WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 100: The Beast Kings

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"Hm? Wait."

Rashy tilted his head, then headed for the room where I was hiding. He quickly opened the door and looked inside.

Then our eyes met.

"Teacher. What's going on here?"

"Ah, you caught me!"

He found me?

The immortal eyed me suspiciously as I hid so conspicuously.

I crawled out of the room with an awkward smile.

"Well, I was heading back to get something when I noticed the atmosphere downstairs was strange. So I hurried into a room to hide, then missed my chance to come out and just stayed on standby."

Rashy accepted my excuse without question and scolded me.

"If you were watching, you should've stopped them! The lieutenant colonel nearly died, and that kid nearly killed someone!"

"If I'd stepped in, I would've died too, and Mr. Shei would've evolved from a murderer into a serial killer, wouldn't he? Unlike you, Mr. Rashy, I'm not immortal. I can't reattach my arm if it gets cut off, and I can't be revived with a leaf after I die."

"Hm! I can't deny that! To be honest, I got involved too, but I didn't stop them! Ha ha ha!"

The immortal laughed heartily. I gave him an awkward smile in return.

The truth was, I had hidden here to see what the escape bundle was.

Callis had only one place to flee from the regressor. Realizing that, I asked Tyr for permission, got ahead of her, and hid here. If Callis escaped to the surface with the escape bundle, I planned to seize it in that instant or at least figure out how it worked.

Who could've guessed it was an escape-from-this-world bundle?

When I first read her thoughts about the bundle, I seriously considered picking it off her. Old habits die hard. Whenever I saw a leather pouch bulging beneath a belt, my fingers itched, and I found myself reaching for it before I knew it.

Looking back, it was a blessing I didn't. If I pickpocketed an escape-from-this-world bundle and used it, then died on the spot, I'd end up in the joke section instead of the obituaries.

Whew. It really pays to turn over a new leaf. Live kindly, and charms against bad luck... no, good fortune comes your way.

As I let out a relieved sigh, Rashy gripped Callis's shoulders.

"The person who saved Lieutenant Colonel Callis was Lieutenant Colonel Callis herself. I only helped a little! You should be proud, Lieutenant Colonel!"

"...Yesh."

I heard her bite her tongue. Rashy and I looked at Callis. In an instant, her face turned as red as her hair.

The immortal looked puzzled.

"Hm? Lieutenant Colonel. Has your reaction become cuter somehow?"

"N-no..."

"More importantly, without that hat hiding half your eyes, I can finally see your face clearly! Your eyes are rounder than I expected! I only ever saw them beneath that hat, so I thought they were sharp as blades. You're cuter than you look!"

"Th-that..."

"Why did you wear that stiff, wide-brimmed hat all the time? It serves no purpose except pressing down your hair! If not for the shadow of that brim, I would've known your face much sooner!"

"I... didn't want to look... ridiculous."

Covering her flushed face, Callis kept lowering her head.

Oh, oh. So that was it.

The faintly sweet-and-sour feeling was like a drug that made my hands and feet curl while keeping me from looking away. I brushed beneath my nose and said,

"Wow. It was pathetic, but it was still interesting! No matter how rough life gets, this world is better, right?"

"...Do you want to die?"

"Oh? You're still baring your fangs at me?"

Hey, immortal. Didn't you say her eyes were soft? They still looked sharp enough to cut me when she looked my way.

She wasn't even wearing her uniform or hat, yet one piercing glare was enough to make me shrink back. Was this fear carved into my instincts?

Callis glared at me, then subtly leaned toward Rashy and muttered,

"...I must remain here until the investigation team arrives. My authority has even been suspended, so I'm no different from a prisoner."

"Don't worry so much! Lieutenant Colonel, you're not completely trapped like us, after all! And from what I've learned in my life, this place is rather livable!"

"Maybe... it is."

She had fallen for him completely. Well, it was only natural to feel fondness toward someone who threw himself into danger to save you.

Still, what was I supposed to do about this?

"I've held you here too long! I should be going now. You ought to get some sleep first! A deep sleep is the best way to settle a startled body!"

Rashy politely tried to give her some space. It was not what Callis wanted.

He had not saved Callis because she was special. Back when the prison break happened, Rashy had confronted the ringleader to protect ordinary laborers. He lost miserably and had all four limbs torn off, but still.

That was simply the kind of person Rashy was. If Callis asked whether she was special, the answer was no.

Well, she probably wanted to make something of it anyway.

"Ugh. The hard road begins now..."

I muttered that, wondering what trials lay ahead.

Then, without the slightest warning.

Without any context.

Without so much as a sound.

A cat beastkin appeared before us.

"Nyaa."

Everyone fell silent at her sudden appearance. As though we had made a promise, all of us were drawn to the girl walking lightly toward us.

The cat beastkin quietly walked into the midst of us, curled one hand into a fist, and began licking the back of it.

"...A cat?"

Her upright tail reached nearly to her head. She had pointed triangular cat ears and thick ash-gray hair flowing down her back. Oddly, the fur on the outside of her ears was dark gray, while the inside was almost pure white. It looked as if the two sides had been painted different colors.

Four thin, long whiskers extended from her pale face. Her light steps were elegant and soft as feathers. If I could not see her, I might not have known she was even there.

