Surprise attack

The day after, the units finally entered Plague’s territory. Their destination was the nearest abandoned fort that was once a shelter for the soldiers. They couldn’t use the rails, because they were abandoned in that area, so they moved by horse carriages.

Natsuo had the task to play his guitar all day long in the first carriage of the caravan. It was exhausting even for him and put to the test his songs’ knowledge.

Plague’s territory looked like a desolated land: there was nothing, only white dust everywhere. The caravan was often attacked by silent monsters, but the soldiers successfully beat them off without deaths or injuries thanks to Natsuo’s music.

After an entire day of travel, they found a fort that was still in decent conditions and decided to stop there. Luckily, Silence affected only living beings, so the buildings of the Anti-Silence Unit, that were weatherproof, suffered damage only due to the time spent without maintenance and to the silent monsters’ attacks.

Natsuo purified the area and the soldiers settled in the best they could.

Exhausted, Natsuo sat on the ground of the fort and rested his head on the wall. It was the first time he played his guitar for an entire day non-stop.

“Is it really so tiring playing the guitar?” asked Alice, genuinely curious.

She couldn’t understand how staying still all the time and moving only hands could tire someone.

“Yeah, I think everything is tiring if you’re forced to do it all day” replied Natsuo. “Moreover, it’s not as easy as it seems. Do you want to try it?”

Alice glanced at his guitar, reluctant. She wasn’t sure if she would like it.

“Okay, but don’t expect much.”

“Don’t worry, you have the best teacher here.”

Natsuo handed her his guitar and helped her to hold it properly.

“Basically, with the right hand you keep the rhythm, with the left hand you change the chord” he said.

He showed her how to play a sequence of chords and she tried to do it. Her hands moved with uncertainty and she couldn’t remember the right position of the fingers. Not to mention that the strings were harder to pluck than she expected.

When she finally succeeded in playing the chords sequence, even if at a very slow rhythm, she frowned, disappointed.

“It doesn’t sound like it does when you play it” she complained.

Natsuo chuckled. “Of course, I practiced for years to become this good and I was more talented than you to begin with.”

Alice glared at him and tried to play the chords again, but she failed.

“How? I did everything right before!”

She sighed and returned the guitar to Natsuo.

“I think I’m not cut out for it” she said.

Natsuo laughed amusedly and put the guitar in the case. At that moment, Olive reached them and passed a bowl of soup to everyone. She decided to help in the kitchen, since her system was suited for it.

She sat next to Natsuo and they ate together with Gregory, Alice, William and Alan.

“Delicious as always!” exclaimed Gregory.

“I agree, I’ve never eaten a better soup than this one” added Alice.

Olive smiled happily. “Thank you!”

***

The following days went on in the same way and the caravan proceeded without major troubles. The soldiers started to love Olive for her kind attitude and for her flavorous dishes and they were getting used to Gregory’s presence, some of them even started to talk casually with him and joke together.

In the end, Gregory was a cheerful person, it was hard not to get along with him. The only one to whom his presence didn’t go down well with was Alan, but he refused to tell the reason.

Natsuo was admired and respected by all the soldiers: he was the core of the mission, after all, and he had saved countless lives. William had become very fond of him and some of his shyness was gone. Natsuo was like the cool elder cousin to him and he stuck with him all the time, even when the mission didn’t require it.

Right now, the caravan was proceeding undisturbed.

Alice looked out of the cart and observed the surroundings.

“Don’t you think it’s strange that there aren’t any monsters around?” she asked.

“Effectively, the other days we were almost constantly under attack. It’s too quiet” agreed Alan.

“Maybe they understood that they can’t do anything against us!” suggested Gregory.

Alan glanced at him with an ice cold expression.

“They’re not so clever” he said. “Perhaps, you might have more or less the same wit” he added.

Olive’s jaw dropped, while Alice held back a laugh. William brought a hand to his mouth dramatically. Natsuo was too concentrated on playing his guitar to listen to them, so he didn’t react.

Gregory raised an eyebrow.

“What do you mean? I don’t understand!”

Olive patted him on his shoulder.

“It’s better if you don’t say anything, you’re just making the situation worse” she said.

Alice composed herself again.

“We should keep our guard up, you’re never safe here.”

She just finished saying this, that their carriage suddenly trembled. The horses became agitated and started neighing and snorting.

Alice immediately looked out of the carriage, but she didn’t see anything.

“What’s happening?” asked Olive.

“I don’t know, there’s nothing around—”

The carriage overturned abruptly, interrupting Natsuo’s song and making them fall on each other. The six of them immediately got out of the cart and saw that the same thing happened to all the caravan.

In the place where there was their carriage until a moment ago, there were now silent monsters. Natsuo glanced at the other carriages and saw that silent monsters were rising under them, destroying or overthrowing them.

“Maybe they’re more clever than we thought” commented Alice, unsheathing her sword.

Natsuo transformed his guitar into the scythe form and Gregory summoned his club.

“Finally something interesting.” Natsuo smirked and started his battle playlist.

It was time to beat off some silent monsters.