Even after seeing hte blade of the Death Scythe at his neck, Sistoi’s expression didn’t change.

His gaze was fixed on Rei without any sign of surrender.

Even in such a situation, his cloak was still active, causing him to blend into the surroundings. It would have looked strange to anyone looking at it from the side.

「Now then, what do you plan to do from here? Since there’s nothing more you can do, I’d like you calmly surrender and give me the information I want.」

「Unfortunately, I still have some attachment to the organisation. I can’t betray them so easily.」

Sistoi’s words were true.

Requiem’s Toll did commit inhumane acts, such as using child soldiers, which happened a few days ago. However, even so, the reason Sistoi and Mulla had been able to survive for as long as they had was because of Requiem’s Toll and they could not and would not betray them.

「Then, do you want to die?」

「I’d like not to if……hah!」

With a shout, Sistoi stabbed out with a dagger from under his cloak.

Seeing the attack directed towards his face, Rei showed a slight expression of surprise as he instantly shifted the blade of the Death Scythe away from Sistoi’s neck and towards him, deflecting the dagger.

「Argh-!」

It must have hurt when the Death Scythe’s blade struck his hand. Sistoi’s cloak was torn apart as the arm he used to attack with the dagger was also injured, causing him to let out a cry of pain.

「Even if you try to do something, in your current situation, it’s nothing more than a bad……!?」

A bad move. As Re was about to say that, he heard the sound of wind coming from behind him and he immediately leapt to the side.

A dagger passed through where Rei had been a moment ago.

Seeing that while still in mid air, Rei turned his gaze in the direction the dagger had come from as soon as he landed.

「Who is it!?」

His shout was partly unintentional as he had been caught off guard.

Rei was sure that he and Sistoi were the only ones left in the waiting room, all he had to do was to get the information he wanted out of Sistoi and to steal his cloak.

However, Rei couldn’t help but be surprised when he saw who it was.

It was because it was one of the men who had been killed, their body cut in two by the Death Scythe.

(How can he still move in this state? Did they become some sort of undead!?)

Seeing that, Rei readied the Death Scythe as he faced him, but……the man, who had thrown the dagger just a few seconds ago, dropped back to the ground.

It was as if he had lost all strength.

「……What?」

The man was definitely dead, not even twitching.

It was a genuine corpse.

The first place, it would be strange if it were still alive with just its upper body. But, there was no doubt that it had definitely thrown the dagger.

It was definitely an impossible action for an ordinary person. None of the other corpses had done something similar either. Still, since it had actually happened, Rei had no choice but to acknowledge it.

If it had been some kind of monster, it wouldn’t have been that much of a surprise for it’s upper body to still move. However, the corpse definitely belonged to a person.

At the same time, Sistoi, who had been waiting for that moment, a once in a lifetime opportunity, slammed a stone like magic item, several centimeters in length, into the ground..

At the same time, a smokescreen was created.

Within the blink of an eye, the smoke filled the waiting room.

Sensing Sistoi’s movements, Rei swung the Death Scythe into the smoke screen.

It would be a shame if he couldn’t get any information out of him and damaged the cloak as well. But even so, it was better than letting Sistoi escape.

Of course, Sistoi didn’t expect Rei to let him leave so easily, so he moved his body according to his instincts.

With his almost miraculous actions, he avoided Rei’s attacks as he went straight for the exit of the waiting room.

Rei’s first response was to be wary.

His actions had been because he thought Sistoi might use the smokescreen to attack him. But, he soon felt his presence moving away.

Sensing that, he immediately took a dagger out from the Misty Ring and threw it.

Normally, a spear would have been the best weapon to throw, but with how close he was to the wall, there was no space to swing it.

With a dagger, it was enough to just flick the wrist.

In addition, this was one of the daggers coated in poison, used by the dolls, which helped him reach an immediate decision.

「Argh-!」

A cry of pain could be heard.

Rei didn’t know how much poison was on the dagger, but since it had been meant to kill him, it was clear that it wasn’t some basic poison.

「Did I kill him?」

Although Rei said that, his mind was still on the corpse that had attacked him earlier. As he didn’t want to keep moving about within the smokescreen, he waited to see if there were any signs of movement.

Several seconds passed, but none of the dead mean seemed to make any further movements.

As he let out a sigh, he heard the sounds of hurried footsteps outside the waiting room.

His sigh wasn’t one of relief but more of having let an enemy slip away.

「He ended up getting away. He’s a troublesome opponent in more ways than one.」

There was a hint of bitterness in his words.

Rei really wondered how Sistoi had been able to avoid so many of his deadly attacks.

There were many things to think about and how his attacks had been avoided over and over again was one of them.

And……

「I didn’t get the cloak in the end either.」

Rei let out another small sigh.

A magic item that hid the person wearing it by mimicking the surroundings. If you moved, it would shimmer, but even so, when fighting in close combat, it made a lot harder for the opponent to gauge their distance. It was something that Rei had been considering with his fight against Noiz coming up in a few days. It was definitely something he wanted.

As he wast thinking about that, Rei heard voices coming from the door to the waiting room.

「Woah, what is this……I can’t see inside!? Hey, is someone in there!」

「Yeah, there is! I’m sorry, but please wait a bit. There’s a lot of smoke inside the room……」

As Rei replied, the smokescreen that had been filling the room vanished, as if it had all been a dream.

It literally disappeared like smoke.

「……This is……」

Even Rei was at a loss for words at the unexpected situation.

What came into view was a man in his 20’s, looking into the waiting room from the door with a stunned expression on his face.

It was someone from the management committee who Rei had met with several times before.

