Naturally, Rei was not well-versed in the Fusetsu hideout.
He knew the paths he had walked a few times, but the invasion point had been created in a place he was visiting for the first time.
Given that, even if he wanted to return to the room where Lindy and the others were, he could not navigate there on his own.
Setting that aside, from Fusetsu's perspective, they could not let an outsider like Rei roam around freely.
Until now, there had been invaders and Rei had been dealing with them, so he had been moving about as he pleased—but now that the commotion had settled down, a guide, which was essentially a monitor, became essential.
In reality, since Fusetsu's upper echelon had permitted Rei to move freely, he was allowed to do so. But since he needed a guide to return to the room where Lindy and the others were, he had no complaints about Fusetsu's handling of the situation.
"Rei, you really saved us this time. I'm grateful."
While heading toward the room where Lindy and the others were, Crow expressed his thanks to Rei.
Yes, the one chosen as Rei's guide was Crow.
That in itself was not particularly strange. In this incident, Rei had been acting alongside Crow, and the compatibility between them was by no means bad.
Originally, Crow had not necessarily been well-disposed toward Rei. However, after being impressed by watching the mock battle between Rei and Lindy, and then acting together during this commotion, his impression of Rei had changed to a favorable one.
Because of that, it was only natural for the Fusetsu members to choose Crow as Rei's guide. If they had carelessly assigned someone hostile to Rei as a guide, and that caused problems which worsened their relationship with him, it would have been pointless. In that sense, choosing Crow was probably the best option.
"So, how long will it take to get back to the room I'm returning to from here?"
"How long, you ask? I'd say we're not that far away."
The reason Crow didn't give a specific amount of time was either because he didn't want Rei to know the size of the Fusetsu hideout, or because Crow himself didn't know the exact time.
(Probably the latter.)
Even if they didn't want Rei to know the size of the hideout, he had been running around freely through it during this incident. Calling it ant-nest-like was a bit of an exaggeration, but he hadn't fully grasped the entirety of the hideout's complex structure, which seemed to be modeled after one. But even so, he had already run through it to some extent, so trying to keep the hideout's details hidden in this situation was somewhat questionable.
Granted, that didn't make it any less questionable that Crow couldn't estimate the time.
"Did you hear how much damage Fusetsu suffered in this incident?"
"No, I haven't heard the details yet. But there should be a fair number of people who died or were injured."
Fusetsu probably never expected that someone would launch a surprise attack on the hideout of the largest assassin guild in Egginis. Doing what the opponent doesn't expect is precisely what makes it a surprise attack, though.
(Then again, the Dolan Workshop hired adventurers to attack the Jalis Workshop, used guards they had likely bribed to try to capture me, and deployed golems that were supposed to be merchandise into the Slum District. Thinking about it that way, a surprise attack on the Fusetsu hideout is plausible.)
The Dolan Workshop currently held strong influence as the workshop producing the finest golems in Egginis. Not only that, but they also had connections with the powerful figures running the city, allowing them to cover up any unreasonable actions. Considering that, a surprise attack on the Fusetsu hideout wasn't all that strange.
(Besides, the ones who attacked were hired assassins. The Dolan Workshop probably prepared the burrowing golems, but in the end, that much... no, they're spending money to hire assassins. Still, if it's the Dolan Workshop, they can bring in as much money as they want just by selling golems. Leaving tonight aside, I wonder what methods they'll use tomorrow.)
While thinking about tomorrow, Rei and Crow continued walking down the passage. Suddenly, a metallic, rusty scent drifted through the air, and Rei stopped.
"Crow."
"What is it? ...I see."
At first, Crow didn't understand why Rei had stopped, but a few seconds later, he caught the same rusty scent.
There was no way Rei wouldn't know what that meant. Glancing at Crow, he immediately broke into a run toward the direction the scent—the smell of blood—was coming from.
Since Rei was running at full speed, his pace was fast enough to leave Crow behind.
Passing through familiar-looking areas, he eventually arrived in front of the room where Lindy and the others were...
"Tch."
He glanced at the large amount of blood spreading across the floor, then tried to open the door—but something was blocking it from the other side, and it wouldn't budge.
However, he could tell by their presence that there were people inside the room. More than that, when he tried to open the door, he heard a small scream from within, and simultaneously caught a different smell of blood from inside the room, distinct from the one outside.
Bang, bang. He slammed the door against whatever was on the other side—from what he could see through the gap, a sofa had been placed there—but even after hitting it, the door showed no sign of opening.
If Rei seriously wanted to get inside, he had any number of ways to do so. Just as he thought that some roughness was unavoidable at this point, Lindy's face appeared through the gap in the door.
"Rei!?"
"Lindy? You're unharmed. Are the others injured?"
Given that the smell of blood was coming from inside the room, there was no doubt that someone inside was injured. However, seeing Lindy, who would serve as the others' escort as an adventurer, appear unharmed, it was unclear who had been hurt.
"This is..."
At that moment, Crow, who had finally caught up, let out a surprised voice upon seeing the blood spreading across the floor.
"Rei, that person is from Fusetsu... right?"
"Yeah. You can tell from the fact that he's with me. So, what exactly—no, before that, move the sofa. As it is, I can't get inside the room."
