A short while later, Lulune came back with her report.
"Not good."
"The merchant over there isn't willing to sell the carriage."
"If we just travel with the caravan and follow the goods, we'll definitely get caught."
The moment they heard they might be caught, both Eleonora and Welf grew tense.
"Hey, can't you just fly us there?" Eleonora asked Rayleigh.
From her personal experience, Rayleigh's flying speed was extremely fast.
At the very least, it was far faster than a horse.
Rayleigh looked at her and said helplessly, "I'd collapse from exhaustion before we reached Orario. If that happens, we'll really have no options left."
Although Daiguren Hyōrinmaru could provide the ability to fly, that power was not meant for carrying passengers.
The efficiency was far too low.
At this moment, Rayleigh truly wished he could forge Minazuki!
As a living-type Zanpakutō, once Minazuki was released, it would transform from a blade into a huge creature similar to a manta ray.
Minazuki's body was enormous.
It could carry multiple people through the air, and its speed was very high.
Because he would only need to maintain its Shikai release, the Reiatsu consumption would be minimal.
Carrying four people across several hundred kilometers would not be much of a problem.
Unfortunately, he could not just create a Minazuki barehanded.
"I'll negotiate."
After leaving those words behind, Rayleigh went to find the merchant Lulune had spoken to earlier.
...
Five minutes later, he returned to the four of them and said, "Done. Get in. We're leaving now."
"Hah?"
Lulune froze.
She glanced at the middle-aged merchant not far away, then could not help but questioning Rayleigh method.
"Don't tell me you threatened him."
Rayleigh: "???"
"How could I possibly do something like that?"
"Then why did that man suddenly agree?"
"That is the charm of money."
Rayleigh pinched two fingers together as he spoke a shallow yet very real truth.
Lulune's mouth fell open.
"How much did you promise to pay him?"
"Ten million valis."
"Te—cough, cough! Ten million?!"
Lulune rushed forward, lifted Rayleigh's coat, and roughly shoved her head inside while saying.
"You're carrying that much money on you?"
Rayleigh pushed her away.
"Of course not. It's not like I have some kind of spatial ring."
"Then why would he believe you'll pay him?!"
When asked that, Rayleigh scratched his cheek and said, "About that... I didn't expect myself to be this famous. The moment he saw me, he asked whether I was Rayleigh from Hephaestus Familia, then directly called out my title."
"After I admitted it, he agreed."
Rayleigh himself looked a little surprised.
Out of those five minutes, most of the time had been spent listening to the man flatter him.
In that instant, Lulune understood.
That made sense.
Among these merchants, there were naturally some who traveled to and from Orario.
That middle-aged man was one of them.
Otherwise, he would not be heading toward Orario.
Since that was the case, of course he knew some information from inside the city.
As the largest production-type Familia, Hephaestus Familia was famous even outside Orario.
And when speaking of the hottest rising star in Hephaestus Familia right now, there was no doubt it was Yōtōsai.
Whether it was a fearsome reputation or a good one, that title had spread widely throughout Orario.
Every Zanpakutō forged by Yōtōsai was worth hundreds of millions of valis.
That was no longer some secret.
Besides, this guy really was easy to recognize.
White hair, black eyes, a handsome young face, the style of his clothing, and the fact that he was always carrying several swords.
In a merchant's eyes, those were not swords at all.
They were priceless treasures worth well over a billion valis in total.
Although the merchant very much wanted to see the legendary swords said to possess souls, as an experienced traveling merchant, he knew he could not casually touch an adventurer's weapon.
That was a major taboo.
If one encountered an adventurer with a bad temper, even making such a request could get someone killed on the spot.
Not to mention, this man was the one said to have killed over a thousand people during the Great Feud.
It was not as though the caravan had no guards.
But none of them believed those guards could defeat an adventurer from Hephaestus Familia.
After giving the merchant a token, Rayleigh grabbed Welf and made him the driver, while he himself rested inside the carriage.
Because they had walked for several hours without any rest, the women, including Lulune, were utterly exhausted and soon fell asleep inside the carriage.
Welf was truly a child after all.
He possessed a mysterious abundance of energy.
The carriage did not move particularly quickly, only somewhat faster than everyone walking together.
Because of his fatigue, Rayleigh truly fell asleep this time.
He sank into a deep sleep, and his consciousness entered the depths of his inner world.
...
Inside an apartment that was clearly modern in style, Rayleigh sat up from the bed.
He looked around at the scenery, then naturally put on slippers and walked to the bathroom, where he looked at himself in the mirror.
There were several faint streaks of red in his eyes.
Rayleigh lowered his head, rinsed his mouth, and spat out the water.
When he lifted his head again, a figure had appeared behind him in the mirror.
"Have you noticed something, Hyōrinmaru?"
"Rayleigh, your condition is not good."
"Can you figure out why?" Rayleigh asked calmly.
Hyōrinmaru nodded, then looked toward the apartment window.
Rayleigh walked to the balcony and looked outside.
There, he saw a crack.
He understood it now, that crack was the culprit behind the fatigue he felt.
"Can it be removed?" Rayleigh asked.
By then, three more figures had already appeared behind him.
Senbonzakura.
Sakanade.
Ruri'iro Kujaku.
Hyōrinmaru.
The four manifested Zanpakutō spirits stood behind Rayleigh, all staring gravely at the fissure in his inner world.
Seeing none of them answer, Rayleigh understood that this problem could not be solved for the time being.
...
At the same time...
Ares, who had departed from Rakia Kingdom, was leading twenty thousand troops in a full-speed pursuit of Rayleigh and the others.
Ares sat inside a luxurious carriage. Beside him was Marius, who was reviewing documents.
Even while chasing an enemy, this king was still working!
This was no longer simple workaholism.
Marius had already grown used to things like this.
After all, his god was an idiot who knew absolutely nothing about managing state affairs.
"Hey, Marius. Stop working and keep me company for a while."
"I'm busy."
Marius was so busy he did not even have time to lift his head.
However, his gaze occasionally drifted toward the tip of his own finger.
After being healed, the injury could no longer be seen.
'Zanpakutō, was it?'
Perhaps, compared to Crozzo Magic Swords, those were the objects that deserved far more attention.