Rei had been tailed and attacked in a secluded spot.
His attacker was by no means someone who made a living through combat. That much was clear from the way he moved and how he gripped his short sword.
That said, if they were going to attack someone as strong as Rei, even a seasoned adventurer would have been out of their depth. Given that, it wasn't unreasonable for them to conclude that someone with no combat experience should be the one to make the attempt.
"So. I'd say you're well enough to talk by now. What exactly were you thinking, attacking me like that?"
"..."
Rei asked, but the man lying on his back only glared at him, showing no sign of opening his mouth.
(Can't talk...? No, more like he won't talk. First time I've seen this face, isn't it?)
Rei studied the man glaring up at him. At the very least, he had no memory of meeting him anywhere before. If that was the case, this wasn't someone he had directly crossed paths with—which meant the man held a grudge against him for some other reason.
"I've never met you before, though. Or have we crossed paths somewhere?"
Rei asked as a formality, but the man only intensified his glare in response. That at least proved it wasn't a case of mistaken identity.
...Not that mistaking Rei—unmistakable as the man traveling with Set—for someone else would be an easy thing to do.
"I can't really do anything about this if you won't say anything, you know."
If his attacker had been someone of considerable skill, Rei wouldn't have bothered waiting and observing like this. But this man was an amateur when it came to fighting—he posed no threat to Rei as he was now. That was precisely why Rei found himself watching the man with a degree of curiosity.
"...i..."
The man's faint murmur reached Rei's ears. Even with senses sharper than an ordinary person's, Rei could only barely make it out—which meant whether the man had actually been trying to say something was anyone's guess.
"What is it? If you have something to say, then—"
"Die."
The single word slipped from the man's mouth.
The instant Rei sensed the danger, he leapt backward. As if responding to his movement, a violent burst of wind blades erupted outward in every direction, centered on the man himself.
It wasn't a tornado. It was an attack that generated a massive number of wind blades and sent them flying indiscriminately. Razor-sharp gusts sliced through everything in the vicinity.
However, perhaps because the method was designed for close-range targets, simply putting distance between them meant almost no wind blades came Rei's way. Not that it would have mattered either way—considering the Dragon Robe he was wearing, a direct hit from a wind blade wouldn't have done a thing.
(But how is he producing an attack like this?)
Having put enough distance between himself and the danger, Rei observed the man carefully alongside Set, who was staying vigilant against the wind blades near them.
Given the situation, it was hard to believe the man had been hiding his true power. The killing intent he had directed at Rei was clumsy, yes, but it had undoubtedly been genuine. If he'd had a method like this from the start, there would have been no reason to grab a short sword and charge in bodily.
"Which means... he's not activating it of his own will? It triggers automatically when he's in danger?"
Muttering that, Rei suddenly doubted his own reasoning. If it wasn't activated manually, then it was likely designed to trigger under specific conditions. When he lost a fight, perhaps. Or when whoever defeated him got close. In other words, it was a means to silence this man—and, on the off chance, take out whoever had beaten him.
(It's got to be a Magic Item. But then... was it really necessary to go that far?)
Magic Items were fundamentally very expensive. Something with a degree of circulation was one thing, but a self-destruct type like the one this man had used? Rei had absolutely no idea how much it would cost to produce.
If he had a solid grounding in Alchemy, he might have been able to work it out... but unfortunately, that wasn't his area of expertise. All he could do was speculate. Still, as someone who collected Magic Items as a hobby, he could at least vaguely sense that it would have been staggeringly expensive.
And that was what felt off. Making a man like this use something so costly—it didn't add up.
"Hey, wait—what the hell is this!?"
Even in a back alley where few people passed, it wasn't as though no one ever came through. And right now, wind blades were scattering in every direction from a man who couldn't move. If someone happened to walk by, curiosity alone would be enough to make them peek in.
...Which, of course, was exactly why the commotion was growing.
"Don't get close—it's dangerous! That man used some kind of Magic Item!"
The bystander who had cried out at the destruction turned his gaze back toward the center of the wind blades at Rei's shout.
There lay the man, his body shredded by the very blades he had unleashed. Whether he was still alive was questionable at best.
"Hey, isn't that guy dead!?"
"Probably. But the effect isn't fading, so there's nothing I can do!"
That was a lie. If he wanted to, Rei had more than enough power to end this. But doing so would risk causing even greater damage to the surroundings—more, perhaps, than the wind blades themselves. He couldn't be reckless.
"Tch—fine. I'll go get the guards. Wait here!"
The man shouted that over his shoulder and bolted back the way he'd come.
Watching him go, Rei wavered on what to do next. This incident had been aimed at him specifically, and he didn't want to drag others into it.
