While the adventurers were desperately fighting off the Slum District residents, fleeing, or tossing silver and copper coins to turn the crowds against each other... Rei had returned to the Fusetsu hideout with Seto and Orban.
Rei and Orban aside, Seto settled down to lie beside the hideout as usual.
"It's reassuring to be back."
Orban murmured those words as he entered the underground hideout, looking genuinely relieved.
In contrast to Orban, Rei didn't appear quite so at ease.
This was Orban's base—a place he recognized as his own territory.
To Rei, on the other hand, this was nothing more than the Fusetsu hideout.
If it had been Marina's house in Gilm or the room he rented at the Wheat Inn at Dusk, Rei might have shared Orban's sentiment.
"Anyway, given the current situation, is there anything in particular I need to do? For starters, should Fusetsu search for those connected to the Dolan Workshop until evidence turns up?"
"That's how it'll be. Your specialty is straightforward, head-on combat, isn't it?"
"I won't deny that, but I do have a fair amount of confidence in infiltration, you know."
At Rei's words, Orban gave him a look of exasperation.
"Confident in infiltration? Despite that, you got found out pretty easily at the Dolan Workshop, didn't you?"
"Ugh... but that couldn't be helped. It wasn't just me; Anne and the others were acting together too. Moving around without being spotted in that situation was difficult."
Lindy could move reasonably well as an adventurer, but that was only to a certain extent.
Even so, she was still more capable than the likes of Anne and Ilunara.
Not to mention, Rei had been moving around inside the Dolan Workshop and escaping while leading along illegal slaves and alchemists—people who normally didn't exert themselves that much physically.
As far as Rei was concerned, he had done quite well under the circumstances.
However, that was only Rei's own assessment.
To Orban, who led an assassin guild where stealth was essential, it could only be called sloppy.
"I might need to teach you proper stealth techniques sometime. ...It's self-taught, isn't it?"
Rei nodded honestly at Orban's words.
Indeed, Rei's stealth skills were not something he had learned from anyone; he was entirely self-taught.
And one of the major reasons he could pull it off through self-teaching was undoubtedly his physical abilities—specifically, his current body created using the Zephyle Clan's technology.
Of course, being self-taught didn't mean Rei had done no training at all.
He had learned to suppress his presence, to move without making a sound... Looking at it objectively, he was without a doubt more than capable of stealth.
But even so, precisely because it was self-taught, it wouldn't be strange for Rei to have some kind of gap in places he himself would never expect.
"Doesn't learning that sort of thing properly take quite a bit of time? I can't stay here forever, you know. In the first place, the original reason I'm here is to buy golems."
"That's rather late to bring up."
Indeed, Rei's point was truly belated.
That said, Rei hadn't given up on buying golems.
He no longer intended to purchase golems from the Dolan Workshop, but he still wanted the golems he had commissioned from Roger.
Additionally, beyond the golems Roger was making, it was only natural that Rei would want any golem he found interesting.
"Well, I understand that you're not motivated, Rei."
"Really? ...Well, now that you mention it, I suppose that might be true."
If this had been about further strengthening his combat with Death Scythe or the Twilight Spear, Rei might have taken a strong interest.
But unfortunately, in the current situation, that wasn't enough to capture Rei's attention.
That said, if this were a peaceful time with nothing going on, Rei might have found interest in Orban's words.
But being told such things in the current situation, Rei had too many things he needed to do.
The Dolan Workshop incident was one thing, but the Crystal Dragon dissection was also underway in Gilm.
Once enough time had passed, he would need to return to Gilm.
Under those circumstances, learning infiltration methods or how to move as an assassin would end up half-baked for Rei.
Beyond that, it was also a fact that in the midst of being this busy, he had no leeway to spend time on such things.
(Ah. But I was told to leave things to Fusetsu and not move around much for a while, so in that sense, I do have time... right?)
The thought crossed his mind briefly, but before he had time to say anything, he proceeded through the Fusetsu hideout... and eventually reached a branching point where he and Orban went their separate ways.
"Well, I'm heading this way."
"Understood. I'll call for you if there's any business, is that alright?"
"Go ahead. I probably won't be doing anything in particular. ...I might go outside the hideout and move around with Seto, so if I'm not in my room, contact me outside."
The living quarters in the Fusetsu hideout—though calling them living quarters wasn't quite accurate; they were more like isolation rooms for people Fusetsu had taken in for various reasons.
Rei was currently staying there because he didn't want to involve others in his trouble with the Dolan Workshop.
That said, honestly, Rei was sleeping in the living room, so he was considering setting up his Magic Tent somewhere else.
"Got it. Then I'll be off, since I'm in a hurry."
With those words, Orban departed.
After seeing him off, Rei headed toward his own room—though whether that expression was appropriate in this case was debatable.
He encountered several Fusetsu members along the way, but none of them gave him any trouble.
Initially, since Rei had subdued Fusetsu by force, there had been those who harbored ill feelings toward him.
