WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Oblivious
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Weakest Knight Became a Swordmaster, But Only in Dungeons ◈
Chapter 46: Canary (1)
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<For Elise>, Chapter 2, Act 2: Search Tactics Training Arc.
In the third playthrough, Nadia Dembarok murdered several cadets during the training, then sought out and stabbed Elise.
Elise barely managed to avoid a vital spot. Scenario Note had warned Elise beforehand, allowing for preparation.
Nadia fled in a panic after the battle. Afterwards, Elise collapsed due to Nadia’s extremely poisonous magic and lost several weeks to agony while weakened.
‘No way.’
Why should I go through an episode a hundred times more maddening than that? Not a chance.
“I will explain the Search Tactics Training!”
Before the first-year cadets standing in formation at ease, Logan, an instructor with black hair and a scruffy short beard, shouted with his hands behind his back.
We were standing before an abandoned mine.
Like Himeguard, the abandoned city where the final exam had been held last time, it was a training ground shared by the Empire’s Magic Knight Orders.
‘As expected of a knight school.’
Whether it was funding, facilities, or anything else, major Magic Knight Orders supported it from behind. How reassuring.
Connections mattered just as much in educational institutions.
“The scenario is as follows! First! Monsters have kidnapped Imperial citizens and taken them into the abandoned mine. Second! A knight order that entered the abandoned mine to rescue those citizens has gone missing.”
Instructor Logan continued.
“Your mission is to find and rescue the kidnapped Imperial citizens and missing knights! They will look like these magical dolls! Place your hand on their heads and channel mana into them to count them as rescued, so there is no need to bring them out with you!”
Instructor Logan pointed to the mannequin-like doll beside him.
It was gray and had no distinguishing features.
Instructor Logan continued his explanation.
There would be traps, so we needed to be careful. We could be eliminated. Then, merit points would be awarded according to rank based on the number of dolls rescued.
The cadet beside me swallowed hungrily. They must have wanted the merit points.
“Everyone, receive a wristband and a map!”
The cadets were handed wristbands and maps of the abandoned mine. They were all magical devices.
Like during the previous final exam, the wristbands were for emergency alerts, location tracking, and notifying us of elimination or the end of training.
I looked at the map and was stunned.
‘This is insane... How huge is this place?’
The abandoned mine was so vast and complicated inside that it could have been called a maze.
Of course, I knew it was large, but I had not expected this much. It was on an entirely different level from the simplified map in the game. I was impressed all over again.
“Then! Go to the locations marked on your maps!”
“To the locations!”
The abandoned mine had many entrances. I headed toward one marked on my map with a dot of mana.
For some reason, Nadia Dembarok, a female cadet with short blue hair and bronze skin, was headed the same way as me.
When we reached the assigned entrance, we stopped. I could not help frowning.
‘This bastard is here too?’
It was probably the Exchange Realm Society’s doing.
Manipulating the assigned location of a single cadet at the training ground would have been easy for them.
Since she had planned to kill the cadets anyway, she seemed to be targeting me first because I had offended her. Her intentions were obvious.
‘This works out well.’
I had been planning to find Nadia anyway.
Finding her would have been easy. The map showed every cadet’s approximate location as a dot, and pressing the dot brought up their name.
Anyway, there were five cadets at this entrance, including Nadia and me.
Soon after.
“Ron Hazely? Good to see you.”
Nadia came over and greeted me.
She was about the same height as me. Nadia grinned at me.
What are you staring at, you demonkin bastard?
“Yeah, good to see you too.”
“We ended up starting from the same entrance?”
“Yeah, we did.”
“...You know, after thinking it over, I realized my prank went a little too far last time, like you said.”
“So?”
“I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry.”
Nadia smiled as she held out her hand. Was she offering to make peace?
At least this demonkin was fairly well socialized.
‘But there’s no sincerity in it. None at all.’
Was she trying to lower my guard? What was this, some carefree gamer act?
Well, our goals were the same. I intended to wreck this bastard too.
In that case.
“Fine. Be more careful next time.”
I took Nadia’s hand and said so.
“Haha, okay. I’ll be careful.”
Hey, stop your eyebrows from twitching every few seconds. It was obvious she was holding back her anger.
