Chapter 49: Introduction
{Edited by Arthur300000, deathbricks, and ArchmageNaoki}
Fire embers are falling from the ashen sky like a brilliant amber red snow. The little girl is silently walking beside me with a hood over her head to protect her soft and healthy brown hair from the smoldering heat. Two bumps on her hood signify her unique triangular ears. And behind her are two fluffy tails. Yup, I lent her my cloak because her clothing is too light to withstand the chaos around us, only consisting of camisole and some light pants. She most likely didn't have time to get dressed when the monsters attacked.
It’s nine in the morning, but the sky is gray. The reason is that spiraling pillars of smoke erupting from the village. It’s not entirely my fault, though. Clearly, the fault lies on that giant. If its skin wasn't so thick, my fireball wouldn’t be deflected to the surrounding buildings and set them ablaze. Anyways, it’s not much of a problem because with Skynet’s guidance we escaped from being grilled alive with some time to spare.
*Creak* “... It’s useless, huh?” I peek into the military car, but the inside is all messed up, the front console has been ripped apart along with what supposed to be the communication radio. Even the steering wheel is missing. The strangest thing is, two porcupine-like monster corpses are lying in the rear compartment. I don’t know what happened here, but I'll just take whatever looks useful and move on.
Other cars on the road are mostly broken, most of them decorated with half eaten bodies. From the chaos of this scene, the monsters must've hit them without warning. No matter rich or poor, elderly or children, they ended up the same. Hmm, maybe when I found a shelter I should find a way to fortify them a bit.
"Their bodies aren't stiff yet, so maybe only a few hours?" The girl mumbled from afar as she watches me loot the corpses. Although she refused to get close to the dead bodies or blood and jumped at every noticeable noise, I still count her as a brave person because she’s not breaking down, crying, or doing something nonsensical.
“Any idea of where we should go?” I asked the girl while picking up several hooded tactical vests from the corpses. Some of them look new even though most of their former owners are missing. This must be because of its auto clean and repair function. For those that look dirty, they are torn and have holes in several places. It seems this function has its limits. I'm glad that I haven't tried cutting my clothes in two.
“...follow the road. Next town.” She whispered and looked left and right like something might leap at her. Hmm, next town it is then.
I refocus on a few complete vests in my arms and notice that each of them are not equal. The most distinctive thing is the pictures depicted on their shoulder strap. The one with three wolf heads looks thicker than the others, and there are more pockets and belts on it. I quickly replace my carbon fiber strap with the nicest vest then rearrange my weapon accordingly.
“Wear it, for protection.” I handed the smallest one to her and stored the rest. Its fabric looks thick and sturdy. It should at least protect her from stray magic and collateral damage to a certain extent. However she cringed away a bit, but her common sense kicked in a moment later and took the vest from my hand.
“Thanks… Can I also have a weapon?” She puts it on and returns my cloak to me while looking at me with a hopeful expression. Her tails are wagging cutely tempting me to grab them. The vest is also too big for her, but it's still wearable. Right now she looks like a cute girl from the magazines that wore their partner’s shirt and exposed her tiny shoulders in the process. I wanted to jump at her and hug her but now's not the time.
“Sorry, no. A weapon is only going to slow you down. It won't be any help to you if it doesn’t tune to your energy pattern first. And no, we can’t do that here.” I told her the cold hard truth. If the facility existed in this village, it’s most likely already long gone.
“R-Right…” She looks dejected, but she let it go. I understand her quite well. If I were in her place, I would also grab any sizable stick even if it’s not going to help much.
“Haah, alright. Take this.” I gave her my adventurer grade pike. It’s taller than her, but it’s light because its shaft is made of lightweight alloy. At least she could use it as a walking stick. Moreover, it doesn’t require much skill to use this kind of weapon effectively. Just point forward and poke, how difficult can it be?
“Wow, thanks!” The girl smiled from ear to ear showing her small pointy canines and perfect rows of teeth.
