Of the nearly ten adventurers gathered in front of the earth wall, the one who had confronted Rei ultimately found himself unable to say another word.
Confirming as much, Rei decided that any further involvement would be a waste of time and set about inspecting the earth wall alongside Set.
The adventurers still present seemed to have plenty they wanted to say to the man and his gryphon, but they likely sensed they were being ignored. Without another word, they fell silent.
In truth, not all of them harbored complaints against Rei. Some were genuinely grateful that he had built the wall. But after the exchange they had just witnessed, none of them dared speak up. Offering words of thanks to Rei here would only risk drawing the ire of those who resented him.
"Hmm… From what I can see, there's no particular problem. But the fact that a few Cobolts have still gotten through means they've probably found some way over."
The wall stood three meters high. Given that an ordinary Cobolt couldn't scale it so easily, the ones that had made it over were either not ordinary Cobolts, or they had resorted to methods like using their peers as stepping stones.
Considering the Cobolts that gave those adventurers trouble yesterday, even ordinary ones could be smart enough if they're veterans—ones that have survived long enough. If only that type is making it through, that's a hassle in its own right.
With that thought, Rei stood atop the earth wall and peered over the other side.
Several Cobolts were struggling to climb it, failing each time.
If it had been a plain earth wall, they might have managed to claw their way over. But this wall had been frozen solid by Mail and Marina's Spirit Magic—reinforced to the point where Cobolt claws could barely leave a scratch.
"Well, even so… I can't have them getting through. Flying Slash!"
Retrieving Death Scythe from his Misty Ring, he activated the Flying Slash skill. The released slash severed a Cobolt's torso with effortless ease, and he followed up with several more. Every Cobolt in front of the wall was bisected—cut clean from top to bottom—and killed instantly.
On the Gilm side of the wall, the gathered adventurers could only stare at Rei's display in stunned silence.
From his demeanor alone, they could roughly guess what he had done. And understanding that they could never replicate such a feat, they found themselves utterly incapable of saying a word to him.
They had been shown an overwhelming gap in power.
The man who had openly vented his frustrations about the wall was trembling—his legs shaking, his voice gone. He could kill Cobolts, yes. But Rei was an existence he could never defeat. That realization had drained every last word from him.
Rei paid the men no particular notice. He left the scene with Set, who had been scanning the surroundings on alert.
"Like I said earlier, if you want to earn money, join the Gigant Turtle dissection. The pay is decent, and you get a share of the meat. Sell it and you'll fetch a good price. It's premium stuff—honestly, you'd be fine eating it yourself."
A few of those standing by the wall reflexively looked up at those words. But Rei didn't linger. He and Set walked away.
"Hah? A wall made of earth? And it's keeping Cobolts out of Gilm… Is that for real?"
"Yes. Without a doubt. That's why the Cobolts are heading toward the Gigant Turtle instead."
Faced with such an unexpected outcome, the man who heard the report scratched his head in irritation.
Watching his superior's reaction, the reporting man kept as still as possible, careful not to do anything that might displease him. He understood perfectly well that the person before him could kill someone of his stature without a second thought.
The head-scratching, in particular, was one of this man's telltale signs of genuine anger. To avoid fueling that fury, silence was his only option until his superior chose to speak.
How much time passed in that tense silence? In reality, not that long—but to the man locked in a state of extreme tension, it felt like an hour had crawled by.
So when his superior finally stopped scratching and turned his gaze toward him, the reporting man felt half relief and half dread—relief that the silence had broken, and fear over whether he himself would escape this encounter unscathed.
"Hey. The Red Cloth guys—there's still a decent number of them left in Gilm, right?"
The words that came out of his superior's mouth were the last thing the reporting man expected. He had been certain he was about to be dressed down over the earth wall.
The question caught him so off guard that he stumbled for words—and in the next instant, a wooden plate that had held nuts came slicing through the air and slammed into his head.
"Gyah!"
"Shut up! I'm asking you a question, so answer it!"
"S-sorry. Um…"
Fortunately, the plate was wooden. It cracked on impact against his face rather than slicing into his skin. Even so, the blow sent a sharp burst of pain through him. Clutching his face, he scrambled to speak before another attack came.
"Y-yes! Some of them have left Gilm, and others were caught by the guards. But aside from the sacrifice candidates, we still have a decent number secured!"
"…Tch. Just a decent number. Did I overuse them as sacrifices? Well, what they lack in soul quality, we'll just have to make up for in quantity."
Popping a few of the nuts that had spilled from the plate into his mouth and crunching them, he considered the best course of action.
Since he was the one running this operation, he'd rather not borrow anyone else's help. If things were truly hopeless, that would be one thing—but they hadn't reached that point yet.
