forward, and buried her fist into his solar plexus.
The soldiers too, perhaps not expecting that anyone would actually attack this place, each had weapons in hand but weren't even wearing so much as leather armor. They had been completely off guard. In truth, this place had never been attacked even once before, so perhaps it was only natural that they lacked any sense of tension.
There had been word that the giants' nest was under attack, but the thought that Jaya—the largest and strongest organization in Reblurina—could lose had never crossed their minds. Furthermore, reinforcements had been sent, so victory was presumably a foregone conclusion.
But such wishes from the men—no, such delusions—crumbled effortlessly in the face of reality. So effortlessly that it could be called a castle built on sand.
Starting with Vihera's strike, the battle began in quick succession. However, the only ones suffering casualties were Jaya's soldiers. And it was utterly one-sided.
"Mm!"
The one particularly shining in this battle was Byune. The situation where the soldiers had weapons in hand but wore no armor was nothing short of the perfect prey for Byune, who specialized in Long Needles. If the soldiers had been elites, they might have been able to deflect the Long Needle strikes or block them with armor... but unfortunately, the men had no such leeway.
"Uwah!" "Gyah!" "Ow!"
Screams rose one after another from the pain of Long Needles piercing into them. It was far more pain than the soldiers could endure.
"Right, then I suppose I'll step in. The more energetic the prey, the more enjoyable the hunt, after all."
Saying that, Zelsturi stepped forward. His target was, naturally, Byune, who stimulated his desires. To capture that lovely young girl with his own hands and make her a victim of his lust—that was the thought with which he had stepped forward, but...
"How about you stop doing anything strange to my party member."
As if to block Zelsturi's stride, Rei stepped in front to bar his way.
"...What, you. A brat? I've got business with that girl. I've got no interest in the likes of you, so hurry up and get out of the way."
With his hood down from his Dragon Robe, Rei as he appeared now could easily be mistaken for a woman if one only looked at his face. But Zelsturi was not acknowledging Rei as an opponent at all. That was likely because he had judged that the Rei standing before him was not female.
Whether he understood this or not, Rei furrowed his brows in displeasure.
"Do you think I'll just step aside because you tell me to? If you truly want to do something about me, then you'll have to do it by force."
"Hoh. Then I'll go ahead and force my way through, just as you wish!"
With that shout, Zelsturi closed the distance between himself and Rei in one burst. The speed of that step was enough to slightly surprise even Rei. Though, that was merely a slight surprise. For someone within a single organization in a small country like Reblurina, one could say he was a considerable powerhouse. But compared to those Rei had fought until now, that speed instantly became ordinary—in some cases, below ordinary.
Rei evaded the fist swung down toward him by taking a single step back. Reaching out gently toward the fist that passed mere centimeters from his face, Rei grabbed it and applied just a bit of force to alter the trajectory of Zelsturi's momentum.
"Guh!"
Dragged along by that redirected force, Zelsturi's body went flying through the air. Looking at that alone, it would have appeared as though Rei had gracefully parried the enemy's attack. But the next instant, a dull sensation of bone breaking returned to Rei's hand. The surroundings were already engulfed in combat, so the sound didn't carry, but the sensation was clearly transmitted to Rei, who was gripping Zelsturi's wrist.
"Ah."
Rei uttered a word that clearly conveyed "oops."
It was only natural. He had intended to parry Zelsturi's attack like in aikido and throw him, but because he miscalibrated the force, he had ended up breaking the bones in his wrist.
With his wrist bone broken in midair, Zelsturi couldn't even take a proper fall and was slammed against the ground. Being a powerhouse, Zelsturi's own strike had naturally carried significant force. As a result, that force had come back to hit him, which could only be called misfortune. Moreover, due to Rei's mistake, his wrist bone had been broken as well.
"Guh... gnuoooooh!"
The impact of being slammed back-first into the ground by his own power combined with Rei's, and the wrist bone that Rei had broken. Due to those two sources of pain, Zelsturi could do nothing but groan in agony.
And as Zelsturi's groan—or perhaps scream—echoed, the soldiers fighting around him stopped moving.
To the soldiers, Zelsturi's strength had been absolute. That Zelsturi had been defeated this effortlessly... was this a dream or something? Thinking that, the soldiers turned their gazes toward Rei.
If the one who had defeated Zelsturi had been someone of equal build, they might have been able to accept it. But Rei was different. He was clearly smaller than Zelsturi, and in a straight fight, there was no way he could have stood up to him. Because of that, some of the soldiers even wondered if perhaps Zelsturi had just tripped or something.
