Someone was shaking his body. When he forced his heavy eyelids open, Gobuza saw Gobmii peering down at him with an anxious look on her face.
"Thank goodness!"
Gobmii threw her arms around Gobuza's chest and burst into tears. As he stared blankly at her for a moment, a voice called out from behind.
"You awake? In that case, come over here and eat."
Turning to identify the owner of the unfamiliar voice, he found a dog-faced man roasting meat on the bone over a campfire. Around him, Big Brother Gobro and the rest of their fellow villagers who had escaped that abominable facility were happily stuffing their cheeks with skewers of meat.
"Who're you?"
"Me? I am... let's see, Loup-Garou. Lou is fine."
He answered in an easygoing tone.
Given that Gobmii and Big Brother Gobro—who should have been devoured by the Madagascar—were completely unharmed, there was no question that this dog-faced monster had slain the beast and saved them. But if so, what was his angle? With Aldebaran's southward advance, nobody could afford the luxury of looking out for other races right now. That should have applied to this monster too, who seemed to belong to the kobold tribe. Which meant...
"Why did you save u—"
"Never mind that. You're starving, aren't you? Eat. We'll talk after."
A skewer loaded with meat was thrust into his hands. Right under his nose, the savory aroma of roasting meat made his stomach growl fiercely, and Gobuza dug into his first meal in days.
As they ate, the dog-faced monster, Lou, listened to their story.
"I see... So that's what they're up to..."
He muttered softly, forcing the words out with a dead-serious expression.
Feeling a chill at the fierce, almost mad emotion dwelling deep within the man's eyes, Gobuza asked hesitantly,
"Mr.... Lou?"
"Ah, my bad, my bad. Well, your situation isn't all that different from mine. I've only just fled from the kobold settlement to the north myself."
"Even you couldn't... stand against them, Mr. Lou?"
Big Brother Gobro asked, hanging his head as pure despair washed over his face.
"Yeah, well, there wasn't much I could do against those numbers."
Seeing Mr. Lou smile wryly struck them like a blow to the face.
And naturally so. The Madagascar that Mr. Lou had slain in an instant was a living catastrophe to anything residing in this forest, save for the ultra-militant tribes. If you encountered one, your only hope of survival was to run away as fast as your legs could carry you.
In the first place, all Gobuza had attempted was a reckless suicide charge. Normally, he would have died without question.
Yet Mr. Lou had killed that Madagascar with ease. That meant he was a powerhouse on par with an ultra-militant tribe.
And the enemy was so strong that even Mr. Lou had been forced to flee. That meant there was nothing Gobuza and the others could possibly do.
"Then... Then are we already..."
Seeing Gobuza and the others hanging their heads, Mr. Lou's eyes widened in surprise, but he quickly scratched his head with an awkward grin.
"Don't worry. It's just that my tribe was especially small in number. Besides, there's still hope."
"Hope?"
Hope? When even a monster this powerful had no choice but to turn tail and run, what kind of hope could there possibly be? No matter how you looked at it, that had to be empty comfort.
"Yeah. Further south from here, there's a medium-sized monster settlement. Apparently, militant tribes from all over Northground are gathering there one after another right now. I said I fled, but I certainly don't consider myself beaten yet. If we tear down tribal barriers and join hands, we should be able to fight back against the invasion of those filthy demon race bastards."
A gathering of militant tribes. That was practically the very situation Gobuza and the others had hoped for most from the beginning. He could swear on his life that without something like that, there would be no stopping Aldebaran's southward march.
"Please take us there!"
"I intended to from the start. Fine by me."
The corners of his wide mouth lifted into a smile as Mr. Lou gave an easy nod. He handed Gobuza another skewer, which the youth took, tearing off a mouthful. Savoring the rich flavor spreading across his tongue, Gobuza voiced the question that piqued his curiosity most.
"What kind of monster is the boss of that settlement?"
While unity was essential in such a dire situation, this boss was uniting monsters that normally never accepted other tribes—and uniquely aggressive, militant monsters at that. He couldn't help but wonder what kind of monster could pull that off.
"Ah, well, rumors say..."
Resting his hand on his chin, Mr. Lou began to speak.