WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 184: The Regressor Who Crushed the Spark of Ruin Early Wants to Live Quietly

──────

At the magician's warning, the Family gathered every ounce of its strength and prepared for a decisive battle.

This was an opportunity the Family had been waiting for as well. JJJ were enemies of beastkin, wearing strange masks and declaring their intent to hunt beastkin. They were coming to fight of their own accord, so there was no reason to turn them away.

Unlike them, for whom this was no more than a night's amusement, it was a matter of survival for the Family. To resist them, the Family had gathered everyone capable of fighting.

The Black Cat Magazine was packed with beastkin, claws bared and weapons in hand.

Beastkin senses were sharper than those of ordinary humans. With this much strength, they should have been able to fight Shadow on equal footing, even if it came for them...

"They shouldn't have done that..."

Neru, the beastkin journalist who served as both editor-in-chief and public face of the Black Cat Magazine, trembled inside a cabinet.

Never before in the Family's history had so much fighting strength gathered in one place. Perhaps that was why. Filled with misplaced confidence, they had picked a fight with someone they never should have challenged.

And the result was...

Crunch!

"Tell me everything you know."

"I-I don't know!"

"Is that so?"

"Wait! I don't mean I can't tell you. I mean I really don't know...! I was only called here today!"

"Then someone must know. Even if it is not you, surely you know who among you knows the most."

"Neru! A black cat beastkin named Neru!"

"Find her."

Thud. A foot struck the ground.

At that sound, a beastkin who had once been devoted to the Family became a traitor and immediately began searching for Neru with desperate urgency.

"Neruuuuuu! Get out here already! Are you trying to get us all killed?!"

"Spit out everything you know about the magician!"

"We're all going to die at this rate! The Family comes first!"

'Idiots! How can you let her drag you around like this?!'

Hidden inside the cabinet, Neru screamed inwardly at the pitiful cries of her comrades searching for her.

'Can't you see? The magician brought her here! This questioning itself might be a test!'

She had poked at the magician, claiming it was to keep him in check and protect the Family from danger. No one could blame Neru for that. Thanks to her proactive negotiations, they had learned that Shadow was inciting beastkin-haters to attack.

'But...! I never thought he'd planted poison among us too...!'

Neru had gotten a little carried away. Instead of keeping the article about the woman the magician was protecting safely stored in her head, she had put it into print, even if only briefly.

It had only been a half-joking thing.

Who could have expected an unfamiliar guest to recognize the magician's information and react?

'This is why I should never have gotten involved with the magician...! The magician himself had laced that information!'

Hidden in the narrow, dim cabinet, Neru recalled what had happened earlier.

The magazine was closed today as it prepared for the decisive battle. Still, it had left the secret window at the back open in case of urgent contact.

It was a contact network for Secret Members. If anyone had an urgent and confidential matter, especially the magician, they would contact them through there.

Then guests Neru had never seen before arrived. They immediately asked whether the Family could find someone in this vast Amitenggrad.

It was easy work, but labor-intensive. Normally, Neru would have pretended to be troubled, dragged out the discussion, and begun negotiating. Today was different.

The Family could not accept a request to find someone while it was preparing to stake its honor and future on a fight. Neru politely but firmly refused.

The other party was reasonable enough to understand Neru's position and even offered to help the Family. Still, Neru could not trust an outsider who was not even beastkin, so she accepted only the sentiment.

Just as it seemed the matter would end peacefully...

"...Marriage?"

The silver-haired girl, who had been sitting silently, muttered those words. At that moment, the Family's fate changed.

She had a dignity that was difficult to put into words, like a noblewoman from an old kingdom. The girl stepped behind the counter without hesitation. No one stopped her, because there was no resistance stronger than the thick concrete and steel-barred partition she had already torn through.

After smashing the concrete and ripping apart the steel bars, the girl slowly looked through the information as if this were her own territory.

"First in the entire middle school, brilliant Hui... Is his name truly Hui?"

When the girl said that, Neru was so startled she nearly lost her tail.

The display had not even said he was the magician, yet she had identified that exact point.

Was she an acquaintance, or a pursuer?

Either way, Neru could not easily reveal the magician's identity. It was confidential, and it would have violated the code of the trade to betray the magician who had given the Family vital information.

Neru kept her mouth shut. The information on display was only a sample meant to stir a customer's curiosity. They could not learn the contents unless Neru told them.

The problem was that this customer was not the type to endure curiosity.

"Bring it out. Since I know you know of him, there is no reason to delay any longer. I shall pay the price, so sell me the information."

