WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Ode of the Brave ◈
Chapter 27
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It looked like a structure built by a giant. It was hard to believe humans could have built it. Even from far away, its grandeur felt as though it stood right before them.
Not far from Thorweil, a colossal gateway stood between deep valleys. Its name was Giant's Gate. No one knew who had built it, when, or why.
And that gate was the way to the eastern expedition territory, Fernland. It was unchanged from a hundred years ago.
Ricart had come out a little way from the city and stood gazing at the gate for a long time. That memory from then, and the emotions it held. Fear, worry, anxiety, and resignation.
The gate was firmly shut, as though it sealed away a great demon capable of destroying the world.
“Wow, this really does feel nice. I can't stop touching it.”
Volka spoke as he touched Ricart's fluffy golden hair. His skin had quickly returned to normal, but his hair was still the same. It looked like he would have to live with it for a while.
Ricart did not care much about the playful touch. But when he stayed still, everyone started trying to touch it, so he waved his hands over his head as though shooing away flies.
Volka and the other students snickered, Molty smiled with satisfaction, and Ice simply watched.
“What did old man Alter say?”
Ricart turned to Volka as he asked. Alter was the Thorweil branch chief and clan master of the Beringen Adventurer Guild.
And surprisingly, unlike Rainfurt, where they rented space in a Thieves' Guild building, Thorweil had a proper branch building of its own. Though really, wasn't that what should have been normal?
“He just said the same old thing. Something about the people above us, and that we should wait for now.”
Ricart and the others had only come to support the commission. The adventurers would carry it out, while they played an assisting role.
But after what had happened on the way here, the guild had to respond in its own way. Whether they would go to war instead of carrying out the commission, or end things here, and what agreement they would need to reach to do so.
It had already been a week since they arrived. In short, everything was currently on hold.
Of course, that meant they had enjoyed something close to a vacation. Warm bathwater, fresh food, and cool, exotic scenery.
“Hey! You there!”
Someone called from behind them. When they turned around, it was someone from the guild. The adventurer gestured for them to come over. The Academy students scattered across the field gathered together and approached.
“Come to the branch. The branch chief has something to say.”
“What is it? Are we finally going to carry out the commission?”
Volka asked, but the guild adventurer only shrugged.
“How should I know? Orders from above are divided into public and confidential ones.”
Well, they would find out if they heard it directly, Ricart thought.
Ricart and his companions entered a slightly tilted cylindrical building in the city, the kind of place a witch might live in.
There was an attic on the second floor, and it was such a cozy building that it would have suited an old woman living alone.
Scrolls were crammed messily into the bookshelves, and all kinds of herbs hung from the ceiling to dry. A weak flame burned quietly and without sound in the fireplace.
The person sitting at the desk beckoned Ricart and the others over with a hand when they entered. That was Alter, the branch chief. He was so fat that it was hard to imagine how he had ever become an adventurer.
Ricart and the eight other students approached him. Alter stared at Ricart for a moment.
He was tall for his age, with fairly sturdy limbs, but his face was unmistakably that of a little kid. More than anything, that curly hair...
“No matter how much I look at it, I can't get used to it...”
“What can't you get used to?”
“The fact that you killed Lorenz the Jackal.”
“Wasn't he too stupid to be a jackal? He stirred up a beehive that had been minding its own business.”
He meant how Lorenz had provoked the rangers of Griffinswald for no gain at all.
“Stupid, huh... He was famous for being cunning. He was a difficult bastard for us to deal with too. Anyway. The Guild Master met with their master for talks. Apparently, the Rubens Guild demanded the death of one of our clan masters in return.”
When Alter said “Master,” he meant the Guild Master.
“That makes no sense.”
“Yeah, it doesn't. Naturally, we refused. Then they demanded that we hand over the person who killed Lorenz.”
Ricart had killed Lorenz. The students behind him looked as though they could hardly believe it.
“And?”
“The Master apparently ordered them to pass this on to you right there.”
Alter took a golden cloak pin from a drawer and held it out. It bore a laurel wreath representing the Emperor and an eagle biting a snake, the symbol of Beringen.
“What is this?”
“It marks an upper-rank adventurer. I don't wear one because it's embarrassing. Don't sell it, though. Ah, that doesn't mean you're officially an adventurer yet. Not until you graduate and finish your contract period. Anyway, it's yours for now.”
Ricart was not an adventurer yet, but they would essentially treat him as a senior adventurer. He could still decide not to become an adventurer later.
“And these are for you lot.”
Alter took silver cloak pins from the drawer and laid them out across the table. They had the laurel wreath and eagle, but the eagle was not biting a snake. They marked adventurers of intermediate rank.
It was an extraordinary promotion. They had not even seen a deserter yet. And it was also a provocation carried out in front of the opposing guild.
He had not put it into words, but it was practically a declaration made to their faces.
You want us to hand over the kid who killed Lorenz? Fuck you. That will never happen.
Ricart looked quietly at the golden pin in his hand, then asked,
“Does that mean there will be a war?”
Alter shook his head.
