Emerging from the Wind Fang hideout, Rei reunited with the waiting Set and headed toward the spot where Lazaria was hiding.
Given that Wind Fang was an assassination-focused organization, he had told her to conceal herself in a way that absolutely guaranteed she wouldn't be found. Because of that, even after stepping out of the building, Rei couldn't spot Lazaria just by glancing around the area.
(Guess it's no surprise she belongs to Black Dog. ...Though being good at nothing but hiding doesn't mean much.)
Unable to find her, Rei called out.
"Lazaria, it's safe now. Come on out."
A few seconds passed. Then, Lazaria emerged from the shadow of a nearby building.
"You were there?"
"Yes. I may not look it, but I'm actually quite good at hiding. ...It's a skill I honed before Black Dog took me in."
Her expression carried no particular hint of shame. She likely felt no embarrassment about the time she'd spent surviving in the Slum District.
"I see. Then there's no problem."
"Umm, it might not be a problem for you, but it is for me. ...Isn't this pretty different from what we heard before the fighting started?"
It was a fair point. Rei had initially said the people loitering around the building belonged to Wind Fang. But just as the battle was about to begin between Rei and the people he'd assumed were decoys, the ones he'd identified as Wind Fang's real forces suddenly moved—and killed the ones clashing with Rei instead of targeting him.
Then, just when it looked like Rei would end up fighting those people too, no fight broke out at all. They had simply disappeared into the building together.
From Lazaria's perspective, events had unfolded completely differently from what she'd been told. Expecting her not to be confused would have been unreasonable.
"Yeah, turns out I was mistaken. Those people had been attacked by Wind Fang outside of Gilm before, and they came here for retaliation. Apparently the person leading Wind Fang's Gilm Branch was their target. So I went inside the building with them, but..."
Rei paused and sighed before explaining the rest.
Fighting had broken out inside the building, but the only opponents present were what you'd call small fry. They had searched the place afterward and found no additional personnel, nor any Magic Items, gold coins, platinum coins, gems, or gold nuggets that would serve as operating funds. After consulting with the Morning Star man, they concluded that there had to be a hidden basement.
Rei had tried to burn the building down and kill whoever was hiding below with the heat, but Morning Star's leader had opposed it. Ultimately, they decided to leave Wind Fang in Morning Star's hands for the time being. Rei would return here after crushing other organizations, and if the basement still hadn't been found by then, he would burn the building to the ground.
...And as compensation, he had claimed all Magic Items and treasure inside the building for himself.
After hearing the full explanation, Lazaria nodded in understanding.
"I see. I've heard of an organization called Morning Star. They don't operate in Gilm, but they're a fairly large group, I believe. They do their share of shady things, assassination included, but their primary purpose was supposedly aiding the weak living in the Slum District."
"...In other words, similar to Black Dog?"
"That's right. Their character differs somewhat, but you can think of them that way. I see. I had heard they suffered major losses in a conflict with some organization quite a while back. ...So that opponent must have been Wind Fang."
"Seems that way. Anyway, that's why I'm leaving Wind Fang to Morning Star for now. ...With that settled, let's move on to the next one. I want to crush as many organizations as possible before the day is out, so we don't have much time to waste."
"Understood. Then let's get away from here first. Even with Morning Star present, the fact that this is Wind Fang's hideout hasn't changed. The personnel who were outside might come back while we're standing here."
"You think so? ...Well, if you say so, let's do that."
Rei was confident that even if people with the same level of skill as those inside the hideout returned, he could handle them without any real trouble.
Lazaria, on the other hand, clearly had no combat ability to speak of. She might know some basic self-defense, but unfortunately, what was needed here wasn't basic self-defense—it was genuine combat capability.
(Then again, if it's people like the ones inside the hideout, maybe even Lazaria could manage? One-on-one, at least.)
From what Rei had seen, the bowmen weren't particularly strong. There were even a few among them that Lazaria could probably take down.
(Come to think of it, for an organization like Wind Fang whose main business is assassination, it's strange they only had guys of that caliber. ...Maybe they hid in the basement knowing I was coming.)
All things considered, Wind Fang had survived in Gilm this long for a reason. If they learned that the hideouts of allied organizations were being attacked one after another, they would naturally suspect Rei's involvement. Knowing they couldn't beat him in their current state, it wouldn't be strange for them to prioritize preserving their fighting strength—using sacrificial pawns and hoping to trick him into believing those pawns were Wind Fang's entire force.
In fact, Wind Fang's judgment hadn't been wrong.
...They just apparently never imagined Rei would resort to burning the building down if it came to it.
In that sense, the Wind Fang members had been saved by Morning Star, who would be the ones searching the hideout for the basement. Though it was also undeniable that Morning Star's members were quite skilled. Even if they survived this situation, there was no telling what would happen to them afterward.
"Rei-san? Is something wrong? I'm ready to go, but... do you still have business at that hideout?"
"No, it's nothing. Just thinking the Wind Fang bunch would've been better off letting me crush them obediently."
It wasn't an idle comment. Unlike Rei, Morning Star's members had come to Gilm for revenge. And when revenge was involved, a swift death wasn't guaranteed—there was a real chance of torture. Not interrogation to extract information, but torture with the sole purpose of inflicting suffering.
