WeTried Translations

Translator: Nemui

Editor: Nemui

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Scum of the Brave

Chapter 6

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In the end, the final battle that night was the worst.

Every move I made backfired. The main card force boasted by my Ji-Wall City-State Federation, the Mountain Infantry Unit, never got to show its true worth at all. It had been a long time since I had lost that badly. I was even crushed by "Salt" Joe, whose only talent was drawing good cards, and Ishino, whose rotten personality made him love luring people into traps, mocked me for it.

In the end, I wound up with about a hundred thousand in debt altogether.

"Looking at the total, I suppose this makes me the winner."

So said Ishino, smiling after taking the last game.

He had collected the most wins. The combined army of me and "Salt" Joe had its advance stopped by a despicable trap, then had its supply lines cut and met a defeat that was practically starvation. Whenever Ishino entered the field, the battle always turned gruesome. Thank goodness this guy had not been born a medieval noble.

"After driving out those barbarians, my Southern Empire should prosper for about a thousand years, shouldn't it? Well? One more game?"

"Don't get carried away."

I glared at Ishino with the scariest face I could manage. Though, to be honest, it did not really come off.

"Next. This battle let me see the weakness in my infantry units."

"Yashiro, you say that every single time. Well, whatever. So?"

Once the match had more or less settled, and while we were drinking beer almost out of inertia, Salt Joe brought it up like that.

"What happened with you? What happened to Lord Amber Thorn?"

"Who knows."

In truth, I did not know.

Jogamine had somehow produced handcuffs and restraints from somewhere and efficiently secured Lord Amber Thorn. Apparently, she was going to hand him over to the Academy. Neutralize without killing. That must have been the method schools recommended. Do whatever you want, I thought.

"More importantly, I had it rough. The bone in my left shoulder cracked, and my right arm was probably broken."

For treatment and painkillers, I ended up using one more ampule of 《E3》. Thanks to its regeneration-boosting effect, most of it healed, but that was the worst part of all. 《E3》 expenses were no joke, and if I kept working this way, I would become an 《E3》 addict in no time.

If I had to be addicted to something, beer was still better. So I took another deep swig from my mug.

"Completely in the red."

Originally, this job had been based on collecting the bounty on the head of the Dark Lord, Lord Amber Thorn. I had thought that if Indo Yukine made a flashy mess killing several of his followers, I could approach Lord Amber Thorn almost unmarked and assassinate him. Thanks to the unexpected situation, my whole plan had gone sideways.

The twenty million I had tried to squeeze out of Jogamine was probably impossible to collect too. If that Sara girl really was King Arthur's daughter, I would be in trouble if she told her father. I was a Brave with enough guilty secrets to cover me from head to toe. My license would be stripped in a hurry, and one flick of his finger would land me in jail.

As I sat there deeply dejected, Salt Joe clapped me on the shoulder.

"Just go get hospitalized, Yashiro. If you heal it with drugs, the bones apparently knit together weird. You know, Maruta said this one guy pushed himself too hard and a rib that was half-healed went into his heart and..."

"Shut up."

I cut off Salt Joe's nonsense. This guy just wanted me to go to the hospital. Because he had bet on me getting sent there. I would rather die than let things go the way he wanted.

"But, Yashiro, that really does bother me. You said that bastard Lord Amber Thorn grew an arm back?"

"More or less."

"You're not lying?"

"How many times do you need me to say it? Believe me or don't."

Salt Joe probably thought it was one of those ghost stories you ran into in the Brave trade. Dark Lords you killed coming back to haunt you, using too many drugs and having your body turn to stone, things like that. At the very least, none of us had ever heard of a severed arm growing back like some monster.

"That does sound interesting."

Sure enough, the one who bit on this kind of story was Ishino. He had a taste for the grotesque and a bad habit of sticking his nose into strange stories like this.

"I think I'll look into it a little."

Maybe Ishino had something in mind.

