Trails with Cuddle-Cuddle Osbon
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Helen
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Author Note:
Interactions with a member in Class VII Group A during the May field study. This time, it is Alisa’s chapter.
Thank you for your typo reports as always.
Chapter 38 – Fufufu, son. Children Should Just Rely On Adults.
Rean was enthusiastically working on volunteer activities for the student council again today and was about to leave the athletic ground after finishing a request from the riding club.
At that moment, he heard a girl’s high-pitched voice coming from the lacrosse club, and Rean instinctively turned his head.
It was Alisa, a member of the lacrosse club, and a female student was yelling at her.
Because he had heard them, Rean couldn’t just ignore it, so he approached them.
“Ah, Rean……”
When Alisa noticed Rean, her face looked somewhat relieved.
On the other hand, the female student who was yelling noticed Rean and her body visibly trembled in surprise.
“R-Rean Schwarzer……”
“That’s my name, but…… Alisa, did something happen?”
“Eh?”
“I heard the girl’s yelling. Was it a quarrel? If so——”
“No, no! There’s nothing!”
The female student looked at Rean with a somewhat frightened look.
Her behavior reminded Rean of Linde the other day, and he recalled that he had been sticking his nose into various issues surrounding the recent arrogant behaviors of the noble students and resolving them accordingly.
Since then, the way the noble students looked at Rean changed, but after Rean reconciled with Patrick, who was a member of one of Four Great Houses, it tone down to some extent…… but it didn’t seem to have disappeared completely.
“Err~ are you a noble student? If you haven’t done anything in particular, then I’m not going to do anything either, you know?”
“I-I know……Ahem, my name is Ferris Florald. That girl has been acting absentmindedly repeatedly, so I was just scolding her.”
“Likewise, I’m Rean Schwarzer. Is that true, Alisa?”
“Yes……I’m sorry to trouble Florald-san with my behavior. Please accept my apology as well.”
“Eh? Um, well…… Well, since you have apologized so honestly, I won’t nag you further. Just be careful from now on.”
“Florald-san……”
Rean wasn’t sure, but it seemed that the matter was resolved.
Feeling relieved, Rean turned to leave, but Alisa called out to him.
“Rean, can I talk to you for a bit after this?”
“Uhm?”
“There’s something I’d like to consult with you.”
“Okay. Is all that’s left, to clean up?”
“Eh, that’s true, but……”
“Then I’ll help you. It’ll end quicker that way.”
“Rean…… Thank you.”
Since he had no apparent plans for the rest of the day, Rean helped the lacrosse club clean up.
After the club activities concluded, Rean took Aisa back to the front desk of the Class VII dormitory.
“Do you want something to drink? How about coffee…… but I guess Alisa prefers tea. I’ve never brewed it before, so I’ll go buy some.”
“No, there’s no need to be so considerate. Thank you.”
Alisa was smiling, but the emotions shown on her face were ones of confusion as she forcefully controlled herself.
The members of Group A had similar expressions on their faces after the field study, so Elliot and others might be struggling with similar worries.
As a member of Group A, Rean wanted to know the reason behind this.
“So, what’s wrong? You seem quite worried……”
“……Rean saw it too, right? That weapon is called Panzer Soldat.”
Before Rean could reply that it was the one that was burnt by McBurn-san, Osbon cut him off.
[“Fufufu, son. If you bring up the topic about the Almighty Conflagration, then you will inevitably imply your desire to befriend him. It’s a bad idea to say such things to someone who is seriously troubled.”]
I’m also seriously worrying about that, though……
{“Rean. You should listen to what Alisa wants to say first.”}
When even Valimar said that, Rean refrained from his words.
“Aah, it was suppressed by Zephyr, but that’s because they met a weak opponent. If it had been aimed at everyone, it could have been tough to deal with.”
Since it didn’t change the fact that Rean dealt with the Almighty Conflagration, Rean excluded himself and thought.
Taking on the two Zephyr’s regiment captains was tough enough, but they had been going easy on the group.
But the person piloting the Panzer Soldat was an arrogant noble soldier.
