"Guh... damn it..."
The man with the Death Scythe's blade pressed against the back of his neck muttered in frustration but made no move to resist.
He understood perfectly well that if he tried anything, the blade would be drawn forward without hesitation—in other words, his neck would be severed. That was why he remained still.
His assessment was by no means wrong. If the man had tried anything, Rei fully intended to cut off his head on the spot.
Since Rei wore the hood of his Dragon Robe, the man couldn't get a full look at his face. But even so, one glance into Rei's eyes was enough to tell that here was someone who wouldn't hesitate to kill an enemy, human or otherwise.
"I surrender."
"Good. Just to be sure—you're the boss of Blue Spear, correct?"
"Yeah. Though only here in Gilm."
"Figured as much."
It was unclear whether this building served as the headquarters of the entire Blue Spear organization, but their expansion into Gilm was clearly aimed at widening their sphere of influence. This was, for all intents and purposes, a Gilm Branch.
The man standing here in Gilm wasn't likely the top of the entire organization. Of course, in this world, quality often trumped quantity. Considering that, it wasn't entirely impossible for a leader to be the strongest in their organization, personally leading the charge into enemy strongholds... but that didn't seem to be the case here.
"Now then, I have a few things to ask you. First... this is just confirmation, but you sent assassins after me in cooperation with other emerging organizations, correct?"
"Yeah. Don't bother."
The words the man added after answering weren't directed at Rei. He had noticed one of the Blue Spear members who could still move trying to launch an attack.
In this situation, such an attempt was pointless—worse than pointless, really. It would only earn a meaningless death. The man's warning was born of that judgment.
Indeed, even while interrogating him, Rei hadn't stopped paying attention to his surroundings. He had naturally noticed the man gearing up to act, and had focused his awareness accordingly. The reason he hadn't bothered to restrain him was simple: he was confident he could handle whatever came his way.
"Yeah. You barely escaped with your life. No need to throw it away here."
Rei spoke without so much as glancing at the man behind him.
With a jolt, the would-be attacker froze. He realized Rei had been aware of him from the very beginning. Even without the boss's intervention, he understood that making a move would have meant death.
"Now, to continue. I want to know how many organizations are gathered here... but I suppose I'll ask anyway."
"What?"
Perhaps because Rei's question had come across as an afterthought, the boss shot him a questioning look. He'd assumed Rei had attacked them to gather whatever intelligence he could about those targeting him.
Could this be a bluff of some kind? It wasn't an unreasonable thought, but from where the boss stood, Rei didn't seem like he was trying to deceive anyone. As the man who led the Blue Spear members dispatched to Gilm, he had a fair degree of confidence in his ability to read people. Yet even through his experienced eyes, Rei didn't come across as someone trying to bluff.
...In truth, Rei's questioning was largely a formality. Black Dog had already provided him with solid intelligence on that front. Under the circumstances, he couldn't exactly take an enemy's word at face value. Still, there was always the chance they knew something beyond what Black Dog had uncovered—which was why he bothered asking.
...But the most important thing Rei wanted from this man was something else entirely.
"Then what is it you want to know?"
"Let's see... Do the assassins dispatched by Blue Spear possess any abilities that let them disguise their killing intent by creating a sense of unease in their target? Or do you know of anyone in other organizations with that kind of ability?"
That was naturally Rei's biggest question. Honestly, if he could get that information, he felt it might even eliminate the need to raid the other organizations.
...Of course, since he'd already secured Black Dog's cooperation and set this operation in motion, stopping now wasn't really an option.
"What?"
"What I want to know is exactly that. So? If you do know something, it'd be helpful if you could tell me."
With those words, Rei pulled the Death Scythe pressed against the back of the man's neck back just a fraction.
A thin line—the blade sliced through skin with ease, and blood began to trickle.
The man must have sensed the warmth of the blood and realized his neck had been nicked. He didn't shake his head. He opened his mouth instead.
"Unfortunately, I don't know anything about that. The ones we've dispatched don't carry any such Magic Items or possess any such skills."
Rei studied the man closely, as if trying to determine whether those words were the truth. He didn't have absolute confidence in his ability to read people, but he could usually get a general sense of whether someone was lying. From what he could tell, the man wasn't deceiving him.
(Well, considering the nature of this organization, it's not that surprising.)
As far as Rei could tell, every member of this organization wielded a blue spear. A weapon that perfectly suited the name Blue Spear. But how could someone armed with such a weapon create a sense of unease for Rei and Set?
(If they had a Magic Item, it might be usable regardless of the weapon... but that seems unlikely too.)
In the end, while this Blue Spear organization was involved in the incident, they didn't possess the information Rei was after. Disappointed, he spoke again.
"I see. Then... do you have any last words?"
The man before him was the boss of an organization that had targeted his life. There were other organizations too, but that was no reason to let this one's leader walk free. If he spared him here, the man would almost certainly come after him again.
The man seemed to understand that. Rather than begging for his life, he spoke plainly.
"In exchange for my life, spare the subordinates who are still alive."
"Fair enough. If you hand over whatever treasures and Magic Items this organization has hoarded, I'll let the survivors go. But if they come after me again, I'll kill them without a second thought. If that's acceptable, we have a deal. What do you say?"
"Fine. That works. But we haven't collected any Magic Items. We've got jewels, gold nuggets, and the like. Will that do?"
"Boss!"
Before Rei could respond, one of the survivors of the onslaught cried out. The voice was thick with concern for the man—proof of just how deeply the boss was respected by his subordinates.
...That said, it wasn't going to make Rei go any easier on them.
"Understood. Then sleep."
With that single phrase, Rei drew the Death Scythe back. He killed the man so swiftly that he felt no pain at all—perhaps the closest thing to mercy Rei was willing to offer.
"Boooossssss!"
There were apparently others still alive besides the one who had tried to attack earlier. The cries of several men echoed through the room.
As if those cries were a trigger, blood began gushing from the severed neck like a fountain—until now, no blood had flowed at all, likely due to the blade's incredible sharpness.
"Whoa... this is..."
Rei leapt backward to avoid being splashed, genuinely startled by the fountain of blood that reached all the way to the ceiling. It wasn't as though he had never severed someone's head before. But he had almost never seen blood spurt out this dramatically.
The severed head rolled across the floor toward the surviving men. Those who could still move gathered around it, and all of them wept.
(I'd heard they were an Underground Organization, so I assumed they were bound together by cold calculation and mutual interests... This is a bit unexpected.)
That was Rei's honest impression. That said, it wasn't about to make him forgive someone who had targeted his life.
"Now then, I'll be on my way... but first, tell me where you've been keeping your hoard."
"You bastard!"
An insolent demand hurled at men still mourning their boss. One of those who had escaped with only bruises from Rei's assault stood up and glared, incensed that Rei was now demanding they hand over their stockpile of gold and treasure.
But the look Rei gave the man in return was one of pure exasperation.
"You seem to be forgetting something. The only reason I came here in the first place is because you people tried to assassinate me. I'm honoring the request of the man who led that organization, and not killing the rest of you who are still breathing. If that's not good enough for you—"
He readied the Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear.
"Do you want to die too? My promise to that man was conditional on you people not attacking me again. In other words, if you attack, I'll respond accordingly."
What "accordingly" meant in this context was clear to everyone in the room. He would kill them.
"That's..."
In the first place, none of them could delude themselves into thinking they stood a chance against Rei. They had ambushed him in perfect condition and hadn't landed so much as a single scratch. Given that, with everyone nursing injuries and many having lost their weapons, there was no conceivable way they could win.
...The reason they'd defied him anyway was, no doubt, because the man they admired had been killed.
And it was precisely because of that man's dying wish that they were being spared now. Even understanding that, asking them not to resent Rei would have been an impossible demand.
"...It's in the room to the right, outside this one. Is that good enough? Now get out of here."
A man with a fractured right shoulder spoke through clenched teeth, his expression twisted with suppressed rage. Rei judged he wouldn't lie about something like this and gave a nod.
If he was lying, they understood perfectly well that Rei would come back and kill them all.
"I don't know what you plan to do from here on out. But if you come after me again, don't expect mercy a second time. I told your boss the same thing, but—"
Rei glanced at the severed head, then at the corpse whose fountain of blood had finally begun to subside, before continuing.
"The root cause of all this is the fact that you people targeted my life. Resenting me for fighting back is nothing but misplaced blame."
With those parting words, Rei left the room.
He could hear shouting behind him, the sound of fists pounding walls and floor, but he paid it no mind as he stepped into the room to the right.
Sure enough, gold nuggets and jewels were laid out inside.
"I see. So this was being used as a storehouse. ...Surprisingly unguarded, though."
Given that it was an Underground Organization hideout, there probably weren't many people bold enough to try stealing from it. Rei had the strength of an Alias Holder, so he'd been able to overwhelm them easily, but the Blue Spear members were by no means pushovers. They had, after all, survived entering Gilm as a new organization—they had real skill.
If an ordinary resident of the Slum District tried to rob them, they'd be caught and killed in short order. Thinking of it that way, leaving gold nuggets, jewels, Gold Coins, and even Platinum Coins sitting in this room wasn't particularly strange.
"Oh? Is this an Ingot? Could it be Magic Metal?"
A block of metal unlike anything Rei had seen before. An Ingot, so to speak. He didn't know exactly what kind of metal it was, but judging that there was a possibility it could be some form of Magic Metal... he proceeded to sweep everything in the storehouse into his Misty Ring, one item after another.