WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 183: People Die When Kicked by a Horse

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The Third narrowly avoided the horse's attack, rolling backward across the ground.

It came at them with terrifying force. Had their reaction been even a little slower, the furious horse's front hooves would have crushed their shoulder.

It was too soon to sigh in relief. Its decisive blow having missed, the lionhorse pawed the ground in displeasure before immediately giving chase.

‘Black Shadow Qi Art!’

Pitch-black energy billowed from the Third's entire body. Black Shadow Qi Art concealed them behind a curtain of darkness, yet the lionhorse's mane stirred strangely and pinpointed their position once more.

Only then did the Third realize what the mane could do, and their eyes widened.

‘Does it read the wind through its fur? What kind of ability is that? Even in the days of the kingdom, a fine horse like this was hard to find...!’

It couldn't be helped. They needed the horse, so they had wanted to subdue it with as little injury as possible.

The Third drew a throwing dagger from their coat. As they poured energy into it, pitch-black energy rose from the blade before melting into the darkness in an instant.

On the dim street, the Third scattered invisible daggers.

"Just a beast!"

One stab would make it behave. Blades rippling through the darkness flew at the horse and rider. Even someone wrapped in Rebound Energy Art wouldn't come through unscathed, while a beast that could use only its natural strength would howl in pain.

But then,

Ting.

The dagger bounced away with a feeble sound. The Third's eyes widened.

In the blink of an eye, tough cloth armor had covered them. Every vital point on both rider and horse was protected.

That was possible. The Third knew that much. The military state had packets.

What shocked them was something else.

‘Not even a scratch on the cloth? That dagger was infused with energy!’

Had the Third known who their opponent was, they might have understood.

Sephier Bakia, Weaver of the third generation of Seamless Perfection, the military state's greatest holding company, which had even collaborated on producing military gear.

She was unquestionably the military state's finest alchemist and tailor.

Calling the clothing she had made while sparing no resources mere cloth would have been an insult to all that Seamless Perfection had accomplished.

But the Third didn't know that, so their frustration was only natural.

Peto shrugged.

"The boss takes good care of employee benefits."

As soon as he finished speaking, a mask-like hood covered Peto's face. Clothing that perfectly enveloped the whole body, something only a packet could do.

Though he wore cloth armor, Peto looked every bit like an ancient knight reborn.

Holding a riding whip in place of a lance, Peto pointed it at the Third.

"Peto Tinheart of Scevally. I come... Ah, damn it! Old habits! This is why I shouldn't hold a weapon!"

Peto shuddered at the habit ingrained in him during his days as a squire, then snapped his whip out long. It lashed down at the Third as they retreated from the horse.

There was a reason knights had once ruled the world. Mounted atop creatures far faster and stronger than humans, they were incarnations of violence wielding power from above.

Only a knight could stop a knight clad in costly armor and wrapped in energy.

"Urgh...!"

The Third pushed their stealth technique to its limits and managed to evade several more times, but their opponent was a horse. Even with someone on its back, the lionhorse drove its hooves into the concrete and twisted its heavy body as though it had forgotten the very concept of inertia.

They couldn't slip past its side because the rider's whip was troublesome. Not because they feared the whip itself, but because if it caught them even briefly, they might be trampled beneath those hooves.

"If only there wasn't a horse...!"

It was a mistake born of the Third's failure to assess the opponent's skill, or rather, the ability of the opponent's equipment.

Still, what choice did they have? Since knights had fallen, the military state had run out of fine horse bloodlines, and packets couldn't be seen until they were worn.

And on top of that,

‘The horse can wear armor through a packet too...! Without that armor, a mere beast would be nothing!’

Perhaps it was because that stray thought entered their mind. In the instant the Third hesitated, the lionhorse closed in.

As if it had finally caught them, the lionhorse grinned and rammed the Third with its head and shoulder.

"Urgh...!"

They leaped back to bleed off the force, but even so, an impact that seemed to twist their whole body like laundry crashed over them. Without energy covering their entire body, their bones would have shattered.

Even while being thrown back, the Third skillfully removed their cloak and wrapped it around the horse's head. As the startled horse paused for a moment, they sprang onto another streetlamp.

Peto, left looking like a dog that had lost the chicken it was chasing, looked up. The streetlamp was rather high. His whip could reach it, but it wouldn't deliver much force.

Having secured their safety, the Third gritted their teeth.

"Just wait. Next time, I'll come when you aren't prepared."

It was a grim warning by Shadow's standards, but Peto, who had been forced into a fight even now, found it absurd.

"Sorry, but I didn't come prepared to fight this time either. My life's been one unexpected incident after another."

"Like the child you had with your wife?"

Someone's voice came from the dark street.

* * *

Busy, busy.

I called the shelter and told them to take the kids away, then sent a runner to tell the Family to prepare for a fight. Those two had their own fighting power, so they wouldn't go down easily.

Hah. Playing nanny and meerkat. Where else would you find such a kind neighbor, someone as good to know as me? The military state should hurry up and give me a medal for brave citizenship.

Anyway, I'd finished what I needed to do, and Market was all that remained. That place made me especially uneasy. Unlike the Family or the shelter, it had plenty of openings someone could squeeze through.

If they wanted to fight the Transport Union, that wasn't my business, but the Shadow bastards were another matter.

