Rei moved towards his waiting room and reached for the door as he searched for any signs of people inside.

(Six……or maybe seven people?)

Although he could sense people, the fact that there was almost no murderous intent was proof that they were skilled.

(Well, I’ll just do what I have to do.)

Opening the door, he readied himself to take the Death Scythe out of the Misty Ring at any time.

There was quite a bit of space inside the waiting room.

It wasn’t as big as the one where hundreds of people had gathered during the qualifying rounds, but it was still a fair amount of space……large enough for the competitors to move their bodies around.

And since there was that much space, it wouldn’t be too big of a problem to swing the Death Scythe about.

(I’m lucky in that regard.)

As he entered the waiting room and looked around……he was a little confused.

(If possible, I would have liked to make a preemptive attack to reduce the number of enemies by one or two. However, there’s the question of whether the female soldier from earlier was really on our side.)

Indeed, the dagger the woman had been holding was the same as the one Keuken had shown to Daska.

However, Rei couldn’t deny the possibility that someone had managed to steal the dagger to trick him in some sort of plot.

Well, for example, if Rei launched a preemptive attack on the people hiding to take them down and it turns out the people hiding were actually an escort prepared by the Empire……and so on.

(Normally, that would be unthinkable, but in my case, I entered the tournament on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. And, since I won the fifth round, I’m highly well known even within the Empire. That’s all in addition to my infamy. Considering the people targeting me, it wouldn’t be that surprising for an escort to be arranged for me.)

If that was the situation and he killed his own escort, it would definitely be a problem.

As that was a possibility, Rei decided that it was necessary for the other party to make the first move. So he looked around as he leaned against the doorway.

However, that didn’t seem to faze the lurking presences.

(I have my doubts about why they’re not doing anything. I would have thought they would have made their move……what should I do then?)

As he thought about it, Rei decided that there wasn’t much else he could do and that it would be troublesome if he was attacked while in a bad position, so he spoke up.

「Whoever is hiding, come out. If you’re my escort or something, I think you should at least give a proper explanation, right?」

Although he spoke that into the waiting room, there was no sign of anyone appearing.

No, in fact, even after being told that they had been found, they showed no signs of being upset about it.

If they were assassins, they would be at least a little upset if they knew they had been found out. With that in mind, had the female soldier from earlier really been some kind of trap? That was what he thought.

However……the next moment, he realised his fears were unfounded.

「Tch-!」

Rei felt murderous intent directed towards him and immediately jumped away from his previous location.

At the same time, something fell down from a gap in the ceiling, a blind spot, landing where Rei had been just a moment ago.

If Rei hadn’t moved, he would have taken fatal damage from the falling object……no, the dagger that the person had been holding.

At the same time, the people who had been hiding inside revealed themselves.

Including the first person to attack, there were a total of 6 people.

(It seems like one person is still hiding somewhere……but in any case, there are only 6 of them right now.)

Rei thought to himself. The fact that there weren’t that many places to hide in the waiting room probably affected the number of people sent to kill him.

「Uhhhhhh.」

The six people readied their weapons with groans.

They were all wielding daggers, probably because of their plan to fight inside the waiting room.

In addition, it wasn’t just daggers.

「Poison, huh.」

When Rei saw that the daggers held by the six people were all wet with some kind of liquid, he couldn’t help but mutter out loud.

What’s more, the dagger tips clearly held more than one type of liquid.

Blue, red, black, purple……it was clear that each person had a different poison.

(Considering they’re being used by assassins, normal antidotes probably won’t be effective. Even if you’re lucky enough to have the antidote that effective against one poison, it probably won’t handle all of them……in that case, even the slightest scratch is dangerous.)

Judging that none of them were likely paralysis poisons at this point, he readied himself.

He was surrounded by six assassins with poisoned daggers. Looking at it from the outside, it seemed like he was at a dead end.

However, a smile appeared on Rei’s face under his hood.

「That’s right……if I can overcome this, I will become stronger as I move forward. Come on! In order for me to advance……become my foundation for defeating Noiz!」

The six dolls reacted to Rei’s words.

They were supposed to have been adjusted by Mulla to the point that they wouldn’t feel any fear……but even so, they seemed to sense something from Rei.

Even so, the dolls moved according to the commands they had been given.

Each of them silently swung their daggers as they attacked Rei.

One each from the front, back, left, and right. One then leaped towards Rei from above with a jump impossible for ordinary people. The last one observed Rei’s movements, ready to pursue if he tried to escape.

「They move fairly quickly……but that’s about it.」

Rei responded to the five people attacking him from all directions.

Thinking about it, there was a simple solution. If he was surrounded on all sides, all he needed to do was to break through the encirclement at a single point.

This wasn’t something that would normally be done so easily. But, this was possible with Rei’s extraordinary physical strength and combat power.

「Phew-!」

He moved to the right. The doll in that direct swung their dagger as Rei approached.

The poisoned dagger was dangerous enough that most humans would die almost immediately from even a scratch.

To a normal human, it might not look like the reaper’s scythe, but it certainly could be described as such.

However……

(It’s useless if you don’t hit!)

Dodging the dagger swinging towards him by turning his body to the side, he took a dagger out of the Misty Ring as he drove it into the doll’s side.

What he used wasn’t the Mithril Knife, but an ordinary dagger used for stripping materials. In addition, it was still in it’s sheath as it shattered the doll’s ribs, blowing them away.

