The moment they saw Rei’s weapon, most of the men gasped.
They felt threatened by the other adventurers who had appeared to prevent them from escaping, but right now, someone that posed an even greater threat to them was standing right before their eyes.
Rei seemed like nothing more than a child who had just become an adventurer to them at first glance, but that impression had now completely changed.
Catching an attack from a club swung by a grown man with a single hand, and then sending the man rolling several metres across the ground with what looked like nothing more than a light kick.
He had displayed such absurd physical abilities, and above all, was now holding a massive scythe that had appeared out of nowhere.
By the time they saw that massive scythe, most of them understood the true identity of the person before them.
And above all……
「Gurururu~」
Appearing from behind Rei was a Griffon.
He gave a displeased cry as he turned his gaze towards the men.
While Set normally had very round eyes, the look he directed at the men right now was sharp, like he was looking at prey.
As far as the men knew, there was only one person in Gilm who used a massive scythe.
And that person was the only one in Gilm……no, probably in the entire world, who had tamed a Griffon.
There was no way men living in Gilm’s underworld wouldn’t know the identity of such an individual.
Someone who showed no mercy to enemies, thoroughly unleashing his power against them.
One of the men muttered the name of the person carrying the Death Scythe on his shoulder with Set at his side.
「Crimson……Rei.」
The moment those words were spoken aloud, the men grew noisy.
By now, they already knew that the person before them was Rei.
Even so, hearing it said out loud made them realise a second time that the opponent standing in their way was someone completely beyond their ability to handle.
Several of them immediately started to look around as soon as they realised that.
Now that Rei had appeared, this raid was as good as a failure. That being the case, their next step should be to escape from this place as quickly as possible, before they ended up injured.
However, Rei’s companions brandished their weapons clearly as they surrounded them to keep them in check.
「Well now……you did exactly as expected. I understand that doing this was the quickest way to nullify the outcome of the duel, but even so, you’re way too short-sighted. Now that you’ve come to attack like this, you’re finished, though.」
Rei brandished the Death Scythe.
The sound of it cleaving through the winter night air made those who heard it imagine their own deaths.
「What will you do? If you surrender quietly like this, it would save us the trouble.」
Even while thinking they would never comply, Rei spoke.
He spoke towards the men, and at the same time, towards Keep.
Rei and Set were here, Freon and Brazos were here, and even the members of the former guerrilla force like Sergio, Johanna, and Dietz were here.
No matter how one looked at it, it would be impossible for Keep and his men to escape safely.
Since there was nowhere to run, they could choose to fight, but considering the disparity in fighting strength gathered here, it would be nothing short of suicidal.
That being the case, surrendering quietly to avoid getting hurt was logically the best option.
However, surrendering quietly without even fighting would hurt the men’s pride. ……Even if it was pride in the wrong sense.
Keep’s case was even simpler, he could never bring himself to surrender to mere adventurers.
While pride was part of it, it was above all out of self-preservation.
Because of the duel held earlier today, Keep’s standing as a noble had fallen to the ground, been dragged through the mud, and even soiled in excrement.
Even as things stood, some kind of punishment from his family was guaranteed, but if he were captured attempting to raid the Baron Cisne family here, it wouldn’t end with just being disinherited.
Rather, Keep expected that being disinherited would be the lightest punishment.
Since the knights were Keep’s subordinates, their punishment would be the same as Keep’s……no, in the sense that they failed to prevent this situation, their punishment might be even harsher.
In other words, those present could never bring themselves to obey Rei’s words.
「……Don’t……joke……around……」
In the silence that followed Rei’s words, such a voice suddenly echoed around.
The one who said those words was Keep.
Rei spoke to Keep while ready to swing the Death Scythe at any moment.
「What was that? Could you speak more clearly?」
「I said you’ve got to be joking! In the first place, you’re the cause of everything! If you hadn’t gotten in my way back then, I wouldn’t have ended up like this! If only……if only you weren’t here!」
Growing more agitated as he spoke, Keep swung the spear in his hands repeatedly.
「Why does someone like you have to exist! Damn it, listen up, you lot! If we don’t do something about them here, not just me, but you guys will face the worst outcome too! Make up your minds! Kill them right here!」
At Keep’s shout, which was filled with sheer malice, the knights each readied their long swords.
The other men also readied their respective weapons as if swept along by Keep’s words.
Looking around at the group, Rei let out a sigh.
「Hey, Rei! They chose to fight us, so isn’t that enough already! Hurry up and let us fight!」
Shouting at Rei with blatant irritation was Freon, who wore an expression of wanting to beat down her opponents as soon as possible.
While Freon originally had a tomboyish way of speaking, she was caring by nature.
That was obvious from how she had looked after Rei when they first met, even though Rei was not particularly good at dealing with people.
But right now, Freon was showing her irritation openly, as if having completely forgotten her good nature.
That was only natural. Brandishing status and power to claim a single woman, escalating it to a duel when that failed, repeatedly raiding the Baron Cisne family after learning Rei’s identity, and when that failed and he lost the duel, leading a large mob to attack on that very same day.
It was only natural for Freon to utterly despise Keep.
「Hah. ……Rei, while Freon’s words are rough, at this point, I don’t think fellows like these will surrender quietly. If we waste time here, there’s no telling if they might try something else. Wouldn’t it be better to capture them all in one go?」
Brazos spoke while holding his Earthshaker Hammer, and Rei nodded with a small sigh.
To tell the truth, Rei felt that fighting Keep’s group, which lacked any strong opponents, was a pain, so having them surrender quietly would have been best.
