Chapter 32: In the Middle of the Night
Suddenly, I heard a loud clang-clang-clang sound and woke up.
“Hmm?”
“What? What is that? An alarm?”
Ayaka seemed to have woken up as well, so I got up and turned on the lights.
“Is there a fire?”
It was the sound of a bell, so that seemed possible.
“Again?”
Ayaka got up too, fixed her disheveled yukata, and headed toward the window. I followed her.
Outside, everything looked normal. It was dark.
No, wait…
Lights in the buildings were gradually turning on.
“Everyone’s waking up, right…? Wait, isn’t it 3 a.m.?”
I looked at the clock.
Sure enough, it was 3.
Lately, I felt like I hadn’t been able to get a proper night’s sleep.
“I’ll call Elvis for a second… Ah, he’s calling.”
When I turned on my phone, Elvis’s name was already displayed on the screen, and the ringtone started playing.
“Elvis?”
“Yeah. Hello?”
I answered the call.
“Yuu!? Is Ayaka with you!?”
His voice sounded slightly panicked.
“She is. Though, you know, you woke us up.”
Ayaka answered.
“Good. That’s a relief. We don’t have time, so I’ll explain quickly. The sound of this bell is an alarm. Humans are attacking.”
…What?
“Wait, humans? The Self-Defense Forces?”
“I don’t know the details. Anyway, we’re getting out of here. Hurry down to the lobby.”
Seriously?
“O-Okay.”
I nodded, and the call ended.
I looked at Ayaka.
“Seriously?”
“Elvis isn’t the type to make a joke like that or pull a prank.”
“Yeah, that’s true. Haa… This is really unsettling.”
No kidding.
“Nothing we can do.”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
“What about changing clothes?”
The two of us were still wearing yukatas.
“We can do that later. Let’s hurry.”
“Got it.”
We gathered up the things we’d left out, including our phones, and quickly left the room.
We headed toward the elevator, but it was already crowded with other guests waiting.
“Yuu, let’s use the stairs.”
“Yeah.”
We had properly checked the location of the stairs beforehand, so we headed there and rushed down.
“Yukatas really aren’t easy to run in.”
“They weren’t designed for that. Nothing we can do.”
We took the stairs two at a time and hurried down as fast as we could, eventually reaching the lobby.
There, we saw Elvis and the Medusa attendant near the entrance, so we went over.
“Elvis!”
“You made it. Apparently, they’re launching a pretty large-scale attack from the west.”
So they really had attacked.
“Elvis, escaping is fine, but don’t take the regular roads. They’ll probably be crowded, and you won’t get anywhere.”
The Medusa attendant warned him.
“I know. Then we’re leaving. Tell the owner I said goodbye.”
“Of course. Be careful.”
“Yeah.”
Elvis nodded and went outside.
“Are you not escaping too?”
I asked the attendant.
I wasn’t saying she had to come with us, but she seemed strangely calm.
“Escape? Me? Why?”
That was kind of frightening…
Well, she was a Medusa, after all.
“Ah, no, it’s nothing… Thank you for everything.”
“Thank you.”
“Not at all. Please come again. We will win anyway. Well then, I’ll be taking my leave as well. I have to make lots of statues…”
The Medusa attendant gave a frightening smile and walked toward the reception desk.
“She’s definitely a boss character…”
“Right…”
“You two! What are you doing? Get in the car!”
Ah, right.
We hurried outside and climbed into the back seat.
“Let’s go.”
“Please.”
Elvis started the car.
However, the moment we left the inn grounds, he stopped.
“Tch. Looks like the regular roads really won’t work.”
Looking ahead, I could see what appeared to be car headlights coming from the direction of the town, and demons were also running away.
“Demons run away too?”
“There are weak demons, and there are also demons who don’t like fighting. Beppu has a lot of demons like that.”
“I see.”
“What are we going to do? The Medusa attendant said they’d win, but if the Self-Defense Forces actually come here, we’ll be in trouble.”
“I know. The Self-Defense Forces have attacked us before, but we’ve always won. However, to be honest, it doesn’t mean there have been no casualties, and they have reached the towns before. The area between Kumamoto and Oita has many mountains and winding routes, so it’s easy for a detachment to slip through and reach Beppu.”
Seriously…
Ah, no.
That made sense.
We’d used those kinds of routes ourselves when we went to Kumamoto, and we’d managed to escape the Self-Defense Forces on the way back too.
“I think we could handle it if we got into a fight, but…”
“Don’t. There’s no point now. We’re taking the expressway. There’s no way that place will be crowded.”
“The expressway…”
“There is an ogre settlement there, right?”
“There is. I weighed the risks and decided it was still the better option.”
“What about fighting?”
“There’s a chance. But it’ll be fine. Let’s go.”
Elvis started driving.
“Yuu, I’m going to change clothes, so look the other way for a bit. And Elvis, don’t you dare turn around either.”
“I have no interest. Besides, we’re different species.”
Ah, so that kind of thing did exist.
“Even so!”
“Fine, fine.”
“Yuu, you too, please.”
I was interested, but since I had a reputation for being a gentleman, I looked out the window instead.
Then I took out my phone.
“Ayaka, I’m going to contact Takamiya-san and Kitaura-san.”
“Please do.”
I operated my phone and called Takamiya-san.
Given the hour, she did not answer immediately, but after about ten seconds, the ringing finally stopped.
“Hello…? Takanashi-kun… do you know what time it is right now…?”
“You’re annoying. If you can’t sleep, crawl into Ayaka’s futon.”
Both of them sounded half-asleep.
“Sorry. Something happened on our side. The Self-Defense Forces from Kumamoto attacked.”
“Huh?”
“What? A war?”
That was enough to wake them up.
“I don’t think it’s reached that level yet, but we’re escaping right now. So we’ll arrive earlier than planned. I think we’ll probably get there around dawn.”
If we took the expressway, we’d arrive in about an hour.
That said, the roads would probably be crowded until we got onto the expressway, and after that we’d have to deal with the ogre nest.
“O-Okay. Hina, wake up.”
“Yeah. Yuu, are you guys okay over there?”
Kitaura-san asked.
“I think so. We have enough fighting power on our side, so we’ll manage.”
“Even so, be careful.”
“Yeah. So where should we go?”
“The racetrack is fine. Once we get ready, we’ll wake up Linda and head there too. Contact us again later. We’ll let you know if anything happens on our side.”
“Got it.”
I nodded and ended the call.
“Yuu, you can turn around now.”
When I looked toward Ayaka, she had already changed clothes and fixed her hair.
“I’m changing too.”
“Sure, sure.”
Ayaka looked toward the window, so I took out my clothes and began changing.