It was a quiet night at Kapha city.
A cloaked man in grey from head to toe appeared at the city gate. The cloak made it impossible to tell the person’s gender or look, but the man seemed to be of fairly large built based on the height. The person walked quickly while surveying their surroundings from time to time. In short, a very suspicious person.
People shouldn’t be acting that suspicious if they just wanted to get out of the city. Just as the guards at the gate unthinkingly straightened up as if feeling a hint of anxiety, another person appeared behind the first one. The newcomer grabbed the cloak of the suspicious one and stopped it.
“Where are you trying to go, Loren?”
The one who asked that question was a young girl with a sweet smile and an innocent tone. She was wearing priest’s clothes, and the guards recognized her right away – the girl’s name was Lapis, someone they saw often. So the suspicious figure must be her companion, an adventurer called Loren.
“Leaving the city this early, are you trying to run away?”
“That… That’s right.”
Loren was at a loss for words. Meanwhile, Lapis sneakily tore his cloak off him. Loren appeared to be the same as always, but he wasn’t carrying his greatsword for some reason. Noticing that, Lapis stared at him with narrowed eyes, then forcibly pulled him away by his belt without saying anything.
“Ah, wait. Hey?!”
“You’re delusional if you think you can run away, Loren. But alright, I’ll forgive you. We’re friends after all.”
“This is a misunderstanding. I’m not trying to run away. I just want to go into hiding and cool down for a while…”
“I don’t want to hear it. Listen, let’s just go. I’ve already arranged breakfast at the Guild’s dining hall.”
A big guy being pulled away by a small girl wasn’t a common scene at all. The two guards at the gate watched them go while wondering what the heck was happening and exchanged glances after the couple had disappeared from sight.
Meanwhile, Lapis dragged Loren all the way to the entrance Adventurer Guild’s dining hall. Loren surrendered then, and walked inside on his own. They sat at their usual table at the end of the hall, and a waitress immediately appeared to take their orders. Lapis ordered for both of them, paid, then glared at Loren, who was sitting opposite her.
“I don’t want to cancel our partnership, you know?”
It sounded like an excuse even to Loren, but he felt like he had to say something. Lapis nodded.
“I’m not worried about that.”
“It’s just… Our destination this time is…”
Yesterday, Lapis told Loren that she wanted him to accompany her on the way to her parent’s home. And if one thought about it, this wasn’t about Loren wanting to run away, but about Lapis’ home.
No matter how much like an ordinary human priest Lapis might look, she was actually a demon, a being much stronger than humans, and not very well-liked by humans. Of course, Lapis’ home was in the demon country, on the other side of the mountainous region in the center of this continent. And accompanying her there meant going to the demon country.
It was just natural that Loren would think twice about her request. And the decision he came to after such thinking was to disappear for a while and wait for Lapis to cool down. He left his greatsword behind in case Lapis wanted to send it back to her parents’ home to investigate its origin.
By the way, even though there was no detailed map of the continent, it was generally thought to have the shape of two circles. The line that formed the inner circle was the mountainous region that they would have to cross, inside which there was the demon country.
“So even you would hesitate.”
Lapis muttered with some disappointment. It seemed like her anger subsided a little bit.
“I thought that you’ll be able to accompany me there without caring too much.”
“That’s impossible. I’m just an uneducated, mercenary-raised guy. I’ve been taught about the terrors of demons by my company since I was a kid, you know?”
There were a lot of stories about demons’ infamy. The most extreme story was one about the Demon King, which Loren couldn’t help but think to be greatly exaggerated. But even excluding that story, the stories usually ended up with them being the cause of a country’s destruction, a hero’s corruption, or making part of the continent a dead land where nothing could grow from for ten years at a time just for their own research. There simply was no end to their infamy. Loren thought that all of those were exaggerated to some extent after working with Lapis for a while, but he was still worried, and he told her as much.
“To be very clear, I have a feeling that this will become a hassle.”
“So you’re not scared or angry. I’m not sure if I should be happy or sad about this.”
“I’m having my hands full with only you, Lapis.”
“Am I such a handful?”
