"What?! The bridge is broken?"

Garo stood up from his chair in surprise. Because of this one news, our entire plan was ruined, so that was an obvious reaction.

I was seated at the dinner table with Markus, princesses, Garo, and the village chief. It wasn't a large feast, but I was really enjoying the local chicken.

"Yes, the bridge had become weak over the years, and it broke when a merchant was driving his cart over it. The merchant jumped off the cart and survived."

The merchant must have been one hell of a lucky guy to survive such a situation. If I were him, I would probably check the bridge's strength before crossing any from that day onward.

"But what do we do now?" Garo asked while looking towards Markus. His eyes were open wide in shock.

"Hmm.. This complicates things a bit. We will need to look for an alternate route that leads to another bridge."

"B-But, we would need to take a path around, and that would take us several more days."

That was obvious, but it wasn't like we had much choice at this point. We might be able to get through to the other side using a boat, but we would still need to get our carriage and wagons through.

"I think we should travel northward from here. It would take us a day, but there is a bridge there. And near the bridge, there is a village where we can stay," I replied.

Markus quickly took out the map from his pocket and looked at it. He then closed the map and looked towards me.

"I think that is the best option we have here. I agree with Nara's suggestion."

"I don't think that's a good idea."

Everyone turned towards the village chief after he objected to our plan. I was curious myself regarding what he has to say about it.

"We have been hearing news about people missing in that region. A few weeks ago, several villagers came this way to find the missing people... What I fear the most is, there might be undead since it all happened on the night of a full moon."

"But that shouldn't be a problem since we are traveling during the day. We will be able to reach the village near the bridge by nightfall," I replied. Although even if we come across undead, I would easily be able to deal with them.

"That is impossible since the road is sandy. Horses won't be able to pull as effectively as they can do here. Your wagons look heavy, so I suggest going southward. In a 3-day journey from here, there is a small village, and next to it is a bridge."

That was an option, but it would make the journey even lengthier. For me, dealing with all the undead was a better option than taking a detour.

"I think we will be alright, chief. We have skilled knights with us, and in a way, all of us are trained fighters, even the princesses," I replied.

"If you say so then. Although I still think it's a better idea to take a detour here."

Honestly, I wasn't much familiar with the undead, but I knew that Flare's flame was effective against them. Although I had heard that there were different kinds of undead, I hadn't seen that many. So, in a way, this was my opportunity to learn about them. And also, about the evil spirits that reside within them.

"This chicken is really delicious; I have never had anything of this sort before," Princess Anna said while taking a huge bite.

She wasn't eating like a princess at the moment, unlike Princess Eliane, who was still following proper etiquette. However, nobody was minding her. Who here had enough courage to ask a princess to mind her manners?

"That makes me so happy. I never even imagined the food of our village would satisfy the taste of a princess. I must have been born for this day. Oh god, thank you for this wonderful surprise. Now the goal of my life has been fulfilled."

The old man started his emotional drama again. As he was saying that, the tears of joy started falling from his eyes. It had started getting annoying, so I just ignored them and continued eating my dinner.

"But if something like this was happening in the region, shouldn't they report this to the city?" Markus asked in a confused tone.

"They said they were going to, but then they heard the news of city being destroyed by demons."

Markus looked worried. The news must have spread all across the province. That meant there was a likely chance that the information would only reach the authority after the situation became worse.

Like how monsters could breed, the undead could create more undead using dead bodies. The evil spirits appeared where there was miasma, and where there were undead, there would definitely be dense miasma.

"This is bad. We will definitely need to do something about it," he said after thinking for a while.

There were several things that could be done in this case. But something like a census might be a good idea.

"How about sending a group of knights to every village in the province to collect the population count. We could do that instead of asking the villages to bring reports. We would be able to acquire other information and create awareness while doing that."

Markus looked at me in surprise. His face was clearly saying, 'That's such a simple solution. Why didn't it come to my mind before.'

"That is an excellent idea, Nara. I am not sure where you acquired such valuable knowledge about making the procedures convenient, but I think there is a lot that we can benefit from this."

"Well, I am just happy to help," I replied with a casual smile. I knew that saying anything more than this would bring too much attention to the matter.

Most of us had already finished eating our dinner at this point. After finishing dinner, I went to the bathroom and took a warm bath. I wasn't sure how long it would take before I could enjoy another warm bath, so I decided to jump at the opportunity.

After the bath, I realized that everyone else had already gone to bed, so I decided to head towards my room as well.