Published at 6th of December 2020 03:53:38 PM
Chapter 232
Translator: Kell Editor: Weasalopes
Ivan’s Fireworks
Ivan woke up to the sounds of swords clashing outside . He was drinking up until two hours ago, so he was still a little groggy, but he needed to get up .
「Ivan! We got company!」
A knight, one of the men Alexei sent for reinforcement, stormed in through the door . Just like Ivan, he was drinking a while ago too, but while his face was red, he was already armed .
「S-Sorry! I’ll be right there!」
「You can bring your sword, but don’t use it . You’re drunk, it’ll only get in the way . Either tie up enemies, or help our comrades!」
「G-Got it!」
The knigh bolted through the hallway . As Ivan stood up, he tripped on the sheets and tumbled down to the floor .
「Ouch…」
Covering his face, he caught sight of his bag propped against the wall, a thin rod sticking out of it .
「O-Oh, right . I need to call Hikaru . 」
It was given to him by Hikaru to use if the enemy attacked at night . At the tip of the rod was a chrysalis-shaped object with a small string extending from it .
「Let’s see… A vase…」
Ivan shoved the rod into the empty vase with the chrysalis pointed upwards . As he opened the window, a chill breeze rushed in, and he could clearly hear men shouting as they fought . I need to join them soon . Why did I even get drunk? Ivan thought .
He shook his head . 「I gotta do this first . 」
A small candle still burned on the candlestand on the table .
「Uh, he said to light it up . 」
Ivan took both the candlestick and the vase to the window . As he brought the flame close to the string, it made a hissing sound and gave off sparks . Ivan’s eyes widened as the spark quickly consumed the string .
「What the?!」
He thought the chrysalis would explode, but instead it let out a shrill noise as it launched high into the night sky along with the rod before going off with a bang . It was a so-called skyrocket that, of course, Ivan knew nothing about .
「Wh-What was that…?」He stood there, dumbfounded . 「I-I gotta go, too . 」He then bolted out of the room .
Hikaru slept alone in his room . Right now, Catherine was in the apartment as well . She could’ve slept at the mansion where she stayed when classes were in session, but the servants weren’t around during winter . He couldn’t let her stay in a huge mansion all alone .
Suddenly, light coming from a magic item illuminated his entire room . Created by Katy, it functioned by lighting up once the skyrocket exploded . Through some sort of a radio wave, the explosion would cause a mana reaction that would trigger the device . His place might be close to the academy, but he couldn’t possibly hear the explosion .
Hikaru explained about the radio that they discovered in the Zubura ruins to Katy, and she made progress in her studies about it . As for the skyrocket, Katy herself learned about it from the catalog of artifacts . The fact that she could create this with little information just proved how incredible she was as a Magic Item Specialist .
「They’re here, huh?」
Hikaru quickly got out of bed and changed . After wearing his cloak and fastening the wakizashi on his waist, he was good to go .
「Hikaru . 」
He was met by Lavia and Catherine in their pajamas in the living room . The magic lamp emitted only a faint light, and he couldn’t see clearly, but he thought Catherine was surprisingly blessed around the chest area .
「Sorry I woke you up . I’m going . 」
「Okay . We’ll—」
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With his mobility, it would be much easier if Hikaru went alone, and Lavia’s forte was large-scale magic against a large number of enemies . She wouldn’t be able to do much this time .
「You can go back to sleep . 」he said .
「Kay . 」
「W-Wait! How can you be so calm about this?!」Catherine exclaimed .
「You can stay up, then, if you want . Anyway, I’m in a hurry . 」
「Bye . 」Lavia said .
「Hm… Take care, then . 」Catherine added, still not convinced if this was the right idea .
Both Hikaru and Lavia were already used to urgent situations, while Catherine was not .
Hikaru ran down the stairs and out of the building . Up in the sky, the bright moon illuminated his snowy path . With five points on Power Burst, it actually made it harder to dash at full speed in the snow . Even so, the academy was close . He made it there in less than ten minutes after the magic item in his room went off .
Hikaru slowed down as he neared the dorms . The knights from Jarazack, slightly injured, had the assailants surrounded . A few severely-injured ones gathered in a corner, tended to by Ivan .
There were less than ten assailants, while twenty men—double that of the enemy—surrounded them . But the knights, their weapons on the ready, couldn’t get closer .
The assailants were stained in deep red . Blood oozed from their bodies . One of them even lost his arm . But each and every one of them still stood . They were willing to fight to the bitter end .
「Keep your guard up . 」Mikhail said, his great sword on hand .
「Yes, Sir!」the men replied in unison .
Looks like I can just leave this to them, Hikaru thought . Is this all of the enemies?
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Hikaru’s Instinct spoke to him . Claude was not here . He was in lecture building C with Luka .
What if an elite team headed there? A cornered rat will bite a cat .
Claude hadn’t fought someone who was prepared to throw their life away . Even the knights who clearly outnumbered the assailants couldn’t take them all down immediately . Tenacious enemies with such firm determination were tough .
Hikaru deactivated his Stealth as he approached Ivan .
「Ivan . 」
「H-Hikaru?! Where’d you come from?!」
「Where are the other knights? Over at Claude?」
「Well…」
Ivan explained things to Hikaru . There were supposed to be fifty men, but about twenty of them took a request from the guild and went monster hunting .
「Those idiots!」
Monsters surging forth at this point in time couldn’t possibly be true . Pretending to go hunt monsters and then come back was one thing, but actually going out on a hunt for real was utter foolishness .
「That means…」
A chill ran down Hikaru’s spine .
Right now, only Claude is protecting Luka…
Claude’s sword deflected the sword of the blue-haired man . It wasn’t as though Larks Lordgrad Ludancia wasn’t strong enough . Claude was just that much stronger .
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How?! No one told me Claude Zahard Kirihal was a skilled swordsman!
Larks couldn’t hide his agitation .
「Now you know the difference in our abilities . You’ll have to bring more people if you want a chance of defeating me . 」
Claude sounded calm, but he was anything but that . He was up against three people . If he took down Larks, the other two would surely attack . To make matters worse, the lanky man was a short-bow user .
Claude just needs to buy time and he wins, Larks thought . So he doesn’t need to kill his opponent…
Utter humiliation . He expected to lose against a man from Jarazack, but not someone from Kirihal .
Contrary to Hikaru’s expectations, Claude managed to defend himself .
「Oh, what’s this?」Then all of a sudden, Larks heard an indifferent voice . 「Come on, Sir . You should at least be able to kill Claude . I know we didn’t expect him to be this strong, but I thought you were quite strong yourself . 」
The lanky bow-user, Ray, suddenly started speaking . His words took Larks by surprise . It wasn’t the same Ray he knew . It wasn’t the young man who expressed how much he respected his commander .
Something’s wrong, Larks thought . Though he couldn’t exactly tell what exactly . The other man, Larks’ right-hand Joseph, noticed Ray’s strange behavior .
「You moron! Keep your mouth shut!」Joseph yelled as he grabbed Ray’s shoulders . 「We have an enemy right before us—」
Ray stabbed Joseph’s arm with something . Joseph quickly pulled away, his face twisted in pain .
「What are you doing?!」
Ray smiled . On his hand was a syringe, its needle as big as the ones used by smiths in sewing . Blood dripped from Joseph’s arm .
「We’ll surely lose if this goes on longer . So how about we use the ace up my sleeve?」
His mouth curved into a smile, but his eyes were dead serious . The next instant, Joseph let out a scream .