Even though Rei had never spoken to him directly, the fact that it was a familiar face still made Rei give a sigh of relief.

「I’m sorry, but could you please call someone over? As you can see, a lot of things have happened.」

「Y-Yes. No, but are you okay? The room is in a terrible state……」

It was no wonder that the man from the management committee was dumbfounded as he spoke. most of the items in the room such as shelves, boxes, tables, and chairs had been slashed to pieces. Even the wall had many large slash marks.

As Rei was about to respond to the man, who was walking over in concern……Rei suddenly had doubts.

Indeed, there were marks of damage all over the room. That was not wrong at all. However, there were also other things that should have caught people’s attention first.

That was right, there were men who had been cut into pieces, leaving their blood, flesh, and internal organs scattered all around.

The moment Rei questioned that, he felt a chill, as if ice had been poured down his spine, and he spun around instinctively.

At the same time, a dagger pierced the location he had just been in.

The tip of the dagger was wet with some kind of liquid and it wasn’t difficult to guess it was poison, based on what had happened earlier.

「……What are you doing?」

Rei asked the man with his Death Scythe still in hand.

It was only natural that there was a hint of anger in his voice. No, the cause of his anger was frustration as his own stupidity, not seeing through the other person’s true nature.

Even though those were his thoughts, he still felt that there was something strange.

He couldn’t pin point it, but there was certainly a sense of discomfort.

「Oh, what’s wrong? This really is a problem. If the waiting room is destroyed like this, the higher ups will get angry.」

Rei’s sense of discomfort grew as the man kept talking without seeming to care for his previous actions.

It felt like his words and actions were two completely different things.

With such an expression on his face, the man swung his dagger at Rei again.

「Seriously, all the competitors in the tournament get in trouble for being too violent. Of course, you won’t deny that, right? If you weren’t that kind of person, you wouldn’t want to fight in an arena in front of so many people. However, if the waiting room were to be turned into this mess, it would be my fault……」

The dagger swung again as he spoke.

Because his facial expressions and actions didn’t match, his movements were very hard to read.

The fact that the dagger was poisoned only made it more troublesome.

Rei knew that his body was different from an ordinary human’s, being created from the combination of Zepairu’s techniques. However, it was only natural that it would hurt if he were to be injured and he would suffer if he were poisoned, even if he didn’t die.

Normally speaking, he would want to avoid such a situation, not to mention his fight against Noiz in three days.

Rei definitely wanted to avoid taking unnecessary injuries in a place like this.

While reading the movements of the man’s dagger, Rei suddenly noticed something.

The speed at which the dagger was being swung was not something that could be achieved by an amateur.

The man shouldn’t have had such sharp movements and probably hadn’t been trained as an assassin either.

At the same time, Rei saw the corpses of the dolls in the corner of his eyes.

Seeing them, he understood.

「I see, so you’re just like them.」

「Huh, what are you talking about? If any problem arises between the competitors, I’m sorry, but you will be disqualified from the tournament.」

Even though the man didn’t seem to understand what Rei had said, his response was smooth, causing Rei to frown.

However, his reply also gave Rei confidence that the man was in a similar state to the other dolls he had killed.

「Tch, a two stage attack. As expected, they’re very well prepared.」

「Yes, I understand. Your next opponent will be a halberd user, so I will call you when it is time.」

The man probably didn’t even know what he was saying anymore. Even as he spoke, he swung his dagger wildly at Rei.

As he avoided the attacks, Rei tried to attack back with the Death Scythe……before stopping himself.

He realised that if he killed this man, he would be in a lot of trouble.

Unlike the people he had killed earlier, there was no doubt that the person before him was a management committee member. Since that was the case, killing him here was disqualify him from the tournament……and by extension, cause Vihera and Theorem’s request to draw the attention of the upper echelons of the Bestir Empire to end in failure.

(If possible, I would like to knock him out and capture him……but I don’t think that will be possible.)

Considering the actions of the dolls he had previously killed, including moving after being cut in half, it was easy to guess that it would be impossible to knock the man out.

「That’s troublesome.」

「That is right. But the rule is also in place to ensure the tournament goes smoothly.」

The conversation seemed to continue but not continue at the same time.

As Rei clicked his tongue at that conversation, a loud voice came from the entrance to the waiting room.

「Hey! What the hell is this……」

A man in his 30’s stuck his head through the door as he shouted. Seeing someone wearing the same uniform as him swinging a dagger at Rei, he immediately knew who it was.

「Leonay!?」

The name spoken by the man was probably the name of the man attacking Rei.

However, Lenonay showed no reaction as he continued to swing his dagger at Rei.

「Leonay, what are you doing! Stop……I’m telling you to stop! Are you mad!?」

「From the qualifying rounds, only the top three players can participate in the main tournament.」

The man desperately called out, but it had no effect.

「Damn it, what’s going on……Leonay!」

「It’s useless……!」

Rei said that as he used the shaft of the Death Scythe to deflect the dagger aimed at his face.

The reason he was no longer in any rush was because of the change in situation.

In other words, someone had appeared who could testify that he hadn’t killed Leonay for no reason.

「As you can see, he’s been completely brainwashed.」

「……Brainwashed? Who would do something like that?」

「Now then!」

With those words, Rei avoided the dagger and swept Leonay’s feet from under him.

No matter how much Leonay had been adjusted, there were still limitations to their physical body and Leonay fell to the ground.

At the same time, Rei punched Leonay in the face with an uppercut, launching him into the air.

Placing his foot on Leonay’s back as he landed on the ground, Rei called out to the man at the entrance.

「Could you capture this man?」

Rei asked for confirmation.

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