WeTried Translations x Flame Comics
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 138: Duty and Succession (5)
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* * *
The night search went smoothly. Ivan felt line-of-fire detection flickering constantly at the edge of his senses and smiled faintly.
It was a technique of briefly, tentatively aiming the muzzle, making the distance and direction difficult to pinpoint. A trap meant to deal with superhumans, and lure them in.
Not bad for Tilles agents. Surprisingly so.
Ivan kept walking as though he had noticed nothing, making it look as if he were simply searching for signs of a dragon.
The more capable the enemy, the better his mood became. Competent agents always had more information than incompetent ones.
Eugene quietly approached from beside him and whispered.
“Brother, right now...”
“I know.”
Was the Status Window’s detection range around one kilometer? Not bad. At that range, it could serve as a short-range radar. Ivan nodded and continued.
“Don’t look that way. Seven hundred meters, at nine o’clock. Right?”
“Yes, Brother.”
“Pretend you don’t know until they come within five hundred meters.”
“Yes, Brother.”
Ivan rested a hand on his axe handle and kept walking without a care, leading from the front like the head of the group.
-Bzzz.
The warning from line-of-fire detection became more blatant. Aren’t you coming? Aren’t you dodging? It seemed to whisper.
No superhuman could resist that temptation. Using a gun meant one was weak. Superhumans were the sort who charged at a shooter the instant a gun barrel turned their way.
That doctrine had been passed down because superhuman combat greatly improved ordinary people’s chances of survival. In other words, even to protect ordinary people who lacked line-of-fire detection, superhumans would throw themselves in front of a gun.
A technique that exploited that doctrine in reverse was, well, something from ten years ago. It might have been remarkably modern by Tilles standards, but Krasilov considered it outdated.
So let him teach them how to deal with a superhuman. More than that, a trained agent standing on the threshold of becoming one.
Ivan walked slowly, then abruptly stopped.
“Five hundred meters, right?”
“Yes, Brother.”
“They lack patience. Follow me slowly.”
Ivan nodded with a dry expression. The next instant, he vanished.
“?!”
At the sharp sound of a footstep, Eugene hurriedly turned his head to follow Ivan’s form. In the space of two steps, Ivan had already raced beyond the bushes.
-Bang!!
Gunshots rang out. Bang, bang, in frantic succession.
“Wh-what is this all of a sudden?!”
“Who’s that old man fighting this time?!”
As the group that had come out for an ordinary dragon hunt panicked, Eugene complained helplessly.
“The level difference is way too big.”
* * *
Ivan kicked off a tree, straight ahead and hard.
Two firing lanes tangled around him at once. Their reactions were not bad.
He twisted his waist in midair and slipped out of their angle. Two bullets, fired with barely an inch of deviation between them, grazed past his hair.
-Ping!
The sharp sound of a bowstring snapping rang pleasantly in his ears. He kicked off the ground again, twisted his body, and leaped onto a tree.
-Clang!
Ivan knocked away the next bullet with his axe blade and threw himself forward. There were no more gunshots. In the instant between aiming and firing.
He had already landed before the two men.
“Wha...!”
-Slash!
The man who had opened his mouth in shock crumpled. His neatly severed upper body twisted as it rolled across the ground. Blood, suddenly without a destination, fanned out and drenched the man beside him.
Terrified, the other man raised his gun at Ivan.
-Slice!
The barrel caught on Ivan’s axe and was cut off. A fine steel military pistol, standard issue from a Tilles military factory. Brand new, with the oil not even worn off yet. Ivan glanced at the barrel spinning through the air as it fell.
His gaze lowered.
The forest lay drowned in darkness, moonlight catching on dry autumn branches and scattering across them. In that dim little clearing without a single torch, the blood-soaked man trembled as he backed away.
Ivan stepped toward him, his long shadow stretching ahead. A pair of blue eyes glowed deeply within it.
“You aren’t... one of Etakrikh’s people... are you...?”
“Shh.”
