WeTried Translations

Translator: Nemui

Editor: Nemui

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◈ Scum of the Brave

Chapter 23

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Lesson 4: Smart Home-Invasion Robbery-Murder

There was a reason I set the meeting place for noon in Shinjuku.

Now that Lord Storm Coffin was absent, I wanted to see the state of western Tokyo.

In truth, I thought the number of dangerous-looking people had increased. The most obvious were the Braves walking around with swords hanging from their waists. Their eyes were violent, and they had a somewhat gloomy air.

Then there were the Dark Lords' Followers.

Those people always walked in groups of about five, clustered together as if frightened of something. They probably carried at least handguns for self-defense. With Lord Storm Coffin absent, the area around this station had become a blank zone, and some kind of conflict broke out almost every day. Even while I watched, Followers of what were probably different Dark Lord groups glared at one another and nearly reached violence.

The police had no role in these troubles.

Because it belonged to a different department's jurisdiction.

Troubles involving Dark Lords and Braves were said to fall under the Japanese government's Ministry of Education. The people who cooperated with the Round Table Foundation and raised Braves at the Academy. The organization that had quickly seized the interests and legal control rights surrounding E3.

They currently owned branches, or rather substations, across Japan, excluding some regions in civil war, and stationed civilian Braves there. Those Braves were named Unranked Sword Officers, after a Meiji-era post, and apparently received a decent salary.

That said, securing personnel was badly delayed, and they had no resources to patrol and guard an area that had become this fierce a battlefield. As a result, all they could crack down on were daytime scuffles like this.

That day, on a main road in front of Shinjuku Station, Braves dressed in stupid green uniforms shouted at Dark Lord Followers who had nearly started a fight and chased them away. I watched it half-asleep through the window of the family restaurant where we were meeting.

Indo Yukine arrived right around then.

"Pork cutlet bowl."

She mercilessly declared her menu.

"And chicken pilaf, Japanese-style hamburg steak, prosciutto salad, cheesecake. Also the drink bar."

After reciting that without the slightest hesitation, Indo finally finalized her order.

I regretted it. Apparently, I had underestimated Indo.

This is a necessary expense, I told myself. Today, I had made Indo skip school and called her out like this. Wearing a white coat over her school uniform, and for some reason carrying an absurdly heavy school bag, she appeared, stated that she was hungry, and announced the menu according to her appetite in rapid succession.

Then about fifteen minutes passed.

While Indo ate with single-minded focus, I had no chance to bring up the real subject.

"It took a little effort to sneak out of school."

That was her claim.

"The Academy has been strict lately."

"There was an intrusion by suspicious people very recently."

I could understand that much.

"And things have been dangerous lately."

"Yeah."

Indo nodded slightly and opened her mouth wide. Where did that small body store it? In one blow, she buried the dessert cheesecake. What a stomach, and what chewing power.

"It seems like a lot is happening. Will it become a war?"

"It wouldn't be strange if it did. Some people are happy, saying this is when the money comes in."

When I answered, Indo looked at my face for just an instant. But she said nothing and drank down her oolong tea.

"Thank you for the food."

"Was it good?"

"Well, reasonably... ah, no."

Indo's expression did not move. She only seemed to lower her head a little. Or maybe she had just tilted it.

"It was very good."

"Is that so. Damn it."

I had ordered nothing but the drink bar. No matter what, I had to recover information worth this expense. Information about what Indo Yukine knew. Time was precious.

"So, you ate, and now you answer. I am going straight to the point."

I looked straight at Indo's expressionless face.

"You are from the military, right?"

I had expected that. Indo's combat techniques and principles of action felt grounded in military training. There was someone from a special forces background who came and went at Ed Cyrus's bar, so I knew a little. He too was a knife expert.

Also, there was the way Indo called me instructor.

"Yeah."

Indo easily confirmed my guess.

"Because I was with Northern Beacon."

"That. What exactly is it?"

I had looked into that term a little. The truth was that I found nothing. Even Ed Cyrus had tilted his head. That meant it was probably not a simple underworld term, but something more military, more classified.

That was my reasoning.

"The unit you belonged to?"

"Mm."

Indo hummed faintly.

"I don't really know."

"Are you messing with me?"

"Probably. I think so. Everyone was brothers and sisters. Because we had no other family. I was picked up there."

Indo lowered her voice just a little.