All right. Time to check on Market. Having more or less taken care of the other places, I drove my motor carriage toward Market.

"All that time going around with the captain paid off."

Going around the military state with the captain had been meaningful enough. I couldn't read the thoughts of officer-level Half Shadows, but I could at least find their targets through the memories of their messengers and contacts.

As expected, they were after Market, the shelter, and the Family. Organizations that had established their own power in the military state's back alleys.

Shadow didn't want to share the pie with them, so they were trying to use the resentment built up in the back alleys as gunpowder and blow it all up at once.

I was the type to put a match to any pile of gunpowder I found, though. I lit the fuse that should have burned slowly and set it off first.

This was the result. Not a fight led by Shadow, but real chaos where desire collided with desire.

If there was going to be conflict, make it explosive. Don't dance to someone else's tune.

I was muttering to myself as I headed toward Market when I noticed a commotion ahead. Leaning out to look, I saw Senior Peto riding a horse and fighting a Half Shadow.

Senior Peto, who had given me heartfelt advice at the host bar... It would have carried more weight if he hadn't been chased out after getting involved with a widow who had lost her husband far from home.

Still, he was fighting well. He acted as if mentioning knights or squires gave him PTSD, but apparently his history of brawling over women hadn't gone anywhere.

Honestly, the horse was fighting better than Senior Peto, but still. Even amid the horse's rampage, Senior Peto stayed mounted and kept his opponent in his sights.

It was two against one by the numbers, and Senior Peto also had the better equipment. On top of that, he was riding a horse. Not just any horse, either, but an armored one.

Sure enough, the horse slammed its shoulder into the Half Shadow. The Half Shadow jumped backward to absorb the impact, then used the recoil to spring onto a streetlamp.

Hmm. What should I do with that? Ram them with the motor carriage?

No. They'd just jump away. And if I rammed them, I'd get hurt too, so I'd lose out.

All right. I decided. I climbed out of the motor carriage and approached carefully. Then I stretched out my left hand and took out a card.

Three of Diamonds, a composite bow.

I bent the card slightly with my thumb and little finger, cradling its body with my other three fingers. Then I infused it with magic and performed alchemical conversion.

The card grew while retaining its bent shape. Soft as a new sprout at first, it gradually stiffened as it grew, then became so hard that it was difficult even to draw.

Unaware that I had a bow aimed at them, the Third said to Senior Peto,

"Just wait. Next time, I'll come when you aren't prepared."

"Sorry, but I didn't come prepared to fight this time either. My life's been one unexpected incident after another."

"Like the child you had with your wife?"

Oops. My mouth ran on its own.

Well, that wasn't very important.

Who cared how much chaos Senior Peto had caused when he resigned and ran off after getting a woman pregnant just one week after the funeral, making everyone question his morals?

What mattered was whether I could hit that thing.

This was a card converted with an arrow drawn taut by a windlass. The moment the conversion finished, it would regain its full elasticity and fire the arrow.

I'd already zeroed it in, so as long as I held the right posture, one shot would be certain to hit and certain to kill.

It was really a pre-drawn crossbow rather than a composite bow, but its shape was still that of a composite bow.

"People without talent should at least prepare thoroughly."

Having finished aiming, I muttered that as I finished the conversion. For an instant, it felt as if a huge wall were pushing against my left arm.

Twung. Something snapped forward.

‘An arrow? But an arrow can't get through Rebound Energy Art...’

Right. That damned Rebound Energy Art. Even an arrow drawn with a windlass couldn't deal much damage.

As long as Rebound Energy Art existed, arrows and bullets were worse than firing underwater.

But I wasn't aiming for their body.

I was aiming for the streetlamp.

The arrow pierced the streetlamp's neck.

The soft alchemical steel used in the military state's facilities could somehow withstand shaking, but it was weak against sharp objects like arrows. Broken in the middle, the streetlamp began to fall limply.

Rebound Energy Art or not, Mother Earth pulled everyone equally. The Third, who had suddenly lost their foothold, couldn't defy that law either.

And beneath them, an enraged horse was waiting. As if it had been waiting for this, the lionhorse drove its front hooves into the ground and spun around. Its powerful hind legs targeted the Third.

"No...!"

They hurriedly twisted their body in midair to evade, but Senior Peto's whip flew in at just the right moment. The whip wrapped around their body, making them pause in the air.

The horse's hind hooves drove into them.

The crunch sounded closer to a sculpture breaking apart. Unable to withstand the impact, the Third's body flew away.

Unlike an arrow, a horse's kick couldn't be blocked by Rebound Energy Art.

The Third Half Shadow flew away, eyes rolled back.

That made one fewer of those Half Shadow bastards, or whatever they were. Yeah, there were too many miscellaneous pests around.

Senior Peto had watched someone get hit by a horse from the best seat in the house. He muttered blankly,

"...You bastard. The marriage wasn't planned. Don't say things like that in front of the child."

"Then show me the child before saying things like that. Since we're talking about it, should we go see her?"

"No. Don't come. I know my daughter is precious too..."

The card, having fulfilled its purpose, slowly returned to its original form. The restored card bore only the number 3. The diamonds that had formed a vertical line inside it were gone.

As I calmly chatted with him, the carriage door opened.

Footnotes:

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