「It can’t be helped. Everyone, move out. Capture them. However, don’t kill Keep and the knights. As for the rest, you can kill them if worse comes to worst. That said, they are people who tried to raid a noble’s residence. If we capture them, they will undoubtedly be turned into slaves, so the reward will increase at least a bit.」
Rei’s words served as the signal for the start of battle.
Naturally, Freon was the first to move.
Holding her long sword, she slashed out towards the man closest to her.
The man held a spear, but the spear he thrust out to block Freon’s strike had its shaft easily severed, as her attack cut through the man’s body at the same time.
It was a wound that anyone could tell was fatal at a glance, but Freon paid no mind to the man as she moved on to her next opponent.
For Freon, her displeasure towards the men before her was far stronger than her desire to earn money by selling them as slaves.
Fighting had begun in other spots as well.
While Freon was the only one who didn’t mind killing her opponents, the women among the former guerrilla force members also had their own thoughts on matter. While they didn’t go as far as killing, they beat their opponents down mercilessly.
Despite possessing enough skill to knock them unconscious in a single blow, they deliberately inflicted pain without letting them lose consciousness.
For the men, having their bodies battered repeatedly while unable to pass out felt like being in hell.
The men had an overwhelming numerical advantage, outnumbering them by nearly three to one.
Despite that, the ones suffering one-sided losses were also the men.
Glancing at the scene, Rei held the Death Scythe as he spoke to Keep standing before him.
「……Now then, it seems things have started over there, so shall we get started here as well?」
When Rei took a step forward, Keep stepped back several paces, as if his courage from a few moments ago was all a lie.
Following Keep, the knights stepped back as well.
As Rei took another step forward, Keep and his knights backed away again…… After repeating this several times, Rei spoke in exasperation.
「Hey, how long do you plan to keep running away? You’re a noble, aren’t you? Show some proper noble pride at the very end. Besides, you can’t run any further, you know?」
Hearing the words from Rei’s mouth, Keep instinctively turned around.
Prompted by Keep’s reaction, the knights also looked behind them.
That was a fatal opening to reveal before someone like Rei.
Even so, Rei showed no intention of attacking, simply letting Keep and his knights look behind them, making them realise that a battle between the men they had brought and Freon, Brazos, and the former guerrilla force members was underway, and that they could not retreat any further.
「You understand you can’t run anymore, right? Well then, are you ready? I don’t really like wasting time either. ……Set, I’ll leave the three knights over there to you.」
「Guru~!」
Advancing forward in step with Rei, Set gave a cry at Rei’s words as he directed his gaze toward the knights.
Facing an A rank monster for the first time, the knights shrank back under the intimidating aura emanating from Set……yet they still readied their long swords to protect Keep as they faced Set.
(Heh.)
Having assumed the knights would leave Keep behind and run away, Rei was a little surprised at the unexpected turn of events
「Well, do your best. I’ll take care of things over here.」
Rei approached with the Death Scythe in hand.
Keep swung the spear in his hands in an attempt to keep Rei at bay.
……However, his actions were by no means the movement of someone who had trained with a spear, merely swinging it around randomly without rhyme or reason.
An opponent who knew nothing of combat might have found it difficult to get any closer. But against Rei, his action was completely meaningless……or rather, it merely created a massive opening.
Rei swung the Death Scythe and struck the spear.
As they collided, the spear was knocked out of Keep’s hands and flew straight upward along with a high-pitched metallic sound.
「Gyaaaaah, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!」
Keep crouched on the spot and cried out in agony from the pain caused by the impact of the spear clashing with the Death Scythe.
Watching him, Rei reached out his hand that wasn’t holding the Death Scythe……and the next moment, the spear that had been knocked straight up fell into his grasp.
「Gururururu~!」
Turning his gaze toward Set’s cry, Rei saw that the three knights were already unconscious from attacks by Set’s Water Ball and Wind Arrow.
Perhaps having understood Rei’s words before the battle that it would be best not to kill them, the knights appeared to have sustained injuries, but nothing fatal.
As for the mob led by Keep, the difference in ability was clear as many of them lost consciousness or were killed one after another, collapsing to the ground.
「Look, you guys are finished. Surrender quietly. The men you brought are almost wiped out too.」
At Rei’s words, Keep, who was clutching his arm and wailing, hurriedly looked behind him.
What lay before him was a scene exactly as Rei had described.
All of his escort knights were already unconscious, and despite having such large numbers, most of the men he had brought with him were already lying on the ground.
「See, your scheme failed. Just surrender to us quietly.」
「……Shut up! You bastard, what grudge do you have against me to do something like this! Defying me, a noble! You piece of shit!」
Overwhelming his fear of Rei with the hatred inside him, Keep dashed forward with a dagger he pulled from inside his clothes.
Tossing the dagger’s sheath aside, he thrust the blade toward Rei’s face, a spot not covered by the Dragon Robe.
Keep himself was completely unaware of it, but this was actually the best option available to him right now.
Crafted from dragon leather and scales, the Dragon Robe boasted extremely high defensive power.
So much so that ordinary weapons couldn’t even leave a scratch on it.
However, that was strictly limited to areas covered by the Dragon Robe, and it did not encompass Rei’s entire body like a magic barrier or the Flame Emperor’s Crimson Armour.
In other words, attacks with weapons would work normally on areas not covered the Dragon Robe, like his face or stomach.
In particular, a single hit to the face would be fatal.
Though……
「That’s only if you can hit me.」
Waiting for Keep to get closer as he said those words, Rei swung the Death Scythe.
Two silver lines seemed to cleave through the night air.
The next moment, both of Keep’s arms were severed from the shoulders and flew up into the night sky, falling to the ground as they were illuminated by the moonlight.