WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 79: 12. Academy Festival Common Sense (9)

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-Bang!!

"Gunfire!?"

Isabelle jumped to her feet in alarm.

That was the direction Uncle went, wasn't it...? The thought had barely crossed her mind before she clutched her face and groaned.

What was he up to now...?

Sadly, it was a perfectly valid question.

"Ah, has it started already?"

Unlike the confused Isabelle, Aesidis, and Elphihara, the three transmigrators at the booth wore faint smiles as they began tidying up.

There were no customers anyway. No one was around to steal their ingredients. They could abandon the booth without suffering any real loss.

Screams rang out nearby, and crowds fled in every direction, yet the three remained utterly calm.

"W-What is this!? Can someone explain what's happening? Is this what human festivals are normally like? Ah, ceremonial gunfire. It's something like that, right?"

"I haven't heard of anything like that on the schedule."

Isabelle spoke while watching suspicious masked figures running among the terrified crowd.

"If this were actually part of the festival, people wouldn't be running away."

"My, my, you don't know? This is why... people from another world...."

Eugene approached with a shake of his head. At some point, he had changed into light training clothes and strapped a mace to his hip.

"Ah, this is called an attack. It happens all the time at academies... I mean, universities."

"Your personality seems a little different... No, and what kind of university gets attacked all the time...?"

Isabelle trailed off and shut her mouth.

What was this? Why did it feel like they really did get attacked all the time...?

Come to think of it, there had been an attack on the entrance train, another during the field exercise, a sudden earthquake, and now this festival.

That was far too much to happen in only three months after enrollment...?

Too frequent to write off as a series of random incidents...?

"Uh... huh?"

"Have you finally realized it? This is common sense...."

Chuckling to himself, Eugene turned to Oswald, who was smiling beside him.

"Oswald, grant me the Spell of Victory."

"Can't be helped."

With a snort of laughter, Oswald stepped closer and raised a hand.

An antique helmet had appeared in his grasp. It was an old bucket-shaped helm, the sort wandering knights on penitence might have worn.

A strange red cross was painted across it.

Oswald placed the helmet over Eugene's head, then lowered the visor. With a heavy clank, it slid down over Eugene's face.

Purple mana curled around it in a spiral.

Having woven mana from his fingertips and completed the spell, Oswald focused it on Eugene's head and whispered softly.

"The Lord wills it."

Kiiing.

The spell settled beneath Eugene's helmet. [Courage Imbuement], a basic awakening spell from Mind Sorcery.

Its result, however, was anything but ordinary.

"Kill the infidels."

Golden light flared beneath the helmet's visor.

"In the Lord's name!! God is great, and there is only one God!!"

"That's Islam...."

"Shh. Don't break his concentration. Let him enjoy himself."

"Ah... yes."

Yuri and Oswald watched Eugene charge off with contented smiles.

After lightly checking his gear, Oswald turned to the other students, who were still standing there in stunned silence.

"Anyway, this is the situation. Let's see...."

He knew they were the children of the Hero Party. According to Ivan, they were the protagonists of this scenario.

An attack during an academy festival was practically a level-up event for the protagonists. That was common sense.

Oswald searched for a way to explain it according to this world's standards.

"Right now, civilians are under attack, and many students belong to departments unrelated to combat. Most of them have no real combat experience. Stay sharp. We're the ones most capable of keeping our heads right now."

"Uh... right...."

"Ah, Miss Aesidis, you're in the music department, correct? It can't be helped. Please stay back...."

What could a bard possibly do? She could sing from the rear or something.

At Oswald's words, Aesidis hesitated before squeezing her eyes shut and asking,

"W-What about Uncle? Uncle Ivan?"

"Considering the direction the shots came from, and what he's usually like... it's obvious. He must've rushed into the most dangerous place."

"Then I'm going with him."

"Do you have a weapon?"

"Yes."

Aesidis wore a grim expression as she undid a buckle. The instrument case on her back slid free and fell into her hands.

"Hey, you're not using a violin again...!"

"I don't do that anymore. Kkangkkang isn't a weapon."

She opened the instrument case's zipper, revealing a metal conductor's baton.

It was about as long as a collapsible riot baton, far too long and thick to serve as an actual conductor's baton.

It was also, at a glance, a heavy steel rod.

"I've decided to apply to the orchestra conducting department as a double major next semester. Conductors' batons are cheap, and the material doesn't matter...."

Of course, a conductor needed to be able to hold and wave one lightly between two fingers, but there was no particular restriction on what material a baton could be made from.

Aesidis already possessed the grip strength and physical power to hold and wave a steel rod between two fingers.

She was the strongest music student in history, the daughter of Einar the Berserker. Just as befitted Droan's strongest female university student.

"The long years of humiliation are over! Starting today, I am a conductor!!"

"God, sing of sorrow!!"

With a shriek, Aesidis marched into battle. Isabelle blankly watched her go, then shook her head.

Conducting probably wasn't supposed to involve hitting people over the head. Still, if Aesidis was happy, that was what mattered.

