The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

Proofreader: Xemul

“Hey, don’t you think that’s cruel? It’s cruel, isn’t it? Absolutely cruel!”

It was Luxuria who complained while wriggling his body. Annoyed, Loren answered. 

“Shut up… The Commander was very considerate to exclude you.”

Luxuria wriggled even more and tried to get closer to Loren, but pulled back in panic when he saw Loren clenching his fist.

It was the day after Loren, Lapis and Gula had enjoyed a splendid room and a sumptuous meal at the inn that Yuri had prepared for them. Then Luxuria had barged into the inn uninvited.

Thinking that it would not be good for them or the people around them to leave Luxuria exposed to the public eye for so long, Loren had invited the guy into the room they were staying, but he was already beginning to regret it, wondering if he should have turned him away instead.

“Why am I the only one left out?”

“I will not share a room with you, even if it kills me!”

When Loren told him plainly, Luxuria procured from somewhere a handkerchief and a bit down on it while turning tearful eyes toward Loren. The gesture, which might have elicited a certain amount of pity and compassion if made by a woman, was so offensive when made by a large man like Luxuria that Loren’s hand involuntarily reached for the greatsword that was propped up on the wall.

“Now now now, it’s time to give up like a man.”

It was Gula who said this with a bright face. 

In the end, her and Lapis’ and plan to seduce Loren did not work, but Gula’s mood was still improved after a good sleep and delicious food. 

However, due to Gula’s appetite, which was multiple times that of an average person, it was hard to tell how much money was going to be listed in the bill that was to be delivered to Yuri. Loren thought, since he was not the one who had to pay the bill, it would be okay, and tried not to think about it any further.

“I’m a girl at heart!”

“Such a weird girl does not exist!”

Realizing that he would be beaten to a pulp if he approached Loren, Luxuria tried to approach Gula instead. But Gula, without warning, kicked the approaching Luxuria with such force that the whole room shook when he crashed into a wall, causing Lapis’ face to twist in annoyance.

“There’s no way I’m staying overnight in the same room with the Evil God of Lust, so please give it up.”

“Lapis-chan, you’re terrible! I’m, I’m going to be bad from now on!”

Luxuria didn’t seem to suffer much damage, despite being kicked with considerable force; he immediately got up and protested. But this time, instead of trying to close in again, he stood by the wall crying as if to invite sympathy. He seemed to be a little wary of another sudden kick from Gula.

Loren sat down on the edge of his bed, wondering if this was truly the entity that had contributed to the destruction of the Ancient Kingdom. Nig, who had been swinging on the web by his bedside, came up to Loren and climbed to his shoulder via his back, where he stayed in his usual position.

“Anyway, we’re getting paid, so we’re going to work. We have to go to our den and talk to Sloth. What about you?”

“Don’t tell me you’re leaving me alone! Of course, I’m going with you! If you’re going to invite everyone to our den, then you must visit my pillows of love, which I hav-“

“WE’RE NOT GOING THERE! I can’t take Loren and Lapis to such a horrifying place! You want to drag these kids to the depths of madness?”

Luxuria’s face lit up, but Gula interrupted him in a fierce tone.

If Gula, an Evil God, called the place ‘madness’, then it must be a truly terrible place. Loren vowed to never step foot in Luxuria’s ‘pillows of love’, even by mistake.

“But how are we going to invite Loren-chan and Lapis-chan over?”

“That’s the thing, isn’t it?”

Gula tilted her head thoughtfully at Luxuria’s question.

“We can use our usual route, but it would be difficult for Loren and Lapis-chan to go through there.”

“Is it too difficult even for a demon like me?”

Loren was only human, but Lapis was a demon, and her abilities were comparable to those of Gula and Luxuria.

In response to Lapis’ question whether it would be impossible even for her, Gula silently reached out into the empty air. 

Her hand then disappeared as if melting in midair from her fingertips, and when her wrist was no longer visible, she stopped reaching.

“What do you think? Can you do it?”

“No, I can’t.”

“Same here… What’s that?”

Loren was a mercenary with no connection to magic and a mere human, but even Lapis, who had a deep knowledge of magic and possessed considerable power, gave up trying to do the same thing Gula had done after just watching her. What Gula had just shown them was something that only an Evil God could do.

