“Shit, shit, shit!”
The party of adventurers who’d come to the forest to gather lumber looked at each other as though they’d all seen something they never should have seen.
They’d heard that the stand-in loggers commissioned by the guild had fulfilled their mission with ease, and they had assumed it meant they’d be safe logging here as well. However, that had been a grave mistake.
“The hell?! I’ve never seen that many orcs in one place!”
Indeed—on their way to the forest, they’d noticed many humanoid shapes in the distance and stopped in caution. That turned out to be the right move, as the human shapes had all turned out to be monsters. And not just the orcs looking like bipedal boars; there were also intelligent, superior breeds of orc in the mix as well. Too many monsters to count, in fact. They could even see some goblins here and there.
“And it looks like they all came out from the forest. This is bad.”
“Y-Yeah, and heading in the direction of the town! Are they gonna attack Solasidore?!”
“What the hell’s going on?! Nothing like this has ever happened before!”
“I guess you young’uns don’t know,” an old veteran by the name of Raiden said before sighing. He was the most experienced adventurer in the group.
“You know what’s happening here, Mr. Raiden?!”
“Sure do. This is undoubtedly a stampede. When superior breeds of monsters grow to adulthood and multiply, the food supply in the forest grows scarce, and the monsters need to seek prey elsewhere. I think the last one happened...forty years ago, was it?” he said with a nod. “And that ‘food’ they settled on was none other than humans, of course. It was a horrible scene.” Raiden’s hands trembled as he recalled the carnage back then. The other adventurers all gulped.
“We need to let the town know, before it’s too late!” Raiden shouted. “Forget about an old codger like me—you young’uns run as fast as you can!”
The urgency in his voice spurred the younger adventurers on, and they all dashed away at once, so determined to warn the town that they didn’t worry about leaving the slower ones in the group behind.
As it turned out, Raiden made it back to the town before any of the others. Upon reaching the gates, he cried out. “There’s a stampede heading this way! The monsters are on a rampage!”
“Wh-Whoa, you ran up here fast, old man!” the guard said.
“Guess that’s why he’s a veteran,” said another. “He’d have to be skilled, or he wouldn’t have survived this long.”
“Haah...haah!” panted the younger adventurers, who had just reached the gates and were all out of breath.
Raiden glanced at them out of the corner of his eye. “I never imagined you all would be so out of shape. Hey, guardsman! They’re coming from over there. Go to the watchtower and check! Hurry!”
“R-Right away! Hey, you! The lookout on duty! See anything from up there?!”
The guard on duty at the watchtower squinted. He could just barely make out what looked like a sea of green in the distance.
“No way... What the hell’s that?! Are those all goblins and orcs?!”
The green-skinned goblins and orcs were approaching the town, moving across the land like moss eating into a boulder.
“All hands on deck! We’ve got an emergency!” The guard rang the bell in the watchtower with all his might. The bell’s clangs signaled the gravity of the situation to the other guards, and bells resounded from the other watchtowers on the town’s perimeter. The domino effect continued until warning bells were ringing all over the city.
#Side: END
As I was spending another day strolling around town and asking for any information on the sacred treasure, pandemonium suddenly broke out all over.
I stopped a passerby on the street and asked him what was going on. Apparently, several adventurers had spotted a parade of goblins and orcs heading toward the town from the direction of the forest. This group was abnormally large—not just ten or twenty monsters, but totaling in the hundreds or maybe even thousands. The guard at the watchtower had apparently also spotted the monster horde from his position, and guards all over had immediately gone to sound the town’s emergency bells. I see, that explains why I’m hearing bells ring out all around me.
“And that’s what happened,” he finished. “Now that you understand, you should follow me to the church to take refuge. We should be safe there.”
“But I’m an adventurer, and there’s probably an opportunity for adventurer work here.”
“Huh? But it’d be such a waste for a cute girl like you to be orc food! Come with me instead!”
Ah, I see. So there was an ulterior motive behind generously informing me of the situation. I get it now.
I politely turned down the man who’d felt comfortable hitting on a girl even in the middle of an emergency, and with no better plan for now, I headed for the Adventurer’s Guild.
As I passed through the guild’s entrance, a conversation reached my ears.
“I understand. I’ll be praying for your success.”
“Thanks, Sophie. Don’t worry, I’ll defend this town with my life. And when I come back, I’ll take you out on a date.”
“A d-date?! I-In that case, you’d better not get yourself killed!”
“Relax, it’s just a stampede. I’ll be fine. I’ll save this town and everyone in it.”
With that exchange, the receptionist lady at the counter and Blade embraced each other.
Er, did I miss something?
“Hey, Shildon. Can you explain what’s going on here?”
“Oh, hey, Karina. Did you just get here? You missed the best part, then. Sophia just confessed her feelings to Blade!”
Oh, I see. Blade declared his intent to join the team of courageous adventurers about to charge headlong into the monster horde, and Miss Receptionist here, who’d secretly had a crush on him all this time, hurled her whole heart at him in response. And now, this is the result. At least, that was what I assumed.
Oh, she gave him a kiss! Way to go, Blade.
“Wait, isn’t this basically a suicide mission?” I asked. “He could actually die if he’s not careful.”
“Well, yeah. But it’s really more that moments like this are all he’s good for.”
“And it’s not like he’ll be alone,” Sekko piped up. “Shildon and I are going too.”
Huh? Shildon and Sekko too? It sounded like they’d all made peace with the possibility of dying, then.
“By the way, do either of you have a missus waiting at home?” I asked.