[V1C5] The Beauty With a Curved Sword
Translated by Jodas 1: The Wedge Tower“Let’s get a little distance away from here,” was Wren’s suggestion.
They were standing on a spot marked on the map. The odds another applicant would approach them were high, and their chances of winning if they encountered someone without a strategy were slim.
While moving with quiet footsteps, Tia surveyed their surroundings.
They’d been on the run on their way here, so she wasn’t sure exactly where they were now.
(I’m not used to reading maps, so I’m not very confident about this, but… aren’t we a little off?)
After walking a little bit, Wren located a thicket that seemed perfect for hiding themselves in.
Both of them ducked into the thicket and, in a whisper, began their strategy meeting.
“First of all, let’s confirm what we need to do.”
“Collect four keys and get the Wedge Medal!”
“Well, you’re not wrong, but I was thinking we’d recheck the way this test is set up”
“…Set up?”
She couldn’t understand what Wren meant. Not the rules, but the way it’s set up?
What is Wren thinking? She made a dissatisfied face.
“Do remember what I said earlier about how, even though the keys were divided into four, there were only three Wedge Medals and that was bound to cause conflict?”
“Um, yeah, because there’s only three Xs on the map.”
“But I found that strange.”
Running a finger through his elegantly flowing golden hair, Wren cast a sidelong glance at Tia.
“The test lasts until noon on the day after tomorrow… that’s two whole days, you know? If there were only three Wedge Medals, two days is way too long to find all of them. That’s why I thought we must be missing some kind of trick to this whole thing.”
Considering it from both the perspective of the test-takers and the burden on the officials conducting the exam, minimizing the length of the exam would be a prudent decision.
Nevertheless, to intentionally stretch the exam out to two days meant there had to me some purpose to it. That was how Wren saw the situation.
“Maybe we should look at the map one more time… Actually, before that, let’s suppose we did get our hands on a Wedge Medal.”
“Okay!”
“Let’s pull straws to decide who gets the first medal. Then, even if one of us wins the pull and gets the Wedge Medal, we’ll promise to help the other one until they get their Wedge Medal as well.”
“Okay, that sounds good!”
The moment she nodded to his question, Tia’s ears picked up the sound of footsteps.
Tia immediately covered Wren’s mouth with both of her hands.
“Mgh!” Wren tried to say something, but he quickly realized what Tia was trying to do.
Both of them looked through the branches of the thicket towards the footsteps.
A middle-aged man with brown hair and a sword on his belt approached towards them—it was Seitz, who had been chasing Tia and Wren not long ago.
Seeing Seitz’s unwavering gaze and confident gait, Tia steeled herself.
(He knows where we are.)
Without hesitation, Tia pulled Wren’s hand and took off running.
“He’s on to us, run!”
“Argh, seriously!?”
Without drawing the sword at his waist, Seitz followed Tia and Wren in hot pursuit.
Tia’s legs were slow, but she was confident in her endurance and could run as long as she needed. On the other hand, Wren had no such endurance and quickly found himself short of breath.
Regardless, they were fortunate to take notice quickly and run off. They still had plenty of distance between them—The moment they thought that, both of them noticed a different man step out from behind a tree ahead of them, blocking their path.
This man was blond, but he was still a middle-aged man with a similar atmosphere. Naturally, he carried a sword.
Noticing they’ve been trapped in a pincer, Wren clicked his tongue.
“Dammit. This was my fault. I didn’t think that old fart had friends.”
Before them, the blond man; behind them, the brown-haired Seitz. Trapped between two armed men, Tia searched for an escape route.
Tia was slow, and Wren had no endurance. It would only be a matter of time before they were caught.
Not a shred of the friendly smile they saw when they first met him remained on Seitz’s face as he chased them from behind. Seitz spoke in a lethargic tone.
“Geez, you’ve really made me work for it, huh? …… Now, if you value your lives, hand over your keys and maps. You guys are still young, you can just take the exam again in three years.”
Wren was about to say something in response, but he swallowed his words. He was so tired from running his breaths had been reduced to panting.
So it was Tia who gave their response.
“No, I can’t wait three years.”
“I see. Then, we’ve got a job to do as well… it’s nothing personal.”
Seitz wouldn’t draw his sword, but the blond man on the other side pulled his sword out of its scabbard.
Schiing—Tia’s spine shivered at the noise.
The sound of a cold blade recalled a cold fury buried in her stomach.
Tia tensed her lower body and opened her mouth wide. Her thoughts were set on jumping at the man and ripping out his throat with her teeth.
However, before she could implement that plan, a frigid woman’s voice echoed through the forest.
“So you would draw a sword against children.”
She heard the voice coming from behind the blond man, Seitz’s ally.
