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In the end, Loren and his team decided to work for Storm. The detailed terms and conditions of the contract were left to Lapis. 

Loren himself was well aware that this was not a praiseworthy move, both as a mercenary and as an adventurer, but he thought it was unlikely that they would be rewarded by Storm, so he left it to Lapis, who seemed more articulate than he was. However, Lapis ended the negotiations quite early.

“He says he’ll make you a Viscount at the very least when all this is over.”

Loren asked Lapis, who was beaming after her conversation with Storm, with an expression that clearly showed he did not believe a single word of it.

“That’s a great deal, but… Do you think he’ll pay?”

Loren thought that promising nobility to an unknown person was a very generous reward. That raised the question of whether Storm really intended to pay it though, and Lapis immediately laughed off his question.

“By no means. Storm may be willing to do so, but the people around him will not allow it. I don’t think a group of outsiders who know about a secret path that even the royal family doesn’t know about will be able to survive after all is said and done.”

If their team had originally been from Storm’s country, the story might have been a little different, but since they were completely outsiders, the information about the secret path Storm mentioned was too important for them to know. As long as the suspicion that the royal family might be in danger if they were not careful never went away, there were limited ways to deal with those who had learned of such information.

“So he’s just going to use and discard us, right from the start?” 

“Even if Storm doesn’t want to, it’s what people around him will do.”

Lapis laughed and said that the end of a person who discovered an insider secret was usually the same for anyone. Gula looked at her in disgust because of the extremely disturbing story, but Loren, who thought that this was normal, did not change his expression when he heard those words.

“Ideally, I’d like to see Magna and them fall down together.”

“Lapis-chan, you are too evil…”

“I don’t want to be told so by an Evil God.”

The team was careful so that no one else would hear their conversation, but it seemed the quickest way to get to Magna was to accept Storm’s offer.

“You have to be careful not to get stabbed in the back while also watching out for the enemy in front of you. What a hassle.”

“Yes, it is. Well, it can be said that it is always troublesome and dangerous for us.”

“I want a more carefree job…”

“Would you like to take over my mother’s business? You only need to sit and relax in the biggest room in a big house and that’s it.”

“You… I’m sure your mother has proper things to do.”

Lapis’ mother was one of the numerous Demon Kings of the demon race. Loren couldn’t help but get the feeling that the work of a Demon King might be something similar to what Lapis had described, but he thought that in reality, as a Demon King was in charge of a fiefdom and its people, there must be a lot of hard work involved even if he couldn’t imagine it.

However, the fact that a Demon King’s own daughter said such a thing made Loren think that perhaps it really was a job that can be done by simply sitting on a throne.

“But the boss is His Majesty the Great Demon King.”

“Oh, thanks but that’s a no. My delicate mind can’t handle that.”

After killing time with such idle chit chat, the time to launch the operation had come. Loren and his team, along with Storm and his men, started to move from the fort to the place where the secret path that led to the royal capital was supposed to be. 

The soldiers who had been stationed at the other forts were to leave one step ahead of them and cause a commotion in a different direction in order to draw the attention of the guards away. 

“This is it. The entrance to the path is in here.”

In the darkness of night, Storm pointed his torch to a small shrine. 

There were no houses in the vicinity, and the shrine itself was so small that if two people entered, it would be cramped to move.

In the center of the shrine was a stone statue of something Loren didn’t recognize, about a man’s height. Storm and one of his soldiers entered the shrine, clung to the statue and began to put their strength into it.

Perhaps because it had not been moved for a long time, or perhaps because of the weight of the statue itself, the statue did not seem to budge for a while. But eventually, as if it had been overcome by the force of Storm and his man, it slowly fell down on its back, making a small creaking sound.

Under the legs of the fallen stone statue was a hole in the ground where a person could somehow crawl into. It seemed to be the entrance to the secret path. 

“It’s going to take quite a while just to pass through it.”

Gula muttered to herself as she looked around at Storm’s men standing by.

Even though they were planning a surprise attack on the royal castle, Storm had only brought about ten men with him in addition to Loren’s team, as he knew that the passage itself was not large enough for a larger number of people to move in.

Including Loren and Storm, there would be a dozen or so people in total. If they went through the narrow entrance one by one, it would certainly consume a lot of time, just as Gula had said.

“There is no other way. We must go as fast as we can.”

Following Storm’s instructions, the soldiers descended down one after another.