Lapis watched Loren intently, looking smug. Being asked that question again, Loren tilted his head. It wasn’t like Lapis gave him a horrible experience or anything.
“Well, I do try to increase your debt. Just a little bit though.”
“That, well… Not good, but alright.”
Loren had to admit that he did have a self-destructive tendency. Treating Gula to a meal this time was probably the most extreme.
“The trip there is a bit dangerous, so I want you to guarantee my safe arrival. Can you come with me for that reason?”
“I’m not sure how much I can trust that.”
Basically, demons looked down on humans. There was a natural gap between the two races regarding abilities, and even if it was left aside, Loren just couldn’t imagine a human ended up safe after setting a foot into demons’ territory. Humans picked fights with humans from lower class, which made Loren sure that he would be treated unfairly no matter what.
“Do I really have to go with you no matter what? How about Gula?”
Hearing the name of the currently-absent third member of their party, Lapis grimaced a little.
“Gula is… She probably could pass as a demon.”
Gula originally had purple eyes like the demon race. She had altered her eyes color by some unknown method in order to live in Kapha. With her purple eyes and abilities, even the ones that were not Evil God’s power, exceeding that of the average humans, she could certainly pass as a demon.
“Besides, I have some personal errand to attend to… I really want you to accompany me.”
“Personal errand?”
Hearing that she went home not only to find out about his greatsword piqued his interest. Even more so when it seemed that he was involved somehow.
“What kind of errand? I might change my opinion depending on that.”
Loren felt like ever since he quit mercenary life and became an adventurer, Lapis had always taken care of him. He was grateful to her, and he believed that if his company would help her solve her errands more smoothly, he would be fine with it even if it meant some discomfort for him.
“Actually, that is… Eh, well. How do you say it? Ah…”
Lapis had some difficulties putting it into words. Since it was a personal errand, Loren wondered if it was something difficult to talk about. After groaning for a while, Lapis seemed to have made up her mind. She cast her eyes down and murmured in a small voice:
“It’s a good opportunity… to introduce you… to my parents.”
It was now Loren’s turn to be taken aback. Demons’ custom wasn’t his area of expertise, but for humans, introducing someone to one’s parents meant the two had an intimate relationship. To be more specific, it meant the two wanted to be partners, or had already decided to be partners. Even Loren knew that much.
Hearing that Lapis wanted to introduce him to her parents, Loren didn’t know how to reply. Seeing him like that, Lapis waved her hand in a fluster and talked rapidly:
“Of course, we’ll let it go this time if it’s too troublesome for you. I can also go home on my own if you really don’t want to go no matter what… What do you think?”
Lapis asked like that while looking up at Loren, making it unable for him to deny her upfront. He had no way to know what Lapis was thinking about introducing him to her parents, but leaving the ‘good opportunity’ part aside, Lapis did seem to have thought about it seriously, and she did deserve a serious answer.
“Did you fight with your parents because of the human race?”
“Th-that’s too direct… I’ve planned to wait a bit more, until both parties can understand each other more. But, but, you’ve saved me from many dangerous situations. I was also able to recover both my arms thanks to your help…”
Loren looked at her with admiration. She was speaking fast, but her speech was still smooth. As she finished and stared at him with a slightly blushing face, there was nothing else for him to do but to answer her after a deep sigh:
“I see. I’m not sure how it’ll turn out, but I’ll go with you.”
Having successfully extracted an agreement from Loren, Lapis’ face brightened.
“Just leave it to me, Loren. Except for the trip itself, I will support you. Mother is my ally, but it’ll be alright with my father too.”
“There are at least two things from that statement of yours that make me feel concerned…”
The first thing was, she didn’t deny even once that the trip to the demon country would be a dangerous one. The second thing was, it seemed like her father might have some kind of troublesome reactions when meeting him. But Loren wasn’t the type to suddenly go back on his words – he grumbled in a resigned tone:
“Please do. I’m betting my life on just knowing the true character of my greatsword.”
Loren said, but he was still thinking about how troublesome this whole trip would be. But Lapis somehow decided that the talk was already over, so she greeted the waitress that brought their breakfast over and began to set the food on the table.