Seeing the safe vanish into the Misty Ring, Crow and the others let out cries of surprise.
They had never expected the safe could be stored away so easily.
Of course, they knew Rei possessed an Item Box, but even so, the sight was apparently beyond what they had imagined.
"Right, that takes care of the safe for now. What's the plan from here?"
"Could you take the other things in this room too, just in case?"
At Crow's words, Rei looked around the room.
A sofa, a table, a simple desk and chairs.
That was about all the room contained.
Naturally, the things Crow wanted him to take were those items.
"The sofa and everything else?"
Rei asked to confirm, and as expected, Crow nodded.
"That's right. I'm almost certain the safe contains the evidence, but there's a chance it's a decoy and the real evidence is hidden elsewhere. If so, I want to take anything that could potentially be hiding it. Normally, we could think that way but never actually act on it—but with you here, Rei, it's different."
The other two nodded in agreement.
If they left the sofa and the rest behind, only to find that the safe contained nothing and the evidence had been hidden inside the sofa all along... they would never forgive themselves.
In truth, Crow wished he could take not just the furniture but the entire room itself, if possible.
However, he decided that even Rei probably couldn't manage something like taking a whole room, so he didn't press the issue.
And in this situation, even if told to take the room, it would certainly have been impossible.
If it were an independent room like a Container House, and Rei recognized it as such, he might have been able to store it—but that wasn't the case here.
"Understood. If you say so, Crow, I don't mind. It's not that much trouble anyway."
With that, Rei stored all the furniture, starting with the sofa, into his Misty Ring.
"Now then, the room is well and truly empty, but what do we do from here? Are we withdrawing from Dailas's mansion?"
"That's..."
Crow hesitated at Rei's words.
If the safe or the other furniture contained evidence, then withdrawing as they were would be fine.
But if there was still other evidence hidden somewhere in this room, what then?
Even if they realized it later, they wouldn't be able to come back.
That was exactly why Crow couldn't give Rei a straight answer.
Watching Crow struggle with his words, Rei decided there was no helping it and spoke up.
"Looks like we'd regret leaving things as they are. In that case... let me try something."
"Hah? Try something? What exactly?"
"I'm going to check whether there are any hidden passages or hidden staircases in this room. Though, this is magic for detecting traps. I can't guarantee it'll actually find where evidence might be hidden."
"...If you had that kind of magic, couldn't you have used it on the way here after breaking the barrier?"
Crow said, clearly dissatisfied.
From his perspective, it was only natural to think that if Rei had used that magic from the start, his companion wouldn't have taken an arrow.
"You're right. Looking back, maybe I should have. But this magic isn't perfectly accurate, and depending on the situation, there's a chance the magic itself could trigger a trap. Plus, the distance to this room was short."
"You led from the front, Rei, so I won't say anything more than that."
The one actually injured was Crow's companion, but the person in the most danger had undoubtedly been Rei, who walked point.
If Rei had made Crow and the others go first, Crow would have harbored far more resentment.
"Anyway, I'll give it a try. ...But like I said, this isn't foolproof. I can't rule out the possibility that something is there but this magic simply can't detect it."
"Understood. Do it anyway."
Confirming Crow's nod, Rei took up his Death Scythe and began to chant.
Oh flame, manifest as crimson fire and spread. Become a Flame of Condemnation at the dictates of my will.
A mass of fire bloomed at the butt cap of the Death Scythe. Rei touched it to the floor and activated the magic.
Pale Flame!
The moment the magic took effect, fire spread across the entire floor.
"Whoa, whoa!"
"Calm down! It's fire, but it won't burn you!"
Crow cried out in alarm at the sudden blaze erupting around him, but Rei's words brought him back to his senses.
He cautiously reached out toward the fire creeping toward him... and just as Rei had explained, touching it caused no burns at all. He let out a breath of relief.
Once the relief settled, curiosity took over. He touched the fire again and again, bewildered by the phenomenon of flames that produced no heat.
There was no doubt it existed there as fire—he could clearly feel it against his skin.
And yet, the flames were only warm... no, lukewarm at best.
The sight of such fire spreading to fill the entire room was almost fantastical.
"...Nothing. At the very least, my magic can't detect anything."
The fire had washed over the entire room, but finding nothing resembling a hidden mechanism, Rei shook his head.
"I see."
"What'll you do? If you won't be satisfied unless you check yourself, I can wait while you do."
Extinguishing the conjured flames, Rei posed the question to Crow.
Crow considered it for a moment, then shook his head.
"No, let's not. You already checked with your magic, Rei. If that's the case, there's a high probability that even if I searched the room further, nothing would turn up."
The other two nodded in agreement.
Though they had only spent a short time at Rei's side, they had seen his strength with their own eyes.
If someone of his caliber couldn't find anything even using magic, they reasoned that even if something were hidden here, they wouldn't find it themselves either.
"If you're all fine with that, then I've got no objections. But that brings us back to the question—what do we do now? There are still disturbances happening elsewhere... actually, scratch that. We're out of time to chat."
