"Gwooooh!"
With a war cry, a guard charged at Rei, sword raised.
Perhaps the small-statured Rei looked like someone they could beat, or perhaps fighting him seemed easier than facing the gryphon Seto. Rei couldn't say for certain, and frankly, he didn't care.
But given the current situation, the enemy coming to him was by no means a bad thing.
He had been pondering how to act, but before he could figure that out, the enemy had made their move for him.
It would have been unreasonable to expect him not to welcome this.
The fact that there weren't that many enemies was also a point in his favor.
Of course, even if a large number of enemies had shown up, he had no intention of losing — but even so, there was always a chance he might let some escape.
(No, my role is diversion. I'm supposed to make a big commotion — and without using magic or destroying the mansion. In that case, maybe it's better to let one or two escape so they bring back reinforcements. If that happens, fighting becomes even easier. Not a bad deal at all.)
Rei had been considering defeating every guard who came at him, but he shifted his thinking.
He would let one escape to call for reinforcements.
...Of course, whether someone who encountered Rei wreaking havoc with polearms like Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear, and witnessed his power up close, would actually come back with reinforcements was another matter entirely.
"Do you seriously think an attack like that can do anything to me!"
Against the longsword swing aimed at him, Rei swiftly brought Death Scythe around.
With a sharp metallic ring, the blade of the longsword was cleanly severed.
"Eh?"
The man gripping the longsword had no idea what he had just seen or what had been done to him.
If his sword had been knocked away, he would have experienced that before, a few times.
But right now, the hilt of the longsword was still in his hands.
And yet, the blade had vanished from the midpoint.
What terrified the man most of all was that there had been almost no shock when the blade was cut.
The strike from Death Scythe, which had looked like nothing more than a careless swing, possessed a sharpness beyond the man's comprehension.
The longsword's blade had been severed.
The moment he recognized that, the shaft of the Twilight Spear was slammed against his temple, and he lost consciousness.
The man's good fortune was that Rei had held back considerably.
Rather than aiming for the head with the tip of the Twilight Spear, the strike with the shaft was also sufficiently restrained, so it didn't result in a fractured skull or anything of the sort.
From Rei's perspective, these were people who didn't know the true nature of the mansion's owner, Dailas... they were likely hired for camouflage purposes, so there was no need to kill them.
...Even so, the other guards were horrified to see their comrade knocked out in a single blow right before their eyes.
"Come on, I'm next. Are you planning to let me, an intruder, run free indefinitely? If you do, won't your employer be furious with you?"
A provocation that could barely be called one.
Even so, Rei's words were enough to provoke the guards.
In truth, guarding Dailas's mansion was an incredibly lucrative job for an adventurer.
Since Dailas was known as a good person, there was essentially no grudge held against him.
That said, it didn't mean thieves never broke in.
Because he was known as one of the people who ran Egginis, many assumed the mansion might contain some kind of treasure.
Many did, yes... but precisely because he was known as a good person, many thieves figured that if they were going to break in somewhere, they'd rather target those with shadier dealings and treasures that couldn't be brought to light — those were more profitable marks.
There were a few exceptions, such as jobs involving catching would-be thieves, but it wasn't particularly busy work.
And yet the pay was fairly good, so as an adventurer, it was only natural to want to keep accepting this request for as long as possible.
They might be kicked out of such an ideal workplace.
That thought led the guards to conclude they had to defeat Rei here, no matter what.
In reality, fighting Rei could easily have cost them their lives... but in the heat of the moment, the guards couldn't make the correct judgment.
As a result, all the guards except one were effortlessly defeated by Rei.
Just like the first one taken down, many suffered broken bones thanks to Rei's mercy, but not a single one died.
"Well then..."
"Hii!"
Rei pointed Death Scythe at the sole man who hadn't lost consciousness — though his arm was fractured — and smiled.
Whatever the man saw in Rei's smile, a strangled scream escaped his lips.
The man's misfortune was that, being in the Upscale Residential District, there were several lights nearby.
Because of that, the shading from the hood of the Dragon Robe Rei wore made his smile look like that of a predator eyeing its prey.
In reality, Rei was smiling, but it wasn't nearly that vicious a grin.
The terror of having been overwhelmingly defeated made the man perceive Rei's smile as that of a ferocious predator.
"Well now, you're in luck... I'm letting you go."
"...Eh?"
The man's voice leaked out with an expression of complete incomprehension as to what Rei had just said.
He surely never imagined that in this situation, Rei would actually let him go.
In fact, if Rei had intended to defeat every guard, he wouldn't have let this one escape here.
But right now was different.
What Rei wanted was a bigger commotion.
To drag out as many enemies as possible — enemies that were likely still inside the mansion.
...To do that, it would certainly be faster to destroy the mansion to some extent or use Flame Magic to make the danger obvious.
Unfortunately, Crow had forbidden him from taking such actions.
Given that, for Rei to create even a slightly flashier scene, he needed someone to report that reinforcements were actually necessary.
