When Rei finally collected himself, there was no sign of the attackers.
He guessed they had used the smoke screen to slip away in the confusion.
Still, facing an unknown enemy, Rei was at least relieved they hadn't resorted to something even stranger.
"Gurururu."
Seto padded to Rei's side and purred, and the lingering fog vanished in an instant.
With it gone, he could make out the surroundings even more clearly than before.
The only light came from the campfire and the moon, but for Rei, who possessed Night Vision, that was more than enough to survey the area.
"Having Seto here and still letting the enemy get this close... that was unexpected."
"Guruu."
Seto purred apologetically at Rei's words.
Rei stroked him—and at the same moment, Nielson burst out from inside the Dragon Robe.
"Hey, wait! How long were you planning to keep me shut in there!?"
"Ah, sorry. There were guys who looked like bandits. When that sort shows up..." Rei paused, frowning. "Wait, bandits? Sure, I know there are skilled ones like Egg out there, but even so—they slipped past Seto's vigilance and got this close?"
In reality, the men had come to kill Bob, but Rei, unaware of this, could only perceive them as bandits. He figured a bandit group that had learned of their presence had attacked the camp.
But how had they known Rei's group was here?
Perhaps, like Bob, they had spotted the campfire. Or maybe bandits who claimed this area as their territory had found them on patrol. Rei had no way of knowing for sure, but the questions gnawed at him.
"Besides, for bandits, they were unusually protective of each other. All the wounded ones disappeared too." Rei looked at Seto. "Did you fail to kill any of them? Only wound them?"
"Guruu..."
Seto purred guiltily.
From Seto's perspective, he had been caught flat-footed against bandits.
How the enemy had hidden not just their forms but their very presence was beyond comprehension. True, Seto's instincts had sensed that something was wrong—not anything specific, just a general unease that allowed him to detect the abnormality. But their presence had been completely concealed.
For Seto, who had hunted countless bandits alongside Rei, the idea that mere bandits could pull off such a feat was puzzling. That feeling seemed to convey itself to Rei as well.
Though Rei couldn't grasp exactly what was happening, he understood that something was off, just as Seto did.
His gaze shifted to Nielson... then to Bob.
If something unusual had happened, there had to be a cause. And the only candidates were Nielson and Bob.
Nielson, simply by being a fairy, could attract attackers who coveted her. That much was plausible.
But then there was the question of where and how bandits had learned of her existence.
Nielson had entered the village during the two-headed rhino incident, but she had been hidden inside the Dragon Robe the entire time. After that, they had immediately entered the forest where the Smog Panthers lurked, escaped, and then flown through the air on Seto to reach this river without stopping at any villages along the way.
Given all that, it was hard to believe Nielson had been spotted by bandits anywhere.
"If that's the case... then the one they were after must be Bob?"
"Eh? Me!?"
Clearly not expecting to be named, Bob's voice pitched with surprise. He had no idea what had triggered the attack.
"I've never been targeted by bandits before, you know?"
"Yeah... I figured," Rei said, nodding without objection as Bob spoke in a fluster.
From Rei's perspective, Bob didn't seem to have any particular reason to be targeted. His bow, arrows, and quiver were all ordinary gear with nothing especially valuable about them.
"But is there anything you're carrying that you think is worthless but actually isn't?"
"Eh? I don't think so..."
Bob spread out the contents of his inner pockets and the simple cloth bag holding his belongings. Rei could see everything clearly enough by the firelight, and nothing struck him as important—just as Bob claimed.
Of course, Rei was no master appraiser. There could be something his eyes couldn't identify, something he simply lacked the knowledge to recognize.
"Hmm, nothing that looks like it. Then did those bandits just stumble across this place by coincidence? Well, it is a good spot to camp, that's for sure."
The river meant no shortage of water, and the area was reasonably open. The carnivorous fish monsters in the river were a danger, but since they were fish monsters, they never came out of the water, so it was safe enough.
All things considered, despite some risk, this was a fairly easy place to camp.
Then if they recognized it as a good spot, it wouldn't be strange for bandits to pass through while hunting for prey in the area... right?
He could accept that much. But it was also true that plenty of things still didn't add up.
For one, when Rei had emerged from the Magic Tent, the fight had been taking place dangerously close by. With Seto present, the enemy shouldn't have been able to get that near. That meant they had approached without Seto noticing, using some kind of method.
Could ordinary bandits pull off something like that? If asked, Rei would deny it without hesitation.
"Something is off. ...It is off, right?"
"Even if you say that, I've hardly ever been targeted by bandits, so I couldn't really say."
