While Dawi was in the middle of ranch work, applying pine tar and the like,
the zombies had already gathered on the western coast of the North Sea.
Countless zombies had failed to cross the Allos Mountains in the north and had moved westward along the mountain range. From there, they had followed the coastline north.
When people were scattered and hidden, the zombies could not easily find them even if they were nearby, so long as they did not stand out.
But when many people gathered in one place, the zombies instinctively sensed their location, no matter how far away, and moved toward it.
When the zombie virus spread and two-thirds of humanity became infected, there had been several cities that survived. The imperial capital, guarded by the finest knights, was one; the elves gathered around the World Tree were another; so was the continent’s greatest mining city, where the dwarves lived together… and so was the southern coastal city that had steadily sent merchant ships to Snowhill.
But the zombies instinctively sought out places where people gathered.
Castles and cities with high population densities were destroyed. Among them was the southern coastal city that had traded with the Barony of Snowhill. After that, the merchant ships that had traveled to and from Snowhill disappeared as well, and in the aftermath, the food shortages in Snowhill and among the Stone Mountain dwarves began.
The Barony of Snowhill, the most barren territory among the lands of the Empire.
It was precisely because it was the most barren that it had been able to survive until now.
And now.
As the Stone Mountain dwarves took in refugees, their population density rose.
Moreover, Snowhill and the Stone Mountain dwarves were right next to each other. The zombies regarded the cities of the two different races as one.
The Barony of Snowhill and the Stone Mountain dwarf tribe, once barren and sparsely populated.
But after many of the continent’s cities and civilizations had been destroyed, the two places had now become cities with rather high population densities on the continent. In other words, they had become targets for the zombies.
And today.
At last, the wave of zombies swept over the Barony of Snowhill.
The first to discover it were fishermen tidying their nets on the shore.
“Huh? There are people running over there?”
“Huh? Where?”
“Ah, you can see them over there.”
“Ahh, I see them! Are they refugees?”
Even after seeing them, the fishermen chatted idly.
“Looks like they came all the way around along the coast.”
“Phew, they must’ve had a hard time coming from so far away.”
“By the way, if that many come, won’t we be even shorter on food?”
“Ah, how many could there be… uh… there are quite a lot, huh?”
“But why are they running like that?”
“Who knows…?”
The fishermen realized something was wrong when they heard their cries.
“Guuuuuuh!”
“Huh? Th-this sound…”
How could they forget?
The virus had spread even through this small territory, and they had experienced the zombie outbreak.
Every person in the territory had lived through the nightmare of friends, family, and lovers suddenly clacking their teeth and rushing at them.
“R-run!!”
“K-knights! Sir knights!!”
“Uaaaah! Everyone run! Hurry!!”
When the fishermen began fleeing from the shore,
Senior Knight Hans, who had been patrolling the mountain range, saw the scene from the mountain.
Seeing the fishermen suddenly running on the distant shore, Hans thought they had caught some huge fish.
But soon, the horde of zombies that had been hidden by the mountains came into view.
Zombies were rushing in a swarm along the coast.
“You’ve got to be insane!!”
“Sir Hans? What is it?”
“The western shore! Zombies, it’s zombies! Evacuate the people at once!! Hurry!”
“Gasp..! Yes, sir!”
“You there, wait!”
Hans grabbed one of the knights who were about to dash off in a rush.
There was one person who came to Hans’s mind—just one, but someone who would become their most reliable ally.
“Go to the ranch! Go right now and bring him here!!”
“Y-yes, sir!!”
The knight could tell who Hans wanted him to bring without needing to be told.
Hans shouted at the knight’s back as he ran.
“Run without stopping!! You have to bring him as quickly as possible!! Even if your lungs feel like they’ll burst, don’t stop circulating your mana or moving your legs!!”
The knight faithfully obeyed the senior knight’s order.
***
Even earlier than that.
When the Baroness had decided to build the irrigation facilities and was in the middle of planning them,
a father and son among the dwarf tribe in the Stone Mountain region were having a conversation.
“They say the humans are going to construct irrigation facilities.”
“…And?”
The dwarf chieftain looked at his young son.
This was the same fellow who had even spoken of war, yet had suddenly switched to a pro-Snowhill stance.
The dwarf chieftain had also opposed war and believed that continuing trade with Snowhill was the right answer, so he did not dislike his son’s change in direction.
However, his son… had changed a little too radically.
“I want to go and help. There are a few companions who say they’ll go with me.”
“…Must you? They’ll dig well enough on their own.”
“You know very well that digging waterways is not easy unless the design is done properly from the beginning.”
“Then they’ll suffer a little… but what does that have to do with us?”
The young dwarf looked at his father with a firm expression.
