WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Irevi
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◈ I Became the Academy's Turn-Based Swordsman ◈
Chapter 107: Sauce
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Academy of the End divided each day into four time slots.
You chose one designated action in each time slot, and once you had completed four actions, the day ended.
Major events like dungeon raids would exceptionally consume an entire day.
In reality, after clearing a dungeon or doing as many as four things in a day, you would be exhausted enough to feel like your whole body was melting, so it was a fairly realistic detail.
The important thing was that travel consumed time too.
As long as it was within the Empire's territory, the Christoph Cross-Country Train's rail network made it possible to travel anywhere.
But the godawful travel time was the problem.
After learning how to travel through Renee, I had considered it myself.
'Wouldn't it be much more convenient if I spent some free time traveling all over the Empire and marking locations in advance?'
The problem was that Academy of the End was set in an era transitioning from the medieval period into the modern age, so trains were not as fast as they were in the reality I had lived in.
If you let your guard down for even a moment, it would be three hours! Six hours! Twelve hours! As a student, I couldn't bring myself to board a train.
Even Aren Bright's hometown of Baran was several full days away by travel alone.
But vacation was another matter.
I had chosen Berhart as my first destination because it was the closest, but also because it was the best starting point for a route around the Empire.
If I started from Berhart, went all the way down to Baran at the southern end, and returned to Nevil, I would have made good use of the vacation.
There were four cult branches I intended to wipe out this vacation.
Getel, where one of them was located, was a village around three hours away from Berhart.
Later, much like Ronwood, heretics would run rampant there at the cult's behest, but the cult's influence probably had not reached the village yet.
Getel would grow like a cancer inside the Empire and later become a supply base for cultists. I needed to thin them out quickly to stop that.
"I brought the food."
"Thanks."
We had descended from Starlight Mountain and boarded the train bound for Getel.
It was already well past five, and the horizon was beginning to turn red.
Adeline sat beside me, while Luna sat across from us.
I had successfully recruited the stalker into the party, so our three-person party was complete again.
Except now we had three damage dealers.
I missed Mine and Alicia, but overpowered Adeline would probably make it work somehow.
Still, I had never exchanged blows with Luna, so I didn't know her current strength.
I needed to get her into real combat soon, if only for later.
Still, no one could match her performance as a magic DPS in the original work, so she should be useful.
Seeing how she still wouldn't let go of [Nebula] even after leaving the cave, she seemed rather greedy for loot too.
And if she was greedy for loot, she would work that much harder at clearing dungeons.
Honestly, after seeing Luna's behavior, I had worried she might be Mine ver. 2.
It would have been deeply troublesome if she had a breakdown and collapsed in front of a dungeon.
But surprisingly, she communicated well.
The terrified, squirrel-like attitude she had shown in the cave was gone, and she no longer stammered.
She answered every question properly and kept back what needed to be hidden.
Thanks to that, I was having such a comfortable conversation that I wondered if I had ever gotten along this well with anyone else.
Why was someone like her stalking me?
"Huh? What's this? Didn't all three of us order the same thing?"
"Ah! It's the same as the instructor's. Maybe the sauces are different?"
For some reason, Luna's sandwich and mine were distinctly different in color from Adeline's.
Adeline's was an ordinary brownish sandwich.
Ours were soaked in a bright red sauce, enough to look as if they had been smeared with blood.
'Chili sauce?'
I couldn't hide my disappointment.
This world had its own idea of spicy food.
But it fell far short of the spice from the reality I had lived in.
No matter how much sauce you poured on, food only became salty instead of spicy.
It only ruined the flavor, so at some point I had stopped thinking about spicy food altogether.
Had she poured this on without even asking?
Still, since Luna had bought it, I took a bite of the sandwich without complaint.
Then.
'Huh?'
It wasn't the disgusting salty flavor I had expected.
A sharp, intense sensation prickled at the tip of my tongue.
This was definitely spice.
And not just any spice. It was the real capsaicin burn I could only have tasted in the reality I had lived in.
"What's wrong? Does it taste bad?"
I didn't even have time to answer Adeline before taking another huge bite.
'What is this? This intense flavor?'
I stared at Luna in shock.
She calmly chewed her own sandwich without a change in expression.
"What is it?"
Adeline snatched my sandwich away and pulled the "just one bite" move.
Then.
"Ack... Cough...!!"
Tears streamed down her face as she kept coughing violently.
That was why she shouldn't steal other people's food.
"Y-You... If you eat stuff like this, you won't grow! No, you'll die?!"
"I'm sorry!"
Adeline gulped down water.
Honestly, that was the normal reaction. It wasn't the kind of spice people in this world would find tasty.
But it was perfect for me.
"Luna. This sauce..."
"Ah!"
Luna swallowed the sandwich in her mouth and spoke.
"I made that sauce. The sauce they sell at restaurants is too bland... I wasn't sure if it would suit your taste, so I only put it on mine and Halibal... sir's. Was it too spicy?"
"......No. It's delicious."
"I'm glad it suits your taste."
She then took out a small sauce bottle and held it out to me.
"If it's all right, would Halibal... sir like to use it too? I made plenty."
My hands trembled as I accepted the sauce as though possessed.
What good were rare Shards or rare items?
This was the real loot.
With this, I could enjoy the spicy flavors I had missed whenever I wanted.
Luna smiled softly as she watched me.
She could laugh all she wanted.
I was smiling too.
I wanted to enthusiastically praise the version of myself from a few hours ago who had decided to accept Luna into the party.
Wait.
'Doesn't this mean she even knows my tastes...?'
Damn. I really couldn't let my guard down.
She must have been certain that this abnormal level of spice would work on me, or she wouldn't have poured it onto my sandwich without asking.
I couldn't begin to guess how much information Luna had about me.
Terrifying girl.
Still, I couldn't deny that the meal had been satisfying.
⁎⁎⁎
Two hours later, we arrived in Getel.
Despite it being nighttime, the early summer weather was cool.
Once we left the station, a quiet country road greeted us.
Under the pitch-black night sky, the clear sound of river water flowing beside the road echoed around us.
As we entered the village, an elderly person with a pleasant expression waved at us.
The scene was free of the pretenses and lies of Ronwood. Fortunately, the cult's influence didn't seem to have reached the village yet.
After getting rooms at an inn, we immediately left and entered a forest path on the outskirts of the village.
After walking for some time, the forest seemed to deepen, and then an old house appeared.
"Obviously, this is the place."
It looked like an ordinary house, but there was an underground passage here, sealed with markings only cultists could recognize.
The Getel branch was underground.
Then Adeline turned to me.
"You said you needed practical instruction, right? What should we do? Walk proudly through the front door, or try an assassination?"
"Please do whatever is comfortable for you. I'll learn on my own."
"Oh? You're awfully confident."
Adeline grinned and began walking toward the house.
"Then learn well."
With a creak, she flung open the door.
Inside were two locals who appeared to be a married couple.
A flicker of confusion crossed their faces, along with the faint demonic energy I sensed from their bodies.
Naturally, they were cultists.
"W-Who are you?!"
Apparently guards, the two immediately leveled their spears.
But they couldn't stop Adeline.
Swish.
The moment she passed between the guards, a golden sword aura flashed from the sword at her waist and severed their necks in a single stroke.
Thud.
The guards collapsed without even having time to scream.
Adeline was the true successor of Belhart Style.
After achieving Secret Art Unleashing in Belhart Style, she had recreated the swordsmanship with her own color.
Her Belhart Style was much more dynamic, flexible, and faster than the original Belhart Style. New Belhart Style.
But what she showed me now was the third form of Old Belhart Style, Wind-Dust Slash.
Just as she had reworked the Mercenary King's swordsmanship, she was telling me to look at the original form and rework it well myself.
Adeline sheathed her sword.
"Shall we go in? Can you open it?"
"I'll give it a try."
The house had barely enough room for two people to enter.
This was not really a house, only the entrance to the branch. In other words, two people were needed to open the entrance.
