Shut up! I'm not a destroyer!

"I am familiar with it! But I have never bought live livestock before. I do know a few butcher shops."

Royal Ark rubbed his temple and answered confidently.

There is no such thing as being embarrassed.

"Well, we probably just can't find it, not that we're lost, right?"

Fukayama Yamato asked a little weakly.

"Why do you ask that?"

Veneto turned around abruptly and looked at Deep Sea Yamato.

"Because it seems like we are here for the second time."

Fukayama pointed to the clock tower not far away.

"The angle hasn't changed, the only difference is the position of the sun has changed."

Although he is a little erratic at ordinary times, Fukamiya believes that he has a pretty good memory.

Because she had never seen a clock tower before, she just took a special look at the clock tower in the distance.

I didn’t expect that after walking for so long, I seemed to be back to the place where I saw the clock tower just now.

"Really? You are familiar with this place, are we lost?"

Veneto turned his head and looked towards the Royal Ark.

"Ah... that... uh..."

Royal Ark stuttered out a single syllable and scratched his short hair.

NO.418 The Cruelty of War

"Hey! This isn't all my fault. Urban construction is changing with each passing day. Isn't it normal for the streets to change?"

Royal Ark let go of her hand that was grabbing her short hair, which made the neatly-knit hair a little more fluffy, adding a bit of cuteness to her coolness.

Therefore, Veneto created a new term from the Royal Ark, Mengsa, which means both cute and cool.

As for why "萌" is put in front, it's just to make it easier to read.

"I haven't been in Saga Castle all my life. In fact, I just arrived yesterday, so I'm still unfamiliar with some of the changes in the city."

Royal Ark raised his head and looked around, his tone revealing helplessness.

She was just busy pretending in front of Veneto, making Veneto believe that she was reliable and steady, but she didn't consider that this place has changed a lot compared to many years ago.

If the overall economic level of mankind is not good, then there is no need to worry about cities changing too quickly.

However, humans in inland areas have a decent economy, but the economy of coastal areas has been completely destroyed by the deep sea.

If some coastal cities show long-term stable development, people from inland areas may bring their capital to develop in coastal cities.

And with capital injection, dilapidated cities will recover quickly.

At that speed, it was enough to make the Royal Ark, which had not been here for several years, get lost in the renovated streets.

"Now what?"

Fukayama asked Veneto in a low voice.

"There's a mouth under the nose, just ask."

Veneto had no time to regret bringing the Royal Ark, as it had no effect at all.

It is better to solve the current problem first.

Fortunately, this is not a war-torn frontline city, but a city slightly further back.

The pedestrians on the road did not look hurried, and there were even some leisurely elderly people. Perhaps they had escaped war and death, so they leaned comfortably on the rattan chairs placed under the eaves on the roadside.

These old men probably have become indifferent to life and death. They estimate that even if there is a sudden deep-sea attack now, they can continue to enjoy the cool air without changing their expression.

Until a shell hits them, or they are killed by a falling building, or they just sit there and enjoy the cool air until the battle is over.

Anyway, looking at their posture, if a fight really breaks out suddenly, we won’t know where to escape to, let alone where these old guys can hide.

What kind of underground defense facilities are there in the cellar? I'm afraid they will slip and fall to death on the stairs halfway before they can get into the bunker.

"Uncle, how do I get to the place where the pigs are sold?"

Veneto was too lazy to say anything nice to these people in the end times who had given up on their own survival and were waiting to die. Of course, her tone and attitude were still relatively civilized, but she was just not polite.

"Hmm? You're Miss Kanmusu, right? The place where you sell pigs?"

The old man lying on the rattan chair opened his eyes.

The old men around who also had their eyes half-closed also perked up and looked over.

These old fellows seemed to be sleeping with their eyes squinted, but in fact most of them were using their drooping eyelids as a cover to quietly observe Veneto and his group approaching.

It's not their fault that they are curious, because on normal days no ship girls would come to see them.

These old guys have seen ship girls before, and some of them have even talked to them before.

However, as they grew older and older and could no longer bend down and hide in defensive shelters, the younger people stopped paying attention to them, and the ship girls seemed to be unwilling to disturb these old guys because of their kindness.

So after such a long time without the ship girl communicating with them, and now one suddenly appears, they all feel a little at a loss as to what to do.

But the first thing this ship girl did was ask about a place that most people wouldn't go to.

That's not pork, but pig. The little ship girl pronounced it in a clear and melodious voice. Even though the old people were hard of hearing, they could hear it clearly.

The old man who was asked by Veneto repeated it in disbelief.

"Yes, where the pigs are sold."

Veneto didn't understand why the other party reacted so strongly.

"Excuse me, Miss KanColle, you shouldn't go to that kind of place. That kind of place is not clean."

