Chapter 630: I Am the Mother

Under Loren's care, Scarlett had mostly recovered. They would be able to set out in another day, and only one day had passed since Loren and Scarlett first met.

Loren had retrieved his previous magical potions and equipment. He was now prepared for any situation.

"Mmm..."

"Just applying medicine, don't make weird noises."

Scarlett's face was flushed red, but Loren remained completely calm as he applied the medicine to her.

The scars on Scarlett's body visibly disappeared at a speed visible to the naked eye upon contact with the medicine. If Loren were willing to publicly sell this magical potion, he would absolutely rake in a fortune.

Unfortunately, Loren didn't need money. He could just rob someone if he did.

"Alright, rest up for a while. We set out tomorrow."

After finishing applying the medicine for Scarlett, Loren planned to go out and check on the situation.

His control over the God of Pain's side was the lowest, so this time Loren intended to leave some contingencies in place.

"I want to go too..."

Scarlett struggled to get up, but she still couldn't stand steadily.

"Forget it, just rest properly. I'll take Laila and Veronica out."

With Movila absent, Laila could serve as the information position. At the very least, she could detect the witches' locations.

And Veronica could help block detectors. Loren could hide the witches' presence, but he couldn't deal with detectors.

He could only kill everyone who noticed something was wrong.

Walking down the street, Loren was also thinking about what contingencies he could leave behind.

With Scarlett around now, Loren wouldn't lack materials. During his time as Master Mentor, he had embezzled quite a lot of things. Even the treasuries of some major nations might not be as well-stocked as Scarlett's space.

It was just that Loren couldn't conveniently summon Outer Gods. The situation was rather special right now. The Orthodox Gods were all attacking each other, so their defenses against Outer Gods had been lowered. If he tried to summon an Outer God, they might actually be able to descend.

Last time, Loren had only nearly caused the God of Fear to descend, and it almost broke the Holy Flame Empire apart.

Although Loren hadn't seen the specifics, he didn't need to think to know that the God of Light and Fire had paid a considerable price for that.

Loren often used Outer Gods to annoy the Orthodox Gods, but that didn't mean he wanted the Outer Gods to descend.

"We haven't strolled around like this in a long time."

Laila walked up beside Loren and forcefully grabbed his hand. It seemed she didn't want to hold hands, but rather to firmly cling to Loren.

To this, Loren didn't pay much attention:

"Yeah, not only because I disappeared for so long, even before I disappeared we rarely did this."

In the past, even when Loren went out, he would bring a large group of people. Right now, besides Loren and Laila, there was only Veronica.

Veronica followed behind Loren, curiously looking left and right, grabbing Loren's clothes like a child the whole time.

But she looked too mature, to the point that Laila felt a hint of hostility toward her.

When others were with Loren, Laila would only imagine them as her own daughters. But Veronica was different.

When the three of them stood together, it was actually Laila who looked the most like the daughter.

Laila hadn't forgotten that her standing height was about the same as Anna's, though she was a bit taller when lying down...

Veronica also noticed Laila staring at her, so she waved at Laila.

"..."

Laila didn't respond, just turned her head away. Veronica then took the opportunity to grab Loren's other hand, which made Laila's hostility surge out again.

"Wait!"

As Veronica looked on in confusion, Laila pried open the hand Veronica used to hold Loren's, then Laila squeezed between them, holding both of their hands.

"We look like a family of three..."

Veronica suddenly remarked. Those words were like true damage, stabbing straight into Laila's heart.

Lies don't hurt people, the truth is the sharp blade. Of course she understood this principle.

But she had already done it, and she was too embarrassed to back down now, so she could only pretend she knew nothing.

Because of the serial killer's presence, there weren't many people on the streets, only those who had no choice but to come out to work.

Two people stood out conspicuously among the crowd. Everyone else wore tattered clothes, had no shoes, and were covered in blood, but these two were dressed neatly.

They were a couple. The man wasn't particularly handsome, but he had the air of a successful person.

As for the woman, she was a bit plump, with thin lips, prominent cheekbones, and wore glasses. She could make Loren, who didn't believe in physiognomy, start to believe in it somewhat.

"How did these two get together? Is this man really that repressed? Judging by his clothes, he doesn't seem like a Bountiful follower either..."

Bountiful followers were indeed the most repressed followers. Many male followers were willing to give everything to please their women, which also caused the infidelity rate among female Bountiful followers to nearly match that of Plague Believers.

Plague Believers didn't care about such things at all, all defaulting to the idea that their partners were shared.

The most critical issue was that this situation caused certain things to fester among the Bountiful followers, turning their originally advantageous battlefield into a disadvantageous one.

Therefore, because the Bardo Kingdom was relatively more human-like, it was now almost becoming the strongest nation in the God of Plague's territory.

With the rise of certain movements in the God of Bountiful Harvest's territory, coupled with the invention of fertilizer, the Bardo Kingdom could be said to have skyrocketed, with its population able to double during wartime.

Most of these people were surrendered Bountiful followers. Compared to Bountiful followers, the female Plague believers were truly "good girls," at least they wouldn't throw themselves at others or suck their own people dry.

They were equal to all living beings.

With food, with women, with respect, Bountiful followers now wouldn't even resist when encountering the Bardo Kingdom's army. Their only enemy was the execution squad.

But this kind of prosperity only existed in the Bardo Kingdom. Other Plague believers or Followers of Pain wouldn't respect prisoners, so in order to survive, Bountiful followers would fight back with all their might. Once they lost, they would face a fate worse than death.

And so the battlefield reached this strange balance.

Bountiful followers were indeed weak, but they had numbers on their side. Even if five people could kill one person, it was still a profit.

The couple walked into an upscale restaurant. Loren felt it was a bit unlucky, so he chose to take a detour and arrived at a more ordinary restaurant.

"Let's eat here, and bring some back for the others."

"Okay."

When it came to eating, Laila had no particular standards. As long as it was edible.

The three entered the restaurant. There were quite a few people here, indicating the food was indeed good.

Seeing Loren and the others take their seats, the attendant enthusiastically came over and introduced the dishes to Loren. After introducing the signature dishes, she glanced at Laila, then continued:

"Would you like to order some dessert for your child? Our desserts taste great and don't have much sugar, so you don't have to worry about cavities."

"I'm the mom, she's the daughter!"

Laila was completely enraged, standing up and pointing at Veronica. Though even standing up, she wasn't much taller.