A few words before we begin.
I’ll be taking over this project from yAmi so s/he can dedicate his time for his/her other main project. I must say this story interests me enough to the point I actually want people to read it. And so here we are.
This will not be the only project in this site. I will eventually pick up other projects (and you get to suggest me new projects to pick up). But I will do it only after we catch up with the latest chapter of the Ouroboros WN. I do commissioned LN translations from time to time and if the commissioner give me the green light I’ll put them here as well.
Regretfully, due to my job (I work part-time as a translator in a certain firm and do some freelance jobs as well), I must say that I can’t update this WN regularly, though I will at the very least try to deliver one chapter a week. On the flip side though, if you’re in luck I may, from time to time, give you back-to-back chapters in a very short interval.
That said however, while I work as a translator I am still learning j.a.panese and may make mistakes from time to time. I do have a senior back in my firm to do a QC for me in my professional capacity, but here I don’t have any. So I’ll be depending on you readers to correct me if you spot a grammar/spelling mistake. Just post your correction directly in the comments. I can get yAmi to do it for me, but that’ll take too much time so I’ll just do skythewood’s approach to QC instead.
Big thanks to yAmi for introducing me to the series and of course, to the author for writing this “wonderful” story.
Well then, without further ado, enjoy this horrific ride.
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TL: yAmi and Sychev
QC: Sychev
Chapter VI – Zweihander
…….It"s raining.
With the leaves covering up the sky, it was as dark as the night inside the forest.
Within the darkness, the gentle and slow drips of water cruelly stole heat from an emaciated body.
—–I made a blunder.
The man mumbled noiselessly.
"It seems you"re quite capable. There is a difficult mountain to cross, but won"t you go with me?"
Those were the words that started off everything.
The party leader who was of the same rank as him called out to him. He was a person who seeks the thrill of adventure and would travel between different cities to try something new. He talked with gusto. Something about high ranking adventurers forming an alliance– a union of party members or solo adventurers — to challenge a high-level dungeon together. Laid waiting for us there were vast rewards, rare resources, legendary treasures and formidable foes itching for a fight.
I"ve been making it a personal principle to be solitary and not rely on others, but being baited by the talk to help that other party was the limit of my luck. It was all good up until we got into the dungeon and took down the boss guarding the treasure. But what awaited after that was a sneaky deceit from that very same guy who sold me the talk.
Now that I reflect upon it, apart from the core members of the party, others, including me, were mostly solo adventurers. There must had been plans to cut these solo folks off once they"ve taken hold of the treasure. Now, it"s a widely established theory that compared to adventurers similarly ranked as me, I am stronger as a lone wolf, but that"s only true in a perfect world where the battles are one on one. So when they sneakily push troublesome things on me along the road, and once I"ve exhausted myself they sneakily ganged up on me, at that time I couldn"t resist them. On top of that, there were these folks in uniform they"ve had been hiding all along and they went all gung ho on me. Out of the solo adventurers joined that alliance, I"m the only one left alive.
—I was a fool.
The adventurer was a man cla.s.sified as a veteran. He was still young but he has trodden in this path for very long. Born as a commoner, he sharpened his skills at the town"s vigilante corps. He abandoned his seemingly unending monotone life by leaving his hometown seven years ago. If you can manage a year in this promising world, you must be sufficiently talented. Well, this is the result.
Killing fellow adventurers is a dastardly act– I should"ve never shown my back to fellows I know I couldn"t trust. I broke my cardinal rule due to some unnecessary greed and here I am paying the ultimate price.
I crushed those turncoats in that ensuing battle. That"s good and all, but as a result, I"ve received wounds that"s definitely not shallow. I"ve used up all my recovery potions and what"s left in my hand is only the sword I"m carrying. And it seems that I"m about to meet my vain end holding this very sword.
—-To think I"d end in a place like this
Intense regret filled my chest, along with it, intense pain.
No. I don’t want to end this way. Dying in a forest where there is no one, dying and turn into a skull. That"s still fine by me. But there’s no way I want to die in a half-a.s.sed way like this.
I want to wield my sword more! I want to master the sword more! I want to fight with my sword more!
