WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 187: Say You Want to Live - 3

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I answered the Captain's sorrowful question without hesitation.

"I don't know."

"...That's irresponsible."

"What choice do I have? I'm not a prophet like the First Holy Maiden. No one, including me, knows what the future will be like."

I shrugged.

"But I do know one thing for sure. To the people who stand to lose something in this incident, your actions will be worth more than anything. No matter how radiant tomorrow may be, to those who die today, it would be nothing more than sunlight shining over their graves."

She gave no answer. Yet I could hear one in her mind.

She could not turn away to begin with. If she could easily abandon people she had the power to save... she would not have come this far.

Having made up her mind, the Captain looked directly at me and spoke.

"This officer... I will fulfill not my mission, but my duty."

The mission she had received and the duty she needed to carry out. The Captain had finally chosen between them herself. The military state's doll had regained her life.

Looking directly at the value she had created for herself, the Captain said,

"It may be impossible. Other communications officers may have encountered information unknown to me, and they may have already traced my movements. There is every possibility that my attempt will be futile."

This might have been the last decision of her life, yet her words were calm. Not the impersonal calm of office work, but the steady weight of someone who had made her resolve.

"It'll be difficult."

"Affirmative. Even so, it must be done."

The Captain picked up her hat and sprang to her feet. There was no more time to waste.

It was a race against time. Would the military state detect the information Shadow had spread, or would the Captain uncover everything first and stop it in advance?

Just before stepping outside the carriage, the Captain stopped her hand before grasping the doorknob. She curled and uncurled her fingers in the air a few times, then lightly clenched her fist and asked hesitantly,

"Before that, please tell me one thing."

‘From the beginning, I have only received. From the moment I was found in that box until I arrived here, I have received far too much help from you.... You saved my life and even gave me a duty. Both body and heart. It is as though you gifted them to me.’

Even beasts knew gratitude. Humans, with their heads full of suspicion, could be said to understand kindness even less.

So she finally understood. How much I had given her. A little late, though.

Was there anything more meaningful than teaching the meaning of life to someone who had never had a life of her own? I smiled warmly to myself.

...This was how she would become a backer who would never betray me.

Sure enough, the Captain held her hat to her chest and asked me,

"...Is there anything I can do for you?"

Good. This was it.

I answered as though it meant nothing.

"As long as you stay alive."

As long as she was alive, I could make use of her somehow. As long as she could think and act, she would become a reliable backer.

I thought communications officers were captains in name only, with no real substance to their rank. They were far more useful than I expected... and much more dangerous.

Especially if the military state used a communications officer for long-range surveillance, I would have no choice but to get caught. It would be convenient to have a communications officer like Captain AB deeply indebted to me, if only for that day.

Military state. You must have been wary of something like this happening... but I'll put your tools to good use.

Just as I was about to continue,

"I see. Understood."

"?"

What did she suddenly understand? She should at least hear the rest before leaving.

There was a mountain of things she could do for me. Cutting off any investigation into me, warning me through a golem when I was in danger, passing on every bit of news about wars and anything connected to them. There was plenty to do.

‘It's exactly what the Weaver Girl said. You grant wishes. If that is your wish... then I too will give as much as I can, just as you have.’

"Thank you. I must hurry now."

The Captain bowed her head, opened the door, and stepped outside. Left alone in the carriage, I could only nod in a daze.

Then I heard her thoughts from beyond the door. The moment the Captain connected to her golem, she repeated a sentence in her head.

‘You may not be able to see me. But I will always watch over you, living the life you gave me.’

Uh, you don't need to watch me all the time.... Just keep an eye on me whenever my safety is threatened, okay?

As the Captain prepared to leave, a sight appeared in one of the windows under her influence. She stopped in her tracks, looked at what she saw, and froze in shock.

‘The Shelter veterans...! Wiped out?!’

Huh?

Those people?

The largest military academy in District 12. Its training ground.

The place where the Shelter veterans had been disciplining the thugs was now in chaos after some kind of attack.

"Huff, huff, huff. Damn it. If I were only ten years younger...."

Frontain, the Shelter director, was bleeding all over. Blood from their torn wounds ran diagonally along their wrinkles before dripping from their chin.

Drawing up aura throughout their body, Frontain shouted at the unseen enemy.

"Where are you? Don't hide from an old soldier. Come out, Shadow!"

"I was not hiding."

A grim voice reached Frontain's ears. When they whipped their head around, they saw a single shadow walking out from the academy entrance.

Frontain shouted.

"You bastard, Shadow!"

"I had intended not to reveal myself if possible. That way, the military state would not notice anything either."

A somber, emotionless voice seeped out from between the shadows. It sounded as though it were whispering beside their ears, yet also as though it came from far away.

The veterans who could barely remain standing and the thugs whose eyes merely darted about, unable to understand the situation, could not tell where the voice was coming from.

