Seeing Rei lying on the sofa, the people in the living room exchanged glances with one another.
Rei's words had been an instruction to approach the members of Fusetsu on their own initiative.
In truth, it wasn't as if the people here were ungrateful to Fusetsu.
Even so, given their current situation, it was only natural that fear would be the first thing to come to mind.
Those gathered here were neither strong like Rei nor had they ever interacted with assassins before.
It was precisely because they were such people that they harbored an even stronger aversion toward those belonging to Fusetsu.
"Hey, what should we do?"
"What do you mean, what should we do? They're assassins, you know. How is Anne able to approach them so easily in the first place?"
"But... we're being protected, aren't we? In that case..."
Hearing those words, a few of them showed some enthusiasm and began moving to speak with the person outside the door first.
That exchange naturally reached the ears of Rei, who was lying on the sofa with his eyes closed, pretending to sleep.
Well, this should do for now. It's better to keep relations with Fusetsu on good terms. If this gets even a few of the Fusetsu members to act on their behalf... I wonder how that'll turn out.
There was no doubt that his earlier words had been aimed at exactly that, but whether Fusetsu would act as Rei intended was another question entirely, and the answer was uncertain at best.
For Rei, it was merely a hope that things might work out that way.
Even so, it was undeniably better than doing nothing and simply shutting themselves away in this room.
Not meeting anyone and simply staying huddled together in one place with only their own group made it all too easy for thoughts to turn negative.
That was precisely why, in their current situation, it was better to actively go outside.
Thinking that, just as he considered taking a little nap...
"Ugh... uuuh..."
"!?"
Rei, who had been on the verge of falling asleep, reacted instantly to the voice that suddenly reached him.
Judging by the sound, it was likely an enemy.
Thinking so, he began to sit up and reach for Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear from his Misty Ring... but upon realizing that the source of the voice was not an enemy, let alone an Undead or anything of the sort, he stopped himself from drawing his weapons.
To be precise, while it was not an Undead, the way it moved was decidedly Undead-like.
"Ah... yeah. Is the muscle soreness really that bad?"
"Ugh... aah... my body won't move at all..."
The one who said that was one of Ilunara's fellow alchemists.
He was walking with great difficulty, looking like a Zombie or something similar.
Since it was daytime and easy to make out, Rei could tell the person was an ordinary human.
However, if he had encountered this at night... even Rei, who possessed Night Vision, might have attacked half-reflexively, and it wouldn't have been strange.
If even Rei with his Night Vision would react that way, then if anyone else had encountered it, it wouldn't have been surprising if they had screamed and fainted, or panicked and attacked.
"That's what happens when you're chronically lacking exercise."
To the alchemists moving like Undead, Rei said that with exasperation, feeling that his own momentary thought—that an enemy had appeared—was utterly ridiculous.
"You can say that all you want, but we're alchemists. It can't be helped that we can't exercise that much on a regular basis."
Even if moving their bodies was difficult, moving their mouths apparently came naturally.
Still, perhaps because they were speaking while enduring the pain of muscle soreness, their expressions were ones of someone suffering through agony.
"The alchemists I saw in the mountains were fighting bandits as a golem performance trial, you know. The combat aside, the exercise of climbing mountains to encounter them isn't a bad deal."
"I know there are people like that, but looking at alchemists as a whole, they're definitely a minority."
"Even if they're a minority, I think it's better to exercise than not to."
"Whether we exercise or not, for now I'd appreciate it if we could put that aside until this muscle soreness heals."
The male alchemist told him this earnestly, and Rei conceded that he had a point.
Back when I was in Japan, I saw on TV that with things like a thrown-out back, you should just endure the pain and go about your daily life... but is muscle soreness the same kind of thing?
Rei recalled such things, but looking at the current Undead-like—or rather, robot-like movements of the male alchemist, a comparison that probably wouldn't land well in this world—he judged that telling them to go about their daily lives was simply unrealistic.
A thrown-out back was one thing, but muscle soreness was a pain Rei was also fairly familiar with.
Not since coming to this world, but from when he was in Japan.
Having to run long distances for school events, or when winter ended and spring arrived and he helped with farm work at home... aside from those, there had been countless times he had gotten muscle soreness.
Granted, even so, it had never been bad enough to render him this unable to move.
"For now, even if things start happening, I can't expect much from the muscle-sore crew."
Of course, if it came down to life or death, they would likely be able to move regardless of muscle soreness or whatever else ailed them.
But naturally, pushing themselves like that while suffering from muscle soreness meant their movements wouldn't be up to their usual standard.
Given that, they needed to wait until the soreness healed for now.
Besides, judging from Orban's demeanor, our turn won't be coming that soon anyway.
He had heard from Orban that Fusetsu would use its assassins to identify the powerful figures connected to the Dolan Workshop.
Given that, Rei could not afford to act carelessly until things became clear.
If Rei were to make a careless move here, it wouldn't be strange for those connected to the Dolan Workshop to do something like burn the evidence.
That said, I'd prefer the time I have to stay quiet to be as short as possible.
The reason for that was, as expected, the Crystal Dragon dissection currently underway in Gilm.
