One of the knights dispatched by Marquis Seisole's House on this mission—the one who had spoken with Elena—felt a wave of relief upon hearing that the soldiers had finally managed to enter the house.
Marquis Seisole was by no means cold or ruthless. Even so, it was only natural that he favored those with ability—those who properly carried out the orders they were given.
Because of that, this mission was both a prime opportunity for career advancement and one in which he absolutely could not afford to fail.
...It was a rather difficult assignment: capture the person who had abducted Gaiska and secure Gaiska himself.
After struggling through countless hardships alongside a fellow knight entrusted with the same mission, he had nonetheless managed to get the soldiers inside the house.
The situation was far from one where he could declare the mission a success on that alone, but breaking into the house was undeniably a step forward—no, more than a step—toward accomplishing their objective.
(The one and biggest problem is...)
With that thought, the knight surveyed his surroundings.
The forces currently surrounding the house were not limited to those of Marquis Seisole's House, himself included. Soldiers of Duke Kerebel's House, which governed Anesis, were also present.
And Rei, Elena, and Ara had already stormed inside the house.
At that point, it would not have been surprising for the mission to be considered largely a failure. It would not have been surprising, but... even so, there was no way the knights could do anything against two Alias Holders, let alone the Daughter of Duke Kerebel.
He had hoped that they were still lost inside the house, or perhaps had not yet found Gaiska. But in the next moment, the soldiers gathered around the entrance were sent flying spectacularly.
It looked as though they had been blown out from inside the house. For a moment, he wondered if the traps had only stopped activating outside and the ones inside were still active.
That suspicion crossed his mind, but upon seeing the figure who had blown the soldiers aside and emerged from the entrance, he was struck by an even worse premonition than before.
The person who appeared while sending the soldiers of Marquis Seisole's House flying head-on was the same one the knight had seen earlier—Rei.
No, it was not just Rei. Elena and Ara came bursting out from behind him.
And the expressions on their faces were ones of sheer desperation.
If it were merely some random monster appearing, skilled fighters like Rei and Elena would never wear such expressions.
That was proof that something had happened inside the house—something that even the likes of Rei and Elena had to flee from in desperation.
"Evacuate, evacuate! Everyone, get out of the house's grounds!"
At the knight's immediate shout, the soldiers within the grounds promptly moved outside.
Perhaps due to the severity of their daily training, there was no hesitation in the soldiers' movements.
Had they been poorly trained soldiers, they would not have understood why they were suddenly being ordered to leave the grounds, and they would have frozen in confusion.
The fact that Marquis Seisole's House held considerable influence even within the Noble's Faction was largely due to their soldiers being this elite.
"What's happening!?"
Having apparently heard the evacuation order, the knight's colleagues came gathering over.
But before the knight could say anything in response, the reason became clear.
Roughly ten-odd seconds after Rei and his group came bursting out of the entrance, cracks spread across the entire house.
In reality, it was not the house itself that cracked but the very space the house stood upon—but the knights had no composure to confirm that carefully.
They did not understand what had happened or how, but there was one thing they did know: something was occurring that even those who bore aliases like Crimson and the Princess General had to flee from.
"We're pulling back too, for now!"
When the knight who had shouted the evacuation order announced this, his fellow knights offered no objection and simply nodded.
They did not know what had happened, but they understood clearly that it was beyond their ability to handle.
"Everyone, not just the grounds—get as far away as possible! It's dangerous!"
The knight shouted, and the others not only exited the grounds as instructed but put as much distance between themselves and the house as they could manage.
Naturally, the soldiers of Duke Kerebel's House who had been watching this exchange also pulled back, just like the soldiers of Marquis Seisole's House.
The fact that Rei, Elena, and Ara had been shouting to get as far from the house as possible surely played a large part as well.
Set, who had been keeping watch on the situation from the sky, and Ielo, who had been riding on his back, also descended to the ground, sensing that something must have happened.
And then, just as the cracks that had appeared in space seemed to spread across the entire grounds, in the next moment, without a single sound—as if a sand castle were swallowed by the sea—the house vanished.
What exactly had happened, no one could say. Even Rei and Elena, who had destroyed the Flesh Cocoon, did not understand what had occurred or how it had come to this.
The only thing that was clear amid all of it was that they had not been caught up in what could only be called a spatial collapse—and that Celestan's house itself had been completely annihilated.
It was no metaphor. Where Celestan's house had once stood, there was now nothing at all.
In the ground, perhaps as a result of the house's disappearance, a large crater-like hole had opened up, but that was all that remained.
'...'
Faced with a scene that could only be described as sudden, no one could utter a word.
Those who had stormed into the house were likely the most shaken.
Fortunately, the soldiers Rei had slammed into were sent flying clear of the entrance by the momentum and half-instinctively scrambled outside the grounds.
Those who had dodged Rei's charge inside the house also survived, thanks to fleeing the moment they saw the cracks appear in space.
Having narrowly escaped death in the truest sense, some were flooded with relief at having survived, while others could not even comprehend why they had been spared.
Even so, as the realization settled in the darkness that their lives had been saved, everyone gradually felt relief—and then the next question arose: what had actually happened?
Naturally, many wanted to know what had occurred and how things had come to this, but the only ones who might know were Rei, Elena, and Ara—the three who had entered the house—making it impossible to ask.
Even so, for the knights in charge of this incident, gathering information to report to their superiors was a necessity.
The knights pushed the task onto one another, and ultimately, since the knight who had spoken with Elena was an acquaintance, it was forcibly foisted upon him.
That knight walked toward the three, who were discussing something, with a tentative, cautious demeanor.
"Excuse me, Lady Elena. Could you tell me what happened inside the house? I need to report to my superiors..."
At the knight's words, Elena appeared to hesitate for a moment.
She was not trying to hide what had happened—she was simply unsure how to explain it.
There was much about the Flesh Cocoon that even Elena did not understand. In fact, it would be fair to say there was less she understood than what she did not.
"Regarding the details, unfortunately, even I do not know. However... inside that house, there was a monster or something that had been sealed in the past, and it possessed the power to manipulate space. As a result of destroying it, that power likely ran wild or something of the sort."
"...I see. So that is what happened."
The knight could not claim to have fully understood everything from Elena's words, but he offered his agreement, thinking he would at least hear the key details through to the end.
And then he asked about the person who mattered most to him.
"So then, um... was Lord Gaiska not inside the house?"
In the first place, a major reason Marquis Seisole's House had deployed forces here was to rescue the abducted Gaiska.
Indeed, even in the orders given to the knights, Gaiska's rescue was the top priority.
Of course, seeing as the house had vanished entirely, the mission to rescue Gaiska was a complete failure.
Given that, it was only natural to want to gather at least some information for the report to his superiors.
"He was there. However... by the time I saw him, Gaiska was already in a state where it was difficult to say he was still alive. Well, considering that he managed to take revenge on Celestan, who had done this to him, perhaps some shred of self-awareness still remained."
"Um, about that... could I ask for a bit more detail about exactly what the situation was?"
At the knight's words, Elena hesitated for a moment over whether to mention the Flesh Cocoon, but decided that this matter could not be concealed forever. More importantly, since all evidence had vanished along with the house, there was no harm in speaking of it.
"Mhm. I do not know the reason, but Gaiska was embedded in something that could be called a Flesh Cocoon."
With that, she began explaining the situation regarding Gaiska to the knight.
Of course, she had not told him everything—only what concerned Gaiska.
Hearing this, the knight's expression became something indescribable—a complicated, subtle look.
It was only natural. For Marquis Seisole's House, Gaiska was an existence that could be called a source of constant trouble.
He had done things to tarnish the name of Marquis Seisole's House countless times, and each time they had scrambled to keep it from becoming public.
But even so, Gaiska still carried the bloodline of Marquis Seisole's House, and that was surely why the knight felt so many conflicting emotions about the matter.
In contrast to Gaiska, when the topic turned to Deotres, the knight's expression turned stern.
Unlike Gaiska, Deotres was recognized as a clear traitor.
"I see. Both Lord Gaiska and Deotres... thank you."
Elena was bewildered by the words of gratitude that came from the knight's mouth.
Was it for what she had recounted about Gaiska's end, for killing the traitor Deotres, or something else entirely—or perhaps all of it?
While Elena was still bewildered, the knight bowed and took his leave.
For the knight, he had at least obtained the necessary information for now, and he likely needed to inform his superiors as quickly as possible.
As Elena watched the knight go, Rei tapped her shoulder, bringing her back to herself.
"Well then, what do we do now? ...The outcome turned out quite different from what we initially expected."
"Did it? It's true that things escalated more than anticipated, but I think it's fair to say we achieved our minimum objectives. ...Celestan's death was somewhat unexpected, though."
In the sense of exacting retribution for targeting Rei, a guest of Duke Kerebel's House, this incident was a great success—well, perhaps not quite that far, but it could certainly be called a success.
Additionally, in terms of weakening Marquis Seisole's House's influence, considering that such a disturbance had been caused in Anesis, and above all that Deotres had been cooperating with Celestan, there was no issue here either.
And as for deterring and intimidating the underworld organizations that Celestan had presumably been leading, the complete annihilation of the house itself was a success beyond compare.
There were complications—Celestan possessing what appeared to be some kind of sealed monster, and Gaiska having been offered as a sacrifice to it—but looking at results alone, things were not nearly as bad as they could have been.
"Is that so? ...Still, what exactly was the relationship between Celestan and Black Wolf in the end? It didn't seem like Celestan viewed Black Wolf as a disposable tool, either."
"Regarding that information..."
Elena paused mid-sentence and turned her gaze toward where the destroyed house had been.
By the moonlight, the bonfires the knights of Marquis Seisole's House had lit, and above all with the Night Vision that Elena and Rei possessed, they could clearly see the site that could only be called ruins. But in the end, she could say nothing more.
On that matter alone, it remained a complete mystery.
The only potential clue was the documents that Rei, Elena, and Ara had carried out with them when they escaped.