Jaya — the reason Rei and his party had come all the way to the nation of Reblurina.
As the son of the man leading Jaya, Ryutas was someone they had plenty of questions for, but...
"Unfortunately, I can't say."
"Sorry, but I can't tell you that."
"I can't."
Whenever they tried asking him about Jaya, those were the kinds of answers that came back.
Still, Rei understood it wasn't out of spite — nor was Ryutas trying to extract some kind of reward from him by playing coy. Rei knew this because back at the Underground Facility in Mejougo, someone had died all too easily when they tried to extract information. As long as that possibility loomed, there was no way they could force Ryutas to speak.
Though it's also possible he's using that to his advantage and simply not answering what he doesn't want to answer. Troublesome, that.
At a loss for what to ask next, Rei called out to Elena and the others watching from behind him.
"Is there anything you'd like to ask? I don't know if he'll answer, but asking is free."
"It's not that I don't want to answer. I just can't say certain things," Ryutas said, as if defending himself — perhaps having sensed even the slightest edge in Rei's words.
"I guess most questions about Jaya itself are off the table. In that case... next is this cave. You said there are over a thousand Giants, right?"
Rather than saying he couldn't answer, Ryutas gave a firm nod.
Confirming that, Rei got to the point.
"Then let me ask — how do you feed that many Giants? I saw how they're born at the Underground Facility. When they tore through their mothers' bellies to come out, they devoured the corpses entirely."
As he spoke, the memory of that scene must have resurfaced. Not just Rei, but the others as well — even Byune, usually expressionless — frowned in displeasure.
"Over a thousand Giants with appetites like that. How are you keeping them fed? Don't tell me you're feeding them bats and whatever else is in this cave?"
"Oh, that's simple. The Giants are basically asleep — until we give them an order."
"...Asleep?"
At that, Rei recalled the Giants curled up around the Black Crystal. But even though they hadn't appeared to be doing anything at the time, they had still attacked him — without anyone giving an order.
If I had to say someone gave an order... it would be more accurate to say the Black Crystal gave the order.
He didn't know what method it used, but the Black Crystal had sensed their presence, judged them a threat, and mobilized the Giants to stop them. Thinking of it that way, Rei could understand why the Giants had attacked.
"Now that you mention it, the Giants were sleeping when we found the Black Crystal too... but it looked to me like it was giving some kind of energy to them. But wouldn't that only work because they were right next to it? Without the Black Crystal, sleeping isn't going to fill their stomachs, is it?"
"...I can't say much about that."
At yet another non-answer, Rei sighed inwardly. But pushing any harder might kill a valuable source of information. With that in mind, he let it go.
"I see. ...Destroying that Black Crystal was a mistake."
To be precise, Rei hadn't destroyed it intentionally. The more accurate way to put it was that when the Black Crystal tried to invade his mind, something like a defensive instinct kicked in and activated the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor — annihilating it.
"Huh?"
Ryutas was the first to react to Rei's muttering. No — not just him, but the guards still serving as his escorts all wore expressions of complete incomprehension.
"Umm... Rei. I might have misheard, but did you just say you destroyed the Black Crystal?"
"Yeah, that's right."
"...To be precise, 'annihilated' would be more accurate than 'destroyed,'" Elena added, supplementing Rei's words.
Annihilated? At that word, an incredulous look passed from Rei to Elena. Ryutas found himself captivated once more by the beauty of Elena and the others, but he quickly shook off what could only be called the spell of it — because this was something he absolutely could not afford to miss.
The Black Crystal was the one and only existence at the center of Jaya's current operations — no, of the nation of Reblurina, which was effectively Jaya's parent organization. At the same time, it was a first-class hazardous object that had driven many people insane and left them as vegetables as they tried to unravel its abilities.
Naturally so. The Black Crystal had possessed — had possessed — such outrageous abilities as creating Giants, controlling them, and even altering the consciousness of others through the Slave Collar. Among the people of Reblurina and Jaya, there was no shortage of those who wanted to unlock its secrets. But after it produced a few human vegetables, the decision was made to utilize it rather than study it — leading to the current situation.
Hearing that the Black Crystal had been destroyed — annihilated — even Ryutas, who always maintained a somewhat aloof demeanor, was naturally shocked. The fact that even his escorts were surprised spoke volumes about the impact of those words.
"Incredible... No, you're an Alias Holder adventurer, so maybe it's only natural you could pull off something like that? Even so... I still can't believe it."
Confronted once more with what an Alias Holder adventurer — what Rei — truly was, Ryutas could do nothing but stare in amazement. As the son of the man leading Jaya, he had met many adventurers over the years. But they were ultimately adventurers from a small nation like Reblurina. Even those said to be skilled often fell several tiers below Jaya's elites — and that was far from uncommon.
