Chapter 154: Attacked Since Breakfast (2/2)

tossed the one she was holding into the basket and bargained with the store owner:

“If I buy all this, will you give me some discount?”

“Sorry, but I can’t afford to.”

The owner replied with a wry smile. But Lapis didn’t give up, of course, and continued to haggle. Tizona watched them in surprise while Gula, who was leaning against the wall, looked on with no interest, as long as she got the food, she didn’t care about price or quality at all.

The restocking issue seemed to have been solved for now, so Loren left the haggling to Lapis and went out. He looked up at the sky, the weather was good, and it seemed like today’s journey would also go well.

A girl’s voice rang up in his mind just then:

[‘Onii-san, do you know the saying, ‘Speaking of the devil’?’]

It came from a girl who was temporarily residing within Loren’s body. After a certain incident, she had become the King of Death, the highest-ranked undead, and lost her own body.

Shayna’s words gave Loren a bad hunch.

[‘I don’t. Sorry, but I’m uneducated.’]

[‘Onii-san, look behind you to the right. It’s probably from the south of here.’]

Loren looked over his shoulders in the direction Shayna had told him. There was a grocery store that had just opened, next to it was another store, the type of which Loren couldn’t determine. There was nothing particularly unusual though.

[What has Shayna sensed?]

Loren titled his head in puzzle, wondering if he had overlooked something. He observed the ground, then the stores again, but he only understood Shayna’s warning when he looked up at the sky.

In the clear blue sky there was a thin column of gray smoke. It couldn’t be mistaken for clouds at all.

“Something is burning, but not in this town.”

Gula looked at the sky and said. She had followed him out of the store, and seemed to have noticed the smoke immediately.

If something happened in this post-town, there would surely be an uproar by now. But if it happened somewhere else, it wouldn’t be strange if no one noticed.

However, some townsfolk did take notice of the smoke. They came out to the street and started pointing at the sky, which began to attract the attention of others.

“It seems to be close by.”

The smoke would be thicker if it came from within the town, but considering the clarity of the thin smoke column, it couldn’t be from too far away.

“Right. From my feeling, it’s the neighboring village.”

Gula’s guess was not good news.

From the current states of affairs, if something happened at the neighboring village, which resulted in something burning, then it was very likely that there had been a bandit attack. It depended on how big the raid was, but if the earnings at the village wasn’t good enough, it wouldn’t be strange if bandits continued on to this town. Realizing that, a group of armed personnel, probably the town’s guards, rushed towards the direction of the smoke.

“How does it look?”

Lapis looked at the sky and asked. She had immediately stopped the haggling after noticing something unusual was going on, paid a reasonable amount for the food and took some out. Behind her was Tizona, who seemed to carry most of the food they had bought in a large sack on her back. The sack got caught at the door, and she couldn’t get out no matter how much she struggled.

“Can’t say anything from here.”

It hadn’t been confirmed to be a bandit attack yet, but from Lapis’ way of speaking, it seemed like she had already decided it to be one. If she was acting while expecting the worst-case scenario, Loren thought he probably should do the same. He worked the gears in his brain:

“If we go back to the inn, take the donkeys and leave now, we’ll probably make it, don’t you think?”

“Depending on how those bandits operate.”

Loren believed it was better to run if they could. If the bandits came, they should protect themselves from any possible dangers, if not, they should leave things in the hands of people who had been prepared to deal with such situations. Their party should just leave as soon as possible.

Whether the bandits would let them leave was another question though. It was extremely unlikely that the bandits would distinguish townsfolk from travelers.

“Let’s just hurry back to the inn and pack for now.”

When the situation was still unclear, it wouldn’t help to panic. The only preparation they could do now was putting their things in order as soon as possible.

The other three members of their party nodded at Lapis’ suggestion.