"I said I'm letting you go. From fighting you just now, there was absolutely no resistance to speak of. I want to fight enemies with more substance. Not small fry like you."
"There's no way... you attacked this place, Dailas's mansion, for a reason like that!?"
If that were the case, it was unforgivable — the man's shout implicitly conveyed. Rei shook his head.
"Of course that's not the reason. Dailas, was it? Try asking your employer. Whether he has any idea why he'd be targeted by me."
"There's no way he'd have any idea about that!"
The man shouted as if there was no need to even ask Dailas.
(So he's the type who knows nothing about that side of things. ...That's troublesome in its own way.)
As far as Rei was concerned, someone like this wouldn't listen to his explanation even if he bothered to talk here.
...Thinking about it normally, expecting someone to believe the words of the person attacking the place they were protecting was the unreasonable part.
"Even if you have no idea, Dailas might. Besides... regardless of what you think, if you're going to try to stop me, you have no choice but to go call for reinforcements. I think that should be obvious from looking at the situation around you."
"That's..."
The man fell silent at Rei's words.
That was only natural, since those words were undeniably the truth.
All around the man, his comrades lay unconscious, and he was the only one still awake.
And that one conscious person didn't have the kind of strength to take Rei on head-to-head and accomplish anything.
Given that, as frustrating as it was... as truly frustrating as it was from the bottom of his heart, he had no choice but to go call for reinforcements, just as Rei pointed out.
"If you understand, then get going. Depending on what you do from here, the fate of those inside this mansion will change significantly."
"...Don't regret this."
Saying that, the man glared at Rei.
The despair from watching his comrades being one-sidedly beaten earlier was already gone, and he glared with every intention of making Rei regret it, just as his words suggested.
"If you can make me regret it, then please do."
"This matter — even if you somehow get away with it today, you'll definitely be punished by the guards. At worst... no, almost certainly, you'll become a bounty head."
"Who knows about that. If Dailas doesn't file a complaint over this, I think making me a bounty head is pretty much impossible."
"Don't screw with me! After being put through something like this, there's no way Dailas wouldn't file a complaint!"
"Wouldn't it be better to hurry up and take action to clarify that point? ...On the other side, Seto has taken down most of your comrades, you know?"
Rei was brimming with confidence, showing not the slightest concern about being charged.
The man had doubts about Rei's demeanor, but concluded that right now he needed to call for reinforcements as quickly as possible, and he swiftly ran off.
Watching the man's retreating back, Rei suddenly muttered.
"If it turns out Dailas actually has nothing to do with the Dolan Workshop matter... that would be seriously bad. But judging from that gate golem, there's no mistake about it, and Orban's endorsement backs it up too, so I think it'll probably be fine."
Words that were half him talking himself into it.
The truth was that this whole affair was crossing a very dangerous bridge.
Given that, Rei absolutely did not want it to turn out that Dailas was unrelated to this matter.
Of course, even if that happened, Daskar or Elena could probably hush it up somehow — but if it came to that, Rei's reputation would inevitably suffer.
"No, I've already taken action. In that case, worrying about it here now is meaningless. I should see this through to the end. ...It would be nice if one of these people actually knew about Dailas's dark side, but that seems unlikely."
Sighing in annoyance, Rei set off walking in search of his next target.
He could have waited here for the man to return with reinforcements, but since he had no idea when that would be, he judged that waiting would be a waste of time.
(There's also the possibility that the man from earlier learns something he shouldn't and gets silenced for it.)
Given the words that had come out of Rei's mouth, there was a real chance the man might harbor some suspicion toward Dailas.
If that were the case, the possibility that no one would come — let alone reinforcements — if he kept waiting here couldn't be ruled out.
That was why Rei had no intention of waiting. He would walk and search for where the enemies were...
When he suddenly stopped in his tracks in the garden.
"So you think you're hiding? If so, you'd better train more at concealing your killing intent and presence."
"Tch!"
Judging from Rei's words that his hiding spot had been found, a single guard burst out from the bushes in the garden.
Adding the momentum of his leap to his thrust, he drove his spear straight at Rei's face.
"Heh."
The instant he realized he'd been found, he attacked — that reaction was admirable even in Rei's eyes.
That said... it didn't mean Rei needed to let the attack land.
The unleashed strike had its spearhead effortlessly severed by a blow from Death Scythe, and a counter from the Twilight Spear buried itself in the man's body.
Naturally, the Twilight Spear's strike wasn't intended to kill — it was a blow from the butt end.
One might think he was being too lenient against an attacker who had come at him with bare killing intent, but considering his current situation, it wasn't strange for someone to want to kill and eliminate an intruder.
...If this had been someone who actually knew about Dailas, there would have been another option.
Specifically, he still wouldn't kill them, but he would gather information.
In that case, it would naturally involve interrogation... or torture, so in that sense, the man was lucky to have simply been knocked unconscious.
Rei glanced at the fortunate man, then set off once more in search of enemies.