WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 15: The Morning Star (5)

──────

* * *

The Tutorial was too hard.

The instant he recalled those words, the Kim Seonwoo inside him flinched. Ivan ignored the reaction and continued thinking.

This was too hard. Even objectively, when he thought back to Kim Seonwoo's time and imagined how the game would have progressed, it was absurd.

Leaning against a tree trunk to rest, Ivan let out a sigh.

If only there had been one person. Even someone on Dmitry's level as a squad member, he wouldn't have had to fight like this.

Kill a couple of soldiers at the eastern edge, plant traps, sprint at full speed to the western edge, deliberately fire a shot.

Repeating that for over thirty minutes had tired even Ivan out.

Each engagement had required him to fire only once, which doubled the difficulty. That was how he ended up with a long sword wound across his forearm.

Ivan took out the last healing potion, then stopped before pouring it.

Hmm... It was bearable, so he shouldn't use this.

To catch his breath, Ivan sat beneath the tree and organized his thoughts. Suppose this situation was the Tutorial right after selecting the character Isabelle.

He had passed the character-select screen. Now the loading screen would be rattling off setting lore like, "What the hell is that, you nerd?" and the loading bar was nearly full.

If this were a AAA game, there would be a cutscene here. Conveniently, there was a suitable one.

A train terrorist attack. An academy cliché.

Fine, the train attack happened, and she woke beneath a pile of dirt. In front of her, an NPC had been injured in her place.

There was a problem if the game began from there.

‘How did she get out?’

Escaping a train car buried under earth and debris was a problem in itself. Assume there was some puzzle inside, and solving it let her escape.

Then a whole pack of elite soldiers of unknown identity came rushing in?

Without teaching her a single combat mechanic? And the Tutorial boss was...

‘The Tutorial boss had line-of-fire detection.’

It became even stranger when he thought about Aesidis. Her Tutorial had been simple enough to clear one-handed.

Then was this not a combat event, but an escape event?

Or perhaps it had been a defeat event. Maybe she was meant to lose, get captured, then escape. Plenty of games did that.

‘No. Those bastards were trying to kill Isabelle.’

Their equipment did not suggest they intended to capture her. They had plainly intended to kill.

If so, she could not be captured. In a typical defeat event, a helper rescued the player immediately after their loss.

A rescue...?

A helper...?

‘Me...?’

Ivan's expression turned cold. His heart dropped.

He was the helper?

In other words, he was an NPC?

Ivan forcibly suppressed his pounding heart. He was used to reining in turbulent emotions. Calmly, he counted through the possibilities one by one.

Had there been a character named Ivan Petrovich in the original game?

Had his military service, the eighteen years spent being worked like a dog, fighting the Seven Dragon Generals despite being an ordinary person, and even retiring and founding an orphanage all already been set as part of the story, regardless of his own wishes, predetermined from the start?

Then what ending did the original Ivan Petrovich receive? Did he survive until the end? Would he even show his face in the ending scene?

Forcibly cutting off the chain of negative thoughts, Ivan tucked the healing potion inside his coat.

There was only one way to find out.

Why this event's difficulty had become such a mess, and whether it truly had been a situation where she would die without a helper.

He quickly climbed the tree and headed toward the train.

* * *

-Clang! Screech!!

Their blades locked, throwing off sparks. Isabelle was being pushed back in strength, and it was difficult to gain an advantage through skill as well.

She clenched her teeth and twisted her blade.

It was a beautiful deflection, as though copied straight from a swordsmanship manual. The motion flowed smoothly without even the slightest error, knocking her opponent's sword aside.

It was Isabelle's best. She had no confidence she could land a more elegant attack than that.

"Sometimes you get people like that."

Aiphelos laughed as he struck aside Isabelle's sword.

"The ones who shut themselves in a little room and swing sticks around alone after seeing who knows what. The model students who memorize manuals front to back because they want to make faster attacks, more flexible attacks. Right?"

"Shut... up!"

"You're wrong, knight of Tilles."

-Clang! Clang!

Her attacks were blocked. Every time she tried to defend, though, she lost at least an inch of ground.

She had not suffered any obvious injuries yet, but Isabelle could feel it. She was gradually being forced onto the defensive.

Her balance between attacking and defending was a mess. She could not even take another step forward, only retreating farther and farther.

And behind her were civilians.

People she was responsible for.

She could not retreat any farther. There was nowhere to go, nowhere to fall back to. Isabelle bit down hard and swung her sword.

-Clang!

"Isn't the point of swordsmanship to reach your opponent? In the end, swordsmanship is nothing but a method for driving the tip of your blade into their body!"

-Clang!

"The Hero's daughter is this old and has never seen real combat even once? I'm sick of the Alliance bastards' laziness."

"Shut uppp!"

-Clang! Clang! Clang!

A sword swung in anger could no longer maintain technical precision.

It was only being flailed around wildly, meant to vent her rage.

Aiphelos had too much experience to fall for such crude attacks.

-Screech, clang!

He bound their blades together, snapped his wrist, and knocked Isabelle's sword away. It bounced across the ground after flying from her hand.

He could have finished her more quickly, if he had wanted. But [Hero's Bloodline] had put him greatly on guard.

That Hero, Maximilian, had always pulled off something miraculous at the final moment.

But this was the end. Aiphelos gave a small laugh. He had lost valuable soldiers for nothing.

"You protected no one. Isabelle, daughter of Maximilian. Do you have any last words?"

Isabelle bit her lip as she stared at her fallen sword. Staying composed before death was commendable, but she should be watching her opponent. What a fool. Sneering at her, Aiphelos raised his sword.

* * *

Ivan watched the scene from atop a tree.

