WeTried Translations x Flame Comics
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
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Chapter 112: 16. The Person Who Travels Abroad to a Conflict Zone During Vacation (4)
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On the way to the treasury, Nabelun kept exclaiming in flushed excitement. Most of it was praise for the Chief Secretary.
“Isn't he incredible? His beloved son was kidnapped by those scum, yet he is handling it with such composure!”
“I see.”
“He never mentioned his son to you even once. Didn't he clearly point out what you called the ‘operational objective,’ asking you to return this land to us? To give up his son and choose his people. He is a role model for all, the very embodiment of Averagism!”
“...I see.”
Ivan nodded without much reaction. At the same time, he thought to himself.
Well, from the perspective of a human who was not devoted to Averagism, the Chief Secretary's words were extremely subtle.
The Chief Secretary's request had been simple.
-Return the remaining half of these mountains to us.
It was highly political rhetoric, phrased so the dwarves would hear it as, Eliminate Aviditas's remnants and end the war.
Perhaps because they were directly involved, the dwarves viewed Aviditas's remnants and the dwarf rebels as one and the same. The situation was more complicated than that.
The dwarf rebels were certainly being controlled like puppets by the necromancers, but killing those necromancers would not make the rebels suddenly vanish.
The divide between the two sides had already grown too deep for reconciliation to be considered. A surrender document was little different from a waiver of one's own body, asking to be led to the execution ground.
The Chief Secretary knew that. Killing Aviditas would not restore half the mountains, nor could Ivan clean up the remaining dwarf rebels.
His role was limited to that of a strike team and rescue team. Full-scale war was not his specialty.
‘The Chief Secretary has not given up on his son.’
That was Ivan's conclusion.
Before his people, he had acted as though he were sternly issuing an order as a great leader who had sacrificed his son for his people.
It was probably a desperate measure. With half his people having turned their backs on him, his leadership might already have been questioned. To maintain powerful charisma, he needed to show that he could sacrifice even his own child.
There was also the matter of asking humans for aid. That was a political risk as well. Once the civil war ended, it would be hard for him to escape being branded a dictator who had clung to his former enemies and slaughtered his own people.
That was why he could not directly ask them to rescue his son.
-Return the remaining half of these mountains to us.
The Chief Secretary implied that he was the owner of the entire mountain range. Beyond the hollow pretext of Averagism, this great dictator was confident in his authority, which far surpassed feudal power.
At the same time,
-Return the remaining half.
He was also a father who acknowledged that his son was half of himself.
If he truly intended to order them to assassinate Aviditas's remnants and abandon his son, he would have used more efficient wording.
‘And he prepared a safeguard, too.’
On the surface, once its political implications were stripped away, the statement looked like an order to assassinate Aviditas's remnants. That would certainly be what the official request said.
Therefore, if Ivan rescued his son but abandoned the strike on the enemy leadership, the Chief Secretary would use it to try to gain an advantage over Krasilov in diplomacy.
The supporting force's misjudgment would have created a difficult situation on the battlefield.
Yet prioritizing the assassination of the leadership would cause problems as well. The condition attached when they officially requested support from Krasilov had been the rescue of the Chief Secretary's son.
‘If he wanted to prevent the war in the first place, he would have requested support from the northern military establishment.’
If Krasilov's reinforcements resolved everything, the dwarves would be left as nothing more or less than a vassal state. He must have sought his people's independence, even if it meant preparing such a move.
A very troublesome, seasoned politician.
“Enrika.”
“Hm?”
“Eek?!”
Nabelun stared in shock at Enrika, who suddenly dropped down from the ceiling. She had secretly infiltrated this highly secret passage between the Chief Secretary's palace and the treasury, then waited for them.
Before Nabelun could react, Ivan looked at her.
“How much did you hear?”
“All of it.”
“Do you understand the situation?”
“Yeah.”
“I'm counting on you.”
The seasoned old woman, who had lived for more than two hundred years, had wisely grasped the entire situation from their brief exchange.
As a partner who had worked with him for a long time, she was a very reassuring source of support.
‘What the Chief Secretary wants is both the assassination of the necromancers and the rescue of his son.’
‘The two objectives cannot be accomplished at the same time.’
‘Unless both objectives are accomplished, the Chief Secretary will try to gain the upper hand over Krasilov in formal diplomacy.’
In the end, that man had prepared himself to profit under any circumstances, so long as this civil war did not end in defeat.
Then Ivan should give him a lesson.
Being treated like a servant by these moles while having his compensation squeezed out of him was an arrangement that simply did not add up.
Ivan had not been wrong when he said the two objectives could not be achieved simultaneously.
That was true, if the subject was limited to ‘I.’
He was not alone here. Enrika was here, his teacher who had personally taught him every tactic, his partner who had crossed battlefields with him, and the veteran who had handled reconnaissance and tactical support from the rear of the Hero Party.
Ivan alone could fill the role of a strike team from the Annihilation Unit.
And with Enrika at his side, their current strength was no less formidable than the strike force that had once assassinated the Seven Dragon Generals.
Once the dwarves learned that, they would have to learn that diplomacy required more than rhetoric. They would have to learn courtesy.
