WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 170: Fake News...?

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‘...There are so many good things in this world.’

‘Mornings are welcome, sunlight is warm, and the wind is cool. Black tea is sweet, blankets are soft, and food delights the tongue.’

‘People live together. After a day of labor, they drag their weary bodies to a restaurant, sit across from one another, exchange jokes, and let the exhausting day pass. They meet strangers and become friends, return home, raise their children, and fall asleep. On quiet nights, only the sound of their breathing can be heard. This officer has experienced all of it.’

‘But there are tragedies in this world. Anna was seriously injured in an attack, people who threaten even officers roam the streets, organizations viciously fight each other in the darkness, and some citizens go to sleep as usual but never open their eyes in the morning. Somewhere this officer does not know, more people must be dying.’

‘Some accidents cannot be helped, but many tragedies can be prevented. Evil that spreads chaos must be dealt with swiftly, especially the Shadow of the Military State and the Magician. Lawless people who hide their identities while throwing society into disorder.’

‘To fulfill this officer’s duty. For him and for Anna as well.’

‘Before this officer’s life runs out, this officer will eliminate them.’

‘...That was the plan.’

After returning home, the captain placed a stone over the feelings threatening to rise within her.

Press. Press.

Her hard, heavy sense of duty weighed down on her heart. The feelings that had been fluttering and swelling without understanding their owner gradually settled. The heat left her head, and reason returned.

She looked much calmer now. Should I start clearing up the misunderstanding?

“Captain, you aren’t upset because I made up an excuse to get us out of that situation, are you?”

“...”

“Maybe because Neru was born a beast, she barks too loudly unless her mouth is stuffed with meat, so I had no choice. Please be generous and forgive...”

“Negative.”

“Huh? Negative to what?”

Instead of answering, the captain looked around the room.

The bed and sofa, the lamps and lights. Even the carpet covering the floor and the bathroom door.

After looking over every object, the captain made up her mind and turned to me.

“This officer requests your cooperation.”

“Oh, right. You said you wanted my cooperation. But I’m careful about separating business from personal matters. Go ahead. Tell me your conditions and payment, then I’ll decide.”

I had even done work similar to that of a fixer once. Cooperation? Sure. As long as she paid a suitable price.

As though she had expected that response, the captain nodded without hesitation.

“This officer wishes to find the criminal organization called the ‘Shadow of the Military State’ and the outlaw called the ‘Magician.’”

“What?”

Ah. That would be a problem. I was the Magician.

Was it a petty criminal’s instinct? An officer was looking for me right in front of me, and my body stiffened like a mouse before a cat. Uh, I couldn’t help with this. To do so, I would have to plug a straitjacket packet into myself.

More importantly, why all of a sudden?

“Why are you looking for them?”

“This officer is a soldier. Does a soldier need a reason to watch criminals and arrest them?”

“Well, no, but...”

Wasn’t she on leave until she returned to headquarters?

If the condition was to return before two weeks had passed, wasn’t it only proper to enjoy the pleasures of society for two full weeks, then casually return on the last day? Why was she trying to work while on leave?

Work that involved arresting me, at that!

“This officer needs a collaborator who lives locally and understands the geography and current situation. This officer must also find a contact who can pass on information in my stead if something unforeseen happens.”

“You want me to do that?”

“Affirmative.”

“I don’t mind cooperating, but I don’t work for free. Whatever the job, I get a reasonable payment. I work according to what I’m paid. That’s my motto.”

In short, pay up.

The captain accepted it without complaint.

‘I know. You were always that sort of person. Even in the Abyss, you used to demand payment even for minor favors.’

Heh. At least she knew.

This was why it was important not to let people take advantage of you. Once you built up an image, they considered the payment on their own.

“Before that, however, this officer has a proposal for you.”

Oh? She was trying to negotiate with me? In front of a mind reader?

Let’s see. How much had she prepared to offer? Hazard pay, labor costs, the fee for providing my base... Hmm. It would take a lot of money.

I should read just a little of what she was proposing. If her conditions were ridiculous, I could cut her off immediately.

Just as I tried to read her thoughts, she said,

“Marry this officer.”

“What? Excuse me?”

What? Excuse me?

