"Hmph."
Looking at the woman whose skull had been pierced, Crow snorted, clearly unsatisfied.
For Crow, she had killed his comrades, so he no doubt felt she deserved to die.
Yet beneath that snort lay a hint of relief.
There was no question the woman had been driven mad by revenge, and in that state, she had almost certainly been unable to fight at her full potential.
Even so, she had fought Crow to a standstill or better.
What would have happened had she not been consumed by vengeance? What if she had been able to fight at her true strength?
She would have been stronger than Crow. That much was certain.
Imagining how Crow must have felt, Rei turned his gaze to the woman's corpse.
(She did seem stronger than the one I fought at the inn. She was supposed to be the younger twin sister, but was the younger sister simply more skilled to begin with? Or did madness strip away her body's limiters, granting her heightened physical abilities?)
Rei couldn't say for sure, but in the end, she was dead. There was no longer any need to fear her.
"So, what do we do with her body? Are we just leaving it here?"
Crow gave Rei a look that asked what he was even talking about, then spoke in an exasperated tone.
"Don't tell me you want us to carry a corpse around when we're about to move? Hard pass."
"No, I just store it in my Misty Ring."
"……Ah. Right, you can do that."
Rei's words had apparently caught Crow off guard.
If the woman had been alive, storing her in the Misty Ring would have been impossible.
But now that she was a corpse, it was a different story.
"A corpse is no problem. So? Are we leaving it here?"
"If you don't mind, I'll leave it to you. Of course, I won't just leave it in your care indefinitely. Once this mess is over, we'll take it back and handle the proper rites."
"……Just to be clear, you're not going to do anything like desecrating the body, right?"
"Would I do something like that? An assassin's corpse can reveal all sorts of things if you examine it. In a way, it's a treasure…… or maybe that's overstating it? Either way, that's the gist of it. Though since Blood Blade is already destroyed, it might not be of much use."
Seemingly satisfied with that answer, Rei stored the woman's body in his Misty Ring.
With that taken care of, Rei and Crow set off down the corridor once more.
They headed toward the corner where the woman had appeared, or so they thought, but……
"Damn it!"
After rounding the corner and pressing further ahead, Crow cursed aloud, his frustration laid bare.
The reason for his attitude was obvious the moment Rei saw the corpse sprawled across the floor.
It was a face Rei didn't recognize, but judging by Crow's reaction, the dead man had to be an assassin from Fusetsu.
For the woman who wielded some means of manipulating blood, it was a given that she had needed as much of it as possible in preparation for her encounter with Rei.
That was why the corpse bore countless wounds—the clear result of blood being drained from each one. That was the conclusion Rei and Crow reached upon seeing it.
"What do we do with this one?"
"Please."
Crow's reply was clipped.
For Crow, leaving a comrade's body behind carried a very different weight than abandoning the woman's corpse.
Just as the woman's body might hold secrets about her techniques as an assassin, a comrade's body left here could just as easily be taken by the intruders.
Unwilling to subject his fallen ally to such a fate, Crow had no choice but to turn to Rei.
If something happened and the body fell into enemy hands, he would never forgive himself.
Of course, this was only possible because Rei possessed the Misty Ring—a Magic Item that could store and transport even a corpse with ease.
If Rei hadn't been carrying it, Crow never would have asked and would have simply left the body where it lay.
"Got it."
Nodding at Crow's words, Rei stored the corpse in his Misty Ring.
With the body gone from the corridor, all that remained were bloodstains and the metallic stench of blood.
Crow surveyed the scene, then spoke again.
"Let's go. The intruders most likely came from this direction. If we can, I want to secure their entry point as fast as possible."
"I'm just saying—the idea that they used golems to dig their way in is strictly a hypothesis on my part. You seem pretty convinced it's a fact."
Of the three theories Rei had put forward, two were impossible unless someone inside Fusetsu had turned traitor.
Given that, Crow's insistence on the burrowing golem theory was heavily colored by wishful thinking—the desperate hope that there was no traitor in their ranks.
That said, Rei also considered the burrowing golem possibility the most likely of the three.
"I know it's only a possibility. But is it wrong to hope that's the case? Besides, either way, we need to find where the intruders are entering and—"
"Wait."
Crow had been mid-sentence, but Rei cut him off.
Rather than protesting, Crow snapped a sharp, alert gaze toward their surroundings.
From Rei's reaction, he probably assumed another enemy was approaching.
Since they were advancing toward the source of the intruders, running into more of them was only natural.
Crow drew his dagger in a flash, but……
"Wait, Crow! It's me!"
A voice called out, and three figures—two men and a woman—emerged from the direction Rei and Crow had been heading.
Rei's first instinct was that they were hostiles, but since they were calling Crow's name, he concluded they were allies and relaxed his stance.
Crow clearly recognized the voice. His expression softened with relief.
"Roaby. You're safe."
