WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 167: Black Cat Neru

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The back alleys of District 14 were always thick with acrid smoke.

The wind blew from west to east. Even humans swimming through the air could not escape that current. The stench people breathed out, dust, and every other filthy thing too difficult to put into words all flowed eastward with the wind, outward.

The enormous incinerator in District 14 was where all that filth gathered.

When huge automated carriages arrived laden with trash, they rolled along the road and dumped it into a massive pit. Then laborers, dressed little better than the garbage itself, approached. They burned what needed burning, packed what needed burying into containers, and loaded them onto the meta conveyor belt.

Sometimes, a decomposing corpse turned up amid the mountains of trash. Even while dry heaving, the laborers sent it into the incinerator.

The reason was simple. Corpses burned.

About forty-five minutes later, the smell of roasting meat mixed with the black stench.

Was the clear droplet gathering at the corner of a laborer's mouth saliva, or gastric fluid?

It was the harsh exhale of a massive city, the strong cigarette Amitenggrad smoked after being worn down by life's hardships.

In a building with a clear view of the incinerator, where the glorious prosperity and shining dreams of the past were scorched with equal cruelty.

The Original Shadow, Ulfenn, sat in a chair and muttered gloomily.

"...I have seen true darkness."

Ulfenn Fenstein.

The evil of the past that had hidden in the military state's shadows spoke in an even more despondent voice.

"Be humble. We are shadows. Light is our enemy, and true darkness can swallow even shadows. We must know our place and act with caution."

At his words, the Seventh Sub-Shadow abruptly rose to his feet and shouted.

"Original Shadow! How can you, who should lead us, be so afraid?"

Ulfenn looked at the Seventh with clouded eyes. The Seventh Sub-Shadow stood with his ears and tail rigid as he spoke.

"While you were gone, we suffered infighting. Since your heart had not stopped, those of us who had lost our center could not unite. We hid in every direction and slowly withered away! Now that you have returned, you must reward our endurance!"

"What reward do you seek from me?"

"Gather the Sub-Shadows. Make a plan and restore our former glory! Original Shadow, only you can do this, and only you should do it!"

His thunderous cry echoed through the empty conference room.

Was it blunt advice, loyal counsel, or simply resentment built up over the years? Having forcefully confronted the Original Shadow, the Seventh breathed heavily.

Even so, Ulfenn showed neither anger nor agitation. He only looked at the Seventh with those deeply sunken, murky eyes.

"Seventh. Have you seen Tantalus?"

"...No. But isn't it just a prison built by the military state?"

"No. Tantalus is not simply a prison."

The Seventh trembled when he saw Ulfenn's emotionless eyes.

Back when Ulfenn had been the kingdom's shadow, he had been a demon without blood or tears.

The tyrant of the back alleys had massacred entire families without changing his expression. He had even assassinated knights famed for their prowess simply because they had broken a contract.

Yet no one could stop him.

Ulfenn was a shadow. When night came and the kingdom sank into darkness, he existed nowhere and everywhere at once. The Sub-Shadows never dared question his strength and obeyed him.

After he had been captured by the military state and imprisoned in Tantalus, that fear had eroded with time...

"That place... was a battlefield for demons, where beings only the Abyss could dare contain had gathered. My blood was no longer mine, and even darkness was not on my side. Strength, weapons, life, will. Even faith betrayed me... It was a horrific place where common sense was broken and powers tangled together."

He now resembled someone who had attained enlightenment. The Seventh feared that unsettling change.

It was not ordinary terror, but fear and awe toward a being reborn into something unknown.

"There, I was able to reflect on myself. I realized how petty and insignificant I was compared to true monsters. In the presence of real monsters, I learned my place."

His eyes appeared clear and transparent, as though the twenty years he had spent confined in Tantalus had settled all his malice and venom.

Yet it had merely separated into upper and lower layers. Far deeper within Ulfenn's heart, a stickier, denser malice churned.

"The red-haired demon asked me to go with him. He said he would give me a chance to change the world. But I... chose to be the head of a cat rather than the tail of a tiger. I rejected his offer and returned here... I will be satisfied as the ruler of this insignificant city."

The Seventh could endure no longer and slammed his hand on the table.

"Original Shadow! Watch your words. Are you saying we are cats?"

"Lower than that, Seventh."

The Seventh flinched.

The voice that had just come from the chair at the head of the table was suddenly whispering beside his ear.

As the startled Seventh tried to raise his arm, a blackened blade rose from the darkness.

Thud.

The blade that emerged from the shadows tore into the Seventh's chest. A dry, simple sound rang out. The Seventh's eyes widened.

"Seventh. It seems many years have passed. Where did that body, dried thin by hatred, go? All that remains is a fattened beast... Tell me. Did your family welcome you home?"

"Cough...! Wh-why?"

Ulfenn answered the Seventh.

"I found out that you had joined the Family. What is it, were you worried about them? Were you afraid I might attack those half-human things? Did they truly become your family?"

The Seventh's eyes widened. At the same time, his ears and tail stood taut. Terror beyond pain and fear spread across his entire body.

"N-no. Original Shadow, you... You wouldn't... me..."

"One full day of surveillance was enough..."

"No."

"Nothing is impossible. No impossibility exists in this world. Impossibility is merely a line drawn at will by those who hold power. We, who are shadows, have no reason to follow it."

Thud.

The sound had been dry when the blade entered, but wet when it was pulled out. Red stained the darkness. Staring at the wound in his chest, the Seventh staggered backward.

His strength soon gave out, and he swayed as though he were about to collapse...

Then, just as he fell, he suddenly rushed Ulfenn with his beastly nature blazing. Blood poured from his chest, but he seemed not to care.

"Kurrrraaaang-!"

Sharp claws tore at Ulfenn. As if that were not enough, the Seventh lashed his arms again and again, trying to tear Ulfenn to pieces.

A chair caught in his path shattered, and the table split apart and collapsed. Overwhelming strength overturned the conference room.

But.

"Beasts truly are foolish."

A blade emerged from the Seventh's chest again.

Whether the wound was fatal or the attack he had poured all his strength into had amounted to nothing, the Seventh Sub-Shadow could not resist. Blood only gushed from the hole in his chest.

A stealth technique capable of deceiving even beastfolk known for their sharp senses.

Ulfenn pulled out his dagger. This time, the Seventh fell to his knees. Ulfenn, melted into the shadows, appeared before him once more and muttered.

"Settle, Seventh. Do not worry. The blades of the shadows will not harm your family..."

Without even sparing the Seventh another look, Ulfenn left the conference room. Though he walked across a hard concrete floor, his footsteps were as quiet as if a carpet lay beneath them.

"...This country, which has learned of their taboo, will crush them in my place."

Creeeak.

As the dead man's life flowed out, the door closed with a metallic groan.

When the kingdom collapsed and the military state took its place, the beastfolk had held great hopes. The hope that all the old evils would disappear and beastfolk would be treated equally made their ears perk up.

It only proved that changing people's perceptions was harder than changing a country.

Even as the remnants of the kingdom vanished and the military state extended its reach, discrimination against beastfolk remained. People still avoided them, and their crime rate was higher than that of non-beastfolk.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Did they commit crimes and lose trust, or were they pushed into a corner for no reason until crime became their only alternative?

Whatever the reason, beastfolk banded together to resist oppression.

That was how the beastfolk organizations called Families came into being.

"...A brother we sent undercover was found dead."

Her ears and tail were nearly indistinguishable from her black hair. Deep dark circles hung beneath one eye. Her other eye was covered with an eyepatch, which, combined with the distinctive features of a black cat, emphasized her decadent appearance.

Among Families made entirely of beastfolk, she had inherited animal traits more strongly than most. She served as both the leader of the action squad and the group's public face.

She was the editor-in-chief of Black Cat, one of the few private magazines in the military state, a paparazzi who dug into nothing but gossip. She was also a devoted informant for the military state.

Neru sat across from me in a one-piece dress, loudly sipping fruit juice.

"He was a pretty capable brother too. Hmm. It's such a shame. What do you think, darling?"

So someone they had kept hidden as a reserve force had been discovered and killed. Hmm.

I knew what I thought.

"Wow. Scary. I'd better run. Bye, then."

"Darling, where are you going?"

The moment I showed any sign of getting up, Neru instantly extended her claws and grabbed my clothes. Above the table, holes opened in my sleeve, while beneath it, sharp claws tugged at my pant leg.

Was this an interview or a threat?

"Darling. If you've heard information, you should pay an appropriate price for it, right?"

"I never asked you to tell me."

The moment you sat across from me, I read all your thoughts.

Your comrade had once belonged to the kingdom's Shadow, then joined the Family after the kingdom fell. You said that comrade had been killed by a bad man.

After reading your thoughts, I found out that comrade had even reached Geongon. Someone that strong died without putting up much resistance?

Just how strong was Ulfenn, the Tantalus escapee? What kind of monsters had been living in Tantalus?

Tch. I didn't want to fight. I was weak in one-on-one combat.

For the record, I was hopeless at one-against-many fights, and my pride would never allow many-against-one fights.

Therefore, there was nothing I could do for her.

I wanted to flee quickly because I was scared, but Neru forcibly held on and would not let me go.

Neru answered with a sweet smile.

"I know. But Magician doesn't trade information unless we do this, right?"