Ivan spun his axe and adjusted his grip. He drew a breath, then listened to the wind.
When he enhanced his hearing, he could hear even the footsteps of rodents passing nearby.
When he enhanced his sense of smell, he could catch the scent of every animal across the mountain from the wind blowing along its slopes.
Which meant the trap prepared for a superhuman at this distance was not truly suited to a superhuman at all. These agents had each stepped awkwardly into the realm of superhumans, but this was not enough.
There had been superhumans at this level everywhere on the battlefield. The ones who had survived every one of those battlefields were the current Hero Party.
They had tried to kill Gilles Ver with something like this?
With a touch of displeasure and disgust, Ivan tightened his grip on the axe.
“I, I...!”
“Shh.”
Ivan clicked his tongue again, then flicked his hand. The axe disappeared beyond the bushes opposite him without leaving a trace.
-Splash!
A scream rang out beyond the bushes with the sound of liquid spilling. Ivan did not even look that way as he spoke.
“One mouth is enough for answers.”
“Y-you monster...!”
“Monster?”
Expressionless, Ivan took out a dagger and a potion. He walked over, placed his foot on the man’s chest, and asked,
“How did men who call me a monster think they could kill Gilles Ver?”
“W-what are you talking about?! We only...”
“Stop.”
Ivan pressed down harder on the man’s chest. A choked groan came from beneath his foot.
“When I speak, you listen.”
“Khk...!”
“When I ask, you answer.”
“Hhk...!”
“You should choose your answers carefully. I have many questions, and I intend to ask the same things many times. Very thoroughly. If your answers are wrong, or I don’t like them, you will not be allowed to die.”
At Ivan’s words, the man broke into scattered laughter. He stared straight up at Ivan and spoke.
“Krasilov...! You’re a ghost from the past!”
“That was not what I asked.”
-Slash!
The dagger blurred, and blood spurted from around the man’s shoulder. He let out a broken groan before clenching his teeth.
“So the Defender Duke has finally sold his country to foreigners! Their Excellencies were right. This country is rot...”
-Slice!
“You won’t get your way, you stupid northerner!!”
With a determined expression, the man circulated mana. A mage? Ivan clicked his tongue and lifted his foot. It was some kind of restriction spell cast on himself, not an attack spell.
Mana burrowed into the man’s body. He shuddered, rolled his eyes back, and collapsed. Foam spilled from his mouth with a strangled groan.
He forced his heart to stop. Cut off his blood flow to kill himself.
Ivan’s hand moved like lightning and plunged into the man’s chest. His stiffened fingers drove into the man’s breast, and mana surged in, roughly seizing the man’s heart.
He had never tried this on another person. Still, hearts generally had similar shapes. Ivan’s mana wrapped around the man’s ventricular muscles, making them thump, thump again.
Color returned to the man’s pale face. His body slowly began to shake with choking gasps.
“H-how... how...?”
“I told you that you would not be allowed to die.”
Without removing his hand from the man’s chest, Ivan slightly turned his head.
“Eugene.”
“Yes, Brother.”
“Send the children to Gilles Ver. That will be the safest place on this mountain. You stay here.”
“What? Ah, yes. But why me...?”
“Because you need to learn too.”
The Hero Party did not need to learn this sort of harsh, dirty work. It was too filthy and too boring for Heroes to do.
But someone had to do it. Ivan could not handle every such situation for them forever. When he was not there, one member of the Hero Party had to do this work.
Lucia would do if necessary, but still. At least in this field, Eugene and his Status Window would be more useful. Lucia’s specialty was the same as Enrika’s, assassination and infiltration.
Scouting and interrogation had been Ivan’s role. That was how it had been in those days. So in this era, the Hero Party of this generation needed someone who could take Ivan’s place.
Eugene looked into Ivan’s eyes, swallowed once, and quietly nodded.
* * *
“Brother... this is...”
Eugene’s face had gone pale. He poured healing over the man, who had become a ragged wreck, then shook his head. The man had already passed the point where a priest’s healing or healing potions could treat him.