If the group were to fight it, they might have suffered greater wounds than Rean had suffered back then.
“Are you scared of that? But we already reported that and the instructors of Thors are……”
“That’s not it!”
Alisa shouted, interrupting Rean’s words as he tried to comfort her.
Rean was surprised by her sudden reaction and Alisa reflected on her own actions before quickly apologizIng.
“I-I’m sorry. I suddenly yelled.”
“I was just a little surprised, so that’s fine. But what do you mean by your words earlier?”
Rean waited for Alisa to calm down and then patiently waited for a reply.
Alisa then muttered softly.
“Reinford……”
“Yes?”
“I think that the Panzer Soldat was made by Reinford……”
Speaking of Reinford, it was the Empire’s largest heavy industry manufacturer, based in the Nortia Province, and the largest orbal products manufacturer in Zemuria.
The company was primarily involved in the manufacturing of orbal products and was also well-known for developing private orbments outside the Epstein Foundation.
Above all, the tactical orbment ARCUS used by Rean and the others from Class VII of Thors Military Academy was also a prototype created by Reinfrod group.
Given that they handled a wide range of products, from small handguns to cruise ships, it was certainly not surprising that they would develop a weapon of such quantity.
“But if you say that, then the others……”
“Think about it. Territorial Armies are military forces that are independently owned by nobles. No matter how well-connected the Four Great Houses are, it’s not easy for them to request equipment abroad. That’s because it could become a reason for the Empire to invade other nations. In that case, only companies within the Empire could do it.”
Alisa’s words were spoken in a rapid-fire tone, which sounded with more like certainty than speculation.
As she lined things up as if to confirm something, it could be said that Alisa had already come to a conclusion.
“Moreover, if that one Panzer Soldat is a once-off product, there should be a bigger uproar when they lose it. Yet after that person melted it with his flame, even though there was surprise, there was no anger or something similar. In other words, it might be an important thing, but it wasn’t that important…… which means it was probably a mass-produced weapon that could be easily replaced.”
“……………”
Rean looked at Alisa in amazement at her reasoning.
One must be quite smart to be able to enroll in Thors Military Academy, but even then, her deduction abilities clearly went beyond that standard.
Even instructors were still making conjectures and had not yet reached such conclusions.
[“Fumu, it seems Miss Alisa is knowledgeable about these kinds of weapons to begin with.”]
Knowledgeable? Why would Alisa have such…… ah, could it be.
[“Fufufu, it seems you noticed it, son. If so, then you can act accordingly.]
With Osbon’s advice, Rean thought of the possibility and with a preface, “sorry if I’m wrong, but,” and he continued.
“Alisa R.…… is Alisa’s last name Reinford?”
“?!”
“Seeing your reaction, it seems I’m right.”
“…………Yes, I’m sorry for hiding it.”
“No, I’m sure Alisa has your own reason for hiding it…… is it okay if I ask?”
“Yes, since you already know, there’s no need to hide it anymore.”
She revealed her full name to be Alisa Reinford and that the reason she hid her last name was because of a fight she had with her mother.
Rather than dismissing this as a typical adolescent quarrel between a pair of parent and child, her initiative in actually running away from home and enrolling into Thors was more praiseworthy.
“But after the field study ended the other day, I started to feel really scared again. I felt like what we were doing couldn’t be just classified as classes, it was like we were getting caught up in something. When I thought about that, I started to think about my family.”
“Isn’t that a good thing? Even if you ran away after quarreling, you still treasure your family, right?”
“That’s, well…… let’s leave that aside for now. Anyway, when I was thinking about my family, Reinford naturally came to mind. And then…… it suddenly occurred to me. It wouldn’t be strange if that company made something like that. And then I started to wonder what my mother was trying to do in the Empire…… I was worried about that. That’s why Florald-san got angry at me earlier.”
“Is it possible for you to just go directly and ask?”
“My mother basically flies all over the Empire, and she wouldn’t listen to what I have to say.”
“Then how about your father?”
“…………My father passed away a few years ago.”
“…………Sorry.”
“No, don’t worry about it. But since my father died, my mother changed.”
Alisa looked somewhere in the distance.
