Chapter 254: From Working To Tracking

Proofreader: Xemul

After returning to the inn, or rather the grounds of the inn, Lapis immediately unwrapped the bundle of flowers that Loren had carried, made a fire, assembled some equipment she had brought out from who-knew-where. After that, she did something incomprehensible: she began to shred and grind the flowers, then stuffed them into some kind of steaming liquid.

“It’s like an alchemy.”

Preparing the equipment, measuring the amount of ingredients to be added, and occasionally checking the progress while stirring, Lapis looked like an alchemist at work, just like Loren said.

“It really is.”

As Lapis answered while stirring the liquid in the pot, Gula, who was standing nearby, peeked into the pot with interest and sniffed at the steam rising from it.

“This… It’s HORRIBLE!!!”

Gula screamed loudly and rolled on the ground holding her nose. Ivy watched her thrashing on the ground with amusement and no intent to help her out. 

Loren, on the other hand, began to stealthily move away from the pot, which seemed to be emitting a smell that would make even an Evil God squirm. Although the smell must be quite strong, it was not spreading to the surrounding area.

“It deteriorates quickly in the air and becomes odorless. Unless you smell it directly.”

Lapis smiled at Loren, who was wary of the smell.

Now that she had mentioned it, it occurred to Loren that Lapis, who was standing near the pot and stirring the liquid that seems to have a smell strong enough to make Gula roll around in agony, didn’t look affected at all.

“The combination of the liquid and the flowers is a special mixture. The recipe is a secret.”

Lapis said this with her index finger raised in front of her lips, but the fact that Loren still didn’t know what she was going to do with the liquid was a bit unsettling.

Regardless of Loren’s feelings, Lapis continued to carefully stir the contents of the pot. She occasionally added something powdery or solid to the liquid, then fanned the rising steam with her hand, took a whiff to sense the smell, added something else, then repeated. 

Loren, who had changed his mind and decided that it would be better to leave the incomprehensible work to Lapis, decided to keep an eye on the surroundings for the time being until the work was finished.

The town of Suest was already quite strange, no matter how you looked at it. Not all the residents seemed to be crazy, but it was safe to assume that the majority of them were. As long as they didn’t know the cause of the problem, it was hard to know when it would happen to them, and this caused a sense of uneasiness. But since he couldn’t come up with a solution even if he thought about it, Loren pushed it out of his mind.

Putting that aside, he had no idea what kind of actions the residents of this town who had gone crazy would take, and he thought that vigilance would be necessary. But there was no one coming from outside the inn, nor was there anyone coming out of the inn.

Time slowly passed, and the sun slowly went down with a reddish tinge mixed with its light, which eventually changed into the colors of night.

Lapis continued her work in the meantime, and the two Evil Gods, perhaps having nothing in particular to do, walked around the area, watching her. With no hesitation, Gula stuck her head back into the steam rising from the pot, then rolled around on the ground.

“Seems like it’s a little earlier today.”

Ivy suddenly said these words as the sun was setting, the sky was darkening, and the stars were beginning to shine.

Loren looked at Ivy to see what she was talking about, and when he saw that Ivy’s gaze was directed towards the outside of the inn, he immediately synchronized his own vision with that of Shayna. 

In the darkening night, with the vision of the King of Death that could see through a darkness that no human eye could see, Loren noticed that again, people were beginning to gather in the immediate vicinity of the inn’s grounds. Moreover, the group that had been only a dozen or so last time, had swelled to more than twice that number this time.

“Lapis, your work…”

“It’ll finish right away.”

Lapis overturned the pot and extinguished the fire by pouring the remaining liquid into it. The remnants of the bonfire made a sizzling sound and spat up a white smoke, making Gula, who had stuck her head into the smoke come out of it and flail around, then ran to get away from it in a hurry. But Lapis fanned the smoke away with her hand without a care and stamped out the remnants of the extinguished bonfire with her foot.

“Preparation’s done. We’re ready to go.”

“Good. Gula and Ivy, you come this time too.”

“Leave it to us.”

“Yes, we should come with you this time. Wait a moment, please. I’m going to seal the wagon.”

While Ivy was working on the wagon parked in the inn yard, Loren kept an eye on the group of people who had gathered and remained motionless.

“It’s eerie to see a group of expressionless people standing still, not moving.”

Lapis commented as she leaned in close to Loren, and Loren completely agreed. 

As they continued to watch the scene, which could only be described as eerie, Ivy walked up to them without making a sound. It seemed like she had finished her work with the wagon. 

“I’m done.”

“Ok. Then, when they start moving…”

Just as Loren was about to say, the group began to move.

They moved slowly, and Loren and his team also began to act. It looked like their destination was the sewer entrance on the west side again, judging from the direction.

“Let’s go.”

Giving a short command, he broke into a run, and the three girls also started running through the night streets after him.

Knowing roughly where they were going, they did not bother to follow the slow-moving group, but instead moved ahead of them to the west side near the sewer entrance. 

Even if the group went down a different road on the way, they would not have to worry about losing sight of them because with Shayna’s ability to detect life essence they knew exactly where they were.

[‘It’s useful, isn’t it, onii-san? Wouldn’t you be sorry to let it go?’]

“Even if you leave me, all I have to do is ask you to do it and listen to the results, right?”

[‘But it’s the power of the King of Death that you can use with no risk.’]

“It’s not my power.”

