"Gruu?"
A short while after Bob had fallen asleep, Seto suddenly let out a cry.
After making the sound, it rose from its lying position.
It wasn't that there was any clearly identifiable abnormality. But still, for some reason, it bothered him.
Yet, even after getting up and looking around, nothing in particular seemed to be wrong. It didn't seem so... and yet, something inside Seto was telling him that something was off.
"Gurururu..."
He felt that something was wrong within himself. However, even after looking around like this, nothing in particular seemed to be the matter. Even so, he still felt that something was wrong.
Seto was in such a contradictory state. And there on the riverbank where he stood, nearly twenty men were gathered around a leader holding a candle.
Normally, it wouldn't have been strange for Seto to detect them long before they got this close. It shouldn't have been strange, and yet cold sweat was running down the leader's face.
The candle the leader held in his hand was a Magic Item that exerted a powerful recognition-blocking effect. He fully understood how much effect it could produce, having used it many times before. And yet, Seto—at the end of the leader's gaze—had clearly sensed some kind of abnormality, though he didn't yet seem to have any concrete certainty.
(What's going on? With this candle's effect in place, there's no way he should notice our presence.)
The reason he could be so certain was probably because he had used this candle many times before to achieve their objectives. It was precisely because of that track record that he believed their presence would go unnoticed while the candle was in use.
However... in this current situation, he couldn't fully trust that conviction.
The men too, seeing Seto standing up and restlessly pacing around, found themselves unable to press forward. Right now Seto was merely walking around, but if they went any further, wouldn't he detect them for real? That thought had taken root in their minds whether they liked it or not.
It wasn't just the leader who felt that way; the others felt the same. Normally, since they were using the candle, there was no need to worry. That was what they thought, but even so, seeing Seto pacing around right in their line of sight, it was unreasonable to expect them not to panic.
(What do we do? We're not that far from where Bob is. But... if we act here, there's no denying the gryphon might take some kind of action. Then... should we pull back for now? No, such a disgraceful move is not permitted for us.)
The leader, candle in hand, agonized over what to do in this situation. He probably had no idea what the best course of action was given the current circumstances. He never expected that, even while using the candle, their presence would be detected.
...In reality, it wasn't yet a complete detection. If Seto had truly noticed these men's existence, he would have attacked as quickly as possible. However, even though Seto understood that something was suspicious, that something was off somewhere, he didn't yet understand what it actually meant.
...In a way, that was precisely what the candle's effect demonstrated. Even if there were an ordinary Magic Item lying around that produced a similar effect, Seto would see through it and attack the one using the Magic Item—that wouldn't be strange at all. And yet, Seto—who surpassed even Rei in sharpness of senses alone—had not yet noticed the men's existence.
(What're you gonna do? We can't just stay here doing nothing, can we?)
Among the men who had stopped, one of them... the one who had advocated stealing Nielson's heart, grew dissatisfied with the current situation and took action. That said, the action wasn't anything major. One step... he only stepped forward a single step.
But while that might have been fine if Seto wasn't suspicious of anything, right now Seto felt that something about his surroundings was off. Under such circumstances, it was only natural that Seto would quickly sense the abnormality.
"Gurururu!"
Something was there. Something moved. Sensing that, Seto immediately activated a skill.
What was unleashed was Wind Arrow. He was certain something was there, but that was only Seto's conviction. Given that, if he was wrong, using a flashy skill would be undesirable. Under such circumstances, Wind Arrow—a skill that fired arrows of wind, as its name suggested—could be increased in number up to a maximum of twenty. Also, being arrows of wind, while their raw power wasn't all that high, they were quite excellent in terms of the speed of the fired arrows.
The unleashed arrows flew straight toward the direction where Seto felt something was off.
"Guh..."
"Uo..."
"Nuu..."
The reason Seto had felt something was off was one of the men. However, the number of Wind Arrows unleashed was twenty. And for Seto, while he sensed something was off, he didn't understand exactly what was wrong or how. Given that, it was only natural to fire Wind Arrows so they spread out across the surrounding area.
That said, even so, Wind Arrows could only produce a maximum of twenty. Considering that, it wasn't possible to attack across that wide an area... but it was still enough to hit the men.
The candle's effect was, after all, recognition-blocking. It wasn't like turning invisible and having attacks pass through harmlessly. It merely prevented the other party from noticing their presence; if an attack landed, they would naturally take damage.
As a result, Wind Arrows hit a fair number of the men, and succeeded in making them scream.
...In reality, while Wind Arrows possessed a sharp cutting edge, their power itself wasn't all that strong. If the men had been more patient, they wouldn't have screamed even when hit by Wind Arrows. However, even though Seto vaguely questioned the candle's use, given the current situation, they apparently never expected an attack to come. It was precisely because they were caught off guard that screams escaped the men's mouths.
And the screams that came from the men's mouths naturally reached Seto's ears clearly.
"Gururu, gururururururu!"
