The Villainess and I, her Zombie

Having to deal with various variants of the trolls, starting with the weak moss ones and ending all the way to the champion ones had taken Cranberry, Zombie, and the Dandelions somewhere around two weeks all moving around four miles.

The distance they traveled was ridiculously short when put into perspective on how much time it took to traverse it but considering that there was a row of trolls every twenty feet or so, and neither Cranberry nor Zombie wanted to leave even a single one alive and miss on the experience. was still a good distance, all in all.

Thankfully after that, the blue trolls migration got turned into a mass extinction-like event, their group could pick up the peace tremendously, moving past the recent border of the Gluttonys territory and encroaching on the monster land.

At first, the only thing that changed was the lack of the recent human presence, the travelers were passing the traces of formerly alive merchants and hunters who got the short end of the stick and died when approached by the somewhat intelligent monsters organized into something akin to an army.

The crumbling remains of the deceased and whatever was deemed unnecessary or uninteresting by their killers, now rotting and or mostly decomposed, wasn't the prettiest sight to behold but at the same time it was merely an echo of the tragedy long past with no fresh blood spilled in recent decade or so.

"Do you remember where your village was?"

Cranberry asked, glancing at the remaining ribs of the burnt-down cart with shattered wheels before she turned around to the silent cautious Dandelions.

The five of them looked at each other - they all thought about returning to their home at one point but the sudden proposition that they had no real choice but to accept made them shiver restless.

"...I remember that it took us at least a few hours to reach the next settlement, after the initial attack. We thought that we were going for help, but instead, they all started packing whatever belongings they had and escape..."

In're was the first to speak up and surprisingly enough she sounded serious and somber for once - actually recounting her memories instead of trying to score some pity points with the blue undead.

"That's a start. As long as you have more details - did your village have a name, did that other settlement have a name, do you remember in what general direction we should go to find it."

Cranberry nodded but certainly didn't let herself be distracted and asked for details.

"We didn't have any official name but the traveling merchants were calling it the lumberjacks cove. It was the last human settlement, well within the Great Eastern Forrest - it was the final part of the chain of similar villages spaced around twenty-five miles from one another, cutting deep into the forest. We are going in the right direction, once we encounter the first village - that actually served as the first outpost - as long as it wasn't thoroughly razed down we should recognize it easily and continue from then on."

Shanks declared with a calm expression, easily recalling the necessary details.

"Ha. Was it a part of the expansion initiative that the king and the avatar of greed from four generations ago founded all form his own pocket?"

The red-haired girl perked up and asked curiously.

"Yes, as far as I know, at least."

The rat-faced man nodded and stopped to look around.

"All fine and dandy, but why was that outpost the first human settlement in the chain and your village the last, I'm pretty sure that there should be an outpost there too."

Zombie raised his brow and voiced his dissatisfaction with the lackluster administration and doubtful decisions of the previous rulers.

"Oh, there was - for quite a while before it fell to the monsters and each village had to fend for themselves swept into madness of the monsters attacks."

Rotte waved his hand dismissively to assure that whoever came up with the idea wasn't that reckless.

"Believe it or not, but in the past, this was a very peaceful region - that's why it was decided to try and settle here in the first place. It took around sixty years for the aggressive monsters to show up in an organized manner and start harassing all of us at once."

Uresha added in a melancholic way.

"We had a wooden wall to protect ourselves from frenzy wolves - the bronze ones - that would show up from time to time and mess with our domesticated monsters, so you can imagine that anything with a little bit more brains - even the gray ones - could pose us a serious threat."

The large woman added, meting out a shirt shallow sight.

"The outpost was overwhelmed by small fries like goblins but only because most of the soldiers were on patrols at the time. They merely issued warnings to raise our defenses and be prepared for the possible attack of the few stragglers after they would gather more forces and reclaim the outpost."

"...yeah, fucking idiots..."

Rotte pointed out and Lairs clicked her tongue and shook her head, angry because of the mere memory of that event.

"Needless to say, the monsters that settled in the outpost weren't just goblins and the soldiers got wiped out - but we learned about it much later, after the monsters began showing up more frequently as if they were testing the water - originally all the villagers thought that those were the stragglers that soldiers talked about but after more and more beasts started showing up including goblins riding the brown frenzy wolves and even an orc or two."

Shanks nodded to Rotte and continued what the warrior started.

"By that time the adults took some of the wood that was waiting to get shipped back to the Greeds territory and constructed a proper wall - because at that point no one thought about evacuation as the village was their home form many years already as most of the people were the descendants of the first settlers and had no intentions of leaving the place that was their parents and grandparents dream."

He made a melancholic smile and looked down.

"Yeah, the village leader even went ahead and bought himself a Sloth-made weapon that he even got himself a proficiency skill for. Since up until that point it was a peaceful area, no one was really prepared for what was to come..."