The man called Daub by the Man in Black had a balloon-like physique. His face was painted with makeup reminiscent of a clown.
Rei definitely recognized him—and at the same time, there was no mistaking that it all made sense.
After all, the very first time Rei was attacked and stabbed in the back with a dagger was when the street performer he and Set had been watching—Daub—botched his juggling act and sent a blade tumbling down right beside Rei.
If Daub was working with the enemy, then that little "accident" was perfectly understandable.
"I see. I thought it was awfully convenient how a dagger just happened to land next to me... so that's what was going on."
"Foh foh foh. I do apologize. But since this is my job, it simply couldn't be helped."
Daub delivered those words with a laugh, but no smile touched his face. The makeup around his mouth made him appear to be grinning, yet in reality, he wasn't smiling at all. He was simply emitting sounds of laughter.
Finding the sight distinctly eerie, Rei shifted his gaze to the Man in Black. He did so because he figured it would be troublesome if the two of them came at him together.
Troublesome, though, didn't mean he couldn't handle it. After all, Rei had a reliable partner—one he could trust from the bottom of his heart.
However, Rei's expectations proved wrong.
The Man in Black was directing a killing-intent-laced glare at Daub. More precisely, the Man in Black and every one of his subordinates were doing so in unison.
(...So they're not allies? Well, I guess with Daub and the Black Garb group, their appearances are too different for that.)
On one side was Daub, with his balloon-like physique and clown makeup. On the other were those clad in black garments that covered even their faces, as if designed to melt into darkness. Comparing the two sides, their only commonality was being human—no, the Black Garb side might include beastmen or elves mixed in, so it would be more accurate to say their only commonality was being humanoid.
(Still, two groups like these... or maybe even more? Why are they all targeting me? I've got more than enough reasons to be targeted, sure, but I didn't think anyone would actually come after me.)
There were certainly a great number of people who held grudges against Rei. But if someone attacked him and failed, considering the damage they would suffer in return, any rational person would judge it not worth the risk. Even if they tried to commission an assassination through some organization, if that organization knew of Rei's strength, they would hesitate to accept a request that could lead to their own ruin.
"So? What exactly are you people, anyway? I won't say I have no idea why someone would target me... but I don't recall doing anything recently that would make me suddenly start getting hit like this."
Since maintaining this three-way standoff was pointless, Rei spoke up.
At his words, Daub responded with an exaggerated gesture.
"Foh foh foh. We have many circumstances of our own, you see. I don't know what you're thinking, Rei-san, but I can only ask that you accept it."
"Che. You've got some nerve. ...Well, what Daub's saying isn't the whole story, but there's no reason I need to go out of my way to explain it to you, is there?"
He had a point. Rei almost found himself nodding along with the Man in Black's words.
In truth, Rei had no idea what kind of circumstances the other side was dealing with. But when it came to whether they needed to explain those circumstances—there was no real need for them to go out of their way to do so.
(That said, I can't just nod along and accept that at face value, either.)
If they were targeting him, so be it. But he at least wanted to know the reason, and if someone had put out a request for his assassination, he needed to have a proper talk with that person as well. Given the current situation, gathering even a little more information was undeniably necessary.
"Oh? You really won't tell me? In that case, we'll have to respond accordingly. You're fine with that, right?"
Saying so, Rei drew the Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear from his Misty Ring and took a stance.
Seeing this, Rei could tell from the atmosphere alone that the Man in Black was making a displeased expression behind his concealed face.
"Tch. An Item Box is so cowardly."
"Indeed, indeed. In this case, anyone would agree that an Item Box is cowardly. ...What do you say? Shall we fight fair and square, the two of us?"
Following the Man in Black, Daub made the suggestion.
But Rei directed a gaze of pure exasperation at the two of them and opened his mouth.
"Fair and square, you say? You've got this many people surrounding me—which mouth is saying that?"
"Oh my, you've got me there. But... you have a gryphon on your side, so isn't that sufficient combat power?"
"Who knows about that."
Rei deflected Daub's words with a noncommittal reply. In truth, since he had Set as a reliable partner, his combat power was undeniably sufficient. Viewed objectively, he could accept the claim that his use of the Misty Ring was cowardly.
...However, that didn't mean there was any chance Rei would let it bother him enough to stop using the Misty Ring.
"But, well. If you're willing to tell me about your various circumstances, I might consider responding accordingly."
Naturally, "consider" in this case simply meant consider—he had no intention of actually following through. The other side likely knew that too; even though Rei had compromised—or rather, merely made it look like he had compromised—it didn't seem like they would take the bait.
Then again, Rei didn't expect them to genuinely accept his proposal, either. Perhaps—just perhaps—there was a tiny chance they might have, but that probability was vanishingly small.
"Unfortunately, I won't be falling for that one. ...Now then, the more pressing matter is what to do from here. I don't mind starting right now, you know?"
Daub's gaze was directed not at Rei... but at the Man in Black. He had likely judged that dealing with the Man in Black took priority over responding to Rei at the moment.
(Sure enough, these two... or rather, these two factions? They don't seem to be on good terms. Maybe they're usually enemies but have joined forces in a limited capacity for now, just to defeat me?)
Rei pondered this as he observed the two of them. That said, from the way they interacted, it didn't appear their relationship was decisively hostile. No matter what Rei said here, bringing about a three-way battle seemed impossible.
(In that case—first strike wins!)
Without a moment's hesitation, Rei gripped his weapons and surged forward.
His destination was not Daub—but the Black Garb group.
"Set!"
Rei called the name briefly, but that alone was enough for Set to fully understand what was expected of him and spring into action. Namely, to go after Daub and prevent him from interfering in Rei's fight with the Black Garb group.
"Ha! You've got some nerve coming at me!"
The Man in Black let out a ferocious cry at Rei, who was charging straight toward him. As if echoing their leader's words, the other Black Garb members bared their fighting spirit and each readied their weapons.
However... the Black Garb members might have been skilled, but that was only true when measured by ordinary standards. To Rei, who possessed top-class strength even in Gilm—a city where skilled adventurers gathered not only from the Kingdom of Mireana but from neighboring nations as well—ordinary standards were essentially meaningless.
(The only one I need to be cautious of is the leader.)
The man who had been speaking directly with Rei. He alone was someone Rei needed to be at least somewhat wary of. Rei was also curious about how the man wielded his trident dagger, but his movements themselves were clearly superior to those of the other Black Garb members.
(But... ultimately, he's no match for Elena or Vihera!)
Rei's training partners were mostly formidable fighters like Elena and Vihera. Recently, he had also been having mock battles with Gaga the Lizardman, but compared to opponents like them, the Man in Black was undeniably a level or two below.
The man was the first to close the distance, thrusting out his trident dagger. Unlike a normal dagger, its tip was shaped like a trident, giving it a wide attack range. The strike came at considerable speed; if Rei had treated it like an ordinary dagger, he would have at least suffered a graze.
And since it was a dagger used by an assassin, it wouldn't be surprising if the blade was coated in poison. Given that the blade was not a normal color, it was almost certain that some kind of poison had been applied.
"But even so... don't think you can do anything about me with just that!"
Rei shouted while dodging the attack, then swung the Death Scythe in his right hand. The blow was deliberately slow—delivered at a speed the Man in Black could dodge—and was naturally evaded.
As if exploiting the opening created by that dodge, the Twilight Spear in his left hand swept across—
"Guh!"
A scream echoed through the clearing. But the one who cried out was not the Man in Black wielding the trident dagger... but one of his subordinates.
The other Black Garb members, unable to keep up with their leader's movements, had been left behind. Still, they kept moving, eventually caught up, and shielded the man just as Rei was about to land a blow on him.
The sensation of several ribs shattering transmitted through the Twilight Spear to Rei's hand, but judging by the way they behaved, there was no way the opponent would give up after just that.
(Having strong camaraderie is a pain. ...Come to think of it, the ones who came to the lake and the ones who attacked the carriage had decent coordination, too.)
While evading the coordinated attacks from the trident dagger wielder and the other Black Garb members, Rei recalled the Black Garb he had fought before. That said, while they shared the commonality of good coordination, the level was entirely different.
As expected, the ones fighting Rei right now were overwhelmingly superior when it came to teamwork. With the trident dagger wielder as the primary axis of attack, the others distracted Rei or set up situations where his attacks would be more effective—that was the nature of their coordination.
"Annoying!"
Shouting that, Rei swung the Death Scythe in a wide arc. The man struck by the scythe's shaft had his bones shattered at the point of impact and was sent flying. The one caught by the blade was bisected, torso split cleanly in two.
The former might have been luckier since they were still alive, but whether suffering injuries that could easily leave lifelong aftereffects qualified as "lucky" was debatable at best.
"You bastard!"
The trident dagger wielder screamed as his comrades were swept aside and cut down indiscriminately, but Rei let the words pass over him and sharply thrust the Twilight Spear in his left hand forward.
One Black Garb member was pierced through the torso—but it didn't end there. The spear continued through and drove into the flank of another Black Garb member standing behind the first.
Normally, piercing through a human body would drain a spear's momentum... but that was the result of the Twilight Spear—an exceptionally powerful magic item—combined with Rei's physical abilities. And on top of that—
"Impossible!"
One of the Black Garb members shouted as he stared at Rei.
Naturally. Rei had skewered two of them and lifted them both off the ground. And he hadn't desperately hefted them with both hands gripping the Twilight Spear—he had hoisted two impaled men with his left hand alone.
Even while doing so, he was swinging the Death Scythe in his right hand, slashing diagonally across a nearby Black Garb member. It was painfully obvious that he was lifting them with the strength of his left hand alone, without even concentrating his power.
If a heavily muscled, burly brute had done this, it might have been somewhat understandable. But the one who performed the feat was Rei, who was by no means large—no, could more accurately be described as small-framed.
Even for the Black Garb members, trained assassins capable of remaining calm in the heat of combat, being told not to be shocked by what they'd just witnessed would have been unreasonable.
"You've gotta be..."
The Man in Black with the trident dagger was equally stunned. He had known Rei was strong. He had known Rei was an alias holder. But even so... possessing this level of power was beyond anything he had imagined.
Rei had lured them out by heading to an isolated location, so they had attacked thinking they were being underestimated. But for a fleeting moment, he couldn't help but wonder if fighting him head-on was every bit as reckless as the assassins had said when they'd discussed it among themselves.
Even so, having initiated this battle, he steeled his resolve to win no matter what—and charged at Rei once more.