When all I did was pa.s.sing meaningless time in a certain small town, I had thought upon reaching the highest height of the art of sword. It was all I have as a man. Money, women, alcohol, food— nothing is as important to me as winning with this sword-carrying arm. I’d swing my blade in every free time I had, I’d slash my enemies with it if there’s one, and never there was a day when I don’t improve my skills. But this day, at this time, all of it just went to nothing.
This is too much, I thought to myself.
I have tried to build a stronghold of sword, it was like picking river pebbles and stacking them up until this very day, and now with just this one mistake, it"ll collapse without a trace. How regretful I am. If the one who ended it was a master in the art then I can still accept that, but to think that it"s a traitor"s blade that would send this body to meet its demise, it"s regrettable. What a pity.
—- I don"t want to die.
Finally, the remaining regret fills the rest of my line of thoughts.
I don"t want to die, ah, I don"t want to die, I don"t want to die.
Rely on the sword, and without being carried away, swing it. Such was the pride I"ve imposed on myself. Even if one tries to overturn or bend this principle of mine, all I wanted was to live singlemindedly according to it. I wanted to life more as I slash and kill under that belief while I send all dead bodies to bite the dust. If you think that"s pathetic, go ahead and laugh. If you scorn me for being a man without honor, then go ahead and do that. My only honor from the beginning were only this arm and this sword of mine, anyway. I will never bear the fact that this would all be scattered away by a foolish brute who did not understand the path of the sword.
—- Let me live
—- Grant me the power to ward away these arms of Death
—- Now, for that, I"m willing to do anything
—- I"d cast away my pride, I"d sell my soul
—- Just for me to live by the sword once again!
It was at that time.
… It was then.
What he heard was the sound of horseshoe as it hit mud. And with that, the sound of wheels traversing over rough grounds.
—- A carriage?
He came to realise that he"s currently on a highway. Apparently as he unconsciously crawled in dirt and hanged on to what little life he have left, he had finally cut his way through the forest. And now a carriage is coming over his direction.
With a horse"s loud neigh, the carriage stopped before it could run the man over.
A figure alighted from the carriage. The ground was wet and muddy from the rain, and yet the figure made no sound as it descended.
As the man inadvertently doubt his eyes, he lets a sound.
"Huh…?"
What appeared there was a young woman.
In this darkness, the woman"s white, delicate skin stood out even to his hazy eyes. The pair of eyes staring down at him was like a pair of large grain of emeralds. Fascinating as it was to behold, there was a certain coldness and rigidness in it. Her elegant features were breathtakingly remarkable. But while she possessed such an insuppressible beauty to gaze at, it was not the only thing that surprised the man.
She was wearing a one-piece dress with elaborate embroidery on the cuffs, and a white ap.r.o.n that seemed to shed light into the darkness of the forest. A piece of white cloth adorned her glossy black hair. One her left arm was an armband that jokingly read "la premier servant".
Maids. Servants that work in households of n.o.blemen or select wealthy merchants. Why is someone like that currently here, in a rainy road by the forest, standing in front of a dying swordsman?
It was a strange sight. Certainly it isn"t weird for a person that can afford to be carried in a carriage to be accompanied by a maid, but, normally if one encounters a collapsed person in injuries on the road, they wouldn"t get off their carriage first and foremost. Well, he thought he was seeing things, as what he saw before him was making no sense.
The man thought he was going senile at that time, but then he came to a realisation.
—- She"s carrying a sword with her.
Hanging by the woman"s left hip was a sheathed sword. The make was of a double-edged blade, the width of each blade was probably about sixty centimetres. But although it was indeed a suitable weapon for ones with slender arms, it was still strange that a servant woman would carry it about.
On her left chest, over her ap.r.o.n, stretching over like a name tag was the adventurer guild"s plate tag.
—- And that s.h.i.+ny silver colored thing on her neck, is it a slave collar?
A maid with a sword, and on her the adventurer guild"s ID, and a proof of slavehood.
There was only one woman that meets such specific characteristic that the man knew.
""Silver Wolf"…?"
It was a rumor that he had heard in the neighboring country"s capital of the Kingdom of Arquell, Broussonne. Among the adventurers based on this town, there is a certain slave-maid kept by a n.o.bleman.
She was known by the name “Uni, The Silver Wolf”.
She wasn’t one that can simply be made light as a collar-tied b.i.t.c.h. Her true nature was of a silver coloured cursed wolf. She was named as the sort of a h.e.l.lish beast who would decapitate one without fail once she sees the other party as an enemy.
