Proofreader: Xemul

“What’s with the gloomy face?”

Loren looked over to see a girl dressed in a white priest’s robe with a ponytail that was swinging from side to side standing over him and peering into his face. He was slightly taken aback by the fact that he did not notice her approach until she called out to him, but considering the girl’s true identity, it was quite understandable.

She was Lapis, Loren’s companion.

At first glance, Lapis gave the impression of being a lovely and innocent girl. But in reality, she came from the demon race that lived in a mountainous region in the center of the continent, a race that was hated by the entire continent and boasted physical abilities several times greater than humans. The power hidden in her delicate arms might even surpass Loren’s arm strength, and since her physical abilities were still unknown, it was highly likely that getting behind an excellent swordsman like him without being noticed was no problem for her.

“May I ask what’s troubling you?”

“It’s nothing serious.”

After such a preamble, Loren told Lapis the conversation about Magna that he and Gula had had earlier.

Of course, he didn’t mention the debt he owed to the Great Demon King. If anything, Lapis stood on the Great Demon King’s side, and if he were to talk about it, it would be impossible to know what she would start plotting. It was not that Loren did not trust Lapis, but he would prefer to avoid having something planned without his knowledge.

“Dealing with Magna? That sure is a troublesome thing.”

After listening to Loren’s story, Lapis naturally took the seat next to him on the left, groaning slightly as she folded her arms and tilted her head.

No matter how extraordinary Laps might be in terms of abilities, if she did not know where the other party was, she is unlikely to be able to do anything. Even so, her participation was a welcome change.

As Loren began to think about another topic, Lapis unfolded her arms and clapped once as if she had come up with something.

“I have a good idea.”

“I don’t really want to hear it.”

Loren unintentionally revealed his true feelings, and Lapis, looking upset, grabbed his shoulders and started shaking him left to right.

As if to prove the hidden strength of Lapis’ arms, Loren was easily jolted even though he was physically more imposing than her. Loren was annoyed, and Nig, the obsidian spider that had taken his right shoulder as its home, started to flail about in a panic and raised its two front legs in protest. The spider was apparently startled by the sudden movement of Loren’s body.

“What do you mean by that, Loren? I demand an explanation. I demand a satisfactory explanation!”

“I just slipped… Anyway, just tell me what you’ve come up with.”

Still being jolted, Loren almost confessed his true feelings once more. He was a little flustered inside, but tried to deflect by asking about a good idea that Lapis had come up with.

Loren, who was swayed by the conversation and was about to say something more honest, was a little flustered inside, but tried to deflect the conversation by asking about a good idea that Lapidus had come up with.

Regardless of what had happened, seeing that Loren was willing to listen to her now, Lapis released his shoulders, though she still looked a bit put off. She coughed once, then raised her index finger at Loren and Gula, who had started to pay attention to her.

“I think it would be very difficult to go after Magna himself. So let’s give up on this once and for all.”

“Give up?”

Gula seemed to be displeased, but Lapis did not seem to take offense by this and explained the reason.

“I happened to hear that since the Adventurers’ Guild added them to the wanted list, information has been coming in little by little, but the quality is not very good.”

This was a surprising thing to hear for those who were familiar with the Adventurers’ Guild. It was a continent-wide organization with a considerable number of members, and it had issued an official warrant so that not only Bronze and Iron rank adventurers but also the so-called master adventurers, the Silver and Gold rank, received information about Magna.

“I had assumed that once the Adventurers’ Guild had issued the official warrant, we would have very detailed information about Magna’s movements.”

“That’s right.”

No matter how powerful Magna was, he shouldn’t be able to wipe out all traces of himself. It would only be natural, then, that when Silver and Gold adventurers joined in the search, his tracks would become known.

Yet, surprisingly little information about the guy had come forth.

“One possible explanation is that Magna has the ability to hide himself from the eyes of even the most sophisticated adventurers.”

The swordsman named Magna that they had encountered so far had so many magical tools and weapons that Loren wondered where he had gotten them from. It would not be so surprising if among them were tools with the ability to conceal oneself.

“The other possibility is that they know where he is, but can’t report him.”

“What do you mean?”

Loren asked, not quite sure about the second possibility Lapis had mentioned.

