Chapter 96 - Returning Without Incident (1/2)

Ch. 96: Returning Without Incident

It was a few days after Loren and Lapis had ran back to where Corne was, that the chief’s death had been confirmed.

From what Loren and Lapis told her, she could see that the chief had died, and although they understood why Corne wanted to make sure the chief was completely dead, wanting them to wait until the investigation was done was unexpected.

“We could think of it as saving money for food and rooms.”

Loren’s job used to require him to go from battlefield to battlefield, so he wasn’t concerned about not being able to go back to the city.

Lapis had complained slightly, but after Loren had agreed to Corne’s wishes, she went with his decision.

But it was a village of fairies that were way smaller than them.

There was no where for Loren and Lapis to stay in, so they had to pitch tents and sleep in sleeping bags during the few days.

“It’s basically camping, and even the food…”

As the evil good of gluttony named Gura had said, fairies were accustomed to eating their food without cooking them.

So what the fairies gave them were thing like grass and fruit.

Loren and Lapis were stunned by this, so they got permission to use fire in a corner, and ate the rations they had brought, as well as fish they caught in the waterway that connected to the village and managed to survive the past few days.

The confirmation of the chief’s death took so long because of the state the body was in.

Since the body started rotting away as soon as the evil god left it, the fairies couldn’t tell if it was the chief or some other being, and on top of that, the smell was so bad that they couldn’t get close.

They brought a mountain of flowers and herbs to mask the smell as best as they could and burned the body bit by bit to gather evidence, and eventually they concluded that it was indeed the chief.

“Thank you so much. You really saved us here.”

It seemed that Corne had become the new chief.

For Feuille, since it was most likely that his village had been wiped out, Corne had contacted another village to take him in.

Feuille had lost not only his family, but his whole village as well, but he had a long life ahead of him, and Loren could only pray that a day will come when the wounds in his heart will heal completely.

“So, about the rewards for the job.”

Corne had led them to a building that looked like a storage in the corner if the village.

When they got there, other fairies were taking things out of there.

They were doing so since Loren and Lapis couldn’t get inside, but they still had to pick, and the pile was growing bigger and bigger.

“As promised, you can take one thing you like.”

Hearing those words, Lapis immediately started sifting through the items.

Loren didn’t even move to touch them, but instead just stood back and watch Lapis go through the items in the pile one by one.

In the first place, even if there were two jewels, Loren couldn’t tell which one would be worth more.

So he decided that leaving it to Lapis, who was knowledgeable about these things, would be the most efficient, but after a while Lapis’ hands stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

When Loren called out to her, she turned towards him like rusted hinges on a door.

Wondering what made her move like that, Loren walked up and looked over her shoulder, peered into her hands, and frowned when he saw what was in there.

“That’s…”

What Loren saw was a transparent gem that didn’t seem valuable at all.

It was quite large, but it wasn’t cut well, and didn’t seem like something Lapis would be surprised at, but he tilted his head, feeling that he’d something like it before somewhere.

“Loren, this…”

At Lapis’ seemingly puzzled voice, as if she wasn’t sure what she should do, Loren realized what it was, and his eyes widened in surprise.

“It’s that…right?”

Lore recalled when they went to the adventurer training school in their previous job.

What was in her hands right now was the same as the thing she had found and taken from the bottom floor of the dungeon.

“Which one is it?”

“My right arm…I think.”

It was one of the parts of Lapis out of her arms, legs, and eyes, that her parents had taken from her and hidden in various places before she came to the human world.

Currently, Lapis had found her left arm at the adventurer training school and returned it to normal, but it seemed that the fairies had found another one from somewhere and stored it.

“I think they found it in the forest somewhere and brought it…”

“That’s convenient, I guess.”

Loren thought it was fortunate she found what she was looking for, but Lapis didn’t try to ask for it, and just had a troubled look on her face.

“What’s wrong? We’re going with that, right?”

He didn’t know what kind of valuables were there, but a part of Lapis’ body was irreplaceable, so Loren couldn’t think of any other option.

He thought they should just receive it and go, but Lapis seemed to have a different opinion.

“I’ll give up on this for now.”

“Why?”

“We can’t sell this for money. Loren will be getting nothing.”

Lapis said that and tried to return the gem to the pile.