WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 194: Say You Want to Live - Finale

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"Found you."

Historia muttered in a chilling voice. The instant I heard it, I roughly looped the rope around myself and jumped.

Freefall was said to be what humans feared most. I knew I was hanging from a rope, but the terrifying speed and the dizzying emptiness beneath my feet still stirred an instinctive fear...

Still, it was less frightening than that hysterical voice chasing after me.

Thud, thud.

Strange vibrations came from the building I had been standing on moments ago. People hiding inside the residences could no longer overcome their fear and began screaming.

It made sense. Right now, Historia...

Was climbing up by smashing through the building's walls!

"Stop right there!"

"Would you stop if you were meeeee?!"

Gravity pulled me toward the ground. The rope was a little shorter than I had calculated. At its lowest point, I let go and rolled across the ground to break my fall.

"Owowowowow!"

There was no way proper falling techniques had been invented by people who knew what they were doing. I did it exactly as I was taught, and it still hurt! What was the point of learning how to fall properly? Humans weren't flying creatures. We weren't supposed to fall in the first place!

Anyway, once I got back on my feet, I clutched my throbbing left arm and ran with all my strength.

Though that didn't matter much.

"Found you!!!"

How did one climb a smooth wall without anywhere to place their feet? You made footholds as you climbed.

If you stepped down hard enough, the wall cracked and held your body in place. Then, using those cracks as footholds, you could simply walk up the wall.

It sounded insane, but it was what Historia had just done.

Having climbed the residential building's wall like that, Historia stood on the rooftop and locked onto me precisely.

"Hui! Stop right there! If you don't stop, I'll shoot!"

Normally, if someone spoke before shooting, it meant they had no intention of shooting. I shouted without looking back.

"If you shoot me, I'll die! Haha! Are you really going to shoot an upstanding citizen who'll die if you so much as poke him?!"

"You think I can't?"

Historia's eyes turned dangerous. She loaded the bullets in her hand and aimed at me through her sights.

Ah, shit. Maybe I shouldn't have provoked her.

'I'll only shoot you badly enough that you won't die. Right through the leg.'

How was putting a clean hole through my leg something a friend would do? I complained inwardly as I prepared to leap aside.

'...But what's that?'

Just before pulling the trigger, Historia frowned at the figure running beside me.

Huh? Someone was keeping pace with me?

I turned my head and found someone running alongside me. The girl wagged her tail from side to side as she ran carefree at about the same speed as me.

...On all fours.

When our eyes met, Azzy grinned brightly and barked.

"Woof! Nice to see you! Nice to see you!"

Captain, you said it was a person. It was a dog.

She wasn't even much help. Azzy couldn't fight humans!

Still!

"This is a little strange to say, but it's nice to see you too. I'm so glad to see you that I could cry."

"Woof! Crybaby!"

"I haven't cried yet."

'It doesn't matter. I should shoot his leg first.'

Before Historia could pull the trigger, Azzy's ears perked up. She sensed it by instinct before she heard the sound. Her eyes widened as she ran. In the darkness, where visibility was poor, the light reflected in Azzy's eyes became a beam.

Baaang!

With the gunshot, Azzy suddenly leaped behind me, and her head snapped to the side. At the same time, her body flew far away and hit the ground back-first.

Azzy flailed and shouted.

"Woof! Hot! Hard! It hurts!"

She couldn't fight humans, but she would fight bullets. More importantly...

"You hurt when you get shot too? That's surprisingly normal."

And yet she caught bullets with her teeth. Even so, perhaps because it was a bullet from one of the Six Generals, she looked like it hurt.

Azzy cried out with tears welling in her eyes.

"My tooth is loose! It hurts!"

"Put some spit on it."

"Woof...! Even when it heals, it still hurts! Woof!"

"Then who told you to catch it with your teeth? Can't you use a bullet-deflecting qi technique or something?"

"Woof? Side dish? Meat?"

"Forget it. Why am I saying this to a dog?"

Even Azzy didn't seem capable of catching Historia's bullets one after another. The one fortunate thing was that Historia didn't have many bullets.

"Stoooooop!"

Historia jumped from the rooftop in a single bound and landed on the ground. Her momentum was so fierce that vibrations ran through the concrete. She landed hard enough to crack the pavement, her eyes gleaming savagely like a beast's.

"Stop right there!"

Plink. Four more bullets dropped into her palm. Historia shoved them into the magazine in one motion, charged at me, and aimed her gun again.

Well, if the dog was here, the person looking after her had to be nearby too.

"Heavenly Sword Technique!"

The regressor landed lightly in front of me. Literally falling from the sky, she immediately spread an invisible sword.

"Heavenly Mirror!"

It was different from a bullet-deflecting qi technique. A pure distortion of space created by spreading Skywarbler, the sword of the sky, in every direction. It even bent light.

The regressor raised a barrier along Historia's line of fire and spoke urgently.

"Hey! How did you end up being chased by one of the Six Generals?!"

I calmly corrected her.

"That's wrong. I was already being chased. The one chasing me just became one of the Six Generals."

"What difference does that make?!"

"The order matters. Would I have gotten on her bad side that badly if she had been one of the Six Generals from the start?"

"It doesn't matter at all! No, isn't that even worse?! How did the one chasing you become one of the Six Generals?!"

"Tch. How was I supposed to know she'd get promoted that quickly?"