Loren whispered to Shayna as their group hid near the entrance to the sewers. 

Soon, they saw the group of people coming slowly toward the entrance of the sewers, their faces expressionless. Loren thought that they wouldn’t notice them in such a state, but he hid in the shadows and held his breath just in case.

Without regard for Loren’s team, the group headed straight for the entrance to the sewers, opened the door without hesitation, nor being overpowered by the stench that was coming out, they passed through the door with undeterred steps.

Loren’s team watched the last members of the group entering, after which then door closed, and only then emerged from the shadows where they had been hiding.

“Let’s follow.”

“Dun wanna…”

“Well, well, well, this time we’ve got a plan.”

Lapis said as she held something that looked like white pills in her hand. 

Looking at the numerous pills, Gula concluded that they were probably the solution to deal with the stench that Lapis has been working on for half a day or so, but she didn’t know how they would work to make that stench more tolerable.

“Do we take them?”

“Do you want to?”

Gula frowned as her question was answered with another question, but Lapis was looking at the pills in her hand and not Gula’s reaction.

“I don’t recommend you take them, even though they are not poisonous.”

Lapis said this and clenched the pills in her hand, then suddenly buried her face in Loren’s back and put her arms around his waist. Loren was startled, but Lapis remained in the same position and said in a muffled voice. 

>”Until they take effect, the stench will remain foul. This position is bearable for a while, so please lead the way.”

Not knowing what she planned to do but unable to object, he did not proceed. Instead, Loren walked to the front of the sewer entrance in the state he was in and opened the door. 

The stench that came out immediately made Lapis groan with her face still buried in Loren’s back. Gula, who inhaled it directly, covered her nose and mouth and made a not-very-elegant noise. Ivy, perhaps having thought of this from the beginning, covered her mouth with a cloth she had apparently prepared before Loren opened the door. But the smell was not something that could be prevented with just a cloth, and she covered the cloth with her hand.

“Let’s go.”

Loren was the only one who breathed in the stench properly without covering his nose and mouth. He had to keep his hands so that he could draw his greatsword if something happened. Naturally, he was overcome with an intense nausea, but he had experienced this smell once before, and it was not as if he had never smelled a similar odor on the battlefield. So he managed to hold back as he dragged Lapis down the stairs leading underground.

When they eventually reached the bottom of the stairs, they came to a passageway leading to both sides of the sewer canal Loren had seen before, and he looked around with the vision he had borrowed from Shayna.

Although there must have been a large number of people going down the stairs, by the time Loren’s group arrived, they could no longer see any figures.

As Loren wondered where in the world they had hidden so many people in such a short time, Lapis, who had been fumbling with something, picked up one of the white pills she had just shown Loren and the others and threw it in the general direction of the center of the waterway. 

Bouncing once on the floor of the passageway, the pill fell with a splashing sound into the sewage that filled the canal, and was soon swallowed by the murky water and lost sight of it.

“What’s going on?”

Loren asked Lapis, who had once again hugged Loren tightly around the waist and pressed her face against his back after throwing the pill. But before she could answer, the water around where the pill had fallen began to foam violently.

Loren was prepared for something to appear out of the sewage, but even with the help of Shayna’s vision, there was no sign of life in the sewage. Loren wondered what in the world was bubbling up, then blinked as he suddenly noticed that the unbearable smell had faded.

“Oh? The smell changed?”

Gula, who was holding her mouth and throat in a rather bad manner, released her hand and sniffed the air. Next to her, Ivy, who had been pressing a cloth over her mouth tightly, also released her hand and looked around with a curious expression.

“Looks like it worked.”

The stench of the drainage had faded, and a faint but flowery aroma had begun to waft through the air instead. 

Perhaps confirming this, Lapis released the arms around Loren’s waist and lifted the face that had been buried in his back.

“The pills react with a certain amount of water to produce a gas. The gas generated reacts with the foul odor of sewage and turns it into a flowery fragrance.”

“Amazing.”

“The problem is, it can only change the stench to a limited extent, and it cannot change all the odors that the sewage is giving off. Over time, the effect wears off and the stench returns.”

From what Loren understood, the pills changed an unbearable stench into a tolerable stench with a subtle floral fragrance. The effective range of the gas emitted by each pill was limited, so the pills had to be spread from place to place, and their effects were not permanent. 

“It’s still a big improvement. This is tolerable. It’s about as uncomfortable as walking in a toilet.”

“The pills are originally used in the toilets of our country’s remote areas. It also has disinfecting and insecticide effects.”

Sewage attracted worms, and could itself be a cause of disease. The technology to prevent such things seems to have existed among the demon race, and Lapis was able to use it to explore this sewage system.

“I wonder if this kind of technology will ever leak out.”

“I don’t think it will be possible. As long as humans still detest us demons, at least. It’s not anyone’s fault, though.”

The reason why the human race and other races avoided the demons was because of their evil deeds. 

However, according to Lapis, not all demons were evil, but there was no way for Loren to know if the perception would ever change. In addition, Loren found it a bit difficult to answer the question of which side was worse, the demon race that harbored those who created the reason for the hate, or the human race that continued to hate an entire race just because they were demons.

“I can tell you in secret if you want, Loren. After all, you are a human who doesn’t hate me.”

It wasn’t clear whether Lapis knew of Loren’s thoughts or not, but she said this with a smile. 

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