After leaving Seto to wait outside, Rei entered the Guild, only for Lindy to call out to him.
"Rei? What is it?"
Honestly, he was glad she was there. Glad, yes—but at the same time, a part of him couldn't help but think, Of all the places, did she have to be here right now?
He would have preferred Lindy not to be present, if possible. But since she was, he couldn't exactly avoid talking to her.
"I was looking for you, Lindy. Do you have time right now?"
To anyone who knew nothing of the situation, it would have looked like nothing other than Rei hitting on Lindy. In fact, a few onlookers—both those who recognized Rei and those who didn't—were already watching with that exact assumption.
Then again, Lindy was fairly attractive and got approached by men with some regularity. But she was in love with Golias, and she wasn't the type to humor other men's advances just because they tried. Of course, if it were a temporary party celebrating a completed request with the whole group, that would be a different story.
Those who knew Lindy assumed she would turn Rei down. But the words that came out of her mouth the next moment caught everyone off guard.
"Okay. Wait here a second."
She stepped away from Rei, approached a group of people he vaguely recognized, exchanged a few words with them, and then returned.
"I'm done. Let's go."
"Are you sure? It looked like you had something going on."
Judging by the time, it probably wasn't a matter of accepting a new request, but she did seem to have some kind of business with her party members. Lindy, however, simply nodded without concern.
"Yes. We were just about to do some combat training. Your business is more important, isn't it?"
Naturally, combat training was a critical matter for an Adventurer. Without it, skills would never improve—and could even deteriorate. To prevent that, regular training was essential.
It was a common enough story: someone became an Adventurer, gained the ability to take requests outside the city, discovered they had a talent that let them overwhelm monsters, decided they were a genius, stopped training... and spiraled downward as a result.
In that sense, Lindy cutting her training short wasn't ideal. But even so, whatever Rei needed to discuss was important enough that she had to hear it.
Several Adventurers around them wore expressions of surprise, but Lindy paid them no mind as she walked out of the Guild with Rei.
"So, where are we going to talk?"
"There's something I want to discuss with Roger at the same time. We're heading to Roger's hideout first."
"His hideout?" Lindy murmured. But one look at Rei's expression was apparently enough to tell her that pressing further right now wasn't a good idea. Without pushing the matter, she followed along behind him.
(From the look of it, something must have happened with Golias. He came all this way to get me, after all. But if that's the case... what on earth could it be?)
Hopefully it's not bad news.
With that thought, she trailed behind Rei and Seto.
And then—something unusual happened—Rei arrived at Roger's hideout without getting lost once.
"Roger, you in? I need to talk."
He knocked on the door. After a moment, there was a stir of movement on the other side, and eventually the door opened, revealing Roger's face.
"Rei? What is it?"
Rei let out a quiet breath of relief and pressed on.
"I have something to discuss. It concerns you, too."
"A talk? ...Alright."
With evident reluctance, Roger let him inside. In all honesty, Roger would have preferred to keep researching the Orc Naga materials. The reason he agreed to hear Rei out was partly because he owed him for the Orc Naga matter—and perhaps also because he harbored the ulterior hope of squeezing more materials out of him.
At any rate, Rei and Lindy stepped inside. Naturally, Seto couldn't fit through the door, so he waited outside—which suited Rei just fine.
Even though Blood Blade had been annihilated, the possibility of remnants still targeting him couldn't be ruled out. Nor could the possibility that the Dolan Workshop, upon learning of Blood Blade's destruction, might hire another Assassin Guild to come after him. Since he was about to discuss the Dolan Workshop situation, having Seto stand guard outside to prevent any interruptions was undeniably a great help.
"So? What exactly did you come here for?" Roger asked, looking slightly put out.
Rei glanced at Lindy, then turned back to Roger and spoke.
"Last night, I went to the Slum District. To settle the matter with the assassins. I learned a few things in the process, and that's why I'm here to explain."
"...To both me and Lindy?"
Roger murmured, sounding faintly surprised and intrigued. From his perspective, he couldn't fathom what possible connection there could be between himself and Lindy.
Lindy, on the other hand, had already been told on the way over that Rei had something to discuss with both of them, so she didn't look particularly caught off guard.
"That's right. I should say this upfront: what I'm about to tell you is partly fact and partly speculation. Some of it will be quite shocking, so I want you to keep that in mind before you hear it. And whatever you do—do not go on a rampage after I've finished speaking."
At that, both Roger and Lindy seemed to understand this wasn't something they could take lightly, and their expressions turned serious. Rei confirmed that both of them had nodded, then checked once more that he was the one standing closest to the door before continuing.
"First: as I mentioned earlier, I destroyed the organization that was targeting me. They were called Blood Blade. If you live in Egginis, you've probably at least heard the name."
Even in Egginis, an ordinary citizen might know that Assassin Guilds existed without necessarily knowing that specific name. But Lindy was an Adventurer, and Roger was one of the foremost Alchemists in the city. Rei expected that both of them would be at least somewhat familiar with the underworld's goings-on.
