For the time being, Rei left the unconscious man where he was and continued down the road.
To the residents of the Slum District, an unconscious man was nothing short of prey.
Rei knew that, but even so, he had no intention of helping someone who had just attacked them.
If the man was lucky, he would survive without even having his possessions stolen.
If he was unlucky, he might be killed—but that was simply his fate to accept.
...Though if he was killed while unconscious, at least he would be spared fear and pain, which in a sense might actually be a mercy.
"So, is that the Clown hideout? ...For a name like Clown, it's pretty ordinary."
"Just because they're called Clown doesn't mean they need some special hideout, I'd think. ...Well, I do understand the feeling, though."
Lazaria responded to Rei's impression, but even she seemed to grasp what he meant and found herself agreeing.
The building was indeed ordinary—not particularly large compared to the ones they had seen so far.
Rei briefly wondered if there might be a basement here too, but there was no way to know for certain.
Not without actually searching inside the hideout.
"At any rate, they probably have skilled fighters gathered, so hide yourself just like at Wind Fang, Lazaria."
Lazaria nodded as if it went without saying.
She had enough self-defense skills to get by living in the Slum District, but not enough to intervene in real combat like Rei's.
Wishing him luck, she slipped out of sight.
"Alright then, Set. ...Shall we?"
"Gruu!"
At Rei's words, Set gave a short purr.
The building was ordinary—slightly larger than normal, perhaps, but still modest enough to be called ordinary.
Though the very existence of such a house in the Slum District was itself somewhat questionable.
Still, compared to Blue Spear's three-story building, it was far more inconspicuous.
What puzzled Rei was the complete absence of anyone serving as a lookout, guard, or gatekeeper.
"I figured there'd be some kind of reaction once we got close to the building. ...What do you think?"
"Gruu? ...Grururuu."
At Rei's words, Set tilted his head as if to say he didn't know either.
At this rate, Rei would enter the hideout without encountering any resistance whatsoever.
The Clown surely knew that the hideouts of their allied organizations—Blue Spear, Black Phantom, Wind Fang—were being attacked.
Yet the complete lack of defensive preparation was strange.
Maybe they were hiding somewhere. Or perhaps, like Morning Star, they were disguised among the surroundings. Rei searched, but there was no sign of anyone near the building.
Which meant the only way to find out what was going on was to go inside.
(Burning the building from the outside is an option, but then I wouldn't be able to get any Magic Items or treasure inside.)
Especially since the target this time was the Clown.
If they lived up to their name, it wouldn't be strange for them to have more Magic Items than any of the previous organizations.
...Though admittedly, the only Magic Items obtained so far were the ten potions from the Black Phantom hideout.
Then again, each of those potions was worth several Platinum Coins—not something easily acquired.
Considering they could be used in emergencies, they were well worth having.
As for Wind Fang... it was still unknown what kind of Magic Items they had, but given that they were an assassination-focused organization, it wouldn't be surprising if they possessed some. Though he couldn't say for certain until he stopped by their hideout later.
At any rate, Rei wanted to obtain some kind of Magic Item or treasure from the building before him.
"...Nothing for it. Standing around here is pointless. Let's go."
Muttering, Rei stepped inside.
Behind him, he heard Set let out a warning cry, and Rei nodded inwardly in acknowledgment.
(If Black Phantom wasn't the source of the unease... then by process of elimination, the Clown is the likely culprit.)
Rei advanced through the building, muttering half to himself, but found no sign of anyone inside.
If there were disposable pawns like at Wind Fang, he could have accepted that.
But for there to be no enemies at all inside a functioning hideout was plainly wrong.
(Or is it? If they're lying in wait somewhere, like Blue Spear did...)
With that thought, Rei pressed deeper into the building.
The interior was extremely spartan.
There were chairs, tables, and even a crude sofa of sorts.
But that was it.
Rei didn't know how many members the Clown organization had, but the total absence of any signs of daily life was plainly abnormal.
(Is this really a hideout? It doesn't look like anyone's been living here at all.)
Harboring that doubt, Rei continued searching the building.
But as expected, there was no one anywhere.
He checked several rooms, but no one from the Clown was in any of them.
It was enough to make him wonder if they had fled upon learning they were being targeted.
But even if they had fled, there were no traces whatsoever—nothing to suggest they had packed up and left after learning Rei was attacking their allied organizations.
It was hard to believe they could have cleared out everything in such a short time.
(Well, if they did flee, they'd have taken the Magic Items with them too.)
Just as that thought crossed his mind, the moment he stepped into the next room to check... a dagger suddenly materialized right before his eyes.
"!?"
He reflexively turned his face away and managed to avoid a direct hit, but he couldn't completely evade the strike. It grazed his cheek and lodged itself into the hood of his Dragon Robe, stopping there.
Dodging that attack was less a product of skill than of a near-instinctive evasive reaction.
The Dragon Robe couldn't be pierced by something as trivial as a dagger.
But its powerful defensive properties naturally only applied to areas covered by the robe.
In other words, exposed areas couldn't be protected by the Dragon Robe.
Which meant that targeting the face—exactly as had just been done—was an extremely effective approach when attempting to assassinate Rei.
...Assuming one could actually land that strike on him.
Under normal circumstances, that was the hardest part.
But that just now had been a hair's breadth even for Rei.
He swiftly leapt backward and surveyed his surroundings.
Pulling the dagger from his hood, he examined it while staying prepared for another attack at any moment.
(An ordinary dagger. No poison applied, and not a Magic Item dagger like the Dagger of Flowing Water. But... then that means...)
Examining the dagger, Rei scanned his surroundings once more.
The dagger in his hand hadn't been thrown by someone from afar—it had appeared suddenly right before his eyes.
As if it had been teleported.
If it were an ordinary thrown dagger, Rei could have dodged or deflected it.
But when it materialized in front of him like that, dodging was far more difficult.
...However...
"I don't know who you are, but failing to finish me off with that first strike was fatal. The initial attack is one thing, but now that I know this kind of attack exists, I can at least deal with it."
Saying so, he swept his gaze across the room... and swiftly swung the dagger in his hand.
A high-pitched metallic ring echoed through the room as a dagger that had flown in from nowhere was deflected by Rei's.
"Like this!"
Shouting, Rei hurled the dagger in his hand.
The direction of the throw was beyond the point where the deflected dagger had appeared.
Since it hadn't been a thrown dagger, there was no guarantee an enemy lay in the direction it had come from.
No guarantee—but no guarantee they weren't there, either.
Whether someone was there or not.
Not knowing was the problem.
If they weren't there, fine. If they were, that needed to be made clear.
"...Not there, huh."
The dagger Rei threw embedded itself in the wall, but there were no traces of blood.
Gazing at it with disappointment, Rei withdrew Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear from his Misty Ring.
Fortunately, the room was quite spacious, with more than enough room to swing both weapons.
"Not coming out? You can't attack me properly anymore, you know. At this point, whatever you try is useless. ...Is that really fine with you?"
Rei spoke half-provocatively, but the enemy showed no sign of responding.
(Was it teleported? Or did someone simply throw a weapon that somehow approached close to me without being detected until the last moment? ...Which is it? I'd like to know that as soon as possible. In that case, for now...)
As long as there was a possibility that someone was hiding in this room without Rei noticing, he needed to confirm that first.
What Rei chose to do in that situation was something extremely simple.
But precisely because it was simple, it was also difficult to counter.
"Come out before you die."
Muttering, Rei swung Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear.
Not knowing where the enemy was, he moved about the room while staying alert, ready for the moment his weapons struck something.
To an unknowing observer, it might have looked like Rei was performing a martial dance.
But Rei had no such intention, of course. Operating on the assumption that an enemy was hiding by some means, he was moving precisely to find them.
Even if an enemy was in this room, dodging two long-shafted weapons while Rei moved about freely in all directions would be exceedingly difficult.
And even if they thought staying still would keep them safe, they couldn't possibly remain calm with weapons of devastating destructive power passing right before their eyes and mere inches from their body.
(If it turns out there's actually no one in this room, then I'm the clown... the Clown, I suppose.)
With that thought, Rei carefully searched for anything out of place.
Operating on the premise that an enemy was present, he stayed alert so he would notice anything suspicious the instant it appeared.
(Making it impossible for others to perceive their presence... the unease I've felt since coming to Gilm is likely the work of the Clown. Figuring that out alone made coming to their hideout worthwhile.)
This unease was the first phenomenon he needed to deal with.
Knowing that, Rei felt that in a sense, he had been lucky.
...Though being in this situation at all meant he could hardly be called lucky.
"Don't think you can dodge so easily! If you're in this room, at this rate you'll definitely—"
Die.
As if to cut off Rei's words before he could finish, the sound of a door opening echoed through the room.
Not the door Rei had come through, but the other door in the room.
The instant he heard it, Rei stopped his "dance" and broke into a sprint toward the sound.
If the door hadn't been opened by the wind pressure of his swinging Twilight Spear or Death Scythe, then who had done it was obvious.
In other words, someone who had been in the same room as Rei had just fled.
(I thought there was a high chance an enemy was here, so I'm glad they were. If there hadn't been, I would've been performing a solo martial dance in an empty room.)
Passing through the open door, Rei entered the next room, only to see another connected door opening once more.
He naturally chased after it into the next room, but there yet another door opened.
"You think you can escape!? Flying Slash!"
A slash of compressed air launched from Death Scythe.
But though it left a deep gash in the wall, it failed to wound the fleeing enemy.
Nonetheless, judging that they were running precisely because they feared being attacked, Rei proceeded into the next room... which also had another door besides the one he had entered through. But that door remained shut.