Chapter 10: A Different Destination

“Still, don’t you think there’s something abnormal about this cave?”

After staying silent on Loren’s back for a while, Lapis suddenly spoke up.

Loren, who was running with the help of the magic light Lapis had conjured, looked at her with a face asking her what she was trying to say, while trying not to get his feet caught in holes in the ground.

“Loren, you’ve been running for quite a distance since we were attacked by goblins, but we haven’t reached the end of the tunnel yet.”

That was something Loren agreed with.

Even though he had someone on his back, he had run nonstop for a long time, and covered a long distance as well.

But the tunnel continued, not even changing shape.

They passed a few chambers filled with items that the goblins gathered, but they passed the last one a while ago, and the tunnel they were in just kept going.

“I though these goblins lived in a natural cave, but this is too unnatural. It’s definitely strange.”

“I agree. Who knows how long this is going to continue.”

After reaching the end, Loren planned on going back and searching the side tunnels, but it didn’t seem like the tunnel was going to end anytime soon.

If it were a natural cave, the tunnel would’ve gotten a lot narrower, but it continued on without changing size.

Although the floor and walls looked natural, Loren started doubting it and began to think that the cave was artificial.

“You want to head back?”

Loren started to get a sense of urgency going deeper and deeper down into the cave, but even if they were to head back, it meant going back to the place where they separated from Sarfe and the others.

He didn’t want to think about what was going on in there, but what he was certain that the goblins were concentrated there.

There was no way they could sneak past them, and it would mean that Loren would have to get through a horde of goblins with Lapis on his back.

“I hope there is an exit on the other side.”

“If there was, it would mean that Loren has tremendous luck.”

Loren had trouble deciding whether luck was on his side or not.

He was lucky that he managed to survive through all the battles in his mercenary days, without any lasting injuries.

But the group that he was a part of being destroyed was very unlucky for him, so he couldn’t decide.

“In any case, don’t expect much of it.”

“Mine isn’t that good either.”

For some reason Lapis joined in, and Loren turned to her with a puzzled look.

“Well, my parents took my arms and legs as well as my eyes when I came out of my country so.”

“Ah…that’s unfortunate.”

Loren was surprised that she had parents, but when he thought about it, it made sense. Of course, demon kind had parents. There was no way they grew from trees or anything like that.

But he had to agree that her own parents taking her limbs and eyes away was very unlucky, and started to think which of them had the worse luck.

“I became an adventurer, but my party were those kinds of people.”

“Okay, I got it. Looks like you’re way more unfortunate than I am.”

“They had a few screws loose when it came to thinking and paying attention, so it was easy for me to hide my identity, though.”

“Stop. You don’t have to say it.”

Under the onslaught that Lapis brought, Loren had no choice but to admit that she was unluckier than he was.

He thought that saying things like this without hesitation was why demon kind continued to have a bad reputation.

“On top of that, my parents hid my limbs and eyes somewhere in human territory. I can’t go home until I find them, as well as gain experience in the human world.”

“I’m not trying to compete.”

“But even if I find them, how would I put them back onto my body?”

“Go back home and ask your parents.”

Loren couldn’t understand what happened between her and her parents that it ended up with getting her limbs and eyes taken away and hidden.

He also couldn’t understand how she could describe it as just ‘unfortunate’.

“Um, Loren?”

While he was immersed in such thoughts, Lapis, the subject of those thoughts, brought Loren back to reality.

Loren was wary that maybe she had something even worse up her sleeve, but when he looked at her, he saw that she was pointing in front of him and faced the direction she was pointing.

After all this time with the tunnel continuing forever, Lapis saw some sort of light ahead of them.

“It’s not a dead end, is it?”

“If it was there wouldn’t be light shining.”

“But a light at the end? Does that mean there are more goblins there?”

“I can’t say for sure. I don’t sense any, though.”

Loren wasn’t sure how much he could depend on demon kind’s senses.

But they were known for their high strengths and capabilities, and Loren decided that their senses would be pretty accurate. He slowed down from a jog to taking light footsteps, taking care not to make any noise.

