n

n

nCh. 51: Reunion After Arrival

n“So, why are you here?”

nWhen Loren asked the red headed man in a not-so-friendly voice, the man flinched, but managed to answer him in a clear voice.

n“What’s so bad about me taking a job for my alma mater?”

nIn front of Loren, who was surprised at how small the world was, sat Klaus, who he had worked together with on his last job.

nSince copper ranks like him and Lapis was able to go on the same question as iron ranks like Klaus and his party, it meant that the quest had no rank limitations.

nSitting next to Klaus was the magician named Ange, the knight named Layla, and the priestess named Roll.

nAfter Loren and Lapis had decided to take the job at the adventurer training school, Lapis had gone and registered them and prepared. The next day, when they boarded the carriage that the guild provided, they met Klaus and his party inside.

n“Weren’t you hospitalized?”

n“I was. Since that priestess of yours treated me like a dog.”

n

n

nEven though Klaus put it like that, all Lapis did was smile, and didn’t react to it.

n“It was just mental damage and bruises from being whipped so I was able to get out after they healed. We decided on this job since we agreed on taking a simple job after what happened during the last one.”

n“So, what you’re saying is that this job is easy?”

n“If nothing happens, yeah. All you need to do is follow the students. Easy, right?”

nSomething about Klaus’ words nagged at him, but it did sound like an easy job.

nIn any case, Loren’s goal wasn’t to follow the students and earn money, but it was to go inside the dungeon and search for Lapis’ body part, which meant he had to think of ways to either do so without them noticing, or luring them towards where he wanted to go, making his job far from being easy.

n“Most of the students who take this exam are pretty capable. The only monsters you meet in the early floors are low rank ones like goblins and cobolts. It’s more difficult for a problem to happen than them failing the exam.”

n“You shouldn’t underestimate goblins. You should be wary of them.”

nKlaus stirred slightly at Loren’s quiet mutter.

nGoblins were monsters that even villagers who were slightly strong could defeat, and it wasn’t clear what to be wary about.

nBut he felt the weight of Loren’s words, and knew he couldn’t ignore them.

n“This is an honest warning. Remember it.”

n“I-I see. I’ll keep that in mind.”

nFor a second, Klaus thought Loren was joking, but judging from his voice and expression, he understood that Loren was indeed giving him a warning and decided to receive it honestly.

n“Anyways, one of yours has been glancing at me the whole time. Does she want something from me?”

nLoren had noticed the gaze of Ange moving between him and outside the carriage ever since the conversation between him and Klaus started.

nAnge seemed to think that she hadn’t been noticed, but to Loren, it was so obvious, he wondered if she really thought he hadn’t noticed. Getting looks wasn’t the most comfortable, so he decided to ask.

n“Oh, Ange…come on, Ange.”

n“Well…I heard that you were the one who saved me during the last job.”

nWhen they were moving together during the last quest, an attack from a bone dragon had left Ange with critical injuries.

nDuring that attack, Loren had saved her from the dragon’s jaws.

nAnge had learned this not long ago from the rest of her party and had been stealing glances at Loren because of that.

n“I guess something like that might’ve happened.”

n“Please let me thank you, Loren. If you didn’t save me there, I would’ve died back there.”

n“Sorry about taking away your boyfriend’s highlight there. He’ll definitely save you next time.”

nLoren didn’t say that out of sarcasm, but because he realized during the last quest that Klaus had feelings for Ange, and the next time the situation occurred, Klaus would do so.

n“Yes, I’ll look forward to that.”

n“Something like that not happening again is the best, though.”

nAlthough a hero arriving in the moment of need sounded good, Loren believed that not getting into such situation in the first place was important.

n“Ange, I’ll try my best to meet your expectations.”

n“Klaus…”

nLoren looked away as they locked hands and stared into each other’s eyes.

nThe carriage that the guild had readied wasn’t that large, and the only parties that accepted the quest was Loren’s and Klaus’, so they were the only ones in there.

nAnd currently there was a pair of a young man and a young woman looking at each other, holding hands, and whispering sweet things to each other.

nIt couldn’t be helped that Loren felt uncomfortable, so he looked around the carriage, holding back the urge to jump out, and saw Layla and Roll in bad moods, glaring at the two, who were in their own little world. Meanwhile Lapis’ empty eyes wandered all over the place, with a face like she had reached enlightenment.

nLoren wished they would hurry up and arrive at their destination, but physical distance wasn’t something that would grow shorter by wishing or praying for it to do so.

nFrom the description given when they left Kauffa, even though they left early in the morning, they wouldn’t reach the city which the Volf Adventurer Training School was located until in the evening.

nLoren concluded that he should just go to sleep.

nSomeone in his former mercenary group had said, most things pa.s.s while you’re asleep, and when he heard those words, he thought that it was just the words of a lazy person, but in his current situation, those words seemed like gold to him.

