WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Ode of the Brave ◈

Chapter 36

──────

Ricart and Boribori followed the Nameless One to a small city called Magdestadt. Though it was small, it had a long history.

Many of its buildings had been constructed ages ago. Even though they were historical relics, people still used them in their daily lives. The city had an old-fashioned charm that came naturally.

But unlike the city itself, which showed off its antique beauty, the citizens' faces were full of worry. Life seemed just as difficult here.

A skinny dog wandered around with its nose pressed to the street. Perhaps it had smelled the food in Ricart's bag, because it lifted its head and looked at him.

It weakly wagged its tail. It was heartbreaking. But when people themselves were starving, he could not give food to a dog.

However, Ricart and Boribori had another serious problem. This city was in the territory of the Brabant Adventurer Guild.

Basically, all Adventurer Guilds competed with each other. The rivalry was especially bloody between guilds whose areas of operation overlapped.

Thinking of the desperate sword fight with the Rubens Guild, this was not a safe place for Ricart and Boribori to be.

Yet the Nameless One headed straight for a branch of the Brabant Adventurer Guild. Naturally, many armed adventurers stood around the building.

Ricart was not particularly afraid, but he felt uneasy because they needed to hide who they were.

Well, it was not as if they had Beringen Adventurer Guild Academy students written on their foreheads. He thought it would be fine as long as they stayed quiet.

But as the Nameless One entered the building and Ricart and Boribori tried to follow, someone stopped them.

“Who are you two?”

The man looked them over. They seemed young, and perhaps he found it strange that they carried weapons.

“Uh... The person who just went in is our dad. Right, big bro?”

Boribori lied so casually that Ricart turned toward him with wide eyes.

Besides, Boribori was two years older than Ricart, yet he called him big brother. Of course, they looked about the same age, so it did not matter much.

The man blocking their way tilted his head with an expression that said something was odd. But he thought the children carried weapons to assist their father, so he silently stepped aside.

That was how Ricart and Boribori boldly entered what could be called the heart of enemy territory.

The Nameless One had placed two heads on a table and was receiving payment. Separate from his revenge, it seemed he made a living through bounties.

An adventurer took out the heads, checked their appearances and features, then quickly removed the unpleasant sight. He held out a paper that looked like a receipt.

Ricart and Boribori leaned in to look. Sure enough, the Nameless One's signature was X.

Even after seeing it, the adventurer did not recognize him. He probably never imagined that X the Nameless, one of the Nine Swords of the Empire, would appear during an ordinary peaceful day.

That was because most people in the world could not write. When signing something, they simply made a dot, drew a circle, or marked an X. It was not a signature unique to the Nameless One.

Besides, this was not an age with media outlets. Even if someone had heard a name until their ears hurt, they could still fail to recognize that person standing before them.

“Do you want some gold coins mixed in? Or silver and copper coins?”

Gold coins were high-value currency, so they were rarely used outside major merchant transactions. Silver and copper coins were quite heavy, which was why the adventurer asked.

But the Nameless One did not answer. With his usual helmet covering his entire head, he only stared silently at the adventurer.

“...”

“I'd like first-aid medicine, travel rations, a whetstone, flint, and firewood instead of money.”

Ricart spoke while standing beside the Nameless One. The adventurer looked at Ricart as if to ask, Who is this now? Then he looked between him and the Nameless One. When the Nameless One said nothing, he simply nodded.

“You know food costs a fortune in winter, right?”

“You'll make sure we get a fair amount. If you want us to keep doing business with you, that is.”

At Ricart's bold words, the adventurer snickered. Then he wrapped quality ham, cheese, jerky, dried rations, alcohol, and other goods in paper and handed them over. Since this was an Adventurer Guild, it was always well stocked with travel supplies.

After seeing Ricart take goods instead of money, the Nameless One strode over to the wall. He looked over the bounty notices pinned there without much order, then tore one down as he pleased.

“Hey? You can't just take that...”

“Keep the change.”

Ricart spoke as though he had paid for it, then hurried after the Nameless One as he left the building.

Having come to the city, the Nameless One could have stopped at an inn, bathed in warm water, and rested comfortably. But as if the thought had never even crossed his mind, he immediately left the city. As though time was precious, or as though he did not have long to live.

Without showing anyone his discomfort or injuries, the tiger walked on for revenge alone.

Ricart and Boribori followed him, and the distance between them was closer than before.

“By the way, that man hasn't eaten anything since yesterday, right?”

Boribori asked Ricart, and Ricart nodded. Boribori took out the food they had just received and carried it over to the Nameless One.

“Uh... I don't think you've eaten anything since yesterday...”

The Nameless One reached out, grabbed a chunk of meat, and shoved it under the cloth covering his lower face. He chewed loudly. It had to be terribly salty.

But he washed down the saltiness by gulping strong liquor. He even drained the bottle in one go, then tossed the empty bottle away.

“...You can eat slowly...”

The Nameless One ate so much and so quickly that one might wonder whether it would harm his health.

Seeing that he did not refuse the food, Ricart approached and spoke to him too.

“Um, who is your next target? Is it the person on that bounty notice?”

The Nameless One glanced at Ricart, then turned his head and ignored him. Was it because he did not trust them, or because he preferred to handle it alone? Since he could not speak, there was no way to know.

But not long after they left the city, people began following Ricart's group.

They kept a distance where they could barely be seen. It was impossible to tell whether they were simply heading in the same direction or had some other reason.

But Ricart noticed at once. Those people had been following them since they left the guild after receiving the bounty. He remembered their appearances from when he had passed them earlier. This was why it was better to stay in a city for at least a day after visiting it.

Leaving a city immediately after stopping by an Adventurer Guild branch was no different from announcing that you had just made a great deal of money.

The people following them looked for an opening like hungry wolves. The farther they walked, the clearer their intentions became. They were after either money or food.

Then the Nameless One suddenly gave Ricart a light push. He pointed in one direction and waved his hand as if telling them to go.

Only then did Ricart understand. Ah, this person was worried about us.

Ricart smiled slightly, tapped the sword slung over his shoulder, and said,

“We're not that ignorant of the world. We didn't recklessly set out on the road trusting only in our weapons. I told you, didn't I? We're going to kill Reto the Experimenter and Erze the Skin Collector.”

“...”

The Nameless One only looked down at Ricart quietly. Then, perhaps because they had gone around another path, the people following them approached from ahead.

There were more than ten of them. None was as heavily armed as the Nameless One, but they carried ordinary spears, hooked spears, swords, and clubs.

They were not adventurers. Their weapons were too crude for that. They were more than mere local thugs.

They seemed like the kind of people who occasionally robbed others, though they did not live entirely as thieves.

In other words, they were not professional robbers or bandits, but they looked like they had done this sort of thing before.

Keeping some distance, they shouted toward them.

“Hey! Put down your weapons and we'll let you live! You can count, right!? There are three of you! And fifteen of us!”

Few things in the world sounded more ridiculous than a robber saying they would spare you if you put down your weapon.

The Nameless One looked quietly at Ricart and Boribori, then turned his gaze toward them. He pulled a throwing axe from the belt crossing his chest.

Without any warning, he simply threw it.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!

The heavy axe flew with a frightening sound. It was fast and accurate. The Nameless One was the type to fight with strength and precision rather than fancy technique.

But the distance was a little too great. The enemy in front jumped in surprise, fell onto his rear, and avoided it by luck.

“Eek!”

Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh! Crunch!

But he could not avoid the second axe. It buried itself in his head, throwing his head sharply backward.

The Nameless One grabbed the rope at his waist and spun it as he approached the enemies. A hook was attached to its end. Only then did they raise their weapons.

“Tony!”

“You bastard! You want to do this!?”

The Nameless One threw the rope at the man who wanted to fight. He blocked it awkwardly with his spear, but it was not a weapon that could be blocked. It had to be avoided.

The rope caught around the spear shaft, but used it as a pivot to wrap around his neck. The hook sank into his collarbone.

“Aaagh!”

The Nameless One was so strong that he dragged a grown man toward him. Only then did the armed people rush in.

“Fuck! Get them!”

“Bastards!”

They had only been walking along, so Ricart did not know why they had become bastards. But this was a fight for survival, so there was no need to complain about it.

The Nameless One drew his battle axe and split open the head of the man he had dragged over. He was about to deal with the people charging behind him when someone shouted,

“Go after the kids!”

Only then did Ricart take the sword from his shoulder and draw it from its sheath. The blade's faint rippling pattern gleamed beneath the cold winter sun.

Ricart calmly walked forward through the snow. As one enemy who could not even judge the distance properly came at him, Ricart slipped to the right and cut deeply through his waist.

He immediately slipped to the left, swung his sword the other way, and cut down the next enemy as well. He did not take a single step back. Instead, he pressed forward. Hot blood splashed across the cold snow, leaving holes exactly the size of the blood spatters.

The next enemy thrust a spear at him. Ricart simply twisted away, pushed the spear shaft aside with his sword, and rammed his shoulder into the man's chest. As the enemy fell backward, Ricart brought down his sword and split his head open.

Crunch!

In that gap, another enemy thrust a sword at Ricart from his left. Ricart twisted away from the tip, but their bodies collided.

But at some point Ricart had drawn a dagger. With the dagger in his left hand, he slashed diagonally upward across the man's abdomen. His intestines spilled out. Ricart quickly stepped back, as if afraid they might get on his clothes.

While Ricart took down four people in an instant, one enemy charged Boribori.

Holding a side sword in one hand, Boribori stood naturally with his head lowered, muttering to himself.

Then, just as the enemy's hand axe reached him, he raised his head and swung his sword.

Swish swish! Whoosh!

Thud. Plop.

The sound of two objects falling onto the snow could be heard.

The enemy was sure he had struck Boribori properly, but he had not. That was because both his wrists were gone. Drops of blood sprayed from the severed ends and splattered onto Boribori.

The two severed hands had already fallen into the snow, while dark afterimages flickered before the man's eyes.

“Uh...?”

Before the fatal outcome, before he could even accept the pain, the man seemed unable to quickly grasp what on earth had happened. Both his hands had vanished in the blink of an eye.

But Boribori's swift sword did not stop. It drew another line. At the end, it slashed perfectly level with a swish!, and his head dropped with a thud.

Including his limbs, there seemed to be more than five pieces of one person's body scattered across the snow. It was a dreadful sight.

Ricart, who had more or less finished off the enemies, walked over. He looked quietly at the pieces of body in front of Boribori and said,

“I think that was a bit excessive.”

Ricart preferred short, clean kills in a single strike. To him, Boribori had definitely gone a little too far.

“But I need to write the letters...”

“That is true. Still, you did well for your first time.”

“Hehehe.”

Boribori smiled shyly as the Nameless One walked over. On his way, he briefly looked over the corpses Ricart had dealt with.

When he reached the two boys, he quietly looked down at the body Boribori had cut up too much.

Ricart said to him,

“What do you think? We're more capable than you expected, right?”

The Nameless One seemed to think for a moment. Then, at last, he expressed something with his voice.

“Hmm.”

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried