The bisected corpse of the assassin, split cleanly down the middle.
Staring down at the body, Rei reasoned that if the barrier—or perhaps shield—that had blocked his attack earlier had come from a Magic Item, then... With that thought, he searched the corpse.
However, the body carried nothing resembling a Magic Item.
Perhaps because he operated as an assassin, the man didn't carry anything that might identify an affiliation either.
"Which means... was it a Skill? Or perhaps..."
Rei turned his gaze to the longsword on the corpse.
The longsword the man had wielded was, at a glance, no Magic Sword.
It was a decent weapon, but the kind one could buy normally if they had the money.
Rei stowed the longsword into his Misty Ring.
He didn't use longswords himself, but he could throw it alongside the axes as a projectile, hand it to a companion who had lost their weapon, or simply sell it.
"Which leaves the armor, then?"
What had blocked Death Scythe's strike was the torso section of the armor.
Considering that, it was perfectly understandable that the armor might be a Magic Item with the ability to deflect enemy attacks.
However, that only applied if the armor was in perfect condition.
Since the torso inside had been cleaved clean in two along with the armor by Death Scythe, even if it had been a Magic Item, it was undoubtedly completely destroyed.
From Rei's perspective, splitting the torso in half was a critical mistake.
(Then again, from the look of it, the armor doesn't seem like a Magic Item either, so it probably doesn't matter.)
Rei had a hobby of collecting Magic Items, and while he wasn't on the level of a professional Alchemist, he had a decent eye for them.
From Rei's trained eye, he could judge that the armor was likely not the type of a Magic Item.
Of course, there was also the possibility that it was actually a Magic Item with a concealment effect, preventing others from recognizing it as such—just like the Dragon Robe he wore.
Still, when weighing the possibilities, the chance of it being a Skill seemed the highest.
...More than anything, even if the armor was a Magic Item, stripping it off and storing it when the internal organs were scattered and stuck all over it would be incredibly troublesome.
(Besides...)
Rei glanced at Seto.
More precisely, at Seto, who was keeping watch on their surroundings.
While scanning the area, Seto's demeanor indicated that there was no immediate danger.
But that only meant no danger to Rei or Seto; the residents of the Slum District who lived nearby were naturally close by.
They were holding their breath, trying not to get caught in the crossfire.
To those Slum District residents, a corpse was a source of money.
The equipment, of course, but also... though Rei didn't find it particularly pleasant, various other things.
As the price for suddenly starting a fight in a place like this and terrifying them, he decided to leave the armor as it was.
The longsword was a decent enough item, so Rei claimed it.
"Alright. That takes care of this matter... Time to go crush the Assassin Guild."
"Gruu!"
Seto purred in response to Rei's words.
Rei deliberately voiced his next action aloud partly to inform the Slum District residents nearby that he would be leaving, and partly as a declaration of war in case there were still Assassin Guild operatives lurking around.
Since Seto wasn't alerting to any threats, it was safe to assume there was no one else preparing to attack like the man from earlier.
However, those belonging to the Assassin Guild weren't just the ones who actually carried out assassinations.
It wouldn't be strange for them to have members who specialized in intelligence gathering.
...Or even if they didn't belong to the Assassin Guild, there were figures better described as information brokers.
To such people, the fact that Rei was about to attack the Assassin Guild should have been vital information.
(Though they probably won't know which Assassin Guild we're going to attack.)
Logically, they would assume Rei was going to attack the Assassin Guild that the maid-disguised woman, the man who charged with the carriage, and the one who fought him head-on belonged to. But the only Assassin Guild location Rei knew was the one he had just heard from the two thugs.
If he had pressed for more details, they might have known the locations of multiple Assassin Guilds, but for Rei, attacking just one place was enough.
Moreover, he intended to attack the largest Assassin Guild here in Egginis.
If any Assassin Guild had heard Rei's words just now or possessed intelligence that Rei had entered the Slum District, they might be caught completely off guard.
"That's exactly what I'm aiming for."
"Gruu? Grurururu, grururu."
What is it? Let's hurry up and go. Seto purred, and Rei nodded before leaving the area.
Once Rei and Seto were gone, the Slum District residents who had been hiding nearby swarmed the corpse that had been split in half.
The top priority for the Slum District residents was the armor.
Even though it had been cleaved in two by Death Scythe, that armor was still a treasure to them.
The Slum District residents fought among themselves... and the Winner claimed the prize.
"Now then, we've come quite deep into the Slum District... It should be around here somewhere."
About thirty minutes had passed since the fight with the assassin.
Whether Rei and Seto's presence had already spread throughout the Slum District, or simply because having Seto with him made a big difference—Rei wasn't sure, but either way, they had been able to proceed without any further trouble since the initial ambush.
Setting aside the fact that the Slum District residents no longer bothered them, the real question was why even assassin attacks had ceased in the current situation.
It was a slight mystery to Rei.
From the Assassin Guild targeting Rei, it wouldn't be strange for them to assume that Rei had come to the Slum District to retaliate against them.
Yet, even while walking through the Slum District like this, no new assassins attacked at all.
That was a significant question in Rei's mind.
