Defense
“Um, first let’s think where they coulda evacuated to… Oh, the Hunters Association! That’s right, the association!”
Rattled, Lammis slips into her accent. The Hunters Association? Now that she mentions it, I’ve never actually seen the rest of the settlement. I have no idea what kind of building the association is in. I mean, the place is for bringing together brawny hunters who do a lot of fighting, so I have an image in my mind of a fairly large, sturdy building. That bear is the director, so the inside would have to be well built, lest things start breaking.
“C’mon, let’s roll…,” Lammis says, then realizes her accent is coming out. “I mean, we should get going!”
“Thank you Please come again.”
Ahhh, the way I’m talking feels so unclear. But I’ll have to compromise.
The inn was fairly close to the gate, so I haven’t seen any of the inner parts of the settlement until now—and wow, there are a lot of pretty stable-looking buildings here.
Tents made up the majority near the inn and the gate, but this far in, wooden and stone buildings are more numerous. In fact, most of this place seems sturdily built…or at least, it was. Right now, the area is a sorry sight to behold.
Quite a few buildings avoided damage, but for some reason, there’s a narrow, curving path between a closely packed group of buildings. I’ve been seeing this groove a lot, like someone pulled a big rope along the ground. It must be about the thickness of two adults on top of each other.
“If we follow the destruction, it should lead us to survivors!”
“Welcome,” I answer.
Anyway, these grooves are clearly from a giant snake. That brings to mind the frog people. If frogs have one commonly known enemy, it’s the snake. There’s even an idiom in Japanese for it: “a frog under a snake’s glare,” which is used when someone is so scared of something that they can’t move.
I can think of several reasons a creature might break out in large numbers, but I often hear about wild animal populations exploding after a natural enemy goes away. This giant snake must be a frog fiend’s natural predator, and for whatever reason, it didn’t attack them much this year.
Or maybe it came out of hibernation unusually late. Then maybe it got hungry and attacked a human settlement—I wonder if that’s possible. It’s all mere speculation, but I feel like I’m onto something.
“We’ll arrive at the Hunters Association soon!”
Slipping between half- and fully-destroyed buildings, we burst out to see a huge fortress before us.
Wait, what is this fortress? It looks impregnable. Its outer walls, made of an unknown black material, shine with a dull glint. They look built to last. Terraces line the second story, and giant bows are fixed to them—ballistae.
All the windows are grated, preventing passage both in and out of the fortress. The main double door appears to be made of iron. I can tell just by looking at the place and its overwhelming sense of gravitas that it’s a masterpiece.
The building is the size of a school—it looks like it could easily shelter a hundred people or so. And I suppose I’m only able to calmly analyze it because of the other thing I’m seeing.
In front of the building—the Hunters Association, apparently—is a strange object, long and thick, lying on the ground. The dark-brown thing has scales and two giant heads coming out of one end. Its mouths are wide-open, sharp fangs protruding, and its noses are simply slender holes.
What I mean to say is, it’s a massive two-headed snake, and it’s dead, riddled with arrows. And around it are the hunters who accompanied the hunting team as well as the ones who stayed in the settlement, including the two gatekeepers.
Karios and Gorth are safe. Phew. I feel the tension leaving my body… Wait, I’m not losing power, right? Now we have to find out if the residents are safe.
“Karios, Gorth! You’re both safe!”
Lammis runs over to Karios, who is busy nervously poking the giant snake.
“Oh, Lammis and Boxxo? Neither of you seem hurt, either. That’s good.”
“I’m glad.”
“Yup, we’re fine!”
“Thank you,” I say. They were worried not only about Lammis, but about me? A vending machine? I can’t quite put into words how happy that makes me feel, so in the near future I’ll have to add an item the gatekeepers might like.
“Oh! Um, and you two are, um…”
Lammis clasps her hand at her chest, hoping against hope, and stammers out a half question—and the two of them return a smile.
“Yeah, no worries. The people are all safe. Everyone’s inside.”
“Th-thank goodness!”
Lammis sinks to the ground. Phew—I feel like the relief is going to shut me down.
Still, I had no idea there was such a grand building in the settlement. They say to expect the unexpected, but this is a bit much.
“Come to think of it, you came here recently, didn’t you, Lammis?” says Karios. “There’s a rule that when we sound the magic alarm, the residents here all drop what they’re doing and head here as fast as they can. If we don’t think we can handle things at the gate, we’ll close that up, too, and flee directly to the association headquarters.”
“This is where the transfer circle is, after all,” adds Gorth.
I see. There’s so much damage that I thought it impossible everyone was safe. But with a system like that in place… This settlement is built inside the dungeon, so maybe it’s only natural they’d do this much.
The ramparts were just stacks of logs, so I underestimated things. Either way, the most important thing is that the settlement’s people are safe. The buildings are in ruins, but at least they made it out with their lives.
I’m not planning on sugarcoating it by saying they can just rebuild what was lost. Houses are investments and, at the same time, treasure chests filled with the memories of daily life. At the very least, as someone who’s never lost everything before, it’s not my place to tell the survivors that they should be happy to simply be alive.
