Hi, sorry for the uh, close to one week delay. Last Sunday just as I was about to finish chapter 20, I got into a big argument with father again, and couldn’t find a chance to sit down at my comp for a few hours at a time. I could have done translations in parts, but my quality goes down a lot when I do so.
But mn, I basically resolved the argument by getting an interview/test thingy for teaching English in Japan and threatening to move there, lol. Of course, I don’t know a thing about english grammar due to Australian English curriculums so I’ll probably fail for sure, but as long as I show that I’m willing to change countries, it should pacify him for a while!
Oh yeah, Kitaseno-sensei has a twitter now, so you can follow them here: https://twitter.com/yunaki_kitaseno
[Wakes up to sudden influx of 200 foreigners.]
Ah, but if you do follow them, neeeever link to this blog please. I’m translating everything without permission, since I figure things will get annoying once they get published, so yeah. But well, at least I’m not making money off my piracy.
Kitaseno-sensei has written three parodies of fairytales featuring the cast of Evil God Average. I will be translating them. Just, not yet, since we haven’t even gotten through half of the main series yet. They’ve also begun writing the side stories for Arc 2, so yeah.
Um, mn. If things stay calm, hopefully I’ll get back to normal speed. I’ve been really itching to translate Tilea and Otoburi.
Chapter 20 – The Battle of the Evil God Temple“Anri, are you in!?”
I turned in shock towards Leonora who had suddenly burst in while I was having tea with Tena and Lili.
When I averted my eyes in a fluster, I asked Tena to brew some for Leonora too, after she had finished helping her up.
“S-, Suddenly going through a horrible time like that.”
“I-, I said I was sorry.”
“No, well, it’s my fault for looking at your eyes though.”
Leonora sighed, after having sat down to some tea and catching her breath.
Lili’s shyness of strangers came into play and she hid behind Tena, but once she realised that Leonora was harmless, she was very quickly able to speak to her normally. …Even though I’ve been living with her for days now. This is unfair.
Having understood the problem and expelling the miasma from the residential area, Lili finally stopped running away from me. Even so, whenever our eyes met, she’d run away as you’d expect though.
“And so, what’s up, all of a sudden? From how you were acting earlier, it seems like you have something to say, but?”
“Yeah, that’s right. While I was travelling I heard a disturbing rumour, you see, so I came back here in a fluster.”
“A disturbing rumour?”
Just hearing that was disturbing enough, and now I’m scared to hear the rest.
Speaking of which, didn’t I hear the Evil God rumour from Leonora as well?
“There’s a rumour spreading that there are Evil God Cultists gathering around Riemel town, you see.”
“Ahh, so it’s about that.”
I unconsciously relaxed.
The Hero(lol) Party let me down and didn’t come, and though the construction of the temple that was arbitrarily set outside the dungeon entrance is still going slowly, it’s making progress.
But still, going by the way she said things, could it be that Leonora didn’t see the stuff around the dungeon herself? Since I told her about the back entrance as well, if she came in from there, it makes sense that she’d arrive here without passing through the blockade.
“Mu, so it was true after all? In that case, the rumour that I heard is seeming closer and closer to fact.”
“That wasn’t the disturbing rumour?”
“No, the fact that Evil God Cultists are gathering is nothing more than the precondition. You see, the disturbing rumour I heard is about the Order of the Sacred Light being gathered to subjugate the gathering cultists.”
Order of the Sacred Light?
“T-, That can’t be…-!?”
It seems that Tena knows something since she turned pale, but as expected, perhaps Lili was too young to know, because seeing Tena she just tilted her head in wonder.
“You seem quite relaxed, huh. Even though you should know quite well what this means.”
“Uh, no, what’s the Order of the Sacred Light?”
Hearing my question, Leonora and Tena fell forward powerlessly.
“Y-, You… You don’t know of the Order of the Sacred Light? I’ve been thinking this for a while, but are you really a human?”
“Anri-sama… The Order of the Sacred Light is just as it sounds; a knight order formed by the call of the Church of Sacred Light. Only the Pope has the right to call them, and it comprises knights from various countries.”
In other words, something like the Crusaders of this world?
Also, Leonora sure is rude. It’s inevitable that I don’t know about this world.
“It seems that you don’t understand, so I’ll say this as well, but the state religion of all the human nations should be the Faith of Sacred Light. Becoming the target of the Order of the Sacred Light is in other words becoming the enemy of the entire human race.”
NANI?
From what I hear, certainly the Evil God Cultists are the enemy of the Church, but didn’t things get blown up way too quickly?
When I asked this, Leonora nodded as though it were natural.
“Certainly, it does feel unnatural that they would mobilise on this huge a scale just for the Evil God Cultists. It makes sense that we should view them as having an objective beyond this, I suppose.”
“An objective beyond this?”
“The investigation of the rumoured Evil God, and then the subjugation, or sealing of it, I suppose.”
I see. If it wasn’t just the cultists, but the Evil God as well, then I can assent to this exaggerated mobilisation.
To get attacked by all of humanity like this, this Evil God person sure has it rough too, huhh~
“I think you already understand, but it’s you, you know?”
I know it’s me, dammmit.
At least allow me some escapism.
“I’m not the Evil God.”
“That isn’t the problem right now. Whether or not it’s true, if the human race recognises you as such, then it’s the same thing.”
Certainly, whether or not I’m the Evil God, as long as the top brass of each country and the Church recognise me as the Evil God, it won’t change the fact that I’ll be their target for elimination.
But why I’m being recognised as the Evil God is a mystery.
“The leaders of the countries and Church should know that the Evil God is imaginary.”
“Mu, now that you mention it, that’s true…”
According to what I heard from Leonora earlier, the Evil God was a fictitious enemy created to give authority to the Church of Sacred Light.
Normal people or those in lower positions are one thing, but the higher-ups know that the Evil God doesn’t exist, so they’d probably just laugh at rumours of the Evil God appearing.
“Or perhaps it’s because they know that it is fictitious. It is not strange to think that the subjugation will be easy since its just a fake and self-styled Evil God. And what’s more, fake though it may be, as long as ordinary people and believers think that it’s the real thing, they can heighten their authority by subjugating it.”
Even though I don’t recall ever calling myself that.
It’s nuisancing others, but as long as the people believe that it’s true, regardless of whether it is or not, they probably won’t be able to leave it alone.
“And so, when will the Order of the Sacred Light be coming?”
“I don’t know that much, but if you consider them as being gathered and prepared from various nations, at the very least a few months, and perhaps it might even take a year, depending.”
As you’d expect, once it gets to this massive a scale, they can’t mobilise that easily, huh?
I really can’t relax with the situation as it is, but since I have time, I’ll carefully figure out which choice is best.
…There was a period when I thought like that too.
“Leonora.”
“T-, This isn’t my fault, you know!?”
Using the crow from last time, the surroundings of the dungeon were projected onto the mirror.
Meeting the cultist barrier, the soldiers stopped to set up a camp, but they kept arriving one after another, and the difference in power was ridiculous.
“It hasn’t even been half a month… This isn’t what you said.”
“L-, Like I said, this isn’t my fault. To begin with, isn’t this strange!? Why were they able to mobilise soldiers so quickly!?”
Leonora exclaimed with vigour and anger, but it felt like she was just trying to direct the blame away from herself.
Like she said, it certainly is too early, no matter how you look at it.
“No, wait. Can you make the image of the soldiers bigger?”
Leonora asked me this, as though having noticed something.
Leonora stared hard at the soldiers reflected on the mirror, but finally, she gave a nod, having seemingly assented to something.
“I see. I understand the trick now. The ones marching right now are all soldiers from the Kingdom of Fortera.”
The ‘Kingdom of Fortera’ is, if I remember correctly, the country that this place belongs to.
Or could it be that these guys are something other than the Order of Sacred Light?
“They’re probably the vanguard. The allied forces will take time to assemble, so they probably intend to have the soldiers that can immediately mobilise do the scouting and planning first. Given Fortera’s location, they’d get here quickly after all.”
I see. I don’t know if it’s something that Fortera wished for itself, or if it was pushed into it, but for the role of vanguard, it’s natural that it’s Fortera.
According to Leonora, the location of the Kingdom is adjacent to the Demon Race Territory, so in a place like that, it wouldn’t be strange to have a standing army to a certain extent.
“In that case, they won’t attack us immediately, right?”
“If they’re devoted enough to play their role, that is.”
Leonora spoke hesitantly.
