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n“Oh yeah, about what happened earlier.”

nLoren was jogging through the tunnel with Lapis on his back.

nThe sword pressed onto Lapis’ body must have been uncomfortable, as she squirmed around on Loren’s back. But she still couldn’t move her limbs to help herself.

n“Earlier?”

nShe neared her face toward Loren’s shoulder.

nNaturally their bodies got closer, but the only thing Loren felt on his back was his sword that was lodged between the two of them.

n“The way you talk changed. Is that how you talk naturally?”

nLapis stopped squirming.

nLoren got the feeling that she didn’t want to talk about it, but he continued on, deciding that it was better to know as much as he could about her, especially because he was going to be with her for a while.

n“Your body as well. Is there a reason why it stopped moving?”

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n“Do I…do you have to know why?”

nAfter hearing Lapis’ reluctant voice, obvious that it was something she didn’t want to talk about, Loren started to have second thoughts about digging deeper into this matter.

nIt wasn’t information that he needed, but there was always a chance that information that may not be needed contained something important. Judging from the situation that they were in, he wanted every piece of detail he could find.

nBut at the same time, he didn’t want to push too hard and ruin his relationship with Lapis either.

nSince Sarfe and the others were gone, the only ally he had left right now was Lapis.

n“I won’t force you to, but it would be easier to think around it if you told me.”

nHe made it so that Lapis would make the decision.

nHe decided to tell her what was on his mind, then see how she would react.

n“Well, let’s see…since you already saw everything, I guess I can tell you.”

nAfter taking a moment to collect her thoughts, she whispered into his ear.

nWhile thinking that a woman whispering into his ear was something that ran down his spine, he focused on Lapis’ voice, not slowing down and continuing to scan his surroundings.

n“Loren, how much do you know about demon kind (demon kin?).” *

nLoren almost stopped in his tracks at Lapis’ question, but remembered that they weren’t in a situation to be stopping.

nHe slowed down to a jog while trying to recall what he knew about demon kind.

nThey generally didn’t have much interactions with humans.

nIn this world, there exists races other than humans such as demi-humans and beast kin who lived in their own societies along with humans.

nDemon kind was one of them but didn’t have a good reputation among the other races.

nThey had little to no interaction with humans, much less other races, and were generally thought of as the name of the race suggested.

nBut in fact, there were only a handful that lived up to that reputation and it wasn’t that they were impossible to interact with.

nAlthough they had higher physical abilities and higher affinity to magic, they weren’t interested in other races, and their tendency to use anything however they could to benefit them was the root of their bad reputation.

nBut people like that existed among humans as well and it all depended on the personality of the individual, so the mercenary that told him all of this warned Loren not to think ‘just because they’re demon kind’.

nMost of them didn’t believe in gods either, which made many churches dislike them as well.

nThey looked almost the same as humans except for the color of their eyes, which were a deep purple color.

nBeings called demon lords popped up every now and then and brought fear upon the world, but they were just rulers of demon kind and rarely tried to control monsters and take over the world.

nLoren told Lapis all he could recall about demon kind.

nAfter he was done, Lapis nodded and said

n“I’m one of the demon kind.”

n“You’re kidding, right?”

nBased off Loren’s knowledge, demon kind didn’t believe in gods.

nGods didn’t share their powers with those who weren’t believers, and if Lapis was indeed demon kind as she said, it would contradict the fact that she was a priest.

nBecause Lapis was on his back, he saw her face more clearly and saw that her eyes were pitch black just like her hair.

nHer physical characteristics were different to those of the demon kind as well.

n“We definitely don’t believe in the supreme god or the earth goddess and such, but the knowledge god has similar tastes as we do so…” **

nAlthough gods oversaw different things, ideals such as love and peace were a part of their teachings.

nBut Lapis told Loren that the teachings of the knowledge god didn’t include any of them, and that the only thing taught was to gain knowledge, then search for further knowledge.

nThis teaching wasn’t well known by demon kind, but there was a small number of followers among them.

n“Since the Knowledge god considers magic a form of knowledge, priests of the Knowledge god can use magic as well as divine arts. However, the priests of other gods cannot use magic, only the divine arts their god bestows them.” ***

nThis is why Loren was surprised when Lapis conjured light using a magic spell.

nPriests usually only used the divine arts of their god, and Loren never heard of a priest who used magic on top of that.

n“Does that mean a human priest of the Knowledge god can use magic too?”

nIf this was true, it meant that priests of the Knowledge god could fill two roles at the same time, and would be high in demand from both adventurers as well as mercenaries.

nEven if it were to be expensive, having one person fill the roles of two was too good of a deal.

n“There may be some that can, but no one should be as good as I am. I’m demon kind. It’s only natural for me to have higher specs.”

nLapis sounded slightly proud of herself.

nLoren thought that she wasn’t wrong.

