Rei, Vihera, and Set—two people and one creature—filled their stomachs with the dish they had been craving: a hearty stew so loaded with toppings it was more "eating soup" than drinking it, along with several other dishes. Then they headed for the Guard Station.
As always, there was no shortage of people wanting to play with Set along the way, or those captivated by Vihera's beauty. Unfortunately, a big job awaited them.
Without stopping for anyone, they offered brief excuses and pressed on toward the Guard Station.
Upon arriving, they found far more Guards and adventurers than Rei had expected.
"Huh. I didn't expect this many to show up. I suppose it means the Guards are taking this incident seriously."
"Rei-kun."
The voice called out to Rei as he murmured while surveying the Guards and adventurers.
He turned toward the source and found a man with a large, imposing frame reminiscent of a bear. Despite appearances, it was Ranga—the man who commanded the Guard Force.
"Ranga, it feels like it's been a while since we last spoke face-to-face... Have you been that busy?"
As far as Rei knew, Ranga had always used his duties at the gate—interacting with people coming and going from Gilm—as a way to refresh himself.
But he hadn't seen Ranga in that role lately, and the question had slipped out before he could stop it.
"Well, we've had plenty on our plate. More importantly, about this incident..."
Rei didn't need to hear the rest to understand what Ranga was getting at.
"Yeah. If we don't move on this in earnest, things could get dangerous. If the ones controlling those pink tentacles in the Underground Space decide to run... and if they let those tentacles rampage through the city as a diversion while they escape..."
Ranga had likely read the report from the Guards who had accompanied Rei into the Underground Space, giving him a clear picture of the tentacles' danger.
Deep concern seeped through his tone and expression.
True, the number of adventurers gathered here was fairly large. But when it came to how many could actually fight those tentacles on even terms, that number would shrink considerably.
Well, if we're just dealing with the ones guarding the mansion, it shouldn't be a problem.
Using the Old Man who had attacked him yesterday as a baseline, most of the people here would probably manage fine.
"In any case, the ones pulling the strings behind this are extremely troublesome. I'll be counting on your strength, Rei-kun, Vihera-san, and Set's."
"Yeah, no problem there. It'd be a real issue if those things went on a rampage through the city, and more importantly..."
Rei paused and glanced at Vihera.
She was smiling, brimming with eagerness, and tilted her head cutely as if to ask, What is it?
On appearances alone, a beautiful woman making such a gesture would be enough to captivate anyone. And in fact, several of the nearby adventurers and Guards who had been watching Rei's group were openly staring, entranced.
But if they knew what Vihera was actually looking forward to behind that smile, they wouldn't be gazing so innocently for long.
At the very least, the men currently mesmerized by her would undoubtedly look away in silence.
Though there were probably a few eccentric souls who wouldn't mind even knowing the truth.
No, when it comes down to it, I'm the eccentric one.
With that thought, Rei spoke again.
"Anyway, today's looking like it'll be troublesome. The new year just started, and the Expansion Construction isn't even finished yet. I don't want Gilm devastated—or even suffering major damage, for that matter."
Ranga nodded without hesitation.
As a resident of Gilm, he held a deep affection for the city. Given that, standing by and doing nothing was never an option.
"By the way, I know it's a bit late to be asking... but does Lord Daskar know about this incident?"
"Of course. It seems that your presence when the Underground Space was discovered carried a lot of weight. Honestly, if only the Guards had found it and reported it, the reliability of the enemy's strength might have been called into question."
"Then again, if it had just been the Guards, they'd probably have been reduced to skin-and-bone corpses by those tentacles. No—even before that, they might have been killed by that child, or they might never have found the hidden stairs at all."
Rei had rescued the Guards being attacked by the Girl, and the Girl, realizing she couldn't win, had fled to where the hidden stairs lay hidden.
If Rei hadn't been there, the odds were extremely high that the Guards would have been killed and that would have been the end of it.
"...Well, be that as it may."
As if sensing the implications of Rei's words, Ranga steered the conversation elsewhere.
"Today—"
"Captain Ranga, where are you! Captain Ranga!"
Before Ranga could finish, a Guard's voice rang out across the area, calling for him.
As captain of the Guard Force, Ranga didn't have the luxury of chatting at leisure.
"Sorry. I'll have to take my leave here."
Bowing his head, Ranga departed. Rei and Vihera didn't try to stop him, simply seeing the busy man off.
"I suppose it's not just the usual Guard duties—they must be especially busy with this incident."
"Yeah, probably. A big roundup like this doesn't happen often. Or rather, a forced search, I should say."
"Same difference, isn't it? If this incident comes to light, it's over for them. So if we try to force our way in, they'll definitely resist with everything they've got."
Vihera wasn't wrong. If the ones behind this incident were caught, only the worst possible fate awaited them. Rather than quietly accepting that, they would undoubtedly fight back desperately.
Which meant a full-scale battle was unavoidable no matter what.
