"Alright, just as I thought—nobody here yet."
Stepping out of the basement, walking through the corridor, and climbing the stairs into the room above, Rei surveyed his surroundings before making the call.
Honestly, he'd been bracing for the possibility that enemies might be lying in wait right here.
But the reality was that even after arriving at the room, there was no sign of anyone hostile. Without any real trouble, everyone managed to make it out.
Reinforcements should be showing up any time now. Why are they so slow? Well, that's definitely a good thing for us, though.
By all rights, everyone currently rampaging through the Dolan Workshop—including Rei—was gathered right here. Given that, it wouldn't have been strange for reinforcements to be sent immediately.
Rei had expected as much, but for better or worse, there was no sign of any new reinforcements arriving.
Why exactly that was the case... it was a legitimate question for Rei to ask himself.
That said, it was equally true that fighting here while protecting everyone would be difficult. In that sense, the fact that reinforcements still hadn't come was undeniably a stroke of luck.
"Anne, no problems?"
He asked Anne deliberately, wanting to confirm that the Slave Collar's effects were truly nullified.
Strictly speaking, it wasn't nullification so much as an overwrite—Ilunara and the others had issued new commands permitting free movement. Rei's question was really to confirm whether that overwrite was holding.
"Yes, no particular problems."
Anne's expression showed no sign of hiding any pain or tightness from the collar. Considering the other slaves looked the same, her words were almost certainly true.
Nodding at Anne and the others, Rei turned his gaze to Lindy, Ilunara, and the Non-Mainstream Faction alchemists.
"Alright, we can't afford to stand around here taking it easy. It's time to break out. The method and our next steps are exactly what we discussed in the basement. Any objections?"
If he'd asked, "Any questions?" instead, a few people might have spoken up with various concerns. But when asked about objections, it was harder to raise your hand.
Truthfully, there were probably those who had misgivings about Rei's proposal—escaping and seeking shelter from Fusetsu. But they seemed to understand that Rei was the one making the right call in this situation.
Once he confirmed that no one had any objections, Rei spoke again.
"Good. Then we move. From here on, we're in a hurry. Nobody stops moving. Lindy, you're on rearguard. If anything happens, don't try to handle it yourself—let me know immediately."
In terms of raw combat power, Lindy wasn't someone he could feel completely at ease with. But in the current situation, she was unquestionably the only one he could rely on.
Normally, the most dangerous position was the rear. If pursuers came from the Dolan Workshop, the rearguard would be the ones to face them.
Rei himself wanted to take that position—that much was true. But escaping meant destroying the building, and the person doing that had to be at the front.
That was exactly why he wished Seto were here.
But once we're outside, I can call him, he told himself.
That said, if Seto went on a rampage, he'd be impossible to miss. Rei's honest preference was to avoid that if at all possible.
At any rate, once everyone present nodded, Rei swung his Death Scythe at the wall.
A clean slash rang out, and the wall parted effortlessly.
This section was supposed to have been thoroughly reinforced during the basement renovations. Naturally, the walls would have been reinforced too—yet the blade of Death Scythe cut through as if the reinforcement meant nothing.
"Ooh!"
Several onlookers gasped in surprise. Even those like Ilunara's group, who had already witnessed Rei cut through walls during the golem fight, were caught off guard. In terms of pure difficulty, slicing through the wall in the golem arena had been harder—but seeing him cut through a wall with their own eyes, right in front of them, carried that much more impact.
Rei called out to the stunned group.
"What are you all standing around for? Let's go! None of you have the luxury of staying put right now!"
His words snapped everyone out of their daze.
"That's right—everyone, let's go! I'll hold the rear, so just focus on moving forward and don't worry about what's behind you."
They nodded at Lindy's shout and poured through the opening.
Rei, naturally, led the way. Before he knew it, he held Death Scythe in his right hand and the Twilight Spear in his left—his familiar Twin Spear Style. He hadn't carried the spear inside the confined room, but out here, that was no longer a concern.
He burst outside. Fortunately, there was no sign of anyone nearby, nor any patrolling Water Golems like the ones they'd encountered earlier.
It wasn't that he didn't feel lucky—but at the same time, getting into this situation in the first place was hardly lucky. If anything, Rei was the kind of existence you could call a trouble magnet.
Why that was, honestly, he had no idea. But he knew he didn't have the luxury to dwell on it now.
As he ran with those thoughts churning, the outer wall enclosing the entire Dolan Workshop compound came into view.
He'd used his Sleipnir boots to leap over it on the way in, but in this situation, that was out of the question. It wasn't just him—he had multiple people in tow who needed protection.
If it were only Rei or only Lindy, he could have carried everyone over with a Rice Sack Carry. But with this many people, that was impossible.