“… … It has been a while since people called me that, such a nostalgic name"
To the man"s words the woman replied.
Her tone was dry and inorganic, but her voice was one of a very young woman. Age can"t be discerned from her extremely gracious look, but what from he observed, she was in the middle of her teens. It was all consistent with the features of the "Silver Wolf".
"You called me with that name… Who are you?"
The woman observed the man with the likes of the watchful eyes of a hound dog.
She"s strong. The man"s hunch tells him so. Her height is lower than him by two heads, and she should be quite light, probably half his weight. Even so, he could feel her bloodthirst even when she wasn"t actually letting out her fighting spirit, and such feeling of intimidation resonated with his wounds. Perhaps, even if he were in a perfect condition, he wouldn"t get far if she were to be his opponent.
There"s no mistake. The woman must be "The Silver Wolf".
With such conviction, tales of the woman"s deeds floated in the man"s mind.
She became an adventurer at the age of ten, and she was promoted to D-Cla.s.s Adventurer within just a year.
At that time, she slayed three Cla.s.s-D adventurers who insulted her master for their rudeness without giving them a chance to fight back.
After she became Rank-C, she stayed at that rank, but she was one of the few special cases, one of the two names, awarded for exceptional rate of request achievements…..
But out of all those stories, this one is the best. There was this wretched party who tried to monopolise a good hunting place by driving out a few good B cla.s.s adventurer out of town and occupying the town’s dungeon. Then something came along and slaughtered the party in the blink of an eye and left. The Guild was caught up in it and was all like, oh good gracious, did a high-ranked monster appear there or something, it was then when one of their receptionists jokingly said:
“This monster you people are talking about… could it be, perchance, a silver wolf?”
Like that.
Just before the incident, someone said that they saw The Silver Wolf’s figure heading for that dungeon.
Those stories might have been unlikely tall-tales, but here, the man’s vivid sense of reality is pus.h.i.+ng against him. The sound of rainwater mingled with the sound of cold saliva ringing through his throat. He thought to himself, so this was the sensation of holding my own breath.
To the rigid and trembling man, the woman asked another question.
"Do you wish to die?"
"Ha…..?"
"If you"re not one that would bring harm to Master, he might grant you mercy, and that way your life may be saved."
Those words caught the man"s heart.
"………!"
Can my life be saved?
Can I avoid my death?
This woman, she said that right?
The man clinged to the hope that was reaching him like a stretched straw
"I will ask one more time, who….."
"Are you", but her voice was cancelled out.
The man let out his true will.
"… Don"t…"
"… Don"t want, to die… "
"First, I"d like to ask who you are though…"
"… Don"t, want, to die!…. I, don"t want to die, at all!"
His voice, filled with anxiety, resounded in the dark forest.
For the man who was turned a blind eye by both G.o.d and saviours, it was a desperate, pathetic plea.
But that plea seems to be granted,
"— Eh? Do you really mean that?"
There, before his eyes, was the Devil himself.
"…. Master?"
The Silver Wolf looked up to the alighted man thoughtfully.
Master, she said? Is the person The Silver Wolf"s lord?
He was a young man. Apparently he wasn"t in his twenties yet, but while he might be in his later teens, he retained most of his youthful, boyish looks. His eyes were blue, in contrast of his red, copper hair. His facial features was all in a good order, but it didn"t give off any sense of individuality. Like a cheap doll, his looks was a balanced one, one that would not invoke any impression upon a glimpse. No matter how the man him, he could only see a mediocre-looking aristocrat in front of him.
Is this awfully average-looking young man really the Silver Wolf"s master?
The young man, slowly, took another step closer to approach the confused man.
"Please stand back, I have yet to discern this individual"s ident.i.ty."
"Isn"t he just an injured person? He seems to be an adventurer."
"There is a possibility that he could be an a.s.sa.s.sin pretending to be one"
The woman repeated her statement to the young lord whose looking at the man without a care.
But the woman"s master treated her words like a pa.s.sing wind and continued to approach the man.
"Even if that"s true, what can he do in this state?"
His words was full of calm confidence.
If he were another normal man, even if the other party were out of blood or in deep wounds, even if he was in the presence of the Silver Wolf, it was an insult that could get him killed by the opponent.
