WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Irevi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 35: What's That Now?
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My request was rejected without hesitation.
They say that if you keep being nice to someone, they start taking you for granted. That was exactly what I was doing.
Come to think of it, Aren had been the one to offer Elia a place to stay in the original game. Elia had never directly asked Aren for a place to stay.
I’d crossed a line.
‘Still, was it really something to be that embarrassed about?’
What bothered me was the way Aren had refused.
The expression he wore when he turned down my request looked more embarrassed than awkward.
Then again, I’d made that kind of request after seeing him only a few times. Maybe that was a natural reaction.
Still, getting him to promise we’d go see the sea together was a big enough gain.
‘Do I need to find separate lodging after all? I guess I’ll have to sell Richard more Shards.’
I pushed the stray thoughts aside and worked faster.
After Basic Weaponry class, I was gathering herbs on the mountain behind the Ruidel Academy branch.
It was part of Herbology class, and students were allowed to take home only the herbs they personally gathered during the lesson.
In the original game, you received random herbs as rewards after class. Now, I could pick out and take only what I needed. In that regard, this was much better than the original.
The downside was that I had fewer chances to obtain the herbs that occasionally increased permanent stats.
Anyway, if I gathered plenty now, they would be a huge help when clearing dungeons later.
My basket held Frost Herbs, Antidote Herbs, and Flame Herbs. I had deliberately focused on herbs that cured status ailments.
Now that I knew status ailments existed, preparing countermeasures had to come first.
As I sorted the herbs in my basket, a shadow fell over me.
When I looked up, a girl with violet hair held out an herb with a gentle smile.
“Here. Purple Cloud Herb.”
“Ah, thank you, Saintess.”
Mine was the only playable character who had chosen Herbology.
Since I already knew her, I had asked her to get me Purple Cloud Herb, which could cure the Fear status ailment.
“But... why do you need Purple Cloud Herb?”
Mine looked at me with a troubled expression.
Unlike other herbs, Purple Cloud Herb’s effects were not explained so plainly. The original game did not even have a Fear status ailment to begin with.
So what was Purple Cloud Herb originally used for?
It was a hallucinogenic herb that soldiers smoked before entering dungeons to forget their tension and fear.
It was not addictive, so I could not quite call it a drug, but I had heard it pleasantly emptied your head. If I had to compare it to something, it was like a harmless cigarette.
That was why I was not even sure I would be allowed to take it home. An instructor might stop me.
It was only natural for Mine, who knew what the herb did, to worry when I asked for it.
But I had no choice.
I could not repeat the mistake I made with Varhatan.
“When I raided the Beast Dungeon boss, fear nearly got me killed.”
No, I had actually died.
If not for Renee, that would have been the end of me.
“Fear...?”
“Yes. Its roar froze my body.”
“Your body... froze? Even you, Halibal?”
“Because of that, I couldn’t move at all and left myself open to a powerful attack.”
At my words, she quietly crouched beside me and asked with a deeply somber look.
“So... all the herbs you chose are necessary for clearing dungeons, right?”
“That’s right.”
“You chose Herbology class... for that reason too.”
When I nodded, Mine’s gaze shifted to the students picking flowers in the distance.
Several female students were picking violas, the flower that symbolized her, from the garden on the hill.
“...I’m scared of entering dungeons.”
This was when Mine was still consumed by the trauma of her past.
Even in the original game, she failed her first dungeon practicum. She had a Follower, but she never entered a dungeon even once during the entire month.
During my time in the military, all she did was briefly follow Adeline and me into the entrance of the Beast Dungeon after I had already cleared it out.
Even then, she had practically been forced to enter because civilians had gotten caught up in it.
Originally, her scenario was to overcome her fear of dungeons by clearing them alongside Aren.
But now that the original game had gone off the rails, it was fair to say the responsibility for healing Mine’s trauma had fallen to me.
Follower Selection did not end after one choice.
Once my Follower period with Cecilia ended, my next choice could only come from another class.
I had already planned to choose Mine as my next Follower anyway.
“How can someone... overcome fear?”
“That’s a good question.”
Mine looked at me in surprise.
I knew why she was looking at me like that.
She had often looked at me that way when we were in the military.
As though I were someone superior to her, someone who effortlessly forged ahead down a path she could never hope to reach.
Even though I always thought, Who the hell are you talking about? I never denied it.
If it helped her overcome her trauma, that was enough.
This time, though, I had nothing to say either.
No, I hadn’t overcome my fear in the first place. I was taking this class just to farm cigarettes because I couldn’t get over it.
I waved the Purple Cloud Herb in my hand.
“I don’t think I could overcome it without something like this either.”
“If even you are like that, Halibal... what am I supposed to do? Whenever I close my eyes, I can vividly see the faces of the soldiers who gave their lives trying to save someone like me...”
Mine’s story was already well known.
It was what revealed that she was the key, so it was not exactly a secret worth hiding.
In the original game, the only thing that helped her overcome her trauma was time.
As time passed and she watched other students get hurt and collapse, she eventually threw herself into a dungeon and awakened on her own.
So there was nothing I could say to her right now.
Still, the atmosphere was too heavy for me to say nothing.
I tore off a piece of Purple Cloud Herb and handed it to her.
“How do you use this?”
“Pardon?”
