"Mayor? What are you doing here?"
"Mayor, you shouldn't be here, it's dangerous."
The Defenders spoke as such as they made their way to the mayor. Illan quickly moved in front of them all to block them as that was his job.
"Illan, stop," the mayor said softly. "Let them get close."
The giant man moved away and let the other Defenders gather close to the mayor. Bradley arrived as well and stood in the crowd.
The mayor walked with his cane toward the crowd and was smaller than everyone around him. If not for his hunched back, he would have been just as tall as Bradley.
"Good job on killing the crawlers," the mayor said as he looked at all the men that were there. "Someone give me a casualty report."
"5 dead and 9 injured," one of them spoke,
'5 Dead,' Bradley thought in shock. It had just been 2 Crawlers that hadn't even interacted with each other and 5 had somehow died to them.
At least the last time around, the Crawlers had made it into the farmhouses and the location had made it not a good place to fight. However, they had no excuse as to why so many had died this time around except for the fact that they were incompetent.
If they were a little stronger, a little better, surely they could've survived much longer, and there didn't need to be so many deaths.
But, Bradley couldn't do anything about that. After all, that's just how it was as a Defender. Defenders either died or were injured. It was never a matter of if, but a matter of when in this line of job.
If not for young men with bravery, ambition, and drive to protect their town from the monsters that lurked outside, this group would have ended a very long time ago.
"Any serious life-threatening injuries?" the Mayor quickly asked.
The group of young men looked around and shook their heads. "None that are life-threatening," one of them answered.
"That's good, that's good." The mayor looked around and sighed. "Collect the bodies of the dead. We will have to honor their death."
Everyone walked away aside from Bradley and 2 other young men who stayed behind. The mayor looked at the 3 and then around.
"Where's Jack?" the mayor asked. "Is he not here yet?"
"Jack…" one of the young men spoke. "He was one of the 5 that died today."
"What?" the mayor's face went pale white. "He… died?"
"Yes, mayor," the young men answered.
Bradley had seen the moment Jack was killed and couldn't get rid of the scene of him being crushed by the crawler's limb from his head.
"Sigh, why did he have to… it's such a shame," the mayor said. "George, Yasu, Bradley, don't you three ever die. You three have a big responsibility to just die like that."
"Yes, mayor," the three of them spoke at once.
The mayor nodded. "I should get to my part of the job too," he said and slowly turned around.
"Right, Mayor, why did you come here?" Bradley asked while walking up to him.
"I haven't been out, so I needed to come. I hear the people of the town aren't very happy with what I've been doing, so I should at least talk with them, don't I?" the mayor said. "Illan, let's go."
"Yes," the giant said with a grumble and grabbed the mayor before putting him on his shoulder. The old man could walk downhill with some problems, but uphill wasn't as easy for him at all.
Bradley and the rest followed the mayor until he was past the farmland and in the area where the newly built houses were. Due to the lack of wood, the new houses were instead simple huts made with stone and dried mud.
They looked a lot worse than the house Bradley used to live in, the one that dripped with water everywhere when it rained.
People were gathering around those areas and a few of those even came toward the mayor.
Illan instantly took on a more defensive position, making the people fear him a little.
"Mayor, why does this keep happening? Do we have to die too as the last ones did?"
"I'm not even a Dull, why did you send me to work on the farm?
"Mayor, please, I will work in the mines if that's what you want. I don't want to stay here, please."
"Why am I being punished?"
The people cursed him, begged him, and did whatever they could to get their piled-up emotions out of them.
The mayor tapped him on Illan's arm. "Put me down."
Illan slowly placed the mayor on his feet, who took a few steps toward the people. Then, he bowed in their direction.
"I would like to apologize to anyone who I have inconvenienced with my decisions," the mayor said. "I promise you, my decision was done with no bias at all. It was never meant to be a punishment, just a desperate attempt at survival."
"Due to the monsters' attack, we were left without anyone to grow our crops or take care of our animals. Since I was busy with healing everyone that was injured, I had to make a quick decision, which I inevitably regret," the mayor said.
After the attack 3 months ago and the many deaths of the Dulls, the farmland was left without anyone to look after it. So, the mayor had made the decision to send anyone who was either useless or a problem to the town to work on the farms.
Inevitably, people weren't happy with this decision, and still to this day, these people cursed at him for making that decision.
"So, what now?" one of the people asked. "If you regret the decision, are you going to change it?"
"Yes," the mayor said. "I was busy the past 3 months, but now I'm not. Since I finally have some free time to think, I will now make a more thoughtful decision. I hope you will all be happy with that."