Even though spring was approaching, night times were still cold. Rei, Set and Azure Blades walked through the darkness of the night.

Of course, they were heading for the building in the slums where Min and Rhodes were being held. Aside from Rei’s group, the other parties gathered by the guild should have been heading for that location as well. The objective of the other adventurers was to surround the area to prevent anyone from escaping.

「……Heh~」

As Rei entered the slums and looked at the surroundings, he gave an unintentional murmur.

At Rei’s voice, Bilt, the leader of Azure Blades, turned to look at him.

「What happened?」

「No, I just thought that the slums are strangely small. There’s a slum in Gilm of course, but it’s much bigger.」

Anyone at the frontier city of Gilm could become an adventurer if they were strong enough. However, conversely, there was also the reality that those that went to the frontier with no skill could do nothing.

Of course, not everyone was helpless. Some were picked up by strong parties or developed their own skills and abilities to survive on the frontier. In the past, there were those who even moved to jobs other than being an adventurer.

However, not everyone who stumbled could start over. Some were forgotten by luck, others simply had no skill and some had broken their bodies. There were quite a few of those such people, who ended up falling into the slums. There were also those who had fallen into the criminal world.

Margrave Daska Rowlocks had been recruiting more security forces, but it was still difficult to completely eliminate the slums. The slums were a necessary place for those people.

However, the slums that now appeared before Rei’s eyes were much smaller than the one in Gilm. Of course, Gilm and Abuero had very different population sizes. That said, the slums before Rei were still small.

When Rei said that to Bilt, Bilt gave a proud smile as he spoke about it.

「Is that so? When I was born, the slums seemed to have been much larger. But as a result of Tirage-san becoming the guild master, running the guild and talking to the deputy lord, various actions were taken.」

Hearing those words spoken by Bilt, Rei nodded. If the results were so good, it was understandable why Tirage was loved by the guild’s adventurers.

「However, there are some people that dislike the Guild Master saying that he is weak. That aside, let’s move faster. The other adventurers should be moving soon. If we, the ones breaking into the building, are the last to arrive, it would be shameful, shameful I say. In the first place, we didn’t even have to break in, it’s just because Bilt suggested we go in aggressively……」

The archer, Clara, muttered her complaints to her leader and the others.

「But we owe a big debt to Rei right? Thanks to those Sword Bees, we were able to get out of our money shortage.」

「Yeah, yeah. But there were only two of us that were running out of money, Bilt and Begriff. Birke and I still had some to spare……」

「Guh」

Bilt was silenced by Carla’s words. But, her sharp tongue didn’t stop there.

「And, if you think that you’ve escaped poverty with the money from the Sword Bees, you’ll run out of money again. ……Hey, are you stupid? Using more money when you have more money, do you want to die? Can I put an arrow into your brain? I’d like to replace your useless brain with one from a Goblin.」

「Ughhh……」

「Guh」

As for the words that came from Carla’s sharp tongue……or rather poisonous tongue, Bilt and Begriff had no response.

「W-Well, that’s all fine. Carla is a bit restless. And the Sword Bees allowed us to get to know Rei. Normally, there’s no chance to meet with famous adventurers from the frontier you know?」

Maybe she was feeling sorry for Bilt, being torn apart by Carla’s words, Birke tried to change the topic.

As for Carla, she understood what Birke was trying to do and nodded without any objections.

「That’s true. But don’t forget that most of the credit goes to me this time, okay? I will exercise my right to my reward.」

「Ah, ahahahaha. I know. Carla loves money as usual.」

「That’s right. You can’t buy food without money, and most of all, I need a lot of money to make my dream come true. ……I can see it. Over there.」

Because they continued walking as they talked, before they knew it, they had arrived at their destination.

「……Guru~」

「Ah, that’s the right place.」

Set sensed the signs of a few people from the building Carla pointed to and turned towards Rei with a cry.

「Uwa, amazing. You can communicate with a Griffon. ……Doesn’t it feel less scary if it can understand what we say?」

Birk, who had been watching Rei and Set, spoke in amazement. The other three nodded in agreement.

They knew the relationship between Rei and Set as they had seen them many times. But, it was still a different feeling seeing them actually communicate with each other.

「Alright then……where are the other adventurers.」

Begriff looked around the area with his poleaxe in hand……but, he immediately shook his head.

「Ah, it’s no good. I can’t sense anyone else. How about you Carla?」

「Begriff……no, it would be useless to expect anything from someone with a brain made from muscle. Seriously. If your brain hadn’t been filled with muscle but with gold, I would have cracked open your head and taken the gold for myself.」

「Hey, don’t suddenly start muttering something so scary! Your face says that you’re being serious!」

「Shut up. If it’s not gold, then shut up. We don’t want the other side to notice us……eh?」

Carla ruthlessly told Begriff that, but immediately turned her eyes towards the building when she noticed something.

According to the plan, the only people there should have been the spies from the Bestir Empire and the hostages. Yes……that was what it was supposed to be.

However, what Carla could see was several figures trying to get into the building.

Some of the silhouettes were equipped with swords, others with spears. Because of that, Carla was able to determine that they were adventurers from Abuero.

「Wai-, what? Why!? Rei and Set are supposed to be the ones who rush in and we follow after right?」

「Hey, what happened?」

Bilt asked at Carla’s sudden dismay. However, it wasn’t Carla that answered his question, but a third person.

「……I’m sorry, I couldn’t hold back the rash ones.」

As they said that, two people emerged from the shadow of a building, a man in his mid 20s and a woman in her early 30s. They both had swords and it was clear that they were adventurers from Abuero. Rather, they were familiar people to Bilt.

