The Wind Fang hideout had burned to ash, leaving not even a scrap of charcoal behind.
The Morning Star members could only stare in astonishment at the devastation wrought by Rei's magic.
Given that Morning Star was itself an underground organization, burning down buildings for various reasons was hardly unusual for them.
But... no, precisely because of that, the sight before their eyes—a building so thoroughly incinerated that not even charcoal remained, reduced to an empty lot—left them with complicated feelings.
"Well, at least this makes it certain that the ones in the basement were burned too, no question about it. ...Honestly, it's a shame we couldn't get any magic items or treasure out of it, though."
"True... it is..."
The Adventurer Party Leader replied, sounding disappointed... no, regretful.
Originally, they should have been watching this scene with a refreshed feeling, having finally achieved their revenge.
But the Morning Star members who had been searching inside the building ultimately failed to discover any basement, or any passages or doors leading to one.
According to their initial expectations, it should have taken Rei a considerable amount of time to return.
During that interval, they were supposed to find their target—their enemy—and finish them off.
But Rei had returned far too quickly for them to carry out such a thing.
As a result, true to the agreement they had made beforehand, Rei burned the hideout down... and now they were left with these conflicted feelings.
It wasn't that they didn't feel frustrated, but the Morning Star leader reflected deeply that their failure to find anything before Rei returned was simply a lack of ability on their part.
And also...
"If they escaped through an underground passage, there's a good chance your enemy is still alive, isn't there?"
"!?"
The leader reflexively sucked in a breath, his thoughts perfectly read by Rei's words.
That was right—the fact that Rei had come meant the target had almost certainly hidden underground.
But at the same time, the possibility that the underground passage led somewhere else was not nonexistent.
If so, then perhaps... and this was truly a distant perhaps... there was a chance their enemy was still alive.
"I don't plan on doing anything else to Wind Fang, so rest assured. I've already made them pay the price for laying a hand on me."
The organization itself had been crushed as a consequence of their failed assassination.
On top of that, this was Gilm—a place that amounted to a treasure trove—where the organization had spilled considerable blood fighting against other underground organizations, yet had somehow held on and proven their existence through sheer strength.
After enduring such considerable hardship to survive, their branch had been wiped out.
For Wind Fang as well, it had taken considerable funds and talented personnel dispatched to the Gilm branch to barely make things work... only for the branch itself to be destroyed.
And by Rei, no less.
For the Wind Fang headquarters, that was undoubtedly a massive loss.
As the price Rei exacted from those who had targeted him, there was no issue with that.
"Really?"
"Yeah. So if your enemy escaped, I don't mind if you hunt them down yourselves. ...Well, assuming they're still alive, that is."
"...Right."
The leader was briefly elated by Rei's words, but then nodded with a bitter expression at what came next.
With the branch annihilated, someone had to take responsibility.
And Rei knew that in the underworld, such things were often enforced strictly.
In other words, if there was one person who should bear the greatest responsibility for the destruction of the Wind Fang organization, it would be the individual who had been leading the branch... the very person the Morning Star members had been pursuing.
Whether they're actually alive or not is the first question, though.
Gazing at the burned-out empty lot, Rei thought that it would be best if they were, if possible.
The disquiet—the greatest reason Rei had taken action today—had already been resolved, and as payback against those who had targeted him, burning the hideout was more than sufficient.
If so, he figured he could leave the Wind Fang matter to Morning Star.
"Anyway, that settles the Wind Fang situation... but I'd like to ask something. Do you know the way to the Black Phantom hideout?"
"Huh? Ah... um... yes. I know it."
The words that came out of Rei's mouth were apparently completely unexpected.
The Morning Star leader told him, albeit with some bewilderment.
Rei felt relieved at those words.
At least he wouldn't have to ride Set and search for the Black Phantom hideout from the air.
"I see. Unfortunately, Lazaria, who brought me here, had business to attend to and is already gone. Would you mind guiding me to the Black Phantom hideout?"
"I can do that, but what exactly are you planning to do?"
Faced with the question of what he intended to do, Rei hesitated over how to answer.
But given that he had already shown them the sight of the Wind Fang hideout being burned down, he decided there was no need to hide anything and answered succinctly.
"Burn it."
"...Haa. So you're going to burn it."
The man showed a hint of surprise at those words but seemed to accept it.
With Rei's abilities, burning down an underground organization's hideout was probably nothing particularly noteworthy.
Watching the Wind Fang hideout being burned and reduced to an empty lot right before their eyes had evidently lent Rei's words strong persuasive power.
"Yeah. With that in mind, I'm counting on you for the guide."
"Understood. ...Lumina, can you handle this?"
"Me? Well, sure."
The person the leader asked was the woman who had been on lookout when Rei returned here.
At the leader's words, the woman nodded and bowed toward Rei.
"Then I'll be guiding you. Please take care of me."
"Yeah, I'm counting on you."
Rei had no particular objections as long as someone was willing to guide him to the Black Phantom hideout.
He frankly said he was relying on her, and with that, the matter was settled.
"Well then, I'll take my leave around here. If he really did escape, we should move as quickly as possible."
"Yeah."
After exchanging those brief words, the leader immediately issued orders to his comrades.
He told the majority of them to remain here and investigate the empty lot just in case, while a small group was to investigate where the target man might be now if he had indeed escaped from the hideout.
If the hidden passage's exit was somewhere far from here, they might lose him entirely if they didn't move quickly.
