WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 111: Beast, Beast King, Human - Finale

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Immortal Rashy did not care much if someone hurt him. That remained true even while he was weakened in the Abyss.

Naturally, Immortal Rashy did not care much about Ebon's condition either. The fact that Ebon was half-dead was not something an immortal needed to consider. Nor was the fact that three full-force punches would be fatal.

It might have been fair in one sense and unfair in another, but whether the same situation was fair under different assumptions was not the immortal's concern either.

He simply threw three punches with all his strength, seriously, solemnly, and sincerely.

As a result, Ebon's face was a complete mess.

The protective energy he had gathered was blown away with the first punch. He lost consciousness with the second. By the third, even the last of his life had vanished.

Ebon's nose broke, his teeth flew out, and blood streamed from every hole in his face. When his claw, unable to withstand the immortal's strength, snapped, Ebon staggered and collapsed onto the ground.

Wow, he punched like that? Then why did he tell me I only had to take one punch because I used his right arm a little last time?

He really was insane. If I'd taken those hits, I would've died on the spot.

While I clicked my tongue, the immortal who had beaten someone to the brink of death spoke regretfully.

To me.

"Sir, I'm sorry. Ebon is no longer in any state to answer."

Look at him apologizing to me in the middle of this. Since he'd thrown three punches, Ebon's condition was no longer his problem.

"Ah, it's fine. I wasn't expecting an answer anyway."

I could ask Ebon's thoughts instead.

As I approached Ebon, the immortal asked, "Do you need any help?"

"I'm really sorry, but could you cover your ears? I'm going to discuss some sensitive details about Lieutenant General Ebon's personal life."

"My ears? Very well!"

Despite the strange request, the immortal agreed at once. He tightly plugged both earholes with his fingers and shouted.

"They are covered! Speak as freely as you wish! I will still keep watch, just in case!"

"Hey, you're really doing it."

"What? I can't hear you!"

I gave him a thumbs-up and walked over to Ebon.

Sensing the end, Ebon clenched a trembling hand in vain. His fingers scraped across the ground, but he could not get a proper grip on the concrete floor.

Only a little concrete powder fell away beneath the sharp nails, as though they represented Ebon's origins.

Ebon coughed up blood and repeated in thought.

'It was a chance to achieve humanity's great aspiration... I had to find them. Find them...'

"You wanted recognition, didn't you? Recognition that you're human, not a cat beastkin."

Ebon Crimsonwild, a cat beastkin.

Back when hatred for beastkin was widespread throughout the Kingdom, Ebon had fallen into self-loathing and enlisted in the army after cutting off his ears and tail. Almost nobody noticed that he was a cat beastkin.

Whether that was fortunate or unfortunate, someone noticed Ebon's identity and highly valued his resolve. With that person's support, Ebon rose through the ranks rather quickly.

Of course, rising through the ranks did not mean walking a path strewn with flowers. Ebon's life had been a series of hardships. During the Kingdom era, the army had been little more than a doormat for knight orders, treated much like weapons pulled from an armory. One knight even discovered that Ebon was a beastkin and resorted to blackmail. Ebon had every bit of money and military merit taken away, living like their slave.

His hatred for the Kingdom grew with every passing day. Ebon took the lead in the coup and helped eliminate the remnants by using a cat beastkin's sharp senses. The knight who had blackmailed him paid that debt with their life.

After enduring all that hardship, Ebon became a general in the military state.

Time and experience alone had not raised him to that position. Endless effort and thought, blood-spitting training, operations planned while clutching his head. All those things had piled up, one after another, until they led Ebon to become a general.

Then Ebon, now worthy of that position, came face-to-face with the truth behind the Lords of All Creation.

When he realized its true goal, hidden beneath the childish purpose it displayed to the world, gathering Beast Kings and turning them into weapons.

Ebon decided to see it through to the end.

Ebon, a cat beastkin, became an executive of the radically human-supremacist organization known as the Lords of All Creation.

The true goal that had captivated Ebon was...

'That person... In the end, I couldn't find him...'

"Why did you want to find him? Because you thought only they could recognize and understand you?"

Ebon's fading eyes turned toward me. Even as his focus blurred, a question arose in them.

'...What is this? What does this person know about us...?'

"Mr. Ebon. Why did you need such a grand existence to define your essence?"

'You don't even know... who I am seeking...'

Did Ebon intend to remain silent until the moment of death?

It couldn't be helped. To see deeper into his true heart, I had no choice but to tell him.

"An existence that disappeared from history after humanity became the undisputed ruler of the earth. An existence that announced both the beginning and end of Year One. A king in the truest sense, unlike false kings, with both the ability and qualification to rule humanity."

After humans became the undisputed rulers of the earth among all the beasts walking upon it, the Beast Kings took on human bodies.

But.

There was something people sometimes forgot.

Humans, too, were only one kind of beast.

"Did you truly need the King of Humanity?"

Some humans might firmly deny it.

Others might be disgusted, as if their shame had been exposed.

Yet humans had been beasts, were beasts, and would remain beasts.

Therefore, humans also had a Beast King.

Not some false king with paltry authority over a few hundred thousand, a few million, or a few tens of millions of followers.

Ebon had sought a king in the true sense, one who represented every human.

"Even though the King of Humanity has never appeared even once since Year One began."

Humans would serve kings of their own.

Therefore, they did not need the King of Humanity.

After that declaration, the King of Humanity disappeared without a trace.

The age of kings began after Year One. Even without their King, humans developed while serving kings of their own.

Humans were superior, strong, and special. Even elephants could not advance beyond jungles and wildernesses, and the Mountain Lord became no more than the ruler of a mountain, unable to drive humanity away.

Humans were the undisputed dominant species of the earth.

That was why nobody questioned the Beast Kings taking human form, nor cared that the King of Humanity did not exist. They had too many kings to miss the one they had lost.

Still, among those sick of every king that existed in the world, some in the Kingdom sought a true king who could encompass them all.

Everyone would have their own reason for seeking a true king. Ebon had only one reason for seeking the King of Humanity.

"I'm not the one you were hoping for."

He wanted someone to affirm that he was human.

You are not a cat beastkin. You are a true human. You are one of my kind.

Ebon wanted to hear those words directly from the King of Humanity, who possessed the right and ability to say them.

"I'll affirm you instead."

'How dare you...! A mere laborer!'

Even as life ebbed away, Ebon used the last of his strength to glare at me.

I calmly made a declaration for him.

"Ebon Crimsonwild. You are human. I guarantee it."

'What could someone like you possibly know...!'

"Whether it was goodwill or malice, you made plans from the ground up, carried them out, looked to the next step even after failure, and used everything you had built to achieve your goal. That intellect, and that will to throw away even your own life for a higher purpose, were possible and functioned only because you were wholly human."

I was just an ordinary person who could read minds.

"I only saw a small part of it, but that was enough. You are, without question and without doubt, human."

Therefore, I said it on behalf of humanity. Lieutenant General Ebon was human.

"Even as a beastkin, you only inherited some traits of a beast. You are human. Your distant ancestors committed a terrible sin, though... Well, calling it a sin might be a little much. It was more like getting caught in an embarrassing scene that would be difficult to brag about. Those traits are only secondary. Your ears and tail do not define you."

Having read Ebon's heart, I consoled him calmly.

"The determination to achieve your goal even by cutting off your ears and tail paradoxically shows your humanity. You did well, human Ebon."

'...Could it be?'

I had spoken without any qualification, yet those few words satisfied Ebon. The words he needed had finally arrived in his final moments.

Born a beastkin, persecuted in every way while growing up, then helping bring down the Kingdom that had fostered that persecution, Ebon had spent a lifetime struggling against things no one would acknowledge.

Hatred for beastkin that had barely changed even after the Kingdom fell. The Resistance, remnants of that hateful Kingdom. The temperamental Beast Kings who were difficult to deal with. His own slow progress despite all that effort.

No one had recognized his hardship, sincerity, or effort. Not until he met me today.

At the moment of death, Ebon received a small comfort from me and was about to close his eyes in peace.

Not so fast.

I couldn't let him go yet.

"To begin with, cats are such insignificant creatures that they aren't even worth grafting onto humans. You didn't think that suited you, did you?"

With that one sentence, the gilding peeled away from Ebon's gold-plated humanity.

"Do a pair of ears and a tail erase humanity's great reason? No. Those ears and tail are dim moonlight obscured by sunlight. No, they're starlight without even a trace left to see. You had ears and a tail, but you still became a lieutenant general through brilliant reason, endless patience, effort, and learning."

I affirmed humanity and denied beasts. Beyond that, I insulted beasts.

But was this really what Ebon wanted?

"Think of cats. They chase sewer rats, yet act clean and refined. They're pathetic beasts that can't survive unless they're cute, yet they don't know their place and have rotten personalities. Their lives are needlessly tenacious. Even if you throw them outside, they cling to life and survive while wandering back alleys. Does a dirty ball of fur like that have even the tiniest thing in common with you?"

No. Of course not. Even as a beastkin, Ebon had lived as a human. There was an immeasurable distance between him and an actual cat. Lieutenant General Ebon could not sympathize with one.

Even so.

Ebon could not be happy.

"Perfect timing. Listen."

I held a finger to my lips, then cupped my hand beside an ear.

A beast's roar came from below.

'The King of Dogs.'

Azzy's roar. Then came the sound of something launching off the ground, followed by Nabi's scream.

