Trails with Cuddle-Cuddle Osbon
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Helen
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Author Note:
I changed most parts that mentioned Gray Power into Power of Ashen.
Thanks for typo reports as usual.
Chapter 009 – Fufufu, son. It’s Time for a Light Lesson
“Rean. Professor Schmidt called for you, so please go to the old schoolhouse after school and meet him. You can stop volunteering in the student council for a while.”
“I’ll tell Towa that in your stead,” said Sara to Rean during the homeroom.
Rean’s eyes widened, while his Class VII classmates looked at him, each with their own mix of interest and disbelief.
A gag order had been placed on the students who caused the disturbance at the old schoolhouse the other day, but rumors of that incident still spread around the students.
In addition, there was the sudden appointment of Professor Schmidt, who was the empire’s greatest mind in technological aspects.
Then there was also Sara’s remark.
The minds of everyone in Class VII became one, with the exception of Rean and Emma.
It would be impossible to ask people not to associate Rean with the incident.
The neutral people like Elliot and Gaius began having second thoughts like “Perhaps he’s not just weird, but might actually be an amazing person?”
Even Jusis and Fie, who tended to be indifferent, started to look at Rean as if they became a little interested.
However, there was a boy who intervened.
“You! What did you do in the old schoolhouse!”
“Eh? Aah… I was just exploring the old schoolhouse at the request of the principal.”
“Don’t lie! Then why was there such a commotion!”
“I also want to know about that. I can’t tell you what happened, but I could once I get permission from the principal.”
Rean responded without any particular hostility toward Machias’ aggressive attitude.
Rather, won’t this be a good chance since he took the initiative to talk to me? Thought Rean inwardly as he recalled the advice from the principal.
Machias, who was prejudiced against the nobility, had no intention of getting to know Rean.
However, there was now an important issue that even Machias wanted to know, or rather, had no choice but to do so.
It meant there was a chance for Machias to get to know Rean.
Thinking like that, Rean, who had learned that Machias liked coffee during his Trista Marathon, had since been secretly practicing grinding beans. 1
Although it was more of a pretense, Rean did learn some shallow knowledge about it.
All that was left was the right moment to mention that, but Machias, who was talking like a machine gun, didn’t give Rean the opportunity.
As Rean was wondering what to do, Emma interrupted with a loud voice.
“Machias-san! Um… I also accompanied him that day. The thing that Rean-san said is a fact.”
Not only Rean, the entire class was surprised by Emma’s action.
Machias was also staring at Emma with his mouth hung open.
Emma realized that her action gathered attention so her face became flushed red, but she then took a few breaths to calm down before spinning her words.
“I can’t tell you the details, but yesterday’s commotion is more of an accident. Well… I also understand why you’re suspicious of Rean-san, and it’s not like he is 100% uninvolved either… but in any case, please stop making baseless slander.”
“A-aah………… I’m sorry. It seems that blood was rushing to my head.”
Machias surprisingly apologized sincerely.
Although I have no idea how much the “noble” factor played a part in interacting with him, maybe it’s unexpectedly easy to get along with Machias? Thought Rean somehow.
[“Fufufu, son. Why don’t you give him a hug of friendship here?”]
If I did that all of sudden, I would get a full rejection…
“But why is it that Emma, who accompanied him that day, hasn’t been called while Rean was?”
Hearing Alisa’s murmur, Rean said “That’s right.” as he put aside the thoughts of how to approach Machias for the moment.
Although Rean wasn’t familiar with the person named Schmidt, since the said person was a professor, he was likely an investigator investigating that knight doll.
Rean could understand why he was called since he was a candidate for the knight doll’s Awakener, but he couldn’t understand why Emma, who was also Awakener candidate, didn’t get called…
[“Fufufu, son. As people say, a picture is worth a thousand words. If you need Miss Emma and others, you can simply tell that to the professor. Just go there, see and think about it.”]
I guess you’re right, nodded Rean inwardly.
It was a rare chance that his classmates brought up the topic, so Rean decided to talk a bit.
“Actually, the request to explore the old schoolhouse was sent out to all students of Class VII. I was planning to invite everyone after I went for a preview, so maybe you’ll be invited too in the future, you know?”
Rean’s roundabout invitation to go to the old schoolhouse together, containing his little bit of hope, was answered with the silence of the classroom.
[“Fufufu, son. Timing in conversations doesn’t work like timing in martial arts.”]
“I hope the principal doesn’t misunderstand that Class VII is full of kids just like Rean…”
Rean couldn’t understand what they meant.
＊
“Nice to meet you. I’m Rean Schwarzer.”
“I’m G. Schmidt. Are you the pilot of that thing?”
After school, Rean arrived in front of the old schoolhouse, and Schmidt was tinkering some sort of machine in front of the Divine Knight, Valimar, and exchanged greetings.
Rean’s eyes widened at Schmidt who immediately jumped to the business right after introduction, but Rean quickly switched his thoughts and answered.
“By ‘that thing’ do you mean the knight doll that is called the Divine Knight?”
“That’s right. It’s that thing that shows no sign of moving.”
“Are you saying you want me to move it? But unfortunately, I have no idea how to pilot it.”
“I have heard of that. But that’s more of a fundamental problem… that thing has no core to move.”
“Does that mean it ran out of energy? It’s been quite a while since it was found, so if it moved using orbal energy, the energy should have been recovered by now…”
“Fool. That thing doesn’t move using orbal energy.”
[“Fufufu, son. Divine Knight moves using mana… or what you know better as spiritual particles. Dolls that move using orbal energy are completely different things. Didn’t Miss Emma tell you that?”]
She did explain a bit, but I guess I hadn’t listened too deeply about the mechanism, thought Rean in self-reflection.
Then Schmidt stood in front of him, deepened his frown between his brows and asked Rean a question.
“Since you’re still a student of Thors Military Academy, you should be able to answer, so I’ll ask. What is orbal energy?”
“Err, it is the energy produced by Septium, and its biggest characteristic is that the energy recovers over time.”
“That much is already common sense now. Now, tell me about the characteristics of the tactical orbment you guys used.”
“Tactical orbment has three characteristics.
First would be its portability.
Second would be the resonance phenomenon to synchronize with its owner and enhance the development process of a magical phenomena.
Third would be flexibility. It could exert limitless possibilities depending on the combination of quartz.”
“Fumu, it seems you have the bare minimum of knowledge, at least. Then back to the topic, that Divine Knight requires some sort of energy and can’t move in its current state. It lacks the core that circulates the injected energy throughout its body, just like how the heart functions for humans. Where did you take that energy?”
“E-even if you ask that… I haven’t touched that Divine Knight in any way, you know?”
If anything could be said from Rean’s actions, all he did was absorbing the Gray Power that appeared due to Osbon’s fraudulent act of hacking——
“No way, could it be that…?”
“Hou. It seems something came to your mind.”
“It is… I’ll need a bit more space, so please move away for a bit.”
After explaining the situation, Rean took a sufficient distance from Valimar.
Schmidt had a portable orbal conductor on his hand, which seemed to be used to observe some kind of energy.
At the same time as the signal, Rean manifested the Power of Ashen.
A huge dragon-like ashen aura nearly the size of five arges2, which only covered its upper body, wrapped around Rean’s chest like armor, stabilizing its form.
Rean and Osbon had also been trying to control the Power of Ashen using the power of ogre for the past few days, but things weren’t going well.
Even as the Power of Ashen unleashed in front of him, Schmidt didn’t waver in the slightest, looking alternately at Rean and the Power of Ashen with the measuring instrument in one hand, and spoke his conclusion.
“Fumu… it is as I thought. That thing you call Power of Ashen is connected to the core of the Divine Knight.”
“Eh?”
[“Fufufu, son. In other words, the reason the Ashen Divine Knight is currently running out of energy is because Power of Ashen falls into that category.”]
When Osbon supplemented the explanation, Schmidt raised an eyebrow.
“Hou. It seems you’re quick on uptaking.”
“Hahahah…”
[“Fufufu, professor doesn’t seem to like idle talk. This much wouldn’t be considered cheating.”]
Rean inwardly thanked Osbon.
Meanwhile, Schmidt continued his explanation.
“That Divine Knight is equipped with a thought system… something that could be called pseudo-personality. Since something like that existed, if it ran out of energy, there should be voice data that informed that fact. However, that doll knight hasn’t uttered anything. In other words, the thought system… I can assume that the personality of the Divine Knight called Valimar, is not inside that doll at the moment.”
