WeTried Translations x Flame Comics
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
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Chapter 118: 16. The Person Who Travels Abroad to a Conflict Zone During Vacation (9)
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* * *
Master.
Please request rescue at Rally Point Three in five hours.
Lucia opened her eyes after sending the brief message. Hidden in the darkness, she watched the battle from afar.
Ivan had been right when he said there was nothing to learn from it. There was nothing she could learn from that battle.
It was beyond her reach, and it was not the kind of battle one could learn from. Even her master could not fight like that.
-Kwaaaang!!
The blast reached all the way to her position. Lucia trembled and forced her shaking body still.
The kind of combat Enrika taught was about seizing victory. Any means were acceptable, but defeat was never tolerated.
Ivan's way of fighting was different. His combat doctrine was simple. Give up everything he could give, and even if he lost in the end, make sure to land one final blow.
She knew people who fought like that. It was not the way a few powerful people classified as heroes or superhumans fought.
That was a soldier's way. The way of people who could sacrifice anything for a larger victory across the battlefield, even after their own part was over.
So Ivan had not been wrong when he said she could not learn it. Her master and Ivan both knew what they expected of her. They also knew she should not learn to fight that way.
But...
“I can still save you.”
She did not have the ability to leap into that battlefield and fight alongside him. She humbly accepted that. But rescue did not require much ability. All she had to do was be there for that one decisive moment, when Ivan's body finally gave out.
Lucia lurked in the darkness and watched Ivan advance.
Even as he swayed, staggered, and sometimes lost his balance. Even as countless curses, toxins, malign auras, and the spears and blades of the dead continuously wounded him.
He still took one step without stopping.
Slowly moving forward as he smashed apart the dwarven remains that rose again no matter how many times he killed them.
Had the allied forces fought like that when they stood against the demonfolk? Had those who had to keep moving forward through agony that felt like death looked like this?
She did not know. Lucia had never experienced war herself. Yet there was one thing she could say for certain.
That was not one person's advance.
It was no different from an entire legion marching forward.
Old soldiers who had fallen somewhere in distant campaigns, their names forgotten, their stories never granted even a line in history.
With every movement Ivan made in battle, every outstretched arm and every step forward, they were bound up with him, becoming a legion and marching onward.
As long as even one person remained, the Annihilation Unit had not perished. Only then did she remember what Enrika had said after stealing the Statue of the Unknown Soldier and keeping it underground.
That one person she had spoken of was here.
The Annihilation Unit, which had not perished, was continuing the battle.
* * *
[Die! I said dieee!! Why won't you die?!]
The necromancers' screams rang out. Ivan's arms trembled from fighting beyond the limits of his body.
Amid the shrill ringing in his ears, Ivan sorted through countless sounds and revised his engagement plan.
Some of his mana still had to be spent supporting his heartbeat. The damage to his limbs was worse than expected. Multiple organ failure from accumulated toxins threatened his life with each passing moment.
Still, mana was such a remarkable thing. If there was one resource Ivan preferred in this primitive premodern fantasy world, it was this.
A universal resource that could become anything depending on how one used it. He could not use magic, but he had already surpassed Enrika in manipulating and tuning mana.
Just as he supported his cardiac muscles, he could force his damaged muscle fibers to move. Fortunately.
-Kwaaaang!!
A massive skeleton suddenly rose and swung a shield at him. Neural acceleration had continued for too long, and pain felt as though it were clawing through his mind, but he managed to react.
Ivan regained his footing and shattered the remains again. Curses burst from the broken bones. He swallowed them numbly. Pain spread through him again.
But.
Pain was nothing more than an electrical signal produced by a species' survival instinct.
Of course, it could be ignored. Unfortunately, the sensory organs that registered pain were spread too broadly throughout the body, and completely blocking the pain nerves would make the body sluggish. Cutting off pain at its source was impossible.
Still, pain was ultimately an illusion created by the desire to live. Thinking of it that way made it bearable.
[Kill him! Rise!! Ivan Petrovich! Do not come closer... Do not come closer!!]
-Kwajik!
Five chains shot out and wrapped around his body, beginning to constrict him. Ivan's advance halted for a moment.
The necromancers' laughter rang out.
[Yes, stop. I shall pronounce your death! In Aviditas's name...]
“Not enough.”
-Kwajiik!
Ivan knew little about magic. People twisted mana around somehow to make things happen, but he could not even understand whether that made academic sense in the first place. Nor how a source of mystery that ignored the laws of thermodynamics could become a field of study.
Yet he knew countless ways to deal with magic. He had experienced it firsthand. Magic was ultimately a technique that used mana to cause a kind of physical effect.
To bind a real being with intangible mana, one ultimately had to create chains with physical substance. And if something could physically interfere with him, it could be destroyed in return.
The instant he was bound, he understood its structure. He had been caught by this trick before. He shattered it and moved forward again.
[Die!! Kill him!! Die!!]
Was that all they could say now? Perhaps because they were overwhelmed by fear, the necromancers' words were becoming increasingly dull. Their attacks grew simpler.
He could see their faces. Ash-gray, pale faces. Pitch-black eyes without pupils. Trembling bodies.
He could see their fear.
“Too many have already died.”
Ivan slowly raised his axe. His enemies had already lost their will to fight, so what he needed now was not speed, but precision.
Ivan was reflected in the mirror-like eyes of the terrified necromancers.
They saw a man limping toward them, covered in blood, filth, curses, and corrupted mana.
“Too many had died by the time I reached this point.”
-Do not die here.
Every comrade had died saying those words to the comrades beside them.
When those words continued like a refrain and finally reached Ivan, there were no comrades left for him to pass that last request on to.