...Of course, a considerable amount of time had already passed since the enemy disappeared, so whether they could actually find him was questionable at best.
"Well then, shall we get going? You'd prefer to go early, right?"
"That's right. A fair amount of time has passed since I came here. Besides, I'd like to get back sooner rather than later."
At Rei's words, the woman nodded and began guiding Rei and Set to the Black Phantom hideout.
The fact that the woman was no ordinary person was probably something the residents of the Slum District could sense.
No one tried to harass them.
...Of course, it was also possible that no one dared to cause trouble because Set was with them.
They continued walking... and eventually arrived at their destination.
There was no one at the Black Phantom hideout anymore.
At least, from what Rei could see, it seemed that not only were there no Black Phantom members, but no Slum District residents had wandered in either.
That said, Rei had no intention of stopping his plan to burn the building down even if someone was inside.
"Well then, I'll take my leave here."
"Yeah, thanks. Good luck searching for your enemy."
At Rei's words, the woman wore a complicated expression.
If anything, her honest feeling was that she wished Rei had waited a bit longer before burning the Wind Fang hideout.
But considering her agreement with Rei, she understood that was impossible.
That was why, without saying anything further on the matter, she bowed and ran off.
"Well then. All that's left is to reduce that building to an empty lot and head back to the lake."
"Grr!"
At Rei's words, Set purred happily.
From Set's perspective, today's events hadn't been entirely enjoyable.
For one thing, the Slum District was filled with a distinctly sour odor that one would never willingly choose to smell.
Even Rei, whose five senses were sharper than normal, felt that way, so for Set, whose senses were even keener than Rei's, it must have been unbearable.
Not to mention walking through paths so narrow that he couldn't pass without using Size Change, or waiting outside while Rei stormed the hideout only for no one to show up at all.
Considering all those circumstances, it was only natural that today hadn't been fun for Set and that he wanted to leave the Slum District as quickly as possible.
"Sorry for dragging you along today. ...I know—once we're out of the Slum District, want to stop by a food stall on the way and buy something? It's getting toward evening, so the stalls should be picking up."
"Grrrrr!"
At Rei's words, Set purred happily.
Of course, food stalls were open even during the hours before evening—the period between noon and dusk.
But the number of customers simply differed between the post-lunch lull and evening, when people got off work and came out hungry.
For the stall vendors, it was only natural that they showcased their cooking skills during the busy hours.
"Well then, let's get what needs to be done out of the way before we eat."
Muttering while gazing at the Black Phantom hideout, Rei retrieved Death Scythe from his Misty Ring.
As he drew Death Scythe, Rei sensed the number of gazes directed at him increase.
Naturally, the owners of those gazes were not within his field of vision—they were behind the building, around the corners of passages, and some were even hiding underground.
Until Daub was defeated, his ability to detect presences had been restricted by the disquiet.
It had been particularly difficult to sense anything resembling killing intent.
Regardless, thanks to the disquiet being gone, he could now tell that a large number of people were watching him.
Maybe I just didn't notice at all, and they've been watching me like this ever since I came to the Slum District? Or perhaps they're people who had their eyes on this building?
The building that Black Phantom had used as their hideout was itself a magic item.
Given that, it was only natural that many would want to claim the building for themselves once Black Phantom was gone.
...That said, before leaving the building, Black Phantom had clearly declared that it would be destroyed by Rei shortly.
As a result, the Slum District residents who knew of Rei's strength did not enter the building.
Even so, harboring the faint hope that perhaps Rei might change his mind, or that for some other reason he might not actually go through with destroying the building, they had likely been lurking nearby.
Unfortunately, Rei was going to destroy the building.
The information that Rei was a warrior and simultaneously a mage—a so-called Magic Warrior—had spread reasonably widely.
Among those who knew this, Death Scythe was naturally known to be a magic Catalyst, and Rei drawing it here led them to judge that the building would definitely be burned.
Feeling the gazes gradually diminish, Rei chanted his incantation.
"Flame, thou shalt exist only within the domain I designate, and in all other domains, thy existence shall be impossible to attain. As compensation for thy brief life, feed upon my magical power within the domain and in an instant, sublime thy life."
Along with that incantation, red lines were drawn on the ground, centered on the Black Phantom hideout.
For Rei, since it was a spell he had used multiple times today, he chanted the incantation as swiftly as before, generated Fire Spirits, and activated the magic.
"Wild Dance of the Fire Spirits."
Along with the magic, lizard-shaped Fire Spirits exploded one after another, creating a massive blaze that began consuming the Black Phantom hideout.
Perhaps because they had directly witnessed the burning spectacle, the remaining gazes rapidly dwindled.
Well, they probably have various thoughts about the building burning, but once it becomes an empty lot, they'll be able to build a new one here.
Of course, even if a new building were constructed, the materials used would be obtained by dismantling or repurposing unusable buildings in the Slum District, so even as a new building, it wouldn't carry any sense of being freshly built.
While he was thinking such things, the building continued to burn... and eventually collapsed, fully crumbling.
Watching the building's state, Rei felt reassured that it had collapsed, stroking Set as he did.
Given that it was a magic item, it wouldn't have been strange for it to possess some kind of strong magical defense.
...Though even if it had such defenses, there was a high probability that Rei's magic would have easily burned it to nothing.
"Well then, I suppose it's about time we leave the Slum District."
At those words, Set purred happily.