WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Arsène

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Spring Never Comes to Stolen Fields ◈

Chapter 40: Raven

──────

Hurting Luna was actually extremely difficult.

She had already reached an impressive level of mastery, and aside from Celia, I couldn't think of anyone in the academy who could properly restrain her one-on-one at this point.

There might be the monster Homeroom Teacher or the principal, I suppose.

As usual, I woke before Luna and looked at her arm, now covered in wounds.

Blotchy red stains remained on the white bedsheets.

Healing magic wasn't my specialty, so I couldn't make them heal right away.

But Luna was a Demon.

Wounds this minor would disappear within a day, or by tomorrow at the latest.

Demons had several times the natural physical recovery of humans, after all.

I sighed and left the bedroom.

I was sure I'd put the bandages I'd brought just in case somewhere, but I couldn't remember where.

I had never even considered the possibility of anyone getting hurt, least of all Luna.

I never expected her to harm herself... It was an unexpected turn of events.

As I rustled around the room searching, I heard Luna's voice, as though she'd just woken up.

"Sirius...?"

She slowly rubbed her eyes and walked out of the bedroom.

The red marks left on her pale arm made my heart ache.

"Does it hurt?"

I walked over to her.

"It bothers me a little, that's all. I'm fine."

She spoke as though it really was nothing serious.

"Wait. The bandages have to be somewhere."

"I don't really need them. I'll heal soon anyway."

"I think it's better not to show the others your scars."

That was true.

The Party members would definitely ask what had happened, and I didn't want to deal with Luna coming up with another excuse.

It would also be troublesome if they found it strange that her wounds disappeared in an instant, as though nothing had happened.

"How considerate of you."

She flopped down onto the sofa.

Luna looked around my room, which was stained with blood in various places.

"Sirius."

"Yeah?"

"Come here."

"Just a moment. Let me find this first."

"How about coming when I tell you to?"

I left the drawer I'd been rummaging through open and sat down beside Luna.

She took my hand.

"Where are you going today?"

"I don't know. Today's Raven's turn to lead."

"Hmm~"

Luna crossed her legs.

She seemed displeased that another girl's name had come out of my mouth.

"...I'll ask one more time. About yesterday. It definitely wasn't that girl Raven, right?"

As far as I was concerned, Raven was the most harmless living thing in the academy at this point.

"I swear it wasn't Raven."

"Then who on earth did something so outrageous? Was it a man?"

Tsk. Pretty close.

It had been Yuri, the almost-man, after all.

When I looked troubled, Luna sighed.

"Haah... Fine. You must have your reasons for not being able to tell me. And I think that punishment was enough."

I'd done everything I could to protect my chastity, so it was ironic that I'd still been punished for it.

Though by the end of last night, it had come pretty close to being a reward.

"Luna."

"Yeah?"

"If there's something you need to scold me for... just hurt me instead."

I was being sincere.

The thought of Luna's self-harm act from yesterday being repeated over and over made me shudder.

"...I can't."

Luna answered quietly.

"Why not?"

"Do you hear yourself?"

Her words were edged with thorns.

You already slapped me across the cheek once, though.

"There's no way I could do something that would genuinely hurt Sirius."

She lifted my shirt.

The bite marks Luna had left the night before were so dark that Yuri's fingernail scratches were practically invisible beside them.

"Still... I can't stand seeing the marks those other bitches leave on you."

She stroked the area below my navel.

My body flinched when her hand touched the wounds.

"Use the bandages yourself, Sirius."

Luna grinned.

"No. You can't leave until I find them and wrap your arm properly."

I stood up and searched through the drawers again.

"Then I guess I'll have to burn every bandage in this room."

Before I knew it, Luna had come up behind me and was whispering in my ear.

She wrapped her arms around me from behind.

"Staying here with you might not be so bad."

Hey.

We have to stop the Hero. We didn't come to the human realm for a tour.

I found the bandages buried in a corner and wrapped them around Luna's arm.

"You really didn't have to."

"You should listen to me once in a while."

Luna was the one who never listened to me, despite always complaining that I didn't listen to her.

"But we failed to make plans for tomorrow again, didn't we?"

Luna suddenly seemed to remember.

That was right. Luna had been waiting in my room yesterday so we could plan the next day's schedule together.

But my clothes had been torn open by the time I entered the room, so there was no chance of making any progress.

"Did you have anything planned, Luna?"

"Hmm~ I have no experience with the human realm outside the academy, so I don't really know. What about you, Sirius?"

I felt intimidated whenever someone asked me about life in the human realm, whether it was a human or Luna, a Demon.

