Ch. 69: Recommending After Listening
"You have some time to tell us about it?"
Al cocked his head at Loren's question.
"I’m not sure. I haven't achieved my goal yet, and…"
Al’s gaze turned away from Loren.
Klaus was slowly inching towards Al, but he stopped as he turned towards him.
"The prodigy of our school is here as well, so wouldn't it be a disadvantage to me if I spend too much time talking?"
"Shouldn't you at least give us a reason why? We're supposed to be your proctors."
While saying that, Loren was wondering if he could close the gap between him and Al and cut him down before he could make a move.
But the answer to that thought was a no.
On top of Feim keeping them in check by dangling another scroll from her fingers, Ain and Cloud, who were hypnotized, were standing in a position where it was impossible for him or Klaus to make a move on Al.
"Even if we go back up, we can't say that we don't know anything."
"Do you really think you’re going to be able to return to the surface? Well, whatever."
Al sighed at Loren's words, but it didn't seem like he was going to do something against them without explaining anything.
"It's nothing much. Although I may be the second born of a noble household, don't you think that I won't be able to succeed even if I became an adventurer?"
"I think that would depend on your attitude.
Loren didn't think one had to be reborn to be successful as an adventurer.
Of course, he couldn't deny that talent would play a big part in it, but he couldn't agree to the idea that Al couldn't succeed because he was the second born of a noble house.
"It would've been different if I was talented like Klaus."
"I won't say that people think in different ways, so go on."
"Luckily, I had enough knowledge to become a priest, and was able to smuggle many different documents when I left my home."
When Al studied those documents, looking for information that could benefit him, he found one that had information on the Volf Adventurer Training School, which he was going to enroll in.
"How much do you know about Volf's achievements?"
"Just a little."
Loren forgot most of the things Klaus told him right after he arrived at the school.
It was mostly because he wasn't interested since it was all useless information to him, but as Al continued his explanation, he wished that he paid better attention.
"Volf achieved many things, but what piqued my interest was the story that he sealed an evil god and put it here."
"An evil god?"
Loren's brow furrowed at the shady word that popped up, but he had a vague feeling that Klaus had said something like that and tried to recall it.
"I think Klaus mentioned it along with slaying dragons and ancient ruins."
"You weren't listening to my explanations, were you…"
Klaus sighed, but Loren didn't feel the need to follow up, and prompted for Al to continue.
"I'm a priest of the Supreme god…But what if I were to revive an evil god and become its priest?"
"Ah?"
"It means that I could become that god's high priest."
Al declared proudly.
Loren looked away from Al, who was standing there pleased with himself, not sure how to respond, and turned towards Lapis and the others who were behind him, looking for help.
Loren understood up to thinking of a different method, since if Al continued to serve one of the most well-known gods, he would be one priest among many.
But reviving an evil god that no one worshipped and become its high priest seemed like a good and bad idea at the same time, so he didn't know what to do.
"Hey Lapis. Can you switch with me?"
"No way Loren. From that conversation, anyone could see that there's no use talking to him. Please don't push trouble towards me."
Lapis made a very unpleasant face, so Loren had to give up on leaving the situation in her hands.
Even Lapis, who was willing to hardships for knowledge, didn't seem to want to deal with Al at this point, and it was plain that she was going to let Loren finish out the deal.
"Ahh…I want to check, just in case."
Scratching his head, Loren shifted his gaze away from Al to Feim, who had a nervous looking smile on her face.
"Why are you over there?"
"I mean, I don't have talent as a magician. Even if I graduate and become an adventurer, I'll just end up with random adventurers who tell me what to do and work all day, you know? So, I thought maybe it would be worth to bet on Al, who's trying to make a name for himself right now."
"He's talking about an evil god…but you're not being threatened?"
"Hmm…But he said he'll give me money, and it seems that the evil god sealed in here isn't seen as an enemy by the other gods."
Feim said that if it was a powerful being that could be a threat to the other gods, there would be records or legends about it in every church.
But there was no church that told of such a being sealed under the training school.
"So, I thought that there wouldn't be a big deal."
"If the evil god isn't a big deal, there wouldn't be much good coming out of serving it."
"Oh, you might be right."
Loren and the others watched with bored expressions as Feim's response seemed like she had just realized it, while for some reason Al had a proud look on his face and informed Loren, who didn't want to deal with them anymore.
"We've already found its body."
"What?"
An evil god being sealed there was already a fishy story, so even if Al said that they found the body, you didn't have to be Loren to think that he was lying.
But Al confidently pulled out an item from the pocket of his robes.
It was a box about the size of his palm.
It had complex patterns on its surface, which had a metallic glint to it, and Al raised it above his head to show Loren and the others.
"This is the body of the evil god that Volf sealed."
"Looks pretty cheap."
