WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Ode of the Brave ◈

Chapter 12

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Ricart decided to stay the night at an inn Sandy recommended. He could hear rats scurrying through the ceiling and walls, but it had been the same back in Stormhertz, so he did not mind much.

After washing in cold water, doing his laundry, and climbing into fresh bedding, it felt as though all the exhaustion from walking so far and sleeping outdoors came crashing down at once.

He was at an age when he needed to run a lot, eat a lot, sleep a lot, and grow a lot. Without even tossing in bed, Ricart fell asleep at once.

Yet it seemed he had only blinked once when someone woke him. When he opened his eyes, dawn light was beginning to stream through the window.

“Ricky, Ricky.”

When he sat up and turned around, he saw Sandy. She was already dressed and ready.

“Do we have to leave already?”

“No. We have time. You can get ready slowly.”

“Just a moment.”

Rubbing his puffy eyes, Ricart rose from bed in his underwear. He began searching through his bag for money. He needed to pay her for guiding him.

“You don’t have to pay me.”

“Why not?”

“How could I take money from my cute young-master junior?”

“Still.”

“I had business at headquarters anyway, so let’s say I’m just accompanying you. How does that sound? Now, lift your arms.”

Sandy picked up Ricart’s clothes, which she had dried by the fire overnight, and began dressing him. They had even been ironed, which made him wonder why she was doing so much.

“I had a younger sibling about your age.”

As though she had read his mind, Sandy explained why she was being so kind to him. She did not go into detail. That was all she said.

Ricart put on his shirt and stared up at Sandy for a moment. Then he smiled gently.

“Thank you, Sandy. Your heart is as pretty as your face.”

Sandy’s eyes widened in surprise before quickly returning to normal. A smile spread across her lips as well.

“You’ll make a lot of women cry when you grow up.”

She even put his shoes on for him. Having been dried thoroughly by the fire overnight, they did not smell at all. When he slipped his feet inside, they felt warm and pleasant.

“Make sure you haven’t lost anything. We’ll eat and leave right away.”

“Okay.”

Ricart slung his bag over his shoulder and took his dagger. Inside the bag were his admission permit, travel rations, spare underwear, and travel money.

When they left the room and went downstairs, they found a dim, quiet hall. It was near dawn, so no one else was around. A stew bubbled in a large iron pot set over the brazier.

Unknown ingredients floated in the bright red broth. It was called Eternal Stew.

People kept throwing in whatever ingredients they had and continually pouring in water or alcohol before eating it. Since it never ran out, it was called Eternal Stew.

Sandy ladled out two bowls and brought them to a table. There were no spoons, so they had to drink it directly or eat it with their hands.

Ricart took a sip. It was sour, with a taste that was somehow unpleasant yet somehow edible. There was no way to describe it properly.

One thing was certain. Maybe it had some kind of magical powder in it, but it was strangely addictive.

Ricart held the bowl in both hands, blowing on it as he drank. Then something suddenly came to mind.

“The chicken coop. Do women live there too?”

“No, women live separately. There are about eighty of them. Why? Interested?”

“It’s not that. Work involving swords and things like that is harder for women, isn’t it? They’re weaker, after all.”

“Oh, that? Mana Drive makes it fine. Women can learn Mana Drive too, and once they do, the difference in physical strength nearly disappears.”

“Mana Drive?”

“It comes from something called the Codex. I guess it’s a way of using the mana inside our bodies to strengthen our physical abilities or weapons? Anyway, it’s different from the magic mages use. It’s more physical. Sorry, I don’t really know either. They don’t explain it to us in detail.”

“Then you learned it too, Sandy?”

“Yeah. But not everyone can learn it. First, you have to be able to sense mana. Some kids start sensing it naturally after suffering like dogs in the chicken coop. Some can sense it quickly because they have natural talent. Others could die and come back to life and still never sense it. And sensing mana is not the end. Increasing the amount of mana and making it clean without impurities is a whole different matter.”

“I’ve never heard of that. It sounds like magic.”

Ricart could not fully understand what Sandy was saying. They said they were trying to resemble him from a hundred years ago, yet they were doing something he had never done. What was this supposed to be?

“If mages learn through using their heads, we learn through using our bodies.”

“Then what do they mainly do in the chicken coop to learn it?”

“Just the usual. Building flexibility, endurance training, swordsmanship lessons, unarmed combat, and meditation. Oh, and you have to pay separate donation fees for every class.”

“Donation fees?”

“You’re free to choose which classes you take. You don’t have to take any. But if you don’t, you can’t compete. You can pay the donation fees or not, but if you don’t pay, they make your life miserable. So the kids try to earn money however they can in their spare time. Some end up in that kind of work, and some can’t endure it and leave. That’s how it is.”

In fact, not only the Adventurer Academy but academies for ordinary scholarship generally operated in a similar way.

There was no fixed tuition. Students paid money voluntarily to the professors whose lectures they attended.

There were no school years, either. As time passed, there were simply tasks they had to complete.

Listening closely to Sandy, Ricart formed a rough picture of how the academy worked.

As he listened to her, the stew cooled enough to be bearable, and Ricart could finally eat properly.

