Chapter 145: Starting with Registration (1/2)
Rumor was going around that part of the army had been obliterated, and their force had become sparse.
Even though Loren didn’t want to hear about such rumors, he had no means to stop the talk from reaching his ears.
He was sitting in a corner of a tavern that belonged to the Adventurer Guild, and the group of adventurers near him were chatting about it; he couldn’t help but overheard their conversation.
According to the rumor, the soldiers that had participated in the almost-war skirmish between Vargenburg and Schoembrin had all disappeared. The skirmish hadn’t been that bad, and the number of killed-in-action hadn’t been that high either. And yet, soldiers had disappeared, from not just one but both factions, and at about the same time. The adventurers were quite interested in what on earth could have happened there.
“*talking gibberish*”
“Swallow! Swallow before you speak!”
Gula, who was sitting opposite to Loren with a grilled chicken drumstick in each hand, tried to speak around mouthful. Loren couldn’t understand her at all, so he shouted at her to swallow first.
Gula proceeded to try to chew the meat in her mouth with all her might. Meanwhile, Lapis, who was sitting next to Loren in her priest robe, rocked the glass of wine in her hand.
“I think I know the reason somehow.”
“I don’t want to hear it, so you don’t need to tell me.”
To be honest, Loren also knew. It was their previous mission.
It had started with a request from an adventurer named Klaus to escort some goods to some village. Then one thing had led to another, and in the end, they had encountered Luxuria, the Evil God of Lust, a macho Loren didn’t really want to think about.
Villagers from the neighboring areas and the soldiers fighting nearby fell under the influence of that Evil God’s power and had been entranced. Shortly after a sort of ‘festival’ with actions that couldn’t be put into words had unfolded.
The situation had been resolved somehow, but the consequence of it was the platinum blond girl, who was enthusiastically gnawing on chicken bones in front of Loren: Gula had decided to accompany them.
Gula was the Evil God of Gluttony, but she had become interested in Loren and Lapis for some reason, and had followed them to Kapha city.
“They won’t have the heart to fight the men they got laid with yesterday, right?”
Gula said with no reservation after chewing and swallowing the meat in her mouth.
Loren’s and Lapis’ faces noticeably darkened at her remark. Loren gave Gula a disgusting look and said with a somewhat sullen tone:
“I said I don’t want to hear about it, didn’t I?”
“But you said it to Lapis-chan.”
Gula gave him a glare that meant ‘You didn’t tell me so it’s alright’.
“And who do you think is going to pay for all the meat you’ve just eaten?”
Gula had been sealed as an Evil God for a long time, so of course she didn’t have any money. Or rather, she didn’t possess anything valuable. Naturally, Loren and Lapis paid for her lodging expenses in Kapha, and it was not an insignificant amount.
Moreover, as if to live up to her title as the Evil God of Gluttony, Gula really could eat a lot. She ate so much that others could get heartburns and lose appetite just by watching her. Any diners that were unlucky enough to have Gula as their customer would have to close their business for the day, as she could devour enough food to put them out of stock in a blink on an eye. And she would still look unsatisfied.
She ate like that for exactly three times a day, and it was unbearable for Loren and Lapis, who paid for her meal.
“We’ll need gold coins to pay for your meals soon, won’t we?”
“Ah, ahahahahaha. I’m probably too hungry after such a long sleep, and human food is too delicious.”
For a moment, Loren thought that maybe she was not being unreasonable.
A little while ago, Loren had taken up a mission at an adventurers’ training facility in a certain city that had been the place where the Evil God of Sloth had been sealed. If the stories he had heard there had been true, then Gula had probably been sealed for hundreds of years, and hadn’t been able to eat anything during that time. She seemed to have eaten various common as well as strange things after waking up, but all had been a far cry from a decent human diet.
When he thought about that, he felt a little pity for her, and wasn’t able to condemn her too hard.
“I’ll work hard too, so bear with me.”
“We came here today to get ready for that.”
Gula didn’t have any proof of identity to use in a human town. They had questioned how she could have gotten into any town, but once that problem had been put aside, the issue of her social status was still hanging above their head. There was no doubt that it would become troublesome if something happened.
For that reason, they had planned to register Gula as a member of their party at the Adventurer Guild. She would be able to receive an identification tag and have her social status established thanks to this.
Gula had suggested filling their stomachs before going though, and they had had no choice but to come to a diner first. Loren and Lapis had nursed their glasses of wine while Gula had started attacking a large plate of chicken drumsticks with both hands as soon as it had been brought out.
“But are we really going to register her as a Copper rank adventurer? What a joke.”
“I feel the same, but we can’t really explain her situation and have her started with a higher rank.”
Ability-wise, an Evil God like Gula shouldn’t have been a Copper rank adventurer. She should be a Silver rank at the very least. Well, there would be no questions if she was actually ranked higher.
However, they couldn’t just naively tell the Adventurer Guild that Gula was an Evil God. If they didn’t stick to their story and registered her as an ordinary adventurer they had partnered with by coincidence, there was no telling what kind of uproar would happen.
“But didn’t we report to the Guild about her before?”
Loren had first met Gula in a fairy village. It had been during the fight with the fairies, who had become ferocious under the influence of her power.