"Where did these things come from, you know, right, Ben?" the girl withdrew her hand inconspicuously and asked with some curiosity.
"This is Madara's army, war has broken out." He answered while cautiously peeking outside: As expected, it was Madara's vanguard. Sophie couldn't help but take a light breath; a large group of skeleton soldiers stood in the center of the manor. He counted three squads, totaling forty-five, their dim red lights flickering in the dark. There were also three Corpse Witches controlling these low-level undead – their classic appearance being a skeleton in a robe, holding a Bone Staff, their green phosphorescent eyes scanning these subordinate Madara soldiers.
Ben's grandfather's old house was situated on a hillside not far from Buqi, overlooking the village. This place was more like a small manor on the outskirts of the village, originally home to five or six families, but they had all moved away, leaving only Romantic and her aunt behind.
The girl took a deep breath in the darkness.
"Where's Aunt Jenny?"
"Aunt went to the nearby town; she'll be back in a week."
Sophie couldn't help but glance at her. In the darkness, he could only see a pair of bright eyes, shimmering with an inexplicable excitement.
"Aren't you afraid?" he couldn't help but ask.
"I don't know," Miss Merchant replied softly, raising her head, "but my heart is pounding. It feels very exciting."
Sophie was speechless; this young lady's thinking was indeed different from that of ordinary people. But some people are born adventurers, and perhaps Romantic was one of them.
He pretended not to hear and pressed his face back against the window glass - the eyes of those Corpse Witches hadn't swept towards this direction yet, so Sophie could continue to observe safely. In the distant forest, shadows loomed, suggesting there were probably many more enemies in that direction.
Roughly estimating, Madara's vanguard force numbered over a hundred, which was not a small number. Such a large-scale force must have an Undead Wizard Apprentice secretly controlling them from behind. To him, it was simply terrible news.
In the game, a Madara Undead Wizard Apprentice was roughly equivalent to a Level 10 player. Even fighting alone, seven or eight well-trained adult men (soldiers or militia) weren't a match for him, let alone the fact that he and Romantic were just two people, while the opponent had an entire army at their disposal.
Sophie couldn't help but tap the windowsill with his fingers.
It would take at least five minutes for the Buqi Guard Team to get here, which meant if they encountered the enemy, they would have to hold their ground for at least five minutes to wait for reinforcements.
That's assuming Buqi noticed this place was under attack.
But how could they alert the others?
He was momentarily flustered. The best way was to set a fire; the bright flames and smoke could be seen from far away at night, and fire was a clear warning signal to both people and animals. But whether to set a fire, and how to set it, was still a question.
"Ben? Could we die?"
"Hard to say."
The dark house fell silent.
The deep darkness was only interrupted by the cool moonlight streaming through a corner of the window, casting a silver path inside the dim room.
Sophie pondered for a moment, intending to draw the curtains and then calm down to think of a way out, but just then, a conversation from outside reached his ears:
"Where is that poor fellow's body? Bring him out for me to see. Didn't the report say that only two women lived in this manor?"
First, a young man's voice, but it appeared cold and sharp.
The next voice sounded dry and old, like the creaking of broken wood: "Just an unlucky wretch, Master."
This conversation tightened Sophie's heart. He looked out again and quickly found the sources of those voices in the shadow of a large tree: there, a man in a voluminous black robe was questioning his subordinate Corpse Witch.
Sophie's gaze quickly fell on the other's cuff; he vaguely saw only a ring of grayish-white bone pattern decorations, proving that the other was indeed an Undead Wizard Apprentice.
He hadn't misjudged.
"...Remember, I don't need your opinions; you just need to follow orders." The wizard cloaked in black robes suddenly paused, raised his head, and looked in Sophie's direction.