Chapter 4: Recovering from Shock

The premonition that Loren felt earlier soon became a reality.

It wasn’t exactly from the watch itself though.

After parking the carriage on the side of the road, tying up the horses, and eating dinner made from provisions, everyone went to their tents to rest except for Loren, who sat next to the fire keeping watch.

After a while, he started hearing voices leaking from one of the tents. He froze and it took him a second to comprehend what he was hearing.

The voices were coming from the tent that Sarfe was supposed to be sleeping in.

Two obscene female voices came out of the tent that was shaking on its own.

Loren wasn’t the type of person who enjoyed eavesdropping, but he was easily able to guess what was going on inside that tent.

“C’mon, you’re in the middle of a field…”

He didn’t have the stomach to go and say something, and all he could do is sit by the fire and tried to let the situation sink in.

At the same time, he realized how awkward it would be to go and ask to change shifts.

He couldn’t deny the possibility that they would go on until morning, but another thing on his mind was that there was no water nearby.

No one in their right mind would think about starting something indecent in this sort of place. The thought of them using up their precious water supply to clean up crossed his mind.

It was very likely that inside of Sarfe’s tent was going to be smelly and moist.

By morning the smell would mostly be gone, but it was going to remain at the time to change shifts. Loren didn’t want to stick his head into that tent.

“Couldn’t he have waited for a different time?”

Even worse, he could hear two female voices.

It meant that out of the three of the girls in Sarfe’s party, two of them were in that relationship with him.

Although he could make out two voices, he hadn’t spent enough time with them to know exactly who they were.

He was sure that the thief girl was one of them, and his drowsiness was kept away by thinking stupid thoughts like who the second girl was.

Loren looked down into the fire, thinking that it wasn’t all that bad.

If someone were to ask if he could sleep, he would answer that he probably couldn’t.

Back when he was a mercenary, there would always be someone else keeping watch with him.

Right now, there was no one.

Sarfe and the girls didn’t count.

He hadn’t spent enough time with them, and he was going to leave after finishing their current quest anyway.

His heart was restless at the fact that it was the first time ever that he spent time alone with no friends by his side.

He smiled bitterly as he recalled the night before.

He spent it in a large room of a cheap inn with strangers, but couldn’t get any deep, sound sleep. He repeatedly woke up until the sun started to rise.

It led to him to go to the meeting early without being able to get rid of his fatigue.

Loren threw a dry branch in the fire as he thought about his health.

Sleep deprivation and weakening stamina.

Both would eventually slow down his movements and decision making.

It wasn’t to a critical point, but it didn’t change the fact that Loren’s body required rest.

However, he couldn’t bring himself to rest.

He had been avoiding the thoughts of what happened to his comrades in the last battle, and a frown appeared on Loren’s face as the loneliness of keeping watch alone brought back those memories.

If they were alive, there was a chance to meet them again, but the battle was so gruesome that the possibility was very small.

“Well, I can still hope that someone made it out just like I did…”

“Is there anything wrong?”

Although he uttered those words out loud, he didn’t expect anyone to be near to hear them. Surprised, he stood up and reached for his sword.

“I apologize if I startled you, I didn’t mean to do that.”

The girl in front of him wearing the clothes of a priest, panicking and waving her hands in front of her was Lapis, who should’ve been sleeping in her tent.

Realizing that it was not an enemy, Loren stopped reaching for his weapon. But he didn’t expect one of the party members, who were supposed to be asleep, to speak to him and gave Lapis a quizzical look, wondering why she did.

“Well ummmm…the tent next to me…you know…”

Lapis guessed that Loren was silent because he wanted her to explain why she came out of her tent, and started explaining with an awkward tone.

As soon as Loren heard the first few words, he immediately understood what she was talking about and let down his guard.

In other words, it meant Lapis wasn’t taking part of what was happening inside that tent.

Although Sarfe’s tent was made with thick cloth that could keep out cold, it wasn’t enough to keep noise from seeping out of it.

Had she had slept until morning, she wouldn’t have known about this, but to her luck, she woke up in the middle of the night.

Although she was a priest that grew up in a secluded environment, she could easily guess what was going on inside that tent, and falling back to sleep listening to those voices was extremely difficult.

“Um, I can’t go back to sleep anymore…and-…”

“Yeah, I get what you mean. Unfortunate…”

Loren replied to Lapis with an exhausted tone and in return she gave him an awkward smile, then, for some reason, sat down next to him.

“Is it ok if I stay here with you until I get sleepy again…or…until they settle down?”

As she was already sitting down, Loren just nodded his head, unable to say no.

Since they were in the middle of a field, it wasn’t as if there were other places to settle down around them.

It was convenient for him to have someone else with him since it was a way to keep the drowsiness away, and if she were to go someplace else and something happened to her, it would be his responsibility for not keeping a good watch.

“Are they always like that? Being an adventurer isn’t the safest thing to do, and I understand that not being sure you’re going to survive the next day might take it to that direction, but still…”

“As much as I would like to say they aren’t, this happens quite often, actually. Would it be too sarcastic to say that I’m glad that they are healthy?”

Loren wasn’t expecting that kind of reply from Lapis.

As a mercenary, Loren never had the chance to have a personal conversation with a priest.

As one who killed and fought battles for a living, a priest who served god was in a completely different world. Loren’s image of a priest was an old man with a difficult expression, who you had to pay an enormous amount of money to hire.

The priest girl next to him, who was sighing and spouting vulgar sarcasm, was way different than what Loren expected, and was surprised that priests like her existed.

“Is it too much to ask them to choose the place and time to do those kinds of thing? Well, most gods’ teachings say to give birth and multiply, so in that perspective, I guess they aren’t doing the wrong thing though.”

“Speaking of gods, how much are there? What god are you serving again?”

Digging into personal matters was a hated by mercenaries.

Mercenaries all have a memory or two that they don’t want others to know about, which is why Loren was careful not to do so.

But it was still a long way from sunrise, and he got the feeling that Lapis, who seemed to be friendly and talkative, wouldn’t mind him asking. Plus, it seemed that Lapis didn’t want the conversation to stop either.

“I serve Kuhklu, the god of knowledge. Also, you should count gods by saying ‘how many’, not ‘how much’. I don’t mind it, but some priests are picky about it so you should be careful.”

“Thanks for the heads up. I’ve been a mercenary my whole life so I don’t know a lot about these kinds of things.”

“I forgot about that. Why did you choose to become an adventurer?”

A small frown appeared on Loren’s face, but he felt that it would be unfair of him to not answer her question when she had answered his. After a brief silence, Loren finally replied.

“The group I was with doesn’t exist anymore.”

“Oh…I’m sorry for asking about it.”

“It’s fine. It’s something that happens all the time.”

Although there are quite a few groups that claim they’re invincible, most of them don’t live up to that expectation.

Most mercenary groups have victories and losses, give and receive casualties, and expand or decrease in numbers.

But sometimes an unlucky group would suffer a large casualty that it can’t recover from.

That time it was just that it was Loren’s group that ended up with the short end of the stick.

“I wish I could’ve found a different group to join, but I was pretty much broke arriving in the city, and strength was pretty much the only thing I had to work with to earn money.”

“I see…Loren, was it? You do look pretty strong.”

Lapis’ gaze fell on the great sword next to Loren.

It was an extremely rugged sword that Loren had been using for a very long time.

It didn’t have any sort of decoration or ornament on it and its huge blade was long enough to reach Loren’s chest. The grip was built for holding the sword with two hands and had a cloth wrapped around it, and was very heavy, as its appearance suggested.

It took Loren a few years to be able to wield it to his satisfaction, and with continuous repairing and reforging, he had used it until now.

“Isn’t the blade as thick as my waist?”

Loren wasn’t sure if she was implying that the blade was thick or that her waist was thin, so he raised the sword with his left hand to compare them.

The materials used to make the sword, blade, grip and all, was pure metal.

Lapis’ eyes widened, seeing Loren lifting such a heavy object easily with one hand.

“You’re able to hold it with one hand…that’s incredible.”

“It’s made to be held with both hands, but I’ve trained with it enough to be able to use it with either hand.”

Loren stood up and thrust the sword into the ground.

“Want to compare?”

“Okay, let’s see.”

Loren meant it as a joke, but Lapis, who didn’t have much else to do, stood up and pressed her back against the blade.

“What do you think? My waist is thinner, right?”

Loren looked at the blade, then at Lapis’ waist.

There wasn’t any part of her waist that was visible past the blade’s width.

It meant that like she said, Lapis’ waist was indeed thinner that the blade.

When he turned his gaze slightly lower, he saw that her butt was peeking out of the edge. But he couldn’t say that it was fat, because it was natural for girls her age.

‘W…What do you think? I…I’m thin, right? Uh, a…am I not?”

Loren’s lack of an answer started to cause Lapis to panic.

She must have interpreted Loren’s silence as a sign of kindness, and started to feel uneasy.

“Yeah, you’re thin. My sword is way thicker.”

“Y…yes, of course. There’s no way I wouldn’t be.”

Your butt isn’t, though.

Although the thought occurred in his mind, he refrained from saying it out loud. Meanwhile Lapis puffed out her chest and went on with a relieved tone, trying to sound like she wasn’t worried at all.

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