[V4C27] Thinking is Hard
Translated by Jodas 4: Flying Through the SkyAfter setting their worries aside and starting a game of cards, the boys continued to make idle conversation.
But Wren never expected to be talking so casually with some of the people here.
His roommate Gerald was exceedingly quiet, and he almost never talked about himself. And since he tended to avoid Julius, he rarely had the chance to talk to Finn, who usually stuck close to him.
The only time he’d really talked with the other boys like this was the last time he played cards with Rose and Oliver.
While Wren looked over the cards in his hand, he spat insults towards his own family.
“Like I said, I’ve got some half-brothers, but aside from the youngest one they’re real pieces of shit. They were envious of me because I was a miraculous pretty boy, you know.”
“Kuku, with that personality of yours, I bet you were bullied quite a lot.”
“Don’t give me that. Didn’t you have brothers yourself, Julius?”
Wren glared at Julius. While drawing a card from the deck, Julius responded with his usual faint smirk.
“I’m an only child. Samuel didn’t adopt any kids aside from me.”
“Huh? Wait, you’re adopted?”
“Kuku… It’s not unusual in the world of mages, is it?”
Wren didn’t know anything about the world of mages, so he hesitated to respond.
Actually, out of the people here, wasn’t Julius the only one who was familiar with the world of mages?
(Huh? Wait, what about Rose and Oliver? I thought both of them had some magecraft training before coming to the Wedge Tower as well.)
Finn was the son of a woodcutter, and while Gerald was a bit of a mystery, it was clear he’d never studied magic at all before.
(Is it even okay to ask about this kind of thing…?)
Since he had just recently dug into Sophie’s past and made her cry, it was hard to bring himself to ask such questions now.
As Wren fell quiet, Rose reordered the cards in his hand and spoke to Oliver.
“By the way, you mentioned you were part of a Monster-hunting family, right Oliver? Does that mean your folks live around here?”
“Yes. I’d say they’re somewhere a little North of the Wedge Tower. If you had a horse, you could get there in a day or two.”
Oliver probably wouldn’t get mad if he asked about his family circumstances, Wren decided.
This was the same guy who let him tag along when he went to visit his brother in the Extermination Office after all.
“Hey, Oliver. Is Monster hunting like your family’s job? Is it like Sophie where one person from your family has to be at the Wedge Tower at all times?”
“No. There’s no such custom, however…”
Oliver quieted for a few seconds, thinking something over, before he drew a card from the deck and opened his mouth again.
“The Lange Family’s main duty is protecting the area around our home village. However, if we come to the Wedge Tower, we can deploy much farther afield.”
According to Oliver, the Lange Family wasn’t a very large family.
Thus, they didn’t have people to spare sending them far away from the territory they lived in.
“Brother is probably on the hunt for the Monster who killed our father. To that end, he came here to the Wedge Tower where he can search a wider area.”
Wren gulped.
‘Killed our father.’ Those words couldn’t be said lightly. On top of that, praying that his suspicions were wrong, Wren had to ask.
“Oliver, the monster that killed your father… What kind of Monster was it?”
“It was a spider Monster. It could transform into a young woman.”
(Thank goodness. It wasn’t a Harpy.)
Wren silently put his hand over his chest, and thought.
If it had been a Harpy who killed Oliver’s father… What would he have done?
It wasn’t this time, but such a situation could show up at any time.
And that scared Wren.
“I want to support my brother however I can. I’m fully prepared to help so Brother can live a healthy lifestyle.”
And all of Oliver’s effort went towards his regimented lifestyle.
Wren felt like those efforts were focused on the wrong objectives… but as he thought, Rose spoke with a smile.
“It’d be nice to have a brother, huh. I’ve only got a sister back home, so this is all new to me.”
“Huh? Rose, you have a sister!? I’m surprised…”
Wren was shocked, and Rose tilted his head, asking “Is it really that much of a surprise?”
“Because you don’t understand girl’s hearts at all, Rose!”
Both Gerald and Finn took objection to this statement.
“Just because you have sisters doesn’t mean you’ll understand anything about a girl’s heart, I think.”
“I’ve got a sister, but I have no idea what this ‘girl’s heart’ thing is~”
‘Is that how it is?’ Wren tilted his head, and Rose’s beard swayed back. His smile told him ‘That’s how it is.’
