Axel drove the Humvee as stably as he could. But given the circumstances, he had one eye ahead and another to the side.
He was a man, after all. Instinct took over and made him stare at the twin masses that, after her armor broke, were now freely moving with every bump along the road. Her clothes were also tattered from the battle, exposing a lot of her skin.
"..."
Axel even thought of purposefully running through obstacles just to see them juggle some more, but quickly returned to his senses after seeing the other refugees ahead. He planned to stop and let a few more up the Humvee to bring to safety, but...
"No, Sir Axel. We don't need to stop," Arianne quickly interjected, as if reading his intentions. "I've already killed the Pouncer, so only slow zombies remain. There's no way they'll get caught up to even if they simply walked."
"I see..." Axel nodded.
Of course, he had no idea what a Pouncer was, but Navi, who only he could see, explained immediately as he overtook the running, panicking refugees.
[Pouncer is just like a Giant Zombie, a special being. They have the same strength, but different sizes. Thus, it's inevitably faster than those big oafs~!]
"I see... So like the Hunter from the video game Left4Dude?"
[Approximately accurate, but it's as tough as a tank~!]
"Yikes... a mobile nightmare then..."
"Huh?"
Of course, Arianne had no way of understanding what Axel was whispering. She did not know what a "video game" was, after all.
Axel waved his hand as the other held the steering wheel. "Nothing, just talking to myself," he muttered as an excuse.
"Is that so...? Then..."
Arianne knew that he was simply changing the topic, but she found no real reason aside from curiosity to ask further anyway. Rather, she was more curious about something else.
"Anyway, what is this carriage, Sir Axel? A magic carriage? It's so big, and so strong..."
"Well... can you say that last part again? This time, with a bit of an embarrassed flair?"
"Embarrassed...?"
"...I'm just joking." Axel could tell that Arianne was truly confused by his words, so he just acted as if that exchange didn't happen. "This is a vehicle called a Humvee... Long story short, I summoned it to help evacuate the refugees."
The model he purchased had enough space for 8 people to sit, as well as some extra baggage space behind. If they were to fill it all with people, then they could fit up to 15 at most. A truly spectacular vehicle... And one that cost him a 300 million Colts down payment and 100 million Colts in weekly installments for 24 weeks.
'It's daylight robbery, I say...'
Axel mused, crying bitterly in his head.
Of the windfall that he got, only 7 million was left. Although it was still big enough for his projects, considering what he started with... After having over a hundred million in his account, he felt as if he was now way too poor.
"W-Wait!"
"Huh?"
Suddenly, Arianne raised her voice, pointing forward. "How come we're back at camp already?! It's barely even 15 minutes since we left!"
Axel paid attention to the road and realized that they really were already close to the walls. The spotlights were now identifiable as rectangular instead of how they looked circular from afar. They had covered roughly 25 kilometers in a quarter of an hour—a speed of 100 km/h!
"Well, this vehicle is just that fast..." Axel shrugged before checking the rearview mirror.
At the back, the sisters could be seen cuddling each other. The little girl, Karen, seemed to have regained consciousness already and was looking at Axel with a hazy expression, almost as if she were in a trance.
"Those two... They need treatment quickly." He muttered before passing two potions to Arianne. "Use this on them as soon as we arrive inside the walls."
Arianne didn't miss what he meant and nodded. "Leave it to me. They're just wounded and hungry, so one potion should be enough between the two of them."
Soon enough, Axel's vehicle came to a stop just a few meters away from the walls.
"Sir Axel!""Lady Arianne, you're back!"
And as soon as they did, Beatrix and Cherry called from on top of the wall, seemingly worried.
"We're fine!" Axel shouted back. "But move away from the central wall section. I'm moving it!"
"A-Alright, Sir Mage!"
They did as told, rushing away from the middle wall section. Since the Humvee was about two meters wide, to have some leeway, Axel placed two consecutive sections inside his inventory before rushing back to the car and driving it inside.
Then, right afterwards, he opened the back of the car before returning to the wall, placing back the two sections he had removed temporarily.
"With this, we should be clear..." He wiped the sweat off his forehead.
But his gaze sharpened the next moment. "Still, given some time, the refugees would arrive. Then, after them, the zombies..."
The night ahead of them was still long.
Arianne, as she declared, helped the sisters drink a potion before guiding them toward the campfire in the middle of the camp. There, Eve and Maria were already prepared to welcome visitors, having what was left of their dinner gruel heated up over the fire.
On the other hand, Beatrix and Cherry were still standing on top of the wall, keeping a watchful eye toward the east. They already heard what was coming, so they were waiting for the refugees to arrive.
Of course, the distance of about 20 kilometers wouldn't be that easy to cover quickly.
Given the pace of the refugees, it would already be deep into the night when they reached the walls—about 8 hours at most.
"...As such, we should take turns guarding the walls," Axel proposed.
"Then Sir Axel should rest first," Eve suggested with a serious expression. "You summoned such a large steed, so your mana would definitely be down right now. Please take this moment to recover."
Seeing Maria and Arianne nodding in agreement, he knew he had no choice but to. Well, he didn't have the intention of staying up until late, anyway. He still hadn't caught up on his lack of sleep last night.
"Alright, I'll take you up on your offer." Axel nodded. "But make sure to call me the moment refugees or zombies arrive."
The blinking warning of the quest window was now gone, meaning there shouldn't be any dangers to the refugees anymore. Still, it wouldn't hurt to be cautious. Furthermore...
'The refugees we encountered were way beyond just 10 people.'
He was confused about this the most.
On the way to Arianne's side before, when he encountered the refugees first, he asked Navi why there was a mismatch in the numbers but... didn't receive a satisfactory answer. As if the little bugger was avoiding answering intentionally.
'The system doesn't make such minor mistakes, especially regarding numbers.' Axel pondered. 'Which means besides the 10 refugees, the rest are... something else.'
He turned his head toward the sisters, who fell asleep as soon as they had their fill.
'Maybe these two, too...'
Suspicion welled within his mind.