But the man realised it. The ambience that the youth in front of him carried was not of a careless contempt at his half-dead self. Even if the man was in perfect condition, at the very least by no means the youth would let himself get wounded.
The Silver Wolf quietly backed down, perhaps she understood this too.
"— I have overstepped my bounds."
"It"s fine. I don"t mind it anyway."
While waving his hand to his servant, he crouched down beside the fallen man.
Then, he whispered with a gentle voice.
""I don"t want to die". You certainly said that, right?"
"R-right"
The man responded to the question in affirmation.
"No matter what the price, you don"t want to die, right?"
"Right."
The man responded to the question in affirmation.
"Even if your sword is turned against anyone, you still don"t want to die, right?"
"Right….!"
The man responded to the question in affirmation.
"Even if you turn into anything, you really don"t want to die, right?"
"Right!"
The man responded to the question… in affirmation.
"Don"t, want to die! I… don"t want to die!"
As if to wash away mud on his face, his tears flow.
Slush mixed in with the snot he sniffed.
It truly was a pathetic sight. Is that how an adventurer, a swordsman, supposed to look like?
Even so, no matter how unsightly it was…
“Even…. even if I have to abandon my pride! Even if I have to sell my soul! Don’t want to die! … I don’t want to die!”
“—- Very well.”
The Devil acknowledged his answer.
“That answer, is more important than who you are, and more than anything you have invoked my empathy.”
"Will you… help me?"
“Yes, of course…. Uni, help me carry him to the carriage. I thought this was going to be a boring business trip, but it appears that I’ll be picking up an unexpected thing on my way back.”
"As Master wills it."
“Well then, first of all I must do the emergency treatment I suppose. B-01, if you have a moment. Fetch me the following from the piled tools. Disinfectant for powerful anesthesia, bandages, splints, and haematinics.”
The young lord issued orders to the maid and the man who terribly lacked in presence.
To his profile, the man unconsciously asked,
“Hey, you…. if I were to reply… ‘I didn’t say that’, then what were you planning to do?”
At the verge of his death, he accepted his obsession with life and reached out to the first party that offered a helping hand.
If the man were to refuse the youth, what would happen then?
It was a question that he could not stop minding.
"Hmm? Let"s see… If you answered that way, then…"
And the youth indifferently returned a terrifying answer,
"— I"d grant you death that you would"ve wished for. Then I"d do experiments on your dead body."
"… Is, that so?"
The man closed his eyelids without prying too much on the meaning of those words.
“You really don’t have anything to be afraid of, you know…? Your answer was the correct one….”
And then his consciousness sunk to the darkness.
As the men fell asleep, he prayed that the next time he woke up, he’d be alive, as his usual self.
The man"s wish will be granted, partially.
That is, even if he"ll be alive and he"ll open his eyes once more, he will not find his own unchanged.
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“Ah, what fine weather…”
While holding up a hand towards the sun, I stretched myself as far as I could.
With that I deluded myself into believing that the fatigue in my joints and muscles that went through work last night melt away in the morning light.
Well, a delusion can only be a delusion. But this weather sure is comforting.
"Sure is an ideal morning to set off for a trip, don"t you think so, ani-ue?"
I said so as I look behind to the the very man who spent all night packing up my stuff.
To that word, my brother, Linus Streinn Oubeniel, returned me a radiant smile.
"Ah, that"s right Tullius. The sun sure is spectacular today, it"s suitable for the day when my little brother finally sets off from this mansion."
"It totally is! Ahahahahaha…"
"Ahahahaha….."
Even on the day of the parting, our laugh cheerfully intertwine with each other at this time for us two brothers.
It truly was a heartwarming, wonderful sight.
Despite that, why is it for some reason the va.s.sals" faces that went out to send me off were all straight or frowning?
Probably it was because the exchange was full of hypocritical sarcasm, couldn"t be helped though.
"Are you all set? Well, off you go then."
Said my brother whose face turned serious again.
His mood was unexpectedly good, I revised my evaluation at that moment.
Well, while it is better than dragging it out, I did expect a little more sensible response.
"Yes. Well then, I"ll see you later."
"Oh my, Tullius. It"s a bit embarra.s.sing that you used the wrong expression here at this time. You should"ve said "good-bye""
"Ahahaha! Ani-ue sure is harsh. But, didn"t you use the wrong expression too?"