They would have to remember that [Black Widow] and [Shadowblade] always lay in wait at the end of the railway that ran from Pritchenkaya to Andgrund.
“Which way will my disciple be heading? Rescue?”
“No.”
“Yeah, I thought so. Fine. I'll handle the rescue, and you handle the assassination.”
“I'll see you in the operations room.”
“Sure. Have fun shopping.”
Enrika giggled and melted back into the darkness.
Ignoring the stunned Nabelun, Ivan continued walking as he thought.
Enrika would take the mission to rescue the Chief Secretary's son, while he would eliminate Aviditas's remnants.
That division of roles was no different from Enrika yielding her time for revenge to him.
Soon. I will be there soon. Please wait a little longer.
Ivan whispered softly to the necromancers lurking somewhere beyond the end of the mine shaft and kept walking.
* * *
Andgrund meant [World] in the Old Dwarven runic language. The name reflected dwarven arrogance, but it also hinted at the abundance of this underground realm.
There was no need to venture outside. Every mineral, every product, every place to live existed beneath the ground.
It was another [World], spreading deep beneath the Sky Mountains, the enormous wall stretching across the northern continent.
Here, the dwarves had waged wars as old as their history. At times against the northern demonfolk, sometimes against underground native creatures, occasionally against outside invaders, and finally against other dwarf clans.
It meant one thing.
Just as humanity's territory was small compared to the world, the dwarf population was plainly insufficient compared to the breadth of their [World].
In other words, vast caverns and the dark world beneath the bedrock inevitably contained gaps in dwarf military coverage.
-Bzzzzt... bzzzzt...!
“It's happening again, damn it.”
The sentry at the cable relay station in Mine Shaft 6 of the 17th Outpost grumbled and put down the receiver. The station handled the communications network for three nearby outposts.
Because of the hard bedrock and mineral veins saturated with mana, all forms of communication had to rely on couriers or mana conductor lines. Sadly, the dwarves' height meant couriers were not even worth considering. Short legs meant slow walking speed.
No matter how delicately engineered they were, communication lines snapped constantly. One stomp from a military boot could easily sever a line.
So the static coming from the receiver was only one of those everyday problems.
“Can you hear me? Relay station, relay station. Mine Shaft 5, respond.”
-Bzzzzt... bzzzzt.
“Mine Shaft 5 is down too?”
The dwarf yawned, scratched his beard roughly, and grumbled.
There had been no tension on the recently stagnant front. Those “necrophiles” in the rear had shut themselves in their rooms to prepare something, and this outpost was far from the front lines. There was not even a hint of war here.
It had been an ordinary watch shift. Like every watch shift, it consisted of half-dozing while recording reports every hour and secretly chewing jerky as he made calls.
But at a time when a report should have arrived from one mine shaft guard post every ten minutes, there had been no response for thirty minutes.
“Mine Shaft 4, can you hear me?”
-Bzzzzt....
“...Mine Shaft 9. Can you hear me? Respond. Relay station calling.”
-Bzzzzt. Bzzzzt....
At that point, unease suddenly surged through him. A communications blackout like this could not be caused by a single severed conductor line.
Only then did the word ‘war’ begin whispering faintly in the dwarf's mind. He was a rebel, even if he was stationed at an external outpost far from the front.
Every rebel in the world was bound to be paranoid. They knew they would be dragged to the execution block the moment they were captured. As soon as the threat of war came to mind, the sentry began frantically pressing the relay controls.
“Mine Shaft 1, Mine Shaft 2... Mine Shaft 11!! 16th Outpost, respond. 15th Outpost! 19th Outpost!!”
-Bzzzzt, bzzzzt, bzzzzt....
“Northwestern Command, this is the 15th Outpost relay station! Respond!”
-Bzzzzt. Bzzzzt.
This was no longer a problem with one or two conductor lines. It was impossible for every line running through countless mine shafts to be cut at the same moment by chance.
Someone was deliberately sabotaging them. But could a dwarf carry out sabotage like this, so deep in the rear? It would have been impossible even during the war, when they still had the Earthweb Excavator.
The sentry scratched his beard nervously and looked around with narrow eyes.
“...Gulp.”
Five mine shafts spread out from the relay station. One led to the rear command headquarters, so he stared wildly down the four shafts ahead of him and swallowed hard.
How long until the next sentry came? Damn it, when I get back, I have to insist that two people stand watch. Even in the rear, even if the front is short on personnel, isn't this too much?
-Thump.
Then a heavy sound came from a distant mine shaft. The sentry let out a shriek and quickly raised his pistol.
-Thump!
“Ghk!!”
The white mana lamps scattered along the shaft went out with a pop. It was in the direction of the 14th Outpost....
The sentry licked his dry lips and aimed his pistol with trembling hands.
Again.
-Thump!!
The lights went out in the shaft on the exact opposite side.
-Thump!!
Then in another shaft. And another.
At last, darkness settled over all four mine shafts leading to the forward outposts.
Panicking, the sentry snatched up the relay receiver and began hammering the buttons.
