The bandits who had been based around Egginis—more precisely, in its surroundings—had been disappearing one after another.
That was what the bandit told him, but to Rei, it wasn't anything particularly surprising.
It wouldn't be strange for someone like himself to hunt bandits as both a hobby and a source of profit, and even setting that aside...
"Maybe adventurers hired by Egginis took them out one group at a time?"
For Egginis, the bandits lurking in their vicinity were nothing but a liability with no redeeming qualities.
The very customers who would otherwise spend money in Egginis were being attacked and robbed.
Moreover, rumors of heavy bandit activity would naturally spread, and anyone considering a visit to Egginis would think twice.
That was why it was only natural for those in Egginis to want to eliminate as many bandits as possible.
"Yeah, that's right. Actually, I think that's the most likely possibility. Plus, there were even some outrageous bastards who attacked us to test their golems' performance..."
"That's certainly..."
Whether a golem possessed the performance specified in its design was impossible to know without actually testing it.
Even if it demonstrated the expected results in a controlled trial, there was no guarantee it would perform as designed in actual combat.
In that sense, bandits were not only targets who could be killed without complaint—they were targets whose elimination would be appreciated. On top of that, if one was registered with the Guild as an adventurer, they could even collect a reward.
In that sense, bandits weren't a bad choice as opponents for golem combat testing.
Of course, fighting bandits came with its own dangers.
There was a chance the bandits could defeat the golems, or they might ignore the golems and target the human operators instead.
If they had hired escort adventurers, they might be able to handle such situations, but that would naturally mean exposing the golem's performance to those very escorts.
"But here's the strange thing. Whether it was adventurers or golems, it's one thing for a targeted bandit group to get wiped out, but even then, it wouldn't be unusual for one or two to escape and spread the word. But... not a single person made it out."
"Maybe they were simply overrun before they could even flee?"
In fact, when Rei went bandit hunting, he made sure not to let any of them escape.
Plus... Rei glanced over at Seto.
Thanks to Seto, fleeing was considerably more difficult for bandits.
It wasn't impossible, but it was undeniably close to it.
"Yeah, that's right. Actually, at first everyone thought that way. But... once the number of wiped-out groups exceeded five, it was clearly strange. If that many bandit groups were attacked, there should absolutely have been at least one or two escapees."
Since those words were spoken with an understanding of the bandits' actual capabilities, Rei couldn't deny them.
That said, if someone with outstanding individual prowess like Rei was the one attacking the bandits, then the possibility of total annihilation was very real.
Given that Egginis was an autonomous city—more accurately, a town—where golem development thrived, it naturally had the combat power to match.
Moreover, wealthy individuals flocked there to purchase golems and spend their money.
If they used that money to gather skilled adventurers, Rei wouldn't be particularly surprised.
He even thought it wouldn't be strange for an Alias Holder to be among them.
"Well, I understand why you fled. I don't know how capable your group was around Egginis, but you're better off having run. ...Though the fact that you ran into me means your luck was actually terrible."
From Rei's impression of the fight, the bandits weren't weak but weren't strong either—perfectly average.
About the level of Gilm's adventurers—not the ones who had arrived with the Expansion Construction, but the long-standing ones. For fighters of that caliber, defeating such opponents wouldn't be difficult.
With only that level of strength, if they had stayed near Egginis, they would have undoubtedly been wiped out.
By that logic, surviving with even three members intact was unquestionably fortunate.
(Plus...)
Rei looked at the bandit in front of him.
Initially, he had planned to take the man to a town or city with a Slave Trader and hand him over to the Guards.
If no such place was nearby, he might have judged the trip too troublesome and simply killed him.
But since the bandit had provided information that seemed important for his upcoming trip to Egginis, perhaps it was better to spare him?
Normally speaking, letting a bandit go alive was never something to be praised.
However, from what Rei could see, this bandit would never be able to commit theft or anything of the sort again.
That was how deeply the fear had been carved into his heart by Rei and Seto.
Of course, this world was fundamentally one where the strong devoured the weak.
If you were weak, you were eaten; if you were strong, you ate.
In that sense, if the bandit who had guided Rei returned to banditry, Rei wouldn't feel particularly anything about it.
If they crossed paths again while the man was still a bandit, he would kill him without mercy, though.
(That's right. If he guides me to the hideout without trying anything funny, I'll let him go. Dragging him all the way to a Slave Trader is a hassle, and there are still those two tied to the trees.)
For the bandit who had guided Rei and Seto this far, it was a stroke of luck—he had just earned himself a future.
"Huh... This is quite something."
Looking over the hideout the bandit had led him to, Rei muttered in admiration.
Since they had apparently only recently arrived in the area, he hadn't expected much in the way of treasure, but there was surprisingly a decent haul.
For Rei, it was a happy miscalculation.
They had said they carefully selected valuables to bring along when relocating, so perhaps it wasn't so strange after all.
"How about it? To your liking?"
"Yeah. You told me about Egginis, and... here, take these."
Saying so, Rei picked out a few gems from the pile of treasure and handed them to the bandit.
"...Are you sure?"
The bandit accepted the gems with an expression of disbelief.
