Volume One-Chapter 04: Recovering from the shock
The premonition that Loren felt earlier turned out into reality. Though not exactly in the night-watch.
Parking the carriage in the edge of the path, tying the horse near the tents and finishing the simple dinner they made from the provisions, everyone entered his own tent except for Loren who was taking watch as he sat alone near a bonfire. After a few moments of silence, an odd voice leaking from one of the tents reached his ears. At first, his expression froze and he couldn't believe what he just heard.
That voice came out from the tent where Safy is supposed to be sleeping.
Two different, obscene female voices reached out from the thin fabric of the tent that was shaking on its own.
Loren wasn't the type who find it interesting to eavesdrop on someone else's business, but he could easily imagine what could be going on inside that tent.
"C'mon now, you’re in a plain field…"
Not having the boldness to go face them directly, all that Loren could do was to remain guarding as he sat near the fire trying to believe the situation.
When he thought about it, he realized how difficult it will be to go ask him to change shifts.
Loren couldn't deny the possibility of them continuing until morning, but what was even confusing was the fact that they chose a camping place with no water source around.
Nobody in his complete mental health would choose such a place to do something indecent in the middle of the night. That was Loren's opinion before considering the chance of them using their valuable water provision. The situation became gradually harder to believe.
If he can wait until the next day, then the scent could go away more or less, however it will obviously be remaining at the time of changing shifts. Of course, Loren doesn't want to approach such a stinking tent.
"Couldn't he endure it a bit longer…"
The worst thing was that he heard two female voices and not just one, which meant that two of the girls in Safy's party are in that kind of relationship with him. Though despite knowing that the voices were different, he couldn't distinct which voice belongs to who.
Being sure and certain that the thief girl was among them, Loren made his resolve to stay awake the whole night while chasing away drowsiness by doing something stupid like guessing who the other girl could be.
In fact, it became impossible for him to sleep at this point even if he doesn't do anything. After all, he knew well that nobody was guarding with him like the old days when he worked under the mercenary group. Especially now, that he had excluded Safy and the girls from the guard duty.
Their relation was originally too short and only business related.
As it was his first time spending a night guarding alone, his mind couldn't settle down.
A bitter smile reached Loren's face after recalling his last night.
He spent it inside a large room of a cheap inn with a crowd of unknown people, repeating the tiresome process of waking up and closing back his eyes, without getting the least bit of sound sleep. As a consequence, he arrived at the meeting point earlier than the others and didn't get an opportunity to take back his vitality.
Loren threw a small dead branch into the bonfire as he thought about his health.
Lack of sleep and a decline of stamina.
These two symptoms are bound to disrupt his judgment and agility in the future.
It didn't reach a critical point, however his body demanded rest in order to function normally.
But he couldn't bring himself to relax.
Sitting alone with the bonfire in front of him, Loren found himself thinking about the only thing he avoided until now. That is his comrades the whereabout and being after losing contact of them in the last war.
Maybe they will meet one day if they were still alive.
The last war that was the reason in destroying his mercenary group was so cruel to the point where he couldn't get himself to believe in such a small ray of hope.
"Well, I can still hope that someone survived just like I did……"
"What could be the matter?"
Loren uttered those few words thinking that nobody was going to hear him, then got astonishing from hearing a reacting voice and placed his hand on his large sword in a half raised position.
"Did I startle you? I apologize, I wasn't intending to do that."
The person who panicked and waved their hands in a hurry was Lapis who should be sleeping in her tent. She was wearing her priest clothes neatly and seemed sorry for surprising him.
Realizing it wasn't an enemy, Loren stopped his hand that was about to lift the sword and instead returned a dubious look to Lapis who approached at this time of night without calling.
"Actually umm… I couldn't sleep because of that…"
Lapis seemed to be reculent in explaining the reason behind her leaving the tent to Loren, who remained silent waiting for her to speak.
Judging from that embarrassed attitude, Loren immediately came to a reasonable conclusion and let out his guard.
In other words, he realized that Lapis wasn't taking part in what's going on inside Sasy's tent.
While Safy's tent was made from a material that's somehow able to protect the inside from cold, it was still far too lacking when it comes to stopping the sounds from leaking outside.
She could have been able to wake up until morning if she slept before they started their business, but unfortunately, Lapis seems to have gotten aware of the matter.
After all, even if she was a priest, she is still able to at least tell that much after hearing the sound coming from the other tent. Naturally, it will become extremely difficult to fall asleep while continuously hearing those obscene voices.
"Um, I can't go back to sleep now… and…"
"Yeah, I understand what you mean. Must be tough for you."
With an exhausted tone, Loren answered Lapis who then replied with an awkward smile and sat next to him for no reason.
"Um… Is it okay if I stay here until things settle out?"
Thinking that's it hard to refuse now that she already sat before asking, Loren silently nodded.
After all, there was no other place where she could sit around the bonfire except next to him.
It was totally convenient for Loren to have someone sitting next to him since he could avoid falling asleep, not to mention, it wouldn't be in his favor to lose sight of her if he refused, as he would be forced to take responsibility in case anything happened.
"Are they always like that? Working as an adventurer makes it hard to ensure staying alive the next day, so it's kinda understandable if things stream in that direction, but still…"
"No they're not like that… or that's what I'd like to say. Actually, it happens very often. To the point where it's no longer a joke to depict them as healthy."
Loren wasn't expecting that Lapis would answer him like that.
As a mercenary soldier, he never had a chance of personally speaking to a priest.
There's a world worth of difference between a mercenary who takes away lives in a war and a priest who serves a god. The only image he had of a priest was a nagging, annoying old man who gets hired by the mercenary group with a tremendous amount of money, only when they are facing a critical situation in a war.
However, the girl who sitting next to Loren and speaking sarcastically about her party members was way too far from the image he had in mind. Loren was surprised to know that people like her could be priests as well.
"I'd be wishing for the impossible if I asked them to choose the correct place and time. Well, most of the gods order their people to reproduce, so I guess we can see it that way too."
"Speaking of gods, how much of them is there? What kind of god are you serving again?"
People who ask too much are often hated among mercenary soldiers as most people who chose such a business to have at least one or two stories in their past they don't want others to know about. Loren asked Lapis while being fully aware of that fact.
It was generally hard to judge how far it is fine to ask someone about their personal information. Loren had heard enough stories in his life about the grave situations which occur when someone pries too much into a mercenary's personal information.
Though, the night is still too long to not ask about anything and besides, Loren thought that it would be alright to ask Lapis, who seemed to be friendly and talkative, that much.
Surprisingly enough, Lapis didn't seem to mind spending the night chattering as well and answered Loren's question immediately.
"I serve the god of knowledge, Kuukle. Also, when speaking about gods, you should say how many and not how much. I'm the type who doesn't mind either way, but there are some priests get exceedingly offended. I'd recommend you to be careful."
"Thanks for the warning. I mean, I was a mercenary soldier only recently, I'm pretty bad at learning."
"I almost forgot about that. Why did you choose to become an adventurer then?"
A light frown appeared on Loren's face upon hearing her Lapis' question, but it would be unfair if he didn't answer now that he already asked a few questions. Leaving some moments of silence hesitating, Loren finally replied with a short answer.
"The mercenary group I worked for does no longer exist."
"Well… I apologize for asking about it."
"No, it's fine. It's something that happens often."
There's almost no mercenary groups that could be depicted as invincible. Most of them maintain their existence by repeating the loop of losing, receiving damage and losing men or winning and injuring the other party. Though sometimes, they happen to receive irreparable damage which lead to their lapse. In Loren's case, it seemed like the group he worked for had reached an unlucky outcome. The fact of mercenary groups getting destroyed itself wasn't something of unusual.
"I could've just joined another group after what happened, but I found myself broke once I arrived in the town and choose to make use of my physical strength to earn some money."
"I see…Loren-san was it. You look strong indeed."
Lapis's sight was directed to Loren's large sword.
Property of © Fantasy-Books.live; outside of it, it is stolen.It was an extremely crude looking sword that Loren used for a very long time.
It didn't have the least bit of ornaments and was long enough to reach until his chest. Its grip that was made for holding its huge blade with both hands was wrapped with a piece of clothes.
It was extremely heavy to the point where it took Loren a few years of training to be able to use without constraints.
"I think that blade is as thick as my waist."
Did she mean that the blade is thick or was she bragging about her waist being thin? Loren couldn't ascertain which one of them she was implying so he thought about comparing them and lightly lifted his sword using only his left hand.
Lapis widened her eyes from astonishment after witnessing him holding such a heavy and crude sword with a single hand and without seeming that concerned.
"You can hold with one hand… that's amazing."
"It's made to be held with both hands, but I'm familiarized with using it with only one. I'm trained to wield it with both hands."
Talking about his sword, Loren stood up and thrust the blade into the ground.
"Want to compare?"
"Let's see."
He suggested it as a joke, but Lapis who didn't have much to do to at that time easily accepted and stood up. She then turned her back and pushed against the blade of the sword while looking at the same direction as Loren.
"What do you think? My waist is thinner, right?"
Getting pressed for an answer, Loren moved his sight from the blade to Lapis' waist.
Apparently, there wasn't any part of her waist visible outside of the blade's width., which means that like she said, her wrist is thinner than the blade's.
However, when Loren moved his eyes slightly lower, he noticed a part of her body coming out from the edge of the blade. Of course, he couldn't appraise it as fat since it was something natural for girls her age.
"W-What do you think? Um, I'm thin… right? Eh, don't tell me, I'm not……"
Lapis started losing her composure when Loren kept quiet.
It was probably because she interpreted his silence as a sign of kindness and refrain from telling her the truth, thus she couldn't remain calm.
"Yeah, you're thinner. My sword is definitely thicker than you."
"Is that so. Of course it is. Yes, there's no way I'd be that fat."
Your butt is not, though.
Holding back the urge of making such a comment, Loren remained to gaze at Lapis who talked with a relieved tone while trying to sound as if she was expecting the result and puffing her chest.