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nCh. 90: Requested after Guidance

nThe sane fairy girl that suddenly appeared.

nTheir situation became better now that the fairy was taking them to safety, but it was only because they had no other option, so they continued to follow behind her.

nAbove them was the shadow of the swarm of fairies who seemed to have lost their sanity, waiting for them to surface, and along with a mysterious and unreal feeling at the fact he was breathing as he was moving underwater, they reached a small hole on the bottom of the lake.

nAfter a while since they entered the hole, which was barely large enough for a person to crawl through, they hit a wall, and the hole stretched upward.

nBut that was barely large enough for a single person to go through as well, and although Lapis and Feuille had no problem, Loren, who had a wide build as well as a great sword on his back, couldn’t go through, so he had Lapis pull his sword from above, and he managed to get through after.

nManaging to get through, Loren put his hands on the edge of the hole and pulled himself out from the water.

nWhen he looked around, shaking off the water, he saw that they were in some sort of cave, with a soft, white light illuminating the area.

n“Ugh…I’m soaking.”

nWhen he turned towards the voice, he saw Lapis, soaking wet, sitting on the floor, squeezing the water out of her clothes.

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nLoren and Feuille were wearing light clothing, so it wasn’t much of a deal, but although the priest’s clothing that Lapis was wearing was simplified to be easy to move in, it used way more cloth compared to Loren’s clothes, and with all of it completely wet, it was heavy and uncomfortable.

n“It’s because Loren suddenly jumped in…”

n“I mean, what else should I have done?”

n“I only got <>. I had other spells that could keep us from getting wet and protecting us from water pressure, you know?”

nAlthough Lapis gave him a reproachful look, Loren doubted that she would’ve been able to get everything done in time.

nAlthough he thought so, he knew that if he said it out loud, it would worsen Lapis’ mood even further, so he decided to stay silent.

n“I’m just going to take everything off…I can’t move in this…”

n“Seriously?”

nLapis seemed to know that it was pointless to blame Loren, as after she had cursed lightly at him once more, she started squeezing and pounding on her clothes to try to make it feel less uncomfortable, but she eventually gave up, and started taking off her clothes, grimacing at the feeling of wet clothing peeling off her skin.

nLoren wondered if it was okay to start taking off her clothes without hesitation in front of a man, but wearing wet clothes was indeed uncomfortable, so it was hard for him to tell her to keep them on.

nIf possible, Loren wanted to take off his clothes and dry them next to a fire, but while he was wondering if they could find something to burn in the cave and if there was a place they could start a fire, something flew in front of his face.

n“Can we talk?”

nIt was the fairy that had led them there.

nAs if she had used magic that Lapis had mentioned beforehand, her dress and wings didn’t have a single drop of water on them.

n“Can you understand me mister human?”

n“Yeah, I can hear and understand you.”

nWhatever the case, she was the one who saved them.

nAs Loren responded, thinking that he should be polite, the fairy smiled and perched on his shoulder.

n“So, for introductions, I’m Corne of the fairy race. Nice to meet you.”

n“She talks pretty slowly.”

nWhen Lapis commented on the fairy that introduced herself, Loren turned his head towards her, but immediately looked away.

nIt seemed that Lapis had been steadily taking off her clothes, and when Loren turned towards her, she had taken off everything except for her underwear, and was folding them and stacking them up next to her.

nWhich meant that her chest and stomach was in plain view, and although Loren didn’t mean to look, the image was burned into his eyes.