The ability to read thoughts was no different from being deaf if I could not understand what I had read.

While I stood there dumbfounded, the captain held her cap to her chest and spoke seriously.

“This officer knows it is a sudden proposal. But please hear me out.”

I was planning to do more than listen. I was going to read her thoughts and dig through her memories. What kind of thought process had led to that statement? Was my first proposal of marriage really going to be like this?

‘As a communications officer, this officer’s identity was discovered by you. I should have immediately committed suicide or shot you, but during the journey across half the military state’s territory, this officer did nothing and merely observed. There are no words to excuse such negligence.’

Ah, this pattern.

“This officer owes you a great debt. You saved this officer’s life, provided a place to live, and offered every convenience. In return, what this officer has provided you is...”

‘Not killing you would not count as payment. By protocol, this officer should have committed suicide. If anything, thanks to your help, this officer gained a few days’ reprieve before the end of my life...’

“...Nothing.”

At least she knew.

If she understood that well, then what was this sudden nonsense?

“It’s admirable that you realize it, but what does that have to do with anything? Are you saying I should be grateful that you’ll marry me and devote my life to serving you?”

“Negative.”

The captain straightened her posture and raised her head. Her eyes were as blue and clear as the sky, so clear that I did not even feel like reading her thoughts.

“At present, a mysterious criminal organization and lawless people are running rampant in the military state’s districts numbered 10 through 19. For your sake and for those around you, this officer intends to restore order and wipe them out.”

I couldn’t exactly say, You think you can do that? She had already shown far too much ability.

She only needed to go to the communications headquarters and pass along the right information. With golems hidden everywhere tracking them, ordinary criminal organizations would never be able to escape.

Still, if she returned to the communications headquarters with her identity exposed, she would only be forced to kill herself. It seemed she planned to gather as much information as possible before then.

...Or die fighting a criminal organization.

“You’re doing a good thing.”

“It is this officer’s duty. From now on, this officer will investigate the outlaws who torment the military state’s citizens and use every means to eliminate them. But they are criminals who use violence even against officers. This officer may face threats during the investigation. They have neither laws nor rules, so this officer may even be murdered.”

She still did not seem to intend to live. The captain spoke of her own death without a change in expression.

“This is both a request for your cooperation and payment for the help you have given this officer until now. Should this officer die, I need someone who can convey my information and the fact of my death to the authorities.”

“Ah. So that’s it.”

Now I understood why marriage had come up.

“If you die during the mission, there’ll be a death benefit, so you’re saying I should marry you and take the money instead of letting it disappear?”

“...”

“Right?”

“...Affirmative.”

‘It is the only thing this officer can give you. With no immediate family, this officer has no one to receive it. At the very least, I hope you will accept it.’

She was going to die anyway.

With that as her premise, the captain intended to investigate and destroy the forces behind Anna’s attack and the unrest among the citizens.

Along the way, her desire to repay her debt to me had bounced around and suddenly turned into a proposal of marriage.

“It will not be a bad arrangement for you either. If it becomes known that you actively cooperated with this officer in Tantalus, some of the suspicions against you can be cleared away.”

“The military state will clear me of suspicion? That’s the least believable thing I’ve ever heard.”

“It is an undeniable fact that you helped this officer return as far as Amitenggrad. If this officer emphasizes that fact, my superiors will not blame you too harshly.”

“I’m a Level 0 nobody. I might get arrested before anyone even has the chance to blame me.”

“There is no problem. Marriage to a Level 3 citizen temporarily grants the spouse a citizen level of 2. You only need to clear all suspicions while your Level 2 status remains.”

I was not particularly dissatisfied with my life as a Level 0 petty criminal, but the exemplary captain wanted me to step back into the light.

“You will wash away all your sins and begin a new life with sufficient wealth. This is the payment this officer offers you.”

By marrying her, that was.

Well, I appreciated the sentiment, and honestly, I appreciated the money too. But wasn’t this a little strange?

“Do you really have to die? Can’t you pull back when things start to get dangerous?”

The captain firmly shook her head.

“This officer must fulfill this officer’s duty.”

The iron rule of communications officers was to keep their very existence absolutely secret.

Having just witnessed the power of a communications officer, I could understand it to some extent.