“Survival is coexistence.”
“Good grief… that again?”
It was a slogan recently circulating among the young dwarves.
“We’re already short on food. Don’t go wasting your strength for no reason.”
“We’re going because we’re short on food. Survival is coexistence! Do you still not understand that coexistence is the path to survival?”
“What in the world does that mean?! It sounds impressive, but do you even know what it means when you say it?!”
At his son, who kept shouting vague slogans as if they were clouds in the sky, the chieftain finally burst into anger.
But the young dwarf said with a calm expression,
“Of course I know. It’s because I know that I’m being this earnest.”
“Ha! Fine, then tell me. What does ‘survival is coexistence’ mean?”
“What is the purpose of the humans building irrigation facilities?”
“Well, I heard it’s to easily supply water for farming…”
“Yes. If that happens, of course their farming will go well. Of the two limitations—barren land and dry summers—they’ll overcome one: the dry summers. Then the humans will obtain more crops.”
“…I suppose so?”
“Then they’ll have crops left over after eating their fill. What will they do with those crops? Surely they won’t throw them away?”
“…They’ll sell them to us?”
“Exactly. Survival is coexistence. The survival of one’s neighbor becomes one’s own survival—that is ‘coexistence.’”
“Hmm…”
“If the humans make a mistake from the design stage and fail in the waterway construction, causing some places to flood and others to be short on water, what will happen?”
“…They’ll ruin their farming?”
“Then will humans who don’t even have enough to eat sell food to us?”
“…They won’t.”
“Yes. That’s exactly it.”
“…Go, then. Make sure the design is done properly from the start. Make it so it won’t collapse. Make sure they have a truly great harvest!”
“Yes, sir!!”
And so the young dwarves gathered together and headed to the human territory, joining forces with the humans to build the waterways.
Then, one day.
“Uaaaah!”
“Damn it! Run!”
“Move it! Run, hurry!!”
The humans suddenly began running.
The young dwarves, still poor at the humans’ imperial language, could not properly understand what the humans were shouting.
“What? What is it?”
“Hey! Where are you going in the middle of construction!”
“Hey! Where’s everyone going!!”
But the humans, thrown into a panic after encountering the zombies, had no mind to look after the dwarves.
Everyone was busy saving themselves, fleeing in a frantic rush.
And so the dwarves who had come to help with the waterway construction were left all alone at the construction site, missing the golden time in which they could have fled.
“Guuuuuuh!”
“Guaaaaaah!”
“Uaaaah! What is this! They’re zombies!”
“Damn humans! This is why they ran!!”
“They didn’t even tell us…!”
***
“They’re gathered below the Allos Mountains… Did they show any sign of crossing the mountains?”
“No, they did not. The slope is so steep they practically have to crawl up it, and the zombies don’t seem very good at that.”
“I see. Understood.”
The Baroness dismissed the senior knight’s report as nothing important.
At the moment, the Baroness’s mind was focused on educating her son as a lord.
“Baron, today we will inspect the territory together. In particular, we will look around the irrigation construction site.”
“Yes, Mother…”
The Baroness led her son around the territory and headed for the construction site.
“A lord must always consider the interests of his territory. But at times, present interests and future interests come into conflict. What about building irrigation facilities?”
“Um… future interests…?”
“Can you tell me why as well?”
“Right now, the construction is difficult, but… um… in the end, it will make it easier to drink water?”
“Not perfect, but not wrong. Construction takes a great deal of manpower and money. But once the irrigation facilities are complete, farming becomes much easier. So rather than making it easier for people to drink water, it makes it easier for crops to drink water.”
“Ah… yes, Mother.”
The Baroness went to the section of waterway that had just been completed and into which water had begun to flow.
“The current of the Allos River is strong, so the current entering the waterway is strong as well. That is why we build it as sturdily as possible with bricks. Be careful, because falling in would be danger—”
As the Baroness was speaking, the young baron lost his footing and fell into the water.
Splash!
“Uaaaah!”
“Baron! Baron!!”
At that very moment, zombies appeared.
“Uaaaah!! Run!!”
“Zombies!!”
“M-Mother! Uaaaah!”
“B-Baron!!”
As people saw the zombies and fled, the Baroness’s gaze was fixed only on her son.
In the end, she leaped into the waterway herself.
Splash!
“Kgh! Mother!”
“W-wait, my dear! I’ll be there soon!!”
The formal speech that had begun after her son became baron returned to a mother’s way of speaking once the situation grew urgent.
“My baby! My baby!”
Glug, glug, glug!
Fortunately, the entire waterway had not been completed, only certain sections, so the Baroness was able to pull her son out at the end of the waterway.
“Guuuuuuh!”
But by then, the surroundings were already filled with zombies.