Trails with Cuddle-Cuddle Osbon
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Helen
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Author Note:
The plot didn’t progress much. I’m sure the story will progress more in the next chapter.
Thank you for the typo reports as always.
There are a lot of typos in the early chapters…
Chapter 028 – Fufufu, son. It’s the May Field Study
Musse, the girl who claimed to be Countess Le Guin’s servant, guided Rean and the other members of Class VII Group A to the Juno Naval Fortress.
The group, who had thought that they would be conducting their task in an inn or tavern in Ordis as their base, couldn’t help but be surprised upon seeing territorial army soldiers lined up.
It was no wonder.
The Lamare Province’s army was a collection of soldiers selected from all over the country, by far as elite and prestigious as a regular army.
They never expected to be suddenly taken to a place that was famous for its symbolic icon, Aurelia Le Guin, who served as its commander-in-chief, even if the said person was a Thors graduate.
But as far as Rean could see, the soldiers of the territorial army seemed to be paying more attention to the girl who guided them rather than the students themselves.
It was certainly weird that there were maids in the military, but Rean thought that that wasn’t it.
“Countess Aurelia Le Guin is waiting over there.”
In the room they were led to, Rean saw a beautiful female general carrying the same pressureful appearance as when he met her last month, and a man sitting next to her who looked just as intimidating as her.
“That’s……”
Gaius was first to react.
He seemed to realize that the man was from Nord from his skin color, and when the man noticed Gaius among the students, he let out a light sigh.
“Your Excellency, as requested, I have guided the students of Thors Academy from Class VII Group A here.”
“Thanks for your hard work.”
Musse nodded once and stood next to Aurelia.
It was said that she was a servant of Countess Le Guin, but seeing how she was allowed to serve by her side made the students think she might be competent despite her young age.
Rean, on the other hand, speculated about the girl named Musse, wondering why she wasn’t in Parm if she was serving as Countess’ servant.
Aurelia smiled at Rean and introduced herself to the students along with the man next to her.
“It’s been a while, Schwarzer. It’s great to see that your wounds have healed.”
“Thank you very much. Because of Marquis Hyarms and a visit from my family, I was able to spend more time recuperating than planned, so I’m doing well.”
“That’s good. Well then, there are some I am seeing for the first time, so let’s start with an introduction. I am Aurelia Le Guin. I am the commander-in-chief of the Lamare Provincial Army, which is in charge of Juno Naval Fortress.”
“I’m Wallace Bardias. I’m here for business. I come from the same hometown as someone here, but I’d like to be introduced instead to you as a senior who also bears the name of Thors.”
The man with black hair stood up and intimidation overflowed from his well-trained figure.
Rean thought that he was comparable to Aurelia, who was known as the Golden Rakshasha.
“Is it correct to assume that the local collaborator that Instructor Sara mentioned to be Aurelia-san?”
“Yes. Originally, I was going to ask you to go directly to Ordis, but there was something I was a little concerned about, so I asked you to stop by here instead.”
When Rean said that, Emma and others started whispering among themselves for some reason.
Rean was puzzled as to why such a reaction occurred, but Wallace and Musse also widened their eyes slightly and seemed to be surprised.
“Rean-san, you seem to get along well with her.”
“We’ve done things together before. We’ve been in contact from time to time. Also, you also heard about what happened in Parm, right?”
“That’s true, but it feels different hearing it from Laura and others, compared to actually seeing it, after all. Also, you’ve been in contact with each other……?”
“Rean, you had err… a match with that person, didn’t you?”
“It was a practice match in a format that was as close to real combat as possible.”
“I heard that from Her Excellency as well. I would like to see the skills of the promising lions.”
Wallace’s eyes gazed at Rean.
Although Rean was the only one who was targeted, the nearby members of Group A also felt a numbing pressure on themselves.
Even though nothing was done, Elliot had an illusion that air was creaking. He couldn’t stop his rapid heart palpitations and sweat coldly.
Rean patted Elliot on the shoulder and stood as if blocking Wallace’s line of sight, then turned to Aurelia with a fighting spirit filled with determination flowing through him.
“I would love to, if there’s an opportunity. So, what are you curious about?”
When Aurelia looked at Musse, she handed over some documents.
In addition to the request for today’s field study, there was also written information about the presence of jaegers in Raquel.
“Jaegers……”
Rean suddenly recalled Fie, but turned to Aurelia to urge her to continue.
“They have been seen more often at casinos. That said, I won’t make a big deal of jaegers playing privately and chase them out. Today’s request also doesn’t affect their activities in Raquel, but if you get tangled with them, you can just deal with it on the spot. If things get out of hand, you can just use Thors and my name to avoid trouble.”
