WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 110: Beast, Beast King, Human - 6

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"But! There is something I wish to know!"

For a brief moment, the lieutenant general failed to hide his anxiety as he looked toward the upper reaches of the Abyss, like someone waiting for something to fall.

Perhaps it was not time yet. The endless darkness of that distant space remained unchanged. Ebon lowered his gaze to Rashy.

'The immortal Rashy. I heard he tore apart and killed the one who insulted his tribe. I thought he was the typical barbarian, easy to use, concerned only with honor, debts of gratitude, and grudges, unbound by laws or rules... But he is entirely different from what I expected. Still, I can use him.'

Ebon composed himself again and spoke.

"What is it?"

Rashy spoke with slight discomfort but great curiosity.

"The lieutenant colonel who served under you. She must have come here on your orders, so why did you try to kill her?"

Ebon gave a faint smile.

"That is easy to answer. Because she betrayed us."

"Is that reason enough to die?"

"Her life also happened to be the most suitable means of achieving our goal. She was there, and she was linked to the King of Dogs by a chain. There were other reasons as well. For me, there was no reason not to use her."

"I see."

"Why, did you want to know why? That is surprising. You are an immortal with only a faint notion of death, are you not? Was the lieutenant colonel's death that memorable to you?"

"It was somewhat more memorable than usual. But her death was not the only thing that stayed with me."

Rashy nodded solemnly.

"Death is rare for us. Even if we are stabbed, scorched by fire, torn into pieces, and scattered across the ground, we eventually return. We do not suffer from ordinary illnesses, only curses. Even the occasional death is seen as returning to Mother Earth's embrace before things become more wretched. At someone's funeral, instead of mourning, we all gather to laugh and make merry."

His question bore the mark of deep consideration. In response to that sincerity, Ebon answered with due respect.

"A paradise. Death comes suddenly for us. Worse, such deaths are countless. Unprepared deaths are part of daily life, and eternal loss is easy to find all around us. It is common to be promoted because your superior dies while you sit still, and not unusual for the colonel you had coffee with last week to suddenly be replaced by someone else. Unlike you, once our bodies are torn apart, that is the end."

It was an answer that contained thought of its own. Still, Rashy did not understand even after hearing it.

"I know that. That is why I understand even less. People like you, who die so easily and know how fragile and precious life is, are all too quick to die or kill. As if you do not know the value of life."

"It is not that we do not know life's value. We simply strive to find something more precious. Shouldn't a life that will be lost anyway be spent on something of greater worth?"

Their answers never met. Yet Rashy realized this was simply a difference in perspective and slowly shook his head.

"Our perspectives differ. I believe the more easily something can be lost, the more valuable it is."

"Because life is easily lost, we become more attached to things that endure forever. We use our lives, which will be lost regardless, to seek unchanging value."

"The lieutenant colonel yearned to live."

"That is why we felt betrayed. Her actions cast aside our promise. I believe you, of all people, understand that promises are as precious as life."

The exchange ended. Rashy wore a solemn expression as he reflected on their conversation.

After watching him for a moment, Ebon asked for confirmation.

"Then you will not stop me. My life must be precious to you as well."

Rashy spoke with difficulty.

"...The lieutenant general stabbed my friend in the back, but that was a matter between the lieutenant colonel and you. I do not think I have the right to interfere."

"Thank you for understanding."

"I will not blame you. I only hope my judgment does not place the lieutenant colonel or anyone else in danger."

"Do not worry. I have already suffered a terrible failure and lost my right arm. There is nothing else I can do now. The lieutenant colonel will not be in danger."

Ebon calmly spun a lie. It was the practiced lie of an executive in a secret organization.

Rashy closed his eyes. It was an unspoken sign that he would pretend not to see him. Ebon noticed and smiled with satisfaction, moving so naturally that no one would imagine he was bleeding from a severed right arm.

But then.

"Lieutenant General, wait a moment!"

"Ah, laborer. You were here too."

When I stepped forward, Ebon naturally turned his attention to me. He answered with an outwardly friendly smile.

"The ability you displayed at the end was impressive. Ha ha. I was truly shocked. I never expected you to dismantle the claw instead of the chain. That was beyond my expectations as well."

'Damn it, that ruined my final plan. It was improvised, but that was precisely why no one should have been able to interfere! If not for the Progenitor, I would have killed him from the beginning!'

Lieutenant General Ebon responded smoothly while hiding his true feelings. From a mind reader's perspective, it was rather chilling. It was rare to see someone with such a vast gulf between their inner and outer selves.