The designs were indeed complex, but there weren't any ornaments or gold or silver colors on it either.
The box itself had a metallic glint, but Loren guessed that it was probably iron, not noble metal.
It looked like something that a local blacksmith could make after paying a few silver coins, but according to Al it was where the evil god was sealed.
Loren, wondering how serious Al was, decided that he should be cautious just in case, and brought his great sword under his arm.
"Assuming that the box is what he says it is…"
Lapis called out, as if she had realized something.
As Loren stood in front of her, hoping that she would just switch with him, she said something unbelievable.
"Isn't that the reason behind the dungeon not spawning normal monsters and being overrun by slimes?"
"As expected of a priestess of the Knowledge god. You're probably correct."
Loren had a feeling the expectations of priests of the Knowledge god just got higher, but that wasn't important.
Rather than that, what Lapis had said shocked everyone else.
"Lapis, what's that supposed to mean?"
"Slimes are creatures that appear when the mana in an area is too thick or disturbed, so if a being that's called an evil god is about to awaken, those things could happen, don't you think?"
"T-then the current dungeon is…"
Lapis nodded at Ange's words of panic.
"The so-called evil god inside that box that's about to revive is the cause. The appearance of all the slimes, as well as the dungeon malfunctioning is all because of that."
The dungeon was usually managed by the school, and the bottom floor was sealed off so no one could enter.
Then it was hard to believe that Al could've timed everything so perfectly in order to revive the evil god.
Klaus was about to point that out, but Lapis said the answer before the words came out of his mouth.
"It's probably coincidence."
"Huh?"
"It's coincidence. Well, if something like an evil god's guidance existed, you could say that it was meant to be."
"It was the guidance of the evil god."
"I guess it was meant to be then."
Al asserted, and Lapis acknowledged.
As the rest of them looked at them, not sure if they should be surprised or exasperated, Lapis continued her explanation.
"In other words, the future high priest over there plotting to revive the evil god, and the evil god was about to awaken, would typically be called coincidence, but could be called a necessity if you put the evil god's guidance into consideration."
"So, you're saying that they aren't related?"
As Loren asked for confirmation, Lapis nodded honestly.
"The evil god started to awaken when I started plotting to revive it. What else would you say other than it was meant to be!?"
Al seemed to want it to be a necessity, but to Loren and the others it was nothing but a bad coincidence.
But because of it, at least one of the students was dead, so they weren't going to let it pass as a joke, but when they considered if that was enough to kill Al and Feim, the answer was a no.
"What do we do?"
"Um…I think the correct thing to do would be capturing them and handing them over to the school."
Klaus answered Loren's question without confidence.
"Then let's get it over with."
"How can a bunch of adventurers possibly manage to capture me?"
As Loren stepped forward to apprehend Al, Ain and Cloud stepped in his way, brandishing their weapons.
Behind him was Feim, who was getting ready to throw another scroll, so they had to deal with these obstacles somehow to get to Al.
"If I could just awaken the evil god…"
Al was thinking that he had nothing to be afraid of if he could awaken the evil god while Ain and Cloud were keeping Loren and the others busy.
The only way they would know if that was correct or mistaken was if the seal was undone, but there was one thing that Al was mistaken about.
The documents that Al had taken did not mention anything about how to undo the seal, but since it was so loose that the mana from it was affecting the dungeon, he decided that it would be undone with a final push. As he prepared himself to feed his mana into it, two blunt sounds echoed across the floor.
As Al turned towards the sound, wondering what had happened, gulped as he saw Ain and Cloud, who he sent to keep Loren busy, spin around and fall to the ground.
Loren, who raised the tip of his great sword in front of Feim's nose as she was trying to activate her scroll, narrowed his eyes and said in a small but cold voice.
"Give up. Or I'll cut you to pieces."
Al thought that it was just an empty threat, but the killing intent behind Loren's words were real, and he could only watch with wide eyes, as Feim drop the scroll in her hand and sink to the ground, while forgetting to even breath.
As the box dropped from Al's strengthless hands and dropped to the floor with a sharp sound, Al dropped to the floor like Feim, not being able to stand the pressure behind Loren's words.
Hey guys Kaoto here.
So when the evil god was mentioned, at first I put it as devil, but it started sounding weird when they kept referencing gods.
I’m not certain, but my understanding is that devils would be a rank or a few ranks below gods, so it didn’t make much sense for me that gods might be afraid of devils.
Maybe I’m confusing them with demons, I’m not sure.
Let me know which you think is better, or if you have a better idea.
And I was so focused on this series the whole week and a half, I forgot to work on Hero of Black.
I should start working on some chapters.
I was also thinking about redesigning the website, or just making a new one under a different name.
But honestly, I’m too lazy and it seems like a lot of work…