CH 501

Ogoru’s response to Rei’s question seemed natural and not particularly suspicious. For a moment, Essetus wondered if they had made a mistake.

However, Rei put more pressure onto Ogoru’s body as he noticed him stiffen for a moment before continuing to speak with a smile.

「Oh? You have nothing to do with the Church of Holy Light? So the female adventurer you kidnapped was mistaken?」

「Y-Yeah. Of course. I have nothing to do with the Church of Holy Light.」

Ogoru was going to continue but Rei put more pressure on him, forcing him to stop.

Rei nodded at him before asking again, as if checking just one last time.

「Then, you really have nothing to do with the Church of Holy Light? Are you sure?」

「Yeah, that’s what I’ve been telling you. More importantly……do you think you’ll get away with this? You do realise how dangerous it is to become enemies with the Marschel family here in Exil, don’t you?」

From Ogoru’s perspective, the fact that they were part of the Church of Holy Light was something that could never become known. On the other hand, they didn’t need to care that much about their relationship with the Marschel family. In addition, since Rei’s party had already judged that they were tied to the Marschel family, then they might as well try to pass their affiliation to the Marschel family.

……However, after hearing Ogoru’s words, Rei had a grin on his face as he spoke.

「In that case, I’ll have to ask you to prove that you’re not part of the Church of Holy Light.」

「……Prove?」

「Yeah, it’s not like I’ll make you do something difficult. You just have to repeat the same words I say……is that okay?」

At those words……or at that moment, to be exact, Ogoru had a bad feeling as he saw Rei’s smile. However, he was no longer in a position to be able to refuse.

Rei spoke as he looked at Ogoru.

「I recognise the Church of Holy Light as heresy and have nothing to do with such dubious organisations. The Goddess of Holy Light is actually a being that likes to entrap others and make them commit cruel and outrageous acts. In addition, the self-proclaimed Goddess of Holy Light is a dirty existence that would seduce men and drag them into bed.」

The words that Rei spoke not only stunned Ogoru, but everyone present as well.

None of them had expected Rei to say something so insidious.

However, those words had a great effect. Ogoru, who had been thinking about how to escape this place, turned to Rei with a sharp glare and eyes that seemed bloodshot.

Furthermore, the other ment, who were supposed to be unconscious, were also glaring at Rei with murderous intent.

With just that, it was clear what their affiliation was.

「I see, so everyone here is a member of the Church of Holy Light. ……It seems it really was a religion with a dark side.」

Rei muttered to himself as if convinced.

「What’s left is the all important question of where Tivia was taken……so, are you willing to answer that question?」

Even though Rei asked that, all he got back was a glare filled with murderous intent.

For Rei, it was something he had just said casually, but for the men, it was as if their faith had been defiled, something utterly unforgivable.

Even though Rei was being showered by murderous glares, he didn’t seem to care much as he continued to speak.

「Well, I have a rough guess. It’s either the Marschel family’s residence, or maybe a research lab. ……No, I heard that the Marschel family doesn’t hire that many people, so I don’t think it will be a research lab. Anyway, it will become clear if we go to the Marschel family residence to check it out.」

Glancing over at Essetus, who seemed like he wanted to rush to the Marschel family residence immediately, and Nakuto, who was holding him back, Rei spoke to them.

「Anyhow, the first place we should go is not the Marschel family residence……but to the Silva family.」

「Why! We have to hurry to save Tivia!」

Rei let out a small sigh at the words that Essetus spoke without thinking……

「You know. No matter how few people they have, the Marschel family is still one of Exil’s ruling families. If someone with your strength were to go in alone, you’d just be captured and buried in the darkness.」

Vihera spoke out in amazement before Rei could say anything back.

Essetus almost retorted on reflex after hearing those words, but Nakuto nodded back before he could respond.

「That’s right. If we want to rescue Tivia, it will either take a small group of highly skilled people to sneak into the Marschel family residence, or conversely, an attack with a large group of people that can’t be ignored. Doing things halfway would be the most dangerous.」

「But, does the Silva family have that much fighting power after having just fought the Levisor family?」

From what Rei had heard from Vosk, most of their manpower had been allocated towards dealing with abnormal species.

Of course, if the Marschel family was involved with creating abnormal species, then they should be able to redistributed their forces. And since the attacks on adventurers was a related incident, it should also be possible to hire adventurers who weren’t tied to the Silva family. But……

「But, if we wait to gather that many people, what will happen to Tivia!」

As Essetus shouted out, one of the men smiled.

「If it’s that woman, isn’t she about to be processed?」

「Yeah, probably. But that process isn’t a pleasant one from our point of view. At the very least, I’d hate to die like that.」

「-!?」

Hearing those words from one of the men, who seemed to be trying to provoke him, Essetus’ eyes went wide and he was about to shout back when……Rei stomped on the men, knocking them all unconscious again.

In addition, there was also an unpleasant sound of bones breaking, but no one seemed to care about that.

「……In that case, let’s chose both.」

Rei spoke as if didn’t care at all for the men who’s ribs he had just crushed. Essetus seemed confused as he asked back.

「Both?」

「Yeah. Either way, we can’t leave these guys like this, we need to take them somewhere to properly interrogate them. In that case, don’t you think the Silva family are just the right people? In the meantime, a small group of elites will sneak into the Marschel family residence and rescue Tivia. Also, it would be great if we could obtain some kind of evidence showing a connection with the Church of Holy Light or something to do with the creation of abnormal species.」

「Then, I want to be in the group sneaking in……」

「Rejected.」

Before he could finish speaking, Rei immediately dismissed Essetus’ thoughts.

「Why!」

「……Think about what you’ve said and done so far. Do you think you’re suitable for infiltration with that personality of wanting to rush in as soon as anything happens?」

「T-That’s……」

Even Essetus seemed to be self aware that he wasn’t suited for that kind of action. He struggled to say something back, at a loss for words.

Nakuto reached out to his shoulder to calm him down.

「I’ll go, I’ll leave these guys here to you Essetus.」

「But!」

「……Can’t you trust me?」

Nakuto said that to Essetus, who was still trying to argue back, to persuade him.

After hearing those words, Essetus fell silent for a few seconds before nodding slightly.

「I understand. ……Please save Tivia.」

After settling Essetus down, they next discussed who else should be left behind.

Rei and Set couldn’t be left behind as they made up the bulk of their strength. Elena also had her own combat strength in addition to Yellow’s ability to scout ahead. Since Vihera was looking forward to fighting tougher enemies and had cooperated with Rei and the others for that reason, she absolutely wouldn’t agree to be left behind. Byune had personal difficulties due to the relationship between the Fraut and Silva families, and above all, she didn’t really speak either, making her unsuited to stay behind.

As they discussed, Rei muttered out loud as he looked at the six unconscious people on the ground.

「As expected, it’s impossible to handle this many people with only one person……I should have asked for help instead of just sending Sonrissa away.」

「Guru~?」

Who is that? At Set’s question, Rei explained about the female adventurer who had been trapped in the prison.

After that, they continued to discuss who should be left behind, but when they saw the sun start to set, they understood that they had to make a decision.

And, in the end, it was Elena who conceded.

「It can’t be helped. I’ll take these people to the Silva family. If I go directly, Vosk will respond immediately.」

「Oh? Are you sure」

Vihera called out to Elena, who said that reluctantly, in a teasing tone.

Her question had two meanings.

The first was if it was really okay for Elean to leave the infiltration to them, and the second was if it was okay for her to not keep an eye on herself and Rei.

Elena frowned slightly at that question.

「I didn’t want to make this choice either because of your attitude.」

「Gururu~? Guru~……」

Set, who had been listening to Elena’s words, suddenly gave a cry as he turned his round eyes towards Rei.

「Set?」

「Gururu~, Guru~, Gururururu~」

Giving a few quiet cries, he turned to look at himself and them towards the unconscious men and Elena.

With just that, Rei understood what Set wanted to say.

He would go with Elena because his size would just get in the way of them trying to sneak around.

(Then, can we bring Elena back……no, we can’t.)

Set and Essetus knew far too few people compared to Elena. Besides, there was the problem that Vosk would likely only respond immediately if Elena went over herself. Judging that, the best option would be to let Set accompany Elena.

(Honestly, it sounds like it would be hard to find Tivia without Set’s sense of smell……but his size. We can’t really use Size Transformation freely with others nearby.)

Gently reaching out to stroke Set’s head, Rei spoke out.

「Set, I’ll leave them to you then.」

「Guru~!」

「Kyu!」

Leave it to Set! Yellow seemed to say as well as he gave a brief cry.

With a slight smile on his face, Rei turned to Elena.

「Elena, please take Set with you to the Silva family residence.」

「……Is that okay?」

「Yeah. After all, considering Set’s size, he’s not suited to sneaking around indoors.」

Understanding what Rei meant with those words, Elena nodded without replying.

「Understand. Well then, after handing these people over to the Silva family, I will negotiate with Vosk to have them provide a fighting force. If possible, it would be a great help if you could rescue Tivia by then.」

Of course you can do that, right? Rei nodded with a smile at Elena’s implied question.

「If possible, getting her out would be better as well. Even I would rather not worry about hostages when attacking the Marschel family.」

Rei and Elena both smiled at each other.

Seeing the two of them like that, Essetus, who couldn’t go to rescue Tivia himself, looked somewhat unconvinced, but he also understood that bringing reinforcements from the Silva family was an important roles. He stayed silent and didn’t speak out.

Oh dear, it’s getting dark, but it’s still quite hot.」

On the other hand, Vihera couldn’t keep quiet as she spoke up.

As Vihera had said, it was true that the sun had already set and the surroundings were now enveloped in darkness.

And, although it had nothing to do with Rei, the temperature hadn’t dropped at all and it was still hot.

Elena deflected Vihera’s words as she spoke.

「Vihera, don’t try and pull Rei’s leg. Don’t get caught up in fighting and make a huge commotion either.」

「I know. Be careful as well. It’s now certain that the Church of Holy Light is deeply involved in thi matter. Naturally, they’ll be aiming to recapture those six people, who are witnesses. If it wasn’t these six, they might not care……and even if they do, the probably still won’t admit to it, but still, there’s a big difference between having witnesses and not having any.」

Elena nodded firmly at those words……and then they split up into two groups, one heading for the Silva family residence and the other to the Marschel family residence.