Lindy hesitated for a moment at those words, but apparently judged there was nothing to worry about with Rei present. Together with the others inside, she moved the sofa that had been blocking the door, making it possible to enter the room.
Rei finally entered, but the living room—which connected to other private rooms—had a fair number of people gathered in it.
The reason everyone was gathered here rather than in private rooms was likely because they were anxious about the current state of the hideout. Even so, not everyone was in the living room; it seemed to Rei that some people had shut themselves in their own rooms.
However, the gaze of Rei and Crow, who had entered the room, ultimately landed on two men lying on a different sofa than the one that had been blocking the door.
Rei naturally recognized their faces. They were the guard-watchmen who had been stationed in front of this door.
(As expected.)
Seeing that those men were injured—and with quite serious wounds at that—Rei understood that the blood in front of the door belonged to them.
"What about treatment?"
"We only had what was in the room, so we couldn't do much. The wounds are deep, and the bleeding won't stop..."
"Use this."
Saying that, Rei immediately took out a potion from his Misty Ring and handed it to Lindy.
To treat the men, it would normally be appropriate to use a potion that Fusetsu owned rather than Rei's own. But these men had been injured protecting Lindy, Anne, Camila, Ilunara, and the others. Judging from the blood in front of the door, that was the only conclusion. Given that, Rei didn't hesitate to use his own potion here.
Lindy, too, had no reason to hesitate using a potion on those who had been injured protecting them, and she immediately sprinkled the potion Rei handed her over the men.
Due to the aftereffects of the mock battle with Rei, she could barely move her body, but even so, she could manage something like applying a potion.
"This is... quite a valuable potion."
Ilunara said in surprise as he watched the blood flowing from the wounded men's injuries stop after the potion was applied.
It wasn't that the injured areas recovered instantly—it was only to the extent that the bleeding stopped—but considering the severity of the wounds, there was no doubt it was a quite potent potion, just as Ilunara had said.
Potions fundamentally varied in effectiveness based on price. In that sense, while the one Rei used this time might not have been the highest-grade potion, it was undoubtedly still quite a valuable one.
"Yeah. But don't worry, it doesn't hurt my wallet."
Ilunara looked puzzled, as if to ask even though it's a potion with this much effect?, but in truth, this potion was not something Rei had purchased with his own money. It was from Blood Blade's stock, so his wallet wouldn't be hurt.
While it was true that his wallet hurt in the sense that he had lost a potion, there was no problem at all in terms of finances.
Crow, who had been watching the situation from beside Rei, understood the meaning of those words and honestly expressed his gratitude.
"Rei, sorry. You saved us."
"Don't worry about it. Besides, the fact that these two were injured means they naturally fought against someone who tried to break into this room. In that sense, I'm grateful to these two as well. ...So, just to confirm, my understanding is correct, right?"
Rei asked Lindy if there were any mistakes in what he had been discussing with Crow.
When asked that way, Lindy nodded while looking at the two men on the sofa.
"Yes. I think your prediction is correct. We were inside the room, so I can't say for certain, but..."
"I see. You can get the details from these guys later about that... but still, it's a good thing you're all safe. Given the condition of these two, it means they lost the fight, right? So why is everyone inside the room unharmed?"
With the two who had been guarding this room defeated, they naturally couldn't protect the people inside. Lindy, the only combat asset, was also suffering from muscle soreness all over her body from the mock battle with Rei, making it impossible for her to fight.
If anything, the fact that she was able to move around as she was now in such a condition was the surprising part.
When Rei tried to open the door, they had blocked it with a sofa, but if the assassins had been serious, dealing with that wouldn't have been difficult. However, from what Rei could see, there were no signs that the door had been forced open.
That meant that while the invaders had defeated the two guarding this room, they hadn't done anything beyond that.
It was only natural for Rei to wonder why they had done something so half-hearted.
"That's... I'm not really sure. But it's certain that the ones fighting these two outside suddenly retreated."
"Suddenly retreated? That's..."
"Probably, the information that we were approaching the invasion point reached them."
Crow said, as if continuing Rei's words.
Since Rei had been thinking the same thing Crow had, he felt that prediction was likely correct.
"Then it was just coincidence that Lindy and the others were saved. That was a close call."
Looking at Lindy—or rather, at Anne, Ilunara, and the others—Rei could keenly understand just how dangerous it had been.
If the invaders had known who was inside this room, they would have taken everyone inside by whatever means necessary. As hostages against Rei—or in Ilunara and the others' case, as targets for silencing since they knew too much.
The information that Rei's group was approaching the invasion point reached them before that matter could be discovered, and perhaps thinking they would be left behind, the invaders who had defeated the guard-watchmen in front of the room retreated—or so Rei hypothesized.
It was undoubtedly a near miss.
"Is this sort of thing because of my good daily conduct?"
"Your good daily conduct? There's no way I can agree with that opinion."
Hearing Rei's mutter, Lindy said that with an exasperated look.
From Lindy's perspective, Rei's various actions since coming to Egginis—making Roger treat him to a meal in exchange for forgiving him for provoking Seto, hunting bandits, infiltrating the Dolan Workshop, and so on—made it impossible for her to accept the words "good daily conduct."
"Even so, things worked out in the end, right?"
When put that way, Lindy had no choice but to fall silent.