Keeping watch behind him, Rei reflexively turned his head.
An arrow pierced the space where his face had been a split second earlier.
He had shouted while moving the instant he heard a mechanical sound from up ahead, but...
"Guh!"
Rei clicked his tongue at the voice behind him.
Given the current situation, there was only one conclusion—someone had taken a hit from the arrow.
"I'm pushing forward! A trap might trigger, so stay alert!"
"Hold on, you're telling me to stay alert in this situ—"
Ignoring Crow's voice behind him, Rei broke into a run.
Inwardly, he was relieved that the pained grunt just now hadn't come from Crow.
The door at the end of the passage was about five meters away. At that distance, Rei's leg power could easily close the gap.
However, that also meant it wouldn't be surprising if his sprint set off another trap...
"Tch!"
His prediction proved right. When he'd closed to about two meters from the door, arrows fired from it again.
The slight delay between the first and second volleys was likely due to the time needed to reload.
Even so, the fact that it could fire again before Rei reached the door at his speed meant its rate was by no means slow.
Besides, while his reaction to the first strike had been delayed because he hadn't known what kind of trap to expect, anticipating arrows made dealing with them a simple matter.
Half on reflex, Rei snatched the incoming arrow out of the air.
Dodging an arrow in flight wasn't all that difficult—though it still demanded considerable physical ability and prediction.
But grabbing one meant that even if he succeeded, unless his grip was perfect, the shaft would slip through his fingers and fail to stop completely.
That he could pull it off was proof of Rei's extraordinary physical ability—or perhaps his exceptional instinctive intuition.
"Oraah!"
Still gripping the arrow, Rei drove his fist into the firing slit on the door.
The blow shattered the arrow in his hand and crushed the slit along with it.
Rei wasn't foolish enough to be satisfied with that alone. He couldn't assume those arrows were the only trap waiting here.
Fortunately—or perhaps because Rei's physical ability was utterly beyond what the trap's designer had anticipated—no follow-up trap activated.
In that case, Rei had no intention of letting such a perfect opening slip by.
He didn't open the door. He kicked it down.
"Guh... oooooh!"
The kick landed, but the door had metal plating embedded within it as a countermeasure against intruders like Rei.
If he'd been an ordinary adventurer in Egginis, destroying such a door would have been impossible.
But Rei was an alias-holding A-Rank adventurer.
The body created by the Zephyle Clan could blast open even a metal-reinforced door without issue.
Strictly speaking, rather than kicking it down, the force shattered the hinges and sent the door flying inward.
"Come!"
Rei, now inside the room where the door had been, called out sharply behind him.
Crow and the others were Fusetsu assassins. They had already started running before Rei's words reached them, entering the room within seconds of him.
Among them was the man whose left shoulder had been struck by the arrow Rei dodged earlier. The fact that his movements were only slightly sluggish was a testament to the rigorous training he'd undergone as an assassin.
However, Crow and the others couldn't afford to lower their guard just from making it inside.
They remained vigilant, wary of potential traps within the room, and scanned the space alongside Rei.
(Not a single window... how do they ventilate this place? Wait—ventilation? Poison gas...? No, no need to worry.)
Rei had briefly considered the possibility of poison gas, but fortunately, he'd kicked the door clean off its hinges to get in. Even if the door sealed shut to trap them inside and gas was released, it would simply flow out through the gap—or they could escape through it themselves.
"Rei? What is it?" Crow asked, noticing Rei staring at the empty doorway where the door had been. He probably thought Rei had spotted something unusual.
But Rei shook his head.
"It's nothing. I was just thinking about a possibility. More importantly, is the injured one alright? If I'd handled things properly from the start, I could have prevented anyone from getting hurt."
"Don't worry about it. No one would blame you for dodging an attack in that situation. Fortunately, the arrow hit his left shoulder, and he used a potion, so it's not a problem. Doesn't look like there was any poison on the arrowhead, either."
"I see. Good."
The absence of poison on the arrowhead was welcome news. Poison in this situation would have been extremely troublesome. He did carry antidote potions just in case, so it wasn't as if he'd have been helpless—but still.
"Still... I was sure there'd be some kind of trap even after entering the room, but it doesn't look like there's anything so far. So, the problem is that."
Looking around the room once more, Rei muttered.
Among everything inside, what stood out most was the safe in the corner.
A massive safe—a block of metal roughly three meters in height, width, and depth. He couldn't help but wonder how much it weighed.
(This is the second floor... could it not collapse through the floor? Well, placing something like this here means they must have reinforced it accordingly.)
Rei gave the floor a light kick, but unfortunately, that alone wasn't enough to gauge its sturdiness.
"No matter how you look at it, it's safe to assume that the evidence is in that safe... but it's a problem."
Given that it was a block of metal that size, carrying it out would be virtually impossible. That meant they needed to somehow open the safe's door, but they couldn't afford to take their time with that in the current situation. They couldn't—and yet, to obtain the evidence, that was exactly what they needed to do. And as quickly as possible.
