WeTried Translations
Translator: Botanica
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◈ I Became a Generation Zero Hunter ◈
Chapter 20
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The Hunter and the Fugitive (2)
The starlight sent ripples through Barnett's inner self.
Few people received a revelation this directly from a constellation. Only the Bishops, the Order's leadership, would often hear the whispers of the stars lurking beyond the gap in reality.
Even ordinary believers, if they heard a star's voice at all, heard it only once in a blue moon, a handful of times in a whole life.
But Barnett was different. Not long before her father stirred up trouble in the family, a brand had risen on her wrist. Since then, she had been able to hear the voice of a star whispering to her at all hours.
Now, the star whispered this.
If you want glory, stay. If you want peace, move on.
It was a strange thing to say. By that hunter's explanation, staying was the lower-risk option, wasn't it?
Barnett raked a hand through her hair. This odd star only ever said its own piece, but it didn't lie.
Just look at how it had brought her together with that E-rank Generation Zero hunter.
...She needed time to sort out her thoughts.
Barnett recalled the name she'd seen on the registration card handed to her a moment ago.
"Mister Ian."
"What, kid?"
"So. What are we doing about my payment?"
"Oho."
Ian shrugged. In truth, from his standpoint, it hardly mattered what the kid paid him with.
What he wanted wasn't Barnett's personal wealth. He only wanted to use Barnett as a primer to look into what had become of the Argon Group, of the traces his friend had left behind.
"First I need to know one thing for certain before we decide. How does the 'transfer' of the right to enter the treasury actually work?"
"...A kind of mark appears on the direct line of the Argon family."
Ian remembered the intricate patterns that had been carved down Pirini Argon's forearm in the old days.
'Each one recorded lore tied to the old spirits, or so I was told.'
Pirini would often use the patterns as a catalyst to draw out the spirits' power, showing off insane marksmanship that made no sense by modern physics.
Things like firing two bullets at once so they'd compete with each other and fly faster. Ridiculous stunts.
When someone asked from a sensible angle, the answer to everything was a single 'This is America!', an astonishing attitude that left their comrades shaking their heads, saying they couldn't understand it....
"On the day the treasury opens, the holder stating their intent to transfer is the first way to hand someone the right of entry. The second is bringing another person's mark. That alone is recognized as having received the authority."
"Huh?"
Ian tilted his head. There was no other condition at all attached to the second method of transferring authority.
"Just bringing someone else's mark is enough?"
"Isn't that why they're after me? To catch me and cut off the part where the mark is carved."
'Strange.'
Ian tilted his head.
If simply moving the genuine mark was all it took, there'd be no need for something as complicated as kidnapping Barnett.
A person is rather difficult cargo to transport. Even more so if they aren't cooperating with the transport.
As Barnett had already mentioned 'cutting,' wouldn't it be far easier to slice off just that part and carry it than to move Barnett in one piece?
Ian thought for a moment, then opened his mouth.
"That mark might not be the kind of thing that transfers just because you cut it off."
"What?"
In his hunter days, Ian had witnessed curses now and then. Among them, one of the most finicky types was the curse that led to death. A foul grudge that passes to whoever killed you.
What if this mark had a similar trait?
That would explain why an Argon Group director had tried to 'kidnap' Barnett.
'They probably didn't tell the underlings the truth.'
Because if they did, a subordinate lured by the Group's legacy might betray the director, kill Barnett, and vanish until the opening day.
Ian let out a hollow laugh.
How on earth had Pirini Argon ended up leaving behind a legacy like this?
"Anyway. If that's how it works, we'll have to give up on being handed the treasure from the treasury. The fiercest battleground will be the moment just before standing in front of the family head on the opening day."
Barnett thought so too. The treasury opens once each time the position of family head is passed down.
In other words, once this opening day passed, the door wouldn't open again for at least several decades, until her father died and someone else succeeded him.
The ambitious directors who coveted the treasure would keep collecting marks until the very last moment.
"...Then?"
Barnett swallowed. Honestly, wasn't her only value that treasury entry ticket?
Ian started to answer right away, then paused and rubbed his chin.
A moment ago, Barnett had been about to say 'let's just stay here,' and her expression had suddenly stiffened. After that, she'd rather blatantly steered the talk toward payment first.