Beep.
The wristbands emitted a sound as green lights shone from them.
“Let’s go.”
The five of us entered the abandoned mine together.
The training had begun.
...
Luminescent stones embedded in the walls of the abandoned mine shone like lamps. Thanks to them, maintaining visibility was not difficult.
Search Tactics Training was an individual competition. As soon as the paths split, we scattered.
Except.
“Ron, let’s go together!”
Nadia followed me with a smile.
Pretending to be surprised, I asked,
“Huh? Why with me...?”
“I told you, I’m sorry about last time. I’ll help you as an apology!”
Nadia clenched her fist, energetically and bravely showing her goodwill.
It was like a scene from a coming-of-age drama. Of course, reality was different.
‘As expected, she’s planning to look at my guts first.’
When Nadia attacked easy targets in the original story, she aimed for their abdomen, waist, or back first. She liked looking at people’s insides.
A cruel perverted bastard. Demonkin really were full of people who needed to be wiped out.
Still, perhaps because I had grown stronger after going through all sorts of things, my body did not tremble from fear like it had at the beginning of the school year.
“Then thanks.”
“Score!”
Nadia and I crossed the mine tunnel. I checked the map.
‘The place where that magical beast appears is this way... a vast cavern.’
In Chapter 2, Act 2 of the original story, a dangerous magical beast awoke and targeted Elise. It coveted the fairy’s power.
It was something the instructors had not discovered during their inspections.
Elise defeated that magical beast with the main characters in the vast cavern and deepened their friendship. It happened in the first, second, and third playthroughs.
Only in the third playthrough, Nadia intervened afterward.
‘It’s pretty far. And I don’t know when the magical beast will appear.’
I deliberately headed toward the vast cavern while stopping by random places along the way so Nadia would not catch on to my intentions.
On the way, blunt arrows flew out from the walls, and golems that Instructor Rachel had likely made attacked us.
“Dodge, Ron!”
Whoosh!
“I’ll take care of it, Ron!”
Crash!
Nadia helped me handle everything with ease.
‘She’s working hard to keep me from getting eliminated.’
This was a pretty sweet deal.
Nadia even found the magical dolls as if she were psychic. Then she let me take credit for rescuing them.
“Was that enough of an apology?”
“You were actually a good person...!”
“Haha...! Th-thanks!”
When I pretended to be moved, Nadia pretended to be pleased.
“Hahaha!”
“Hahaha!”
As though we had grown close, we crossed the mine tunnel together, laughing and chatting. The atmosphere was warm.
But inside, I felt sick and wanted to cut off Nadia’s head right away.
The only consolation was that Nadia probably felt the same way.
Two people desperate to kill each other filming a coming-of-age drama together. Was there any black comedy more ridiculous than this? It was truly absurd.
Anyway, we continued through the tunnel.
‘She started killing people later than this.’
Nadia had been waiting until the cadets ventured deeper into the abandoned mine.
That way, it would be too late for the cadets to escape or for the instructors to intervene.
“I’m bored. Rooooon, don’t you have any interesting stories?”
“...”
An interesting story. I did not want to make that effort for a demonkin.
It would be much more rewarding to catch a cockroach and tell it a funny story while asking, “Isn’t this fun!?”
‘But...’
Nadia was commendably holding back her desire to kill me as soon as possible while letting me enjoy all these benefits.
And I was pretending to be grateful for it.
So it was only right that I tell her something to pass the time.
“Do you know about a bird called a canary?”
“A canary...? I’ve never heard of one.”
“Anyway, there’s a bird like that. In the past, miners in some places brought canaries with them into coal mines.”
“Why?”
“People who haven’t awakened mana could be in danger if they breathed harmful gases deep inside a mine. We can just strengthen our bodies with mana, though.”
“Ah. But what does that bird, the canary or whatever, have to do with it?”
“Canaries are extremely sensitive to those gases. If one started acting strange or died while they were deep in the mine, the miners would know, ‘Ah, it’s dangerous past this point.’”
“I see. I wondered what kind of story it would be. Yawn... That wasn’t interesting.”
Nadia yawned and snickered.
“Still, maybe because of where we are? I think I’ll remember it. No... Thinking about it again, maybe it is an interesting story.”