But the person before him — no, the people before him — were different. He could truly feel that they were not merely skilled adventurers within Reblurina, but possessed some of the foremost abilities in the great Kingdom of Mireana itself.
Though, Rei and the others, who inspired such thoughts, were already discussing what to do next without particularly paying attention to Ryutas's state.
"What should we do? If we carelessly ask the wrong thing here, we could end up killing Ryutas... and if that happens, doesn't it feel like it'll cause all sorts of problems down the line?"
There was no doubt that Ryutas was a member of Jaya, an organization Rei found repulsive. No — before being a member, he was the son of the man leading it. Even so, for some reason, Rei didn't feel that killing him would be acceptable, unlike with the others they'd encountered.
That said, if asked whether he could tolerate Jaya as an organization, he would immediately say no.
"That's true. It's been a fair amount of time since we started talking here, so it wouldn't be strange for them to be preparing a reception inside. In that case, why not just take him with us as a hostage?"
"...A hostage, huh. I don't mind, but if we try something like that, those guards will resist, you know?"
With a hint of interest, Vihera turned her gaze toward the guards around Ryutas. The man who had fought Rei had considerable skill. If there were others with equal — or even somewhat lesser — ability who could put up a fight, she wanted to fight them. That was the sentiment behind her words. A red tongue lewdly licked her lips.
At Vihera's demeanor, the guards near Ryutas — and the ones who had hidden themselves to protect him after the earlier incident — all felt a chill run down their spines. As if they were herbivores thrown before a predator.
But that feeling — whether fear or awe — was settled in the next moment by a single sentence from Elena.
"Vihera, that's enough."
"Oh, my apologies. It just slipped out."
She probably hadn't intended to intimidate anyone, but the ferocious aura radiating from Vihera, hungry for battle, was more than enough to make the guards shrink back.
A problem child in a completely different sense from Rei. Even as she cautioned Vihera, Elena thought this to herself. Vihera was normally — and that was strictly "normally" — reasonable, but the moment anything related to battle came up, all common sense flew out the window.
"So, are we agreed on leaving Ryutas here for now? Or should we take him along, even though he can't share much — just in case?"
"That works too, but having too many people would be disadvantageous for us in various ways. And taking only Ryutas? The guards would never allow that."
Marina's gaze swept over the guards around Ryutas, then toward the others hidden in the surroundings. Hearing her, the guards who had just felt fear — no, awe — toward Vihera moments ago regained their composure and nodded. They had judged that they needed to protect Ryutas as his escorts.
One could view that as exceeding their actual ability, but still, the sight of them properly carrying out the job entrusted to them left a favorable impression on those watching.
Well, the fact that they're cooperating with an organization like Jaya makes that a bit questionable, though.
Thinking this, Rei considered what to do next... and eventually shook his head.
"Taking the others along would cause all sorts of complications, so we'd better not."
Ryutas aside, there were guards who were unhappy with his way of doing things. That much was clear from the fact that someone had attacked Rei earlier. Glancing at the man who still showed no signs of waking from unconsciousness, Rei said as much.
The guards at Ryutas's side looked somewhat displeased at being suspected, but none of them actually voiced their dissatisfaction.
"In that case... is it all right to ask about what's inside this cave?"
"Yeah, that's no problem. Though it's not really that spacious inside. Simply put, you enter the cave, go forward for a while, and there's a fork. Go left and you'll reach where Jaya's people are stationed. Go right and you'll reach the Giants."
"...That's surprisingly simple. Given it's a cave, I assumed it would be far more intricate inside."
The caves Rei knew of were mostly literal mazes. Though that knowledge hadn't come from seeing them with his own eyes, but from anime, manga, and novels he'd consumed back in Japan. Since coming to this world, the caves he had seen — including those used as Bandit hideouts — were generally not that complex.
"Well, places that can accommodate that many Giants aren't exactly common. This was the largest space available. Oh, and naturally, the cave slopes downward, so watch your step."
Told that, Rei had no choice but to accept it. With over a thousand Giants, they certainly couldn't be gathered just anywhere. Doing so would inevitably expose their existence. It was true that the Resistance already knew about the Giants, but that was limited to them and a few closely associated parties. If they had just left the Giants in some random location, they would undoubtedly have been discovered by all sorts of people. Neither Jaya nor the nation of Reblurina could possibly allow that.
"So, how many people are inside?"
"About twenty. Oh, and that's excluding the guards, of course."
Twenty people. Whether that was a lot, Rei couldn't say. But considering there had been hardly anyone at the Underground Facility in Mejougo, it might well be considered plenty.
Though that's probably because most of the researchers evacuated after our attack.
With that in mind, Rei went on to ask various other things about the inside of the cave.