WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 147: The Road Flows with the Traveler - 3

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Even without sensory perception, people recognize what is unfamiliar.

The bed was relatively comfortable, and the room was cramped but clean. Still, I couldn't sleep deeply. My body hadn't adapted to this unfamiliar place.

"Wake up."

The pillow was subtly different in height. The mattress's softness changed my posture slightly. It was a little warmer and dustier than the Abyss. On top of that, the noise from outside kept needling at me.

The scents of military soap and dry grass lingered beneath my nose. An unfamiliar smell. Not unpleasant, but irritating. The scent of the military state, with a dry freshness seeping through it.

"Wake up.... Third wake-up request attempted. Further attempts are deemed meaningless."

Even the sound by my ear was something I had never heard before. All these sensations were disrupting my sleep. It was such a shallow sleep that a single word would wake me....

"Under the response manual, I will initiate the forced wake-up protocol."

Wait. This felt familiar somehow.

"Riiiiiing!"

"Arrrgh!"

Startled by the sudden noise, I rolled across the bed. When I hurriedly got up, the captain was already fully dressed in uniform and staring right at me.

I shouted at her as she watched me calmly, as if she had no idea what she had done.

"Why are you yelling?!"

"It has been ten minutes past wake-up time. You did not awaken even after I disabled the alarm and completed preparations, so I had no choice but to implement the forced wake-up protocol."

"You should've just nudged me! That would've been better!"

The captain nodded.

"First comes a request, second comes a warning, and third comes forceful action. Directly touching another person's body must be postponed until later."

"No, that warning was as intense as forceful action! It felt like you punched my eardrums, so just wake me up more gently by touching me!"

"I refuse. If I approach closely enough to touch you directly, there is a risk that you will reflexively flail your limbs and damage the golem."

"Captain AB, you're in your actual body right now."

The captain blinked twice, then cried out.

"Ah!"

What an idiot.

How long had she lived as a golem that she still couldn't get used to her own body?

"Besides, it won't hurt if I flail around. Just tap me on the shoulder and wake me up next time."

"...Input received."

The captain reluctantly accepted it.

After putting on my clothing packet, I went downstairs for the provided breakfast. We filled our stomachs with canned bean soup and ration bread, then headed straight for the Meta-conveyor Belt station with our travel passes.

The supply officer saluted the captain and quickly checked our passes.

"Amitenggrad station. Two personnel, estimated travel time of three days. Please take sleeping bags for the night, multipurpose lamps, canteens, and rations. Would you like packet sleeping bags? We also have non-packet sleeping bags for those with insufficient mana."

"Provide this officer with a packet one. As for...."

The captain glanced at me. I scratched my head, pretending to be a little embarrassed.

"I'll take a non-packet one. Unlike Bbi, I'm a little short on mana."

'Bbi?! Still?!'

Maybe because I was supposedly the captain's family, the supply officer politely replied even though I was supposedly only level one.

"Understood. A non-packet sleeping bag for your older brother. I cannot guarantee its performance, so make good use of the straps."

'Denied! He is not my older brother...! Endure it! Once we board the Meta-conveyor Belt, it will all be over anyway!'

Would it? Did she think I'd give up this delightful forged identity just because I boarded the Meta-conveyor Belt?

Ha. Not a chance.

Once Captain AB and I had gathered all our supplies, we headed for the station.

Even while everyone slept at night, the ground flowed and cargo arrived. So what was the solution?

Simple. Don't let the laborers sleep.

Cargo arriving overnight had to be unloaded as well, so the laborers worked in day and night shifts. The night-shift laborers, dark circles heavy beneath their eyes, looked back and forth between the containers approaching from afar and the day shift coming to replace them.

Some brightened when they heard us approach, thinking we had come for the shift change. Then they were deeply disappointed and turned away in case they caught the captain's attention. With nothing but sighs, they readied themselves both to rush toward the cargo at any moment and to begin the shift change.

We passed them and headed to the boarding area.

The "people" who rode the Meta-conveyor Belt were long-distance travelers. Many were soldiers reassigned to another region or carrying out operations. Unlike cargo, they could board and disembark of their own will.

That was why the passenger station had crisp, orderly guards instead of shabby laborers.

"Confirmed, Captain. And the captain's older brother."

'Even denying it is exhausting. I just want to leave....'