Sure enough, both of them reacted the moment the words "Blood Blade" left his mouth.
"It seems you do know them. In any case, the ones targeting me were Blood Blade. But as I've said repeatedly now, they've been destroyed, so there's no need to worry."
Rei kept stressing their destruction because he wanted to calm the two of them down. They might have recognized the name, but neither had any experience being targeted by such an organization.
(Lindy aside, Roger is one of the top Alchemists in Egginis. Given that, it wouldn't be strange if he'd been targeted by assassins before. Especially with this personality of his.)
Considering their first encounter had involved Roger attacking Seto, the man didn't exactly have the friendliest disposition. With a temperament like that, there were bound to be people who wanted him dead. Roger did have a guard, but while competent enough, that guard wasn't particularly strong. In fact, when Rei extended his senses, he could pick up a faint presence a short distance away.
(For that matter, the fact that Roger answered the door himself instead of his guard is a bit...)
Setting those thoughts aside, once he confirmed that the mention of Blood Blade had steadied them somewhat, Rei continued.
"And then—this."
From his Misty Ring, Rei produced the Contract that had been exchanged between Blood Blade and the Dolan Workshop. He handed it over.
"What!?"
"No way. You're kidding."
Roger and Lindy both gasped in astonishment, perfectly in unison. It was only natural—the name written on the document was the Dolan Workshop.
The two of them stared at the Contract in disbelief, looked up at Rei, looked back at the Contract, looked at Rei again... then fixed their eyes on the Contract one more time.
"Rei, I'll ask just to be sure... this isn't a forgery, is it?"
"It's not. You know of an Assassin Guild called Fusetsu, right?"
"Huh?"
Both of them blurted it out, looking utterly blindsided by the sudden mention of Fusetsu. Seeing their reaction, Rei went on to explain how he had taken down Blood Blade.
(Now that I think about it, I wonder what happened to those two who told me where Fusetsu's base was. They should have fled the Slum District right away, and Fusetsu wouldn't do anything to sour my mood, so they're probably fine.)
Even as he discussed the Blood Blade situation, that thought lingered in the back of his mind. If one thought about it logically, the biggest reason he'd ended up in an all-out clash—well, it had been a surprise attack, so Fusetsu's casualties had been light—with Blood Blade could be traced back to those two who had given up Fusetsu's base location.
Of course, a major reason Rei had known about the base at all was that he'd heard its general whereabouts from Roger's own guard. The guard had only known it as "an assassin base," not specifically as Fusetsu's.
At any rate, while Rei was mildly curious about what had become of the two who had hauled off the large pile of Axes he'd given them as payment, he decided they were probably fine and continued the conversation.
"So that's the situation. The one who targeted me was the Dolan Workshop. To be precise, I don't know whether it was the will of the entire workshop or the scheme of certain individuals within it. If it's the latter, there's a good chance the Alchemists who actually craft the Golems know nothing about it."
The reason he'd added that caveat about the Alchemists was to keep Roger from running wild. Since Roger was an Alchemist himself, Rei worried that his outrage over the attack might drive him to charge straight into the Dolan Workshop.
Of course, one could argue that—given Roger had attacked Seto when they first met—he wasn't exactly in a position to lecture others about hiring assassins. But there was a world of difference between Roger's group attacking Seto and the Dolan Workshop commissioning an Assassin Guild to kill Rei.
"I... hope that's the case. So then, why would they resort to assassination?"
Prompted by Roger, Rei spoke again, carefully gauging the two of them to make sure neither lost control.
"These are only possibilities—ideas I've come up with. I can think of two likely motives. The first is that I was investigating the disappearance of the Bandits, and they decided I was in the way. If that's the case, though this is only speculation, it likely ties into what Ridon mentioned about them using Bandits as materials. ...Calm down!"
Before Rei could even finish his sentence, Roger had started to rise from his seat, and Rei barked the command. Roger snapped back to himself at the sharpness in Rei's voice and sat back down. Rei then shifted his gaze to Lindy and continued.
Lindy clearly understood what he was getting at. Just like Roger a moment ago, she was barely managing to hold back the urge to bolt straight for the Dolan Workshop.
"This may not be something you want to hear, Lindy, but let me continue. If the Bandits' disappearance was the Dolan Workshop's doing... and if Golias's disappearance was also their doing... then there's a possibility that Golias was used as a Golem material as well."
Those words were more than enough to cast a look of deep sorrow over Lindy's face.
"And the second motive... The Dolan Workshop likely knows I possess Crystal Dragon materials. This could be an attempt to seize them."
This motive was apparently easier to swallow, as neither Roger nor Lindy reacted much. Though that was probably because the first theory had been shocking enough to leave them reeling.
"Or perhaps one of those was the original motive, and by now they're after both. If you think of it that way, a lot of this starts to make sense. ...Calm down!"
Seeing both of them start to rise again, Rei cut in sharply.
"I told you not to go on a rampage. This is nothing more than speculation layered on speculation. ...Now, Roger. I have a question for you. Does using humans as Golem materials actually improve a Golem's performance?"
That was the question Rei asked.