In the dark forest, a shadow approached one step at a time. Because my eyesight is only that of a human, it took me a couple seconds to recognize that the shadow had a human outline.

As they push by a bush that is about waist height, I can see that there are five figures

They are about 5 meters away from me. The moonlight and bonfire’s glow did not reach them.

Are they a resident of this strange world, or someone who was transferred like me?

I narrow my eyes, but realize immediately that I won’t be able to identify them.

They have their heads covered with something like helmets, the back of which spreads out like a skirt to cover their necks. Grated visors completely covers their facial features, dark grey armor protects their bodies.

They look like people in plate armor that I have seen in the movies. It’s the attire of soldiers armed to the teeth.

Clicking my tongue, I realize that these guys are going to be troublesome.

I do not know the ident.i.ty of the other party. Therefore, I don’t know their motive.

It was a serious problem that I wasn’t able to discover who they were sooner. I wanted to confirm it before contact, if possible, what kind of human being they are, but. . .

……No. There is no point in regretting it now.

Anyways, I should try to negotiate.

I stand up and try to get in front of Lily; however, she stops me before I can do so.

「What on earth ……」(Majima)

「Master. Fall back.」(Lily)

I was blocked from going forward by Lily’s outstretched arm.

「Even if you try such a thing, There’s no point.」(Lily)

The soldiers that Lily saw ahead were completely seen as the enemy.

「Lily? What are you …?」(Majima)

I put up my guard. I guess we were a bit unlucky. If we were downwind, it would’ve been impossible for them to notice us.

「Look. You should be able to see soon.」(Lily)

I do what she says, and I strain my eyes to see who these people are, as they continued to get closer.

There stood five soldiers ……

Then I see it.

「…… Ugh.」(Majima)

Finally, the light from the fire showed『the bodies of the five soldiers』.

The five soldiers all had helmets on. However, one of them had their viser broken so it was easy to see his face.

After confirming the face of the soldier, I involuntarily groaned.

The face bathed in light didn’t bear any resemblance of the original person. There was a bite mark on the face, for that matter everything below the jaw was missing. Though it could still be determined that the soilder was caucasian, but barely.

The plate armor should have covered their entire body, but some parts of it were gone, smashed or broken; even one of their arms is missing. Surely this was because of a fatal injury that they had received some time ago.

As soon as I noticed that there were some of them that were walking around, dragging their internal organs on the ground, I could feel the gastric juices welling up in the back of my throat.

Ever since I’ve come to this world, I’ve seen some tragic deaths. However, seeing this battered body walking around was truly horrifying.

「Aa, Aa …… 」(Ghoul numero uno)

From the mouth of the dead that was halfway open, came a vacant groan with no meaning. The feel of death stroking my ear made my skin crawl; I was horrified.

……No doubt.

This had occurred once already in the colony. It was definitely one of those undead monsters. It was almost a taboo name in the colony, the name given to the monster called 「Ghoul」.

No wonder Lily said that it is meaningless. Even when the figure of a person had been barely kept, they are a monsters, there is no room to negotiate otherwise.

「Oh, Oh Aaaaaa! – Tsu. . .」(ghoul)

In the next moment, the five ghouls that had emerged from the forest lunged at us with the speed of wild animals.

「Ugh.」(Majima)

At the sight of corpses lunging at us, my body unintentionally froze.

This was even an issue for those with cheat-like abilities in the expedition corps – undead monsters were to be feared. Humans are already innately hesitant to hurt other humans or things that look like humans. When something unnatural like a corpse coming back to life and attacks, it is only natural that humans would be instinctively be intimidated. But this only applies to people who are human.

My group is made up of monsters, be it humans or whatever. There is no reason for the girls to be afraid.

「s.h.i.+!」 -sfx

The battle-axe Rose threw showed our hostility. One body got an ax to the chest and fell to the ground with a terrible force. Although the armor spared him, the chest piece was split in two, causing serious damage. But even though the body was still moving, it was pinned to the ground by the thrown ax.

The remaining four ghouls came rus.h.i.+ng at us without regards for their downed comrade. They did not a thing such as camaraderie among themselves.

They closed in the distance.

But, Rose immediately started to move at the same time they did.

「I would desirest thou (the undead) not to approach. It is not suitable for Milord to become sick.」 (Gerbera)

Gerbera says, as she begins shooting the spider thread.

Silk is littered around to cover a wide range, clinging to the body and various objects of the surrounding soldiers.

High spider thread is sticky, although it was not possible to prevent the movement of the strong force ghoul completely; it was enough to buy time.

「Tear!!」-sfx

The family delay the ghouls as Lily begins to create a magic circle.

– Water magic of the second revised nature,『Three Sword』! –

Swords of transparent water jump out and glide in the sky. It pierced the helmet of the soldiers, not missing its mark.

The Ghoul is destroyed – it’s brain blown to smithereens – falls to the ground. It was already confirmed in the colony that their brain was their nucleus; this being a reminder.

Now the remaining ghoul–

「A, a, Aaaa~tsu. . .」(Ghoul 5)

— The remaining ghoul completely tears through the spider thread.

「GyaO!」(aya) TL kirby: rowr~ :3

It was. .h.i.t with fireball from Aya.

Whether it didn’t think about avoiding the attack, or whether it did not react because it was a counter, the ball bounds at the ghoul.

A small-scale explosion happens and stops the ghoul in it’s tracks.

「Leave it to me!」(Rose)

Rose rushed in with a spare ax

「s.h.i.+! – Tsu」 -sfx

She swings the ax and crushed the soldier’s head from the front.

