WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 182: Spread Day

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The Fourth Half Shadow was in a bind.

There were thugs dissatisfied with the military state. She had originally planned to lead them in an attack on the largest military academy in District 12. While those thugs, who had ruined their own lives, blamed an innocent school, the Fourth intended to spread poison.

The military state's taboo, that incident in Hamelin.

What better place was there than a school to scatter clues about the incident in which 162 military academy graduates had died together?

It was the perfect place to release poison, so even the Shadows had paid close attention to the district.

But someone had deceived the thugs, who charged in first. The Fourth had just returned from a Shadow meeting and hurried after them.

'Those hotheaded thugs haven't already finished the job and left, have they?'

Before arriving, the Fourth had been worried not about the thugs, but about the school's durability.

Unlike other facilities, the military academy's security was pitifully weak. There was only the dorm supervisor and a few academy students standing night watch.

She worried that the enraged thugs might have smashed everything they could and already headed elsewhere.

But then...

"You bastards! Get into the push-up position, now!"

"A military academy is still a military facility! Do you have any idea what you've done?!"

The sight that greeted her at the academy's parade ground left the Fourth reeling.

The thugs who had filled the streets were sprawled across the parade ground like squids, each one thoroughly beaten. Retired soldiers in instructor uniforms walked among them with clubs in hand.

They were retired soldiers from the shelter.

Frontain had been a major general before retirement and became the shelter director afterward.

The old veteran spun their cane over their head and shouted.

"You little brats! If you couldn't become officers, you could've joined the Engineering Corps and learned a trade! If you have the time and courage to attack a school, put that strength into working hard! Work hard!"

"Urgh...! How did you old folks even know about this...?!"

"Quiet!"

Frontain rushed over like lightning and swung their cane at the muttering thug's backside. Their perfectly controlled strike broke nothing, turning the impact entirely into pain.

As the thug groaned in agony, Frontain frowned and shouted.

"Be grateful we caught you! If you'd actually carried out the attack, it wouldn't have ended with juvenile protective measures!"

The thugs were nothing more than a group of delinquent students led by students who had only recently graduated. The shelter instructors, made up of retired soldiers, were too seasoned, organized, and powerful for ordinary thugs to handle.

After the instructors took down the thugs' leader in one blow and barked orders with chilling force, the thugs merely exchanged glances before meekly following along. Having met their match, they could not put up any real resistance, and their momentum collapsed.

The Fourth clicked her tongue.

'...Tch. If I'd hidden among them, I could've at least launched a surprise attack.'

The Shadows were assassins first and foremost. They could take an opponent's life with an unexpected strike, but they had no chance in a head-on fight.

One of their opponents had even reached the rank of general. Retired soldiers of considerable skill stood around them. Going in alone would only mean getting herself surrounded.

'It's no good. To complete the mission, I'll have no choice but to sneak into the school and spread the poison...'

Just as the Fourth was about to slip through a blind spot, her keen hearing caught someone's mutter.

"So the Magician's words were true. If we hadn't moved, it could've been a disaster."

'The Magician?'

The Fourth listened closely.

Even the Shadows had long heard rumors about the legendary petty criminal whose very existence was uncertain.

The Magician was a mysterious figure whose identity even the Shadows had failed to uncover.

Whenever they heard rumors and investigated, they could only circle the edges without learning who the Magician was. It felt like chasing a ghost story with no substance.

Still, there were too many clear traces and witnesses to call it a ghost story. Plenty of children claimed they had watched the Magician perform while walking down the street. The Shadows were the only ones who had never seen the Magician.

A mystery, along with a slight blow to their pride. That was exactly how a Shadow felt whenever they thought of the Magician.

'Are they saying the Magician interfered with us?'

The Fourth was about to take another step closer out of curiosity.

Then her sharp senses brought her to a stop. Instinctively feeling someone's gaze, she flinched and looked around.

Something about the one-armed instructor standing in the distance felt off. Unlike the others, the instructor never once looked in her direction.

Which meant the instructor's attention was focused here. The instructor had clearly sensed the Fourth.

'The talk about the Magician was bait! Retired soldiers aren't to be underestimated!'

