Gran left Rei with a distinctly unfavorable impression.
The man had tried to keep his presence as inconspicuous as possible while attempting to have the Red Cloth men destroy the earth wall.
That alone was irksome, but what really got under Rei's skin was the way Gran treated the Red Cloth men under his command as mere pawns.
"Well, I get that you're not actually one of the Red Cloth, nor are you the one who hired them. But that doesn't change the fact that you're my enemy, does it? So tell me—standing in front of me under these circumstances, what exactly do you plan to do?"
"Gruu."
Perhaps sensing Rei's irritation, Set let out an unpleasant growl as it regarded the Red Cloth men.
Ordinarily, Gilm's residents would describe Set as having round, innocent eyes, and its charm endeared it to many. But that warmth was reserved only for those who doted on it.
Face-to-face with an enemy, its demeanor naturally shifted to match.
And the men formerly belonging to the Red Cloth—they were no longer active as such, so "formerly belonged to" was probably more accurate—were not particularly strong adventurers to begin with.
If anything, most of them had probably dropped out of the adventurer life partway through.
While they might not be able to grasp Rei's true strength, facing Set as it was now—visibly ferocious at a glance—they naturally recoiled.
Yet even in that situation, Gran maintained his smile, silently watching Rei.
"You ask what I plan to do... well, let's see. Now that you've found me, destroying the earth wall is out of the question. In that case, would it be possible for me to simply leave quietly, and you overlook this? ...Is that not an option?"
Gran asked the question with a smile still plastered on his face. Rei answered with a smile of his own—though to call it a smile would be generous. It was less the expression one would direct at a friend and more accurately described as ferocious.
"Do you really think that would work? The other Red Cloth might get off with that, but letting you go—someone who knows the people behind them—isn't on the table."
"Ah, I figured as much. Then what if I told you what I know about those people? Would you let me go in exchange?"
"Rejected. I have no way of knowing whether you'd tell me the truth, and more importantly, you strike me as a particularly unsavory character. Letting you go here would only invite unnecessary damage to Gilm. Better to capture you now and hand you over to the Guards or the Knights."
"That would be... honestly, quite a problem for me. You may not believe me, but I only arrived in Gilm recently—just before winter, in fact—and I haven't done anything wrong?"
"And you expect me to believe that? For one thing, if you truly had nothing to hide, why would you end up being hired by the people pulling the Red Cloth's strings?"
Someone hired by the employers of the Red Cloth to control them—there was no way a person in that position had no skeletons in his closet.
Above all, the fact that Gran kept smiling even while facing down Rei and Set spoke volumes about how suspicious he truly was.
"Ahaha. When you put it that way, I'm in a bind myself. Still, I can't very well let myself be caught like this—"
He was probably about to say "I can't," but mid-sentence, Gran suddenly moved his hand.
The motion was much like Rei launching arrowheads generated by the Eye of Nebula.
Something was released at a speed that made one wonder how many people present could have even registered it. But Rei's five senses were far sharper than those of an ordinary person.
He tilted his head slightly, and something small—no larger than a fingertip—whizzed through the space his face had occupied a moment before.
"Tch—!?"
Gran clearly hadn't expected the attack to be dodged.
He gasped in surprise, but having already committed to action, he judged there was no turning back and immediately moved to his next step.
"Gyaa!"
"Hot!"
"Ow!"
"Damn it, what the hell—?!"
Screams erupted from the Red Cloth men one after another.
Who was responsible went without saying. Gran, having attacked Rei, immediately broke into a sprint, drawing a short blade from the sheath at his waist as he slipped between the men and slashed at them one after another.
Rei understood the reasoning immediately. Gran was trying to slow his pursuit, even if only slightly.
(If it were just me, that might have worked. But...)
Watching the Red Cloth men descend into chaos from the sudden slashing, Rei shouted.
"Set!"
"Gurururururu!"
From that single word, Set seemed to understand exactly what Rei wanted.
Set let out a sharp cry, took a few running steps, flapped its wings, and launched into the sky.
But rather than climbing to its usual altitude of about a hundred meters, it flew low, right over the men who were still screaming from the unexpected cuts.
Naturally, Rei paid the men no particular heed either. He activated his Sleipnir boots, kicking off through the air above the Red Cloth men to propel himself forward.
"Those guys are Red Cloth! Take them to the Guards and you might even get a reward!"
He shouted that back at the other group.
It wasn't a remark of any particular significance—just a passing comment. If they managed to catch the men, it would be a stroke of luck, nothing more.
It wouldn't have been surprising if the group let them go. Considering the situation, Rei didn't think the Red Cloth men would try to destroy the earth wall even if released. There was also the question of whether they would even return to the employer who had used them as disposable pawns.
After all, Gran had just slashed them one after another with a short blade to facilitate his own escape.
Anyone willing to tolerate that... at the very least, wouldn't be sticking around with their Red Cloth comrades. They'd find something more productive to do with their time.
In any case, listening to the commotion behind him from the men he had leapt over, Rei chased after Set—or more precisely, chased after Set, who was chasing Gran.
"...Another troublesome one."