The fact that her expression didn't change suggested she had received some training. Otherwise, perhaps she had simply given up on everything.

"Your estimated arrival time is noon three days from now. Please disembark from the flow on time. Otherwise, you will make another circuit within the flow that never stops."

Even a simple statement of fact became humorous when it came to the Meta-conveyor Belt. There was a reason the engineering corps members who had worked here for twenty-five years walked around with their shoulders thrown back.

Seriously, without this thing, the military state would've run its country into the ground long ago.

As the gate opened with the guard's salute, the captain returned it with one of her own. I vaguely bowed and raised a hand slightly, like a civilian who knew nothing and was roughly copying her. The guard didn't return my greeting.

'Must be nice having a captain for a younger sister. He gets to ride the Meta-conveyor Belt for free. Tch, can't my useless younger brothers get into some officer academy....'

Leaving behind the guard, upright in posture but rotten in spirit, we stepped onto the flowing ground.

The moment I set foot on it, my body tilted for just a second. We quickly regained our balance.

At the station, the speed was one-tenth of the normal flow. You couldn't even stagger at this speed. I watched the station slowly recede. Even the slowest automatic carriage was faster than this, so the world seemed to move as slowly as a person walking.

But then.

A tributary flowing in from another station merged with the belt, and the Meta-conveyor Belt gradually began to accelerate.

The containers passing through this place went straight past the station. Right after that came the point where the tributaries joined. The containers that had looked tiny in the distance gradually approached until they filled my vision.

At the same time, I began to feel the speed. Before I knew it, the wind was whistling past my ears.

It was a strange sight. I was clearly standing on the same ground, and the earth beneath my feet was still solid. Yet the scenery rushing past outside gradually changed.

It was as if the world had left us behind and was running backward.

Nearby signs vanished behind us. Distant trees strolled leisurely toward the rear. Yet the world around us remained unchanged.

The wind blew. The still wind proved that this ground was racing ahead. The wind occasionally moved, but on a larger scale it remained still, so whenever the Meta-conveyor Belt moved forward, it struck us as a headwind.

Symbols of stillness and movement had traded places, crying out through that contradiction.

"...Cold wind. It is quite harsh. This is a sensation I have never experienced...."

The captain, wearing her instructor's uniform, held her hat tightly so it wouldn't blow away in the fierce wind. Meanwhile, I wrapped my face in my flapping sleeping bag and shouted.

"What do you want to do? Wrap ourselves up in sleeping bags here, or walk and look for other people?"

"...Walking would be preferable. I cannot agree with the suggestion to find others, but we appear to need a windbreak."

"Great. Let's go!"

We each took one step.

I went against the flow of the ground, while the captain went in the direction it was moving.

After taking three steps each and realizing the other wasn't following, we whipped our heads around. The captain, ahead of me, clutched her hat and shouted.

"Shouldn't we naturally go forward? Walking backward despite being able to arrive sooner is an act against the mission!"

"You want to move forward with this wind hitting us in the face? Don't be ridiculous. Even taking it on our backs is bad enough. How are we supposed to go forward?"

"We cannot neglect the mission over something as trivial as wind!"

"Are you really dismissing this wind? If we go against it, your body will get blown away! Obviously, we should walk backward while looking!"

Our opinions ran on parallel lines. There was no helping it. To resolve such trivial disputes, I had no choice but to invoke humanity's precious agreement.

I raised my fist high and shouted.

"Let's decide with rock-paper-scissors!"

The captain firmly shook her head.

"Denied. That is impossible. We cannot determine our attitude toward a mission through something like rock-paper-scissors."

"Oh, seriously!"

Should I call this diligence, or being completely inflexible?

How did the military state create something like this? If every citizen of the military state voluntarily followed orders like Captain AB, this country would have remained rich and powerful forever.

"I really didn't want to use this method."

Still, going forward was insane. Rather than walk against that wind in search of a windbreak with no end in sight, I would rather endure wind-attribute attack magic.

So you brought this on yourself, Captain.

I spun around.

"...? Why are you turning back? I told you we should go forwa-"

"Catch me if you can!"

I took off running backward. The captain stared blankly at me as I fled, then pointed at my back and chased after me.

"Ah! Stop! You are not permitted to leave this officer's side!"

"Hahahaha! If people stopped just because they were told to, why would we have police or laws? Catch me! That's the only way I'll stop!"