n“Lapis, I’m going to go to sleep. Wake me up later.”

n“Okay, Loren. Sweet dreams.”

nLoren faced out the window and closed his eyes and waited for sleep to take him, listening to Lapis’, who sounded like she was keeping something bottled up in order to make herself sound calm.

nHow much time had pa.s.sed since then?

nLoren woke up to a light shaking.

nHe shook his head to get the rest of the sleep out and raised his body from leaning against the wall of the carriage and then realized that Lapis was shaking his shoulder.

n“The driver says that we’ll arrive at the city soon.”

n“I see. Thanks for waking me.”

n“No problem.”

nWhen Loren looked away from Lapis and into the carriage, Loren was surprised at the sight before his eyes.

nKlaus and the girls, who had been sitting in front of him, were all fast asleep, snoring with their mouths wide open.

nHe wouldn’t have thought much of it if it was just one or two of them, but seeing that it was all four of them, Loren couldn’t help but feel there was something artificial about it and glared at Lapis.

n“What did you do?”

n“They built out such a pink atmosphere, I used > without thinking.”

nLoren realized he made a mistake.

nBecause he had escaped into sleep first, there was no one to stop Lapis’ acts.

nIf Loren was awake, he could’ve stopped Lapis from using magic, but with extreme stress piling up and no one to stop her, she had taken hard measures.

n“Don’t you think this is a bit too rough?”

n“It’s okay. I used the spell secretly, so they shouldn’t remember it.”

nAlthough Lapis said it with confidence, Loren couldn’t fully trust her.

nA priestess being able to use magic was already abnormal, but to use that magic on people that weren’t even enemies was, thinking from common sense, wasn’t something tolerable.

nWhile Loren worried that if one of them somehow noticed, it could bring about a critical result, Shayna made a large circle with her arms.

n‘It’s okay, Onii-san. The red-headed person and the others fell asleep without noticing anything.’

nWhen he asked her how she knew, after he went to sleep, she apparently pulled her astral body away from his and examined what was happening outside, and that was when Lapis used her spell against Klaus.

n‘I only went out for a bit, so Lapis didn’t see me.’

nHe wasn’t sure if Lapis could see Shayna in her astral form, but it was easier to set up measures if he a.s.sumed that she could.

nShayna nodded solemnly when he thought they could never be too careful.

n“Is something wrong, Loren?”

n“It’s nothing. Just getting a slight headache from this situation.”

n“I see, take care. Anyways, that’s our destination.

nA long time had pa.s.sed during his sleep, with the sun’s rays slowly turning redder and redder, and from the window, Loren could see a large city in the distance.

nKauffa was quite the size when you looked at it from the outside, but this city was even larger, and Lapis told him that it was called Montelgal, and that it was a trading city.

nIt wasn’t that it had a local specialty or anything of the sort, but the resources and tools the adventurer training school distributed to the stores was what stimulated business across the city.

n“On top of that, children of aristocrats who enroll in the school as well as their relatives come and go frequently, so merchants who target them gather as well, so there’s a lot of activity.”

n“Not a kind of place I’m familiar with.”

nIt was common for normal residents to distance themselves from mercenaries.

nIt couldn’t be helped, because it was a job that made a living off a detestable action called war.

nThe mercenary group Loren was in was quite disciplined compared to most, but they weren’t everyone, and sometimes there were people who didn’t look any different from bandits.

nThat was why they weren’t welcome in lively places with normal people, so they naturally grouped with their own.

nLapis took a sharp breath as she guessed those situations from Loren’s casual remark, but immediately replied.

n“You’re an adventurer now, so now it’ll become a place that you’ll be familiar with.”

n“Could be.”

n“Of course, it will. Oh, when we arrive, we’re going to go straight to the adventurer’s guild, so getting a room will be after that.”

nShe knew how tired both were, so Loren asked her.

n“It can’t wait until after we get rooms?”

n“Since it’s already this late, if we go to the inn first, the reception will close. We need to report that we arrived safely, and that we are the ones who accepted the job.”

n

n

n“Would there still be rooms left?”

nLoren guessed that since it was a lively city, rooms would be quick to fill up.

nWhen he was a mercenary, it was common for them to race for rooms at inns that accepted mercenaries, and those who lost had to camp outside the city.

n“It should be fine, but in the worst case, we can get the guild to show us alternatives. It’s a guild in a large city like this, so they should have a few places.”

n“Shouldn’t we wake Klaus and the girls?”

nThey were on the same quest as them.

nIt hadn’t been long since they met, but Loren believed that Klaus the girls weren’t bad people and didn’t want them to oversleep.

n“Let’s wake them up when we get a bit closer. If they start playing up again, my killing intent will start surging up again.”

n“Agreed.”

nLoren agreed to Lapis’ excuse, knowing that they didn’t mean harm, but it wasn’t tolerable for those who were watching, either.

n