The moment Rei's words echoed through the room, Gaiska froze.
A marquis house—a lineage both illustrious and noble. That bloodline was Gaiska's pride and joy, the very foundation of his identity. It was precisely why he could never resist asserting his superiority over anyone he deemed beneath him.
And yet, what had Rei just said?
He had dismissed Gaiska as having nothing to boast of but a worthless bloodline.
It was an insult to the very existence of Marquis Seisole's House—a remark Gaiska could never allow to stand.
Until moments ago, he had been completely ignoring Rei's presence. But now that his pride had been wounded, he could not possibly let it slide. To back down without a word would be to drag the noble name of Marquis Seisole's House through the mud.
"Wait! Hey, Gaiska, calm down, alright? This is the Duke Kerebel Mansion. If you cause a scene here, it's going to end badly for everyone."
Gaiska had been about to fire back at Rei, but Ranigus cut him off before the words could leave his mouth.
Ranigus had intended to win Rei's favor by pitting Gaiska against him, but for the situation to escalate into what amounted to a full-blown confrontation right from the start was entirely unexpected.
Still, having his bloodline—the very bedrock of his standing—belittled, Gaiska was in no position to simply back down.
"Shut up! I was mocked by a mere adventurer, Alias Holder or not! I can't just let that slide!"
Gaiska's tone had shed the affected refinement he had worn in Elena's presence. The sight of him glaring at Rei with naked hatred, shouting at the top of his lungs, would have been enough to make anyone cower—knowing they had angered a noble of marquis blood.
Unfortunately for Gaiska, the person standing before him was Rei.
A man infamous for not hesitating to use violence, even against nobles.
Neither man showed any sign of backing down. Gaiska fixed a gaze seething with hatred on Rei, while Rei regarded him with the same disinterest one might spare a pebble on the ground.
Ranigus was trying desperately to calm Gaiska down, but Rei himself was feeling thoroughly displeased with the man.
For one thing, Gaiska had mocked Gilm—his hometown in this world, a place actively cooperating with him as it underwent Expansion Construction. For another, he had insulted Ara with some self-serving reasoning, and Rei considered her a companion.
He simply wasn't letting his irritation show. But the moment an opportunity presented itself, he was ready to use force.
"Both of you, that is enough."
As if sensing what Rei was feeling, Elena spoke.
Naturally, Elena was far from pleased herself. Ara—her closest friend and trusted subordinate—had been openly disparaged. Even so, she understood that a disturbance here would be highly problematic, which was why she had stepped in.
"Elena! Why are you stopping this!? This man insulted me! If I let it pass without doing anything, my dignity—the dignity of Marquis Seisole's House—will be disgraced!"
If she was a noble, she should have been on his side. So why wasn't she?
Meeting Gaiska's incredulous stare, Elena changed her gaze. It was no longer the look of Elena Kerebel, duke's daughter. It was the gaze of the Princess General.
The moment it fell upon him, Gaiska understood—in an instant—the gulf in caliber between them. Not in noble rank or combat prowess, but in sheer presence.
"Gh!?"
Elena hadn't done anything. She was merely looking at him.
That alone sent a chill down his spine and brought a sheen of cold sweat to his forehead. Then came the sound—clack, clack, clack—echoing through the room.
It grated on his ears, but it wouldn't stop. Unable to move, Gaiska wanted nothing more than to silence the irritating noise, until suddenly he realized where it was coming from.
His own mouth. More precisely, his teeth—chattering without his awareness.
He was terrified of Elena.
The moment that realization hit, the crushing pressure vanished. Elena had looked away.
Gasping inwardly, Gaiska stumbled back several steps as if released from a spell.
Ranigus watched Gaiska's abrupt retreat with bemusement—the man had been shouting moments ago—but quickly decided that pressing the matter would be pointless. He turned his attention back to Rei.
"Lord Rei, I understand you're from Gilm. If you wouldn't mind, I'd love to hear a bit about the frontier."
His original plan had been to contrast himself favorably against Gaiska to leave a good impression on Rei. But Gaiska had rendered himself useless through sheer self-destruction before Ranigus could even set the stage.
Given that, helping Gaiska now would yield nothing. That much was clear. So Ranigus discarded him without a second thought and struck up a conversation, aiming to build a rapport with Rei directly.
Of course, his interest in Gilm wasn't purely strategic. Information, no matter how trivial, could prove invaluable. And when it concerned a frontier town like Gilm, that was doubly true. It was precisely why Gilm had a Noble District, with estates maintained for visiting nobles. With Rei's party having just arrived from there, wanting to glean whatever information he could was only natural.
Building a friendly relationship with Rei also meant quicker access to useful intelligence.
