WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 174: My Lady

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The Shadow of the Military State was a rabble.

Even if they were ordered to cause riots all at once, they might lose their nerve when the time came. No, they probably would.

Would an ordinary thug be willing to risk death by launching a direct assault on a specific facility? If they could, the military state would not need such brutal military training.

Everything they had done until now had merely been crimes.

But what they were about to do was tantamount to rebellion. With death, or a sentence of forced labor until they died, hanging over them, would they really act so readily no matter how firmly they had resolved themselves?

Rather than cause riots, they might hide even deeper out of fear that they had disobeyed orders.

...But what if Ulfen had intended even that?

"...The outlaws calling themselves the Shadow of the Military State were wedges hidden throughout Amitenggrad, meant to make the military state tear this city apart."

There had only ever been one thing Ulfen wanted.

Mutual destruction.

"They intend to spread the military state's taboo while causing riots! So that the military state's guns will be turned on everyone who encounters it or hears of it!"

The Family and the Market. Two of the few organizations in Amitenggrad, where the military state's power was strong.

They would provoke the thugs, including the orphans from the shelter, into fighting those two organizations and lure the military police into intervening in the sudden disturbance.

Then they would spread the taboo, hiding in the shadows and moving in secret.

A deadly poison that seeped in through mere exposure or contact. A fatal poison in the form of information.

The military state's taboo would spread among them.

And then...

"The military state will eliminate everyone suspected of having encountered that taboo...!"

The Family, the Market, even the shelter with its former general would not be safe.

Before a taboo that could shake the military state's foundations, everyone connected to an organization, large or small, would be swept away.

'Anna, Smen, even you will surely be hurt in the process!'

When you pulled weeds, the soil clinging to their roots came out with them. Not only Anna and I, but every lowborn person connected to us would be uprooted and thrown onto the rubbish heap.

If we were dragged off to a labor camp, we would be lucky. We might be sent straight to the incinerator.

Faced with the communications officer's certainty, I muttered uneasily.

"It must be quite a taboo."

Captain AB suddenly raised her head and spoke to me urgently.

"You must forget it. Do not become curious about its contents. You must never, never learn that taboo. Nor can you let anyone know that you do!"

'Please. Even coming into contact with that incident is dangerous. No, even knowing that such a taboo exists! I wish he would just forget what this unit said...!'

Captain AB's feelings were so desperate and urgent that I wanted to do just that.

But what could I do? I had already read it.

...An incident in which 162 students at a Secondary Military Academy had been... massacred? By "someone."

No, Captain. I wanted to know the Shadow's plot to threaten the back alleys. I did not want to know horrifying information that could get me killed just for knowing it.

I was a victim too. A victim of mind-reading! Mind-reading did this all on its own!

Sigh. Things had gotten huge. I scratched my head and spoke.

"Seriously. I was just trying to make a quick buck through a marriage scam, and now I might end up buried. Marriage, the grave of life, isn't handed out so easily after all."

At the mention of marriage, Captain AB flinched. I let out another kind of sigh and looked at her.

Agitated as she had been over the taboo, Captain AB felt another kind of heat rise from her heart and avoided my gaze. The neck visible beneath her straw hat had turned red.

I spoke leisurely.

"All right. I'll try to forget it. By the way, wasn't there something we kept putting off?"

"Th-that... affirmative."

"We said we'd do it whenever we saw an administrative office while helping with the investigation. Yet somehow, none showed up along our route. What a strange coincidence."

"Th-that is... affirmative. A remarkable coincidence."

Drawing out my words, I asked Captain AB, who was stumbling over hers.

"You aren't embarrassed, are you, Captain? You said it was only a sham marriage for compensation."

"Of course! It is solely to legally pay you your reward. This unit has pursued no personal interests whatsoever!"

Her voice rose by about half an octave, carrying as much heat as when she had spoken of the military state's taboo. Captain AB flinched at her own words and covered her mouth with one hand.

'What should I do...! This unit may have pursued personal interests through this matter...! Danger, danger! This would make it a false report! This unit has effectively lied!'

What was wrong with lying? I snickered and pointed across the street.

"Then shall we stop by an administrative office first? I'd rather not have my reward withheld."

"Th-that is... affirmative..."

Captain AB's voice gradually grew quieter.