(Have they exhausted their combat power? Now that I think about it, three of their skilled operatives were defeated. It wouldn't be strange for the Assassin Guild to be running low on manpower... right? The woman disguised as a maid should still be fine, so there's a chance she'll attack again.)
Even so, in Rei's estimation, the woman disguised as a maid was an assassin... she might excel at sneak attacks or using poisoned food and drink while pretending to be a maid, but she was inferior in a head-on fight.
Unlike the man who charged with the carriage and forced Rei to defend with his Dragon Robe, or the man in the Slum District who attacked him head-on, she was clearly lacking in pure combat power.
(Thinking about it like that, the overall quality of the Assassin Guild targeting me might not be all that high.)
As he walked with such thoughts, a building eventually came into view.
It was a relatively well-maintained building for one located in the Slum District, but it still didn't look like the stronghold of the largest Assassin Guild in Egginis.
Still, according to the two thugs who were his information source, there was no doubt that this building was the stronghold of the Fusetsu Assassin Guild.
The building wasn't very large, so Rei could guess that there was probably a spacious area underground.
In front of the building, two men who appeared at a glance to be ordinary Slum District residents sat on the ground.
However, since they were sitting in front of the stronghold of Fusetsu, the most influential Assassin Guild in Egginis, they surely weren't doing so without reason.
Thinking about it normally, they likely served a gatekeeper-like role.
"That said, even with opponents like them, I'm not going to stop. Seto, let's go."
"Gruu!"
Seto purred in acknowledgment of Rei's words.
Whether they had noticed Rei and Seto's presence or not, the men in front of the building fixed sharp gazes on Rei and stood up.
One of the two held a short sword, and the other a short club, clearly identifying Rei and Seto as enemies.
(Naturally. They should already know we entered the Slum District. And it wouldn't be surprising if they've received intelligence that I'm here to crush Fusetsu... I think.)
Thinking this, Rei reached into his Misty Ring to take out Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear... but then he remembered there were still axes left over, even after giving some to the two thugs who had provided this information.
Since the axes had virtually no use anyway, he decided to put them to use now.
With that decision, he drew the axes from his Misty Ring and hurled them at the enemies waiting for him.
The assassins had probably assumed Rei and Seto would engage in close combat.
Normally, Rei would have done exactly that.
Because of that, the thrown axes caught them completely off guard.
If it had been some random Slum District resident throwing the axes, it wouldn't have been difficult for the assassins to dodge.
But the one who threw them was Rei.
An axe thrown with Rei's strength was difficult even for the assassins to evade...
"Guh!"
Even so, they were fortunate in that the axes Rei threw spun through the air, meaning the handles struck them in the face rather than the blades.
...Whether suffering a fractured cheekbone and a bulging eyeball could actually be called fortunate was debatable, though.
"What—!?"
"Grurururu!"
The other gatekeeper—or perhaps assassin—let out a startled cry at the unexpected attack. But as his body froze for a moment in surprise at the completely unforeseen strike, Seto closed in at blazing speed and delivered a blow, effortlessly sending the man crashing to the ground.
Whether he was dead or merely unconscious, Rei couldn't tell.
He couldn't tell, but since the man had been neutralized, Rei judged there was no problem.
"Grururu."
Seto rubbed his face against Rei, purring as if to say praise me, praise me.
Rei patted Seto while checking the building's exterior.
Naturally, since the building was located in the Slum District, it was by no means large.
(Seto might be able to fit if he uses Size Change, but Size Change has a time limit. Besides, the path leading underground from here is likely even narrower. Thinking about it, I really can't bring Seto inside.)
It was a common occurrence that Rei couldn't bring Seto along when entering buildings.
Since they were heading to the stronghold of the Fusetsu Assassin Guild, it wouldn't be strange for the battle to become troublesome.
Understanding that, Rei had wanted to bring Seto along if possible.
However, since that was impossible, he had no choice but to give up on the idea.
(Should I just burn this stronghold from the outside? That's an option, but if I do that, I'll lose any clues about who targeted me.)
Whether Fusetsu was the one targeting him, Rei didn't know.
But considering they were said to be the largest Assassin Guild in Egginis, that possibility was certainly there.
If that was the case, he absolutely wanted to secure information about whoever had targeted him.
The assassin who targeted him, and the one who had requested the assassination... Rei needed to crush both.
In particular, he wanted information regarding why the client had requested his assassination—why they had done so.
If they had ordered his assassination in connection with the disappearance of the bandits or Golias's case, then he might learn the very circumstances he wanted to know most.
(In the end, coming here myself is the best option... If I don't think about the future, I can deal with it however I want, but...)
Thinking such thoughts, Rei stroked Seto and spoke.
"Listen, Seto. I'm going to infiltrate the Fusetsu stronghold now. It'll probably cause a big commotion, so if anyone tries to flee, capture them on your end. Also, while I'm inside the building, if anyone tries to get in, stop them too. Can you handle it?"
"Grururu, gruu!"
No problem, leave it to me! Seto purred happily.
Since it was a request from Rei, Seto had no option to refuse.
Rei patted Seto with gratitude, then left the gryphon behind and stepped inside the building.