Laughter crept into Nadia’s voice.
‘What’s so funny?’
I had just picked a random boring story on purpose.
Rumble.
At that moment, the tunnel shook, and dirt fell from the ceiling.
A roar spread from a great distance away, faintly reaching us.
“Huh? Wh-what was that!?”
I pretended to be startled.
The cause of the sudden tremor was obvious. Elise and the main characters had probably started fighting the giant magical beast that had suddenly appeared.
[Mr. Hazely.]
At the same time, Violet’s voice rang through my ears and into my mind.
It was an effect of the wristband embedded in my wrist in the form of mana.
Since Nadia was beside me, I did not answer.
[My undead servant will probably make contact with Ms. Lorendia soon...! It looks like Ms. Lorendia is currently fighting that strange magical beast you mentioned, Mr. Hazely.]
Just as we had discussed beforehand. Violet would bring Elise here now.
My goal was to take advantage of Nadia’s plan and make Elise take this bastard down instead.
If Elise was not ambushed, she was sure to win.
I swallowed the bitter taste lingering in my mouth.
‘It would have been much better if the magical beast had appeared when we were closer to the cavern...’
Things like this never went the way I wanted.
Then again, there was no way to know when the boss would appear. It was a risk I had to accept.
Soon.
Beeep.
Nadia’s and my training wristbands flashed red and sounded an alarm.
“Wh-what’s going on!?”
I raised my voice as if frightened.
The red light and alarm from the wristbands meant that the training was ending immediately.
The instructor had told us to stop whatever we were doing and run outside as soon as this alarm sounded. By now, the instructors would have entered the abandoned mine as well.
It was because of the mysterious magical beast that had suddenly appeared before Elise.
In the original story, this was when Nadia began killing the cadets.
The situation had been unexpected for Nadia, but if she let the cadets escape here, her plan would fail.
“Did something happen? Why is the training suddenly ending...?”
“Ron Hazely.”
Whoosh.
At a moment when I sensed nothing, a cold voice came from directly behind me.
“The canary story was memorable. But it’s too bad you didn’t have a canary.”
“What...?”
“Goodbye, you worm.”
Clang.
“...Huh?”
A hard metallic sound rang from my waist, and Nadia flinched in surprise.
She tried to stab me with a dagger. She had finally shown her true colors.
‘Hey, this is a mana steel plate, you demonkin bastard!’
Shing!
Crackle!
I quickly drew my sword and wrapped blue lightning aura around the blade.
I twisted my body while stepping back from Nadia. At the same time, I detonated aura behind my blade.
Boom!
The explosion propelled my swinging sword. The sword light accelerated toward Nadia’s neck.
Nadia hurriedly raised her dagger before her neck, her face startled. Purple demonic energy was flashing from the blade.
My sword strike collided with her dagger.
Raging Thunder Sword, the sword of rampaging thunder.
Clang!!
Crackle!!
The blades clashed, and lightning stretched chaotically through the air like chains. A heavy impact buzzed through my grip.
Nadia was shoved sharply backward, but she quickly planted her feet and regained her stance.
“Huh, what is this...? How...?”
Nadia breathed heavily, apparently unable to believe it.
I pulled out the mana steel plate I had secured inside my clothes.
It was like an iron plate enhanced with mana. Wearing it made fighting inconvenient.
Nadia looked puzzled.
“That’s...?”
“A canary.”
I dropped the mana steel plate on the ground.
Clang! Thud. The mana steel plate struck the ground, its clear sound echoing through the mine tunnel.
“What are you?”
I narrowed my eyes and glared coldly at Nadia.
It occurred to me anew that I had gotten rather good at acting.
“Why is a fucking demonkin bastard here?”
Nadia held a wavy-bladed dagger shaped like a kris.
She had instinctively channeled demonic energy into its blade to block my strike, leaving her unable to hide her identity even if she wanted to.
“Hah, you don’t even need to ask...”
Unable to hide her bewilderment, Nadia asked in a trembling voice,
“More importantly, Ron Hazely. How did you know... that I was going to kill you?”
“How would I know something like that? I just wore a mana steel plate because I thought it might be dangerous.”
“...”