As we walked down the street, her heart split in two.

Hatred for the Shadow, which sought to use the military state's power to overturn the peaceful back alleys.

And excitement at the thought that she would be filing a marriage registration, even if only a simplified one.

Though she knew this marriage was unlike an ordinary one, her heart was as excited as any new bride's.

'Really, this unit...?'

Captain AB briefly glanced at me before pulling her straw hat low.

'It is all right. We only need to obtain consent and sign the documents. That is all... but. Even if only for a moment, I can call him my spouse, can I not? I can imitate it, if only briefly? My spouse. Him. My husband...'

Hiding her burning face, Captain AB trembled with embarrassment for a moment. Yet as soon as she faced the soft, happy feeling swelling in her chest, she gave a bitter smile.

'Now this unit understands why it needs a room without windows.'

When she had been a communications officer, she had been confined in a room without windows and viewed the world through golems.

A communications officer's world only appeared through golems. Captain AB had seen the color of the sky, but could not fathom its height. She could sense the strength of the wind, but not the refreshing feeling of it brushing through her hair. Even when she was with people, she could not feel their warmth.

The world had been right in front of her, yet it was a view beyond a pane of glass. She could not truly live within it.

But in the few days she had spent wholly within her own body, Captain AB's heart had changed tremendously.

Taste, scent, communion, emotion, life and death, joy and sorrow. Pain, and happiness.

The warm sunlight offered by moments spent with people bloomed in her heart. Captain AB felt a sunlike warmth spreading in every direction from the center of her heart.

Along with happiness far greater than she deserved.

'When one wishes for something small, one begins to wish for something greater. Eventually, one grows greedy even for what one must not reach for. In the end, this unit will crave everything in the world. This unit must not be greedier. It must kill its feelings and fulfill its duty.'

The military state's taboo and the Shadow.

The information Captain AB had obtained was not something to dismiss lightly. If she simply handed it over to headquarters, the riots would settle several times faster.

But if they could not find the Shadow, it would only be half a success. They had to find them before the taboo spread.

The only way to find the Shadow before that happened...

Was for her, an officer, to become bait. The Shadow would consider an officer the perfect signal to begin their operation.

'This is enough. This is a task only this unit can do. The military state's taboo, Hamelin. Since this unit is a communications officer and knows of that story... there will be no problem even if it comes into contact with it.'

Having made up her mind, Captain AB closed her eyes and clenched her fists. Her heart no longer wavered.

'This unit has decided. After filing the marriage registration and completing the procedure, it will give him this information. Then it will immediately contact headquarters and instruct them to follow this unit.'

Now that her mind was made up, all that remained was to find the way. Captain AB spread her magic power again and connected to the golems.

'Window Connection.'

Intangible tendrils flowed throughout Amitenggrad. Before long, Captain AB could see through a golem's eyes.

It showed the street where we stood. Captain AB and I were walking side by side down a narrow alley with few pedestrians. Once we left that alley and reached the main road, there would be an administrative office. There, she would hold a wedding that would mark her own end, simple though it might be...

Captain AB and I walked down the street.

Several cloaked people watched us from a distance, then quietly followed once we began walking.

Captain AB suddenly turned her head. In the golem's vision, she met her own eyes. Her face was filled with shock.

'We're being followed?!'

Huh? Followed? I couldn't sense any hostility.

As I tried to look back, the startled Captain AB maintained the connection and pulled my face toward her. Her whisper reached my ear.

"...We are being followed."

"Followed?"

While living in Amitenggrad, I did not spread my mind-reading too widely.

This alley looked quiet, but the medium-sized residential block next door alone housed over two hundred people. If I used mind-reading carelessly, I would be overwhelmed by the flood of thoughts, so I kept it restrained.

Still, I would have sensed any hostility or fear directed toward me immediately. Strange.

"Where?"

I spread my mind-reading wide. The dam broke, and countless thoughts poured in. I filtered out the trivial ones and traced thoughts about me back to their owners. My mind-reading reached the cloaked group watching us.

Then I made a dumbfounded sound.

"Huh? Why are you...?"

At that moment, Captain AB grabbed my wrist and suddenly started running.

"This is not the time! Get out of here first!"

"Huh? Uh, okay."

Without understanding what was happening, I ran after Captain AB. It felt like we were fleeing in the dead of night.

Even as she ran, Captain AB continued synchronizing with the golems.

Seeing herself from a third-person perspective was an incredibly strange feeling. She looked ahead to where the alleys connected, then synchronized with the golem in the next alley. The path continued at the end of her vision. At the end of that path were two cloaked pursuers.

Captain AB let out a small groan as she ran, then quickly turned and headed in the opposite direction. A view of the street in that direction appeared before her eyes.

"Tch! They are systematically blocking our route! This coordination...! They are completely different from the ones before!"

Yeah. They would be.

Because they were different people.

Still, I did not know why they were pursuing Captain AB and me.

The cloaked people were clearly moving with Captain AB and me as their targets. Even judging by the movements visible through her vision, that was obvious.

According to the thoughts I had briefly read, they were plainly moving while keeping us in sight.

"Captain, it feels like we're being cornered."

"I am sorry...! This unit let its guard down for a moment...!"

'This is why this unit should not have wished for happiness! It would not matter if it were only this unit, but to think he would be dragged into this too...!'

Only hurried footsteps echoed loudly through the narrow alley. Captain AB ran desperately and spoke to me as if making a vow.

"Leave it to this unit. No matter what happens, this unit will save you!"

'Even if it has to use the golems, it will!'

Use them when you need saving yourself. Why did she keep trying to use them to save other people? Why did her protective instinct never apply to herself?

Having roughly guessed the pursuers' identities, I fled in a far more relaxed state than Captain AB.

"Bbi. More importantly."

I pointed behind us. The cloaked people were only slowly approaching, not running after us. It was as if they did not care if the distance widened.

I pointed that out.

"Don't you think we're being led somewhere?"

"...!"

Captain AB fell silent and looked around. The alleys we had passed through appeared in her vision.

As I said, we had gradually been forced into only one possible choice. Like water flowing only one way after a dam was built. Without realizing it, we had been driven by invisible hands all the way to the main road.

'This unit noticed too late! Of all places, we are being driven toward the main road instead of a dead end...!'

If we had gradually been driven into a corner, even Captain AB would have noticed something strange. Everyone was wary of corners.

But instead, we were being driven toward a wide main road, broad enough for four rows of automated carriages.

'But why would the enemies target the main road...! Could it be to make everyone witness this incident? To think they would already put it into action...!'

But we had already been driven as far as we could go. A main road also meant there were many ways out.

Captain AB clenched her fists.

'We will force our way through!'

Captain AB's eyes, filled with a golem's vision, shone as she gathered magic power.

I ran out onto the main road one step ahead of her. The narrow alley ended, and the open boulevard came into view.

The first thing I saw was not an automated carriage, but a real carriage.

Two horses with red manes snorted and stamped the ground. They looked fierce enough to break the earth apart, but their horseshoes, made from high-grade special alchemical steel, smoothly absorbed both the impact and the sound.

Behind them was a huge carriage, likely twice the size of an ordinary automated carriage. Its design was simple, but its elegance was second to none.

As though it had been waiting for me from the start, the carriage door opened the instant I appeared on the main road. A spotless shoe stepped out first.

A young woman with vivid sky-blue hair tied to one side, wearing neat suit trousers, a bright red shirt beneath, and a formal scarf around her neck.

"That is dangerous! Get back!"

Captain AB ran up behind me, saw the woman's face, and fell silent. Her eyes widened.

"You are...!"

"It's fine. She's someone I know."

I waved a hand to reassure Captain AB.

The oldest connection I had made since I began living in Amitenggrad. And my most successful investment.

She had once been my pupil, my backing, and now, a wonderful source of money stood right before me.

With the mindset of a con artist facing a gullible investor, I waved with a flattering smile.

"Hey, it's been a while. Have you been well, Sepi?"

At my light greeting, Sephier Bakia placed one hand over her chest and bowed deeply.

"Have you been well, Master? I have longed to see you again."

'Are other people's messages beef jerky? Could you stop chewing them up and ignoring them for once? Do I really have to hear news about you from someone else, you useless bum?'

Wow. Her mouth, no, her thoughts had gotten much rougher than before.

Watching the young company president who had become foul-mouthed while I was gone, I gave an awkward smile.

Footnotes:

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