However, having established a friendly relationship with Orban, who led Fusetsu, they would not express such dissatisfaction openly.
If they were third-rate members as assassins—no, as members of an assassin guild—then perhaps it wouldn't have been strange even in this situation for someone to try picking a fight with Rei.
As it stood, Rei could currently walk around inside the Fusetsu hideout without issue.
Naturally, he couldn't enter areas that were restricted zones for Fusetsu.
Arriving at the place where Anne and the others were being sheltered, there were naturally two people standing guard in front of the door.
The two noticed Rei approaching and gave a small bow.
Unlike the ones who had been there when he left the hideout, they had probably switched shifts.
"Good work."
Seeing the men bowing to him and sensing no hostility in their demeanor, Rei spoke with understanding.
"Are Anne and the others inside?"
"No, Anne and a few others have left their rooms to help with household chores."
"Ah, come to think of it, they did mention something like that. ...Have they already started?"
He recalled that they had said they didn't like having nothing to do and wanted to help out at least a little.
For Anne, who had worked at the orphanage, idle time was probably not something she enjoyed.
Moreover, even while imprisoned at the Dolan Workshop, she had been shut in the basement without anything to do.
Given that situation, it was only natural that after escaping, she would want to move her body.
(Though if it's just about moving one's body, they ran plenty while escaping from the Dolan Workshop to here.)
Indeed, the desperate flight—running continuously while watching for pursuers from behind—had been fairly demanding even for those accustomed to physical activity.
Those like Rei and Lindy, who worked as adventurers, were one thing, but for people who didn't normally engage in intense exercise, it wouldn't have been strange for them to be suffering from severe muscle soreness, barely able to move.
(Ah, maybe the reason they're taking so long to get up is related to that?)
The people who had been enslaved alongside Anne came from various backgrounds.
Meanwhile, Ilunara and the others were alchemists—in other words, people who manufactured and researched golems rather than engaging in physical activity.
If they were mainstream faction members with free access to funds and the like, they could have done something like what Rei had seen in the mountains—using bandits as opponents for golem deployment trials.
However, Ilunara and the others, being non-mainstream faction members, had no such leeway.
That was precisely why they were in a state that was, in a sense, close to being out of shape... and as a result, Rei could easily predict that they were currently suffering from muscle soreness.
That said, there wasn't much Rei could do for them about it.
He had potions and the like, but if asked whether potions worked on muscle soreness, even Rei would tilt his head in doubt.
Anyway, he decided he needed to see the situation firsthand before thinking about it, and after exchanging a few light words with the men at the door, he entered the room.
Inside, a slightly different scene from what he had expected unfolded.
Several people were gathered in the living room, but Ilunara and his companions were nowhere among them.
"Huh? Rei-san? Where did you go? You were already gone when I woke up."
One of the men who had been made an illegal slave asked Rei as he entered the room.
The others, with nothing to do and bored, were looking at him with curious eyes, wondering what he would say.
"Just went outside for a bit."
"Outside? When we said we wanted to go outside, we were stopped."
"Of course. Right now, a fair number of adventurers hired by the Dolan Workshop have come into the Slum District. What do you think would happen if someone who can't defend themselves went out among them?"
"Ugh..."
What would happen if they encountered adventurers.
That was obvious without even thinking about it.
As ordinary people who hadn't undergone any particular training, if they ran into adventurers, they could only be captured.
Fighting would be futile, of course, and they understood better than anyone that they couldn't outrun adventurers.
Adventurers wore armor and carried weapons and shields, so they were by no means fast runners.
However, against ordinary people who didn't particularly train their bodies, it was a different story.
Among those here, there was no one Rei could judge as capable of safely escaping from adventurers.
"So, Anne and the others went to help out with various things, but what are you all doing?"
"You say that, but... this is an assassin guild, right? In a place like that, if we made any suspicious moves, we'd genuinely feel our lives were in danger."
One of them replied to Rei's words, and it carried enough persuasiveness to make Rei nod in understanding.
Rei knew the personalities of people belonging to Fusetsu, such as Orban and Nina, so that wasn't a problem for him.
But that was only because Rei knew them directly.
For the illegal slaves and the non-mainstream faction alchemists of the Dolan Workshop, the place they were in was an assassin guild—and not just any assassin guild, but the largest one in Egginis.
There was no way they could casually chat with the people in such a place—meaning, the members of Fusetsu.
In that sense, Anne, who did household chores while interacting with Fusetsu members, was perhaps not ordinary.
"I understand why you're all acting that way. But you'll be staying here for a while starting today, right? Being afraid of your hosts the whole time and never making any effort to get along seems like it'd cause various problems, don't you think?"
"That's..."
The man who had been talking with Rei must have felt something at those words. His voice lacked force.
"Besides... I think it's easier to get protection from people you're close with when it counts. Anyway, that's something you all should figure out for yourselves."
Saying that, Rei lay down on an empty sofa.