WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 37: 9. Academy Field Trips Always Get Attacked (1)
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* * *
“May is green, and we are growing...”
“Kids these days don't know songs like that, you know?”
“You're pretending to be a kid these days too. Ivan is the youngest among us. He was the youngest when he transmigrated.”
“...?!”
Pain and sorrow hung heavily in the air of the bizarre transmigrator clubroom, which still had no name.
The three transmigrators lay slumped over among piles of books, their faces vacant.
“I'm in the Knight Department, so why do I even have written exams...?”
“I have a Status Window, but it doesn't have a memo function...”
“I hate magic...”
May was not a month for families in this premodern fantasy world. Still, Earth and this other world had one thing in common. Universities had exams.
“I'm jealous of you, Ivan. You're a rich adult with no assignments or exams.”
“Say that to Ivan and you might turn up as a corpse the next day, Yuri.”
“It would be a good chance to join my parents.”
“Wow, you're making your own dead-parent jokes now, so I can't even argue back.”
“That isn't what I meant. I meant going back to Earth.”
Sadly, Saint Yansk University was prestigious. Prestigious enough to shatter the obvious common sense that first-year university students should spend their first midterms drinking.
Faced with a murderous exam range and a horrifying mountain of assignments, the transmigrators were being worn down to nothing.
While every transmigrator at the university shuddered at the harsh premodern society, Ivan was currently...
“Gyaaaaaah!!”
“Shh. Quiet.”
He was dribbling a healing potion into a student's wound.
“S-Save me...! Ghhk!!”
“That isn't what you should be saying.”
“I-I am from a viscount's house...!”
“Shh. Choose your next words carefully.”
Ivan sat beside the student, who was foaming at the mouth and sobbing, then spoke calmly.
“Say it.”
“I'll never... I'll never throw cigarette butts... on the ground again...!”
“And?”
“I won't... damage roadside trees...!”
“Excellent.”
In front of a gardener, throwing a cigarette butt beneath a roadside tree was a terrible evil equivalent to a death sentence under international law.
Taking into account that they were still young students, Ivan was providing a free smoking cessation clinic for thirteen of them.
Episode 9. Academy Field Trips Always Get Attacked.
“Hey! Mister!!”
This happened after Ivan had dealt with the thirteen environmental destroyers.
On the peaceful campus, Ivan was putting the cap back on the healing potion.
When he turned toward the voice, Isabelle was running toward him from afar, waving her hand.
“Hmm.”
“Greetings usually involve words like hello, good morning, have you eaten, how have you been, you know!”
Isabelle approached with a bright smile, then looked around. After glancing over the shrubbery smeared with blood and healing potion, her expression turned awkward.
“Um... did demonfolk attack?”
“Something similar.”
“That must've been rough! Someone was screaming during exam season, so I came to see if you'd killed someone again!”
“The image you have of me is rather concerning.”
Isabelle laughed, then turned her head slightly. That was answer enough.
“Oh, right, please help me! I need your help with something...”
“Help?”
“There's this practical evaluation, and it's too hard. I mean, should a first-semester midterm practical really be like this?”
“Hmm.”
Ivan considered what he could possibly do for a Knight Department midterm.
They probably would not teach prisoner interrogation, concealing information, or sabotage.
Ah, perhaps strategy? He had field-command experience, so he could probably offer some advice there.
As Ivan sank into thought, Isabelle smiled.
“Ambush Response!”
“...Hmm.”
That was a somewhat special class to teach first-year university students.
Ivan reconsidered the value of this university. Did a school like this really need to exist?
Still, it was within his ability to help. Both ambushes and countering them were among his military specialties.
“It's Enrika's class, isn't it?”
“Yes. Honestly, what are they even planning to use that for?”
“I'd like to know that too.”
Ivan readily nodded and took the lead.
* * *
Pritchenkaya was one of the most developed major cities in the Allied Kingdoms. And in this uncivilized premodern age, a major city meant the entire broad living area around it.
In other words, it needed ample nearby resources like farmland, plains, forests, and rivers. Pritchenkaya was no exception.
A forest stretching east of Pritchenkaya's outer wall. Ivan arrived at its entrance with Isabelle and did a few simple warmups.
“Being here reminds me of that time. Wow, I really thought I was going to die that day.”
“Hmm.”
A small corner of Ivan's conscience gave him a faint prick.
He had, in fact, used Isabelle for an experiment.
An experiment to see whether the protagonist would die in the Tutorial.
It had been necessary, if one wanted to be precise, but Ivan was an honest man. He felt guilty about it.
“Mister, you're making a really annoying face right now.”
“I naturally look like I'm smiling.”
“I really want to hit you.”
Isabelle narrowed her eyes and grumbled.
