WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 45: 9. Academy Field Trips Always Get Attacked (9)

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The field exercise for Saint Yansk University's Knight Department had been attacked by demonfolk terrorists. When that report reached Counterintelligence Command, Dmitry burst out laughing and said,

"Dock that bastard's pay."

"Yes, Lieutenant Colonel."

Counterintelligence Command had also been keeping a close eye on the university event. Naturally, security measures at the exercise site had been prepared to the point of perfection.

The Crown Prince faction? Hmm. They had gone quiet after the last incident.

Foreign anti-government groups? What could those crippled idiots do with all their limbs cut off?

And demonfolk? There was no way they had enough forces left to deploy an operation all the way out here, near Pritchenkaya.

After weighing the objective evidence and making reasonable deductions, Dmitry had concluded that Saint Yansk University faced no threat.

What moron would plant a terrorist organization in the capital just to ruin a university event?

They would blow up the royal palace instead.

And an exercise personally led by Enrika and her students? Ha ha, idiots. Were people like that really collecting a salary on time every month?

As a result, when the third informant told him the same thing, Dmitry ran a weary hand over his face and let out a hollow laugh.

"...Dock my pay."

"Yes, Lieutenant Colonel."

This was insane.

He grabbed his coat and left the command headquarters. He needed to see his senior, who had already gone to the scene and must have known something.

* * *

"Hey, Esi."

"Yes, that's right."

"I haven't even started talking yet."

"This is the fourth time I've heard that story."

Aesidis stared at Isabelle with a grave expression.

When news of the field exercise attack spread throughout the university, she had rushed over to find her longtime friend, who was practically her only friend.

Yet when she arrived at Isabelle's house, there was no sign of the victim caught up in the attack.

Instead, Isabelle was smashing apart a training dummy with a new wooden sword beside five or six broken ones.

The dummy had an unusually detailed beard, and Isabelle's strike shattered it so thoroughly that it rolled across the ground....

"Still, listen to me. I'm really confused. I feel like I'm going out of my mind."

"...Mm...."

"So, this is about a friend."

Aesidis barely stopped herself from blurting out the cold fact, “You don't have any friends besides me.”

She was such a kind and considerate music department student.

"Say there's a man who appears out of nowhere whenever my friend is in danger and saves her. He looks after her in all sorts of ways, meets her privately, and even shares secrets with her."

"That's a very specific hypothetical...."

"Then doesn't that mean he likes my friend? What other reason could there be?"

For political and economic reasons, Maximilian was effectively no different from someone in a vegetative state, much like how even South Korea would effectively declare a missing person dead after four years.

So Isabelle came from an unofficial single-parent household. Her mother had been a commoner, which meant that aside from the favor granted by the Tilles court, she had no particular social or economic backing.

If Yuri, a real orphan, heard that, she would have clutched her chest in resentment. Still, Isabelle truly believed it.

"That... is true, isn't it?"

If Yuri, who was genuinely poor, heard that, she would have clutched her chest in resentment. From Aesidis's perspective, though, Isabelle belonged to an economically vulnerable class. (Isabelle owned a two-story house with a yard.)

Aesidis was a princess of a kingdom. She was Great King Einar's eldest daughter and his most cherished child. She was rich enough that even if she smashed a thief over the head with an instrument worth the price of a house, it would barely count as a loss.

That was why their conversation reached such a strange agreement.

Honestly, Isabelle didn't have anything worth stealing. Didn't that mean he had to be trying to woo her?

Once they reached that conclusion, Isabelle thumped her chest in frustration.

"Then why does he say no every time I ask him to eat with me?!"

"This is about a friend, right?"

"No, listen. She's ten years younger, pretty, kind, good at schoolwork, good at practical work, and even knows how to take care of herself. If he likes a girl like that, why would he push her away?"

"That friend must cherish herself an awful lot...."

When people reached a conclusion they could not understand, they started interpreting the situation in the direction they wanted to believe.

That was how frightening confirmation bias could be.

Aesidis eventually nodded.

"I'll look into it. My uncle said he was close to that man. You never know. He might be some terrible womanizer who goes around seducing everyone he meets."

Was Ivan really that kind of person? Isabelle thoughtfully recalled his face. A womanizer...? Someone who charmed women everywhere he went...?

Hmm. If she covered the lower half of his face, perhaps... Could be? Yes, it did seem possible.

Isabelle fell into confusion!

Sadly, Yuri, who could have stopped them properly, was lying in the Theology Department's hospital ward. There was nobody there to explain that mad axe-wielding John Wick would kill ten more people before spending time meeting a woman.

* * *

Ivan's days were busy. He ran the orphanage, went to the university to tend the roadside trees, guarded the Hero Party's children, organized the day's reports and the orphanage's account books, and only then had time to rest.

His rest usually consisted of maintaining weapons. He sharpened his axe until it could silently shave fuzz, disassembled and cleaned his firearms, rubbed oil into them, then leaned back on the sofa and closed his eyes for a moment.

That was Ivan's day.

