Rei parted ways with the people at the Fusetsu hideout and stepped inside.
Naturally, only Rei and his guide entered the hideout. Seto was to wait outside.
That said, there were a fair number of people around the perimeter, including the two gatekeepers who had fought alongside Seto during the surprise attack, so the griffin likely wouldn't get bored.
For the others stationed outside as combat reserves in case of emergency, Seto was still not someone they knew particularly well.
"Still, so it really is Rei-san. For Fusetsu, this operation was quite forceful. I never thought it would actually succeed."
The man who said that was the same one who had accompanied Rei into the hideout as his guide.
Since he was serving as a guide, they had likely sent someone favorably disposed toward Rei.
Among those standing guard outside, a few had directed gazes close to hostility at him. It was fortunate they hadn't sent one of those as his guide.
Of course, that wasn't just luck for Rei alone. For Fusetsu's side too, avoiding trouble was equally fortunate.
"Knowing Orban's personality, it wouldn't have been surprising if he'd gone on the offensive right away."
"Lord Orban does take bold action often, so that may be true. But it's precisely because Rei-san was here that he took such a decisive step. Of that, I have no doubt."
"Do you think so? Well, I'm the one being sheltered by Fusetsu. Considering that, I'll cooperate with anything that helps. More importantly... it was obvious from the situation outside, but it seems no enemies came after all."
"Eh? Ah, right. But it's only been a day since yesterday, and they know we're on alert. I can't imagine them attacking under these circumstances."
"Plus, you're all out here too."
"Ahahaha. Right. It'd be nice if our presence served as a deterrent... ah, we've arrived."
Perhaps because they had been moving while conversing, Rei didn't find the time spent reaching Orban's room—familiar to him—boring.
Or perhaps this man, skilled at both talking and listening, had been chosen as the guide precisely to keep Rei from getting bored.
The man lightly bowed to the guards stationed in front of the door, then knocked and called out to Orban inside.
Immediately, a voice from beyond the door told them to enter.
"Come in."
"Hm? You're not coming inside?"
"Yes. There must be things I shouldn't hear, so I'll wait out here. I've got company, anyway."
So saying, the man glanced at the guards beside the door.
With him putting it that way, Rei found it hard to insist he come inside.
And so, Rei entered the room alone.
"Hey, Rei. You made it back in one piece. From the look of it, you didn't have much trouble.... So, did you get what we were after?"
"There was a safe in a hidden room packed with traps. I seized it. If there's any evidence of Dailas's wrongdoings, it's probably inside."
"...You didn't check the contents?"
Orban asked, his tone skeptical.
In response, Rei sat down on the sofa as if he belonged there and spoke.
"The safe—more precisely, a safe golem—was in there, and enemy reinforcements kept coming endlessly, so I couldn't check the contents. I'm telling you, if I bring that safe out here, it'll start going on a rampage the moment it appears."
The phrase "going on a rampage" struck Orban as odd.
However, he couldn't imagine Rei lying here.
Given that, he figured what Rei was saying must be the truth.
In the first place, even if Rei lied, it would come to light later once they heard from those who had fought alongside him.
Given that, Orban couldn't imagine Rei pulling such a stupid stunt here.
"In that case, destroying the safe will require moving to a more open space rather than a room like this."
"Right. A place like where I had my mock battle with Lindy would work. Of course, it doesn't actually need to be that large."
The underground space where Rei had sparred with Lindy was about the size of a small gymnasium.
Simply cutting apart a safe golem wouldn't require that much room.
That said, if the golem had some kind of trump card up its sleeve, he'd need to deal with it, and in a cramped space, that could become a real problem.
Considering those circumstances, it was undeniably better to have a certain amount of room.
Orban thought over Rei's suggestion for a moment, then spoke.
"Understood. I'll guide you there."
"Right now? Are you serious?"
Rei was surprised by Orban's eagerness to do it immediately.
Currently, the majority of Fusetsu's combat forces were still at Dailas's mansion.
Most had already withdrawn and should be heading to this hideout in the Slum District, but compared to Seto's flying speed, they would inevitably be slower.
Even so, if they waited a little longer, a fair number should return. Why, under those circumstances, did Orban want to do it right now?
But Orban simply nodded, showing no concern despite Rei's words.
"Crimson Rei is with us. Thinking of it that way, a mere safe golem is nothing to worry about, right?"
"Well... I suppose so. Fine. But at least bring some guards. Even against a safe golem, you never know what might happen. Planning for worst-case scenarios, guards are a necessity. Bringing the man who guided me here and the guards who were in front of this door should be enough."
That was Rei's compromise, at the very least.
The place Rei, Orban, and the guards moved to wasn't far from Orban's room.
Compared to the space where Rei had sparred with Lindy, it was considerably smaller, but it still had enough room for Rei to fight normally.
