After finishing their meal in the dining hall, Rei and his companions hastily left the area to continue their conversation in Rei's room.
Among those in the dining hall, some had tried to approach Rei and others had tried to approach Maruka, but both groups had left empty-handed.
"About the bandits, Brother Rei. Today you saw other adventurers defeating bandits, right?"
"Huh? Ah, right. They seemed to be adventurers who knew Lindy."
"Then isn't it possible those adventurers know something?"
"...I wonder. From what I could tell, they didn't look like they were plotting anything..."
Rei paused.
What he left unsaid was that their skill level had been roughly on par with Lindy's—neither particularly strong nor weak—and from that alone, it was hard to imagine them having the capability to make bandits disappear at will.
Today's bandits were said to have been active around Egginis for a fair length of time, but in terms of strength, they were by no means exceptional.
They were at a level that Lindy's acquaintance adventurers could handle without much trouble.
Granted, those adventurers had fully understood as much before accepting the subjugation request, so their victory was perhaps only natural.
"Bandits, bandits... The disappearances are still suspicious, though. I could pull some strings on my end, if you'd like?"
Maruka's words meant using the power of Duke Quento's House, not leaving the matter to Nicky.
This was not Duke Quento's territory, and given how far away it was, there were limits to what could be done—but that was only relative to Duke Quento's Territory.
Under normal circumstances, leveraging Duke Quento's House influence in Egginis should have been more than enough to gather information.
To Maruka's proposal, however, Rei shook his head.
"No, I'll pass. I'm curious about this case, but right now there's something else I consider more important."
Maruka immediately understood that he was referring to Golias.
That was exactly why she pressed the point.
"Is it not possible the bandit matter and Golias's case are connected? If so, would it not be wiser to investigate both thoroughly?"
"It's only a 'maybe' at this point. Besides... I wouldn't mind owing Maruka personally, but I'd rather not incur debts with Duke Quento's House as an institution."
Maruka was friendly toward Rei, but the same couldn't necessarily be said for Duke Quento's House as a whole.
No, considering the request he had previously received from them, he believed they had built a friendly relationship—but a ducal house had to weigh factional interests and, above all, its own benefit above personal feelings.
All the more so when the person in question was Rei, known as Daskar's trusted aide—and Daskar was by no means on friendly terms with the King's Faction at present.
That said, Maruka for her part understood the nature of nobles well despite her youth, so Rei couldn't bring himself to trust her completely either.
"If Rei says so, I shall not force the matter... It need not be about the bandits, but if there is anything you wish investigated, please rely on me."
"Ah... right. Then forget the bandit case. Could you gather information on an adventurer named Golias? He's from an orphanage in a town a ways from here."
"Art thou certain?"
The meaning behind her confirming question required no thought to decipher.
It would mean creating a debt to her—or more precisely, to Duke Quento's House. Was he all right with that?
Without putting it into words, she was implicitly asking.
For Rei, owing Duke Quento's House over the bandit case was somewhat unappealing, but it was also true that he wanted to find Golias as quickly as possible.
Though honestly, I don't really need to go out of my way to get involved this much.
Thinking about it calmly, if asked whether it was necessary to gather information on Golias even at the cost of owing Duke Quento's House, he couldn't readily nod.
When it came down to it, his honest conclusion would be that it wasn't necessary.
Even so... having learned of the orphanage's current situation, he couldn't help but feel something about it.
It was also true that he wanted to meet the person Lindy was so worried about.
"Please."
In the end, Rei asked with that single brief word.
Maruka said nothing more and simply nodded.
"My lady, you're being stubborn, aren't you?"
"H-huh? What on earth are you suddenly talking about!?"
Nicky, who had been watching Rei and Maruka, blurted this out without warning.
Not only Maruka but Rei as well shot him a surprised look, wondering why Nicky had said something like that out of nowhere.
Yet despite being on the receiving end of both their stares, Nicky continued without the slightest concern.
"I mean, you wanted to help Brother Rei, didn't you? In that case, instead of putting on airs, you should've just said so honestly."
"Wh-what are you suddenly saying!?"
Maruka visibly panicked.
But Nicky didn't seem bothered in the least about angering the very person he was supposed to guard, and kept a grin on his face.
"Grr... you'll regret this! We're leaving!"
In all likelihood, Maruka had intended to help Rei from the start.
But out of bashfulness, she hadn't shown it. Or rather, she hadn't wanted to—truth be told.
That was exactly why, having her true feelings exposed by Nicky, she grew angry and embarrassed in equal measure, and dashed out of Rei's room as if to cover it all up.
"Are you sure about making her angry? Fixing her mood looks like it'll be quite the task."
"True. But... the fact that my lady was worried about Brother Rei is definitely true. I thought it'd be better to make that clear."
Judging from those words, Nicky's earlier remark had been deliberate, made with full awareness of what he was doing.
Rei shot Nicky a look of exasperation.
Meeting that gaze, Nicky bowed his head.
