WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 193

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Say You Want to Live - 9

To fool Ulfen, I had to keep facing him to the very end. The problem was that the light still seeped in even with my eyes shut.

My eyes got overstimulated and went on strike. Afterimages flickered, and my vision washed out to gray. Like Ulfen, I stumbled around blindly, seeing nothing.

I could steal other people’s sight, but with no sight to steal, I was basically blind myself. No one nearby was looking this way, so I could not even tell where I was.

Yeah, it was fine. I had a cane.

Using the magic cane I had prepared in advance, I tapped my way along and somehow made it into the building I had scoped out earlier.

Whew. Good thing I made the cane ahead of time. If I had not done that blindness training, I might have gotten lost too.

Anyway, after slipping into the residence unnoticed, I carefully climbed the stairs. On the way up, I heard thud-crash-smash-bang sounds outside, but that was none of my business right now.

Thank god the stairs were standardized. Once I got my footing right, I could just repeat the same movement all the way up. Even without seeing, I could still...

"Aah!"

Ah, I misstepped because I did not realize the stairs had ended! I almost went down hard.

Still, by the time I climbed up half blind, I had reached the rooftop. My vision had slowly recovered along the way. Grateful that I could see again, I stepped out through the rooftop door.

The rooftop came into view. A concrete-gray roof greeted me with a cramped, angular skyline. Water tanks and pipes were tangled together like vines, and cleaning equipment waited under thick covers for the day it would be used. I crossed the ordinary residential rooftop and reached the edge.

When I looked down, Ulfen was lying there, pinned by Historia.

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

Goodbye, Ulfen. You might regret the process, but you can accept the ending. You are dying at the hands of someone stronger than you.

For a man who had lived by the blade, Ulfen did not fear death. He feared powerlessness.

He hated being crushed by someone beyond his limits, and he was furious that he could not get any stronger than this. Twisted as he already was, he made a plan to rule over the weak.

Hah. The strong do not survive; the survivors are the strong. So why do people keep stirring everything up like thugs? Live quietly and enjoy a slow life, like me.

"Now then. The question is how I run."

Could I escape from here? Grab any room and hide in it?

Hmm. That probably would not work either. This was the military state. It would not be strange for them to search every room one by one.

What a mess.

Captain AB might not tell them who I was. But... the problem was that she knew who I was too.

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

"Checkmate."

Whew. Could I get out of this alive? I did not know if I could break through the communications officers’ surveillance and escape the military state. My magical energy was already bottomed out, and my body was wrecked.

Captain AB aside, the other communications officers did not know me. If they discovered me, they might start tracking me immediately.

The Magician, in a desperate life-or-death crisis.

Did I really have to pull off the great escape of the century with zero preparation? This was way too hard.

Then it happened.

A Black Knight appeared from under my shadow.

It was a form I had not seen in a while. A knight in pitch-black armor, as if made from clumped shadow, stood there silently watching me.

Why were you showing up here? The timing was so random I could only ask stupidly.

"What is this dirt pawn?"

The dirt pawn seemed to have been hiding in my shadow from the start. Until now, it had blended into the darkness over the street, but once I came up to the roof, the only darkness that stood out was my shadow, so it was exposed.

"Huh. Um, hello? Is this Tyr?"

I waved, but the Black Knight gave no response. Either she was not focused this way, or she was pretty far away now.

Then why scatter a Black Knight here... Right as I was thinking that through,

a conversation was unfolding below.

"If you did not call me, then who did?"

"Magician... Ugh. In the end... I got played by you to the very end..."

It was not an answer to the Gunslinger’s question. Still, Ulfen’s mutter was answer enough for her.

"Magician?"

Lost in thought, the Gunslinger suddenly spotted something and walked over. On the roadside near one edge lay a face-down card. She flicked it up with her toe and caught it neatly.

Clover 1, my magical medium with a faint light leaking out.

"Hah."

The Gunslinger let out a snort loud enough for me to hear from the rooftop.

"Right. Of course it was you. Nobody else would pull this kind of stunt."

Ah, that.

With medium magic, the medium pays the spell’s cost instead. So the card that had just produced that massive light still held a firefly-like afterglow.

Should I have picked it up? But it was single-use anyway, and carrying a card that leaked light and magical power at night was basically asking to be caught. So I had deliberately flipped it over and shoved it into a corner.

And I got found out.

"This was your usual method, Hui. So you did not die back then after all."

As if she had expected this, the Gunslinger gave a harsh laugh and immediately raised her gun to the sky.

Baaang.

This shot was different from before. A blank round. She only scattered energy from the muzzle and fired nothing but air.

Blue energy shattered from the barrel like glass. The deafening gunshot tore through the dark night street and echoed far and wide.

