"Hey, hey, hey, is this for real? I thought something was off when that shop went under..."
A guard holding the documents muttered, his voice laced with surprise and indignation.
It was only natural. Those documents were copies of orders instructing that a shop be shut down—a shop the guard himself had visited several times.
The reason that shop had gone under... or rather, had been shut down, was because of the mansion owner's orders.
"Hey, more importantly, look at this. There's even solid evidence of blackmail here. But keeping a ledger of the amounts obtained through blackmail? What's up with that?"
"Well, it works out in our favor, so I'm not complaining. Anyway, it looks like this study alone is going to yield plenty of evidence of wrongdoing."
This forced search was, strictly speaking, regarding the Underground Space that Rei had discovered.
However, it went without saying that if evidence of any other crimes turned up along the way, they wouldn't turn a blind eye to it.
Naturally, that evidence would be thoroughly confiscated, and an investigation would be conducted into those crimes.
In that sense, the number of crimes uncovered by this forced search was expected to be considerable.
That said, they couldn't use such forceful methods very often.
After all, this was permitted precisely because someone had unknowingly created an Underground Space within Gilm, summoned pink tentacles there, and those pink tentacles possessed strength that even Rei couldn't defeat easily—a situation that could truly be called a genuine crisis for Gilm.
Additionally, the fact that the forced search was being conducted near the Noble District, but not actually within it, was likely a significant factor in this case.
"Hmm... from where I'm standing, I don't see anything particularly suspicious."
If there had been a painting that caught his attention like in yesterday's mansion, Rei might have been drawn to it.
Unfortunately, there were no paintings or similar decorations displayed in this study.
Rei looked around, but at least by his own senses, it didn't appear that anything was hidden anywhere.
(Yesterday's mansion had a massive pile of corpses reduced to just bones and skin... no, wait. Could the reason there were skilled guards in that mansion be precisely because of those corpses? After all, it was seeing those corpses that convinced me and the guards that something was seriously wrong.)
They had been told that the mansion was an enemy stronghold, but if there hadn't been a mountain of corpses stripped to bone and skin, they probably wouldn't have been on such high alert.
Of course, since there were people who attacked them outright, the option of not being vigilant didn't exist. Still, without the incident with the corpses, it was highly likely things wouldn't have played out the way they did.
(The fact that it was just guarded, with no residents like this mansion here... in other words, that mansion was an important location used as a corpse dump. With normal corpses, the stench of decay would be troublesome, but those corpses didn't require any concern about such things.)
The corpses seen yesterday, reduced to just bones and skin... perhaps because they had become mummified, there was no rotting stench whatsoever.
Of course, normally even corpses reduced to skin and bones would be expected to give off a foul odor of decay... the fact that there was none likely meant those corpses had been affected by some kind of tentacle.
Thinking along those lines, Rei observed the guards searching the study... and suddenly, something caught his eye.
It was an object that, if glanced at normally, wouldn't have seemed particularly out of place.
Yet why Rei felt something was off about it... even he himself didn't know.
It was simply that, for some reason even he couldn't explain, the vase displayed in the room drew his attention.
Perhaps because it was currently winter, there were no flowers arranged in the vase; the vase itself was displayed as an artistic piece, like a pot or something.
If this had been a noble's house, they might have obtained flowers by some means and displayed them even in winter.
Be that as it may, Rei approached the vase.
The guards had already examined the vase itself earlier, so he knew there wasn't anything hidden inside it.
Despite that, still bothered by the vase, Rei moved in front of it and reached out his hand.
He lifted the vase and examined it closely.
However, there was nothing particularly unusual about the vase Rei held.
Since Rei was not well-versed in the arts, he decided that perhaps the vase he was holding might simply be valuable, and returned it to the pedestal where it had been placed.
Wondering what that sense of incongruity had been when he looked at the vase... he suddenly felt the same sense of wrongness again the moment he placed the vase back on the pedestal.
Following his hunch, the instant he applied a slight amount of force while setting the vase down, the pedestal bearing it sank slightly.
That's right—the pedestal itself sank into the floor.
"Hey!"
Seeing that, it was clear that the vase... or rather, the pedestal, had some kind of mechanism built into it. Rei called over a guard.
The guard who had examined the vase earlier probably never imagined that the pedestal itself served as a mechanism, rather than evidence of a crime being hidden inside the vase.
...Normally, no one would apply excessive force when placing a vase on a pedestal, so that was only natural.
"I see. So there's a mechanism here. And the fact that they went to the trouble of setting up such a mechanism naturally means there's something hidden that they wouldn't want people to see... What could be in here?"
A guard took over the spot from Rei and examined the pedestal with the vase on it.
The mechanism on the pedestal was quickly uncovered, and they succeeded in finding several folded documents stored inside a gap within it.
Some of the documents serving as evidence of criminal activity had been left sitting out in the open in this very study.
Given that, documents hidden within such an elaborate mechanism were clearly suspicious.
The guards, understanding this as well, unfolded the documents that had been tucked away...
"A cipher."
One of the guards muttered in a disappointed voice.
Indeed, even Rei, peering at the documents, couldn't understand what was written there.
Some of the text was legible, but the majority was completely unreadable, consisting only of what could be called a cipher.
Rather than letters, they were more like hieroglyphics.
Looking at such characters, the guards wore genuinely unpleasant expressions.
For Rei, it was something that could be dismissed with a simple "so it's a cipher," but for the guards, deciphering it was necessary in order to pursue the mansion owner's crimes, so their reaction was only natural.
Still, it was fortunate that the guards didn't have to decipher the cipher themselves, but could leave it to a specialist department, or in some cases, Daskar's direct units.
Deciphering ciphers required a wide range of knowledge.
Unfortunately, in the course of their work as guards, they didn't have the luxury of such leisure.
...There were some who possessed that kind of knowledge, but their numbers were by no means large.
"Rei, we'll hold onto this for now. Once the forced search of this mansion is complete, we'll hand it over to our superiors."
"Got it."
As an added measure, the other documents found in the study that served as evidence of crimes were also stored in Rei's Misty Ring.
If the guards were carrying the evidentiary documents, there was a possibility that the mansion owner or those acting on his orders might try to dispose of them.
In that sense, these guards who had acted alongside Rei were fortunate.
...Though admittedly, there were some among them who felt they had drawn the short straw, given Rei's tendency to attract trouble.
"So, what's the plan? Given that they hid things this carefully, I think there's a strong possibility there's no further evidence in this study."
"Hard to say. We can't rule out the possibility that there's something else. We'll look into it a bit more."
"Really? Then we'll just keep looking around casually here, is that fine?"
"Yeah... Rather than being so desperate about the search, guard us. If we get attacked by someone strong, it'd be hard for us to fight back."
He said it half-jokingly, but his expression was serious.
If they were suddenly attacked while focused on the search, it would indeed be difficult for the guards to counter.
When concentrating on something, it was only natural that one's ability to respond would diminish.
In the first place, the reason Rei and the other adventurers were accompanying the guards was because they were expected to serve as escorts for exactly such situations.
Rei didn't say anything more in response to the guard's words and quietly resolved to fulfill his role as an escort.
...That said, given that a considerable number of guards were conducting the forced search in this mansion, even if the mansion owner tried to launch an attack, the other searchers would likely notice immediately.
(If they attacked Vihera's group, that would be the worst.)
Given that Vihera looked forward to fighting strong enemies, it wouldn't be strange for her to actually welcome attackers.
Of course, since the only ones who would suffer terribly from that were the attackers themselves, even if the attack resulted in heavy casualties, Rei probably wouldn't feel any sympathy for them.
"Oh, hey, look at this. This guy's been distributing illegal drugs."
"Illegal drugs? ...Hey, wait a minute. Could this be the stuff that caused a problem a while back..."
"Probably. Though, judging by the distribution volume, the mansion owner isn't a bottom-rung flunky... but he doesn't seem to be at the top of the organization, either."
At the words "illegal drugs," Rei turned his gaze toward the guards.
The "drugs" in this case didn't refer to narcotics like those that had been a problem in Japan, but rather medicines created using magic.
That said, many of them were habit-forming, so in nature, they were essentially similar to narcotics.
"I hadn't heard much about drug problems, but is it common in Gilm?"
"It is."
In response to Rei's question, the guard stated without hesitation.
"For one thing, Gilm is a frontier. And precisely because it's a frontier, there are many materials that can be obtained here, including some that can be used as medicinal ingredients. You've seen those kinds of medicines before too, right, Rei? Like, say, Magic Fever medicine."
Magic Fever medicine.
Hearing that, Rei recalled the time he had ridden Set to urgently deliver that medicine.
"...That isn't a drug that harms the body, is it? It's supposed to be medicine for treatment, right?"
"That's right. But everything has a proper dosage, and exceeding it makes it nothing but harmful. The same goes for Magic Fever medicine and other drugs."
Honestly, when Rei heard terms like narcotics or drugs, they didn't really resonate with him.
In Japan, he had lived in the countryside of Tohoku, so naturally he had never seen narcotics or anything of the sort, and the same held true after coming to this world.
(Ah, but I have seen assassins using drugs and such.)
Recalling something he had witnessed on a few occasions before, he nodded in understanding, as if that explained it.
"So, evidence of illegal distribution of those drugs has been found."
"That's right. Though it doesn't seem like the mansion owner was the one leading it; he seems more like a limb that can be easily cut off."
"...Figures."
Recalling the moment they tried to enter this mansion—how he had told the soldiers to stop them while doing nothing himself, and how he had been too afraid to take action—given that personality, it was hard to imagine him being capable of leading such a large-scale operation.
(At the very least, if he had tried to stop us himself... Or maybe he just didn't come to our location, but went somewhere else? It's not like this is the only study in the mansion.)
While not as large as the mansions in the Noble District, this mansion was quite spacious.
Also, considering the size of the mansion searched yesterday, it wouldn't be strange for there to be multiple studies.
In fact, yesterday, guards other than Rei's group had searched a different study and found documents that could serve as clues to crimes.
"Anyway, the fact that these kinds of documents were here means there's likely a possibility that various other documents are here as well. Rei, it might take a little more time, but can you wait?"
"Yeah, I don't mind. I can't say take your time... but make sure you don't miss any documents. Do your best."
In response to the guard's words, Rei answered accordingly.