The Plain Man, having finally realized the abnormality of Rei and the others holding him captive, called out to them, but neither Rei nor the Guards had any need to humor him.
If the three besides Rei had been wearing their Guard uniforms, the man might have quickly figured out who they were. But for this particular operation, they had changed into civilian clothes just to be safe.
That was precisely why the man could not understand who the people in front of him were—or what they were after.
"What are you going to do? Can we leave this guy to you? If it's about extracting information, that would be your area of expertise, right?"
"If it's those kinds of methods, wouldn't you be more used to them?"
The Guards deliberately avoided mentioning Rei's name as they spoke.
Making it clear who they were—and who was pinning the man down—would only give their opponent information to work with.
In situations like this, they knew that leaving the other party completely in the dark served as a weapon to unsettle them.
Rei, perhaps having sensed the Guards' intent as well, gave a small nod before speaking.
"It's not that I'm bad at getting information out of people, but if I do it, things are going to get pretty rough. Something close to torture, really."
Rei's words were by no means incorrect.
When extracting information from Bandits, the quickest approach was to cut off a finger or a hand or foot to show he meant business, then make them talk.
Lately, the fact that Rei was known as the Bandit Eater had been spreading, so there were more and more cases where they readily gave up information without him needing to go that far.
Regardless, talking someone into revealing things simply was not something Rei could do.
(Good cop, bad cop, was it? I feel like there was something like that, but I can't do it on my own, and the Guards can pull that off normally, so it's useless knowledge right now.)
The man, having listened to the exchange between the two, must have been convinced they were not trying to deceive him but were speaking genuinely.
He opened his mouth in a panic.
"Wait! Like I said before, laying a hand on me is the same as picking a fight with the King's Faction! Do you seriously understand that!?"
"You can say that all you want. But first of all, the fact that you're being made to do work like dragging Red Cloth members all the way here means you're not exactly some important figure in the King's Faction, are you? Or are you about to tell me you're actually from a duke's family? Well, if you said you worked for one, that might be possible."
"Guh!"
Rei's words must have hit the mark.
The man fell silent, at a loss for words.
Rei had asked on the off chance it might be true, but unfortunately, the man was clearly not from a duke's family—no, even without going that far, it was obvious he was not a noble.
"So, anyway. For now, it looks like we can get quite a bit of information out of this guy...!?"
I'll take him back to the Guard Station and make him spill everything he knows.
That was what Rei had been about to say, but he released the man he was holding almost reflexively and leapt away from the spot.
"Get back!"
He shouted, ignoring the cold sweat running down his back.
Sensing the intense urgency in Rei's voice, the Guards did not hesitate. They evacuated immediately and moved to his side.
Left behind near the center of the underground space were the man who had been pinned to the ground just seconds ago, and the Red Cloth members tied together with rope, devoid of any will of their own.
The Red Cloth members, having no sense of self, showed no particular reaction no matter what happened.
The man who had been pinned down until seconds ago, however, was startled by his sudden release. At first he was confused, unable to grasp what had happened, but he soon realized he could move freely again. A question formed in his mind—and when he realized where he was, an expression of disbelief crossed his face. Then he broke into a run.
He tried to put as much distance between himself and that spot as possible, but his reaction was decisively too late.
Rei drawing Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear from his Misty Ring and readying them happened almost simultaneously with the space at the center of the underground space tearing open.
As if ripping through paper, the space split apart—and in the next moment, dozens upon dozens of pink tentacles, slick with some kind of liquid, burst forth from the rift.
"W-wahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
The man ran while screaming, but whether it was the scream or his frantic movements that drew the tentacles' attention, they went straight after him.
"S-save me! Save me, please save me!"
The man pleaded, but of course there was no way the tentacles would hear his voice and come to his rescue. The tentacles, moving through the air with the speed of arrows, touched their tips to the man's body.
The tip of the tentacle was neither particularly sharp nor shaped like a mouth. And yet, it took effect.
Thump.
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
Accompanied by that sound, the tentacle writhed as if a snake were swallowing something whole.
At the same time, the man's body shriveled rapidly. In less than ten seconds, it had been reduced to a skin-and-bones corpse that collapsed onto the floor.
It was the same kind of corpse Rei had seen while searching through the mansion.
(I see. I was wondering how those kinds of corpses came to be. So this is how they were made.)
Beside him, the three Guards gulped, but oddly enough, the sense of urgency Rei had felt just seconds before had vanished, and he was able to calmly observe the scene before him.
Of course, that was because he had been able to clearly recognize the unknown entity. It was precisely because he could identify it that he remained composed. In reality, Rei understood full well that the pink tentacles were not an opponent he could afford to let his guard down against.
Still, the reason he was more composed than the Guards was undoubtedly due to the sheer variety of experiences he had been through.
That said, looking at those pink tentacles—not just one or two, but dozens of them emerging from the rift in space—it was clear they were not something he could deal with easily.
Rei stepped forward, ready for them to attack at any moment.
The Guards were clearly shaken, and Rei making his presence known before they could do anything reckless out of confusion also served to steady them.
"Stay calm."
He murmured softly to the Guards, quietly enough that the tentacles hopefully could not hear.
