WeTried Translations

Translator: Nemui

Editor: Nemui

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◈ Scum of the Brave

Chapter 33

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Lesson 5: You're Only Full-Fledged Once Someone Wants You Dead

When we landed at Haneda Airport, Tokyo had indeed turned into a disaster.

Salt Joe had called it "war," and it was not an exaggeration. The first things I saw in the airport corridor were the Self-Defense Forces and police squads. Then there were broken former Braves turned public servants in green uniforms, and Unranked Sword Officers directly under the Ministry of Education. They were guarding the airport with an extremely tense level of equipment.

The atmosphere felt different. The number of departing and arriving flights also seemed to have been cut down considerably. In proportion to that, the airport users were terribly sparse.

"We were made to wait a lot."

Indo Yukine complained.

"I'm hungry. Also, this is heavy."

Indo was carrying the luggage for three people.

Because she had lost the in-flight card game, Seven Medallions, where the baggage-carrying duty had been at stake. Indo stood out even in games for straight-line, thoughtless attacks. The powerful cards she had deployed consumed logistics like idiots, and she had essentially collapsed on her own. This was why beginners were troublesome.

"The baggage check was weirdly long. Actually, Yukine, are you okay with that?"

Sara stretched wide. In the plane's Medallion game, the one who repelled my mountain infantry and ultimately won was the fairy knight order under her command. Insolent for a beginner.

"What do we do from here?"

Sara glared at me, and for some reason, at Jogamine too.

"Are trains even running properly?"

"No. From what I heard on the news, that seems difficult, Sara. Damn those Dark Lords, making citizens suffer so much. Unforgivable."

Jogamine glared outside from the glass-walled waiting room. I could see black smoke rising in the distance. Someone had probably set off a bombing attack. Helicopters were flying too. Another thing different from usual was that there were surprisingly few cars on the roads.

Maybe traffic restrictions had been issued, or maybe in this situation, only a minority of people wanted to drive.

"Master."

Jogamine turned back to me.

"I believe we have no choice but to display furious effort and break through this situation."

"Sure."

I gave a random agreement.

"Before that, there is something urgent we have to do."

Suddenly, my eyes met Indo's. The wrinkle between her brows opened, and I saw her eyes shine.

"I'm hungry, so we're eating. I'm not treating you, so pay for your own food. I barely have any travel money left."

While we were at it, we also needed to organize information. Whether the thing we were about to step into was hell or something else, first we had to know what was waiting. Not only for mental preparedness, but also for how to deal with it. In the Brave business, more than anything else, planning was important.

After gathering newspapers and lightly browsing online information, we learned that it had started just yesterday.

Whatever weak, useless Dark Lord had been the trigger, it began with a grand raid and the bombing of an enemy base, then conflicts broke out in a chain and escalated from there.

According to rumors I heard on the radio, an emergency alert had apparently been issued in the western side of the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Especially from Shibuya Ward to Shinjuku Ward, then across Meguro Ward and Toshima Ward, the conflicts between Dark Lords had intensified into something awful. The government seemed to have dispatched troops capable of handling E3 and was attempting suppression, but it was not going well. There were too many Dark Lords.

For a Brave, this might be called a time to make money.

That was the current situation we confirmed in a cafe inside the airport.

"This is more annoying than I expected."

While eating pizza toast, I had no choice but to reach that conclusion. I was very hungry, so I ordered a double portion of pizza toast without a moment's hesitation. Pizza was food from the good world.

"If trains aren't really moving, a car? If we get caught in traffic somewhere, that would be the worst. Still, I guess that's the only choice."

"A car? Teacher, where are you planning to go?"

Sara asked, sounding a little uneasy. Apparently, she could satisfy her hunger with an extremely weak menu of one plate of salad and yogurt. While we ate, she kept looking out the window with irritated eyes.

"It looks pretty dangerous out there. Teacher, yesterday you said you were going to 'go loud.' Do you have some kind of plan?"

"Is that not obvious, Sara?"

Jogamine cut in. She seemed needlessly full of energy, and had already devoured a large curry at tremendous speed.

"We will swiftly suppress the Dark Lords causing this disturbance. The citizens are frightened by this tragedy right now. Someone must carve open a path with courage. Is that not right, Master?"

"Yeah."

For probably the first time, I affirmed what Jogamine said. I had no choice. In truth, it was not that different from what I was thinking. Faced with this abnormal situation, Jogamine's insane heroism was instead close to normal. My idea of normal. Shitty normality.

To me, the situation now really did feel close to the word "war."

"Yeah. Something like that."

"As expected of Master."

Jogamine flushed and bowed her head with a grave expression.

"This first disciple of yours will accompany you even to hell."

"Teacher, don't say random stuff. Aki will take it seriously."

"Really? Sara, do you have a better idea?"

"Uh... I want to go home once."

"That's an amazing idea. If getting through Tokyo right now were that easy."

"Damn it. I know."

When I provoked her, Sara immediately sulked. She looked away from me and stared out the window.

"Well, no matter what we do."

I glossed over that discussion by sneering at Sara's attitude.

Even I still could not decide whether I should say what I was thinking. I felt like I had stepped into something terribly troublesome, but regretting it would not help, so I decided to present the immediate problem and divert the point.

"We rebuild our posture."

I tapped the pocket of my coat.

"We have four E3 left. The ones I gave you are used up, so these four are our lifeline. Way too few. For now, we need to secure E3. Weapons and supplies too. Indo, for example, had the sword I lent her broken. In other words."

I pointed outside the window.

"Ed Cyrus's shop. If we reach it, we can resupply E3 and weapons. My friends are there too."

"What about that person?"

Indo, who should have been silently focused on eating the entire time, spoke up. The many plates lined up in front of her had somehow become empty. Astonishing appetite.

"That Maruta person? I think he's really strong. Probably. Didn't he come with us?"

"Yeah. He couldn't help it."

I laughed despite myself.

"In this situation, right? It was obvious anyone taking a flight to Tokyo would be asked for ID. And he doesn't have anything like that."

Stowing away, chartering something, or stealing. There were various means, but I had no intention of worrying about Maruta. It would be pointless.

"So? Any other good ideas? Don't all talk at once. Raise your hand before speaking."

"Teacher, you said getting through Tokyo won't be easy."

Sara dutifully raised her hand.

"Is it easy to get to that shop? What about the Academy? Given the situation, I think they might be doing relief work, so maybe they'd protect us."

"There is some sense to that. But we should avoid it right now."

I tried hard to make my voice sound as flippant as possible.

"Mainly because I thought Sara would get scared, I didn't say this, but I've felt like we've been tailed for a while now. Actually, we are. At least, if I were them, Half Dragon, I would mark us from the moment we reached the airport."

It had been bad that we let those people get away in Hokkaido.

At the very least, they would have reported about me, and the situation was different from when I made contact with Levi at Lord Storm Coffin's party. Our travel route and location had been completely exposed. If they watched the airport, they could easily identify the flight we were on.

Being chased like this was not a first for me. My life had been targeted any number of times. If you worked as a Brave, there were always opportunities to earn resentment.

The trick in times like this was to stay calm. That was all.

"They probably won't attack inside the airport with this security posture, though."

"Ueh?"

Sara tried to turn and look around, so I grabbed her head and stopped her. That was exactly why I had not wanted to say it. Since leaving her like that would be too unnatural, I roughly stroked her blond hair as if messing it up.

"So, including the Academy issue and considering various circumstances, I decided we should reach Ed Cyrus's shop, which is the nearest base and has the most reliable and powerful reinforcements I know. Got it?"

"H, stop it, hey! Don't pat me weirdly."

"That is right, Master."

Jogamine thrust her head forward like she was headbutting me.

"It would not be fair, so please do the same to me."

"Are you messing with me?"

Apparently, they did not quite understand that this was not the time to play around.

I was probably being targeted again. Or rather, we were. In Jogamine's case, she did not act like the main person being targeted. She was too carefree.

To calm my irritation, I drained the last cup of water. I needed to settle down. When Jogamine was in front of me, my nerves became raw. I knew the reason myself.

"Indo, how does it look to you? Do you know who's tailing us? Hey, what are you doing?"

In the end, I was a specialist on the side that tailed people, but I was not used to being tailed. When I asked Indo, who had lived as a mercenary, she had been about to thrust her head forward like Jogamine, and now she faintly distorted her brow.

"Nothing really."

"Get a grip. In the worst case, you're the one watching Jogamine and Sara. So, the tail?"

"I think we are being followed, but I don't really know."

Indo shook her head easily.

"If even I don't really know, they're not amateurs. Or they're using that kind of Ether Perception."

"Maybe."

I crushed the last remaining ice between my teeth and set the cup down. At the same time, I rolled three E3 onto the table.

"We're going for a drive now. This is your snack. One each."

"In Master's car?"

Jogamine reacted dramatically to the word drive.

"Then let us decide the seating order. I will sit in the passenger seat. Where is Master's car?"

"There are plenty, aren't there?"

I pointed at the airport parking lot. After killing a Dark Lord, a Brave needed to secure a way to escape. This was one means of doing that.

In other words, car theft. Sara's mouth hung half open, and Jogamine started saying things about ethics and morality.

After that, it took roughly ten minutes to talk Jogamine around and steal a car.

During that time, the feeling that someone was watching us never disappeared. The premonition of being watched from behind cover by some kind of hunting animal. Or the premonition of a poisonous reptile secretly drawing close.

And of course, bad premonitions never ended as mere premonitions.

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