The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

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Proofreader: Xemul

It was some time after Loren’s charge into the enemy lines that a change occurred.

Lapis, who was smiling and watching from behind Loren as he continued to turn enemy soldiers into meat sacks with each swinging of his greatsword, suddenly looked into the distance and called out to him. At that moment, he was stabbing an enemy soldier, whom he had cut but failed to finish off.

“Loren, look at that.”

Looking up as he was told, Loren titled his head in a puzzle when he noticed that there were strangely few dead enemy soldiers lying around. Then he saw Gula looking strangely satisfied a short distance away and realized what was happening. But Lapis put her hands on his shoulders and made him turn around to face the opposite direction from where Gula was.

“Not that way, this way.”

“What’s the matter… We’re busy cutting down the enemies…”

There were still many enemy soldiers left that needed to be cut down. No matter how hard Loren worked to back them off, there were still an untold number of enemy soldiers around him, and he knew he did not have the luxury of worrying about a battlefield that had nothing to do with him.

Loren, who turned his gaze to said direction as Lapis pulled him along, was momentarily lost in amazement at the sight of a pillar of fire rising up to the heavens at a considerable distance from them.

“Focus, Loren. Do you remember what we are doing here?”

“Oh… That reminds me, there’s still that matter. It’s been so long since I’ve been on the battlefield that I forgot.”

“And what does that mean?”

“The Evil God of Wrath has appeared, hasn’t she? How troublesome. I have to move there.”

Loren grumbled. The place where the pillar of fire appeared was quite far away from Loren and his group. Loren deduced that it was no where near the main base camp, nor his own position, or the location of the Empire’s main troops.

“Why did she go out there? If we consider fighting power, shouldn’t she go this way?”

“Loren, that is what you were aiming for, weren’t you?”

Lapis said with a suppressed smile, and Loren clammed up.

Before the battle began, they had heard from Yuri that the Evil God of Wrath would appear in the areas where the Kingdom army was in an unfavourable situation. Loren thought that if he could create such an area, the Evil God of Wrath would appear there.

He did not particularly want to engage her, but rather to prevent her from mistakenly appearing in the main camp, where Yuri was. It seemed that Lapis knew of his intentions.

“Then do you know why she went there?”

“It’s simple. The reason is that you, Gula, and Klaus are working too hard, so the Kingdom’s forces are concentrated too much on our side. Because the other side is undermanned, she has to appear there first.”

“What is the Kingdom doing?

“You tell me.”

Looking around, it was true that Gula and Luxuria were defeating the Kingdom soldiers at an overwhelming rate, and Klaus was also slaughtering the enemy soldiers one by one despite still carrying Dauna on his back. The girls in Klaus’ party were also helping, but the number of soldiers around them did not seem to be decreasing at all.

This meant that many soldiers were gathering here from other places, and those other places were getting into disadvantageous position much faster.

“Anyway, we have to move out of here.”

The Evil God of Sloth, who had been brought along to fight against the Evil God of Wrath, was nodding off on Klaus’s back, even though they were in the middle of a battle.

As far as Loren could see, it looked as if he had been hit occasionally by flying arrows or by the spear or sword of a soldier who tried to attack Klaus’ from behind, but there was no sign of injury either to Dauna himself or to Klaus, who was carrying him on his back.

“Klaus! Can you break through this?”

“I don’t think I’m up to the task! If you can get this thing off my back, I’ll try to, but if not, you’ll have to do something!”

Klaus did not fight by forcefully destroying the enemies’ defences like Loren; he fought by targeting gaps in their armors and inflicting wounds to take away their ability to fight.

Because of this fighting style, he was not able to force his way through the enemy lines as Loren, and since he was carrying the weight of one Dauna, he was not likely to break through the wall of enemies.

“I’ll have to do the work then.”

Even if they could break through the current enemy’s enclosure, they would have to pass through a battlefield between the enemy and their own army in order to reach the point where another pillar of fire was expected to rise up. So, it was Loren’s job to lead and clear the way. He shouted as he swung his greatsword and cut down another couple of soldiers.

“Klaus! We’re moving! Follow me!”

“Understood!”

After getting Klaus’s answer, Loren turned to the direction of the pillar of fire.

Lapis followed, somewhat dissatisfied that she had not been called, while Gula and Luxuria took over the role of rear guards as they urged Klaus and the others on.

Around the time that Loren’s group started moving, at another corner of the battlefield, the Empire army was in chaos.