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n“Hm? Loren, your face is all red.”

n“Shut up. Cover yourself up a bit, will you?”

n“Even if you say so…Loren’s the only one who’s looking.”

n“That’s exactly the problem.”

nWhen Loren curtly, trying to hide his red face, Lapis stared at him, not understanding what he meant, and after a while, a wide grin appeared on her face.

n“Loren? Are you embarrassed, by any chance?”

n“Lapis, I hate to break it to you like this. But I can’t like a girl with no sense of shame.”

nWhen Loren decided to give her a warning before she started teasing him again, Lapis immediately picked up her clothes and tried to cover her chest.

nBut she didn’t seem to want to put wet clothes on her skin again, and after pushing and pulling her clothes from herself for a while, she looked up at Loren with a troubled face.

n“Umm, Corne, right? As you can see, we’re wet rats here. We’d like to dry ourselves, so is there anything you could do?”

n“Then follow me. Our home is just up ahead.”

nAccepting Loren’s request, the fairy named Corne floated up from Loren’s shoulder and started slowly flying deeper into the cave, waving for them to follow.

nLoren, calling Lapis, who was half naked, and Feuille, who was sitting on the floor, decided to follow after Corne.

n“How is this place like this?”

nTemporarily holding her wet clothes in her arms, Lapis looked around and asked Corne.

nBut Corne cocked her head, not understanding what she meant.

n“From what I can see, this place is an underground cave.”

n“You’re right. This is below the place you call the Black Forest.”

n“Why is it so bright?”

n“That’s because of the glowing moss growing on the rocks. I don’t know why they glow, though.”

nAt Corne’s explanation, Loren put his face close to one of the rocks.

nThere was indeed a thin layer of moss growing on it and could see that the light being emitted from them was illuminating the whole cave.

n“It’s the type of moss that could be found in nature type dungeons. It can be found in many places, so it’s not that rare.”

nLapis told Loren, who was examining the walls.

n“Is it different from the walls from the Ancient Kingdom ruins we saw before?”

n“It isn’t the same thing just because it glows Loren.”

nPreviously, when they had investigated an Ancient Kingdom ruin that was made for breeding goblins, they had seen that the building material for the walls, and remembering that, Loren asked Lapis, but she said he was wrong.

n“The ones in the ruins are on a different level, from its rarity and light quantity to its price.”

n“Everyone, how about looking at the walls later and keeping up? You’ll catch a cold, you know?”

nAs Corne called them, worried, they stopped what they were doing and hurried after her.

nAfter walking a while, the cave opened into a large dome like space.

nOn the ground were stone buildings that weren’t taller than his waist, and Loren thought for a second that it was like a replica of a small city, but a look at the small winged beings moving to and from the buildings told him it wasn’t.

n“Big people came.”

n“They came.”

nResponding to Corne’s voice, fairies that looked like boys and girls flew up slowly towards them and started flying around them.

nEven though he knew they wouldn’t attack them, because of his first encounter with them, he found himself reaching for his great sword, but Lapis stopped his hand.

n“It’s okay. They’re not enemies.”

n“Y-yeah, my bad. My hand moved without thinking.”

n“I know how you feel, though.”

nLapis didn’t forget them being chased as well.

nThe swarm of fairies was something even Lapis thought was scary, as she knew it couldn’t be helped that Loren was anxious.

n“Everyone, you can dry your clothes here.”

nCorne pointed towards a hole in the wall of the dome.

nWhen Loren walked near it, he saw that it was way to small for a person to go through, but apparently it was connected deeper underground, and there was warm air flowing out of it.

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n“I was wondering why it wasn’t cold even though it was underground. This is how they control the temperature.”

n“You could dry your clothes near this hole. It’s dry and warm, so it should be fine.”

n“Let’s take her offer. If we leave our clothes here, it would dry quite quickly, and this place seems the warmest as well.”

n“I’d like you to listen to our story while your clothes dry.”

n“You said you wanted help, right?”

nWatching Lapis hanging her clothes on the edge of the hole where the warm air was blowing from, Loren said to Corne, who was fluttering in place, Corne winced and nodded her head.

n“Tell me about it. You’ve saved us, so we’ll do our best to solve it if we could.”

nLoren told Corne, looking at Lapis finish hanging her clothes and taking off Feuille’s clothes to hang them as well, and with a serious look on her face, Corne flew around in front of his face, raised her fists in front of her, and in her expansive way of talking, told Loren.

n“I want you to kill our chief.”

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