"I refuse."
That was Rei's response to the guards' request to accompany them——an arrest in all but name.
"Wha..."
The guard who had been speaking with Rei never expected him to flatly refuse so readily.
The words rendered him speechless.
A guard's authority was reasonably substantial. Particularly in Egginis, an autonomous city governed by merchants and workshops. Because of that, unlike towns ruled by nobles, there was no knight order directly under a noble's command. The guards' authority here was greater than in noble-ruled towns.
Of course, that was merely a convention that held sway within Egginis, but the guard speaking with Rei must have assumed his own common sense would apply to Rei as well.
Naturally, there was no way Rei would obediently comply with such a guard's words.
If the guards had shown up while the Jalis Workshop was under attack and fought alongside the adventurers hired by the Dolan Workshop, Rei might have humored them enough to explain the situation.
But these guards had not shown their faces at all while adventurers hired by the Dolan Workshop attacked the Jalis Workshop. Yet the moment Rei arrived riding Seto, they appeared as if they had been waiting for him——which Rei suspected they actually had been.
It was blatantly obvious their objective was to capture Rei, an inconvenience to the Dolan Workshop, or at the very least, to somehow neutralize him.
There was no definitive proof. However, the current situation itself was proof enough.
(In Japan and similar places, circumstantial evidence apparently doesn't count for much, but this world is different. Besides, this isn't a trial or anything, so there's no need to worry about that sort of thing.)
With that in mind, Rei offered the guard a smile.
"So? I said I refuse. What are you going to do? If you're coming at me by force, I'll respond accordingly."
Perhaps Rei's words brought the guard back to his senses. His face turned red with frustration at things not going his way, and he shouted.
"Rei! You bastard... did you think defying the guards would just slide?! I could have you made a wanted man with a bounty through the Guild!"
Normally, such words would be enough to make anyone shrink back. Having a bounty placed on you meant that many villages, towns, and cities would become off-limits, and it also meant being targeted by bounty hunters who specialized in tracking wanted criminals.
And yet... despite the stakes, Rei directed a gaze of exasperation at the guard and spoke.
"A wanted man? Go ahead and try if you can. But making me a wanted man would naturally mean everything currently going on at the Dolan Workshop gets brought to light."
The guard standing before Rei was a mere underling. As such, he likely knew nothing about the necromancy being conducted at the Dolan Workshop. Telling him he couldn't make Rei a wanted man for that reason wouldn't be effective... but anything else was a different matter.
The fact that these guards had stood by and watched silently while the Jalis Workshop——which was completely innocent, aside from the matter of Roger attacking Seto, which had already been settled——was under attack was fatal for men in their position.
If word of this got out, it would undoubtedly become a major uproar.
If it had been some nameless nobody, that would be one thing. But Rei was an alias holder and A-Rank adventurer who, despite having little awareness of it himself, was regarded as Daskar's trusted aide leading the Neutral Faction.
Being such an important figure, if someone pushed to have him declared a wanted man, what exactly happened here would certainly be properly investigated.
The ones who would suffer then would naturally be the guards... and whoever had given them their orders.
If asked whether they wanted to make Rei a wanted man that badly, there was no way they could nod in agreement.
What's more, Rei had a partner in Seto. Even if bounty hunters came for him, he could simply ride Seto into the sky and escape effortlessly. Alternatively, he could head straight to another country, or settle down in some rural backwater where bounty notices would never reach.
"Don't pull such a cowardly stunt!"
The guard shouted at Rei's words, but his outburst was heard not only by Rei and the adventurers employed by the Jalis Workshop, but also by the onlookers watching from a distance. The shouting guard was met with unanimous looks of exasperation from all of them.
It was only natural. If asked who was pulling the cowardly stunt in this situation, it was clearly the guards following the Dolan Workshop's orders. Under these circumstances, throwing around accusations of cowardice would convince no one.
"Who's the cowardly one here...? Well, that aside. So what do you plan to do? Like I said, if you're arresting me for flying through the sky on Seto, I'll take you on. I have no reason to hold back against errand boys for the Dolan Workshop."
The moment the words "errand boys for the Dolan Workshop" left Rei's mouth, the guard who had been speaking with him glared at Rei, his face turning red for an entirely different reason than before.
Even though it was an order from above, perhaps he himself was aware that he was, exactly as Rei put it, an errand boy for the Dolan Workshop. Or perhaps he hadn't been consciously aware of it, but somewhere in his heart he still held pride as a guard.
Rei couldn't tell which it was, but considering the current situation, he could imagine quite a bit. He could imagine it... but he decided that had nothing to do with dealing with the man before him, and erased the thought from his mind.
"Guh... you bastard!"
Unable to forgive being looked down on, the guard raised an angry shout and drew his weapon.
At the sight of him drawing his longsword from its sheath, those watching around them were startled. Among them, the ones most surprised were the guards other than the one who had been speaking with Rei.
