[V3C26] Pyofupyofupeppepo
Translated by Jodas 3: The Fateful BrothersRoswitha was a small, delicate girl. Since she was wearing a pointy hat, she looked a little taller than she was, but her body itself wasn’t much larger from Wren’s.
Said Roswitha looked up at Dammer, who was far larger than herself, and declared to him in a voice filled with rage.
“Take back your words! Mama never ran away!”
“She did run, though. She was too scared of the Primordial Beast.”
Roswitha extracted a few sticks from her cape. Her sheer anger shone through her face, and her expression darkened with ire.
Dammer smirked confidently at Roswitha and pointed to the scar on his face with his thumb.
“Surely you know what this scar means, don’t you? Do you really think a mere apprentice like you stands a chance against me, who’s fought the Primordial Beast and lived to tell the tale?”
“Huh, you’re so proud of surviving even though you didn’t even win. Rich of you to start talking about a warrior’s pride. You make me laugh.”
This time Dammer’s wrinkles stretched and he scowled at Roswitha’s retort.
What was the Primordial Beast? What sort of meaning did that X-shaped scar carry?
Wren couldn’t wrap his head around it, so he decided to ask Otto straight up.
“Mr. Otto. What is the Primordial Beast? Is it some kind of dangerous Monster?”
“Yes, it is. That one has a habit of making marks like that on the faces of the opponents it enjoys fighting. In a way, that scar is a sign that he’s been acknowledged by the Primordial Beast.”
They’d touched on the habits of Monsters a little bit in their group lessons.
There were apparently some types of Monsters who marked their favorite prey so they could go after them again and again. These marks could come in all sorts of forms. Some would leave scars, others would take a part of their prey’s body, and so on.
In that case, while that scar means that he’d lost to the Primordial Beast, it was also proof that he had been acknowledged by it.
That explained why Dammer took pride in it, and also why Roswitha responded cynically that he ‘didn’t even win.’
While glaring down at Roswitha with rage, Dammer reached one hand behind his back.
Dangling from the back of his belt was a leather whip. Nothing at all like a riding crop, this was a long whip that coiled like a snake.
Since they were inside a magic battle barrier, physical attacks should be ineffective — Wren thought to that point before inhaling sharply.
Dammer started to chant something.
(No way, is he going to use his whip like a magic sword —!)
Attacks made with magical devices would still be effective even inside a magic battle barrier. Even if you wouldn’t suffer an injury, being hit alone would hurt a lot.
Otto and Sevil both leapt to their feet with dire expressions. They were probably trying to intervene.
However, before those two could make it there from this far away, someone else stepped between Dammer and Roswitha.
A small, black-haired boy who had been shaking next to Wren seconds ago — Finn.
(Since when did he…….!)
Finn shook furiously with a pale face.
Nevertheless, he stretched out his short arms as wide as they could go and stood to cover Roswitha.
“I- If you swing, that, thing around, i- it’ll hurt, a lot, so…….”
With tears welling in his eyes and snot dripping from his nose, Finn tried his beast to speak.
Shocked, Roswitha grabbed Finn by the shoulder.
“Hold on, you don’t need to do that! This is between me and him alone…!”
“B- But……A- Aaaahhh…….”
Wren assumed that even that Dammer guy would feel bad after seeing something like this.
However, Dammer only smiled as he raised the whip. He fully intended to bring it down on both Finn and Roswitha.
Otto and Sevil had stopped for a second, but they started to move again with swords in hand.
However, just as they were about to jump into the fight, Dammer directed a glare in their direction. When he did, a sharp noise sounded out, shaking the ground beneath Otto and Sevil’s feet.
It was as if he had a second, invisible whip which he used to keep Otto and Sevil at bay.
As the two froze for a second, Dammer used the opening to swing his whip.
The whip, like a long black serpent, cut through the air and bore down on Roswitha and Finn.
—Then, yet another person stood in the way.
A boy with long bangs, Gerald.
He lifted the wooden box in his hands high up and blocked Dammer’s strike.
The moment the whip collided with the box, a small explosion occurred. Most likely, he had imbued his whip with exploding fire magic.
(Why would go that far against an Apprentice!? Just what kind of asshole are you….!)
Since they were inside a magic battle barrier, the wooden box didn’t catch fire.
Gerald was also unharmed. Not a single strand of his long bangs was charred.
“……Um. I came to deliver something.”
Mumbling as he spoke, Gerald offered the wooden box to him.
Dammer furrowed his thick eyebrows and glared at Gerald.
“Is that one of our weapons that we asked the Management Office to modify?”
“……Yes, I came to deliver it.” “You’ve got some nerve to use something the Management Office gave you as a shield, huh? …….Naughty boys get punished, you know?”
Dammer slapped the ground with a crack of his whip.
“I’m very sorry…..” Gerald lowered his head, mumbling an apology.
Finally, Otto caught up to them and stepped in the way.
“Dammer, why don’t you leave it there? These are Apprentices, you know?”
“Shut up! You spineless bastards from the Protection Office have no right to speak to me!”
“Okay, okay, calm down.”
Otto tried to calm him down peacefully, but Dammer’s rage remained unrestrained. Otto was clearly the older of the two, but Dammer showed no signs of respecting his elders.
At this rate, the conflict would never reach a conclusion.
Finally, Wren caught up to the rest and spoke to Sevil as quickly as he could.
“I’ll run up to the Golden Needle and call someone important!”
“……..Wait, Wren. I hear a voice.”
Whose voice? Wren was about to ask.
Then he heard it as well.
“Pyofupyofupeppepoooooooooooo!!!!!!”
He wasn’t sure whether to call it a scream, a cry, or a call, but it was definitely Tia’s voice.
Wren and Sevil looked in the direction they’d heard the voice. The sky. Something was falling down from the sky — a white-haired girl spinning out of control.
Sevil and Wren both shouted at the same time.
“Tia!”
“What is that dumbass doing—!?”
Tia, who was wearing a metal box with several metal boards sticking out of the side on her back, came flying like a bullet towards them, somersaulting through the air all the while.
The whip that Dammer was swinging got caught on her leg.
“Pyofuuuuuuu!!”
Whether her timing was good or bad, it was hard to say.
However, Tia’s body, which looked about to collide with the ground, suddenly shot upwards the moment the whip wrapped around her ankle.
With a screaming Dammer dangling below her.
Wren, Sevil, Otto, Roswitha, Finn, and Gerald all stared at the sky in utter disbelief.
“Pyororro! Pyorororro! I’m flying! I’m actually flying!”
“GYAAAAHHHHHH!!! LET ME GO!!!”
Tia’s delighted voice and Dammer’s screams reverberated across the clear blue sky.