With sad eyes, perhaps she was reminiscing about her memories with her family.
“For the time being, let’s report this to the instructors. After that, we can look for something that we can do. It will be fine if Alisa’s mother isn’t involved, and even if she did, then we might be able to stop her.”
“Stop, my mother?”
“Alisa is scared, right? You can just yell ‘a parent shouldn’t do something that makes their child scared’ and slap her. It might be boorish to interfere with other people’s family affairs, but if Alisa does it personally, there’s no problem.”
“Slap my mother…… fufu, hahaha.”
Perhaps imagining that scene, Alisa’s expression suddenly changed from seriousness to amusement.
“If I could really do that, it would clear up all the frustrations I’m feeling.”
“……It seems you don’t really think it’s possible.”
“My mother is a pragmatist. She’ll just dismiss it as a child’s selfishness and that’ll be the end of it.”
“I’m surprised someone like that was able to get married.”
“I said it earlier, but before my father passed away, she wasn’t such a bad mother. We went on family trips together and did a lot of things.”
“In that case, perhaps she is doing her best because of your father’s will? Something like ‘please take care of Reinford’.”
“Ahahah, my father is someone who married into the family. He caught her eyes as a talented engineer since he was Professor Scmidt’s first disciple at first, but I heard that before they knew it, both of them grew to love each other.”
“…………Professor’s first disciple?”
“Yes, that’s right, but…… is there something wrong with that?”
Rean suddenly felt a sense of incongruity.
Rean, as the first member of Schmidt’s classroom, had assisted the professor with various things and he knew the professor was a great genius who had reached the point of being able to summon a Magic Knight on his own.
Rean had also heard the rumors about the first disciple from Makarov and George.
It was said that person was the only disciple that the professor praised wholeheartedly.
The name of that person was——
“Alisa, come with me for a bit. Perhaps that problem could be solved in no time.”
“W-wait, Rean?!”
“Just come along!”
Saying that, Rean grabbed Alisa and forcefully dragged her to the Orbal Terminal Room where Schmidt was.
There was no class in Schmidt’s classroom today, but he would usually be there, glaring at his terminal and summarizing the results of his experiments.
And sure enough, Schmidt was there.
“Professor.”
“What’s the matter, Schwarzer? There’s no class for today. You’re not here to interrupt my work, are you?”
“I’ll ask you straight out. Was there a piece called ‘Panzer Soldat’ among the graduation project of the man named Franz Reinford?”
“Rean?”
Rean recalled what he had heard from Makarov and George.
It was about how Schmidt would always give his disciples a graduation project, a task that was like their final exam.
The project of the first disciple that was highly praised by someone as great as Schmidt…… Rean deduced that it would be something revolutionary, comparable to the railway network of the Empire.
Although Rean hadn’t fought it personally, Rean assumed the Panzer Soldat would be capable of things a Magic Knight could.
If large machines modeled after humans became widespread, they would be able to take over most of the tasks humans could do.
If the Panzer Soldat that the feudal army intended to use as weapons were lining up like an army to gang up their opponents, they were nothing short of a threat.
To be frank, it was more of Rean’s hunch.
However, asking was free, and if he was wrong, he could just ask more about the person named Franz Reinford.
That might lead to a clue that would unravel the conflicts between Alisa and her mother.
“……Is that Franz’s daughter next to you?”
“Y-yes. My name is Alisa Reinford, Franz Reinford’s daughter. Uum, nice to meet you.”
“Hmph. Despite being his daughter, it seems you haven’t taken his path.”
“T-that’s……”
“Professor, don’t change the topic——”
“There’s no Panzer Soldat among the works he submitted. He passed away before he even submitted his graduation work.”
“I, see……”
Rean was dejected.
It was just wishful thinking to begin with. It was unfortunate, but it couldn’t be helped.
In that case, thought Rean as he pushed Rean forward.
“Eh, wait?”
“Professor, Alisa seems to want to hear about your first disciple, so could you tell her about it?”
“Why do I have to do that?”
“He was a student who you praised wholeheartedly, right? If so, why wouldn’t you tell the person who wants to know about his greatness the most?”