...In truth, though, what really bothered him was the hassle of being questioned about the details. More than anything, Rei had too much on his plate right now. If he got dragged into an interrogation, he might not make it back to the Birth Tower today.
Of course, Gilm was currently swelling with people. Given the chaos that brought, there was a chance this incident would slip through without any formal questioning at all.
"In any case, if there's a risk of things escalating even after the guards arrive, I should wrap this up as fast as possible... but how?"
Should I just handle it myself, even if it means some collateral damage?
Thinking the exact opposite of what he'd concluded moments ago, Rei looked toward the center of the wind blades. The attacker was already dead—surely a little recklessness was warranted now.
Whether the man had acted on his own or someone was pulling his strings, those answers died with him. There was no one left to interrogate. With that in mind, Rei saw no reason not to simply end it himself—
"Oh? I thought I sensed spirits in an uproar..."
The person who peeked out from the very same spot the previous bystander had fled was someone Rei recognized: Anastasia.
She'd said she was going to search for a research assistant for the Wisp. They'd parted ways. So why was she here?
"Anastasia, didn't you go look for an assistant?"
"I did. See?"
With that, she yanked someone out from behind a corner Rei couldn't see past. The casual, effortless motion didn't look like something a slender elf's strength should have been capable of.
(Huh? Elves are supposed to be... no, never mind. Pointing that out would probably cause trouble.)
Setting the thought aside, Rei turned his attention to the woman Anastasia had dragged out.
He could tell she was a woman from her build. Her face, however, was impossible to read—she wore a mask that covered everything: eyes, nose, and mouth alike.
Can she even see in that thing? Isn't it stifling? Questions piled up, but before he could ask any of them, the wind blades still needed dealing with.
"You mentioned Wind Spirits—can you do something about this, Anastasia? I couldn't figure out what caused it, so if I handle it, the only option is to completely obliterate whatever's generating this phenomenon."
"...That's a bit much."
Anastasia eyed him with exasperation at the sheer overkill of his proposed solution.
Meanwhile, the Masked Woman seemed to have been alarmed by Rei's words. She shrank back into the passage, only for Anastasia to pull her forward again. Even mid-conversation, Anastasia never once let go of her—there was an unmistakable familiarity to the way she handled the woman.
(Maybe they know each other? I can't see her face, so I can't tell. Or maybe Anastasia's just dealt with people like this before.)
Rei watched their exchange with that suspicion, but Anastasia ignored him entirely, keeping her grip on the Masked Woman as she spoke.
"This is a spirit rampage. And it's being triggered intentionally. All I need to do is calm them down."
"Can you?"
"Excuse me—just who do you think I am?"
Anastasia shot him a look that clearly said "how rude" before turning to address the spirits.
She spoke to them... but several minutes passed, and the wind blades—the rampage of the Wind Spirits—showed no sign of subsiding.
Judging it too dangerous to leave Anastasia exposed, Rei moved closer to her alongside Set.
"Having trouble?"
"No. The talk with the spirits is going smoothly."
The Masked Woman, released once Anastasia had begun her work, answered Rei's question without any attempt to flee. Her voice, however, was barely above a whisper—louder than the man who'd attacked him, perhaps, but soft enough to miss if you weren't paying attention.
"Is that so? ...Is that, now."
Now that he thought about it, Rei recalled Anastasia telling him that Spirit Magic users as skilled as Marina were exceedingly rare. With that in mind, the reason for the stalemate made sense.
(If that's the case, Marina could probably calm the rampaging spirits a lot faster than Anastasia.)
As Rei watched Anastasia work with that thought in the back of his mind, the wind blades scattered around them gradually began to weaken... and then faded away entirely.
"Oh."
"That's about what you'd expect... though from your perspective, I suppose it looked slow."
Whether she'd overheard the exchange between Rei and the Masked Woman or not, Anastasia spoke with a slightly sulky edge.
"Ah... well, yeah."
Rei couldn't exactly play dumb. He'd been overheard, and more importantly, he'd already told Anastasia at least a little about Marina. From Rei's perspective, Marina was undeniably an exceptionally skilled spirit user—so skilled, in fact, that trying to downplay it would be pointless.
Besides, if Anastasia was going to research the Wisp, she'd naturally end up meeting Marina sooner or later anyway.
"Once you meet Marina, you'll understand just how incredible she is."
"Listen—I'll have you know that unlike Rei, who can't use Spirit Magic at all, I'm far better equipped to appreciate how extraordinary this 'Marina' person is."
Put that way, Rei couldn't argue. Someone who could use Spirit Magic herself would understand the skill far better than he ever could.
"Ah... right. Well then—want to meet Marina today or tomorrow? You won't be able to stay at the Treant Forest... or rather, the Birth Tower, if you do."
Anastasia considered this for a moment... and eventually gave a small nod.