From the men's words, Rei gathered they had come targeting Seto.
The moment he understood this, it all made perfect sense.
A gryphon, while not quite on the level of a dragon, was still a creature of a certain legendary stature.
Given that was the case, learning that such a gryphon was in their town—let alone that the person traveling with it had visited the orphanage, of all places, which had bad blood with Garby—it would have been unreasonable to expect them not to give in to greed.
Why hadn't they bothered him last time? Rei wondered about this, but it was likely because things had happened so suddenly that even Garby hadn't been able to respond in time.
Besides, considering that Garby had been specifically targeting Anne for enslavement, he probably hadn't wanted to cause unnecessary trouble under those circumstances.
Whatever the reasons, with Seto being targeted, Rei couldn't just stand by.
Making that call, Rei stepped out in front of the orphanage director and staff.
"That gryphon is my tamed monster. Do you have some business with it?"
Rei's voice rang across the orphanage yard.
At those words, the thugs turned to look at him.
Even among thugs, the ones in Egginis's Slum District had recognized the danger Rei and Seto posed the instant they saw them and fled immediately. Their danger detection ability was that sharp—but that was a skill necessary to survive in the Slum District of a major city like Egginis. These men, who borrowed Garby's authority like a fox borrowing a tiger's ferocity, showed no sign of noticing the danger Rei and Seto represented.
Operating only in a rural town, they judged their opponent's strength by appearance alone.
Moreover, to them, this orphanage was firmly under Garby's thumb.
"What's this, asshole? Are you really the owner of this gryphon?"
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't call me its owner. Seto is my partner."
"Shut up! Quit acting cool and hand over the gryphon already! We'll put it to better use than some brat like you!"
From Rei's small build, they likely figured he was no match for them. That was precisely why they spoke to him so arrogantly—but to anyone who knew Rei's true strength, it was nothing short of suicidal.
To those who knew the story of Rei rescuing Camila and the others from a pack of wolves, Garby's subordinates' actions could only prompt the question: What on earth are they doing?
There were even some who, despite knowing Rei's reputation, still couldn't quite bring themselves to believe from his appearance that he was truly that strong. Such people watched Rei with concern.
However, Rei paid no particular mind to those worried gazages as he stepped forward and spoke.
"Did you just say you're going to take Seto from me? You lot apparently work for someone named Garby. Did this Garby tell you to seize Seto? In other words, that means making an enemy of me, right?"
"Hah? Shut up. All you gotta do is quietly hand over the gryphon to Garby-sama."
"So this Garby person told you to bring Seto back even by force... is that what you're saying?"
Rei asked evenly.
From his perspective, he wanted testimony proving Garby was involved in this matter. With that, it would mean Garby had picked a fight with him, and as a method of dealing with the situation, Rei's freedom of action would increase significantly. And greater freedom meant more options available to him.
Specifically, it meant a better chance to question Garby about why he had enslaved Anne.
Going to the trouble of enslaving her, only to immediately sell her off in Egginis. Rei had found this suspicious ever since he first heard it from Camila, and that suspicion had only grown stronger after hearing the director's account.
For the sake of Lindy and Camila waiting in Egginis, he needed to settle this matter properly.
Perhaps sensing something ominous about Rei's demeanor, the thugs showed a moment's hesitation. Even so, unable to stomach being looked down on by someone as small-framed as Rei, they dismissed their unease as imagination and shouted.
"That's right, it's an order from Garby-sama! Are you planning to defy Garby-sama?!"
"Thanks for the hard work."
The instant those words registered, the thug who had shouted lost consciousness.
"Well then. That should about do it."
"Whoa! You're amazing, amazing, amazing!"
"You're really incredible! So cool!"
Having confirmed they were acting under Garby's orders, Rei knocked the thugs unconscious in the blink of an eye.
Given that they were in front of the children, he chose a restrained method—punching them in the solar plexus to knock them out—rather than a gruesome scene involving broken bones or coughed-up blood.
While it was certainly a restrained method, they had still been punched in the solar plexus with Rei's strength. Naturally, even after the thugs regained consciousness, they wouldn't quite convulsed from mere movement, but there was no doubt they would be in considerable agony. Nor would that pain fade quickly. They would likely suffer from it for at least a few days.
Even so, as Rei's treatment of those who had demanded he hand over Seto, it was a lenient one. This was largely because Rei didn't consider the thugs worth treating as true enemies; his priority was extracting information from Garby about Anne's situation.
In that sense, his handling of Roger, who had similarly desired Seto, had been extremely lenient by comparison. That said, the situations surrounding Garby and Roger were so different that it couldn't be helped.
"In any case, I'm thinking of going to see this Garby fellow who sent these guys. While I'm at it, I'll ask him about Anne."
"Is that... really alright?"
Like the others, the director had been astonished by Rei's strength, but the moment Anne's name came up, she snapped back to attention.
The rest were the same. The instant Anne was mentioned, they shifted from celebrating the swift knockout of Garby's underlings to wearing serious expressions.
Among the children, those who knew the circumstances of Anne's disappearance directed earnest, pleading gazes toward Rei. This was surely proof of just how large a presence Anne held at this orphanage.
"Yeah. There are things about Anne's case that bother me too."
What was this man named Garby truly thinking?
Wanting to find out, Rei retrieved rope from his Misty Ring and bound the three men—their bodies serving as physical evidence, though he felt somewhat uneasy about treating people as evidence—then roused them to their feet.
Naturally, he had no intention of gently coaxing them awake. His method was to lightly slap their cheeks and force them up by brute strength.
At first, he had considered dragging them along by the rope while they were still unconscious, but when the director asked him not to do that in front of the children, Rei had no choice but to comply. It wasn't as though he was particularly attached to that method, so he honored the director's request and woke them by slapping their cheeks.
"Gah...eh? W-what the hell is this!"
"You're awake. Next."
"Bwah?! W-what just...?"
"Next."
"Ow! What are you—"
And so, he woke all of them.
From the perspective of those being roused, they couldn't comprehend what situation they were in at all. Some couldn't even grasp that they had been knocked unconscious by Rei.
Even so, when the thugs noticed that their hands were bound and immobile, and that they were daisy-chained to their companions by the rope wrapped around their torsos, they began shouting in panic.
"You bastard! What the hell do you think you're doing!"
One of the thugs shouted at Rei.
From their perspective, they were subordinates of Garby—a man who wielded great influence in Buldan. For someone to do this to them was unacceptable. It was understandable they would feel that way.
If they had known the wider world, it might have been different. But these thugs were born in Buldan, lived in Buldan, and would die in Buldan. To such people, while Buldan might not be their entire world, it wasn't unreasonable for it to constitute the greater part of it.
Of course, they possessed the knowledge that a wider world existed beyond Buldan. But that was merely something they had heard about, not something they actually knew.
That was precisely why the thugs standing before Rei believed that simply invoking Garby's name would set things right—and until now, it always had.
But the person standing before them now was Rei. If he recognized someone as an enemy, he wouldn't hesitate to use his full power, even if that opponent was a noble. To someone like Rei, even if a person held strong influence within a town, if that influence was confined to a rural backwater like Buldan, his response would be: So what?
Without paying any mind to their threats, Rei took the end of the rope linking the thugs together and headed toward Garby's location.
Naturally, such treatment was by no means something the thugs could endure. They were men who served as Garby's underlings, responsible for enforcing violence in Buldan. For such men to be bound and paraded through the streets—their pride and dignity were being trampled beyond any doubt.
In fact, the daisy-chained thugs drew more stares from passersby than even Rei and Seto walking through town.
Given the situation, what kind of treatment the thugs would receive in Buldan from here on... unfortunately, even Rei couldn't say.
Thinking such thoughts, Rei made his way through the town until the building that served as the headquarters of Garby's merchant guild—as the orphanage director had described it—came into view.
True to its influence in this town, several guards were stationed in front of the building in case of emergencies. Naturally, those guarding the guild headquarters were not lowlifes like the thugs Rei had captured, but individuals with considerable skill.
Precisely because they were such men, upon seeing Gryphon Seto, they fully understood the danger it represented. More importantly, there was only one person they could think of who had tamed a gryphon.
"The Crimson... Rei..."
Why would he be in a place like this?
Those muttered words, spoken in sheer disbelief, conveyed that they truly could not fathom why Rei was here.
Of course, the guards knew that Rei had previously visited Buldan. They knew that much, but even so, they could not comprehend why he was here now.
This gap in information demonstrated that while Garby's merchant guild held great influence in Buldan, it was ultimately because it was a rural town.
"These men tried to take Seto... my gryphon from me. They said it was on the orders of someone named Garby, so I came to settle things directly."
"That's..."
"Don't mess around! Why would Garby-sama bother dealing with the likes of you!"
Before the guards could say anything, one of the daisy-chained thugs shouted.
This thug likely believed that Garby ranked above Rei.
However, the guards, who possessed more common sense than the thugs, fully understood which of the two—Garby or Rei—was superior.
Garby, who wielded strong influence in a rural town, versus an alias-holding high-rank adventurer.
While the guards knew information about Rei, they hadn't heard that he had become an A-Rank adventurer. Even so, B-Rank adventurer alone was sufficient to qualify as a high-rank adventurer by general standards.
If asked which of the two held greater influence—the thugs aside, the guards would immediately declare it was Rei.
Given the situation, their frustration at being dragged into such a troublesome affair was entirely natural.
"Wait here. I'll go inform Garby-sama that Rei has come."
From the guards' perspective, regardless of what kind of person Rei was, when someone said they had come to see their employer, they couldn't very well fail to report it. Ideally, they would have asked Rei to stop parading the daisy-chained thugs—men the guards recognized—but with Rei as the opponent, they couldn't even attempt such a thing.