The report that Rei and his group had fought the pink tentacles was, as a matter of course, passed up through the ranks of the Guard Force. The officer who received it concluded that the matter was beyond his authority to decide, and forwarded it further up the chain.
In this manner, the report climbed higher and higher... until it ultimately landed on the desk of Daskar, the lord of Gilm.
Naturally, the reason the officer had deemed the matter beyond his authority was not because he wished to avoid responsibility. Rather, it was largely because the situation had the potential to endanger all of Gilm, depending on how it developed.
Those who had received the report simply lacked the authority to act on it.
That was precisely why the only measure they could take was to post guards around the mansion Rei and his group had searched, ensuring no one could freely enter or leave.
...Then again, considering the mansion's proximity to the Noble District, they probably deserved praise for making even that decision.
"So no one can enter the mansion right now. That's correct?"
"Yes, sir. However, if the report is accurate, it means the Underground Space connects to the surrounding mansions as well..."
The subordinate who had delivered the report to Daskar trailed off, clearly finding the words difficult to say.
Daskar, however, had no intention of reproaching him for it.
A property near the Noble District naturally meant its owner possessed considerable wealth—in other words, someone with real influence.
Moreover, whether such a person would readily admit that their mansion was connected to a place like that... that would be difficult, to say the least.
Additionally, in the case of a large estate, there was a strong possibility that even the owner didn't fully understand the mansion's layout. That, too, was a significant factor.
"In that case, we'll need to actually climb those stairs leading from the Underground Space and confirm where they lead. The real problem is those pink tentacles mentioned in the report."
Seeing it written that even Rei had struggled made the selection of personnel an extremely delicate matter.
Having issued requests to Rei countless times in the past, Daskar knew exactly how formidable Rei's power was.
Against an opponent that could give even Rei trouble, he couldn't simply send just anyone off the street.
Daskar had no desire to send his subordinates into a place where they would likely die without some kind of countermeasure in place.
"In that case, should I ask Rei...? No, the report mentions there were quite a few stairs. We'd need to hire other High-Rank Adventurers alongside Rei."
"At least we have winter working in our favor here. There aren't many cases of them being away from Gilm on requests this season."
"...True enough, but the concern is whether their skills have gone rusty over the winter."
If they hadn't been working as adventurers and had spent the season drinking at taverns instead, their bodies would naturally have grown sluggish.
Of course, most adventurers trained to some extent to keep from completely losing their edge. Even so, compared to the active seasons from spring through autumn, there was an inevitable dulling.
"I couldn't say for certain on that front. But if they're High-Rank Adventurers, wouldn't they be diligent about such things?"
"If only Elk were here, I'd leave it to him."
Daskar thought of the man known by the alias Axe of the Thunder God, a warrior with a bold and forthright personality.
Elk and his group were currently absent from Gilm, having left to tend to the injuries sustained by his son during the incident in the Bestia Empire—though calling them mere "injuries" felt like a gross understatement.
If he had been around, Elk would have been an incredibly reliable ally in a situation like this.
"There's no point relying on someone who isn't here. So, what will you do? Will you issue a Nomination Request to the Guild for High-Rank Adventurers?"
"Yes, please do. Ideally, I'd like the Underground Space explored and the surrounding mansions secured by tomorrow."
With a grim expression, Daskar poured water from a pitcher into a glass and drank it down.
Feeling that the water had, if only slightly—truly only slightly—washed away his gloomy mood, he turned his thoughts back to the report.
"Whatever we do, the Underground Space is the crux of the problem. To begin with, does that spatial rift form whenever someone enters, or is there some other trigger? That's what's extremely troublesome."
"You're right. It would be ideal if we could extract information from the man they captured..."
"But he hasn't shown any signs of talking, I take it?"
"No, sir. It appears he's received professional training. Torture and similar methods proved ineffective."
Though Daskar was known as a man of fine character, as a lord, he would not hesitate to employ torture when necessary.
More accurately, he would order it carried out.
"Troublesome. In that case, we either go directly to the Underground Space to investigate, or we examine the evidence Rei and the guards seized. How is the cipher decryption coming along?"
"We've summoned scholars and alchemists to look into it, but..."
Even without the subordinate finishing his sentence, his expression told Daskar all he needed to know. It wasn't going well.
"Then we'll have to go there directly after all. Troublesome."
"Indeed, sir."
The subordinate nodded in agreement.
But troublesome or not, they couldn't simply leave the matter unattended. In Daskar's position, all he could do was throw himself into the work and hope for the best—hoping that the crisis bearing down on them today would, by tomorrow, become at least slightly more manageable.
"...Hah?"
While Daskar was pouring himself into his duties, the man was in a state of absolute fury.
Naturally so. The Underground Space—the linchpin of this entire operation—had been discovered by the guards.
What's more, given the timing, there was a very high probability they had witnessed the moment the Red Cloth members were offered as sacrifices.
Without such an irregular occurrence, there was no reason to think the person leading the Red Cloth members would turn up dead—let alone as a corpse reduced to nothing but skin and bones, exactly like the Red Cloth themselves.
In other words, the worst-case scenario had already come to pass.
"Um, so then... what should we do?"
"What should we do? The hell if I know, idiot. Now that they've found that place, there's nothing we can do. All we can do is dispose of anything that could serve as evidence and get the hell out of Gilm. Lucky for us, we don't need the gates to get out."
The subordinate's cheek twitched as he realized what the man was implying.
He was talking about escaping through the Earth Wall that Rei had built.
"W-wait a minute! The Cobolts won't just disappear overnight, and if we're breaking out, it'll have to be at night! That means massive numbers of monsters prowling outside Gilm..."
"You're right. But even so, we need to get out of here. I thought you'd understand at least that much."
The subordinate fell silent, at a loss for words.
The truth was, staying in this mansion would unquestionably end badly. If the Underground Space had been discovered, a thorough investigation would inevitably reveal its connection to this estate. Which meant there was already more than a strong possibility that this mansion was being watched.
He understood that. But among those present, including the Reporting Man who had brought the news, there simply weren't many who could actually fight.
Before Gilm had fully settled into winter and the flow of people in and out had thinned, there had been several individuals with combat prowess equal to—or even greater than—the Superior standing before him. But those men were gone now, deployed elsewhere, leaving the Superior as the strongest fighter among them.
"If we hadn't been summoned away so suddenly, we might have managed somehow, but—guh!"
The subordinate muttered bitterly, and the man, seizing on the irritation, hurled the glass of alcohol that had been sitting on the desk.
The glass struck the subordinate's head and shattered on impact. An acrid stench of alcohol flooded the room.
Whether it was a blessing or a curse that the smell of alcohol masked the scent of blood seeping from the glass cuts on the subordinate's face was impossible to say.
"Don't feed me that garbage. You trying to say I'll get caught if those guys aren't around? Hah?"
The subordinate, pinned by a gaze far more ferocious than a mere glare, trembled where he stood. He didn't even think to wipe the blood from his face.
He understood perfectly well that the man before him could kill someone of his caliber in an instant if the mood struck him.
That ferocity was common knowledge—several people had already been subjected to violent sanctions as punishment for failing their assignments.
In that sense, perhaps he was lucky to have gotten off this lightly.
"I'm sorry. But the enemy has a large number of guards, including Rei. On top of that, they may well recruit other adventurers as reinforcements. If that happens, we'll be critically outmatched in terms of combat power."
"...Tch."
The man snatched up a replacement glass from near the table and poured himself another drink.
It was a gesture born of half-despair, but it also acknowledged that his subordinate was not wrong.
"Should I just release those tentacles into the city? ...No. That's no good. They're bound by contract. There's nothing we can do about them with our current group."
The subordinate, who knew exactly how vicious the tentacles were, felt his blood run cold at the Superior's words—but breathed a sigh of relief when the man immediately dismissed the idea himself.
If those tentacles were set loose to roam freely through Gilm, the city would suffer catastrophic damage.
No—in the worst case, it wouldn't be surprising if Gilm were wiped off the map entirely.
As a member of the King's Faction, the man found the city of Gilm to be a thoroughly troublesome thorn in his side. But the materials and Magic Items obtained from Gilm were undeniably profitable for the Kingdom of Mireana.
What's more, even among the King's Faction, there were those who lined their pockets with the profits flowing from Gilm.
With that in mind, he could never approve of unleashing the tentacles upon the city.
"There was an organization that had been cozying up to us, wasn't there? Can't we use that underground organization to create a diversion?"
He took a swig of his freshly poured alcohol and put the question to his bleeding subordinate.
But the subordinate shook his head.
"If Rei is involved, I don't think that's possible. Any organization based in Gilm would know Rei's strength. There's a high likelihood they'd decide they'd rather avoid a confrontation with Rei altogether than suffer losses."
"Tch."
He clicked his tongue in irritation.
But the fact that he didn't fly into the same rage as before likely meant he had expected as much.
After all, the man himself couldn't imagine beating Rei in a fight. It was only natural that those weaker than him would reach the same conclusion.
"In that case, what's the plan? I'm fairly confident in my own abilities, so if I wanted to slip out through the Earth Wall, I could manage it on my own... but escaping alone won't accomplish anything."
"You're right. We also need to take the documents containing the data and findings from this experiment. Given that, we'll need a certain number of people no matter what."
"Figured. Tch. Then we need to work something out. Are there any people out there who'd be willing to cooperate with us?"
"...If this weren't Gilm, we'd have had far more options available..."
Once again, the fact that this was Gilm—Rei's home base—was the deciding factor.
As long as they were here, assembling any real fighting force was next to impossible.
"I know that. But we still need to work something out. And if you absolutely can't scrape anyone together... you understand what happens, right?"
The look in his eyes carried unmistakable killing intent.
If no one was produced here and now, that killing intent would certainly be translated into action.
Understanding this full well, the subordinate nodded frantically.
"Y-yes, sir! I'll find someone, somehow! But if I have to push hard to recruit, we'll need funds..."
"Yeah, that's not a problem. Spend whatever you need. Being stingy with money and ending up caught by the guards would be the worst possible outcome. Besides, for anyone driven by greed, the size of the payoff should directly fuel their motivation. Going up against Rei will require a substantial sum, to be sure. Anyway, tonight—well, I won't insist on tonight, but we're getting out of Gilm as fast as we can."
Fortunately, substantial funds had been allocated for this operation, so clearing that hurdle shouldn't be an issue.
With that thought in mind, the man poured alcohol into his mouth, suppressing his simmering frustration at how things had come to this.