That's right. Me. I grew up in the middle of nowhere and don't know anything.

"Haha... Maybe we should just spend the day inside the academy?"

"True~ Leon and Alfonso both started at the Training Ground and ended there too."

What boring guys.

Even so, I couldn't tell Luna directly about what had happened yesterday.

There was no way I could tell her that I'd nearly ended up rolling around on a heart-shaped bed with a busty young lady.

"Then let's make do inside the academy for now."

"If that's what Sirius wants."

Luna didn't seem to have any particular thoughts on the matter.

"Right~ The Homeroom Teacher said it was fine to drink tea, so let's keep it simple and be done with it."

I said that even though I didn't know anything about different kinds of tea.

"Drink tea with them...? Heh heh..."

Luna gave a hollow laugh.

Was Luna's Party not the type to do things like that?

I thought our Party was fairly harmonious, in its own way.

A dim-witted cross-dressing girl. An ill-mannered rich young master. A masked girl with a bizarre way of speaking. And me, a quasi-human named Sirius.

Could there be a more perfect combination?

Though, now that I listed them all out, maybe it wasn't such a good combination after all.

Regardless, I found myself impressed all over again by the Homeroom Teacher's foresight.

He'd said he was older than he looked, but had he really seen this entire picture from that brief interview alone?

That was the sort of insight that came with experience.

Raven had set our meeting time for ten. It was nine now, so it was about time to get ready.

"I should wash up before I go."

Luna nodded.

"Sorry for making such a mess of your room."

Cleaning it would probably take a while.

Luna gathered her uniform and prepared to return to her room.

"Sirius."

Luna stopped me as I was about to enter the bathroom.

"Yeah?"

"Behave yourself."

With those final words, she left my room.

Her last words kept echoing in my ears while I washed up.

"Behave yourself... huh..."

It was exactly what I needed to hear, and it hit home.

Yeah... I had to behave...

I steeled my resolve again while looking in the mirror.

I arrived at the meeting place, the Eastern Gate, earlier than expected.

I was fifteen minutes early, but Raven was already there.

Raven was staring blankly at the forest beyond the gate.

"Good morning, Raven."

Couldn't she at least pretend to notice when someone arrived?

Only after I spoke did Raven finally turn to look at me.

As usual, she seemed intent on saving her words and merely dipped her head.

I felt awkward standing there with her turned away, staring into the distance.

In fact, Raven might not have felt awkward at all. Maybe I was the only one who did.

I hoped Cain or Yuri would hurry up and arrive.

I didn't want to keep standing there like this.

The next person to arrive was Yuri.

She had properly tied her hair today.

"Good morning, everyone!"

She greeted us brightly.

Raven gave another small bow when Yuri arrived, and I properly returned Yuri's greeting.

"Hi, Yuri."

When our eyes met, Yuri blushed.

Her reaction was enough to make me believe my Innate Magic really was a magic of love.

I wondered how Yuri would react when she learned the true nature of this magic later.

I had a feeling she'd want to die of embarrassment.

Cain was late today.

"You're late, Mr. Cain."

Yuri said this while looking at her watch.

Ten minutes had already passed since our meeting time.

Speak of the devil. Cain waved at us from a distance as he walked over.

He was a shameless bastard who acted as though being late was only acceptable when he did it, even though he always gave others grief for being late.

"I forgot it was the Eastern Gate. Hahahaha."

Cain joined us naturally, without so much as an apology.

I considered saying something, but then I remembered the meal he'd fed me yesterday and let it go.

Once everyone in the Party had gathered, Raven turned to us.

"Please gather over here for a moment, you see."

We followed her instructions and gathered around Raven.

"Please hold my hand, you see."

Two sentences in a row. That's rare.

Raven extended her right hand toward us.

We all reached out and placed our hands over hers.

"Are you all ready, you see?"

She didn't say what we were supposed to be ready for.

We had no idea, but everyone nodded anyway.

Raven closed her eyes.

Darkness reached out from her shadow and swallowed us whole.

What was this?

I thought I'd tried all kinds of magic by now, but I'd never seen this spell before.

Could this even be magic?

I couldn't begin to gauge her ability.

Cain and Yuri were just as flustered.

Once we'd entered the shadow, all we could do was clutch Raven's hand tighter, since she offered no explanation.

Less than thirty seconds later, Raven spoke.

"We've arrived, you see."

Where were we?

The soft crunch of sand beneath my feet.

The call of an unfamiliar bird.

And a horizon stretching endlessly into the distance.

I'd never seen it before, but I knew what it was.

This was my first sea.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried