Episode 9

Clink!
The bullet’s shell flicked out. With it also came an enemy’s life that he’d reaped.

-Situation concluded. Report the casualties.

Once the final enemy had been hunted down, Captain Songha spoke through her headset. Her monotonous tone instantly cooled the heat of the battle that everyone had been relishing.

-Tiger reporting. One casualty.
-Eagle reporting… Owl has died.
-Leopard Cat reporting. Wolf team has been wiped out.

Well, her decision wasn’t that strange. Humans were bound to get excited when thrown into battle, and this excitement only narrowed their vision and prevented them from concentrating on the problem at hand.
From a commander’s perspective, this had to be handled. Soldiers blinded by the excitement of battle were bound to cause trouble.

“Reporting…”

Which was why Odysseus also planned to comply with her orders. At least, if his legs hadn’t buckled and slipped in a pool of blood.

Thwack!
“Ack.”

He tried to maintain his balance somehow, but the sniper rifle had fallen on top of his body. With the firearm squishing him from up top, the boy’s body tumbled backward. The back of his head felt numb from hitting the deck.

-Porter?! Yul?!
-Hey, Magicks Kid?!
“Kiddo?!”
“Ow…”

This is definitely going to bruise. Grasping his head, Odysseus pushed the sniper rifle to the side. The helmet was only making his head ring. When he pulled it off, his head was finally free from the tight cage.

“Porter reporting… One casualty. Zero wounded.”
-What about the sound just now?
“I slipped.”

A few exasperated laughs came through the radio. A few let out a string of curses that were ultimately caused by worry.

-All right. Everyone, gather around the Porter.

Likewise, Captain Songha smiled as she gave the order. The aircraft that had been scattered about for battle instantly gathered around the Air Boat.

Vwoong.
Captain Songha’s Air Bike arrived first at the Air Boat. Stopping near the bigger vehicle, she used her muscular strength to jump onto the deck.
The droplet earring hanging from her ear sparkled a bright yellow as it swung around from the movement.

“Captain.”

It was never a good idea to greet a higher-ranked official on the ground. So Odysseus used his arm as a crutch to stand up, then almost fell over again.

“Don’t push yourself.”
“I didn’t, though.”
“Well, you’re doing it right now.”

What? Him? Right now?
Odysseus doubted Captain Sonha’s judgment. He hadn’t forced himself to stand up. He’d only fallen over right now because he just consumed too much mana, not because something was wrong with his–

“Shh. Calm down. Everyone’s like that after their first fight. You don’t have to fret over having your muscles relaxing. You’re safe now, and you can rest. I can assure you that.”

Before the boy could finish processing what he had just heard, Captain Songha walked over and patted his head. It was a trivial action—a very trivial action—yet his tense body loosened instantly.
Pathetically, Odysseus’s body had actually fallen into an unconscious state of stress unbeknownst to him. And then, once the fight was over, his body had lost all of its strength.

“You’ve done plenty well.”
“…I just did what I had to.”

Once he became aware of his body’s state, he regained a bit of his energy. Odysseus shuffled around to sit up. He felt a lot better than before.

“Yeah. That’s right. You fought for yourself and this odyssia. And very well, at that.”

Damn it. He was going to look like a little kid who just experienced his first battle.
Odysseus wanted to complain about the situation he was in when he had, in reality, been much older than this woman and had fought in so many more battles than they thought. The only person allowed to pat his head like this was Penelope. However, this could only be internalized.

“So you can catch your breath now. We’ll handle the rest.”
“Yeah! Our precious Magicks User should just stay put! It’s us lackeys that are in charge of gathering the loot.”
“You mean you wild animals are the lackeys. You don’t mean that us luring team members are on the same level as you lot, do you?”
“What? I don’t want to hear that from you, you son of a–”
“Stop! Those who are wounded will stay here on the Air Boat for healing, and anyone with bruises and scratches or less will now go gather the loot. We don’t want to lose those beauties because they ran out of fuel, do we?”
“Of course! The kiddo went through all that effort to get us those presents!”
“Black Kite! You go to that side! We’ll take care of this side!”
“Motherfucker! I only have one hand!!”

But it was nice that he could leave the gathering process to the others.
Having recovered a bit more, the boy headed over to the railing. He didn’t feel much humiliation about dragging his legs across the ground to lean on something. After all, he’d seen much worse sights on the battlefield.

“Don’t forget to take off the marks, you muscleheads!”
-Haha! Don’t worry about it, Captain! We’ll never forget to do that!
-Look at these dumbasses. They have friggin kill counts drawn on these.
-Leave ‘em be. They’ll realize what they did when they get to Hades’s Palace.

The communication channel on his headset was incredibly noisy. He really must be tired, since he didn’t feel this bothered by the chattering until after the fight.

“Yul. Did you use all of the bullets for the sniper rifle?”
“Yes.”
“We’ll need to buy more when we get back.”
“Please buy some more this time.”
“…Sure.”

The bullets used for rifles didn’t matter to them, as Horn and Odysseus knew how to make them.
However, the story was different for sniper rifle bullets. Unlike pistols, the recipe for the sniper rifle bullets was too expensive, so Captain Songha decided that they’d rather buy the bullets themselves, which was the reason why Odysseus was begging her to buy some more bullets right now.

“How’s twenty… or maybe thirty to be safe?”
“Why not a little more? I want to practice a bit.”
“Huh.”

