WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 142: Goodbye, Tantalus

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"...A perfect plan, is it? You don't look very satisfied for someone with one."

Jiseon poured another drink and spoke again.

"What?"

"Why do you look regretful after casting them aside yourself? Do you still have lingering attachments?"

Had it shown that clearly?

Tch, Jiseon. Don't read a mind reader's expression. Reading minds is supposed to be my specialty.

"Well, a little."

People pretend to despise those who indulge in lavish extravagance, but deep down, they envy them. They project themselves onto people who casually do what they themselves could never bring themselves to do and take pleasure in it.

And extravagance isn't limited to money.

The more precious something is to me, the more valuable it becomes as an indulgence.

Especially when it is as precious as life itself... It goes beyond envy and becomes alluring.

"But it couldn't be helped. Unlike them, I can die very easily. I have to be more careful."

"You say your life is precious, yet I find that difficult to understand, Hughes. Allow me to ask you something."

After bowing twice toward the Great Master, Jiseon suddenly raised their head and looked at me. Intent and emotion churned beneath those calm eyes.

"I was not chosen by the Great Master, yet you forced the Great Master to make a choice. Thanks to you, I lost not only an arm, but even my justification. All my efforts have come to nothing."

Jiseon narrowed their eyes.

"Why should someone like me let you live?"

The question came with killing intent cold enough to chill my spine. I gave an ambiguous smile.

If Jiseon wanted to kill me, I would already be dead.

There was no reason to kill me, either.

The original goal had been to destroy the Abyss, hadn't it?

I was the one who had comforted the Great Master's soul.

Many answers came to mind, but I chose the one Jiseon would like best.

"If you let me live, I'll expose the Sanctum someday."

"...Hah."

Perhaps Jiseon had relaxed for a moment. Blood seeped from their severed shoulder. It was that unexpected an offer.

Jiseon cradled their shoulder with their lone arm, lowered their head, and chuckled.

"...Are you serious?"

"I can't promise it'll happen. We're not prophets. We can only see what's right in front of us. But if I ever uncover the Sanctum's dirty secrets, I'll use this ruinous mouth of mine to make things difficult for them."

"That is tempting. If it comes to pass."

"Want to make a pinky promise? Ah, that might be difficult for someone missing an arm."

A commotion rose from above the pit. The soldiers who had been subdued had gathered themselves and begun moving again. Jiseon glanced toward the noise.

"Rather than pretending not to see, I ought to help you."

"I'll get out on my own. Just don't report me."

The soldiers who had regained their senses rushed toward the edge of the Abyss. I hid among the corpses, avoiding their eyes.

With the searchlights gone, all they had was dim illumination. They threw lanterns into the pit, then recoiled in horror when they saw the corpses the Abyss had hidden away.

"Aaaah! Corpses!"

"I know this place. It's the Tyrant King's burial ground! Those bodies must be what's left of them...! I remember learning about it in school!"

The commander shouted.

"Lower the ladders!"

"I-In there?"

"Yes! Without the searchlights, we have to go down and investigate ourselves! And who was talking back just now? Since when did people start questioning lawful orders?"

The soldiers hurriedly lowered ladders. The commander shouted at the stunned soldier as they climbed down.

"Search thoroughly! Don't be afraid of stepping on corpses! If you're afraid to step on them, you have no business making them...! That's probably why you were beaten so helplessly earlier!"

'You got beaten helplessly too...'

A nearby soldier glanced at the commander and thought that. Fortunately, the thought remained only a thought.

They continued searching by lantern light until they finally reached the top of the pile of corpses. Recognizing Jiseon, the commander immediately rushed over.

"Loyalty! Major Keioshin of the Wasteland Recon Unit reporting! It is an honor to meet you, Brigadier General...! Good heavens! Your arm...!"

Once the soldiers arrived, Jiseon, who had been kneeling reverently before the Great Master, rose unsteadily.

"It is nothing. A minor injury."

"It can't be! First, we need to treat it!"

Good. Now was my chance.

While everyone's attention was fixed there, I climbed the ladder they had lowered.

Someone who had remained at the rear shone a faint light on me and asked, "Hey, what's going on?"

I shouted, pretending to be frantic.

"The brigadier general is badly injured! Medic! Get the medics here, now!"

"Medics? They're treating the wounded right now."

"You idiot! The brigadier general's right arm is gone! At this rate, Jiseon, who laid the foundations of this country, will bleed to death! Are you going to bring that disgrace upon us? Hurry up and call every medic treating the wounded!"

Overwhelmed by my momentum, the officer grumbled and went to call the medics. Then they came back, nodding to themself, and demanded an explanation.

"Hey, who are you to speak so casually? I'm the unit commander..."

But I was already gone. The adjutant tilted their head.

Empty automatic carriages filled the area. They were vehicles with thick wheels, meant for patrolling the Wasteland. Humming to myself, I walked around puncturing their wheels one by one.

The outer sides of the wheels were sturdy, but the insides were relatively soft. Every automatic carriage slumped to one side after I passed.

I climbed into the one I had picked out, threw my backpack inside, and started it.

Rrrr.

The wheels and steering mechanism clicked into place. The body shook violently. Whistling, I pressed the pedal.

I had punctured all the other wheels on my way here, so even if they noticed something strange, they wouldn't be able to follow me. From what I could see, they didn't have the presence of mind for it anyway.

"All right. That's one thing taken care of."

It was a fine vehicle that could travel without roads, though the fact that it was military property was a drawback. If I took it onto a road, it would draw all kinds of suspicion. It was a shame I'd have to abandon it after going a reasonable distance.

Tantalus, now risen above ground, came into view. I sped around it, enjoying the ride as it filled my vision.

"Now then. What should I do next...?"

Honestly, I already knew what I needed to do.

In this cruel world, you couldn't even obtain an identity without money. Whether I went to another country or washed my identity clean and hid myself, someone would demand money along the way.

Money was the oxygen of the modern world.

First, I would go to the back alleys of Amitenggrad, the military state's capital, and retrieve the assets I had hidden away. I also needed to turn them into cash.

Then I would get revenge on the people who locked me up. I couldn't spend my life just taking it.

Good. The decision was made. Now that I had a destination, I could simply enjoy the view.

A structure so huge it could be mistaken for terrain filled my left field of vision. A concrete slab as thick as a single floor lay there, with the shattered remains of a prison building resting on top, bleak and desolate.

I looked up at the nearby building and sank into thought.

All kinds of things had happened in that building. I ate, slept, played with Azzy, fought from time to time, then went back to sleeping like a lump.

Hm. Putting it that way, nothing much happened.

Yet wasn't living just a collection of those uneventful days? Did life need such special meaning? Wasn't being happy with that alone what true life was?

The ruined prison seemed to be trying to hold onto my heart now instead of my body. I would never go back inside, but it would forever imprison one fragment of my memories.

Goodbye, Tantalus. The place filled with my special experiences...

Crash.

Then I hit something. The automatic carriage jolted hard up and down and stalled. After slamming my head into the steering wheel, I quickly opened the driver's door and shouted.

"Ah, damn it! Watch where you're driving!"

I yelled on reflex, but no answer came back. In the first place, there wasn't much around here that I could have collided with.

What had I hit? Did I run over something strange?

I went around to the rear of the vehicle and found an odd object.

"What is this, a sign?"

A sign rising from the ground was bent limply in the middle.

Where had I seen this before? It felt familiar, but I couldn't remember right away. After racking my brain for a while, I finally recalled it and snapped my fingers.

Ah, right. The officers escorting me. They saw this sign and stopped, didn't they? It was the sign marking the end of the road.

I had definitely heard a communications officer's voice here, and the guards had thrown me down below on those orders.

"Hm. Come to think of it, it was Lieutenant Evian of Edelheit, wasn't it? I'd forgotten."

How dare they swing an iron rod at me? Remembering that made my bones ache. The resentment I had suppressed began creeping out.

Good. I had somewhere to visit before returning to Amitenggrad. I would stop by Edelheit first and beat up that lieutenant.

Just as I was about to get back into the vehicle, I saw that the ground near the sign was cracked in a grid pattern. It looked strangely artificial for something that might have happened when Tantalus overturned and split the ground.

Could it be?

I walked over, grabbed the grid-patterned ground, and tore it away. It peeled up easily, like a layer of skin.

As expected, it was fake ground. Had the collapse of Tantalus exposed it with the impact?

Beneath it was an ugly, dented rectangular metal structure.

Its design was closer to a box than a building. It looked as though a box hidden underground had been knocked loose by the impact when tilted Tantalus struck the ground.

"What is this? Did someone hide treasure here?"

Judging by its size, it looked like a large room, but no one would live in a place like this. Who lived buried underground in a metal box? There had to be something hidden inside.

My hunter-gatherer instincts stirred for the first time in a while. I pulled out my spike and climbed onto the box.

Thunk.

The sound of hollow metal rang out.

"Checking a gift box is always fun."

What could be inside? Whistling, I pushed the spike into a dented gap and got to work.

No matter how much I prodded, though, I couldn't open the box. The lock didn't react, and even when I shoved the spike into the dented gap, there was nothing to catch on. Clicking my tongue, I threw the spike aside.

"Tch. What good is reading people's minds when I can't read a lock's mind?"

Come to think of it, I had never picked a lock from scratch. I either stole the key or found out the password.

Tch. It felt like a waste to leave now...

What should I do?

The steel had been dented by a massive impact. I could see inside through the warped seams.

Hm. If I were a little stronger, or a little heavier, I think I could open this.

"Should I give it a try?"

I placed both hands on the steel box.

It was the Church of the Earth Mother's earth arts, which could originally only be used when one's mental image reached the Earth Mother. Only followers of the Earth Mother could use it.

But now that the Great Master's secret had been revealed to the world, I could probably use it too. Just like ritual magic or basic energy arts.

I focused my mind and thought of Jiseon and the Great Master.

To them, the earth flowed. Beginning with the lives that dwelled within it, it was an existence that shifted in countless ways through nature's grand current. Earth arts were techniques that brought about changes in the earth which should have taken decades, even millennia.

Steel came from the earth as well. Grasping the faint sensation I could feel, I cast earth arts on the steel door.

"Hup!"

Crash!

The door caved in. My body obeyed the laws of gravity and fell to the ground. Having suffered this humiliation, I rolled across the hard floor.

"Oww..."

As I groaned and got up, what I saw was a space overflowing with signs of daily life.

No, should I say it had signs of daily life or not?

"It really was a room."

Someone had clearly been living inside this box. Every piece of furniture crammed into the narrow space was covered in the marks of use.

But what kind of person could live trapped in such a confined space? In that sense, these overflowing signs of life made it feel more like an absurdist play.

"Set, Lux."

There might be something here worth taking, too. I lit the dark interior with ritual magic and walked forward.

"Huh?"

As I continued searching, something caught my eye.

Footnotes:

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