Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 32: The Awakened Samurai
“Kenya-kun? Kenya-kun?”
A voice… Someone was calling out to him.
What had he been doing?
Had he managed to protect them…?
Slowly, Kenya opened his eyes.
A familiar sight—he was inside the cockpit.
His blurry vision gradually sharpened, the white light growing dazzling.
“Huh? I…”
“Kenya-kun, thank goodness… Are you alright? You’re not hurt, are you?”
A transmission echoed through the cockpit.
That voice—it was Tanaka-san? Ah, right. He had fallen asleep.
“Sorry, Tanaka-san. I’m fine. I just dozed off.”
“I’m glad! You weren’t waking up at all, so I was worried. Come over and rest. The transport truck will be more comfortable for sleeping.”
Following Tanaka’s suggestion, Kenya opened the cockpit and carefully climbed down from Takeru Raijin.
He took a moment to look at his machine.
It had sustained some scratches here and there, but it still stood tall and proud—its pristine white form unchanged.
“Thank you… You saved my life.”
Kenya gently stroked the machine’s armor.
Just then, Tanaka climbed out of the transport truck.
“Good morning—and good work out there. And most of all, thank you, Kenya-kun. You protected everyone.”
“Tanaka-san… No, I should be the one thanking you. If it weren’t for you, I would’ve died.”
“Well… I suppose I was being reckless myself, coming all the way out here.”
Tanaka let out a sigh and ruffled Kenya’s hair, his lab coat dirtied and his unshaven face worn with fatigue.
“You’re still just a kid…”
“Isshin-san said the same thing… By the way, Tanaka-san, can I ask you something? What happened to the Asgard soldiers? And Kaguya?”
“Calm down a little. Let’s talk.”
Tanaka opened the back of the transport truck, setting up a space where they could lie down.
Kenya sat down beside him.
By now, it was nearly midnight. The stars and moon shone in the beautiful night sky.
“I’m sure you’ve already guessed, but I’m part of the Resistance.”
“I figured as much.”
“Yeah. I also helped modify the KOG we captured in the last operation, providing some technical assistance.”
So that was it.
Isshin had mentioned an insider helping them—turns out it was Tanaka.
Kenya now fully understood.
Tanaka was one of the leading researchers on KOG technology. It made sense that he would know how to bypass security systems with ease.
“Isshin and the others are probably heading toward the Asian Union. I don’t have any means of contacting them, but…”
With Asgard controlling all infrastructure, any communication outside the capital was impossible.
In other words, the fact that they couldn’t be reached likely meant they had already traveled far.
Based on prior discussions, Tanaka believed they were using a connection to the Asian Union to cross the sea.
Though he had no involvement in diplomatic matters himself, that was his best guess.
“I see… I’m glad they’re safe. I’ll have to visit them someday.”
“Yeah. Kaguya-kun is your reason for living, isn’t she?”
“!?”
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“Heh, you forgot to mute your comms. You kept shouting it during the battle—’I have to protect Kaguya.'”
“Th-That was…”
“You just wanna flirt with her, don’t you?”
“Ugh.”
As he replayed the battle in his mind, he realized just how many embarrassing things he had shouted.
Cringe-inducing lines, one after another.
His face turned bright red.
“You were cool, though. Kenya-kun.”
(Please stop… My life points are already at zero!)
Tanaka smirked, teasing him.
“But honestly… I respect you. You risked your life to protect the one you love. And not only that, you had the strength to pull it off.”
Tanaka’s gaze turned somber as if recalling something painful.
He looked out at the battlefield—where the wreckage of KOGs still smoldered.
The remains of over a hundred Asgard-made KOGs, all destroyed by Kenya’s hand.
“I lost someone too, once. It wasn’t unusual back then—it happened all the time. But for me, it was something I could never accept.”
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Kenya listened, imagining what he meant.
Tanaka had likely lost someone dear to the Asgard military.
And now, Kenya understood that pain all too well.
If—if Kaguya had been taken in this war.
If she had been killed—
He would never forgive that country.
This world was filled with such common, yet deeply personal, hatred.
And the Empire continued to suppress it with overwhelming power.
“Enough dark talk. So, how was Takemikazuchi-no-kami?”
“It was incredible! The best machine ever! With this, I can fight as much as I need to!”
“I see… Back when I was designing it, I kept thinking, ‘Who could even pilot this thing?’ Never imagined someone would actually master it.”
“It’s my specialty—close combat. And… well, it’s all about the romance, right? Fighting with just a sword.”
“Oh! You really get it. This machine was designed with the image of a Japanese samurai in mind. If you unleash its full potential, it should be powerful enough to never lose to anyone.”
With that, the two of them got fired up in conversation.
Having survived the battlefield together, Kenya and Tanaka, who already got along well, bonded even further.
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“So, Kenya-kun, what do you plan to do now?”
“From here on…? I haven’t really thought about it.”
Kenya raised his hands in surrender and flopped down onto the transport truck.
The temperature was just right—comfortable.
If only the lingering scent of gunpowder weren’t in the air, it would have been the perfect night.
“As for me… if I return to the military, they’ll probably kill me. I’ve got nowhere else to go… maybe I’ll head to Asia.”
“They’ve probably figured out who I am, too. Sieg was there, and right now, I’m the only one who can pilot this machine… If I go back, they might kill me.”
Sieg knew Tanaka’s true identity.
And most likely, he had figured out Kenya’s as well.
“What’s the Asian Union like?”
“Hmm… I’ve never been there myself, but it’s a coalition of Asian nations. Think of it as democracy on a national scale.”
“Democracy? What kind of system is that?”
Kenya wasn’t particularly strong in academics.
He knew Japan had once been a democracy, but he didn’t quite grasp what Tanaka meant.
“Haha, not much for studying, are you? No, my bad… You never even had the chance to learn, did you?”
Tanaka looked at Kenya with a sorrowful expression, as if blaming the war for his lack of knowledge.
(I’m sorry… I’m just an idiot.)
“To put it simply, the Asian nations banded together to counter the threat of the Asgard Empire. Each country has its own political system and economy, but voting power is distributed based on population.”
“So, when they need to make a decision, all the nations in the Asian Union vote on it?”
“Exactly. Well, technically, their representatives make the final decisions. Some are elected, while others are kings—it varies by country.”
“I see…”
Kenya didn’t know much about how the world worked.
The Asian Union, a massive coalition of nations.
The EU, another similar coalition.
And the Asgard Empire—an empire where a single ruler held absolute control over everything.
In his previous world, he hadn’t been interested in politics.
But in this world, understanding it could mean the difference between life and death.
“So, what do you think? We don’t really have a destination, but… should we go?”
“Yeah… What should we do?”
Just then, Kenya’s KOG device rang.
(Only two people know this number.)
Right now, only two people had his contact information.
One was Kaguya—but she was overseas and couldn’t reach him.
That meant…
“…Hello?”
Kenya hesitantly answered.
“Is this Kenya-kun?”
“Yeah… What’s… going on?”
“I’m heading your way. To where that white machine is.”
“……”
That statement meant only one thing.
She knew everything.
The one Kenya had just crossed swords with—the other girl he was supposed to protect.
“Let’s talk.”
The Silver Ice Princess—Asgard Empire’s ace pilot.
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Reina Sylphid was on her way.