"It's safe! We made it!"
When the gates of Grayrock Town opened and the refugees streamed into the streets, tears once again slid down their cheeks.
"Lord Gauss, who are these people?"
The guard who had opened the gates looked up at Gauss, who had floated down from the sky, and asked.
Even now, they still had no idea who the newcomers were. They had opened the gates and welcomed them only because they trusted Gauss.
"They're refugees from Blackwater Town. It was overrun."
"I found them outside the town being pursued by a group of monster cavalry, so I stepped in and rescued them."
At the news, the guard took a sharp breath, feeling a chill run through him.
Those two brief sentences concealed the displacement of thousands upon thousands of families.
The townsfolk looked at the refugees entering the town with sympathy, but also with a trace of lingering fear.
If Gauss hadn't been stationed in Grayrock Town, they might have ended up like these people, bereft of their homes and families.
"Go notify Sir Bellock and have these people settled in for now."
They couldn't simply let the refugees flood into the streets of Grayrock Town. After all, they couldn't rule out the possibility that spies were hiding among them. So Gauss left the matter to Sir Bellock and the town's other administrators.
His job was to save people. The follow-up work had to be left to the people responsible for it.
Soon, the town militia led the refugees to the barracks and put them up there.
The cooks in the barracks began preparing hot soup, giving the starving refugees a warm meal to replenish their strength.
"Who would've thought Blackwater Town would fall?"
Sir Bellock stood beside Gauss, watching the people line up for food, and