WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 46: 10. Stalker vs Stalker (1)
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* * *
As Ivan had reflected before, every country in the Allied Kingdoms worked hard, in its own way, to cultivate an intelligence organization.
Among the twelve nations of the Allied Kingdoms, four were considered major powers: Droan, Kallion, Tilles, and Krasilov. Their methods were somewhat more specialized than those of the other kingdoms.
For instance, Droan's intelligence organization was made up of worshippers of the Four Elements.
Water, which always knew the answer.
Magical fire, which made people confess the truth when burned.
Mystical wind, which made people reveal their past when hung from a pole.
Silent earth, which buried and concealed every truth.
Gather the love of all four elements, and you had a Droan-style intelligence organization. In practice, it just meant dragging someone in and beating them up.
The elves of the Kalion Archipelago, on the other hand, preferred a far more refined approach.
As leaders in Mind Sorcery, their espionage methods were exceptionally sophisticated and considerate.
Their specialty was friendly intelligence gathering, actively making use of becoming friends (brainwashing) and playing pranks (memory manipulation).
Tilles, the kingdom of knights, simply asked honestly whenever they wanted to know something. A remarkably righteous practice, aside from the fact that refusing to answer was considered an insult and led to a trial by duel.
The Annihilation Unit Ivan had belonged to, its predecessor, Enrika’s Children, and their successor, the Krasilov Counterintelligence Command, all preferred astonishingly modern intelligence work.
Observation, evidence collection, signals intelligence, technical intelligence, terrain analysis, human intelligence networks....
In other words, they conducted the orthodox sort of intelligence work that the other great powers called “dull.”
- Ate a sandwich for lunch again today. Chicken breast filling. Sauce presumed to be mustard. Nutritional imbalance is a concern. No vegetables except tomato. Recommend a more vegetable-focused diet.
Responsible for the safety and health of the Hero Party's children, Ivan wrote down this crucial intelligence in his notebook and lowered his binoculars.
Ep. 10. Stalker vs Stalker
The unprecedented incident in which every first-year Knight Department student had been confined to a hospital room brought unexpected consequences.
“This isn’t reaaaal!!”
Exam period was extended by a week.
If only one or two examinees had been absent, they would have failed or taken a make-up exam.
But once nearly every student in the department became seriously injured, the department declared a one-week closure.
Practical exams were one thing, but written exams were another matter. The Knight Department jock-types, attempting to study for an exam for the first time in their lives, ground their teeth and raged.
Their targets were mostly the Theology Department, Magic Department, Art Department, and Music Department....
Most of all, they targeted the Music Department students.
“Why are you the oooonly ones?!”
“We’re in the same arts college!! Why are you the only ones so happy?!”
“Ican’tbelievethisthisisn’trealitcan’tberealwhydoKNIGHTSneedtostudyforwrittenexams?”
For the record, the Music Department also studied written material. History of musical movements, formal analysis, counterpoint, harmony. In fact, it had more written subjects than the Knight Department.
Of course, such facts meant nothing to sword-bearing brutes.
Those Music Department bastards.
They suddenly started belting out unaccompanied vocals among themselves in the eastern courtyard. (It was Vocal Department practical training.)
They walked across campus, randomly plunking away at instruments. (It was Orchestral Music Department ensemble practice.)
While respectable working people struggled and sweated to make a living each day, those bastards could just sit in a marketplace and sing to earn money! (Busking was extremely difficult.)
“Ugh, you stink of sweat. You should do something called showering before you come into a restaurant, sir. It means pouring water over your body, lathering up thoroughly with soap, scrubbing every nook and cranny, then rinsing it all off with water.”
“You crazy bitches...!!”
Scenes like that could easily be found throughout the university campus at the time.
Furious Knight Department students, and Music Department students laughing at them.
Whoever had decided to group the Knight Department and Music College under the same arts college was unknown, but may they be cursed.
Aesidis was singing a song of sorrow in that chaotic age.
“Next.”
“Crazy bitch... crazy bitch....”
The outdoor gymnasium on the arts college campus.
Holding Kkangkkang upside down, Aesidis stared ominously at its warped fingerboard.
Behind her stood her classmates.
Before her stood Knight Department students who had lost their will to fight.
At her feet lay five corpses with part of their heads smashed open. (They were not corpses.)
All of this was the result of the strongest Music Department student in history rising up for justice.
Kkangkkang I had sacrificed itself for a friend.
Kkangkkang II had met an untimely end.
And here, Kkangkkang III was meeting its heroic end for her honor.
As had been reflected before, an instrument was a musician's life.
With the heart of someone wielding her own life, Aesidis was punishing the insolent invaders who had set foot at the Music Department's front gate.
“Five Knight Department students have already gotten beaten up by a first-year Music Department student!”
“Ahahahaha!”
“Have you seen it, you ignorant fools? Music developed to its extreme can no longer be distinguished from martial force....”
“Go back. And tell everyone... from now on, the Music Department shall reign over every department in the arts college....”
There was no reason for upperclassmen to join a game between first-years.
