Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 705

The first impression after returning to the Noark underground fortress through the portal was, ‘It’s quiet.’

“……”

“……”

Apart from the heavy breathing of the members, still worked up from the tense situation, the surroundings were eerily silent.

There wasn’t a single rat in sight, let alone the royal army that was supposed to be occupying the fortress square.

Honestly, it was a bit unexpected.

Before going through the portal, Sven Parav, who was practically a human fate tracker, had made such a fuss that I was secretly worried something might explode as soon as we arrived.

“Ah, ah… ah……”

By the way, this guy is still at it.

“Get a grip, Sven Parav.”

I approached him and spoke, but his body was trembling like an aspen and showed no signs of stopping.

So, as I was watching, wondering what to do.

“…Are you okay? Mr. Parav, please come to your senses. Okay?”

Lilis Marone, a mage from the military who joined our clan after the Ice Rock expedition, carefully approached him and took his hand.

“I don’t know what’s wrong, but it’ll be okay. Don’t be scared. I’ll protect you.”

In my opinion, it was a waste of effort.

Seriously, it’s not like he’s going to come to his senses just because of that—.

“Ah, ah… Ma, Marone…?”

Huh?

“I, I… Ma, Ma, Marone? First, please let go of my hand….”

…This works?

What’s the difference between me and her?

“Oh! I’m sorry… I thought Mr. Parav looked cold….”

“Ah, no! It’s, it’s not your fault. I, I’m more sorry…!”

A strange silence fell as Marone was startled and let go of his hand.

“……”

“……”

What the heck is up with these two?

Like Rotmiller and Shavin Emuer, are they having some kind of fling?

‘Hmm… looking at Marone, I don’t think so….’

I don’t know.

Relationships between men and women are difficult, and honestly, it’s not important what kind of relationship they have.

The important thing is that he has finally come to his senses.

That’s all.

“Parav, if you’ve come to your senses, get up. Don’t keep looking like a mess.”

“Yes? Ah, ah! Yes…!”

When I grabbed his shoulder and forcibly pulled him up, he managed to stand on his own, saying he was back to his senses.

Okay, it seems like we can have a conversation now.

“Is that intuition still the same?”

“Yes….”

Huh… then it means something ‘big’ is really going to happen soon….

“…Okay. If anything changes, tell me right away. You must be out of it, so take some time to recover in the back and follow slowly.”

“…I’m sorry.”

I ended the conversation with Parav there and called Amelia and Bersil.

“Do you know why there’s no one around? I thought the royal army was occupying it when you guys came out.”

“They were. That’s why we had a hard time secretly activating the magic circle to get out.”

“I don’t know why the royal army withdrew either. I can’t think of anything.”

Hmm, is that so….

I had even prepared excuses for when we returned and found the royal army here.

I’m glad that I don’t have to do that.

It’s a bit unsettling that we don’t know why the royal army withdrew, though.

“Yandel, so what are you planning to do now?”

I pondered for a moment at Amelia’s question.

Again, there were two options.

Either we could just hide here in this empty underground fortress and wait quietly.

Or, we could go up to the city and see what the heck is going on.

It goes without saying, but the decision I would make was already set.

“…We’re going back to the city first.”

Closing your eyes doesn’t change anything.

No matter how scared I am, I have to force myself to open my eyes and look ahead.

Then, at least I’ll know one thing.

What I should be afraid of.

Of course, going into the basement, closing my eyes, and blocking my ears could be one way, but that should be a decision made after knowing all the circumstances.

Not just hiding because I’m scared.

“Which district are we going to?”

“We’ll go to District 7 first, and then we’ll decide flexibly based on the situation.”

With that, we left the desolate underground city and went up to the sewer, which could be said to be the border between Noark and Lapdonia.

It wasn’t a formation focused solely on movement speed….

A defensive formation like when we first stepped into the labyrinth or when moving through areas known to be extremely dangerous.

“……”

“……”

Although they didn’t say anything, most of the members had questioning expressions.

‘Why are we going this far?’

Actually, when you think about it, it was a natural question.

From their perspective, they just went outside the walls and now they’re back, right?

They must have thought it was strange that I was acting as if I was sure that some dangerous situation had unfolded.

Well, thanks to the trust I’ve built up, they seem to think there must be some unspoken reason.

Kuuuuuung-!

As we were walking through the sewer following Amelia, who was leading the way, the floor and ceiling shook as if there was an earthquake.

It wasn’t a huge shake, just a slight vibration, but it was enough to make the faces of the members on guard look even more tense.

“It was a vibration that came from very far away.”

“…Is something really happening above the city?”

At first, they were a little doubtful, but now they seemed to have a feeling that the situation was not going well.

It didn’t take long for that feeling to get worse.

“……Blood?”

Red blood was visible on the sewage water in the sewer.

And as we followed it further, as expected.

“…Corpses.”

There were corpses scattered haphazardly in the sewer.

Judging by the looks of them, it didn’t seem like they had been dead for that long….

It wasn’t difficult to identify them.

It seemed like they had only taken the expensive equipment with them because they were in a hurry, so there was quite a bit of equipment left.

“These people… they’re from the royal army.”

The royal army was dead.

