CH 499

Rei and Set sneaked around to the back of the building they were targeting.

The path they had to take was quite convoluted because of the building’s location. But regardless, Rei and Set managed to get to the back of the building and found the back door before the raid started.

「Well, if they are aware that they’re doing something dangerous, they would naturally prepare an escape route in case anything happened.」

「Guru~」

Set gave a cry in agreement as Rei muttered to himself.

Rei gently stroked Set’s head and waited for a commotion to break out in the building……suddenly, noise broke out from in the building.

Most people wouldn’t have heard anything, but with their sharper sense of hearing, there was no way they would miss it.

「Well then, we should get going. I don’t think there are any underground passages, but there may be other hidden passages, so we should be careful.」

「Gururururu~!」

At Rei’s words, Set gave a cry of understanding.

Since it seemed that this building had only started to be used recently, Rei judged that they probably didn’t have the time to dig an underground passage. That said, Rei did consider that they could have dug a tunnel using magic.

However, there weren’t that many people who could use magic in the world, so Rei dismissed the possibility as he went over to the building with Set.

Fortunately, unlike the front door, there were no windows near the back door. Rei and Set remained wary of magic alarms, but they reached the back door without anything happening.

Sounds of destruction could be heard from inside.

Even if there had been people guarding the back door, it seemed they were now focused on Essetus, who would no doubt be quite blood thirsty……and Vihera, who was probably also enjoying the fighting.

「……」

When Rei turned silently to Set to confirm his intentions, Set gave a faint cry.

Seeing that, Rei took out a dagger instead of his Death Scythe, which would be inconvenient to use inside a building, and calculated his timing before gently opening the door.

He could have kicked it open to make the enemy think it was a pincer attack, but Rei decided that they might take hostages in response.

The moment they heard voices, Set used the Transformation skill to shrink his body before he entered with Rei, hiding in a nearby corridor, hoping they could overhear any information.

「Damn it, why is this place under attack! Did you guys head straight here when you ran away!?」

「Do you think we’d do something that stupid!?」

「Then, why are they here! Ogoru, that guys called Essetus must be the one you attacked!」

「I don’t know damn it! It had only been those two, then the Mad Beast helped them out, you have to be joking!」

「At very least, we were able to escape.」

「This is no time to be calm! We have to leave as soon as possible while those pawns buy time. We can’t let them find out any information……and pass it to the Silva family!」

Rei and Set sensed several people approaching the back door as they spoke like that.

As they got closer, the sounds of battle and destruction resounded inside the building.

It was easy to guess who was causing all the noise, but as Rei was about to step out in front of the people approaching the back door……

「What do we do with the captives? Since they’ve seen our faces, if we hand them over, they’ll know who we are.」

「……What? Surely you must have taken them away already? When we were threatened by that damn doll.」

「That was just the woman they were looking for, the one named Tivia. The others are ones we caught after that.」

「Wait, I haven’t heard anything about this, you know? If they’re really still here……」

Hearing their discussion, Rei paused for a moment.

(Tch, I guess Tivia isn’t here any more? Then, why don’t I gather as much information as I can from these guys? Also, I’d like to see some proof that they’re connected to the Marschel family.)

Quickly gathering his thoughts, Rei tapped Set on the neck to signal him before stepping out in front of the men.

「Unfortunately, this is a dead end, if you want to pass, you’ll have to be a big boy and spit out everything you know first.」

Seeing Rei suddenly appear in front of them, Set made them freeze for a moment……but the next moment, they closed the distance without hesitation.

They didn’t exchange any words, nor was there any sort of signal. However, the actions they made were very coordinated.

Two pairs of the 6 men attacked Rei and Set to buy some time while the remaining two took advantage of the opportunity to escape through the back door.

Before arriving here, they had been arguing, but there was no hesitation in their actions.

However……in the end, their decision was still the wrong one.

Rei easily dodged the two men that attacked him with a dagger and club before stabbing them with the tip of his own dagger.

Rei’s dagger was still sheathed, so Rei judged that it wouldn’t kill them before turning to Set.

The two men who attacked Set had been swept away by a single swipe of his claws, colliding into the other two who were trying to run away and knocking them all to the floor.

(Well, I shouldn’t need to worry about them.)

Relieved at their victory, Rei went over to the men stuck under the attackers Set had knocked away.

「Now then, since those two were trying to run away, there’s no doubt they know a lot more than the rest of the 6 men here.」

While muttering to himself, Rei thought about what the men had been talking about earlier.

There had been some people who were kidnapped after Tivia.