He had been told to come back after a fair amount of time had passed since they would be doing the full-scale dissection, but if far more time elapsed than expected here, it could adversely affect the materials.
Alternatively, there were also people in Gilm currently trying to obtain Crystal Dragon materials by any means, so there was a possibility such individuals might take some sort of suspicious action.
Not much time had passed since the dissection began, so there was no problem on that front yet.
However, as time passed, vigilance and tension would naturally weaken.
This was not a matter of immaturity; as long as one was human—including elves, dwarves, and beastmen—it was simply unavoidable.
Of course, depending on the personality and skill level of those standing guard, they could maintain a certain degree of vigilance and tension... but even so, it was undeniable that such feelings would weaken as time passed.
Given that, Rei needed to resolve this incident as quickly as possible.
"For now... anyway, healing your bodies comes first."
"That would be for the best."
Even from Rei's perspective, he couldn't imagine the alchemists being of any use.
Given that, it was unquestionable that their first priority was regaining full mobility.
"So, Rei, what are you going to do now?"
"Even if you ask what I'm going to do... there's nothing in particular I need to do in this situation. Which means, for now, I'm just going to rest. I'm not dealing with muscle soreness like you guys, but there's nothing I particularly need to be doing right now."
In reality, Rei wanted to check whether Roger was safe and whether any trouble had broken out at the Star River Inn.
The Star River Inn in particular—when Rei had gone there last night, a large number of adventurers had been gathered outside despite it being the middle of the night.
Because Rei had left the Star River Inn, the situation ultimately hadn't escalated into any kind of commotion—specifically, something like the adventurers storming the inn—but there was a very real possibility it could have turned into a major incident.
That said, the Star River Inn had many skilled individuals hired as bodyguards by nobles and wealthy merchants, so even if the adventurers had attacked, there was no doubt they could have fought on equal or better terms.
How was the Star River Inn doing now? Given that Maruka was close to Rei, it was possible she had been caught up in some kind of commotion.
That said, if I go there I'll stand out. No, if I put on the Dragon Robe's hood, I won't stand out that much, right?
The Dragon Robe had a concealment effect, and to those unable to see through it, it appeared as nothing more than an ordinary, commonplace robe.
No one would normally think that the person wearing such a robe was Rei.
...Of course, Rei's face was feminine and left a very strong impression on those around him, so if he took the hood off, they would immediately realize it was him.
In that sense, it was risky.
But as an even greater problem, if Rei went out, Seto would naturally want to come along.
If he explained properly, Seto would understand perfectly.
However, even so, there was no doubt he would look sad.
Rei did not want to make his partner Seto feel that way if he could help it.
All the more reason that perhaps it was better not to act and wait a little longer.
It was only natural for him to think so.
Maruka herself is quite strong, and she has Nicky as her guard. Given that, I can't imagine those two being taken down so easily. If anything, the one in danger would be Ridon.
Though not to the same extent as Maruka, Ridon was one of the nobles belonging to the Neutral Faction.
Since Rei had received various favors from him during this affair as well, there was no way he could just abandon him if something happened.
What's more, from what Rei had seen, he had never spotted anything resembling a proper guard for Ridon, which was also a cause for concern.
Were his guards simply stationed elsewhere, or did he not have any?
Or was he strong enough that he didn't need guards?
No, that's not it.
Rei immediately rejected his own thought.
Just by observing someone's minor body movements, Rei could generally gauge how strong they actually were.
Even through Rei's eyes, Ridon appeared to be somewhat trained, but that was merely "somewhat" at best.
There was no way he could travel without a guard.
"Well then, Rei. I'm heading back now."
The male alchemist said that, and after using the toilet, returned to his room.
Watching him again, Rei couldn't help but think his movements were like those of a robot or an Undead.
Rei considered saying something to the alchemist's back, but in the end, he saw him off without saying anything more.
"Rei, can't you do something about it?"
Amidst all that, a woman in the living room suddenly asked Rei.
She likely felt sorry for the alchemists—not just the ones here, but the other alchemists as well who were suffering from muscle soreness.
But Rei shook his head at her.
"That's a tough one. Besides, muscle soreness is essential for building up the body. You could even call it the pain of your muscles being reborn into something more resilient. Given that, the best thing for now is to rest quietly. At any rate, they can still manage to get up like this."
If they had been unable to even sit up, Rei might have considered doing something more about it.
But given the current situation, since that was not the case, he judged there was no need to force anything.
The woman showed a dissatisfied expression.
Even so, she concluded that if Rei said so, there was nothing to be done about it, and said nothing more.
As they remained silent... suddenly, a knock came at the door.
If it had been someone like Anne who had been working and returning, they would not have bothered knocking.
In other words, this meant someone from Fusetsu's side had come to visit.
Was there some movement on the Dolan Workshop front? Like they identified someone connected to the Dolan Workshop? No, no way. No matter how you look at it, that's way too fast.
As he was thinking that, one of the men in the living room who had been sitting near the door stood up and opened it.
Standing there was a man serving as both guard and lookout.
"We're ready to remove the slave collars. Those wearing slave collars, please come with me."
At those words, the people wearing slave collars raised their voices in joy.