Neru knew how powerful the girl was. She had just seen it. Still, Neru was not sure whether the girl should be allowed to know that information.

The magician had openly handed that information over. Neru could not be sure what sort of poison would come back to bite her if she sold it at a high price. As Neru hesitated, other Family members rushed in after hearing the noise.

"What is this?! An attack?"

"How many enemies are there?"

"They dared to invade here...!"

"They walked into their own grave!"

'Wait! No! She is...!'

Full of bravado, they surrounded the pale girl and tried to threaten her. At that moment, pitch-black knights made of darkness crawled out from every direction.

That was the end of it.

"Neruuuuuu!"

"Come out!"

"I knew this would happen from the moment you started acting up as some magazine owner!"

The voices from beyond the cabinet sounded like echoes from far away. Neru closed her eyes and leaned against the wall.

The cabinet was comfortable. The narrow, dark space soothed her.

Darkness pressed in from every side. As long as she stayed here, Neru was safe. No one could find her, hurt her, or torment her.

It did not matter that she could not see out of one eye. In this darkness, everyone was equal.

Neru thought she understood why cats sought narrow spaces. Something so cozy and comfortable...

But an egg was a world, and it existed to be broken.

"She's here!"

Crack!

The cabinet was torn apart, and light came rushing in. Neru groaned beneath the ear-splitting noise and painful brightness.

The enraged members of the Family soon appeared before her.

Behind them sat the girl like a queen.

"You bastard, Neru! Are you going to talk or not?!"

"We're in the middle of preparing for a battle!"

"Do you even know how much damage you've caused us?!"

Dragged out by the collar, Neru was surrounded by the Family in an instant. She faced their hostility.

The Family members whom she loved and who loved her twisted their faces viciously as they blamed Neru.

"Hurry up and spill every bit of information you know!"

"We entrusted this part to you, and you went off doing whatever you wanted!"

"You shouldn't have caused trouble in the first place if you weren't capable of handling it!"

It took less than an hour for Neru to go from a bold journalist to a traitor. She had only done her best.

Tears welled in Neru's eyes as sorrow surged through her.

Neru sobbed.

"S-sniff...! You idiots, that's the magician...!"

"What?"

"The magician...! You little worms! This entire situation...! Sniff! It's the result of what the magician did!"

At the mention of the magician, every Family member looked around at one another.

The silver-haired girl, presumably a vampire, was powerful, but she had not gone too far. The fact that she had casually torn through steel reinforcement without leaving anyone else in a similar state proved that.

Still, she was a vampire without blood or tears. She had not spared the Family because she felt compassion, but because they were not worth killing. The Family's beastkin had no choice but to serve as the girl's hands and feet and search diligently for Neru.

It was a disaster that did not threaten their lives, but still felt as though it had turned their world upside down.

"Come to think of it, it does feel like the sort of thing the magician would do."

"It's too late to pretend you understand now...!"

"Sorry. But why did you provoke the magician?"

Neru wiped her tears and sniffled.

"Sniff...! I'm sorry...!"

"Well, this is new. An apology from Neru. Is this magic?"

An apology was something a paparazzi journalist neither did nor should make, but Neru had nothing to say in this situation.

At least things had eased a little. The other Family members cautiously stepped back. The atmosphere of blame had faded considerably, but Neru was now alone with the girl.

A girl dressed in an old-fashioned style, reigning like a queen with her red eyes shining.

"The magician. It must be him. He called himself a magician as well. He played mischievous tricks with cards, too."

The girl muttered as if recalling a memory. The wistful longing in her voice did not carry much negativity.

That must have been why she had not been too harsh...

"I never expected to hear good news so soon after returning..."

She did not seem to have come to congratulate him on his marriage. Neru trembled.

'What on earth has he been doing...? This goes far beyond simply knowing an acquaintance.'

Even a passing storm would have been gentler than this girl. She was strong enough to make a military state's generals, no, even such people, seem insignificant.

If the magician had someone like this backing him, not only the back alleys but all of Amitenggrad would have fallen into his hands.

Whatever the case, this was a disaster Neru had brought upon herself. Because of it, more than half the weapons and traps they had prepared had become useless.

Neru had to take responsibility.

"...I can tell you. But while we talk, we need to stop the people trying to attack from outside so we can have a quiet conversation."

"Outside?"

Neru spoke with every nerve taut. Even if she had to use the girl, she had to protect the Family.

"Yes. We're beastkin, so as you can see, we have many enemies. We can't allow a disturbance while speaking with someone as remarkable as you, miss. So..."