Lapis was about to follow when she saw Loren stop in his tracks with a frown on his face. She looked at him curiously.

“Do you think I can fit?”

At the mention of it, Lapis looked at the hole she was about to go into.

Loren was large and muscular. If he had been plump, he could have tried to force his way into the hole, but it would have been difficult for someone as sturdily built as Loren.

“Please take off your greatsword and give it to me. I think you can just manage to pass through then.”

“If I were royalty here, I would have met my end as a fool, killed because I couldn’t get out through the secret passage.”

Loren said jokingly as he removed the greatsword from his back and handed it to Lapis, along with the cloth that covered the blade.

Storm, looking at Lapis, who was holding the sword carefully in her arms and slipping easily through the entrance to the passageway, was both astonished and impressed.

“It’s a very heavy thing to carry, even for people like us.”

“She’s a priest who works as an adventurer. She exercises.”

Loren, inwardly chiding Lapis for not pretending a little that the sword was heavy, slid into the hole through which Lapis had just passed. 

As expected, his large body was stuck, but after some wriggling and bruising, he somehow managed to get through.

“I don’t want to think about going back…”

“Worst case scenario, we could blow the entrance or have Gula break it open for us.”

“Lapis-chan, public eye, public eye, remember?”

Loren grumbled as he received the greatsword back from Lapis, who blurted out some troublesome words in reply, which Gula hurriedly interrupted.

“We don’t have time to waste. Let’s hurry. The entrance can be closed from here.”

The entrance was opened from the outside completely by human power, but it seemed that some mechanism could be used to restore the fallen statues from within the passageway, and when a creaking sound was heard, the entrance through which they had entered, was blocked from above.

After confirming this, the soldiers, full of a sense of tension due to the fact that they were about to enter enemy territory, began to proceed to the end of the pitch-black passageway at the command of Storm, who was the last one to descend.

The passageway, which was only tall enough for Loren to stand without bending over and wide enough for two soldiers to stand side by side, was made of stone, as if to assert that it is indeed made by human hands.

“The floor is just bare earth.”

“If the floor were cobbled, you would hear footsteps.”

Loren, impressed by Lapis’ answer to Gula’s question and wondering if someone had thought that far ahead, followed the soldiers, relying only on the light of the torches to continue onward. He was taking careful steps, knowing that it would be hard to get up if he fell, and it would be a disaster if he got someone else down with him. After some time had passed, he saw that the soldiers had stopped and stopped himself.

“Up here will be the royal castle.”

At the end of the passageway, there was a part of the wall covered with an iron plate. Storm manipulated something on the wall, and the plate opened up.

“Be careful. There might be someone on the other side.”

The soldiers pulled themselves up by the edge of the open exit without a foothold because it was not very high.

This exit was wider than the one Loren and the others had entered through, and Loren was able to pull himself up to the ground with little difficulty by putting his hands on the edge.

“Where are we?”

They were in the middle of a huge coffin, the lid of which had already been opened by the soldiers who had gone first. Loren lifted Lapis, who was trying to pull up after him, while his eyes scanned their surroundings.

The space, dimly illuminated by the moonlight streaming in through a skylight window, was lined with a number of coffins.

Watching the soldiers standing guard in the gaps between the coffins, Loren pulled up Gula, who followed Lapis, and stepped out of the coffin.

“It’s catacombs, isn’t it? There is such a thing in the basement of the royal castle?”

“This is the resting place of the Kings of the past. This largest coffin is said to be that of the First King, but in reality, it is an entrance to a passageway.”

It was difficult to imagine that anyone, even invaders, would go to such lengths to find a secret path by ransacking the coffins in which the dead lay. It might be a hiding place that violated the dignity of the dead, but if that could be ignored or compromised, Loren thought it was a very good hiding place.

“So, what about the king who is supposed to be sleeping here?”

“He is entombed in one of the surrounding coffins. I don’t know which one it is. Let’s move on. It seems that this place is not being watched by Magna and his people, but we can’t be sure that they won’t notice us at any moment.”

One after another, the soldiers drew their swords. Not knowing the extent to which the people in the castle had accepted Magna’s rule, they had to consider the possibility that all of them were enemies. Loren also grabbed the hilt of the greatsword on his back.

“Let’s go. While our allies distract the enemy, we must seize the King and exterminate Magna’s party.”

Storm said as he also drew his sword. The soldiers nodded in response and immediately began to spring into action.

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