They had come to destroy the earth wall.
That was what they told him, but Rei showed no particular surprise.
After all, just looking at the Red Cloth members standing before him, it wasn't hard to guess they had come to destroy the earth wall.
The fact that most of them held axes of the kind a woodcutter would use rather than proper weapons was enough to imagine they had come to break something.
"I see. The earth wall. Though if I may say so... the earth wall I built isn't an ordinary one. It's made with magic. Honestly, no matter how hard you all try, destroying it is next to impossible. In fact, even when Cobolts scratch at it, it barely leaves a mark."
"That's..."
Even though they had announced their intention to destroy the earth wall, the Red Cloth members were surprised that Rei wasn't angry.
They had been thoroughly convinced they would be beaten down on the spot—and depending on how things went, losing a limb or two wouldn't have been unusual.
"Hey! Why the hell aren't you pissed?!"
If anything, it was the group of about ten who got angry on Rei's behalf—the same man who had complained when Rei went to inspect the earth wall.
"Why? It's a fact that people of this caliber can't destroy the earth wall. And even if it did get destroyed for some reason, I'd just build it again. That's all."
He said it casually.
As though he were saying that if a sandcastle on the side of the road got knocked over, you just needed to gather more sand and rebuild it.
What dumbfounded those words was not the Red Cloth men... but the group that had actually seen the earth wall with their own eyes.
That earth wall, which completely cut off the outside of Gilm from the inside, was something that even an amateur could tell would take considerable effort to build.
Because of that, they never expected such words to come from Rei's mouth.
In truth, actually building the earth wall wasn't all that difficult if Rei used Death Scythe's Terrain Manipulation skill.
Soaking it with water and freezing it to reinforce its durability took some effort, but even that could be done right away if they called Marina.
...Normally, hiring a Spirit Magic user of Marina's caliber would cost a fair amount of money. But since she was a party member, she helped out in the spirit of simply pitching in.
At any rate, with just Rei and Marina, the earth wall could be finished in under an hour.
Precisely because he knew that, Rei said it so casually. But to the men who had no idea how Rei had built the earth wall, their honest feeling was: "What the hell is this guy talking about?"
"Still, well..."
Several men tried to speak, but Rei opened his mouth as if to cut them off, letting killing intent slowly seep out.
It wasn't as if the Red Cloth men could sense that killing intent, but they fell silent as if overpowered by Rei's gaze.
"No matter how quickly it can be fixed, having something destroyed is never a pleasant feeling. But putting that aside for now—if you're Red Cloth, there's something I wanted to ask you."
At Rei's attitude, the Red Cloth men unconsciously retreated a few steps.
They couldn't sense the killing intent he was giving off, but they were still pushed back by an inexplicable pressure.
"W-What is it?"
"Considering you were trying to destroy the earth wall, you must be involved in the Cobolt incident somehow. For instance, using some kind of Magic Item to lure Cobolts into Gilm."
The existence of a Magic Item that attracted Cobolts was purely Rei's conjecture—no, it would be more accurate to call it a hunch or wishful thinking.
He himself thought it was a stretch, but now that the Red Cloth members had actually appeared before him, it was a different story.
Magic Item aside, the likelihood that the Red Cloth were involved in the Cobolt incident had become extremely high.
However... what came from the mouth of the Red Cloth man Rei questioned were entirely unexpected words.
"Huh? The Cobolt incident... why would I be involved?"
If he had been trying to deflect, Rei would have seen through it.
Even if he was a skilled liar who could deceive Rei's eyes, it was impossible for every single Red Cloth member present to manage the same.
But the man showed genuine bewilderment, and every Red Cloth member there wore the same expression.
It was no joke—it was proof that they had absolutely no idea what Rei was talking about.
(Huh? Wait... They really have nothing to do with it? But then why did they come to destroy the earth wall?)
Under Rei's gaze, the Red Cloth men exchanged glances with one another.
They didn't understand what Rei was saying, but judging from the situation, they decided it was best not to say anything careless.
Rei, receiving those looks, pondered with lingering doubts.
(These guys aren't involved in the Cobolt incident? But then... no, wait. Come to think of it, they said they didn't come here on their own—they were told to destroy the earth wall, right? In other words...)
The pressure from Rei's gaze intensified, and he spoke again.
"You came to destroy the earth wall because someone told you to, right? Who told you?"
He returned to that point.
That the Red Cloth were uninvolved in the Cobolt incident was clear from what he had just seen.
Then what about the person who ordered the earth wall's destruction?
Anyone who went out of their way to issue such an order had to have a reason.
It wouldn't be strange at all to assume that person was involved in the Cobolt incident.
(And if the people here haven't been told anything, then they're nothing more than expendable pawns. Though the possibility that the Red Cloth were pawns from the start is high enough.)
Thinking along those lines, Rei waited for their response, but the Red Cloth men showed no sign of answering.
A few exchanged glances, but that was all.
Their behavior seemed to ask "What do we do?" and Rei felt a flicker of irritation at that attitude.
"What's wrong? Is who gave the order something you can't tell me? Let me be clear: depending on your answer, what happens to you from here will be decided. Act with that understanding."
So Rei declared, though in truth, since he hadn't caught them in the act of destroying the earth wall, he had no real right to do anything to them.
At most, he could hand them over to the Guards as Former Red Cloth.
But the Red Cloth men knew full well what kind of person Rei was, and on top of that, they were currently feeling something like a strange oppressive pressure from him.
In reality it was a faint killing intent, but none among the Red Cloth possessed the strength to perceive that.
"T-That's..."
"Hey, w-wait, is it really okay to tell?!"
One of the Red Cloth, unable to endure the tension of facing Rei, had begun to speak, but the man beside him said this in alarm.
It was obvious that the party who had employed them was no ordinary sort. It was only natural to fear that speaking up might lead to something terrible later.
But for the man who had been about to talk, if asked which was more frightening—the party who might retaliate in the future, or Rei standing before him right now—the answer was overwhelmingly the latter.
And above all else...
"The one who hired us and gave us orders was just a go-between, an errand runner. We've never seen the people who actually employ us. And... our comrades have been disappearing one by one..."
The man's words—and particularly the part about comrades disappearing—clearly resonated with the others as well.
Even those who had been shooting the first speaker looks of dissatisfaction fell silent.
"Comrades disappearing? You don't mean something simple like they were caught by the Guards or decided they couldn't stick with you anymore and slipped away?"
"Y-Yeah. We'd been talking just fine yesterday, and then they were gone before we knew it. That kind of thing has happened again and again."
The desperate look on the man's face didn't seem like he was lying or making things up.
It was obvious he was speaking from the bottom of his heart.
(People disappearing, huh. I have no idea how the Red Cloth have been living all this time, but from the sound of it, were they all living together? Well, it's not like I can't imagine that.)
Even if each individual incident was minor, they had been causing disturbances daily. No, more than daily.
When that happens, even if they're wearing highly conspicuous red cloth, it wouldn't be strange for someone to look past the cloth and recognize the people underneath.
In fact, the man who had complained to Rei in front of the earth wall had remembered the Red Cloth's faces.
Given that, the Red Cloth members certainly couldn't have gone walking around freely.
Especially in Gilm right now. Being winter, there weren't people coming from other towns or leaving for them. Well, that wasn't entirely true, but the flow of people inevitably shrank.
Even so, the Expansion Construction meant there were more people than a typical year, but even then, someone would definitely have noticed the Red Cloth members.
"I see. That means you were all living together to some extent. Then what about food and supplies? Was that provided by whoever hired you?"
"Yeah."
By this point, they must have decided that no flimsy excuse would work anymore.
When the man who had first tried to confess spoke up, no one tried to stop him.
"Then is the person who brought the food not here? If it's them, they'd at least understand the situation better, wouldn't they?"
Rei asked, but the Red Cloth man shook his head.
"There is someone like that, but they're not here. It's not like we all came together."
"Then who's leading you?"
The Red Cloth had few members willing to follow others. Most were strong-willed individuals.
When such people gathered, fights would naturally break out, yet there was no sign of that now.
...Of course, it was possible that before a fight could break out, they had already gotten into an argument with the group Rei encountered in front of the earth wall.
At any rate, Rei pressed them, saying there must be someone serving as their leader, and the Red Cloth members—including the man who had been speaking—all turned their gazes toward a single man.
Surprisingly, it was a man who showed nothing particularly conspicuous among the Red Cloth.
But upon noticing that every eye around him... and Rei's gaze had settled on him, he took one step forward.
Strangely, that single step seemed to magnify the man's presence.
In fact, the others around him naturally shifted aside to clear a path.
"A pleasure to meet you. I am the one nominally leading these individuals. My name is Glanje."
The courteous way he bowed was clearly different from the other men—something even Rei could discern.
"Just to confirm—are you a member of the Red Cloth? Or are you a member of the side that hired them?"
"That's... a difficult question, to be honest. To be specific, I suppose you could say I'm somewhere in between."
In between? Rei wondered, but prompted Glanje with his gaze to continue.
Glanje, for his part, must have judged that any misstep here would result in capture by Rei... or perhaps something far worse.
Showing no particular sign of hiding anything, he continued his explanation.
"First, let me be clear: I am not a member of the Red Cloth. I was hired separately and instructed to ensure that these people carry out their work properly in this matter."
Looking at Glanje as he said this, one could somewhat accept his words.
As far as Rei knew, every member of the Red Cloth had a rough disposition, and none spoke with such refined language.
Since he didn't know every single person among the Red Cloth, it was possible that someone like this existed within their ranks.
But it was only Rei who found Glanje's words convincing. The other Red Cloth men shot Glanje looks of sheer disbelief.
(None of them had ever seen him before, yet no one had ever said a word about it. Did that mean the Red Cloth were sheltered by their employer but never gathered in one place?)
Under Rei's questioning gaze... the man continued to wear a calm smile, without the slightest concern for his surroundings.