Volume 2 Chapter 5.1
Dusk, Hounds, and Doubts Brought on by
Scars Part 1
Translator : PolterGlast
"Look how
beautiful the sky is."
"Ah, yes, it
is."
"Those clouds
look kind of weird, don't they?
"Yeah, it looks
like a cat curled up asleep."
"No, not that
one. It's the one right above that mountain."
"Hmm?"
With their
conversation devoid of any productivity, the two somehow managed to mask the
disturbing scent.
It is not clear
whether the person tailing them could hear their conversation, but it is not
surprising that a person who is appointed as a spy by the school headmaster
could at least use lip-reading skills.
The two of them
wandered aimlessly through the school grounds until they arrived at the woods
near the girls' dormitory, which they had set as their final destination. They
passed several students on their way to this place, and heard whispers about
they are being in a relationship, but Nina did not have the time to worry about
such things.
Because she could not
hear the footsteps of the person who had been following her.
There was nothing that
could be a concealment except for a faint street lamp on the path she was
walking now. If Jin had not told her, she would not have believed that there
was someone following her.
Just how powerful
could the school principal's pawn - the <Shepherd's Dog>, who has yet to
be seen, be?
Of course, this person
undoubtedly has psychic abilities. And if he is capable of such advanced
tailing techniques, he may have the same level of combat ability as a combat
soldier.
Naturally, this is an
opponent that Jin and Nina would never be able to defeat in a frontal battle.
The only chance for
them to win would be that they were already used to fighting such opponents.
In the center of a
thicket of trees shrouded in darkness, Jin stopped in his tracks.
A smile welcoming the
extreme thrill is plastered on his face.
─At last, the battle against the stalker is about to
begin.
"...... By the
way, Nina, do you smell something disgusting?"
"Yes, it smells
like an annoying fox."
"What shall we do
then?"
"Isn't that
obvious?"
Nina briskly turned
around with a wicked smile on her face.
"I'm gonna twist
him to death right here so he won't make me feel any more uncomfortable."
Standing behind her
was a figure dressed in a black coat with a hood. He was wearing an inorganic
white mask with lenses for eyes, and his face was indistinguishable. The coat,
which was fluttering in the wind, made it difficult to discern his physique.
It was obvious that
this was not an ambush by a mere student.
"Huh, it seems
that he is not a student of the Heiberg Academy. What was the proper way to
deal with this case again?"
"Looks like we
don't have to go to the trouble of getting such an intruder to agree to a
<duel> before we kill him."
"...... Or so he said,
poor fox. I guess I don't need to warn you anymore, do I?"
Nina raised her palm
to the sky and waved her arm as if to grasp the air and throw it away.
With that as a signal,
the trees that covered the sky began to make noises.
The next moment, a black
mass was shot out of the trees.
The assailant, who
rolled on the ground to avoid it, realized that it was a stone the size of a
human head that had attacked him from above.
Of course, a direct
hit from this would have resulted in more than minor injuries.
"......You're
surprisingly soft, Nina Stingray."
A thick male voice
could be heard coming from the mask.
The voice seemed to
have no sense of humanity, with a great deal of noises mixed in. Nina never
heard of such technology before, but perhaps that mask has a function to change
voices.
"I thought you
would dismember my limbs without question. ...... Or is there some reason why
you can't attack a human body directly?"
"I'm just trying
to be considerate of those janitors who do the cleanup afterward. If I get
serious, you know ...... the battlefield tends to become horrible."
A normal student would
have screamed and fled at this point, but the assailant didn't seem to be
phased. With military knives in both hands, he gradually closed the distance
between them.
Behind her ruthless
smile, Nina was fighting desperately against her own fright.
─There are only about ten traps left.
She has to somehow
conquer this formidable opponent before he realizes that her psychokinesis is
just a bluff.
Nina recalled the
night she was summoned to this woods.
◇ One Week Ago ◇
"Nina, your
<Queen of Calamity> needs to go to the next stage."
Relying solely on the
moonlight, Gasta and the other landscapers were working on something.