“Eh, that thing is supposed to be a machine, right? Yet why did it have personality… it’s something ancient, so it could just malfunction, right?”
“If that was created during the Great Collapse, that would be possible. But as disgusting as it is to admit, that thing is a kind of perpetual motion machine with a self-repair function. Even if it breaks, as long as it is left in the right place, it will eventually be restored to normal as time passes, even if it was just left alone.”
“In a sense, it works like orbal energy.”
“I told you that it only happens if it is left in the right place. Supplying only a limited amount of energy will leave it defects, just like a solar power generator.”
Schmidt paused for a moment, then he provided evidence that Valimar had a personality.
“As a matter of fact, according to this measuring device, the energy possessed by the Divine Knight and the power you exuded is considered the same kind. Nevertheless, there is a distortion in energy. Perhaps it could be considered a bug? Based on past results, this means that there are different types of energy mixed together. One might just laugh it off as fluctuation of data, but since there’s actual evidence, it can’t be denied.”
“There’s distortion in this Power of Ashen…? Could that mean——”
Rean certainly heard a voice before he absorbed the power.
If that was the personality created by a program, could that voice be Valimar’s personality within the energy he absorbed?
Rean felt respect toward Schmidt who managed to understand so much of the Divine Knight’s system in just a few days.
However, it seemed like Schmidt was used to that kind of stares, and continued without minding it.
“The reason I talked about tactical orbment beforehand was to make it easier for you to understand.”
“Um, how is that connected with the Divine Knight?”
“If you change the perspective, that Power of Ashen of yours can be considered a tactical orbment. It might not be master level quartz, but I’ll personally design a device that could work exclusively for the Divine Knight. If things go well, you might be able to handle that Divine Knight just like Arts.”
[“I guess it would be a portable Divine Knight. Perhaps it could be called a summon? Either way, there’s no doubt it would be groundbreaking. It would mean that manipulating the Divine Knight which had an Awakener but with nobody willing to ride this thing that seems like some sort of doll.”]
“I guess it would be a knight doll user, is it?”
“Exactly. Of course, various experiments will be involved, but since they will be incorporated throughout the class, a large amount of data could be expected.”
“Could it be the reason the professor agreed to be appointed…”
“You got the opportunity to help me. In fact, I would say you are the luckiest student in recent years.”
When Rean asked for details, it seemed it would be difficult to suddenly change the class schedule, so the experiment would be conducted after school in an elective class format for the time being.
It seemed the professor would conduct engineering class properly, but there was no doubt that the main thing he would do was experimenting with the Divine Knight device.
“Obviously, you’ll have to participate, okay? Along with those girls who found the Divine Knight together with you.”
“Uuh.”
Leaving himself aside, Rean decided to apologize to the three girls later for the forced participation of the class.
“You’ll be the main focus for a while. If you don’t like that, you better use that so-called Power of Ashen and wake up its personality.”
“But does this power really have a personality?”
Schmidt narrowed his eyes. His silent pressure was like he didn’t like Rean doubting him, but from Rean’s perspective, the topic just jumped out of nowhere that it didn’t feel real to him.
Just as Rean was about to ask Osbon for an answer, something strange happened to the Power of Ashen.
“Umu. It is as Meister’s guess, I do exist inside here.”3
“…………………………‥”
I-it taaaaaaaaallllllllkkkkkeeeeed?!?!
“Hou. It seems the ego has already awakened, so we can proceed quickly. It seems practical tests won’t be that far away in the future.”
He’s unfazed?!
[“Fufufu, son.”]
Dad?!
Please tell me what to say in this situation!
[“Get along well with Vali-kun.”]
Rean knew when to give up and accepted everything.
And so, the number of creatures that coexisted inside Rean had increased by one.
Author Note:
Valimar
“……You alone… I definitely won’t let you get away…”
It’s the style where Awakener’s Call (remote control) jumped out early.
I’ve finished playing Cold Steel IV. It felt like the culmination of the series and I really enjoyed it…
But it is exactly because the game was cleared, the mystery surrounding Beryl intensified.
Seriously, who the hell is she…?
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