The music echoing through the hall was not particularly lavish, but it was undeniably beyond the level of mere amateurs.
Amidst that resounding music, Rei continued to dance with Elena... and eventually, the music came to an end.
It had only been a few days since Rei began learning to dance from Elena. Despite the brevity of that time, Rei's natural reflexes had already equipped him with dancing skills worthy of a seasoned practitioner.
...Of course, what Rei had learned was strictly the dancing itself. As for other party etiquette and the like, he had memorized only the bare minimum.
If Rei had been a noble, he would surely have been scolded for such behavior.
However, Rei was merely an adventurer, and no one would scrutinize his etiquette so closely.
That said, if his manners were truly atrocious, the nobles would mock him for it.
"Hmm. Regarding your dancing, I have nothing more to say. It was splendid."
Elena looked at Rei and smiled with satisfaction.
Rei nodded in agreement.
All things considered, practicing dance with Elena had been genuinely enjoyable for him.
"With the party the day after tomorrow, receiving a passing grade was cutting it close."
"Fufu, since you will be dancing with me, that much must be perfect."
Elena smiled happily, but after a moment, she spoke with a slightly apologetic look.
"In the end, I ended up dragging you into trouble, Rei."
"You mean that man?"
What came to mind at Elena's words was the man who had appeared during the commotion at the mock battle.
Since that incident, the man had taken no action whatsoever.
Whether he had no intention of acting yet, or whether there was some other reason—Rei could not say. But the man's silence was unsettling in its own way.
"Hmm. We have been using the Duke Kerebel's House intelligence network to investigate, but..."
Elena reported that no information had surfaced, and Rei shook his head, telling her not to worry.
"For the people gathering intelligence, the current situation must be extremely demanding. If that's the case, it can't be helped if they can't get to everything."
Anesis, where Noble Faction Nobles were arriving one after another, was naturally a prime location for anyone looking to cause trouble.
If so, prioritizing that front was only natural.
Should a major disturbance erupt under these circumstances, it would mean a loss of face for Duke Kerebel.
That was precisely why the underworld figures serving Duke Kerebel—those like the Prairie Wolves in Gilm—were operating in considerable haste.
Knowing these circumstances, Rei did not blame Elena.
...Furthermore, considering the eeriness of the man Rei had seen, if intelligence agents were to carelessly come into contact with him, it could well cost them their lives.
Given that the man possessed such an unsettling presence, Rei considered the current situation far from bad.
At Rei's words, Elena composed herself slightly.
"It helps to hear you say that. ...That said, while we have been unable to gather any concrete information, there is one piece of... speculative intelligence."
"Speculative precisely because you can't gather anything even when you try?"
Not understanding what Elena meant, Rei looked at her with doubt.
But before he could press further, Elena began to say something... and then abruptly stopped.
Her gaze drifted toward the musicians who had been playing for their dance just moments ago.
They were musicians in the employ of Duke Kerebel's House, but that did not mean she could carelessly discuss what she was about to say in front of them.
"Shall we move elsewhere? It would be better than speaking here."
"If you say so, I don't particularly mind."
Having no objection, Rei went along with Elena's suggestion and moved to another room.
The musicians saw Rei and Elena off without comment... but once the two had disappeared, they exchanged quiet words.
"Hey, those two... you think they're actually in that kind of relationship? Honestly, from watching them dance, it definitely looked that way."
"I think so too. But... Lady Elena is a duke's daughter, right? Wouldn't that make it a romance across class lines? Kyaa!"
"Even so. That guy is Rei, the one who won every match at the mock battle during the festival, right? They'll probably break up in the end."
One of the musicians said this with a hint of hostility toward Rei—likely because he had lost a bet on the very mock battle he had just mentioned.
It was not a large sum, but taking a loss was naturally unpleasant all the same.
The others knew this as well, and the looks they directed at the man were cold.
The woman in particular, who had been imagining—or perhaps fantasizing about—Rei and Elena's romantic relationship, fixed him with a gaze colder than the winter air outside.
Surrounded by such stares, the man had plenty he wanted to say... but in the end, he said nothing more and averted his eyes.
While the musicians discussed Rei and Elena's relationship, the two of them were in a room a short distance from the one where they had been practicing dance.
There was an off chance, however slim, that what they were about to discuss could not be allowed to reach the musicians... or any third party.
Without either of them saying much, a silence filled the room—so profound that the atmosphere from their dance just moments ago seemed like a lie.
Elena appeared to hesitate for a few seconds over how to broach the topic, but eventually she opened her mouth as if steeling her resolve.
"The truth is, for several years now, an assassin has been operating in Anesis. That man... or perhaps woman, I cannot say. But in any case, where this assassin came from is completely unknown. It is even possible they did not come from elsewhere at all, and are originally from Anesis."
"...And you are saying that is the one I saw? If so, it is definitely not a woman. Well, they could be deliberately altering their physique, so I can't say for certain..."
Even so, Rei was certain that the person he had seen was unmistakably male.
He had no decisive proof of any kind, but that was simply how he felt.
"Yes. This is assuming the person Rei saw is that assassin... Black Wolf."
"Black Wolf. So that's the name."
The person Rei saw might not have been Black Wolf, but he stated it as a fact.
Seeing Rei's demeanor, Elena must have understood that pressing further would be futile. She said nothing more about the person Rei had encountered and continued her explanation.
