WeTried Translations
Translator: [IncomeElastic]
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became a Genius Engineer That Mega Corporations Are Obsessed With ◈
Chapter 51
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I Know
"No matter what you say, I can't tell you a customer's personal information."
Watching the engineer clamp his mouth shut in front of her, sweating buckets all over, Queen Mantis Hilda couldn't help admiring him.
'So this is why the place carries the name Titan Garage, huh?'
The presence coming off this engineer was Tier 2 at best, and a wildly unstable Tier 2 at that, the product of some strange trick.
Yet this engineer was holding out even with a Tier 7 pressing down on him, a weapon aimed at him and all.
The truth was, Hilda knew every secret.
She knew that Scarlet, the executive known as Red Thorn, had started to resent Serena, the favorite of Hilda, the Queen Mantis.
Scarlet was always jealous of Serena, always scheming behind the scenes, wanting to stain Serena's name.
She'd known and left it alone. No, if anything, she'd encouraged it.
Because she wanted to see how the two of them would get through this situation.
Whether it was Serena or Scarlet, one of them had to find a way to break the deadlock.
Either understand each other and come together, or cut each other off.
Hilda had always played favorites with Serena in the open, so that Scarlet would notice it easily.
She'd even handed Scarlet's accomplishments over to Serena as her credit.
"Uh... no. Sis. That wasn't me, Scarlet did that."
"Is that so? Serena, you're such a sweet girl. Giving your own credit away to Scarlet like that."
Scarlet had only kept smiling, even after hearing that.
And afterward, Hilda had known that the jealous Scarlet was planning to kill Serena.
But she'd only watched in silence.
Because she rated Serena higher than Scarlet, because she'd believed Serena would notice and overcome it.
But unfortunately, Serena hadn't noticed a thing until Scarlet bought off the engineers and tampered with the arm.
Serena had trusted people far more deeply than Hilda had thought.
She'd known, and it had hurt her, but Hilda hadn't saved Serena. If that was all Serena had in her, she wasn't qualified to succeed Hilda.
Whoever won here would lead the Mantis Crew in the distant future.
But the next morning, Hilda heard something astonishing.
That the whole engineer crew at her own workshop was dead, and Scarlet had died on the spot along with them. And she'd heard it from Serena's own mouth.
"Sis. I think it was those Black Dog bastards. Look at these marks, here, here, here, you can tell they did it. Sons of bitches.... Scarlet's dead. I'll make them pay, I swear."
Not content with killing the friend who'd betrayed her, Serena had gone a step further and thought up a way to use that friend to raise her own standing and tighten the crew's unity.
But something was off. Serena definitely hadn't noticed until the end. She'd definitely come close to dying.
Yet she'd come back alive, with a fully repaired arm.
Someone had noticed in her place. Someone had solved the exam paper for her.
It hadn't taken long to find out who.
Because from that day on, that girl had started visiting just one garage.
She'd started leaning on whoever had solved the exam paper for her.
A place you lean on turns into a weakness. Just like it did with Scarlet.
So she'd come to see for herself. Whether this guy would become Serena's weakness or not.
The first thing she saw the moment she stepped into the garage was the equipment. All the gear that had vanished from the crew's workshop that day was right here. Serena must have brought it over with her own hands.
And when she'd brought up Black Dog, she'd confirmed one more thing.
The instant the words Black Dog came out, another bead of sweat had slid down his temple.
He knew that the war had been Serena's own staged play, built on Scarlet's death.
So only one thing remained. Whether he would sell that out or not.
That was why she'd staked her own life on that threat. Anyone who'd open their mouth here couldn't be kept at Serena's side.
She might have to face Gordon, but she was prepared for that.
Gordon was, in the end, just an old legend. An old man, in other words. And knowing his temperament, even if he came for revenge, he'd most likely only kill her alone.
With Serena the sole heir left, Hilda herself would have to be ready to sacrifice herself for her sake.
And yet he'd kept his mouth shut to the very end.
The corners of Hilda's mouth slowly curled up.
'...Pass.'
* * *
Vwoop-
The green light blade vanished as if sucked back into her wrist. The hum at my throat went with it.
Only then could I breathe.
The strength drained out of my legs and I nearly fell. If I hadn't caught the workbench beside me, I'd have gone down flat on my back.
