A single carriage raced through the underground passage.
One of Ryutas's guards served as the coachman, and beside him on the driver's bench sat another guard.
Inside the carriage rode Rei, Elena, Marina, Vihera, Byune, Ryutas, and two more of his guards.
Since the carriage wasn't particularly large, fitting eight people inside was a tight squeeze.
Not all of Ryutas's guards had been able to fit, so the rest had taken a separate route from the cave.
About thirty minutes had passed since Rei stored the research materials — gathered under Marina's instructions — into his Misty Ring.
Having emerged from the cave, Rei's group was traveling by carriage through the underground passage leading to the giant's nest in Mejougo. Their destination served a dual purpose: rendezvous with the Neutral Faction envoy arriving from the Kingdom of Mireana, and avoid the assassins Jaya would surely send if Ryutas and his men were left on their own.
"So, what do you plan to do from here? Honestly, there's not much point in you coming along with us," Rei said, sipping Fruit Water he'd retrieved from his Misty Ring.
Everyone else in the carriage — including Ryutas — held cups of the same drink.
His throat somewhat parched, Ryutas moistened it with a sip before speaking. "If I'm being honest, I'd like you to let me travel alongside your group."
For Ryutas, that was undoubtedly the choice most likely to ensure his survival.
But Rei shook his head. "You'd be a burden."
Ryutas possessed a certain degree of combat ability, but he was inferior not only to Rei and the others — he didn't even measure up to Byune. Traveling with someone like him would be, exactly as Rei had said, nothing but a burden.
Furthermore, Ryutas had his guards with him. Moving with that many people was something Rei wanted to avoid if at all possible.
"That's awfully blunt of you... but is it really alright? My existence should be valuable to the Kingdom of Mireana, you know."
Just as it was true that he'd be a burden, it was an undeniable fact that Ryutas was a valuable asset. As one of Jaya's successor candidates, he undoubtedly knew a great deal of information that couldn't be obtained from the outside. In that sense, even Rei couldn't deny Ryutas's worth.
"You don't need to stay with us permanently, do you?" Vihera chimed in. "You could just entrust yourself to the envoy from the Kingdom of Mireana."
"Ah... that would be the safest option." Rei nodded at Vihera's suggestion, then turned to Ryutas with a look that asked, Is that fine with you?
Ryutas considered it for a moment, then nodded. "Understood. Since I'm the one imposing myself on you, I can't exactly be selfish. Besides... the envoy would probably treat me more courteously than you all would."
Those words were calculated. But as Ryutas had said, there was no question that the one who would value him most highly in the current situation was the Kingdom of Mireana's envoy.
Of course, in terms of safety, it was less secure than staying with Rei's group. But he had his guards, and this was an envoy being dispatched to a nation where an organization hostile to Gilm held influence. Naturally, they would have selected highly capable individuals to serve as their escort.
"Young master!" One of the guards on the driver's bench suddenly called out.
For a moment, Ryutas braced for an enemy attack — but there was no tension in the guard's voice. Feeling slightly relieved, he called back, "What is it?"
"It looks like several people are heading our way from ahead. What should we do?"
"Wait — aren't those enemies!?"
Given the circumstances, if the people approaching from the giant's nest they were heading toward were hostile, that would be the safest assumption to make. Yet the guard showed no signs of alarm. When the carriage passed by them, it became clear — they carried no weapons or anything of the sort. They obviously weren't hostile.
The people making their way through the underground passage wore puzzled expressions as the carriage approached, as if wondering why anyone would be heading in that direction at this point. From their perspective, the carriage Rei's group rode in naturally appeared to belong to Jaya, since it was traveling through this passage — hence their confusion.
Currently, it was impossible to exit to the surface from the giant's nest. To be precise, exiting might have been possible, but doing so would undoubtedly result in being attacked by Set, who was rampaging through the sky above. And more importantly, the Prostitutes — freed from their brainwashed state — along with the Resistance, were lying in wait.
Among the freed Prostitutes were former adventurers, former soldiers, and in some cases even former knights. A significant number of them were actively attacking Jaya's soldiers. On top of that, defeated soldiers had their weapons stripped away, so the longer time passed, the more disadvantageous the situation became for Jaya.
With the outside far from safe, staying holed up in the giant's nest would eventually lead to a hopeless situation. It was only natural for some to consider using the hidden passages to escape Mejougo.
In reality, there had been an incident with giants rampaging at the cave as well, causing significant damage. Even so, the fact that it was safer there than in Mejougo — which was currently in the midst of massive, ongoing chaos — was in a way deeply ironic.
"There are more people around now," Rei muttered.
"...This was the giant's nest, right? When we searched it before, there was hardly anyone here. They must have been hiding all along," Vihera replied, half exasperated and half impressed.
Since these people belonged to Jaya, she held absolutely no goodwill toward them. But not harboring goodwill didn't mean she couldn't acknowledge the soundness of their judgment.
"True. Well, we did have a flashy battle before entering the nest, one way or another. Considering that, they had plenty of time to hide. Though it looked like some of them overslept."
"Right. But did they really need to use this passage to get back to Mejougo? They could have traveled from outside the forest..."
"If Mejougo is in chaos, getting inside would be troublesome in all sorts of ways. Moving a carriage through a crowd is difficult enough. If it were only Jaya members, you could just drive the carriage straight through them."