Even though it was a secluded sewer, it was still clearly within the territory of Lapdonia.

“Is there no possibility that they were simply robbed by vagrants…?”

There’s no way.

The possibility of a vagrant attacking the royal army in the sewer is close to zero.

Therefore….

“Emily, keep guiding us. We need to get out of here quickly.”

We passed the corpses of the royal army and picked up the pace a little.

And we saw several more royal army corpses before we reached the exit leading outside.

However, the sewer didn’t shake like it did during the earthquake, and that was the last time it happened….

Hmm, what the heck is going on?

“……It’s surprisingly quiet?”

When we arrived at the sewer exit, we didn’t rush out and observed the outside from within.

Although the angle was limited and our vision was restricted, the distance directly in front of us was very quiet.

Of course, that didn’t mean we could relax.

Even if it was the outskirts where the sewer entrance was located, it wasn’t normal for there to be no one on the streets like this, right?

Especially during the day.

“……What are we going to do?”

“Let’s wait here for now. If this many people move, we’ll be spotted right away. Emily, can you take a few people and go out to secretly check the situation and come back?”

“I don’t need a few people. It’s easier for me to move alone in this kind of situation.”

“Even so, it could be dangerous—.”

“It’s safer to be alone. If it’s a dangerous situation where I’m discovered, it won’t make a difference if there are a few more people.”

Hmm… I’m still worried even if she says that.

But she’s the expert, so it must be safer that way, right?

“Okay. Please be careful. I’m not asking for a lot of information, so don’t push yourself too hard.”

“…I’ll be back.”

With those words, Amelia made some preparations, opened the sewer door, and went out into the street.

Her movements were so quick and stealthy that I lost sight of her the moment she stepped out into the street.

I don’t like that she didn’t properly answer my request not to push herself, but I decided to trust her and wait while doing what we could.

After all, we have to use our time efficiently, right?

“I sent a magic transmission to the message stone coordinates in the clan house, but there’s no response.”

“That’s probably because I checked and found that there’s a wave blocking magic transmission all over the city. I can’t contact the remote video recorder in my lab either.”

“No wonder! I felt the magic scattering in the middle….”

“Ah! I heard that there are such magical tools in the military as well. I knew it was only used in times of war… Huh… it seems like something really happened in the city.”

“What the heck happened in the two months we were out?”

While Amelia was out, we gathered as much information as we could.

And how much time passed?

Squeak.

Amelia opened the sewer gate and returned.

She looked a bit tired, but there were no signs of injury or combat on her clothes.

But just in case.

“Are you hurt?”

“…I’m fine, so don’t worry.”

Amelia, who answered with a smirk at my question, shared the information she had gathered outside with us.

“I couldn’t get close to the walls because the soldiers were all over the place, using detection magic tools and abilities all the time. However, one thing is certain: the incident happened in the Bipron area, which the Noark guys occupied.”

“Bipron…?”

“You’ll see when we go outside, but the barrier that was covering Bipron has disappeared.”

“It seems like… a war has really broken out.”

“Probably. Especially since this was in our clan house’s mailbox.”

Then, Amelia handed me a letter that she had found in the clan house we were using as a base.

Looking at the seal, it was a letter from the royal family, and Amelia had already opened it and checked the contents, as the wax was torn off….

“This is….”

When I checked the contents of the letter, it was a long introduction, as expected of an official letter from the royal family.

However, to summarize it briefly….

“It’s a conscription order.”

“Yeah, it seems like not only us but all the clans in the city have been conscripted.”

“There is a law in the city that allows the military to forcibly incorporate explorers and combat-capable personnel during wartime.”

Well, that’s probably true.

What country would fight a war with only regular soldiers?

As I was thinking that, Kaislan, who was from the military, sighed heavily next to me.

“However, it seems like the situation is really serious. Even when the Noark people invaded about a year ago, a conscription order was not issued….”

“Why was that?”

“Issuing a conscription order would ultimately undermine the authority of the royal family. The power of the royal family must be absolute, but issuing a conscription order like this can also be interpreted as a sign that they need help.”

Oh, really?

“In other words, if the royal family could handle it alone, they would never have issued a ‘conscription order’?”

“…I believe it’s safe to interpret the current situation that way.”

After hearing Kaislan’s words, I had a lot of thoughts.

So, I was just quietly stroking my chin when….

“By the way, this situation has become a headache… Ms. Raines? By any chance, was there any official letter among the mail that was sent to the leader instead of the clan?”

“There wasn’t… What’s the headache?”

“Well, our leader is a titled noble, isn’t he? When a conscription order is issued, all titled nobles are transferred to the ‘Military Command’.”

“Military Command…?”

“Hmm, it’s a bit of a complicated concept, so I don’t know how to explain it….”

Kaislan, who was having difficulty, seemed to organize his thoughts and then explained it as concisely as possible.

“As soon as we return to the city, our leader will be assigned to the ‘Military Command’ and will be on standby in the capital.”

“Then what about the Anabada Clan?”

“We will carry out the missions assigned by the higher-ups. Most likely, we’ll be at the most dangerous front line. And that’s without our leader.”

In other words, we need to choose a vice-leader first.

To return to the city.