"Umm, if we're going to keep watch, is there any point in me coming along?"
Rei muttered as they headed toward their destination.
Since they needed to avoid standing out as much as possible this time, Set was not at Rei's side.
Instead, there were three Guards and Glanje.
Of course, the reason Glanje was here was to ensure he didn't misidentify the location of the base belonging to those who had been commanding the Red Cloth.
They had heard the general location beforehand, and among the Guards familiar with the City of Gilm, many already knew the place.
But just maybe—and it was truly just a maybe—there was a chance that the location Glanje had mentioned differed from what the others knew.
Given that possibility, bringing Glanje along as a precaution was only natural.
However, Rei wondered why he himself had to come along too, and that was the reason for his muttering.
"You can say that, but wouldn't it be better for you to know their base too, Rei? Even if we can figure out the general location from Glanje's words, we don't have solid confirmation that it's actually their base. Wouldn't it be better to see it for yourself?"
One of the Guards responded to Rei's muttering.
In truth, those words weren't wrong, so Rei nodded in acknowledgment.
"It's fine, since not knowing the exact location isn't really a mistake on our part. ...So, when do you think they'll slip up?"
"Hmm... If we don't know how frequently they visit that base, there's not much we can do. Besides, stakeouts in this season are tough in all sorts of ways."
At the Guard's words, everyone—including Glanje—nodded in agreement.
It wasn't snowing at the moment, but it was still winter.
The wind they felt as they walked was cold, and the sky was overcast today.
(When you think of a stakeout, the image that comes to mind is anpan and milk, but... at times like this, nikuman and hot tea would probably be better. ...Of course, given this cold, even freshly steamed nikuman or freshly poured tea would go cold in no time.)
Rei was thinking along those lines when he happened to spot a street stall selling nikuman.
Chukaman, including nikuman, only needed to be steamed once the prep work was done.
Even at a street stall, it was something that could be prepared without issue.
...What surprised Rei slightly, however, was that the stall was also using a steamer to cook soup.
Naturally, there wouldn't be enough heat output to make soup properly, so there were probably various issues with the approach... but still, placing a pot on top of the steamer and using that heat for cooking was surprising even to Rei.
Back in Japan, he had seen something similar on a TV program featuring street stalls...
(No matter the world, people come up with the same ideas.)
He thought to himself and nodded in understanding.
"Rei, what's wrong?"
One of the Guards asked, noticing Rei staring at the stall.
Rei kept his eyes on the stall as he replied.
"If we're going to keep watch in this cold, I thought it might be a good idea to pick up some warm food to bring along."
"...I completely understand that sentiment."
The Guard murmured with feeling, likely because he had done countless stakeouts for work over the years.
Stakeouts in winter were particularly brutal when it came to the cold.
If they could somehow find an empty house or borrow a room from a resident, that would be fine, but if that wasn't possible, they would have to keep watch outdoors.
(If we had something like cars, we could at least block the wind inside... a carriage? No, a carriage would stand out too much.)
Unlike in Japan, carriages were quite expensive in this world.
It wouldn't go as far as a foreign car in Japan... but they were about as rare as a decent luxury vehicle.
The key difference from Japan, though, was that carriages were purely practical items.
...Of course, the degree of rarity varied depending on the carriage in question.
In any case, a box carriage with a properly sealed body would inevitably stand out.
As a result, since that wasn't an option, there was a possibility that in the worst-case scenario, they would have to watch the base from out in the cold.
At times like that, having warm food and drinks would be incredibly welcome. ...Though considering the current temperature, where it could snow at any moment, he doubted that warmth would last very long.
"Right? What do you say? Should we buy some?"
At Rei's question, the Guard seemed slightly tempted but ultimately shook his head and refused.
In truth, the Guard wanted to buy some too, but considering where they were headed, he probably understood that walking around with the smell of food drifting from them could lead to all sorts of trouble.
Whether Rei understood the Guard's reasoning or not, he didn't suggest stopping by the stall again and continued on with Glanje and the rest of the group.
The lack of conversation as they walked was partly because, to the Guards, Glanje wasn't someone they could trust, and for Glanje's part, given his background, he held anything but a favorable impression of the Guards.
If Rei had stepped in to mediate between the two sides, they might have found some common ground, but since Rei was focused on checking their surroundings, he never noticed the tension.
And so, they continued walking in silence...
"Ah, it's coming into view. It's over there."
Glanje spoke up, and everyone's gaze turned in the direction he was looking.
"So it really is that place."
The one who muttered upon seeing the building was one of the Guards.
The other Guards nodded in agreement.
They had been told beforehand, but it was indeed the place they had expected.
Rei had been to this area a few times before as well, so he nodded in understanding now that it was mentioned.
After watching the building for nearly thirty seconds, Rei finally spoke.
"So, what do we do now? Look for a spot to keep watch?"
The building serving as their base wasn't particularly large, but it was still a detached house.
It appeared to have been built quite some years ago, making it a rather old home, but the fact that they could acquire even such a house as a disposable base indicated that those giving orders to the Red Cloth had abundant financial resources.
