"Well then."
Before Rei lay a large number of unconscious bodies.
He was currently standing in front of the basement where Lindy and Anne were being held.
After defeating the people stationed outside the room, Rei had immediately descended the stairs leading underground.
Naturally, since people would be coming and going from here on, the door to the basement had been left wide open—making things extremely easy for him.
On top of that, many of those outside the room initially had no idea what was happening. As a result, several were knocked unconscious by Rei without putting up any real resistance.
Once that happened, the others naturally noticed his presence, turning the narrow corridor into a chaotic brawl. But even as a melee, given Rei's abilities, defeating the enemies was not particularly difficult.
Compared to the man who had tried to stall for time against him earlier, the majority here were clearly weaker.
From the stronger ones' perspective, they probably just didn't want to do manual labor like hauling iron ingots themselves.
They would leave such tasks to those weaker than themselves while staying vigilant for approaching enemies.
That choice was by no means wrong.
It was certain that intruders had breached the Dolan Workshop, and there was a high probability they were moving about inside the building.
There was a chance they might have barricaded themselves in the basement, but given that a large number of iron ingots had been placed in front of the door, at least one person should have been stationed outside.
In that sense, it was correct for the stronger individuals—like those who had fought Rei—to keep watch on their surroundings.
Correct, that is, but the worst outcome for them was that Rei had been among those outside.
As a result, their plans fell apart, and everyone who had been in front of the basement was defeated.
Moving up to the door...
"You work fast."
Seeing that about thirty percent of the iron ingots stacked in front of the door had already been moved, a note of admiration slipped from Rei's lips.
Considering the time Rei's group had spent in the basement with the altar and magic circle, it meant the hired guards had been working diligently.
Or perhaps they were allowed to keep any iron ingots they moved themselves? That's a distinct possibility.
Iron ingots could fetch a decent price if sold.
One would need to verify their purity, but even accounting for that effort, they probably figured it was manageable.
Since everyone was already unconscious, there was no need to consider such things anymore.
For the time being, Rei stored the iron ingots in front of the door and scattered nearby into his Misty Ring, then lightly knocked.
Naturally, those on the other side could not confirm it was Rei just from a knock.
Given that, he needed to let them know.
Of course, with a bit of effort, he could have forced the door open.
However, if they were unaware of Rei's presence, there was a chance they might attack the moment it opened.
Even so, the only one on the other side whose combat ability could be reliably counted on was Lindy.
The others had no real weapons to speak of.
If they were truly desperate, there was no denying they might rush in to attack bare-handed, weapons or not.
But letting things come to that would be foolish, so Rei spoke while knocking.
"Are you alright? It's me, Rei. I've taken down everyone in front of the door, so don't worry."
He called out while knocking, but the people on the other side could not bring themselves to believe it right away.
If someone close to Rei had been on the other side, things might have been somewhat different.
Unfortunately, even Lindy, who had known him the longest, could not truly identify someone by voice alone through a door.
That was why Rei ended up knocking several times.
'Rei? Is it really you, Rei?'
About thirty seconds of continued knocking passed before a voice finally called out from beyond the door.
"Yeah, Ilunara is safe too. Like I said, I knocked out everyone in front of the door. There's no problem, so open up."
It was probably because Rei mentioned Ilunara's name that they finally believed it was the real deal. Before long, the door opened, though only slightly.
Even knowing it was Rei, the tentative way she opened it was not strange behavior for Lindy.
Still, the first thing visible through the gap was Rei, with Ilunara a little behind him. Seeing that all the enemies who had been in front of the door were lying on the floor, she finally seemed relieved and opened it fully.
"You took your time. And Golias... wasn't there, huh."
Perhaps because Rei and Ilunara were the only two, she must have immediately realized that Golias had not been in the room with the altar.
Lindy's tone was disappointed, but she did not appear particularly downcast—perhaps because she had already thought it unlikely that Golias would be in the basement with the altar.
"Yeah. Golias wasn't there. It's not like this makes up for it, but I did end up learning some information I would have been better off not knowing."
Not using humans as material, but using human souls as material. And going so far as to use a necromancy magic circle to extract those souls.
The secret behind the Dolan Workshop's high-performance golems was undeniably one of the things Rei had wanted to know.
It was, in fact, one of the things he had wanted to know most of all.
However, that it involved using souls... honestly, it was information Rei would rather not have learned.
For now, I understand the secret of the golems. But that raises the question of how they were abducting the bandits. One or two is one thing, but based on the information I've gathered, a significant number of bandits should have gone missing.
Even lumping them all together as bandits, there were many different kinds among them.
Some would be reasonably skilled, and others would be weak even as bandits—those who had become bandits on a whim.
And yet, even the strong ones were captured without being able to do anything.
Considering that, it was only natural for Rei to wonder just how they had been capturing the bandits.
"So, what do we do now? Now that this place has been found, we can't barricade ourselves here, you know?"
"Barricading itself isn't a bad option. I can manage food and water somehow."