By the time he had eaten about half, Sandy had already finished. She spoke again.

“I don’t know. If you asked me to do it again, I couldn’t, even if it killed me. But like Bletter said, I don’t think it was meaningless time.”

“I know what that feels like. When you overcome hardship and adversity together, people can feel closer than brothers who share blood.”

“...What kind of life have you really lived?”

“Haha. It’s just something I heard.”

Ricart thought of the fellow soldiers who had died in his previous life. He did not remember every one of them, but comrades-in-arms were certainly a special kind of relationship.

They were prepared to give their lives for him, and he trusted that he would do the same for them. That was why they laughed as they promised not to thank each other for saving a life, and not to grieve if one of them died.

Ricky had lost more people like that than anyone else. Every time one of them died, it felt as though something inside him died too.

Remembering those old days made Ricart feel gloomy. He swallowed the stew without properly chewing the ingredients, as though swallowing tears.

“You’re strange.”

“Hm?”

“You look like a young master who has never suffered a day in your life, yet you went and took the Bilton brothers’ heads. And now you somehow look pitiful. You really will make a lot of women cry.”

“Will you cry too, Sandy?”

Sandy burst into loud laughter at Ricart’s joke. Ricart smiled back at her.

“You’re still a child. Maybe I’ll consider it in ten years.”

“You might have to stand in line by then.”

Sandy laughed even louder than before. He was such a strange young master. He had none of a noble’s arrogance, nor the timidness expected of someone his age. He was at ease.

“Finished? Shall we go?”

“Okay.”

The two rose from their seats. Outside, the world was a deep, watery blue. The dawn air was somewhat cold, but it felt refreshing.

Unlike the side roads they had used to reach Rainfurt, the road to Beringen was a main road. They occasionally passed travelers, migrants, and merchants.

Most were armed people or people who had hired armed escorts. Still, the fact that so many people traveled this road made it seem relatively safe.

About four or five hours had passed since they left the city. The world had been entirely dark blue, but now it gradually began to reclaim its own colors. Green shoots, pink flowers, blue sky, white clouds.

Unlike Arno, Sandy was thoughtful in many small ways. She did not have to, but she often stopped to let Ricart rest.

She also frequently fixed his hair, played more and more jokes on him, and sat closer to him when they rested. Ricart thought this kind of journey was not bad at all.

No, it was good.

He was curious about Sandy’s younger sibling, but he did not ask. He did not want to spoil her mood.

They came to a fork in the road. On the right side stood a heavy marker stone that rose to knee height. Beringen was carved into it.

“From here, it takes three days if we walk slowly, or within two days if we hurry. There are four days left until the fourteenth. What do you want to do?”

“Let’s go slowly.”

Sandy smiled as though pleased by his answer. Their steps were slow, but light.

Before long, the paved road ended. An ordinary dirt path ran straight through the forest, and the two entered the woods and kept walking.

Around noon, they reached a place where a lone shack stood beside a turning waterwheel.

“That’s Waltz’s Tavern. It’s been run by three generations of the same family. Most greenhorns wouldn’t dare make trouble here. He has connections everywhere. He’s good at fighting too.”

“Then should we eat here before we go?”

“Sure.”

“I’ll pay. For the lady.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I told you not to do that.”

Ricart displayed the textbook etiquette of a noble. He only said it as a joke, knowing Sandy disliked such things.

Sandy did not particularly like noble ways. She liked Ricart because, despite being a noble, he did not act like one.

The two entered Waltz’s Tavern. There were a few customers already inside. Lightly armed, they all had the air of adventurers.

But adventurers did not all know one another. Even if they belonged to the same guild, they were strangers if they were in different branches or clans.

And if they belonged to different guilds, they might try to kill each other without warning. Meeting another adventurer was not always a cause for happiness.

Waltz’s Tavern was a special place, serving as a kind of neutral zone.

Sandy walked straight to Waltz and ordered food with practiced ease. There was no menu. The meals were made from whatever ingredients were available at the time, so there was nothing to choose from.

Fortunately, it was not Eternal Stew. The meal would be corn soup and smoked meat.

The two sat at a table and had a pleasant conversation without much substance. Sandy told absurd and funny stories from her time at the academy, while Ricart listened and responded.

Then, before the food came out, someone else entered the tavern. They were two men. They looked around inside, then spotted Sandy.

Sandy saw them too. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she quickly turned away and pulled up her hood.

Ricart did not know why, but she clearly did not want them to see her face. It seemed it was already too late.

The two men approached their table. One of them grinned unpleasantly.

“Well, well. Isn’t this Sandy, Beringen’s whore? You saw her too, right?”

“Yeah. But I didn’t know she liked kids. How did she serve all those old bastards?”

“...”

Sandy could not say anything. Ricart was too stunned to speak as well.

“Let’s go.”

Sandy suddenly rose from her seat and left the tavern without touching the food they had ordered. Ricart followed her outside.

Once outside, Sandy began walking quickly. Ricart jogged a little to catch up, but as soon as he tried to walk beside her, she sped up again, as though trying to leave him behind.

