"Mm... fwa..."
Rei, who had been sleeping on the sofa, woke up upon sensing someone enter the room's living area.
Normally, when sleeping at an inn or Marina's house, something like this wouldn't wake him.
The fact that he still woke up immediately like this was likely because the current situation was a dangerous one.
Usually, he would remain half-asleep for at least five minutes after waking, but right now, the instant he detected someone new entering his room, he was fully awake. With a light yawn, he turned his gaze toward the figure.
"Ah, sorry. Did I wake you up?"
"Don't worry about it. I was just thinking about getting up soon anyway. More importantly, shouldn't you still be sleeping, Camila?"
Rei called out to Camila, who had come from his room into the living area.
Camila should have been awake during last night's commotion, but by the time Rei returned, he was no longer in the room.
Rei had figured he was probably awake at first but fell asleep from exhaustion... and thanks to that, Camila alone had woken up earlier than the rest of the adults.
Of course, that might have had nothing to do with it—there was also the possibility that he simply woke up early because he was a child.
"Yeah. Because Anne-nee-chan and everyone else were still sleeping, and I was bored."
"Even so, why come here... hey, don't tell me you were thinking about going outside the room?"
"Uh..."
From the way he faltered, Rei had probably hit the mark.
Under normal circumstances, Rei wouldn't have said anything in particular.
But they still didn't know whether the invaders from last night's commotion had been completely eliminated.
He understood that Camila was deeply curious, and he also knew the boy possessed a high degree of initiative.
...Otherwise, he wouldn't have gone out of his way to come all the way to Egginis to help Anne.
But this time, no matter how much initiative he had, Rei couldn't let Camila roam free.
"Don't leave the room for now. ...You probably can't get out anyway, though."
Rei recalled Crow saying that the four men who had carried in the sofa Rei was sleeping on would take turns guarding in pairs.
Naturally, if they were guarding the people in this room, they would already be stationed outside the door.
In fact, when Rei probed for presences, he detected two of them outside the door.
Given that it was only the day after the incident, and they had no way of knowing when assassins might appear, it was clear they were maintaining a state of constant readiness to act immediately if something happened.
"Ehh... why? ...Wait, huh? Isn't your sofa different from yesterday's, Rei-niichan?"
Camila showed clear dissatisfaction at Rei's words, but the fact that his interest immediately shifted elsewhere was quite childlike.
"The sofa I was using until yesterday is no longer usable. I had them bring in a replacement."
Saying so, Rei lightly patted the backrest of the sofa.
He had expected it to be a higher-quality piece than the one he'd used yesterday, and in reality, this sofa was quite comfortable to sleep on.
"That's unfair!"
"No, how so?"
"Rei-niichan's the only one who gets to use a new one!"
"You're sleeping in a bed, aren't you?"
If asked which was better for getting a solid night's sleep—a sofa or a bed—the majority would answer a bed.
You could toss and turn in a bed, but trying to roll over on a sofa risked tumbling onto the floor.
In that sense, Camila's complaint was half-unreasonable from Rei's perspective.
(Ah, but with Camila's small body, maybe he could roll over even on a sofa? ...Not that it matters either way.)
For Rei, sleeping on a sofa wasn't all that comfortable.
But for Camila, being told he absolutely had to sleep in a bed while Rei got to sleep on a sofa was probably something to envy.
Since Rei was doing something he himself normally wasn't allowed to do, he probably wanted to try it too.
"Setting aside the sofa business, absolutely don't leave the room today. If something happens, it'll be dangerous."
"Ehh..."
Seeing Camila's attitude, Rei felt it was a bit concerning.
Coming to Egginis alone had probably given the boy an unwarranted sense of confidence.
He might actually possess some kind of latent potential, but latent potential was, at the end of the day, still just latent for now.
If he encountered assassins left behind in the Fusetsu hideout last night, he could end up dead.
Even in the best case, he'd probably be taken hostage.
"Leave this room and you'll die. And if you die, Anne will be sad. If you still want to go outside knowing that, then be my guest. ...Though I doubt the guards outside the door will just quietly let you through, regardless of what I say."
Being told that much, Camila seemed to judge that anything more he said would be pointless.
Looking bored, he dropped onto a nearby sofa—different from the one Rei was using.
"But being cooped up in a room like this all day is boring."
For a child like Camila, staying confined in a room was probably unbearable.
Still, yesterday he had been acting alongside Anne and had helped out with some cleaning and the like.
"Even so. What would you do if you were walking around alone and ran into an enemy?"
"That's..."
"Let me make this clear right now—running away is not an option."
Before Camila could say anything, Rei cut him off.
In reality, Camila was undoubtedly quick-witted for a child.
But if he happened to encounter surviving invaders from last night, there was no way he could outrun them.
What's more, if there were any invaders still trapped inside, they would naturally be on high alert as they tried to evade Fusetsu's assassins.
No matter how he tried to behave, it was certain that Camila would be helpless if he ran into such opponents.
"That's..."
Looking visibly displeased with Rei's question, Camila fell silent.
In truth, he probably understood that there was nothing he could do if he encountered an enemy.
For all his initiative, Camila was ultimately still just a child.
Of course, there were children in the world who were stronger than adults.
But such children were naturally a minority, and Camila was not one of them.
"You get it, right? Then behave today. Tomorrow... might still be a bit difficult, but once things get a little safer, you should be able to go out and about with Anne."
Even as he said this, Rei suspected that Anne might end up going out sooner than expected.
According to what Rei had heard, Anne's cleaning skills were quite impressive—perhaps honed during her time working at the orphanage.
Given that, there was a strong possibility they would request Anne's help to clean areas dirtied by last night's commotion.
And if they requested Anne for cleaning, an escort would naturally be required.
Rei felt it was highly likely they would want Anne's cleaning skills badly enough to spare an escort for her.
Having Fusetsu assassins serve as cleaning escorts would mean their already insufficient manpower would shrink even further, but it wouldn't be unreasonable for them to judge Anne's cleaning abilities as worth more than that.
"Hey, Rei-niichan. So isn't there something to do?"
"Even if you say that. I don't really have any toys or anything."
Rei's Misty Ring contained enormous quantities of various items, but among them, there were no children's toys.
If pressed to think of some kind of pastime tool, the only thing that came to mind was the Monster Encyclopedia.
But that wasn't exactly a pastime tool for Rei—though he couldn't deny there was an aspect of using it that way—it was an essential reference for looking up which parts of the monsters he defeated as an adventurer could be used as materials, which parts served as subjugation proof parts, and whether they were edible.
He absolutely couldn't lend it to a mischievous child like Camila and risk having it torn or stained.
Books were expensive to begin with, especially here in Elgin.
Printing technology was undeveloped, so everything was handwritten.
Books were valuable enough that even entering a library cost a fair amount of money.
There were shops that sold books, but browsing like one might in a bookstore in Japan was fundamentally impossible.
Precious as they were, Rei couldn't casually lend a book to Camila.
"Ehh... you must have something. Come on, I hear Rei-niichan is a pretty famous person."
"Even if you say that."
Should I hand him a weapon? he wondered, but immediately dismissed the idea.
Camila would be thrilled to receive a weapon, but precisely because of that, letting him walk around with one would be dangerous in all sorts of ways.
He might end up hurting himself or someone else nearby.
For Rei, if Camila or anyone else ended up getting hurt, things would get quite awkward.
Given that, he hesitated to carelessly hand over a weapon.
(Ah, iron ingots... I don't have those anymore, right?)
Rei thought of the large quantity of iron ingots seized from the bandits, but those had already been given to Fusetsu as compensation for sheltering Anne and the others.
He didn't know what Camila would do with an ingot if given one, but he figured it might be useful if the boy tried to make something to play with.
Granted, iron ingots had a fair amount of weight, so playing with one might not be all that entertaining.
"For now... wouldn't it be fine to have Lindy or someone play with you?"
If Lindy had heard those words, she would have retorted: Are you a demon?!
For Lindy, there was no doubt that her entire body was riddled with muscle soreness from yesterday's mock battle with Rei.
When she had woken up in the middle of the night due to the intruder situation, her body had already been under assault from the soreness.
How waking at that awkward hour would affect things in this particular case—
Rei didn't know, but he figured it wouldn't be surprising if she was completely unable to move a single step.
Or perhaps, even if she could move, she'd end up moving as stiffly as a robot.
Anticipating such a state from Lindy, Rei let a small smile cross his face.
He could only imagine the kind of scream Lindy would let out once Camila got his hands on her.
"Lindy-nee-chan? But Lindy-nee-chan is scary when she gets mad."
"That's true. No doubt she's scary when she's angry. But I don't think she'll be able to push back all that hard today."
"Eh? Really?"
Camila looked at Rei with clear disbelief.
That was how firmly he regarded Lindy as someone terrifying when angered.
At Camila's reaction, Rei nodded readily.
"Yeah, that's right. ...Just don't go too far, or you might get scolded for it later. Keep it reasonable."
"Yeah, got it!"
Replying with energy, Camila headed back toward the other side of the room.
Rei still had some doubt as to whether those words could truly be trusted, but he decided he would let Lindy serve as the sacrifice for Camila's entertainment.
It might lead to trouble later, but he judged that was still better than Camila trying to slip outside the room... and right at that moment, a knock came at the door.
Who is it? he wondered, making his way toward the door.
There were actually a few others sleeping in the living area as well, but they were evidently exhausted from last night's events.
They hadn't stirred at all during Rei and Camila's conversation, sleeping soundly throughout.
Casting a belated glance at his sleeping surroundings, he moved and opened the door.
Standing there was not the guard-watchmen... but Nina, who handled negotiations for Fusetsu.
"Nina? What is it?"
"Good morning. Actually, Lord Orban has asked me to bring you to him, Lord Rei."
"Orban has? Understood."
Rei didn't ask why Orban was summoning him.
Even without asking, he could more or less grasp the reason.
It was probably about last night's incident, or about those pulling the strings behind the Dolan Workshop—one or the other.
With Orban calling for him, there was no option but to go see him.
If he had something urgent he couldn't tear himself away from, that would be different, but right now there was nothing in particular he needed to do.
Should I let someone know? he wondered, but since everyone besides Camila and himself was still asleep, he decided it was better not to.
And so Rei left the room to go see Orban... but the shrill "Ginyaaaaaa!" scream from Lindy that reached him just before the door closed—he pretended he hadn't heard it.