“Hmm. But they haven't even revealed the exam site yet. They haven't said where it will be or what we'll do. Why did we come here?”
“Because Enrika lacks imagination.”
“...What?”
“If Enrika is holding ambush training, there are two possibilities. The Pritchenkaya Underground Waterways, or this forest. If she wanted to choose the harder option, she'd hold it here.”
Enrika was an extremely stubborn, dogmatic madwoman. Ivan nodded as he remembered the Enrika of old.
As was often the case for elderly people who had lived a long time, Enrika could not escape her own prejudices.
Ivan was certain of it. If she set an exam called Ambush Response, then given her personality, she would likely conduct it across the entire forest.
“Isn't understanding the examiner's intent the foundation of being a test taker?”
“Wow, were you good at studying, Mister?”
“I wasn't bad at it.”
The students of this fantasy world could never imagine it, but Korean students received twelve years of compulsory education starting at the age of seven.
“I do pretty well on written exams too, you know? I'm confident I could get A's in almost every practical, but Professor Enrika's class is strangely difficult. We have practical evaluations all the time, and she's so merciless.”
“Enrika has always been like that.”
“Wow, did you attend Saint Yansk University too? Are you a senior?”
“No, I never attended university.”
Kim Seonwoo had not earned a university degree either. After completing his military service, he had entered this world while in his third year of university, then spent another twenty-odd years in the army here.
For a moment, the Kim Seonwoo inside him coughed blood and screamed. Ivan silently continued walking.
“Anyway! I see, um... well, if you learned anything from Professor Enrika, that makes you a senior, right? Mm-hmm...”
“You don't need to comfort me.”
How dare this premodern native.
“Okay... a smart, no-degree mister. So how do we start preparing for Professor Enrika's exam?”
“Start?”
Ivan snorted and slipped a hand inside his coat. His fingers closed around a small metal pellet.
He took it out, rolled it across the ground, and spoke.
“We've already started.”
“What? Huh?”
Boom!
The metal pellet exploded, releasing a cloud of gray smoke.
Isabelle hurried back, coughing. A smoke grenade...? No, this...!
“You crazy old man! You set off a chemical weapon on a student!!”
Without answering, Ivan crouched within the smoke. Thud, thud. After stamping his feet a few times, he shot up into a tree and disappeared into the forest's shadows.
From behind the shadows, he whispered softly.
“I'll keep it at your level.”
“If I catch you, you're dead. I'll shave you.”
“...I'll train you as if it were real combat.”
The field exercise of an Annihilation Unit officer had begun!
* * *
Ivan ran through the forest, firing at Isabelle often enough to keep his distance.
There was no need to go all out. Isabelle's line-of-fire detection had nearly developed completely, so one threatening shot was enough to make her hesitate.
For that reason, he used live ammunition. Direct threats to one's life were the most effective way to fully awaken line-of-fire detection.
“You're insane! Mister, you're really insane!? Y-You're shooting a gun!!”
Bang!
Every time she screamed, he fired a shot aimed directly between her eyebrows, then retreated.
She would surely learn her lesson from this. When someone had become the target of an ambush, they needed to move more stealthily than their opponent.
An ambush was fundamentally like hunting. Both hunter and prey needed to blend into their surroundings to avoid each other's gaze.
Which meant Isabelle, dressed in a needlessly fluttering outfit, deserved a failing grade from the moment the exam began.
Ivan smeared mud beneath his eyes to block reflected light and nodded.
Click, bang.
To confuse Isabelle's attention, he let the gunshot ring out a beat late, then changed positions.
'An external field exercise, huh.'
Ivan surveyed his surroundings with sharp eyes. This forest, as he had recalled before, was near the military camp of the Pritchenkaya Capital Defense Force.
That meant it was a safe area with an extremely high security rating. Enrika could use it as an exam site without much concern.
But Ivan knew something.
'Enemy attacks occurring during external field exercises are common sense...'
Ivan was a very sensible man, so he decided to train Isabelle while also looking for signs of an attack.
* * *
Isabelle clutched the torn hem of her skirt and trembled.
“What even... is this...?!”
Why was he taking this so seriously! No, normally, if a girl ten years younger asked to do some simple training in the forest, would not a picnic be the first thing to come to mind?
Not that it was a date... not affection or anything. She had simply wanted to thank him for saving her that time.
That gruff weirdo obviously had no friends, so she had planned to be one for him, even if only for a little while.
Isabelle stared blankly at the picnic basket swept over by the chemical weapon and dust. When she saw the ruined sandwiches through its open lid, she began trembling again.
“Mister.”
She tied her tangled hair tightly back and gave a short laugh.
“I'll really kill you.”
To teach some common sense to that insane secret agent who lacked every shred of it.
The Hero awakened.
Footnotes:
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