WeTried Translations

Translator: Nemui

Editor: Nemui

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◈ Scum of the Brave

Chapter 21

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The first thing I needed was to focus my own will.

I closed my eyes for just an instant.

There was a way to heal these injuries faster. Use about two more E3 ampules in a row. Just like the broken former Brave called Levi had shown that night, even fractures could probably heal immediately.

But the drawbacks were large.

First there was the high price of E3, and then the addiction symptoms caused by acute Ether contamination. The latter in particular could not be ignored. Excessive, easy E3 intake produced ruined people far too easily. It was one of the problems that came with the Brave trade.

So first I had to cut away the option of high-speed healing through more E3, and the aggressive impulses it would bring.

I focused my will on good things. Card games with friends, cold beer, hot pizza. I repeated them in my mind and opened my eyes. I grasped the situation.

Just then, one of the malformed giants noticed us and was slowly approaching.

"What do we do?"

Sara shouted. Jogamine answered with eyes so clear they looked insane.

"We charge! While protecting Master, we secure an escape route..."

"Stop, idiot."

I threw a piece of rubble lying nearby and stopped that foolishness. It hit Jogamine directly in the back. She said something that sounded like a protest, but of course this was not a situation where I could care.

"Forget about me for now. I'll manage somehow. No matter what happens, absolutely do not cover me. It will seriously piss me off."

"But Master..."

"Shut up. First, Jogamine. You rush in and aim for the knees. Break its posture. Sara, the waist. Don't give it an opening to attack. If you get scared and the coordination slows, you die. And..."

Then I shoved Indo away and released her collar.

"You cut off attacks. Support Sara and Jogamine. If you mess up, both of them die. Got it?"

"I understand. That would be troubling."

"Good."

Indo Yukine answered very simply. The giant that had noticed us seemed to have completely recognized us as prey. It accelerated with steps that smashed the floor and charged. This might be my last chance, so I thought I would give them one piece of advice.

"There is a trick. Remember that a sword is a blade."

This was something I had often thought while sparring with them.

Maybe because they trained with mock swords, they kept using their weapons like axes or machetes, as if they were only for smashing. That was far too inefficient, and it ruined swords quickly.

"Put it against the opponent's body and slide it. No, not slide, slip it in? Hm? Whatever. If you mess it up, you'll die anyway, so try it first."

I could not loudly criticize Jogamine. I knew very well that my explanations were bad. At any rate, the malformed giant was already right in front of us.

I saw Sara bite her lip hard from tension. Tension was not a bad thing. Time to release it.

I shouted loudly.

"Practical combat training. Do it!"

Jogamine ran first. It was acceleration like her sense of fear was broken. Sara followed a moment late. Indo had already jumped through space and vanished.

I was not too worried.

From their earlier coordination, I knew that when the three functioned as a team, they became a fairly troublesome killing machine.

In short, the problem was how to assemble them. Each of them had their own personality, and their individuality, or rather their quirks, were far too strong. All three tried to take the role that suited their personalities.

That was wrong.

The Academy probably had not corrected it. Or rather, the result of trying to correct it was probably the pattern where Indo made the first move, Jogamine followed up, and Sara aimed for the finish. It was easiest to freeze them into that pattern.

Against most opponents, Indo would finish them, and Sara, an important person, could be placed in the safest position.

As for Jogamine, she was probably not counted as combat strength. Of course. She was too difficult to handle. It was better to have her support from an appropriate position. That was why they had even given her a shield.

But the shape those three should take was different.

They needed roles that suited their traits, including abilities, weapons, and techniques. According to the situation, they had to use their traits while killing their quirks and personalities. Someone had to teach them that.

In other words, flexible response.

"I'm going!"

Jogamine said shortly.

It was a terrifyingly straight charge aimed below the knee.

As someone serving as the first spear, Jogamine was far too defenseless. She did not care at all about the fist the malformed monster swung up. A slash that threw her whole body in.

She was like a human bullet. But with Indo providing support, that strike became viable. Jogamine could be counted as combat strength.

The arm swung to meet Jogamine had already been torn away by Indo Yukine, who had leapt through space, and it was flying through the air. Then came Jogamine's strike.

Thud.

With a dull, hard sound, the malformed giant's left leg below the knee flew away.

