WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Ode of the Brave ◈

Chapter 112

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For a room reserved for the strongest person in the city, it was not particularly nice. It had merely been a storage space converted into a bedroom.

There was only one bed. Empty barrels and boxes lay scattered in a corner, and cobwebs hung from the ceiling.

Its good points were that it was fairly spacious and quiet, with emergency stairs leading underground and a back door for the occupant's use alone.

Outside that back door, a donkey was tied up and chewing its feed. It was Magnoli, the Viola Clan's first listed asset.

There was also an untended vegetable patch that had fallen into ruin. Beyond it lay the forest.

It was one of the few reasonably comfortable places in the city, with a secure escape route. Bori was now the owner of that room.

Ricart, Marie, and the others were in Bori's room. It was spacious enough that even with all of them inside, it did not feel cramped.

Ricart introduced everyone to Bori first.

“Say hello. This is Mr. Hartmann, his wife, Mrs. Elia, Beka, Roy, and their guide, Mr. Bremen. This is Bori.”

“Hello, I'm Bori. I'm friends with these two.”

Perhaps because everyone felt awkward, they sat some distance apart. Bori gave Hartmann's family and Bremen a slight bow. They returned it with small nods.

“Hartmann.”

“Bremen.”

After exchanging greetings that were almost just nods, Bori asked Ricart, “By the way, why are you heading to the Eastern Frontier?”

“Nothing much... I heard there was a last hope there.”

Bori glanced at Hartmann's family, then looked back at Ricart.

“I don't know. I don't think it'll be much different from here.”

“We'll only know if we go. Anyway, I heard you stole a secret manual?”

“No. I just took it. I killed the ones who tried to stop me. That means I didn't steal it. I didn't sneak it out.”

“Either way, those people were chasing you.”

“Yeah, that's right. They want to absorb my mana. So I'm lying low for now. I think I'll have to move soon.”

“Absorb mana? What are you talking about?” Marie asked.

“It'd take a while to explain, but apparently, if you kill someone and consume their heart, you can absorb their mana. Even ordinary people have a small amount of mana. I don't know how much mana those bastards have absorbed from how many people. But the mana of a Sword Master would be what they wanted most. What the Rubens Clan truly wants is to capture me.”

It was a shocking revelation. People caught other people and ate their hearts? That was the sort of thing monsters like orcs and goblins would do.

“Even vampires wouldn't do something like that. Is that what the secret manual teaches? Eating hearts?”

“Yeah.”

“Then it was worth taking.”

“I told you, I didn't steal it.”

Unlike when he had met Volka and Delphi, Ricart felt no tender sentiment even though it had been four years since he had seen Bori. He was simply glad to see Bori and felt at ease, certain Bori felt the same way. Every friendship felt a little different.

“Anyway, are you going around punishing bad people and finding strange Codices to burn?”

“No.”

“Then what? Volka said you were.”

“Volka doesn't understand. Neither do the kids.”

“Understand what?”

“Mana Drive. I'm going to create a new one. That's what I really want to do. Everything else is incidental.”

“Why?”

“Oh? Really?”

Ricart and Marie reacted differently. Ricart wondered why Bori would bother with something like that, while Marie was immediately curious.

“I want to find a proper way to train Mana Drive safely, without hurting anyone. We were only at a basic level. We went through real battles and just let things happen, then got lucky. I think that's why everyone's in such chaos. Whether it's the Order, Rubens, or other clans. No one has ever properly shown them the way.”

“I don't really get it.”

Ricart had never learned Mana Drive through ordinary methods, so he could not understand why someone would go to such lengths. He merely accepted it.

“Can I see what you've made so far?”

When Marie asked, Bori freely showed them the Mana Drive notes. They were not finished yet, but to anyone knowledgeable in the field, they were research materials worth more than gold.

It seemed to be a working title. On the parchment cover were the words: <Black Stone>.

Inside was a disorderly mess of writing. There were diagrams and sketches, explanations alongside countless questions. It was all in ancient script, so only those who knew it could read it.