The upperclassmen of the Knight Department were eating popcorn while watching their first-years get beaten until they cried, while the upperclassmen of the Music Department had no confidence they could beat a Knight Department first-year to begin with.
Thus, the naturally formed “sparring match” was turning into a festival for the arts college's first-year students. (For reference, the Knight Department was still in exam period.)
The traitors at the top of their departments, Yuri, Isabelle, Oscar, and the rest, had shamefully ignored this secret history to devote themselves to studying for their exams. That left the students only one option.
Someone who had never studied, yet crushed every student in the department through practical skill alone... the Heavenly Demon...!
“Bring him... bring our big brother here!!”
“Big brother. Yes... if big brother shows up, you’re finished!”
Speaking like a third-rate street thug, one first-year ran off somewhere.
Soon, a burly middle-aged man appeared from who knew where. It was Mord, the strongest first-year in the Knight Department's history.
“No, I need to prepare for my next exam....”
“Don't lie to us, big brother!! The department's honor is rolling around in the dirt right now. Does some stupid exam matter at a time like this?!”
“What the hell are these bastards talking about?”
Hadn't they been angry because they were the only ones in exam period? Yet if exams did not matter now, what had they been angry about in the first place?
This wise Droan Huscarl realized the truth in an instant. Ah, they just wanted to run away from their exams and play.
When he came to his senses and looked ahead, he saw Aesidis gripping a half-broken violin.
“How many months did you use this one, Esi?”
“One month, Uncle....”
“Good work. At least it lasted more than three weeks.”
Mord readily nodded, then turned around.
“I concede. I lost. Ah, the Music Department is too strong. As expected of Brother Einar's daughter.”
“My goodness... blood ties matter more than school ties, big brother...? What about the Knight Department's honor?!”
“For the record, Esi and I aren't blood relatives. We’re from the same region.”
“Droan... I’ll never forget this...!!”
“Stop saying stupid things and go study for your exams, you idiots.”
“From today on, you're not my big brother anymoreee!!”
Only after a noble child from Tilles sobbed and ran toward the department's main building did that day's commotion come to an end.
Ivan silently watched the scene from behind a tree, then took out his pen and revised his notes.
- Aesidis. Percussion instruments suit her better than string instruments.
* * *
‘Oh no. This isn't the time for this!!’
Aesidis jolted in surprise. She had become so absorbed in the commotion that she had forgotten her duty.
Of course, her duty was to be a student. But Aesidis Einarsdottir, first-year student in the Orchestral Music Department, and Aesidis, “Isabelle's friend,” had to be entirely different people.
This was a time that required not an ordinary Music Department student, but a warrior armed with righteousness and chivalry.
Besides, Kkangkkang had consumed a suitable amount of blood.
Aesidis steeled herself and set off. Somewhere on this campus hid a vile criminal.
She would uncover that person's intentions and punish their sins.
Her father would surely support her righteous martial strength as well.
* * *
To emphasize this once again, Ivan was a completely harmless faculty member with an ordinary appearance.
He had been a master of concealment, infiltration, and special operations from the beginning. If he wanted to pretend to be ordinary, he could become more ordinary than anyone else.
Still, he had no need for such advanced infiltration techniques. Basically, he had an unremarkable appearance that was easy to forget after passing by.
“Eek...!”
A Magic Department student shrieked and fled out of Ivan's sight.
Ivan was hanging one-handed from the top of a tree, concealed in the shadows, so he ought to praise the student's keen eyesight for finding him.
Of course, Ivan had memorized the personal details of everyone on campus, so he recognized the fleeing young man as the student who had once thrown away a cigarette butt. The student to whom Ivan had provided a “smoking cessation clinic.”
A shy student.
Such youthful innocence was fitting for a university student. Ivan nodded expressionlessly and shifted his gaze.
Elphihara.
Beolgreen's daughter.
The top first-year student in the Magic Department, a genius who had set the department's all-time highest score in the entrance practical evaluation.
Narrowing his eyes as he watched Elphihara, Ivan raised his notebook.
- Apart from a few followers, has no smooth peer relationships. Takes after her father.
He spent some time writing a profile containing nothing but sincere observations, without the slightest ill intent.
“Hmm.”
Ivan felt someone watching him and turned his head.
* * *
“...Bella wasn't the only one....”
Isabelle, and perhaps even Enrika, might not have been that man's only “prey.”
The terror of that predator, observing someone from afar and searching for their “weakness,” weighed heavily on her.
The infamous figure who had sent fifty Knight Department first-years to the Theology Department's intensive care ward. The mad cigarette collector. The nightmare behind the tree. The bearded monster. The handsome-eyed middle-aged man. (That last one was Isabelle's opinion.)
Each time Aesidis gathered another rumor about the “gardener,” she came closer to a dreadful truth. Hidden in the bushes, she watched Ivan.
The strange man hanging from a tree, staring at someone from the Magic Department as he wrote notes.
“Stalker....”
She had become a stalker stalking the academy stalker.
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Footnotes:
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