In the first place, what the hell is with souls so low-grade they can only summon Cobolts? Damn it! And for reasons I can't even begin to fathom, hardly any of the summoned ones come all the way into the city. If they were at least slightly higher-rank monsters, I'd have options…
Just thinking about it made irritation flare through him, but even he recognized that blowing up now would accomplish nothing. Dealing with the earth wall took priority. At the very least, he could pat himself on the back for the foresight of keeping the Red Cloth members on hand as usable pawns.
"Tch. I was planning to save those bastards for when we actually needed sacrifices. …Well, fine. Even looking into Crimson's abilities—Cobolt-level fodder won't serve that purpose. Can't be helped. Consider it harassment at the very least. Use whatever Red Cloth members we can mobilize and have them destroy that earth wall."
The sharp, expectant glare that accompanied those words left the reporting man with only one possible response: a nod. If he carelessly pushed back here, the next thing flying at him might not be a plate but a dagger.
"U-understood! It's just… the number of adventurers at the expansion construction site has already thinned out, so sending too many people would stand out. How many should I send?"
"Hah? …Right. Depends on how sturdy this earth wall is. But it's one Crimson made, right? One or two won't mean a thing. Send twenty."
"Um, I really think that would stand out—"
"Who cares, idiot. Those guys are garbage that couldn't even cut it as sacrifices. Besides… there's nothing linking them back to us, right? So even if they get caught, just chalk it up to taking out the trash."
Calling even those who might be called comrades—no, pawns—"garbage" and discarding them without a second thought. It wasn't as if the reporting man felt nothing at all. But if asked which mattered more, his own life or the Red Cloth members, he would of course answer his own. Given that, he couldn't voice any objection here. Doing so might well result in being told to go destroy the earth wall himself.
"Understood. I'll arrange it immediately. …Ah, should I just pick and hand out weapons at my discretion?"
"Right. Can't destroy a wall without weapons."
The two continued their exchange, but there were things neither of them knew. Their understanding, for one, was that the earth wall was solely Rei's creation. The fact that Marina and Mail had used Spirit Magic to soak it in water and freeze it solid as reinforcement—very few people knew that, so the misconception was only natural.
Whether the Red Cloth members could truly destroy something that barely showed a scratch even under Cobolt claws was another matter entirely. Had they known the truth, they would likely have taken a different approach. But since no one had actually witnessed the Spirit Magic being cast, the gap in understanding was unavoidable.
Granted, knowing Rei had created the wall with magic should have at least hinted that it was no ordinary earth wall.
"Understood. I'll equip them with plenty of axes—high destructive power. Also, once the wall is destroyed, there's a chance the Cobolts on the other side will attack. Is it acceptable to proceed on the assumption that those sent to destroy it will die?"
"Yeah. I keep those useless bastards around for exactly this kind of thing. …Tch. I had them do all that petty crime, and that's the quality of soul they produce. Truly, a thoroughly useless bunch."
Seeing his superior growing irritated even at his own words, the reporting man hurriedly spoke up. If the man spiraled into rage on his own, the one who'd bear the fallout would be him. The words that followed were born of an absolute desire to avoid that.
"If you think of it as the Cobolts disposing of them for us, isn't that fine? Besides, if the wall gets destroyed and those people are killed by Cobolts, it'll also tarnish Crimson's reputation as the one who built it."
"Hmph. Right."
Saying only that, the man glanced toward the door. That alone was enough for the reporting man to understand what was expected. He bowed his head.
"Then I'll have the Red Cloth members destroy the earth wall immediately. …By the way, what should I do if any of them survive after destroying it?"
Destroying the wall would almost certainly draw a Cobolt pack's attack. But the Red Cloth members, for all their faults, had at least enough competence to have made it to Gilm. In truth, most of them had simply slipped in among the massive influx of workers heading to Gilm for the expansion construction and arrived without incident. Regardless, among the Red Cloth—even among those who hadn't been selected as sacrifices—it wasn't uncommon for individuals to possess enough skill to fell a Cobolt.
That was why he asked. But the look his superior gave him in return was one of pure irritation.
"Those guys are already spent. That type of crowd, you can gather as many as you want whenever you feel like it. In other words… you follow?"
Being told you follow?, there was no way he could claim otherwise. And with a precise understanding of what those words meant, the only option left to him was to nod.
"Understood. I'll dispose of them."
"Do it. They shouldn't know anything about us, but given that they've had some degree of contact with our operation, we can't rule out the possibility they're carrying some kind of information. …Tch. Next time you gather people, find ones with better souls."
Easy enough to say. But what kind of soul a person actually had was something you couldn't know until you used them as a sacrifice. With ones like the Red Cloth members still remaining—the ones about to be killed, who clearly couldn't serve as proper sacrifices—judgment could be made to a certain degree. But beyond that, it was a gamble.
"Um… I'll do my utmost."
If he answered understood and the next batch turned out to be useless, he had no idea what his superior would do to him. But if he said he couldn't do it, he'd likely be killed on the spot. Caught between those two fates, the only thing the man could say was that he would try his hardest. Nothing more.
…Even in an organization hostile to Gilm, the sorrows of middle management endured.