I shrugged.

"Don't you need the colonel's identification tag? He died in action, so you should take his ID tag for confirmation."

Identification tags. Something the military state had prepared to honor its fallen soldiers.

For soldiers who had not reached Level 4, the compensation delivered to their families upon death was their only true inheritance. The identification tag was needed for that, and soldiers valued theirs as much as their lives.

There was even a saying: If you cannot leave behind an intact body, at least leave behind an intact identification tag.

That was why retrieving a fallen soldier's identification tag was courtesy, virtue, and duty among fellow soldiers.

But Ebon, waiting for the door to open so he could escape, could not accept that. It would also be troublesome if he went down and encountered someone dangerous, like the regressor.

Ebon smiled.

"What use is an identification tag? I am a general. My testimony will be enough."

"Uh, but there has to be an ID tag... And Lieutenant Colonel Kalpartz Kuris, honestly, I saved her on instinct, but she's badly hurt. What if she stays here and dies?"

My words were disguised as concern.

With his escape drawing close, Ebon was growing impatient. To shake me off as I kept talking, he gave a careless answer.

"Do not worry. I will mention Lieutenant Colonel Kalpartz in my report. I will say she is concentrating on recovering..."

And he took the bait.

The Lords of All Creation were organized into decentralized cells. To prepare for every possible situation, they passed information through metaphors and referred to one another in secret so their identities would not be exposed.

Even if someone was a sponsor, they did not know the face or name of the person they sponsored.

Callis had been surprised to learn her sponsor's identity, and even the lieutenant general had not recognized Callis at once after seeing her face.

So Ebon accepted it when I called her Kalpartz.

Thanks to that, Rashy opened his eyes.

"Excuse me."

His voice was even lower than before. The easygoing laugh that had so readily overlooked being stabbed was gone as well.

"Say that again. What was the lieutenant colonel's name?"

All that remained was the anger of someone who had uncovered a lie.

"Wasn't it Lieutenant Colonel Kalpartz? Her surname... Hm. I do not remember. The military state does not place much importance on surnames..."

"You are wrong. Her name is Callis. Callis Kritz."

For an instant, discomfort flashed through Ebon's eyes. At the same time, hostility toward me swelled. Along with the displeasure of falling into a trap came murderous intent aimed at me, the one who had laid it.

You were mistaken, Lieutenant General Ebon. Feeling troubled would have been fine.

But if you went so far as to feel murderous intent, what judgment did you think the immortal would make?

Ebon hurriedly tried to patch things up.

"Ah, I must have been mistaken. That laborer just said it wrong..."

"She was a fine warrior. She fought fiercely for life in order to survive, and she was a warrior who resisted death until the end. I respect her."

"So do I."

After declaring that traitors deserved death? Ha ha. Not even Rashy would believe that.

"I believed what your people sought was truly precious. Something like honor or pride, something worth enduring pain to obtain."

"That is exactly what it is. For humanity's great aspiration, we..."

"But if it was important enough to command someone to die for it."

Rashy stepped forward as he continued.

"Then should you not at least honor that person's name? That is a virtue that must be upheld before any promise. Even we, whose deaths hold no solemnity, do so. Yet you have shown no respect for the one you sent to die for you."

"I am sorry. I..."

"Do not apologize. The one who should receive that apology is not here. In any case, I now know that you have no right to condemn the lieutenant colonel. Then."

Rashy's left hand clenched the empty air with force. A sound like rock being compressed rang out.

Creak.

Rashy raised his fist, clenched tight as a stone, and spoke expressionlessly.

"Let us settle this with three punches. You tore apart my body, hurt my friend, and even disgraced her honor. That should be enough, should it not?"

It was an offer Ebon could never accept when he needed to prepare for escape. Ebon's face twisted as he pulled out a military equipment packet with his intact left hand.

It was the equipment packet he had removed after losing to the regressor in order to lighten his body. Holding it in his mouth, Ebon fitted it into the bio-terminal on his left arm. A gleam of alchemical light covered his upper body.

"...I am not in perfect condition, but."

The parts damaged or broken in the previous battle remained damaged. Ebon had reassembled equipment that was already broken, so the joints were uneven and residual energy streamed out through the damaged areas.

Alchemical steel without direction flowed down from his missing right arm. Because of that, even the right shoulder guard and breastplate could not take shape.

Still.

To Ebon, who had no weapon, even the single claw that formed on his left hand was precious.

