WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 100

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The Beast Kings

"Hm? Wait."

The immortal tilted his head and headed for the room where I was hiding. He quickly opened the door and looked inside.

Then our eyes met.

"Instructor. What are you doing in here?"

"Ah, you caught me!"

He actually found me.

The immortal looked at me suspiciously as I hid there. I gave an awkward smile and crawled out of the room.

"No, I was heading to my room to grab something, but the mood downstairs got weird. So I slipped in here to hide, then missed my timing to come out and just stayed on standby."

The immortal accepted my excuse and scolded me.

"If you were watching, you should've stopped it! The lieutenant colonel almost died, and the boy almost killed someone!"

"If I jumped in, I'd have died too, and Mr. Shei would've evolved from murderer to serial killer, no? Unlike Rashy-ssi, I'm not immortal. If my arm gets cut off, I can't stick it back on, and if I die, I can't revive from a blade of grass."

"Hm! Can't deny that! Truth is, I got dragged in too, I didn't stop it either! Hahaha!"

The immortal laughed loudly. I followed with an awkward smile.

In fact, I had hidden here to see what the escape bundle really was.

There was only one place Callis could run to while fleeing the regressor. I noticed that, asked Tyr for understanding, then got ahead and hid here. If Callis escaped to the surface through that bundle, I planned to seize the method at that exact moment, or at least learn it.

But who would've thought it was an escape-from-this-world bundle.

When I first read her thoughts about it, I seriously considered pickpocketing it. Old habits die hard. Every time I saw that leather pouch bulging under her belt, my fingers itched and my body almost moved on its own.

Looking back, thank God I didn't. If I pickpocketed an escape-from-this-world bundle, used it, and died on the spot, I'd land in the humor section instead of the obituary section.

Whew. People really should turn over a new leaf. Live kindly and you get a warding charm... no, blessings.

Just then, while I was sighing in relief, the immortal gripped Callis's shoulder and said,

"The one who saved the lieutenant colonel was the lieutenant colonel personally. I only helped a little! So you may feel proud, Lieutenant Colonel!"

"...Ngh."

I heard someone bite her tongue. The immortal and I looked at Callis. In an instant, Callis's face turned as red as her hair.

The immortal looked puzzled.

"Hm? Lieutenant Colonel. Your reactions seem to have gotten cuter?"

"N-no...."

"By the way, without that hat covering half your eyes, your face is clear now! Your eyes are rounder than I expected! I only ever saw your eyes under that hat, so I thought they were sharp as blades, but you're cuter than you look!"

"Th-tha...."

"Why were you wearing that stiff wide-brim hat all the time anyway? It's useless except for pressing your head down! If that brim's shadow wasn't there, I'd have recognized your face much sooner!"

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

Callis kept lowering her head, covering that flushed face.

Well, well. So that was it.

That faint sweet-and-sour emotion felt like a drug that made your hands and feet curl up, yet still kept your eyes locked on it. I brushed under my nose and said,

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

"...Do you want to die?"

"Huh? You're still all sharp with me?"

Hey, immortal. Didn't you say those eyes were soft? They're still sharp enough to cut me when they turn my way.

No uniform, no hat, yet just one glare made me shrink. Was this fear branded into instinct?

Callis shot me a hard look, then leaned subtly toward the immortal and muttered,

"...Until the investigation team arrives, I must remain here. On top of that, my authority has been suspended, so I am basically a prisoner too."

"Don't worry too much! Still, Lieutenant Colonel isn't completely trapped like us! And from all my years of living, I can say this place is surprisingly livable!"

"...Maybe... it is."

She was in deep already. Well, it's natural to develop feelings for someone who threw himself into danger to save you.

But what now.

"I've kept you too long! Well then, I'll get going now. You should get some sleep first! The best way to calm a shocked body is deep sleep!"

The immortal was polite enough to step away and give space. It wasn't what Callis wanted.

He didn't save Callis because Callis was special. To begin with, during the jailbreak, the immortal had stood against the ringleader just to protect ordinary laborers. He lost miserably and had all four limbs torn off, but still.

So this was simply how the immortal was. If you asked whether Callis was "special," the answer was no.

Well, she probably still wanted to make it work somehow.

"Sigh. Rough road ahead...."

I muttered that, wondering what obstacles were coming next.

Then, without the slightest sign.

Without any context at all.

Without even the tiniest sound.

A cat beastkin appeared right in front of us.

"Nyaa-."

The sudden appearance left everyone speechless. As if by prior agreement, every eye was drawn to the girl walking with light, soft steps.

Quietly, she walked into the middle of everyone, curled one hand, and started licking the back of it.

"...A cat?"

Her upright tail reached near her head. Pointed triangular cat ears, and thick ash-gray hair running all the way down her back. Strangely, the outer fur was dark gray, but the inside was so white it was nearly pure white. Like the inside and outside had been painted separately.