“Eugh!” The blond man made a noise like he was throwing up all the air in his lungs, then collapsed forwards. Someone had gotten behind him and hit him with a powerful strike to the back.
Standing behind the collapsed man was a black-haired woman. Her slightly wavy black hair flowed down to her back, and she wore a man’s military uniform fitted to her trained frame.
She swung a sword in her right hand—A curved single-edged one-handed sword, rare in this part of the world. It seems that she had knocked out the man with the hilt of that sword.
The woman brandished her sword and declared to Seitz.
“It appears you have yet to draw your sword…”
Her beautiful purple eyes glared coldly at Seitz.
Her gaze was even sharper than the sword in her hands. Even then, a delighted smile rose to her crimson lips.
“If you bare your blade before these children, I shall sever your arm. I am rather fond of children.”
At that moment, Tia heard something whispering from Seitz’s mouth. It was neither a curse nor a song. Tia recognized the distinctive cadence of his voice.
(A magical incantation.)
Earlier, Seitz had said he could use magic as well as the sword, but it seems that, unlike Wren, he was not lying.
Aware of the incantation, the black-haired woman lowered her posture and ran. The way this elegant woman kicked off the ground reminded her of a wild animal.
“You fool. My sword is far faster than your magic!”
With black hair flowing behind her, the woman drew her sword. The blade, curved like the crescent moon, glistened brightly.
When the woman’s rose her sword to strike, the soil beneath Seitz’s feet moved unnaturally.
The dirt slightly rose up and started to repeatedly uplift.
(He’s trying to do something with that dirt!)
Realizing this, Tia rapidly jumped to action and spread her arms wide, covering the soil in question.
“Hmph!”
The dirt writhed beneath Tia’s stomach. Most likely, he had tried to manipulate this dirt and use it to blind or entrap that woman.
However, as Tia was pressing the dirt down with her stomach, it would not be able to do such things. Seitz clicked his tongue.
Capitalizing on the opening, the black-haired woman stepped around to his side and struck his chin with the sword’s hilt.
Seitz tumbled onto the ground, but he regained his posture, turned face, and ran. Without sparing as much as a glance towards his blond ally.
In time, Seitz’s silhouette blended with the trees, disappearing from view, and the bubbling earth beneath Tia’s abdomen settled down.
“Hmph.” The black-haired woman sheathed her sword and snorted in the direction she saw Seitz run off to.
“What, you’re running? How disappointing. What a spineless cretin.”
Still crawling on the ground, Tia looked up at the woman murmuring irritably. It was important to give thanks.
“Thank you for saving us!”
“I must also express my gratitude to you. I had intended to pummel that man before his incantation was complete, yet alas, his chant was much shorter than I had anticipated.”
The woman kneeled down in front of Tia and offered her a helping hand.
What a beautiful woman. While pulling off a man’s military uniform, makeup had been applied properly to her face. The combination looked very good on her.
Tia wiped off the dirt clinging to her stomach.
Now that she had thought about it, what had Wren been doing? Tia looked around only to find Wren rifling through the collapsed blond man’s belongings.
Even though he had just been huffing and puffing, unable to catch his breath, now of all times he was quick on the draw.
“That’s robbery!”
“If an old man like this gets his pockets picked by a pretty boy like me, it’s his own fault…. Oh, here it is! His map and key!”
Wren yanked out a map and one of the wooden slabs that served as a key. Then, he looked over at the woman with inquisitive eyes.
Most likely, Wren was thinking of strategies for negotiation.
This black-haired woman was most certainly another applicant. She had just saved them, but that didn’t change the fact that she was their opponent in this competition.
Making sure to keep a firm grasp on the map and key, Wren lightly raised both hands.
“Hold on, there’s no need to draw your sword. We don’t want to fight you.”
“I, as well, have no intentions of engaging in combat against you. However, I was the one who defeated that man. Regardless of that fact, for you to ignore me and pilfer that man’s belongings is…”
The woman’s crimson-glossed lips raised almost imperceptibly.
“Would that not be considered a hostile action against me?”
Her smile was extremely radiant, and bone-chilling.
She spoke with an elegant tongue like a noblewoman, yet drew her sword and shed blood with abandon. Her smile was at once beautiful and chilling.
That those things did not feel strange or contradictory was because she carried herself in a way that offered a glimpse of her unshakable convictions.
Shaken by the woman’s pressure, Wren tried to keep a cool face as he gave the sternest reply he could muster.
“Then, for the time being, I will let you borrow this.”
Wren tossed the stolen wood slab.
The woman took the wooden slab and stored it in her clothes. In that brief moment, it seemed that Wren had already regained his confidence somehow.
A cocky smile rose to the face of the one who called himself a pretty boy. Wren offered his suggestion.
“How about the three of us team up? I’ve already figured out the trick behind this exam.”