The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

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Unlike Loren, who wore light armour, Magna’s entire body was covered with heavy metal armour.

The weight of his armour should have hindered his momentum, but Magna was so fast that even Loren was a moment late in reacting. And because he was approaching at such a high speed, Loren could not see his next attack.

The greatsword that Loren handled was no ordinary weapon; it was originally used by Lapis’ mother, a Demon King. However, the sword held by Magna, which emitted an incredibly powerful beam of light from its blade, could not be considered an ordinary weapon either. As Loren was terrified that he would not get away if he took a hit from it, Shayna’s voice echoed in his mind.

[‘Onii-san! From your left!’]

Even if Loren could not see the attack, it was not impossible for Shayna, the King of Death who possessed abilities far surpassing those of humans, to notice it. 

Even though he did not see where the attack would come from, Loren thought that if he was attacked from the left side, he would be able to manage it as long as he defended that side. He was about to raise the greatsword in his hand to his left when he felt something run down his nape, and he immediately swung the sword to his right.

From Loren’s point of view, it was purely a mercenary’s intuition, but when Loren swung his sword in the exact opposite direction of the information, she had given him, Shayna expressed her surprise. 

But that emotion was transformed into something even stronger when Magna’s sword clashed with the blade of Loren’s greatsword, making a shrill sound.

[‘What?! I definitely sensed him coming from the left!’]

The information that Shayna had conveyed to Loren was that the slash should have come at him from his left side. In reality, however, Magna had slashed at him from the right side. Shayna was surprised at this fact, but Magna was also staring at Loren from the other side of the blade with a similar emotion on his face.

“Hm… You defended against that?” 

Magna found it unbelievable, but so did Loren.

The guy was so fast that Loren had completely lost sight of him, so he was not surprised that what he had thought was coming from the left, like Shayna had, was actually coming from the opposite side. Rather, he felt both miraculous and surprised that he had been able to defend against the blow, and an indescribable emotion swirled around in his chest.

“Coincidence? Or… Anyhow, what an irritating bastard.”

“Whatever. You said you’d talk if I could defend against it.”

Loren said while putting all his strength into the greatsword in a competition against Magna to prevent him from pushing his blade in. Magna, who did not even try to hide his annoyance, began to speak out the information he had promised to tell Loren from the other side of the blades.

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“My relationship with Yuri? He was originally supposed to be my subordinate.”

“What?!”

“There were many problems. He took on someone other than me as his master and disappeared from my sight. I have urged him to return to his rightful place under me, but he shows no sign of complying.”

“The Commander is your subordinate?”

If Magna’s story was true, and taking into account what Yuri had told him, Loren wondered if the master who was not Magna that Yuri had taken on might be himself.

And if he was right, he had to consider that he had some connection to the man in front of him, Magna.

“Who are you? If the Commander was really supposed to be your subordinate, then you must not be just a random suspicious guy.”

“That… The word ‘suspicious guy’ is a bit of an insult. I was supposed to be the King of the world.”

“That… Is there a limit to your delusions of grandeur?”

Perhaps because Loren was paying too much attention to the conversation, the blades were pushed somewhat toward his side. To avoid being pushed away, he changed the angle at which the blades engaged, and, while fending off the pressure from Magna, threw a kick at the guy’s abdomen.

Even if Loren’s strength was extraordinary, he could not hope for much impact due to the metal armour Magna was wearing, but he still succeeded in forcing Magna to move backward somewhat, and Loren took advantage of that to regain his stance and distance himself from the guy.

“I would have at least allowed him to continue his mercenary work if he had offered me his false master. But he refused. He destroyed the mercenary group and scattered its members before I could find the one, I wanted.”

It seemed like the kick hadn’t dealt any major damage to Magan; his expression didn’t even change as he faced Loren, who again held up his greatsword. His shield, which should have disappeared, reappeared, and he held up both the sword and the shield.

“Now, I have only one question for you. Do you know of any member of the group that Yuri was particularly interested in? If you tell me his name and his appearance, I’ll let bygones be bygones.”

From what Loren had just heard, it seemed that Magna had not yet identified the person he was looking for. And from what Yuri and Magna had told him, it was safe to say that the person the guy was looking for was Loren himself.

Of course, Loren has no intention of revealing that to Magna, and therefore he could not answer his question.

“Well, you know. The Commander treated every member of the group equally.”

“Then let me change the question. Who was the youngest member of your group? When he took him, he was just a baby. I am not sure how much time difference there is between Yuri and me, but from the looks of him, the baby must have been quite young.”

From what Loren remembered, he was probably the youngest of the mercenary group that Yuri had led.

He could not be certain of this, however; he did not know how old he really was. But judging from the atmosphere around him and the other members of the group, he thought he was probably the youngest.

“Well, I don’t know about that. All mercenaries have a rough look like me, and you can’t tell whether someone is young or old.”

“You don’t want to speak honestly, do you? Well, that’s all right. Once I catch you and play with you a little, your mouth will loosen up.”

The gap between them was gradually closing as they talked, and Loren involuntarily stepped back to compensate.

He was aware that there was a clear difference in strength between him and Magna, whether it was because of their equipment or their own strength. Moreover, if the guy were to display the kind of swordsmanship like the one, he had just witnessed, he knew from his past experience that this was not an opponent he could win in a head-on clash.

The fact that he was able to defend against the attack earlier was the result of some kind of luck or intuition that Loren himself could not clearly explain, and he had no confidence that he would be able to defend against the same attack the next time it was unleashed.

As Loren was thinking about what he should do to escape, he heard Noel’s voice, which for some reason sounded flustered.

“Magna-sama! Around the perimeter!”

It was not only Loren who wondered what was going on, but Magna as well.

Both looked around warily, but the sight they saw made them feel completely opposite.

“Loren, we’re almost finished with this mess!”

From the other side of the room, Lapis said with a triumphant pose. Gula was piling up the bodies of the soldiers they had apparently defeated at the entrance to the catacombs.

If the entrance remained open, they would really have to deal with all the soldiers packed in this castle. That was why it was necessary to stop the influx of soldiers, and that was why the Lapis and Gula had taken the measure of sealing the entrance with the bodies of the defeated soldiers, regardless of whether they were alive or dead.

Loren could not imagine how they were able to do this, but the wall of flesh built from soldiers, none of whom even twitched, was packed tightly around the entrance and looked extremely difficult to break through.

“We’ve got most of it taken care of over here! But… are you two really a magician and a priest?”

Forcing herself to ignore Storm’s quizzical look, Lapis rushed toward Loren, while Gula glanced menacingly at the remaining dark elves.

“If we can secure the King and Magna, then we’ve won.”

“Good grief. If your pawns are weak, they will just cost you more time and effort.”

Magna shrugged and said in exasperation as he watched Lapis, who had come to Loren’s side and was taking a fighting stance, and the dark elves, who were intimidated by Gula and unable to make a move.

Magna turned to Noel, who looked apologetic, while using his long sword to restrain Loren’s movement.

“Send the dark elves back and wake that thing up. We have no further need for the castle or the king.”

“Magna-sama?!”

“No matter how many soldiers we send against them, it will be meaningless. We have no choice but to crush them with that thing.”

Noel looked at Magna with some hesitation, but when she saw that he would not change his mind, she knelt down on the spot and bowed to Magna before disappearing.

Came to think of it, Gula and the other Evil Gods had the ability to cross space, and Loren wondered if Noel, who had become a similar being, could do the same thing. Just then, a tremor that shook the entire castle caused him to stumble involuntarily.

“What the hell!”

The tremors did not stop.

In fact, rather than stop, they became more and more violent as time went on.

“The ceiling is collapsing!”

“Hey, King! This way!”

In the midst of the panicked knights, Storm shouted to the king, who was standing still. But as if he did not hear him, the king continued to stand there as stones began to pour down from the collapsed ceiling around him.

Protecting his head with his arms, Storm tried to move closer to the king, but the tremors under his feet were too violent for him to move forward as he wished.

“Loren! This is not good.”

“Magna! Do you want to be buried alive too?!”

The collapsing ceiling began to pour down around Loren and Magna.

Seemingly oblivious to the falling stones, Magna smirked at Loren, who was holding Lapis close to him and protecting their heads with the flat of his greatsword.

“If there were anyone to be buried alive, it would only be you guys.”

“Is it that armour again? That’s dirty!”

“Say what you will. What is wrong with a man rightfully using his own possessions?”

As Magna replied, a stone the size of an adult’s head struck him squarely on the shoulder. But it was bounced off the surface of the armour and rolled onto the floor without even making a sound. 

With that armour, Magna probably could walk through the pouring rain of stones as if nothing was happening, and Loren once again gritted his teeth at how absurd magic-enhanced equipment was. 

The tremors became even more violent, and when Loren looked up above his head, he saw the ceiling, which could no longer withstand the shaking, crack wide open and fall down.

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