He muttered that under his breath because Gran was deliberately running through narrow gaps—spaces between stacked materials where Set, with a body over three meters long, couldn't follow.
Setting Rei aside, it was undoubtedly the best strategy for evading Set. In that sense, Rei couldn't exactly fault the logic. But from the pursuer's perspective, it was naturally far from enjoyable.
(Set has Size Change, but it has its limits.)
Set's Size Change wasn't advanced enough to squeeze into the kind of spaces Gran was fleeing through—passages barely wide enough for a person.
If its level increased through absorbing more Magic Stones, that might be a different story. But right now, it was out of the question.
Unable to pursue directly, Set instead tracked Gran from the sky whenever he ducked into a space it couldn't enter.
This Expansion Construction site, littered with massive quantities of building materials, was the worst possible terrain for Set.
If the goal were simply to kill or defeat Gran, Set could have attacked right through the materials themselves. But this time, the objective was to capture him alive. More than that, Rei knew exactly how hard Gilm's residents had worked to gather these materials, and he had no intention of carelessly destroying them.
"Set, you just need to track his position from above. I'll corner him while following you!"
"Gururururu!"
As if acknowledging Rei's words, Set let out a cry.
Hearing that voice from above and behind, Gran—threading his way between the building materials—furrowed his brow slightly.
The smile that had graced Gran's face in front of Rei was long gone. What remained was a look of pure concentration: how to escape from Rei and Set, two of the most troublesome opponents in all of Gilm.
(Troublesome, indeed. This should have been a very simple job. ...For that matter, why is Rei even here? I'd like to think I've been on decent behavior.)
He squeezed through a stack of stone materials, turning his body sideways to fit.
Under normal circumstances, he would have shaken off any pursuit by now, of that much he was certain. But as he thought this, Gran glanced up at the sky, caught sight of Set still circling above, and felt a fresh wave of irritation.
The biggest problem was that the only reason he could keep fleeing was because this site was packed with materials for the Expansion Construction.
In other words, he couldn't leave the site with Set still watching from above.
Yet Gran had no way to deal with Set circling in the sky, and on top of that, Rei was undoubtedly closing in from behind.
He needed to completely shake off both Rei and Set, escape the construction site, and then vanish without drawing anyone's attention.
That was, for Gran—for anyone, really—an undertaking of extremely high difficulty.
But even so, despite how troublesome the situation was, Gran didn't believe he would actually be caught.
He had confidence in his ability to flee, and he believed that by darting and hiding among this abundance of building materials, he wouldn't be found.
If he had known that Set's five senses were razor-sharp and that it possessed a skill called Sense of Smell Enhancement, he might have panicked more. But that particular information wasn't widely known even in Gilm, so it was only natural that Gran was unaware of it.
(For now, I just need to hide without being found. There are countless ways back into Gilm from here, so that's the least of my worries.)
With that, he confirmed that Set's silhouette had at some point disappeared from the sky. Even so, he didn't move immediately.
He knew that if he panicked and acted rashly now, there was a high chance Set would spot him.
Several minutes passed in the gap between the building materials. After confirming that all sounds and signs of presence had faded from the surroundings, he stepped out from between the materials, clenching his hands that had gone numb from the cold—
"Gah!"
In that instant, before he could even comprehend what was happening, his neck was seized, and a small yelp escaped Gran's lips.
Gran's mind reeled in confusion, but the impact of being thrown to the ground pressed snow against his body and face, and the shock of cold brought him back to his senses.
Pinned face-down with his neck locked, he couldn't look up. But by shifting his gaze, he could at least see to his side—and what he found there was an ordinary-looking robe.
The robe itself told him little, but the boots were another matter. One glance was enough to tell they were no ordinary footwear, and unfortunately for Gran, he recognized exactly whose boots they were.
Sleipnir boots—a Magic Item—worn by Gilm's most notorious person of interest.
"W-Why...?"
"Hm? Why what? Don't tell me you actually thought you could escape from me with that level of effort. If so, I'm almost offended."
Pinning Gran's neck from behind and pressing him into the ground, Rei delivered those words with a flat calm.
Gran had plenty he wanted to say in response to that, but before he could open his mouth, Rei continued.
"Still, it was lucky for you that you came out this side. If you'd emerged from the opposite end, Set would have been waiting."
"Wh—"
Rei or Set—either way, the outcome of being captured was a foregone conclusion. But if he was going to be caught regardless, it was clearly preferable to fall into Rei's hands rather than those of Gryphon Seto.
He felt the faintest flicker of relief at that, then a question surfaced.
"How did you even get here? There shouldn't have been any presence to detect..."
"I wouldn't say I'm particularly gifted at erasing my presence, but it's not like I can't do it. Of course, if you'd been more skilled, you might have picked up on mine."
At those words, Gran felt the gulf in their abilities more acutely than ever before.
He had handled any number of underhanded jobs, this Red Cloth affair included.
That was precisely why he prided himself on his ability to sense and erase presences. Yet for someone like him to be caught so effortlessly, left completely powerless—it was something he simply hadn't anticipated.
"...I yield. I won't resist anymore. Could you let me stand up?"
Convinced of his own defeat, Gran spoke those words to the man pinning him to the ground.