He had no intention of saving her. He needed to confirm something.

If Isabelle died here, his assumption was wrong.

Of course, there were games where the Tutorial boss beat the player and caused a game over. But not in this case. Was that not an opponent far too strong for her to defeat with those stats?

But if he rushed in now and saved Isabelle...

Well.

Then he could no longer deny it. It would be practically confirming that the character Ivan Petrovich was only an NPC in this game.

So even if Isabelle died, he did not intend to intervene.

There were still five player characters left, after all. It was a worthwhile trade if sacrificing one let him find out.

Ivan looked down at Isabelle from afar, lost in thought.

* * *

"You protected no one. Isabelle, daughter of Maximilian. Do you have any last words?"

Time slowed for Isabelle, as though her life were flashing before her eyes with death close at hand.

The blade flowing like waves. The demonfolk's face, full of rage and scorn. The warped moonlight. Her own ragged breathing.

Her sword lying at her feet, discarded like garbage. Proof of her effort and all the time she had spent.

"Take up the sword."

She heard that voice. The words Lord Dian August had muttered while unconscious, from a knighting ceremony of a very, very old order.

Her consciousness sank deeper. A vague vision emerged.

Amid countless people standing in formation, one person knelt.

"Stand with the weak, and look upon people like us through the eyes of the weak.

"The reason we take up swords is not our courage, strength, or superiority.

"It is simply because it is right. Because it is just, for the greater cause we must protect."

A solemn declaration rang out. The knights lined up in the hall raised their swords as one.

An old man standing at the very front lifted his sword, turned the blade flat, and slowly lowered it.

Carefully, like a baptism. Tap. He rested the blade on the kneeling person's head.

"Take up the sword because it is only natural to do so.

"Take up the sword not for your strength, but for your goodness."

Tap, tap. The blade touched both shoulders.

"From this day onward, your name is knight.

"Look upon people like us through the eyes of the weak."

Without even breathing, Isabelle regained her senses in the silence.

The demonfolk's blade was falling toward her head. Slowly, though her own body felt even heavier and slower.

Behind her, she heard terrified gasps, screams, and cries of horror.

"Stand with the weak, and look through their eyes.

"Take up the sword not for your strength, but for your goodness."

The voice still echoed.

Yes, I will.

As though entranced, Isabelle reached for her fallen sword. Her hand closed around its hilt.

Her body felt light. Lighter than it had ever felt in her life.

Every muscle in her body flexed smoothly, then gathered with strength.

When Aiphelos's blade fell directly above her head, Isabelle was already in position.

-Stab!

Silence fell.

Over everyone. Even the wind.

Not even the forest wind, which had been rustling through the trees, could disturb Isabelle's ears at that moment.

The clouds parted, and moonlight shone brightly again.

The survivors behind her forgot even to breathe as they watched the sight before them.

The blade had stopped directly over Isabelle's bowed head.

And from the large demonfolk's back, a sword blade protruded like a branch.

"How...?"

Aiphelos could not understand what had happened. With vacant eyes, he glared down at Isabelle standing below him.

He could not see her expression. Her head was lowered. Yet in that moment, he understood clearly.

This child... no.

This knight had just taken her first step.

Aiphelos laughed hollowly. After the Hero, now his daughter had pierced him too.

He spat out a mouthful of blood and staggered backward.

Clang. His sword slipped from his hand. He stumbled back, then collapsed to his knees.

"Hoo..."

Isabelle drove her sword into the ground and fell to one knee, letting out a deep breath. She was exhausted. Completely.

But she had saved them.

She had kept everyone behind her alive.

Everyone who had survived.

"Excellent."

At the low voice, she jerked her head up.

A man was walking toward her from the distance, his steps unhurried.

His thick beard hid his expression, but his blue eyes shone clearly even in the darkness. He was smiling.

Blood dripped from his arm, and his coat had been ruined by scratches from branches. One look was enough to tell what kind of battle he had fought before returning.

She could never have done that. Had she not nearly died against just one opponent?

Was that why he had said she was no help? Isabelle gave a small laugh and shook her head.

"What about the other enemies...?"

"This one was the last."

"That's amazing. Really..."

"Is it?"

The man smiled gently, with the look of someone watching over a niece who had grown up well.

Isabelle laughed because, even as she thought it, the description felt exactly right. This man really did seem to see her as something like a niece.

"Hm? What are you doing?"

"Treatment."

He tore open the cap of a disgusting-looking truth serum and walked toward the fallen demonfolk.

* * *

Thank goodness.

Kim Seonwoo let out a sigh.

That was a relief.

Ivan gave a brief smile as well.

It had been an ordinary early awakening event.

The kind included in a Tutorial.

Isabelle had probably killed every enemy in this forest. Of course, in the process, everyone including the survivors would have been wiped out, leaving her as the only one alive.

Because of his intervention, every survivor had lived. That was fortunate. It seemed the only variable in this world was Ivan himself.

Ivan smiled in relief. Good. Learning that he was not an NPC was enough of a result.

Only one task remained.

"What are you...?"

"Treatment."

"Why... me...?"

"I have a lot of questions."

If the difference between Aesidis's and Isabelle's Tutorial difficulties was normal, then how were the other children of the Hero Party balanced?

Did he need to intervene, or could he simply watch?

This was perfect. Unlike with Aesidis, this time the force behind the attack had revealed itself in person.

How demonfolk could walk so boldly near Pritchenkaya, how many more had infiltrated the academy, what they were plotting and where, and who exactly sat at the top.

There was much to learn.

And the Annihilation Unit had plenty of curiosity, along with plenty of ways to satisfy it.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried