Volume 4 - CH 4.09

Taking advantage of Pan’s attention being occupied by Sherry, I got to Roxanne’s side and gave her as precise instructions about chanting as I possibly could. Just like I told her, then words for the chant itself should be appearing in her mind naturally and on their own, and she should be speaking them loudly and clearly. Now let us see if she understood what I was trying to tell her.

「As a warrior? of amaraha beasts, unleash. . . .  X X. . . .  X X X. . . . . . ah, wait, I think I know this one! It should be 「unleash my full power」 . . . . . . . . . probably. I think so.」

Since most of what she said got properly translated to me, then I guess this time we have to be on the right track.

「Okay, that sounds great and all, but what does 「Amaraha」mean, exactly?」

I think that one word is still something that she got wrong, because that does not sound like any word that I know of, which probably means that it still did not get translated properly. If it was a legitimate Brahmin language word, than the game’s system would have swapped it for the Japanese equivalent of it so that I could fully understand what it meant, so if I want Roxanne’s Skill to work, I think I have to help her correct her wording mistake. In the meantime, another red magic circle appeared under Pan’s feet, so I slashed him again in order to interrupt his chant and allow Roxanne to continue figuring her own chant in peace.

「「Amaraha」. . . . . . . no, I feel like that is not it. 「Amarama」? 「Araraha」? Ugly. . . . hideous. . . . unsightly. . . . . . 」

「Ugly? Hideous? Unsightly? Uhm, Roxanne? Why are you throwing out insults I the middle of the chant brainstorm?」

「Oh, I am sorry if you took it that way, master. It is just that the word that I am looking for sounds kind of like that, but at the same time, not quite.」

Same, but not quite? I am afraid that I completely lost track of what she was talking about, but it is true than when she began translating those words from Brahim, I was able to properly catch their meanings.

「The thing is, master, that in the context of the chant the words that I am looking for would have to mean something along the lines of 「unsightly Beast Warrior」, however, as far as I know there is no such thing as an unsightly Beast Warrior?」

Maybe it was translated that by chance? Or that was the closest thing to the original meaning in Brahim language? I though about it while jumping around Pan’s lower body which I was slashing with my sword whenever he was summoning the magic circle and resuming the chanting process all over again, and then at one point, a certain thought occurred to me.

「Then. . . . . . then maybe instead of 「unsightly」the word that you are looking for is actually 「formidable」?」

「So like. . . . . . . 「Amuraha」?」

Roxanne repeated the word that I just spoke, but in Brahim language.

「Yes, formidable.」

「For. . . . . . .  mi. . . . . dable. . . . . ?」

And then slowly, syllable by syllable, she repeated the word I said in the common language.

「What does that mean?」

「It is an archaic way of describing someone who is powerful in the country where I am coming from.」

And also an obvious issue with translation, if you were to ask me. But since the magic circle under Pan’s feet got activated again, I had no choice but to explain that to Roxanne in the middle of dealing with it. That is as far as the semantics go. But when it comes to translating the Brahim language into the one used here in the game’s world and translating it into Japanese for me and the other way around, it was clear as day that the dame’s language interface cannot handle words with multiple or possible archaic meanings very well.

「How do you even know such archaic words, master?! Pretty much no one uses them anymore these days!」

Sherry shouted without taking her eyes off of Pan, focused entirely on blocking the physical attacks which he was raining down on her when he was not trying to recast its magic attacks. But Roxanne was definitely right about him: even though his magic attacks are said to be formidable, his physical attacks were rather easy to predict and learn, not to mention that that they were pretty much all telegraphed by some sort od additional movement that allowed you to properly differentiate between what kind of attack was coming, giving you more than enough time to either dodge in the right direction or prepare an adequate counter. For an observant fighter, or the one skilled at dodging, these kinds of attacks were really not as severe as his initial impression would suggest. Now that he was simply trying to slam his fists into Sherry’s Club, which she was now holding horizontally while in a defensive stance, this provided a great opportunity for Roxanne to fix up her chant and (hopefully) finish casting the Skill.

「W-Well. . . . . . . . . . . 」

But when it comes to the question that Sherry shouted at me, I could not find any words that would make for an answer that would be convincing enough for someone as inquisitive as she was. My only saving grace here was that this time the words managed to be properly translated, because otherwise I probably would have to prepare a much more convincing excuse than that dismissive 「W-Well. . . . . . . . . . 」of mine.

「As a. . . . . . warrior? of formidable beasts, unleash my full power. Mortal Blow. . . . . . .  Beast Attack!」

Taking my advices into account, Roxanne recited her modified chant, and then tried to unleash Beast Attack once more. However, since there was still some hesitation in her words, it looked like the resulting attack was a failure as well. Looks like the Skill will not be properly activated if even a small part of it is phrased like a question. She needs to have absolute conviction in the words that she is saying, or else she is just going to be failing over and over again. A red magic circle has appeared under Pan’s feet once more, so I hurriedly slashed him with Durandal to stop him dead in his tracks.

「What is wrong, Miss Roxanne?!」

「The Skill does not want to work, probably because I am still making a mistake somewhere. And it does not help that Brahim is such a difficult language.」

「Well, you said it. It is Brahim, so it cannot really be helped.」

To me the mistake she makes is clear as day. She needs to stop saying the word warrior with a question mark at the end. In that case. . .  yeah, maybe that is going to work. I do not know for sure, but it is definitely worth a try.

「Roxanne, try doing something like this: instead of saying warrior (senshi), try prounouncing it as warrior(mononofu) and try to make the chant rhyme.」

I suggested that to Roxanne while shaking Durandal at Pan, who was trying to prepare another magical attack. As for the exact meaning of what warrior (mononofu, or mononofu no yose to be exact) means, it is a makurakotoba (TL Note:  figures of speech used in Japanese waka poetry in which epithets are used in association with certain words) describing a samurai similar to Chiyahaburu or Tarachine no Haha or other similar nonsense phrases present especially in Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (TL Note: a classical Japanese anthology of one hundred Japanese waka by one hundred poets. Hyakunin isshu can be translated to “one hundred people, one poem [each]”; it can also refer to the card game of uta-garuta, which uses a deck composed of cards based on the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.)

「Warrior (mononofu)?」

「I think that the word master used means warrior (senshi), but the meaning he has in mind is  probably really outdated.」

Sherry gave Roxanne another pointer.