~Terry’s POV, a few hour ago~

“A Thousand!?”

“At least that’s how many I can felt closing in on us right now.”

While driving in the deserts, I scream out of my own poor heart upon hearing her word.

“That’s why it isn’t that easy escaping from them, not unless we have a plan.”

“What kinda plan can you made against a thousand of them!? To begin with, how the hell can you even know all of this number, or are you just pulling it out of your ass!?”

“Hm, it’s hard to explain...I just focus my mind toward the world, and see to the beyond...”

“Sound like a bunch of baloney...”

“Hm, how can I prove it to you then…”

Saying such, the pompous brat of a princess then close her eyes, as if thinking deep about something. After awhile, she open her eyes.

“There are 12 alcoholic bottles you have place within various compartments, hidden and otherwise.”

“!!!”

(H-How does she know that!?)

Ignoring my shocked look, she continued, with a compose look on her face.

“Each of them have different taste, though they all have high concentration of alcohol, enough to knock an average person out. Especially the Dragon’s Wife, which is hidden directly beneath my seat.”

“Wait, how the hell do you even know what kind of drink I have!?”

“? Being able to analyze the precise atomic composition of any object with just a glance is common for any royalty to learn, right?”

“Sis, It’s “Being able to recognize any type of poison with just a sip” that we learn in royalty class.”

“...Is that so? The class isn’t advance enough then.”

“Of fucking course it is!! What kinda species of advance human do you expect to have fucking microscope for eyes!? And in the first place, what kind of royalty you two are, having to learn that!?”

As I have to retort against those twin who have their common sense’s screw dropped down somewhere, I suddenly feel tired, as if what I scream for today is worth a week of my sanity…

(Tsk, and I had hoped for the brother to have at least some semblance of normalcy, but all of the Victoris are freak, as expected…)

“Dragon’s Wife? I think its Father’s favorite drink! He even have a barrel of it back home.”

The little kid interject, as if he finally have something to talk about, with an innocent smile on his face. As if to entertain him, the pompous brat act surprised with his word.

“Oh? Your father really have good taste then. I have heard it’s among the best wine, though I have never tasted it myself.”

“Yeah, Father also said the same as well! Father always said drinking it make you feel as if you have a dragon’s wife at home: You feel a shiver as if the wife is staring at you in disappointment, your face is red as if she slap you swollen, you always get knocked out cold as if she kick you out of the house to sleep with the dog...”

“’...But you always feel warm afterward, as if she bring you a warm blanket during the night.’ Is that right?”

“!That’s right, big brother! Father said the exact same thing...Do you also know the Dragon’s Wife as well?”

“Well, I does heard it a lot from the general and officer I have acquainted with...They even jokingly said that they took it with them during long trip, to remember the taste back home, while laughing their gut out.”

“Oh ho, that’s some brave sense of humor...maybe I should report it to their wives once I go back.”

“...Sis, don’t make a joke that scary, please.”

(A barrel of wine, how jealo-Wait no, snap out of it!)

Trying to stop this sudden inappropriate peaceful atmosphere, I yell at them, trying to look away from reality.

“A-ny-way! That’s just pure guess, you can’t make me believe that shit you just said!”

“Terry, that’s kind of a weak comeback.”

“Shut up, you freak brother of her. Do you expect me to believe that my life now suddenly involve having to avoid from a literal arms force, while carrying two pack of dynamites and a plushie on top?”

“...Once again, I’m sorry for dragging you onto this mess.”

“Oi, don’t look at me with an apologetic look. Don’t make me feel guilty having to lambasted you two!”

“...So you want more proof?”

Suddenly, while I’m complaining, she close her eyes once again, as if looking for something yet again. This time though, she was doing it with an eerie silent, giving me a bad feeling…

(...Wait, if she can see through my car, would she be able to see that!?)

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

As she now cup her hand around the head of the little boy, blocking his ear, my weariness rise tenfold, and I can feel my heartbeat bumping out in great panic.

“Height: 180cm, Weight: 65kg, BWH: 100, 70, 90. Blond hair with baby face…”

“Okay okay, I believe you! You can stop talking now!”

“The plot is that a pair of childhood friend learn that they’re in love with each other, then on that fateful night…”

“STOP STOP, PLEASE!! Don’t systematically murder me socially like that with such a blank face!”