Naturally, before any of that, the top priority was ensuring Rei's overwhelming strength wasn't directed at him—or the King's Faction.
(In the worst case, if his hostility has to go somewhere... let it be aimed at anyone other than my own sub-faction.)
The King's Faction, as the largest of the Three Great Factions, contained several internal sub-factions. They cooperated against the Noble's Faction and the Neutral Faction, but infighting was far from uncommon.
Having Rei's hostility directed at the King's Faction wasn't ideal, but if it came to that, he at least wanted the target to be outside his own circle.
"Did you say Gilm? Your friend there didn't seem to think much of the place."
"Ah, I'm afraid I gave you the wrong impression. Gaiska and I simply happened to arrive at the same time for our audience with Elena. We know each other by sight, but that's the extent of it. We belong to different factions. If anything, from a factional standpoint, Gaiska is the same Noble's Faction as Elena."
At the mention of the Noble's Faction, Elena's gaze naturally turned to him.
From Ranigus's perspective, driving a wedge between Rei and the Noble's Faction would be the ideal outcome—though given Rei and Elena's relationship, he didn't expect things to unfold quite so conveniently.
"Well, it is the Noble's Faction. I suppose you'd find types like that."
At Rei's words, Gaiska—who had been silent until now, or more accurately, frozen in place under Elena's pressure—snapped back to his senses.
The fact that Rei's voice alone could pull him out of it was, in its own way, remarkable.
"You... don't think you'll get away with humiliating Marquis Seisole's House. I swear I'll make you regret it."
"Wait, so am I supposed to regret it or not? Which is it? ...Look, whatever. You want to settle this right now? I'll humor you."
Rei's gaze sharpened for just a moment. It wasn't quite killing intent, and the pressure didn't match what Elena had just projected. But Gaiska knew Rei's reputation well enough to fear that he might actually be harmed.
In truth, had Gaiska accepted and a duel ensued—if it could even be called that—Rei had no intention of killing him. But he also had no intention of holding back.
Gaiska didn't train his body and couldn't begin to comprehend his opponent's strength. But even he couldn't delude himself into believing he could beat an Alias Holder.
If this kept up, he'd end up in a real duel with Rei.
That thought sent him retreating—one step, then two. But rather than fleeing outright, he turned to Elena with parting words.
"Then, Elena, I shall take my leave. Unlike a certain adventurer, I actually have matters to attend to."
It was transparently sour grapes, but the fact that he still had the nerve to deliver a parting shot spoke to a certain stubborn pride.
With that, Gaiska departed, and silence settled over the room.
In a sense, he had achieved something—disrupting the atmosphere and leaving Rei in a foul mood.
"Ah... listen, I'm sorry. Gaiska came with me, and he caused a scene. Honestly, I never expected him to go off the rails like that."
"Is that so? I was under the impression that was precisely why you brought him."
"Hahaha. Surely you jest. I'd never do such a thing. Pure coincidence."
Ranigus offered a smile without the slightest hint of unease. It was convincing enough that anyone who knew nothing of his schemes would have believed him without question. Even those who did know better were momentarily taken in.
"Well, I wonder. I suppose I'll judge that based on your conduct from here on out."
Ranigus suspected he might have miscalculated. He hadn't intended to draw this much attention to himself. The plan had been to let Gaiska absorb the spotlight while he quietly built a rapport with Rei. That scheme had fallen apart completely.
Inwardly, he seethed at Gaiska's blundering. But he could sense that Rei didn't harbor that much ill will toward him—at least not yet. Whether to call it a silver lining or simply Gaiska having done the bare minimum, it wasn't the worst possible outcome.
"May I ask—what did you make of Gilm, from Elena's perspective?"
"That's a rather blatant change of subject."
Elena flashed him a brief smile, then decided to let the matter drop. Ranigus understood her reasoning perfectly—pressing his luck now would only hurt him. He needed to move past the Gaiska incident.
Everyone in the room knew exactly what Ranigus had been aiming for. But they chose to hold it over him rather than press the point.
"Gilm, was it? Let me think. Honestly, Rei would know more—he's lived there far longer than I have."
"No, I want your perspective—how someone from the Noble's Faction views the situation in Gilm. We receive our share of reports, of course, but more information is always better."
Ordinarily, there was no reason to share what Elena of the Noble's Faction knew with Ranigus of the King's Faction. But setting aside anything particularly sensitive, general knowledge that any visitor to Gilm would have was harmless enough.
"Let me think. The first thing that struck me was the sheer vitality of the place. Likely due to the Expansion Construction, I'd say it's even more bustling than Anesis."
That wasn't to say Anesis was inferior—only that while Anesis had settled into stability, Gilm was in the throes of growth.
At Elena's words, Ranigus leaned in with evident interest.