Spring Never Comes to Stolen Fields - Chapter 26

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Spring Never Comes to Stolen Fields ◈

Chapter 26: Yuri

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It was only a matter of whether I got beaten sooner or later.

The moment I chose not to pick Luna, getting beaten had been inevitable.

I just hadn't expected it to happen this quickly.

My mind started racing again.

What could I say to make it sound like I'd only wanted to avoid having to choose between Celia and Luna?

"Luna... I..."

I spoke in a slightly uncertain voice.

Luna, who had looked ready to lecture me, seemed a little flustered.

"What? Is something wrong?"

Her voice suddenly turned worried.

"Not exactly... but... ever since I was little... I've wanted to go to school..."

As far as I knew, demons didn't have academies or schools.

Luna answered in a tone that said she didn't understand but was trying to sympathize.

"Uh... yeah... school is nice. School..."

It was cute how she went along with my act despite clearly not understanding it at all.

"I... really wanted to attend one... I wanted to make friends, too..."

I let out a deep sigh and stared at the ground, then stole a glance at Luna's reaction.

She looked like she couldn't exactly argue with that.

Using my pitiful past like this was cowardly, but it worked wonderfully.

Just as planned.

A little more pushing, and I should be safe.

"Of course, it'd be nice to be in the same Party as you, Luna, but I wanted to know what it felt like to attend school with other people, even if only for a little while."

After saying that, I gazed up at the sky with the loneliest eyes I could manage.

I wanted to applaud my own acting.

Luna patted my back, looking sorry for me.

"I see... Sirius... All right. If that's the reason, then I think you can make that choice..."

I was saved... Phew...

"Thanks, Luna. You're the best!"

I sincerely thanked Luna.

She looked happy to hear that.

How pretty would Luna be if she smiled like that every day?

After exchanging a few trivial words, Luna suddenly asked me something.

"Who was in your Party again?"

"Me... Cain, Raven, and Yuri!"

Each of their faces came to mind.

"Right... Raven was the only girl, wasn't she?"

Yuri had something of an androgynous air, but I still answered that Raven was the only girl.

"Yeah."

"The one wearing a mask?"

When I thought of Raven, the only thing that came to mind was her mask.

"Yeah."

"Hmm..."

Luna looked like she was considering something. Then her expression brightened, as though she had reached a conclusion.

"That's nothing, then."

I had no idea what thought process had led her to that conclusion, but as long as she didn't give me a hard time, I didn't care.

Fortunately, Luna seemed to be in a better mood. When we arrived at the Dormitory, she left me alone.

For the first time in a while, I took a nap.

When I opened my eyes, it was night, and the bliss I felt was indescribable.

Wow... I woke up... and it was nighttime...!

That might have been nothing to other people, but to me, it was a small yet enormous happiness.

I left the window open, and the night breeze drifted softly into the room. It put me in a good mood.

Tomorrow was the day Yuri would decide what we were doing.

Yuri had told us to meet in front of the main gate by nine in the morning.

It seemed he planned to take us somewhere outside the academy.

Still, Yuri was probably the most easygoing person in our Party.

Cain looked openly annoyed all the time, while Raven barely spoke to begin with, and it was hard to see her expression behind her mask.

Come to think of it, this would be my first time in the human realm outside the academy.

The tiny village of Homeron and the academy were all I knew of the Human World.

My heart raced.

It felt like an unknown world was waiting for me.

Then again, it was kind of funny that I, a Demon, was excited about the human realm.

I really had become an outsider.

With both excitement and bitterness in my heart, I waited for tomorrow.

At nine in the morning, everyone in our Party arrived on time.

Yuri seemed to have arrived before us and was preparing something.

He had brought a huge bundle of things. Looking closer, I saw they were bows and arrows.

"Hello, Sirius!"

"Good morning, Yuri."

Yuri greeted me with a bright smile.

"What's all this? Are we going hunting together today?"

He flinched in surprise.

"You figured it out already...?"

Are you an idiot...?

If you brought bows for everyone, the only reasonable things we could do were archery practice or hunting.

And if it were archery practice, we could do that at the training ground instead of outside.

It was obvious to anyone, so Yuri being surprised was what surprised me.

"Ah~ The weather's nice, so it's the perfect day for hunting!"

Even I thought I was too kind. I didn't even give him a hard time about it.

Yuri seemed to have personally prepared bows suited to each of us.