TL Note: I think it"s easy to catch the subtleties in this exchange but since some meaning was lost in translation I"m gonna explain anyway. What Tullius said was "ittekimasu", which implied that he"d be off temporarily and will return to the mansion. Linus corrected that by saying that he should"ve said "sayonara", which pretty much mean an indefinite farewell. Linus sure hates him.
"Hm? I don"t think I have another word to say to you anymore."
"Ah there you go again. I thought you wanted to say, something along the lines of, like…"
I showed and moved my lips without making a voice.
Go. To. h.e.l.l.
"—- Like that, right?"
"…. This b.a.s.t.a.r.d, ahahahaha!"
"Ahahahahaha!"
With the tension after staying up all night incessantly nonexistent for the joking me, my brother laughed casually while showing a thick blood vessel on his forehead.
Ah, that"s not good. Due to what I"ve done, the mood over there is starting to put too much pressure on his body.
As expected being sleep-starved just won"t do, so I thought while looking ways to end our conversation. But then,
"Are you brothers done with your two-people skit?"
A low brazen voice broke in.
It came to our notice that by the mansion"s main entrance, a man was standing there while leaning on the doors.
His black mantle was full of holes here and there, and there were many cracks on his cuira.s.s. The brigand-looking man was clad in tattered black. On his back, however, rested a crossed Zweihander. The intrusive atmosphered it created gave an impression that he was not an ordinary person.
TL Note: Since the author used the word "crossed" here I"m a.s.suming that there are two Zweihanders. But then again I could be wrong as the author didn"t mention any number. For now I"ll take the conservative approach and say it"s one.
"… Who are you?"
My brother asked him with a rough voice. Of course. He never saw the man in the mansion even until yesterday. That said, he didn"t seem to be a person that belong in a place like a n.o.bleman"s house.
The way my brother looked at him was a dangerous one, like at those times when he"d occasionally pick a fight with me. At this rate, he might call the guards and order them to knock him down.
I decided to stop him before that happens.
"He"s an adventurer I hired to escort me. Or not, since he"ll be working exclusively for me from now on, I suppose a former adventurer would be more proper, then?"
There was no need to spout a lie, so I told him the truth. As a response, bluntly,
"It"s not like I would mind accepting a request for another escort from you, you know that?"
He put his words in.
My brother knitted his brows.
"Wasn"t the departure order issued yesterday?"
"Indeed. I know it"s absurd of me, but he"s just the right man, he was in the neighborhood and he was acquainted with Uni. Although I felt sorry for him because my request was sudden, I decided to ask him to escort me anyway."
To my brother my explanation may only suspicious but apparently he judged that there wasn"t a lie in my words, he humphed as he snorted.
"Apologies for my rudeness, my little brother"s guest. If possible, can I know your name?"
Although he said he was sorry, he didn"t seem to be at all compunctious. Well, he"s an high aristocrat and an acting Count. Probably he doesn’t see the dirty-looking adventurer folk as a fellow human.
The man probably understood that as well, so after he shrugged his shoulders lightly, he a.s.serted his name.
"Due. Due Schwarzer. Rank B Adventurer. If you"re familiar with the industry, I go around with the name "Two Handed Sword Due"—"
"Pardon me, but it"s the first time I heard of that name."
Right, said Due as he let out an exaggerated sigh. My brother might have put out a request at times but probably he just went straight to the receptionist, laid out his terms and pay out the rewards. Usually n.o.blemen would either do that or hire their own exclusive adventurers, so they wouldn"t care about other adventurers.
In the first place, it"s commonplace that aristocrats would see other commoners, except for those in the priesthood or a few merchants, as livestocks and naturally look down upon them. Of course, they see slaves as lesser than that. If you kill a livestock, you can still get indicted, but when it comes to slaves you can actually hunt them as some sort of a prey. But as you can see from the infamy that is mine truly, it"s not actually a completely accepted practice.
And so, my brother"s elusive att.i.tude pretty much falls in the category of a common sense in this world. Due wouldn"t be angry. Or at least I think he won"t.
"Have you finished profiling him, ani-ue? Then, Due, you get into a carriage too. I would suggest you use mine, there. There is another carriage for my escorts, but its ceiling is low and I suppose your prided sword would get stuck and we don"t want that do we?"
"Alrite. Truly is an honor to accompany the new Viscount."