Through ears muffled as if underwater, I heard the Gunslinger’s thrilled scream.

"Get your ass out here right now! Hui, you fucking bastard---!!!"

My plan had worked.

Black Cat, the exposé magazine. I leaked information to a gossip sheet even the military state kept an eye on.

Hui, the guy who never lost top rank in school. I dangled that name as bait, a name no one who remembered it could ignore. Thanks to that, the military state deployed in a frenzy.

But they arrived a little later than expected, and I almost died because of it. Why were they so slow to move?

I was the one put in danger...

Not because of the Prime Shadow. Because of one of the Six Generals.

Tsk. If I were strong enough to wipe out the Shadow alone, I would not have needed to play the friend card.

As I muttered that, the Gunslinger shouted at a golem.

"Communications officer! Begin control!"

『Communications officer, Captain AB speaking. Awaiting orders.』

There was no trace of drunkenness or drowsiness now. With both eyes burning with fury, the Gunslinger fired off orders.

"We are capturing the Pied Piper of Hameln! Lock down the entire district and place supplies along all routes! Send me personal records on everyone nearby! Tell the military police to come to my position the moment they finish their current work!"

『Pied Piper...』

The captain paused for a moment, then quickly composed herself and replied.

『Understood. Major, shall we equip your general-grade gear?』

"Too slow! Bring in every golem! We have no idea what tricks that bastard might pull!!"

An order from one of the Six Generals. The moment the Gunslinger spoke, the military state moved. Even though it was too dark to see far, the city seemed to writhe like a crouching monster.

From the prey’s side, a hunter’s orders were pure terror. I muttered blankly.

"Haa. Time to pay for my sins, huh. I did pull a little too much."

Once I fought Ulfen, being exposed was inevitable. I just did not expect them to identify me this fast. What a nose.

This was all because of Ulfen and the military state. If Ulfen had not suddenly shown up, and if the military state had deployed on time, I would not have had to step in.

What now? Against Historia, I had one way. Just one time, I had a way to shake her off. The problem was I could not shake off the other pursuers.

Was this the end.

At that moment, something near the rooftop railing turned its neck. Startled out of my skin, I stared to see what it was.

A golem. A pure surveillance model, just a head.

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

I had to run now...

『You. It is I.』

"Captain AB?"

『Affirmative. While I am synced with this golem, other communications officers cannot sync to it. So please pause your escape for a moment.』

I stopped mid-step. After that concise explanation, the golem fixed its gaze on me and spoke.

『You. The situation is urgent, so I will ask only one thing. Are you the Hui that Major Historia is searching for?』

"Ah. Yes."

『Then are you the Pied Piper of Hameln?』

"Ahaha. Um, affirmative. Technically, I blew a whistle, not a pipe."

Still, I did blow it... When I admitted it readily, the golem trailed off as if wondering what to do.

Even then, chaos kept breaking out below. Sounding pressed for time, the captain spoke in a rush.

『...I may... not have seen you. Even accounting for that, however, I judge the probability of your successfully escaping the Major’s pursuit to be extremely low.』

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

『Therefore, I request this. Would you surrender?』

Surrender? A captain of the military state was asking that of the worst ideological criminal in history?

Even through the golem, I could feel the captain’s concern. Seriously, I gave her a little drug and she was still worrying about a criminal. How pure could one person be?

I was grateful, though.

"The military state will not leave me alone. I am the Pied Piper."

Yeah, it was unfair. I only blew a whistle up front, and every crime got dumped on me. That was why I had to fake my death, give up even my number-one middle school record, wash my identity into Hughes, and come up to the capital.

Even if I surrendered now, no one would pat me on the shoulder and say, "Okay, do better from now on." One hundred sixty-one students might be a tiny loss to the nation, but at the same time... it had been a massive shock.

『...In that case. I.』

"Ahaha. So live well, Captain AB. I think it is time for me to leave. The one who knows when to go should only show his back."

I squeezed out my drained magical energy and transformed a Diamond 2 card.

A multipurpose hook. I tied it to a rope and spun it around. Target: the building across from me. Hook the rope there, then throw myself over and go down.

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

"I'm not sure. But either way, I have to struggle if I want to live."

『I wish you good fortune in battle.』

"I had a pretty good time too. Please handle the rest. And Captain AB, send my regards to Sepi too."

I threw the spinning hook. Clank. With a cold metallic sound, it latched firmly onto the opposite railing.

As that happened, I heard the captain’s gentle voice.

『...If you are going to run, go east. There may be someone who can help you.』

With those words, the light in the golem’s eyes went out. Right after that,

"Found you."

Historia muttered like a hunter who had found her prey.

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