-I'll go on ahead and take a hit from Sasha. At least I won't be lonely. We've made plenty of connections in both heaven and hell.
-Lieutenant Colonel, live a long life. Come as late as you can.
-If you come too early, I'll mutiny.
“Cherenovika.”
[What...?]
“One person died here.”
The necromancers flinched back. Ivan took exactly one more step forward, closing that distance.
The retreating necromancers and Ivan moved with the same stride, like reflections in a mirror.
At last, when one necromancer staggered and fell, the tendons in Ivan's hand gripping the axe writhed like snakes.
“Today, in this place, the Annihilation Unit will not lose anyone else.”
-Kwajik.
* * *
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, motes to motes.
The dead who had commanded death crumbled apart. Corpses that had risen and moved returned to remains, and only the sound of broken weapons and armor collapsing echoed through the area.
It was quiet enough that even breathing could not be heard. In the silence, Ivan stood straight with his head lowered.
-Tak.
Lucia landed beside him. At the same time, Ivan raised his head. In one natural motion, he reached out and seized the back of her neck like lightning.
Between blood-soaked strands of hair, blue eyes glowed dully. The tendons in his arm writhed as he squeezed with enough force to crush steel.
Lucia choked and gripped Ivan's forearm tightly.
“Senior Brother...!”
“Today... in this place...”
“Senior Brother! Wait...!”
Ivan's gaze was unfocused. No, that was not it. Could he even hear her? This man was moving on instinct alone.
A tear rolled down Lucia's cheek, from pain and pity for the man before her.
How many people had he buried? How many had he kept close to his heart? How many had he spent his life longing for?
Lucia fumbled for the words her master had once spoken.
“Do not mourn those... who left first...!”
“I stand in the same ranks as them.”
The refrain escaped Ivan's lips reflexively. Lucia reached out and gently wiped the dried blood from his cheek, then smiled softly.
“‘We’ stand in the same ranks as them too, Ivan Petrovich. I'm still here. Not everyone in the world is your enemy. There are still people left who remember them with you.”
“...Lucia.”
“Yes. Are you back with me?”
The strength drained from Ivan's grip. Lucia coughed and collapsed onto the ground.
Ivan stared at her for a moment, then looked at his trembling hand for a long time before raising his head again.
“Your training is still insufficient for you to be included in ‘we.’”
“Your standards are seriously too harsh....”
“Why are you here? My last order was clearly...”
“Field agents can choose an order's priority at their discretion! Right? We retreat after the mission is complete! This mission ends when we return alive with you, Senior Brother!”
“...I see.”
Ivan gave a short nod.
In a live combat situation, every agent had the right to refuse a superior's orders. The Annihilation Unit never taught absolute obedience. Their obedience had belonged solely to the royal family.
A superior's order could be disregarded depending on priorities. Ivan decided to accept this valid and rational argument.
“You are at least at the level of a rookie agent.”
“Did he just... praise me?!”
“Help me walk. There is something I need to check.”
“...Huh?”
Ivan slumped against Lucia's shoulder and whispered.
“Eek!! W-Wait, Senior Brother!”
“Contact Enrika. Was the target rescued?”
“Ah, wait, wait, wait! Back up a little! A good voice isn't enough, you know!!”
Lucia pushed Ivan's forehead away with effort and muttered for a moment. Unfortunately, Ivan lacked the strength to move right now. Perhaps it was fair to say the tension had finally left him.
After checking his condition, Lucia grumbled as she supported his body with all her strength. His firm muscles were burning hot from the aftermath of battle.
“...It's Master's reply. Failure. The target was absent from every designated location.”
“So it was as expected. Open the second pocket on the left side of my field gear.”
“Huh? Ah, okay. This...”
With a rattling sound, she pulled out a transparent bottle filled with red liquid.
Lucia stared blankly at the bottle, then glanced at Ivan. Ivan stared solemnly at it.
“What is this?”
“...A healing potion.”
“If you had something like this, you should've used it earlier! How do I use it? I've never seen a bottle like this.”
“Remove the cap and pour it on the wound.”
“Should I do it now? Move back for a second. I'll do it right away.”
“Wait.”
Ivan raised an arm to stop Lucia.
After taking one deep breath, he closed his eyes with resolve.
“I'm ready. Do it.”
“Why are you talking like someone's about to disembowel themselves? You're hilarious.”
Lucia snickered as she gently wiped Ivan's torn wounds clean, then poured the healing potion over them.
With a sizzle, pink foam bubbled from the wounds. Soon, they healed cleanly.
“Wow, this really works... What is this? Is it really a military potion?”
Ivan gritted his teeth.
“Senior Brother? Senior Brother?”
“Wait. I bit my tongue a little. I'm fine.”
“Do you want to gargle with this?”
“I said I'm fine.”
Ivan briefly rejected her violent idea and stood up. Unfortunately, there was no Geneva Convention in this world, so Lucia's torture-loving madness was not strictly illegal.
What a primitive world. Ivan sighed as he reconnected the senses he had temporarily shut off.
“Let's finish this.”
“Where are we going?”
“To rescue the secretary's son.”
“Huh? Do you know where he is?”
“It is obvious now. Excluding the places Enrika searched, there is only one place Aviditas's subordinates could hide an important person.”
Their headquarters. The place where [Fortress of Desire] had fallen. Fortunately, it was not far.
Ivan shook his head slightly and spoke to Lucia.
“How is Hammer and Anvil progressing?”
“The Northern Second Corps is advancing. Estimated arrival time is two hours, they said!”
“Support me. I will rely on you for a while. Negotiations will be easier if we recover the prisoner before the Northern Corps enters Andgrund.”
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Footnotes:
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