"Warning...! If you do not stop, I will use force!"

"You don't have any force to use! Not a damn thing!"

With the captain trailing behind me, I ran backward along the biggest belt in the world.

Perhaps because running in her actual body rather than a golem felt awkward, the captain fell twice while chasing me. I considered going back when I saw her clutching her reddened nose, but running on your own two feet was a basic skill you had to learn in this harsh world.

Thinking of it as training, I ran on with tears in my eyes and a firm heart.

'This vivid pain.... The feeling of riding the wind.... These are things I could never feel through a golem with its pain sensation controlled. I am truly running in my actual body...!'

What was I supposed to do? She was too pitiful for me to keep running. At this point, wasn't the military state the problem for raising a puppeteer like a puppet?

A windbreak came into view in the distance just then. I subtly stopped so the captain could catch me. With a proud expression, she ran toward me.

"Got you!"

Wait, why wasn't she slowing down?

"Argh!"

A heavy impact struck my back. The captain had pounced on me without reducing her speed. Even I couldn't withstand a full-body tackle with all her weight behind it, so I rolled across the ground.

The captain climbed on top of me, tightly grabbed my arms, and said triumphantly,

"I will issue a firm warning. If you leave this officer's side without permission after this point, I will restrain and escort you by any means necessar-"

Clap clap clap.

Applause came from somewhere.

At the sound by her ear, the captain sharply raised her head.

Several dozen meters away on the belt stood a structure that looked as if it had sprouted from the ground. It was a windbreak.

Someone stood skillfully atop the bulging windbreak, shaped to let the wind flow around it. A middle-aged man with a bold, nimble air crossed his arms and clapped as he watched us with great interest. His body didn't sway in the slightest despite the fierce wind.

He smiled like a mischievous child who didn't match his age.

"What a noisy entrance!"

As soon as he finished speaking, faces appeared from both sides of the windbreak, where people had hidden from the wind. They looked toward the new travelers with equal parts expectation and concern.

The captain's gaze turned toward the middle-aged man standing atop the windbreak.

Then came shock. Pure shock filled her mind.

'...?! Why is he here?'

While the captain was briefly speechless at his sudden appearance, I got to my feet, dusted off my hands and feet, and pointed at the windbreak.

"Bbi! It's a windbreak! It's cold, so let's get inside quickly!"

'That is why Bbi is denied! This officer has no memory of permitting you to use a pet name! Nor has this officer ever possessed the pet name Bbi! And!'

Since we had boarded this thing, I had to keep acting as the captain's older brother. I calmly continued the act and called out to the person atop the windbreak.

"Looks like there are people here! Hello! Can we come in too?"

'You should stop! Going in there requires a little more careful consideration...!'

The middle-aged man atop the windbreak nodded broadly and shouted.

"Of course! That's what the windbreak was made for! Come in!"

A firm yet nimble impression. A confident attitude, as if everything in the world lay beneath his feet. An upright posture.

More than anything, his body received the raging wind head-on without wavering in the slightest, as if proclaiming that he was no ordinary person.

'Warning...! You are walking straight into a fatal danger!'

Huh? I couldn't sense any hostility. He did have an extraordinary presence, but I was a survival specialist who had endured the Abyss, where the regressor, the Progenitor, and the King of Dogs all crowded together. I didn't tense up around someone without hostile intent.

Unless he was some sort of monster like a murderous tank....

'Danger! This officer cannot even tell you who he is! He is a figure whose very existence carries a security classification! Someone everyone in the military state knows, yet who possesses such status and power...!'

I stopped dead while walking toward the windbreak, waving my hand. When I turned around, the captain looked at me pitifully, as though tears might well up in her eyes at any moment.

'If he asks this officer about the mission, this officer will have no choice but to reveal everything! There are no unauthorized secrets for someone of his rank! Even the fact that you are a laborer who returned alive from the Abyss!'

Her desperation made me read her thoughts again, and I realized what the captain was worried about. At the same time, a sense of crisis hit me. If things went wrong, everything could fall apart.

Come on, no way. By chance like this....

'He is General Partlaxion, one of the military state's Six Generals!'

So I had run into one of the military state's strongest fighters. I turned my head again. General Partlaxion was just then jumping down beneath the windbreak.

...If I ran away in the opposite direction now, he'd really make me play catch me if you can, wouldn't he?

Footnotes:

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