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Soon after Dauna neutralized Rage with his authority, the Kingdom army was forced to retreat before the attacks of the Empire army.
The Kingdom army, which had originally been outmatched by the Empire army in terms of the quality of its troops but had been able to compensate with the power of Rage, naturally was unable to defend itself against the Empire with her gone.
The Empire army, which had almost unilaterally launched an offensive this ti, was not about to let them get away, and was attacking into the Kingdom’s territory to pursue them, but the adventurers were not taking part in this battle.
They were participating only under the pretext of supporting the Empire forces, who had been under attacks. When the Empire force took on the offensive role, their cooperation was deed to be over, and the adventurers began to return to the towns and villages they were based in.
In the midst of all this, Loren and his group still stayed in the town where the Empire’s army was based, with the main reason being, to hear Yuri’s stories about Loren.
Although Loren himself did not seem to care much about it, Lapis was interested, and since Yuri himself did not say that he would not talk about it, she was planning to ask him when the war was over.
However, this had proved to be unsuccessful.
“General Yuri is in command of the pursuit of the Kingdom army and is currently accompanying the troops on the front line.”
When the soldier in charge of guarding the base inford Loren and the others of this, Lapis looked as if she wanted to say ‘Darn it!’, but it was already too late.
If they wanted to try to force Yuri to talk, they would have to follow him to the front line, and if they did that, they would be drawn into the war between the Empire and the Kingdom, whether they wanted to or not.
“I’m sure he’ll get in touch with you sooner or later if he feels like talking. It’s just how the Commander is.”
“Is this alright with you, Loren?”
Loren thought for a mont and then asked Lapis in a slightly hesitant tone.
“Suppose I were soone else that I don’t even know. Would that change the way you treat ?”
“That’s an unexpected question.”
Lapis, who looked genuinely surprised, nevertheless imdiately answered Loren’s question.
“It’ll be a different story if you are a mortal enemy of my family or sothing, but fortunately both my parents are alive and well, so that can’t be it. And, Loren is just Loren, aren’t you?”
“Then that’s good, isn’t it?”
“It is. Yes, it’s all very good.”
Lapis seed completely pleased with Loren’s question and her own response, so that discussion ended there.
However, there remained one more problem: Rage, who Dauna had neutralized on the battlefield.
The authority activated by Dauna had completely enclosed a corner of the battlefield in ice, and all of the Kingdom soldiers that were caught up in the ice had died. Loren thought that if they could be revived from that state, they could no longer be called human, but Rage was an exception.
As expected of an Evil God, the ice encasing Rage lted as soon as Dauna’s authority expired and ambient temperature returned to normal, and although she was unconscious, she was still alive. Not knowing what would happen after she woke up, if they just left her there, Loren’s team brought her back together with Dauna, who had fallen asleep.
As for the damage to the soldiers that Dauna’s authority had caused, the Empire soldiers who had seen Loren’s group fleeing were mostly spared; only a few who were unlucky and unobservant were late in escaping. However, a good number of Kingdom soldiers were caught up because they were standing on the spot, and they remained standing there as cold, white ice sculptures even after Dauna’s authority had lifted.
“Damn it… I’ve lost… Let go…”
After regaining consciousness, Rage was in a state of utter despondency that was unimaginable from what they had seen on the battlefield.
No one knew when she would use her power and unleash fires again, so she was imprisoned in a military facility on the outskirts of town.
Tied with a thin tal cable to prevent her from imdiately burning it off, she sat cross-legged in the center of the prison cell, her face sullen. For so reason, it was left up to Loren’s team to decide what to do with her.
‘General Yuri’s decision’ were the words of the soldiers, but Loren couldn’t shake the worrying question of ‘why him?’.
“Is this going to be alright?”
Loren, who had been led into the prison to see Rage, watched her through the bars and asked. Lapis tilted her head while Luxuria shrugged.
“Dauna’s ‘blessing’ is very very bad, you know.”
It was Gula who said this as she looked into the prison cell. And for so reason, Klaus was standing nearby.
As they were already present here, Loren and his team could not stop Klaus from coming to check on Rage. Of course, they would not tell Klaus about Evil Gods, so they explained the authority of Evil Gods as a blessing, similar to what Klaus himself possessed.
Loren thought it was a bit of a stretch, but so far Klaus seed to be convinced without any particular doubts.
“Simply put, the blessing is to demotivate all beings within the area of effect. When sothing is demotivated, it tries to stay where it is. And when everything stops, that’s what happens.”
“So, you yourself are unscathed because of your abundant tolerance. That’s scary.”
Dauna, the one who had caused such a phenonon, demanded a place to sleep after, as if he had done a lifeti’s worth of work, and now occupied a room at the inn where Loren and the others were staying and continued to sleep.