Marie immediately became absorbed in reading the Mana Drive book Bori was writing.

“By the way, I met your disciples along the way, Bori. Kaspar and Yulia, right?”

“I wonder. Were there kids like that? Maybe.”

“What is wrong with you? You don't even know your disciples' names?”

“It was less that I took them as disciples and more that the clan assigned them to me. They attached kids with the potential to become Sword Masters to me. But from what I saw, they don't have it. They're caught up in pointless rituals, so... Anyway, being in the clan is uncomfortable.”

How could Bori be so much like Ricart? Their personalities seemed completely opposite. Or were they? When it came to what they liked and disliked, Ricart and Bori had more in common than one might think.

Still, it was surprising that Bori had no attachment to those disciples at all.

“At least I know my disciples' names.”

“You have disciples?”

“Those two. Beka and Roy.”

Originally, only Roy had been Ricart's disciple, but on the way here he had simply taken them both on.

“But Ricky, aren't you bad at teaching?”

“Hahaha!”

The moment Marie heard that, she burst out laughing over Bori's parchment notes.

Bori grinned too, and Ricart laughed despite feeling a little offended. Honestly, he secretly thought it was true as well.

“Huh? You're not getting mad?”

“I'm an adult now, Bori.”

“Hmm? Ricky, you seemed more like an adult when you were young. But I like how you are now.”

“What does that mean?”

“That's right. You used to be like a little old man. You barely smiled. You were lonely by yourself.”

Marie agreed. The person one imagines oneself to be and the person others see are bound to be different.

“You had a cute side, Bori. Marie was a little clueless.”

Ricart also spoke of how he remembered the two of them. Marie and Bori only smiled quietly.

“I have something I'm curious about. Ricky, how do you use Mana Drive? You didn't have mana before.”

“I think I learned it naturally after that day. It feels like wind blowing through my body. Then, the moment I swing my sword, it turns into flame. Maybe flickering fire and swaying wind are really the same thing. The only difference is whether it's hot or not, whether you can see it or not.”

“Wind? Fire? Not water?” Marie asked.

Until then, they had simply accepted one another's abilities without much thought. This was the first time they had discussed them in detail.

“Mine is closer to stone. Black stone,” Bori said.

“What are you talking about, stone?”

“Anyway, everyone feels it differently. You can think of this as studying how it works. Mana is like the heart. It has no physical form, but it clearly exists. Maybe that's why I kept remembering so many things Ricky said that I couldn't understand before. Like, ah, so that's why Ricky said that.”

“What did I say?”

“You said not to think when you're swinging a sword.”

“Because if you think, you're too slow.”

“That's right. I agree. But that's not something you say to someone who has only just started learning swordsmanship. Ricky, what you say is like explaining the sky to someone who has lived their whole life looking only at the ground.”

Bori said it with a smile.

Ricart had always only said what he felt. He never meant to make beginners uncomfortable or torment them.

But as Bori said, Ricart's teaching was like explaining the sky to someone who had lived from birth looking only at the ground. They had to raise their heads and see the sky before they could understand that explanation.

On the other hand, Ricart had spent his life looking only at the sky, so he became frustrated whenever he taught someone. Bori understood that now.

Listening to Bori, Ricart realized something. His direction had been wrong from the start. Rather than explaining the sky, he should have looked at the ground himself.

Perhaps truly teaching someone was another way of learning.

“Bori, you're pretty good.”

“I'm an adult too, you know? I'm two years older than you, Ricky.”

Some things changed with age, while others did not. Ricart and Bori were like that. Just looking at each other made them smile.

“So what are you going to do now? Go back to the clan?”

“No.”

“Isn't it dangerous to be alone?”

“Not anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“I'm going to the Eastern Frontier too.”

“...Why?”

“I'm not going to confirm some last hope. The Codex originally came from the Eastern Frontier. There are plenty of ancient ruins there, so there should be plenty to study. I was already planning to go, and now seems like the opportunity.”