Crunch. Something breaking could be heard all the way up here. Bang, bang. Something heavy slammed into the ground two or three times. The force was so intense that its vibrations reached the rooftop, shaking the Abyss itself.

'...The King of Cats is inferior in strength to the King of Dogs... If they fight without humans involved, defeat is inevitable.'

Just as Ebon expected, it did not take long.

Nyaaaah...

A groan gradually faded as life ebbed away.

Azzy, freed from her chains, was passing judgment on Nabi, who had tormented her all this time.

By the merciless law that applied between beasts.

"Wait! Azzy! Stop! If you shake her like that, she'll die...!"

Oh? It seemed something had interfered. The King of Cats probably was not going to die immediately.

Well, it didn't matter.

Ebon's eyes were trembling enough.

"Look. The King of Cats can barely cling to life only because humans show mercy. No matter how much the King of Cats makes a fuss, she can't compare to a dog. Not as a beast, and not as a king. She's far beneath the King of Dogs. That's why you tried to secure Azzy, and why you insisted on keeping someone nearby whenever Azzy and Nabi were alone."

For a brief moment, Ebon felt anger. Then he could not find the reason for that anger.

Ebon was a cat beastkin, but did not want to become a beast. He abandoned those instincts and cut off his ears and tail. Even that was not enough, so he joined the Lords of All Creation to be recognized as wholly human.

Ebon wanted someone to affirm that he was human.

But.

The truth was.

"The King of Cats even got drugged out and went mad. My goodness, where could you find a Beast King as shabby and miserable as that? Isn't it remarkable? She should have just died. It's amazing that cat beastkin even exist, isn't it?"

"Stop...!"

Though Ebon was dying, he burned the last of his life to shout. Even though any more words would only shorten his remaining lifespan, he violently resisted while blood poured from his mouth.

"...Don't insult me! I'd rather...!"

"I was insulting cats."

"You damned... liar...!"

"Ha ha. You're finally being honest."

Why was Ebon angry? The reason was simple.

"You didn't want to become human."

He could not fully separate the cat within him.

"You only wanted to be acknowledged as a cat beastkin."

By no one else but himself.

"That's why you couldn't give up your claws, and why your fighting style came to resemble a cat in such a strange way. You despised the King of Cats, but also pitied her, so you wanted to at least keep her close and watch over her."

He could not bear to abandon the cat part that had been with him his entire life, yet he wanted to be recognized as a cat beastkin.

Along with the persecution beastkin suffered, Ebon had learned of beasts' inferiority while belonging to the Lords of All Creation. Unable to endure that, he had wanted to be recognized as a pure human.

"Liar. You never even wished to become a pure human."

At the very end, when his true desire was pointed out, Ebon's eyes opened wide.

"Goodbye, Ebon Crimsonwild. You half-hearted human who cut off your ears and tail but could not give up your claws. You avenger who hated cats, yet hated the Kingdom that made you hate cats even more. You pitiful subject who despised the King of Cats but could not abandon her until the end."

'Was that... it? I...'

"You became a monster while trying to cut away a part of yourself. Because you were already human simply as you were."

'...Did I not hate myself that much?'

A faint smile remained at the corner of Ebon's lips.

Then, with a soft thud, he closed his eyes.

It had been a turbulent life, and Ebon had fought fiercely until the end. He had not come down here in despair, nor fallen because of a blind desire for glory. From beginning to end, he had raced toward his goal.

The path had twisted badly along the way.

Still, it was fortunate that he found the right direction at the end.

After quietly feeling that lingering emotion, I stood and shouted.

"Mr. Rashy! It's over! Let's head down now!"

There was no response. The immortal, whose body was made of something like mud, had blocked out most sounds by covering his ears. Even when I read Rashy's mind, he had not recognized my voice at all.

I exaggerated the shape of my mouth as I spoke to the blankly staring immortal.

"Mr. Rashy! I said it's over!"

"What? I can't hear you!"

It seemed Rashy could not hear a thing.

Wait, then.

"Hey, you stupid immortal bastard! You punch like that, and you told me to take one hit? Just because you don't die doesn't mean other people won't die! What kind of thug has no conscience? Stop plugging your ears and get down here...!"

Around the time I said that, the immortal had already pulled his fingers halfway out.

Our eyes met. I awkwardly said, "You said you'd keep your ears covered."

"It seemed like things were over!"

"...You didn't hear that, right?"

"I didn't hear all of it."

Ah ha ha.

We faced each other and shared an awkward laugh. After laughing for a while, I scratched my head and spoke.

"Well, I talked for so long that the 'door' closed. Still, I found a clue about escaping, so let's head down now."

"Very well. But."

The immortal raised a fist.

"Could I hit you just once? I'll hit gently, truly."

"No. I'll die. Really."

Footnotes:

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