"And that's... not just recently, but always? That's unusual."
From Rei's perspective, Bob was a solo hunter—exactly the kind of target bandits would go for. He worked alone in forests, groves, and mountains. For bandits, easier prey was hard to imagine.
He didn't carry valuables, true, but Bob was a young man, and that alone would fetch a high price as a slave. An illegal slave, naturally, but a young man expected to serve as labor would have no shortage of interested buyers. For Bob to have traveled this far without being targeted was, in a sense, extraordinary luck.
"Is that so? I'm reasonably careful. Though you do run into suspicious people while hunting, so you need to stay alert."
"Bandits and those types would have different objectives..." Rei's eyes narrowed. "Wait. Suspicious people? Could the ones who attacked us be those suspicious people?"
"Eh?"
Bob's face went blank with disbelief.
Seeing how completely caught off guard he was, Rei wondered if he was barking up the wrong tree.
But with no reason for himself, Seto, or Nielson to be targeted by bandits, Bob remained the most likely reason. And since Bob had just mentioned encountering suspicious people, the odds that it was connected to tonight's attack were high.
If so, were they even bandits at all? Well, the bandit theory was just my own assumption. There's a real possibility it was something else entirely.
The thought lingered, but when he weighed it against what he had witnessed, the guess didn't feel too far off.
Above all, Rei found it hard to believe that bandits could be that highly trained.
Of course, skilled bandits existed. If former adventurers, soldiers, or knights turned to banditry for easy money or due to misconduct, they would be reasonably formidable at first. But those types rarely kept training. The longer they stayed bandits, the more their skills deteriorated.
Not that there weren't exceptions—some bandits did keep sharp.
"For starters, what kind of people were these suspicious ones? Explain in detail. Depending on what you tell me, we might figure out the reason for the attack."
"Do you really think that's the cause?"
Bob studied Rei's face, asking whether he was serious.
But since Rei couldn't think of any other plausible reason, the cause had to lie with Bob.
"Yeah. Reasons someone would target me..." Rei rubbed his jaw. "I can't honestly say there aren't any. But almost no one knows I'm here right now."
The only one who knew exactly where Rei and his group were was Elena, whom he had been talking to through the Paired Orb until recently. But he couldn't imagine Elena leaking his location—and even if she had, the short time since their conversation made it impossible for anyone to have arrived here already.
...Unless they could freely teleport to a target location, in which case it wasn't impossible.
"Umm... does Rei-san really have that many reasons to be targeted?"
"I can't say I don't."
If Rei claimed he had no idea why someone might target him, it would be an obvious lie.
He had Seto, a high-rank monster, as his Tamed Monster. He possessed numerous Magic Items, including an Item Box—one of only a handful in the world. He had enough wealth to live comfortably for several lifetimes even after being reborn. He punched nobles without a second thought, earning himself no shortage of grudges. And he was regarded with affection by Elena and other women of such rare beauty they were virtually unprecedented in history.
Beyond those, if he looked, he could find any number of reasons someone might want him dead.
Rei knew full well he had enemies, so being targeted wouldn't surprise him.
But even so—if he had been attacked in a city, that would be one thing. Being attacked out here, in the middle of nowhere, made him doubt his own chances.
In the first place, if they came to kill me, they brought far too little combat power. Or... since they managed to get this close without Seto noticing, they must have had a Skill or Magic Item they were relying on.
It was possible they had used pure skill to suppress their presence to the absolute limit and evade Seto's detection. But if that were the case, the ease with which Seto had repelled them was suspicious. And more importantly, Rei had confirmed there wasn't just one or two of them—there had been many.
"So with all that said, if someone here was targeted, it could only be you. And those suspicious people you mentioned seeing—what exactly were they like? You don't need to hold anything back."
"Ah, right. I don't need to hide anything. A few villages back from here, I was hunting on a mountain near a settlement. I failed to kill a deer in one shot, and when I followed it into the cave it fled into, I found about thirty people gathered inside..."
"Thirty people in a cave? That's definitely suspicious. But could it have been some kind of local custom? A ritual in that village?"
"I thought so too at first. But when I tried to speak with them, they completely ignored me. I carried the dead deer back down the mountain and asked around the village. They told me there was no such ritual. Besides... the village isn't very large. If thirty people had gone missing, the population should have noticeably thinned. But everything was normal."
"So the people in that cave weren't villagers. ...I see. That is definitely suspicious."
Hearing Bob's words, Rei nodded slowly, convinced that "suspicious" was exactly the right word.