Siege? This Is It?

Given Esdeath's personality, it was entirely possible that she had joined the army after getting into a fight.

And among the troops guarding the Empire's borders against Foreigners, there wasn't a single Teigu user?

One had to know that in this world, the belief that Teigu users were stronger than ordinary people was deeply ingrained.

Under those circumstances, how had Esdeath become a general?

Or had Minister Honest pulled some strings? Or had she first been made a general, then summoned back to the Imperial Capital to find a suitable Teigu?

Lilith couldn't figure it out. Perhaps the nobles of the Imperial Capital had gathered all the Teigu there to protect themselves.

For some reason, Lilith felt that her last guess was the truth.

"What is the army actually like?"

Though they had yet to leave the snowfields, Esdeath was already looking forward to military life.

Lilith felt the same way.

Whether before or now, she had always been deeply curious about life in the army.

But when she remembered that this world's standard of living was probably still stuck in ancient times, Lilith's expression froze.

Ancient times...

Never delude yourself into thinking that ancient people lived well.

Aside from royal families and nobles whose lives you could never imagine, the lives ancient people lived were truly unbearable for modern people.

Still, that was some distance away for Lilith.

The reason her expression had frozen was that, if she wasn't mistaken, everyone in the army should be male, right?

What would they do about food and lodging then?

Lilith asked the question aloud.

Esdeath gave Lilith a strange look, then raised her fist.

"Don't the strong have privileges? Didn't you know that?"

That small fist of Esdeath's contained strength ordinary people could hardly imagine.

After hearing Esdeath's words, Lilith fell silent.

This... she hadn't considered that for a moment.

Lilith quietly reminded herself that this was no longer the peaceful society she had lived in before.

This was a dangerous other world!

After that, Esdeath kept finding topics to talk about. Perhaps the journey was simply too dull.

Lilith answered her now and then.

So the entire way, Esdeath talked while Lilith listened.

Along the way, Esdeath and Lilith encountered quite a few wild beasts, even Dangerous Species.

Whenever they encountered those beasts and Dangerous Species, Esdeath grew very excited and taught Lilith on the spot about their weaknesses and how to kill them.

Lilith had thought she would miss Esdeath teaching her how to hunt Dangerous Species.

She hadn't expected them to actually encounter any.

However, the Dangerous Species they met along the way were all rather weak. Even so, Lilith was satisfied.

After all, these Dangerous Species were special creatures she had never seen before.

"Something's strange..."

After Lilith, under Esdeath's guidance, cleanly killed another Dangerous Species, Esdeath stopped.

"What's wrong? What's strange?"

Esdeath watched Lilith excitedly dissect the corpse and said, "We're heading south. Logically, we should be getting closer and closer to towns. These Dangerous Species have always lived around here and know human towns are dangerous, so they generally wouldn't head that way. Yet most of the Dangerous Species we've encountered were heading south, as if..."

"...as if they were taking refuge?"

"Could some powerful Dangerous Species be chasing them from behind?"

Lilith was startled.

At her current strength, she was only somewhat stronger than an ordinary person. Against excessively powerful Dangerous Species, she had virtually no ability to resist.

If she encountered one, she would merely be delivering it an inexhaustible meal. She had at least that much self-awareness.

"Doesn't seem like it."

Esdeath shook her head. This was the first time she had encountered such a situation as well.

Still, they picked up their pace afterward.

Perhaps they could learn the reason if they encountered someone from the Empire.

Not long after they set off again, Lilith suddenly stopped.

Sensing that Lilith had stopped behind her, Esdeath turned and asked, "Why did you stop?"

Once she fully turned around, Esdeath saw Lilith wearing a grave expression. In the days she had known Lilith, she had never seen her make that face.

"What happened?"

"Blood... I smell blood!"

Though Esdeath was powerful, when it came purely to sensitivity toward blood, Lilith believed Esdeath was absolutely no match for her.

"Blood? Dangerous Species blood, or..."

Esdeath's tone turned grave as well.

If it were merely the smell of blood from ordinary Dangerous Species, Lilith's expression would not be so serious. Then it could only be...

"Human blood. This intense stench of blood... it's as though the blood of thousands of people has gathered together."

If so many people had truly died, there was no way she wouldn't have smelled it.

Thinking back to how Lilith had initially seemed interested in blood, could it be that Lilith was extremely sensitive to it and could smell blood she could not?

If that was true, then the deaths of thousands...

There didn't seem to be any tribes living nearby, did there?

Could it be...

Esdeath estimated the distance they had traveled. "Which direction is the smell coming from? Roughly how far away?"

Lilith pointed ahead. "There, about four or five kilometers away."

The direction she pointed to was south.

Just as I thought.

Esdeath thought to herself.

She had heard there was a city ahead.

That city was also a fortress, one that defended against invasions by the northern Foreigners.

For a thousand years, it had stood there. For a thousand years, it had never been breached.

The bloody smell coming from there likely meant that Foreigners had come to attack the city again.

No...

If it was a siege, thousands of people? Wasn't that death toll far too low?

Or had the war only just begun, so few had died?

Still, everything would become clear once they arrived.

Thus, Esdeath and Lilith increased their speed again. They had already been moving quickly, but now they broke into a run.

With their increased pace, they saw the city in less than ten minutes.

Only after approaching did they discover that several hundred people were attacking it.

However, by the time they arrived, those several hundred people were almost all dead, their bodies strewn across the ground.

As they got closer, they discovered that some of the corpses were missing limbs, while others were clearly quite old.

Siege? This was it?