"Yeah. But you should be careful heading further in. A pretty large group of enemies was massed up ahead."
Roaby seemed relieved that Crow was unharmed, but upon seeing them press forward, he offered the warning.
Crow, however, shook his head.
"That's exactly what we're after. With Rei here, we're not lacking in combat power. Besides…… I checked the stairs leading to the surface. Not a single enemy in sight. Which means the people infiltrating this hideout almost certainly came in through a location we don't know about."
"That's…… wait, but from where, then?"
"No idea. But if the Dolan Workshop is behind this—and that's the most likely scenario—there's a real chance they deployed golems capable of digging through the ground."
"Hey, hold on. You're not saying……"
Roaby must have grasped what Crow was implying, because his face twisted.
"Yeah. The possibility exists that they tunneled in from somewhere else entirely and breached the hideout from underground."
"You've got to be kidding. They'd go that far?"
"They would."
Rei confirmed Roaby's stunned question without hesitation.
This gap in awareness likely came down to whether or not they knew Rei was carrying the altar required for the necromancy ritual.
For the Dolan Workshop, recovering that altar from Rei was an absolute priority.
That was why they had even deployed golems meant for sale as merchandise out in the Slum District.
That alone spoke volumes about how much effort the Workshop was pouring into this operation.
"That's why we need to seal off whatever connects this place to the outside. Otherwise, the enemy will just keep pouring in."
"Understood. Then we're coming with you."
Roaby had heard enough to grasp that the situation was extremely dangerous.
Rather than hunting down individual intruders inside the hideout, he had concluded that sealing the breach was the top priority.
"You sure? I mean, it helps, but…… with Rei here, we don't exactly need the numbers, you know?"
Crow's gaze shifted toward Rei.
In truth, when they had fought the woman just moments ago, Crow had barely registered as a threat to her. Rei, on the other hand, had dispatched her almost effortlessly.
Though the reason Crow hadn't been acknowledged was simply because the woman had been so fixated on Rei—her sister's killer—that she hadn't cared about anyone else.
"I don't mind. The breach needs to be sealed as fast as possible. Once that's done, we just deal with whoever's already inside."
Roaby spoke with certainty. Cut off the stream of reinforcements, and mopping up the rest would be manageable.
He wasn't entirely wrong. He wasn't, but……
"If they're using golems to burrow in from underground, then even if we seal one entry point, as long as the golems are still active, they could just dig a new one somewhere else."
Those words left Crow, Roaby, and the others at a loss.
Naturally, Crow and his group had already considered as much.
Watching their reactions, Rei's thoughts drifted to an even worse possibility.
What if there was more than one golem capable of digging through soil and moving underground?
Goles were undeniably expensive, but at the Dolan Workshop's level of income, producing several of that type wouldn't be an impossible feat.
They had already deployed multiple golems in the Slum District. Deploying more here wouldn't be strange at all.
(Then again, golems that can dig through soil and move underground are highly specialized. They probably can't just churn them out that easily.)
As if to underscore that point, Rei had never heard of Fusetsu commissioning another golem like the ones used to build their hideout.
Of course, it was possible that similar golems had been built without his knowledge.
(If you think about it normally, golems that can dig and move underground would be incredibly versatile. The fact that they're not mass-produced probably means there's a good reason for it.)
Rei set those thoughts aside. For now, the priority was to eliminate the invading assassins waiting ahead.
"Well then, since our numbers have grown, let's discuss how we proceed from here."
"Are you sure?"
For Crow, having his ally Roaby tag along was reassuring. But if Rei had refused—had insisted on operating with a minimal team—Crow would have had to turn Roaby down himself.
That was why he was grateful Rei had accepted, though he still couldn't help second-guessing whether it was really fine.
"I don't mind. Anyone in Fusetsu who's been granted free rein in a situation like this is undoubtedly skilled. Having them fight alongside us is hardly a disadvantage. ……On one condition, though. You follow my instructions."
Rei cast a pointed look at Roaby and his group, making the expectation clear.
Within Fusetsu, more than a few members resented Rei. They blamed him for forcing them into a fight with Blood Blade that they otherwise would have avoided, and his very presence grated on them.
In fact, Rei had caught more than a few hostile glares while walking through the hideout's corridors.
Crow, on the other hand, was at least not openly hostile—likely because he had watched the mock battle between Rei and Lindy. He was, at best, neutral. Not friendly, but not antagonistic either.
Just as with Crow, Rei was willing to accept Roaby and his companions as long as they weren't openly hostile toward him.
He laid out his condition for traveling together and met their eyes, silently asking: What's it going to be?
Roaby held Rei's gaze for a moment, then spoke.
"To be honest with you, I don't particularly like you. But considering the situation Fusetsu is in right now, it's also a fact that we're better off sticking with you. So while we're working together, I'll follow your lead. Deal?"
Rei nodded. If Roaby was willing to accept those terms, there was no problem.