The Fourth Half Shadow abandoned all lingering regret and immediately withdrew. A shadow slipped into the darkness between the buildings...

Sensing the presence vanish, the one-armed instructor lowered their head with a troubled expression.

"I'm sorry, Director. I gave myself away."

"Tsk. Seems you've lost a lot of your edge without seeing real combat..."

It was not a remark directed solely at the one-armed instructor. They were soldiers, but soldiers who only knew how to fight. They could beat down thugs charging at them head-on, yet lacked the ability to find a Shadow hiding in the dark.

They were also retired soldiers who had been away from real combat for years. Tracking the presence of an exceptional assassin in a dark school was difficult.

"My night vision has gotten worse lately... I can't see faint things like that very well. Just like the note the Magician sent..."

Frontain leaned on their cane and let out a tired sigh.

The Magician had sent the shelter a note along with a single card.

It said that the Shadows were planning to lead thugs in an assault on the school, and that the group included children who were still students.

Startled as though burned, Frontain immediately gathered every retired soldier they could contact. Only a little over ten could be reached at this late hour, but each was a seasoned soldier trained in aura arts. That was more than enough to beat down a disorganized gang of thugs.

"Tsk, tsk. In the old days, I'd have run to the ends of the earth and caught them. I don't have the stamina for that anymore... I really don't want to, but should I leave it to the Magician?"

They could not catch a Shadow hidden in the darkness, but that was never their responsibility to begin with.

The shelter's role was to protect children. Defeating the military state's enemies was the military state's job.

If only they would defeat the enemies and nothing else.

Frontain looked into the pitch-black darkness in the distance.

"Magician... I don't like being swayed by your intentions. But for the children, I'll become your puppet."

Hamelin.

The military state had initially suspected the dark mages... Then, at some point, it burned every piece of information and classified the incident.

Classified information that even generals dared not access.

The Magician's note had subtly mentioned that story. That was why Frontain had moved so urgently despite their aged body.

If the story of Hamelin got out, this disturbance would not end as a simple commotion.

"There might be a purge..."

Heavy-hearted, Frontain turned around.

"Our children aren't here, right? Yes, our children are all good..."

"Director, we've gathered our children over there."

"Hey! We clothed you well, fed you well, and taught you well before sending you out. What more could you possibly want that you got involved in this? You're all going to solitary confinement for a week!"

By the time the Third Half Shadow reached the Market, its members had already subdued the Transport Union. The Transport Union members, who had cheerfully stormed the warehouse to loot it, were thoroughly beaten by the Market members lying in ambush and rendered helpless.

The warehouse was the Market's castle.

Its space and tools had all been made for market merchants. The Transport Union members could not compete with a Market that used its supplies without restraint.

They had every reason to let down their guard, but even after binding the Transport Union members tightly and cramming them into one corner of the warehouse, the Market remained tense. The merchants turned on every lamp and searchlight in the warehouse, keeping watch in all directions.

Store manager Krin shouted.

"Light it up more! Don't leave any shadows!"

That put the Third in a difficult position.

They had to cause chaos and spread poison. But simply scattering poison was not enough.

Venomous snakes had fangs that tore skin, and poisonous herbs only worked when eaten. Unless it entered the body, poison was no different from a harmless, docile beast.

Naturally, it would be more effective to enter the warehouse and leave traces of it inside. But...

"Don't let anyone in! We're pulling an all-nighter! We'll sleep while running the business tomorrow!"

'The security is tight. It would've been best to slip in amid the chaos...'

No matter how exceptional the Shadows' concealment technique was, it could not hide them in bright light. Even if they used Black Shadow Qi Art to conceal their form, a pitch-black lump floating around would still look suspicious.

Out of habit, the Third rubbed their chin with the hilt of their dagger. Before them lay the interior of a huge warehouse cluttered with every kind of item.

'Hmm. If I can just get inside, I think I could pick them off one by one.'

Perhaps because they had brought all the lights out, the interior was not especially bright. Shadows fell in disorder among the countless items. There could be no better place to hide.

'Even if they're the Market, they're only merchants and warehouse keepers. Hmm. Should I force my way in?'

