WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 14: The Morning Star (4)

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* * *

-BANG!

-BANG!

Each time an intermittent shot rang out, the enemies scattered in confusion.

It was not simply because their training was lacking. If anything, it was unavoidable for elite troops.

When caught in an ambush, any competent officer would estimate the enemy's numbers from the frequency of their attacks.

-Going by the intervals between shots, the enemy has only one person, or a small group.

So far, that was obvious. The problem was that the shots in this forest were not coming from just one direction.

One shot from the east, bang. When they sent troops that way, all they found were a few corpses.

As they panicked and spread their forces out, another shot came from the west, bang.

By then, Ivan could easily imagine what the commanding officer was thinking.

The enemy had split into small groups and was driving them into a corner.

It was an accurate assessment.

If their opponent had not been an Annihilation Unit field commander.

-Click.

Feeling the tension, bloodlust, and fury thick in the forest air, Ivan slowly raised his pistol. Ahead of him, three soldiers holding torches were scanning their surroundings.

It was the behavior of men driven by fear or rage. From a distance, there was no difference between the two.

Ivan let out a long breath.

He exhaled halfway.

He braced his abdomen and held it tight.

He aimed the tip of the front sight at his target, calculated the distance, and raised it five marks.

Smooth as running water, through training that had become nearly instinctive.

That took 0.3 seconds.

His wide-open blue eyes rapidly swept the area. The distance between the three soldiers, their differences in height, how far each stood from him.

Once he had calculated it all, he filled his vision with the farthest target.

Then he fired.

-BANG!

The moment he pulled the trigger, he lowered the pistol and gripped his axe. There was no need to confirm the kill. The enemy would tell him.

“Damn it! Inov's down!”

“Where are you? Show yourself, you bastard!”

He quickly leaped through the trees toward his next position. The torches they were wildly waving around were excellent target indicators.

A fire in the forest was far too easy to spot. Of course, without those torches, the woods would be dark enough that they could not see anything at all, but that was their mistake.

They should not have picked a night like this.

Night raids were difficult. Really, truly difficult. They required an outstanding commander and perfectly trained troops.

Even soldiers like that would hesitate before an ambush in a forest at night, especially a forest in a foreign country. Ivan guessed about a third of them had fallen behind soon after the operation began.

'Then their total force is around fifty.'

Judging by how dispersed they were and the size of the squads spread through the forest, that was about right.

Standing directly above a soldier holding a torch, Ivan thought this as he gripped his axe and dropped down.

-CRASH!

“AAAGH!”

A coward. The man actually struck by the axe had not even managed a scream.

Still, he seemed to have received proper training. The moment Ivan appeared, he raised his gun.

Ivan lowered his body. The man's trembling finger pressed down on the trigger.

There was no time to aim. At this distance, it was pointless, and the man did not have the presence of mind for it anyway.

He was panicking and firing first.

Ivan could not allow that.

“D-Die!”

Ignoring the shout, Ivan tensed his thighs. Tendons stood out sharply on the back of the man's hand.

In that instant, Ivan had already closed the distance in a single bound and swung his axe.

The man's right shoulder and the back of his neck broke at the same time. Literally broke.

A violent strike, then a swift turn of Ivan's body for another blow. Then another.

Three axe strikes landed in less than half a breath. No one there could speak anymore.

“Hoo.”

Ivan rolled his shoulders with a crack, then drove his axe into the ground.

He picked up the gun the nameless soldier had been holding, aimed it at the sky, tied a thin string to the trigger, and ran it over the tree beside him.

Once he placed the gun in the dead man's arms and secured it firmly, his work here was done.

Someone would come looking after hearing the gunshot.

The moment they touched the corpse, the loaded gun would fire, and their command would misjudge Ivan's position in their confusion.

The delay in information reaching headquarters. The limited sightlines in a dark forest. The fear of unfamiliar terrain. Conflicting reports. Their steadily dwindling allies.

The more capable the enemy, the easier they were to deceive.

Ivan raced through the trees as he thought.

Which was why this was strange.

The enemy was far too competent for a tutorial.

'Dian August was supposed to be an NPC who helped Isabelle through her tutorial, then disappeared.'

Ivan narrowed his eyes.

If he had not been here, could Isabelle really have escaped this forest alive on her own?

Considering the enemy had sufficient firearms, well-trained troops, and competent commanders.

This was not a level of danger a child who had only just turned twenty could overcome.

'Why...? Is defeating the enemy not even the condition for clearing the tutorial?'

