The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

Proofreader: Xemul

“Hey Lapis, I have a quick question.”

“Don’t worry, Loren, there are a lot of smart people here. It may take some time, but I’m sure we’ll come up with an answer.”

Lapis, probably thinking that Loren was worried, said this in a gentle voice as if to reassure him. It was not quite what Loren wanted to hear, but he kept his mouth shut, wondering if it was a sign of Lapis wanting to think about it some more.

In the meantime, various discussions were going on between Gula and Dia, but there was no indication that they would be able to reach a fruitful conclusion.

“What do you call a being that encompasses all kinds of magical things?”

“Chaos? But if that is the answer, how can the Ancient Dragon not have reached it?”

“Then it must be some kind of religion or alchemy…”

“Are you talking about the ‘All is one, one is all’ thing? That’s an idea, but it doesn’t answer the question of what the being is.

Loren didn’t even understand half of the conversation between Gua and Dia, but the only thing he was sure of was that what they were discussing was not the answer to the question at hand.

The reason Loren was so sure of this was very simple.

“Hey, I know the answer to that riddle.”

Deciding that if he let the discussion continue on and on, it seemed unlikely that they would ever reach an answer, Loren opened his mouth and stated.

Lapis, Gula and Dia, who had been thinking hard about the answer, froze up. Loren wondered if it was such a surprise, but what he said seemed to be very shocking to the three of them. They all looked at him as if they did not believe his words at all.

“Really? If it’s true, I’d like to know.”

“Yes? This is my answer. That is the mythical beast Quadra Cedrofiggie Elp.”

“What?”

Loren’s words made Lapis’ expression crumble.

But Lapis, who looked at Loren with a face that clearly showed she was wondering what in the world this person was saying out of the blue, still had a better reaction than the other two. Gula and Dia had snickered, though small, as soon as he spoke those words.

From their point of view, Loren’s words were nothing more than a bunch of nonsense. Of course, there were tales of mythical beasts all over the world, but none of them had been verified, and they did not believe them to actually exist. To the three of them, this gesture of Loren was just like that of a child loudly declaring the existence of his imaginary friend, but their faces turned from blue to deadly white as they watched the golden door slowly open as if being pushed from the inside.

“You gotta be kidding me…”

“I wonder why you don’t know about it. When I was a kid, our leader told me about this fantastic beast that appears in fairy tales. When the hero gets lost, it comes out and shows him the right path.”

“I’ve never heard of such a story?!”

“I’ve never heard of it either…”

“This is… Ah, so that’s how it is. It’s only logical that we didn’t know.”

Dia, who had recovered quickly, tapped at her temple with her index finger and muttered something. After a while, seeming to be finally satisfied, she sniffed and crossed her arms. Loren, who had assumed that everyone knew about the tale of that mythical beast, had no idea what the Elder was satisfied with, but Lapis and Gula, who still did not fully understand the situation, continued to cling to the topic.

“Don’t be so proud of yourself. Explain it to me, please.”

“Yeah. If it continues like this, I’m going to feel bad no matter what happens.”

“It’s nothing complicated. We thought the letters on the door were a riddle, but this is not a riddle at all. It was not asking for a key to unlock the door, but just a pre-set password.”

A riddle was one whose answer can be deduced from the problem statement. But what was required here was not an answer to the problem statement, but a password that had been set from the beginning. In other words, the question engraved on the door was not intended to be solved, but was simply a sentence that required a password to be answered when asked.

It was a lock that could only be unlocked by knowing the password, and no matter how hard you tried to think about the question, you would never be able to solve it.

“The name of the mythical beast that Loren mentioned is just a string of words with no particular meaning. But if you consider it a password, meaning isn’t necessary. It is just a password to open this door.”

“How is that possible? And who is the leader of your company to know the password, Loren?”

“Even if you say so, I have no idea. I was only told by the leader that it was a fairy tale that everyone knew.”

“How can a story with such an incomprehensible and long character name be a common fairy tale?!”

“It’s no use telling me that. Well, isn’t it fine as long as the door is opened?”

Gula, who felt as if she had been cheated in some way, was still dissatisfied even after Loren’s explanation, but Lapis, who had recovered after Dia, had already turned her interest not to the door or what was behind it, but to the leader who had taught Loren the fairy tale. Dia seemed to feel the same way and whispered in Lapis’ ear as she watched Gula continued to complain and Loren continued to pacify her.

“I think it’s worth looking into. I cannot move too openly though.”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

Lapis nodded with a serious look on her face, but quickly changed her expression and shoved Gula, who still seemed unconvinced, away from behind and took Loren’s arm.

“Hey?”

“Well, let’s leave the complicated things for later. Now that the door has been opened, why don’t we take a look at the Ancient Kingdom’s treasure, something that even an Ancient Dragon said to be of great value?”

“That’s fine I guess…”

Gula, who had been pushed from directly behind with considerable force when she was off-guard, plunged face first into the floor of the ruin and was stuck in a prostrated posture with her butts sticking up. Loren was worried that it must have been quite painful, but he was pulled through the newly opened golden door by Lapis, who tugged on his arm.

Behind the door was a large room. The room, which had no doors other than the golden double-leaf door, seemed to be a dead end, and considering the distance from the entrance to the room, he got the impression that it was a rather small ruin. If the only purpose of the ruin was to house some kind of armor, it was understandable that it would be small and compact.

In the center of the room was a sunken area filled with water, and in the center of the area was a set of golden armor that was probably the reason this ruin was built, placed in the position of a knight kneeling before his lord and hanging his head. It radiated such a powerful force that could be recognized even from a distance, indicating that it must be a very valuable and powerful item.

“It’s a little gaudy, but… It’s no wonder this ruin was built to store it.”

“It gives me chills even from a distance. Gaudy though.”

“It’s so bright that my eyes hurt.”

“I don’t know who made it, but they had bad taste.”

“Then let’s destroy it.”

All eyes were on Loren as he drew his greatsword and held it ready with both hands. Loren blinked as he noticed this, and when he asked if he had done something wrong, Gula snapped at him.

“Why do you want to break it all of a sudden?!”

“No, but I’m not going to wear something like this. It’s too gaudy.”

Gula looked back at the golden armor. Its shape was so well formed that it must have been made by a highly skilled craftsman. The carvings and decorations on the surface were also magnificent, made from various precious metals and gems. It was definitely a wonderful item worthy to be displayed as a work of art, but when asked if it was practical to wear in battle, even though it was not exactly impractical, it would take a lot of courage to wear such a shiny, gilded piece of armor.

“But this is an armor imbued with magic? It must be quite powerful?”

“Then, Gula, do you want to wear this?”

Loren pointed to a golden armor. Gula imagined herself wearing it and immediately shook her head. He then looked at Lapis and Nim, who also shook their heads, as did Gula.

“There’s no way I can wear it because of my height, so don’t even ask.”

Dia said this before Loren’s gaze turned to her, and they all agreed that they did not want to use the armor in front of them.

“But I’m sure Magna will wear it when he gets it.”

The fully-black plate armor was also quite conspicuous. If Magna could wear it with such a nonchalant expression on his face, it would certainly be easy for him to wear this golden armor.

“Even if we put it somewhere else, the bastard will always come after it as long as it’s there. And if we leave it here, there’s no guarantee that Konin will be able to protect it forever.”

“If they can’t open the door, we should be fine, right?”

The door to the room where the armor was stored had been unlocked by Loren. Lapis thought that if the door could be locked again by closing it, it might be possible to continue sealing it as long as the name of that mysterious beast was not known.

However, Loren denied this.

“It’s a ‘maybe’. And if he gets words that we opened this place, we’ll be troubled again.”

Even if someone did not know the password, it was natural to think that if they had information about someone else who did, they could get it from that person. In this case, Loren and his team would be pursued by Magna even more aggressively than before, and more trouble would await them in the future.

“So, I think it’s best to destroy it, don’t you?”

“I kind of do.”

“If you don’t want to use it, but you don’t want it to be used, then destroying it is the most reliable solution.”

“It’s a shame, but if it’s from the Ancient Kingdom, I suppose it doesn’t matter.”

“Do what you want with it, Loren.”

“Then let’s destroy it with a bang.”

With Greatsword in hands, Loren’s presence increased. With the activation of the self-boost technique, the magic sent into his entire body enhanced his abilities, and Loren kicked at the floor and rushed at the armor, wind whipping around his body.

The great sword that was swung down cut the armor that was resting on its knees at an angle from the shoulder, and the returning blade further sliced through the wreckage of the armor that had been cut in two, breaking it into pieces. The surface decorations shattered with the impact, and Nig, clinging to Loren’s shoulder, diligently gathered up the glittering fragments and gems for some reason.

“What are you collecting them for? Well, I guess they might be worth some money.”

“Nig’s kind of spider eats minerals to harden its outer shell. Gemstones and metals are just minerals in the first place.”

As Lapis pointed out, Nig brought the pieces it had been collecting to its mouth, chewed them up and swallowed them, although Loren did not understand the logic behind this. After eating some, it stopped collecting pieces, perhaps satisfied.

What had been eaten couldn’t be traded for money; Loren shrugged, put his greatsword back on his back and turned to the others, who were watching him.

“Alright, let’s go home then.”

“Somehow this job ended easily, didn’t it? I think it’s a good thing, but it feels like something is missing to have Loren come out of this with no damages.”

“It’s strange to call this one easy. Normally, we would have definitely died somewhere.”

What Nim said was probably the common way of thinking, but perhaps experiences also played a part in such things, and as Lapis said, also Loren felt a little bit like something was missing.

However, if he thought about it calmly, since no one was missing and no one was sent to the hospital as usual, this job must be considered a great success, and Loren concluded that there must be something wrong with him for feeling unsatisfied. He urged his companions, who were looking at him, to leave the ruin behind.

Lizz: in the post script, author did apologize for how this all ended and asked to refrain from too agitated attacks in the comment section 😀