Chapter 136: From Switching to Commencement (1/2)

Lapis was running in the gloomy forest, her face faintly colored with fear.

She looked over her shoulders; Loren, with a greatsword on his shoulder, was running after her, but his face was distorted with fear. It was not an expression usually seen on his face, and Lapis wondered if that was what he looked like when he felt scared. She had no references though, so she turned around again and shrugged lightly.

Inside Loren’s body was a girl called Shayna, and it was her who formed the body’s expression. Even though it was the same body, the two of them must have felt fear in different ways; it was not certain that Loren would make the same expression Shayna had just now.

“Are they chasing us?”

“They are!”

Being chased by demons was what adventurers do; that was one of the things Lapis had signed to. Being chased by soldiers and adventurers couldn’t be helped as she was from the Daemon race; she had also used to that. But Lapis hadn’t even expected to be chased in a forest by countless crazy, naked-from-the-waist-down men. Surely enough she didn’t feel prepared at all.

“Why do I have to go through such a thing like this?!”

“As a daily activity?”

“Isn’t that bad?! I strongly protest!”

Shayna thought that shouting while running would mess up one’s breathing and cause excessive tiredness but Lapis’s body, with support from her demon abilities, didn’t seem to be exhausted by that.

Just then, a man suddenly reached out from the shade of the trees ahead and tried to block them. Lapis threw a punch at his face, coloring trunks of trees in red.

“It’s strange that we can’t shake them off, but how did they get ahead of us?!”

“Are we in a normal space now?”

The man fell backwards. Lapis thought about adding a kick just to make sure but just gave up.

No matter how high her ability was, it was still impossible to deliver a high kick towards the guy’s temple while running. If she were to make a more natural kick, it would have to be a front kick, and the place such a kick hit would be his lower half body. But this man was, just like the ones who were chasing them, naked from the waist down for some reason. A front kick might hit that vital, difficult-to-mention part of him. It would be alright if he had been wearing clothes, but Lapis just couldn’t imagine having her own feet come into direct contact with that thing.

Anyways, Lapis asked Shayna about her grumbling:

“What do you mean?”

“I think we have already been under the influence of the culprit of this strange happening, just like how onii-san has. If that’s the case, maybe we’ve already been trapped in some area and won’t be able to get out.”

“In short?”

“Even though we’ve tried our hardest to run away, it’s possible that we’re actually just running in a circle.”

“In that case, isn’t it strange that we don’t see the backs of our pursuers?”

“Maybe they separated and are hiding in the shades of the trees and will come out when we pass by, again and again.”

Lapis didn’t remember the faces of each pursuer. She agreed with Shayna’s idea that a fixed number of the men pretended to chase them while the others hid and came out to block them repeatedly. But if that was the case, there would arise a new problem. Lapis scratched her head in annoyance.

“In that case, it’ll be meaningless no matter how much we run, isn’t it?”

“We’ll run out of strength before long, and will be captured.”

It was easy to guess whose stamina would deplete first – theirs, who just kept running single-mindedly or of those men, who hid between the trees after running for a bit. Even though Lapis had quite high stamina due to her demon heritage, it was still impossible to run away from pursuers who could take breaks while chasing her.

“Well then, we have no choices but to intercept them somewhere, don’t we?”

“Or breaking free from the area we’re trapped in.”

Neither of it was easy. One had no choice but to do what needed to be done though – Lapis made up her mind.

“First of all, let’s deal with our pursuers.”

“I have no confidence about it, but I’ll try… Ah.”

Shayna stopped in the middle of the sentence. Thinking there was some problem, Lapis looked over her shoulders and saw Shayna pressing at her temples. Her expression changed from innocent and childlike to stern and bloodthirsty.

“If it’s that kind of work… I’ll take charge of it!”