Ch. 124: Departure after Preparation
Since Klaus was the one covering their expenses, Lapis went all out.
After creating a contract and making Klaus sign it, not trusting him, she took over a dozen silver coins and decided to use it to buy what they needed.
“Should I go accept this job?”
“No. Come shopping with me. We’re joining Klaus on this so we’re going to have him register us as part of his party.
If they went without saying anything to the guild, they wouldn’t receive the payment.
Loren thought that he would have to go register for the job, knowing that people would look at him funny for going on such as job, but since Lapis said that it was Klaus’ job, he glared at him as he sighed with relief that Loren and Lapis had accepted his request.
“In that case, I’ll be the party leader, so you would have to listen to my orders.”
Loren thought so too, but the temperature of Lapis’ glare dropped steeply, so Klaus immediately waved his hands in front of him.
“I’m joking, okay? I’ll register you as party members, but you can move on your own.”
“Make sure it’s temporary, okay? If you registered us as a legitimate party, I’ll pluck it off.”
As Loren thought that he shouldn’t ask what, Klaus paled as he covered his crotch and nodded repeatedly.
After that little exchange, letting Klaus deal with all the troublesome things, Loren and Lapis went out into the city to prepare for the upcoming job.
“We have an ample funds this time. We shouldn’t hold back and buy everything we need.”
“Go easy, alright? There might be a time when we have to go crying to him for help.”
Loren thought that even though they should take advantage of it, there was a line they shouldn’t cross.
Even when he was a mercenary, when a member would ask for help to the others, although there were some hardships that came with it, he would still be able to recover from it.
It was because the ones helping him made sure to adjust it so that it wouldn’t go too far.
And when they were the ones who needed assistance, they would be treated the same, so it was sort of an unspoken agreement.
Because Loren knew that, although he thought that Klaus reaped what he sowed, they shouldn’t push him into a corner.
“Us crying to Klaus?”
When Lapis cocked her head, wondering if there would ever be such a scenario, Loren neither nodded nor shook his head, but instead pat her on the shoulder.
“The chances aren’t zero, aren’t they?”
“Hm, that might be so. I guess I’ll have to give up on the best quality sleeping bags and comfort pillows.”
“What the hell were you thinking of buying?”
What she mentioned was indeed something they needed, but it was something they already had and needed to buy, much less best quality ones, so Loren couldn’t help but say so as Lapis looked disappointed.
The next day, after using up all of Klaus’ money to buy what they needed, the two of them arrived at the place where Klaus told them to meet him.
It was at the east gate of the city, where Klaus and his party were ready to go, along with a few carriages carrying the supplies.
The village chief, their client, was there as well.
“Thank you so much for accepting this kind of job.”
The woman, wearing good quality clothes and wearing her brown hair up, bowed and thanked them.
She had a full-figured body that stretched the fabric on her clothes, with her chest seeming to bounce every time she moved, and seeing Klaus look at them with a sloppy gaze in the corner of his eye, Loren thought no wonder Klaus fell so easily.
“Loren…”
The sharp sensation of getting pinched on his thigh along with a grumpy tone from Lapis made him avert his gaze from the chief’s chest to her face.
6
“I hope not you out of all people Loren. But depending on the circumstances, I’ll rip it off.”
“That’s a scary thought…”
Loren’s equipment consisted of the leather jacket, gloves, and boots he had received from his previous client, along with his usual great sword strapped to his back.
His pants were made of tough material, but they were bought from a store, so if Lapis wanted to, she could rip his flesh off his bones, and with no sign of her letting go of his thigh, Loren felt cold sweat running down his back.
“I’m the village chief Rose. We’ll be in your care on the road.”
When Rose bowed her head again after introducing herself, Klaus let out a loose smile as he stared at her chests, and at this point, Ange and the other girls finally found out what it was all about, and kicked him, sending him sprawling to the ground.
Looking away from the chief, who looked surprised at what was going on, Loren turned to the people around the carriages, who seemed to be people from Rose’s village, and felt that something was off.
“Loren? I’ll really rip it.”
“Please don’t you’re going to make me wet myself. Well, don’t you think something is off?”
The reason why lapis said “rip off” again was due to the villagers near the carriage.
It was what Loren thought was weird as well.
“Why are there only women in this whole group?”
The ones who were tying up the goods on top of the carriages.
The ones who were loading sacks in there.
All the villagers who were doing them were women, with no men to be found.
Although it wasn’t wrong that men weren’t doing the hard lifting, it was still strange.
There was the slight possibility it was because the village chief was a woman, but even so, no men at all was still not normal.
“Were they all taken to fight the war?”
Lapis seemed to have noticed the slightly unusual sight, let go of Loren’s thigh, and looked around.
No matter where they looked, there were no men anywhere.
“They took all the male villagers? There wouldn’t be many of them in the first place, and they wouldn’t even be much of help anyway. It would instead leave the village without a work force and anger them. I wouldn’t do it.”
“Then maybe they were too busy to come?”
“There’s something more important than getting supplies that’s the lifeline of the village? I don’t know what that could be.”
“That might be true.”
There must’ve been a reason for it, but since Loren was an adventurer hired for a job, he didn’t feel like poking around too deep, so once he chased the thoughts out of his head, the carriages were ready, as Rose called out to everyone.
“We’re going back to the village. We’ll be in your care.”
With that as the signal, the donkeys started pulling the carriages, and the whole group started moving.
Loren and the others put their belongings wherever in the carriage was open and walked next to the slow-moving carriage to guard it.
“I’m surprised you accepted a job like this.”
The one who came near Loren and talked to him was Ange.
Instead of responding, he looked at Klaus, whose body was shrunk up with an apologetic expression on his face, and saw that the other two girls, a knight and a magician, were scolding him.
“You didn’t hear anything from Klaus?”
Although they were temporary members, Loren thought that Klaus would’ve have explained things to his main party members, but also thought that it could’ve been awkward to try talking about it.
“No, we haven’t heard anything. If we knew it was going to be something like this, we would’ve let him do this on his own.”
“Complaining during the job isn’t very impressive.”
“…I’m sorry.”
No matter what the job is, once you’ve taken it, you should complete it.
As Loren noted that that didn’t change whether you were a mercenary or an adventurer, Ange nodded.
Of course, he knew how much she and the other girls would want to complain, so he didn’t blame them.
“He asked us to help. I don’t know about anything else. I know there’s a lot of things you want to say, but even though his motives might’ve been impure, he still wants to help those in need.”
Loren knew that those who were smart would never take this job.
Those who were idiots could’ve taken it to help those in trouble.
Although taking a job with impure motives, but at the same time trying to help a troubled village wasn’t something to praise, it could be having a delicate balancing sense.
But Loren wasn’t sure if Klaus was aiming for that at all.
To be honest, he thought that it was more likely that Klaus took the job blinded by lust, but if he told that to Ange, it would put Klaus in a more awkward place, and there wouldn’t be any good coming out of it.
“Well, just try to keep him in check so he doesn’t go off too hard.”
“With our fists and feet, swords and magic?”
“Wouldn’t there be a more peaceful way…?”
Loren wondered why they thought of using force as their first option, but he concluded that it must be because of their anger towards Klaus had accumulated that much.
As Loren thought maybe he should warn Klaus to be more considerate to his part members, Lapis presented a question.
“You could just let him do things his way, can you not?”
“That could be so, but it’s better to avoid a tragedy if you could, isn’t it?”
“Is that so? I can’t shake the feeling he would go and ruin himself headfirst no matter what you tell him.”
Lapis’ impression of Klaus was almost at the bottom line.
As Loren wondered if women saw things and felt that differently than men did, he patted Ange, who had been listening to him and Lapis with interest, on the back lightly, ending the topic, and redirected his attention to keeping watch around them.