The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

Proofreader: Xemul

Some time later, Loren saw a scene that made him wonder how it had happened.

The wagon was going straight ahead on the road, but the road was soon cut off at the foot of a mountain that appeared in front of them, and as if in some kind of joke, the pitch black opening of a cave appeared at the end of the road.

Just as he suspected that they were being tricked, Lapis pulled out the talisman that Yuri had entrusted to her, which began to glow blue-white, indicating that the cave was their destination.

“See? That’s just how it is?”

Lapis said to Loren, not particularly proud of her prediction coming true, herself. Her face was also colored with bewilderment at the unnatural way things were progressing.

“I wonder if our Commander is actually a demon or a devil of some kind.”

“Are you asking me? If you don’t know, Loren, then how could I know? I didn’t see anything out of ordinary that could hint to it though.”

Loren wondered if he had been bewitched or something, but no matter how much he tried to review his memories, he had no recollection of the Commander ever being a non-human being. He had known the man since childhood, and if he had been bewitched all this time, he would have been thoroughly deceived. But Loren didn’t want to doubt the Commander to that extent. 

“Well, on the bright side, we’ve reached our destination.”

“At least the cave will make the cold a little more bearable.”

With this answer, Lapis steered the wagon toward the cave.

The entrance to the cave that opened right in front of them was wide enough that Loren could swing his greatsword around freely and the blade would not touch the walls. Even the whole wagon was able fit inside.

Lapis stopped the wagon by the wall and tied the horse’s reins to a protrusion. As Loren stepped down and patted the head of the horse, which looked somewhat relieved, Gula and Luxuria crawled out from the back of the wagon.

“Is this where we were going?”

As if she thought staying in her caterpillar-like state would be troublesome, Gula crawled out of her sleeping bag, pulled on the coat that had been wrapped around her shoulders, and shivered a little as she hugged herself.

Luxuria was also shivering like Gula, but since he was a large man in a tight outfit, it only creeped Loren out. He quietly looked away, not wanting to see it as much as possible.

“If Yuri’s story is to be believed, it probably is.”

Lapis lifted the piece of paper still glowing blue so that Gula could see it and shook it lightly. Gula turned her gaze toward the deep end of the cave and narrowed her eyes.

“So, there’s something in the back of this place that can counter Wrath.”

“If the information is correct, yes.”

“Well, l-let’s hurry up and g-go and g-get that something, s-shall we? Let’s f-finish this job as soon as possible and b-bid farewell to this cold place.”

“From the looks of the rock, this seems like a normal cave, so it shouldn’t be too complicated.”

Luxuria walked slowly toward the back of the cave while carefully examining the cave walls.

Loren thought that if this was the destination, rather than taking a break at the entrance, it would be better to go deeper as Gula had suggested and finish the work Yuri had asked them to do. He was about to follow after Luxuria who was walking in the lead with Lapis and Gula when IT happened.

With a small, throaty scream, Luxuria, who had been walking in the lead, was suddenly flung backward.

It happened very abruptly, but Loren’s action was still fast. He pushed Gula’s toward a cave wall and jumped to the opposite wall, shielding Lapis himself.

Fortunately, the cave was wide enough to allow them to avoid Luxuria’s flying body. He flew through the space that Loren had just vacated with considerable force, and shortly after he crashed into the ground head first and rolled backward several times before finally coming to a halt with his buttocks raising.

“What? What happened?”

“Well, that was a close call. Are you okay, Lapis?”

“Thank you, Loren. You covered for me, so I’m alright.”

Lapis, who was pressed up against the wall by Loren, looked at him with regretful eyes as Loren pulled away, but still said a proper word of thanks. Her eyes looked like those of a predator watching its prey, and the corners of Loren’s mouth turned down while Shayna was yelling at him to please get away as soon as possible in his mind.

“What really happened? It’s not normal for such a big body to be flying through the air like that.”

Loren said while looking at Luxuria, who still had not moved after rolling to a stop. The guy was somewhat larger than Loren, and his weight must naturally be commensurate with his massive body. Considering the power that must have been used to send him flying, this was no ordinary occurance as Loren had said.

Not to mention that Luxuria was an Evil God.

The fact that an Evil God was blown away without being able to put up any resistance was enough to make one think that there was something extraordinary there. But when Loren looked at the area where Luxuria was hit, he could not see anything.

“Lapis, can you see anything?”

“No. What about you, Loren?”

When asked by Lapis, Loren looked again at the area where Luxuria was blown back, they could not see anything there.

[‘What about you, Shayna?’]

Inwardly, Loren called out to Shayna. He thought that Shayna, the ‘King of Death’, might be able to find some kind of sign, but her reply was not favorable.

[‘I am syncing my vision with you. I can’t see anything that you can’t see, onii-san.’]

“I can’t see anything. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing though.”

Loren shook his head and concluded. Lapis looked thoughtful for a moment, then grabbed the wrist of Gula, who was nearby.

Both Loren and Gula, the one who had been grabbed by the wrist, wondered what on earth she was going to do, but it immediately became apparent to them.

“Hey now.”

“Wait a minute!?”

With a small scream, Lapis swung her hand and Gula, who was held in that hand, was thrown forward.

Loren took a step forward, surprised. But right before his eyes, as Gula’s body reached the spot where Luxuria had just been thrown back, he instantly changed his trajectory at a sharp angle for an evasive action. And just like Luxuria, Gula was thrown from the spot, a scream following behind her.

“She really was thrown back.”

Still rolling, Gula slammed into Luxuria, and both of them groaned. Ignoring them, Lapis stared at the area from which Gula had been flung away.

“Are they okay back there?”

“We needed to verify it.”

Although Gula was supposed to be lighter than Luxuria, their landing point seemed to be exactly the same. Gula had slammed into Luxuria, who was still lying on the ground.

Luxuria’s body rolled back further due to the impact, but Gula was on her hands and knees. She glared at Lapis with somewhat bitter eyes, but Lapis did not seem to notice. She was staring at the spot where the Evil Gods were hit.

After a while, Lapis, seemingly had something in mind, tried to move forward herself this time, but Loren grabbed her by the shoulders and stopped her.

“What are you doing?”

“There is surely something there. I want to verify whether it was reacting to Evil Gods or not. Fortunately, judging from Gula’s condition, it doesn’t seem to be a life-threatening contraption, and I am quite sturdy.”

If we were to simply discuss sturdiness, Loren would certainly be the most fragile of all the members present. And even though this trap was not likely to be fatal, it was logical that someone who was physically sturdier should try it out, taking into account the possibility of injuries when being sent flying a certain distance at a certain speed. 

However, whether or not it was acceptable was another matter.  Loren, still grabbing Lapis by the shoulders, pushed her behind himself and stepped forward himself.

“I’ll do it.”

“No, Loren, it’s…”

“Since you’re going to observe the trap, I should be there, not you. Watch out for anything that might happen.”

Rather than one person being a test subject and an observer at the same time, Loren thought it would be better to concentrate on one or the other. He was of the opinion that Lapis would be a better observer than he was, and that he should be the test subject.

Lapis was about to say something about this, but Loren stopped her.

“Well, you will understand it better than I do.”

“That may be true, but…”

Lapis acknowledged, though with some hesitation. He waved at her and stepped forward.

A force that could fling people back should be quite powerful, but if you know it was coming, you could be prepared for it. And as Lapis had said, neither Luxuria nor Gula showed any signs of broken bones, so the expectation that it would not be serious also calmed Loren.

That was why Loren was walking slowly forward, but it was not until a few steps past the point where the Evil Gods had been flung back that he realized that something was wrong.

Loren had expected to be struck by now, but there was no sign that it was about to happen.

After taking a few more steps and confirming that nothing was going to happen, Loren looked back at Lapis, who was observing his movements with a somewhat troubled expression on her face.

“What’s going on?”

“Is it a mechanism that reacts only to Evil Gods?”

Lapis tilted her head and muttered. But the next moment, she dexterously jumped away from her spot.

“Lapis-chan, you should try it out… Uwahhh?!”

Gula was trying to push Lapis from behind. 

However, Lapis, who had probably sensed the danger, dodged, making Gula lose her target. As Gula pitched forward with the momentum, she was pushed hard by Lapis, who had moved to behind her just in time, and fell down to the ground at Loren’s feet. She lied sprawling on the floor of the cave in a big heap, and even her eyes seemed to have rolled back

“So, it won’t trigger.”

Lapis came to where Gula was and watched her. Loren considered her remark for a moment and opened his mouth. 

“Could there be a limit to the number of times it triggers?”

“Well? I don’t know for sure, but it looks like I can get through, since I don’t seem to get struck either.”

“That sounds like it. Well… we won’t know even if we think about it anyway, so let’s just move on.”

“You’re right. Gula, Luxuria, let’s go.”

Watching Loren’s back as he walked away, Lapis poked Gula, who was still lying prone. She got up and grunted in disapproval at how badly she had been treated. 

Without paying attention to Luxuria, who sat up with a mumbling complaint, Lapis muttered.

“It’s possible that the trap was disabled because someone who is allowed to get through got through.”

The words did not reach Loren’s ears, but they rang true somehow. Lapis followed Loren in a jog, wondering what that could have meant all the while.