Chapter 114: Chapter 114: The games of many numbers are played by people with wide eyes and closed hearts

“So… how many do you think it is?” asks Rhine.

 

It is late in the evening, but nightfall has no yet arrived. This is around the time of day when the hostilities of the war-zone begin to simmer down for the night, as all involved parties retreat and return back to their camps in order to hide in safety from the terrifying monsters of the deep-forest. A sort of first floor has been created for the house, on the elevated edge of the hill. A wooden platform, reinforced with stone and concrete, sits.

 

And they are all, winding the day down, sitting there atop it, as if it were a balcony.

 

“Oh, hey,” says Sockel, pointing to the right. “Look. You can see the elves there.” She squints, before looking back towards Rhine. “Probably about a few hundred a day. Gonna say three.”

 

“— I was gonna say that,” sighs Hineni, following her arm. There is indeed a large cluster of people walking out through the edge of the forest. They don’t leave its shelter entirely, but they stay at the edge, where it is easier to navigate back to their own lines. “Still. Maybe we shouldn’t be guessing about this?” he asks. “It feels kind of grim.”

 

Obscura hoots, setting down a tray in their midst. It was her turn to cook dinner tonight. They’re just sort of roughing it, at the moment.

 

“Oh, hey, I saw that guy earlier today,” says Hineni, pointing towards the east, where the forces from their side of the world are converging back together. A man is being dragged out of the forest by his legs. “He was walking fine this morning,” says Hineni, grabbing one of the small bowls, filled with a savory stew of sorts.

 

“Not anymore,” notes Sockel. “Fine. Three-hundred and one,” she says, freeing up the number three-hundred for him to guess.

 

Rhine nudges her with his elbow. “But if you take three-hundred and one and break it down in its single numbers, three, zero and one and add them together… then that adds up to four, Sockel. You can’t take that number.” The owl-god hisses excitedly.

 

Sockel rolls her eyes, taking a bowl. “Fine. Three-hundred and two.”

 

Guessing the number of people who are being killed every day in these skirmishes might indeed be a little grim. But, well, that’s just sort of what this new world of theirs is. Between all of the screaming, terrifying metal skulls and the various macabre gods of confusing intention, a little, horrifying war-zone is refreshingly normal.

 

“You mean just from the fights, though, right?” he asks. “Or are we counting the ones the monsters get too?”

 

“Uh…” Sockel rubs her forehead, thinking for a moment. She shrugs and then blows on her food. “I guess just the skirmishes. I’m sure the monsters are snatching a few people, especially after dark.” She shakes her head. “But they’ll mostly be eating the corpses, which is a problem for them, but great for us.”

 

Hineni thinks about this statement for a moment, as Obscura sits down next to him. But he doesn’t quite figure out what she means. “How so?” asks the man.

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Sockel shrugs, chewing on her first bite. “Well, leaving food outside attracts animals,” says the elf. She nods her head to the forest, in which, presumably, at least a few hundred people are dying every day inside of, going by a cautious estimate. “I dunno about you, but I only just saw one guy getting dragged out.”

 

Rhine nods. “They’re leaving most of the bodies in the forest,” he explains. “Or like that engineer said the other day, they’re just dumping them into the rivers until they get clogged.”

 

“— Don’t drink the river-water. Got it,” says Hineni.

 

“- All of that is attracting tons of monsters, which means even more people are dying. But, on the plus side, we’re going to get a heap of monster parts cheap,” explains Rhine.

 

Sockel blows on her food again. “There’s always an up-side.”

 

— A harrowing scream comes from the forest, as a man is torn up into the air, carried away by what looks to be a particularly large harpy.

 

Hineni blinks and then looks back down at his food. “Huh… neat,” is all that he says, shrugging.

 

Dinner is good.

 

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Hineni looks down at the monster bit. The flesh and the meaty parts have been removed from it now and it lays across the table, one of many.

 

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