“The second possibility is that Magna already has influence at the nobility or royalty level in some other country. The Adventurers Guild is certainly a significant organization, but it is not the kind of organization that would pick a fight with a country. If they were pressured by a national-level entity, they would probably hide information from the public.”

“That’s a horrifying story.”

Loren understood that in the extreme, it would be like there was the country of Magna somewhere on this continent.

Of course, if Magna’s name and face were made public, it would be immediately obvious. But if there was some place that were performing country-level experiments pulling strings from behind, it wouldn’t be a fun story for Loren, who had a hostile relationship with Magna. If their party were to wander into that place unknowingly, said place would be able to legally consign Loren and his companions to oblivion in the name of the law that applied to the place.

Considering what it would mean to chase after such an existence, even Loren’s desire to forcefully pursue Magna had waned.

“That’s why I don’t think it’s a good idea to go after Magna himself.”

“I’m convinced. But then what are you going to do? Wait until we run into them again?”

Loren was about to let out a sigh, thinking that in the end he would have to be one step behind, but Lapis shook her head.

“It’s not a sure thing, but I’m saying that rather than making the first move, there may be a way to spoil their start.”

“If we can do that, it might be worth a try. But how do we do that when we don’t even know what they want?”

If you knew the objective, you could take the approach of destroying that objective beforehand. However, they had no idea what Magna’s objective was; even if they wanted to destroy it, they did not know what they should destroy.

“Don’t you think that Magna’s group is often associated with places and things that have a connection to the Ancient Kingdom?”

When Lapis put it that way, Loren thought that it certainly sounded right.

“If that is the case, I think that if we acquire or destroy all the powerful items and ruins associated with the Ancient Kingdom, it will hinder their group.”

“I see what you mean. But where do we get information about such things? If that’s what you expect from us, I’m sorry but we can’t help you.”

It was logical to think that the quickest way to obtain knowledge about the Ancient Kingdom would be from the Evil Gods, who had been alive since the kingdom’s actual prosperity. However, Gula proclaimed that they could not help in this matter.

“When we were on the side of the Ancient Kingdom, we were their dogs. Ivy, who has got some information from the time before she became an Evil God like she does about that ruin, is an exception. We generally know very little.”

Gula said tha by the last days of the Ancient Kingdom, she and her group had rebelled against the kingdom and did play a role in its destruction. But by that time, information about the ruins and powerful magical tools was either hidden or destroyed or abolished with the fall of the kingdom, and there was no useful information available.

“We were also in a state of rage at the time. We destroyed anything and everything we saw without really thinking about why. Youthful indiscretion, ya know.”

“You destroyed the Ancient Kingdom in a moment of youthful indiscretion?”

Loren felt that it must have been a real nuisance for the destroyed side, but since that side was also the cause of destruction, there was no room for sympathy. Gula was laughing sheepishly with her tongue stuck out, but Loren could not even begin to imagine how much had happened at the end of the Ancient Kingdom, when it was on the verge of extinction.

“I don’t have any expectations of you Evil Gods from the very beginning though.”

Lapis’ words to Gula were a flat denial. Ignoring Gula, who had almost fallen out of her chair due to those words, Lapis turned her full attention to Loren, who was sitting next to her.

“In the first place, Sloth, Gluttony, Lust and Greed are all words that don’t have a single good image, don’t you think? How could I possibly think that I could get any useful information from such people?”

Loren thought there were no words to refute that statement. Rather, he was surprised that they had managed to extract some useful information from those Evil Gods of Sloth, Greed, and Lust. Gula, who had managed to pull herself back onto the chair, was also unable to refute Lapis’ words as she had already told her that they would not be able to obtain any information from her side, and just silently glared at her.

As if oblivious to Gula’s gaze, Lapis continued to speak.

“Rather than them, I know someone who we can get much more useful information from. That person may be difficult to contact, but it’ll probably be okay.”

“Who’s that?”

Loren’s memory did not contain any information about the person Lapis was referring to. He wondered if Lapis had known said person before she met him.

Lapis told Loren about her proposal. Gula stared at her with her mouth hanging open as if she could not believe what she was hearing, and Loren let out a small sigh as he realized the trouble that awaited him.