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After the meeting with the three guild leaders, the work for city defense proceeded smoothly.

It was as if they had been waiting for this moment, each taking on roles like reinforcing the city wall and setting up traps.

The city guards stationed in Schwarzheim numbered about five thousand.

And the number of adventurers belonging to the three major adventurer guilds was around ten thousand.

The enemies numbered in the tens of thousands, perhaps even more, so it might have felt quite disadvantageous to have only fifteen thousand troops to defend the city.

However, if all ten thousand were adventurers, the situation was different.

They were well-versed in combat against the Undead, equipped with all sorts of magical tools that were qualitatively different from army supplies, and there was an abundance of special job classes such as Wizards and Clerics. Not to mention, there were S-rank adventurers with master-level skills holding the line.

Furthermore, the situation was one where they only had to hold out until proper reinforcements arrived, which kept the morale of the city quite high.

Perhaps the presence of Elizabeth had an impact on the morale of the adventurers and soldiers. With the princess here, there was at least a sense of reassurance that they wouldn’t be abandoned.

In reality, the succession struggle made things a bit delicate…

I had the opportunity to discuss this matter with Elizabeth.

Though we still felt a bit awkward with each other, we decided to set aside the subtle tension for the moment given the circumstances.

Elizabeth spoke about the reinforcements.

“Right now, there’s not much the First Prince can do. Ever since the airship attack last time, there’s been a lot of chatter in society, so if he disregards the request for aid from the border city, public opinion will worsen. Also, the Imperial Army falls under the jurisdiction of the Kalstein Marquis, so he can’t very well stop someone from going to rescue his granddaughter.”

We quickly dispatched Zegler to request help from the neighboring cities.

Whether Elizabeth’s guess was accurate or not, we received a reply that the nearest border patrol had already begun to mobilize.

However, as Mayor Roman mentioned, the bridge connecting Schwarzheim to the Imperial mainland was out, meaning it would take at least a week for the troops to arrive.

A week. Long if it drags on, short if it goes quickly.

There was no telling when the Undead might attack again. It could be today, or maybe they wouldn’t come until the week had passed.

But it would be right to prepare as thoroughly as possible.

When I climbed up to the city wall, repair work was already in full swing.

“Stop slacking off like a lazy worm and get to work properly! Are you going to fumble around like that when the skeleton brigade comes charging in!?”

“Is the work proceeding smoothly?”

“Huh?”

The Dwarven warrior, S-rank adventurer “Iron Hammer” Bain, was grumbling at his fellow Dwarves while overseeing the repairs.

Bain was one of the leaders among the three adventurer guilds gathered at city hall. He spoke boisterously, with his trademark massive hammer resting on his shoulder.

“Of course! What do you take our Dwarves for? We’ve lived with fire and hammers since birth! Even though I’m using this hammer to smash monsters, I can always stand back in front of the forge if needed!”

He had a voice that sounded like he’d swallowed an entire megaphone.

I felt an urge to cover my ears, but I calmly replied.

“I’ve never doubted your skills. I just asked if the work was proceeding smoothly. After all, that wall took quite a beating from the bombardment.”

“Ahem, right. Thankfully, the only damaged part is the corner. It seems it was built sturdy; there’s not a single spot that has completely crumbled. Right now, we’re reinforcing it to make it last longer.”

“I see.”

Schwarzheim was a border city designed to serve as a fortress in emergencies, so it was only natural that the walls were sturdy.

It was a flaw that most of the facilities had been neglected under the mayor’s watch, with no Undead attacks over the years since its construction, but it was still usable after repair.

Looking down from the city wall, work was indeed underway to reinforce the walls with iron plates. It wasn’t very aesthetically pleasing since it prioritized practicality over looks, but it seemed they would hold up against projectiles better than before.

The priests were gathered in the city square, performing rituals to establish anti-magic barriers, while the Wizards were channeling magical energy into various magic circles etched into the walls. In case of emergency, those would serve as magical artillery.

I figured that the city defense could be left to the adventurers for the time being.

Anyway.

The reason I climbed up to the wall was not just to check on the progress but also to ask each guild leader something separately.

“I have a question.”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“When did this city start to experience attacks?”

Bain scratched his bushy beard and replied.