“Don’t get cocky, though. Monsters are more dangerous than you think. Even with that pike, your chance is still pretty slim. So when you spot one, you better run or hide” I warned her before she could run off and do something stupid. Without tuning, she also doesn’t have any benefits from interference and static fields. Still, she nodded happily.
“Let’s go.” I told her as flame erupted from nearby building windows with a loud boom. I take a last glance at the surroundings. It’s quite a shame that I have to leave these cars alone, but storing them would take too much time, and I can’t even start its engine without tuning the car key to my energy pattern. Damn this world’s anti-theft system.
We left the village to burn and walked along the road following the gentle slope downhill. I could douse those flames with magic, but from the size of the village, I would need a whole day. And another difficult to handle monster might show up any moment. It's better to prioritize things and save what I can.
The golden wheat fields on both sides of the road dance along with the wind like they are saying their farewell. Soon, they would also burn, but by then I would be long gone. The only thing that tries to impede me is the howling wind blowing faster and faster into the city, bringing along the scent of lush farmland. I’m glad that I’m wearing pants.
"Do you know how long it would take to walk to the next town?" I don't see any settlements in my sight. There are only golden wheat fields, green grassland, and some small hills in the distance.
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"More than a few hours but less than a day." The girl looks left and right paranoid, but she seems confident in what she's saying. Hmm, maybe I should let her calm down a bit more.
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A group of dog-sized rats tried to attack us after we crossed a small creek. Since an area spell like firestorm will catch the fox girl, I use my pre-programed anti-monster gun instead. I activate 70 meters radius auto-targeting spell, wait for all of them to enter range, then click.
*BANG* *SPLASH* Dozens of explosions rang out almost simultaneously. Those rat monsters didn't even have a chance to know what hit them. However, the girl's reaction time is even worse. She just dumbfoundedly looked at me and said "Uwaaa" in amazement. Then she flipped back to her battle stance after she realized that she should stay vigilant almost a minute later... If I left her alone, she would surely die.
“I’m Kuro, what’s your name?” Seeing that this place has become safe, I began a conversation.
“Co… coa” She whispered back while pointing her spear around her.
“Cocoa?” I asked her again which made her jump a bit, but she nodded.
“It’s alright. There are no monsters around anymore.” I encourage her to speak as the monster cores are flown into my palm.
[Thanks, Skynet] [Your welcome-]
“H-how do you know!?” Cocoa interjected. Her voice seems to be an octave higher than usual.
“I’m good at this. Anyways, are you sure that we will meet another town before sunset?” She nodded, but all I see is just bushes and small trees everywhere I look. I hope we aren't lost.
"No settlement can stand alone. They need a trade route to prosper." Cocoa whispered then continued. "Normally, the distance between the two of them is limited by the speed of a cart with a full load of goods which is roughly equal to our pace. And staying overnight in the wild is too dangerous." She looks at me to check my understanding. I nodded. Her explanation makes sense, but that also means...
"You never walked to another town before right?" I voiced my concern.
"Yes." She admitted it with drooped ears. Damn, what if we're lost? I follow the small track and hope it doesn't lead me to a dead end.
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“One more?” It's well past noon. I offered her another beef jerky from the package. It’s too salty, hard to chew, and dried. I don’t like it, but Cocoa wagged her tails cutely every time she got one. She took it and munched on it happily like it’s very delicious. Me? Well, it’s a wholesale snack day, I open one package after another during the walk. My favorite is a bittersweet bar of chocolate with nuts inside. I can’t remember where I got them though. Maybe it’s from Cherry's house.
I tried to eat the oldest one first because I don’t know if the next town is still standing or not. I also share each one of them to Cocoa, but she seems to love everything with meat while being indifferent to everything else. I let her stuff her cheek with a pack of sweet jerky and took my newly acquired device from my hairclip to check. It should be cleaned now.
“Huh?... Huh!?... What the!?” [Skynet there is something off with these devices.] As I pulled out these devices from their respective sheath and holster I noticed the shocking truth. Their quality is really low. Even worse, quite a few of them look old, and there are fixing marks on it. This old saber, for example, its balance is way off. On closer inspection, I believe I could snap it in half with my finger. *Crack* Whoops, it snapped. There is only one device in the bunch that looks halfway decent.
