"Um, well... was that alright?"
A few minutes after leaving the room, guided by Nina, she asked Rei timidly.
Rei vaguely understood what she wanted to ask, but for the time being, he played dumb.
"About what?"
"Huh? I mean, well... you heard a scream in the room, didn't you?"
Nina proceeded on the premise that since she had heard the scream, there was no way Rei hadn't. She wasn't wrong, but Rei merely tilted his head lightly.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"I... see."
Judging from Rei's demeanor that she shouldn't press the matter, Nina dropped the topic.
If the person beside her were anyone other than Rei, she would have found it amusing and pried into every detail. But unfortunately for her, it was Rei. Given that, she could easily predict that being persistent would lead to all sorts of trouble. As the one who had first negotiated with him, she had a fair grasp of his personality.
Deciding it was better not to ask, Nina quickly changed the subject.
"Come to think of it, how was the sofa? Lord Orban had it prepared for you."
"Huh? Was that so? You mean the sofa Crow brought, right? Crow didn't say anything about it."
Given Crow's attachment to Fusetsu, if Orban had personally prepared the sofa for Rei, it wouldn't have been strange for Crow to mention that when he delivered it.
At Rei's questioning glance, Nina smiled.
"That's only natural. Crow didn't even know the sofa was prepared by Lord Orban."
"Why keep it from him?"
"I don't think it was hidden intentionally. It's just that there was a lot going on last night."
"So there was no time to mention it."
"Yes. Also, if we had told Crow, he might have read too much into it."
From Rei's perspective, Crow didn't seem the type to overthink things that much, but since Nina was in the same organization, he took her word for it. When it came to who had a longer and deeper relationship with Crow—himself or Nina—it was obviously Nina.
Fusetsu was the largest assassin guild in Egginis, and accordingly had many members. Exactly how long Nina and Crow had been associated, though, Rei had no way of knowing.
"It looked like a fairly high-quality sofa. I slept on it, and it was quite comfortable. Nice to the touch too."
"I'm glad to hear that, but... you're sleeping on the sofa, Lord Rei?"
"There are a lot of people on this side. Besides, sleeping on a sofa isn't that bad. If it keeps up, it might get a bit tiring, though."
As expected, not being able to turn over was the biggest hassle of sleeping on a sofa. If he kept at it, maybe he'd eventually learn not to fall off when rolling over, but Rei had no desire to reach that point. Sleeping on a sofa wasn't a problem, but he didn't exactly prefer it. Naturally, he wanted to sleep in a bed if possible.
(Maybe I should just sleep in the Magic Tent after all?)
The living room they were using was quite spacious. If they moved a few sofas, there would be more than enough room to set up the Magic Tent. However, while the others were enduring cramped quarters, Rei relaxing inside the Magic Tent without feeling any sense of confinement would be awkward. There was also a chance someone might ask to use it. But unfortunately, Rei had no intention of letting people he wasn't close to use his Magic Tent.
Weighing all that, he couldn't help but think he was better off not using it... and as that thought crossed his mind, he spotted a short sword lying in the corner of the hallway.
"Is this from last night's commotion too?"
Given that it was an assassin guild's hideout, weapons lying around wasn't particularly strange. But that was the case for an ordinary assassin guild. Fusetsu, while an assassin guild, maintained strict discipline. Carelessly discarding weapons in corridors was something Rei had never seen before.
Nina looked at the short sword Rei had picked up and nodded with a complicated expression.
"That's right. Last night was quite chaotic. We don't even know exactly how many people invaded."
"Come to think of it, were there any assassins who got left behind because they couldn't escape?"
He asked while toying with the short sword.
As far as Rei knew, most of those who invaded the Fusetsu hideout were skilled. Given that, once they judged the invasion point was about to be seized, it wouldn't be surprising for them to flee as quickly as possible. But even so, it wouldn't be strange for someone to be left behind for unavoidable reasons, or for someone who had forced their way in despite lacking the requisite skill.
As if confirming Rei's expectations, Nina nodded.
"That's right. A few people who failed to escape have been captured. Though most of them weren't affiliated with any organization—they were solo."
"Solo, huh. That makes them hard to put to use."
"Yes."
Nina nodded with genuine regret.
If they were assassins belonging to an organization, one could extract information or return them as prisoners in exchange for ransom. But being solo essentially meant having no backing. If the person had hoarded money, there was a chance they could buy their freedom depending on negotiations... but not many could pull that off. Once it came to that, the only options were enslavement or execution. There might be some other use for them, but unfortunately Rei couldn't think of one.
"For now, it'll be tough until you secure everyone still hiding in this hideout, but do your best. If we're letting Anne and the others out of the room, we need to think about safety too."
