Chapter 54
Chapter 54
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 54
Chapter Title: Fake Knowledge, Fake Sage☆ (4)
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After she saw me absorb the remnants of the blessing.
Freyja looked at me as if I were some bizarre creature.
Her eyes held a strange glint as she began to ramble.
“Sh-shooting forward like an arrow… r-ripping through the armor with your head… t-taking the enemy’s heart and, and devouring it… A-are you some kind of barbarian from the legends? The kind you’d only see in the age of the [Three Heroes]… T-to think an ancient barbarian is standing right before my eyes.”
“Ooh-la-la―♪ Don’t diminish my magnificent performance like that☆”
I brushed off her words with a lighthearted joke, my mind latching onto the keyword she’d mentioned: [The Three Heroes].
‘[The Three Heroes]… In the game’s lore, it was a crucial keyword linked to the awakening of the younger students, but the original story never went into detail. Over here, it’s treated like a founding myth, so few people know the actual history.’
The ancient [Three Heroes].
An ancient party of heroes, consisting of a warrior, a standard-bearer, and a mage.
The group to which the [Golden Witch], worshiped by the beastkin, belonged.
‘That’s about all the information that was ever revealed…’
While I was lost in thought, Freyja, hearing my casual response, began to speak even faster, as if trying to explain just how barbaric and absurd my actions had been.
“W-what part of that was magnificent! Y-you were just a complete barbarian…! W-who on earth absorbs the remnants of a blessing that have spilled outside a dungeon gate like it’s cotton candy! D-do you just pick up and eat anything that’s fallen on the ground…?! M-more importantly, how in the world…?! How can you even absorb such remnants…!”
“Hmm―☆”
The more she spoke, the faster she got.
Freyja was unnaturally spilling TMI.
Watching her, I found it all rather cute.
‘Is she worried about me in her own way? She doesn’t have to be…’
Still, I was happy.
True girl talk blossoms on the battlefield.
Putting that feeling into my words, I spoke with an air of confidence.
“My, if there was such an adorable barbarian, I bet everyone in ancient times was very happy―♪”
“C-cut the crap… W-what’s so cute about an ancient barbarian who steals Aether…”
Freyja let out a deep sigh and continued.
“Stealing an enemy’s Aether or blessing like that… It’s not normal… St-stop doing it… Anymore.”
“…”
“It’s… It’s not just a matter of it feeling unpleasant… S-something’s wrong… B-being different from others… b-being special isn’t a good thing… E-even if it’s a true talent… you’ll be walking a thorny path so treacherous that you won’t be able to survive without it…”
“…”
“That idiot Frau who used an ancient power is one thing, and now you… W-why do you recklessly use powers that defy the natural order without any fear… A-aren’t you afraid of the power of fate…”
Her purple cat ears drooped.
An intuition delivered in a worried tone.
As I listened, I recalled what had just happened.
‘This is the original Clara… It seems Urðr did something to help me absorb the blessing.’
Urðr’s smile, shining without a hint of malice.
That smile, which flashed through my mind for a moment, didn’t feel like a coincidence. The remnants of the blessing should have scattered, unable to be absorbed. Instead, they were glowing like dandelion seeds, still being drawn into me even now.
Faint blessings, absorbed from the fragments of countless shattered automated armors.
‘At this rate… even if I don’t recklessly unleash a storm of Aether like before, as long as I have a weapon, I can fight quite skillfully.’
My Aether was steadily refilling, already reaching around 30%.
With my new weapon aptitude, it was more than enough.
It was truly a boon, like the blessing of a goddess.
‘Just as Freyja said… this is a miraculous aid that I shouldn’t have been able to receive.’
But to Freyja, it seemed like a heaping meal given to a slave of fate—a massive portion of food provided before a grueling task.
“…”
Pat, pat.
I walked over to Freyja and patted her on the shoulder. Her ears twitched, and she looked up at me with a dazed expression.
‘So that’s why, in the original story, her actions didn’t seem to match her power.’
The great [Fate] she received with her brilliant talent.
It felt like a shackle as heavy as the talent itself.
Freyja knew the terror of that weight, which was why she seemed to be running away… and telling me to do the same.
I said to her, “It’s okay☆ I won’t end in a place like this―☆”
“…What’s that supposed to mean?”
“The end of your fate won’t be a meaningless one, either♪”
“…And your proof is?”
“I don’t have any☆ Let’s just both think that way―♪ It’s such a waste to cower over things that haven’t even happened yet―☆”
“…Hmph. Idiots have it so easy. A-always so positive…”
Freyja shook her head.
Watching her, I made another vow to myself.
‘I will not fall.’
The end of the spiral leads to the heart.
It might take a detour, but the path isn’t lost or broken yet.
Whatever your [Fate] or mine may be, I believe it won’t be a meaningless end.
‘For now, let’s just think that way.’
I patted Freyja’s shoulder again and said, “Anyway! Only good things have happened so far―☆ The stray cat’s wonderful magic has sent the Eastern Federation into a panic♪ And I was lucky enough to absorb a blessing and am now full of energy―☆ Yes☆ Wonderful―♡”
“Ah… Y-you really have a way of draining all my energy…”
Freyja coolly slapped my hand away as I continued to pat her. But her ugly purple cat ears kept twitching, betraying her agitation.
A moment of silence.
“…”
“…”
Then, Freyja moved.
Stomp, stomp.
Perhaps as a sign of her displeasure, Freyja quickly walked behind me and hopped onto my back.
Then, like a general mounted on a horse, she nudged my side with her foot.
Thump!
“L-let’s go, you ruffian. Since you claim you’re f-fine… I can work you harder, right?”
“…”
“A-after a rampage like this, their team should have broken through the encirclement and reached their transport. We should head back to the orange-eared girl… and r-rendezvous. We’re going straight to the G-golden Street from there.”
“…Okay―☆”
“L-let’s go… stop Frau, and stop those idiots.”
“For the safety and peace of the Academy City―☆”
“What?”
I raised a hand, steeling my resolve. But Freyja looked at me with distaste and said, “Th-this is… j-just a power struggle between and <public vana="" boarding="" school="">… I-I’m just personally stopping that idiot Frau and getting my revenge…”
“…Okay―☆”
Her nonchalance made me chuckle again.
‘Come to think of it, you could see it that way… I guess since I’m close with Hilde, I’ve started to empathize with …’
Freyja paid me no mind and nudged my side again with her foot.
‘Seriously, is she treating me like a warhorse…’
It seemed this girl was the type to get pushy with people once she got close to them.
“Departing now~☆ Hold on tight―♪”
“…And.”
“Hm?”
“Just one piece of advice. A-advice even an idiot can understand.”
“…”
“W-wherever you are, whatever you do… don’t define the reason you live… in a s-single word.”
“…?”
I turned to look back at her sudden comment. But Freyja, still on my back, wore a very serious expression.
“‘I-I will live for this…’ The m-moment you think that… i-it will become an inescapable [Fate]… N-not that I expect you to listen, but…”
“Okay―☆ I’ll keep it in mind―♪”
Freyja fell silent and pointed in the direction we needed to go. With her on my back, I started running forward again.
“…”
Even as we moved on, her advice somehow stuck with me, and I repeated it to myself.
‘I don’t know exactly what she means… but I’ll remember it.’
The roar of cannons and flashes of light once again sped past us.
Because of the commotion we’d caused, the surrounding posts were filled with a tense silence. In contrast, the hundreds of posts stretching to the horizon were trying to pinpoint our location based on the attacks unleashed by [The Violet Spindle].
I ran through the thick dust, weaving between countless attacks cutting through the air and the glinting red lights.
Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap—!
The path back the way we came.
Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap—!
-Whoa?! What is that?!
-It’s [The Violet Spindle]!! Fire!!
-Dammit, the one she’s carrying is too fast! I can’t get a lock—!!
-Damn it—!!
Just as I had been doing, I used the dark elf students’ shoulders as stepping stones, leaping across them or lightly deflecting their attacks to evade. As I zipped back and forth across the battlefield in a straight line, it seemed to have caused confusion in their judgment.
“What was that—?”
A sharp voice echoed from the darkness.
I heard a beastkin noble student yelling her head off from a lone post. She was holding a communicator to her fox ear, listening to a report.
Then she snapped at the person reporting.