Which was exactly why he'd told Ilunara beforehand that he'd try to minimize damage to the building.
"Hah!"
As the wall loomed ahead, Rei let out a sharp shout and swung Death Scythe. The wall parted cleanly in a single blow, and in the next instant, a strike from the Twilight Spear shattered the severed section.
A ripple of murmurs rose behind him—smaller than when he'd destroyed the interior wall, but still audible. Rei ignored it and pushed through the gap his attack had carved open.
"Seto!"
After bursting through the wall, Rei suddenly called out. The sudden shout startled those running behind him, but they apparently decided that committing to the escape took priority, and kept their focus on running.
Then, a few seconds later, the result of Rei's call materialized.
"Grrrrrrr!"
The cry echoed from the sky, and for an instant, the people behind Rei faltered in their stride. Sensing this through their presence, Rei barked sharply over his shoulder.
"That's reinforcement! It's a reinforcement—don't worry! It's an ally! It won't harm you!"
How much they actually believed him, he couldn't say. In this situation, being told not to react to a cry dropping out of the sky was asking the impossible.
This was clearly Rei's mistake. He hadn't told anyone besides Lindy about Seto's existence.
...To be precise, Anne also knew about Seto, but the gryphon suddenly appearing here would still come as a shock.
"Grrrr!"
Hearing Rei declare him an ally, Seto purred as if to say, That's right!
Of course, that purr was something only those close to Seto would recognize as friendly. To the people running behind Rei, Seto was nothing more than a threatening monster that had materialized out of nowhere.
"W-wait, Ilunara-san! A gryphon! A gryphon! If we could get even one feather—!"
One of the alchemists actually said that.
Ilunara, still running, fired back sharply.
"Right now, you prioritize running above everything else! Do you think we have the luxury to pay attention to a gryphon in this situation?!"
The alchemist who'd been eyeing Seto fell silent.
In truth, many of the alchemists had questionable stamina. For now, they still had some composure left—the tension of having just escaped the Dolan Workshop and the fact that they hadn't been running for long kept them going. But Ilunara, being an alchemist himself, understood that it probably wouldn't be long before someone hit their physical limit.
Heh. He's got a solid grasp of their situation. I suppose that's only natural if he's the one leading the Non-Mainstream Faction alchemists.
Running at the front, Rei was impressed by what he overheard of Ilunara's handling of the group. But right now, getting away from here and reaching the Slum District took priority over admiration.
"Seto, fall back to the rear and guard our back alongside Lindy."
"Gruu!"
Leave it to me! Seto purred in response, then slowed his pace and dropped toward the back of the column.
The alchemists watched Seto with keen interest while the slaves eyed him with evident fear, but no real disturbance broke out. Seto took his place beside Lindy, securing the rearguard.
Still, the pursuers are slow. Why? Normally they'd send people after us right away... no, they can't? Right—it's the altar room.
For the Dolan Workshop, the altar room was the most closely guarded secret of all. Rei and his group had infiltrated that very place, destroyed the magic circle carved into its floor, and shattered what appeared to be its most critical component—the altar itself.
Not only that, Rei had stored the wreckage in his Misty Ring and made off with it.
For the Dolan Workshop's people—the Mainstream Faction alchemists—they probably couldn't even comprehend what had happened. Rei's guess was that this confusion was what delayed the pursuit order.
That said, the moment they understood exactly what had occurred in the altar room, they would dispatch pursuers immediately. And those pursuers would be their best—ordered to recapture the escapees by any means necessary.
The one stroke of fortune for Rei's group was that since the altar had been stolen, the Workshop would need to extract information on how to recover it. That made it highly likely they'd issue orders to avoid killing if possible.
Though, that was only "if possible." He doubted they'd insist on taking everyone alive.
Besides, if they have a spare altar, they wouldn't need to capture us at all.
From his conversation with Grimm, Rei understood that the altar was an exceptionally rare type of Magic Item. The idea that several such objects could exist so easily was hard to swallow—but considering it was the Dolan Workshop, he couldn't rule it out entirely.
After all, without the altar and the magic circle, the Workshop couldn't produce golem cores imbued with human souls. Which meant their influence in Egginis would inevitably decline.
Whether the Mainstream Faction alchemists could stomach that was, honestly, an open question. People who had tasted a higher standard of living resisted returning to their old one with everything they had. On top of that, the prestige they'd enjoyed as Dolan Workshop alchemists would vanish overnight.
Could they accept that? Rei couldn't help but think it was probably impossible.
Given that, it wouldn't be strange for them to pull out all the stops to recover the altar right here and now. Above all, if the secret behind their golems ever came to light, Rei was certain that only the worst possible future awaited the Mainstream Faction.
That was why Rei ran toward the Slum District, certain that the Workshop wouldn't simply let things stand.