WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 1: No Country for Sinners

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The carriage stopped where the road ended.

A barren wasteland without a single tree. With no shade from the blazing sun, every living thing on the surface groaned beneath the heat. In that wilderness, where even mounds of earth seemed exhausted by the heat and breathed out wavering sighs, a signpost stood tall, declaring the end of the road.

The two officers saw the signpost and realized they had arrived at the right place. It was time to begin the next task.

The officers split up. While one approached the signpost, the other fingered the steel telescopic baton hanging from their waist and headed for the rear of the carriage.

The officer at the back gripped their only weapon, the steel baton, tightly in one hand. Sweat made it slip in their palm, but they had no time to worry about that.

Prisoner transports were normally used to move criminals, and the brazen people who broke the military state's laws always tried to resist whenever they saw an opening. Until now, this officer had given such criminals a harsh taste of the steel baton and had been quite satisfied with the results.

Today, though, for the first time since earning the epaulets on their shoulders, they wondered whether the steel baton would be enough.

They had arrived at Tantalus, the prison of the Abyss. A legendary place where only vicious criminals incapable of living among society were confined, a place people entered but were said never to leave.

It was said that you could learn more about the prisoners there from history textbooks than newspaper articles. Even the military state, proud of its formidable military strength, had been unable to kill them and could only imprison them. It was a land of sin where monsters whose combat strength rivaled entire nations, Beast Kings, and warriors who had defeated armies alone walked about like ordinary residents.

And today, they had brought a criminal who would be confined in that very Tantalus.

'Damn it, I heard this was his first offense. What kind of atrocious crime did he commit to get sent straight to Tantalus?'

I wholeheartedly agreed with that thought. What crime could I possibly have committed to be sent to Tantalus without even a proper trial? Someone as harmless and wholesome as me, no less. There had clearly been some grave mistake.

The officer drew a long breath and slammed the steel baton against the rear door.

"Stay away from the door if you don't want a beating!"

The military state treated criminals much like explosives that had to be disposed of. They handled them with extreme caution and wrapped them up tight.

Even petty criminals who had committed the most minor offenses were normally restrained at all four limbs and hooded. Depending on the officer's discretion, they could also be gagged or put in a straitjacket.

Having been told that the person being transported was a criminal bound for Tantalus, the officer had used every restraint they knew. A blindfold, hood, gag, and even a straitjacket. It was enough to make an ordinary person die of suffocation.

And since I was an ordinary person, I was actually having trouble breathing. Save me.

Even against a prisoner who could barely move his lungs, a vital function for any living thing, the officer did not relax.

You couldn't expect common sense from the other party. This wasn't just anyone, but a criminal bound for infamous Tantalus.

Considering they had entrusted the job to a low-ranking officer, I probably wasn't a particularly dangerous criminal. Still, they couldn't let their guard down. Not out of duty, but for their own life.

Though honestly, it wouldn't have mattered if they had.

I couldn't even undo a properly tied rope, never mind escape a straitjacket.

"I'm opening it!"

The damned officer left no opening. After opening the rear door, they quickly stepped back. Every muscle tensed, they gripped the baton and aimed it at the criminal.

The rear door opened, and the cursed, vicious criminal revealed himself to the world once more...

Still trapped in the straitjacket exactly as before, rolling around on the floor.

Reassured to see me in the same condition as when I had been locked up, the officer was about to approach me... then suddenly raised the steel baton overhead. Reading their thoughts, I let out a muffled groan.

Ah, wait. Stop...

"Mmph!"

The steel baton struck my abdomen. The blow rattled my bones, and though I cried out in pain, the gag kept the sound from escaping. I couldn't resist at all as the baton battered me.

After bringing the baton down five or six times as though confirming a kill, the officer watched my reaction and relaxed.

'Looks like the restraints haven't come loose. No need to worry about an ambush.'

Now certain, the officer grabbed the belt attached to my straitjacket and pulled. My body, sprawled across the carriage floor, was knocked this way and that before rolling onto the ground. Seeing me dragged along helplessly, the officer was puzzled.

'I heard this was a vicious criminal bound for Tantalus, so what's this? It feels no different from beating an ordinary petty crook.'

Reading the officer's thoughts, I twisted my body as I swallowed my rising resentment.

Of course it did.

I wasn't a criminal meant for Tantalus, nor was I a terrorist of the century. I was just a petty crook whose only ability was reading minds, someone who had never committed a crime worthy of being recorded in history and only swindled people a little in back alleys!

* * *

I had been playing cards with suckers as usual, with their house deeds laid out on the table.

The idea that gambling was bad was prejudice. If you had money, connections, or, in a rather special case like mine, mind-reading abilities, gambling was like scooping money off the ground. There were plenty of idiots in the world willing to pay their entire fortunes for a brief thrill. I was like a confessional priest who fully understood their secret desires. I just took half the money I won instead of a tithe.

As usual, I was in the middle of winning myself a house from those suckers when things suddenly grew noisy outside.

The old woman downstairs, who took a cut despite never joining the game, gave the signal. One sucker, who had been agonizing over an unhelpful card, brightened and overturned the table. I put off my dream of owning a house, hid the evidence, and waited. Then military police I had never seen before kicked down the door.

Military police conducting a surprise inspection, gamblers clearing the table. That much was routine. As always, I reached into my clothes to give the military police a cut too.

At that moment, a military police officer grabbed my wrist.

"Under military law, all of you are under arrest."

The military police who had come for the surprise raid beat everyone there and took us away.

