Edited by Pantherocker
Volume One – Chapter 03: Departing and getting shocked
The next day, Loren showed up at the eastern gate dragging his large sword, a cloth bag full of the equipment and food he bought and wearing his worn-out leather armor.
He was pretty lightly equipped for someone departing on a long journey, but he already had thrown away all of his luggage back at the battlefield and he did not have enough to buy everything from the start.
It seemed like he had come a bit too early since no other members of the party had arrived yet.
Feeling bored, Loren decided to spend some time chatting with the soldiers guarding the gate.
At that time, he learned for the first time that the name of the town he was lodging at was Kaffa.
Loren did not have the least idea about the situation of the town.
Knowing that it was a town in the country was enough for him, who used to work as a free mercenary. He had no time or means to obtain information about a town he found himself in after escaping with his life from the war.
"Although I wouldn't say it beats the capital, this is a great town. The food tastes good and the people are nice. That's my hometown for you!"
The young soldiers talked about their feelings towards their hometown, but Loren did not even understand how it felt to have a home in the first place.
He was a part of a mercenary group as far back as he could remember and had spent his life like a bird, moving from place to place and following the battlefield.
For he who had never settled in a place long enough to call it home, he felt some kind of envy towards the young soldiers who cheerfully talked to him about how good a town Kaffa was.
The only way for him to reside in one place was to stop being a mercenary soldier and find a means to make a living there.
Concerning resigning as a mercenary, once a group got annihilated, the soldier would naturally stop being a mercenary as long as he did not find a new group to join. But the real problems would come from trying to find a new way to make a living.
When Loren began considering the option of continuing to work as an adventurer and settle in Kaffa, Safy and his girls finally appeared.
All of them were carrying stuffed bags on their backs which were nothing to be compared to Loren's light, single bag.
"Are those your friends?"
The voice of the soldier who was speaking cheerfully just now blended with an unpleasant tone.
At first he thought that maybe they have something against adventurers in general, however they did not treat him in an odd way earlier. Thinking that he may not look like an adventurer, Loren replied to the soldier.
"More like business partners, I guess."
"Is that so. Well, I don't mean any offense, but you'd better cut your ties with them as soon as possible. This is just my personal opinion. A guy who picks only girls in his party can never be a good guy."
Is that not just your jealousy and prejudice rather than opinion? That was what Loren had in mind after hearing out the soldier, though he wasn't stupid enough to verbally point that out to him.
Replying with a mere shrug and a bitter smile, Loren lightly waved his hand to the soldiers and joined the party of Safy who was leisurely walking through the town, dragging his three women behind him.
"Did you wait long?"
Loren shook his head.
The specification of the time as in the morning had been vague in the first place, not to mention that he got some useful information about the town in his free time, so he could not bring himself to complain about them being late.
"Well, everyone is here. Let's go. It's too much of a hassle to go walking so let's look for a carriage we can ride."
The other members did not object to his suggestion, but Loren halted at that moment.
He thought that they would travel on foot since he had heard him talking about a distance of three days' walk yesterday.
If they were going to use a carriage, then that meant they would have to pay for it.
After spending most of his remaining money on equipment and food and spending the last night in the cheaper inn of the town, his wallet was not in the situation to pay for a ride in a carriage.
Of course, there was no way that he could walk the same speed as the carriage, which left him with two options. The first was to borrow money while the second was to run fast enough as to not fall behind them. Right when Loren made up his mind to run, he felt something hard touching his hands.
Surprised by the sensation of the coins, Loren turned back to find the black haired priest girl placing a finger over her lips while raising her eyes and looking at him.
He turned again to see the other team members who went to look for a carriage, but they didn't seem to notice him and Lapis.
"You're in a pinch, aren't you?"
Loren didn't know how to answer the smiling Lapis until she continued speaking.
"I can lend you ten copper coins. They should be enough to pay for a round trip from here to Ain, so please make use of them."
Recalling that the village name was Ain, Loren gazed at the few copper coins in his hand and turned a dubious eye towards Lapis who then let out her tongue.
"I'm just lending it to you. No need to hold back."
It was extremely relieving for Loren to be able to walk around without having to speak out the fact that he was broke. However, the conduct of lending and returning money between mercenary soldiers was fairly rare.
Nobody there would lend his money to someone without a real identity, so it was often avoided as it brought only unnecessary disputes. When Loren started to realize that things were different with adventurers, Lapis continued.
"If you owe me for lending you money, I can get you to save me if something was to happen one day. You can see it as a prior investment if you want."
Even for Loren, who could not grasp the reason behind her lending him money, it was easy for him to agree to such a pretext.
Thinking that it would be better to receive them gratefully instead of prying too much, Loren slipped the hand holding the coins into his pocket and lowered his head to Lapis as a sign of thanks.
When Lapis replied with a gentle smile, Safy's voice called out from a distant place as if he had waited for the correct timing after the two of them separated.
"We found a carriage. He said he will give us a ride to Ain for five copper coins."
It was exactly half the amount of the money he had borrowed.
Feeling relieved that he would not be forced to shame himself, Loren took out five coins from his pocket and walked towards Safy who beckoned him.