Loren thought it might be a backlash from using his authority, but Gula told him that Dauna’s power as an Evil God had weakened sowhat because he had worked despite being Sloth, who should not work at all, so he now had to laze around to regain his power.
“You an she is still under the influence of Dauna’s blessing?”
“Yes. It’s going to be like this for a while.”
Loren thought that if the authority Dauna had displayed were to be used too often, it would be horrible, particularly because it was almost impossible to defend against it. Even if you tried to defend with magic, it seed that magic itself would lose its own motivation and beco ineffective.
If there was any saving grace, it was that Dauna himself was the embodint of laziness, and almost never made a move on his own.
“Goddamn you… Rember what you did to …”
“She is indeed Rage, still cursing this much despite being under Dauna’s influence.”
Loren wondered what to do with Rage, who was still continually swearing despite being completely listless.
The easiest and safest way would be to dispose of her right here and now.
Normally, they would have had to prepare for a lot of resistance, but now that she had lost her willpower, he felt that they could do it without too much trouble.
‘But’, Loren turned his attention to Gula.
Loren expected that Gula, an Evil God, would not feel very good about disposing of Rage, who was also an Evil God. He could sense that Gula, who was peering into the prison cell, was asking him to sohow spare her life.
He considered passing Rage over to Gula, but then he wondered if it would be a good idea, since she would be too much for Gula’s group to handle once she regained herself.
“Hey, Klaus, you did hit on her once, right?”
“It’s a man’s duty to hit on a pretty woman.”
As Klaus answered Loren’s question clearly and decisively, Lapis and Gula glared at him with disgusted eyes while Luxuria looked at him admiringly.
“This child sure has got a lot to offer, doesn’t he?”
“It makes shudder just to think that he’s in the sa league as Luxuria. “
“I wonder if it would be possible to seal them together sowhere.”
While each of them proclaid their different sentints, Loren pondered for a mont, then made a suggestion to Klaus.
“Well then, why don’t you take her to your place and take care of her?”
Lapis’ and Gula’s eyes widened as if saying ‘What are you talking about’.
Luxuria, however, clapped his hands as if saying ‘Good idea’, and Klaus, who was the one who had been told to do so, replied instantly with fiery enthusiasm in his eyes.
“I-Is it really alright?!”
“No, wait a minute, Loren. This is the man who was almost killed because he tried to seduce Rage.”
Talking rapidly, Lapis tried to stop them in a panic, but Loren responded by pointing to Rage in the prison cell.
“That’s true, but she almost fell for Klaus, didn’t she? So, if he talks to her properly, it might work out better than you think.”
“B-but…”
“I don’t want to take care of her, and with how things are, we can’t dispose of her in good conscience, can we? So, I think it would be best to let soone who had the best chance to succeed to persuade her and take care of her.”
Klaus already had the skills to turn the girls in his party into his companions, even though they might say otherwise. Loren’s argunt was that, even if a fourth person were added to the group, he would sohow manage to make it work.
The underlying reason, however, was the idea that handling it by themselves would be too much trouble and should be left to Klaus, who seed to be good with won. But Loren never ntioned this.
“Ange and the others will resent you for this.”
Lapis, perhaps reading his thoughts, leaned in close and quietly whispered to Loren, who also answered in a whisper.
It was not as if there was no rit; if Klaus could successfully persuade Rage, his party could expect a huge boost in strength. And even if there was no rit to it, Loren believed that Klaus would not refuse if he was asked to take care of a pretty girl like Rage.
“She’s going to be like this for a while. Convince her before things get out of hand.”
“Leave it to . There may have been so unfortunate misunderstandings, but I’m sure that if we talk courteously, she will understand.”
As Klaus answered with a needlessly sparkling smile, Loren looked relieved to hear the trouble had been taken care of.
He patted Lapis, who still wondered if it was really okay, on the shoulder and looked at Gula, who nodded, albeit slightly.
“Hey, Rage. I’ll leave it up to you whether or not you want to accept his offer. If you don’t like it, you can ask Gula for help. You can contact her, can’t you?”
“Don’t tell what to do…”
“I’m not telling you what to do. It’s just a favour. In any case, you lost to us once, so be a little more accommodating, okay?”
Thinking that she would beco stubborn if he forced it on her, Loren used the word ‘favour’ instead.
Hearing that, she stared at him through the prison bars.
“…I understand.”
After a few monts, Rage nodded reluctantly despite being seemingly out of it.
Although he did not know how effective the verbal agreent, they had made on this occasion would be, Loren thought from Rage’s behaviour that she would not revoke it.
“We’re done with the clean-up here. Let’s go back to Kapha. We should do so work and make so money.”
Seeing that their job here had ended, Loren tried to sound cheerful, but Lapis whispered.
“That’s true. And your debt is not decreasing. How about just give up and marry ?”
Reminded once again of the huge debt he owed, Loren’s expression turned gloomy, and he lightly poked Lapis on the head with a wry smile.
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