On that pale face, four whiskers ran long and thin. Her steps were elegant and light as feathers. If you didn't see her with your own eyes, you might not even know she was there.

"Nyaa-."

The cat beastkin gave a seductive cry and looked over everyone with a detached gaze.

I also reflexively read the thoughts of the one who appeared. No, I tried to.

I couldn't read them.

No, I could read them, but the meaning didn't connect. It was like hieroglyphs carved on a cave wall transcribed into our language. You could sound it out, but you couldn't grasp the meaning.

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

"King of Cats?"

What the hell, what's a Beast King doing here?

No, this was weird. The King of Dogs came because humans sent her, sure, but why would the King of Cats come to the Abyss? Is this the Abyss or a zoo?

I didn't sense any thoughts nearby. Which meant she came alone. The only option was to ask directly.

I couldn't read a Beast King's memories, but I could read the name. I just had to pronounce what I heard.

I spoke to Nabi, who was licking the back of her hand.

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

"Nya?"

Nabi stopped licking for a moment, then answered in a proud voice.

"Nya received an offering and came to hear that wish."

"An offering?"

"Nya is the only king who made an equal contract with humans. My servant offered tribute and wished for this, to catch a squeaking rat in a rat hole. So Nya came here."

Contract. Rat. Offering.

This bad feeling wasn't just in my head.

Especially after all that talk about the Lords of All Creation just a moment ago.

"Oh! Miss Cat!"

At that moment, the immortal, who lacked any sense of danger because he couldn't die, took a big step toward Nabi, exactly like himself.

"This year is overflowing with fortune! To meet two animal ladies said to be so hard to see! What an incredible adventure. I can already picture everyone's shocked faces when I return to the village!"

"Nyaa?"

"Pleasure to meet you! I am Rashy, Miss Cat!"

Right when the immortal reached his hand toward Nabi,

Nabi stared at him, then smacked him with her forepaw.

Space was carved away. The cat's forepaw darkly swallowed the air, and the immortal's torn-off arm flew across the corridor in an instant. Until it reached the far end, his detachable right arm didn't touch the floor even once.

The immortal's eyes widened.

"Oh!"

It was power similar to Azzy's, no, even greater.

Unlike Azzy, whose hostility softened just by having a human-like form, the wary King of Cats did not hold back. Even if Rashy had not been immortal, she would've struck him like that.

Which meant even if I had held out my hand too.

Sweat ran down my spine. The smell of death was starting to flicker at the edge of my nose.

She was one of the relatively human-friendly beasts, the King of Cats, but still... it's better not to get close to a Beast King in the first place. Beasts are capricious, and you never know when they'll turn.

Azzy, with complete goodwill, was the anomaly. In general, beasts had been symbols of fear and danger since the distant past.

After casually sending a person's arm flying, Nabi licked the forepaw she had just swung.

The immortal scratched his head with his left hand and said,

"As expected of a cat! Top-class prickliness! These days there are only prickly women around me, so I get a bit lonely! Haha! Everyone, best not approach Miss Cat carelessly! Unless you're immortal like me!"

Looking at his right arm missing below the elbow, Callis asked with worry,

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

"I'm fine. My right arm falling off is routine now! These days it feels weirder when it's attached, so sometimes I detach it and use it as a pillow when I sleep! A true arm pillow!"

"...It's only been one day since you woke up."

"Is that so? Then from today onward, I shall sleep like that!"

The immortal's silly joke loosened the tension a little.

The right arm, which had only fallen after hitting the opposite wall, pushed itself up on two fingers and came scurrying back.

At that rare sight, Nabi stared at the self-moving right arm with eyes full of curiosity.

"Nya? The arm moves."

"My proud arm! It has never betrayed me! More dependable than most comrades...."

"Nya."

Right when the right arm passed in front of Nabi,

Crunch.

Nabi crushed it with her forepaw. She just stomped once, but the floor caved in in the shape of a cat paw. The right arm pinned between Nabi's paw and the concrete was pulped like fruit, flesh scattering in all directions.

The immortal muttered with a stunned expression,

"Oh, this is not very fine."

Callis shouted urgently.

"Rashy!"

"Shh! Don't come closer. Still, it's fine! That right arm is a body part offered to Mother Earth. No matter how damaged it gets, it will regenerate someday...."

Nabi kept watching the regenerating right arm with fascination, then smacked it down each time it fully recovered and tried to flee. Every time, the right arm trembled in pain.

She was tormenting the right arm out of pure curiosity, with no malice at all. It was grotesque, yet carried a cruel quality that made it hard to look away.

That strange standoff continued for a while. We just watched Nabi play in silence.

Truthfully, there was nothing else we could do.

Then, at some point.

"Nyaaaat! Just when is it coming!"

The right arm's regeneration was slowing down. Nabi lost interest in the arm that could only tremble and cried out in irritation.

Right after that, thud, something landed on the rooftop. A fluttering parachute sound followed.

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

"Nyaa! Hurry up, nya!"

"I am coming."

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

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