Elena's tone was no joke — she appeared to genuinely believe it from the bottom of her heart. If they were people who belonged to Jaya, running them over would be no problem at all.
At those words, Ryutas and his guards were once again reminded that Elena — no, all of Rei's group — harbored deep fury toward Jaya.
(Surrendering immediately was the right call. Because I approached them with a friendly attitude first, they judged they could get Jaya's information from me, and decided to keep me alive. If I'd taken a hostile attitude, I'd certainly be dead by now. Given my position and all...)
Seeing Elena's demeanor, Ryutas found himself thinking such thoughts, even forgetting to maintain his usual composed expression. Still, he breathed a quiet sigh of relief that he hadn't been killed by Rei's group — especially by Elena, Marina, and Vihera, the three who as women could never forgive what was being done in Mejougo.
(It was lucky that I had a prior acquaintance with Rei from the Bandits incident.)
That assignment had been closer to harassment, an order from someone who bore ill will toward Ryutas. But thanks to accepting that request, he was still alive. He found that strange connection both fortunate and darkly amusing.
"Young master, we're almost at the giant's nest!" The guard's voice from the driver's bench rang out.
At those words, everyone's expression tightened slightly. The current state of the giant's nest — and Mejougo itself — remained unclear. They could make predictions, but those were ultimately nothing more than predictions. Which meant it was only prudent to be ready to respond immediately should anything unforeseen occur.
That was what they were thinking, but...
"There are no bodies?"
They arrived at the vicinity of the hidden door — the very spot where reinforcements had been sent from the cave where Rei's group had been stationed until recently. Not a single body lay scattered on the ground.
Of course, as proof that the battle here had been real and no dream, bloodstains, weapons, fragments of armor, and even several severed fingers remained. But the bodies themselves were nowhere to be found.
The number of soldiers who had died here should have been far more than a mere ten or so. The total absence of corpses felt profoundly wrong.
"We passed by the people who came through here earlier. Couldn't they have cleared the bodies out of the way because they were an obstruction?" Ryutas suggested.
"I understand what you're saying, but... do you really think people fleeing in a hurry could manage something like that?" Rei countered.
Ryutas was at a loss for words. The people they'd passed while traveling by carriage had been in quite a rush — as if desperate to put even a little more distance between themselves and Mejougo. Whether people in that state had the time to clear away every body lying here... that seemed highly doubtful.
"Which means it really must have been the Coachmen, right?" Vihera said.
"That's the most likely explanation," Elena agreed.
Rei, too, could see through process of elimination that this was probably the case. However, what reason a mere Coachman would have to go that far remained a mystery.
(Maybe they actually had a surprising sense of camaraderie? From what I saw of them, that seems a bit hard to believe, though.)
The relationship between the Coachmen and the soldiers didn't strike Rei as being particularly good. But he quickly pushed the thought aside.
After all, the absence of bodies on the ground caused no inconvenience to Rei's group whatsoever. In that case, there was no need to dwell on the circumstances now.
(Though if there were giant survivors still lurking, and they'd rampaged and gorged on the bodies out of appetite... then I'd need to deal with that.)
But from the looks of the surroundings, that wasn't a concern.
Keeping a wary eye on the area, they dismounted from the stopped carriage. Even without Rei's sharp senses, an ordinary person could likely still catch the scent of blood lingering here. Of course, Rei's honest thought was that he had no desire to be friendly with anyone who could smell that stench and find it pleasant.
"Let's go," Rei said with a slight frown beneath his hood. Everyone nodded.
They all proceeded into the giant's nest. Though everyone remained on alert, there was no attack from either giants or Jaya personnel.
However, the moment they stepped into the room where the Black Crystal had once been, an intense stench of blood washed over them. Turning their gazes toward the source, they found a large pile of corpses stacked together.
"These are the ones who attacked this place. Brought in here and piled up like that... it really was the Coachmen after all?" Rei murmured, still not entirely convinced.
Corpses were extremely heavy. Trained soldiers wearing full equipment, even more so. That the Coachmen — even borrowing the hands of those fortunate enough to survive the battle — had transported all those bodies struck him as implausible. From what Rei had seen, they didn't strike him as people with that kind of dedication.
(Well, as long as they weren't eaten, I can rule out the giants' doing. In that case, there's no need to dwell on it. Priority right now is getting out of the giant's nest and rendezvousing with Set, who's probably tearing things up nearby.)
So judging, Rei turned his gaze away from the pile of corpses — and for a brief moment, glanced at the spot where the Black Crystal had stood. Of course, nothing was there now.
Ryutas, too, was staring fixedly at that empty space. Unlike Rei, it was only natural for Ryutas to have complicated feelings about the organization called Jaya. And within Jaya, the Black Crystal had been an object of profound significance in more ways than one. It wouldn't be strange for him to be lost in somber reflection.
But they couldn't afford to spend time here indefinitely. Feeling a twinge of guilt, Rei broke the silence.
"Ryutas, it's time to go. We can't stay here forever."
"Yeah, I know," Ryutas replied far more readily than Rei had expected.
Finding that slightly surprising — but grateful for it given the current situation — Rei and his group began making their way upward through the giant's nest.