“Well, that would be… since last night. I saw them swarming in the darkness. We hurried to close the gates and prepare for battle, but that bastard the mayor was rambling about forced conscriptions rather than repairs, so it was just! He was practically telling us to go die for free!”

I raised one hand to interrupt Bain, who had suddenly become agitated.

“I’ve already heard that part. Was there no sign before all this?”

“Sign?”

The Undead of Ionia, who had been quiet until now, suddenly crossed the border and attacked the Empire. This couldn’t have happened without reason.

Every result has a clear cause. There had to have been some sign before the incident, though we hadn’t figured it out yet.

I needed to confirm that to get to the bottom of this situation.

“I heard that there were reports of Undead appearing inside the city. That was also starting yesterday, right?”

When I first arrived at the city, the woman who had blocked my path said that her daughter had been taken by a monster.

But while it seemed like there was battle raging around the city walls, the inside of the city was intact, with no signs of a breach allowed from the outside. This was a clear contradiction.

As if Bain was contemplating something, he frowned and replied.

“Oh, that. I heard some people went missing… but honestly, I don’t really know. Why not go ask that Louis guy?”

“Louis?”

If it’s Louis, there was no one else but ‘Demon Blade’ Louis among the three guild leaders.

Whether my guess was right or not, Bain nodded in affirmation.

“That slimy guy in armor. Was he a knight or a soldier… Anyway, he has some capable folks under him who used to work as rangers. Most of the tracking requests end up going to his guild. Our guys are good at making and breaking stuff, but we’re hopeless when it comes to finding things….”

So tracking down missing persons is handled mostly by Louis’s guild.

Anyway, Bain’s tone didn’t give off that peculiar feeling one gets when someone is lying. He genuinely seemed to know nothing.

I immediately left the city wall and headed towards the outskirts. From what I’d heard, Louis was busy setting traps around the city.

It wasn’t hard to spot Louis. He was focused on digging ditches with his subordinates.

Upon noticing me, he greeted me warmly.

“Hmm, the city’s hero has arrived. Is there something you need?”

Louis surprisingly showed me a friendly attitude, even though he didn’t strike me as particularly sociable.

I guessed that perhaps he felt a sense of camaraderie having also been a soldier.

From the way he reacted when he first met Elizabeth, it was easy to surmise he was a former Imperial soldier.

As for me, I had been straightforward about my special forces background recently.

“How’s the work going?”

“Smoothly. We’re digging a long trench around the city and filling it with oil. The Undead are weak to fire, so if we light the trench on fire, their morale will definitely take a hit.”

“But the oil will burn up quickly, won’t it?”

“Well, it would if that was all we used. We have a special recipe known only to our guild members. I don’t want to go into details, but we’ve made it as thick as possible, so it should burn for at least a day.”

So he’s planning to create a wall of flames. If the fire stays blazing for over a day as Louis asserted, it would definitely be effective against the Undead.

In any case, the work was just a side matter, and the real question I wanted to ask was something else entirely, so I repeated the question I had asked Bain to Louis.

Louis stiffened his expression slightly before nodding.

“It’s true that missing person cases started happening a few days before the Undead attacks. Our guild investigated that as well. However, I’m not sure how that relates to the current attack.”

“What were the findings of the investigation?”

“Sigh… about the findings….”

Louis appeared to experience a deep headache, furrowing his brow deeply as he spoke.

“To be honest, it was a dead end. There were no signs they had gone outside, and no traces of external intrusion… they just vanished like smoke. Every witness claimed they saw monsters, but none could describe exactly what kind of monster it was.”

“Is that all? You didn’t look into it further?”

“…I’m sorry to say, but adventurers aren’t people who work for free. We resolve issues based on requests, and missing persons cases are supposed to be handled by the guards. That job was originally requested by the guards, anyway.”

Louis shook his head.

“They figured, since the request fee might go up, it would be better just to resolve the case themselves. It’s not like it’s unusual for impoverished women to suddenly go missing. It’s unfortunate, but without requests, we also have no grounds to act.”

“Poverty-stricken women?”

“Yeah. They disappeared one after the other, all young women.”

A sense of foreboding washed over me.

After a moment’s contemplation, I spoke heavily.

“Where did those missing women live?”

 

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