While Rei and Orban were talking at Robel's mansion, Seto was roaming freely through the Slum District.
Under normal circumstances, the Slum District was a dangerous place. If someone who knew nothing wandered in out of mere curiosity, it would not be strange for them to lose their life in the worst case.
Even so, Seto wandered about without any particular concern.
...That said, no one would dare attack Seto.
The fact that Seto was a gryphon was one reason, but beyond that, Fusetsu had spread the word that Rei and Seto were currently their guests.
For those hired by the Dolan Workshop, this meant information about Rei and Seto's location—and where the people Rei had taken were hiding—was being deliberately circulated. Fusetsu must have judged that even this was not a problem.
"Grrrrr."
Purring, Seto ran through the Slum District.
Unlike the city proper, roads littered with crumbling buildings were quite difficult to navigate at speed. To Seto, however, these were nothing more than obstacles, making little difference to him.
No, if anything, dodging obstacles while running seemed to be fun for Seto. Even as he dashed about, he showed no sign of finding it troublesome.
When the residents of the Slum District saw Seto running around like that, none of them made any move to meddle with him.
Naturally, Seto avoided running through areas where people were present. With his five senses and sixth sense, he could detect whether anyone was in his path. That was precisely why he could run around so freely.
"Grrrrr, grrr, grrrrr!"
Running freely about, Seto let out a happy cry.
It was disappointing that Rei was not with him, but being able to run around the Slum District to a certain extent like this was by no means a bad deal for Seto.
That said, it was not truly a full-speed sprint either. For Seto, the current situation was somewhat lacking, but still tolerable to a certain degree.
Seto had been running like that, but... naturally, pulling such a stunt—running around freely in the Slum District—would stand out.
"Hey, that... isn't that the gryphon, Rei's tamed monster?"
For those who had come searching for Rei, there was no way they could overlook Seto's presence.
They were a different group from the adventurers Rei had defeated a short while ago. Though in the sense that they were hired by the Dolan Workshop, it was the same.
For the Dolan Workshop, Rei—who had stolen things critical to them, the altar used for necromancy and the sacrifices for it—was unforgivable.
No, before the question of forgivable or unforgivable, they first needed to recover the altar Rei had stolen. And using the Dolan Workshop's name, gathering a large number of adventurers was not difficult.
...Though those who properly understood Rei's strength, or the cautious ones, had no desire to challenge an alias-holding adventurer, so there were those who refused the request.
Regardless, the ones here had been drawn by the Dolan Workshop's reward, coming with the objective of capturing Rei, the alchemists who had betrayed the Workshop, or the abducted slaves.
Because of that, they considered themselves lucky to have spotted Seto running through the Slum District.
Whether that was truly luck or not, however, remained unclear.
"Still... how are we supposed to chase it? There's no way we can run at that kind of speed."
It was a request within the city, but the location was the Slum District, and the opponent they expected to fight was Rei.
Naturally, these were adventurers equipped with the best gear, but metal armor was heavy. And running while wearing heavy metal armor would inevitably slow one down.
There was a bandit in this party as well, but even he could not possibly keep up with Seto's running speed.
"Hmm... then what should we do? At this rate, finding the gryphon is meaningless."
In fact, even as they spoke, Seto was gradually pulling farther away through the Slum District. There was no way they could catch up now.
"For now, why don't we head in the direction the gryphon ran? There might be a hideout there. ...I hope there is..."
One of the party members said this, but there was no conviction in his words. He hoped that would be the case, but he was likely thinking that even if they followed Seto, there would be no base of any kind there.
In fact, that prediction was correct. Seto was not heading toward Fusetsu's hideout; he was simply running endlessly. Even if they could get ahead of his current trajectory, all that would be there was the Slum District's cityscape.
...Since Egginis had numerous assassin guilds, there was a possibility their bases lay in that direction, but at the very least, the Fusetsu base these adventurers were searching for was not among them.
Even so, the direction Seto had run was the only lead they had—that much was certain.
If they had known about the cooperative relationship between Fusetsu and Rei, they might have reached a different conclusion.
Regardless, now that a lead had finally appeared, they could not abandon the option of pursuing Seto. They had come to the Slum District without any leads at all. If they chose not to follow Seto here, they would have to start by searching for leads from scratch.
Gathering information from the Slum District residents was also an option... or rather, that would be the most straightforward approach. But Slum District residents would easily lie if it meant earning money. If they asked where Rei's base was and promised a reward, many would answer. But the information would differ from person to person, and the chances were high that going to the described location would turn out to be complete nonsense.
If so, it was undoubtedly better to follow Seto, who was definitively Rei's tamed monster.
Making that judgment, the adventurers set off to chase Seto, but... within mere minutes of starting to run, they were surprised to see Seto—who should have been long gone—running back toward them.
"W-wait, why is it coming back this way!? It just ran off over there, didn't it!?"
A woman holding a longsword shouted, unable to comprehend why Seto was returning in their direction.