“W-well, we don’t have any tasks in Raquel, so we would just not need to go there, right?”
“Yes, there’s no need to stir up trouble.”
Alisa and Elliot voiced their opinions.
Although they didn’t say it out loud, Emma and Gaius felt the same way.
However, Rean was the only one who asked what Aurelia meant when going out of trouble to advise them.
“But why did you bother to tell us? I don’t think there’s any need to warn us if jaegers just happened to be in town…”
“No, Rean, that’s something to be appreciated, you know? She told us what to do if we had been placed in a bad spot.”
“Maybe they will come to Ordis from Raquel. Our response will change depending on whether we have prior information or not.”
“It’s as the young lady over there said. It’s more of insurance, just in case. Even if something were to happen, I think you people will be able to deal with it without any problem.”
Implicitly, Wallace seemed to be telling them to show off the existence of the horned lion.
The person who got the most motivated by that was surprisingly Gaius.
“Okay. I will keep those words of my compatriots etched in my heart.”
“Hou…… What’s your name?”
“Gaius Worzel. This spring, I have enrolled at Thors Military Academy in order to learn more about the ‘outside world’.”
“I see. In that case, Gaius, I don’t know how this field study will be conducted, but may the blessings of the wind and Aidios be with you.
“Aah, may the blessings of the wind and Aidios be with you.”
It was a ritual-like exchange that only Gaius and Wallace could understand.
When Rean saw that, Alisa secretly whispered to his ear.
“It’s like a saying that’s passed down in Gaius’ hometown. I’ve heard it often in Celdic.”
“You mean it’s Nord’s custom?”
“Yes. I think it is okay to consider it the same as when we say ‘may the blessing of Aidios be with you’.”
Rean thanked Alisa, put away the documents, said hello, and left the room.
Celine, who came with the group, was left in the care of Musse.
However, Celine vehemently rejected it.
[“Wait, wait, Emma! I was seen talking by that Aurelia person! I’d be in trouble if I was strangely pursued, so I’ll come along too!”]
[“Eh, really?”]
[“I don’t think Aurelia-san will spread words without permission, though. After all, she knew about that from last month, right? In the first place, why did Celine talk to Aurelia-san?”]
[“U-uuh…………”]
Celine didn’t respond to Rean’s reasonable point.
There was no way that she, who was at the peak of her embarrassment, could have told Rean that she revealed her identity out of worry for Rean.
She insisted it was out of duty as a witch’s familiar, but from Aurelia’s perspective, she only saw that as the behavior of a girl caring for someone close to her, and she accepted the existence of the talking cat.
Aurelia was grinning and looking at Celine, who was trembling, out of amusement, which made Celine even more anxious.
And as Celine hissed, Musse took her, interrupting the conversation.
Musse then poked and stroked Celine’s fur, demonstrating her skill of turning Celine back into an ordinary black cat.
“Hmn, wha… nyaa~”
“Wah, Celine sounds like she’s feeling good.”
“Does it sound like a good tone to Elliot’s ear?”
“No way. But a cat’s voice can have a nice nuance. There are many songs with cat motifs, such as one played on the piano.”
[“Don’t talk leisurely, help…… funyaaaa~”]
Now that Celine returned to an ordinary cat, Rean decided to entrust Musse with Celine once again.
“Then Musse, please take care of Celine. She likes milk and fish, and I don’t think she has a preference in that regard.”
“Yes, certainly. The reward is my right to stroke her fur, isn’t it?”
“I’ll leave her to you, please take care of her.”
Just before they left the room, he heard Aurelia’s happy voice.
“Schwarzer. You can look forward to training with the soldiers.”
“Is it a proper ‘practice’ this time?”
“Fufu, let’s leave the fun to when it happens.”
“I understand. Then I’ll drop by again later.”
“I don’t mind if we start now, though?”
“If we do that, I’ll probably have to use all my strength and it will be difficult to continue the field study…… well then, Thors Military Academy Class VII, Group A, let us proceed with our field study from now on.”
＊
As Aurelia watched the Class VII Group A bow and leave, she spoke to Musse beside her.
“I find it surprising. It seems that you are taking your work more seriously than I expected since you came here.”
“Fufu, my current status is that of a servant of Countess Le Guin after all. It will stain the general’s honor if I do not take my work seriously and spend my time talking to a man instead. I will do that during my private time instead.”
“Hahah, I think if it is Her Excellency’s servant, some degree of freedom is to be expected.”
