“Let’s Marathon Ruins Today!”

"All right! It's about time we headed to the next town!"

With the sun hidden behind clouds and the townspeople all turned into zombies, Blanc's group immediately set off for their next target.

"Of course, but there are two roads leading out of this town, one northwest, and one southwest. Which one should we take?"

"Ah— Did anyone run away from this town?"

If someone did, then the direction they went should lead to another town.

"Please wait one moment."

Carmine went to question the spartoi. Since Blanc and the mormo girls didn't go too far into the town, they didn't see everything that happened. After a bit, Carmine returned with a report.

"A number of people fled to the northwest on horseback, apparently."

"Northwest, huh…"

The ones who escaped were from this town, so it would follow that there would be something in the direction they went. If their town were being attacked by monsters, then people would run to seek aid, and they would thus want to go toward another town that they believed to be reliable. Continuing that train of thought, the helpers would need to be stronger than the current town was, and the ones who ran away would know at least a little information about the tricks Blanc's group had up their sleeves.

"In the best case, as long as they're not stronger than this town's defenders were, then we should be completely fine, but…"

"If they went to even a moderately large city, then even without considering quality, they could possibly have pure quantity to oppose us. And our forces number a mere thirty."

Azalea was totally right. She had to think hard about this.

"This is completely hypothetical, but have you considered that the northwest route leads to the closest town?"

If their goal was to call for help as soon as humanly possible, then distance was a huge factor. What Magenta said had a point too.

"Hmmm… I don't think I'm really good at thinking about stuff like this… Even after all that, I'm still not sure which one would be better…"

"The one thing we can say for sure is that if we go northwest, whatever town we find in that direction will already have been informed about us."

"Furthermore, if we wait here for the sun to go down and no reinforcements come, that means they've decided to abandon this town, and it would then be better to assume that they're preparing to intercept us at the next town."

Whether they knew about Blanc's forces or not was paramount. If they didn't know anything at all, then, as long as there wasn't a single powerful fighter there, even if it didn't look like her side could win, it shouldn't be impossible to retreat while the enemy was still making preparations. However, if they did have information on Blanc's forces, and they were ready and waiting for her, then that increased the amount of risk substantially.

"…All right, let's head southwest. We might have to travel further, so let's go faster this time. Or like, could we march double-time? We don't get tired or anything, right?"

"Common sense dictates that no army would ever do something like that, but…"

"If you're talking common sense, I bet there aren't a lot of armies made up of skeletons either."

"I suppose it might be fine…"

So that's what they did.

Less than an hour later, Blanc was listlessly perched atop the three named spartoi, Scarlet, Vermilion, and Crimson, in a Japanese cavalry battle-style arrangement.[1]

"I thought undead didn't get tired…"

"The only races that don't get fatigued are ones like skeletons that don't use muscles. There are all types of undead, after all. For example, within the overarching category of magical life forms, golem-types don't get fatigued, but beings like homunculi do."

"Magical life forms…"

"Creatures produced via magic or some kind of technique."

"You know everything, Magenta~…"

The other two mormos stayed out of the conversation. That's because they had turned into bats and were hanging off the spartoi's heads. Magenta also only transformed into a humanoid when she needed to talk.

"It's nice that we can take it easy up here, but are you guys all right? Can you keep on running like this?"

Crimson, who was directly beneath Blanc, nodded. No problem, apparently. When she turned to look behind her, the thirty spartoi were following after them in a few rows.

"…Like the beginning of a marathon. Not that I've ever been in one."

"But Master, with all the dust we're kicking up, they'll notice us right away as we get closer, even at night."

"We'll switch to walking when we're closer… No, let's sneak instead. Actually, can't you guys, like, turn into bats or wolves and scout ahead? You can be spies. If you can do that, then it'll be a lot safer for us once we're almost there."

"…Oh, I see. I mean, it took you long enough to realize that. Well then, I shall go on ahead."

"You obviously forgot about it too! You bimbo!"

Without answering, Magenta transformed into a wolf and ran off.

"…I can't tell if she's actually smart, or actually dumb."

They had continued running for another two hours before wolf Magenta finally returned.

"Master, I scouted ahead…"

"Right. Are we about to hit a city?"

"No, there's nothing."

What did she mean? If there wasn't anything, then she didn't need to come back and report it. But as Blanc thought on it, the two of them had been separated for the last two hours, so maybe she was feeling lonel—

"That's not the case."

"Then what is it?"

"If I have to put it in words… it was a city. The wreckage of one, or the rubble and earth of a city that had been completely demolished."

"Aw, so just ruins then. Is that why the people from before didn't head this way?"

So Blanc had picked the wrong path. If there wasn't anything for them to prey on, then there was no point in continuing on this way. If they decided to go back to the last city to go on the northwest road, then the last half day would have been completely wasted.

"It… didn't feel like they were just ruins. The debris in the ground still looked sharp, and there weren't any weeds growing at all. Rather than old ruins, it was more like something went on a rampage there very recently."

"Ooo!"

In that case, it was more natural to think that some kind of monster had attacked the city. Blanc felt a bit disappointed that she had been beaten to the punch, but it didn't seem possible for an NPC-controlled monster attack to decimate a city on only the second night of the event. Plus, as far as she could see, the monsters in this area were all weaker wild animals like wolves, rats, and rabbits. Even presuming they did actually destroy the city, she couldn't see any reason for wolves and rabbits to deliberately demolish all the buildings as well.

Which meant that a monster player probably did it.

"Maybe I can friend them! What do you think?"

Azalea and Carmine transformed into humanoids to join in the conversation.

"…When you say 'player,' you mean other people from the same place as Master; is that understanding correct?" Azalea asked.

"Which reminds me, a spartoi beheaded one the other day. I have a hard time believing you could have become friends with that person," Carmine recalled.

"There are all sorts of players out there. If the person who wrecked that city was a player, I was thinking maybe they'd probably be someone kinda like me. If they are, don't you think we could be friends?"

"…If that really is the case, this person is capable of tearing down an entire city in two days. They hold an unbelievable amount of strength. You should probably be more cautious…"

"Oh, it's fine! Probably! But another player on the monster side, huh~. I can't wait to meet them!"