Then Queen Mantis laughed. Not the slow, frightening smile from before, but a real laugh.
"Ohohoho. You pass."
"...Pardon?"
"I know everything that happened that night, you see."
I knew it.
The hypothesis I'd been turning over in my head was right. This woman had known everything from the start.
From here on was what mattered. To keep my promise, I had to see it through to the end.
"I really don't know what you're talking about."
"Ah. That's right. Customer information is a secret. Isn't it?"
"Yes. I don't breathe a word about my customers to anyone."
"In that case, you won't tell her that I know, either?"
"I don't know what you mean, but I'll keep the customer's secret too."
"Ahahahaha! I really like you. So that's why Serena keeps coming around. You're an interesting one."
Saying that, Queen Mantis slowly rose to her feet.
Maybe because she was so tall, it looked incredibly slow.
"And... take good care of my girl for a while."
"I always do my best on a customer's maintenance."
"Good. That's reassuring."
After Queen Mantis went outside, I let out a long breath and sank to the floor.
Thud.
Beside me, Rita, her ability released, plopped down too.
Thud.
"I really thought I was going to die today."
"Me too... I thought you were going to die today, boss."
"Zino was so scared too...."
"...Want to calm down with a cup of tea each and then go to sleep?"
"Yes. I'll get it ready."
At my words, Rita headed up to the second floor.
I tried to slowly sort out what had just happened in my head, then gave up.
Because I'd been fucking terrified.
I could still feel the heat of the light blade that had been pressed against my neck.
When I wiped at it with my hand, it was bleeding, so I dabbed on some medicine.
"Boss. I brought the tea."
"Ah. Thank you. Let's settle our nerves and get at least a little sleep."
"Wow~ We finally get to rest~"
Right as we said that.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A knock hard enough to rattle the door rang out.
Rita and I had no choice but to look at each other.
"...Boss...."
"What the hell is today?"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
When we didn't respond, the door was pounded once more.
"...Should we just not open it?"
"Looks like if we don't, they'll tear it down and come in."
At that, Rita sighed deeply and got to her feet.
"Be careful."
"Yes. This time I'll press them ahead of time."
Tap-tap-tap. Rita pressed three buttons in a row and approached the door.
"Zino. Stay quiet a bit longer."
"...Again?"
"Yeah. Again."
When Rita opened the door, a man and a woman loaded down with stuff walked into our garage and asked out of nowhere.
"Sorry, but where's the kitchen here?"
"Huh? The kitchen, all of a sudden?"
"It's upstairs."
While we stood there bewildered, a huge shadow fell across the doorway. Queen Mantis.
What the hell? Hadn't she left?
"You're not asleep yet. Good."
Queen Mantis said, stepping slowly inside.
"I took a look at you earlier, and you seemed pretty scrawny."
"...Pardon?"
"Let's eat. And drink, too."
Rita quietly released her ability.
Queen Mantis sat back down on that procedure table from before and crossed her long legs.
"Chef. Here. Not the kitchen, do it here."
The man bowed his head once without a word and set a storage case down in front of Queen Mantis.
Out of habit, I pulled down my safety goggles.
Under his white sleeves, both arms were prosthetics. And yet there wasn't a single weapon on them.
The entire palm was a heating plate, and temperature sensors were packed densely into every fingertip. There seemed to be several kinds of kitchen knives hidden away in them, too, ready to be drawn.
This was someone who'd swapped out his arms not to fight, but to cook.
'...I'd like to take those apart.'
That thought didn't last long.
When Chef laid his palm on a thin iron plate he'd taken out of the case, the plate heated up in no time. A thick slab of meat went on top.
Sizzle-
And then the smell spread.
My body reacted before my brain did.
Grrrumble-
It wasn't synthetic meat. It was on another level from the seasoning-caked smell I'd caught at a street stall on my first day after dropping into this world.
It was real meat.
'...How much is a single slice of this?'
When Chef sliced the well-cooked meat and set it on a plate, Queen Mantis jerked her chin.
"Eat."
I didn't hesitate.
One plate. Two plates.
The empty plates started stacking up faster than Chef could grill.
"Boss.... There's a customer right in front of you."
Rita tugged at my sleeve. Her own cheeks were stuffed with meat, too.
