When Loren asked the red headed man in a not-so-friendly voice, the man flinched, but managed to answer him in a clear voice.
âWhatâs so bad about me taking a job for my alma mater?â
In front of Loren, who was surprised at how small the world was, sat Klaus, who he had worked together with on his last job.
Since copper ranks like him and Lapis was able to go on the same question as iron ranks like Klaus and his party, it meant that the quest had no rank limitations.
Sitting next to Klaus was the magician named Ange, the knight named Layla, and the priestess named Roll.
After Loren and Lapis had decided to take the job at the adventurer training school, Lapis had gone and registered them and prepared. The next day, when they boarded the carriage that the guild provided, they met Klaus and his party inside.
âWerenât you hospitalized?â
âI was. Since that priestess of yours treated me like a dog.â
Even though Klaus put it like that, all Lapis did was smile, and didnât react to it.
âIt was just mental damage and bruises from being whipped so I was able to get out after they healed. We decided on this job since we agreed on taking a simple job after what happened during the last one.â
âSo, what youâre saying is that this job is easy?â
âIf nothing happens, yeah. All you need to do is follow the students. Easy, right?â
Something about Klausâ words nagged at him, but it did sound like an easy job.
In any case, Lorenâs goal wasnât to follow the students and earn money, but it was to go inside the dungeon and search for Lapisâ body part, which meant he had to think of ways to either do so without them noticing, or luring them towards where he wanted to go, making his job far from being easy.
âMost of the students who take this exam are pretty capable. The only monsters you meet in the early floors are low rank ones like goblins and cobolts. Itâs more difficult for a problem to happen than them failing the exam.â
âYou shouldnât underestimate goblins. You should be wary of them.â
Klaus stirred slightly at Lorenâs quiet mutter.
Goblins were monsters that even villagers who were slightly strong could defeat, and it wasnât clear what to be wary about.
But he felt the weight of Lorenâs words, and knew he couldnât ignore them.
âThis is an honest warning. Remember it.â
âI-I see. Iâll keep that in mind.â
For a second, Klaus thought Loren was joking, but judging from his voice and expression, he understood that Loren was indeed giving him a warning and decided to receive it honestly.
âAnyways, one of yours has been glancing at me the whole time. Does she want something from me?â
Loren had noticed the gaze of Ange moving between him and outside the carriage ever since the conversation between him and Klaus started.
Ange seemed to think that she hadnât been noticed, but to Loren, it was so obvious, he wondered if she really thought he hadnât noticed. Getting looks wasnât the most comfortable, so he decided to ask.
âOh, AngeâŠcome on, Ange.â
âWellâŠI heard that you were the one who saved me during the last job.â
When they were moving together during the last quest, an attack from a bone dragon had left Ange with critical injuries.
During that attack, Loren had saved her from the dragonâs jaws.
Ange had learned this not long ago from the rest of her party and had been stealing glances at Loren because of that.
âI guess something like that mightâve happened.â
âPlease let me thank you, Loren. If you didnât save me there, I wouldâve died back there.â
âSorry about taking away your boyfriendâs highlight there. Heâll definitely save you next time.â
Loren didnât say that out of sarcasm, but because he realized during the last quest that Klaus had feelings for Ange, and the next time the situation occurred, Klaus would do so.
âYes, Iâll look forward to that.â
âSomething like that not happening again is the best, though.â
Although a hero arriving in the moment of need sounded good, Loren believed that not getting into such situation in the first place was important.
âAnge, Iâll try my best to meet your expectations.â
âKlausâŠâ
Loren looked away as they locked hands and stared into each otherâs eyes.
The carriage that the guild had readied wasnât that large, and the only parties that accepted the quest was Lorenâs and Klausâ, so they were the only ones in there.
And currently there was a pair of a young man and a young woman looking at each other, holding hands, and whispering sweet things to each other.
It couldnât be helped that Loren felt uncomfortable, so he looked around the carriage, holding back the urge to jump out, and saw Layla and Roll in bad moods, glaring at the two, who were in their own little world. Meanwhile Lapisâ empty eyes wandered all over the place, with a face like she had reached enlightenment.
Loren wished they would hurry up and arrive at their destination, but physical distance wasnât something that would grow shorter by wishing or praying for it to do so.
From the description given when they left Kauffa, even though they left early in the morning, they wouldnât reach the city which the Volf Adventurer Training School was located until in the evening.
Loren concluded that he should just go to sleep.
Someone in his former mercenary group had said, most things pa.s.s while youâre asleep, and when he heard those words, he thought that it was just the words of a lazy person, but in his current situation, those words seemed like gold to him.
âLapis, Iâm going to go to sleep. Wake me up later.â
âOkay, Loren. Sweet dreams.â
Loren faced out the window and closed his eyes and waited for sleep to take him, listening to Lapisâ, who sounded like she was keeping something bottled up in order to make herself sound calm.
How much time had pa.s.sed since then?
Loren woke up to a light shaking.
He shook his head to get the rest of the sleep out and raised his body from leaning against the wall of the carriage and then realized that Lapis was shaking his shoulder.
âThe driver says that weâll arrive at the city soon.â
âI see. Thanks for waking me.â
âNo problem.â
When Loren looked away from Lapis and into the carriage, Loren was surprised at the sight before his eyes.
Klaus and the girls, who had been sitting in front of him, were all fast asleep, snoring with their mouths wide open.
He wouldnât have thought much of it if it was just one or two of them, but seeing that it was all four of them, Loren couldnât help but feel there was something artificial about it and glared at Lapis.
âWhat did you do?â
âThey built out such a pink atmosphere, I used > without thinking.â
Loren realized he made a mistake.
Because he had escaped into sleep first, there was no one to stop Lapisâ acts.
If Loren was awake, he couldâve stopped Lapis from using magic, but with extreme stress piling up and no one to stop her, she had taken hard measures.
âDonât you think this is a bit too rough?â
âItâs okay. I used the spell secretly, so they shouldnât remember it.â
Although Lapis said it with confidence, Loren couldnât fully trust her.
A priestess being able to use magic was already abnormal, but to use that magic on people that werenât even enemies was, thinking from common sense, wasnât something tolerable.
While Loren worried that if one of them somehow noticed, it could bring about a critical result, Shayna made a large circle with her arms.
âItâs okay, Onii-san. The red-headed person and the others fell asleep without noticing anything.â
When he asked her how she knew, after he went to sleep, she apparently pulled her astral body away from his and examined what was happening outside, and that was when Lapis used her spell against Klaus.
âI only went out for a bit, so Lapis didnât see me.â
He wasnât sure if Lapis could see Shayna in her astral form, but it was easier to set up measures if he a.s.sumed that she could.
Shayna nodded solemnly when he thought they could never be too careful.
âIs something wrong, Loren?â
âItâs nothing. Just getting a slight headache from this situation.â
âI see, take care. Anyways, thatâs our destination.
A long time had pa.s.sed during his sleep, with the sunâs rays slowly turning redder and redder, and from the window, Loren could see a large city in the distance.
Kauffa was quite the size when you looked at it from the outside, but this city was even larger, and Lapis told him that it was called Montelgal, and that it was a trading city.
It wasnât that it had a local specialty or anything of the sort, but the resources and tools the adventurer training school distributed to the stores was what stimulated business across the city.
âOn top of that, children of aristocrats who enroll in the school as well as their relatives come and go frequently, so merchants who target them gather as well, so thereâs a lot of activity.â
âNot a kind of place Iâm familiar with.â
It was common for normal residents to distance themselves from mercenaries.
It couldnât be helped, because it was a job that made a living off a detestable action called war.
The mercenary group Loren was in was quite disciplined compared to most, but they werenât everyone, and sometimes there were people who didnât look any different from bandits.
That was why they werenât welcome in lively places with normal people, so they naturally grouped with their own.
Lapis took a sharp breath as she guessed those situations from Lorenâs casual remark, but immediately replied.
âYouâre an adventurer now, so now itâll become a place that youâll be familiar with.â
âCould be.â
âOf course, it will. Oh, when we arrive, weâre going to go straight to the adventurerâs guild, so getting a room will be after that.â
She knew how tired both were, so Loren asked her.
âIt canât wait until after we get rooms?â
âSince itâs already this late, if we go to the inn first, the reception will close. We need to report that we arrived safely, and that we are the ones who accepted the job.â
âWould there still be rooms left?â
Loren guessed that since it was a lively city, rooms would be quick to fill up.
When he was a mercenary, it was common for them to race for rooms at inns that accepted mercenaries, and those who lost had to camp outside the city.
âIt should be fine, but in the worst case, we can get the guild to show us alternatives. Itâs a guild in a large city like this, so they should have a few places.â
âShouldnât we wake Klaus and the girls?â
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They were on the same quest as them.
It hadnât been long since they met, but Loren believed that Klaus the girls werenât bad people and didnât want them to oversleep.
âLetâs wake them up when we get a bit closer. If they start playing up again, my killing intent will start surging up again.â
âAgreed.â
Loren agreed to Lapisâ excuse, knowing that they didnât mean harm, but it wasnât tolerable for those who were watching, either.