Screaming terrifiedly with all my might against her, she then finally stop, and take her hand off the ears of the kid.

“Sis, so what happen next? What did the pair do in the night?”

“Oh, so you can hear it...Well, that topic is 8 years too early for you, I presume.”

“Why is that, let me see…?Isn’t it just two people copulate with each other? Father show a lot of it back home with various species…”

“...Now I must question your father’s education policy.”

As they’re still destroying my social status casually, I speak with a dejected voice.

“So...do you see them too, kid?”

“Yes! It’s exactly 1000, as big sis said!”

“Urgh...Tell me you have a proper plan like you said you would.”

Placing my hand on my face, I respond to her with a surrendering voice.

“Of course I have, hence why I tell you so...First thing first, escaping against them is impossible.”

“Huh? And why is that, sister?”

“Because we’re right deep in their territory...Perhaps you will explain it better than I do, Terry.”

“Hah, of course I can...Kid, do you know that this place used to be called Death Desert?”

“? Yes I does heard of it, but I thought that was because the Rolling Storm gang ruled this place with an iron fist, and anyone who slighted them will be buried under the unmarked sand?”

“Heh, maybe that’s correct in some sense…”

As Mauve continued to wonder with a confused look, I then taken out a cigar, and put it in my mouth, lighting it up.

“Around a hundred years ago, this place used to be a monster paradise. Back then, you wouldn’t be able to move ten meter, without something jumping up on your face. Poisonous scorpion that can instantly melt bone, giant worm the size of a city, sudden quicksand sprouting up under your feet, pulling you straight under the jaw of dragon ant…”

As I huffing up a quick puff, I opened up the window, and let the smoke come out, trailing behind the car and rising up to the sky, as it’s picked up by the hot winds.

“At day, traveling through the desert by yourself, is considered a feat of champion. It’s what make you a legend above all other, and people that complete this feat is hailed forevermore as the Sandwalkers. Some people even returned as kings, and have their name record in countless books and halls of fame.”

“At night though...it’s consider a death walk.”

As I look at the sun falling down into the horizon, I recalled the tale with deep nostalgia.

“Around once a week, sometimes just once every 3 day, some peoples would come right before the desert, with nothing but the cloths on their skin. Maybe it’s the famine, maybe it’s war, maybe it’s a particularly bad breakup…All I know, is that they came here to not leave a body behind.”

“If you want to save yourself on funeral cost, or maybe if you want to hide the evident, you just need to continued walking toward the desert. Soon enough, maybe literal seconds later, you will literally disappear into the darkness, without neither a scream or lament, nor even a drop of blood left behind. Monster, ghost, the literal death itself...People talk and speculate about what happen exactly, but all of them know deep inside that the abyss have taken claim of their poor unfortunate soul.”

“And if you somehow survive all that, and walking out of that abyss alive, who boy...That must mean you’re either truly terrible, or truly pathetic. You must have been so shitty, that not even the abyss want you, and as such you shouldn’t been caught getting out of it on the other end. Entire kingdom back then would systematically shunned you, and you have to live in hiding for the rest of your life unless you want to face ridicules, or even avoid you like plagues.”

Taking a deep smoke, I let it out into a giant cloud outside.

“...Well, in short, back then this place is incredibly dangerous. Heck, back then I wouldn’t be able to drive through this place, without either a tire pop, an engine blow, or heck...even an entire section of the car missing.”

“So, pop quiz: Why do we drive so peacefully on top of the desert right now, with nothing happen?”

“Oh Oh, I know! It’s because the Rolling Storm kill them all!”

“Extra point for swiftness, you little rascal!”

As I pat Martia’s little head, who is beaming with happiness, as he instantly raised his hand and answer in the flash earlier, I watch as Mauve smugly, as his face turn from confusion, to dawning realization, to shock in a blink of an eyes as well.

(Good, feel my pain from having to deal with you guy)

“One day, one guy just decided to come to the desert at night, wearing nothing but his birthday suit.”

‘Ha! Will the Abyss consume me, or will I be the piece of meat too tough to chew!’ The guy said such an incomprehensible line, before jumping into the desert, buck naked.

