The meeting between Orban and Rei—or perhaps a drinking session, though what Rei was drinking was fruit water—continued until a reasonably late hour into the night.
Still, they couldn't exactly keep at it until dawn, so once their discussion concluded, Rei returned to the room where Anne and the others were being sheltered.
Naturally, at this hour, everyone was already asleep.
To be precise, most of them had already been asleep before Rei headed to Orban's room.
"Alright, tomorrow's an early start too, so time to sleep. ...I said time to sleep, but did something happen?"
Rei had been about to lie down on the sofa, but sensing the tension rising within the hideout, he stopped.
He walked over to the door, gave a light knock, and called out to the guard-sentinel stationed outside.
"Hey, what's going on? Did something happen?"
He kept his voice low out of consideration for the others who were sleeping, but there was no doubt it reached the guard-sentinel on the other side of the door.
As if to confirm this, the door cracked open slightly.
Judging that they wanted him to come outside, Rei slipped through the gap.
There he found two guard-sentinels wearing stern expressions.
Given the tension hanging in the air and the look on their faces, something had definitely happened.
Rei asked the two before him again, remaining alert so he could react to anything at any moment.
"So, what happened? What's going on?"
"We don't know the details yet, but probably... an assault."
Hearing "assault," what came to mind for Rei was naturally the Dolan Workshop's golems, or the adventurers directly hired by them.
In his conversation with Orban, they had concluded that the Workshop likely couldn't gather enough golems to launch an attack.
In that sense, he judged that adventurers hired by the Dolan Workshop were the more likely possibility and spoke up.
"Adventurers hired by the Dolan Workshop?"
"We don't know. Detailed information hasn't reached us yet either. But... going by the feel of it, it seems more like assassins than adventurers."
"...Assassins?"
The word that came out was quite unexpected to Rei as well.
He hadn't imagined that assassins would appear in this situation.
"Yes. That said, it's not definitively confirmed yet, so it's only at the level of 'probably.' It's also possible they could be adventurers."
"...Even so, why assassins? With the Blood Blade incident and all, I figured there was no fool stupid enough to pick a fight with Fusetsu."
The two men nodded in agreement with Rei's words.
Blood Blade, while inferior to Fusetsu, was an assassin guild of considerable strength within Egginis.
And even Blood Blade had been annihilated by Fusetsu.
Given that, other assassin guilds would naturally be wary of Fusetsu, but launching an assault of their own accord was something they should be incapable of.
Rei had thought so, and the two guard-sentinels clearly held the same view.
And yet, being told in the midst of all this that a new assassin guild was attacking, Rei couldn't simply accept it at face value.
The guard-sentinels seemed to agree with his opinion, but given the current situation, it was also an undeniable fact that the possibility couldn't be ruled out.
"Understood. I'd like to go take a look at things myself, if that's alright?"
"That would be a bit problematic."
One of the men said this in response to Rei's declaration that he would go out.
Being entrusted with guard and sentinel duty, they couldn't just let Rei move about as he pleased.
Rei cast an annoyed look at the men, but he understood their job.
Knowing that, he judged that forcefully moving on his own in this situation would be unwise and spoke up.
"Got it. Then go ask your superior for me. If I'm going to move, I have preparations to make."
Preparations for Rei to move? The man wondered, but looking relieved, he ran off from the spot.
If Rei put his mind to it, the two guard-sentinels here alone wouldn't be able to stop him.
Considering their own situation, Rei's instruction to go consult their superior was a godsend.
The man left behind, his partner having rushed off first, remained there alone, looking somewhat displeased.
"Alright then, I'll go make my preparations."
Saying that, Rei returned inside the room.
The remaining man felt the same question as before—preparations?
In Rei's case, everything he needed was stored in his Misty Ring, so he figured there shouldn't be any need for the sort of preparations Rei was talking about.
Noticing the man's puzzled expression, Rei decided that since there was no particular need to hide what he was about to do, he frankly explained what he needed to take care of.
"I'm going to wake Lindy. Lindy is here to guard Anne and the others in the first place. At a time like this, she obviously can't guard anyone while asleep."
"Ah, I see. But still..."
The man looked at Rei with a reluctant expression.
Rei, receiving that look, understood what the man wanted to say and let out a sigh.
That's right—today Lindy had an intense mock battle with Rei, exhausting herself to near her physical limit.
After the mock battle ended, she had been in a state where she could barely move from fatigue, so whether she would be of any use even if woken up in the current situation was questionable.
The only saving grace was that she might not have developed muscle soreness yet.
By tomorrow morning, Lindy would undoubtedly be suffering from full-body muscle soreness.
But right now, there was still a possibility she hadn't yet developed it.
Even so, how useful the current Lindy would be in a fight against assassins was debatable.
However, it was also a fact that among the group—including Lindy, Anne, Ilunara, Camila, and the others—the only person with respectable combat ability was Lindy.
Given that, even if her body couldn't move as usual, he needed Lindy to do her best here.
"In any case, it's better to be prepared."
With those words, Rei headed back into the room.
But no one was awake in the living room.
Nor was there any sign of anyone getting up from the other rooms connected to it.
Can't blame them. The people here were basically all unrelated to rough business. As for Lindy... well, let's just accept that she was completely exhausted.
He didn't entirely disagree that he might be going a bit easy on Lindy, but even though she had asked for it, he was the one who had pushed her that far in the mock battle.