In the original work, you held hands with one party member, stood side by side, and touched the markings on both ends of the wall at the same time to open it.
"Here."
"......Yes?"
When I held my hand out to Luna, she awkwardly took it.
Of all the characters in the original work, she had the smallest height and build.
Perhaps because of that, her hand fit entirely within mine.
When we touched the markings, the floor split apart as though by magic, revealing stairs leading underground.
Adeline gave an incredulous laugh.
"Hah... It really was here. To think something like this was hidden in a place like this. How many more rat holes like this are there inside the Empire?"
"Let's block as many as we can this vacation."
Adeline and I immediately descended the stairs.
But for some reason, Luna lingered at the entrance.
"What are you doing? Aren't you coming?"
"......"
Rather than looking at me, she was blankly staring down at her own hand, the one I had been holding until just now.
When I called to her again, she flinched and hurried after me.
The underground area was full of cultists.
"Intruders!"
"Stop them!"
The cult's named figures were naturally its bishops.
As planned, the bishops who absorbed demonic energy each possessed martial strength ranking among the Empire's finest.
With special powers and Monsterization on top of that, even Adeline would find them difficult opponents one on one.
That didn't mean the ordinary cultists were weak.
They too had received the Evil God's baptism and could handle demonic energy, and some of them could use a portion of a monster's power as well.
The cultists of the Getel branch all looked stronger than the ones I had seen in Ronwood.
Some even had horns on their heads that looked like those of immature dragons.
Since the Evil God Tartarus resembled an evil dragon, they mutated into forms like that.
'Still, they aren't particularly threatening.'
I couldn't let my guard down, but as long as I stayed focused, they were at a level I could handle alone.
Right then, the bus driver I had brought along started driving in earnest.
No, she felt more like a cleaner than a bus driver.
Every time Adeline swung her sword, cultists packed into the narrow corridor scattered like leaves in the autumn wind.
Luna and I only had to follow after she finished cleaning up.
It felt great.
'This is the Empire’s Greatest Sword.'
The branch extended down three basement floors, and Adeline cleared the first through third floors in an instant.
On the second floor, she even slaughtered every cultist there with a single sword aura strike.
Despite releasing sword aura with that much power, there wasn't even a sign that the underground area would collapse.
Adeline was controlling the output of her sword aura down to an extremely fine degree.
Before long, we entered the branch head's office at the deepest point underground.
It was an office that looked like the study of a noble.
Paintings worshipping Tartarus covered the walls, while grotesque stone figures and sculptures stood all around.
Around a dozen books sat on the bookshelf, and Adeline pulled one out.
"Is this... documentation related to supply routes?"
Her expression hardened as she read through the documents for a long while.
Along with branch entry records, the documents plainly described how this branch would be used as a bridgehead for invading the Empire.
But my interest lay elsewhere.
An old safe in the corner of the room.
It was time to farm loot.
'This was the password.'
I turned the dial using the number combination I had seen in the original work.
Click.
That was when it happened.
"Halibal, sir, watch out!"
The moment I turned the dial, the sword-wielding statue beside the safe moved with a roar.
It was probably a trap that activated when someone unauthorized touched the dial.
But I had seen through this trap.
It had appeared in the original work too.
It was simply a trap that could not be disarmed except by triggering it.
I moved to swing my sword.
But before my sword could pierce the statue's body, Luna reached out first.
Fwoosh!
Purple fire, the Grace Family's flames, burst from her hand.
When the flames swallowed the statue, it melted onto the ground like sticky jelly.
This was the first time I had seen Luna's abilities in actual combat.
But wait.
'......Purple?'
Unlike the other characters, Luna's Arts had two branches based on the color of her flames.
Their uses were completely different depending on the color.
The basic branch was ordinary red flames.
It was specialized for magical burst damage, the standard branch most players chose when using Luna as a party member.
And the other was purple flames.
Purple flames were a debuff-focused branch considered the worst even in the original work.
Footnotes:
“Bus driver” is Korean gaming slang for a powerful player who carries the rest of the party.
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