‘Another fool bite the dust’, the people seeing him said. Many idiot have attempted to conquer the desert at night as well, only to be turn back in shame, or getting eaten all the same. ‘Though it’s the first time someone came without wearing anything though’, the crowd chuckle, thinking that will be the last they heard of him.

But after that night, strange thing start to happen within the desert: The silent replace with scream of madmen and dying breath of monsters, monster kept running outside of the desert to escape...and the darkness itself seemingly clear away. Once a night, you can see a buck-naked figure doing crazy stuff, wrestling and throwing against whatever come his way while screaming like a nutcase.

Eventually, tale of his exasperated exploit travel far and wide, and with each passing day, more and more people join him in his ridiculous crusade against the sands (some even naked like himself). Whether they’re brave man who come from afar, or people who already live hidden within the desert, soon enough an army of knuckleheads and nutjob come together, and the trail of their march kick the sands beneath their feet up like a passing sandstorms, swallowing all thing with no exception.

“From such sight, people eventually called them “The Rolling Storm”, and eventually, the desert isn’t known for it terrible danger, it’s exhausting hotness, or it endless abyss...People now just remembering the desert as where the Rolling Storm thrive, where they held total control, and where they roam freely across the endless dune.”

Taking the cigar off my mouth, I then turn to the young brats.

“Well, after a hundred years, most of them now would be the descendant of the original gang. Aside from the boss, most of them are essentially rookies, when compare to the hardened gang of misfit who literally tame the desert back then…”

“But make no mistake...thousands upon thousands of monsters have been buried by them underneath the sand we just drive through, sweep by the winds of oblivion.”

“They know this desert like it’s sear through their eyeballs by the sun, they can lurked under any grains of sand and jump at us without warning, and they will chase us down like hyenas, until we get cooked by the very sand itself for them to feast. Within the desert, they’re the true tyrant who rule over the sands.”

“To put it simply: There is no escape.”

After hearing my tale, the twin brother looked back at his sisters, face full of worried and anxiety. In constract, her face remained absolutely calm.

“Um, yes. It would be troublesome to escape from them, because of such.”

“Sis, it look pretty impossible to even get out from them though!?”

“And though I could bring everyone out of here, it would be difficult trying to cross this desert again without crossing those guy…”

“Sissss, don’t you heard of what he was saying??? And why do you even tried to cross this place again!?”

“For your information, I will not escort you two through here again. In fact if I ever make it out of here alive, I will not touch this place for at least another hundred years.”

Ignoring both of our word, she talk while maintaining her blank face, looking disappointed for some reason.

“Hah, look like you still lack training in maintaining a cool head no matter what...Don’t you forget already, when I said I have a plan?”

“! My apology, sis! I will reflect upon this!”

“I expect the best from you...Now then, since escaping is impossible, the only option is fighting them head-on.”

“Huh, like you said, isn’t there 1000 of them? Even for you…”

“Hm? It’s the most basic of basic, for a royal to deal with a thousand by themselves you know?”

“...Wut?”

Frozen by what she said, I ask with a blank face.

“? Like I said, dealing against a small army of a thousand people by yourselves, is among the most elementary lesson in preventing assassination. After that it’s against ten thousands, hundred thousands, a million, etc…”

“...Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Only sis can deal with something like a million though.”

Hearing incomprehensible words from the twin again, I ignore them while trying to keep a straight face, and ask Mauve.

“So why the hell do you get freaked out back then, if dealing with a mere thousand is cakewalk?”

“Um...It was because...your story make them sound so scary...and a little bit cool…”

“What the fuck are you, scatterbrain? And don’t touch your finger together like you’re an embarrassed maiden!”

“Ahem...As I was saying, though it would be easy for us to deal with a thousand by ourselves, I wouldn’t hold as much confident, if I have to face them in their preferred field. If they can use the entire desert as their playground, even I would find it hard beating every single one of them.”

“? Are they really that good, big sister? Now I’m really excited!”

“Yes yes, Martia...As such, if they intend to hide within the desert, all we have to do is to dragged them out, within a single area, so that they can’t escape.”

“And how are you able to do that, pompous brat?”

“Simple...by using myself as bait.”

“!!!!”

Upon hearing her word, I almost flip the car out of shock.