Chapter 343: From Exhaustion to Breakthrough (2)
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And then, night came.
Loren’s group prepared for the night using the tents and huts that were as close to the center of the remaining Empire base as possible. They decided to set up more guards than usual, then gathered wood from the supplies left at the base and lit the surrounding area with multiple bonfires.
Too many lights might attract the attention of anything that could be around, but the priority was to deal with the uncertainty of spending the night in a place where something terrible happened with unknown causes.
There was a good amount of food left in the base, and it was not in bad condition, but the group did not touch it. The truth was, they did not want to touch anything left behind because they did not know what had happened or what kind of residue might be left.
The soldiers were so tense and anxious that they could not sleep even when it was not their turn to stand guard, and they were so afraid of being alone that they would huddle together and wait for morning to come. In contrast, Loren’s team had decided to sleep in their tents until it was their turn to keep guard.
“Loren, it is not safe to be alone. Let’s sleep in this tent together, by all means.”
While the Empire soldiers stood guard, Lapis tugged at Loren’s sleeve with great force as she tried to secure a place to sleep.
Worrying that his clothes might be ripped, Loren somehow managed to resist the tugging and asked.
“I’m not saying I don’t want to, but is it my imagination that I feel like you are more dangerous than anything else?”
“Of course, it’s your imagination. Above all else, it is wrong to feel that I am dangerous. The safest place in the world today would be right beside me.”
“It’s annoying that you’re not wrong, but… Do we have enough sleeping bags for both of us?”
“No, there is only one.”
Loren’s shoulders slumped as Lapis told him clearly and unambiguously with a straight face. His resistance faltered for a moment, and taking advantage of it, Lapis furiously pulled him into one of the tents, and Loren began to resist again in a hurry.
“I’ll sleep on the ground and you use the sleeping bag?”
“My goodness! Do you know what kind of negative effects letting yourself get chilled brings about?!”
“Shut it. If I get into a sleeping bag, there’s no room for anyone else!”
“It’s okay, I can force my way in there and snuggle up to you.”
“You don’t even try to hide it anymore?!”
Despite these exchanges, Loren was able to get a good night’s sleep.
Of course, if he had to share a sleeping space with Lapis, he did not think she would let him sleep at all, so he resisted and slept in a different tent.
“Loren, you’re so mean…”
“Nah Lapis-chan, I’m afraid I can’t take your side this time.”
“Don’t you think that in such an atmosphere of uneasiness, a sense of intimacy can be created by huddling close to each other, skin against skin?”
“This child is a lost cause…”
Gula was amazed at how hopeless Lapis was, but she could feel that some of the tension was fading among the soldiers who were watching the exchange between them. She brought her face close to Lapis’ and whispered as the latter was about to crawl into her own tent while muttering to herself.
“Did you do that on purpose?”
“I’d say you’re half right. It’s fine if I can push through, and if he rejects me, it’s fine as long as I can act silly.”
It seemed that Lapis had the intention of easing the soldiers’ feelings by going out of her way to engage in that ridiculous exchange.
Lapis was also looking to satisfy her desires if she could push Loren through, so it was not an entirely noble move. But even so, Gula gave her a slightly impressed gaze, as that was uncharacteristically considerate for a member of the demon race.
“So, what are we going to do now?”
The next day, after an uneventful morning, Loren’s team reconvened with the group of soldiers, who looked exhausted, and discussed their future plans.
One of the soldiers, who appeared to be an officer, whispered something to the people around him, and then answered Loren’s question on behalf of the others.
“We are going to go back from here. We thought about going forward and joining up with our comrades, but given the current situation, it would be very difficult for us to do so.”
The orders given to them were only to accompany Loren’s team and meet up with the troops that were supposed to be at their current location. They were told to follow the instructions after the rendezvous, but now that the base troops had disappeared, this was impossible to accomplish.
If that was the case, they decided to turn around from here and return to the border.
“The only time we were attacked by anything before we got here was by the golem in that town. It might be less dangerous for you to go back.”
“And what do you plan to do?”
Loren hummed in response to the soldier’s question, and after a short, sharp exhalation, he made his decision.
“I’ll continue on. I’m going to check how the Commander… how General Yuri is doing, and if I can lend a hand, I will.”
“We can’t escort you.”
“No need. I’ll go on my own.”
Loren implicitly told Lapis and Gula that there was no need for them to follow him. Loren’s indebtedness to Yuri was his own personal problem, and had nothing to do with the two girls or the soldiers.
However, Lapis did not seem to be aware of Loren’s intentions and told him in a matter-of-fact tone.
“I’ll go with you then. I’m sure we will be fine. What about you, Gula?”
