Chapter 324

Rayleigh had barely finished breakfast the next morning when someone knocked on the front door.

He checked the street through the window before answering, more from habit than suspicion, and found a Guild messenger waiting outside with a sealed black envelope.

The boy handed it over, bowed once, and left without asking for a reply.

Rayleigh broke the seal while returning to the table.

Alfia watched him over the rim of her teacup. "I assume your quiet morning has ended."

"Fels wants me beneath the Guild in half an hour."

"That answers that."

Rayleigh unfolded the short message and read it again.

There were only two useful lines: one of the prisoners from Monsterphilia had started talking during the night, and the information was considered urgent enough that Ouranos wanted Rayleigh present when they acted on it.

He finished the rest of his breakfast rather than abandoning it halfway through.

Alfia did not comment, although the faint approval passing through their soul connection made it clear she considered this an improvement over the younger Rayleigh who would have sprinted into trouble on an empty stomach.

Before leaving, he secured Benihime and Shinsō at his waist and checked the street one more time.

Alfia had already returned to her book.

"If Valletta is actually there, don't let her escape through another tunnel."

Rayleigh looked back at her. "You've been holding onto that since last night, haven't you?"

"Go."

He laughed under his breath and left.

...

Fels was waiting in the hidden chamber beneath Guild headquarters with Shakti, Ardi, and two senior Guild investigators.

Ouranos remained seated farther back before the great altar, his enormous presence filling the room without requiring him to speak.

Several confiscated objects from the Monsterphilia saboteurs had been arranged across the central table: forged badges, paralytic needles, explosive cylinders, copied keys, and three scraps of paper covered in numbers that had initially looked meaningless.

Fels pointed toward the papers as Rayleigh joined them.

"The prisoners were organized in separate cells and knew almost nothing about Valletta's wider network. That part was deliberate. One group handled forged credentials, another prepared the copied keys, and the men you captured yesterday were only responsible for opening the cages and preventing anyone from being taken alive afterward."

Rayleigh picked up one of the scraps.

"So what changed?"

"One prisoner recognized these numbers once we removed them from the rest of his equipment. They're not a cipher. They're storage references."

Shakti slid a city map closer and marked a location in the eastern industrial district.

"Old grain warehouses. Several were abandoned after the Great Feud because the surrounding businesses never fully recovered. One building still has a registered owner, but the taxes have been paid through intermediaries for years."

Rayleigh followed her finger across the map.

"That sounds almost too convenient."

"It would be if we expected Valletta herself to be sitting inside waiting for us," Fels replied. "We don't. The prisoner described it as a collection point. Supplies are delivered there, repackaged, and moved elsewhere without the individual cells knowing the final destination."

That made considerably more sense.

Rayleigh set the paper down. "Then we don't storm the place with half the city. A large force will only warn whoever is watching the warehouse."

Ouranos finally spoke.

"That is why only those in this room know."

His voice carried through the stone chamber with the same weight Rayleigh remembered from every previous meeting.

"The Guild has allowed Valletta three years in which to disappear. If she has rebuilt even a fraction of the network destroyed during the Great Feud, yesterday's attack cannot be treated as an isolated incident."

Rayleigh agreed, though the phrasing bothered him slightly.

Valletta had not been allowed to disappear.

She had escaped through a collapsed Knossos route no one had been able to follow, and the artificial labyrinth was large enough to hide armies beneath Orario if someone knew the right doors.

The Guild had searched, Hermes Familia had searched, and Rayleigh himself had spent time chasing leads whenever one surfaced.

None had gone anywhere.

That was exactly why a real location mattered now.

Shakti rested both hands against the table. "My Familia can seal the surrounding streets without making the warehouse itself look like the target. Ardi and I will enter from the eastern side. Rayleigh takes the roof and rear exits. If anyone tries to leave through the underground routes, Fels will have Guild personnel waiting at the sewer junctions."

"No unnecessary fighting if they surrender," Rayleigh said. "If these are mostly couriers and supply handlers, I'd rather have ten prisoners than ten corpses."

Ardi gave him a brief look that showed she had expected nothing else.

The plan was settled within minutes.

That suited Rayleigh perfectly.

...

The eastern industrial district had never completely recovered from the Great Feud.

New workshops and warehouses had returned to the main roads over the years, but several blocks closer to the old outer wall still carried scars from the fighting.

Empty buildings stood beside newly repaired ones, some with their upper floors collapsed and others permanently abandoned because rebuilding cost more than the land was worth.

The warehouse from the storage references looked exactly like the sort of place nobody would remember seeing.

Its front doors were chained. Several windows had been boarded from the inside, and no smoke rose from the vents despite the morning cold.

Rayleigh crouched on the roof of a neighboring building and extended his spiritual perception across the area.

There were people inside.

More than the Guild expected.

He counted fourteen distinct spiritual signatures within the warehouse and another three moving below ground. None felt particularly powerful, but two inside carried enough Reiatsu to suggest experienced adventurers rather than ordinary laborers.

Rayleigh touched the communication crystal beneath his collar.

"Fourteen above ground, three underneath. Two of the people inside are stronger than the rest, probably Level Two or Three. The underground group is moving slowly toward the western side."

Shakti's voice answered quietly. "Fels has teams covering the known sewer exits. We'll move when you're ready."

Rayleigh watched the building for another few seconds.

One person inside suddenly changed direction.

Then another.

The two stronger signatures began moving toward opposite exits.

"They know something's wrong. Go now."

Shakti did not ask how he knew.

The front doors burst inward a moment later as Ganesha Familia entered from both sides of the street.

Rayleigh used Shunpo.

He crossed the gap between buildings and landed on the warehouse roof just as a concealed hatch opened beneath a sheet of rusted metal. A man in dark work clothes climbed halfway through before seeing him.

His expression changed instantly.

Rayleigh raised one hand.

"Bakudō #1: Sai!"

The man's arms locked behind his back, and Rayleigh caught the front of his coat before he could fall back through the opening.

"Bad exit."

He pulled the prisoner onto the roof and lowered him beside the hatch rather than throwing him down.

A second figure appeared below with a crossbow already raised.

Rayleigh shifted aside as the bolt passed his shoulder, then drove one foot through the edge of the hatch and dropped through the opening.

The attacker barely had time to step backward before Rayleigh caught the crossbow, twisted it out of his hands, and struck him once across the jaw with the wooden stock.

The man collapsed.

Rayleigh landed beside him inside a narrow upper storage room filled with sealed crates.

The sound of fighting had already begun downstairs.

He moved toward the stairwell while checking the nearest crates with Ruri'iro Kujaku still sheathed at his waist.

His spiritual perception could tell there were no people hiding among them, but what disturbed him was how much magical material had been packed into the room.

Magic-stone powder.

Potion reagents.

Flame Rock fragments.

Enough to supply several small cells for months.

'Three years of rebuilding, all right.'

A woman rushed up the stairs with two short swords in her hands.

She saw Rayleigh and attacked without hesitation.

He drew Benihime and caught both blades against his guard, redirected them toward the wall, then stepped inside her reach and struck the center of her chest with his palm.

The blow sent her backward down three steps without doing enough damage to kill her.

She recovered quickly.

Level Two, at least.

The woman changed her grip and rushed him again, using the narrow staircase to deny him room for a full sword swing.

Rayleigh shortened his stance instead.

Benihime caught the first blade near the hilt. His left hand trapped her second wrist, and one sharp turn forced her shoulder against the stone wall before she could pull free.

"You're surrounded. Drop them."

Her answer was to drive her knee toward his stomach.

Rayleigh shifted enough to let it pass and struck the inside of her supporting leg. The woman lost balance, and he used the opening to twist both weapons from her hands before pinning her against the wall.

"Last chance."

She reached toward her mouth.

Rayleigh recognized the movement immediately.

His fingers caught her jaw before she could bite down.

"Really? Again?"

He removed another poison capsule from beneath her tongue and tossed it down the stairs.

The woman's face went pale.

Rayleigh bound her arms with Bakudō #1: Sai and continued downward.

By the time he reached the ground floor, Shakti and Ardi had already taken control of most of the warehouse.

Several workers were lying facedown with their hands secured behind them, while three Ganesha adventurers guarded the front entrance.

The remaining resistance was concentrated near the rear loading area.

One of the stronger signatures Rayleigh had sensed earlier belonged to a broad-shouldered man wielding a heavy cleaver.

He was keeping Shakti occupied while two others tried to force open a trapdoor behind him.

Ardi stood between them and the exit with Nejibana drawn but still sealed.

Rayleigh could tell immediately why she had not released it.

The warehouse was packed with volatile materials.

A careless burst of water pressure near the wrong crate could scatter powdered reagents across the entire room, and nobody yet knew which containers held Flame Rock.

The cleaver wielder swung at Shakti with enough force to split a wooden support post behind her.

She avoided the blow, moved inside his reach, and struck his ribs, but the man absorbed it better than most Level Twos could.

Rayleigh crossed the room with Shunpo and appeared behind him.

The man sensed the movement and turned surprisingly quickly.

His cleaver came around in a horizontal arc.

Rayleigh lowered his body beneath it, caught the man's wrist with one hand, and struck his elbow with the pommel of Benihime.

The arm went numb.

Shakti immediately took advantage of the opening and drove her shoulder into his chest.

The man staggered backward.

Rayleigh raised two fingers.

"Bakudō #61: Rikujōkōrō!"

Six golden pillars slammed into the man's torso and locked him upright before he could recover.