"Gah!"
The Adventurer Man let out a groan of agony as he crumpled to the ground.
Standing before him was Antelme, an A-Rank Adventurer.
The adventurer now lying on the ground had been entrusted with guarding the Noble District, and he possessed a commensurate level of skill.
But Antelme was an A-Rank Adventurer. Someone with merely a commensurate level of skill stood no chance against him.
"You dare get in my way... Know your place!"
"Guh!"
His irritation plain to see, Antelme kicked the Adventurer Man where he lay.
The man was sent flying several meters before crashing back down to the ground.
The other adventurers watched the exchange unfold.
They watched, but understanding that intervening would make them the next target, none of them dared to step in.
"Even for an Alias Holder, to show such an attitude toward a noble like me... Unforgivable."
Perhaps recalling his encounter with Rei, Antelme kicked the ground with visible irritation.
The packed earth sank several centimeters with ease.
It was a casual strike, yet the ground itself bore testament to just how much power had been packed into it.
His irritation still on full display, Antelme's gaze began to shift from the unconscious adventurer toward his next prey...
"What are you doing!"
That voice suddenly rang out across the surroundings.
Antelme recognized it as belonging to the same Adventurer Man who had earlier tried to order him around from a position of superiority, and his irritation flared all the more.
However, once he understood exactly who had spoken those words, he somehow managed to erase the irritation from his expression.
Naturally, he had only erased it on the surface. Deep within Antelme, dark flames of anger still burned.
"Ah, Roiter-dono. What brings you here?"
Roiter Zolgela.
The third son of the Zolgela Count House, a man in his twenties who had come to Gilm to gather intelligence.
"'What brings me here'?! Why are you beating the adventurers my house employs?! And there have been complaints. You understand what those are about without me spelling it out, don't you?"
He glared at Antelme.
Roiter had been opposed to hiring Antelme from the start.
But since Antelme had arrived in the form of a personal commission from his family's main house, Roiter—as the third son—had no option to refuse.
No option at all. And yet, to Roiter, Antelme was an extremely troublesome existence.
True to his status as an A-Rank Adventurer, his strength was genuine.
It was precisely that strength, however, that made him so problematic.
On his very first day, Antelme had clashed with the man leading the adventurers Roiter employed, which had led to a mock battle.
Since it was a mock battle, neither side ended up dead... but that in itself was what plunged the adventurer who fought him into the depths of despair.
Antelme would hold back just enough to avoid killing—but holding back meant that as long as his opponent refused to break, the fight would continue endlessly.
Worse still, Antelme would feign mistakes and deal just a little... truly just a tiny bit of damage to his opponent with each exchange.
Subjected to that repeatedly, the man eventually realized that no matter what he did, he could never defeat Antelme. His spirit broke.
That man had been an adventurer Roiter had known and trusted for a considerable length of time. Yet even so, given Roiter's position, there was nothing he could do about the situation regarding Antelme, who had been directly commissioned by the main house.
Well, he could voice his displeasure—but in the end, that was all he could do.
Since Antelme was someone employed by his family, he could not be dismissed unless he committed a critical blunder.
For Roiter, then, receiving complaints from other nobles was not quite fatal... but it was still more than enough to diminish Antelme's value.
"Are you talking about the one called Crimson? Then there's no problem. It'll be resolved before long. In the best possible way for everyone."
"Don't mess around!"
At Antelme's words, Roiter shouted with undisguised fury.
It had only been a few years since Roiter began living in Gilm.
Even in that short time, he naturally knew what kind of existence Rei was in Gilm.
Above all, Rei was said to be the right-hand man of Daskar, the lord of Gilm.
For Antelme to have clashed with such a person—and not because Rei had instigated it, but because Antelme had coveted Set, Rei's Tamed Monster—there was no need to even consider who was in the wrong.
And naturally, if Antelme were to be judged for his actions, the consequences would extend to Roiter and the Zolgela Count House that had employed him.
That alone was sufficient reason for Roiter to dispose of Antelme.
"If you too share noble blood, you should know how much influence Margrave Larcus wields, shouldn't you?"
"Yes, I know. He's a man who leads a small faction called the Neutral Faction, which is only nominally one of the Three Great Factions."
"...I would have liked you to think about why that small faction is counted among the Three Great Factions. To me... no, to the Zolgela Count House, your existence is nothing but a detriment."
"And so, what will you do with me?"
"You're dismissed."
He stated it bluntly and succinctly.
"...What?"
For Antelme, the words that had just come from Roiter's mouth were entirely unexpected.
Fully aware of his own abilities as an A-Rank Adventurer, he had never imagined he would be dismissed just like that.
This was likely a fundamental difference in perception between Antelme and Roiter.
Seeing Antelme's reaction, the light of joy that flickered in the adventurers' eyes was proof enough of how thoroughly Antelme was despised among his peers.
Had this been someone who merely looked down on them from on high, the adventurers would have found ways to deal with him.
But precisely because Antelme possessed genuinely formidable ability, he was an opponent they could do nothing about.
"Did you not hear me? You're dismissed. With you around, there's a high probability you'll cause significant damage to the Zolgela Count House. There is absolutely no need to employ such a person."
Faced with Roiter's firm declaration, Antelme said nothing.
But as the seconds ticked by, anger and killing intent began to seep from his body.
The first to sense that killing intent were, naturally, the adventurers nearby.