“I’ll go with you. If that black thing is up ahead, we’ll have to do something about it.”
“I see. We won’t stop you, but… Take care.”
After confirming Loren’s team intentions, the soldier called out to his comrades and began to prepare for the withdrawal.
While watching the luggage being quickly put away, Loren looked at Lapis, who was walking up to his side, and tried to confirm one thing.
“Are you really going to go with me? There’s nothing but trouble from here on out, and you don’t care about the Commander, do you?”
“I don’t really care about the Commander’s safety, but if you say you’re going, then there’s no reason for me to not go with you.”
“I owe the Commander a debt for bringing me up, so I just can’t abandon him.”
“I have my own reasons for not wanting to miss out on a good property like you, Loren. Since you haven’t finished paying off your debts to begin with, you’ll be in trouble if you don’t continue to work with me.”
Lapis thought it was a bad move to bind Loren by the debt, but at the moment, she secretly felt in her heart that it was a good thing to do.
She could not interfere in the relationship between Yuri and Loren, but Loren could not stop her from following him, as long as she had a reason to do so. She also thought that perhaps she could force him to turn back or flee if something bad happened, using the fact that he hadn’t paid back his debt as the reason.
Worst case scenario, Lapis could force him to get away by kidnapping him and threw all responsibility to the Great Demon King by saying that she didn’t know what to tell the King if she lost Loren, who owed him a debt.
“What about you, Gula?”
“Don’t worry, I can escape whenever I want. If I don’t like it, I’ll leave immediately.”
Gula waved her hand with a smile as if she didn’t care, but Loren was a bit concerned.
‘That black thing’ Gula had mentioned was definitely Magna, the swordsman in black armor with a black sword. She had a very strong feeling about him, and seemed to be bent on getting her revenge the next time they met. But if she lost his cool in front of Magna, even an Evil God might not be able to get away with it, and that made Loren somewhat uneasy.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”
Perhaps reading this thought from Loren’s expression, Gula patted him on the back with a smile on her face.
Lapis squeezed the clothes from the other side.
“It’s okay to worry about me like that once in a while, you know?”
“I don’t see why I should be worried about you.”
Loren blurted out what he thought, and Lapis silently gave him a punch on the side.
The impact hit him even through his jacket, which he had received from an Elder, the highest-ranking undead. Loren coughed involuntarily, thinking that he really shouldn’t be worried about Lapis at all.
In the meantime, the soldiers finished their preparation, and once they had packed up, they offered to let Loren’s team do whatever they wanted with what they didn’t take back with them.
There was food for a few people, tents and sleeping bags that were no longer needed, and some of the goods that they had brought from the previous town but had to leave behind to lighten the load on the return journey. Loren thanked the soldiers, and Gula, out of the soldiers’ sight, hurriedly sent them to the abode of the Evil Gods.
“Well, that’s it for us. Good luck. And if you are able to join the General, please take good care of him.”
“He’s not the kind of person who needs to be taken care of by me though. But well, I understand.”
The soldiers bowed to Loren’s team before leaving, and Loren watched them until they were out of sight.
Although there might be less danger, they would still have to walk through enemy territory with little fighting power, and there was no telling whether they would make it to the Empire’s territory safely or not.
If they were wiped out and did not return to the Empire, there would be rumours that the Empire army had been mysteriously destroyed for unknown reasons; Loren thought ominously. The spider Nigg raised his front legs as if he was waving goodbye to the soldiers, whose figures were getting smaller and smaller.
“You assert yourself at key moments, don’t you, Nigg?”
Lapis said with interest as she watched Nigg clinging to his usual position again with his raised legs down once the soldiers disappeared from sight behind the ups and downs of the terrain.
If there was nothing going on, Nigg stayed still as if he was a part of Loren’s clothes, but if there was something going on, Nigg was sure to take some kind of action before anyone knew. Loren wondered if the spider could read the signs, the atmosphere, or the flow of the situation as he gently stroked Nigg’s back.
[‘I’d like to assert myself too, but only onii-san can see me.’]
Shayna fluttered in Loren’s field of vision, looking discontent.
It was true that Shayna’s presence was invisible to Lapis and Gula, and she was only recognized as being inside Loren’s mind through his words. But when Loren consoled her, saying that she had always been more than helpful, she stopped flitting around, perhaps feeling a little better.
“Alright, we need to go too.”
To give the team some directions, the soldiers had given Loren’s team a map of the surrounding area with explanations written on it before they left.
It seemed unlikely that their team would get lost, but as he looked at the road ahead, Loren wondered with a slightly gloomy feeling if they would be able to meet up with Yuri’s group without any trouble.
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