The important point was that it had now become the past tense. For several days since the field exercise attack, Enrika had occupied his precious home and held out there.

"Enrika. Go home now."

"What are you talking about? I promised, didn't I? Sentry duty, hmm? Are you abandoning your sentry duty? No sense of comradeship?"

"...Don't you just not want to go to work?"

"Your teacher is sad. Young Ivan used to believe everything I told him. Give me back my Ivan."

Ever since the field exercise attack, Enrika had shut herself in the orphanage director's office and refused to come out.

After all, she was the person responsible for getting over fifty noble children caught in a terrorist attack, so people had been grinding their teeth and searching for her everywhere.

"This is unfair. How was I supposed to know? If there's a bastard who expected dwarves to suddenly come swarming in, we should catch that person and torture them. They're a spy."

"I see."

Ivan, who had suddenly become a demonfolk spy, nodded without comment.

"That's what I'm saying! And, hmm? Everyone's just trying to shove the responsibility onto me because they don't want it themselves. They haven't grown up."

That was not something an adult who did not want responsibility should say.

Ivan thought that even if he lived for more than a century, he never wanted to grow old like that.

"So, um. What if I say that I feel deeply responsible and resign? The more I think about it, the more I feel I've worked too hard. Maybe it's time I got some rest."

"Hmm."

"Should I travel somewhere? How about the sea? I don't like mountains."

"Why does that sound as if I'm going with you?"

"Because you are?"

Ivan was a practical man, so he had no intention of indulging the antics of an old woman from a century ago.

Taking Enrika's teacup away, he said,

"The department cannot hold you particularly responsible anyway. This was, in the literal sense, an accident."

"R-Right?"

"Yes. To begin with, responsibility lies with Counterintelligence Command. Isn't preventing hostile forces from infiltrating in advance their job?"

"You're... not wrong!"

Enrika clapped her hands and stood. There was no way she had failed to realize something so simple, so apparently she had only wanted comfort.

Ivan knew how to respect his elders. Unlike this uncivilized world, South Korea had established ethics, morality, social norms, and Confucian views on respecting seniority. (This was debatable.)

He was such a polite man.

"So go home now. I have a lot to do too."

"Oh, is that so? I'm terribly, truly sorry for taking up our busy student's time!"

"Naturally."

Saint Basilisha Orphanage was Ivan's masterpiece, built by pouring in every connection and asset he had cultivated throughout his life.

Ivan had no plans to turn the place into a nursing home for a vampire old woman, so he kicked Enrika, who wore the expression of someone wounded by the world, out of the director's office.

"Oh, right. I wasn't joking about going to the sea. Since things have turned out this way, I thought we could try another field trip! The royal government has been quietly testing the waters, you know?"

"The royal government?"

"That's right. Krasilov has a weak tourism industry, doesn't it? University students all come from grand noble families, and they will each hold important positions later. Maybe they want to advertise in advance. It's practically a national project!"

"...They would be better off canceling it."

Ivan understood the intention, but it was an extremely foolish choice.

Academy group tours always ran into terrible crises.

If they went to the sea, strange creatures like fishfolk or krakens might appear out of nowhere with no narrative justification.

Still, Ivan was a practical man. Since he did not want to be treated like a demonfolk spy or a prophet, he had enough sense not to force his common sense on others.

After casually seeing Enrika off, he sat down and let out a deep sigh.

At last, I can rest.

For peace of mind, he took out his axe and began lovingly wiping it down with an oil-soaked cloth.

* * *

While Ivan enjoyed a quiet moment with his beloved axe, Aesidis secretly met with her uncle, who was volunteering at the orphanage, to gather intelligence.

'He shared a room with Professor Enrika for three days...?!'

Aesidis did not have the confidence to pass on this shocking information to her longtime friend. Professor Enrika was her father's friend and a member of the Hero Party!

Aesidis remembered what she was like. At the university, Enrika acted demurely like a professor, but her true nature was that of a vampire.

During her active days, there had been too many soldiers who fell for her to count across an entire front. A ravishing beauty with bewitching magical power, Aesidis had secretly admired Enrika in those days....

To be honest, the moment she was compared to Enrika, Isabelle had far too little chance. Aside from being younger, how could she defeat a Hero Party legend?

Aesidis sniffled as she thought about her friend's tragic love.

Her pure heart came crashing down amid the ugly dating games of adults. (It was not.)

'Bella must never find out....'

Aesidis was not bold enough to calmly reveal that the person who had actively seduced her friend (he had not) was a terrible womanizer who regularly had physical relations with a university professor (he did not, and it was a misunderstanding).

Clutching Kkangkkang III, Aesidis's one-month-old violin, tightly in her hands, she made a vow.

She would deal with that man herself.

A warrior of Droan did not hesitate to stain their hands with blood for friends and brothers.

And she was the daughter of Great King Einar, Droan's greatest warrior. Swearing on her father's honor, she firmly resolved to become a righteous warrior who would punish that wicked villain.

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Footnotes:

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