Sensing Antelme's killing intent and immediately moving to shield Roiter—they passed as adventurers in that regard.
When their comrade had been under attack, they hadn't acted out of pure self-preservation. But Roiter was their employer.
And not someone they had just met yesterday, but a man they had worked with for a fair length of time.
As a noble, he didn't carry the uselessly inflated pride that made so many of his rank difficult to deal with, which made him easy for the adventurers to work with.
That was why they moved to shield him from Antelme... but it only served to provoke the man further.
Those of lower rank and lesser ability than him daring to pull such a thing.
That was absolutely not something Antelme could tolerate.
He felt as though he was being looked down upon, and in an instant, blood rushed to his head.
"You bastards!"
With that roar of fury, a longsword was drawn from its sheath, and in the blink of an eye he closed the distance to the adventurers.
The adventurers somehow managed to react to Antelme's assault... and one of them caught the strike with his own longsword.
But Antelme was an A-Rank Adventurer. His blow was not something so easily deflected.
Somehow managing to receive the strike, the man was still sent flying by the impact.
Even so, it created enough of an opening for the other adventurers to make their next move.
Or so they thought. The moment one adventurer moved to exploit that opening, his head was effortlessly severed and sent sailing through the air.
Having just launched a strike moments before, how could he unleash another so soon?
Those watching could not comprehend it—but with a comrade fallen, there was no option but to attack.
"Haaah!"
He swung his longsword, but Antelme merely glanced at the incoming strike, fixed the man who dared attack him with a look of contempt... and in the next moment, unleashed a strike of his own.
Antelme had clearly launched his strike later, yet it landed first—and it was the Adventurer Man whose head was severed, just like the first man.
This was the overwhelming gap in skill between an ordinary C-Rank Adventurer and an A-Rank Adventurer.
And in less than a minute, the only ones left alive in the garden were Antelme and Roiter.
Well—the Adventurer Man who had been kicked away at the very beginning and knocked unconscious was still breathing, but he could hardly be counted on as a combat asset.
In that sense, describing the situation as just the two of them was not far off the mark.
"What is the meaning of this?! Do you think you can get away with something like this?!"
Even though the adventurers he had employed had just been slaughtered, Roiter showed only anger—no trace of fear.
It wasn't that he believed he would be spared.
He had anticipated that in the worst case, he would die here. But even so, as a noble, he understood that he could not yield a single step to the likes of Antelme.
What weighed on him most heavily was the thought that if he backed down now, it would be an unforgivable betrayal of the adventurers who had just been killed by Antelme's hand.
The truth was, Antelme's danger had been fully apparent from the moment he held that mock battle on his very first day.
And yet, because the man had come recommended by the main house, Roiter had never properly reprimanded him.
He had issued warnings, of course—but out of consideration for his family's influence, they had remained purely superficial.
That was precisely why Roiter now regretted it.
"'Get away with it'? Of course I'll get away with it. Before long, there won't be a single soul left in this mansion. The corpses, the one unconscious over there... and you as well."
With those words, Antelme thrust his longsword forward.
Had he swung the blade, Roiter's head would have been severed in an instant.
Yet what Antelme unleashed was a thrust.
Not a misjudgment in his choice of attack, nor an act of mercy—it was a strike designed to prolong Roiter's suffering for as long as possible for daring to defy him.
Indeed, though his side was pierced, the blow did not kill him instantly.
Instead, an intense, searing agony tore through him.
"Guh..."
As if a white-hot rod had been driven into his flesh—feeling not so much pain as searing heat in his side—Roiter let out a groan of agony. Yet he did not stop glaring at Antelme.
Whether that further grated on Antelme's nerves, the longsword flashed again in an instant, piercing Roiter's body in three more places.
Each strike delivered another wave of searing torment.
And still, Roiter did not stop glaring at him.
Roiter was a noble, but he had never undergone combat training for the battlefield.
Naturally, he had never experienced anything like being run through by an actual longsword.
Even so, the fact that he neither wailed in pain nor begged Antelme for his life was a testament to his pride as a noble.
The man standing before him was someone who barely deserved to call himself a noble at all.
As a member of the Zolgela Count House, he absolutely could not let himself be seen doing anything disgraceful in front of such a person.
"What goes through your head, I cannot fathom. But... you've done this here in Gilm. Your fate is sealed. Haha... haha... hahahahaha!"
Laughter that seemed to mock himself spilled from Roiter's lips.
Displeased by it, Antelme flashed his longsword in the next instant and severed Roiter's head, just as he had done to the other adventurers.
From the severed necks of the adventurers scattered about the ground—and from Roiter's—blood spewed violently.
Antelme surveyed the scene with irritation. No—glared at it would be more accurate.
But that moment, too, soon passed.
Having gone this far, there was no undoing it.
All he could do now was keep this incident hidden for as long as possible...
"In other words, everyone in this mansion is in the way."
"Eek!"
When Antelme's gaze turned toward the mansion, the Maid—frozen in place by the sheer horror of the scene—let out a scream as her legs gave out and she crumpled to the ground.
Even so, she desperately tried to scramble away from him...
"Bad luck for you. You're not going anywhere. Still, the smell of blood... I'll have to mask it with a Magic Item for a while. Disposing of the corpses will be a hassle, too."
So saying, he flashed his longsword and severed the Maid's head.
It took less than ten minutes for every person on the grounds of the Zolgela Count House mansion to be dead.