For Neru, it was the negotiation of a lifetime. The other party answered as though she had expected it from the beginning.

"Do not worry about that. A dependable child is blocking the road leading here."

Shei had been pacing around the Black Cat Magazine. When the noise inside finally stopped, she glanced in that direction.

It seemed Tyrkanzyaka had finished sorting out the interior.

"Tyrkanzyaka won't break everything, right? Hmm, I feel a little sorry. This wasn't what I intended."

Shei had intended to negotiate normally, but Tyrkanzyaka had acted faster. Since the result was all that mattered, Shei left Tyrkanzyaka alone and came outside.

Shei stayed outside so the unruly group would not interfere while Tyrkanzyaka gathered information.

Facing the masked intruders, Shei said calmly, "We're using this place for a while. If you have business here, come back later..."

"Shut up...! A beastkin just attacked one of our comrades! Look at this arm!"

"That's your problem... Wait."

Realizing Nabi was nowhere to be seen, Shei glanced at the wound. As expected, the wound, torn open in a single strike, resembled the ones Nabi left behind.

Feeling a small sense of responsibility, Shei muttered, "If you're hurt like that, why are you here instead of at a hospital?"

"Because we have to get revenge! Move aside. If you stay there, we'll consider you beastkin too!"

Their momentum was so vicious that Shei did not think they would stop without seeing a display of power.

So Shei decided to show them some.

"Hmm. Just a moment."

Shei answered indifferently, took out Jizan, and struck the ground.

A localized earthquake shook Amitenggrad. The concrete ground supporting people, motor carriages, and even buildings cracked apart like thin sheets of ice.

That was not all. Shei flicked up a piece of concrete with Jizan's blade, then struck it from the side.

The shattered concrete poured down like a meteor shower. The pieces were small, but each carried the force of a flying arrow.

Everyone struck by the fragments and dust fell backward at once.

"Urgh..."

"Ugh..."

They had forgotten one rule of this world because they had formed a group.

There were a few powerful people in this world, people who could overturn the earth and shatter rocks alone. No matter how many nobodies gathered together, they could not defeat them.

"I didn't... come here for this..."

The pain that felt as though their entire bodies had been beaten cooled their heads. Once their excitement faded, only self-loathing and regret remained.

"I want to go home..."

"Mom..."

Fear leaked out even from beneath their masks. This should be enough. Shei rested Jizan on her shoulder.

"There. We're using this place. If you have business here, come back later."

"Yes."

Today, the beastkin-hating group learned the value of life.

The ordinary people retreated. Shei watched them without much feeling, then suddenly let her eyes glow red. Her gaze turned toward a corner.

"And you, watching from over there. If you have business here, come out."

The Fifth, who had been watching from the corner, finished calculating quickly.

If they fought, they would lose. With their injuries, they would not even be able to buy time.

The Fifth, who had been wounded by Nabi, immediately clutched their injury and fled into the darkness. Watching the masked intruder disappear, Shei sighed with Jizan still resting on her shoulder.

"Looks like they had no business here. Still, was the military state's back alley always like this? It's particularly noisy today..."

Of course, Shei was not one to talk. It had only been a day since she had caused havoc in District One, the very heart of the military state.

"Still, I don't think this happened because of us... Ah, could this be that time? The military state's fifty-first random stop-and-frisk crackdown?"

Shei tried to remember more, then gave up. Before the war, the military state repeatedly subjected its people to random inspections and press censorship, gradually exposing its weaknesses.

"Ah, what's the point of counting them? It's all pointless anyway."

It had been a continuous process, like cloth slowly soaking in water. There was no single moment that could clearly be called the trigger.

If things continued like this into the war with the Lesser States over the Abyss plains, the military state would last longer. If its weaknesses were stirred up and chaos broke out everywhere, it might collapse.

"I should decide what to do soon... All right. I've decided. This time, I'll quietly watch the situation while taking only the strength I need."

It would be easier to plan for the future after seeing how the world changed when the Abyss disappeared peacefully.

Shei was calculating what she needed to live quietly when a faint shadow passed beside her. It was a being she knew well.

"...? A Black Knight?"

One of Tyrkanzyaka's familiars. An echo of ancient knights, without consciousness but faithful to its orders.

There was not just one. As numerous as the shadows that had descended upon the world, Black Knights were advancing across Amitenggrad.

Their objective was probably...

"So much for living quietly."

As if she could hear all her plans falling apart, Shei sighed.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried