SmerchOleg: переводы

→Vol. 13: A Light Fortress

→Hyo chronicles Vol. 13

→"December 25, Year 45 of the Fifth Age\n\nYamiko turned sixteen today. I can see Inari’s will behind her eyes, but on the outside… every day she reminds me more of her mother. I realized last week that she has become a woman. It was one of those fleeting moments when you see something or someone familiar in a completely new light, as though you’d never seen them before.\n\nToday, she, Orochi, and Ryuta were presented with a medal etched with their team’s crest in honor of their great work during these past few years. They have carried out every contract with unprecedented efficiency, conviction, and talent. When I gave Yamiko her medal and she looked at me… I felt the same feeling of protection, of safety, that I felt all those years ago when I first saw her mother. I shivered. Hopefully not visibly.\n\nI don’t know how to assimilate this feeling. I heard, a long time ago, that certain women of the Shirokitsu clan were gifted with a great power. A power of command. Yamiko’s mother hailed from Shirokitsu. I’ve always been skeptical about legends like these, but Yamiko’s effect is just too powerful. It can’t be anything else. She’s like a daughter to me.\n\n\nFebruary 10, Year 46 of the Fifth Age\n\nYamiko’s team is the best. The best under my command at the moment. The best I have ever seen. Their teamwork has become perfect, a flawless self-sustaining machine. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of her true power, and it is terrifying. She could be more powerful than I am. We must be careful with her. Normally an adept finds their limits after they come of age, and their power level stabilizes. That day has yet to come for Yamiko."

→Vol. 12: Great Potential

→Hyo chronicles Vol. 12

→"December 7, Year 40 of the Fifth Age\n\nYamiko is the fourth woman to ever enter Dakudaga’s ranks. And among the few female members, she is also the youngest. Some of my men find it hard to swallow, especially the ones that Yamiko beat to the dark dagger ceremony. The worst thing is when they try to hurt her – physically and mentally. They end up either unconscious or in pain for days. Over and over again. I can’t help but laugh. In Dakudaga, it doesn’t matter who you are, but what you can do. She is testament to that fact.\n\nThis year, two more members with unusual abilities joined the guild: Orochi, from the Hebi clan, and Ryuta, from the Ryu clan. Both clans have worked this land for eons, and the two boys seem to be at the peak of their abilities. I teamed them up with Yamiko. She didn’t like the idea to begin with, but she has learnt to trust them. I can see it building, like a chain forged with unbreakable iron. Dakudaga has never witnessed a team so young yet so powerful. I even like their motif, which is the result of putting their family symbols together: the fox from Yamiko, the snake from Orochi, and the dragon from Ryuta.\n\nIt is my duty as a leader to be impartial about all of my soldiers… but that isn’t easy with three truly special students under your wing."

→Vol. 11: The Fox, the Snake, and the Dragon

→Hyo chronicles Vol. 11

→"September 18, Year 39 of the Fifth Age.\n\nIn the end, the only clue we found about Saigosen is that they fled to the south after striking Inari’s village. Not much to go on, but at least fate rewarded us with Yamiko, who survived their attack somehow. We decided to go back to our new base of operations in the city of Kyuryu. We have called off our search for Saigosen… for now.\n\nChildren can be challenging. Yamiko is difficult with everyone in the clan except me. I’m a Shadow assassin, not a nanny! At least Yamiko is gifted. She is far from normal, displaying skills with stealth and Shadow essence already on par with those of my best men. It has made things easier in her training, but other aspects of her education have been far more challenging. I’m just glad we found her before it was too late. Before her mind had lost all semblance of humanity.\n\nSomehow we have given Yamiko a place in society again as a member of Dakudaga. Since arriving here with us, her skills have improved considerably. She has even begun behaving like a human being again. I’m certain we shall be presenting her with the dark dagger in no time. She will be one of our greatest agents."

→Vol. 10: Back to Society

→Hyo chronicles Vol. 10

→"I struggle to think of the last time I was this amazed – this delighted – by life’s surprises.\n\nThat little girl, dressed in a rough coat made of fur and armed with a knife made from the bone of a beast, was the living picture of Mitsuki. With all the peace and friendliness I could muster, I said, “Yamiko?” For a moment her eyes widened, but she quickly recovered herself, stepped away, and raised her guard, growling at me like an animal. I was taken aback too. I realized that in front of me was a child who had spent five years alone in the Great Forest of Rashomon – probably after watching Saigosen Light adepts kill her parents… I’m almost certain she had avoided human contact since then. Perhaps she didn’t understand words anymore. But if she had avoided humans, I wondered, why had she attacked me in the village?\n\nThe answer, rather obviously, was the doll. I slowly took it out of my pocket and placed my sword on the ground. The little girl stared at the doll without blinking. Then, I took my Dakudaga pendant with my other hand and put it by the doll’s side. It worked. Showing the little girl the Dakudaga symbol on both objects stopped her in her tracks. She lowered her knife slowly. I Shadow leaped to her side and gave her the doll. That stare she gave me... I promised to myself that I would protect her with my life for the rest of my days."

→Vol. 9: The Little Savage

→Hyo chronicles Vol. 9

→"March 18, Year 39 of the Fifth Age\n\nSometimes I wonder whether someone or something really is in charge of our destinies.\n\nThis morning one of my men came to me with a prisoner. A villager that had returned home after hunting in the forest for several days. I asked what he had for me, and he gave me a doll. A small ragdoll, crafted with care but very worn. It was an effigy of a woman with white hair and blue eyes. On her vestments was a motif: the Dakudaga symbol.\n\nI seized the villager and demanded to know where he had found it. He said it was on the ground in the middle of the forest. I dragged the man back to my office and wringed every last drop of information I could out of him. This is the only clue we’ve had about Inari’s family for years. Perhaps one of them survived after escaping in the forest?\n\nThen the real wonder. The real coincidence. The person I wasn’t sure even existed, the person who had survived Inari’s name, found me. While I held a candle to the man’s face, a small creature leaped from the shadows armed with a knife. It struck like lightning, almost catching me unguarded. As it threw a flurry of attacks at me, I eventually managed to get a good look at its white hair, which shone with the light of the rising sun. It didn’t stop swinging until the moment I Shadow leaped behind it. Then it stopped and stared at me with those blue eyes... The same impression I had years ago of those eyes piercing through my very soul traveled down my spine once again."

→Vol. 8: White Hair and Blue Eyes

→Hyo chronicles Vol. 8

→"May 28, Year 37 of the Fifth Age\n\nThirty-eight months have passed since the day we began our expedition to Rashomon Valley where Inari and Mitsuki lived. Each and every day I imagine myself making the Light brothers suffer. Making them pay for what they did. But now that we’re finally here, it’s empty – the death of our spies during the attack filled us with more trepidation than usual. We had no insight into what we would find.\n\nSure enough, we found nothing. What they said was true: Saigosen left no trace of Inari, Mitsuki, or Yamiko. The only thing we found were the bells Inari’s father left him. Our tracking also led us to some sort of mineshaft where the locals had been mining for small traces of a strange mineral. Did Inari find this?\n\n\nMarch 14, Year 39 of the Fifth Age\n\nWe examined the strange minerals further. I can safely say that this mineral was Saigosen’s reason for attacking Inari’s village. They could have struck anywhere else after their strike, but they didn’t. They disappeared into the wilderness immediately after the attack. We have yet to find anything that would indicate their whereabouts.\n\nWe’ve taken a fishing village east of the Great Forest and south of Sanzen Kozui Lake. Some villagers seem to know about Saigosen, but refuse to say anything. We’ll need to persuade them."

→Vol. 7: A Long Search

→Hyo chronicles Vol. 7