After a full day of work, he was finally done.
Along the way, he picked up quite a few bits of gossip.
What had happened yesterday had already spread into all kinds of rumors.
Some claimed that the attack on the harbor had actually been an internal reshuffling of power.
Certain parties were dissatisfied with the current distribution of Benefit and wanted to redraw the lines.
So they had contacted an unknown powerhouse to stir up chaos.
After killing the four top figures of the Debt Collectors, that person had vanished completelyâleaving the organization severely weakened.
And all of this, naturally, benefited their long-time rival faction, Whiteblood.
Because of Luluwiâs attack, countless speculations had begun to spread.
Rei Kanzaki strolled through the harbor for a few minutes.
Before longâ
He saw that silver-haired catgirl again.
Shumi.
Having encountered her so many times, his perception had already marked her presence. Now, the moment she entered his range, he noticed her instantly.
"So scary, nya..."
"But I didnât expect even the Righteous Thunderbearer to be killed, nya..."
"Sigh, he even helped me look for a Thunderbeast before, nya..."
"But the one who killed him... really terrifying. I didnât think someone like that would be on this island. Good thing he didnât go on a killing spree, nya..."
Iâm not someone who goes on killing sprees.
If others donât provoke me, I wonât provoke them.
He brought this upon himself...
Rei Kanzaki thought calmly, without the slightest ripple in his emotions.
Only certainty.
Only composure.
Whooshâ
With a single flickerâ
He returned to his residence.
Kiyomi leaned against the wall.
Luluwi had already awakened.
"How are you feeling, Luluwi?"
Luluwi held her forehead, having just woken up.
Her mind was still clouded.
"My sea of consciousness... itâs still pitch-black."
"But... it feels like I can see very far."
She extended her perceptionâ
And discovered she could now observe a radius of two hundred thousand kilometers.
The transformation of her sea of consciousness had granted her an extraordinary boost in sensory range.
"...Mm. Thatâs fine."
"Your sea of consciousness will gradually recover over time. Recovery is just a matter of time."
In realityâ
It wouldnât recover at all.
Rei Kanzaki was simply deceiving her.
As long as Luluwi believed itâ
It could become reality.
"But if you canât fully recover..."
"Iâll have no choice but to kill you."
He spoke the threat calmly.
It had to be said.
Otherwise, that cold, ruthless personalityâ
If Luluwi grew accustomed to it, she might not even want to recover.
A measure of pressure was necessary.
So she would understandâ
Remaining in that contaminated state meant certain death.
Her only optionâ
Was to recover.
"Kiyomi, Iâll leave Luluwi in your care for now."
Kiyomi gave a small nod.
"...Understood."
After thatâ
Four more days passed in the blink of an eye.
With such a dense concentration of monster tides, the gains had been substantial.
Inside a dim underground workshopâ
Weapons floated around Rei Kanzaki in neat rows.
These were all temporary weapons he had crafted.
Though technically Tier 2â
Some of them were already comparable in practical use to the Void Ring Star Spear.
The ship to the next island had arrived at the harbor today.
Travel across the Moonsea required charting routes between locations.
Ships were both vital and rare.
Sometimes, a route was serviced by only a single vesselâ
Meaning a journey could take ten days to half a month.
Rei Kanzaki was beginning to understand why this world had no devices like smartphones.
Electromagnetic waves were, in a sense, a rule unique to Earth.
And even there, signal transmission was limited to the speed of light.
If one tried to communicate here using Earthâs methods...
By the time the message arrivedâ
Hundreds, even thousands of years might have passed.
Compared to thatâ
Even electromagnetic waves were slower than his own movement speed.
As he admired the weapons he had craftedâ
His perception stirred again.
"...Here they come again."
Another group from the Church had arrived on the island.
News of a "malevolent presence" had spread.
Now, evil hunters, extermination teams, and orthodox church tribunals were beginning to arrive one after another.
All of themâ
Came with the same purpose.
To eliminate him.
They didnât know who he was.
But they knewâ
That somewhere on this island, a "wicked being" was performing forbidden rituals.
And because they came to kill himâ
Rei Kanzaki had killed them in return, without the slightest hesitation.
"Iâm not some evil entity."
"So why do they keep trying to hunt me down..."
He muttered as he sensed yet another group arriving.
"...Forget it. Iâll let this batch go."
He had already gathered enough materials.
It was time to leave.
Inside the dim basement, he stored all the floating weapons into his inventory.
With a slight turnâ
He reappeared in the dimly lit room above.
The three of them were still sharing the same cramped space.
Kiyomi slept standing against the wall.
Luluwi rested on the bed.
And Rei Kanzakiâ
Hadnât slept at all these past few days.
At his current mental state, sleep was no longer a necessity.
"Weâre leaving."
"Iâve already bought tickets for the next ship. After this, weâll likely be spending most of our time at sea."
"Weâre heading straight to the Land of Moonâs Sight. Along the way, weâll only pass through two intermediary continents."
Kiyomi looked at him.
Her expression carried a trace of complexity.
"...Understood."
After a brief hesitation, she spoke again:
"Rei Kanzaki... youâve killed a lot of people these past few days."
In her hand was a black-and-white newspaper.
He glanced at it.
"Falling Moon Isle Incident Report"
Every continent had its own publications reporting major events.
Falling Moon Isle was no exception.
And the headline readâ
"Crusade Against Evil: Life Church Tribunal Annihilated""Mysterious Evil on Falling Moon IsleâNo Survivors Among Those Who Pursued It"
"Rei Kanzaki... you did this, didnât you?"
He sighed faintly.
"They came to kill me. Itâs only natural I fought back."
"Even members of the Life Church?"
Rei Kanzaki replied evenly:
"Theyâre not Kumironi. Theyâre just members of the Moonsea branch."
"Different regions, different people. If they were from the Life Church of Ruilenâeven outside Loren territoryâI might have spared them."
Kiyomiâs expression grew more complicated.
"You clearly had the ability to avoid causing such unrest."
"And with your strength... even if you didnât kill them, they wouldnât have posed a threat to you."
Rei Kanzaki tilted his head slightly, puzzled.
"Kiyomi... arenât you an assassin?"
"Why would you say something like sparing enemies who want to kill you?"
Kiyomi frowned faintly.
"When I kill... itâs according to what Kumironi taught me. To kill the wicked. To eliminate evil."
"But the people you killed... were good people."
Rei Kanzaki didnât waver in the slightest.
Instead, he answered calmly:
"In this world, where is there an absolute definition of good and evil?"
"If theyâre âgood people,â and they want to kill meâ"
"Does that mean Iâm not allowed to kill them?"
"Isnât that absurd?"
"Kiyomi... thinking like that wonât keep you alive in this world."
...
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