“[The Violet Spindle] moved a kilometer in one minute—?! Don’t be ridiculous! This is why you ignorant commoners are useless! Stop spouting nonsense and encircle the last known location!! There’s no way a mage can run that fast…!”
Thwip—!
I created an Aether foothold in the air and leaped up.
Even high in the sky, the fox-eared girl’s sharp voice was crystal clear. I focused all my senses on that voice. With my Aether slightly recovered, it was much easier than before.
‘They must be in a hurry. They omitted the crucial detail that I’m the one carrying the stray cat.’
But this was an opportunity. So, I decided to charge toward the fox-eared noble faction girl who seemed to be the commander of this area… and was still unaware of the full situation.
‘Curse your own ignorance, girl!! Just like Cao Cao at the Battle of Red Cliffs, who was tricked into chaining his warships together—!!’
The Aether in my legs was the southeastern wind that blew at Red Cliffs.
And there is no mercy in this miraculously rising wind.
‘This Zhuge Liang will make good use of the Aether blessing you so kindly sent.’
Seeing my actions, Freyja, who must have anticipated something, let out a small sigh from my back.
“This again…”
“Yep☆ This again―☆”
“You pink filly…”
“I’d prefer it if you called me a red filly―☆”
“I-isn’t that [The Crimson Trajectory]…?”
She then protected herself with purple Aether.
Seeing that, I confidently extended my leg mid-air.
My leg shot out.
A flying kick with all my might.
Aether rippled faintly.
Shwooooooosh――!
A faint red trajectory of Aether was drawn.
My opponent was still not looking at the sky.
From the air, I aimed a flying kick at the fox-eared girl’s head.
“Take this―♪”
“So! That kind of nonsense is…! Huh?”
Twitch.
The fox ears twitched.
The noble faction student looked this way.
“Gasp…?!”
“Pink☆Love☆Kick―☆”
Her face was painted with shock, but there was nothing she could do.
Baaaaam――!
The noble faction student went flying with the shockwave.
Now, the command in this area would be thrown into chaos.
‘But why are the guards completely gone here?’
Just as I was about to leave, I heard the sound of the vehicle we had planned to seize… the sound of an Aether car in the distance.
Vroom—
Vroom—
Vroooooooom――!!
A massive vehicle with a heavy exhaust sound.
A black car that looked like it belonged to . Three dark elf students on Aether bikes were chasing it.
The dark elves on the bikes were yelling nonstop. They kept pounding on the driver’s side window of the car.
Bang, bang, bang!
-You!! Who are you!! Why are you, a beastkin, betraying us—?!
-You bastard!! Get out of our car?!
-Damn it—! Get out now!! This car is our pride!! We won’t forgive you, even if you’re from the noble faction!!
A breathtaking chase ensued for a moment.
Zzzing—
Finally, the car window rolled down, and the incantation of a familiar voice rang out. The spell wasn’t the mechanical chant the beastkin had been using, but a melody that sounded like a song.
[What use is a dagger? Don’t fight with it, just peel an apple to eat.]
[What use is a longsword? The day is cold, use it as a poker for the fire.]
[What use is a greatsword? Your back is weak, use it as a mirror instead.]
A golden wand emerged from the car window and aimed between the bikes. From it poured armaments decorated with a ridiculous-looking cat.
Rumble, rumble—!
Red weapons poured from the window. They were blunt and comical, like toy hammers or party favors from my past life. But they materialized far faster than the ones used by the other beastkin.
Dozens of weapons were scattered in an instant.
The bikes caught in them wobbled precariously before toppling over.
“Aaargh?!”
“What is this—?!”
Screeech—!
Craaash—!
The fallen bikes disappeared into the darkness, and the unconscious dark elf students collapsed on the ground. The black car then casually approached us.
We saw the driver through the window and let out a small laugh.
“Wow―♪”
“R-really… once we changed her spell-casting method… sh-she adapted so quickly…”
“Our girl is quite the genius☆”
Twitching orange cat ears.
Lotha was sitting in the driver’s seat, her small hands gripping the steering wheel.
She playfully honked the horn, showing off to us.
Honk!
Honk!
“Hehe, you two seniors put on such a spectacular show that the security over here was super thin! So I just blew them all away with the new spell I learned!”