"We went around together, lit beacons, and watched the north. That was our job."

That gave me a rough understanding. The meaning of the far north.

They called it the Black Territories.

At present, the Japanese government could not be said to have enough control over the country's far too many Dark Lords. In particular, around the northern half of Hokkaido, there were districts where powerful Dark Lords had arbitrarily declared independent cities or countries.

To protect Japanese citizens from those people, or rather, because some mercenaries decided that kind of defense could become a business, there were mercenary Braves who used E3. Their number was not small. They took money from Hokkaido municipalities and the Japanese government, patrolled the northern Black Territories, and kept watch.

If they called themselves Northern Beacon, that made sense. And according to rumors, the northern mercenaries sometimes picked up and raised war orphans.

So Indo was one of them.

But there were strange points too. Why was Indo alone in a place like this, away from that unit? Would a war orphan raised by mercenaries go out of her way to leave the group she had grown up in? Especially a girl with Indo's personality?

Thinking that far, I suddenly remembered something.

"Nephilim."

I repeated that word. Indo's brow moved slightly. A hit, I thought.

"You called those monsters by that name."

"Yeah. Because they are enemies."

Indo's answer was too clear and concise, which made it very hard to understand. She was several levels better than Jogamine, but I still had to wait for her explanation.

"Sometimes we encountered monsters like that. I thought of them like bears. They rarely came close to human settlements."

"Did you fight them?"

"The adult teams did, sometimes. I only saw corpses."

The adults.

At the time, Indo had probably really been a child. She had received combat training, but she was not old enough to be counted as a proper member.

"One day, those things, those ones, came. Our unit fought. But they were strong, and back then, I was still weak. I was not one of the fighters."

Indo's explanation began to catch. Even so, she looked straight at me. It felt like there was something she wanted to tell me, but since I could not read other people's minds, I did not know what.

"I was assigned to take the little kids and run."

"An important role."

"Yeah."

I saw Indo bite her lip. She started to avert her eyes from me, but in the end, she kept looking straight ahead and continued. It seemed less like she was looking at me than somewhere behind me.

"I failed."

"Hey."

"It was the opposite. I was protected."

"Wait."

"When they caught up, I could not move. I was scared. Haru protected me. Reinforcements came a little, really just a little, too late. While I was being saved, I could not move at all. I was weak."

"Stop."

I was troubled.

"Don't cry."

Now I understood why Indo had shown an expression close to fear whenever I protected her. When I sighed, Indo's face twisted hard.

"I want to become strong."

At that moment, I decided to at least not look away from Indo. I could probably soothe her with sarcasm or dodge the issue. "Do you think the dead will be happy because you become a Brave?" or, "Do you think that can erase your weakness?" Things like that.

But I had always thought those lines were meaningless. Indo had chosen Indo's way, and she lived inside it.

I had my own way that I had chosen.

"Got it."

I nodded strongly, or at least in a way that looked strong.

"We have a place to investigate and someone to investigate. North. Hokkaido. Something is there."

"Can you investigate it?"

"Whoever the scum making those damn monsters are..."

I placed a five-thousand-yen bill on the table and stood.

"I will make them pay. So, Indo, I'll make you strong."

"Mm."

Indo quickly stood.

"Really?"

"Seriously. I need every hand I can get."

If Indo's story was true, the enemy seemed to be an organization of considerable scale. If they could operate in the northern Black Territories, then they might be supported by multiple large Dark Lords, or perhaps they were the backers.

"Starting now?"

Indo moved around in front of me.

"Training now? Where are we going?"

"Don't you need to go back to school? I haven't even thought of a training menu."

"It's fine. Instructor, training."

What is fine about it, I thought.

"There is a problem. I was planning to drink, play games, and prepare for tomorrow's investigation today."

"Training."

"Wait."

Just as Indo tried to hang from my arm, I finally noticed.

I must have been seriously lacking attention. There were two people pressed against the window, peering in at us. I recognized them.

"Hey."

I looked at Indo.

"You were followed."

"Security was strict."

Indo looked in the wrong direction and hung from my arm. I nearly lost my balance and fell.

Jogamine had a face like a gargoyle stuck to the glass, and Sara stood one step behind her with the eyes of a thug who had been handed a gun for the first time.

Unable to endure the attention of the restaurant's customers, I had to pay quickly.

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