Tag-Team 9: A Declaration of War

TLN: It’s the translator who’s slowly dying expnull here! Everything hurts. Dumb doctors won’t give me more pain meds. I’m not addicted. I swear. Also we have a new editor now! Jajan! I present to you fishdust!

EN: Hopefully, you all enjoyed the latest chapter of “Tag Team”. I’ll be joining as an editor starting this chapter and (hopefully) moving forward. Name’s Fishdust and if you’ve noticed any changes they’re most likely on me. I’ve done a lot of cutting away redundant sentences and re-formatting existing ones so everything flows better. Now we want to know what you readers prefer. Do you like these more edited versions or do you prefer the previous ones?

Help me illegally legally buy meds: https://ko-fi.com/A1164EJ6.

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Standing in front of her was the man who expelled Tanya from the party. Ryan. Childhood friend and party leader.

 

Standing next to him was a young woman and more importantly, looking at her equipment —a sorceress. With Ryan’s favorite smooth, blond hair and long slender limbs. She was flaunting a set of the needlessly high-exposure female adventurer clothing accompanied by large animal ears sprouting from her hair indicating she belonged to a beastman tribe.

 

“Ne~, Ryan. Who is she?” The young woman asked cutesy.

“Ah, I’m sorry Katharine. Here, the person in front of me is my childhood friend” He replied.

“Aa~, that boyish female sorcerer?” She exclaimed.

“That’s right,” Ryan said.

“Eh~, this person huh” the woman named Katherine voiced with ridicule and an expression as if she’d won.

 

“After I was kicked out, to hire another female sorcerer?” Tanya answered with a doubtful expression.

“A misunderstanding, it’s different” Ryan replied briskly.

 

What was different? Tanya was not such a good-natured person as to not comprehend the meaning behind it. Her limbs grew cold in anger.

“Ryan. To take your own woman into the party, you kicked me out?” She hewed out with barely contained anger.

 

In a foolish manner and with a smiling face like that of a child, Ryan laughed to dodge the question. She knew that back in their hometown, various things could be overlooked with just that. What an unpleasant smile.

“She wanted to be in our party no matter what. Right, Katharine?” He simply replied while the young woman beside him nodded along to everything.

 

“He’s even worse than I thought” Laplace murmured while poking at her sherbet*.

“Well,” he continued, not noticing the look on the magic swordswoman’s face.

“Compared to Katherine, your skill as a sorcerer was better. But in the end, a woman is all about their charms no?” He concluded as he glanced lustfully at the sorceress beside him.

“Yup, yup! A woman should be attractive right, Ryan” Katharine agreed while coyly leaning against Ryan.

 

“Tanya is different than Katharine and even in the past, you had no charm,” Ryan said to his childhood friend in a demeaning tone.

“Anyone can be a healer, so I think it’s better if you quickly change class and find yourself a guy in a party.” He stated without any hesitation.

 

“Sh, shut” Tanya whispered as a murky feeling was beginning to fill up her chest.

“I mean a woman becoming an adventurer, is it for any other reason than to look for a spouse?” he rambled on without listening to anything she said. In a quivering voice, she spoke louder

“Shut up”

“In that case, retiring young is good right?” As words kept spilling out of his mouth something finally snapped inside her.

“Eh? What did you just?” He blurted out.

“Shut up, you shitty bastard!” Tanya roared.

 

She grasped the great sword on her back,

Circulated her magic powers,

Concentrating on her legs and finally

「Wind sorcery —Activated」

Then charged straight at Ryan.

 

What just happened? A chill ran down Ryan’s spine, and from behind, he suddenly felt the cold feel of steel on his neck.

“Ueee!?”

With an enormous bloodlust, the person who flawlessly held the great sword against his neck was none other than his old childhood friend— Tanya.

 

After realizing the situation, Ryan collapsed from fear. Shortly after, Kathrine also collapsed screaming.

“Kyaa~! Wha, what happened just now?”

The employee bellowed,

“What are you doing, dear guest!”

With a swoosh, Tanya removed her great sword from Ryan’s neck.

 

“Wha, what, you, with a sword? Did you change class to a swordsman?,” Still in a state of shock, he continued,

“You were barely popular as a sorceress, but a female swordsman won’t be popular at all you know?”

 

She took a deep breath and then rebuked with fierce vigor.

“I didn’t do it to be popular. Fuck!”

Laplace who was cheerfully watching let out a “Wow!” in a high-spirited voice. In her hands was another helping of sherbet she’d shamelessly grabbed from Tanya’s plate.

 

“Fuck?” Ryan uttered in bewilderment.

“To say something like fuck, that’s very rude —take it back!” Katherine demanded in an unconvincing tone.

 

Tanya glared at Ryan with a gaze colder than ice.

“Ryan”

“Wh, what?” he replied sheepishly.

“In the next ranking battle**, I’ll participate with my party,” she said.

“In the ranking battle? I’ve never heard of a woman who participating as the party leader” He answered.

“Shut up. In the ranking battle’s venue, I’ll send you crying!” She declared triumphantly.

 

That’s right. Pummeling him now was a waste. Instead, to truly humiliate him, to see his crying face, and to make him beg for his life in front of a large crowd. Tanya almost started smiling when she tough of her sweet revenge.

 

Silence. Stared on by the surrounding guests. Ryan clicked his tongue and stood up.

“Shit, Katherine —we’re changing stores. The mood is ruined”

“Yu, yup” The sorceress stammered. Tanya scowled at the retreating back of what was once her childhood friend. She absolutely can’t cry now. Crying here would be her defeat.

 

“It’s because of this that you’re leftover goods!” While leaving Ryan turned and spat out those words.

“Stop messing with me. Leftover goods are still better than you!” Tanya shouted at his back. Surely he had seen their difference in power. The strength of a magical swordsman lies in their amount of magical powers and dexterity. Earlier as well, even if she just used her powers as a sorcerer she wouldn’t have lost.

 

“I’ll beat him up” Tanya bit her lip. At that moment she was embraced softly from her back.

“Okay okay. It’s good you didn’t kill him here, Tanya” Laplace whispered.

“Laplace” She replied.

“Even though I wanted to eat one more sherbet later,” The grand witch said in high-spirits.

“You’re still not done eating?” Tanya uttered in a mixture of shock and amazement. With a satisfied smile, Laplace laughed.

 

Grand witch of old and Tanya’s first party member. Reminiscing about it was somehow reassuring.

 

“A toast. After this, it becomes a fun revenge tragedy” Laplace said with a smile. Lured in, Tanya also laughed. That’s right, she was fully sober now so partaking in some wine would be nice.

 

Thus the declaration of war on Ryan was completed.