“Do you chew and swallow it like the other herbs?”
“Ah, no! I heard Purple Cloud Herb is potent, so you have to chew it little by little. Like... this.”
Mine put the leaf between her lips and slowly chewed it.
I copied her.
“Cough!”
“H-Halibal?!”
It was fucking bitter.
Was the idea that the bitter taste shocked you awake and made you forget your fear?
“Are you all right, Saintess? I can’t possibly eat this.”
“It is... bitter for me too...”
Even as she muttered that, Mine continued chewing the Purple Cloud Herb.
She looked like a purple hamster.
“It’s so bitter that I can barely swallow a bite... How can you eat it like it’s nothing, Saintess?”
“Pardon...? It’s just an herb...”
“As expected, what I could never imitate is probably something natural to you, Saintess. The same goes for other things.”
The only thing I could do for her right now was make her see herself through my eyes.
‘Just as much as you think I’m amazing, I think you’re amazing too.’
When I said that, Mine’s eyes wavered for a moment before falling to the Purple Cloud Herb in her hand.
Just as she was about to say something, the instructor called the students together.
There were five minutes left before class ended.
“Thank you for helping me gather herbs. May I ask you again next time?”
As I stood and held out my hand, Mine hesitated for a moment before taking it and rising.
“No... I should be the one thanking you.”
She still held the Purple Cloud Herb tightly in her other hand.
⁎⁎⁎
On my way to the last class of the morning, Basic Physical Conditioning, an announcement echoed through the hallway.
[The calling feature of every incoming student's Abyss Core has been activated. Incoming students may contact one another directly through their Cores. Please check the notices and bulletin board for detailed instructions and precautions.]
The hallway quickly filled with murmurs.
“Ah... this is...”
Mine, walking beside me, muttered in surprise as well.
The Abyss Cores in Academy of the End were not simply equipment that raised stats.
Just as they could open treasure chests in dungeons, they also provided various convenient functions.
One of them was the calling function that had just been unlocked.
A magic-based communication network covered the academy grounds and Nevil proper, allowing students to freely contact each other through their Cores.
Of course, it was not as versatile as a smartphone.
It could only make voice calls, and communication failed inside dungeons or outside Nevil.
More importantly, before a call could be made, you had to directly connect to and register the other person’s Core number.
In other words, only people who had met face-to-face at least once could contact each other.
Even so, it was unquestionably a useful function for the students.
What was more, Elia would eventually upgrade this calling function in the original game.
Anyway, today’s announcement meant that the first-year students’ Cores, distributed yesterday, had finally been registered on the communication network.
I immediately took out Renee and held her toward Mine.
“Saintess, I think we should exchange contact information, just in case.”
I had to establish contact with every playable character anyway, and it worked out nicely that Mine was right beside me.
“Is it really all right for me to be your first number?”
“Huh? Yes.”
Mine timidly held out her Core.
When the heads of the two Cores touched, a message appeared above them.
[Connection complete: New contact registered - Raphael]
‘Perfect.’
Raphael was the name of Mine’s Abyss Core.
Special Cores sometimes displayed a name instead of a number like this.
“Now we can contact each other anytime.”
“Y-Yes... anytime...”
After exchanging contact information, I saw off Mine, who had somehow frozen as stiffly as a stone statue.
She would call if something came up.
Then, as I headed toward the field where Basic Physical Conditioning class was held,
KABOOM!!
‘What’s that now?’
A sudden roar echoed through the entire hallway, and part of the training hall wall exploded outward.
“What?! What happened?!”
“T-The wall just blew apart!”
“Is anyone hurt?!”
I searched through my hazy memories.
Had there been an event like this on the second day?
There definitely had not.
No, academy events had been extremely scarce for the first month.
Yet there had been an explosion powerful enough to blow apart a wall.
Thinking that some unknown variable had appeared, I immediately turned toward the training hall.
At that moment, students began walking out of the training hall in small groups, but for some reason, their expressions were completely calm.
“...A fight?”
When I asked what had happened, I received an unexpected answer.
“Yeah. Two students fought in the training hall. They were each other’s Followers.”
“Arts are normally prohibited, but they used Arts anyway. That’s why the wall blew up.”
“Thankfully, no one was hurt.”
‘...A fight.’
It was something I had overlooked.
In the game, the academy revolved only around the player, so minor incidents like this never came up.
But this place was reality.
The Follower Selection system was not necessarily fair to everyone.
If your score was low or you were far down the selection order, you had no choice but to be paired with a Follower you did not want. Naturally, that structure was bound to create dissatisfied students.
If being paired with an unwanted Follower led to poor grades, the student had to bear that penalty alone.
That explosion was probably something vaguely glossed over in the game as the extras’ dissatisfaction, but it had erupted into real conflict here.
At least fights between students were everyday incidents that could happen anywhere.
I had tensed up, worried that a major scenario like an attack on the academy had been brought forward. Internally, I let out a sigh of relief.
‘If it’s just an ordinary fight, the academy will handle it.’
Just as I turned back toward the field,
“But it was surprising that the young ladies of the two great houses fought, wasn’t it?”
“Everyone’s been saying they never got along.”
“Causing trouble from the second day on. Great houses really are different.”
I turned back around one hundred and eighty degrees.
Footnotes:
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