Mid-sentence, Rei's gaze snapped toward the room's door—or more precisely, the spot where the door had been.
Seeing his reaction, Crow's expression hardened. The other two, though unsure what was happening, readied themselves for anything.
"Enemies?"
"Yeah. And judging by the voices, quite a few of them."
It was Rei's sharp senses that had caught the sound.
Hearing the exchange between Rei and Crow, the other two grasped the situation and steeled their expressions.
"Either way, we don't have the luxury of taking it easy here anymore. So, what's the plan?"
"We reinforce them, obviously! Let's go!"
At Rei's words, Crow barked the command and charged out of the room.
He moved as though he had completely forgotten about the possibility of traps in the corridor.
Should have done that sooner. If I'd known, I could've checked the corridor for traps too, not just this room.
They had sprinted at full speed on the way in, so the only trap that had triggered was the one on the door.
But there could well be others.
It wouldn't even be strange for a trap to activate only when leaving the room, not when entering.
But that was all moot now.
The priority was heading toward the voices—the room where the barrier-protected hidden door leading to this hidden room had been.
Crow dashed out first, the other two close behind.
Rei followed after them.
No traps, huh. Can't tell if there weren't any to begin with or if they stopped working after I blew the door apart, but either way.
Running through the corridor with that thought, the sounds from the room ahead grew steadily louder.
Rei had already been hearing them from inside the hidden room, but now they must have reached Crow and the others' ears as well.
Their pace quickened even further.
Just as Rei had feared, no traps materialized. They cleared the corridor without incident.
"Crow! You're back!? What about the evidence!?"
"No problems—we've got what looks like evidence! More importantly, what's the situation!? Weren't we supposed to be causing diversions throughout the mansion!?"
"Reinforcements showed up from somewhere!"
"Seto is out there, isn't he!?"
Rei cut into the conversation between Crow and the man, genuine surprise in his voice.
The claim that reinforcements had arrived was hard to believe.
With Seto guarding the outside, the idea that enemy reinforcements had slipped past him was almost unthinkable.
Rei had that much faith in Seto—and Seto had the strength to warrant every bit of it.
But the man who had reported the reinforcements shook his head.
"They didn't come through the outside. Apparently, they came via an underground passage or something."
Hearing that, Rei had no choice but to accept it.
Given the current situation, it was entirely plausible that the enemy had arrived that way.
In fact, it would have been impossible for reinforcements to reach this mansion by any other means.
If they bypassed the surface where Seto patrolled and sent troops through underground tunnels, Seto couldn't intercept them.
...Well, if Seto seriously wanted to deal with it, he could probably destroy the ground above the tunnel. If Rei had given the order, it wouldn't have been impossible.
"An underground passage. That's a problem... So what's the plan? If there's an underground passage, Dailas could use it to escape in the worst case."
Rei directed the question to Crow.
For Fusetsu, Crow's organization, tonight's raid carried a strong element of retaliation for the previous night's incursion.
Their primary objective, of course, was to obtain evidence proving Dailas's connection to the Dolan Workshop, along with proof of other dark dealings that couldn't be brought to light.
But securing Dailas himself would have been hugely significant for Fusetsu.
Whether to expose the hidden side of the man known as a pillar of the community or to obtain that evidence, capturing Dailas would have been the ideal outcome.
However, at Rei's words, Crow thought for a moment, then spoke with visible frustration.
"No, if possible, I'd like to withdraw as we are. Gigalana will probably make the final call, but I imagine he'll reach the same conclusion. We've accomplished our original objective, so there's no need to stay in this mansion any longer. This room has nothing more to offer—let's all break out and rendezvous with Gigalana."
Outside the room, the sounds of battle still rang out.
But with the suspected evidence already in hand, there was no longer any need to defend this room.
Most of those present accepted Crow's reasoning, but...
"So even if we're rendezvousing with Gigalana, do we know where he is? Given the current situation, moving carelessly is going to draw enemy attention."
"True... Gigalana is also running a diversion, right? Then whoever went as a messenger to him—who was it?"
"He's fighting out front. Anyway, instead of standing around talking here, shouldn't we deal with the enemies outside the room first?"
One of the men in the room spoke up, and the others nodded in agreement.
Rei was of the same mind.
While they stood here talking, Fusetsu's people were still fighting out there.
That being the case, dealing with that situation first was the obvious priority.
Having settled on their course of action, Rei and the others immediately filed out through the doorway.
The scene in the corridor was exactly what Rei had expected.
Fusetsu's assassins were locked in direct combat with what appeared to be adventurer reinforcements.
Some wore the metal armor Rei recognized, but the majority were adventurers who had apparently arrived as backup, just as the sounds from inside the room had suggested.
"Damn it! More enemy fighters incoming! We need to take these guys down fast or we're in trouble!"
One of the adventurers shouted on instinct—but Rei was already charging straight at them.