Labyrinth City.
Street corner inside the second wall.
One man who abandoned his companions who had shared his joys and sorrows.
Godwin.
He kept glancing at the movements of the people on the wall, trying to find a way to climb over somewhere, and as he moved forward.
He was ambushed from a side road, and didn’t notice.
He reeled back when a blunt object struck him in the face.
“Gah?!”
By the time Godwin regained consciousness, he was indoors.
And what met his eyes were armed men and people tied up with their hands behind their backs.
He immediately understood the situation and wandered around the room, looking for an escape.
“You’re awake♪”
“Alright, now we have meat shields…”
“Wait, wait. We need to persuade this one first♪”
From their conversation and the atmosphere, he gathered that the armed group were passengers from a medium-sized ship.
Those who were captured were passengers from a large ship.
War captives.
Nobles and adventurers had rebelled, deeming them useful for combat power despite the danger.
They must have had a good relationship until they reached the Labyrinth City…
And then, instead of their destination, they found, like us, that there was more beyond the gate.
They were isolated because their combat power was low, or they absorbed survivors and moved on.
At that time, the nobles were kept alive by ransom from their homeland and as hostages for their attendants who served as meat shields.
I don’t want to die either, so I have no choice but to cooperate.
If I refuse, I’ll be forced into close combat with monsters, wearing armor, and with my legs bound so I can’t run, restricted in my movements.
“Alright, you guys better work hard.”
“If you contribute, we might consider releasing you.”
Even though we knew it was a lie, we had no choice but to obey.
We couldn’t act stealthily due to our large numbers and were attacked by monsters many times.
“Fuga. Fuga.”
We were chilled to the bone when even the slow-moving orcs approached from the other side.
“Aooon.”
“Gaooo.”
On the other hand, the fast crow wolves were easier to deal with if we could stop their charge.
Besides, their fur could keep us warm at night, and their meat was delicious.
“How many are left?”
“Damn it, when will we get there!?”
We could hear the war captives talking while being attended to by women.
I could discreetly ask the women later what had been decided.
It wasn’t a loss to know in advance about their plan to abandon us. While maintaining my sleepy consciousness, I eavesdropped until the last moment.
…Are two people still alive and well?
If I meet them again, what should I talk about?
Godwin and his group passed through three more walls.
They reached the area in front of the gate where the city where people lived could be seen.
“Open the gate quickly!”
“The monsters will come!”
To our surprise, there was a large crowd in front of the gate.
Survivors who were enraged, shouting “Don’t talk about taking turns or anything like that,” their angry cries attracted monsters.
Godwin and his group were caught in the middle. Reluctantly, they engaged the group of monsters behind them.
The war captives moved to the front of the gate amidst the confusion of the battle.
“Hey!”
“You play with the monsters too.”
“Later.”
“Move. If you don’t move, I’ll kill you, you know? Hya.”
Before we knew it, the area in front of the gate turned into a free-for-all among the survivors.
And the number of monsters kept increasing.
“You had to do something unnecessary…”
Everyone thought that.
And they swung their weapons with resentment at the guards of the unopening gate, pleading for it to be opened.
