I was transported from Lobotomy Corporation to another world.

"Oh, you're outsiders, aren't you..." a man holding a sword muttered. Around him were several boxes, all filled with weapons.

Reid and Noelle nodded to each other, and the two found a seemingly friendly weapons merchant to inquire about the Hammerlands.

The man set up a small stall outside selling weapons, and at first, many people did buy his weapons.

But now that it's getting closer to evening, fewer people seem to be coming, and the man doesn't mind talking to the few strange outsiders about national affairs.

Noelle: "Why are you banishing the witches who protect the country...?"

The man scratched his head. "Ah... no matter how I think about it, it just feels like it's the most natural thing to do."

"It's almost universally known that witches grow up to be terrifying, and that's probably why."

"Although they look pitiful when they're little, once the witches grow up... only the undead/Demon King's army will take them in."

"Another new term," Reed thought to himself before asking, "What is the Undead/Demon Army?"

The man looked surprised. "Huh? You didn't know?!"

"You can probably guess what it means just from the name, right? Although most of the undead are zombies and skeletons, these undead have no intelligence."

"However, some still developed intelligence, even though the undead are almost universally hostile."

"But what's amazing is that the dead are ultimately beings born from the death of living things or people, and some of these spirits possess intelligence."

"But some spirits have other ideas; these are the strangest spirits."

Reid's curiosity was piqued. The so-called undead meant that inanimate objects could come back to life. "Why is that strange?"

The man placed his sword among the weapons and said, "Pursuing something because of something is a bit too abstract. Let me give you an example..."

"A skeleton, after becoming an undead, had the idea of ​​picking an apple from an apple tree and eating it."

"And then this skeleton would actually pick an apple and eat it for this inexplicable reason..."

"So what will happen after he succeeds?" Reed asked.

The man "will become no different from an ordinary skeleton, and may have gained some intelligence due to eating the apple, but this intelligence seems to have disappeared after completing the task."

"Let me tell you something interesting, a story I heard elsewhere!"

"One of them died and became a zombie, which gave rise to the idea of ​​protecting Princess Kanasia."

"This princess's country was defeated, and she herself became a slave, living in darkness and reduced to a tool for venting her frustrations."

"Then, somehow, the zombie who created the protective spirit actually managed to run into the slave camp alone and rescue the princess."

"Some people witnessed this scene and saw with their own eyes a wounded zombie, missing an arm, wandering across the plains hand in hand with the princess."

"What happened in the end, Red?"

The man said, "It's said that in the end the zombie left, leaving the princess behind on that plain."

"Finally, the zombie entered the forest and was killed by a group of goblins, who then stole all its equipment..."

"As I said before, after completing a strange mission, the undead become almost identical to ordinary undead; any intelligence they may have previously possessed will slowly disappear."

Noelle: "This is the first time I've heard a story about zombies protecting a princess... but the ending for the zombies was so tragic."

Reed thought, "That's strange indeed. By the way, have we gone off-topic?"

The man said, "Oh, right! Ask me anything you want! It's almost evening, and nobody's buying my weapon anyway."

[Perspective: Little Red Riding Hood]

Little Red Riding Hood was holding a zombie covered in white flour by the back of its collar; the attack on the city wall had already been discovered by other soldiers who had arrived at the scene.

As for whether the guards would reveal everything, Little Red Riding Hood didn't care.

A person and a corpse are walking; they need to walk for a while longer to reach the city.

Along the way, many carriages and pedestrians looked at Little Red Riding Hood and the zombie with curious eyes.

Unless you look closely, the zombie will just look like a drunken vagrant.

As for why the zombie was covered in white flour, it's because the zombie was carrying another bag of flour, and the bag broke, causing the flour to get all over its body.

Little Red Riding Hood glanced back at the zombie she had grabbed by the back of her collar. "You're so strange."

"You'll leave the food for those witches, and you won't attack them or me... I really wonder if you're even thinking straight."

Little Red Riding Hood muttered to herself, starting to consider whether she should perform a craniotomy on the zombie to see what was inside its head.

"It's different from other zombies...it's so strange!" Little Red Riding Hood grasped the zombie's shoulders and straightened it, then began to look at the zombie face-to-face.

The zombie still had its mouth slightly open and its eyes unfocused; even at such close range, it made no move to attack the girl in front of it.

After a brief, close eye contact between the human and the zombie, Little Red Riding Hood shrank back and pushed the zombie aside.

Little Red Riding Hood saw a maggot crawling out of the zombie's forehead. "Be careful..."

The zombie propped itself up and shakily stood up...

With a loud crash, an exceptionally fast horse slammed into the zombie.

The person on horseback exclaimed, "Hey! Excuse me! Who told you not to watch where you're going?"

The rider on horseback quickly left; he hit someone and ran! It would be terrible to get caught and have to pay compensation.

Little Red Riding Hood slowly approached the zombie, reached out and grabbed it by the back of its collar, lifting it up.

The zombie now looks even more hunched over, and one of its arms appears to be broken to an absurd degree.

Little Red Riding Hood didn't hesitate to use physical methods to barely restore the zombie to its original form, except that its hands were reversed and looked exactly the same as before.

Little Red Riding Hood looked at the still listless zombie and felt bored. "What a useless zombie..."

The zombie in front of him, besides following him, would only emit meaningless howls.

The zombie looked even dirtier now, especially the yellow dirt on its face. Little Red Riding Hood continued towards the city ahead.

The zombies continued to follow Little Red Riding Hood as darkness fell.

The number of people along the way dwindled, and finally, the man and the corpse arrived in the city.

The borderland has only one city, and the person in charge of the country also lives in this city.

There are no towns or villages, except for the witch district outside.

Some walls in the house were covered with words about the dangers or evil of witches.

Little Red Riding Hood was dressed in all red, but because of her height, she was not very noticeable in the crowd.

The zombie looked like a homeless person, and many people looked away from it with disgust.

The city is brightly lit, and its environment and atmosphere are many times better than those of other countries.

But the price was that a group of young heroes who protected the country were insulted and abandoned.

This was the first time Little Red Riding Hood had ever seen such a "luxurious" place.

But ever since Little Red Riding Hood saw those little witches playing in the ruins in their tattered clothes, she was filled with disdain when she saw the completely different scene before her.