Cain's bow was nearly twice the size of Raven's.

"So we are going hunting?"

Cain slung his bow over his back and spoke confidently.

"Even Cain figured it out?"

No, you were just careless.

Yuri's surprise made me let out a hollow laugh.

Raven hadn't said a word since arriving.

Instead, she quietly slung the bow Yuri gave her over her shoulder and nodded.

"All right! Looks like everyone's ready, so let's go!"

Yuri smiled brightly and led us through the main gate toward the forest.

We silently followed Yuri deeper into the woods.

The weather was pleasant and the sun shone brightly. It couldn't have been a better day for hunting.

Yuri stopped halfway up the mountain and asked us to listen.

"I gave it a lot of thought, you know? What could we do together that would show you who I am and help us communicate better?"

It was a more diligent introduction than I expected.

Cain, Raven, and I just blinked as we listened.

"So I thought I'd show you all a bit of my specialty, archery. Of course, we'll enjoy some hunting together afterward."

Yuri took the bow off his back, drew an arrow, and pulled the string.

"First of all... I have really good eyesight."

With the string pulled taut, he released the arrow.

The arrow struck the center of a tree.

It was a clean shot, but there was no way that alone could make him top-ranked.

There had to be more to it.

"Hey. Even I could shoot that well."

Cain crossed his arms.

Honestly, I somewhat agreed, so I looked at Yuri.

He scratched his head awkwardly.

"Could you all bring me the arrow stuck over there?"

This brat. Had he gotten so broke that he needed to reuse arrows?

Thinking that, I walked toward the tree and was about to pull out the arrow when I froze.

A tiny dead insect was skewered through the middle on the arrow's tip.

Cain flinched too, so he must have seen it.

He hit that from that distance... His eyesight really was good.

Yuri just grinned without saying anything.

The shift in our attitude seemed to put him in a better mood.

"Ahem... Ahem! Now you see that I can provide decent support from long range, right?"

Yuri was a guy, but he definitely had something cute about him. He was a little foolish, though.

And while he had only fired one arrow, imagining fighting him made me realize how troublesome he would be.

No matter how many spells I could use, Yuri would overwhelmingly win in a contest of range.

"Is that it?"

Cain asked, sounding slightly disappointed.

"Of course not."

Yuri pulled a white handkerchief from inside his uniform and tied it around his upper arm.

I still had no idea what he was planning.

"Before we start hunting in earnest, let's play a game."

"A game?"

I asked.

"Let's play tag. If any of you can take the handkerchief tied around my arm, you win."

Oh, tag.

I wasn't confident at all when it came to fighting head-on, but I had some confidence in my speed.

Cain started stretching too, looking confident.

Raven still didn't say anything. She only watched Yuri in silence.

At this point, I wondered if Raven had been cursed so she couldn't speak.

"All right. Count to five out loud, and I'll run away while you do."

"One... two... three... four... five...!"

I counted to five first.

Even if Yuri ran far enough to disappear from sight, I intended to chase him, but he was standing still only a short distance away.

Right. So he was confident.

Cain seemed a little irritated too, and he leaped toward Yuri before I could move.

Despite his considerable size, Cain surged forward with explosive speed.

Yuri smiled at the approaching Cain, then vanished from sight in an instant.

As if by magic, he appeared beneath Cain and hooked his foot around Cain's shin.

Thrown off balance, Cain barely managed to keep from falling.

"Would you like to try too, Sirius?"

Yuri provoked me without caring that Cain had spun around.

"Then don't mind if I do."

The moment my foot left the ground, I ran with everything I had.

At that point, it was more accurate to say I threw myself forward rather than ran.

Yuri's eyes widened at my speed, but he began accelerating to match me.

I ran through the forest with all my strength, trying to untie Yuri's handkerchief. In the end, I couldn't even touch him with a finger before I collapsed.

A mage's stamina truly was like a candle flame in the wind.

Still, this time Yuri was breathing a little harder too.

He really was fast.

"An archer needs to stay far away, stay safe, and avoid being caught. If we get caught, we'd only be a burden to our Party members."

Right. No matter what Party you joined, you'd be damn good at running away.

I had no choice but to admit it.

Then it was Raven's turn, the last one left.

Yuri seemed to have nearly given up on Raven.

"Raven, would you like to give it a try too?"

He probably thought it was only polite to ask.

Raven nodded.

Then her whole body vanished into the ground as if she had been swallowed by it.