Episode 282: Hamburg
Bypassing the blocked road, the truck entered the Autobahn. Abandoned cars were visible here and there, but they managed to drive past them.
Felix, who had switched driving duties with Rui, floored the accelerator, steadily increasing their speed.
“Are you sure about this? Going so fast?”
Rui, in the back seat, voiced his concern, but Felix replied with a hum.
“Don’t be such a worrywart. I’m a pretty good driver, you know.”
Rui sighed with a troubled look at Felix, who confidently spun the steering wheel.
Continuing to be mindful of encountering Monsters, the truck carrying the four of them arrived in Hamburg. The sun had already set, and the curtain of night had fallen.
“It’s dark, can’t see a thing. Let’s start searching tomorrow,”
Felix suggested, rolling down the car window and looking outside. Rui and Yuma also shifted their gaze to the outside, but it was indeed pitch black with no lights.
Hamburg was quite a large city, so it should have been brightly lit under normal circumstances.
But if there were no signs of people, then either everyone had evacuated, or they were lying low like in Berlin.
Thinking about such things, Yuma decided to take Felix’s advice and sleep for the night, waiting for the morning.
And the next day…
Driving the truck slowly, Yuma and the others surveyed the cityscape of Hamburg.
A leading port city in Europe, located in northern Germany, the sight of buildings lining the canals was beautiful and famous as a tourist attraction.
However, that beautiful cityscape was now a mere shadow of its former self.
Many buildings were destroyed, and the roads were torn to shreds. The bridges over the canals had also collapsed miserably. And as expected, there was no sign of people at all.
“Everywhere in Germany seems to be the same,”
Rui, who was behind the wheel, muttered with a sorrowful expression. Felix, who had switched driving duties with Rui and was sitting in the back seat, looked even more grim than Rui.
“Anyway, let’s head to the port. We can’t do anything without a ship.”
“Right.”
Rui nodded at Felix’s words, stepped on the accelerator, and advanced the truck.
In about an hour, they arrived at a pier overlooking the sea. Everyone got out of the truck and gazed along the coast.
“There aren’t any…”
At Rui’s mutter, Yuma also frowned and said, “There’s really not a single one!”
Not a single ship, large or small, was docked at the pier. Did the people of Germany escape by ship?
Or perhaps… Yuma had a bad feeling.
“Maybe they were sunk by ‘Sea Monsters’. I’ve heard rumors that they appear frequently in the North Sea.”
Felix said, scratching his head. He seemed troubled about what to do.
Werner, who had come out of the container after a long time and was rotating his shoulders, also looked helpless, saying, “Without a ship, there’s nothing we can do.”
Rui and Yuma were at a loss.
They walked along the coast for a while, but they didn’t encounter a single ship, let alone a person.
“I wonder if there’s anyone here?”
Felix answered Yuma’s question.
“There’s a high possibility that there isn’t. This city is close to England, so it’s easily influenced by the Blue King. That’s why many people evacuated early.”
“If the sea is no good, how about trying the air… Should we aim for the airport?”
Felix sighed deeply at Yuma’s casual suggestion.
“Hey, who’s going to fly the plane?”
“Ugh… That’s true.”
“Besides, even if we could fly it, there’s a story that a “Water Dragon” is flying around over England. Both the sea and the sky are dangerous, but I think the sea has a higher chance of survival.”
“You’re right.”
Yuma laughed awkwardly and scratched his nose. The group decided to look for people and gather information. Without knowing the current situation accurately, they couldn’t discuss what to do next.
Werner, peering through the binoculars he had brought, groaned, “Hmm.”
“Are there even people in a place like this? I think everyone’s evacuated…”
“Don’t say that.”
Felix borrowed the binoculars from Werner and looked around himself.
“We were hiding in the city’s underground, too. There’s a good chance there are people in Hamburg, right?”
“Maybe… but I think we should go to another port.”
Werner’s words were reasonable. However, even if they went to a smaller port than Hamburg, they didn’t know if there would be any ships.
Moreover, the possibility of finding people would be even lower.
Rui and Yuma decided to persistently search for people in Hamburg.
As the four of them were walking along the coastal warehouse district, they heard a sound coming from somewhere. It wasn’t their imagination. There was definitely a sound.
“Could it be… are there people?”
Yuma’s tension rose, and he realized he was running towards the sound.
If there were people, they might know what happened to the ships. Yuma rounded a warehouse and entered a narrow alley.
There was a figure there.
“Excuse me,”
When Yuma called out to the person’s back, he noticed something was off. The figure in front of him had the shape of a person, but it was not human.
Its entire body was covered in purple scales, and its hands had webbed fingers.
It seemed to be squatting down and rummaging through something, but it was unclear what it was.
The inhuman figure stopped moving and turned towards Yuma. Its face had large, bulging eyes. There were gill-like structures on its face, and its appearance could be completely described as a “fish.”
From behind the frozen Yuma, Rui shouted loudly.
“Yuma! That’s a “Fish-man,” be careful!!”
As if triggered by that voice, the Fish-man pounced on Yuma. It was a sudden situation, but Yuma didn’t panic.
He lightly raised his right hand and swung it down.
Then, a faint wind flickered, and two vertical lines appeared on the Fish-man’s body.
The Monster stopped moving and slowly fell forward. The moment it hit the ground, the Fish-man’s body split into three pieces.
As if it had been filleted, blue blood gushed out.
“Amazing, Yuma. Your Wind Magic is getting even stronger.”
“Well, I got a lot of Wind Magic Gems in Germany. I have to be able to do at least this much.”
Yuma puffed out his chest with a smug look, but in his heart, he was aware that he still hadn’t mastered his magic.
Considering the amount of Magical Power he had, he should have been able to use third and fourth tier Wind Magic.
However, there was no sign of being able to use it, and Yuma was once again disgusted by his lack of talent.
Passing by Yuma, Rui squatted down and looked at the ground.
There, something that looked like a human corpse was lying. It had been eaten by Monsters, so it didn’t retain its original form.
“This… it looks like it hasn’t been dead for long.”
At Rui’s words, Yuma’s eyes widened.
“Does that mean—”
“Yeah, there are people. People living in this city.”