Cracking her shoulders, Isabelle drew her sword. Bringing it even during the festival had paid off.

"If the music and theology students are charging in like that, it would be embarrassing for the Knight Department to sit still. Miss Yuri, shall we go?"

"Yes, Miss Isabelle. I'll leave the rear to you!"

The two Knight Department students gripped their swords and ran into the crowd.

Only Oswald and Elphihara remained at the booth. Oswald watched them go with a faint smile.

"Do they not know how parties work?"

A priest charging in alone.

Then a bard rushing after him with a close-combat weapon.

Only after that did two knights join the fight.

What kind of party was this? Our club had spent so long forming parties and learning to work together.

How could they leave only the backline mage behind...?

With a sigh, Oswald shrugged and moved to follow them. Elphihara stopped him.

"Where are you going?"

"Ah, I thought I'd lend a hand too."

"You can't do that. Then I'd be left here alone."

"What?"

"I really don't have a single drop of mana left."

Elphihara shrugged and stepped back.

Oswald was startled. Elphihara was already famous in her department as a genius with monstrous reserves of mana. Had she been casting spells until she ran completely dry without anyone noticing?

Why? And what spell had she been...?

As Oswald hesitated, Elphihara smirked.

"Still, as an elf, I have a duty to rescue pitiful short-lived races. Mr. Eastvelpen, do you know how to fire a pistol?"

"I know the basics."

"That's good. Which Mind Sorcery spells can you use?"

"Uh... [Courage Imbuement], [Form of Fear], and [Olrog's Blindfold], I suppose?"

"What about [Aim Correction]?"

"Ah, I can use that too."

"Excellent. How many spell casts do you have left?"

"About ten."

Elphihara broke into a bright smile and nodded.

"Then come with me!"

"What? You said you had exhausted all your mana. Where do you think you're going? Miss Grikenkos is an honored guest of Kallion. You should rest somewhere safe!"

"Oh, come now. I can't let an opportunity to earn points slip away."

This incident would never grow beyond a certain scale. It had happened in the heart of Pritchenkaya, so the suppression would be swift as well.

The festival crowds had caused some chaos for now, but it was obvious the disturbance would soon be brought under control.

Ivan was a high-ranking figure who received operational orders directly from the Princess. Reports on the suppression of the attack would be easy for him to obtain.

The way to earn points in the meantime was simple. Act first and make an impression.

Better still, resolve the situation using one of Ivan's main weapons, a pistol.

Then, naturally....

-Oh my, Lord Petrovich. During the last attack, I tried using a weapon called a pistol for the first time.

-That was your first time using one? I can hardly believe it!!

-Ah, it's no great talent. Any elf should be proficient with all manner of weapons. But Lord Petrovich, you were skilled with this pistol, weren't you?

-How skilled could a mere human possibly be? Still, I've handled one for a few years!

-Ah, my father always told me that if someone had learned something even a day before you, then you should seek their instruction, even if they are human. Could you teach me pistol shooting?

-Kyaaaaaaack!! It would be the honor of my life! I plan to record today in my diary and pass it down as a family heirloom. Would you perhaps be willing to give me your signature as well!?

-Oh ho ho ho ho!! Of course! Naturally! Bring it here at once!!

"Hehe...."

"Miss Grikenkos?"

"Uhehe... Let's go! Quickly! Let's save every last one of those poor humans!!"

With an excited expression, Elphihara dashed off.

"W-Where are you going to get a pistol!?"

"I saw plenty of them with live ammunition earlier!"

While Dmitry was directing operations at the scene, he had to suffer Kallion's elven nobles barging in and confiscating his weapons.

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Once the situation had been resolved, Ivan let out a deep sigh in front of the kneeling Dmitry.

"So it came to this after all."

He flipped through the report before hesitating with a displeased expression. He had decided he would no longer hold an official post.

Could it be helped?

He pressed a red-inked seal firmly onto the report's final page, then sighed again and handed it to the side.

Pavel accepted the report and pressed his own seal beside Ivan's.

-Chief: Colonel Ivan Petrovich.

-Deputy: Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Sergeyevich Olov.

"Um... you'll receive the military pension payments you were owed from now on...."

"...."

"The salary won't come from the military. It'll come from the East Court, because this organization belongs to the royal palace. Hehe."

"...."

Dmitry looked away from the two ghosts of his past, who stared at him in silence. He lowered his gaze to the floor and muttered,

"I'll be in your care, seniors."

"Let's start by reworking the training plan."

"Mm."

"Come to think of it, we could say that the Royal Guard has continued on as it was. Don't you think?"

The Royal Guard's sole survivor from the war, Ivan, had reorganized it into the Annihilation Unit, so it would not be wrong to call the Annihilation Unit the Royal Guard's successor.

The Counterintelligence Command had then been formed by gathering and selecting the survivors of the Annihilation Unit.

From one perspective, was this not simply the Royal Guard's reorganization?

Pavel nodded in satisfaction. It was a meaningful position, one well suited to starting again.

Ep 12. Academy Festival Common Sense

Footnotes:

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