「Iseberg-san, Horti-san as well……」

The man was Iseberg. The woman was Horti. The two of them formed a C rank party called Dragon’s Fang. At the same time, they could be called seniors whom Azure Blades had relied on.

「The guys from Ogre’s Heart are out of control trying to earn achievements……I couldn’t stop them or they would kick up a fuss.」

「What!? Because they…….」

「……I’m sorry, but could you explain it to me? I heard that Ogre’s Heart was a group that had cause some trouble before.」

At Rei’s question, who was completely out of the loop, Iseberg gave a small nod after turning to look at Set.

「I’m sorry. You must be the Rei that the Guild Master spoke of. And that Griffon must be Set. Ogre’s Heart is an E rank party. Although it’s a single party, it’s made up of almost 10 adventurers. You knew that they had kicked up a fuss around here before?」

At Iseberg’s words, Rei recalled the story he had heard at the Guild Master’s office.

「I heard that they had some trouble with another group called the Gilmont family or something.」

「Ahh. They were made to pay a fine for that as punishment, but……」

When he heard that, Rei understood what was going on.

「In other words, they want to take credit for this and deal with the fine using this reward?」

「……It looks like it.」

「Well, they’re just some people who are strong due to their numbers. We’ve gotten involved with them in various ways before, which has been a bother.」

The sound of Bilt clicking his tongue echoed slightly, but quickly disappeared.

Rei silently jumped onto Set’s back.

「Anyway, it’s no use kicking up a fuss here. It would be pointless if they got noticed by the enemy and the hostages were put in danger. I’m sorry, but I’ll break in first. ……Ogre’s Heart and some of the others might suffer some injuries, but I would be grateful if you could overlook that.」

Horti nodded at Rei’s words.

「Of course. It’s their fault for ignoring the plan and going in the first place. Don’t hesitate to go wild, we will testify for you. ……It seems they weren’t punished hard enough for their last uproar.」

The people around him nodded at those words while throwing out sighs in amazement.

The party called Ogre’s Heart seemed to be one that only caused trouble.

「I see, then I’ll go first. Set.」

「Gurururu-!」

Set gave a short cry at Rei’s call and flapped his wings, soaring into the sky with a few steps.

After seeing that, the remaining people all nodded as they went to fill their roles.

The two from Dragon’s Fang had made their own arrangements. The four from Azure Blades, who were originally supposed to break in with Rei, went to fill the gap that was left by Ogre’s Heart.

Rei, who watched them diperse from the sky, gave a quick nod before heading towards the building with Set.

However, they only did that after flying high enough to avoid the sight of the person watching from the window.

(Well, there are definitely three of them. One is watching from the window, the other two are waiting around near Min and Rhodes, who are tied up and can’t move. ……This means that if those people from Ogre’s Heart rush in, I can’t guarantee Min and Rhode’s lives. Ogre’s Heart is an E rank party after all. In that case, it would be better to clear out the three of them somehow before Ogre’s Heart makes a move.

Muttering to himself as he search for the members of Ogre’s Heart, he made his way towards the second floor of the building from the outside.

「Alright, Set. Dive into the building as fast as you can. Just before you hit the wall, go up. I’ll jump into the room where Min and Rhodes are held at that time.」

「Guru?」

Are you okay with that? Rei nodded towards Set, who had tilted his head, and told him there was no problem.

Because the enemies in Gilm that were taken down were easily neutralised by Set, Rei judged that they probably weren’t very strong, even if he didn’t underestimate them.

(However, that was because Set had ambushed them under the darkness of night at that time. I’ll have to act based on that.)

Even if Rhodes and Min had been taken hostage, considering that they were holding Elk down, they might have become careless.

「……Okay, let’s go.」

「Guru~」

Set gave a cry in response to Rei’s voice and flapped his wings as they descended towards the target building. On Set’s back, Rei’s eyes saw the building rapidly approach.

The person who was watching the surroundings from the window was late to notice Rei and Set, but not due to his carelessness. After all, basically no one flew through the sky, with a few exceptions like the Dragon Knights. And because there were no Dragon Knights in Abuero, he had concentrated most of his attention on the ground and very little in the sky. Although he had heard some information about Rei, he hadn’t thought that the person dispatched to watch ELk would be caught so easily and that Set could fly so quickly to Abuero. Even more unfortunately, the movements by Ogre’s Heart had helped to direct the man’s attention to the ground, creating a crucial gap.

And by the time the person at the window felt something and looked up, Set was already rapidly approaching the window……

「Wh-……」

Before the man could shout, Rei jumped off Set’s back and broke through the window, swinging his arm at the man and hitting him.

While Rei’s arm was almost unhurt, his attack crushed the man’s jaw, blasting him sideways, through a wall and out of sight.

「Haah-!」

Rei instantly pulled out two daggers from the Misty Ring and threw them towards the two men in black who were beside Min and Rhodes, who were on the ground and tied up.

Originally, he had wanted to through a spear. But in this narrow room, whether it was a spear or the Death Scythe, Rei’s long weapons were hard to swing around. Because of that, he chose to use daggers.

「Kuh.」

「Gah!」

The thrown daggers pierced into their arms, causing the long sword and dagger they held to drop to the floor.

「-!?」

While lying on the ground, Min, who had been desperately looking for an opportunity, swung her foot at the legs of the man who was near her, causing him to fall to the ground.

At the same time, Rei dashed towards the last man standing, swiftly punching him and causing the whites of his eyes to show as he fainted.

The only thing the man that Min tripped saw was the blade of the Death Scythe, held in Rei’s hands, thrust towards his neck.

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