Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint - Chapter 193

WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Chapter 193: Say You Want to Live - 9

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To deceive Ulfen, I had to keep facing them until the very end. The problem was that it was the sort of light that seeped through even closed eyes.

Thanks to that, my overstimulated eyes went on strike. Afterimages flickered as my vision turned gray. Like Ulfen, I couldn't see anything and staggered around uselessly.

I could steal other people's vision, but if there was no vision to steal, I was no different from a blind person. Since nobody nearby was looking this way, I had no idea where I was either.

Yeah, it's fine. I can use my staff.

Using the magic staff I'd prepared in advance to feel out the ground, I somehow made it inside the building I'd seen earlier.

Phew. Good thing I made this staff ahead of time. If I hadn't experienced what it was like to be visually impaired, I might've gotten lost too.

In any case, I slipped into the residential building without anyone noticing and carefully climbed the stairs. On the way up, I heard thudding, crashing, splintering, and shattering outside, but that was none of my business right now.

Thank goodness all the stairs were the same size. Once I got my footing right, I could repeat the same movements until I reached the top. Even if I couldn't see, I could easily...

"Ahhh!"

Ah, I stepped into thin air because I didn't realize the stairs had ended! I almost fell over!

Still half-blind, I climbed the stairs and eventually reached the rooftop. My eyesight had gradually recovered along the way. Grateful that I could see again, I stepped through the rooftop door.

The rooftop came into view. The concrete-gray rooftop greeted me with its narrow, angular horizon. Water tanks and pipes tangled together like vines, while cleaning equipment waited beneath thick cloth for the day it would be used. I crossed the ordinary rooftop and reached its edge.

Looking down, I saw Ulfen lying there, subdued by Historia.

Against the backdrop of the moonlit night, I gave the fallen Ulfen a final farewell.

Goodbye, Ulfen. You may regret the path you took, but you can accept the ending, can't you? After all, you're dying at the hands of someone stronger than you.

Having lived by the sword in their own way, Ulfen wasn't afraid of death. What they feared was helplessness.

Ulfen hated being crushed so pointlessly by someone beyond all standards, and resented the fact that Ulfen could never grow any stronger. Already twisted, Ulfen planned to rule over the weak.

Hah. The strong don't survive. The survivors are strong. So why did you have to go around stirring everything up like some thug? You should've lived a quiet, slow life like me.

"Well. Anyway. The question now is how I'm supposed to escape."

Could I get away from here? Take over some random room and hide inside?

Hmm. That probably wouldn't work. It wouldn't be strange for the military state to search every single room.

What was I going to do?

Captain AB might not reveal my identity. But... the problem was that Historia knew who I was too.

And Historia had both the will and the ability to chase me to the ends of the earth.

"Checkmate."

Phew. Could I get out of here alive? I didn't know if I could break through the comms officers' surveillance and escape the military state. My arcane was already depleted, and my body was a wreck.

I didn't know the other comms officers like I knew Captain AB, so if they found me, they might start tracking me immediately.

The Magician, in a desperate crisis.

Did I have to put on the escape show of the century without any preparation? This was too hard.

That was when a Black Knight appeared beneath my shadow.

It was a figure I hadn't seen in a long time. A knight clad in pitch-black armor, as though formed from gathered shadows, quietly watched me.

Why are you here? Its appearance was so sudden that I stupidly asked aloud.

"What is this dirt grunt?"

The black minion seemed to have been hiding in my shadow from the beginning. Until now, it had been concealed by the darkness cast over the streets, but now that I was on the rooftop, my shadow was the only darkness that stood out.

"Uh, hello? Are you Tyr?"

I waved, but the Black Knight gave no response. Either Tyr wasn't focused on this, or she was quite far away.

Then why had she scattered Black Knights around...? As I pondered that question, a conversation was underway below.

"If you didn't call me, then who did?"

"The Magician... Ngh. In the end, I was toyed with by you until the very end..."

It wasn't an answer to the Gunslinger's question. Still, Ulfen's muttering was answer enough for her.

"The Magician?"

Deep in thought, the Gunslinger suddenly noticed something and walked toward it. A single card lay face-down at one edge of the main road. She deftly flipped it up with the tip of her foot and caught it.

The Ace of Clubs, my magic medium, glowed faintly.

"Hah."

The Gunslinger snorted loudly enough for me to hear from the rooftop.

"Right. Of course it was you. Who else would pull something like this?"

Ah, that.

With medium magic, the medium bore the price of the spell in place of the caster. That was why the card that had just produced that overwhelming light still held an afterglow like a firefly's.

Should I have picked it up? It was single-use anyway, and carrying a card that leaked light and arcane energy in the middle of the night was the same as asking to be caught. So I'd deliberately flipped it over and shoved it into a corner.

But it had been found.

"This is the method you used most often, Hui. So you didn't die back then after all."

As though she'd known all along, the Gunslinger gave a loud, hollow laugh and immediately drew her gun, aiming it at the sky.

Baaang.

This gunshot was different from before. It was a blank round that fired nothing but air, simply scattering energy from the muzzle.