The military state was far crazier than I had expected. I tried desperately to defend myself, but they sent me to trial without evidence or witnesses. It didn't even take a full day for me to become a major criminal. In a courtroom without observers, I was sentenced to labor in Tantalus without being able to put up any resistance.

My ability to read minds was no help at all in that absurd courtroom. The military police claimed that we had been plotting something while pretending to play cards, and the judge struck the gavel despite knowing there was no solid evidence.

Bang, bang, bang. Guilty. As the wooden hammer that symbolized justice apologized for its own injustice by knocking its head three times, not a single person raised their voice.

Logic? Principles? If those existed, the military government wouldn't have carried out a coup.

I was thrown onto the cold floor of a holding cell.

Then I was transported to Tantalus, the worst prison in the world.

* * *

Remembering the past while tied up only made me more miserable, but the officer showed no mercy and kept dragging me along. Thanks to that, I could feel the ground across my entire back. Every time the officer pulled the belt, sand mixed with stones scraped over me.

Ah, Mother Earth. Your skin is a little rough. I ought to moisturize you.

After offering that irreverent prayer to Mother Earth and being rolled around like luggage for a while, the officer standing by the signpost saw the one dragging me over and looked concerned.

"Lieutenant, is this really all right?"

"What does it matter? He's a criminal anyway."

"No, I mean... Isn't this someone dangerous enough to be locked in Tantalus? What if he escapes later and retaliates..."

"He was already wearing a blindfold when the authorities handed him over to us. This bastard doesn't know my face or name."

Lieutenant Evian abruptly lifted the belt connected to my straitjacket, then let it drop. My body hit the ground. The impact running through my entire body made me tremble.

I'm a mind reader, you know? Lieutenant Evian of Edelheit. Just wait until I escape. I'll find you first and take bloody revenge.

"And how would someone locked in Tantalus ever get out? Stop worrying about nonsense and send the telegram."

"I'm worried about you, Lieutenant. There were stories about an incident at Tantalus last time. If this bastard escapes too..."

"If this bastard had the ability to escape from there, he would've escaped from our transport carriage already. Instead of wasting time worrying, call the person in charge. Let's hand over the prisoner and get back quickly. Coming to Tantalus once is already too many times."

"I've sent the telegram. We only need to wait for the reply..."

At that moment, the arrow on the signpost began to shake. The two officers, and I who had been reading their thoughts, tensed up at once.

A steel sign with an arrow painted on it. For some inexplicable reason, the arrow, which was clearly just a drawing, trembled wildly. Everyone watched the signpost in silence. The painted arrow shook harder and harder, then spun in circles as if an earthquake had struck before pointing at the ground.

Crack. The sound of something breaking rang out.

At that moment, the two officers doubted their eyes at the sight unfolding before them.

Where there had been nothing but wilderness moments ago, an Abyss with no visible bottom or end had appeared.

The Abyss that had suddenly revealed itself was completely out of place.

A vast wilderness. An open plain where it was difficult to find a single tree or blade of grass, but where the horizon was all the more visible. Yet in the middle of it, a bottomless hole had opened without any context at all. It was too large and deep to be a trap someone had dug, too unnatural to be a natural formation.

The officers, and even I who had been reading their thoughts, briefly wondered whether it was a hallucination. Yet the endless darkness that only emptiness could create and the current of wind flowing inward insisted it was real. The officers stood speechless as they looked down into the Abyss.

Just as the two officers wondered whether they were dreaming.

[Confirmed.]

A flat voice came from the signpost. While the two officers jolted at the voice of unknown origin, the signpost continued in its mechanical tone.

[Mission execution confirmed. Please conclude your mission by delivering the prisoner into our custody.]

Overwhelmed by the sight, one officer saluted the signpost. It was a ridiculous sight, but the two of them were captivated as though the signpost were an ability user who had created this Abyss.

"S-salute. I am Lieutenant Evian of Edelheit. Where should we deliver the prisoner?"

[Your mission is to transport the prisoner to Tantalus.]

Tantalus.

The prison in the Abyss that the gods were said to have made to confine giants.

Of course, it must have been named after the myth, but it was easy to infer that Tantalus lay within that deep darkness. The officer looked down into the distant Abyss and swallowed hard.

"Do... do we have to go down ourselves?"

[There is no need for you to accompany the prisoner. The method of delivery is left to your discretion.]

Hey, signpost. Hold on.

The officer gave a faint smile. They had understood the real meaning of sending me down without needing to accompany me.

No, calling it understanding would be a stretch. The officer had wanted to throw me into that hole from the very beginning.

The signpost's words simply gave their plan legitimacy.

"Hey, grab that side."

The subordinate officer understood and hesitantly grabbed my legs.

"I-is this really all right? If we drop him, there won't even be bones left to gather..."

"What if there aren't? They're putting this unreformable piece of trash in Tantalus anyway. Who cares if he dies like this?"

Wait, hey, no, sir. Please calm down.

I'll reform. From now on, I'll read thoughts in moderation and swindle people less, so please, if you're going to throw me, at least tie a rope around me first...

"Still..."

"If you don't want to, should you and I hold hands and climb all the way down there? Huh?"

Apparently not wanting that, the subordinate quickly lifted my legs. I struggled desperately, but with my body firmly restrained by the belt, I couldn't resist at all.

The two holding me on either side swung me back and forth in rhythm. One, two. Each time they moved from left to right, I rose higher before coming back down.

Then, on the third swing, just after I reached my highest point, whatever had been holding me disappeared.

A perfect sense of freedom enveloped my body.

...Ah.

That was how I was thrown into the endlessly deep Abyss.

Footnotes:

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