Given that, it couldn't be helped if he was somewhat lenient with her.
First, he needed to wake Lindy up.
Normally, entering a woman's bedroom—let alone one where Lindy and Anne were still sleeping—would be inappropriate.
But this was an emergency. In such a situation, he couldn't afford to be hung up on propriety.
In fact, if he worried about such things now, it could literally cost lives.
"Lindy, wake up. Lindy."
Rei knocked on the room's door a few times, but there was no response from inside.
Confirming this, he opened the door.
Upon entering the room, he found two bunk beds placed inside, and Lindy was on one of them.
Perhaps because she was exhausted from the mock battle with Rei, she was fast asleep, showing no sign of having noticed him entering the room.
As an adventurer, is this acceptable? Well, today was special. If she hadn't done a mock battle, maybe she would have woken up immediately.
Entertaining such thoughts, Rei approached the bed where Lindy was sleeping.
Fortunately, Lindy was sleeping on the bottom bunk.
If she had been on the top, waking her would have been a bit more troublesome.
Perhaps Lindy slept on the bottom so she could act immediately if something happened.
"Lindy, wake up. Hey, Lindy."
"Mmn..."
He called out several times, but Lindy showed no sign of waking.
Seeing her like that, Rei decided he had no choice and shook her body firmly.
Considering it was an approach to a sleeping woman—and one he wasn't particularly close to—one might question whether it was appropriate, but right now he needed to wake Lindy as quickly as possible.
"Lindy, wake up! Hey!"
"Mmn...!?"
Perhaps due to her exhaustion, Lindy hadn't woken even when Rei shook her roughly at first, but after being shaken repeatedly, she woke quickly as an adventurer would, startled to see Rei's face right in front of her.
She judged this wasn't some kind of nighttime prowling—partly because she didn't think Rei would do such a thing, but more so because his expression was dead serious.
"What's wrong?"
Judging from Rei's face that some kind of emergency was underway, she asked in a whisper, careful not to wake the others in the same room.
This sort of judgment was perhaps typical of an Egginis adventurer whose work often involved guard duty.
"Enemies."
At Rei's brief statement of the situation, Lindy tried to quickly sit up, but—
"Ow!"
In that instant, pain shot through her entire body and she failed to get up.
No good, huh. I didn't think the muscle soreness had already set in.
Looking at Lindy's condition, Rei wore a regretful expression.
He had thought she probably hadn't developed muscle soreness yet, but from the way she just reacted, she was clearly in its grip.
Most likely, after the mock battle ended and she returned here, her body had fallen asleep from exhaustion, and the soreness set in as her fatigued muscles began to recover—that was Rei's guess.
And with muscle soreness, she couldn't serve as a combat asset.
If it were mild, that would be one thing, but judging from how she couldn't move when trying to sit up, it was a state that would significantly hinder her mobility.
Of course, even in such a state, she could probably move if she really tried, but she wouldn't be in fighting shape.
"It seems difficult to count Lindy as a combat asset."
"No way!"
Lindy raised her voice in protest, unable to accept Rei's murmur.
From her perspective, she had conducted the mock battle with Rei in order to protect Anne, Camila, and the others.
And that had completely backfired.
They didn't have to launch an assault at a time like this—Lindy resented the attackers.
Even without the muscle soreness, given that they were attackers targeting them, that resentment probably wouldn't have faded anyway.
"Lindy, wake the others and gather everyone in one place. If something happens, that'll be easier to manage."
"What about you, Rei?"
"I'm... going out to meet them."
Hearing those words, Lindy didn't look particularly surprised.
Given Rei's personality, she had probably expected him to go out and meet them head-on.
"That sounds like you. But is that alright? Won't Fusetsu be unhappy about you moving around?"
"Maybe. But the fact that Fusetsu's hideout is being attacked is baffling."
"You're right. It's Fusetsu, after all."
Lindy seemed to understand what Rei was getting at, murmuring in agreement.
Among the assassin guilds existing in Egginis, the largest in scale was Fusetsu.
And it wasn't just scale—many of the assassins belonging to it were highly skilled.
Thinking about it normally, was there anyone who would assault the hideout of such an assassin guild?
There is.
The very person thinking this was someone who had actually taken action to crush Fusetsu.
In reality, as a result of negotiations with Nina, Fusetsu never fought Rei.
But Rei had been ready to do it, so it wouldn't be strange for someone else to attempt the same thing.
That said, that was only possible for someone like Rei—an alias holder with exceptional ability.
"Lindy, I'll ask just in case, but are there any alias holders or high-rank adventurers currently in Egginis?"
"Huh? The best adventurer in Egginis is a B-Rank Adventurer."
"Then there's also the possibility they called in skilled fighters from outside. The guard-sentinels said it seemed like assassins, though."
As far as Rei knew, B-Rank Adventurers alone could never do something like making an enemy of Fusetsu.
Of course, B-Rank Adventurers were high-rank adventurers, and among them there would be combat specialists with considerable ability.
Rei himself had been a B-Rank Adventurer until he took his Rank Up Exam in the Forest of Magic, after all.
"Huh? ...Are high-rank adventurers really attacking?"
"Honestly, I don't know that part. Like I said, the guard-sentinels said it seems like assassins. So I'm going out to confirm that too."
At Rei's words, Lindy nodded with a stern expression.