Even so, I’m glad they survived. I’ve been living here for only a scant few weeks, but I truly hope in my heart that nobody dies—not the customers who come to me every day, nor the people who merely pass me by. Since I’ve died once before…
“Well, we got all sorts of wreckage now. But it was bad three years ago, too. That’s why the wall around the gate seems so flimsy, you know.”
The settlement was damaged three years ago, too? That explains all the tents being in the other area, while the larger buildings stand here. The people here are hardier than I thought.
“Lammy! Welcome back!”
“Phew. I thought we were done for this time. Today’s been quite the day. Lammis, you’re not hurt, are you?”
The iron doors have burst open, and several people are coming out. The old couple and the young merchant, my regulars, are among them. Suori, the rambunctious young lady with the twin-tails, looks all right, too. Her black-suited bodyguards are by her side.
Others I’ve seen several times before are also present. Finally feeling like we can mark an end to this string of events, I mentally give a sigh of relief.
“Thank you.”
I didn’t intend to say anything like that, but I’m not sure it was a mistake, either. This time for certain, it looks like we can rest easy.
“Boy. Now that we’re out of the woods, I’m hungry. Boxxo, I’ll have some of that strange water that makes you less tired.”
“I’ll have the sweet tea.”
“I think I’ll have the urengi juice. Lammy, Mom, do you want some, too?”
“Yes, that sounds good.”
“Sure, thanks!”
Karios wants a sports drink, Gorth wants milk tea, and Munami, Lammis, and the mistress want orange juice. Coming right up—and it’s my treat today, you little thieves!
“Oh, why, Boxxo is here, honey.”
“You don’t need to hit me. I can see it. I’ll have the usual water. You want the yellow soup, right, honey?”
“I’ll have some of the sweet tea, too. Oh, Munami, I didn’t see you there. What a coincidence!”
Fine, the three of you come to me every morning, so you get a gift, too!
“Hey, Boxxo’s here right when we need him. I’ll have some of that cloudy white pasta.”
“I think I’ll take some of the kind with the brown on top.”
“Hmm, which should I have?”
One customer after another crowds around me. Ah, fine then. Normally, I’d be ecstatic at the roaring business, but today I’m leaving my earnings out of the equation. For tonight only, I’m giving away everything for free, dammit!
I’ve stocked sake, beer, cocktails, and even other alcohol like shochu with tonic, too. We’re having a party tonight, you lot!
…This might cause me many difficulties in the future, but I can’t lend them any arms or legs, so I’d like them to accept these gifts instead. This is about all I can do—I’ll still be living here as a member of the settlement after all this.
After that, once everyone finished counting the survivors, and those who could no longer live in their homes had their things brought to the Hunters Association, the great feast of drinking and singing began.
The main dish was two-headed snake, and nobody was too nervous to bite into it, whether boiled or fried. How should I put this—the people in this world are wild. I never had the chance to eat snake in Japan, but seeing the meat glisten with fat, it does look delicious.
When people realized my products were free, even those who had never bought anything congregated to me. I’ve had to refill several times. The new alcoholic items were flying off the shelves, and many were buying pressed potato chips and oden with the drinks as a snack. It looks like sports drinks will be a hit tomorrow for the people who drank too much. I’ll get some shijimi clam miso soup for their inevitable hangovers, too. Heh-heh-heh-heh. It’ll be free for only tonight, you lot. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be raking in the cash.
“Boxxo, I been drinking.”
And now I’m mixed up with a drunk. Lammis, completely intoxicated, leans against me and sits on the floor. In Japan, this wouldn’t be legally kosher, but it seems like this world has a low drinking age. Several other hunters who don’t look any older than high school kids are freely drinking, too.
Lammis’s face has gotten completely soft, and her smile stretches from ear to ear. I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen such a happy drunk.
“Ever since going hunting, we’ve been doing, like…a lot of work. But it’s really, uh, fulfilling, huh?”
“Welcome.”
Yeah, I agree. It was a terribly fierce battle; the fact that not a single person died means that everyone in the settlement, not just the hunters, is proficient at surviving. They didn’t make their home on a monster-filled stratum for nothing.
All the people here, unlike normal villagers and townspeople, live side by side with danger. If I’d been reincarnated as the same exact person, I’m not sure I could have lived even a few days… Maybe it was actually the mercy of some god to give me a new life as a vending machine.
“I’m pretty happy. And I’m glad about everyone being alive and stuff, too, but…”
She’s slurring heavily in her accent now. Her eyes seem set to close at any second. Mere moments away from falling asleep—but she’s managing to hold herself back, just barely. She should just let herself fall asleep already.
“After we got back here, everyone was all, like, running to Boxxo, and that made me reeeeally happy—like, really, really happy… Zzz.”
Okay, there she goes.
That’s what you were thinking about, Lammis? She’s such a warm, kind person. If I’d met a girl like her in Japan, I might have seriously fallen in love with her.
Good night, Lammis. I’ll see you again tomorrow.