"There's no doubt it'll be a flashy fight. Depending on how things go, the aftermath could reach the Noble District, which is dangerous in more ways than one."
If Rei—who excelled at wide-area annihilation magic—fought seriously near the Noble District, it wouldn't be strange for the people living nearby, nobles included, to feel anxious.
That said, Rei wasn't about to use Large-scale Magic without considering the surrounding circumstances. Much less would he readily deploy Fire Whirlwind, which was likely what the nobles would fear most if combat broke out near the Noble District.
...Of course, the fact that he wouldn't use it easily also meant that if there was a reason he had to, he wouldn't hesitate.
"For now, if those pink tentacles show up in the city and the people gathered here can't handle them, we might have to resort to incinerating the entire area at once."
At Rei's murmured words, several adventurers who had been secretly eavesdropping on his and Vihera's conversation involuntarily shuddered.
They understood that if something like that happened where they were headed, they'd be caught in the blast too.
"I won't let that happen. They're a rare, worthy enemy, after all."
"...Well, I suppose Vihera could probably manage something."
The Death Scythe and Twilight Spear Rei wielded were, in the end, Magic Items—weapons. And as weapons, their attacks naturally struck from the outside.
Vihera, however, used Magic Impact Palm to deliver magical shockwaves directly inside the enemy's body—though Rei wasn't entirely sure if that description applied when fighting tentacles.
In other words, no matter how high an opponent's defense was, it meant absolutely nothing to her.
That said, Magic Impact Palm, which could bypass an enemy's defenses, was by no means invincible. To use it, Vihera had to get close—within arm's reach of her palm.
Against most opponents, she could slip into that range without any trouble. But the tentacles Rei had fought yesterday were fast. And there had been a lot of them. Weaving through all of them wouldn't be easy, even for Vihera—or so Rei assessed.
Though for Vihera, the fact that she faced such a formidable foe probably only made her more eager to fight.
As they talked, several adventurers who had been listening in quietly slipped away. They had likely judged from the conversation that they simply weren't strong enough.
Whether to call it fortunate or not, this operation had been framed as a Nomination Request, but it hadn't gone through the Guild. The Guards had recruited the adventurers directly. Because of that, anyone who walked away now wouldn't have the incident reported to the Guild, and no formal record would remain. Though it would certainly live on in the memories of those present.
A few adventurers watched the deserters leave, but no one said a word about it.
"Come to think of it, if people had known about this today, would fewer of them have shown up for the Gigant Turtle dissection?"
"Hmm... hard to say. The Guards reached out and gathered them directly, right? So even the ones who were at the dissection yesterday would've been redirected here from the start if the Guards approached them."
Sure enough, when Rei scanned the crowd, he spotted several faces he'd seen at the Gigant Turtle dissection over the past few days. A few of them gave small nods when their eyes met his.
"Oh, I recognize some of them too," Vihera said, looking around. She apparently spotted some familiar faces as well, and Rei heard her mutter in understanding.
"Right? Those types were probably assigned here from the beginning. Looking at it now, the crowd's definitely grown since earlier."
"True. ...Oh, there's Ranga."
Following Vihera's gaze, Rei spotted Ranga—the same man they'd been speaking with moments ago.
Ranga swept his gaze over the assembled adventurers and Guards, then raised his voice.
"Everyone, thank you for coming! Some of you may already know what we're about to do, but first, hear me out!"
Ranga's voice carried as he laid out the situation.
They had searched one of the strongholds belonging to those who had been luring Cobolts.
The mansion used as that stronghold contained an Underground Space, where what appeared to be a sacrifice ritual had been taking place.
The entity to which they offered sacrifices extended pink tentacles from a spatial rift.
Those tentacles had no fangs or anything of the sort at their tips, yet upon contact, they stripped away flesh, bodily fluids, and organs right down to the bone.
For now, nothing was emerging from the Underground Space, but there was no telling what lay ahead.
Most critically, the Underground Space didn't extend beneath just one mansion—it connected to several others.
And the cornered perpetrators might, depending on the situation, unleash those tentacles into the city and use the ensuing chaos to escape.
To prevent that, they would seize the initiative and conduct a forced search of every mansion believed to be connected to the Underground Space, using the forces gathered here today.
The information Ranga delivered included things some already knew, things others had only vaguely heard about, and things that were entirely new. By the end, everyone shared the same baseline of understanding.
What mattered most was that those assembled here were people the Guards trusted—and the overwhelming majority were people who loved the city of Gilm.
Though, admittedly, a few had fled before Ranga's speech even began.
"For these reasons, we ask all adventurers to cooperate with the forced search! Additionally, there may be formidable guards stationed inside the mansions. Each of you, stay alert!"
Hearing Ranga's words, the resolve on many faces made clear they had no intention of backing down. After all, if the pink tentacles Ranga described were to rampage through the city in large numbers, the devastation would be beyond measure.
And so, with morale running high, the assembled force set out to begin the forced search.