"Well then, Brother Rei. I'm off to fix my lady's mood. She's reasonably kind most of the time, but when you make her angry, she's terrifying."
"...Then maybe don't pull stunts like that in the first place. Well, whatever. Got it. Good luck smoothing things over. If Maruka stays in a foul mood, investigating Golias will be a lot more troublesome."
Considering Maruka's personality, there might not be any real need to worry on that front.
But Maruka was still a child.
Whatever she might be like normally, there was no telling what she'd do while in a bad mood.
That was why Rei wanted Nicky to fix her mood as quickly as possible.
Reading Rei's demeanor, Nicky seemed to understand roughly what was on his mind.
He bowed once more and left the room.
After seeing Nicky off, Rei rose from the sofa and collapsed onto the bed.
As expected of a high-class inn, the bed made no creaking sounds even under Rei's weight.
Come to think of it, this bed... or rather, the bedding... no, the mattress. Going by the feel, it's one of those low-resilience mattresses, right? The way your body sinks into it. I remember seeing somewhere that high-resilience mattresses are better for you, but... I wonder.
The thought crossed his mind, but he understood that pondering mattresses in his current situation was pointless.
That said, there wasn't anything in particular he needed to do today.
As he was thinking along those lines...
Someone's here.
He sensed a presence in front of his door.
For a moment he thought they might just be passing by—but when they stopped in front of his room, it wasn't hard to guess they had business with him.
Even so, the person lingered without knocking or saying anything, seemingly hesitant.
What should I do?
He hesitated briefly, but decided there was no need to go out of his way to speak first, and left it alone.
Given that they had come here, it was undoubtedly someone completely unrelated to Maruka or Nicky.
Approaching such a person proactively would likely lead to trouble later—that much was easy to predict.
As he was thinking this... another presence approached, separate from the person already hesitating outside Rei's door.
One more person.
Hope this doesn't turn into a hassle...
But as if that very thought had been a flag, the atmosphere outside the door turned hostile.
Given the situation, he couldn't just sit back and ignore it.
If he let this go, there was no guarantee the trouble wouldn't come crashing down on him inside the room.
With that in mind, he stood up—
"!?"
Just as he was about to step toward the door, unmistakable killing intent flared from one of the two people outside. Startled, Rei kicked off the floor and lunged for the door.
From the positions of their presences, he knew the one right in front of the door was the one radiating killing intent.
The presence not emitting killing intent was on the hallway side, away from the door.
That was why Rei kicked the door open without a second's hesitation.
With a heavy crash, the door swung inward and blew back the person standing right in front of it—the one who had been releasing killing intent.
Having at least confirmed that no one was about to be killed in front of his room, he surveyed the hallway.
The one who hadn't been blown away, still standing there, was a man in his twenties.
As one could tell from his presence at the Star River Inn, he apparently served someone of standing—his clothing, while not flashy, was of fine quality.
The man stared at Rei as if he had no idea what had just happened.
Indeed, only Rei had sensed the killing intent. The man likely had no clue why Rei had suddenly burst out of his room.
"Are you unharmed?"
"Huh? Ah, yes. Um... you're Crimson Rei-san, aren't you? What on earth—?"
"Didn't you notice? The one who was standing in front of that door was trying to kill you."
"Kill me? You mean... her?"
With a bewildered expression, the man turned his gaze toward the person the door had struck.
Following his gaze, Rei's face registered surprise.
The person slammed against the wall and crumpled on the floor was a woman—and a woman in a maid uniform, no less.
In the anime, games, novels, and manga Rei had enjoyed back in Japan, armed maids were far from rare.
And in this world as well, armed maids—or rather, maids trained in combat—were not uncommon.
Maids were attendants who constantly remained at their master's side.
Given that, if an assassin ever targeted the master, a maid capable of dealing with such a threat would be extremely valuable.
Naturally, though, maids with genuine combat skills were by no means common.
It stood to reason. They had to perform their regular duties while also honing their combat skills and maintaining at least a certain standard of proficiency.
Though just because she emitted killing intent doesn't necessarily mean she's a maid with combat training. You don't need combat skills to release killing intent.
Perhaps an amateur had, for some reason, impulsively tried to kill the man.
With that thought in mind, Rei checked on the maid's condition.
"She's not unconscious, it seems."
"Huh?"
Hearing Rei's words, the man looked puzzled.
From his perspective, the collapsed maid wasn't moving at all.
She had been blown away by the door's impact, slammed into the wall, and presumably knocked out—or so he must have thought.
Indeed, to anyone who knew nothing of the situation, seeing a motionless maid and concluding she was unconscious would be perfectly natural.
But judging from her presence and breathing, it was clear the maid was not unconscious. She was watching for an opening.
"Give it up. Playing dead won't work."
"...A pity."
She must have realized Rei's words were not a bluff.
The maid who had been lying on the floor said this readily... then rose to her feet, wearing an alluring smile that no maid should have been able to produce.