“Hmph, you’ve got your way with words —— there’s still some data I haven’t sorted out. I wouldn’t mind telling you while sorting the data.”
Alisa had the unexpected opportunity to learn about her father’s achievements and her face lit up with joy. She even forgot her worry.
“Y-yes! Um, thank you very much.”
“Well then, do your best Alisa.”
“A-after coming all the way here, you leave me alone here?!”
“It’s not my place to butt in on matters between someone’s family and apprentice, after all. You can tell me about it next time.”
With that, Rean pushed Alisa’s back inside and left Schmidt’s Classroom.
A voice called out to Rean from behind the closed doors, but he pretended not to hear.
“But I thought that the Panzer Soldat was connected to that Franz person or the professor in some way…… but I guess I was wrong.”
[“Fufufu, son. You’re still has a long way to go.”]
“Uhn?”
[“The professor did say his disciple had not submitted any work, but he didn’t say that the concept of an intended work didn’t exist. On the other hand, it’s possible he created Panzer Soldat as his posthumous work precisely because he had lost the disciple he missed the most.”]
“Then I should return immediately——”
[“Fufufu, you’re naïve, son. It’s a person that even that professor went out of his way to cover up to protect, you know? Even if you returned and pointed it out, he would probably just pretend that he had no idea what you meant. Therefore, unless you present concrete evidence, he will never miss the opportunity to hide his disciple’s posthumous work from being brought to light.”]
“…………So he was worth so much to the professor, was he?”
It was intriguing that the professor became so attached to someone outside his own interest, but it could also be said that he was showing his final support to his disciple, whose death he regretted losing so much.
Schmidt never cared about how the things he made were used to begin with. He wouldn’t give a damn even if his inventions were used for military purposes, increasing tensions between the Territorial Army and Imperial regular army, or even with other nations.
Knowing how twisted Schmidt’s personality was, as well as how considerate he could be, Rean didn’t feel anything off if the professor really brought Panzer Soldat into the world no matter what.
Rean could understand that feeling a little.
Rean felt that his desire to have the world acknowledge the existence of Osbon, who was invisible to most people, was similar to the professor trying to release the work of a deceased person to the public.
[“And since the professor spent his days in Schmidt’s classroom, the Panzer Soldat is no longer in his hands. The die has already been cast…… at the very least, the most you can do is to tell Miss Sara about Reinford. The rest is up to the adults. As a student, you should focus on what you want to do. That may ultimately lead to the solutions to everything.”]
“I hope so.”
After being persuaded by Osbon, Rean contacted Sara and told her about Reinford.
When he did, Sara told him that she already noticed that possibility and was currently investigating the flow of supplies with Roer as her main focus.
[“Rean, I’m grateful to you for bringing back that information. From now on, leave the rest to adults. You should enjoy your life at the academy to the fullest without causing me any trouble.”]
With that, Sara hung up the phone.
It seemed like the adults were behaving more like proper adults than Rean had thought.
In that case, what Rean did wouldn’t change.
All he could do was to improve and train himself in order to become friends with Almighty Conflagration.
Feeling better, Rean was told by Alisa the next day that she would be returning to Roer on the next free day.
It seemed she had decided to talk with her mother face to face.
“But she’s busy, right? Is it okay?”
“Yes, we have an excellent maid, after all. I’ll contact her and force her to make time.”
Perhaps because she had heard about her beloved mother, Alisa was so fired up that her determination was visible.
Rean told Alisa his speculation from Osbon yesterday, that Franz might have created the concept for the Panzer Soldat, and Alisa nodded in agreement.
Apparently, her conversation with Rean had made her realize that possibility.
There was no telling what kind of conversation the mother and daughter would have or how it would end.
But in his heart, Rean hoped that at least the ending would be one that Alisa could be satisfied with.
Author Note:
It would be interesting if the cheat dad role and technological role Franz-san joined, but if that were to happen, it would be quite difficult as it would completely overturn the plot in the Trails series.
Well, the concept of Panzer Soldat meant that he would end up indirectly helping the students that got their respective mechs for Divine Knight battles…
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