The next day, they started practicing building and demolishing walls quickly while Sara hunted the ever-abundant horned rabbits in the eastern meadow with Haruto. Since Sara didn’t like to hunt proactively, she was basically just there watching Haruto, but she must have looked like easy prey sitting snugly on the grass, so even without her doing anything, she ended up with piles of horned rabbits around her after they charged into her barrier all on their own.
Compared to the tumult in Hydrangea and the capital, things were so peaceful here it was like there was no continental tortoise at all, but there was, of course, and news of its appearance reached them eventually.
“The continental tortoise will arrive at Rosa before noon tomorrow!”
The air in Rosa tensed immediately following the messenger’s announcement.
“Okay, all the stands and people staying in tents are to evacuate first thing tomorrow morning.”
Anyone working as a Hunter in Rosa had a storage pouch no matter how new they were, so everyone could travel light and move quickly. The townspeople were more or less the same, so everyone living on the eastern side of town in the Second and Third Districts packed all their belongings into storage boxes or bags and evacuated to the First District, and everyone living outside of the Third Wall moved to the western side of town.
The evacuation proceeded solemnly, and when everything was more or less ready, everyone involved with defending the city had gathered atop the gate on the Third Wall. Everyone, that is, save for Sara, Haruto, Bradley, and for some reason Vince, who stood atop a newly constructed watchtower waiting for the continental tortoise to come into view.
“Where else would I be? This is my plan.” He seemed fairly full of himself, but Vince was a talented caster, so no one could really argue against his being there.
“I see it! There’s the continental tortoise!” Haruto squinted toward the capital. His vision was probably the best of all those stationed on the watchtower.
“You kids sure have good eyes. I can’t see a thing. No, wait...” Vince clutched the handrail with both hands.
Sara could see it now too, and the heavy thuds of its feet were getting louder.
“No way... These walls aren’t gonna stop something that huge...” Vince was leaning out over the handrail, utterly engrossed in the sight of the continental tortoise.
Bradley nodded lightly. “I thought the same thing when I saw it in the capital. But I was the only one who got that nervous. Haruto and Sara moved to immediately begin building new walls.”
True, Bradley had been a bit panicked when he’d finally caught sight of the continental tortoise back in the capital. But Sara hadn’t really been thinking anything at all. Her body had moved on its own to start building those walls.
“Since I have that experience, however, I can offer you my assurance. We managed just fine in the capital, so Rosa, which has been preparing for some time now, should be fine too. These walls are ready to do their job. Of course, I’ll defer to you, Vince, as to whether things really will be fine. Just watch the tortoise’s current trajectory and give whatever order you think is best.”
Vince had been gripping the handrail so hard his skin had gone white, but he let go now, arms hanging at his sides, then started stretching his shoulders.
“Whoops. That wasn’t very befitting behavior for a vice guildmaster, was it? Sheesh...” Now that he was a little more relaxed, Vince’s usual fearless smile returned to his face. “It’s heading in the exact direction we predicted. If it keeps going on this course, it will hit the first wall, but by the third it should veer away from Rosa.”
Sara felt the same way from what she’d seen in the capital.
“So Haruto, Sara, could you go up on top of the central gate and serve as the final wall if things don’t go according to plan?”
In the capital, they’d had to correct the tortoise’s course before it even reached the three walls they’d prepared beforehand, but here they were merely to serve as the final bastion if their existing walls didn’t serve their purpose.
“Looks like it’s time for our training to pay off!”
“Yeah. Let’s go!”
Haruto and Sara slid down from the watchtower and ran for the central gate.
“Oh jeez... Come on, Sara.”
“Huh? Gyah!”
Haruto wrapped an arm around Sara’s waist and leaped up to the top of the central gate with her in tow. This was the second time Sara had been transported in this manner.
“We would have made it up the stairs just fine!”
“Sorry, but look.”
Sara had been protesting in a volume unusual for her, but Haruto paid it no mind, looking out toward the continental tortoise.
“Yeah, it’s the tortoise... Wait, what’s that?” Sara froze with surprise and fear for a second, but she quickly relaxed, her shoulders slumping with relief.
“They’re waving.”
“That they are. Hey!”
Sara waved back as hard as she could. The figures perched atop the continental tortoise must have been happy that she noticed them, because they waved even harder as she did.
“I guess the two of them have been on top of the continental tortoise’s shell a few times now...” she sighed, looking at Nelly and Allen. “I suppose I was even on it once myself in Hydrangea. But still...”
“Whoa! You’ve been on it?!”
“You can jump up the front legs to get to the shell.”
Normally she was happy when Haruto’s eyes shined with respect, but right now, she wasn’t too pleased about it.
“I bet while they were running alongside it, they realized it’d be way easier to just get on top of it.”
“I can see that happening.”
Rosa was on high alert for a threat that could possibly topple its walls, but the air atop the central gate, their last line of defense, was decidedly not tense.
“Still, I don’t think they should just let it crash into the walls like... Whoa, they jumped off! How casual can those guys be?!”
“Right... I was distracted by Nelly and Allen, but we’ve gotta get ready to build more walls.”
Sara pictured another wall directly behind the final wall in front of them. Boom!
“That’s one!”
The top of the first wall crumbled. Boom!
“That’s two!”
The continental tortoise slowed a bit after impacting the first wall, but it still crashed into the second with enough force for the top of that one to crumble as well.
“And three...”
Boom.
With a duller sound than the first two impacts, the third wall shook but maintained its form.
“Is it changing course?!”
“It moved! It went off course!”
The continental tortoise spared Rosa not a single glance as it shuffled into the eastern meadow, passing just by the Third Wall.