[V5C11] Man With a Terrible Private Life
Translated by Jodas 5: The Magic BattleThree of them — Finn, Sophie, and Rose — had been knocked out so far.
Tia, watching the events unfold from above, grumbled “Pefuvuvuvu” in irritation.
If she could, she would love to head down to the ground and help out, but she’d probably be attacked in the time it took to take the carrying strap off, and could foresee that she’d just be knocked out without accomplishing anything.
Tia and Oliver’s job during the ground battle was to surveil the situation occurring on the ground from above and communicate important intel to Wren and the others when necessary.
The key to the ground battle was Roswitha’s attack power, and since she would no longer be able to do reconnaissance, that responsibility fell to Tia.
However, now that Helena and Rikard had already caught up, there wasn’t much more for Tia and Oliver to do.
“Tia, how much longer can you keep the Magical Flying Device going?”
“That spiral maneuver a little while ago used up a lot of mana. I think there’s, uh… about ten minutes left.”
Flight magic was still not suited to withstand long operation.
On top of that, every time they made a big climb it would drain a significant amount of mana.
“Rose’s been knocked out! That’s really bad! We don’t have defensive barriers anymore!”
“I agree. The next one’s he’ll go for are most likely Julius or Roswitha.”
The only ones with powerful attack magic were Julius and Roswitha.
And neither of those two had particularly high physical aptitude. To be more precise, it was Julius who had abysmal physical fitness. Roswitha could move around quite quickly, but she was still nothing compared to the likes of Sevil or Gerald.
“Oliver. Is there anything we can do other than cheering them on?”
“How about we try to bait Brother into the sky? Let’s give the team on the ground time to regroup.”
“Piyopp! Got it!”
Bait Frederik into the sky. That basically meant they just had to rile him up until he turned his attention towards them.
Tia took a deep breath, then started to tweet.
“Piropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiro!”
“HEEEEYYYYY! BROOOTHERRRR! I’M UP HEEEERRRRRREEEEE!”
Frederik didn’t give them as much as a glance.
He swung his spear and set his sights on Julius and Roswitha. Gerald and Sevil stood up to try and fend him off.
“Piropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiro!”
“BROOOTHHHERRRR!! IT’S MEEEEEE!!!!”
Once again, Frederik wouldn’t look at them.
The surviving members of the inscription team — Wren, Ella, and Rukiye — continued to toss tubes of inscription magic at Frederik, but Frederik was too fast for their attacks to accomplish anything.
Julius couldn’t do anything for fear of catching Sevil and Gerald in the crossfire.
Roswitha’s fish of water were reasonably maneuverable, so they provided support for the close-quarters fight.
“Piropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiropiro!”
“BROTHERRR! ARE YOU EATING PROPERLY!!?? YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO EAT THREE BALANCED MEALS A DAY, BROTHEERRRR!”
In response to Oliver’s unusual taunt, Rikard down on the ground mumbled “He really hasn’t been eating enough.”
Oliver probably couldn’t hear that mumbling.
However, Tia could hear it clearly with her excellent ears.
“Um, Rikard just said ‘he really hasn’t been eating enough.’”
“HEEEYYY, BROTHERRRR! ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH SLEEEPPP!!?? MAKE SURE YOU GET AT LEAST SIX HOURS OF SLEEP EVERY NIGHT! AND TRY TO SLEEP IN A CLEAN BED, BROTHERRRR!!”
“Piyo… Rikard just said ‘he always just collapses on the ground wherever he happens to be.’”
“BROTHERRR! LAVENDER POTPOURRI WILL HELP YOU SLEEP BETTER, BROTHERRRR!!!”
Looking up at the two shouting from the sky, Wren considered a thought.
Oliver was most likely trying to bait Frederik into taking to the sky, giving the team on the ground time to regroup.
He understood what they were trying to do. He understood, but…
(He’s super annoying, man…)
As he looked to the sky, Oliver once again shouted.
“BROTHERRR!! YOU NEED TO KEEP A PROPER LIFESTYLE AND ALWAYS KEEP YOUR LIVING SPACE CLEAN, BROTHERRR!”
At this point, Rikard and Helena were barely participating in the fight at all — simply spectating as they each made comments.
“Frederik always just leaves his stuff lying around, huh…”
“The truth is that trash will always mass-produce more trash. Ah, how sad is that?”
“I tried making a rule that anything he couldn’t clean up would get tossed on his bed, but Frederik’s bed just ended up covered in a pile of his stuff…”
“It’s a crime against the laws of nature… It’s a sin…. He must repent.”