Due headed towards my carriage as he said that.
My brother carefully watches over his back as he went.
"To think that you"d hire an adventurer other than that girl, do you find your prided dog lacking?"
Perhaps he wasn"t done with his sarcasm.
It"s annoying to let him say that, but for now I"ll swallow it and let it slide.
"I received a great peerage and I don’t think her hands are enough to help me around. So I thought it’d be better to increase the number of hands available, else her beauty may get impaired, you see?"
The face of my brother when he heard my answer was quite a sight.
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"But this sure feels weird."
As we spent a while treading the highway spanning from the kingdom"s capital, Dewey opened his mouth.
He was stroking a part of his forehead, just above his eyebrows with one fingertip, while I was looking at the scenery outside the window.
"You said you tinkered with my head as you liked it, but what I feel is oddly refres.h.i.+ng. I thought there"d be more…. dizziness, nausea, things like that."
"That is because I did my utmost to avoid such aftereffects."
While leaning on my cheek and leaving my body to the vibrations of the carriage, I entertain myself by talking to him.
Truthfully, I’m really, really sleepy and I can’t stand it, to the point that I want to sleep all the way until we reach our inn. But the data for my new work of which I have completed adjustments upon is also valuable. As a result, I instead decided to draw out various responses from our conversation.
That"s right.
The swordsman clad in black, adventurer Due Schwarz. He is the "product" of my most earnest efforts that I hadn"t been doing for a while now and thus he is now my second masterpiece, Opus 2, following Uni, my Opus 1.
The remodeling given to Due to improve his abilities, compared to Uni, who were strengthened by medication from her childhood along with growth nurtured by efficient training, took a contrasting approach.
With reference data taken from the slaves’ forced remodeling procedures of ma.s.s-produced type, such as the M-Series, he was thoroughly remodeled after his body has reached adulthood. I reinforced the strength of his skeleton to optimise the placement of his muscle tissues, and improved the transmission rate of his nervous system and so on. That would make his physical ability to jump dramatically in a short period of time———- well, it should be. I don’t know since I have yet to conduct the product test.
So to speak, the contrasting approach were between Uni, whose modifications took a long time by utilising medicine and training, and Due, whose remodelling surgery took a very short amount of time. Regarding which approach is better, well, probably it"s better to say both of them has their own advantages and disadvantages. In Uni’s case, her brain was modified during her early childhood during its developmental stage, and as a result of multidisciplinary education she has become exceedingly versatile as one individual unit. It did take time to train her, but as a result, she is now a prodigal generalist. Meanwhile, in Due"s case, he has already acc.u.mulated experience in one particular field over so many years, and therefore to fully utilise this specific advantage, adjustments were made to make him a specialist. While it means that it"d be hard for him to be flexible in combat, it can be expected that he"ll exceed further in his field of specialty. On top of that, as long he meets the conditions in his prime field, sooner or later the immediate disposition that he may develop will be his selling point. However, Uni still has a hidden card—
As I think about various things—
"That said, we and our lord sure are bad with people"
So said Due with a laugh and a wide grin.
"What are you talking about?"
“When you introduced me to your older brother, you see. How to say this, you did make quite the big lie there.”
"The Master did not lie, not one bit."
Uni, who had silently been doc.u.menting our conversation in the corner, raised her face and started to argue.
"I was the one to met you first, and your body was kept in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the mansion, which means you were in fact in the neighborhood. Your final adjustments were done in haste due to our sudden departure, and thus, while it is rude to infer the Master’s will, in a way we do owe you an apology.”
Then, she continued, “though I’m being presumptuous, in my opinion that wouldn’t be necessary though.”
As expected from my childhood friend (can I call her that, though?). She understands my intention well. Certainly it was Uni who first found Due, who fell down in the way of our carriage, when we were getting back from St. Gallen after we returned the investigator. He wished to avoid death no matter what I do to him, so I remodeled him as my personal guard and he gets to hold on to his life. And of course, when I said he was around, I meant that he was in the lab, which was emptied before today’s daybreak. Just as she said, I didn’t lie when I explained it to my older brother. There were just, more or less, some missing facts.
Due opened his mouth widely and laughed.
"Hahahaha! You sure are a smooth talker, ah? Silver Wolf-san. Or would you prefer me to call you "senior"?"
"Call me as you please."