Crow muttered in frustration...
"Why?"
The carefree question slipped from Rei's mouth as he examined the safe alongside Crow.
"Huh?" Crow and the other two stared in bewilderment, unable to comprehend how Rei could sound so relaxed.
For Rei, who possessed a Misty Ring, carrying something like a safe was no problem at all.
Living creatures couldn't be stored inside, but a safe in a hidden room warranted no such concern.
If anything, the real worry was whether breaking the safe open might destroy the evidence inside.
As for the wreckage, he could sell it to a blacksmith or drop it from the sky while riding Seto as an aerial attack—there were plenty of uses for it.
"I'll store it in my Misty Ring. That way, there's no issue carrying it out. ...Given the situation, it's almost certain that evidence of Dailas's crimes is inside."
Even as he said that, a thought crossed his mind—what if the safe actually contained jewels, art pieces, or platinum and light gold coins?
"So don't worry, I'm taking this safe with me. The real problem is if it's actually a decoy and the evidence is somewhere else."
At Rei's words, Crow and the others scanned the room.
Aside from the safe, there was nothing more than a sofa, a table, a simple desk, and a chair.
For Dailas's hidden room, it was undeniably spartan.
"Still... hey, Rei. What do you think Dailas did about those traps when he had business in this room?"
"Huh? Well... thinking about it normally, those traps triggered because someone disabled—or rather, destroyed—the barrier through methods other than the proper one, right? If Dailas has something that can disable the barrier the correct way, it's reasonable to assume those traps wouldn't trigger."
"Then, that thing... no, that'd be impossible."
One of the men listening to Rei and Crow's exchange had nearly suggested they should have obtained that something before attempting this room. But he immediately realized how reckless that was and cut himself off mid-sentence.
(Obviously.)
Rei shared the same opinion.
For Dailas, the evidence of his crimes—most likely inside that safe—must never see the light of day. He would never simply hand over the tool used to disable the barrier to enter such a place. Whether it was a key, something like a card, or an entirely different kind of Magic Item, Rei didn't know. But Dailas wouldn't do something so foolish.
It was highly likely he carried it on his person.
If they wanted to obtain such a thing, capturing Dailas directly would be the fastest approach.
"Then, first we have Rei-san secure the safe... but thinking about how there might be another trap when we leave this room, it's a bit depressing."
The man wounded by the arrow wandered toward the safe in the corner of the room.
For him, it was a casual movement... but the moment he got close, as if perfectly timed, the safe began to move.
...Yes, the safe moved.
Toward the man who had carelessly approached, the metal surface extended into needles—no, they had already taken on a shape that could only be described as spearheads—and they lunged at him.
"Whoa!"
The man somehow reacted to the safe's surprise attack, dodging and scrambling away to put distance between himself and it.
"Are you alright!?"
Crow approached the man while keeping a wary eye on the safe.
The man told Crow he was fine, but bewilderment was still plain on his face as he tried to process what had just happened.
He looked back at the safe that had attacked him, but there was nothing there. It was almost enough to make him think he'd imagined the whole thing—that the giant metal needle launched at him had been some kind of mistake.
But that wasn't the case. The safe had attacked him. That was an undeniable fact.
"Crow, this isn't a dream or hallucination, right? That safe definitely came at me."
"Yeah, I saw it too."
"It's a golem."
The one who cut into Crow and the man's exchange was Rei.
Having seen the golem that had been used as a gate before entering this mansion, a safe being a golem didn't surprise him all that much.
"A golem? ...I see. Since he's connected to the Dolan Workshop, it's only natural he'd have something like this prepared."
Confirming that the man who had backed away from the safe had no real injuries, Crow muttered as much. Between the arrow and the safe golem, Rei couldn't help but think the man was rather unlucky.
"Rei, what's the plan?"
"No problem. ...Honestly, golems and I are the perfect matchup. Worst-case scenario for whoever set the golem up, though."
With that, Rei walked straight toward the safe.
As if reacting to his approach, the safe extended metal needles toward him.
Though the attack method was slightly different—spear versus needle—the nature of the assault itself wasn't all that different from the gate golem. This was likely either the limit of the golem maker's technical ability, or since the golem couldn't move freely and usually disguised itself as objects like gates or safes, the attack patterns were essentially identical.
As a surprise attack catching the opponent off guard—like when Rei had faced the gate, or when the safe had suddenly attacked the startled man—it was more than adequate.
But when you already knew it was a golem, dealing with it was straightforward.
Metal needles fired from the safe in rapid succession. Rei dodged each one, weaving through the barrage as he closed the distance.
The safe desperately fired needle after needle, trying to keep Rei at bay, but its movements were clearly too slow to stand any chance against him.
As a result, without landing a single hit on Rei, the safe allowed him to close in...
"It's over."
He touched the safe's wall, and the moment he spoke, its form vanished.
Originally, he could have stored it in his Misty Ring by touching one of the needles, but since it was a golem, there was no telling what kind of mechanisms it might conceal.
That was precisely why Rei had chosen this approach.