“Large-scale wars don't usually happen. There are always little knife fights here and there, but still. This time, they deliberately started something, but they probably didn't expect it. They didn't expect to lose a clan master to Academy students. So, in the end, we agreed to return the prisoners without demanding ransom. They suffered heavy losses too, so we didn't go so far as to demand ransom.”
It meant the negotiations had gone reasonably well for their side. For the time being, they would be able to carry out the commission without worrying about attacks from the Rubens Guild.
Of course, those bastards might go crazy and ignore the agreement. But then they would give other guilds a reason to attack them for breaking it, so Ricart and the others were unlikely to be ambushed again unless something exceptional happened.
“I'd always planned to tear that dog bastard Lorenz apart myself, but getting his head chopped off and his body burned isn't bad either. Heh heh heh. And honestly, it felt fucking satisfying. To me, anyway. The kids at the other branches probably feel the same. But that means you need to be careful. The Rubens lot will be out for you. So wear a hood or something. Cover up that golden broccoli hair.”
“I didn't make it like this on purpose.”
Ricart said, touching his current mass of curls.
“Yeah, yeah, anyway. You lot need to start working now, right? I'd have liked to let you rest a few more days, but when you're hunting people on the run, time is everything. Split yourselves into three teams. Then just follow the people I assign you to.”
Ricart and the students looked at one another. It was time to split up. Something like regret seemed to pass between them.
“Can't we work on our own?”
Volka asked.
“Don't get cocky. Hey, fighting and working are two different things. Stop complaining and go watch and learn. This is an advance. We don't usually give them to students, but I'm giving you one because you're cute. It came out of my own pay, got it?”
The potbellied branch chief said as he tossed money pouches onto the table. Volka immediately grabbed them.
“You'll see each other again when you finish the job and go back to the Academy anyway. If anything dangerous happens, use my people as shields. Don't die. Go on. Wait at the inn.”
Branch Chief Alter waved his hands as though shooing them out. He seemed a little embarrassed by what he had said. A smile formed on Ricart's lips without him realizing it. He was a cute old man.
Ricart and the students left the building that looked like a witch's house. Then they looked at one another again.
“Are we splitting up the same way as before?”
One of the girls spoke. But no one readily answered yes, and Molty offered an idea.
“What about mixing things up?”
“What?”
“Let's mix the teams. Don't you want to?”
In other words, instead of staying in their original three groups, they would mix people around and make three new teams.
“I don't mind...”
Volka said vaguely. But unexpectedly, Ice stepped forward first.
“I'm with Ricky.”
Everyone's eyes widened as they looked at Ice.
“What? You said we should mix things up. I'm with Ricky.”
“Fine. Then I'm with Lara.”
Molty, who had suggested mixing the groups in the first place, immediately picked one of the girls. Lara's eyes widened, and she lowered her head slightly for no reason as her gaze wandered.
Ricart wondered what this was about, but Volka hurriedly chose the remaining girl.
“I'm with Delphi.”
“What, we don't get a veto?”
Unlike Lara, the girl named Delphi frowned.
“There isn't one.”
Ice said it flatly. Who was Ice to decide that?
Still, those who wanted to choose someone did so, and the rest split off into three groups of three. There happened to be exactly nine of them, so the numbers worked out perfectly.
Ricart split from Volka and Molty, whom he had originally been with, and formed a team with Ice and a boy who had been traveling with one of the girls. The boy's name was Pallen.
Pallen looked somewhat intimidated. And no wonder. He had to travel with Ice and Ricart. It felt as though he had been trapped between two monsters. Weren't they first and second in the pecking order too?
Ricart and Ice did not care, but Pallen fidgeted by himself before speaking for no reason.
“You two are lucky. You can pick whichever girls you want.”
Ricart and Ice turned to look at him. They stared at his face without saying anything. Pallen was almost sweating coldly, wondering whether he had said something wrong.
In truth, Ricart and Ice simply had no idea how to respond.
As they waited in the inn, the Beringen Academy students chattered away. They looked relaxed. It seemed they had become somewhat less afraid of new things and unfamiliar territory.
They teased one another and laughed. They threw back their heads and laughed loudly. Things that would once have made them react sharply, they could now simply laugh off.
After facing great hardships, people realized that the things they had been sensitive about were not actually that important.
Sometimes trials and adversity made people despair and lose heart, but overcoming them made a person stronger and more composed.
People called that growth. Perhaps the students had taken one step closer to becoming adults.
Their lives were surrounded by knife fights, blood, battle, and the deaths of comrades. But that did not mean they had to stay gloomy all the time or surrender to such things.
Ricart liked this feeling. Watching boys and girls grow. Then what about me? The question remained, but he thought, what did it matter?
He did not know whether there had been any need to wage war a hundred years ago, but he thought things like this were wonderful to see. There had been no Academy back then.
For a moment, he wondered what it would have been like if there had been an Academy then. Even without family, if he had had friends like these.
Still, it was Ricart himself who had led them to grow another step. It was something that made him deeply proud. Proud enough to feel it was worth risking his life for.
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