They could not kill everyone in a knife fight, either. The people had to remain alive for the poison to spread through their bodies. Killing everyone here would only mean cutting out the infected area instead.

Infiltration was best.

What should they do? As they considered it for a moment, a luxurious carriage approached the Market. It was too dark to see clearly, but the fact that it was pulled by a horse already made it unusual.

'A horse-drawn carriage? It's high-end. Is it with the Transport Union?'

In the military state, people who kept their own horses fell into one of two categories. They were either that rich or they made a living from them.

A good idea came to them. Unlike an automatic carriage, a horse would run wild if someone smacked its rear. The Market would expose an opening while trying to stop the rampaging horse and carriage.

'Should I borrow that?'

The Third sprang into motion.

Perhaps it had been headed toward the Market all along, as the carriage turned into the alley leading there.

The horse sensed something before the driver did and urgently planted its front hooves. Screech. The large carriage came to a halt, almost as abruptly as an emergency stop.

"That's a perceptive horse."

Shing.

A diagonally severed streetlamp fell onto the road. As the streetlamp struck the ground, glowing fragments scattered everywhere. Before long, the fragments ran out of magic power and lost their light.

The Third, who had hidden in those shadows, slowly stepped forward.

"Leave the carriage and get lost. Then I'll spare your lives."

The coachman turned around with a troubled expression. A young woman's voice came from inside.

"Peto. You could've just driven through. This carriage isn't going to crumple over a mere streetlamp."

"Come on, miss. That would scare the horse."

"That's none of my concern. Isn't that your job?"

"Being a coachman wasn't part of the plan..."

"Is that so? Do you want to quit?"

"No, no. To repay the kindness of the miss who took in an unemployed person like me, I'll do anything."

Peto shook their head and unhitched the horse from the carriage. Freed from the straps around its neck, the lion horse snorted happily.

"Right. Being a boss's secretary is better than being a knight's squire. What could possibly be worse than that?"

Though they said that, Peto climbed onto the horse. There were no stirrups or anything of the sort, yet Peto skillfully mounted the horse and stopped in front of the Third.

The Third muttered.

"A squire. Seeing that you can ride a horse passably, it seems that isn't an empty boast."

"Ah, don't bring that up. It brings back bad memories."

Some knights who cherished their squires would teach them how to use weapons or ride horses. Favored by the knight, Peto had received direct instruction from the knight since childhood.

Not that Peto wanted it.

'Even so, they are only a squire. Not a knight. There's no need to worry. I don't see armor or weapons.'

Having finished their calculations, the Third Half Shadow warned Peto.

"I'm warning you one last time, squire. Put the miss on that horse and run. Then you'll be safe."

'An expensive horse and carriage that are hard to find in the military state. Whoever she is, she must belong to the highest class. If I let them go, the military state's upper ranks will take notice of this incident too.'

They gave off killing intent after making their calculations, but Peto simply scratched their head as though they had not noticed it at all.

"A head of household carries the weight of a household. If the boss comes to dislike me, my whole family ends up on the streets. Even if you beat me to death, I still have to fight you."

"You're drinking poison..."

'It can't be helped. I'll settle everything here.'

The Third slid into the darkness. Having covered themselves in Black Shadow Qi Art on the street where the lamps had been destroyed, they moved like a ghost.

They had broken the streetlamps in advance in case a fight broke out. In this darkness, no one without senses as sharp as a beast's could catch even a trace of them.

"Ah, and be careful. This horse is called a lion horse."

Right. Unless it was a beast.

The lion horse's mane stood stiffly on end. The mane that had fluttered in the wind soon stopped, pointing precisely toward where the Third stood.

A moment later, the enraged horse snorted and charged at the Third.

'What?'

Black Shadow Qi Art concealed not only one's form, but sound and temperature within the shadows. When one masters the Heaven and Earth branches of this qi art, one's shape blurs as though submerged in darkness.

Horses were famously poor-sighted animals. How had it recognized them immediately?

More importantly, why was a timid horse charging at them like a mad bull?

"It looks like a lion and acts like one too. Training it was a real struggle."

Neighhh!

As if responding to Peto's mutter, the lion horse gave a fierce cry and charged. In only two steps, it closed the distance and raised its front hooves.

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