Chapter 127 - Deriving at Destination (1/2)

Ch. 127: Deriving at Destination

“Hey Loren. What happened to the bandits?”

“Just leave them. They’ll survive if they’re lucky, if not someone will probably finish them off.”

Although he had been beat up by the girls, Klaus seemed to be completely fine.

Ange used to do him quite a bit, but he must have gotten tougher as it didn’t seem to have done anything.

But Loren wondered how he was fine after taking a beating from Layla.

He was even more confused how he survived the priestess Roll’s attacks, when he thought about it, he realized that there was no way a priestess could deliver blows that could knock a swordsman unconscious, and cocked his head, wondering where that image came from.

“Anyways, it looks like you’ve gotten stronger than before.”

“Of course. I’m backed by a nation and they expect great things from me.”

Klaus told Loren something that he wasn’t sure if he should’ve heard.

But he guessed that since Klaus talked about it, it wasn’t a problem, so he asked him something.

“By nation, you mean…”

“Wagenburg, of course. Where else?”

Loren sighed in relief since he wasn’t sure what he was going to do if Klaus named somewhere else.

If an adventurer backed by another nation was acting in Wagenburg, it would’ve been a serious problem.

Loren knew those kinds of adventurers existed.

It was difficult for a nation to send soldiers or knights to others, but it wasn’t so for adventurers.

He also knew that among mercenary groups, there were groups that gathered information on other nations.

Of course, they weren’t talked about openly, but there were rumors that went around.

If they played it correctly, they could be backed and act on behalf of a nation, but if they were found out, the nation would ignore them, and the nation that found out about them would stop at nothing to destroy them, so it was a risky position to be in.

He had suspected his own group to be something of the sort, but when he asked his leader, he laughed it off, and since then, although he knew it had nothing to do with him, he kept his ears open.

It must’ve been the same for adventurers, where some might be working as spies, but it seemed like Klaus and his party were not.

“I don’t think Layla would mind since I feel like we’ll be seeing you two a lot.”

“I think you should make sure to get confirmation first on these types of things.”

Exasperated that Klaus had told him this, without getting permission from Layla, who seemed to have been sent by the nation, made a mental note to not tell Klaus anything that he didn’t want others to know about.

After traveling further and camping for another night, the company reached Rose’s village right before noon on the fourth day.

Other than the bandits that attacked them, there was nothing that bothered them, and Loren started to have slight hopes that this job would be a simple one.

But his hopes were immediately shattered when he saw the people from the village come out to greet them.

“Loren, there’s definitely something wrong with this village.”

The villagers had come out and greeted them and started unloading the goods and carrying them back to the village, but the scene was very weird to Loren as well.

It was because there wasn’t a single male villager who came out.

On top of that, most of them were old or children, with only two young women.

“This village. Not only are there no men, there aren’t many women either.”

“As much as I’d like to say such a village doesn’t exist, I’m seeing it with my own eyes…”

Rose’s village was a farming village.

There were gardens and fields around the village, and the villagers raised crops to make a living.

Not having any men to do the work was already abnormal, but there weren’t many young women as well, and with only the elderly and children, it would be impossible for the village to function.

Klaus and his party seemed to have picked up on the abnormality as well, as Klaus walked over to Loren with a tense expression.

“Loren, have you noticed?”

“Well, at this point, who wouldn’t?”

“Is this heaven?”

Loren stared straight into Klaus’ serious face, not sure what he had heard for a second.

He couldn’t see any playfulness in it, so when he realized that Klaus was being dead serious, Loren clenched his fist slowly.

“Wait a second! If you punch me my neck will break!”

“Don’t worry. I’ll hold back so it’ll just make a large dent in your face.”

“That’s bad as well!”

“You…”

Although it could barely be called an excuse, Loren gave up on hitting Klaus and lowered his fist, then grabbed his shoulder and turned him towards the villagers around the carriages.

“Do you see anything strange?”

“There are a bunch of women. What a wonderful village.”

“…Is there anything else…?”