Of course, sniper rifle bullets were also quite expensive. Unlike automatic rifles, sniper rifles require the same type of bullet for practicing, making the investment quite costly.
However, how could it make sense to have only ten bullets in a real battle? It was fortunate that their enemy numbers were small, or else he would have had to use a bow with this fatigued body again. Just thinking about it made his body ache.

“Very well… I will contemplate that matter.”
“I hope you agree with me at some point.”
“…Sure.”

Eventually, Captain Songha accepted his complaints. He wasn’t sure whether his suggestion would really be reflected, but it seemed optimistic at the moment.

“More importantly, it’s already the third time a luring team member has died this month. Five harpooners died, too… Tch. I didn’t think he’d be gone, too.”

It looked like talking about money made her think of their situation as well. The Captain immediately estimated the cost of the gear of their fallen members. In front of her were the corpses and wounded that were being carried onto the corner of the Air Boat.

“And the Air Bikes too… Never mind. It’s fortunate that we only lost one. We’ll just roll with two shifts until we get more men…”

The only Air Bike they lost during this battle was the one the Wolf team had been using. Unfortunately, the damage to the engine made it impossible for them to fix it, and the vehicle itself fell into the ocean.
Had the engine not been destroyed, the Wolf team might have survived.

-Reporting to the Commander. They’re all hooked up.
“Good. And the gas?”
-They’ve got enough.
“All right. We’re heading back home then.”

Not long after, they finished up the collecting process.
Captain Songha also moved back to her Air Bike, which was incredible considering that she could end up in the ocean with one wrong move. It took a lot of guts to do what she was doing.

-We take sail now!

Anyway, the Air Boat and Air Bikes that had multiple Air Bikes hooked up to them began heading to the city.

“But, Captain, can we… take these like this?
-It isn’t safe, but it’s better than connecting all of them to the Air Boat.

Odysseus recalled his time back in Troy.
Chariots of his time were usually led by two or so horses… but since this time, the horses were made of metal, and the things they were dragging were lighter than chariots; it should be all right, possibly.

Tzzt.
Just then, a bit of static filled his headset. Then, the message, ‘Communications channel has changed,’ popped up on the screen in his goggles.

-Can you hear me?
“Yes.”
-This is a private channel. Nobody else can hear us.
“Oh…”

Only the Captain could open private channels. He knew of their existence, but he had never had an opportunity to use them.

“Is there anything you’re curious about?”

If it were something that the others could hear, she would have used their original communications channel. So, the fact that she bothered to make a new channel… either meant that this was an important matter or something that was better off known to few.
Under this impression, Odysseus asked what the matter was. For a few seconds, all he could hear through the headphones was Captain Songha’s breathing.

-Do you… know how to use mind acceleration?
“…?”

At first, the boy did not understand what she said. Which was only natural since this was the first time he had heard that word before.

“Ah…”

But a split second later, Odysseus’s sharp mind pieced together the meaning of the two words and figured out what the term defined.
Mind. Acceleration. The technique that Captain Songha was talking about was likely a skill that related to accelerating one’s mind or consciousness.

“Is that what you call it?”

Once he reached that point, there wasn’t much to discuss. Odysseus casually tapped his headset with a grin and replied.

-Pfffhahahaha!

Hearing this, Captain Songha also burst out laughing. Odysseus even had to lower the volume for a second from how heartily she was laughing.

-How long have you known how to use it?
“Hm, I’m not really sure how to answer that question.”
-Hahahahahahah. Yes! Of course!

But this wasn’t bad. No, it was good, actually. He didn’t have an excuse for his sudden sharpshooting skills, but Captain Songha had given him a reason first.

‘Although it was only while I was using the gun that I used the mind acceleration…’

But Captain Songha wouldn’t know that unless he told her. Logically speaking, after all, she’d naturally think that his archery skills were also derived from the mind acceleration. It was the perfect excuse.

-Very well, our cute little Magicks User. Do you like your loot in goods or cash? For your reference, you’ll have to pay a fee for storing the goods, and exchanging them for cash will come with a commission.
“Hm, that’s a hard one.”

While Odysseus was celebrating his unexpected luck, he contemplated the Captain’s offer for a moment.

“Leave the Air Bike that’s in the best condition and sell the rest, please.”
-All right. Do you have any other questions?
“No.”

Hinting at his intention for the Captain to figure out everything on her own, Odysseus ended the conversation. Of course, Captain Songha’s qualities were not the only reason that he trusted her with his loot.

“Did you talk with the Captain?”
“Ah, yes.”
“Don’t worry. I couldn’t hear you over all of this wind.”

Even in the old days, few fighters reached the level of accelerating their minds. Since the Captain had asked about this through the private channel, this ‘mind acceleration’ was likely a rare occurrence here as well.
With his rare trait as a magick user, he was indeed a valuable asset. That meant he was much too valuable to lie about something that he could easily find out later and lower her credibility.

“It’s okay, I didn’t worry about that.”

So it would all work out. Captain Songha was not a foolish woman who could not see the big picture, and even if she did end up stealing a bit of his money, it wouldn’t be a big loss either way.

‘Since I’m going to be staying with Odyssia: Freedom for a while, it’ll be better for my reputation to maintain a generous stance than meddle in the small things.’

Of course… It was already a known fact among the members of Odyssia: Freedom that Yul was a salty shut-in with an aggressive personality… but it would still be helpful to be generous in at least one manner. It just so happened that Yul’s aggressive personality also only applied to those who were mean to the boy first, anyway.
He trusted that there was still some room for redemption. Yes, of course, there was.