Now then, getting back on track — this town is one of the towns under Count Fanda's rule. It's called Fandantar.
Being a count's domain, it's larger and more bustling than Momentum.
There's a famous mountain to the west where dragons are known to reside.
It's practically a tradition for countless adventurers to die here while dreaming of becoming dragon slayers.
The Adventurers' Guild also has a lot of requests related to the western mountain.
Here, I'll deliver the monsters I defeated along the highway and clear my quota.
I have no other business.
And besides, I don't want to stay here long.
Count Fanda is on good terms with my family's — well, I'd rather not call it that — Marquis Vermilion.
If I stand out here too much, there's a good chance word would get back to the Marquis.
So I was planning to buy what I need, do a little sightseeing, and then head off to the royal capital in a hurry.
"No can do. Adventurers can't leave this town for a while."
"Why not?"
"Huh, you don't know? Must be a foreigner, then. A stampede's about to hit from the western mountain. The lord's imposed a defense obligation on adventurers in this town. If you run, they'll revoke your card."
"Does that apply regardless of rank? I'm only Iron, you know."
"That's right."
I could try to force my way through, but I've already submitted my deliveries at the Guild.
If they found out I wasn't here, even if I made it to the capital, it'd definitely cause trouble there.
After all, nobility reigns supreme in this other world.
Huh, Viscount Momentum?
He's after my life, so that's one thing, but I have no intention of going out of my way to stir up trouble with him.
If the Count has decided this, there's nothing I can do.
Well, it's only a delay until the stampede passes.
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With nothing else to do, I idly browsed through requests at the Adventurers' Guild.
Come to think of it, how do they know a stampede is going to happen?
Aren't these things supposed to be sudden, spontaneous events?
"Hey, kid — you wanna know?"
Hm — apparently my earlier question had slipped out without me noticing.
"Yeah, if you could tell me."
"Then pay up."
I flicked a gold coin with my thumb and tossed it to him.
"Well now, generous, aren't ya? Alright, I'll tell you."
So here's what I learned.
The dragons in the western mountain enter their breeding season once every few years.
To avoid the wrath of dragons driven into a violent temper, the monsters flee in a panic.
Those fleeing monsters converge and head toward the town, forming a stampede.
The reason there's no rank restriction is so that low-rank adventurers can be used as human shields.
The duty to participate in the defense is imposed unilaterally, the compensation is paltry, and there's no coverage if you're injured or killed.
Reinforcing the outer walls? That costs too much, so no.
Sacrificing the endless supply of expendable human shields is far cheaper.
"How's that? Learned something, didn't ya? Spend enough time here and you'd pick this stuff up eventually, but I'm not giving that gold coin back. Ignorance is a sin, as they say."
With that, the generic adventurer left.
I did feel a little swindled, but on this one, it's my fault for failing to gather information beforehand.
More than that, it really drives home how cheap life is in this other world.
People's lives are so expendable here it makes me think of those back in my previous world who get run over by steamrollers for getting in the way of land development.
If you know stampedes are coming regularly, then reinforce the outer walls — isn't that what a ruler should do?
Well, I'm well aware that my way of thinking doesn't exactly align with this world's values.
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Skills: [Reverse] [Divine Eye] [Sword Saint] [Phantom Thief Gentleman] [Dark Magic] [Iron Rock Magic]
Rank: Iron