"Phew."
Having driven her fist into Jabis's torso and knocked him unconscious, Vihera murmured in a seductive voice.
If asked to name a seductive woman, the first to come to Rei's mind would be Marina.
But Vihera's current demeanor showed no sign of being inferior to Marina's when it came to feminine allure.
Of course, whereas Marina's allure stemmed from her natural feminine charm, Vihera's came from what could only be called a lust for battle.
"You seem satisfied."
Seeing that Vihera indeed looked as satisfied as she claimed, Rei asked her.
In truth, anyone who saw her in that state would have described her the same way.
"Yeah. It was a fairly satisfying fight."
"In terms of sheer strength, it was obvious you had him outclassed, though. So what did you like? His fighting spirit for never giving up until the very end?"
"Correct. Even when he was on the verge of losing, he kept searching for a way to turn things around. I can rate him highly on that point."
"Well, in Jabis's case, losing here meant only the worst possible future waiting for him."
"...Rei."
Vihera asked, her voice tinged with expectation.
Having known Vihera for a long time, Rei understood exactly what she was thinking and why she was behaving that way.
"Ah— right. All I can do is put in a good word for him. As for what the Guard Force or their superiors decide, I can't promise anything. Is that still fine with you?"
"Yes, please. ...Thank you."
"Don't worry about it. From the moment I saw you fighting Jabis, I more or less had a feeling it would come to this."
So Rei said, though in reality, he figured whether Jabis would be executed was a close call.
Considering what Jabis had done, a single word from Rei certainly wouldn't be enough to acquit him—it would be difficult even to lighten his sentence.
Even so, Rei held onto the thought that maybe... just maybe, something could be done.
"I didn't expect you to say that. ...Now then, what do we do from here?"
"Not much to it. For now, let's tie their hands and feet so they can't escape. Along with those two over there."
Retrieving rope from his Misty Ring, Rei bound the hands and feet of Jabis and the two men he had defeated.
After tying them securely to prevent any Rope Escape, he likewise bound the hands and feet of the man Vihera had defeated in the room, then began searching it.
However, there was nothing of particular importance inside, leaving him at a loss for what to do next.
"Shouldn't we have brought the Guards after all? Even if we want to search this mansion, we can't take our eyes off Jabis. That would mean either you or me searching alone, which would just waste time."
Since Jabis, the mastermind behind this incident, had gone out of his way to show up in person, Rei's opinion was that handing him over to the Guards should be their top priority.
"Hmm, but to think there's no one else here now... don't you find that a little doubtful? There might still be some of their combat power remaining, even if they're not on Jabis's level."
"You think so? If there were anyone like that, I feel like Jabis would have brought them along. Like those two."
Rei directed his gaze toward the two men bound alongside Jabis as he said this.
Since those men seemed to operate on the premise of fighting in coordination with Jabis, perhaps Jabis had considered the others a hindrance.
That was what Rei was thinking—the exact opposite of what he had said.
In truth, while this hallway had a fair amount of space, it was by no means suited for a large group to fight in.
Considering those circumstances... it wasn't as if Rei didn't think Vihera might have a point.
But even so, the question remained: why had the mastermind himself come out here?
Shouldn't he have used sacrificial pawns to exhaust Rei and Vihera's stamina even a little, or to confirm what kind of cards they held?
Naturally, Rei harbored such doubts.
That being said, whether those doubts existed or not, the fact remained that Jabis had appeared before them.
If so, there was no point in thinking about it any further now.
(...Or perhaps—)
A thought suddenly occurred to Rei as he looked at the unconscious Jabis. It was...
"A body double?"
he muttered.
At Rei's words, Vihera cast her gaze at Jabis with a somewhat convinced expression, but eventually shook her head.
"It's not certain, but I'm pretty sure Jabis is the mastermind behind this incident."
"...What makes you think that? Do you have some kind of proof?"
"As for that, it's just a feeling I have..."
Just a feeling.
Rei couldn't determine who the mastermind was based on that alone.
(...Well, when that "feeling" turns into a woman's intuition, its reliability suddenly shoots up. But even so, while it might work for me, there's no way the Guards would be convinced by that.)
Deciding to deny Vihera's claim for now, Rei opened his mouth.
"Without any clear evidence, going on feelings or intuition won't convince the Guards. Of course, since he was in this mansion, he's definitely involved in this incident, so he'll be interrogated."
"Then it's fine to let the Guards do their best during the interrogation. ...More importantly, are you going to call the Guards? Or are we taking Jabis and the others to them?"
"The former."
What made him state that so definitively was, as expected, the presence of the giant man, if not Jabis and the thin man.
If the giant man were a corpse, it would have been possible to store him in the Misty Ring, but then the Guards wouldn't be able to extract information and intelligence from him.
That was exactly why Rei had chosen to merely knock the two who attacked him unconscious rather than kill them.
...Of course, if those two had been truly strong opponents and there hadn't been any room to hold back, he would have had no choice but to kill them. But fortunately, even if they were stronger than the average Guard, they weren't so strong that Rei couldn't handle them.
"I see. Then... I'll go, so you watch the three of them here, Rei. Is that fine?"
"I don't really mind, but... you're going? I thought you'd stay here and wait."
"If I hadn't been satisfied with the fight against Jabis, I might have thought that... but the previous fight was reasonably satisfying."
Seeing Vihera float a satisfied smile, just as her words suggested, Rei was convinced.
That was how satisfying the previous fight had been for Vihera.
"Got it. If you're going that far, I'll leave it to you."
To be honest, Rei didn't particularly care whether he went to call the Guards or stayed here and waited.
So if Vihera was willing to go out of her way to call them herself, he had no intention of saying no.
"Then I'll be off right away. The Guards waiting in that room are probably worried now that we've left them."
"I left them a message, didn't I? Then I don't think there's any need to worry about that."
"Look, I asked them to pass on a message, but they have no idea what's happened since we entered this mansion. So..."
They're worried, aren't they?
Vihera was about to say that, but before she could, Rei did. And in the next moment, Vihera instantly and reflexively directed her gaze toward the staircase they had come from... or more precisely, toward the Underground Space connected to it.
"...Hey."
"Yeah. It seems we don't have the luxury of taking our time going our separate ways, Rei."
The presence that both Rei and Vihera sensed.
Vihera was merely surprised, but Rei was all too familiar with that presence, which could only be described as abominable.
After all, he had just fought the owner of that presence directly yesterday. It was only natural.
Even without Rei telling her, Vihera understood what the owner of that presence was.
An entity with such an alien presence was not something one encountered often.
"If that presence has appeared, then tentacles are probably emerging from a spatial rift. Which means... there's a high chance the Guards and adventurer escorts are being attacked."
"Then we need to hurry."
Vihera, having half-expected the content of Rei's words, declared this with a smile that filled her entire face... and a ferocious one at that.
There was not a trace of the satisfaction she had felt from her fight with Jabis. Only the figure of Vihera as a Battle Maniac, anticipating the next battle, remained.
Originally, what Vihera had wanted to fight... and the reason she had accompanied the forced search, was largely because she hoped to fight the tentacles.
That was why, upon detecting the presence of what could be called the true prize of this incident, the satisfaction she had gained from fighting Jabis vanished in an instant, and Vihera's body was filled with anticipation for the next battle.
Enemy, enemy, enemy.
Strong enemy, strong enemy, strong enemy.
To that voice sleeping within her, Vihera harbored a combative light in her eyes and turned her gaze toward Rei.
Even after turning her gaze, she showed no sign of saying anything.
Nevertheless, Vihera's gaze alone was enough for Rei to understand what she wanted to say, and he nodded.
"Got it. I'll take Jabis, so go on ahead. If tentacles have appeared in that Underground Space, then not only the Guards but most of the adventurers won't be able to intervene."
Giving a small nod to Rei's words, Vihera left him behind and dashed off at full speed.
It was an act driven solely by Vihera's desire to fight a strong enemy, but it was by no means a bad thing for Rei either.
As long as they couldn't leave Jabis, the suspected mastermind behind this incident, in this place, either Rei or Vihera had to take him along.
But if they entrusted Jabis to Vihera, whose body was currently dominated by her lust for battle, she might drag him along forcefully and end up breaking his neck or something in the process.
Given that, there was no mistaking that having Vihera go on ahead while Rei followed with Jabis was the best choice.
And so, chasing after Vihera, who had vanished from his field of vision in the blink of an eye, Rei slung the unconscious Jabis over his shoulder like a rice bale and followed after her.
Vihera, for whom even the fact that Rei was chasing her from behind existed only in a corner of her mind, sprinted down the hallway at full speed.
The fighting spirit within her urged Vihera on, wanting to fight a strong enemy even a moment sooner.
Riding that momentum as she ran through the hallway, Vihera blew past the staircase leading to the room where the Red Cloth members had been confined in an instant, and before long, the staircase leading to the Underground Space came into view.
Even as the staircase came into sight, Vihera kept running without slowing down at all... and then, she leapt lightly into the air.
The thin garments covering Vihera's body fluttered, and if anyone had been able to witness that sight, it would not have been strange for them to be captivated by the fantastical spectacle.
However, the person who had created that fantastical spectacle paid no mind to such things, kicking off the wall opposite the staircase and plunging down the stairs without killing almost any of her momentum.
She ran down the stairs, skipping several steps at a time.
The fact that she didn't lose her balance at all even while doing such a thing was a testament to how well-honed her sense of body movement was.
As she descended the staircase still riding her momentum, what Vihera saw were corpses reduced to nothing but skin and bone, which had not been there moments before.
Even at a glance, it was certain that more than ten people had fallen victim.
"Uhh, wooooooooooooah!"
Against the pink tentacles flying toward him, one of the adventurers swung his longsword.
The reason he chose to intercept them rather than evade was probably because there were Guards behind him that he needed to protect.
If he were to dodge here, the tentacles would undoubtedly attack the Guards.
As an adventurer hired as an escort, he couldn't just run away.
"While I hold them off, get back upstairs! If the information is correct, these tentacles shouldn't be able to leave this Underground Space!"
At the Adventurer Man's shout, the Guards nodded to each other and quickly fled the area, heading for the staircase.
"You guys be careful too! The tentacles attack from places we don't expect!"
The next thing the adventurer shouted was directed at the other adventurers fighting in the Underground Space.
Currently, there were nearly twenty adventurers and Guards in the Underground Space.
Considering that more than ten had already been killed by the tentacles, that meant there had been over thirty people here initially.
At that sight, Vihera floated a ferocious smile and leapt out from the staircase into the Underground Space in one swift motion.