Covered in blood, Ivan slowly rose.
The metallic scent was thick in the air. Under the forest’s shadow, he closed his eyes and drew a deep breath.
Only now could he be certain. The scattered pieces of information fitted together like a puzzle, forming the image of Tilles’s downfall.
“Eugene.”
“Yes, Brother.”
“Every nation in this world has a switch that leads to its destruction.”
“What...?”
“Listen.”
Ivan continued with his eyes closed.
“The previous Hero Party was too capable. They did not stop at preventing the alliance’s destruction. They nearly eradicated the threat of the demonfolk. Yet a new Hero Party was still created.”
“...Yes.”
“Such a threat must exist. Even if the Demon King returned, the current Allied Kingdoms could still prevail. The previous Hero Party is still active, and the demonfolk suffered greater losses than the Allied Kingdoms.”
“...Yes, Brother.”
“Then how could a threat great enough to need Heroes arrive? Think about it, and the answer is simple. It is something we have already experienced.”
Ivan opened his eyes and looked at Eugene.
“Every nation in this world has a switch for destruction, each for its own reasons. Like Krasilov’s. In the form of civil war. In the form of demonfolk. That must be why a new Hero Party, and even transmigrators, were needed. If the Lord truly exists, that must be what it means.”
Eugene clenched his teeth and shook his head.
“Brother, this is not the time to say that. We need to warn Duke Etakrikh right away...”
“Too late.”
-Fweee! Bang!
A signal flare burst beyond the forest. The signal they had agreed to fire upon finding a dragon.
The dark night sky turned red. Almost at the same time as the flare, a pillar of flame rose. Dragon breath, hot enough to melt castle walls and steel.
Had he let his guard down? Impossible. He had made every preparation he could. He had even been confident. The only thing lacking had been information.
Still, they were all excuses. He had failed to stop the civil war.
“There’s no longer time to explain. The moment we return to Gilles Ver, you must gather the group and return to Saint Matilene at once.”
“Brother...”
“The Capital Defense Force here is half of its total strength. There are still that many troops left in the capital. Hold out there with the group. Do not forget what I told you. Remember it.”
-Fweee!
-Bang!
-Fweee! Bang!
Like festival fireworks, signal flares burst throughout the night sky.
The flares signaling that dragons had been found erupted from every direction. Every signal flare carried by every detachment went off across the mountains like falling dominoes.
Fireworks were blooming brilliantly across the entire Vernina Mountains.
The sky seemed to be burning, bright as day beneath the grim red light of the flares.
Shadows were crushed and faded. Beneath the countless lights in the sky, the mountains’ shadows crouched low.
Ivan sighed and closed his eyes.
“I’ll save Gilles Ver.”
There was not only one dragon.
The dragons’ arrival was not simply bait. It was a trap in itself, and at the same time, the main force of the grand counts and demonfolk.
Tilles would lose its northeast. The Eastern Front would be cut off from the center and forced to face the demonfolk army alone, without supplies.
The grand counts only had to deal with the half that remained of the capital’s legion. Once the capital fell, once the royal family collapsed, Tilles would be finished.
A military map of all Tilles was etched into Ivan’s mind. Unless his prediction was wrong, Tilles had less than half a month left to live.
Every map had turned red, like the night sky over Vernina where the signal flares had just burst.
* * *
[Quest Status Updated!]
[Objective: Prevent civil war among Tilles’s Three Great Count Houses. (Failed)]
[Available Objectives]
[Objective: Win the Defense of Saint Matilene. (New)]
[Objective: Keep the total number of destroyed estates at fifteen or fewer. (2/15)]
[Objective: Ensure the survival of Gilles Ver de Etakrikh.]
[Objective: Meet Maximilian de Itouale.]
[Objective: Ensure the survival of the Tilles Royal Family.]
[Reward: Extend the continued existence of the Allied Kingdoms by ten years.]
* * *
Footnotes:
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