As though asking for the true meaning behind her words, I gazed at the beautiful face of the girl with the flowing silver hair. …She averted her eyes.
“From Fortera’s point of view, this is something they should like to tidy up before the main force of the Order gets here. As long as this is the Kingdom’s territory, then by all rights, this is a problem that should be dealt with by the Kingdom itself. Although the Evil God may be the enemy of all of the human race, if a problem within their country is dealt with by the Church or the Order, they will come to owe them a favour.”
I see. If they owe them a favour, then in later negotiations they’ll be at a disadvantage, so it’s natural that they;d want to avoid that.
“What’s more, looking at the scene from earlier, its clear to anyone that they appear to have enough power to deal with it even without waiting for the main force. Would it not be difficult for them to sit still for months without doing anything?”
“Certainly.”
I don’t know exactly how many soldiers Fortera has, but they should have thousands even by a conservative estimate, and if I’m unlucky, they might even have over ten thousand.
On top of that, if this is the standing army of the Kingdom’s military, then they’re all professional soldiers, but the fighters among the cultists number only a few dozen at best, while the rest are normal people.
No matter how hard the merry Sect Founder tries, it’s impossible for him to overturn this difference in war potential; he’s truly a drop in the bucket.
There’s no way to shake the military superiority of the Kingdom after all, and even I think it would be completely meaningless to wait for the Order.
On the contrary, if they waited in this situation, wouldn’t they be liable to be slandered as cowards?
“There’s a good chance that they will attack once their camp is complete. What will you do?”
‘What will I do’? That’s what I want to know.
I’m a normal person who likes to put off the unpleasant. (When it comes to food alone, I’ll save the best for last though.)
I was told that there would be a few months until this happened, so I thought it would be fine if I thought about this stuff next month.
I guess there are about 3 rough choices that I can make.
(1) Fight: For ye fools who hath roused me from my repose, I award ye with death! (fight to the bitter end)
(3) Escape: Cya, Totssan! (making a break for it)
For now, let’s think in a direction where I won’t be doing (2).
(3) is looking ridiculously attractive, but the problem is where I should run to.
I wonder if I can’t use Leonora’s connections to give me asylum.
I looked towards my only ray of hope, Leonora, but it seems that she interpreted my glance as asking for her opinion, because she continued speaking.
“It does certainly seem that with the difference in numbers, you’ll lose in a head-on confrontation, huh. Were it me, I think that using the geography of the dungeon to fight a siege battle would be effective, though.”
Ah. Seems like it’s no good. She’s completely in the mood to fight.
Speaking of which, although she was better than the Hero(lol) Party, Leonora was actually quite a musclehead too.
If I can’t hide in the Demon Race Territory, then (3) is impossible as well… Is there only (1)?
But feeling pain, and being killed, and while I’m at it, killing someone as long as I’m in no danger, are things I’d like to avoid though.
No, thinking about it again, defeating the main force of the Kingdom or the Order isn’t my goal, so I guess there isn’t a reason to fight them head-on?
Even if I use brute force to drive away the Kingdom’s forces today, if I continue to get attacked in the future, there won’t be any point.
I’ll put on a flashy performance and make our side look stronger than it is, and make them think that it’s impossible to fight me… This is the best way.
…It’s nothing but a bluff though.
If the idea that I’m impossible to fight against begins to spread, then peace negotiations should be possible.
Negotiations are impossible for me, so I plan on pushing this onto somebody else though.
Fortunately, I have an idea of something flashy enough. When I told Leonora about what I thinking, she immediately went to prepare.
Honestly speaking, I didn’t think Leonora would be very happy about it, but she was surprisingly willing to help. Although she was speaking like that before, even she should understand that frontal attacks are no good. If it’s just the Kingdom’s army in front of us then it might be another matter, but if the Order of the Sacred Light comes along later, we’ll be crushed by their numbers. The only chance at overturning this situation is right now.
Now then, let’s begin my one in a lifetime gamble.
“…There was a period when I thought like that too.” is a Baki reference lol
” ‘Boxing is an incomplete martial art because it lacks kicks…’ huh? There was a period when I thought like that too.”
Note: Lupin (of Lupin Third) often refers to Zenigata as Tottsan, a form of address that is usually translated as “Old Man” or “Pops”