Rose reordered the cards in his hand again, then showed them to Finn, seated on his lap.
“If you put this and this together, that gets you a winning hand, and now I’m waiting for one of these…” He explained in a whisper.
“I just pulled a card from the deck, right? Now, since I’ve got these lined up, I don’t need this card anymore, so I’ll discard it. Did you get that?”
“Yeah.”
“Then, once I’ve got this card, I’ll win. If someone discards it, I can say ‘check!’ Then, I’ll win off of that card!”
“Um… Then, could someone win off of the card you just got rid of, Rose?”
“Yeah, totally! That risk makes it fun!”
“Hmmm…” With a tense face, Finn looked back and forth between Rose’s hand and the discarded cards on the table. He was completely invested.
It would be pretty fun to teach something to a guy like that, Wren thought.
However, on the receiving end, Finn grumbled from his spot on Rose’s lap.
“…I’m sorry, I’m the only one who has to be taught these things…”
“I don’t mind at all! I didn’t get the rules my first time either, someone had to teach them to me!”
“It’s not just the cards, though… Everything else, too…”
Finn clenched his fists and dipped his head.
He was short, and looked even younger than his age of thirteen, but when he did that, he managed to look like an even smaller kid than he already was.
“I was the smallest of my brothers, and the dumbest… My older brothers would always scold me. They’d say things like ‘Don’t you have any pride?’ and ‘If you can’t do this, then think of something you can do!’”
Think of something he can do. He thought that wasn’t the wrong way to think about it.
Wren also lived by telling himself that same thing.
However, to Finn, that must have been a very hard thing to hear.
(Finn has a poor intuition… He can be a little slow to pick things up.)
Even things that Wren could understand just by thinking about it a little bit would completely escape Finn.
Therefore, even if there was an efficient way to get something done, he wouldn’t be able to do it unless someone else taught it to him.
“Since I’m such an idiot… I won’t get it no matter how hard I think. How could I get any better…?”
Why can’t you understand something so simple! — It was easy to imagine Finn hunching over in desolation every time someone said something like that to him.
Wren was unsure what to say to him. After all, he prided himself on his good intuition.
The air stilled for a second, until Gerald softly spoke up.
“I’m pretty similar myself.”
Gerald drew a card from the deck and sighed.
“That was why… I ran, and came here.”
The atmosphere only got heavier.
What should he do? He felt like it would be best to say something, but Wren wavered on what to say. Then, the adults who couldn’t read the room at all started to speak.
“I’ve got times like that too! My friend always yells at me to ‘Think a little more before acting! Don’t charge ahead not knowing what you’re doing!’”
“Indeed, even after becoming an adult, I have times like that.”
“Even though I’ve been thinking all I can before I act~. He still gets mad at me some times~.”
“Thinking… It’s a very hard thing to do. Someone once told me ‘You thoughtless trash, you should just throw yourself in the trash can and disappear. Get out of my sight!’”
Wren had to interject.
“…Was that your brother?”
“Yes. That was my brother’s impassioned words of encouragement when he came back to our village a few years ago.”
“…I’m a little afraid for you, Oliver. He hates you so much but you keep trying to befriend him.”
Were these adults going to be okay? Wren seriously worried for them.
(No way, am I the only person here who is both smart and a good person? …Of course I am. No one can beat a hyper-competent pretty boy.)
Rose and Oliver were useless adults, and while Gerald and Finn were diligent, they lacked the necessary presence of mind.
He had to do his best to make up for those shortcomings… As he thought about that, Julius discarded one card and smiled towards Finn.
Naturally, it wasn’t a kind smile. It was the kind of smile that told you he was planning something.
“Ku, ku, ku… If you find thinking difficult, then leave that work to someone suitable. In fact, you do not need to think about anything. I will find the best use for your talents.”
“Hold on, you’re talking like a real villain there! Hey, Finn. You can’t trust everything guys like him say, okay? If you do, they’ll work you to death.”
Wren interrupted, speaking quickly as he drew a card from the deck and discarded from his hand.
Julius pressed his fingertip on that discarded card.
“Kuku, I call ‘check’ on that card. I win with the ‘green dragon’ hand.”
“Gyah—!?”