"What we know at present is only that they are strong. At the very least, there are only... a handful of people who have fought Black Wolf and survived."
"Well, if even a handful survived, wouldn't that tell you what kind of person Black Wolf is? Like their appearance, for instance."
"They are an assassin. Unfortunately, they apparently never reveal their face, and since no one has ever exchanged words with them, we don't even know if they are a man or a woman."
"Ah... I see."
Put that way, Rei was convinced.
If an assassin revealed their face, that alone would make it far easier for information to spread.
Under normal circumstances, they would never do such a thing.
The one I saw was definitely not someone you could call ordinary, though.
That observing gaze, devoid of any emotion, and that unfathomable aura.
He was not someone who could be called ordinary by any stretch.
"Still, I believe the man I encountered is that Black Wolf."
He had no evidence to speak of, but Rei declared it with certainty.
Elena, too, seemed to understand that Rei's intuition was reliable, and she did not object.
Of course, that was not because she completely believed him... but also because it would be easier to act on various fronts if she treated the person Rei had encountered as Black Wolf.
No matter what one did, having the enemy's identity remain unknown made everything more difficult.
If that was the case, then even if the opponent was undeniably formidable, it was better to assume they were Black Wolf.
Above all, Rei knew that overestimating rather than underestimating would prevent hesitation in a critical moment—and that counted for a great deal.
"If you say so, Rei, then we should treat it as such. After all, the only one who saw this person is you... no, you and Set, which means the only reliable senses are yours. But be careful. If the person Rei saw truly is Black Wolf..."
"I know. That said, Black Wolf is an assassin, right? In a head-on fight, I don't intend to lose."
So Rei said, but given that the opponent was an assassin, a head-on fight was fundamentally out of the question.
Assassins were those who accomplished their work by exploiting the openings of targets going about their daily lives.
"You should abandon the notion of fighting an assassin head-on. Those people are extremely troublesome."
"...You say that as if you have experience."
"Hmm. I may not look it, but I have turned the tables on assassins many times."
Elena said this with a slightly confident expression, though normally, being targeted by assassins was not something one could boast about at all.
Then again, Elena is called the Princess General. To someone out there, she must have been an obstacle.
As if reading Rei's thoughts, Elena continued.
"In any case, I have been targeted by several assassins over the years, but none of them ever launched a frontal attack."
"What methods were most common?"
"Some tried to poison my meals, some attacked while I was bathing, and others struck while I was sleeping. A rather unusual case was someone who participated in a war as a soldier and tried to catch me off guard with poison needles."
"...'Whoa' is the only word that comes to mind. You've been attacked by assassins far more than I imagined."
Rei, who had not expected things to be quite that dire, wore a genuinely disturbed expression.
But in contrast to his reaction, Elena nodded without appearing particularly bothered.
"Given my position, that cannot be helped. Besides, while that may have been the case in the past, the current me is beyond what some ordinary assassin could hope to touch."
Elena's words carried strong conviction, and Rei could not help but agree.
Having inherited the Magic Stone of the Ancient Dragon, Elena was no longer simply human—she had become something beyond human.
Even an assassin considered first-rate would be insufficient.
A first-rate beyond first-rate... someone who could be called truly superlative might be able to fight Elena on even terms, but assassins of that caliber were naturally few in number.
...Amidst all that, the fact that the assassin known as Black Wolf possessed exactly that kind of superlative ability struck Elena as a kind of irony.
"In my case, I'm not much good at noticing those fine details... but as long as Set is with me, I feel like I can handle most things somehow."
"With Set, there is no need to worry about that. That much is certain."
Elena had spent a fair amount of time with Set as well.
Because of that, she understood from the bottom of her heart just how reliable he was.
"That said, while it might be fine during camping, you can't always be with Set in town, can you? At an inn, for instance, Set would be in the stables."
"Knowing Set, it could probably sense my danger even from the stables."
It was a casual remark from Rei, but to Elena, who knew of the connection between Rei and Set, she could not take it as a joke.
In truth, Rei and Set were bound together through Beast Magic.
If either one fell into danger, it would not be strange for the other to sense it.
"Even so. If something were to happen to you, it would not be just me. Marina and Vihera would grieve as well."
"...I know. I'm not going to get killed so easily. Besides, the one targeting me is Black Wolf, right? Then I suspect they will likely attack head-on."
Rei had been told various things about assassins, but thinking back on the suspected Black Wolf he had encountered at the materials storage area, he had a feeling that when the time came, it would be a frontal confrontation.
It was a prediction without any basis, but Rei was fairly certain it was correct.
And if it did come to a head-on fight, he had absolute confidence that he would not lose.
In fact, Rei had produced results that justified such a claim, and Elena had no choice but to acknowledge at least that much.
Of course, that did not make it any less impossible to stop worrying about Rei, who was likely being targeted by Black Wolf.
"Come to think of it, if this Black Wolf is targeting me, that means someone contacted Black Wolf, right? And yet the people of Duke Kerebel's House can't get in touch with them?"
"Unfortunately, no. Whether it is due to Black Wolf's power or something else entirely, those who attempted to make contact and probe for information ultimately failed to reach Black Wolf.... The fact that they were not killed is the one small mercy, at least."
Feeling both relief that those serving Duke Kerebel's House had been spared death and frustration at having been completely dismissed, Elena wore a complicated expression.