Chapter 144: From Reward to Partnership (2/2)

“That was… literally Hell on earth.”

“I don’t even want to imagine that scene.”

Of course, Lapis had had no reason to try to control that situation. With Gula’s help, she had quickly carried the unconscious Loren away from that place. They had fetched Klaus’ party on the way and had told Rose, the person they had been involved into this in the first place, that the problem had been resolved more or less. Then, they had returned to Kapha as if they had been running for their lives.

And incidentally, the skirmish happening near Rose’s village had come to an end at the same time. The reason was unclear. However, the number of soldiers pulled into the forest due to Luxuria’s power had been quite high. When the spell had been broken and those soldiers had regained their sanity, they probably had thought about what they had done and with whom, and had been in no conditions to continue fighting a war. That was what Lapis had guessed, anyway.

“So, where has Luxuria, the culprit of all this, gone to?”

“I don’t know. Gula took him to somewhere.”

Both of them looked at Gula, who had been struck unconscious in a moment of distraction and was now sleeping beside Loren. They wanted to know about Luxuria’s whereabouts, but Gula was an Evil God herself; she wouldn’t just give them the information like that.

“She won’t tell.”

“No, she won’t.”

Convinced that their questions wouldn’t be answered, the two of them decided to stop thinking about that matter.

They would probably meet again if that was what fate decided, but for now, Loren preferred to think that it had been the last time he had met that muscle head.

“That aside, Loren, you can’t use what you did when fighting Luxuria again, unless things go terribly wrong!”

Lapis brought her face close and glared at Loren. He vaguely nodded at her.

As he would never have been able to hit Luxuria with normal methods, he had tried to go into his berserk stage from a self-boosted stage. He had just now slowly realized how severe the backlash of that action could have been. His whole body hurt, and even though he didn’t feel anything strange with his bones right now, he wondered how it had been right after the rampage.

“I tried to heal you as much as I can, but there are things that can be healed and things that can’t.”

“It’s my bad. I’ll be more careful.”

Loren meekly nodded as he knew he had made Lapis worried. But he would still do it again should the need arise; this was something he didn’t plan to tell her.

“And, why is she here?”

Loren pointed at Gula, who was still unconscious, and asked. Lapis stepped back a bit and tilted her head in puzzle.

“Why… She somehow followed us here.”

“Weren’t you too harsh on me?!”

Gula suddenly sat up and said. Her bare breast jiggled, and as Loren’s eyes reflexively fixed on them, Lapis pinched his ear.

“It can’t be helped… I’m a man too.”

“I know, but still.”

“So, why are you here? It’s not just to give me those nice things, isn’t it?”

“There was that too.”

Gula straightened up and sat cross-legged on the bed. Loren threw his blanket on her lower-half body, thinking about how it was not the type of posture one should take when being naked.

“I’m getting a bit interested in you two, so I plan to stick with you for a while.”

Loren was about to reply how troublesome that would be, when he suddenly realized how much of a danger letting an Evil God loose could be.

So far, Loren was aware of only three Evil Gods roaming the world: Gluttony, Lust, and Sloth. He had no ideas what kind of havoc they were planning to wreck though. If they didn’t cause a mayhem, he wouldn’t care about them whatsoever. But in case they were scheming something, it’d be better to keep an eye on one of them. That way they could at least try to prevent get caught up in their mess again. And Gula was the one least mentally-taxing to be around.

“Of course, I’ll help you guys out, and do nice things for you. Just repay me with lodging and food expenses.”

“Food expenses will be outrageous in your case.”

“But I can make lots of money, don’t you think? So, what’s it going to be?”

Feeling troubled, Loren looked at Lapis, but she silently cast her eyes down once she noticed his gaze. Realizing that she was somehow leaving the decision to him, Loren pondered for a while, then said.

“Don’t cause us troubles.”

“Hope you won’t mind my food expenses.”

Gula showed them an easy smile.

Lapis pressed a hand to her forehead as if trying to suppress a headache and told Loren:

“In the past few days, Gula has consumed enough food for ten or so restaurants, so be prepared.”

What she meant was, his payment was already used up. Loren had begun to feel like turning Gula away, but he still managed to grit out:

“…Add it to my debts.”

“No, let’s split it in half.”

“Ahaha, I really can make money, so please treat me well!”

As Gula smiled nonchalantly and scratched her head, her breast happily jiggled. Loren’s eyes reflexively fixed on them again, and Lapis pinched his cheek with a sullen expression on her face.

Loren didn’t know if his choice would bring them good fortune or bad fortune, but at least this case had ended here. Loren shrugged and let Lapis continue to pinch him.