He had food stored in his Misty Ring, and as long as Rei had mana, the Dagger of Flowing Water could produce water.
And this basement was quite spacious. While it might not be comfortable for someone like Anne and the others to live in, it was clear from looking at the people inside that they were managing to get by without too much trouble.
"Huh? Wait, seriously?"
Surprised by Rei's statement that barricading was not a bad option, Lindy was taken aback.
She probably never expected such words to come from his mouth.
That said, Rei was not genuinely planning to barricade themselves here either.
In the current situation, barricading was not a bad option, but he hadn't said it in earnest.
To begin with, barricading was fundamentally premised on the arrival of reinforcements.
Whether reinforcements could be expected in this situation...
Actually, they can.
Whether Maruka and the others—among Rei's acquaintances in Egginis, the most powerful combat force—would mobilize as reinforcements was uncertain.
However, there was another method: using the Paired Orb to contact Elena in Gilm.
And if Elena... if the Princess General moved, her subordinate Ara would naturally move as well, and through Elena's connections, they could assemble a substantial fighting force.
What's more, at Marina's house, there were not only Elena but also Marina and Vihera.
Vihera in particular, if she learned she might be able to fight golems with overwhelmingly higher performance than ordinary ones, might come to Egginis on her own without Rei even calling for help.
That said, it was precisely because Seto could fly that traveling between Egginis and Gilm in a short time was possible. Traveling overland would undoubtedly take a considerable amount of time.
Yeah, that won't work after all. In that case, the problem is where to hide these people.
Rei thought about what to do.
His original plan had been to rescue only Anne, who had been enslaved through semi-illegal means.
However, if there were quite a number of people enslaved besides Anne... and moreover, if some of them were residents of Buldan, where Anne lived, then abandoning them was even less of an option.
If he did such a thing, Anne herself would likely refuse to leave.
Plus, there are these guys too.
As for unexpected personnel, the non-mainstream faction alchemists led by Ilunara were also part of that.
They had certainly been helpful in searching through this building, but sheltering Ilunara and his group in the current situation would require an even larger hiding place.
"Ilunara, I'll ask just in case, but do you have any acquaintances who could shelter you and your people?"
He asked with a tentative tone, but Ilunara shook his head.
"Rei, that's impossible. Here in Egginis, finding someone who would shelter people from the Dolan Workshop... I can't think of anyone either, honestly."
Lindy stated this, perhaps from her position as an adventurer.
Rei nodded in agreement, thinking that was to be expected.
In Egginis, a city sustained by the golem industry, the alchemists of the Dolan Workshop produced golems with the highest performance currently available.
Finding someone among Egginis's residents who would shelter those who had made an enemy of the Dolan Workshop... it wasn't that no such person existed, but it was certain to come with various problems.
For example, a workshop that wanted to steal the Dolan Workshop's technology might be willing to shelter Ilunara and the others.
However, what such a workshop could learn would be limited to the techniques Ilunara and his group already possessed. They would not be able to obtain other techniques—specifically, the technology behind the golems currently sold by the Dolan Workshop, which rival workshops coveted.
In reality, Ilunara did know the secret of that technology, but considering Ilunara's character as Rei had observed it, he could not imagine Ilunara teaching anyone a technique that sealed human souls into golem cores using necromancy.
Well, even if he did teach them, I'm the one who carved the magic circle, and I cut off the pedestal and stored it in my Misty Ring, so even if they knew the method, they couldn't replicate it right away. But in that case... the Underground World, huh?
If those in Egginis's legitimate society were the ones being dealt with, sheltering Ilunara, Anne, and the others would be difficult.
If so, what about the underworld?
Fortunately—fortunate from Rei's perspective, at least—he had a connection with Fusetsu, the largest assassin guild in Egginis.
In terms of debts owed, they were even, so if he wanted Fusetsu to shelter Ilunara, Anne, and the others, he would likely need to pay some kind of compensation.
However, from what Rei had seen, Fusetsu appeared to be a proper organization.
Anne and some of the others... I could send them back to Buldan if I wanted... no, that won't work. If the Dolan Workshop sends people, there's nothing that can be done.
Escaping only to be captured again would be meaningless.
What's more, the people in this room were those the Dolan Workshop wanted as slaves for some reason—those chosen to have their souls extracted at the altar and used as golem cores.
Given that, as long as the Dolan Workshop remained operational, being recaptured even if they returned to Buldan was all but certain.
Garby would no longer be able to move as freely as before thanks to Rei's measures, but if Garby was out of the picture, they need only use another agent.
Maybe it'd be better if I just went on a rampage here and destroyed the entire Dolan Workshop... no, with Ilunara here, I should probably hold off on that.
Ilunara was currently the greatest ally within the Dolan Workshop.
That same Ilunara had admired the Dolan Workshop since childhood and was now an alchemist belonging to it.
Given that, if Rei were to advocate destroying the Dolan Workshop entirely, it was certain that Ilunara would never accept it.