Seto was running around the Slum District as he pleased, so it was merely a coincidence that he happened to come back. But for the adventurers who had tried to chase him, this was completely unexpected.
What do we do?
The party leader hesitated for a moment, but judged this to be both a crisis and an opportunity. Catching up to Seto while he ran was difficult, but fortunately, Seto was now running toward them from the opposite direction. In that case, they needed to capture him here.
"Capture the gryphon! Are you ready!?"
Naturally, they did not think they could win against Seto in a fight. But fighting an opponent they could not defeat head-on was nothing short of reckless.
What the men could do in this situation was not to fight, but...
"Y-yeah... I brought it like you said, but I never thought we'd actually have to use it."
What the bandit produced was dried meat. However, naturally, it was not just ordinary dried meat—it was dried meat laced with a sleeping drug.
When they accepted the Dolan Workshop's request, they had fully considered the possibility of facing Rei, bearer of the Crimson moniker, and his tamed monster, an A-Rank gryphon.
But since they could not win in a head-on fight, they needed to adopt methods other than fighting directly. And the man serving as party leader had taken to heart the information that Rei and Seto enjoyed their meals.
If so, rather than fighting head-on, they just needed to put them to sleep. No matter how strong the opponent was, once asleep, they would be utterly helpless. Once that happened, they could kill or capture the opponent as they pleased.
Especially since the opponent was an A-Rank gryphon. If they could kill it, who knew how much its materials would be worth. Thinking that, he found it baffling that those who had opposed Rei before had not adopted such methods.
While he was thinking such things, the distance between Seto and the adventurers rapidly closed.
Naturally, Seto was also aware of the adventurers' presence. His senses, overwhelmingly sharper than a normal person's—specifically his hearing, sense of smell, and sight among them—had allowed him to pinpoint the adventurers.
At the same time, he noticed that one of the adventurers was carrying dried meat, and that a chemical scent undetectable to an ordinary human emanated from it. He could not determine specifically that the chemical was a type of sleeping drug, but even so, Seto immediately understood that it was not ordinary dried meat.
Even so, the reason Seto stopped near the adventurers was likely because he judged it better to defeat opponents who had come targeting them if at all possible.
"Grrrr."
Looking at the adventurers, Seto purred in vigilance—no, in intimidation.
They flinched. At Seto's demeanor, the adventurers involuntarily retreated a few steps.
These adventurers operated in Egginis. In other words, their enemies were primarily bandits who attacked the merchants and nobles they were escorting, and they almost exclusively fought opponents like Goblins. Occasionally—truly occasionally—they had experience fighting Orcs or flying Harpies, but that was the extent of it.
They had never faced a monster with a massive body exceeding three meters in length head-on, let alone this up close. Among the horses pulling carriages and those used by cavalry, there were individuals with bodies about the same size as Seto, but the overwhelming presence of a horse and a gryphon were vastly different.
Even among horses, ones like those pulling Elena's carriage would never look inferior when face-to-face with Seto up close, but such horses were not the kind one could easily encounter.
"H-hey. The dried meat... hurry..."
Facing Seto, the party leader somehow managed to force out a voice. The fact that he could speak in this situation showed he was worthy of leading the party.
At the party leader's voice, the bandit, while terrified by Seto's presence, somehow offered the dried meat.
"H-here. Dried meat. This is a special batch, and it's delicious."
Given that it was dried meat laced with a sleeping drug, calling it a special batch was not entirely wrong. However, the issue was whether Seto would eat it or not.
The dried meat this party had prepared prioritized preservation and was by no means delicious. Originally, since Rei had a Misty Ring, dried meat was unnecessary for food preservation. Even so, Rei carried a certain amount of dried meat not to eat it as-is, but to use it as a cooking ingredient.
In fact, when dried meat was used as a soup ingredient, it produced good dashi, and it was not bad as a topping either. But the dried meat Rei carried was high-quality, made with spices and the like. The dried meat Seto had the opportunity to eat was usually of that kind.
That said, Seto was beloved by many in Gilm, so he had his fair share of opportunities to eat ordinary dried meat as well.
But even so, Seto judged that he should not eat the dried meat before him. He picked up the offered dried meat in his beak and tossed it far away.
"Ah..."
The bandit who had offered the dried meat let out a cry of surprise and despair at having the meat snatched away. He had never thought he could win against Seto in a head-on fight. Given that, if the dried meat failed to take effect, there was nothing he could do.
"H-hey. Um... what's wrong?"
Facing Seto, who was purring while staring at him, the bandit asked fearfully.
"Grrrrr."
At the bandit, Seto purred with unmistakable intimidation. Seeing this, no one could possibly think Seto was in a good mood.
Could it be... he knows there's a sleeping drug in the dried meat?
The party leader, watching Seto's demeanor, thought this.
Realizing that their trump card was ineffective, the party leader instinctively shouted.
"Run!"
Shouting that, he himself hurriedly fled the area. The others reflexively followed the order, but in the next instant, Seto lunged at the fleeing party.