Chapter 169: An Escort Request (1/2)
There was a rumor that a certain adventurer had gone broke.
‘Not really though’ thought Loren, the one who spread the rumor, thought while flinging a small cloth bag on the table. This small cloth bag was a representative for his wallet, which had become significantly lighter.
It all started with a remark from Gula, the so-called Evil God of Gluttony and a member of Loren’s party. It wasn’t even spoken very loudly.
“That reminds me, Loren, you said I can eat all the delicious things once we return to Kapha, right?”
That was quite a shameless remark, Loren couldn’t help but think.
He did say such a thing when they were working on their previous job. That job did end up to be quite a success, but they encountered one of Gula’s buddies halfway through: Mammon, the Evil God of Greed, who had the appearance of a young boy. Loren was one strike short of killing him but stayed his hand because Gula begged for his life and Mammon himself showed some remorse. So he let Gula have custody of Mammon instead.
Because of this, Loren thought Gula should have felt some indebtedness to him. But it seemed like in Gula’s point of view, that was that and this was this.
“You’re weakened if you’re full, aren’t you? Starve a bit more.”
“Don’t say such a cruel thing. And it’s still alright even if I’m weakened a little bit, isn’t it? And it’s not like we’ll encounter my kind all the time.”
Saying it like this just made Loren fear that they would suddenly encounter another Evil God.
Anyway, Gula wanted to eat delicious food no matter what, and Loren just gave up. At the end of his rope, Loren agreed to treating Gula to a meal. To have delicious food, they went to a slightly more high-end dining hall, and Loren enjoyed a glass of fine wine for the first time in a long while. Gula, on the other hand, demonstrated her appetite as if her title of Evil God of Gluttony was at stake and proceeded to eat up the dining hall’s stock. Since it was a high-end dining hall, it was more expensive than other ones in the area, and since she consumed everything, it naturally costed a lot.
What’s more, there was already a rumor spreading about a beautiful woman being able to gorge down a ton of food. Naturally, that was because such an unusual scene would gather people’s attention and the more people witnessed such a scene, the worse the rumor got.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
At night, in the dining hall attached to the adventurer’s guild, Loren sipped on some cheap wine he had ordered for himself by candlelight and shrugged at the voice that came from across the table.
The person sitting in front of Loren across the table was none other than Lapis, whose expression was eloquently showcasing her deep-seated dismay.
Lapis, despite being a demon, a race that humans feared and hated, actually did have some semblance of common sense. Yet she could not understand why Loren agreed to pay for Gula’s meal even though he didn’t have much money himself.
“It’s not like I need you to help me pay for it this time. Isn’t this fine?”
“Didn’t you spend most of the money you earned from the previous request as well?”
Lapis lifted the pouch Loren had thrown onto the table and checked its content. Hearing no clink of coins when picking it up, she could already guess the pouch’s content. When she opened it up and looked inside, all she saw was a single golden glow. There was only one coin left at the bottom of the bag.
“Looks like there is some left”
“Don’t you dare tell Gula. Any more of this and I would be suicidal.”
Thankfully, Gula was no longer nearby. Normally, Loren would be asleep in his room by now, not out here drinking. He was here only because Lapis had summoned him through the adventurer’s guild.
Loren expected Lapis to start complaining about the stupid stunt Gula and him had pulled a few days ago, but she simply closed the pouch and returned it to Loren while muttering under her breath ‘Fine then…’
“I didn’t call you here to talk about that.”
“Really? I thought you were going to for sure.”
“There’s no need for me to talk about what you do with your money… Ah, that reminds me, can I count that remaining gold coin as a payment for your debt with me?”
“…Without it, I’ll have to sleep in the alley tonight.”
But Loren did believe it was better to pay off one’s debt, so he picked up the pouch and passed it. But she pushed his offering pouch back.
“I can’t take it like that.”
“Well, I don’t really mind though?”
“It’s alright. You can pay me back later, so just use what is left for your accommodation and food.”
Since the lender said it was fine to not pay it back right now, the borrower had no reason to disagree. Also, given their relationship, it was uncertain how serious they were about this whole borrowing and paying-back talk.
“So, can we move on to the main topic?”
“Yeah. So, what do you want to talk about?”
Since Lapis requested to see him through the guild, she had to pay a fee.
Meanwhile, Loren did not know where Lapis lived.
Whenever they were in Kapha city, she just appeared wherever he was at. This felt like she was always there when needed. Loren had already spent a substantial amount of time with her but he still had no clue what she did during her spare time.
Loren knew that Lapis would not have summoned him in such a manner for some foolish rhetoric. So, the topic at hand must be serious. She glanced at the hilt of his greatsword and spoke.
“I need to discuss with you about your sword”
Once she said those words, Loren took a glance at the weapon on his back.
The sword he used when he was a mercenary was broken, and he ‘happened’ to have bought a random replacement.
When in fact, Lapis was the one who had masterminded the whole thing in secret. She had set it up in such a way that made it questionable whether she wanted to hide what she did or not. She made it such that the trader would have only sold the weapon to Loren.
During the last job, the Evil God of Greed, Mammon, broke the sword, and it turned out that there was another blade inside the destroyed one. Loren was able to defeat him thanks to the unusual sharpness hidden within his weapon.