932: Three Days After
Three days have pa.s.sed since Fran woke up.
We stood in front of the wall destroyed by the cannon-type bombardment. The residents had set up a simple fence and already started the repair effort.
However, there’s no quick way to fix a vast stretch of completely annihilated walls, so it was expected to take several months to complete.
We managed to repel the antidemons for now, but who knows what will happen next. It was still the antidemon season, after all.
That’s where Fran came in.
「Please, go ahead!」
「Nn.」
The beastman who was guiding us indicated a place about 10 meters in front of the under-repair walls. A long rope had been placed there for clarity.
Fran stood in front of the rope and began chanting. Though she had the ability to cast spells without chanting, doing so would consume additional mana.
「――Great Wall.」
「Whoooa! T-This is pretty awesome!」
We made a huge wall out of earth. They had asked us to build something with land magic as a stopgap measure until the city walls could be fully restored.
Using Great Wall in succession, we created a huge, long wall stretching across the entire collapsed region. There’s still a small gap between the city wall and the earth wall at both ends, but it seems the beastmen planned to drag some dirt over and pack that in.
Our wall will be useless against the higher cla.s.s antidemons, but it should prevent any lesser antidemons from invading the city. It’s a good emergency measure, and they can break it down when the actual wall is completed.
Besides, Nocta, as well as the northern and western ports, had sent over 2,000 men as reinforcements. As long as we don’t see an additional tens of thousand antidemons, Sendia’s defenses will be just fine.
「Perfect, Miss Black Lightning Princess! Thank you very much!」
「「「 Thank you very much! 」」」
「Nn.」
All the beastmen seemed to have started acting as our underlings now. They call Mea as “Boss” and Fran as “Miss”. Velmeria is “Miss Dragon”.
Fran completely accepted the role, and walked off with the beastmen bowing their heads to her. It must feel refres.h.i.+ng to be recognized by her fellow beastmen.
And it wasn’t only the beastmen bowing down.
「Oh? The black cat swordswoman! Good morning.」
「Black Lightning Princess-dono, thank you for coming.」
「Oh, it’s the black cat girl!」
And so on…… Everywhere we went, various people called out to us.
They were the citizens, adventurers, and outlaws who fought alongside us. Everyone saw Fran and the others risking their lives to repel the antidemon invasion. At the same time, they felt proud of the fact that they stood with us on the battlefield.
As a result, we all became very popular as the heroes who saved the city.
I’ve even seen children vying for the role of Fran and the saintess when acting out the stories.
Though supplies were still scarce, some elderly folks gave us food, and a couple of the adults patted Fran on the head. Since she looked so much younger than the rest of the heroes, it seems many focused on her cute side.
However, not all of them were so friendly.
「Hey!」
「Nn?」
「You’re the Black Lightning Princess! I challenge yo――Bweh!」
「Oops, I overdid it.」
Many were just dumba.s.ses trying to make a name for themselves by defeating Fran.
She’s known to have destroyed a horde of antidemons, but many saw her as a little girl who looked pretty weak. Some people a.s.sumed that she just got lucky, so they thought it would be an easy win.
And of course, all of them were small fry. It’s pretty obvious that luck alone wasn’t enough to survive against a horde of antidemons. The competent ones should be able to tell Fran’s potential at a glance.
But apparently, Fran found beating them up to be good exercise. She seemed happy to fight the moment someone pointed their hostility at her.
However, her muscle soreness screwed up her senses or something, causing her to use more force than expected. We ended up always having to give them a Greater Heal.
The next most frequent were the idiots trying to recruit Fran. They knew she was a talented fighter, but they considered her a inexperienced muscle-brained beastgirl. Many thought they could trick her into working for them.
They ranged from small organizations looking to rebuild their forces, to adventurers who wanted Fran to carry their party, as well as fallen politicians who wanted to get back into power.
Most of them gave up after we gave a random excuse, while treating them to a healthy dose of intimidation. If they persisted after that, we’d just use force.
Some of them tried to make us take responsibility for their injuries, but we’d just turn them in to the guards and be done with it. All the currently active soldiers were grateful to Fran, so it was almost scary how much they believed her side of the story.
We’d never do it, but I think we could easily throw someone in jail on false pretenses. I can see why Quina and Frederick had such an easy time capturing their enemies……
I guess that’s all based on how grateful they were to Fran for saving the town.
On the other hand, there were some people who resented Fran.
Those who abandoned the town and ran away. I have some mixed feelings about them, but I wouldn’t blame them for the decision. It’s only natural for those who can’t fight to evacuate in the event of a monster stampede.
But this incident was different from your average monster stampede in many ways. If they return like nothing ever happened, the other citizens wouldn’t welcome them back so easily. After all, those who stayed behind had to fight for their lives.
Several of the evacuees tried to steal stuff from their neighbors on the way out, so they got captured by their fellow citizens. Even those who didn’t probably felt like they were walking on pins and needles.
Fran, like me, seems to have no hard feelings about those who ran.
They weren’t commissioned adventurers or anything, so it’s only natural for them to flee in the face of monsters. She wouldn’t blame or criticize those who know when to run, since she too might run when up against an enemy she can’t defeat.
Yeah, Fran seriously thought that. That’s probably her ideal of a calm, rational, and free adventurer.
I have to say, I think she would still challenge the unbeatable enemy though.
However, running away meant they abandoned the town. Fran held a strong opinion about those returners who tried to give a pathetic apology to get accepted back in.
They’re free to run away, and she wouldn’t blame them for that. But if they fled, they should take responsibility for their choice. That seems to be Fran’s thoughts on the matter.
So anyways, Fran got dragged into one of their arguments and gave her opinion there, which spread to all the other returners. The main cause of their resentment was that they heard the Black Lightning Princess was trying to drive them out of town again. Well, I guess it’s not completely wrong.
It looks like one of them is glaring at Fran right now. She literally saved all their a.s.ses, so their hatred is completely misplaced. However, Fran herself didn’t seem to mind at all.
『Fran, are you okay?』
（About what?）
『I mean, about that guy……』
（Nn. Too bad, he’s weak. Not a good warm-up.）
『Oh, you mean it that way……』
The hostility directed at her from some civilians felt like nothing compared to the sheer force of the entire antidemon horde.
（Can’t I get someone a little stronger?）