“You said you heard about me. Don’t you know this is my way?”
I had always done it this way.
Turning pathetic little schemes in my head, tirelessly finding ways to survive, and stubbornly staying alive even if it meant scraping by miserably.
If Nadia had looked into my information, she would easily accept it.
Nadia swept back her bangs and let out a long sigh before giving a hollow laugh.
“I see, because that’s your way... Ah, is that it...? Yeah, that must be it. How could you have known where I was going to stab...? Hah, haha... Heheh, what kind of insane coincidence is this...?”
Of course, I had already been sure where she would stab.
Nadia had openly thought of me as an easy target.
“From the first time we met, I thought you were an unpleasant bastard! Ron Hazelyyy...!!”
“Oh, we see eye to eye. You demonkin bastard, lower than an insect.”
A vein bulged on Nadia’s forehead. She grinned and slipped a hand into her clothes before pulling it back out.
Daggers were wedged between every one of her fingers. Each had a chilling edge.
“You ruined my fun, so take responsibility.”
Whoosh!
Thunk!!
Nadia swung her arm forcefully and threw every dagger.
One flew toward me, while the rest were aimed at the luminescent stones embedded in the walls.
Clang!
I knocked away the dagger flying at me with my sword. The other daggers, however, shattered the luminescent stones.
Hisss. Mana leaked from the stones, and their lights faded.
Nadia repeated the same move.
Crack!
The remaining luminescent stones shattered in succession.
In an instant, darkness swallowed the mine tunnel. Only the blue aura burning around my blade illuminated the nearby area.
Nadia had already vanished beyond the darkness.
‘Aura sense still can’t pick her up.’
Nadia’s stealth ability was at its most effective in darkness.
Even elite knights would struggle to see through Nadia’s stealth in the dark. Ordinary aura sense was nowhere near enough.
Whoosh.
Whoosh.
Wind grazed my skin from every direction.
The wind Nadia created by moving swiftly with wind mana and artificial wind magic were mixed together. They all felt the same.
I could not tell where Nadia was moving.
“Haha! Why don’t you pick up that pathetic mana steel plate again!? It’s your lifeline!”
Nadia’s mocking voice echoed from every direction. She had probably used wind magic to spread sound waves throughout the tunnel.
Naturally, the mana steel plate was no longer useful. If Nadia paid even a little attention to it, she could tear it apart like paper.
‘Focus.’
From this point on, my skill was not enough to determine where Nadia would attack from or how she would come at me.
Even if I could determine it, my life would already be over by then.
Even if I raised my sword and cast the aura’s light everywhere, its range was limited, and I could not keep up with Nadia’s speed.
That was why I held my sword raised before me.
So that darkness covered my back. So that Nadia, who liked attacking a target from behind, would target my back without hesitation.
‘It was definitely described in <Elwi>.’
When the wind stopped and a strange silence passed for an instant, Nadia would slip in from the darkness.
Cold sweat ran down my face. I steadied my violently pounding heart.
I calculated the spell formula in my head, gathered mana in my parched mouth, and prepared to utter a Word Command at any moment.
Then.
Whoosh.
Whoosh.
Whoosh.
Wheee...
The ceaseless wind stopped.
Whoosh!
I felt nothing, but I quickly turned around. I poured aura into my blade at maximum output.
There was no chance of victory if I tried to locate Nadia one move at a time and fight by swinging Raging Thunder Sword.
That was why I had learned it.
‘Aura magic.’
Crackle!!
Fwoosh!!
Red flames rose from the blade, while blue plasma leapt wildly.
For the explosion, I firmly suppressed the rampaging aura for a brief moment.
Then I uttered the Word Command.
“Widespread Lightning.”
Swish!
I cut through the darkness with my sword and detonated my aura alongside the magic.
Boom!!
Fwoosh!!
Crackle!!
A storm of flames, filled with blue lightning, swept through the mine tunnel along my sword’s path.
The darkness was pushed back. Blazing flames and lightning rode the wind like waves. Ash and dust scattered in their wake, and scorching heat spread outward.
Beyond the storm, Nadia’s eyes were wide open.
There was nowhere for her to escape.
Boom!!
“Arghhh!!”
The savage storm of lightning engulfed Nadia.
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