The old man straightened his face, put away his weird expression, and then tried to sit up straight, appearing very gentlemanly.

"I know, but we have something to do there."

Veneto thought that if he said he was going to buy a live pig, the old man would be even more surprised, because now he was already very surprised just by asking where the place was.

"This……"

The old man looked around but didn't see anyone else.

There are only these four ship girls in front of them, and no city managers.

In this city, their existence is actually a drag.

City managers actually don't want them here, because once war breaks out, their management will become a big problem.

They can't walk fast enough to save people, and it's hard to lift them, which will only waste time. No one can even guarantee that in times of war, the act of saving them won't actually kill them.

If we don't save them, we will be criticized by the idle people in society.

Those moralists will not take action to help the elderly themselves, they can only talk about it, but even so, they will accuse the local city managers of inaction.

The ignorant crowd only knows how to follow the trend and does not think rationally at all.

If things continue like this, the pressure on management will be enormous.

They are like chicken ribs, a burden that managers of war-torn cities hope to get rid of.

They know this themselves, so sometimes when they meet people who ask strange questions, they become cautious.

Because they were afraid that the people were sent by the city managers to cause trouble and make them say the wrong thing so that they could be kicked out of the city.

It is one thing for them to do nothing and then be abandoned by the city managers when the war breaks out, but that is not their fault; it is the city managers who are being blamed.

But when they said the wrong thing, they first stood on the opposite side, and then were kicked out of the city. Then they were attacked by the Deep Sea and died at the hands of the Deep Sea, so they deserved to die.

This is also the reason why they stick together.

Even if they couldn't move long distances to other cities, couldn't avoid the wild beasts in the fields between cities, couldn't hide in bunkers during deep-sea attacks, they still didn't want to be abandoned like a burden by their own kind.

At least when the deep sea attacked, they died at the hands of the deep sea. They could comfort themselves that they sacrificed themselves to buy time for other young humans to escape, and their death was more comfortable.

"Old man, what's wrong?"

Veneto looked back around curiously.

There was no one else around her, just three other guys.

At this time, the three guys looked at her with curiosity.

"Ah, nothing, Miss KanColle, follow this road and turn left."

The old man stretched out his hand, which was as old and as withered as a branch, and pointed to the end of the road.

"How old are you, uncle?"

Although Veneto's previous intention was to leave after asking the questions.

But after seeing the old man's gentlemanly attitude, I felt a little bit reluctant.

Life is already very hard in this chaotic world, so showing a little concern for the elderly can be a little comfort to them.

It doesn't look like these old people have any children.

NO.419 The one who should be cleared out

"Well, I'm already fifty-three this year."

The old man's tone was extremely proud.

It seems that if he could live to this age, it would be something he should be very proud of.

In fact, this is indeed the case. In this war-torn era, living in a city not far from the front line, being able to reach this age is the result of the right time and place.

It's not just an option of being lucky.

In addition to luck, he also has to take into account some factors of strength.

For ordinary people in this era, they have to learn to hide.

Because they are made of flesh and blood, it is impossible for them to withstand the guns of the deep sea and the ship girls.

Don’t say that KanColle protects humanity or is on the side of humanity or something like that.

If a war really breaks out, the ship girls will have no time to care about the lives of ordinary people.

They also have mission objectives, and sometimes they even have to sacrifice the lives of ordinary people. There is nothing they can do about it.

Moreover, they are not omnipotent gods. If a human is accidentally killed by the deep sea and they don't notice it, it cannot be said that it is all their responsibility.

In the chaos of a battlefield, every possible person should be saved, but it is normal to miss some.

“That’s a long life.”

What else can Veneto say?

In the era she lived in, the deep sea had already been fought by the ship girls in the depths of the ocean, outside the obstruction of countless naval forts.

In that era, if everyone was not suffering from illness, they could live to about eighty years naturally.

In that period of time, living to the age of fifty was considered a long life. Compared with the time when Veneto lived, it was really miserable.

"That's right. Several of us old buddies have survived bullets. Like that guy, he claims that he can't be killed by artillery shells. Every time he encounters a shell falling in front of him, it's a dud and won't explode."

The old man turned around and raised his chin towards his companion next to him.

"Hey, don't talk nonsense, hurry up and say 'Puh, Puh, Puh', it's unlucky, what if it explodes next time?"

Another skinny old man next to him was so scared that he slammed the rattan chair and glared with fright.

"Hey, I don't believe it. You're lucky. If you really get killed in an explosion next time, it will be the God of Hell who will take you away."

The old man whom Veneto first questioned leaned back, picked up the fan at hand, and fanned himself.

"Miss Kanmusu, you are not here to investigate something, are you?"

The skinny old man began to ask Veneto about his own actions.

He really has no idea.

I always feel uncomfortable if I don’t get an accurate answer.