Chapter 131: Approached after Sunrise (1/2)

Ch. 131: Approached after Sunrise

The sun rose and soon morning came.

The group took turns keeping watch, but when the eastern sky was slowly turning white, Loren and Lapis were on watch, and both let out sighs of relief as they squinted at the sun coming up.

Although spending the night at a village where all the villagers disappeared was necessary, it wasn’t the nicest feeling.

Since nothing happened, they couldn’t help but feel some relief.

“No one came.”

There was no one who entered nor came out of the forest.

“What should we do today then?”

“We could start with investigating the village again and think about whether or not to check out the forest. If there’s something going on, it’s either the village or the forest.”

There was nothing out of the ordinary that they could see.

Lapis nodded at Loren’s opinion that those two were the only leads they had, and looked towards the tent that Klaus and the girls were sleeping in.

“I guess they aren’t like Sarfe.”

Loren wondered where he had heard that name and treaded through his memories to place it, and after a while, he remembered that he was the leader of the group that Lapis had been in, and had been the one to invite him to join them.

He remembered what he had done during their first job as well and understood that Lapis was worried that Klaus would do something similar.

“Well, he’s not iron rank for nothing. He must be considerate of place and time.”

“Or he learned how to be so.”

“Either way, as long as it doesn’t hurt us.”

There was a lot of firewood, possibly because the forest was so close.

They took some of it and Loren started a fire.

“I guess we could start boiling water and start breakfast. Could you go wake up Klaus and the girls?”

“Alright.”

Seeing Lapis nod, Loren put a pot on top of the fire and poured water in it.

Since he thought it wasn’t good to eat heavily, he decided to do something simple, taking thin slices of bread, grilling them lightly, and putting cheese that were also lightly grilled on top of them.

Drinking alcohol first thing wasn’t good either, so he took a few tea leaves from his bag and dumped them into the boiling water, making a thin tea.

As Loren was thinking that this should suffice as breakfast, Klaus and the girls started crawling out of their tents.

“You’re pretty adept Loren.”

Klaus said, impressed as he saw what Loren had prepared, but Loren didn’t respond and just told him to get changed.

With his life on the battlefield, Loren was used to sleeping with all his armor on, but Klaus and the girls seemed to have chosen to take off all their equipment and sleep lightly, so they had to put everything on again.

But probably since they had been adventurers for a while, it didn’t take them long to suit up and come back out.

“Eat then we work. We’ll investigate the village again.”

“Alright. Hopefully we find something that would tell us what happened.”

Loren said as he handed Klaus a cup full of tea, and Klaus took it and shook his head, chasing away the rest of his drowsiness as he took a sip.

“You used good leaves. It has a good scent.”

“We had a funder this time around.”

“…If it’s from my own pocket, I guess I’ll make the most of it.”

As Klaus said with a nervous laugh, Loren handed him fresh bread with cheese on it as well.

As he took it, Klaus realized that all the girls were staring at him, and he tilted his head as he bit into the bread.

“Did you finally realize my charms or something?”

“You’re pretty lively first thing in the morning.”

Loren stared at Klaus with half opened eyes as he combed through his hair, but his brow furrowed as he noticed a wondering gaze from Lapis and grumpy looks from Ange and the other girls.

“What’s up?”

“Loren, are you getting friendlier with Klaus, by any chance?”

Lapis asked him, as if speaking for all the girls.

Feeling uncomfortable being stared at by everyone, Loren replied.

“He hasn’t done anything, so there’s no reason to treat him badly either, no?”

“That’s true, but…”

“Don’t worry. As long as his womanizing habits aren’t fixed, we can’t be friends.”

“That’s relieving.”

Lapis put her hand on her chest and let out a sigh of relief.

Seeing the other girls finally look away, satisfied, Loren looked back towards Klaus, wondering if it was a good thing if they were satisfied with such a response, but Klaus just looked back, still chewing the bread, asking him if he needed anything.

Loren decided to stop thinking about it and start breakfast as well.

As he went back to slicing the bread, putting them on the fire and putting cheese on top of them, Shayna’s voice rang out in the back of his head.