Published at 12th of July 2023 5:41 pm

Chapter 577

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

Rei suddenly woke up in the middle of the night in his room.

There was no particular reason. But, if he had to give one, it would be that he suddenly had a bad feeling.

The moon floating in the sky outside his window was the only source of light in the room.

As the moonlight shone down, Rei felt a little tired as it had only been a few hours since he had gone to sleep, but he reached out to activate the magic lamp in his room.

If this had been an ordinary inn, there wouldn’t have been magic lamps in each room. However, from the fact that Daska stayed at this inn, it could be seen that it was a high class inn for nobles and wealthy merchants.

Thanks to that, each room had a magic lamp instead of a candle.

Anyway, activating the magic lamp, the room was lit up with a bright light.

Squinting at the glare, Rei put on his Dragon Robe, the Shoes of Sleipnir, and wiped his face with a damp cloth to wipe away his drowsiness.

After doing all that, Rei finally woke himself out as he looked to see what was going on outside the window.

Fortunately, the inn’s dining area was on the 1st floor with rooms on the 2nd floor like most inns, so he had no trouble seeing outside.

「……Doesn’t look like anything is wrong.」

At least for now. Rei thought as he said those words.

Just as Dwalube, one of the city’s knights, had told him, there were people in the city planning something……and on the way to the inn, he had felt a lot of bloodlust as well. Considering that, this outcome was only natural.

What he had felt in his sleep was a harbinger of what was to come. Rei left his room feeling certain of that.

「Woah……what’s wrong Rei? Don’t suddenly come out of nowhere like that. What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?」

A knight who had just walking past Rei’s room had a surprised look on his face.

The knight was, of course, on patrol.

Since it was almost guaranteed that something would happen, the knights had been patrolling the inn in order to alert the others as soon as they noticed anything or if anyone tried to break into the inn.

Since the whole inn was currently being rented out by Daska, it wasn’t an issue to have the knights patrolling around.

If there had been other guests in the inn though, it would naturally have been a different matter.

Since it was just Rei, the knight gave a sigh of relief as he moved his hand away from the sword at his waist.

However, Rei’s reply was more than what the knight could have expected.

「There will probably be an attack soon.」

Hearing Rei’s words, the knight stopped as he twitched slightly.

He then immediately looked at Rei with sharp eyes, compared to his previously surprised expression.

「Is someone out there?」

「No. But……my intuition as an adventurer is telling me that.」

An adventurer’s intuition. Normally, most people would take it as a joke.

After all, Rei had been an adventurer for less than two years.

However, it was different because it was Rei. He had been an adventurer for less than two years, but in those two years, he had become a B rank adventurer.

He also had a Griffon following him as well.

Knowing all that as one of Margrave Daska’s knights, the knight went straight to the point.

「Prepare for battle immediately. The others who are resting will wake up soon, so please head to Daska-sama’s side, Rei.」

「Understood.」

With that brief exchange, Rei left after seeing the knight head off.

Even on the inn’s 2nd floor, Daska’s room was located in the deepest area.

In front of the room, two knights stood guard.

One of the knights reached out for his sword as soon as he saw someone approaching quickly……but gave a sigh of relief as soon as he saw it was Rei.

The other knight, who had also reached for his sword after a slightly longer delay, gave a similar sigh.

「Anything wrong, Rei?」

「I have a bad feeling. Something will probably happen soon.」

「……I see, so that’s why.」

「Hm?」

Rei was a little puzzled at the knight’s response.

Seeing that, the knight spoke while trying to hold back a smile from seeing an expression a high ranking adventurer would rarely make.

「No, there was some noise in the room earlier. They had been asleep before then.」

「Heh.」

Rei voice his admiration at the knight’s words.

Seeing that, the first knight knocked on the door.

「Daska-sama, Rei is here. He said something might happen soon.」

「Understood, let him in.」

「Yes sir!」

Following that short exchange Rei entered the room through the door.

There, he noticed Elk, Min, and Rhodes in the room as well and immediately understood what the knight had meant.

(That’s right. There’s no way Elk wouldn’t notice such a feeling either.)

Rei knew that Daska himself was quite skilled, but even so, he had stayed away from real combat for a long time, being Margrave Rowlocks and having all the responsibilities that came with it.

Of course, it could be seen from his build that he hadn’t neglected his training, but training and real combat were two very different things.

The reason why Daska seemed all prepared himself was likly because Elk had been staying in the connected adjacent room to serve as his guard.

「You too, Rei?」

「Yes.」

Rei gave a brief reply to Daska’s question.

「It seems I wasn’t mistaken after all if you’re here as well.」

「There’s also the fact I wanted to give a warning in advance.」

Both Elk and Min nodded in agreement.

「Now then, the question is when will it happen. ……Even if it’s soon, there’s a big difference between 10 minutes and an hour.」

「Well, I understand what Daska-sama wants to say, but……it’s probably.」

As Rei spoke that far, there was a sudden loud knock on the door.

「Daska-sama, there’s sounds of people breaking in from the first floor!」

Their rooms were ones where nobles and wealthy merchants stayed, so the sound proofing was very good.

That was probably why they hadn’t heard any commotion on the first floor from inside the room.

「I didn’t expect the timing to be so good. ……What would you like to do, Daska-sama?」

「Let’s see……」

Hearing Rei’s question, Daska paused for a few seconds to think.

His eyes were directed towards Elk and Rei, the two most powerful people present.

He then turned to Rei before speaking.

「Rei, I want you to head downstairs with Rhodes. If there’s anybody breaking in, subdue them all.」

「With Rhodes?」

Rei had a look of surprise on his face, having expected to be asked to head down on his own.

Seeing Rei’s reaction, Rhodes looked at him with a slightly dissatisfied expression, although he didn’t say anything particular in response.

He stayed silent because he understood the difference in skill between himself and Rei.

Their gazes intersected for a moment before Rei nodded in agreement.

「Understood. Then, we’ll handle the first floor.」

「Okay. There will be knights down there, so there shouldn’t be a shortage of hands.」

「Yes. ……Elk.」

「I know. If anyone tries anything up here, I’ll do whatever it takes to stop them. So hurry up and head downstairs. ……I’ll leave Rhodes in your care.」

「Well, Rhodes is also a C rank adventurer. So he should be able to handle himself, right?」

The person in question retorted indignantly at the somewhat teasing question.

「Of course! I don’t know if they here just to cause trouble or something else, but I’ll prove that we won’t even need to bother mum and dad.」

Hearing those words, Rei thought that it was as expected that Rhodes would bring up Min first, but decided that pointing that out here would only cause more trouble. So, he turned around to head downstairs without saying anything in response.

Rhodes followed after him.

「Well, I don’t really need to say this, but be careful.」

「Rei, Rhodes. If possible, it would be a great help if you could catch a few of those causing a fuss down there. I want to know who’s pulling the strings in this matter.」

As Elk and Min called out to them from behind, the two of them left the room.

「We heard what’s going on. Do your best.」

「We’ll protect this place, so you don’t need to worry about Daska……or rather, with Elk around, we’re not really needed either.」

Rei smiled at the knights at the door, who spoke to him like that as he waved his hands lightly, before speaking to Rhodes without turning around.

「Let’s run. I don’t want there to be too much damage to the inn.」

「Yeah.」

As soon as he heard Rhodes’ reply Rei started to run down the hallway.

If he really put all his strength into running, the floor would break, so Rei held back a bit allowing Rhodes to stay with him.

But even then, he was moving at a speed that would leave most ordinary people in the dust.

In less than 10 seconds, they reached the stairs.

A number of people seemed to have already broken into the inn. Just in front of the inn reception, Daska’s knights were fighting a large number of intruders.

That said, the battle was very one sided. The intruders roared in anger as they swung swords, spears, clubs, and even farming tools. But all of them were blocked by the knights.

Against frontier knights, who regularly fought powerful monsters, the intruders……or rather, the mere mob, wouldn’t be able to do anything to them.

The main reason why the fighting was still ongoing was mostly due to the sheer number of intruders.

Even if one of them were knocked out, their friends would immediately pull them away as another person stepped forward.

Looking at the battle between the mob and the knights, Rei realised why the knights were so focused on defense.

The knights had been station in front of the stairs, defending the point so that no one could go upstairs. ……In other words, they couldn’t move from their position.

(Where are the rest of the knights……no, I see now.)

Rei quickly understood the situation as he looked around the stairs.

The sounds of combat were not just heard around the stairs but throughout the dining area as well.

(I hope the knight I ran into earlier did manage to inform the knights resting here in time. ……No, I don’t have time to think about that right now.)

Confirming the situation in a few seconds, Rei reached for the handrails as he saw a knight strike a man’s body with his sheathed sword.

「Rhodes, you and the knights guard the stairs.」

「Hey, Rei!?」

Rhodes involuntarily shouted at Rei as he easily vaulted over the handrails while giving orders.

The height from the 1st to 2nd floor was well over 5m.

Of course, most adventurers would be able to jump down from that height without any issue.

But, right now, there were fights without countless people taking place below. Considering that, Rei’s actions seemed reckless.

However, Rei activated the Shoes of Sleipnir as he fell. Taking several steps mid air, he landed on the floor with barely any noise.

「No, it’s you!」

One of the intruders was surprised by Rei, who suddenly landed next to him, but the next moment, he swung the club in his hands……

「Gah-!」

As the man swung his club, Rei silently thrust a dagger he took out from the Misty Ring at his torso.

Luckily for the man, the dagger was still sheathed.

Although it was just a cheap dagger used for dismantling monsters, the tip of the sheath still buried itself into the man’s belly, knocking him out immediately.

Most of the intruders didn’t even notice Rei as they were too focused on fighting the knights guarding the stairs.

The few people who did notice Rei thought that he was someone easy to deal with from his appearance but they seemed to sense danger after seeing Rei take the man down and didn’t make any immediate reaction.

If they had known that it was Crimson standing before them, it might have been a different story. But in the excitement of attacking the inn, those who had seen Rei’s face earlier in the day seemed to have forgotten his face.

Ignoring the downed intruder, Rei looked around.

However, no one attacked him as he looked up.

There, he saw Rhodes looking at him with an astonished expression.

Noticing Rei looking at him, Rhodes quickly motioned with his chin to signal Rei to hurry.

Rei gave a slight nod in response as he ran through the dining area while keeping a low profile to avoid being seen.

……All the while, he had mixed feelings about his short stature coming in handy at a time like this.

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