Seto let out an especially loud cry, and fog was generated around the area. Since there was a river nearby, fog appearing was normal... none of the men thought anything of the sort. Most of those present had already recognized that Seto had noticed their presence and had attacked to deal with them.
"Kill Bob!"
The leader shouted, having judged that they could no longer rely on the candle's effect. Several men sprang into action, trying to kill Bob before the fog could hide him—before he could use it as cover to escape.
The men who had fortunately avoided being hit by Wind Arrows immediately drew short swords and dashed toward Bob, but...
"Gurururu!"
"Ugyaa!"
"Damn it, what the hell!?"
The moment Seto let out a cry, the fog that had been filling the surroundings turned into fangs and claws that plunged into the two men running at the front.
Fog Fang. It was a troublesome skill that he had only just acquired, was only at Level 1, and couldn't be used without fog in the surroundings from a skill or natural phenomenon, but even so, in this situation it was more than useful enough.
Those injured by Fog Fang collapsed to the ground... but naturally, behind those who had fallen were other men, and those men leaped over the fallen ones...
"Gururururu!"
In that instant, the Fog Fang skill activated again, and the materialized fangs and claws thrust into and tore apart the attackers.
At Level 1, Fog Fang could only produce two claws or fangs at a time. But that was merely the number that could be created at once; once the materialized fog claws and fangs returned to mist, they could be recreated by using the skill again.
And so the claws and fangs that were produced one after another attacked the men who had suddenly appeared—precisely, who appeared because the recognition-blocking candle had become unusable.
And what was disastrous for the men was that their enemy wasn't just Seto.
"What's wrong, an enemy!?"
"Uwa, wait, what is this!? I can't see anything through the fog!"
Hearing the commotion outside, Rei and Nielson burst out of the Magic Tent. ...In reality, Nielson wouldn't be of much use even if she were present, but even so, in this situation she couldn't bring herself to be the only one staying inside the Magic Tent.
"Tch!"
Hearing Rei's voice, the leader of the men groaned at the unexpected turn of events. He had known it, but of course, causing this much commotion outside meant the noise would reach those inside the tent.
"What do we do!?"
One of the group shouted while looking at the leader. The leader's response to that gaze was swift.
"Gather around me!"
Saying that, he reached into his breast, pulled something out, and slammed it against the ground.
In an instant, smoke thicker than the fog that had been drifting around was produced with an explosive force.
It was a type of smoke bomb. Judging it as such, Rei grabbed Nielson—who had been flying right beside his face—with a semi-reflexive motion and shoved her inside his Dragon Robe.
"Gya! Wait, Rei!?"
Nielson had no idea why Rei was doing such a thing, and since it was so sudden, she let out a scream. But from Rei's perspective, Nielson was a fairy. And if they were under attack by someone, the possibility that their target was Nielson the fairy couldn't be completely ruled out.
...In fact, one of the men's objectives was definitely the Fairy's Heart, so Rei's judgment was not mistaken. That said, this Smoke Screen wasn't deployed to steal Nielson's heart; it was used by the men to escape from this place.
Having sheltered Nielson inside his Dragon Robe, Rei spoke while unable to grasp the situation around him through the Smoke Screen.
"Seto, Bob, are you there!?"
"Gruu!"
"Y-yes! I'm here!"
Rei felt relieved at the immediate two responses, and once again probed for the surrounding presences.
Was someone still lurking, using this Smoke Screen as cover? That was what he was thinking when he acted, but...
"Huh? There's no presence... what?"
A bewildered voice slipped from Rei's mouth. While checking the surroundings, Rei once again probed for the enemy's presence... and realized anew that he couldn't detect even Seto and Bob's presences.
Given the voices just now, he didn't think they were that far away.
"Seto, Bob, you're there, right?"
"Gru."
"Huh? I responded just now, didn't I? Maybe you didn't hear me?"
Hearing the voice of the person and the creature once more, Rei spoke with relief.
"No, I heard you. It's just that I can't detect any presences due to this Smoke Screen. You can't sense any presence either, Bob?"
If Bob were a skilled hunter, it wouldn't be strange for him to have that kind of ability to sense the presence of prey. Thinking that, Rei asked, and Bob immediately replied.
"Now that you mention it... I can't sense any presence. What in the world is going on?"
"It's probably the effect of that Smoke Screen. Seto, did the enemy get away?"
"Gurururu."
At Rei's words, Seto rumbled regretfully.
The fact that Seto, with sharper five senses than Rei, had failed to detect the enemy's presence and let them escape spoke to just how high the Smoke Screen's effect was.
(But... presence? How did they make it so presences can't be detected?)
If it were smell, a terrible stench; if hearing, a deafening roar; if sight, a blinding light... there were ways to counter each of those, but how exactly could one prevent presence from being detected? Presence was a special sense, different from the five senses. Rei had no idea how something like a Smoke Screen that prevented presence detection could be created.
He didn't know, but it was still enough to put him on guard... and so he stayed vigilant of his surroundings, ready for anything.
But... when the Smoke Screen cleared, everyone other than Rei and his group had completely vanished.