WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 104

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Just Dance

Historically, what tool killed the most beasts?

A sword? A spear? Or a stone axe?

None of them.

Since ancient times, the tool that killed the most beasts, most brutally and most simply, was rope.

A weapon unique to humans, who had blunt nails, delicate hands, high intelligence, and the innate cruelty that came with it.

"Ghhhhh! Khk! Ghk!"

"Welcome, to the land of fantasy~."

The colonel's boiling, choking noises and my humming formed a strange harmony. I pushed his back with my foot and pulled the rope tighter.

When your neck gets suddenly strangled, panic is inevitable. The colonel instinctively made a pointless effort to tear off the rope tightening around his throat.

'What is this?! My neck, it's choking, wh. Who the hell!'

Survival instinct jolted everything awake inside him. He had followed the lieutenant general's orders so blindly that his thinking had frozen, but after coming down here, he started thinking for himself for the first time.

He drew up his energy and wrapped it around his neck. Using bullet-deflecting energy and hardened energy to protect his throat and secure minimal blood flow, he glared and thought,

'A laborer! How dare a mere prisoner ambush an officer!'

His thoughts came in broken fragments. He stopped breathing, judged the situation for a moment, then burned with rage.

'You think, just because you strangled my neck, you can beat an officer!'

Even while being choked from behind, hostility surged in him.

Maybe anger wasn't a combustion reaction after all. It still burned even with oxygen cut off.

'I'll show you the difference in strength!'

Still, I had one advantage: the back of the body was hard to reach no matter what.

To attack behind yourself, you needed a plan.

And if you made a plan, I read it.

Now then, let's dance.

The colonel's elbow shot toward my shoulder, a brutal spinning back elbow.

I pulled my right foot half a step back and leaned away slightly at the waist. Limited by his range of motion, his elbow stopped right before touching me. It was so close it looked choreographed in advance.

I smiled faintly, gave the rope around his neck a little slack, then wound it around his right arm.

The colonel's right arm was tied to his neck.

'My right arm! You bastard...! Then try this!'

Next came his leg. Pressed in this close with his view blocked, he meant to shake me off with a back kick. If I couldn't read thoughts, he would have nailed me.

That was only if I couldn't read thoughts.

As far as he kicked out, I stepped back just as much. Like a couple's dance, he and I stayed glued together and moved one step at a time.

A couple's dance?

That thought just came to me, but it wasn't a bad metaphor.

Except my partner was a bear of a man.

This was today's theme. I whispered into his ear.

"Where are you going? I won't let you go, partner."

'Bull...shit...!'

I read his mind, reacted, and matched him exactly.

I could naturally keep rhythm even with strangers, so I was probably the best dance partner in the military state.

'N-no. I can't... breathe....'

One escape attempt after another failed.

If he tried to turn, I pulled the rope tight and turned with him at the same time.

If he flailed his arms and legs, I moved only that much and took the motion safely.

The colonel spread bullet-deflecting energy to push me away. But push-and-pull was my field. I only had to loosen a little, then grab again.

No matter how wildly he thrashed, the distance between us always stayed at a quarter step.

His pulse came through the rope in tiny beats. The climax had already passed, and all that remained was a slowly fading finale.

Until the song of life ended, this dance would not end.

'Am... I... dying...?'

A little, no, very late, but death finally crossed the colonel's mind. Fear and desperation came over him together.

At last, he was about to be honest.

"Grunt McKinsey. You probably think you survived because you were exceptional. After going through all kinds of hardship, you became the lieutenant general's trusted man, and you swelled with confidence that you'd do something big enough to turn the world upside down."

You couldn't skip small talk in a couple's dance. Pulling the rope tight, I whispered in his ear.

"But you're just a Callis Kritz who's a little dumber and a little luckier."

'Me... like that... litmus... trash...?'

"Just because you're in a position to use other people's lives doesn't mean you get two lives of your own. People mix that up sometimes."

Poooof, I let out a sigh.

As if showing off the sigh he could no longer breathe out.

"Now it's your turn to be tested. Are you ready to put a period at the end of your life, Grunt McKinsey?"

'N-no....'

He had never planned to die. No, to begin with, he had never thought that deeply. He had simply come down here following the lieutenant general's order.

The only feeling he really had was a petty sense of superiority from selling out Lieutenant Colonel Callis. As he put the chain on Callis's neck instead of his own, he had felt relief and superiority together.

The lieutenant general kept him alive not because he was better, but because he was dumber.

The living tool's hand reached out uselessly. His desperate eyes landed on Nabi.

'Nabi...! Help me! You pathetic beast that only sucks drugs! I'll give you drugs, so help me!'

If Nabi had been even a little less soaked in drugs, it might have reacted differently in this crisis.

Nabi didn't even look this way, only purred on top of the mana herb. Giving up, the colonel's eyes found Callis.

'Callis...! Save me...! Don't just stand there...!'

If he hadn't wrapped the chain around Callis's neck, Callis might have hesitated for a moment. But now, Callis had lost even the will to resist and only stared this way blankly.

Still, the karma the colonel had piled up was already done. No one could change the past...

Except one person.

'N-no....'

The final moment of all final moments. The colonel tried to roll on the ground in misery just to throw me off. He squeezed out every last bit of strength and bent forward at the waist.

Right before that force could fire, I lightly hooked his leg.

The colonel's heavy body toppled forward in an ugly fall. I was dragged along with him, still choking him.

Even then, without letting go of the rope, I rolled once. The colonel hit the ground, and I lay with my back to him and pulled the rope down to my chest. He stretched out his left arm, but with one arm, he couldn't escape this position.

The thoughts of the one pinned below me darkened little by little.