“...What about the clan?”

“I told you. It's uncomfortable there now. Why did you leave four years ago, Ricky?”

“Well, I wanted to rest, and I thought Volka would do well without me.”

“Not me. After you left, then Marie and Ice left too, I felt like I needed to stay. But now it seems to run well even without me.”

Perhaps it was a difference in temperament. Volka had always been skilled at managing and leading people, and he enjoyed it too.

Ricart and Bori, on the other hand, tended to stand apart from the group and stick only with each other.

They had done many meaningful things, but never because they wanted personal rewards. They did them because they had to, because they could.

They had fed students through the winter and joined a war. They had spent all the money they earned buying clothes for the children.

Helping Volka build the clan came from a similar place. It was not because they wanted to settle down and live comfortably. They simply wanted to give adventurers a better shelter, and they liked being with their friends.

But now that they had achieved that goal, Ricart and Bori both quietly understood that their usefulness there had run its course. Their natures no longer fit the clan as it was now.

They could leave the clan without regret, but lingering affection kept them from cutting that final thin thread.

Ricart thought for a long time, then suddenly made a decision as his heart led him.

“I've decided.”

“Decided what?”

“Inner Fire.”

“What is that?”

“I'm writing a book too. That's the title.”

“Ricky, it seems you have a bit of a rivalry with me.”

“Hah! That's ridiculous. You were the one who copied me when I wrote a swordsmanship manual.”

“But did you know the book I wrote was selected as the Academy's official swordsmanship textbook? It's called The Canon of Swordsmanship.”

“Canon, my ass. No way.”

“It certainly was. You're the one who hid the original because you were embarrassed, Ricky.”

Even as they bickered, Ricart kept smiling. He was annoyed, but it felt as if he had gone back to childhood and was making a bet with Bori.

“This time is different. I have an excellent assistant.”

Ricart pulled Marie, who had been reading the notes, close by the shoulder.

“That seems a little unfair. And haven't you just leaked all your information?”

“Then get married too if you're jealous.”

“You know, I want to write one too. A book. Now that I think about it, Mana Drive seems just as important as swordsmanship. When you two wrote swordsmanship manuals, I couldn't do the same because my swordsmanship is my family's style. It would have been difficult to leave it in writing.”

Marie spoke as she thought that, if she had learned by throwing herself headfirst into real battles until now, perhaps she could establish some kind of system.

But mana remained an unknown field, almost metaphysical, so it would require a great deal of research. Writing a book on swordsmanship had been difficult, but this was on another level.

Even in ancient times, it had never been properly studied. And even if it had, it had been passed down in secret before most of it was lost.

All that remained were methods like carving up the human heart. Easy, quick, and evil. Even then, only a tiny number of people could learn them.

Then why not present a proper method? That was Bori's thought. Ricart and Marie agreed.

“Are you betraying me?” Ricart asked his wife.

Marie did not even answer. She slipped free of her husband's arm and said, “You two picked your titles based on how mana feels to each of you, right? I should do the same. Purple Scarf. What do you think?”

“It sounds a little tacky.”

“It sounds like you're showing off your family.”

Silk scarves were expensive, so Bori said it sounded like Marie was showing off her family wealth.

“You two have some nerve.”

Ricart and Bori spoke at the same time, leaving Marie dumbfounded. Of course, a smile was blooming on her lips too.

The others sitting apart watched the three of them with curiosity. Ricart and Marie usually did not talk much.

But after meeting Bori, they chattered nonstop like children, without a moment to rest. It was as though they had a space entirely their own and no one else existed.

Some friends met again after a long time and shared sorrowful affection over the years and hardships that had passed. Others made one feel as if they had returned to the old days.

What was there to be sorrowful about? They could still be together now. Though they had spent time apart, it was as if they had never truly been separated.

The three of them felt full in their hearts. It was like being full without eating. Ricart, Marie, and Bori were that kind of friend to one another. Simply put, they got along perfectly.

Not tears, but gentle smiles that rarely faded proved it.

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