WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 108: Beast, Beast King, Human - 4

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I read wishes.

When I quietly read someone’s mind as my telepathy flowed along, their wish lingered within me for a while before fading, leaving only an echo behind. Most wishes simply passed through like that.

Sometimes, though, a wish would swirl violently inside me before it drifted out through the window.

Whether it was evil, dangerous, or presumptuous, a heartfelt wish was something a mind reader could not ignore, even if I wanted to.

It couldn’t be helped. I read thoughts.

When the wind turned the pages, rustling words filled the blank spaces beneath. They seemed disordered at first glance, but seeing how they barely held together always filled me with solemn awe.

If a beautiful epic lay before my eyes, denser than neatly stacked bricks and more intricate than interlocking gears, complete as a whole while every single letter carried its own small meaning.

Of course it was natural to wonder what would be written in those blank spaces.

And always.

A sentence that wanted to continue, a book that looked beyond its final period, shone all the brighter.

A book seeking to finish, to conclude, to find the finest possible period paradoxically prepared only for the worst ending.

There was no perfect life in this world, so such books were covered in lies and contradictions to pretend they were perfect.

That was why I hated obvious lies.

Especially lies meant to deceive oneself.

A commotion came from outside. It was the sound of the regressor fighting Nabi, who had suddenly barged in.

They must have been fighting nearby, because I could clearly hear the regressor’s flustered voice.

“This bastard! He had mana herb in his severed right hand...!”

Lieutenant General Ebon had charged at the regressor while pretending to be consumed by madness, sacrificing a right arm instead of attacking. The regressor’s counterattack cleanly severed it.

As the regressor faltered, Ebon fled at tremendous speed. His severed right hand opened before the regressor, who had begun chasing him too late.

Mana herb was clutched in its palm. Covered in sparks and billowing thick smoke, it scattered toward the regressor.

At the same time, Ebon blew out the mana-herb smoke held in his mouth as he fled. It might have been different if the mana herb had been wrapped in paper, but smoke with such a powerful scent was more than enough to provoke Nabi.

Left with nothing but instinct, Nabi followed the scent and ran into the regressor.

The two immediately fell into battle.

From pretending to continue the fight while even revealing the shame of being beastkin, all to lower an opponent’s guard.

To deliberately holding mana herb in his mouth and lighting it despite the pain, when he could have simply smoked it.

It was a thriller meticulously designed from the ground up.

If this had been an effort to survive, I would have given him a standing ovation.

But.

If all this was the desperate struggle of someone trying to deceive themself, if what I was reading was no more than self-consolation from someone racing toward a false goal.

The more fiercely it had been built up, the more drained I felt by its meaninglessness.

“The King of Cats is here! Stop him from doing anything!”

The regressor shouted from afar, but Ebon had already done something.

And he was about to do more.

The claw that had pierced through Callis’s abdomen from back to stomach silently dripped blood.

“The King of Dogs... does not unleash feral nature. Because the wolves took all feral nature for themselves.”

Lieutenant General Ebon released the claw. In his remaining hand was a chain, the one Callis had cast off.

He was cat beastkin and knew how to approach prey in secret. Callis had been distracted by the immortal’s arrival and failed to notice him, but even if she had, it would not have changed the result.

After all, Ebon was a star of the military state. Even as a lieutenant colonel, the gap between Callis and Ebon was enormous.

Ebon wrapped the chain around the claw’s handle and tied it tight. The claw was an anchor, and the chain was a rope.

Having impaled Callis with it, Ebon muttered darkly.

“But there are times when the King of Dogs unleashes feral nature. It is not when she herself faces the threat of death. It is when... she kills a person. When someone dies because of the King of Dogs’ actions, the King of Dogs unleashes feral nature.”

Ebon’s gaze followed the chain. Azzy stood at its other end.

The chain was still tied around Azzy’s front paw.

Callis had removed the chain from around her neck, but Azzy had not had the chance while fighting Nabi.

“Even if it isn’t by her own will...”

It was not that dogs did not kill people. A creature that did not kill people was a dog.

If a dog killed a person, if humans made the King of Dogs kill a person.

The promise humans and dogs had made long ago would be shaken, and the boundary between wolves and dogs would blur.

That was why Azzy could not interfere even while humans killed humans. No one could die because of her actions.

She would shut her eyes, cover her ears, and hide in a corner.

“You’re attacking your own side? What are you trying to do...? Hughes?”

As Tyr stared in shock, unable to keep up with the sudden situation, Ebon rushed at Azzy. Azzy felt nothing but goodwill toward humans. Ebon approached the defenseless Azzy, raised sharp claws, seized the fur on her head, and ran.

“Yelp! Bark bark!”

Azzy’s eyes widened as she was dragged by the fur.

Not because it hurt.

She understood what would happen if this continued.

At the other end of the chain around her front paw was the claw embedded in Callis’s body. If Azzy were dragged away like this, the chain would pull taut, and the claw’s hooked blades would rip through all of Callis’s muscles and organs.

She was already fatally wounded. If she were pulled apart too...

Callis would die instantly.

Even if it was not Azzy’s own strength, a human would die because of Azzy.

Since Azzy would not have killed a person entirely through her own power, the foundation of the promise would not be shaken. Still, it was dangerous for her to unleash feral nature and run wild now. This was the isolated Abyss.

If she broke the ground, everyone would fall below.

“Bark! Bark bark bark! Let go! Woof!”

Azzy struggled desperately. Even as she was dragged away, she dug in her claws, scraping at the ground and walls as she resisted with all her might.

But Azzy herself was not that heavy, and the lieutenant general was a powerful fighter who used energy. More than anything, the concrete walls and floor were too weak to fully withstand that force.

There was only one way for her to escape.

“Struggle all you want, King of Dogs! But if you want to stop me with your own power, you’ll have to kill me! That would be fine too!”

“Whiiine...!”

It was an even more impossible way.

There were about fifteen meters left until death. Azzy dug her claws into the ground and held on desperately, but the time she bought was only a matter of seconds.

At this rate, Callis would die, and Azzy would run wild. Even if she did not try to kill humans, they would have to subdue her to protect this place.

Such remarkable determination, such chilling malice, flowed out in waves.

No one but me could read Ebon’s true intentions. Then again, who could have imagined someone using their own life as a hostage to place another person in the grip of death?

But I read them.

And the moment I did, I ran.

Callis was dying, and she would soon die.

The moment this chain reached its end.

The moment the claw had embedded itself in her abdomen, she had sensed death.

‘I wanted to live... I guess it was too much to ask. Well, I’ve made too many wrong choices. And I’m too late.’

At the end of all her struggling, Callis felt relief.

She had done everything she could, exerted even her meager strength, and achieved something small. She regretted not doing it sooner, but that was a trivial regret everyone felt.

‘...I hate beasts. Even before Father died, I hated beasts. Dirty, filthy things. Things that live comfortably without making any effort. Death is... the same for all of us...’

As a member of the Lords of All Creation, she knew about the King of Dogs and vaguely realized what Ebon intended through her fading consciousness.

That she would be offered up as a sacrifice for the King of Dogs’ rampage.

‘...Even if I die, I won’t die to some dog.’

Callis reached her trembling hand behind her and grasped the claw’s handle. Then she tried to pull it free.

Far away, she saw Rashy running toward her. Callis thought she was fortunate to see him in her final moments.

It would probably be the last bit of dignity she, who had made nothing but mistakes, could manage before dying...

“I like this kind of story better. Even if both sides are desperate, if one side’s determination is built on a childish lie... it’s rather empty.”

I was one who heard wishes.

For those who wished to conclude, a perfect ending.

For those who wished to continue, blank space to keep writing.

The impossible was impossible.

But if something was possible, I would make it possible.

‘That laborer! When did he get over there?!’

Lieutenant General Ebon’s thought reached me. When? From the moment I read your thoughts, I had already been running. While you weren’t paying attention to me.

I stood behind Callis, curled and uncurled my fingers in sequence, then placed them against the chain’s knot.

Escape magic needed an assistant, after all.

“Just wait a moment! I’ll get you out! I used to pick locks back in the day!”

I confidently shouted and pulled at the chain’s knot.

Clink, clink.

The chain rattled uselessly. Only the sound of metal came from the knot. After fiddling with it for quite some time, I let out a flustered noise.

“Huh? Huh? W-Why won’t this come loose? That’s strange.”

‘Idiot! That knot was made by twisting a level 4 alchemic steel chain with brute force. Do you think you can undo it in such a short time?!’

Lieutenant General Ebon sneered at me as he reached the limit of the chain’s length. Azzy’s claws carved long marks into the concrete, and the slack chain gradually tightened.

‘If I just pull the King of Dogs like this! The lieutenant colonel will die because of the King of Dogs!’

“Ah! Th-This! Just wait! It has to work!”

Clink, clink. The sound of metal failing to connect continued. Certain of success, the lieutenant general put all his strength into it.

‘All of you, sink into the Abyss below! Until I come back to collect your corpses!’

Ebon sharply yanked Azzy by the fur, and just as Azzy was about to let out a horrible scream.

The chain pulled taut.

The lieutenant general’s strength traveled through Azzy, passed into the chain, reached the claw’s handle, and then.

With a soft pop.

The claw’s handle came off.

Only the handle, leaving the blade behind.

Ting, ting.

The handle tied to the chain bounced uselessly across the ground.

There was no sound of a body being torn apart. No horrible scream. The claw remained embedded in Callis’s abdomen, stopping the blood from flowing out.

Only the claw’s “handle,” bound to the chain, rolled across the concrete floor.

For a moment, everyone’s expectations were overturned, and the thoughts of those who had not yet grasped the situation were bleached blank.

Just as I thought.

I loved this silence. I loved the pure white void that followed after a magic trick ended. Unable to contain my rising delight, I spread both hands and shouted.

“Surprise! Ta-da! Escape successful!”

Footnotes:

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