Chapter 14 – Fortress on the Hiragis border (1/3)
As we flew over the mountain, an enormous refugee camp could be seen.
“Oooh….that’s big.”
To properly check things out, I had Lilia stop before we got there.
The defensive rampart left of that large refugee camp below us must be the Brumdahl Fortress. On the right side there was what must be a preexistent village, but the refugee camp already nearly engulfed it at this point. A large river cut through the valley as well, with mountains on the other side of it, then on the other side of those mountains was Hiragis. There are monsters likely present on the other side of the river, since I couldn’t see anyone living there.
“I must say, the stories did not do this place justice…..”
I was pretty sure Ann was planning on doing more volunteer work here. I intended to help out some as well, but this situation seems like more than we can handle.
The refugee camp looked to be about twice or thrice the size of Shiorii Town. How many people could be down there? Fifty thousand? A hundred thousand?
Also, there doesn’t seem to be a proper wall. There are some wooden fences that don’t seem to be more than a token effort, but can those really hold back the monsters?
They are next to a river, so getting water is not a problem, but we’ve heard that they have problems with food. However, even if we try to help out with our food reserves, it would be nothing more than a drop in a bucket for the thousands of people here.
Most shacks seem to be ramshackle, with stone made ones the better, but many were simple tents with a single post in the middle and a tarp serving as the roof.
There seems to be a real need for proper living spaces, but with these numbers…..
Counting for a hundred thousand people, with row houses that could fit twenty people we would need five thousand of them. If we can make ten of them in an hour, then it would be about a hundred a day. That means fifty days in their entirety. Toilets and baths would be needed as well, so maybe it would take even more time?
However, even if we don’t run out of mana, using it is tiring. If we were to keep using our mana for ten hours a day, then we would be so tired that we wouldn’t be able to do anything else.
Then there is the food situation. Two meals a day for a hundred thousand people is two hundred thousand portions. If we get about an average of 50kg of meat from a single orc, and counting with a 100 grams for a meal, it would be five hundred people’s worth. That would mean hunting four hundred orcs every day.
I was thinking that it would be impossible, but that seems kind of okay? There are some houses already and if we could make some farms between hunting trips, then the harvest we get from those would help to decrease the number of hunting trips necessary. We should be able to take care of more than even a hundred thousand people then.
However, I don’t think we can just help out here on a whim, like we did with the villages on the way, and we have no responsibility to go as far as that either.
We have sword training scheduled already and we need to visit Ellie’s family as well. Also, the greatest problem here would be if we went all out here where a lot of people could see it, allowing the demon side to learn of me as well.
“No matter what we’ll end up doing, we need to confirm the situation first.”
We have no responsibility for these people. However, we should do as much as we can within reason.
“I guess so. Maybe it’s quite peaceful here with no serious problems,” Ann agreed with me.
It’s been five months since Hiragis has fallen. This place must’ve been managed by someone during that time already. If they are doing at least an adequate job, then there is no need for us to start meddling at this point.
“Tomorrow we will take an entire day off, as we planned. Once we settle into our accommodations, everyone will be free to move as they wish. Let’s go, Lilia.”
At first, the plan was to move on right after we deliver the supplies, but with everyone getting pretty fatigued, we decided to add a day off, but….will I really be able to take it easy? If something comes up in the meantime, then I don’t think I will have time to relax.
We couldn’t see a place where we could land properly, so we chose a small clearing within the refugee camp near the fortress. There were quite a number of guards near the gate of the fortress, probably to deal with the refugees, so we decided against approaching the place from the air in hopes of avoiding possible problems.
When we landed it startled a number of people who were close by, but once Ann turned up the charm everyone calmed back down.
“Syrah in the front, Will at the back.”
I don’t think anyone would try anything, but it’s best to be safe. There are so many people here it’s kind of scary. There shouldn’t be too many people that would try to pick a fight with Syrah-chan.
As for Syrah-chan’s beloved darkness armor, we put it through its paces during the trip, but as expected of a quality product made by the elves, it proved very sturdy and just became even more threatening looking with the dents and scratches. Syrah-chan looks even tougher in it than before.
Well, after getting used to it, the design doesn’t even look that terrible anymore, and there are times like this when it even comes in handy, and since she likes it, maybe there is no need to exchange it for another one.
In contrast, though Will’s armor is in a similar shape, it looks like it’s a beat up cheap armor. It gives off the feeling that he’s making due with a worn out armor, not being able to buy a new one. I guess that more or less makes him seem like an experienced adventurer, but with his new armor from the elves nearly completed, we should let him switch as soon as possible.
Thanks for the treat. 😊