WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 19: Staking Only Grandfather's Honor

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Press. Press.

I was deep in sweet sleep when something heavy settled against my waist. Something was disturbing my peaceful slumber. I frowned and flung out an arm, and whatever had been pinning me down immediately retreated. Peace restored, I drifted back to sleep.

Preeess.

Something heavy settled against my waist again. I swung my arm with all the ferocity I could muster, and it hurriedly withdrew. Smiling in satisfaction, I fell asleep again.

Preeeeess.

Now I was starting to get annoyed. What insolent creature dared disturb my peaceful sleep? It was time to teach it a lesson. The moment the weight settled on me, I jerked upright, grabbed the foot pressing against me, and pulled. I would pin it down so it couldn't move.

Huh? Why wasn't it moving? That was strange. I was pulling with all my strength, but it didn't budge.

Where had I felt this before?

The military state was a land of steel frames and concrete. Every element that made up its cities was hard.

Its buildings, its people, even its ideals.

Once, while passing beneath an overpass, I touched one of its piers. A sturdy, solid pillar built from steel framing and hardened concrete. I could still vividly remember the feel of that structure, capable of supporting people and massive carriages passing overhead. No matter how hard I kicked it, it didn't tremble in the slightest. It felt like a bridge pier existed entirely apart from me.

The leg pressing me down now was about as immovable as a reinforced-concrete bridge pier. It wouldn't move an inch. The difference was that it was warm and soft, but the strength within it surpassed any bridge pier.

I held the leg for no reason, staring blankly.

“Woof!”

The leg moved on its own, following my hand.

An adult lets a child pull them around not because the child is stronger, but because they want to follow. By a similar principle, the soft, fluffy foot moved wherever I led it. As a result, a large shadow leaped onto my bed.

Before me was a girl with eyes full of curiosity. Her messy blond hair was unkempt, and every expression played clearly across her face. Her standard-issue shirt was tied tightly beneath her chest. I couldn't tell whether she meant to emphasize her generous breasts or keep them from bouncing around. Below her navel, a half-curled tail swayed gently.

The girl saw me, smiled brightly, and poked my chest. Her touch was so full of trust and affection that it actually made me uncomfortable.

What was this?

Some woman had suddenly woken me up and was acting cute. Was she an assassin? Or had someone come to collect a debt...?

That was when, sensing danger, I read her thoughts.

No. A dog.

The King of Dogs. Azzy.

I brushed my hair back and sat up in bed. Once I woke up a little, my mind began to clear. Noise returned to my once-quiet head, and my field of vision spread as though mist had seeped into it.

When I tried to get out of bed, Azzy quickly stepped aside.

“You came to wake me up?”

“Woof!”

“Because you heard someone say there was nobody to wake me up without an alarm clock?”

“Woof woof!”

“Right. Thanks. Good girl.”

“Me, good?”

“Of course you're good.”

“Woof woof! Me, good!”

From her barking to the way she rolled around on my bed in delight after being praised, she was exactly like a dog no matter how I looked at her. Considering her essence, she was closer to the species known as a dog than anything else in the world.

Right. A dog.

Not a girl.

I washed my face and changed clothes. My standard-issue shirt seeped into the bio-terminal on my wrist, and I slipped a new clothing packet into place.

For some reason, I wanted to pour cold water over my head.

Naturally, I couldn't afford that luxury on my daily water ration alone. I ran out of water while washing, so I stormed into the room next door with droplets falling from my wet hair. The bed there was folded in half and the cabinet was broken, but the plumbing still worked, so I borrowed water whenever my room ran short.

After drying off, I looked up. Azzy was still hovering at my side. I dried my hair with the towel I had left out and checked the remaining ration.

There was some water left. One person's share was always insufficient, but two people's shares were a little too much. Typical of the military state.

I poured the remaining water into a cup and gave it to Azzy. She shoved her face into it and lapped it up.

Seeing her behave as usual felt strangely odd today, so I scolded her for no reason.

“Azzy. Your body's built like a person's, so hold it and drink with your hands.”

“Woof?”

Azzy tilted her head innocently at my words.

“Woof? You called?”

If she did as she was told, Azzy wouldn't be a dog. I sighed, set Azzy on my lap, brought the cup to her mouth, and carefully tilted it.

Azzy kept flicking out her tongue, then seemed startled when the rippling water began entering her mouth. She twisted her body uselessly. Still, I held her firmly and soothed her slowly so she wouldn't be frightened. Before long, she relaxed and swallowed the trickling water in small gulps.