(So there's a place like this too. When this hideout was attacked, I'm pretty sure I ran around quite a bit inside, but I never came here then.... Then again, I barely know anything about this hideout to begin with. Thinking about it that way, it's only natural I wouldn't.)
Mulling this over, Rei confirmed that Orban and his guards had moved to the far end of the space, then spoke.
"All right, I'm bringing it out!"
Orban nodded silently.
The guards beside Orban readied themselves, resolved to protect their leader.
And then, Rei brought the safe golem out of his Misty Ring.
"Whoa!"
The instant the safe golem emerged from the Misty Ring, it thrust metal needles toward Rei.
Whether the safe golem possessed a sense of self was unclear.
However, time didn't flow while it was stored inside the Misty Ring.
Which meant that, from the safe golem's perspective, it was probably still in the middle of attacking Rei.
Evading the safe golem's attacks as they launched one after another, Rei drew Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear from his Misty Ring.
With a sharp metallic ring, the thorns extending toward Rei were severed.
The next needle strike was knocked down by the tip of the Twilight Spear.
Closing the distance while doing so...
"Drop dead."
With a single short phrase, Death Scythe swung.
With a slash.
Death Scythe, infused with mana, cleaved through the safe with no resistance whatsoever.
(The gate golem put up more of a fight... How come a solid mass of metal felt like less of an impact?)
Though Rei harbored such doubts, that strike had unquestionably sliced through the upper portion of the safe. And while he didn't know exactly where the golem's core was located, it was an indisputable fact that the safe golem's movements stopped with that single blow.
Rei had thought there would be more to it than that.
"Still, I didn't expect it to go down this easily."
"Is it done already!?"
Orban, who had been watching Rei's fight from a distance, shouted, but Rei shook his head.
"Not yet! I don't know if it's truly been defeated! I'm going to check, so wait a moment!"
Orban nodded at Rei's shouted words.
Confirming that, Rei approached the safe golem without letting his guard down.
Whether this safe golem had truly been defeated was still uncertain.
If a core manufactured through a necromancy ritual had been used, it wouldn't be strange for the golem to exhibit human-like reactions.
In that case, the possibility of it playing dead couldn't be ruled out.
That was exactly why Rei approached with caution, prepared for anything.
"Anti-climactic."
Those words slipped from Rei's mouth after he approached, lightly prodded the golem with the butt end of Death Scythe, and confirmed there was no response—then reached out more boldly and confirmed nothing happened.
Dailas had been cautious enough to hide his other face so thoroughly.
It wouldn't have been strange for him to have installed some kind of mechanism in this safe golem as well.
Approaching the safe, Rei looked inside.
There, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, were numerous documents.
Strangely enough—or perhaps it was only natural—despite the safe golem having gone on such a rampage, the contents remained in their organized state.
"It's fine now! Come over here! The safe golem isn't moving anymore!"
At Rei's shout, those who heard him began to move.
For the guards protecting Orban, they would rather Orban not approach the safe golem.
Though it appeared to have stopped moving after Rei's attack, they couldn't help thinking there was still a possibility it could move.
However, Orban felt safe with Rei present, and apart from that, he trusted that his guards would protect him no matter what.
The fact that Orban himself, as the leader of an assassin guild, possessed a certain level of strength was likely significant.
Considering that level of ability, he judged there would be no problem coming into contact with the safe golem.
Orban moved to the side of the safe golem and looked inside.
Since the upper half had been sheared away by Rei, there was no obstruction to seeing within.
Inside the safe golem, the first thing to enter his field of vision was, as expected, a stack of documents.
He could also see something stored in boxes.
The interior of the safe was divided into multiple shelves, so under the current circumstances, only the items on the topmost shelf were visible.
"Hoh, this is... quite a lot of intriguing things."
Looking at the documents inside the safe, Orban murmured with interest.
Hearing him, one of the guards reached his hand into the safe.
Ordinarily, Orban would have wanted to retrieve the documents himself, but as a guard, the man couldn't allow his leader to do such a thing.
To prevent that, the guard took the documents in hand.
He had watched Rei's fight with the safe golem, albeit from a distance.
Because of that, there was the question of whether he could evade the metal needle attacks if the safe was still alive—more precisely, still capable of moving.
Of course, he intended to protect Orban if something happened.
But under the current circumstances, tension was unavoidable.
Fortunately—truly fortunately—Rei was nearby.
Judging from the overwhelming superiority he had demonstrated against the safe golem, they felt certain that even if some unforeseen event occurred, it wouldn't be a problem.
"Here you go."
Orban skimmed through the documents handed to him by the guard.
He would have liked to read through them carefully under normal circumstances, but given the current situation, there was no time for that.
That was why he was first checking what kind of content the documents contained...
"This is a hit."
Those words slipped from Orban's mouth as he read.
What that voice signified was obvious without even thinking about it.
For the time being, it was now confirmed that Dailas had a hidden side, and tonight's raid—while it might not be everything—had been justified. Rei let out a breath of relief.