“Someone answer! Emergency! It's an emergency!! I request support! I request support!!”
The terrified dwarf's scream rang through the relay station. The only answer that returned through the echo was static-filled silence.
A single dim mana lamp at the relay station barely pushed back the darkness right in front of him when a click sounded from beyond the receiver.
“Can you hear me? Can you hear me?! Oh, ancestors. Damn it. Comrade!! This is the relay station, the 17th Outpost relay station! I request support!!”
-Location?
“Damn it, what do you mean, location?! Is there more than one relay station at the 17th Outpost? It's Mine Shaft 6 at the 17th Outpost!! Hurry! It's an emergency!!”
-Understood.
The signal cut off with a click.
Only then did the sentry feel as if his mind had returned by magic. His brain, soaked in fear, began greedily drawing in oxygen as relief set in.
He panted, then finally managed to form a thought as his mind began functioning rationally again.
‘Wait. Who was that...?’
He had been wildly pressing the relay controls, so he had not been able to confirm which outpost had replied. Even if some outpost had responded, nobody would ignore communications procedure and get straight to the point.
And even then, they would not ask where the relay station was.
Even if, by some chance, they really did not know where the relay station was... they would not end the call like that.
‘Who was it? Who was it...?! Who was that?’
Was it those Averagist bastards? Or demonfolk who had breached an external gate in this sector? Or... or....
-Do not remain alone at the end of a dark mine shaft.
An old saying passed through his mind.
-Black Widow is coming.
It was a whisper from years ago, one that had now become superstition.
The celebration the dwarves had held after everyone involved had died had greatly weakened the fear of that old superstition. By now, it was no more than a nursery rhyme used to scare children.
Yet every dwarf who remembered those days, every veteran who had fought in the war, still recalled that saying with a shudder.
-Step, step, step.
Footsteps sounded from the end of the mine shaft.
The dwarf convulsively raised his gun and fired toward the sound.
-Bang, bang! Clink....
Shell casings rolled across the ground. Bullets struck somewhere in the shaft and ricocheted.
Through it all,
-Step, step, step.
The footsteps did not stop.
“Identify yourself! I-I said identify yourself!!”
-Bang! Bang! Click, tick. Tick. Tick.
Even when the hammer struck the empty chamber uselessly, he could not bring himself to load another round. He simply aimed at the end of the shaft with shaking hands.
A steady sound rang in the ears of the dwarf, who trembled and cried without restraint, as regular as a beating heart, slow and quiet like a rope tightening around his throat.
-Step, step, step.
* * *
“Pass this to Enrika. Infiltration of Northern Fifth Gate successful.”
“Yes, Senior Brother! Infiltration of Northern Fifth Gate successful!!”
“Quietly.”
“Yes, Senior Brother!!”
“Quiet.”
“Yeees... Senior Brother!!”
Ivan looked Lucia over as she grinned mischievously, then quietly sighed.
Lucia grinned and tightly closed her eyes.
Mana flashed for an instant, and red veins bulged beneath her pale skin.
Vampire Link, a vital signal transmitted through the bloodline of one's ancestors.
It could not carry complicated conversation, but short signals could be delivered over a certain distance regardless of terrain. A tap, tap, tap, like knocking on a heart.
As Morse code, devised in the early nineteenth century, had proven, individual signals were an excellent language for communication. Enrika had not run an intelligence organization for no reason.
Lucia was Enrika's direct disciple, half vampire and half human. She had succeeded in mastering nearly all of Enrika's secret arts. Naturally, she could use a skill like this far better than other vampires.
The problem was her personality. To Ivan, Lucia seemed just like Enrika two hundred years younger.
It was as though someone had simply taken the years away from an old woman who acted like a child. In other words, just a kid.
‘It will still be a good lesson for her.’
Among the descendants of the Hero Party, Lucia was one of the few who had received direct instruction from the original Hero Party. That meant Lucia was the most outstanding in the new Hero Party.
The only thing Lucia lacked was real combat experience.
An excellent agent never carried out only one objective in a single operation. They always aimed to exceed the objective, and Ivan had taken that lesson deeply to heart.
So in this operation, as someone who had completed a modern twenty-first-century curriculum with excellent grades, he intended to teach the young student as an educator.
Lucia only needed to serve as a communications operator from a distance. Ivan could personally guide her through practical training.
“What is the reply?”
“Understood. Continue the operation.”
“Confirmed. Let's move.”
“Yes, Senior Brother!!”
“Quietly.”
“Yeees... Senior Brother!!!”
Is Lucia doing that on purpose?
When Ivan turned to look, Lucia's expression said that she absolutely was.
Ivan had grown up in an era with student-rights ordinances, so he did not use violence as a teaching method.
Still, he wanted to hit Lucia once. His hand reflexively moved to his waist, then quietly left the handle of his axe. He sighed instead.
Whenever the thought occurred to him that, since this was a primitive premodern society, perhaps he could use primitive educational methods, he suppressed it with a vow to uphold the dignity of a representative of Earth's civilized world.
Andgrund's strike east and attack west operation, day two. This was immediately after they seized the first target point.
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Footnotes:
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