Blue energy shattered from the muzzle like glass. The gunshot, loud enough to deafen me, tore through the dark streets and rang far and wide.

Through ears that felt stuffed as though I were underwater, I heard the Gunslinger's ecstatic cry.

"Come out right now! Hui, you fucking bastard---!!!"

My plan had worked.

I leaked information to Black Cat, an exposé sheet full of gossip that even the military state kept an eye on.

Hui, the student who had never lost first place in his school. I dangled that name as bait, a name that those who still remembered it could never ignore. Thanks to that, the military state had rushed out in a frenzy.

But the military state arrived a little later than expected, and I almost died. Why were they so slow to move?

I ended up in danger...

Not because of the Full Shadow, but because of the Six Generals.

Tch. If I were strong enough to beat all those Shadows by myself, I wouldn't have needed to call in a friend.

As I muttered to myself, the Gunslinger shouted at the Golem.

"Comms officer! Begin surveillance!"

『Communications Officer Captain AB. Awaiting your orders.』

There was no trace of drunkenness or drowsiness left. With excitement and fury filling her eyes, the Gunslinger issued rapid orders.

"We're catching the Pied Piper of Hamelin! Seal off the entire district and place supplies along the escape routes! Send me the personal records of everyone nearby! Tell the military police to come to me as soon as they're done with their work!"

『The Pied Piper...』

The captain paused briefly, then quickly composed herself.

『Understood. Major General, will you equip the General's Armament?』

"Too slow! Bring in every Golem instead! We don't know what that bastard might try!!"

It was an order from one of the Six Generals. As the Gunslinger spoke to the Golem, the military state began to move. Though it was too dark to see far, the dark city seemed to stir like a crouching monster.

As the prey, the hunter's orders were terrifying in themselves. I muttered blankly.

"Haah. Is it time to pay for my sins? I really did get up to too much."

Once I'd fought Ulfen, having my identity exposed was inevitable. I hadn't expected her to figure it out this quickly, though. She had an incredible nose for it.

This was all Ulfen and the military state's fault. If Ulfen hadn't suddenly shown up, and if the military state had arrived on time, I wouldn't have needed to get involved.

What should I do? Against Historia, I did have a way to shake her off, but only once. The problem was that I couldn't shake off the other pursuers.

Was this the end?

At that moment, something near the rooftop railing turned its head. Startled, I carefully looked to see what it was.

It was a Golem. One with only a head, purely for surveillance.

There was one here too? Wow. Just how many had the military state hidden?

I had to run right away...

『Sir. Captain AB speaking.』

"Captain AB?"

『Affirmative. While I am synchronized with this Golem, no other communications officer can synchronize with it. Therefore, please delay your escape briefly.』

I stopped just as I was about to run. The Golem gave its concise explanation, then fixed its gaze on me.

『Sir. The situation is urgent, so I will ask only one question. Are you the Hui Major General Historia is seeking?』

"Ah. Yes."

『Then are you the Pied Piper of Hamelin?』

"Ahaha. Um, affirmative. Though I actually played a whistle, not a pipe."

Still, I had played it...

When I readily admitted it, the Golem drew out its words as though unsure what to do.

Even then, chaos continued below. As though pressed for time, the captain spoke urgently.

『...I may not have seen you. Yet even taking that into account, I judge that your chances of escaping Major General Historia's pursuit are extremely low.』

"Unless something falls from the sky, I think so too."

『Therefore, I request that you surrender.』

She wanted me to surrender? A captain of the military state, asking the worst thought criminal in history to turn himself in?

Even through the Golem, I could feel the captain's concern. I'd only sweet-talked her a little, yet she was worried about a criminal too. Just how innocent was she?

Still, I appreciated the thought.

"The military state won't let me go peacefully. I'm the Pied Piper, after all."

It was unfair. I'd only blown a whistle in front of them a little, yet I ended up taking the blame for everything. That was why I had to fake my death, give up even my record as the top student in middle school, assume the identity of Hughes, and head to the capital.

Even if I turned myself in now, they weren't going to tell me, "All right, do better from now on." One hundred sixty-one students might have been a minor loss on a national scale, but it had also been an enormously shocking incident.

『...In that case. I...』

"Ahaha. Then live well, Captain AB. I think it's time for me to take my leave. Those who know when to leave should show only their backs."

Drawing out my last scraps of arcane, I transformed the Two of Diamonds card.

A multipurpose grappling hook. I tied it to a rope and spun it around. My target was the building across from me. I would fasten the rope there, then jump down.

『...Understood. If it is you, you will find a way to escape.』

"I'm not certain. But I have to struggle if I want to live."

『May fortune follow you.』

"I had quite a good time too. I'll leave the rest to you. Captain AB, please give Sepi my regards as well."

I threw the grappling hook I had been spinning. Clank. With a cold metallic sound, it caught firmly on the railing across from me.

Then I heard the captain's gentle voice.

『...If you are going to flee, go east. There may be someone there who will help you.』

With those final words, the light vanished from the Golem's eyes.

Then.

"Found you."

Historia muttered like a hunter who had found her prey.

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