"Anyway, you. It came to my attention when we met but, you sure are cold huh, senior. Is it because of that? The difference in the way our heads were tinkered, the generational gap of our surgery?"
"No. I did the same thing."
Perhaps he misunderstood something, as he kept his jaw open.
"… Huh?"
"As I said, the substance of both her and your brain surgeries is exactly the same, I wrote obedience and eliminated hostility towards me. There were few differences in the detail, but as there are some distinctions between a man"s brain and a woman"s…. But other than that, you can say that everything else is pretty much the same."
As I finished my explanation Doue looked like a pigeon that got struck by a bean gun. That said, there are neither beans nor a thing that you can call a gun in this world yet.
TL Note: "a pigeon that got struck by a bean gun" is a j.a.panese expression that can simply be translated in English as "dumbfounded", I kept it as it is as the second sentence would make no sense if I were to simply translate it in that way.
“After all, if you tinker the brain too much, there would be more demerits, you see? Especially in Uni’s case, I went into the trouble to educate her from her childhood while raising the basic performance of her brain tissues. I can’t afford to mess up with it, that’s just stupid, right? Well, in the case of the ma.s.s production types, I require uniform performance from them, there’s however a considerable restriction on their emotion due to that though.”
"Eh? then… then, basically, their personality is like that of the ma.s.s-produced type over there? This guy here.”
That’s right. To simply put it, it’s an archetypal character which I educated, restrained, and trained in its entirety.
"Uwaaah. I can"t believe it."
"As for me, I can"t believe how insolent you are. Master, I propose another readjustment to implement alterations on his language field later."
"Oi, oi, give me a break here, senior."
“Give him a break, Uni. Think about it, reservedly speaking, Due may look a bit scruffy, but he’s terribly punctilious and behave with an excellent standard of conduct.”
“… I see. Indeed someone that can still tremble in fear would be quite the spectacle. For failing to see Master’s farsightedness, my humblest apologies.”
“Don’t think emotions like that as an appeal, okay!?”
Seeing Doue splendidly playing the straight man and Uni being a little more talkative than usual, I felt my cheeks a little bit loosened.
As he is capable to express rich emotions, it’s safe to say that there’s no sequelae after his surgery.
… It was when I indulged in that feeling,
"Uwah!"
"Master?!"
"Whoa there!"
Suddenly, with the horse’s loud neigh, my body swayed greatly and I was thrown out from my seat. Fortunately, thanks to Uni who quickly caught me, there’s no problem here. No, even though she left it like that, I won’t get injured as I’m wearing this dress.
I stroked Uni’s head in exchange of a word of thanks, then I let go of her, returned to my seat and asked away,
“B-01, what happened?”
“There’s a raid, Master. Perhaps it is a bandit troupe.”
Bandit raid. Not at all an impossible situation. It’s because of this there’s the escort business between adventurers and individuals in this world.
For a moment, I thought for a moment that this might’ve been instigated by my brother, but considering yesterday and today, this hastiness just doesn’t suit his preference nor his principle. It’d be reasonable to consider this as a coincidence.
"Even though we’re still very close to the kingdom’s capital, they sure are brave. Do they fear not the knight order’s patrol?”
The Imperial Capital is just around the corner. And we’re within the reach of the Imperial Guard, the kingdom’s finest. Their force can hands down cut off the likes of a bandit.
“Perhaps it’s the type of bandit that regularly move their base.”
Uni supplemented a conscientious remark as a response to my monologue. As expected from an adventurer with two t.i.tles. Up until a few years ago, she must’ve done this kind of thing with her clients.
“I see. So they quickly rob valuable things and depart as quickly before they can get caught by the authorities. I suppose they’d repeat this in every place they go?”
“Indeed. In order to maintain simplicity, they typically wouldn’t negotiate or abduct for ransom. In their case they would simply kill everyone and take away the goods.”
d.a.m.n you, historical plays. A murder-robbery like in my previous world? Certainly, if there’s an emphasis on time constraints, it is quicker to kill everyone and take their goods away.
As expected, I just can’t keep my calm when dealing with these kind of people. In a fit of annoyance I scratched my head a little roughly.
“To think this’d happen on my day of departure. Sigh—”
—- Is this luck, or misfortune…?
With that implicit remarks in mind, I looked at the untested “product”, who currently is standing by for orders and is raring to go.