Chapter 313, Prologue: From Opening to Contact
Translator: Lizz

Proofreader: Xemul

There was a rumour that some guerrilla units had been destroyed.

However, the rumour was based on information gathered by the intelligence unit of the Imperial Army, so it was quite certain, and was a bit too much to be called a rumour.

Loren thought that it would be a big deal, but from the Imperial Army’s point of view, it only meant that some of the adventurer-affiliated units, which were not considered a major fighting force in the first place, had been destroyed. The damage to the regular soldiers’ force was apparently not that great, and the town where Loren and his group were located in, did not have any major commotion.

The Adventurers’ Guild, on the other hand, was in an uproar.

After all, all adventurers who had been embedded with Imperial guerrilla units had been killed by an unknown force. Lapis, who had gathered information from the Guild’s branch in town, told them that the damage was so great that the guild had begun to enlist additional adventurers and increase the ratio of silver-rank adventurers.

Loren thought that their opponent was too tough.

The unidentified force that had destroyed the Imperial guerrilla units was probably a girl named Rage, the Evil God of Wrath.

However, the Kingdom also had two other Evil Gods in their ranks: a dark elf who was supposed to have the power of the Evil God of Lust, and the Evil God of Pride who had yet to make an appearance. So, it might not all be Rage’s doing. But even so, any Evil God would be too much for a bronze or iron rank adventurer.

Loren could not help but think that if their people were going to be slaughtered for nothing, the Empire should just stop sending in their forces, but he had no way of communicating this to them.

If it was only about Rage, it would not be impossible to explain since she was the one, they had encountered. However, should they be asked why they knew about the other Evil Gods, they would not be able to explain. There was no way they could say that their two companions were also Evil Gods, and the best Loren could do was to pray that the Empire would get some information and find a way to deal with them before more fatalities and injuries occurred.

Loren, who had been injured in a battle with the Evil God of Wrath, suffered so much damage to his body that he could not leave his bed for several days. By the time he was finally walk again, he had begun to feel his body weakened due to being confined to bed for so long. After receiving permission to move around from his doctor, Loren began a training regimen of swinging his greatsword around in the garden inside the clinic’s premises to strengthen his body.

Wearing only his pants and boots and no clothes on his upper body, Loren was single-mindedly swinging his greatsword when he heard Lapis, who was watching him from a bench nearby, muttered and decided to take a break.

“We have always managed to fight them off or run away from them, so I haven’t really felt it, but I guess Evil Gods are a troublesome existence, aren’t they?”

Loren had been practicing with his greatsword for quite some time, ever since he woke up early in the morning. Sweat was dripping down his body like waterfalls, and in the atmosphere that was considerably cooler than Kapha, where Loren and his companions had originally come from, steam was rising from his body, albeit slightly.

Lapis, seeing this, stood up from the bench and offered Loren a towel that she had apparently prepared in advance. Loren accepted it and used it to wipe the sweat from his neck and face.

“I still can’t find any evidence that the Empire has discovered the existence of any other Evil Gods than Rage.”

Loren was also subjected to the Imperial Army’s questioning. He had been secretly comparing stories with Lapis in advance, in order not to reveal the fact that Rage was an Evil God, and simply conveyed the information as he saw it.

The story of a girl burning down the enemy’s and allies’ armies in an instant was already too ridiculous to be believed. If the information that the girl was an Evil God was added to it, the sanity of Loren’s group might be questioned before any credibility could be established.

“I don’t think they’ve ever seen anything like that. But even I can’t gather information from the central figures of the Imperial Army, so I can’t tell what they’re thinking.”

“Even you can’t do it?”

“It’s not that I can’t, it’s more that I’m not really interested in it.”

It seems that Lapis was not so interested in whether the Empire or the Kingdom had the upper hand in this war. Even if the Empire were to suffer a crushing defeat and be destroyed, she seemed to think that she could just take Loren and run away. It was to be expected, after all, even if she looked like an ordinary priest, she was actually a demon, a race that was abhorred throughout the continent.

“I’m more interested in whether I can somehow meet with the General of the Imperial Army.”

Lapis’ interest was not so much in the course of the war, but in one of the Generals in the Imperial Army, Yuri Mutshildt. The man was originally the leader of the mercenary company to which Loren belonged, but since the destruction of the mercenary company that led to Loren’s becoming an adventurer, his movements have been completely unknown to Loren.

Loren had received information that his former leader was in the northern part of the empire from a member of his old mercenary group, whom he had met by chance on a job not so long ago. However, when they entered the Empire, they found that Yuri had become one of the generals in the Imperial Army, and Loren and his companions, who had been sent by the Adventurers’ Guild, could not easily meet with him.

Lapis was thinking that even if they could not get a meeting with General Yuri out of the blue, they might be able to use the information they had obtained this time to get in touch with someone in the vicinity. Although it would take some time and effort to meet with the desired person, it was still better than nothing, and Lapis was currently investigating who the people around the General were and whether they could meet with them.

“It would be easier if they would initiate contact.”

The Empire must have received information that it was an adventurer by the name of Loren who brought intel about the girl named Rage. It would not be surprising if the upper echelons of the Imperial Army would think to call Loren to obtain more detailed information, but to date, nothing of the sort has been delivered to Loren and his team.

Lapis was somewhat regretful that Loren hadn’t been more suggestive during his inquiry, but in Loren’s opinion, acting strange, even just a little bit, might trigger the officials’ sense of caution if he was unlucky. So, it was best to tell the truth as it was.

“If only we could just force our way through. It would be quicker.”

“Can a priest of the God of Knowledge do such a thing, I wonder.”

“Our God approves of the use of force to obtain necessary information.”

“You’ll definitely make some other priests angry sooner or later.”

When Loren asked her what kind of priest would use force to deal with the guards to meet a general, Lapis’ cheeks puffed up in dissatisfaction.

Thinking that even though Lapis would surely be able to get through the Imperial soldiers and get to General Yuri if she wanted to, she should not go to such lengths in the current situation, Loren resumed his practice.

Loren’s upper body was protected by a jacket he received from an Elder, the highest-ranking vampire, but his legs, covered only by ordinary pants, had some severe burns. Even though he had recovered to some extent, he still felt a cramping sensation and a dull ache when he moved them, and he swung his sword with a grimace on his face.

The fact that he was in such a state after being treated by Lapis and the healer made him think that his original wounds must have been quite severe, and he realized once again that it was a very dangerous thing to challenge that girl Rage head-on.

“We’re going need some kind of countermeasure, or we’ll be damned.”

“We cannot rely on our Evil Gods.”

As Lapis commented, Gula, whose internal organs seemed to have been burned through her authority, was still forced to stay in bed. They believed that Gula, the Evil God of Gluttony, would not die, but her condition was not so good.

A normal human being would have died if their internal organs were burned, but Gula’s condition was improving, a demonstration of the life force of an Evil God.

However, the burning of her internal organs had to be kept in secret from the healers. If they were to know of this, they would have to explain how such a thing had happened and why she was still alive.

As a result, the cause of Gula’s damage was unknown, and she had been left to recover without effective treatment.

As for Luxuria, who was the Evil God of Lust, something no one could guess from his large, muscular body, he had only surface burns, and had recovered enough to be able to move around even if he was still covered in bandages. However, he was still undergoing treatment for his burns as he did not want any scars on his skin because they would be a hindrance in the future. Neither Loren nor Lapis had the slightest desire to know what that future was, and they just left him to his own devices.

“So, the only ones who can move properly are me and you.”

“I’m not so sure about you being able to move properly, Loren.”

[‘Onii-san, if I can use my power, you can heal faster…’]

Loren gently shook his head at the voice echoing in his head.

The voice belonged to Shayna, a girl who had been transformed into the ‘King of Death’, the highest ranking undead, in a previous job Loren had received, and whose spirit had been forced into Loren’s body when Loren had brought her down.

Shayna suggested to used Energy Drain to snatch power from the beings around her, then use that power to supply Loren’s recovery ability, he would recover from his burns in no time. However, the people around them in this city were the Empire’s citizens and soldiers, and using Energy Drain to feed him their power was a method that Loren did not approve of.

“Don’t overdo it. You were burned pretty badly.”

“You’re right. I can feel it when I move.”

If he pushed himself too hard before he was fully healed, he would only delay his full recovery, which would not be good for him. Adding Lapis’s concern to the mix, and Loren began to feel as if he was doing something bad.

Loren decided that it was good enough to be able to move his body to some extent before it became too dull. He was just about to end his practice when he noticed two figures, seemingly of a healer and a soldier, looking in his direction at the doorway leading from the clinic building to the garden.

“It looks like they made contact first.”

“Considering your injuries, it would have been better if it had been a little later, but timing is everything in these things, you know.”

When Loren gestured at the soldier with his chin, Lapis spoke these in a low voice and shrugged, then turned her head toward the soldier who was watching them and, with a friendly smile on her face, waved her hand in his direction.