However, looking at Zelsturi lying on the ground, it was obvious that the possibility of him merely tripping didn't exist anywhere.
"So, what'll it be? If you still want to fight, I'll oblige."
Rei's murmured words resonated through the surroundings in a strange way. It was partly because they couldn't believe that Zelsturi, the strongest among them, had been defeated so effortlessly, and combat had naturally subsided—but there was also something about Rei's words that compelled them to listen. If they continued fighting, they understood they wouldn't get off unscathed.
(The party cocktail effect? No, I feel like the name is slightly different, but I think I saw or heard about something like that in Japan.)
Strictly speaking, it wasn't the party cocktail effect but the cocktail party effect. It was the phenomenon where one could pick out their own name or things of interest even among a large crowd of people talking, which was subtly different from what Rei was thinking, but he himself didn't particularly mind.
Regardless, Rei's words left the soldiers uncertain about what to do. They no longer thought they could win by fighting. But that said, there was still the question of whether it was acceptable to simply surrender here. A situation where they could neither advance nor retreat.
"What's wrong? If you're going to do it, then hurry up. We're not so free that we can keep dealing with you forever."
At Rei's renewed statement, the soldiers eventually began dropping their weapons one by one.
After glancing at them, Rei and his party moved to stand before the door. It was a large door with enough width for two carriages to pass each other and enough height for a giant to pass through. A wall had been constructed beside it, creating a situation where anyone who came out of the hidden passage had no choice but to go through that door to get outside.
Which meant, of course, the same applied to Rei and his party.
"Could you open the door? Otherwise, we'll end up having to break it."
At Rei's words, the soldiers hurried to open it. They believed that if it were Rei and his party, they could destroy even this massive door.
Naturally, if they had Byune search, finding the mechanism to open it wouldn't have been difficult. But Rei judged that it was more important to make it seem as though they had let Rei's party through, rather than Rei's party passing through on their own.
Elena and the others seemed to have no particular objections to Rei's attitude either, showing no signs of interjecting.
As they watched, the closed wooden door began to open with a sound.
(Heh.)
Naturally, a road lay beyond the opened door. Though, it wasn't a properly maintained road like a highway, but a naturally formed path trodden down and packed firm. Given that it was a road many giants had passed through, that was perhaps only natural.
That packed-down path led deeper into the forest immediately adjacent to the door Rei and his party had emerged from. No, the correct answer was probably that they had cleared a path through the forest, however slightly, in order to build that door—or rather, that simple checkpoint.
While impressed by that fact, Rei harbored a question.
(I don't know exactly how far this place is from Mejougo, but judging from the travel time, the distance shouldn't be that great. In that case, I would think I should have noticed some kind of abnormality when I came to reconnoiter Mejougo on Set before.)
Such a doubt. Even if they had used magic to cast an illusion, Rei aside, Set should have been able to sense it. Despite that, Rei had no memory whatsoever of the facility ahead where giants were presumably gathered.
"Well, maybe I'll figure something out once we get there."
"What's wrong, all of a sudden? Was there something odd?"
Perhaps hearing Rei's murmur, Marina asked the question. In response, Rei shook his head and replied that it was nothing. In truth, he judged that voicing what he felt would probably be meaningless. No, it wouldn't be entirely meaningless, but even so, he concluded that he likely wouldn't understand unless he proceeded ahead himself.
"No, I was just wondering what kind of place the facility ahead is. In that Underground Facility, the Black Crystal seemed to be supplying some kind of energy to the giants, but the giants that have been shipped out so far must number in the hundreds... thousands, or possibly even more."
"Now that you mention it, that's true. Being giants, they probably eat a lot too. I wonder how they handle food."
When Marina mentioned the amount they ate, she likely recalled the sight of a giant eating its way out of its mother's womb at birth, then devouring the flesh of the mother who had died from the pain and shock. Marina furrowed her beautiful brows.
But in truth, considering the size of a giant's body, it was undeniable that they would require a substantial amount of food. On top of that, the number of giants was what it was. It was clearly impossible to gather enough food merely by purchasing it from shops or through similar ordinary means. No, it might be possible if they acted without regard for appearances, but doing so would naturally attract attention.
Just because Jaya was the largest underworld organization in Reblurina didn't mean they had no enemies at all. And since no single person could defeat the organization known as Jaya on their own, it was only natural for those enemies to seek reinforcements elsewhere.
With the eyes of such people watching, how were they gathering food without drawing attention? That was the question that everyone, including Rei, found themselves wondering.