"Ah thank you. It would be stupid to waste time and energy by walking and all."
The driver was a villager of Ain who came to Kaffa to buy goods and materials.
He was a middle-aged man who carried crops and fur to the town and bought the necessary materials and provisions they needed in the village. Since he was able to exchange the mountain of baggage he brought with him into a small pile of valuable goods, there was enough space for the five party members to ride in the carriage in exchange for some pocket money to the villager.
"You are the adventurers who will exterminate the goblins attacking our village, aren't you? In that case, I gotta lead you there as soon as possible."
How about you make a discount in that case? Thought Loren for a second, but looking at Safy and the others who did not show any intentions to bargain with a peasant, he judged that it would be better to keep quiet instead of trying to bargain on his own.
The speed of the carriage was indeed faster than walking, but the horse that was pulling it was a labor-focused farm horse. Its speed was not suited for transporting.
Still, its speed was two-times faster than that of going on foot, making it possible for them to reach the village in a day and a half according to Safy.
It was tough to spend all that time swinging around inside a carriage, but for Loren, who had been through countless similar experiences, it was not even something to complain about.
He pondered about the possibility of reaching a mutual understanding with the other members through conversation, but due to Naron and Oxy's persistent concerns about Safy, he could not find the tiniest chance to join in the talk.
The last member, Lapis, was closing her eyes and sleeping as she was jolted by the carriage and the villager seemed to be concentrating on handling the horse so it did not seem right for Loren to be troublesome and talk to him. All that was left for him to do was hold his knees, press his forehead against them and close his eyes to wait for the uncomfortable time to pass away as he sat inside the luggage.
At the time the carriage halted, the sun had already set and day was getting dark.
"Let's rest for the rest of the day here."
It was common sense to stop advancing the carriage once it got dark.
The highway was constantly protected from monsters and thieves by the country soldiers or adventurers. However, there was still a possibility for a carriage to get attacked on its way to or from the city.
That possibility got higher the darker the day got, leaving only those in critical situations, those who were strong enough to fight or idiots lacking knowledge advancing at night.
Apparently, the villager did not fit in any of those groups, though Loren thought for sure that they would spend the night at an inn.
This implied that they would be making camp, which was convenient for he who did not have enough money to pay for a lodging.
He still had the five copper coins he got from Lapis. However, such an amount would not even allow him to rent a place to sleep in a stable, let alone a decent room. Needless to say, he would lose his only way of going back.
Property of © Fantasy-Books.live; outside of it, it is stolen.If that was to happen, he would have to borrow money from someone again and camping was a hundred times better than doing so.
"Ah~ I'm tired. My butt hurts."
"Stop complaining and help set the camp before it gets completely dark."
Naron and Oxy got off the carriage as they impulsively argued in loud voices. Safy and the villager watched over them with awkward smiles.
There was no forest or ruins where a monster or thieves could hide in their surroundings. Only a wide plain. Despite that fact, Loren was observing the situation in their environment with a frown. Raising their voices in a place without knowing what it was hiding could attract the attention of something outrageous. To top it off, they were in the middle of a wide plain with nowhere to cover themselves. It would be easy for them to be noticed from a long distance off.
Loren preferred if they had chosen a place that was more or less caved in the ground, though he could not ensure that they would find such a location as he did not have much knowledge about the terrain.
With a gloomy mood, he decided to keep silent and leave that matter for Safy and the villager, who were most likely more knowledgeable of the location while remaining as precautions as he could. The person who gave him the finishing blow was Safy.
"You and I will keep guard."
"You mean, we will stay on night watch?"
Including the villager, there were six people.
It would be difficult if they were to take shifts in couples, guarding throughout the night. Loren started to wonder why Safy would suggest keeping guard with only two people, however, Safy's reply stuck him even harder.
"Well, I know that we need to sleep too, so the both of us will take shifts guarding."
"You telling me you're putting only one person to keep guard?"
It was something unimaginable when Loren was still a mercenary.
For sure, the number of people widely differs from when he was part of a large group, but despite that, they would at least put two people on guard. The only few exceptions were when a soldier was alone or only two people, and even in such a condition, guarding alone tended to be avoided no matter what happened.
"Are you complaining or what? The leader says you will take guard so shut up and abide by his orders."
He was about to consult Safy of the dangers of guarding alone when Naron, who realized it, opened her mouth before him and rebuked him in a loud voice.
Oxy did not speak a word, but it was clear from her cold look that she was thinking the same thing as Naron.
Lapis was the only one who didn't seem to bother joining the conversation and scrubbed her eyes while yawning although she slept through the entire day inside the carriage.
Loren judged that it would be useless to try and convince them.
"I get it. You and me. Who will be first?"
"You please. I wanna sleep for now."
Is it fine for a leader to say something like that? Loren was about to ask him, but knowing that Safy had too many allies behind his back, he did not say anything and saved himself from wasting more energy.
"Got it. So I will wake you up in the middle of the night."
"Yeah, sure."
Getting a bad feeling from Safy's laid-back answer, he watched him lazily waving his hand and forcing an end to the conversation. Loren could not help but secretly let out a sigh.