From his perspective, the moment he guided Rei to the hideout, he would be deemed expendable and killed—and it wouldn't have been strange if that had happened.
Having lived as a bandit himself, he naturally didn't want to die if he could help it, but he had been prepared to accept it if it came to that.
That was why Rei's actions were completely unexpected.
"Like I said earlier, the information about Egginis was valuable to me right now. But... if I find you next time and you're still doing bandit work..."
Rei said nothing more, but that silence spoke volumes.
Since Rei was famous as the Bandit Eater, if they crossed paths again while the man was still a bandit, he would undoubtedly die. Whether he wanted to accept it or not, that reality was forced upon him.
"U-Understood! Um, I'll do my best and become an adventurer or something!"
Why an adventurer? Rei wondered briefly, but since the man had been a bandit, he probably had some sort of applicable skill set.
If he came from a farming background, he might be able to make it as a farmer, but even farming required land.
In that sense, becoming an adventurer—a profession one could pursue as long as they had weapons and armor—wasn't a bad option at all.
Of course, those weapons and armor were normally quite expensive.
However, as a former bandit, he already had the gear he was currently using, so that wasn't a concern.
Moreover, since the gems Rei handed over were of reasonably high quality, the man could sell them and purchase new weapons and armor.
Buying land wasn't out of the question either.
Regardless, since there was no guarantee that Rei wouldn't change his mind and kill him on a whim, the bandit quickly fled the area.
After seeing him off, Rei stored all the treasure from the hideout into his Misty Ring.
"Alright, sorry to keep you waiting, Seto."
"Gruu."
Seto gave a look as if to say he hadn't been waiting and not to worry about it.
Pleased with the haul from this bandit hunt, Rei headed with Seto toward the trees where he had left the other two bandits tied up, but...
"Gruu? Grururruu."
As they were descending the mountain, Seto suddenly let out a cry.
It wasn't an urgent warning of immediate danger, but rather a sound suggesting something lay ahead.
Curious about the cry, Rei continued down the mountain—and soon understood the reason.
Near the trees where Rei had tied up the bandits earlier, several figures were gathered.
At first he thought they were the bandit's comrades, but on closer inspection, multiple carriages were parked a short distance away.
And among those carriages, Rei recognized one of them.
It was the same carriage that had been under attack by bandits when Rei first arrived.
Carriages weren't particularly expensive items, and most were built to similar designs.
Even so, Rei could identify it as the same one because it bore numerous battle scars—arrow wounds, slash marks, and areas smashed by axes.
(Probably, the carriage that fled from here took refuge in a nearby village or town... no, there probably isn't a city nearby. Either way, they escaped there, hired adventurers, and came back.)
According to what Rei had heard from the bandit earlier, they had only recently set up their hideout in this location.
In other words, bandit attacks had suddenly increased in the area recently, and for those living nearby, eliminating the bandits as quickly as possible would have been a priority.
Plus, if they defeated the bandits, the treasure would be theirs—and that was a significant incentive.
Of course, Rei had already claimed all the bandit treasure for himself.
(Still, what to do in this situation... Should I just leave without showing myself? That would be the easiest option, but... it has its own problems.)
Rei looked at Seto.
There was probably no one among adventurers other than Rei who kept Gryphon Seto as a Tamed Monster.
Or perhaps... it was a truly remote possibility, but the chance that somewhere in the world there was another adventurer with a Gryphon as a Tamed Monster couldn't be completely ruled out.
Even so, in terms of having a Gryphon as a Tamed Monster, Rei was undoubtedly the most famous, given his alias.
And when Rei had fought the bandits, he had fought alongside Seto.
Given that, the bandits had naturally seen Seto. When interrogated about what kind of opponent had taken them down, it wouldn't be strange for them to mention an adventurer with a Gryphon as a Tamed Monster.
Also, while Rei had been so preoccupied with Seto that he completely overlooked this himself, as a practitioner of the Twin Spear Style who wielded a large scythe like Death Scythe one-handed while carrying the Twilight Spear in his left hand, anyone would immediately know who he was.
(Well, what should I do?)
Even if it was determined that Rei was the one who had attacked these bandits, was there actually any real downside for him? In truth, not really.
Most of the bandits were dead, and aside from the one he had just released, only two were still alive.
And those two didn't seem to have any particularly important information either.
(Wait, maybe I should just leave as is?)
The only benefit to showing himself would be handing those two over to the Guards and selling them to a Slave Trader as Criminal Slaves, but that amount of money was negligible.
At the very least, the treasure from the hideout was overwhelmingly more valuable.
If the adventurers standing before the tied-up bandits were after the hideout's treasure, things would definitely get complicated.
If so, Rei decided it was better to forfeit the small change—small change only from Rei's perspective; by normal standards it would be a considerable sum—and just leave.
"Alright, Seto. We won't show our faces over there. Let's get out of here right now. If we show ourselves, there's a high chance it'll turn into a hassle."
If it was just a matter of claiming ownership of the bandits tied to the trees, Rei was willing to concede that.
But if they demanded a share of the hideout's treasure, it would definitely become a pain.
Even if it didn't come to that, being questioned about the situation could eat up valuable time.
Before anything like that could happen, Rei promptly took his leave.