nHe had no idea how much strength Lapis possessed, but if she had enough to cover one person’s worth for both magic and divine arts at the same time, it wasn’t something not to be proud of.

n“So, why is a demon kind like you an adventurer? Don’t you guys usually stay inside the mountain range in the middle of the continent?”

nThe reason why demon kind didn’t interact much with other races.

nAlthough their bad reputation and their personalities played a big part, the biggest reason was where they lived.

nThey were surrounded by a high stone mountain range in the center of the continent, and it was physically very difficult for people to go in, much less go out.

nThere were many theories about why they lived in such a place, and Loren didn’t know too much about it, but the most known one was that they retreated into the mountains because of persecution against them.

n“Actually, we come outside quite often.”

nNow Loren was certain that demon kind were way different than what he knew about.

n“We just don’t get caught. We look similar to humans, so if we are careful we look just like humans who are a bit more distinguished.”

n“Is that so,” Loren thought.

nLoren believed that individuals that have over a certain amount of skill, whether that be swordsmanship or magic, had an aura coming from them that told others what that individual was capable of.

nAlthough sometimes inaccurate, it would still give an idea of what that individual was.

nIf the demon kind was as powerful as he had heard, he thought it would be hard not to notice them among humans.

nLapis managed to sense Loren’s confusion and continued to explain.

n“People that have strength or skills that are obvious to the eye either don’t come to human lands, or they come out with restrictions.”

n“Restrictions?”

n“Yes, and that explains my situation as well.”

nShe raised her right hand, which was around Loren’s neck, slightly.

nHer movement was sluggish, and it seemed like she couldn’t move how she wanted to.

n“This is artificial.”

n“What?”

n“Currently all four of my limbs as well as my eyes are artificial ones with some magical tampering on it. I can only move them by using my mana, and it uses quite a bit as well.”

nLoren then looked closely at Lapis’ right hand, and even though Lapis had explained just now, he couldn’t tell the difference between that and a real hand just by looking at it.

n“Did you notice that Oxy’s magic didn’t work earlier?”

nLoren had noticed that.

nThe spell she had used against the goblins had no effect, and that was one of the reasons that the party collapsed.

n“That was probably because the goblin mage activated something that had the effect < >. It’s not a spell that goblins could use, so I’m guessing that it had some sort of magic item.”

nLapis explained that the spell < > diffused mana using mana itself, making it impossible to use any kind of magic within an area. It took a lot of mana and control to use, which made it very unlikely that the goblin used it.

n“It’s not something the mana capacity of a goblin can handle, so it probably used a storage-type magic item to use it.”

n“You mean this?”

nLoren then showed her the necklace that he ripped from the goblin mage’s neck.

nLapis looked at the golden necklace for a while and eventually nodded.

n“This is probably it. But what I find troubling is how a goblin got a hold of a magic item like this, with a spell that even humans have trouble using.”

nWhen Loren took the necklace earlier, Lapis told him that she preferred that he leave that.

nIt was most likely because she realized that it was the reason she couldn’t move her limbs.

nHowever, Loren judged that it wasn’t a spell that activated continuously, as Lapis was able to move her limbs little by little.

nLapis said that it was a storage-type, so Loren guessed that as time passed, mana would be stored into the necklace, so he decided to keep it in his pocket.

n“My eyes managed to keep functioning, though.”

n“I see. What about the way you talk?”

n“That’s…it’s not that that way of talking is more natural. The way I’m talking right now is natural as well. Actually, the way I talk right now is the natural me.”

nLapis talked as if she were trying to make excuses.

n“It’s not like that’s natural for demon kind either. Well…how should I put it…It’s like I switch consciousness during battle.”

n“Hmm?”

n“Since my arms and legs stopped working because of < > and it became a dangerous situation, my consciousness naturally switched, and I started talking like that.”

nHer explanation made sense to Loren.

nLoren himself changed his consciousness in and out of battle.

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nHe believed that the result of it going too far and changing the way a person talked or changing personality wasn’t that weird of an explanation as well.

n“I see. I got you.”

n“I told you to leave me because at the time I believed that it was the most optimal decision. Thank you, Loren, for ignoring me and carrying me all the way here.”

nLoren couldn’t see Lapis’ face directly because she was on his back, so when he looked over his shoulder, his eyes met hers, and judging from her serious face, he knew that she meant that from the bottom of her heart.

n“Although demon kind like me have quite the bad reputation, we aren’t ones to forget a debt.”

n“Ah, okay. You can repay me however you want to. But that’s only if we’re able to get out of this cave.”

nLoren was jogging the whole time, but the tunnel continued into the distance.

nAlthough they passed crossroads and caverns, it felt as if the end of the tunnel would never come, and Loren replied to Lapis bluntly, trying to hide his embarrassment.

nーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー

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