Chapter 31: Apparently a Few Monsters Climbed Over the Eastern Wall and Got Inside

The sky stretched endlessly blue, with only a few sparse clouds drifting across it.

In the spring afternoon, sunlight poured down fully over Aquila.

Most of the buildings were low, made of brick or half-timbered wood, because tall structures were more likely to be targeted by monsters. Concrete high-rises did exist to some extent, but they were few in number.

To Kazui and Yuri, who had come from Japan, the cityscape looked like an old European town. Since it had not been developed according to a planned layout, the streets were rather disorderly.

Right after a large-scale battle, some buildings had been destroyed while others were already under repair, so Aquila was busier than usual. Commercial vehicles belonging to construction companies, loaded with rubble and building materials, hurried back and forth along the streets.

Because magic-powered engines that used mana as their energy source — magic engines — existed, automobiles existed in this world as well. For that reason, the roads in most cities were paved with concrete or cobblestones.

On this Northern Continent, automobiles were used only inside cities and in the surrounding areas; they were not used for long-distance travel between autonomous cities. Paved roads connecting cities simply did not exist.

Even if such roads were built, they would quickly be destroyed by monsters, making them a waste. That was why terrestrial ships, which did not require roads at all, had become the standard means of inter-city transportation.

In regions with few powerful monsters, off-road trucks and the like were used for gathering resources. However, such trucks were only used in the areas around autonomous cities and were not built to withstand travel between cities.

Incidentally, to Japanese-raised Kazui and Yuri, the automobiles of this world felt quite old-fashioned in design and low in performance.

"This area got hit pretty hard," Kazui muttered in his martial arts uniform while glancing sideways at a pile of rubble that had once been a brick building. In the white paper box he was carrying was a souvenir cheesecake.

Aquila, surrounded by grasslands, was active in cattle ranching. It produced large quantities of dairy products and foodstuffs made from beef, and many dairy farmers and processors earned their living by selling them to other cities and countries.

Because ingredients were easy to obtain, meat pies made with beef and cheesecakes made with cheese had become Aquila’s specialty dishes and sweets.

"Apparently a few monsters climbed over the eastern wall and got inside," Yuri explained while also looking at the rubble.

"The residents had already finished evacuating to the underground shelters, so there were no deaths, but a lot of buildings got damaged."

During the brigade’s attack, the residents of Aquila had evacuated to the underground shelters. If Aquila had fallen, they would have been killed by the monsters even inside the shelters, but this time the city had avoided falling and no one had died.

Incidentally, the reason the residents had not fled from Aquila was that there were not enough terrestrial ships. To escape a city safely required terrestrial ships.

However, Aquila had not been able to secure enough terrestrial ships to evacuate fifty thousand residents in a short time. That was why the non-combatant residents could not be allowed to flee the city and had no choice but to take shelter underground.

"Our apartment could have been hit too if things had gone a little worse."

This area was the eastern edge of Aquila, and the apartment where Kazui and Yuri lived was also on the eastern edge. Buildings near the edge of a city — that is, near the walls — tended to have lower rents.

The reason rents were cheap near the walls was that buildings there had a higher chance of being destroyed by monsters compared to those farther away. Although it was not common for monsters to enter inside the walls, cases like this one, where buildings were destroyed, did occur.

As rookies, Kazui and Yuri did not have much money to spare. That was why they lived in an apartment near the eastern wall where the rent was very cheap.

After leaving the apartment near the wall, the two of them had stopped by a shop on the way to buy the cheesecake, and were now walking toward the eastern city gate while talking. Aquila, a fortified city roughly square in shape, had city gates on the east, west, south, and north sides.

There were four city gates, but the port for terrestrial ships existed only outside the eastern gate. That was why Kazui and Yuri were heading for the eastern gate.

As they continued walking, the eastern city gate came into view before them. In the gray concrete wall more than twenty meters high, a massive city gate about ten meters tall and twenty meters wide stood open.

When under external attack the gate would be sealed with metal doors, but right now the doors were open. Various transport vehicles belonging to different companies were busily coming and going, looking somewhat like traffic through a highway toll gate.

Around the gate there were not only automobiles but also many people who looked like workers.

"It’s lively. Has a cargo ship come in?" Kazui asked. The "cargo ships" he mentioned were the terrestrial ships that traveled between cities, transporting goods and passengers as a business. When a cargo ship arrived, the area around the eastern gate became livelier than usual.

"Apparently the cargo ship that was originally supposed to arrive yesterday is here today. Because of the brigade’s attack, it couldn’t come yesterday."

Yuri relayed what he had heard from the shopkeeper when he went to buy the meat pies and other things. Just as he said, the cargo ship was visiting Aquila one day late.