While agreeing with Wallace with a wry smile, Musse—— with her real name as Mildine Juzalith de Cayenne, gave an enchanting smile which made it hard to believe she was actually just thirteen years old.
She was the niece of the Duke Cayenne, who ruled Ordis, and was supposed to be attending St. Astrea Girls’ Academy, a girl who wasn’t supposed to be here.
She was on good terms with Aurelia, and with Rean’s little sister Elise, who also attended St. Astrea Girls’ Academy, and there was only one reason why she visited Ordis on her day off.
It was to evaluate the existence of Rean Schwarzer.
Musse stimulated Celine’s cat instincts with skill, and she dropped her eyelids as she turned Celine back into an ordinary black cat.
“Nothing happened yet, but how was your first impression of Rean Schwarzer?”
“To be honest, I haven’t figured it out yet. He seems like an ordinary student, but there seem to be several layers beneath that… in a sense, that person called Emma-san also feels the same. As for the other three, they gave me impressions of being easy to understand.”
The reason why Aurelia sent the letter to Sara was also related to this.
Musse, who heard the story from Aurelia, had been conducting her own investigation about the boy named Rean Schwarzer since the previous month.
Musse had already expected that from his Schwarzer name, he seemed to be the adopted brother of her beloved Elise, and as Musse investigated further, she also realized he was the son of the Blood and Iron Chancellor.
Musse had been investigating a lot about Giliath Osborne to begin with.
While tracing his path, she got to see the photo of his late wife, Kasia Osborne, and seeing Rean’s facial features that were similar to her, it was easy to associate him with her.
It was unknown how Rean was entrusted to Theo Schwarzer’s care, but considering Giliath Osborne was a man with many enemies, it might have something to do with politics.
Musse was intrigued with the fact that Rean was the son of the Blood and Iron Chancellor, but there was another reason why she was paying more attention to Rean.
“The Ashen Knight…… it’s the origin of the Panzer Soldat, isn’t it?”
“Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see its main body, but I got to see the energy body of the Divine Knight through Power of Ashen. It seems to use magic similar to the Mysterious Arts, and he also has a strange constitution.”
“Is it different from the fighting spirits used by generals and lord baron?”
“Martial artists have their own unique Craft to improve themselves, but from my perspective, it seems like they were powerful from the outside. I’m not sure if this is related to Divine Knight, but despite being a chick… I mean, a young horned lion, he has the potential to devour a lion if he sharpened his fangs after several years.”
Implicitly, Aurelia admitted there was a possibility that even she herself could be defeated in the not-so-distant future.
When Musse heard this, her eyes widened, and Wallace gave a ferocious smile that was typical of a martial artist.
“Is he that strong?”
“In addition to his personal qualities and environment, he is blessed with strange relationships. The strange feeling that Mildine-sama felt about that Emma girl is not wrong.”
“You’re not going to tell me the answer, are you?”
“There’s a saying in the east that a picture is worth a thousand words. Does Wallace feel concerned about your countrymen?”
“Well, with his physique and atmosphere, he is the very embodiment of Nord. I’m someone who already settled in the Empire, but I feel proud of the pure blood of Nord flowing in his veins.”
When Wallace saw Gaius, he felt the longing of the faraway Nord.
Gaius, who was raised in the cradle of wind and earth, was in a sense, a dazzling presence for Wallace.
“He still seems far away, in terms of combat power, though?”
“Why, he’s still learning. It won’t be long before he could fly like Her Excellency’s favorite Schwarzer.”
“Fufu, then I’ll be looking forward to their results over the next two days. What do you think, Mildine-sama?”
“I can follow them as a guide, but I’ll decide based on today’s result. That said, I think I’d like to have a little chat with Rean-san this evening……”
“Roger that. It would be a good idea to seduce him well when you make your request.”
“Oh my, what a terrible thing to say.”
Chuckling, Musse approached the window and caught sight of the boys and girls in red uniforms reflected below.
Only Aurelia and Wallace knew the emotions residing in her eyes.
Without saying anything, Musse’s gaze chased after Rean’s group until they were out of sight.
By the way, Celine, who was being stroked throughout the conversation, was in a state of being unable to hear Musse’s real name, let alone the conversations, until she was given food.
＊
“Jaeger, huh……everyone, what are we going to do?”
Rean’s group returned to Ordis from the Juno Naval Fortress and were discussing their future plans at the inn tavern, which was their base for the day.
Elliot questioned the topic that Rean brought up.
“What do you mean by that?”
“That Aurelia-san went out her way to tell us that there are jaegers in Raquel. I think there’s definitely something going on.”