"Nyaa."

The cat beastkin gave a bewitching little cry and casually looked us over.

I instinctively tried to read the thoughts of the person who had appeared.

I couldn't.

No, I could read them, but their meaning wouldn't connect. It was like a book of hieroglyphs carved in a cave and transcribed into our language. I could follow the words, but I couldn't grasp their meaning.

I had experienced this before, so I wasn't flustered. I was only surprised.

"The King of Cats?"

Damn it, what did a Beast King want here?

No, this was strange. The King of Dogs had come because humans sent her, but why had the King of Cats come to the Abyss? Was this the Abyss or a zoo?

I couldn't sense anyone else's thoughts nearby. That meant she was alone. Did I have no choice but to ask directly?

I couldn't read the memories held by a Beast King, but I could know her name. I only had to read it as it sounded.

I spoke to Nabi as she licked the back of her hand.

"Nabi, why did you come to our home?"

"Nya?"

Nabi briefly stopped licking her hand and answered haughtily.

"Nya came to receive an offering and grant the giver's wish, nya."

"Receive tribute?"

"Nya is the only king who made a contract with humans as equals. My attendant offered tribute and asked nya to catch the mice squeaking in a rat hole. That is why nya came here."

A contract. Mice. Tribute.

The ominous feeling rising in me was probably not just my imagination.

Especially after we had been talking about the Lords of All Creation until a moment ago.

"Oh! A cat lady!"

At that moment, Rashy, who had no sense of danger because death did not exist for him, strode toward Nabi as boldly as ever.

"This year has truly been blessed! To meet not one, but two animal girls said to be so difficult to encounter! What an incredible adventure. I can already picture everyone back in the village falling over in surprise!"

"Nyaa?"

"Nice to meet you! I am Rashy, cat lady!"

Just as the immortal extended his hand toward Nabi, she struck him with her forepaw.

Space was gouged out. The cat's forepaw darkly swallowed the space before it, and Rashy's severed arm flew across the corridor in an instant. His detachable right arm did not touch the ground even once before crossing the entire hallway.

Rashy's eyes widened.

"Oh!"

It was strength like Azzy's, no, even greater.

Unlike Azzy, whose hostility faded at the mere sight of someone with a humanlike form, the wary King of Cats did not hold back. Even if Rashy had not been immortal, she would have struck him just like that.

Which meant she would have done the same if I had held out my hand.

Sweat ran down my spine. The scent of death was beginning to drift around my nose.

The King of Cats was relatively friendly toward humans, but... it was best not to get close to Beast Kings in the first place. Beasts were unpredictable. You never knew when they would turn on you.

Azzy, with her complete goodwill, was the unusual one. Since ancient times, beasts had been symbols of fear and danger.

Nabi calmly licked the forepaw she had just swung after sending a person's arm flying.

Rashy scratched his head with his left hand.

"As expected of a cat! Nothing is pricklier! These days, there are only prickly women around me, so I feel a little lonely! Ha ha! Everyone, you should not approach the cat lady carelessly! Unless you're immortal like me, that is!"

Callis looked worriedly at his missing right arm below the elbow.

"Rashy, are you... all right?"

"I'm fine. My right arm falling off has become an everyday occurrence! These days, it feels stranger when it's attached, so sometimes I take it off and use it as a pillow! A true arm pillow!"

"...It's only been a day since that happened."

"Is that so? Then I'll start sleeping that way today!"

The immortal's pointless joke eased the tension somewhat.

His right arm, which had only fallen to the floor after hitting the wall at the far end of the corridor, pushed itself up with two fingers and scurried toward him.

At that rare sight, Nabi stared at the self-moving arm with curious eyes.

"Nya? The arm is moving, nya."

"My proud arm! It has never betrayed me! It is as dependable as any decent compan..."

"Nya."

The right arm was passing in front of Nabi.

Crunch.

Nabi crushed it beneath her forepaw. She had only brought her paw down, yet the floor sank into the shape of a cat's paw. The right arm, caught between her forepaw and the concrete floor, burst like fruit, scattering flesh in every direction.

Rashy muttered with a stunned expression.

"Oh, this isn't very all right."

"Rashy!" Callis cried urgently.

"Shh! Don't approach. It's still fine! My right arm is a body part offered to Mother Earth. No matter how damaged it is, it will regenerate someday..."

Nabi watched the constantly regenerating arm as though it were fascinating, then struck it with her paw whenever it fully recovered and tried to escape. Each time, the right arm trembled in pain.

There was no malice in it. She was tormenting the right arm out of pure curiosity. It was grotesque, yet had a cruel quality that made it impossible to look away.

The strange standoff continued for a while. Without saying a word, we could only watch Nabi play.

There was nothing else we could do.

Then, at some point.

"Nyaah! When are they coming, nya?!"

The right arm's regenerative power was gradually fading. Nabi had grown bored of the arm that could only tremble and cried out irritably.

A moment later, something landed on the roof with a thud. Then came the fluttering sound of parachutes.

Nabi perked up her ears, snapped her head upward, and shouted,

"Nyaa! Hurry up, nya!"

"We're coming."

After the voice sounded, two officers came down from the rooftop stairs.

Footnotes:

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