The constellation that had interfered on the train must have sent down another revelation.
Quite a blatant intervention, wasn't it?
For some reason, the constellation watching over Barnett seemed to want that kid to walk into the middle of the storm.
Before stating his own demands, Ian offered a word of advice.
"It's best not to trust another's words too blindly."
"What?"
He raised his index finger and pointed at the sky.
"There's no law saying a constellation's will matches your own."
"That...sounds a bit like what the Followers of the Comet say."
Barnett recalled the pseudo-constellations who claimed that all the stars of the Constellation Order were deceivers, and that only the Tailed Star they served truly cared for people.
Ian shook his head. Compared to the likes of the Dragonkin, who openly killed people as sacrifices, the other orders, which at least made a show of fitting into society, were far better.
Still.
"Up to now, the constellation wanted you alive, so following its revelations right away may have done you no harm. But what if one day its will and what you want diverge?"
"......"
Ian shrugged.
"Right, that's enough of the Generation Zero lecture. Still, you do get treated as the direct line, more or less?"
"I've never even stepped past the family's walls, but...yes."
Ian nodded. Then that was good enough.
"After this is over, let's go see the Argon Group's main house. That's all I want."
Barnett started to give a long, pedantic explanation: 'In principle, as direct line the main house's doors would open, but in practice...' Ian nodded.
"If worse comes to worst, make it deferred payment. If I switch to hunting for real and hit B-rank, the main house would have to open its doors, wouldn't it?"
In truth, he was satisfied just to have gained a pretext to get close to the Argon Group's main house.
If the spirits that had been bound to Pirini Argon remained, they'd be in the 'main house.'
Ian hoped the old spirits remembered him, Pirini's friend.
'If things go well, I might learn exactly what happened during the Great Cataclysm all at once.'
* * *
After a long while spent agonizing over Ian's advice, Barnett finally made a decision.
"Let's take the train."
"Why?"
Barnett recited the constellation's revelation word for word. Stay and there's glory, move on and there's peace.
"I'm not accepting it just because it's a constellation's word. What I want is peace, so...."
Ian nodded. While Barnett had been fretting alone, he'd been searching HunterNet for cities within the Pendragon house's sphere of influence and lodgings near Tintagel.
So they could move without delay, whichever Barnett chose.
"A branch house...of the Pendragon house? An estate? I don't know what to call it. Anyway, the Pendragon city closest to Tintagel is Greygruin."
Greygruin was a place that took a full half day even on that insanely fast train.
The straight-line distance wasn't that far, but when the line was designed, the sites had been chosen to avoid Gates as much as possible, and the resulting route was inefficient.
"...I've never heard of that city."
"How curious. Neither have I."
Ian played it off with a joke and estimated the balance left in his account against the ticket price.
It was more than enough for two train tickets.
It was just that two tickets weren't all he had to buy.
* * *
Trudian Argon, a director of the Argon Group, frowned at the subordinates' report.
Vanessa Kiche Argon. One of the many children of the current head of the house, Jibayabuz Argon.
Of all those countless targets, the dim-witted illegitimate child who'd been judged the easiest to capture had slipped out of the pursuit team's hands.
"What happened?"
"During the transport by train, the target suddenly vanished. We reviewed the CCTV in the train corridor, but...."
They had footage of Vanessa entering a regular passenger's compartment. Even of that passenger getting off at Tintagel.
Yet at the moment of getting off, that passenger was alone. After that, Vanessa's trail had disappeared.
"Invisibility magic?"
"According to our inquiry, the passenger in that compartment was an E-rank hunter. It's unlikely they could display an ability capable of shaking off our pursuit team."
Tsk. Trudian Argon clicked a tongue once and waved a hand.
"For now, continue the search centered on Tintagel."
The secretary bowed and withdrew. Trudian touched the left forearm.
Numerous patterns already collected were there. Their effects varied. Sharper hearing, stronger arm strength. Redirecting the flow of smoke once a day.
None of these patterns had any value to Trudian. Common and trite to the extreme.
At best, they served as treasury entry tickets.
But the treasure Trudian wanted couldn't be taken with just an entry ticket. To release its true power, the paired pattern was required.
The most precious pattern among the sacred marks the great Founder had created by dividing a portion of that Founder's own power, the Key of Spirits....
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