There is no end to the
questions that need to be asked. But for the time being, Nina decided to start
with the biggest question.
"What do you mean
the next stage?"
"There will be
more and more people to whom bluffing alone won't be enough. It was the same
with Bennet Lohr."
That's for
sure, Nina bit her lip.
The monsters who were
exempted from the entrance exam are not the least bit afraid of the bad rumors
about Nina.
No matter how much she
tried to scare them with her outstanding acting ability, it would be difficult
to get them to surrender on that merit alone.
"From now on, it
will be necessary for you to produce some physical manifestation with your
psychic abilities."
"Ah, so that's
why we set up such a large-scale mechanism ......."
Diagonally ahead, on a
tree, two workers were working together to install a device painted green.
Judging from the huge
stones they were placed on top of it, it might be some kind of projectile. A
string, the same color as the tree trunk, was extending to the ground, and it
seemed to be activated by pulling it.
In the back, a similar
device was covered with branches and leaves by the president, Gasta.
The purpose is not
just to defeat the enemy, but to demonstrate Nina's psychic abilities, so it is
a process that must be carried out with particular care.
"My prediction
tells me that assailants will arrive not too long from now."
"Does that mean
they know who we are?"
"No, I'm sure
they haven't got the evidence. But I think they will attack us when the level
of suspicion exceeds a certain level."
"Eh? Such a vague
thing......"
"The best way to
get evidence is to torture us and make us spit it out ourselves. Even if turns
out that we were innocent, they could just dispose our bodies by making it look
like an accident or suicide. Nina, you are well aware of what the <White
Knights> are doing behind the scenes, no?"
The <White
Knights>, who are hailed as heroes of salvation and to which Nina's two
older brothers belong to, had once killed Jin's foster parent. Torturing them
horribly and burying them in the darkness of history.
When great power and
violence join forces, the idea of choosing one's own means easily disappears.
The <Shepherd's
Dogs>, who share the same ideology as them, must have similar ethics.
"If someone is
about to target us, let's lead them to this place first."
Jin continued,
pointing his index finger toward the ground.
"When the battle
begins, Nina, I want you to use your best acting to get their attention. I'll
make sure to mask my presence and activate the trap myself."
If one thinks about it
calmly, this is a childish trick.
But Nina knows that
Jin's tricks always have a double or triple purpose.
She finds herself even
looking forward to the decisive battle that will sure to come.
◇
The assailant, with
knives in both hands, was attacked by an attack that was disguised as Nina's
psychic ability.
A stone shot from a
sling on a tree.
Explosions from
gunpowder buried in the ground.
The sun is already
setting, and there is hardly any light in the woods. Although the assailant was
wearing a mask that restricted his vision, he easily evaded all the attacks.
Superhuman physical
ability and reaction speed. It is amazing that he can move so agilely in this
darkness, but how can he even avoid the gunpowder that is supposed to be buried
in the ground?
─Don't tell me that he has clairvoyant ability.
"You sure love
meaningless attacks, huh?"
"...... You, on
the other hand, seem to enjoy running away in an ugly manner."
"No, not
really."
Suddenly, the
assailant rushed toward Nina at a tremendous speed.
─Oh no, I'll be killed!
Just as she was about
to scream, the assailant's feet suddenly caved in.
A pit that was
cleverly concealed - the reason Jin had specified in detail where to stand was
probably to lead the assailant into this trap. Nina quickly turned her palm to
the ground and made a show of causing the assailant to sink into the ground
with psychokinesis.
The assailant, now
sunk into the ground up to his waist, could no longer move. A projectile with a
perfectly calculated trajectory had already launched as a finishing blow.
"I see, so you
can use such a tactic."
The assailant, who
muttered in an inhuman voice, reacted in a way far beyond the human realm.
He lifted himself up
using only the strength of his arms from the pit, and finally leaped up to
evade the projectile.
The stone seemed to
have slightly grazed his right hand, but that would only be a minor scratch.
─This is bad, this is bad, this is bad!
Nina desperately tried
to remember the layout of the traps, but all that came out was that she was
running out of ammunition. Even Jin, for whom she was relying on, looked bitter
as he hid behind a tree trunk.
The other party had
not even used its psychic ability, but their strategy had been easily
destroyed.
"...... You sure
are quite persistent."
The only weapon left
for Nina is her acting.
"I was planning
to just knock you out, but now I have changed my mind. I don't care what
happens to you anymore."
Nina put her hand on
the brooch that glowed red on her chest.
Her removing the
brooch is a requirement for fully releasing her psychic ability. It is a signal
that she is willing to kill her enemies. It is like a de facto sentence of
execution.
Jin and Nina had
painstakingly created this rumor, and of course, the other party knew about the
rumor as well.
And yet, the assailant
did not even show the slightest sign of retreating. Is he simply pretending to
be calm, or does he really feel no fear?
Either way, if things
continue as they were, the future ahead of them is clear.
"Well, well, this
is truly amazing."
As if to lighten the
tense atmosphere, Jin made silly clapping sounds.
"I don't know
whether I should describe you as someone who's fearless - or someone who's
desperate to die, perhaps? Surely, only such a fool would think of fighting
Nina head-on."
"What's up with
you all of a sudden, Jin Kirihara? Did you feel lonely because you were being
left out?"
"I'm just giving
you some advice for your own safety."
With dark eyes and a
playful smile, Jin walked toward the assailant.
"Although this
school is almost like a lawless zone, there are still at least a few rules. An
outsider like you isn't supposed to be allowed to fight against the
students."
"That's new to
me. And I don't really care about it."
"I think you should
be a little concerned about it. Because-......" Jin said in a theatrical
tone, spreading his hands out. "-there's such a big audience here."
The assailant's feet
stopped.
Looking around with an
unreadable mask on his face, he saw a group of students who had gathered after
hearing the explosion.
From the beginning,
Jin had never thought that such a trap alone would be enough to defeat his
opponent. It was only a matter of showing a glimpse of Nina's psychic
abilities, so he had to prepare another way to win the battle.
What Jin came up with
was a plan to force the battle to end.
Of course, it was not
as simple as calling the students nearby with the sound of explosions. The
biggest trap of all was the fact that Jin and Nina had been walking around the school
grounds together in a random fashion until they led the assailant here.
They deliberately
chose a route with a lot of pedestrian traffic to make as many students as
possible aware of their presence.
All of this was a
preparation to efficiently gather a crowd of onlookers.
"...... I don't
know who you are or what your purpose is, but if you're hiding your face from
us, you must have some kind of dark secret, right? Are you sure you want to
risk your time here?"
Nina decided to take
advantage of Jin's words.
"I'll let you off
the hook this one time out of concern for your safety. The next time you come
into my sight, ...... you know what the consequences will be, don't you?"
The assailant made a
gesture of a deep sigh and tucked the two knives around his waist.
Then, with the agility
of a cat, he ran up the thick trunk, through the trees like stepping stones,
and disappeared into the darkness.
Seeing that the danger
was over, Nina whispered.
"...... Can we
call this a victory?"
"At least that's
how it seems to everyone."
The onlookers gathered
near the entrance to the wooded area were staring in awe at Nina. The smoke
rising from the gunpowder and the holes drilled in the ground were also
interpreted favorably by the onlookers.
Today, too, Nina Stingray
broke the spirit of the daredevil who foolishly confronted her.
Yet the girl in
question realized that her situation was not getting any better.
"...... Perhaps
it's time to stop doing the scheme thing for a while."
"You're damn
right."
"I wonder if I'm
going to be attacked in my sleep......"
"Well, at least,
I don't think they'll do it today."
"Doesn't that
mean they might do it tomorrow!?"
"It'll be fine.
So far, it's as I predicted. All we have to do next is wait for the final piece
to come together......"
"What do you
mean?"
At that moment, the
last light from the setting sun disappeared, and Jin's face was covered in
complete darkness.
"Meet me at the
hideout tomorrow after school. I'll tell you the final plan there."
＊
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