From one spot, she could monitor an entire district, receive all kinds of information at once, and organize it in an instant.

Synchronization Magic, which let them transmit national secrets and military operations to other communications officers or units, might seem insignificant on an individual level. But as a cog in a nation, it was an incredibly powerful ability. Sending commands from headquarters over vast distances without delay or cost meant the entire military state could move as nimbly as a single beast.

Long-distance communications, information control, surveillance, and management.

Communications officers were the military state’s nervous system. They could never be exposed.

If another part was damaged, only that part suffered. If a communications officer had a problem, the vast nation called the military state would stagger. Because of the nature of Synchronization Magic, a problem affecting one person spread through the whole military state, so the military state had no choice but to handle communications officers carefully.

That was why the military state hammered their importance and duty into communications officers as though brainwashing them.

Just like the captain before my eyes.

“So you’re saying it’s almost certain you’ll die.”

‘Negative. Even if there were a chance this officer could survive, I do not intend to do so. Even if I had a spouse, secrecy regarding communications officers must be maintained.’

The captain said something different from what was in her heart.

“Affirmative. It is that dangerous a task.”

I understood what she meant.

During the few days we spent together, I had shown her plenty of life’s pleasures, but it had not been enough to make her choose to live.

If that was the case...

“...Captain. Won’t people consider it a fake marriage meant to claim a death benefit?”

“It is an unnecessary concern. It is an unwritten rule not to criticize a marriage hastily arranged just before an unmarried soldier is deployed into danger.”

The reason was simple. To raise morale.

If a soldier died, a death benefit was paid. In a military state where people could not even leave behind an inheritance, the death benefit paid to the family left behind was an excellent means of making soldiers resolve themselves to die.

Soldiers without the resolve to die were a rabble. Therefore, the military state actively encouraged marriage.

To increase the population and strengthen its military power, while also raising the soldiers’ morale.

“This officer is only exercising that right.”

I understood the intention. I understood her resolve too.

There was almost nothing for me to lose. All I had to do was sign the marriage papers. There would be no children, and my wife would soon be gone, leaving only a death benefit to be paid. Was this not pleasure without responsibility?

This was the military state. There was no Sanctum here, so nobody would point fingers at me for getting divorced.

“A chance to receive your death benefit and clear all suspicions against me. It is not a bad offer for me... But I have something I’m curious about.”

“Please speak.”

Get married under false pretenses and receive the death benefit as payment.

It seemed like a reasonable proposal on the surface, but there was one question.

Would Captain AB, a diligent and exemplary communications officer of the military state, truly make such a request purely as monetary payment?

Had the interview with Neru affected her? Or had meeting all the people around the city changed something within her?

If I dug deeply enough, I could probably find out.

Not yet, though. The captain had not gained a life of her own yet.

I should leave her alone a little longer.

“This contract is only a contract, right? It has no meaning beyond the death benefit I’ll receive?”

“Affirmative.”

The captain responded immediately. It was an answer with no hesitation, as though she had prepared it beforehand.

“Well, I accept payment in goods or notes too.”

For some reason, accepting this made me feel like the greatest piece of trash alive, but who cared?

She was the one who offered first. My only crime was agreeing.

I held out my hand for a handshake.

“All right. I’ll cooperate, Captain.”

“I look forward to working with you.”

The captain grasped my hand and smiled brightly.

‘...It should be all right. To be a little greedier one last time.’

‘As a communications officer, this officer knows all kinds of information. From secrets that must never be known to recipes for canned beans. This officer knows most of the knowledge and information accessible in the military state.’

‘But there is still so much this officer does not know.’

‘The pounding felt when I am held in someone’s arms, the shame that makes my face burn bright red, the regret I feel whenever I think of my death, and the longing for those I will not see again. This officer still does not know what they are.’

‘...Could marriage teach me? If it is something that changes people so dramatically, something that gives courage to soldiers heading into danger, could this officer change as well?’

‘I heard marriage should be with someone one wishes to spend a lifetime with. If so, this officer is having a rather good marriage.’

‘He will not know this officer’s feelings. That is fortunate.’

‘There is not enough time left to have children, but still... This officer has married before dying.’

‘This officer may be the happiest communications officer.’

Footnotes:

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