Wow, Wren’s mouth hung open.
Oliver, the little brother, lived such a regimented lifestyle, but it seemed like his older brother was the exact opposite.
He felt like he got a glimpse of the reason why Oliver invested so much of his time into keeping a proper lifestyle.
(Now that I think about it, when was it that I saw Frederik passed out outside, again?)
Frederik, with his little brother and his classmates spouting abuse at him, opened the distance from Gerald and Sevil, then glared at Helena and Rikard.
“…Hey. Why am I receiving psychological attacks from my own teammates?”
Above Frederik’s head as he quietly seethed in anger, Oliver’s voice reverberated.
“BROTHERR! IT’S NOT GOOD TO SKIP MEALS, BROTHERRR!! ARE YOU MAKING SURE TO FINISH YOUR MEAT AND FISH, BROTHERRR!?!?”
Frederik lowered his head and took a deep sigh.
His back hunched over and his limbs hung limply. It looked like an opening at first glance, but neither Sevil nor Gerald moved to attack. On the contrary, both of their faces paled in terror at what lie before them.
“…………Excuse me while I go shut that thing up.”
Frederik lifted his face.
His eyes, always narrowed in a smile, now gleamed with a clear murderous intent.
The light reflecting in his eyes made them appear to glow a bloody red.
Howling wind surrounded Frederik, tossing up his light brown hair.
With his hair standing on end like that, he looked almost indistinguishable from Oliver. — Wren knew he would be targeted next if he were to say that out loud, so he kept his silence.
“Helena. If the white-haired girl falls, catch her for me. You can leave Oliver alone.”
With those parting words, Frederik activated his flight magic and leapt into the sky.
This was their chance to regroup.
Despite knowing that, he felt somewhat conflicted.
Staring up towards Oliver, still shouting ‘Brother, brother!’ Wren muttered under his breath.
“Damn… I can’t be happy, knowing we were saved by that.”
Sevil had already started to give orders to the team on the ground, and they were starting to regain their footing.
The inscription team was Wren, Ella, and Rukiye.
Julius was responsible for long-range attacks.
Roswitha was responsible for medium-range attacks.
Sevil and Gerald, who could hold their own in close-quarters combat, stood on either side of those five to protect them as they moved.
As Wren and the others began to move once more, Rikard called out to them curiously.
“Um, since we can’t attack you, we’ll just end up following you anyways… so why do you guys feel the need to keep moving at this point?”
At first, the reason why the Apprentices had stayed on the move was to separate Frederik from Rikard and Helena.
Now that they’d already linked up, the team on the ground wouldn’t be able to shake off Rikard or Helena no matter how quickly they moved.
Nevertheless, there was a meaning to this movement.
“It’s a secret.”
Wren responded with a pretty boy wink, then headed off, examining the geography of their surroundings all the way.
“Hey, Finn! Are you doing alright?”
Rose called out to him, and Finn slowly pushed himself off of the ground.
His whole body was overcome with a lethargic feeling like he’d never felt before. This was what it meant to take damage in a magic battle.
Rose, who walked towards him, was carrying Sophie on his back. Sophie was conscious, but she was crying so hard snot was dripping out of her nose.
“That huuurrrtttt, it was so scarryyyy…”
“Yep, but you did great!”
Rose responded to her the way one would console a crying child, then looked at Finn.
“I’d love to stay here and cheer everyone on, but it sounds like we’ve got to go back to the starting point once we’re knocked out. Let’s go together! Can you walk on your own?”
“Yeah.”
The soles of his feet hurt all over, but he was fine. He was used to it.
Dragging his feet, Finn walked alongside Rose, mumbling.
“I’m sorry… I….”
The words he wanted to say got caught in his throat.
Finn hung his head and clenched his fists.
He thought back to those days he couldn’t do the same jobs his brothers were doing.
Finn was the smallest among his brothers, the weakest, and the most useless. That was still the case when you counted him among the Apprentice Mages here.
“I was so confident, I thought maybe I could do something, but… I couldn’t do anything at all.”
“That’s not true.”
The one who argued back was surprisingly Sophie, riding on Rose’s back.
“When Frederik said we could run away, I hesitated a bit, you know? But after seeing you fight so desperately, Finn, so I thought ‘there’s no way I can run now!’ you know?”
With her head buried deep in Rose’s shoulder, Sophie added under her breath.
“Roswitha was telling the truth when she said Finn’s not a coward.”
“Finn, you were so cool, dude!”
To Sophie and Rose’s words of praise, Finn covered his mouth to hide his big smile.