Rei was momentarily dumbfounded by the man who had appeared in the line of his gaze before he even realized it.
He had called out for the man to show himself, but even so, he had expected him to step out from some hiding spot nearby.
Instead, the man had materialized right in front of Rei and Set the instant he was called—as though he had been invisible until that moment and had simply stopped using the ability... or as if he had teleported.
Honestly, Rei had no idea what the man had done or how. But precisely because of that, it was easy to guess that the man standing before him was the owner of the emotionless gaze he had been sensing all day.
"You're the one who's been giving me strange looks all day, aren't you?"
Rei asked, but the man didn't react. He simply stared at Rei in silence.
Naturally, Rei began to observe the man's appearance.
Age-wise, he appeared to be in his mid-twenties. His black hair hung down to his back—long enough that mistaking him for a woman wouldn't be out of the question. And yet, Rei felt certain that no one looking at this man would actually think he was female.
His build was by no means muscular. Compared to Bluitt, he probably weighed barely half as much. He was taller than Rei, but only by a little—likely somewhere in the mid-170cm range. In a world where quite a few people, starting with Bluitt, stood well over two meters tall, his height was neither short nor something that could be called tall.
His features were somewhat sharp-eyed, but by general standards, they could be described as handsome. With a face like that, he wouldn't have any trouble attracting women if he cared to.
"Gururururu."
Beside Rei, Set growled in warning—no doubt because it understood that the person before it was not to be taken lightly.
Yet even faced with Set, the man showed no sign of agitation.
What the hell is this guy? Showing zero reaction to Set... what does that mean?
Rei dropped the club he was holding. The instant its heavy thud echoed across the ground, the man vanished without any warning—as if the person who had been standing there mere seconds ago had been an illusion.
"Set! Track the scent!"
"Guru!"
At Rei's command, Set immediately activated its Sense of Smell Enhancement skill.
But after sniffing the surrounding air for about ten seconds, Set eventually turned an apologetic gaze toward Rei. One look at its expression told Rei everything he needed to know.
"I thought it might be some form of Optical Camouflage... but it wasn't?"
Among Set's skills was Optical Camouflage, which rendered it invisible to the naked eye. However, while the skill concealed its appearance, it couldn't erase the fact that Set was physically present—meaning it couldn't mask scent.
Despite that, Set had been unable to pick up the man's scent.
"Guru..."
Set gave a small, apologetic cry.
Patting Set's head, Rei puzzled over the man's behavior.
Set's Optical Camouflage can't erase scent. That's certain. Which means... it's either a superior version of Optical Camouflage, or some kind of magic or Magic Item—or something else entirely unrelated. Which is more likely? Honestly, neither option is particularly welcome. The most plausible explanation is Teleportation.
Magic Items capable of Teleportation weren't entirely nonexistent. The Bestia Empire produced them in limited quantities, and Rei had dealt with them during and before the war—an experience he'd rather not repeat.
But Teleportation came with its own constraints. As far as Rei knew, it carried various restrictions and couldn't be used freely at will.
Which means something else is far more likely...
While Rei was mulling over the man and absently petting Set, Bluitt returned with several Guards and a Knight in tow. The Guards and Knight seemed slightly hesitant—no doubt because they understood Bluitt was a noble. Of course, this being Duke Kerebel's Territory, a noble attempting a crime would still be apprehended without mercy.
"Whoa... this is..."
One of the Guards muttered involuntarily upon seeing that several of the men sprawled on the ground were no longer breathing. The scene before them was enough to startle even someone accustomed to violence. The one small mercy was that neither Rei nor Bluitt had used bladed weapons, so blood hadn't been scattered too widely across the area.
...Instead, several teeth knocked loose from the men struck by clubs littered the ground.
"Rei, glad you're safe at least. Still, getting targeted by some weirdos out of nowhere, huh?"
The voice belonged to the Knight Rei had faced several times in the mock battles. Though a Knight by rank, he was someone Rei could speak with casually, and they had developed a decent rapport.
"Yeah. Definitely didn't expect to get jumped by guys like this right after the mock battle ended."
"Ah... well, fair enough. Given your abilities, what these guys pulled was nothing short of suicide. In that sense, they brought it on themselves. ...But they were on drugs?"
He'd apparently heard that much from Bluitt already. The Knight asked Rei with a sour expression.
"Yeah. Even with their arm joints shattered, they showed zero signs of pain and just kept coming at me. If it were just one of them, I might chalk it up to willpower or some unusual constitution... but all of them? That's a stretch."
The Knight nodded in agreement.
While Rei and the Knight talked, the Guards followed the other Knight's instructions and hauled away the groaning men. The dead were left where they lay—they'd apparently decided that taking statements was the priority for now.
"Radinas, I'm taking these guys with me. Keep an eye on the bodies for a bit—I'll call for backup Guards right away!"
The Knight who'd been talking to Rei—Radinas—raised a hand in acknowledgment. Whether he had business with the other Knight or not, Bluitt also gave Rei a casual wave before leaving the scene.
"So, what's the plan?"
"What do you mean? You're the one who was asked to stay here. Don't I get to go?"
"True, but I'd like to get your account of what happened too, Rei."
"...Didn't you already hear it from Bluitt?"
Rei had figured as much, since the Knight had arrived with Bluitt. The Knight nodded but spoke anyway.
"His account is his. Yours is yours. Honestly, it's not unusual for new details to surface when you hear from multiple people."
Put that way, Rei couldn't exactly refuse. He pulled freshly baked bread from his Misty Ring and handed a piece each to Set and Radinas.
"Might as well eat while we talk."
"Yeah, appreciate it."
Watching Radinas accept the bread, Rei was suddenly reminded of a gag manga about detective dramas he'd read back in Japan. When people thought of detective dramas, the iconic scene was always the suspect eating katsudon in an interrogation room. But the manga's punchline was that in reality, the suspect was the one paying for the meal.
Of course, Rei wasn't a suspect this time—if anything, he was the victim. Though looking at the carnage spread out before them, he wondered how many people would actually recognize that.
Radinas spoke up between bites of bread.
"So, you have some idea why you were attacked."
"Oh, absolutely. If we're talking about being attacked because some noble has a grudge against me, the list is endless."
Just this trip to Anesis alone had given him plenty of suspects, and beyond that, there was no shortage of nobles he'd crossed paths with over the years who would love to see him dead. That said, Rei was already half-convinced that the man behind the attackers was the same one from earlier. There could be other possibilities, sure, but after appearing so deliberately and then claiming he had nothing to do with it? Rei found that hard to swallow.
What the hell is that guy, anyway? The possibility that someone—probably a noble—hired him to come after me is almost a certainty.
At that thought, it occurred to Rei that Radinas standing before him was a Knight. Though separate from the Guards, he was still unquestionably part of the combat power keeping Anesis safe. Maybe he'd have some idea of who the man could be.
"Actually, I know—or at least might know—the person behind this incident."
"...What?" Radinas stopped eating, his hand freezing mid-bite. He fixed his gaze on Rei. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah. But I don't have definitive proof. It's purely circumstantial."
"Still, that's better than nothing. So? What kind of person are we dealing with?"
"Before I get to that—would it be better to start with how I noticed him in the first place?"
Rather than just describing the man's features, explaining the gaze would make the whole thing more convincing. Rei asked, and after a moment's thought, Radinas nodded.
This incident wasn't simply a case of drug addicts running amok. It had happened during the festival—in the middle of a massive crowd. This was not something that could be brushed aside.
The men now littering the ground had only been subdued without major collateral damage—and it was a rough sort of subdual at that—because Rei's group had been there. If they had gone on a rampage in the middle of the festival, there would have been scores of injuries and deaths. The weapons the men carried made that abundantly clear.
Rei explained everything: the gaze he'd been sensing, how it had followed him even after the mock battle ended, how he'd noticed someone tailing Rei, Set, and Bluitt, how he'd led them to this spot, and how they'd been ambushed.
Radinas listened with understanding, though his expression carried a hint of exasperation.
"Listen. Why did you try to handle this yourself? You could have just quietly reported it to the Guards."
"Easy to say in hindsight. I didn't think anyone was after me at first. I figured Bluitt was the target."
The moment Bluitt's name left Rei's mouth, Radinas fell silent. He'd already been informed on the way here that Bluitt was a noble. If he were being honest, he couldn't fathom why a noble would wander around dressed like that without a single escort. The only reason he kept that complaint to himself was that Bluitt, despite being a troublesome sort, was unusually approachable for a noble.
"Alright... I've got the gist of it. So you're saying the one who kept watching you is behind these guys?"
"That's my guess. Otherwise, why would he go out of his way to show himself right after I took them all down?"
"Then again, you're the one who told him to come out. Couldn't it just be a coincidence?"
"It's possible. But if you think about which scenario is more likely... I think the answer speaks for itself."
Radinas couldn't argue with that. Given how neatly everything fit together, he had to concede that Rei's assessment was more plausible than his own.
"Alright. I understand the situation. So what kind of guy was he? Tell me about his appearance, and anything else that stood out."
"Appearance aside, he's definitely skilled—or at the very least, he has some kind of unusual ability. When he appeared, there was zero warning. And when he vanished, he was just gone. Even Set couldn't track his scent."
With that, Rei began describing the man's appearance in detail.