[If you mean it’s of low quality, it’s not strange, mistress. Beastmen country is notorious for their inferior equipment] Skynet explained while the puffy-cheeked Cocoa cutely following the broken blade with her gaze.
"It's too brittle." I explained and put the broken device away. At least I might still get some panties from selling it.
[I thought soldiers would have at least military-grade devices.] I complained to Skynet.
[That only applies to other countries, mistress. Beastmen country is prominent with hierarchical society, and they are the most populated country in the world. Due to their extraordinary fertility. If they let the jobless people stay idle, their economy would plummet in no time. So, they solve this problem by drafting those people into the military with only rudimentary equipment provided to them.]
[Even so, that’s still crazy. Fighting those monsters with these devices...]
[.. is suicide.] Skynet finished my sentence. [Still, this is their way. They can’t afford to give their massive army proper equipment, so their tactics mostly rely upon overwhelming their opponent with numbers. However, these types of tactics fail when facing an immortal class monster. My guess is, they divert all elite and experienced soldiers to combat monsters while leaving their green and poorly equipped soldiers defending their town. If we didn’t encounter that lightning fury on the way, you might be tasked to lead a platoon or two.] … It seems my brother also misunderstood. It’s us who was going to lead the defense, not them, huh? However, when I imagine myself leading a group of Beastmen, the scene somehow turns into a porn movie one way or another.
[You seem to know about this country quite well.] I handed another jerky to Cocoa.
[I was a part of a diplomat responsible for contact with them. Knowing this much is only natural.] I can sense smugness in her voice. That is quite surprising coming from Skynet. A diplomat AI huh? Teasing her with the word “Ex-” might be fun, but I realized something more important.
[Wait, they have a hierarchical society, right? Does that mean they have slaves?] Ha ha! It’s time to spend some money on cute and sexy slave girls!
[I could guess where that was coming from, but no. Slavery has been outlawed in all major countries including here. And what hierarchical society here means is each clan has their own set of roles in their society, for example, rabbit kinds are mostly farmers, dog kinds are guards or police, and wolf kinds are soldiers. There are some jobs that I learned the hard way that there is no class restriction such as spy.] Her resentment is evident in her voice at the word spy. There must be quite a story behind this.
[Can’t a wolf girl become a ballerina?] Their life seems dull to have their future set for them.
[There is always an exception, mistress. But those are relatively rare, less than one percent. Those that want to go out of their roles must be really outstanding in that field because they have to fight with social values and their natural talent disparity.]
[Then what about a hybrid? There must be love across species right?] I glance at two fluffy fox tails swaying in the wind. For some reason, her tails remind me of dandelion flowers.
[Yes, there are a lot of cases about married across species. However, none of them have children. Their genetic structures are rigid, and interracial insemination only lead to embryos apoptosis.] Oh, no need to worry about babies when having sex with them, huh? Well, I’m not going to sleeping with a guy anyways.
[Then what about Cocoa? What will she become when she grows up?]
[In immediate future, she will most likely become one of those soldiers. When military personnel finds her, they would ask to see her employment documents. If she doesn’t have one, she would be drafted immediately.]
"What!? But she is still a child!" I exclaimed loudly which caused Cocoa to jumped back with her furs standing up, looking a lot fluffier.
"Oh, sorry. I was talking with Skynet." I pointed at my plushie backpack.
"Good afternoon." Skynet greeted her. [And she is already more than 20 years old.] Wha-!? [Nine tail fox clan, grew a tail every ten to twelve years.] … I thought-
“Pfft, Hahahaha!” For some reason, Cocoa suddenly burst into laughter.
"What is it?" Confused, I asked her. She’s not a child, and why is she laughing?
"Haha, pfft, sorry. My second tail just told me the meaning of her name. You came from a different world right?" ... She knows!?