WeTried Translations

Translator: Nemui

Editor: Nemui

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◈ Scum of the Brave

Chapter 11

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Even 《E3》, which activates Ether Perception, has drawbacks.

It is bad at nonlethal attacks. Overwhelming speed brings just as much destructive power. If you use a careless attack on someone who is not a Dark Lord, there is a high chance you will kill them.

And then, Levi.

This woman with the bad complexion and obviously cheap-looking parka did not seem to be a Dark Lord, at least. If she were a Dark Lord with permanent Ether augmentation, Sara's blow would not have injured her arm. In fact, even from that situation, she probably would have avoided the surprise attack.

From the above, I reached a conclusion.

She was not a Dark Lord. She was simply an Ether-addicted Brave. In other words, a good-for-nothing using an illegal amount of Ether. She was definitely a criminal, but not to the point where I would not be charged for killing her.

"We're running. Pull out! You can use 《E3》!"

I shouted and accelerated. What I needed was an image. To control the attack impulse rising inside me, I had to picture a good image.

Games with my shitty friends, beer that had started to go flat, careless junk food. I filled my heart with images of those good things in this world.

Levi closed in instantly. As expected, she reacted and reached her uninjured left hand toward her waist. I could see that a weapon was hanging there. A one-handed sword, slightly curved. Judging by the shape, it was probably a machete-like weapon.

Or maybe she had hidden 《E3》 around there. Either way was fine.

"Run like your lives depend on it. The rest is your own responsibility."

After saying only that, I raised the mock sword.

Its trajectory also served as an attack. I struck Levi's hand reaching toward her waist with a sharp blow, and felt it connect. I probably crushed at least the bones of her fingers. For the moment, breaking both arms would be enough to make her useless as fighting force.

Levi grimaced and, above all, tried to take distance. She jumped and rolled. I would have liked to crush her legs too, but I did not pursue. Could not pursue would be more accurate.

Because a gunshot rang out beside me.

I accelerated my thoughts to an extreme and looked that way.

"Aki. Too full of openings."

Indo Yukine had just shoved Jogamine out of the way. You could say she barely made it in time. The suited man with the mock sword had struck Jogamine with it, then fired a handgun he had apparently kept hidden somewhere. That was what happened.

The bullet missed, so that itself was not a problem.

However, that gunshot was bad.

"Good work."

Levi muttered while rolling farther away and taking distance.

In truth, she was right. There was no way the security staff would miss that gunshot. Levi looked at me. Blue eyes. That was when I noticed for the first time. At the collar of her parka was a golden badge. It had a bizarre shape. A monster with its face split in half, or something like that. Strangely realistic...

No.

I cut off my thoughts. I grabbed Sara by the collar and hauled her up. Her expression had stiffened, and she seemed to have completely stopped processing the situation, so for now I shook her hard. I did not know what else to do.

"This is no time to be scared."

Only then did Sara seem to grasp the situation she was in. She looked at me with a terrible face, as if she wanted to unleash every complaint she had, or perhaps as if she wanted to die from embarrassment.

"Scared? Who's..."

"Remember this. The one who's scared is more likely to die. Right? If you understand, move."

Then I grabbed Sara by the arm and started running.

"Run."

From far away, I heard the sound of an alarm. The situation was not good. In the instant we ran off, I saw Levi getting up in the corner of my eye and glaring at us. I had no room to worry about Jogamine and Indo. I dragged Sara by the arm almost by force and escaped the gymnasium.

"Stop it, damn it!"

Sara's voice as she cursed was trembling, and no matter how you looked at it, she was furious. Of course, that was a lie.

"I can run. Let go. Stop..."

However, considering her honor, I decided to treat it as anger here. I kept running down the hallway. The alarm was loud. The guards who had been dozing off were probably panicking right about now.

When we infiltrated, I had thought this, but the Academy's security was not especially strict. If we broke through the gymnasium entrance as we were, there would only be a shabby courtyard and a wall without even barbed wire.

"I told you to stop!"

Sara showed fierce resistance again right after we left the entrance. She struggled so violently that I had to consider the risk of crushing her bones, so I had no choice but to let go in the scraggly grove in the shabby courtyard. Sara stumbled to a stop.

"Don't screw with me."

Sara's breathing was rough. It was dark, so I could not see her expression well, and it was mercy not to look closely. Normally, I might have teased her, but the situation was the situation, and also, yes, her papa was far too frightening.

"I..."

"Don't make this harder. I'm irritated. Use 《E3》 right now. Otherwise, I'll throw you."

I cut off Sara's words, which might have been a complaint, an excuse, or something else I did not understand.

"Wait. No! That's not it. I..."

Sara still tried to say something. So I had no choice but to grab her by the scruff of the neck. If I did not, I might have hit her. The attack impulse was quietly eating into my nerves.

"Go."

I gave the order sharply and one-sidedly.

Sara bit her lip. Then she injected 《E3》 into the side of her own neck and immediately leapt away. I took care not to look at Sara's face as much as possible.

Then, roughly three seconds later.

At last, I sensed a presence behind me, so I turned around. The alarm was echoing everywhere, but that was not what I cared about. A figure was slipping out from the direction of the gymnasium. A small woman with a fluttering parka and blue eyes. Levi.

I thought there was no point hiding, so I waited with the mock sword in one hand. When Levi stepped into the grove, she increased her speed further. Her right hand had already drawn a broad, gently curved sword. In old terminology, it was the type of weapon called a falchion.

In other words, her right hand had already healed. Her left fingers too, probably. It was obvious she had used 《E3》.

"I knew you would come out."

I would have been happy if my prediction had been wrong.

Earlier, she had said she would "trace" it. There was no way I could know the principle, but there was a high chance she had an Ether Perception suited to some kind of tracking. In fact, here she was, chasing me in a straight line. It was lucky the suited man was not with her.

So what now?

I let my thoughts slide at high speed. My weapon was one mock sword. Its length was just right, but it was far too unreliable. Other than that, I had a stun gun and homemade defensive spray. Against a cautious professional Brave, they were probably all mediocre tools.

I should have brought my usual bastard sword. With that in my hands, I was strong enough to surprise even myself.

But with this irritating alarm blaring, methods like creating an opening through conversation or distracting her were hard to use.

Actually, for me too, the longer this took, the more troublesome it would become.

Then there was only the normal method. In short, manage somehow through skill.

Having decided that, I retreated one step. I observed Levi running straight in. Her speed had surpassed the human realm. With a sharp sound, the weeds at her feet were trampled and scattered violently. That meant she had moved into an attack motion.

I probably smiled bitterly despite myself.

"You're really trying to kill me?"

The curved blade in Levi's right hand swung out with an intense sound of cutting wind. From below, the blade traced a distinctive path, as if rotating.

For a falchion with a curved, broad blade, one of its greatest features is high cutting power. Under no circumstances should you receive it with a synthetic resin mock sword. Because of that, I had no choice but to dodge. Upward.

"Hey."

With an instantaneous leap, I had jumped onto the top of the wall. I was looking down at Levi below.

"Let's stop. Fighting here won't earn either of us a cent."

Levi did not react. She only lowered her stance, held the curved sword up over her head, and glared at me. Almost no emotion could be read from her blue eyes.

"It'll be annoying if the guards come too, right?"

I did not give up on persuasion.

In truth, this state should have been troublesome for Levi too. I held the advantageous terrain called "on top of the wall."

This was one of the basic rules of conflict: attacking upward from below is always troublesome. She would also need to consider the possibility that I had a powerful weapon besides this mock sword.

However, nothing ever flows in a peaceful direction.

Maybe the Brave trade is "like that," but anyway, at that moment, it was.

"I see."

Levi's warped, hoarse murmur was clearly audible.

"Your reactions are quite fast. Your Ether Perception is the enhancement type."

She had hit the mark. Impressive. I was a little troubled and tried to answer with something random. In that instant, Levi jumped. She really did it.

There was no way I could receive it with a mock sword, so I was forced to knock it aside. But the power drawn out by Ether is stronger in women than in men.

As a result, I was blown away and fell from the wall to the road.

"Heh."

Levi laughed faintly.

After I somehow took the fall, this time Levi was looking down at me from the top of the wall.

"Now it is reversed. However..."

Levi jumped from the wall. Her curved sword drew a distinctive trajectory as if twisting the air inward.

"I do not negotiate."

This was extremely troubling. I accelerated my thoughts further. It was not that there was no way to break through. I had a sword technique taught by my master.

However, doing it unharmed would be difficult. There was a risk of losing one arm. And there was no guarantee I could make it lethal. Then should I use tools? Stun gun. Tear-gas spray. Did I have the time to take them out and prepare them?

That was not very realistic. No choice, then. Prepare myself. I had half begun to think that. Up to that point, I think my thoughts were entirely serious, even by my own standards.

However, troubling situations are often amplified, and serious developments rarely continue for long.

My ears heard footsteps that were far too light. My Ether Perception is all about knowing. So I knew the quality of those footsteps, knew their speed, and knew that someone was approaching.

Putting it all together, I became extremely exasperated.

The small body of Levi descending over my head was blown away by a figure, meaning a girl, who had flown in at bullet speed. A girl in a tracksuit, a girl who always did exasperating things: Aki Jogamine.

Levi was blown away without a sound and ended up rolling across the asphalt.

"Master."

Jogamine declared confidently.

"Your beautiful-girl disciple has come to save you, so could you perhaps look a little happier?"

Things had gotten troublesome, I thought.

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