Rei and Vihera proceeded down the hallway.
Their gazes caught sight of a single feature ahead.
A door.
Up to this point, the only thing they had encountered was a basement room used to keep the Red Cloth members on standby—no, "preserve" was a more fitting word. Aside from that, paintings and various artworks decorated the hallway, but there hadn't been a single door of any kind.
For an ordinary mansion, this would be undeniably strange construction.
But in this case, it wasn't so inexplicable.
After all, this mansion was likely the headquarters of the mastermind behind the current abnormal surge of Cobolts in Gilm—not to mention the endless stream of Cobolts invading the city, and above all, the pink tentacles Rei had encountered in the Underground Space the day before.
That was precisely why, even finding such an oddly constructed mansion, neither Rei nor Vihera felt any particular sense of unease, let alone voice aloud that something was wrong.
So when a door like the one now before them appeared in a mansion like this, it would have been impossible not to find it suspicious.
"What do we do?" Rei asked.
"There's no option of stopping here or turning back, is there?" Vihera replied flatly.
Rei nodded at her words. Figured as much.
He had asked for form's sake, but considering Vihera's personality, the chances of her choosing any option other than pressing straight ahead were essentially zero.
"Then let's go."
Confirming each other's intentions with that brief exchange, they headed toward the door.
For the record, Rei currently held Death Scythe in one hand and the Twilight Spear in the other.
While ascending the staircase, its narrowness would have made using long weapons like a scythe or spear impossible. But in this hallway, wielding them was feasible.
...Of course, given that this was inside a mansion, whether he could fully exploit the strengths of the Twilight Spear and Death Scythe was something even Rei had to shake his head at.
"I wonder what kind of opponent is in there," Vihera mused.
"What kind of opponent, huh? There's a chance it could be someone on the administrative side, surprisingly enough."
Rei said it jokingly, but it was by no means an impossible scenario.
Anyone who had conceived and carried out such a grand scheme would naturally have a great deal of paperwork to handle, and they couldn't exactly entrust that to some careless individual.
If that were the case, it wouldn't be strange for someone among the masterminds behind this incident to possess such capabilities.
...Hearing that, Vihera visibly deflated.
Having anticipated a battle against a strong enemy, the sudden appearance of an administrative official as a possibility was clearly the cause.
"Hey, don't say things that drain my motivation. ...At any rate, it's certain the room isn't empty."
Perhaps sensing a human presence beyond the door as they drew closer, Vihera said this with anticipation.
Granted, since she had only sensed a presence, there was no guarantee that whoever was inside would be the powerful opponent Vihera was hoping for.
In any case, despite feeling a vague sense of foreboding from Rei's words, Vihera opened the door... and almost reflexively brought her Hand Gauntlet-equipped hand in front of her face.
Almost simultaneously with Vihera's movement, a high-pitched metallic clang rang out.
What was that? Rei wondered for a moment, and when he looked at the floor, a Long Needle lay there.
Furthermore, seeing the tip of the needle wet with some kind of liquid, it was obvious that it wasn't water but some type of poison.
"My, what an interesting way to welcome someone. ...I like it."
"Tch, to think you'd intrude all the way into a place like this. What a nuisance."
Watching Vihera from outside the door, Rei understood from the voice that came from within the room that the person inside was a man.
And likely the one who had thrown the Long Needle.
Whether he had thrown it by hand as Rei and Byune did, or used some kind of tool to launch it—Rei couldn't tell. But from the man's words and conduct, there was no doubt he was an enemy.
(A subordinate of the mastermind, and... probably the same sort of crowd as those who were defending the mansion yesterday, or the child who attacked Vihera today.)
From outside the room, Rei couldn't directly see the face of the person inside, but he could more or less make that prediction.
"Vihera, what will you do?"
"I'm going to handle it, obviously. That's what we came here for."
Stating that flatly, Vihera stepped into the room.
For Vihera, who fought hand-to-hand, combat inside a room was no hardship.
On the contrary, when fighting an opponent who used long weapons or longswords like Rei did, hand-to-hand combat was advantageous even factoring in weapon handling.
That is, unless the armed opponent possessed enough skill to attack unilaterally.
...That said, having moved to the doorway and looked inside, Rei spotted a short sword in the hand of the man facing Vihera and judged that in terms of weapon handling, they were roughly even.
A short sword was by no means an excellent weapon in pure terms.
But in the single regard of handling ease, it surpassed many weapons, including longswords and spears.
And when it came to combat inside a room, that handling ease naturally became critical. There was no doubt it would allow the man to fight evenly with Vihera, who fought unarmed.
"That Long Needle earlier was decent enough, but... using poison? Isn't that rather unsporting?" Vihera remarked.
"Keh, what are you talking about? In a fight, all that matters is winning. Besides, this isn't some match—it's a fight to the death, right? Then there's no problem using poison."
"...So that's your preference. How disappointing. I was hoping to fight someone who'd get my blood pumping."
"Is that right. Then you can go back and—"
You can go back.
The words should have continued that way, but the man suddenly broke into motion mid-sentence.
It was a perfectly timed strike that would catch an ordinary opponent off guard.
However, that was only if the opponent were ordinary, and Vihera was far from ordinary.
The attack launched at her—using the lightness and quick handling of a short sword, not a slash but a thrust, the fastest type of attack.