It was a strange ability, whether it came from aura or from Shadow's own power.

"Has time truly passed so long? How fleeting. That place, where a horrifying existence too dreadful to mention resides, was a demonic realm where one could not let down one's guard for even an instant.... Yet in this peaceful city, everyone has grown old and weak. The military state as well as Shadow."

Ulfen spoke as though lamenting. By then, their figure had reached the edge of the training ground.

Frontain raised their cane over their head and charged them.

"You bastard! Fight me head-on!"

They had no chance in a drawn-out fight. They had already been worn down enough.

The Shadow leader, the Full Shadow Ulfen, was stealthy, swift, and lethal in their ambushes. Ulfen had brought down five people in an instant before leisurely withdrawing. Enraged, Frontain pursued them, only to be ambushed in turn and wounded.

During the brief time Frontain remained on guard, Ulfen disappeared. Unable to find where they had gone, the veterans could not move carelessly and held their ground.

Then, when Ulfen revealed themself again, the veterans sensed that this was their last chance and attacked all at once.

The few remaining veterans rushed forward with their weapons in hand.

Ulfen's figure vanished, leaving only their voice behind.

"The battle has already ended, and your defeat has been decided. You simply have not realized it yet."

Thud. As they advanced, the one-armed veteran was struck by an invisible blade, which carved deeply into their remaining shoulder. Before they even had time to endure the pain, their eyes flew open.

"I used Bullet-Repelling Aura...!"

"Do not place blind faith in it."

The voice sounded beside their ear. The one-armed soldier swung their iron flail toward the sound, but the weapon, powerful enough to shatter concrete, cut through nothing but empty air.

Stab. Then came the sound of life leaving a body once more. A blade plunged into their chest.

Their chest was split open, blood pouring from it. As the one-armed soldier began to fall, their eyes flashed, and they reached out to grab Ulfen's clothes.

With a right arm that should not have existed, sprouting from a severed shoulder.

"An aura hand?"

Ulfen reacted. Not even they could shake off a hand gripping them with aura.

Frontain approached the veteran who had bound Shadow for a moment.

"Got you! You bastard!"

Ghostly flames bloomed in their wrinkled eyes. They had conserved their strength because their stamina was lacking, but this was their final chance.

The cane brimming with aura trembled. A flash of light burst even through the darkness. Frontain's cane came down like lightning.

With a storm coiling behind it, even a glancing blow from the cane would be fatal. If Ulfen dodged, Frontain would detonate the aura.

The assassin was held fast as the strike descended.

"...Black Crystal Aura Art."

Yet darkness seeping from Ulfen's body slipped between the flashes of light. The lightning was swallowed by darkness in an instant. Ulfen inserted their aura in a strange manner, then deflected Frontain's descending cane with their dagger.

The cane smoothly traced an arc and slid aside. Despair spread across Frontain's face, and at that moment Shadow's blade mercilessly tore into the old warrior's body.

Who knew such a thin body could hold so much blood? Blood burst from the old soldier's chest.

"Cough.... Damn it...."

The old soldier groaned, desperately clinging to their fading breath.

Ulfen Fenstein was an assassin. Since they specialized in delivering prepared strikes, they were weak in a head-on fight....

"...Was thinking that my mistake...?"

"I did not avoid fighting head-on because I was unable to do so. It was simply more efficient."

Ulfen muttered with emotionless eyes. Frontain coughed up blood and replied,

"I know too... that there are many in this world... far greater than an old soldier like me...."

Perhaps one of the children they raised could become one. A child who surpassed an ordinary general and stood alongside one of the Six Generals.

Like the Gunslinger, the youngest of the Six Generals, who had recently been recognized as one.

Children held limitless potential. It was an adult's job to help that potential bloom before it faded.

That was why, before dying, Frontain left behind their final words.

"We... never said a word about your identity.... Those children don't know who you are...."

Every veteran they had summoned was dead. Though they had already retired, they remained soldiers who had stood in Ulfen's path prepared to die.

They had lost, but still. They had left behind a safeguard, just in case.

"There is no need... to kill them to silence them...."

Asking whether killing everyone was truly Ulfen's goal, Frontain protected the children to the end.

Ulfen replied with emotionless eyes to the old warrior's dying plea.

"If that is the case."

Ulfen's purpose had been to spread the taboo, so they would not kill them.

There was no telling what the military state would do to them after its taboo had been exposed, but Ulfen had no reason to explain even that.

Whatever Ulfen felt.

Hearing Ulfen's answer, Frontain closed their eyes in relief. Their final sleep was longer than their life.

The old warrior died. Naturally, Ulfen felt no particular emotion over it. They only looked toward their next target with deeply sunken eyes.

Market was next. Ulfen's figure melted into the dim street and disappeared....

Then, as Ulfen headed toward Market, a carriage pulled by two horses appeared in their sight.

Footnotes:

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