"Immortals rely on regeneration and drag their opponents into battles of endurance. But here in the Abyss, not on the surface, do you think you can defeat me?"

"Who knows?"

By contrast, Rashy still had only his undying body and two fists. The difference from before was that his fists now held clear hostility.

Rashy clenched his fist.

"Even so, I can probably land three punches."

The immortal, who rarely showed any desire to destroy an enemy, now aimed that will at Ebon.

"Do not resent me even if your body is torn apart this time!"

Ebon charged first.

'Do not underestimate him. I am wounded. I have only one arm left, and little strength remaining. I must end this battle as quickly as possible.'

Though his right arm was gone and his entire body was battered, Ebon remained taut with tension. He glided toward Rashy and thrust out the claw.

Rather than dodge or observe his opponent, Rashy opened his right hand and held it toward the claw.

'Is he planning to slip his fingers between the claws and grab it? Foolish!'

Rashy did not even raise his other hand. If he intended to attack, it would have been wise to target Ebon's right side, where there was no arm below the elbow. Yet he deliberately met him head-on. It was either Rashy's arrogance or carelessness.

In a fair fight, Ebon had the advantage with a weapon in hand. He wrapped the claw in energy and thrust it forward.

'I will cut off those fingers first! Then I will split his whole body open from the fingertips upward!'

Ebon twisted the blade and aimed for Rashy's fingers.

The blade, filled with green energy, was about to cut through them.

Tap.

It caught on bone.

'What?!'

It was impossible. If the claw had not been wrapped in energy, perhaps. But a claw with sharpness and repulsive force had no reason to catch on mere bone. Even if it did, it should have cut through it or shoved it aside.

The only explanation was that Rashy's bones had become hard enough to stop the claw.

Then a crunching sound reached Ebon's ears.

A ginkgo leaf was in Rashy's mouth.

"Mother Earth."

Rashy murmured softly and tightened his right hand. It was a sacred ginkgo leaf. Veins stretched out from the leaf that had settled onto the immortal's body.

This was the Abyss, land abandoned by Mother Earth. Yet the immortal's body, offered to Mother Earth, resembled soil.

Leaves born in spring served the tree. Once their purpose was complete, they fell to the ground and rotted. The small cycle around a single tree continued until the end of its life.

The ginkgo leaf, finally buried in the earth, rotted away in peace. As a leaf of the World Tree, it returned the abundant vitality it had absorbed to Mother Earth.

Creak.

The claw's blade trembled as Rashy's flesh held it fast. Ebon hurriedly tried to pull it free, but the firmly fixed claw would not come out.

At last realizing the source of that power, Ebon gritted his teeth.

'Energy...! This is energy too! Energy that strengthens the body itself!'

"You... Have you grasped the Water...?!"

Rashy held the claw and answered indifferently.

"I do not care much what the military state calls it. I simply made my body hard."

Ebon struggled to pull the claw free. He twisted it, shook it, pushed and pulled.

But the claw did not budge.

It was not lodged in bone or caught in muscle. The energy wrapped around the blade should have let it shake off most things.

The claw could not move for one simple reason. Rashy was holding it.

'This barbarian's energy... It is comparable to mine!'

The difference in their inner strength was overwhelming, making it impossible to shake him off.

Without a right arm, Ebon could not even free himself from the claw.

With his left arm caught, Ebon could only watch from close by as Rashy clenched and raised his left fist. It was a sight that would chill anyone's heart.

Ebon shouted.

"You should not be able to wield power in the Abyss!"

"That is true. But I have a sacred ginkgo leaf."

The World Tree leaf was so precious that Rashy had saved it for so long. He had originally intended to offer it to Mother Earth as soon as he reached the surface.

That was, until he decided to punch Ebon.

'Why is that still left...?! Wasn't it used to wake him up?!'

Realizing that, Ebon shouted desperately.

"I gave that to Lieutenant Colonel Kalpartz! I did! Not Kalpartz, me! I was the one who woke you! You have to help me!"

He shouted with a thread of hope, but received only a cold response.

"You are wrong. The World Tree leaf belongs to Mother Earth. Only the names of those entrusted with it differ, so in the end, it is Mother Earth's grace. There is no need to thank everyone who kept the leaf for a while. I need only accept the intention contained within it."

Rashy pulled back his left fist and added one more thing.

"Also, the name of your subordinate is Callis. Remember it."

Crack.

Rashy's straight punch slammed into Ebon's face, where his helmet had yet to fully form.

Footnotes:

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