I put down my large s.h.i.+eld and let out my breath.

Ten seconds haven’t even pa.s.sed. The ghouls bodies have been destroyed in the process of the fight.

After I put my sword into the first ghoul that Rose pinned to the ground with her ax, we decided to split into two groups; one to inspect the ghouls, and another to set up a new camp.

It’s not very hygenic to stay around some rotting corpses. Although they were killed before they could approach, sleeping near various entrails scattered around within arms reach isn’t really good for one’s health. Physically, but also mentally.

Rose and I decide to inspect the corpses.

Rose was the one that actually touched the corpses. I was only watching the work.

There was enough manpower to make camp, and it was decide a human should be part of the actual inspection.

Kato could fill this role, but I don’t think that women should have to observe the inspection of the corpses. Right now she is entertaining Iris.

「What do you think master, are they people from this planet or ones that transferred here like you?」 (Rose)

Rose asks me as she washes their personal items in the water, while I stand behind her.

I nodded, glanced to the bodies which are arranged on the ground.

「Yeah, it looks like they have different features from Kato and I.」(Majima)

The corpse that has been stripped nude appears to be an adult male. The Ghoul that was damaged and was missing his jaw was hard to identify but he appeared to be caucasian.

「We do look similar . . It could be someone from the west that stumbled into this world.」(Majima)

Once I start thinking, I cannot deny the possibility. But at some point there is no point to continue thinking about it.

「At least I don’t recognize this language. . .」, I said as I look at the letter one carried near their chest.

It was black, and was stained with blood, but I could at least tell that it was an alphabet that I had never seen before. It is probably the language of this strange world.

If anything, the shape of the character is similar to the cursive script of Kanji. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough knowledge to be able to make a distinction.

「That said, I can’t say. I can’t tell because I don’t know the origin of this world’s alphabet.」 (Majima)

That said, I cannot deny that it could be a language from my world. The corpse doesn’t tell me anything. It would be quite unreasonable to receive an answer from it.

I involuntarily let out a sigh.

I thought we were finally going to be able to meet people from this world. Man in this world seems to be hard to find.

「Rose, have you noticed anything?」 (Majima)

「Well. . . .」 (Rose)

Rose Hands me the last item she had been was.h.i.+ng.

「A Ring?」(Majima)

「Yes. It looks like they all wore one.」 (Rose)

It seemed to have been attached under the armor. It was made of a ring of thin, round metal that didn’t interfere when he clenched his fist.

A small yellow stone was fitted in as decoration, and different white characters were etched on the ring. Possibly, this may been some kind of identification for this military unit.

「Have you noticed anything else?」(Rose)

Rose showed me one of the corpse’s hands.

「They don’t appear to have rotted much. They were only a few days post mortem.」(Rose)

I was about to ask how it happened, when I realized what she was trying to tell me.

「Rose, what happened to… What your saying is these guys were killed a few days walk from here?」(Majima)

「Yes.」(Rose)

Unlike normal humans, these guys were Ghouls now, they probably didn’t need to rest. However, even if they didn’t stop walking…… It should have taken them less than 10 days to get here. .

I can honestly say that we would be able to make that distance without a problem.

「In other words, it’s possible that their base is nearby.」(Rose)

「Even if their base isn’t there, I’m sure that there are people there. If not, there should at least be a clue. Now then, the problem is how do we get there.」(Majima)

「Onee-sama(Lily) can probably use Fire Fangs sense of smell to track their scent and follow their footsteps in reverse. Also, they came from the『NorthWest』so we won’t have to deviate from our original path.」(Rose)

「The route won’t change, if we fail we fail, we’ll do what we did before and just keep going North.」(Majima)

We were only really going in a general direction so I guess we did ok. It was worth trying.

「Let’s talk to Lily. Rose, you did a good job examining.」(Majima)

「Well , it wasn’t that great.」 (Rose)

「Don’t be modest. They were things I didn’t notice.」(Majima)

「No. It’s something anyone could notice.」(Rose)

「 I see. … Speaking of which, was there anything useful from what they had on them? 」(Majima)

「There was portable food, but since it’s spoilt, it’d be better not to take it」(Rose)

「How about weapons? All their armor seems to be broken, but how about the swords on their waist?」(Majima)

「I inspected them. I don’t think there was anything good enough to use.」(Rose)

「 I see. It’s regrettable, but I guess we won’t keep anything… Wait.」(Majima)

I was about to say, but on second thought. . . .

「We will only take the ring.」 (Majima)

「The ring?」(Rose)

「Well, if we met someone that knew what the characters meant, it might come in handy.」 (Majima)

We might be able to win someone over as an ally with it.

I put the ring I was holding into my pants pocket.

「Well, let’s hurry and bury them in a grave or they won’t be able to rest.」(Majima)

「Right.」(Rose)

「Once you’ve disposed of the weapons and armour, dig a decently deep and large hole……. It seems like it would be best if we increased the manpower. The preparations to leave should be finished by now, go call Koyo over.」(Majima)

I start walking over to Lily and the others. Because it’s dangerous to be too far apart in the forest, they were close enough to hear if I yelled.

Of course even though it was a short distance, it would still be dangerous by myself. Therefore, Rose escorted me back to the fire.

Except, I don’t hear the footsteps. I stopped and looked back

「What is it, Rose?」(Majima)

「Master ……」(Rose)

I can see that Rose hasn’t moved at all yet.

「So um. . . There’s something I’d like to say. . . . Is that ok?」(Rose)