I did not want to admit it, but Jogamine's charge, as if the limiter called fear had been removed, was a powerful weapon that became difficult to handle with enough support. In any situation, even a complete amateur's self-sacrificing blow could sometimes reach a first-rate master.

"Sara!"

Jogamine called her name and struck the collapsing monster's head with her shield. Was she some kind of barbarian? At that instant, the fight was settled. Sara's katana, unleashed with an incomprehensible yell, deeply cut into and destroyed the monster's waist.

Using Sara as the finisher was not exactly wrong.

The problem was timing. Watching Jogamine and Indo's coordination and then measuring when to jump in only meant leaving combat power idle in this kind of situation. Unless it was almost simultaneous coordination, it was meaningless.

"Good."

Since I was a proper educator, I decided to praise them for once.

"That's it. Don't forget it."

With that coordination, they could probably handle another one or two. If they buried them one by one before being surrounded, they would not fall behind easily.

The problem was me.

A giant had noticed me, unable to move, and was approaching. It was gradually speeding up. That could not be helped. If we had stayed together and intercepted them, we would have been surrounded and crushed in no time. Before that happened, I had to send my three terrible disciples away.

I had to manage somehow.

What I needed was hope. Hope that it would work.

In my heart, I built a castle of hope. Card games with friends, cold beer, hot pizza. I would add a mountain of extra cheese. I would not touch additional E3. I would fight like this. My left leg still would not move.

As for my left arm, it was bent in a strange direction, but I could barely lift it.

I would sacrifice it.

The monster approaching me raised an arm with warped claws. It was convenient that they were not especially sharp. I would hook my left arm on those claws and sweep them aside. Of course, the arm would probably be torn off, but it was fine. Probably.

I could stretch out the instant of pain many times over, fully overcome it, then move into attack.

It would probably be hellish pain, but it was fine.

I could do it.

Time slowed, and the claws came down. I almost wanted to roll away and dodge, but that was a bad move that would only make things worse. Even if I had to say goodbye to my left arm, I would cut off the leg and topple it with the impact. I readied my sword.

I prayed that this plan would go well.

But I should have thought about it. There was no way God would listen to a careless prayer from me. My daily conduct was too bad. It was always like that. Maybe that was why I had fallen into this line of work.

At that moment, the worst factor destroyed my plan.

"Master, fear not!"

Jogamine's sword stabbed into the monster's arm as it came down.

"I will rescue you."

She could not sever it. Among these girls, only Indo could accurately cut off an arm being swung at high speed.

What the hell are you doing, I thought.

A tremendous aggressive impulse rose in me. In fact, if my leg and arm had been unharmed, I probably would have given in to it. That was how bad the move was. You could say it was the worst possible move.

Jogamine's strike drew the monster's attention halfway. Naturally, its other arm counterattacked Jogamine. Her head. Jogamine tried to block with her shield. Impossible. The shield shattered, and the claws gouged out the left half of Jogamine's face.

Blood flew.

Jogamine was blown away and rolled at my feet.

I can still say that the action I took then was the right move.

I left Jogamine where she was and stretched my body. With a twist of my upper body, I slammed down the bastard sword. The tough blade severed the monster's left thigh, and with that momentum, crushed the right knee too. The monster collapsed and rolled with the force of its charge.

"It is all right now."

Jogamine said.

The left half of her face had been destroyed. Blood flowing from her crushed eyeball dripped onto her red party dress and mixed into it. Even E3 could not heal missing organs.

With that face, Jogamine smiled. I felt fear again.

What is she?

"If something happened to Master, I would not know what I exist for."

Using her sword as a cane, Jogamine tried to stand.

"I finally met my goal."

Countless questions rose in me, but I only solved the simplest one.

In other words, at that moment, I learned the true nature of my violent anger toward Jogamine.

It was extremely personal.

What Jogamine was trying to do was my ideal. A Brave who killed no one. She was trying to do what I could not. There was a part of me that thought such a thing was absolutely impossible. It had been impossible for me. I had wanted to become someone a little better than scum who made money by murder, but I could not.

Just taking my anger out on her.

"I want to be an astronaut,"

or,

"I want to be a soccer player,"

it was the same feeling that made you want to mock someone who said things like that.

I was jealous of Jogamine.

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