“What to do now? Hmm…”

Gula withdrew her outstretched hand, and from the wrist down, her hand reappeared. There was no trace of anything at the place where the hand was pulled out, either from Loren’s eyes or from the King of Death’s vision, which he could access by syncing his vision with Shayna’s. 

“We destroyed most of the gates to our den before they sealed us.”

“We didn’t need them because we could get there on our own.”

“Wasn’t there a gate we forgot to destroy somewhere?”

“That’s right. Let me try to remember.”

Luxuria folded his arms and put an index finger on the tip of his chin in thought.

Not knowing what the Evil Gods were discussing with each other, Loren and Lapis had no choice but to wait quietly for a conclusion to be reached.

After a while, Luxuria let out a deep breath.

“No, we destroyed every place I can think of because we knew they would get us into trouble later.”

“You’re right.”

“Uhm, you see, even if you, Evil Gods, understand each other, we have no idea what you’re talking about.”

As Lapis said, Gula began to explain.

The place where the Evil Gods live, according to Gula, was created by the Ancient Kingdom. Although she did not know the details, it was said to be in a space separated from the real world by magic. The Evil Gods themselves could travel there via the power of their authorities, but other beings could only reach them by passing through certain gates. 

During the war against the Ancient Kingdom, these gates were all destroyed by the Evil Gods, as they did not want anyone from the kingdom’s side to enter.

“‘I thought we might have left at least one.”

“But we were very thorough.”

Even though they were Evil Gods, the Ancient Kingdom that created them was a terrible existence in its own way. As Luxuria said, they had thoroughly searched for the gates connecting them to the kingdom and destroyed them completely.

“If we can’t get to your place without a gate, why don’t you just go there, convince Sloth and bring him back yourself?”

To be honest, Loren didn’t really want to go to the place where the Evil Gods lived. Or rather, he didn’t want to go there if he could help it. The name gave the impression that it was a shabby place, and if the Evil Gods of Lust, Greed, and Sloth live there, there were even less reasons to be interested at all.

Lapis seemed to feel the same way, nodding her head repeatedly to Loren’s words.

“You don’t have to be so wary. That’s cold.”

“True feelings aside, if there’s no way to get there, there’s nothing we can do, right?”

Whether they wanted to or not, if there was no way to get there, it was pointless to even think about it.  Loren responded, and Gula was again pondering what could be done about it.

But her thoughts were soon interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Who’s here? Are you expecting somebody?”

“No… Wait a minute.”

Rising from the edge of the bed on which he was sitting, Loren walked over to the entrance of the room and slowly opened the door.

A young soldier peeked through the gap. The soldier then presented a folded and sealed piece of paper and told Loren the name of its sender.

“This is a letter from General Yuri. He thought it would be of help. I will leave you with it.”

After telling Loren only what he needed to, the soldier bowed and quickly left. 

Judging from how quickly the soldier had left, he probably had sensed the level of danger in the room just from the atmosphere. Loren returned with the piece of paper he had received to find all eyes on him, wondering what had happened. He opened the paper.

On it was a map of the town where Loren and the group were staying. There was a crossed-out mark at one place, and short instructions, probably written by Yuri, attached to it.

” ‘Go here, it will help’ huh?”

After reading the words, Loren handed the piece of paper to Lapis.

After looking at the information on the paper, Lapis asked Loren.

“Who really is your Commander? Is it possible that he is watching our activities from somewhere?”

“It’s a bit too much to be dismissed as a coincidence.”

Loren wondered if Lapis was right, and the Commander or his people were watching them, but he was unable to sense any such presence when he searched for it with his senses.

[‘I don’t feel anything either. Maybe it really is a coincidence?’]

Even if Shayna said so, Loren couldn’t help but think that it might really be a coincidence. But then, the timing was too perfect.

“It’s very suspicious, but… I can’t think of any other way but to follow the Commander’s instruction.”

Loren asked Gula for her opinion, but she just shook her head. It meant that Gula and Luxuria did not have a plan to break the current deadlock. In this case, they had no choice but to put their trust in the clues provided by Yuri at this point in time.