"Farewell, Grunt McKinsey. Once, you were the main character of a brilliant world... but you survived by throwing away your own thoughts and becoming a tool. Every time I see a book that turned into a copy of something else, it's unfortunate, but maybe even a summary from another viewpoint still has its own value."

Then the fading music finished its finale and reached the final period on the score.

Snap, it cut off.

A period was placed at the end of one book.

I let go of the rope. Red marks rose on my palm where my grip had pressed in. I let out a drained sigh, pulled out the skewer I had hidden by my foot, and slowly got up.

The first thing I saw when I stood was Tyr. Tyr was watching me with the Blood Horse at her side. If I had been thrown off in the middle of the dance, the Blood Horse would have rushed in and flattened the colonel like a pancake.

Good thing that didn't happen. I wanted to avoid bloodshed if possible. I raised a hand to Tyr.

"I really missed you, Tyr."

At my greeting, tears welled in Tyr's eyes as she came toward me.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"My heart, a little?"

"Where, what did those rude bastards do to you?! How was your heart hurt?"

"The Black Knights I trusted to protect me got smashed, and my heart got torn to pieces right along with them...."

Flinch.

Tyr had been preparing for a touching reunion, but my sudden jab made her freeze. Her blood-red eyes trembled for a different reason now.

"I, I am, sorry."

"No, it happens. I already knew the Black Knights are secretly pretty useless.... But still, you said that power once destroyed an entire city. Sorry to ask, but was that city made of sand?"

"W-well, that is... in the past they were stronger than this... and...."

Tyr trailed off, avoiding my gaze like she'd committed a sin.

After struggling with it for a long while, she fidgeted with her fingers and added quietly,

"There is something I did not tell you. My bloodcraft is not whole."

Huh? What was that supposed to mean?

The sudden confession made me widen my eyes and shout.

"What? What do you mean by that?"

"If darkness is the vessel, blood is the power. Originally, I was to place blood aura into the Black Knights so they moved while holding part of my power... but for reasons unknown, I cannot now control blood aura freely."

Come to think of it, when the lieutenant colonel got stabbed by the suicide packet and started bleeding, that blood didn't move at all. I should have been suspicious, but it looked so ordinary that I let it pass.

More importantly, what the hell! Why did I risk my life to get your heart back then?! Your bloodcraft got weaker?

As the victim of the most expensive investment scam in history, I shouted in frustration.

"What? You get weaker when you become my ally? What kind of nonsense is this?"

"I, I... am sorry."

"No, this is all my fault! Azzy is on my side and not helpful at all, then Tyr joins my side and suddenly gets weaker! At this point I'm the problem, I'm the problem!"

I deliberately turned away from embarrassed Tyr, thumped my chest, and wailed.

"People of the world! The walking suppressor is right here! If you want to get weaker, come become my ally! You'll learn what weakness really is!"

"N-no. You are not at fault at all. It is all my failure... I should have stayed by your side to guard you...."

"It's so unfair, so unfair! If it's going to be like this, give me my heart back! Return exactly what I gave you!"

Tyr's eyes went wide and she swallowed hard. Looking down at the ground with a sad, bitter face, she soon shut her eyes tight as if she'd made up her mind and raised a finger to her own chest.

"...Understood. It is yours, so I shall return it...."

"No, what are you doing trying to really return it? Let's keep jokes as jokes, alright?"

If she pulled the heart out and turned back into a cold vampire again, I had no idea what she would do to me. Even weakened, she was still better as my ally. At least that wasn't a net negative.

Thanks to my desperate stop, Tyr's heart was preserved. Still, her confidence crashed, and she muttered gloomily,

"...I did not know mere soldiers could be that strong. Even though he was only a lieutenant general below a commander, he was that powerful.... The world has clearly changed. It is hard to keep up."

"Of course they're strong. Commander isn't some random dog's name."

"Even lower than that... colonel, was it? To think even a mere soldier could subdue the Black Knights so easily."

"No, not a soldier. An officer."

"...? Are those two not the same?"

It seemed she thought commander was a synonym for all those trashy titles like mercenary captain or guard captain, and anyone below that, like a colonel, was just foot soldier number one.

If the colonel, who had crawled like a dog under the lieutenant general and barely made rank, had heard that, his guts would have burst from rage.

What a shame. Instead of me running my mouth pointlessly, I should've let the real one, Tyr, say it straight to the colonel.

Figures. The best way to kill a military man was always a civilian outsider.

Anyway, explaining military rank structure to a girl from twelve centuries ago was a bit much. I just nodded and changed the subject.

"Now then. Until Mr. Shei leisurely wraps up that mere lieutenant general who's no commander at all and comes back, should we do something about that drugged-up cat?"

At my suggestion, Tyr asked back in a much less confident tone.

"Must we attack...? Hyu, you likely know this as well, but a Beast King at death's door triggers feral surge. A Beast King in feral surge is an extremely troublesome opponent. Even Shei only dragged the fight out against the King of Cats."

Huh. When did I say we were fighting? I lightly scolded her.

"Why try to fight at all? You're not that strong anyway."

"Ugh...."

That reaction was kind of fun. I smirked at shrunken Tyr and shrugged.

"We just have to coax Nabi well. We even have that mana herb. I'll calm Nabi down a bit with drugs."

Right then.

A line of blood flowed from the dead colonel's mouth. A fishy blood scent spread. Since Tyr couldn't control blood, the scent slowly drifted farther.

Huh. He died by strangulation, so why was there blood?

I had tried to keep blood from spilling as much as possible, because the smell could excite beasts.

A little blood should be fine... right?

That careless thought had just crossed my mind.

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