We made hurried preparations, boarded a carriage, and left the capital that same day. Randolph City was about two full days away from Astaroth by carriage; en route, we overnighted at a relay station and a campground along the main road.
Commander Bolton was on edge the entire time. I couldn’t blame him; during every moment of our journey, the city his wife and daughter lived in was under attack by monsters.
In a defensive battle, the defending side always had the advantage. We could only hope they had somehow managed to keep the invading monsters at bay so far.
Thanks to our furious pace, we arrived at Randolph ahead of schedule. The morning sun peeking out from behind the mountain ridge had begun to cast its light down onto the plains.
“It’s way too quiet...” Commander Bolton murmured. He was in the driver’s seat, pulling the horses’ reins.
“I don’t see any monsters.” Seated next to him, I scanned the area in front of us to see what info I could glean. The city was surrounded by a stone wall—and the entire area around it was as quiet as a calm sea. There were no traces whatsoever of the invading monsters.
“Maybe they retreated temporarily?” Seira asked quietly, peeking her head out from the cargo canopy.
“That, or maybe the city has already fallen,” Fam said, offering the worst-case scenario.
“Hey, cool it, Fam. You gotta read the room sometimes,” Spinoza muttered in annoyance. “See that look on the commander’s face now? Poor guy’s gonna die of a heart attack before we even fight anything. I swear, havin’ zero friends is what makes you say shit like that!”
“All I did was bring up one possibility,” Fam countered. “Also, I’m not completely friendless. I know lots of cats.”
“Let’s just head into the city. Then we’ll know for sure what’s going on,” I said.
We got the carriage moving again and headed over to the city’s main entrance. There were two gatekeepers on duty, one standing in front of each side of the massive double doors leading in.
The moment we saw them, we all breathed a quick collective sigh of relief. If the monsters had taken over the city, there probably wouldn’t have been any gatekeepers in place. That meant that if nothing else, the city hadn’t fallen.
“You there. Halt your carriage,” one of the gatekeepers called out to us. Once we had come to a stop, he started talking to the commander and me, who were sitting up front in the driver’s seat. “What business do you have here in Randolph?”
“We’re guards hailing from Astaroth,” I said. “We got word that Randolph was under attack by monsters, so we’ve come to provide backup.”
“Under attack...by monsters?” The gatekeepers looked at each other.
When I saw the puzzled expressions on their faces, a strange feeling of unease washed over me. Their sense of urgency just didn’t seem to line up with ours.
Then, the gatekeepers said something that substantiated my fears:
“That’s the first we’ve heard about anything like that.”