“Why do you think so? Countess Le Guin just said that if trouble were to occur, she would take responsibility……”
“Does Rean feel that the jaegers have a reason to cause trouble?”
“That’s right.”
Rean nodded at Gaius’ point.
Rean held up his finger as if to explain to everyone.
“This is a place under the protection of General Aurelia. From the jaegers’ perspective, nobles might be good customers, but the territorial army under her lead is quite fierce. After all, the general is someone who personally took action during the monster breeding facility incident. From the jaegers’ perspective, I don’t think it is worth it to take on a job that could potentially turn such a person like her into their enemy.”
In his conversation with Fie, Rean often heard that jaegers won’t take jobs that aren’t worth it.
Zephyr, to which Fie used to belong, seemed to tend to follow their emotions, but jaegers were basically people who considered the reward first.
Although there were other patterns such as the combat itself being the goal, most jaegers would weigh the risks and rewards for their work.
It was hard to imagine that a jaeger working for the yakuza would cause unnecessary trouble for the territorial army.
Yet the fact that jaegers still came despite that, Rean reasoned that there must be a reason they didn’t know about that made them do that.
“Then why did she tell us about the jaegers……”
“It might also be part of the field study. Everyone remembers what happened at Celdic, right?”
“Yes. I remember the turmoil at the grand market. That was also a problem caused by the territorial army…… by nobles after all.”
“No incidents have occurred, since jaegers were around. Emma seemed to have said that an incident would occur, or had already occurred without us knowing.”
“Yes,” nodded Emma.
Emma then told everyone what Sara told her.
“It seems that Instructor Sara accepted the change of the field study destination in order for us to learn about something that is happening in the Empire at the moment. So I think that getting to know the things in Ordis and Raquel is also part of the field study.”
“Instructor Sara said that… so that person’s not just forcing Rean to Emma for no reason, huh.”
[”Fufufu, son. Being forced to Emma is also——”]
I won’t be listening to you for the rest of the day if you continue.”
{“Rean, what does that mean?”}
It means that it’s something that does not need to be recorded as data.
Rean sensed that his dad was making a silly joke and immediately shut Osbon up.
Valimar asked for an explanation, but Rean strongly denied it.
In the meantime, the discussion continued.
“I don’t really feel like it, but if someone feels sad like that during the grand market, I don’t feel comfortable leaving it alone, I guess.”
“Aah. I was also told by Brigadier General Wallace to showcase Nord’s will after all. Rather than being timid and not challenging things, I think it’s better to regret it after challenging it.”
“It seems like everyone is motivated. Well, even if something unreasonable does happen, there is someone even more unreasonable among us, so why not take the challenge with confidence?”
“Alisa, what do you think I am?”
“That’s… well, yep.”
“I won’t understand if you don’t tell me properly, you know?”
Rean approached Alisa, who avoided eye contact. The other three let out a wry smile at the sight, but in the end, Gaius intervened and Emma pulled Rean away to put a stop to it.
“Okay, then we’ll go to Raquel after taking care of the tasks other than the one from the territorial army, I guess.”
“Then let’s take care of the tasks from the people in town and subdue the wanted monster first.”
“That’s right. Let’s get this over with quickly.”
With that said, Rean took out the flag.
Before anyone could say anything, Rean headed outside.
“Okay everyone, let’s start exploring Ordis.”
“W-wait a minute! At least wait until we’re outside the town before you take that out, please! We won’t be able to walk outside in a lot of ways! Wait, please wait, Reaaaaaaaaannnnnnn!”
Alisa’s attempt to stop didn’t reach Rean, and he ran around the town of Ordis with the flag.
According to Osbon, running through unknown lands corresponds with the work of a legendary map craftsman called Mapper.
Unlike Parm, Ordis was a city with a large population and a large landmass.
So just in case they got lost in the crowd, Rean made sure to carry the Thors flag around so it became a landmark for Group A.
Thors Military Academy Class VII Group A, led by Rean, a tour guide who didn’t know much about the city, ran around the city of Ordis, and in a sense, caused a ruckus in the city as they carried out the tasks.
Author Note:
Group A during the morning.
Rean
Enjoying the interactions with town residents with a flag in hand.
Alisa
(Covering her face with her hands).
Elliot
(His body trembling, while looking to the ground with a red face).
Gaius
(Recalled his younger days when he raced his horse through grassland with his family through Rean).
Emma
(Leading Alisa while thinking, Osbon-san and Valimar is being quiet today).
Musse
Upon receiving the report that Rean ran around the Port City with the flag in hand, she became worried about Elise’s and Aurelia’s eyes for people.
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