“Get rid of the light.”

Loren could see a bit, thanks to the light coming from the direction he was walking toward, and asked Lapis to extinguish the light she conjured using magic.

As soon as Loren asked, Lapis extinguished the light. It became dark again, but they could see their surroundings vaguely thanks to the light pouring in.

“You can’t stand on your own yet?”

“I’m sorry, I’m such a nuisance.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Lapis seemed embarrassed that she couldn’t move yet, but Loren had asked her without expecting much, so he wasn’t disappointed at all.

“I’m going to apologize ahead of time. I might have to shake you off if it’s an emergency.”

“It’s fine. I’m in the way when you reach for your weapon.”

In the narrow tunnel, Loren couldn’t use his weapon to its full potential.

But he didn’t have anything else to fight with, so he had no choice but to use his great sword in an emergency, and that would mean he had no choice but to shake Lapis off his back to draw it.

To Lapis, who couldn’t move any of her limbs, it would hurt quite a bit, so Loren decided to apologize to her now because he could see the possibility of it happening.

“It would be nice if I didn’t have to draw it, though.”

Loren continued to walk slowly toward the light shining through the cave.

Although it took a while, they managed to reach the light pouring out with no problems.

It was a dead end, but there was a crack in the wall, barely large enough to fit a child, and the light was pouring out from it.

After examining it for a while, Loren found out that it wasn’t connected to the outside and that it wasn’t large enough for him or Lapis to pass through.

“I could probably pass through if I crawled, but I can’t move my arms and legs well yet, and we don’t know what’s at the other end, so I don’t really want to go alone…”

Although Loren had useless thoughts, such as maybe her butt will get caught, but he agreed with many things she said, and decided against sending her ahead alone.

“I guess we’ll have to break the wall and widen the crack.”

Since there was no other way they could pass through, it was the only option they had.

Loren didn’t have any sort of tool with him to widen the crack, but he did have a great sword on his back.

He hoped that, since the crack was large, the wall around it would be somewhat weak and easily crumble. He set Lapis down against a wall in a sitting position and drew his great sword.

“It’s going to be a bit loud. Keep watch for anything that notices us.”

“You can count on me.”

After seeing Lapis nod, he held his sword upside down and struck the wall around the crack with the tip.

Since his sword didn’t have a proper blade, it was like striking the wall with a slab of metal, and slowly but surely the wall started to crumble.

Even the sturdiest weapon, if not used the way it was meant to be used, would be greatly damaged.

Loren decided that if he managed to get out of alive, he would have to take his sword to a smith or buy a new one. While he was working, he heard Lapis’ voice.

“It seems like it’ll take a while.”

Great swords weren’t meant to be used to dig holes.

And even though the wall was somewhat brittle, it was still completely made of rock, and it didn’t look like he was making much progress.

Lapis’ outlook was correct, and Loren kept on striking his sword on the wall, not wanting to waste any time replying.

To their luck, no monsters were attracted to them by all the noise he was making.

If some monster noticed them, Loren would have to fight it protecting Lapis at the same time, who couldn’t move well, so he wouldn’t be able to fight properly.

“I guess we’re lucky the wall isn’t that hard.”

The crack itself was fragile from the wind eroding it for many years, so Loren was able to make the crack bigger and bigger with the tip of his sword.

He continued for a while, thinking how easy it would be if he could swing the entire sword at the wall.

Eventually the crack became large enough for Loren to crawl through.

Loren hit the blade a few times to get the rubble off of it and strapped it onto his back.

“Now we can somehow get through.”

“Good work. Sorry to trouble you again, but it would help a lot if you could pull me across the wall.”

Although quite a long time had passed, Lapis’ limbs remained unmoving.

The crack wasn’t large enough to fit Loren with Lapis on his back, so the only way was to do as Lapis just said, for Loren to go in first and pull Lapis through.

“It’s going to take some work.”

“I apologize.”

“It’s fine. It’s too late to back out, anyway.”

Loren told Lapis, who was apologetic, not to worry about it, and got down on his knees in front of the crack, and proceeded to crawl out of the tunnel.

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