Games like that existed sometimes. Games where you learned the controls while running from an overwhelmingly powerful enemy.

But how? And where?

Given the remaining distance to Pritchenkaya, the odds of a clueless kid who could not even find her bearings safely escaping the forest approached zero.

Even in his confusion, Ivan did not stop moving.

It would not be too late to think after this was over.

* * *

“Captain, they've been hit again. This time, all three of them were cut down with an axe.”

“Good grief. What is this...?”

The man groaned as he rubbed his chin.

It felt like he was fighting a tiger.

A hunting method that slowly picked off the weak and tightened its grip around the group's throat.

The answer was simple. Gather the troops together.

But he could not do that. His target was the Hero's daughter.

“Wouldn't it be better to gather the men now...?”

“Idiot. Isn't that exactly what the bastard out there wants us to do?”

The enemy was few in number. Naturally.

If they had faced a large counterattack, they would not have resorted to such a cumbersome method.

Suppose an exceptionally elite small strike force was scattered through the forest.

-BANG!

Another shot rang out. This time from the west.

Then, shortly after.

-BANG!

This one came from beyond the north.

The gunshots were gradually drawing closer to his position.

“They already know where we are.”

“Pardon?”

“They already know this is the command post, you idiot! Can't you see that?”

“Ah, yes. That's true, but then why aren't they attacking us directly...?”

Would it not be much simpler to strike headquarters, then hunt the confused troops one by one?

Why were the enemy going through all this trouble?

It was because...

-BANG!

-BANG!

After two shots rang out from different directions, a shocking realization flashed through the man's mind.

“Give me your gun.”

“Pardon? Ah, yes!”

He snatched the man's gun and fired it into the air.

-BANG!

The man stood frozen for a moment, then let out a growl.

“One man.”

“But Captain, the directions of the gunshots...!”

“Damn it, these cheap tricks!”

-Crunch!

The man crushed the gun in his hand and shouted.

“Those are our guns! That bastard killed our men and timed the shots! Any child could set a simple trap like that, and we fell for it!”

He threw the ruined gun to the ground and drew his sword.

“He fired the first shot and watched our reaction. To see whether we had line-of-fire detection! We reacted too quickly. Damn it!”

Ordinary soldiers would seek cover the moment they heard gunfire.

But not the command post. Their captain possessed Line-of-Fire Detection.

The moment the shot rang out, they had immediately judged its direction and sent a pursuit squad after it. That had been their mistake.

“Why do you think he didn't strike here right away? Either he isn't confident he can take us on, or he can't afford to drag things out. Why would soldiers trained that well have any other reason? Huh?”

“B-Because he's alone...”

“Exactly! Damn it all. The gunshots were bait from the start! Gather the men! Hell, I didn't want to deal with that Hero bastard's daughter myself...”

The scar across the man's face twisted.

The Hero's daughter. If she resembled the Hero even halfway, a monster's child would still be a monster.

He remembered the Hero. He remembered that absurd incarnation of martial might.

No matter how young she was, he could not let his guard down. Back then, the Hero himself had only been a young man of around thirty.

The man rolled his shoulders and stepped forward.

“I'll handle that girl myself. Gather the men and bring me the bastard in the forest.”

“Yes, Captain!”

* * *

“Are you the Hero's daughter?”

Standing beneath the moonlight, Isabelle stared straight at the man who had emerged from the forest.

Behind her, people huddled together in fear.

A group gathered before the campfire, shivering in the cold as they watched her.

Isabelle shook her head. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then forced her heavy sword into position and tightened her grip.

“No.”

She opened her eyes. Moonlight dimly illuminated the surroundings. The man's silhouette became clearer.

It was her first time fighting for her life, and her first time fighting with someone else's life resting on her shoulders.

But it was all right.

Because it was right.

“I'm Maximilian and Marie's daughter.”

Not the Hero's daughter, but the daughter of two people.

That was what she meant.

The man before her let out a long laugh.

The horns rising from his head pointed toward the sky.

Demonfolk. Isabelle swallowed. It was her first time facing demonfolk, too.

“Excellent.”

The man nodded and adjusted his grip on his sword.

“I am Aiphelos. Formerly of His Excellency the Sixth Dragon General's Imperial Guard Infantry Division. A centurion.”

“Isabelle. Of Tilles. A knight.”

The night wind blew. The coniferous forest shuddered. Bang, a distant gunshot faintly echoed.

The two charged at each other.

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Footnotes:

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