Chapter 76 (1/2)

Ch. 76: Waiting and Seeing, Then Choosing

When the two of them reached the town, all that was waiting for them was flame and soot.

The small town was destroyed and burned down, with red flames roaring everywhere.

The black smoke emitted from the flames rose up into the sky, and a burning smell filled the area, along with the sick smell of burning bodies that could be seen among the rubble.

“This is…”

There was a body lying next to Lapis’ feet as well.

It was the body of a middle-aged man, most likely a resident, and his face was one of terror.

Loren crouched next to the body and frowned as he saw a single cut, from its shoulder down its back.

“A strike from behind. Do you think a monster did this?”

Loren couldn’t find any traces of claw or teeth marks of a beast type monster.

Then maybe a monster that wielded a weapon.

When Loren asked Lapis if it could be the work of goblins or orcs, Lapis looked at the condition of the body and shook her head.

“The cut is too deep to be a goblin, and too shallow to be an orc. Either way, they wouldn’t just leave the bodies here like this.”

Both goblins and orcs were omnivorous and ate humans as well.

It was hard to believe that they would just leave bodies that weren’t even burnt without eating them even a little bit.

“Then I guess humans did this.”

“Most likely. They made quite a mess.”

Lapis sighed as she saw a burning house collapse in the distance.

The humans that had raided the town seemed to have destroyed everything thoroughly.

They looted everything they could, destroyed everything they could, and set the town on fire after they were done.

“Survivors?”

“If there are, they’d have quite the luck. They should give us a little bit.”

Lapis joked, but her expression was serious.

Loren thought anyone would be the same, but he had a different problem to worry about.

“Our beds just disappeared.”

“Your boldness to think of that in this situation is reassuring.”

“It’s not like the first time I’ve seen something like this, so.”

Seeing raided towns and villages weren’t rare when being a mercenary.

Loren himself, or the group he was with rather, had never done things like that before, but he had seen mercenaries hired by their client’s enemies do so before, as well as the remains.

It didn’t mean that he was used to seeing it or not feeling anything when he did, but he experienced it enough to know that nothing came out of panicking or getting angry.

“A fire this big is going to be a pain to extinguish.”

“Why do they do this to people of the same race?”

Loren scratched his head at Lapis’ question.

He didn’t have an answer for it.

He could just say that there was a town and then there were bandits, but he knew that Lapis wasn’t looking for such an answer.

“My bad. I can’t answer that.”

“Sorry Loren. I didn’t mean to trouble you.”

Lapis said in a hurry as Loren managed to squeeze those words out.

“It’s just that we demons have a strong bond with each other because we’re a race that’s hated by others. Of course, we fight each other because of clashing interests and rivalries and such, but this is different. I was just wondering why.”

Thinking of demon kind gave him an image of a brutal society, but it seemed that he was wrong.

Humans were easily doing things that even demons couldn’t understand, so Loren couldn’t help but think that maybe humans were a cruder and more vulgar species.

“Well, we demons are ones to do things even more thoroughly so that this would seem like child’s play, though.”

“That’s sort of relieving.”

“Their way of starting the fire wasn’t good enough. There’s going to be remains at this rate.”

“Alright. Shut up for a little bit.”

Lapis’ words spoiled everything, but for some reason Loren felt relieved.

Now his value of human beings as a peace loving, logical race didn’t crumble.

“So, what should we do now?”

“Let’s see. We could start with searching for survivors I guess.”

“And after that we look for valuables, got it. As expected of you Loren. Let’s get to it.”

“You’d be a beautiful and pure looking priestess if you just shut your mouth…”

When Loren said beautiful and pure, Lapis put her hands on her cheeks, which turned so red it was noticeable among the glow of the fire.

Watching her turn her back to him and start muttering something under her breath, Loren sighed, thinking that they didn’t have time to be talking like this, as looked for a tree far away from the fire to tie the donkey to.

“They really went through everything thoroughly. They might actually deserve some recognition for this.”

The two of them searched the burning town, but the town had been raided so thoroughly that even Lapis was slightly impressed.