"Is this a trade? It's more like force-feeding someone and making them throw it back up."

"We call that a trade."

These people probably contributed to why beastfolk had such a bad reputation. Especially Neru. My hatred of beastfolk was rising again today.

Still, I was using the Family too, so I could not reject them outright. I sighed and sat back down.

"To be honest, I don't know anything. It's only been three days since I returned to Amitenggrad."

I was on my third day in Amitenggrad. My knowledge was no different from that of a newborn baby born three days ago...

That was what I meant, but Neru's one visible eye sparkled with interest instead.

"Ah, that's one of the questions our Family shares too. Darling, how did you get dragged off by the military police? Did even a monkey fall from a tree?"

"You know roughly what happened. That bastard Anton betrayed me. I was caught before I could do anything."

"That's not what I mean. It couldn't have been easy, but with your abilities, couldn't you have slipped away in the middle of it?"

What nonsense.

Two military police officers stayed beside me, and I usually lived in a straitjacket. The only time it came off was in courtrooms packed with ordinary soldiers.

Even if I had mind reading and a bit of sleight of hand, my actual abilities were those of an ordinary person. I could not take off a straitjacket alone, nor did I have the strength to knock down that many soldiers. Naturally, I got caught.

But if I told the truth, she would look down on me, and being looked down on was an act of shaving years off my own life.

I put on as much bravado as I could.

"If I escaped, I'd immediately be wanted as a serious criminal. Life gets hard once you're a serious criminal, so I figured I had bad luck and decided to do some labor."

"Wow. Magician really is different, isn't he?"

'Hehe. A big shot really is a big shot. He talks as if escaping would be easy if he wanted to.'

If it worked just because I wanted it to, I would've taken advantage of it over and over. Did she think it was that easy?

Even escape artists were not made to perform with both hands tied and their eyes covered. Magicians were people too. It wasn't that I was incompetent. The military state was just excessive.

Maybe I had boasted too much. Neru, full of excitement, praised me lavishly.

"Did you know? Right when you were captured, there was an escape from Tantalus. When I first heard the news, I thought the military state had finally gone mad and thrown you into Tantalus. I couldn't think of anyone but you who could incite Tantalus's prisoners to escape."

"Don't talk nonsense. The timing doesn't match."

"Hehe. Right. You were captured after the Tantalus escape. Sadly, you lost your chance to put on a Tantalus escape show."

"I don't want one."

I meant that sincerely.

I had escaped once and nearly died. Did she know what it was like to fight while the earth turned over, the sky split open, and mountains of corpses collapsed? If I did that twice, I wouldn't have a life left.

'Hmm. Flattery doesn't work well on him either?'

It wasn't flattery. It was the wisdom of someone with experience.

Please, don't enter Tantalus in the first place.

"So. Is that all you wanted to ask?"

"Of course not. That was only the appetizer. The real question is... this."

Tap.

Neru placed a short note on the table. A brief message was embroidered on the edge of a small handkerchief.

-The military state's taboo. Intends to stir it up. Investigation required.

"It was his final message. Contact stopped after that, so we checked and found him dead in a building in District 14."

"My condolences."

"Thank you, but can you offer condolences through a contribution instead? I'll generously let you pay in information."

Tch, she wasn't falling for it.

"What information?"

Neru asked with a captivating smile.

"The military state's taboo."

"The military state's taboo?"

"What do you think? Do you know anything, darling?"

"Well..."

I dragged out the answer.

Because I didn't know? No, because I knew too much.

This damned country had so many taboos. Just last night, a walking taboo had slept in my house. It was such a secret taboo that anyone who learned its identity was obligated to kill themselves.

Even the Abyss was part of a taboo. It seemed like they planned to use it as some kind of war trigger. That was why they were so serious about controlling information.

Knowing too much was troublesome too. Even if it was a taboo, I needed to know which one she meant before I could answer.

The dilemma of an information broker.

"Ahh. You don't know either?"

"It's hard to choose just one."

"I'd like you to tell me all of them."

"Then the numbers don't work out."

"You're so stingy. Are we really like that?"

"Ah, right. We aren't close at all, are we? Come to think of it, I don't even need to make a contribution. Bye."

Swish, tap.

This time, I read Neru's reaching hand and foot in advance and brushed them aside. I twisted my arm to push away the back of her hand and gently stepped on the top of her rising foot half a beat early.

I promptly rose from my seat and tried to leave without a hint of regret. I had already read everything with mind reading, so I had no further business here.

You had nothing left to offer me.

That was before I heard her next words.

"Darling, I heard you've been living with an officer lately?"

I slowly turned my head. Neru was smiling brightly, as though she had caught hold of my weakness.

Footnotes:

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