On top of that, the blade was coated in the same poison as the Long Needle from earlier. If it drew even the slightest bit of blood, it would certainly lead to the worst possible outcome for Vihera.
It was a lethal thrust, but Vihera evaded the man's strike with minimal movement.
Even in a room cluttered with various pieces of furniture, her movements showed no sign of difficulty.
Rather, Vihera utilized chairs, desks, and other furniture to keep pressing the fight.
Rei had been watching the battle unfold, but... suddenly, he turned his gaze toward the hallway.
Not toward the direction they had come from, but toward their direction of travel.
What appeared at the end of that gaze—or more precisely, what emerged from the far end of the hallway—was three men.
One was a heavily muscled bruiser, one was a thin man, and the last was someone of average build.
Among those three, only the average-built man clearly carried a presence that placed him above the other two.
Whether it was natural for the other two to follow him, they trailed in his wake without any apparent hesitation.
"Yo. I figured you might come to this mansion eventually, but you were way faster than I expected. Normally, anyone coming from the Summoning Room to here would be cautious and take it slow. ...What do you think about that?"
The average-built man—the most authoritative of the three—spoke to Rei.
His gaze flicked briefly toward the room where Vihera was fighting, no doubt because he understood exactly what was happening there.
"What do I think? Given that the man who led the Red Cloth here yesterday came from this direction, it's only natural to investigate, isn't it?"
"Tch, figured it'd come to that. Damn it, you guys move way too fast. If you'd been a bit more leisurely about it, we could've quietly retreated."
"Probably. That's exactly why the Guards decided to act the very next day. ...Your mistake was not retreating from here yesterday. You'd have still had some margin of safety then."
At Rei's words, the man made a displeased... a genuinely displeased expression.
He would have liked to do exactly that, but due to various circumstances, he couldn't.
"Yeah. I wanted to do that too. But... as someone entrusted with this whole operation, there's no way I could just abandon the others and run on my own, right?"
Rei was slightly surprised by those words.
From their conversation, he had understood that the man before him held a certain rank.
But considering what he had just said, the person standing there wasn't merely someone of moderate standing. He was the highest-ranking figure behind the Cobolt incident—and the pink tentacle incident Rei had fought through yesterday.
"Heh. I thought you were someone with a certain rank, but I didn't expect the boss himself to show up."
"Yeah, normally I wouldn't have come out either, but... with a big shot like Rei showing up, I had no choice but to step up."
Hearing the man speak so calmly, even with a smile, Rei found a slightly amused expression crossing his own face.
"The way that sounds, it's almost like you're saying you can beat me... Is that just my imagination?"
"No, it's not your imagination. Beating you might be difficult, but I can manage something. Besides, I've got these two with me."
The man glanced at the heavily muscled bruiser and the gaunt man standing on either side of him.
But the two men whose way was being looked at showed no particular reaction, remaining silent.
"With those two, you think you can beat me? Do you seriously believe that?"
"Well, who knows. I think that'll become clear once we actually fight, won't it?"
Saying that, the man clenched his fists without readying any particular weapon...
(No—Knuckle Guards, huh.)
Seeing the clenched fists, Rei found it rare, internally.
Since Vihera was around, it didn't usually bother him much, but those who fought without weapons like longswords or short swords—in this case, wearing Knuckle Guards—were not that numerous.
Facing those three...
"My."
A voice suddenly cut in.
Naturally, Rei knew whose voice it was.
"You were quite fast," he said.
"Yes. After all, you were trying to enjoy a fight against a strong enemy all by yourself, Rei."
Listening to Vihera's voice, Rei directed his gaze into the room, where a man was seen slumped against a chair, unconscious.
It seemed he had specialized in a fighting style using poison-coated Long Needles and short swords, but for Vihera, he had been somewhat underwhelming.
"It's not like I snatched your fight; they came to me. ...So, what will you do? We're down to two on this side now."
The latter half of his words was directed not at Vihera but at the men.
The man had been saying that if only Rei were fighting, they could win. But with Vihera now added to the mix, it was a completely unexpected development for them.
However, the man at the end of Rei's gaze showed no sign of concern even in his disadvantaged situation, merely baring a ferocious grin.
"Hah, it's true we're at a disadvantage now, but that doesn't mean I'm just going to let you take me down that easily. ...Besides, being at a disadvantage doesn't mean losing."
"I see. So that's the kind of personality you have."
Not overconfident—he actually had the strength to back up those words.
Even from Rei's perspective, he could tell the man possessed considerable power.
(An unknown opponent, huh. If only he were a monster.)
Even a worthy opponent, so long as they were human—no, so long as they didn't possess a Magic Stone—learning a new skill through Beast Magic was impossible.
But even so, as the mastermind behind this incident, Rei couldn't just let him go.
"Well, we're about to fight, so... it seems you know my name, but I don't know yours. You could at least tell me that much, couldn't you? I'll need it when I carve it on a gravestone."
"Hah, what are you talking about? In this case, the names you'd need for a gravestone are Rei and Vihera, right? ...Well, fine. You'd want to know the name of the one who's going to kill you, I imagine. I'm Javis. ...The name of the one who will bury you. Remember it!"
With a sharp shout, the man who called himself Javis closed the distance between himself and Rei and Vihera in a single burst.