Whether the Guards heard Rei's words or not—or perhaps heard them but could not process them—unfortunately they showed no sign of reacting and remained unable to speak.
(Actually, for the sake of not drawing the pink tentacles' attention, it might be better if they just stayed silent. But the problem is whether they can actually keep quiet.)
The skin-and-bones corpse of the man lay on the floor, and the pink tentacles moved through the air as if searching for something—as if making clear they were still not satisfied.
Watching the tentacles, Rei considered what to do. Then, the next moment, they suddenly stopped moving and launched into action all at once.
Just as before, like flying arrows that sliced through the air, they headed straight not toward Rei and the others, but toward the Red Cloth members.
Rei wondered why they went after the Red Cloth members instead of them, but the correct answer in this case was probably that the Red Cloth members were closer to the rift.
Since the Red Cloth members had no will of their own, however, they showed no particular reaction to the pink tentacles flying toward them.
They simply watched the approaching tentacles in silence. In the next moment, when the tentacles touched them, just like the man before them, their internal organs, bodily fluids, and everything else was absorbed through the tips.
And it was not just one or two of them. All of the Red Cloth members present silently accepted the tentacles, and eventually every one of them collapsed to the ground as skin-and-bones corpses, just like the first man.
Rei watched the scene without any particular emotion.
No—he would have preferred that the tentacles be satisfied with this and disappear back through the rift. But he understood that was a naive hope the moment the tentacles did not return to the rift and instead turned their tips toward Rei and the others.
"Tch, just run for now! Get back to the mansion!"
The tentacles were targeting them.
Having made that judgment, Rei shouted quickly. Fortunately, the Guards had already come back to their senses. Without hesitation, they broke into a run toward the stairs they had descended.
This kind of situation must have been completely unexpected for the Guards, but even so, their experience working as Guards meant they did not freeze up or have their legs give out from the shock of what they were witnessing.
However, the tentacles were naturally not about to let their prey escape without doing anything about it.
Leaving Rei, who was still nearby and not fleeing, alone for the moment, the tentacles first extended toward the fleeing Guards.
Just as before, they moved swiftly to capture their prey, but...
Slash!
In the next instant, the tentacle that had been extending straight forward was severed by the blade of Rei's Death Scythe.
Yet Rei's face showed a hint of dissatisfaction as he cut through it.
(Hard. No, rather than hard, should I say it's hard to cut?)
If the pink tentacle had been an ordinary—though calling it ordinary was a strange way to put it—tentacle, Death Scythe would have sliced through it without any resistance whatsoever.
But the blade of Death Scythe that Rei swung met resistance against it.
This despite Death Scythe having magic channeled through it.
There was no doubt that an ordinary adventurer swinging a longsword could not damage this tentacle.
Rei was certain of that, but in his line of sight, the tentacle severed by Death Scythe thrashed about like a snake before eventually turning to dust and vanishing.
A clearly abnormal sight.
Of course, the fact that a rift had appeared in space and tentacles were emerging from it was obviously not normal to begin with.
"...If you'd just give up quietly, it would make things easier for us."
A displeased voice escaped Rei's lips, no doubt because new tentacles emerged from the rift and manifested in this world.
And those new tentacles were undoubtedly targeting not the Guards, who had already disappeared up the stairs, but Rei, the only one remaining.
"Anyway, it's certain that the King's Faction summoned this troublesome thing. What a pain—!"
As if to prevent Rei from finishing his words, all of the tentacles launched toward him.
No matter how fast the tentacles were, if they had just moved in straight lines like before, it would not have been a problem.
But perhaps the other side had learned from having its tentacles cut earlier—the tentacles flying toward Rei included not only ones moving in straight lines but also some that altered their trajectory mid-air.
"Annoying! Flying Slash!"
He fired Flying Slash at the tentacles that had changed trajectory to suppress them, cutting through others with the returning blade, or using the Twilight Spear in his left hand to sever them.
Perhaps because even Death Scythe could not cut through them easily, strikes with the Twilight Spear also left strong resistance in his hand.
The tentacles that were severed partway through were still connected to the rift, and they continued to attack Rei one after another.
It was as if every portion Rei cut off was replenished, and the number of tentacles extending from the rift only grew larger.
"Multi Slash!"
Following Death Scythe's slash, two additional slashes were unleashed as the skill's effect.
A single swing cut through several tentacles, and the follow-up slashes severed other tentacles that had been near those struck by the first blow.
The Twilight Spear's strikes also met the enemy's resistance, yet still cut through the tentacles one after another.
However, the number of tentacles emerging from the rift showed no sign of decreasing.
(What do I do? Stamina-wise, I still have plenty to spare, but I can't keep this up forever.)
Even as he thought this in the back of his mind, the Death Scythe and Twilight Spear Rei wielded cut through the pink tentacles one after another.
Normally, the severed tentacles should have piled up on the floor until there was nowhere to step.
The reason he could still act without issue was that the tentacles falling to the floor were turning to dust one after another.
That was why Rei never ended up stepping on a tentacle by mistake and losing his balance, but...
"Rei, this way! Come back!"
At that voice suddenly reaching him, Rei kept fighting the tentacles while gradually making his way toward the stairs he had descended.