The vivid sound of flesh being slammed against the wall echoed out, but no one in the waiting room seemed to care.

(There’s six people now, including the one hiding.)

As he broke out of the encirclement, Rei muttered to himself. The sixth doll that hadn’t participated in the initial attack also started to approach him.

「……」

Using his own dagger to deflect the poisoned dagger that was silently swung towards him, Rei clicked his tongue when he saw the doll he had sent flying earlier stand back up without showing any signs of pain.

(Breaking all their ribs doesn’t seem to work. I’m not trying to get any information out of them either. If that’s the case, it can’t be helped……)

Realising that it would be impossible to capture them in their current state, Rei deflected another dagger attack as he used that momentum to unsheathe his own dagger.

At the same time, three daggers were thrust at him from his back.

While avoiding the attacks, Rei swung his arm and ran his dagger towards the neck of the doll in front of him before getting behind them and kicking them towards the dolls chasing after him.

Blood gushed out from the cleaning sliced neck as the doll fell towards the ones who attacked Rei from behind.

No matter how much Mulla had strengthened them, their basic functionality as a human couldn’t be changed. In other words, vision was still the most important of their senses.

The blood that spurted out fell onto their eyes, blocking their vision.

Furthermore, their sense of smell was severely restricted due to the scent of blood.

Despite that, the three dolls continued to swing their daggers towards where they remembered Rei to have been.

At the same time, they seemed to view their comrade, who’s neck had been slashed, to be a nuisance as they pushed them to the side, causing them to collide with a wall as blood gushed out from their neck.

They might have been comrades, but there wasn’t even a sliver of affection between them. Normally, even assassins would feel some emotion towards the death of a comrade.

However, these adjusted dolls had no such feelings as they only aimed for their target.

「I knew you would do that!」

Rei smiled at the three assassins rushing towards him.

Even if it was only for a few seconds, it wasn’t that difficult to gain some distance from them by throwing the body of their comrade towards them.

Unlike the waiting room during qualifying rounds, this room could only hold several dozen people.

So, what Rei moved towards was the wall.

But still……

「Even if I can’t swing anything around, I can just stab you!」

Before anyone could notice, Rei had swapped the dagger in his hand for a spear.

It was a broken spear, the kind Rei usually used for throwing. Rei gave a smile towards the assassins charging at him.

Normally, one wouldn’t want to stand in front of an assassin with a weapon like this.

Of course, even if he could pierce an assassin with the spear, the spear was still half broken.

But……if it were Rei holding the spear, it was a different matter.

「The fact that this space is smaller……means that there’s more overlap!」

With a shout, the spear was thrown.

Even with the spear tip missing, Rei’s skill and physical strength, which he had used to throw spears many times before, caused the spear to turn into a ray of light as if flew towards the dolls.

Although their positions did overlap slightly, they weren’t all in a straight line. In order to make it easier for them to move, they were positions half a step apart from each other, all arranged beforehand.

As a result……the abdomen of the first doll was pierced through the middle, second doll in their right side, and the third doll on their left side, as they were pinned to the wall.

「Tch……why don’t you scream in pain?」

As Rei said that, the dolls forcibly tore themselves away from the spear they had been hit by.

Doing that naturally resulted in their wounds getting worse, but the men had been adjusted to the point that their sense of pain was completely gone and they no longer showed any change in facial expression.

「……」

Just like that, they started to move again as if they had never been injured as they closed the distance to Rei and swung their daggers.

Naturally, this included the doll that had been the first to be blown away by Rei after having their ribs crushed. Of course, they didn’t show any signs of pain either.

「Even if you get stabbed through the belly, huh.」

Four daggers swung down one after the other.

Although they were working together, something still felt off.

As he blocked the attacks with his own dagger from the Misty Ring, Rei decided that it would be better to finish them all off rather than considering the damage to the surroundings.

(And, there’s still one who hasn’t shown up yet.)

As Rei jumped back to avoid a dagger attack, he threw his own dagger with his right hand.

Unsheathed, the dagger flew out as it tore through the air, piercing the forehead of one of the dolls.

The doll’s limbs twitched for a moment before collapsing to the ground.

Seeing that, Rei took out the Death Scythe.

「HAAAAAAH-!」

With a shout and a strike, the doll to the right was slashed.

Their body and both arms were sliced apart.

As they were about to swing their dagger at Rei, their arms spun in mid air before falling to the floor. At the same time, their severed body collapsed while scattering organs and blood everywhere.

It was quick from there. The remaining dolls were cut apart by the return strike and just a few seconds later, Rei was the only one left standing.

The strong stench of blood and entrails spread around him.

「No matter how many times I smell it, I can’t get used to it.」

Frowning at the small that filled the waiting room, he looked around.

The room, which was normally used to prepare for the tournament, was now in a pitiful state.

Part of it could be blamed on Rei’s fight with the assassin, but the real culprit was Rei’s Death Scythe.

Each attack made with the Death Scythe not only cause great damage to the dolls but also to the shelves and walls in the waiting room.

Sighing, he picked up one of the poisoned daggers from the floor as he stored it into the Misty Ring.

「I don’t think they’ll ask me to compensate for the damage. In the first place, it was the tournament committee who couldn’t prevent the assassins from getting in. ……What do you think?」

After looking at the state of the room, which was now a complete mess, Rei headed to the location where the last person was hiding with the Death Scythe at the ready as he asked.

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