「It’s possible that they know something we don’t, so it would be a waste to abandon them. ……Set, I’m sorry, but could you keep an eye on these guys?」

「Gururu~?」

Even though he nodded at Rei’s words, Set still looked towards the back door.

Understanding what he wanted to ask, Rei nodded before speaking.

「Yeah, you should take them outside. It wouldn’t be good for anyone other than Elena to see you use the Size Transformation skill.」

「Guru~!」

With a short cry at Rei’s words, Set picked up the men by their clothes or armour with his beak as he carried them out. Rei watched Set do that just in case any of them regained consciousness.

To Set, it wasn’t a difficult task to carry 6 large men, so he was done after a few minutes.

Seeing the men lined up on the ground, Rei recalled a memory of seeing tuna lined up at Tsukiji in Japan on TV.

The sounds of destruction from within the building probably mean that Elena and the others were still rampaging around.

(Or Vihera, to be exact.)

The image of the seductive battle maniac flashed through his mind and he unintentionally gave a wry smile.

However, his smile soon disappeared as he proceeded to search the building for the people being held captive.

The building itself wasn’t that big, so Rei thought he would be able to find the captive immediately. But, even after looking around for a few minutes for places people could be locked up in, he couldn’t find anything. Or, maybe there was no such thing as a prison in this building.

「That’s all that’s left, but……」

Rei looked over towards the direction where sounds of destruction could still be heard.

However, that direction was closer to the entrance of the building. If someone asked Rei whether he would leave captives close to the entrance, he would probably say no.

「The remaining possibilities are a hidden room or basement, but as expected, it would be hard to find something like that alone.」

Although it could be used to search, Rei’s fire magic was too conspicuous as there were actual flames. Putting a dungeon aside, if he used it here, there was no doubt it would cause a big fuss.

If it was just a small rampage, the residents of the slums would probably turn a blind eye. But fire was a different story. After all, if things went badly, their own residences might get burned down.

Rei hesitated over what to do for a minute, but the battle inside the building seemed to have ended during that time. Realising that sounds of destruction and screams were no longer heard, he headed over to ask the people who had been taken out.

The reason why he didn’t head back to Set was just because he was now closer to the entry team.

Just to be on the safe side, Rei went over while keeping an eye on his surroundings and eventually a scene came into his vision..

Doors and walls were destroyed and there was a man who had fainted after having his upper body slammed into a wall.

It was especially bad near the entrance. There had been a fierce battle there……or rather, it was probably due to Vihera going wild. The ‘mansion’ in the slums was now in a state where it wouldn’t be strange for it to collapse at any moment.

The number of men lying on the ground was over 10. Considering that most of them seemed to have broken bones while Vihera and Elena were unharmed, and Essetus and Nakuto only had minor cuts and bruises, it wasn’t hard to guess how the fight had gone.

Rei looked on in amazement at the hellscape that had been created because of the men’s attempt to buy time.

「Ara~, Rei. Are you done?」

In response to Vihera’s question, who asked as soon as she spotted him, Rei gave a small nod before speaking.

「As expected there were some guys trying to escape out the back door, so I caught them. They seemed to be trying to escape by using these guys as pawns, so at least compared to the guys here, they should know a lot more.」

「Is there any information about Tivia!?」

Hearing Rei’s words, Essetus rushed to ask, but Rei silently shook his head.

「As they were trying to escape, I overheard that Tivia had already been taken somewhere else.」

「Damn……damn it, after all this trouble……」

Even though they had know the chances weren’t high, they probably still had some hope as this had been the attacker’s hideout. Nakuto patted Essetus on the back to calm him down as he kicked the ground in frustration.

Seeing that, Elena asked Rei something that had suddenly caught her attention.

「So, why did you bother to come over here? To tell us that you captured the ones trying to escape?」

「No, it seems that there are still people being held captive somewhere in this building, so I’ve been trying to find them……」

「But you haven’t found anyone.」

Rei shrugged his shoulders as Vihera’s words, who had been listening in to his conversation with Elena.

「I’ve looked around most of the building, but I think there’s a hidden room somewhere, so I’d thought I’d ask these guys to tell me where it is.」

「Why didn’t you just ask the people you captured instead?」

「It’s partly because I was closer to you guys and because there’s only me and Set on the other side. If something happened and they scattered to run away, we might not have been able to keep them all down.」

Saying that, Rei approached a man who had fainted, buried under some wood that used to make up a doorway, and poured water over his face using the Dagger of Flowing Water to bring him back to consciousness.

Elena and Vihera, who both knew how the water tasted, had a regrettable expression on their face, and even Byune’s expression changed slightly as they waited for the man to regain consciousness.