The one who had been talking to Rei had been hot-headed, blood rushing to his head. In comparison, the other guards, not having spoken with Rei directly, still had a bit more composure. Because of that, they never expected their comrade to draw a weapon in front of Rei.
They were guards, holding considerable authority here in Egginis. But the existence of Rei before them was not someone who could be easily dealt with even with such authority.
If it came to a fight, stripping aside all talk of authority——what would happen? At the very least, it was glaringly obvious that the guards had no chance of winning in a head-on confrontation.
"Hey, wait! What are you doing!"
That was why another guard near the one who had drawn his weapon shouted. It wasn't just the one who shouted who stopped the man, either. The others nearby also desperately held him back.
The guards here were unquestionably acting as the Dolan Workshop's pawns. Those who disliked that hadn't come here in the first place.
But while they understood full well they were the Dolan Workshop's pawns, the degree to which they accepted that role varied. Some might be following the Dolan Workshop from the bottom of their hearts, while others were complying merely for a bit of extra pocket money. And between the former and the latter, the latter naturally made up the overwhelming majority.
Being motivated only to that extent, there was hardly anyone among them who actually wanted to fight Rei here and now. Hardly anyone meant a few did exist... but even so, in this situation, anyone who tried to make an enemy of Rei would be swiftly stopped by the other guards.
Considering those circumstances, even those willing to fight Rei couldn't make a move right now.
"What! Hey, you guys, let go! Are you seriously backing down?! You know what'll happen if we do that, don't you!"
"Yes, yes, it's better to just back down quietly for now. Otherwise things are going to get pretty bad, right? Besides, you don't actually think we can beat Rei, do you?"
"Guh... that's..."
The man with the drawn weapon, when told by his own comrades rather than Rei that they couldn't beat him, couldn't argue against his comrades' words. Precisely because they were his comrades' words, he was able to regain some semblance of calm.
"What's wrong? If you're going to do it, hurry up and do it. I'm not as free as you lot. You went through the trouble of drawing your weapon, you can't just leave it at that, can you?"
Despite his face turning red at the provocation, the guard holding the weapon shouted.
"Retreat! We're retreating!"
"Huh."
At the man's word of retreat, Rei wore an expression of surprise. Considering the current situation, he hadn't expected them to actually choose to retreat. From the earlier hot-headed state to honestly selecting retreat like this, the guard who had been speaking with Rei probably wasn't as simple as he appeared.
Of course, for the man, retreating after being mocked and looked down on by Rei to such a degree was not satisfying. He probably understood that, but he also understood that in the current situation, there was nothing else he could do. And so, glaring at Rei with a bitter expression, he opened his mouth.
"Remember this!"
Uttering a typical parting shot, the guard left with the rest of his comrades.
Watching them go, Rei considered provoking them a little more, but judging from the current situation, he decided it would be better not to cause any further disturbance here.
If it had been just him, or just him and Seto, he might have done so. But the people of the Jalis Workshop were present as well. If he provoked them further and the opponents took some reckless action, the people of the Jalis Workshop could suffer harm. Or there could be damage to the facility, which might adversely affect the golems Roger was building.
Thinking of that, it was undoubtedly better not to provoke them any further here.
Then, considering his current situation... and recalling the talk about directing golems toward the Slum District... a certain possibility came to mind. "Could it be..." he thought, and immediately called for Seto.
When Rei called, Seto, who had been circling in the sky, immediately descended toward the ground.
"Sorry, but I'm heading back now."
When Rei said that as he climbed onto Seto's back, the guards of the Jalis Workshop were naturally surprised. They were glad he had helped them, but they hadn't expected him to say he was heading back so quickly.
"Eh, wait... what's the rush!"
"I'm a little concerned about the Slum District."
Saying only that, without any apparent concern for whether the other party understood, Rei mounted Seto once more and headed for the Slum District.
The reason Rei was in such a hurry to return to the Slum District was because he suspected the attack on the Jalis Workshop might have been intended to capture or otherwise neutralize him——or at the very least, to create a situation where he was away from the Slum District for a while.
What was most important to the Dolan Workshop was, of course, Rei. The biggest factor was that Rei had stolen the altar used for necromancy rituals. Even if they could recover Anne and the others being sheltered by Fusetsu, their souls could no longer be used as material for golem cores.
(Or maybe use them as hostages against me? But if they did that, I think it would mean an all-out war with Fusetsu. Ah, but if they're cornered by being unable to create golem cores, would they actually do something like that?)
That said, no matter how high-performance the Dolan Workshop's golems were, ultimately it was the golems alone that were strong, not the alchemists. In that sense, for alchemists, assassins——who wouldn't fight golems head-on but would accurately target only the alchemist's life——were nothing short of a natural enemy.
If the alchemists themselves possessed considerable physical combat ability, there would be ways to deal with assassins. But among the alchemists Rei had seen since coming to Egginis, not a single one looked adept at fighting in the flesh. Since he didn't know every alchemist in Egginis, there might be some who also worked as adventurers, but...
Thinking such thoughts, Rei rode Seto toward the Slum District.