The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary (Light Novel) Series

A gritty swords and sorcery tale of a veteran mercenary who must start anew after he loses his old company. (And don’t miss the manga adaptation, also from Seven Seas!)

One by one, the mercenaries who raised Loren fell in a terrible, bloody battle. The lone survivor in a hard world with only his wits and his sword to his name, Loren hires himself out as an adventurer. His new party, however, proves all too willing to run headlong into danger using him as their meat shield. Only Lapis, the party’s sly priest, sees his true worth, just as Loren sees hers. They must rely on each other, or else neither of them will live to see the end of their first adventure.

INTO THE DEMONIC DARK

Loren’s enigmatic partner Lapis never did explain how the enchanted greatsword in her family’s keeping mysteriously found its way into his hands. But no matter how Loren likes to let Lapis keep her secrets, some tales must be told. Together, they set off to the fabled lands ruled by demons. But first they’ll have to make it through the cave system that protects demonkind from the rest of the world, which quickly proves as immense as it is deadly…

WIND AND FLAME

Loren’s wallet is never heavy, and these days it’s even lighter than usual. Gula Gluttonia, dark god of gluttony, is devouring everything in sight and leaving Loren to foot the bill. Now Gula’s antics have also brought Loren face to face with a fragment of his mercenary past: the renowned Infernal Edge, a mercenary as legendary as the mysterious Cleaving Gale. As luck would have it, the Infernal Edge is hiring muscle, and if Loren can meet her expectations, he might finally break even.

DESIRES DARK AND DIVINE

Fresh off his promotion to iron rank, Loren takes on a request from an old friend, Claes. A supply run to a nearby village needs security, which Loren and Lapis can happily provide. However, to reach the village, they must pass through a dangerous forest that devours everyone who dares to enter it. All too soon, Loren suspects they’ve identified the culprit behind these disappearances—the dark god Gula Gluttonia. But Gula isn’t the only threat lurking in the night, and her hunger isn’t the only one threatening to spiral out of control.

BLOOD RUNS THICKER

Despite Loren’s seemingly unending string of losses, the adventurers’ guild has noticed his promise. They offer him a chance to take a test to prove his mettle and raise his rank. The only complication is that he’s also caught the attention of a young woman of strange abilities—a vampire. Even stranger, she’s not the only one of her kind eyeing Loren…and some of them may have a connection with the long-lost captain of his old mercenary company.

THE DARKNESS ONLY DEEPENS

Desperate for a job that actually results in success, Loren agrees to Lapis’s newest suggestion: instead of a quest, they’ll partake in a monster hunt. But fate seems to have it in for Loren. The moment they hit the road, they come across a bandit army from whom they rescue a kidnapped elf child. The child leads them to the discovery of dark things afoot in the elven forest. Worse, there may well be a connection between these strange happenings and the darkness Loren and Lapis uncovered beneath the adventurer academy…

WHAT DARKNESS LURKS BENEATH

Loren knows better than to share Lapis’s excitement when she brings him a new quest. It sounds easy enough—proctoring students from an adventuring academy on their final exam—but he knows his partner. Lapis has an ulterior motive. Sure enough, she claims that one of her missing parts is hidden within the labyrinth the students are delving into. She’ll stop at nothing to reclaim it, even if it means endangering their charges. Worse, something’s gone wrong with the labyrinth, and Loren soon realizes that he’ll be lucky if his students get a passing grade—and he’ll be lucky to survive.

ESCORT MISSION FROM HELL

Former mercenary Loren survived his first adventure by the skin of his teeth. Now he’s bound to Lapis the priest by an ever-growing debt. In the middle of his first attempt to repay her, they stumble on a young high-born girl, alone and unconscious in the woods. Her name is Scena, and she’s a long way from home. The reward for her safe return will be substantial, but the road is full of dangers—including Scena. Her escorts keep dying, and if Loren and Lapis don’t find out why, they may well be next.

A gritty swords and sorcery tale of a veteran mercenary who must start anew after he loses his old company–and don’t miss the manga adaptation, also from Seven Seas!

One by one, the mercenaries who raised Loren fell in a terrible, bloody battle. The lone survivor in a hard world with only his wits and his sword to his name, Loren hires himself out as an adventurer. His new party, however, proves all too willing to run headlong into danger using him as their meat shield. Only Lapis, the party’s sly priest, sees his true worth, just as Loren sees hers. They must rely on each other, or else neither of them will live to see the end of their first adventure.