"Leaving what we're given is the ruder thing to do."
Queen Mantis barely touched the meat. Chin propped on her hand, she just quietly watched me eat.
"You weren't scrawny, you were starving. You eat like a monster, you know that? How does all of that fit in that body?"
Then she said to Chef:
"Grill it all."
A bead of sweat formed on Chef's forehead.
Tonight, I was no longer the only one in this garage breaking out in a cold sweat.
By the time the case was nearly empty, Queen Mantis dragged over the two empty teacups left in the corner of the workbench.
"You were drinking tea at this hour? Cute."
A bottle came out from inside her coat, tilted, and the cups were filled to the brim.
"...Those are teacups."
"A cup's a cup."
The scent of a distinctive liquor stabbed at my nose. I know next to nothing about liquor, but this was clearly something extraordinarily good.
By then, Rita had started nodding off against the sofa beside the workbench. After pressing five buttons earlier and three more just now, anyone who was a psionic drawing on their cells' energy was bound to be exhausted.
I fetched the blanket I'd left draped over the workbench and covered the sleeping Rita with it.
Queen Mantis watched that for a while, then spoke.
"Chef. Wait outside."
Chef gathered up the empty case and withdrew. The garage went quiet.
Queen Mantis slowly swirled her teacup once around.
"What does she do when she comes here?"
"She gets maintenance."
"After the maintenance."
"...She talks. For quite a while."
"About what?"
"That's the customer's secret."
"Ohoho."
I'd been too frazzled to notice earlier, but it was a laugh I'd heard somewhere before.
Serena laughed exactly like this.
Queen Mantis swallowed a mouthful of liquor and looked down into her cup.
"That girl trusts people too much."
I didn't answer.
Because I knew. She was someone who'd trusted the people who'd planted a chip in her arm right up to the moment that arm stopped.
"So once she has somewhere to lean, she leans on it with everything she's got."
The brown eyes rose from the cup and found me. They still didn't blink.
"Lately, the place she leans on is here."
Queen Mantis stretched the fork she was holding toward me.
Fuck. Wasn't it over? We'd settled things nicely, we'd even had a drink. Didn't that count as getting along fine?
"A place you can lean on becomes a weakness. If the one leaning stabs you, you're done in an instant. Usually the best thing is to stop leaning at all, but Serena's got a lot of warmth in her. Looks like she can't manage it."
I understood what she was getting at. Serena was the one who'd rolled into my garage with a bomb strapped to her arm.
The tip of the fork came another hand's width closer.
"So, don't you stab her."
Past the fork, the brown eyes weren't smiling.
"If you do, then this won't be a fork."
...A very easy explanation to follow.
I looked down at the tip of the fork for a moment, then opened my mouth.
"I'm an engineer."
"..."
"I don't kill people. I fix things."
Queen Mantis looked down at me for a long while.
Then the fork was slowly drawn back.
"I know. That's why you pass."
In exchange, the plate that had been set out for Queen Mantis was pushed over in front of me. It was barely touched.
"And don't collapse on her, either. It'd be a problem if she leaned on some scrawny guy and they both went down together."
"This is... honestly less a matter of eating and more a matter of my constitution. But thank you, I'll gladly eat it."
"Good. I do like the way you eat."
Chewing through the heaps of meat still left, I hesitated a moment, then asked.
"If you're that worried... why not let her lean on you directly?"
"I can't."
Queen Mantis knocked back the liquor in her cup and went on.
"I'm the boss. I sit in the seat where I have to test her."
Serena's face came to mind.
The face that stayed on and chattered for ages even after the maintenance was done. I'd always assumed she was just a talkative customer.
Maybe this garage was the only place in this city where that woman could sit without being tested at all.
Queen Mantis refilled both cups and raised her own.
"To our Serena."
I lifted my teacup too.
"...To my regular customer."
"Heh. If Serena had heard that just now, she'd have been awfully hurt."
Clink.
The liquor burned going down my throat.
"Oh, right. We haven't even introduced ourselves yet, have we? My name's Hilda. I run the Mantis Crew."
I swallowed the meat in my mouth quickly before speaking.
"Ah. I'm Dex. Engineer and owner of Titan Garage."
Hearing that, Hilda swirled the liquor in her teacup once, then smirked and said,
"I know."
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