(If it were just the Red Cloth group, I might have wondered why they would spend so much money on this... but considering the Cobolt incident, it's certain they aren't simply a group whose only purpose is to harass Gilm. If that's the case, it wouldn't be strange for them to have a certain level of funding.)
The Cobolt incident had completely deviated from mere harassment against Gilm.
It was to the point that if someone were caught as the mastermind, it wouldn't be surprising for them to be executed without question.
Since they were taking such risks, even if the surface purpose was harassment, it wouldn't be surprising if there was something far more malicious lurking behind it.
That was exactly why the Guards, after hearing Rei and Glanje's accounts, had readily dispatched personnel like this.
"Right. First, we'll take a walk around the vicinity. ...Rei, wait with him in a position where you can't be seen from that building. If he's spotted, things could get troublesome."
"Is that so? ...Well, I can't exactly leave Glanje alone, after all."
Since Glanje had been hired by those pulling the Red Cloth's strings, they couldn't just leave the man unattended.
If Rei took his eyes off him, it wouldn't be surprising if he bolted immediately.
"Hahaha. I wouldn't do anything so reckless. Even if I ran, I already experienced being caught up to just now."
Perhaps remembering how he had been found so easily while hiding at the Expansion Construction site, Glanje let out a dry laugh.
For Glanje, Stealth was something he could call a specialty.
But since that had been seen through so effortlessly, it was only natural for him to lose confidence.
From Glanje's demeanor, the Guards couldn't tell exactly what had happened, but they could probably guess roughly how things had played out.
Several of them directed sympathetic gazes toward Glanje.
They knew he was someone who had undoubtedly committed crimes outside of Gilm, and that was why they couldn't bring themselves to like him... but even so, seeing his current state, the Guards couldn't help but feel various things about him.
"Ah... well, we can't stand around here forever. Let's get moving."
A Guard said this in an atmosphere that felt like he was trying to gloss over something.
Hearing that, the other Guards nodded without hiding their relieved expressions.
They probably felt that being here in this situation was awkward.
The Guards departed, and in the end, only Rei and Glanje remained.
Now, what to do.
Rei directed such a gaze at Glanje, but the man on the receiving end returned a look that said to do as Rei pleased.
What weighed heavily on him was the thought that whatever he said here would probably only arouse strange suspicions.
Whether he read the room or judged that simply staying here would make them look suspicious, Rei eventually spoke.
"Let's move to a spot a little further away."
"Yes, let's do that. If it's discovered that I'm here, things could get troublesome."
At Glanje's words, Rei showed a slightly surprised expression.
From what he had just said, it sounded as if he was declaring he had no intention of running.
...Of course, now that his face had been completely memorized by Rei and the Guards, even if he managed to escape, whether he could live in peace was another question entirely. The answer was no.
At the very least, he wouldn't be able to do something like that here in Gilm.
(But the Earth Wall that keeps out the Cobolts is only about 150 centimeters from the Gilm side, so climbing over it wouldn't be difficult. ...Well, once night falls, there's a high probability that monsters will be gathering on the other side of the Earth Wall again.)
In that case, what kind of monsters were there would be completely up to chance.
It was certain there would be many Cobolts, but it wasn't impossible that monsters feeding on Cobolts, like the Snow Cyclops, could be among them.
Depending on the situation, there might even be monsters stronger than the Snow Cyclops.
Of course, conversely, there could be monsters weaker than the Snow Cyclops... or even just a handful of Cobolts, for that matter.
(The ones who created this situation need to be thoroughly punished. Also, I'd like to do something about the Magic Item issue as well.)
Rei, who still believed even slightly that the Cobolt incident involved a Magic Item, thought this.
Glancing at the building that served as the enemy's base, Rei headed with Glanje to the shadow of a building a little further away.
He had chosen that spot believing they wouldn't be visible from the base.
"Still, what could they possibly be thinking, summoning Cobolts of all things... What do you think?"
Rei, having hidden in a spot out of sight from the enemy's base, asked Glanje beside him.
But even Glanje, who had been asked, hadn't heard the details of such matters from his employer.
"Even if you ask me, I wouldn't know about that. However... if they had summoned stronger monsters—C-Rank Monsters or the like—in large numbers, the chaos in Gilm would have spread much further. Instead, they deliberately chose Cobolts... doesn't that suggest they didn't want large-scale chaos in Gilm?"
"Yeah, that's about right. ...That said, the question of what they were thinking by doing it that way still remains. ...Naturally, you haven't heard anything about that, have you?"
"No."
Glanje answered honestly.
While listening to that response, Rei wondered what to do about the whole situation.
Of course, he knew that dwelling on it now didn't serve much purpose.
As he was mulling it over, one of the Guards eventually came over to them.
Seeing the pleased look on the Guard's face, Rei figured that at least for now, there was no need to worry about the stakeout... and indeed, what the Guard reported was that there was a shop run by a Former Guard, and they had arranged to use it.