The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

After spending the night in a village on the way to Karlovy, the party set out again the next day for their destination.

The thought of trouble awaiting them ahead made their legs heavy, but Loren was thankful that they did not encounter any demons or bandits along the way, and the journey went smoothly.

As a result, Loren and his group arrived at their destination, the town of Karlovy, in about half a day's time after leaving the village in the morning.

Karlovy was, in Loren's opinion, more like a village than a town, with its rows of wooden buildings. However, it boasted a scale that could hardly be considered a village; it surely was as big as a town as its name suggested.

Surrounded by grasslands and small forests, the terrain lacked height, but it was also a place that could be described as tranquil, with occasional herds of wild beasts, perhaps herbivores, visible in the distance.

"It's not a bad place."

Loren muttered to himself as he felt a pleasant breeze blowing through the open carriage windows, even though it felt a little cold.

They were supposed to wait in the carriage while Klaus visited the numerous inns in town by himself and booked one large enough to park the carriage. Now, they were waiting for Klaus to come back.

Normally, it would be very difficult to get so many rooms at one place, and Klaus had feared that they might have to stay at different inns. But after entering the town, such fears vanished.

The town could hardly be called lively, after all.

There were indeed stores and stalls here and there along the streets, and the number and size of inns seemed to be quite large. However, there were no innkeepers out on the streets to attract customers, and the stalls did not appear to be doing any business at all, with the stall keepers looking somewhat bored while sitting on the edge of their chairs or the shelves displaying their wares.

The shopkeepers didn't look as if they were not interested in doing business, but rather as if they were unable to do so because there were no customers in the town. Loren, with his hair blowing in the wind, continued to look out the window at the city, wondering what in the world was going on.

"Something is clearly not right, isn't it?"

Lapis, who was still sitting next to Loren, spoke when she noticed that he continued to look out the window.

"There are stores, but no customers. There are shops, but no customers, and I don't see any tourists. Something must have happened here."

"For me, as long as I can enjoy my vacation, nothing else matters."

It was very Lapis to say terrible things so nonchalantly, but Loren thought that it was also the truth thinking that this is also the truth and decided to not take her words to heart.

While Loren was musing about how frightening it was to have the power to take the matter of life and death for someone else as something trivial, he heard in the back of his mind the voice of the mental body of Shayna, a girl who almost became the King of Death and was now living in a corner Loren's inner self.

['Aren't you capable of the same thing, onii-san?']

'You're overestimating me', Loren thought.

It was true that he had encountered and survived against many opponents that no copper or iron rank adventurer would ever encounter, but it was something that he managed thanks to good luck and his partners; Loren was sure that he would have been dead long ago if he had been on his own.

He told Shayna this, and she became silent again without saying anything more, although she seemed to be somewhat unhappy. Loren smiled wryly, wondering if he had given the roommate who shared his mind the impression that he wished to be stronger. Just then, he caught sight of Klaus returning.

"It's a little hard for me to tell if I'm lucky or unlucky."

As soon as he returned, Klaus climbed onto the driver benched and started the carriage. His voice was so clear that it could be heard over the noisy sound the carriage made as it moved along the deserted street.

"I found a place to stay pretty easily."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

Even though he knew it was probably not true, Loren still tried to say as an answer. Klaus seemed to know that Loren of course would not agree wholeheartedly, and he shook his head with a wry smile.

"It can't be a good thing, can it? Well, we'll talk about that later, but first let's eat. It's probably time."

It was about time for a rather late lunch. None of them had lunch yet, thinking that since they were arriving in Karlovy anyway, it would be better to eat something tasty at a diner in town, even if they had to endure a little more. In other words, everyone was hungry to some extent, and Klaus' suggestion was accepted without any opposition from anyone. But Loren somehow realized what Klaus was thinking by suggesting having a meal first instead of heading to the inn that he had gone through the troubles to get.

People were creatures that were influenced by their mental state. When they were hungry, they became prone to anger, but when they were full, they wouldn't get angry at the slightest thing. It was impossible to know how much anger the girls would feel if they were given bad news with empty stomachs. Klaus probably thought that it would be less damaging to satisfy their hunger first and then broached the main issue when they were calmed.

No one knew how successful this would be until they tried it, but Loren could only hope that it would be successful.

As Loren was thinking about this, the carriage headed for a restaurant that was so luxurious that he would never think of entering it under normal circumstances. Watching from inside the carriage, Loren couldn't help but feel his mouth hanging open a little at the atmosphere given off by the magnificent restaurant, the likes of which he had never been in before in his life.

The restaurant was not only luxurious; it was so huge that it must have taken a lot of money to build. While Loren and the girls were looking up at the establishment, Klaus was in the process of asking someone from the restaurant to tie the carriage up somewhere.

"Are we going in here?"

With her mouth hanging open, Ange asked Klaus, who had just returned from the carriage procedure, as if she were trying to get at him. But Klaus smiled while restraining her with his hand.

"Of course. I'll pay, so rest reassured."

Klaus tapped his chest, and the girls cheered. The fact that Klaus would offer to treat five people, excluding himself and Loren, with no limit must mean that he was making a lot of money. Loren let out a small sigh.

"…Don't get too reassured though."

Loren warned Gula, whose eyes were sparkling at Klaus's words. Klaus probably did not know this, but if Gula were to order food and eat while feeling completely reassured about the bill, all the food in the restaurant in front of them would be devoured entirely, and since Klaus's wallet was not infinite, it would surely run out. Loren didn't care much about the depletion of Klaus's wallet, but he would feel sorry for the other girls if they suddenly ran out of money after just arriving for their vacation.

"I'd like to eat without any worries just for once."

Gula, perhaps anticipating Loren's warning, looked into the distance and muttered. But Loren couldn't guess how much food she would consume if she were to eat without any worries, and besides, that would weaken her Evil God's power, so he wasn't about to let her do that.

"So, what do you serve here?"

They went in. The high ceiling and wide space of the restaurant made the lack of customers even more noticeable. Still, looking at the occasional tables with customers, they could see some kind of boiled or grilled food.

A group of seven customers like their group seemed to be quite rare, and the waiter who guided them from the entrance to their table was exceedingly humble.

"We serve almost everything, but I recommend meat dishes. Karlovy's specialties are the assault bull hot pot and grilled meat. And when you return home, some jerky would be a welcome treat."

They ignored the waiter, who was trying to get them to order not only food but also souvenirs, and Klaus ordered a few recommended dishes.

"If we're going to eat meat, we have to drink. Klaus, I'll leave it to you too."

"Alright, Leila. Let me order some too."

Leila declared in a good mood. Klaus returned her smile and ordered some alcoholic beverages from a different waiter. Loren took his seat; he had no idea what were coming despite the names, but he heard how much Klaus ordered and decided to swipe some of it. Leila surely couldn't drink all of that by herself.

After waiting for a while, the food was brought to the table by several waiters, which made Loren wonder if they could really eat all of it.

The dishes, which were steaming hot and sizzling on the griddle, were appetizing from both looks and smell. And although there were seven of them in total, Loren estimated that the amount of food was intended for twice that many.

"Hey, this is…"

"It seems there is too much of a difference between beastmen's serving and ours."

It was said that the beastmen ate more than humans. It was only natural that the amount of food for one serving would be different accordingly, but Klaus seemed to have ordered without taking this into consideration.

"It would be wasteful to leave leftovers."

"I don't think there will be any."

Loren didn't know how much Leila, Ange, and Laure could eat, but with Gula here, he was sure that there was no way there would be leftovers.

"Maybe you can manage it, Loren? With such a big body, I guess you eat a lot."

Considering their appearance, it was certainly not surprising that Loren, who was the biggest, would be considered the best eater. That was why it was understandable for Klaus to say such a thing while giving him a smile.

But in reality, of course that was not the case, and Loren, feeling a slight headache at the prospect of Gula's solo performance, patted Klaus on the shoulder. The guy probably did not understand why Loren looked so gloomy.