"I'll do my utmost. However... the Fusetsu hideout, if I say so myself, is quite vast and complex. Thanks to that, we avoided any fatal damage during this incident."
"A double-edged sword, so to speak."
Because the interior was so complex, it was difficult for the invaders to reach Fusetsu's critical areas. Assaults on executives like Orban and Nina were likely minimal too. ...And yet the invaders had reached as far as the room where Lindy, Anne, Ilunara, and the others were. That had been sheer bad luck, no mistake about it.
(Bad luck, huh. The invaders just happened to reach where Lindy and the others were? ...Or am I overthinking this?)
Rei cast a speculative glance at Nina, but doing such a thing would bring no benefit to Fusetsu. Rather, it would only earn him their displeasure and worsen their relationship.
"With maze-like corridors, wouldn't even Fusetsu's own members get lost sometimes?"
"I won't deny that. But they generally understand their own range of activity. ...You know the corridor leading outside from your current room, don't you, Lord Rei?"
"I've been through it plenty of times. Plus it's a fairly wide one."
The Fusetsu hideout had a complex layout, but not all corridors were the same width. The well-traveled areas were quite broad—not quite a city main street, but something like it. And just as cities had back alleys, the hideout also had narrow passages. In fact, where Rei had fought alongside Crow yesterday, there were many tight spots, and he had relied mainly on the Twilight Spear since there hadn't been room to swing Death Scythe.
"The wide corridors are easy to navigate. Though because of that, it seems most of the fighting took place there."
Rei and Nina chatted as they walked. The short sword Rei had found, meanwhile, went into the Misty Ring. He had tried to return it to Nina, but since it was a decent weapon, she let him keep it. Decent as it was, though, that was only relative to an ordinary short sword—it wasn't a masterwork by any stretch. In a sense, it was about on par with a disposable spear, maybe slightly better.
As they continued down the corridor, they eventually arrived at a door Rei recognized. In front of it, given what had happened the night before, there were more guards than usual. Rei thought this was only natural, and Nina, having come to fetch him, presumably knew as much too. Without any visible surprise, the two approached together.
The guards, whose top priority was protecting Orban, initially went on alert at approaching footsteps. But once they recognized Rei and Nina, they stood down. Rei was currently working with Fusetsu, and more importantly, he had contributed more during last night's incident than anyone. Some in Fusetsu still had mixed feelings about him, but none could deny that fact. As for Nina, being an executive, the guards naturally knew her—and with her beauty, she had no shortage of admirers even among the assassins. Given who the two of them were, the guards' reaction was only expected.
...Though being seen alongside Nina, who held an almost idol-like status within Fusetsu, also drew its own kind of wary looks.
"Lord Orban summoned me."
"Yes, we've been informed. We were told to let you through the moment Nina arrived."
The man who had been speaking with Nina stepped aside. His gaze toward her carried respect; the one he turned to Rei held gratitude—no doubt for last night. There had been those in Fusetsu who resented Rei's presence, but the events of last night had changed that considerably. The man bowing to him now had been among them, but was now one of those won over.
From Rei's perspective, he hadn't acted for Fusetsu's sake last night. He'd done it because he feared that left unchecked, harm would come to him—and more importantly, to Lindy and the others. In fact, the two guards protecting their room had suffered severe injuries fighting the assassins.
"Excuse me, Lord Orban. I've brought Lord Rei."
"Ah, good of you to come. Nina... yes. You may be involved in this matter to some extent, so stay in the room."
"Understood."
Nina showed no particular surprise. She had likely reasoned that being sent to fetch him in this situation meant there was business for her as well.
Once everyone was seated on the sofa and Nina had prepared tea, Orban spoke first.
"Now then, Rei. It's late in coming, but thank you for your help yesterday. Without you, we'd probably have taken far worse losses."
Orban bowed his head sincerely. Nina showed a flash of surprise at the sight, but it vanished from her expression just as quickly—she had judged that as the person handling negotiations, letting agitation show would be a mistake.
Rei didn't notice her reaction at all, and showed no particular surprise at Orban's bow either.
"Don't worry about it. The mastermind behind last night is the Dolan Workshop, right? Then their target wasn't Fusetsu—it was me, or Anne and the others. In that sense, Fusetsu just got caught up in my affairs."
"That may be so. But those who invaded last night... the assassins the Dolan Workshop hired, most of them belonged to sizable assassin guilds in Egginis. Some were solo, unaffiliated with any organization. Regardless, when you consider all that, while the Workshop may have orchestrated it, those who saw Fusetsu as a hindrance cooperated too."
In other words, it was Fusetsu's own problem as well.
Hearing Orban put it that way, Rei accepted the reasoning for the time being.