“Good. See how much easier this is? Try drinking like this from now on. What do you think?”

“Woof!”

“Let's see.”

She understood enough, right? I carefully placed the cup on the floor.

Azzy immediately knelt down, shoved her face into the cup, and began lapping it up.

I looked at her tail swaying above her raised rear and muttered, “That was pointless.”

At my voice, Azzy turned from the cup. When our eyes met, she gave me a bright smile and barked.

“Woof woof!”

A snort of laughter escaped me.

Why did humans find comfort in innocent, simple animals?

Was it because they felt superior while looking down on creatures beneath them?

Or because they remembered the purity they had lost?

“Whatever.”

The reason didn't matter. Maybe the feeling existed before any reason we attached to it afterward.

As long as it made me happy, that was enough.

Azzy finished the water. I hung the cup back on its hook and left the empty room.

“Let's go get breakfast.”

“Woof!”

Today's menu was the meat stew left over from yesterday. There wasn't much meat remaining, but it would be enough for breakfast. For dinner...

Beans. I was sick of stew, but bean stew was still the best thing I could make right now.

“Don't they supply this place with anything? I could really use some fresh food.”

There weren't even dozens of people here. Just two people, one dog, and one corpse. They could at least send supplies. One person and one corpse among us were even self-sufficient.

It wasn't as though they didn't know this place existed. Their supplies and messages were late.

Grumbling, I headed for the cafeteria.

The fourth floor. Even with exaggeration, it was hard to call the forced laborers' quarters decent. Countless hairline cracks ran through the concrete walls, repeated impacts layered within them like tree rings. Doors that couldn't be locked stretched along the narrow corridor. If you casually leaned against a wall, either the door would open or the wall would shake.

At least the cafeteria, which had some facilities, was spacious and sturdy.

It was larger than the rooms and had all the necessary equipment. Several standard-size pots, a number of plates, and even trays for carrying food. They had probably expected the laborers to deliver food to the prisoners as well.

“They wouldn't have needed food trays. If the laborers had just walked downstairs, that alone would've delivered the food.”

I shrugged and approached the lidded pot.

The moment I tried to lift the lid, I felt an indescribable premonition. Was it déjà vu? Or an instinct closer to foresight?

No. Surely not. Again?

“No. We fought like that yesterday. There's no way.”

I laughed to shake away my unease and lifted the pot lid.

I found only an empty pot. Its blackened bottom looked like a vision of my future.

“You little shit dog!”

My roar echoed through the cafeteria.

“Don't you have any ability to learn? What makes you different from an ordinary dog if you're the King of Dogs? Even some genius dog famous in the countryside would be several times smarter than you!”

“Awoooo! Me, no! Woof! Woof!”

It was the moment a holy war between human and dog broke out. The regressor, who had rushed in after hearing the commotion, pressed a hand to her forehead and spoke.

“What happened this time?”

‘It's probably something trivial again.’

Trivial? Food, clothing, and shelter. Of those, food was always what played with human lives. In other words, this was a matter of life and death!

I strode toward the regressor with the pot in hand. Holding up the empty tin can and the equally empty pot, I shouted at her.

“Did you see this? One tin was originally enough to feed one person for four days. That means it has that much nutrition packed into it! But because of this shit dog, one tin disappears in a single day!”

Azzy's sulky voice came from behind me.

“Me, no!”

“Liar! If it wasn't you, then who was it?”

“No! No!”

“If you're the Beast King, say something else! Repeating the same words doesn't make you a dog, it makes you a parrot!”

“Not parrot!”

“If you want to convince me, speak like a person!”

The regressor pretended to cover her ears and interrupted.

“Wait. Both of you are too loud.”

Azzy and I glared at each other and growled. The regressor let out a deep sigh and muttered.

“Why are you so sure Azzy is the culprit? It might not have been Azzy.”

“Then are you saying Trainee Shei is the culprit?”

I rolled my eyes.

“Trainee Tyrkanzyaka is a vampire. She only drinks blood. The remaining humans are Trainee Shei and me. But it wasn't me. No matter how shameless I am, I wouldn't do something so pointless as eat it myself and blame the dog. I manage the storeroom anyway.”

‘Does he know he has no conscience?’

“If Azzy isn't the culprit, it necessarily means Trainee Shei stole the food. Do you understand? What you just said is no different from telling us to suspect you!”

I threw the pot into the sink and shouted.

“You said you have emergency meals! You said you don't need food prepared! But after eating only those meals, were you tempted by military state comfort food and rummaged through the pot at night? Are poverty itself and even the comfort foods born from it just another relic for you to display in a case?”

“What relic? Of course not. I wouldn't eat tinned food even if someone gave it to me.”

“Then stay out of it, bourgeois! Today, I'm fighting that shit dog to the death!”

“Wait.”

The regressor spoke irritably. At her will, Skywarbler, the treasured sword floating in the air, slowly rotated and began pointing at me.

I shut my mouth at once.

Even if I was fighting to the death, I couldn't die a dog's death.

“What I mean is, there could be someone else here.”

“I don't like stories where someone nobody knew existed turns out to be the culprit. It feels too contrived.”

‘...He normally makes sensible arguments, but sometimes he says completely insane things. I really can't figure this man out.’

“Whether you like it or not, the possibility exists.”

“Well, it's a possible suspicion. But.”

It was such a hole-ridden deduction that I didn't know where to begin criticizing it. Was that all the regressor had? Let me teach her. No matter how complicated something looked, the truth was always the simplest answer.

I pointed at the regressor and declared, “Trainee Shei, your deduction is wrong.”

“Why?”

“This is Tantalus, in the Abyss. A completely isolated place where people can't come and go. You're saying that someone none of us knows about, not you, me, Azzy, or Trainee Tyrkanzyaka, is hiding here and comes out at night just to eat food?”

With a huff, I laid out my flawless logic.

“That's absurd. Such a person doesn't exist and must not exist.”

“I understand that it's hard to accept, but what do you mean they must not exist?”

“If such a being really exists, what else could it be but a ghost?”

“And?”

“Ghosts are scary. I don't want to believe in them.”

The regressor belatedly understood what I meant and stood there with her mouth open. The stupid look suited her surprisingly well.

“So because such a being would be scary, you won't even consider it?”

I immediately nodded.

“Yes.”

“What... what?”

‘Is he actually insane, or is he doing this on purpose?’

On purpose? What was she talking about?

Think about it. A regressor with every strange trick imaginable, a vampire who could find someone from a thousand li away the moment they bled, and the King of Dogs with a dog's nose.

On top of that, my mind reading could even see through the regressor's concealment.

There was someone hiding in the cafeteria whom none of us had noticed? Someone whose thoughts I couldn't even read?

If such a being existed, I should run immediately.

‘It would be a mistake to think nobody is here. Tyrkanzyaka and Azzy became Fragments of the End because of outside intruders, and she will come seeking that thing at the bottom of the Abyss. There is also a chance he is somewhere here. How am I supposed to explain this?’

...Why was it real?

No. I couldn't accept a future like this. This group alone was enough to make my head explode, and there were outside intruders too? Monsters on the same level as them coming here?

‘Explain what? This is my first time entering Tantalus too. I'll leave it as something to enjoy when the time comes.’

Lies. It was a lie. There was no way.

I turned sharply toward Azzy.

“Azzy. You really didn't eat it?”

“No!”

“Don't just keep saying no... Ugh. Why am I even trying to talk to you?”

As always, I could only feel the difference between humans and animals, so I shook my head.

Even if I could read this shit dog's thoughts, nothing would change. She would deny it to the end.

In the end, was there only one method left?

I had to catch her in the act.

I needed to catch this shit dog the moment she went after the pot. Only then could I corner her completely.

Let's open another tin. The operation would take place tonight, when the daytime lights went out and only the night lights dimly illuminated the prison.

That was when I would catch this shit dog.

I curled my lips into a dark smile as I looked down at Azzy, and she glared back at me. It felt as though sparks flew from our eyes.

‘Are those two on good terms or bad terms?’

Could the relationship between a human and a dog be defined by one thing? When it was good, it was good. When it was bad, it was bad.

Just wait, shit dog.

As I growled to myself, the regressor suddenly turned her head with a start. She narrowed her brows and stared intently somewhere. Skywarbler gave a thin ring, as though reflecting her vigilance.

‘Wait. I sensed something from deeper inside.’

Ah, please. Don't do this. It was really scary. Since it was her premonition, it felt like something really might be there. I even slept on the same floor. In a narrow, dark room perfect for ghosts to visit.

What if I got attacked at night? I didn't have an alarm for keeping watch. Hmm.

I didn't have an alarm, but I did have a guard dog.

I turned to Azzy and spoke quietly.

“Azzy. Want to sleep together tonight?”

“Arf!”

I got rejected.

Footnotes:

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