In that sense, the Wind Fang members could be called unfortunate. Though as far as Rei was concerned, what happened to the people who had targeted him was none of his business.
"I suppose... you're right."
Lazaria nodded as if convinced. Living in the Slum District and belonging to Black Dog, she probably had a reasonable understanding of such matters. Even so, her face was twisted with disgust.
"So, what kind of organization are we heading to next?"
"The Clown."
"...I see."
Rei murmured briefly at the answer. But within that short response, multiple emotions were tangled together.
The organization names up to now had been the usual "Fang of this" and "Spear of that" variety. The simple, single-word name "Clown" was unusual in itself—but more than that, the name conjured a specific image in Rei's mind.
A man with clown-like makeup and a balloon-like physique. Given that he had fought Set to a reasonable stalemate, it was easy to imagine his skill was considerable.
An organization with someone like that meant the enemies remaining in the hideout likely included fighters of comparable caliber.
...Though, as with Wind Fang, the possibility that the main force was hidden and only sacrificial pawns would show themselves couldn't be completely ruled out.
"The Clown, huh. ...By the way, what kind of work do they mainly do?"
'Broadly but shallowly,' I suppose, but what they put the most effort into is the illegal slave trade. I've heard that quite a few people from the Slum District have been captured as illegal slaves."
Even as she explained, Lazaria wore a sour expression. The idea of Slum District residents being sold as illegal slaves was clearly distasteful to her.
"Illegal slaves, huh. ...Even among Gilm's underground organizations, I'd imagine quite a few aren't happy about that."
Certainly, some of Gilm's underground organizations dealt in illegal slaves. But that trade was, at best, small-scale.
One reason was Gilm's unique nature. It was a place where skilled adventurers from all across the Kingdom of Mireana gathered. Even among the adventurers who visited the Slum District, many possessed considerable strength. If such adventurers were mistakenly targeted, the damage to the organization would be immense.
Especially among the type of people who came to the Slum District—some didn't know the meaning of the word mercy. If they ended up crossing such people, even successfully capturing them would likely result in losses far outweighing any profit.
Because of that, the illegal slave trade conducted by Gilm's underground organizations inevitably remained small in scale.
...On top of that, the fact that not long ago Rei had devastated an organization from another country that had been capturing women and forcibly enslaving them had likely served as an effective deterrent.
"To think they'd dare deal in illegal slaves in Gilm. ...In other words, they've gathered that many skilled people?"
"That's how it is. Honestly, I wish they'd be destroyed as quickly as possible."
"...For someone who feels that way, you didn't exactly take me to them first."
If Rei were in Lazaria's position, he would have guided his visitor to the organization he most wanted crushed right from the start.
Yet the first place Lazaria had taken Rei was the hideout of an organization called Blue Spear. It wouldn't have been strange for him to wonder why.
Met with that questioning gaze, Lazaria opened her mouth with a troubled look.
"I didn't choose Blue Spear for any particular reason. I just started from the closest location."
"...I see."
Rei appeared convinced, but he didn't entirely buy it. Even so, he couldn't imagine that Lazaria—someone who belonged to Black Dog—had any intention of harming him, so he didn't press the matter further.
"Gruu."
As they walked, Set rumbled from his throat.
Wondering if something was wrong, Rei turned his gaze—and found a thin, no, emaciated man standing there with drool hanging from his mouth and the whites of his eyes showing.
A skeletal, skin-and-bones figure wasn't a rare sight in the Slum District on its own. But when such a man was gripping a dagger with its blade pointed toward them—more precisely, toward Lazaria, who was guiding Rei—that was another matter entirely.
"Hey, what's with the dagger? If you're planning to attack, we won't hold back."
The man didn't seem particularly bothered by the warning. If anything, with foam-like drool hanging from his mouth and unfocused eyes, he merely stared at Rei.
Rei found it regrettable that the warning had no effect, but the fact that the dagger's blade shifted from Lazaria to himself was exactly as intended.
Lazaria, too, must have read Rei's intention from his words and actions. Once she saw the man's attention lock onto Rei, she put distance between herself and him.
Confirming that, Rei began walking straight toward the man.
"Hieh?"
Perhaps not expecting Rei to close the distance head-on, the man let out a startled sound—and in the next instant, Rei's fist drove into his solar plexus, forcibly robbing him of consciousness. He crumpled to the ground.
"...What's with this guy?"
Even as he said it, Rei had a suspicion about what was causing these symptoms. Though that suspicion was based entirely on manga and anime he'd seen back in Japan.
Lazaria nodded, confirming Rei's uneasy premonition.
"It's a drug that's been spreading rapidly since this spring. ...Though the drug's effects themselves aren't all that strong, so normally people wouldn't become this dependent on it..."
"Normally, you said."
"Yes."
If this were happening on the city's surface side, there wouldn't be that many people so deeply dependent on drugs. But when it came to Slum District residents, there were those with nothing to do, those who wanted to relive the past, those who wanted to escape reality. For all sorts of reasons, they easily succumbed to the temptation of drugs.
...Of course, not being a Slum District resident was no guarantee of immunity either.
"Troublesome."
Gazing down at the man lying unconscious on the ground, Rei muttered the single word.