"Lord Amber Thorn seemed strange from the beginning, didn't he?"

"Who knows. Maybe he was high on drugs."

"No, I think there is something there."

"It's not going to make money. Drop it."

I grimaced. For some reason, I had a bad feeling.

"I wonder about that. Anyway, what are you going to do, Yashiro?"

Ishino shuffled the cards with practiced fingers and looked at me with a faint smile. I could not sense any intent in it except the desire to enjoy making fun of someone.

"Are you going to take disciples? I mean those girls. They're cute, aren't they?"

"Hell no."

I spat the words out.

"There's something fishy about it. If they attend the Academy, normally their teachers should teach them."

"I would take them for a hundred thousand each per month. Sounds entertaining."

"Do whatever you want, you perverted sadist."

"So, Yashiro."

"Salt" Joe drained his beer and, after hesitating a little, lit a cigarette. Maybe he had been trying to quit again. It would never work for him.

"You turned down this master business?"

"That's what I think I've been saying. Joe, you really don't listen to people at all."

"Can you talk without insulting people every damn time? I'll kill you. Then what's that? You didn't call them?"

I immediately turned around. Apparently, my bones had not fully healed yet, because a sharp pain ran through my left shoulder. I might need to use one more ampule of 《E3》 after all. Then I found three girls standing at the entrance to the bar. Except for Aki Jogamine, they all looked vaguely uncomfortable.

"Sorry, but."

The first one to speak was Ed Cyrus, who had been silently cleaning behind the counter.

"We're about to close. Even if you're Braves, we're closed today."

"Yes."

Jogamine answered with far too much obedience.

"We will leave at once! We came to offer our thanks and greetings."

"Verbal thanks don't count."

I made a circle with my fingers.

"Did you prepare the twenty million?"

"No! But for now, here is this month's tuition, Master."

Jogamine held out an envelope that was not especially thick. That was not a line I could ignore. It left me stunned. I immediately understood that she intended to push the matter through by sheer momentum.

There was only one thing I could say.

"Go home."

"It is all right. All of us are prepared to receive your strict guidance starting tomorrow."

"Looking forward to it, Instructor."

Next, for whatever reason, Indo Yukine suddenly bowed her head. It was a pretty deep angle. But the eyes looking up at me held an oddly greedy, challenging light.

"Instructor Yashiro. Sorry. You are very strong."

"True, I am strong. So if you don't go home, I'll beat you up."

"Does that mean I should fight Instructor? If I do that, can I become stronger?"

Indo Yukine asked with a completely serious face. Her hand, as if answering the idea, stretched toward the belt at her waist. It touched the handle of her knife. I could only fall silent. I see. In this case, solving things with violence would indeed be difficult.

As I was thinking, Sara suddenly spoke up.

"Ah. Wait a second. Hey."

Among the three of them, she alone looked extremely confused. She raked a hand through her golden hair and lowered her head the smallest amount.

"First, I'll say thanks."

She sounded like she had some kind of grudge against me.

"You saved me, right? Me, Aki, and Yukine. Probably. And, uh... sorry this is so sudden, but there's some stuff going on. We're on the edge here."

"Whoa."

Despite myself, I was a little moved.

"You can actually have a conversation, a little. Not what I'd expect from how you look."

"What's that supposed to mean? Are you making fun of me?"

"No, these two are kind of crazy, right?"

Sara did not answer my question. I took that as agreement. But before I could continue, she held out one hand as if asking for a handshake.

"My dad."

Sara said it with an unhappy face, but her eyes were serious.

"He told me to have you teach us properly. Uh, the Reaper... Teacher Yashiro. I don't really get it, but if Aki thought we could rely on you, then that must be true, right?"

Once again, I fell silent.

There was nothing else I could do. Salt Joe and Ishino exchanged glances and let out muffled laughter. Ed Cyrus silently poured himself a beer. I remember that only the sound of the ventilation fan turning echoed quietly.

Ishino disappeared three days later.

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