Chapter 24 (1/2)

“Loren, you’re awake. I’m so glad.”

Loren woke up to Lapis peering into his face and something heavy pressing onto his stomach.

He raised his right hand and slapped it onto his forehead and pressed down.

He felt a soft bed under him and a clean blanket covering him.

The heaviness he was feeling was Lapis sitting on top of him, and when Lapis moved her face right up to his, he flicked her forehead quite hard.

“Ow!?”

“Don’t recklessly sit on top of a guy.”

Lapis leaned backwards, her hand on her forehead and tears in her eyes. She then gave

Loren look full of complaints and pointed around the room with her other hand.

“There’s nowhere to sit down other than here.”

Loren, still lying down, turn his head to look around.

It was an ordinary hospital room.

Other than his bed, there was a table and a shelf, but no chairs.

Strong sunlight and a gentle breeze was coming from the window, and the breeze was flapping the curtains on it slightly.

“A hospital…?”

Loren decided that he must be in a hospital, and Lapis nodded.

“Yes, this is a hospital. Do you want to hear what happened after you passed out?”

Loren nodded without hesitation.

He remembered up until he had moved to destroy the control panel, but he had no idea what happened after and how he was alive.

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Up to when I threw my sword.”

Loren lost consciousness before he could see if he was able to destroy the control panel.

Since he wasn’t in the ruins or in the afterlife, he knew that he must have succeeded in destroying the control panel, and wanted to hear from someone who knew what happened after that.

“It looks like your consciousness and memory is fine. People who let their consciousness and power go out of control often have mental damage, but I’m glad that Loren’s berserk seems to be a harmless one.”

“There’s good ones and bad ones?”

“Of course. Anyway, about the events after Loren threw Loren’s great sword.”

Thanks to the pendant and the broken great sword Loren had thrown at the control panel, it stopped functioning completely.

Due to it shutting down, the commands for stopping the goblins and shutting down the ruins went through. The goblins stopped moving and the ruins stopped as well.

“No one’s going to be able to restart those ruins ever again.”

“Really?”

“Yes, because you completely destroyed the control panel. It can’t be fixed either because the pendant got rid of the magic circuits inside it as well.”

Lapis believed that in the era that they were currently in, destroying those ruins were a good thing.

It hadn’t mattered to the Ancient Kingdom, but with the level of magic culture of current society, it wouldn’t be able to hand such a ruin.

Even if people tried to use it for military purposes, the only orders the goblins would take would be ones related to the ruins, so all they would be able to do is let the goblins loose in an area and spread fear and confusion. If it was going to be used like that, it was better if no one could use it anymore.

“Ritz and his party were quite mad, though.”

“That’s not surprising. We made the ruins useless.”

Although they meant it as a joke, it was a fact that they said some grudging things.

Since they had messed up their quest, it wasn’t surprising that they said a thing or two at them, but Ritz and his party didn’t resent Loren at all.

But Lapis decided that she didn’t have to tell Loren that.

Ritz and his party did indeed gather lots of information on the ruins, but it didn’t matter anymore because the ruins were pretty much useless now.

They weren’t able to find treasure or anything else of great value, so the rewards for their quest didn’t add up too much. Adding up the expenses they used to get ready for the expedition and treating their injured members, they were at a loss.

But despite that, Loren still saved their lives, so they were all quite thankful to him.

Even though Loren was misunderstanding how Ritz and his party felt about him, Lapis had no intention on correcting it since she was not the cause of the misunderstanding in the first place.

“It’ll be troubling if I make weird connections, so.”

Lapis already knew what direction she was going to take this conversation. Although Ritz and his party were high ranking adventurers and were good people, getting friendly with them was slightly troublesome for her.

That’s why she was trying to make him think they didn’t like him too much.

“Did you say something?”

Lapis’ murmur hadn’t reached Loren’s ears.

Lapis decided that it was bad if something she let out carelessly and made Loren suspicious of her, so she forcefully continued the conversation.

“Although the expedition itself ended in a failure, they still did their work so they got a lot of the rewards, so I don’t think you have to worry so much.”

“But I still did something pretty bad though.”

At Loren’s apologetic tone, Lapis decided that it wasn’t good to keep talking about it, so she coughed and changed the subject.

“The guild is going to send an expedition team to the ruins and make sure it’s sealed properly. It can’t be used anymore so it shouldn’t need sealing, but I guess you can’t be too careful.”

If an official expedition was going to be conducted, they would search around the area as well, and that meant the girls in Sarfe’s party might be rescued.

Lapis realized the possibility but didn’t care at all.

Whether they get rescued or not, she wasn’t going to meet them ever again so it was a waste of time to think about them.

“Who carried me here? Where is this, anyway?”

“I did. I couldn’t let Ritz and the others carry you. Also, this is the hospital in Kauffa. They did offer to help, but they had their own injured to take care of.”