So he alternated between running and walking. Then Sandy suddenly stopped. Still wearing her hood, she spoke without looking back at him.

“It’s true.”

“What is?”

“What they said is true. I wasn’t skilled enough to become Upper Rank. It wasn’t all good memories.”

Ricart quietly watched her back before speaking.

“So what?”

“What?”

“Did you think I’d consider you dirty?”

“...”

“You don’t know what real filth is.”

Sandy turned toward Ricart. Her eyes brimmed with tears of shame and humiliation.

“Come on. I’ll share some of the food my sister-in-law made. It’s good.”

This time, Ricart started walking first. Sandy stood there blankly for a moment before following the boy.

The trees shaded the forest, but it was not dark yet because it was still midday. The two walked along the forest path, where sunlight fell in broken pieces through the branches.

After they had walked silently for some time, they saw someone leaning against a tree ahead. It was the man who had called Sandy a whore earlier. He had somehow gone ahead and waited for them, as though he had used magic.

When they looked behind them, his companion was standing there.

“What are you doing?”

Sandy asked with open hostility. The man gave the same unpleasant grin as before.

“We went to the same academy. Do us a little service.”

“Crazy bastard.”

“The old bastards can have you, but young guys like me can’t? And now you like children?”

“It’s not like that. He’s entering the academy.”

“Oh, is that so? You’re not going to sleep with him and lure him into that chicken coop too? Do they give you a reward for recruiting kids who don’t know any better?”

“I told you it’s not like that. Move. Our clan won’t let this go.”

“What are those worthless bastards going to do if they don’t let it go?”

It did not seem like simple cruel teasing anymore. Sandy drew the sword and whip hanging at her hips. Then she quietly spoke to Ricart.

“Run no matter what. Get back to that tavern somehow, then contact our people in Rainfurt.”

“...”

“I’ll protect you no matter what happens. Don’t panic. Just run.”

At that moment, the two adventurers approached from the front and back. They drew their weapons as well.

“What are you whispering about? Do you think we’ll let you run?”

The man in front walked forward slowly, then casually swung the sword in his hand to the side.

The bushes were cut in a perfectly straight line.

At the same time, he rushed forward as fast as the wind, too fast for an ordinary person to follow with their eyes.

Sandy swiftly snapped her whip, but he ducked his upper body under it in that brief instant and closed in even faster.

Sandy swung the sword in her other hand. Unexpectedly, her opponent backed away easily.

The reason he withdrew was to draw her attention. The real threat was the hand reaching for Ricart from behind.

They seemed to be planning to seize him as a hostage and threaten Sandy. Hurting her had not been their goal from the beginning.

The man behind Ricart reached out to grab him. Ricart twisted aside and avoided the hand. At the same moment, the man’s wrist stung, and blood gushed from it.

“Urgh! Fuck!”

Startled, he stumbled back. Ricart was already holding his dagger.

The man who had been closing in on Sandy was startled as well. This time, he swung his sword at Ricart like lightning.

Sandy sensed the difference in their ability and stepped slightly aside. Then she saw what was happening and cried out.

“No!”

Her scream rang through the forest. But what followed was nothing like the tragedy she expected.

Holding the dagger in a reverse grip, Ricart struck down the sword swung at him.

Clang!

The man’s sword broke. Losing his balance from the broken blade, his body swayed.

As the broken sword grazed Ricart’s hair and flew up into the air, Ricart put all his weight into a kick and struck the man’s calf as though swinging a club.

With a crack!, the man’s knee bent sideways, and he collapsed completely to the ground.

His body had received some training. Even as his left leg went numb with pain and his mind turned blank, he reflexively tried to rise.

But he could not.

The sharp tip of a dagger rested beneath his chin.

“Don’t move.”

The cold warning fell upon his face. He lifted only his upper body slightly and looked up at Ricart.

Ricart’s face was expressionless, as though cold air radiated from him.

His companion bled from the wrist, unable to move or act. His face was filled with shock, as though he could not understand what had happened.

Amid the heavy silence, Ricart spoke coldly again.

“Isn’t this what you wanted?”

“W-what?”

“You only didn’t expect to be the one getting beaten. This is what you wanted, isn’t it?”

He meant that they had started the fight, drawn their weapons, and attacked. They had brought this situation on themselves.

“...W-what are you...”

“Since you say you’re trying to become like me, I’ll tell you this. If you don’t understand the point of force, speed is useless. Mana or whatever it is means nothing. Understand?”

“...”

“And from now on, whether you want to or not, you’ll watch what you say.”

Then Ricart stabbed the flesh beneath the man’s chin. He drove the blade through his tongue before pulling it back out.

“Argh! Cough! Cough! Gah!”

The man began to scream, but blood ran down his throat and made him choke.

Ricart wiped his dagger on the front of the man’s clothes, then rose and sheathed it at his waist.

“Let’s go.”

Sandy was frozen in place from shock. Ricart took her wrist and led her away from the scene.

Perhaps the sun had briefly gone behind a cloud. The forest’s shade seemed somewhat darker.

Chapter 3: The Shadow of a Hundred Years Ago. End.

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