Together with the adventurers, a part of the Empire army had cut deeply into the Kingdom army’s lines, and with the Kingdom soldiers concentrating at another place, the Empire army had been allowed to fight a fairly easy battle. However, the presence of a girl who suddenly appeared had turned the scales of battle upside down in an instant.

“Damn, I was sent out here just like this. What the hell do you think you’re doing with a beautiful, innocent girl?”

The girl certainly was lovely, if only by her appearance, with her fluttering crimson cloak and flowing golden hair. But the words that came out of her mouth were strangely vulgar, in a stark contrast to her cute voice.

And even though there was nothing visibly burning, bright red flames blazing at a height of about waist-high were surrounding the girl. Outside the ring of flames, several people were struggling in the flames and were quickly being turned into hard, black charcoal.

In the center of the circle of Empire and Kingdom troops surrounding such a scene, Rage, the Evil God of Wrath, glared at the Empire soldiers with an annoyed expression.

“The big guy the other day and that lady man, you Empire army are really pissing me off. You all should be burned to ashes.”

“Th-this is the… fire wizard of the Kingdom army…AAGH”

The Empire soldier who let out this comment was transformed into a human torch by a single glance from Rage.

He rolled on the ground, screaming and trying to extinguish the flames, but the flames, which never went out, engulfed his entire body and turned him into a black, hard object.

“Who’s a magician, who? Don’t you dare lump me together with them.”

“Y-you are a member of the Kingdom army, aren’t you?! Do you know how many of your allies were involved in that single blow earlier?! And you’re still…”

“Shut up.”

Apparently, Rage had burned down not only the Empire soldiers but also the soldiers of the Kingdom army when she appeared at this place. A Kingdom soldier tried to criticize her for this, but he, too, was forced to suffer the same fate as the Empire soldier earlier under the glare of Rage.

“My job is to burn down anything that gets in my way. If it is the Empire army, I will pursue it. If it’s the Kingdom army, I don’t pursue it. If you don’t want to get involved and die, get the hell out of my sight!”

Under the threat of a girl who looked considerably younger than them, the faces of the Kingdom soldiers drained of colour, as they began to retreat in a hurry.

As the Empire army moved to pursue them, Rage blocked their way.

“Don’t give me more work!”

A crimson wall stood in the way of the Empire troops, which was about to advance with weapons at the ready. A single swing of Rage’s arm sent the flames rushing toward them like a tsunami, swallowing dozens of soldiers in one fell swoop.

The smell of burning flesh and the screams of burning soldiers immediately filled the area, but Rage simply sniffed in a bored manner. The Empire soldiers who had not been swallowed by the tsunami of flames attempted to fight back.

“Don’t get too close! Attack from afar!”

“Ordinary bows and arrows won’t work! Bring the crossbow!”

Since wooden weapons would be burned quickly, the soldiers immediately chose to attack Rage with crossbow bolts made of steel.

Crossbows were immediately loaded, and several soldiers aimed at Rage from a kneeling position.

“You seem to be using your head a little, but don’t be a bore.”

Rage, on the other hand, did not even move from her spot. She just stared at the soldiers with crossbows at the ready as if she was looking at something terribly boring.

“Don’t pay attention to that! Shoot her down!”

Under the order, several bolts were released from the crossbows.

All of them were on a deadly trajectory towards Rage’s small body, and even though the Empire troops did not think that they would be able to kill her by themselves, they were sure that she would not be unscathed.

However, before the bolts could come close to Rage’s body, their trajectories were unnaturally bent, and they flew away without even grazing her.

“What happened? Magic?”

“With so many flames burning and the air swirling, maybe projectile weapons can’t properly hit their target.”

The spurts of flame ran towards the feet of the Empire soldiers, who were still in a kneeling posture, to engulf their bodies. They fell down in a heap and rolled around, trying to extinguish the flames that had caught on their bodies. Rage sent more flames to finish them off.

The Empire troops still tried to attack Rage despite the devastation they had just witnessed, and she smiled evilly at them.

“You seem to have a lot of guts, don’t you? If you’re going to go along with me to relieve my frustration, then let’s burn you all to ashes!”

Her vicious words, unimaginable from her appearance, caused tension in the Empire army.

As they stopped moving as if they had frozen, and just as Rage was about to step forward with a smile on her face, two knives flew out of nowhere, aiming for the side of her head, catching her by surprise.

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