Bang, bang, bang.

The three bullets she fired in rapid succession were diverted by the Heavenly Mirror. Pow, pow, pow. The missed bullets tore into the concrete floor and gouged it out as easily as tofu.

Even knowing they would miss, seeing the ground explode on both sides of me was terrifying.

What was worse, we still weren't safe. Both the regressor and I sensed the danger and remained tense.

She had experienced it in a previous regression, while I had read Historia's thoughts.

The next shot wouldn't miss.

Historia aimed at me with cold eyes.

'Zeroing in.'

After establishing the zero with three shots, the fourth was guaranteed to hit. It was a qi gun art only Historia had mastered, fighting with qi layered over her bullets, her gun barrel, and her marksmanship.

It too was the ultimate realm of qi, one that had touched upon the principles of the world, however slightly.

She had gotten so much stronger. What had I been doing all this time...?

I shouldn't attend the next class reunion. Not that I could, since I was wanted.

No, there weren't even enough of us alive to hold a class reunion in the first place. Hehe.

'You can't deflect that! You have to block it!'

Perhaps because she had faced it in the previous regression, the regressor gave up on redirecting it or bouncing it away with a bullet-deflecting qi technique. Instead, she swung Jizan wide and overturned the ground itself.

"Earth Staff Style, Ground Breaker!"

When she slammed Jizan down, the area collapsed, and shattered chunks of concrete rose like thorns. The sudden surge of concrete split the Gunslinger from us.

A bullet pierced through it. Yet the regressor easily knocked away the bullet, which had lost momentum while breaking the concrete. Skywarbler bent with a whine and split the bullet in two.

'I can block it a few times. But not forever! Unless we plan to fight her up close...!'

Having made her decision, the regressor immediately shouted.

"Tyrkanzyaka! Cover her vision with darkness!"

"I shall."

The moment her gentle voice rang out, the streetlights flickered ominously.

Night in the military state knew no darkness. Before she appeared, the darkness along streets lit by streetlamps was no different from a fox that drew stripes across its face and called itself a tiger.

True night arrived.

As though some vast being had blown upon the military state's candles, a gust of wind sounded. Then all the streetlights went out at once, and darkness swallowed the world.

A power beyond comparison to false shadows. The disaster known as the Shadow Queen had come to the night of a nation barely twenty-five years old.

In darkness so complete I couldn't even see my own hands and feet, the Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka approached gracefully with her parasol resting on her shoulder. Guided by mind-reading, I met the red eyes glowing in the pitch-black dark.

Wow. It was reassuring to see her show up in a crisis. Just as I was about to greet her...

"Congratulations on your marriage, Hyu. So there was a reason you wished to return to this country."

Her cold words, tinged with subtle hostility, caught me off guard. Huh. This wasn't the mood for greetings.

As I awkwardly lowered my hand, Tyr looked at me with resentment and hostility in her eyes.

"Yes. You have come of age, so it would not be strange for you to have at least a fiancée with whom you had promised a future."

"Sorry, Tyr. I don't think this is the time to discuss that."

"Could that child be your bride?"

Glancing over, Tyr looked at Historia charging toward us through the darkness. Even in the dark, Historia's fierce charge was perfectly clear to Tyr's red eyes.

"It does not appear that your relationship is harmonious. What do you say? If you wish, I shall turn you into a vampire. You should not die in a marital quarrel."

"We aren't married. If you say that to her, I'm seriously going to die."

"Hm? You are not married?"

I didn't feel like explaining the wide and deep sea of circumstances, so I gave the simplest and clearest answer.

"I tried to pull off a marriage scam, but things got tangled up strangely, so I had to run."

"...Then the marriage?"

"Fake information."

The corners of Tyr's eyes softened a little.

"It is strange that one can commit fraud through marriage. In any case, I understand. But why did you run away from the Abyss?"

"It would take a long time to explain, but I felt like even ten lives wouldn't be enough if I kept traveling with you."

"It does not seem you have enough even now. How about becoming a vampire so that you may have ten lives..."

"No, just. Don't do that."

A roar came from beyond the darkness. The regressor stood in front of Historia, who was trying to tear through the darkness. Now that they had entered close combat, the regressor scattered Skywarbler to fend off Historia's attacks.

The regressor, using Jizan and Skywarbler, wasn't easily pushed back. Historia kicked Jizan fiercely, then frowned at the recoil and shouted.

"Move!"

Haha. Did she think the regressor would obediently move just because she told her to? You should experience the stubborn regressor for yourself!

"...Should I start moving? Do I really need to take him with me if it means fighting one of the Six Generals...?"

Hey! Regressor! Was this the time for that?!

Something appeared beside the regressor, who was seriously considering it. Sharp claws targeted Historia's flank. Historia blocked the stealthy shadow's attack with her foot, but the shadow swung its forepaw fiercely and sent Historia flying.

"Meow... So noisy, meow. Humans change territories far too often, meow..."

Nabi, who had appeared at some point, grumbled as she stood beside the regressor. Historia's face twisted when she saw Nabi suddenly join the fight.

"King of Cats...! Do you want to die?!"

"Meow! You dare ask me if I want to die, meow?!"

Nabi, baring her fangs, had been troublesome as an enemy, but now that she was an ally, she couldn't have been more reassuring. So this was what it meant for a Beast King to be hostile toward one's enemies.

In any case, worthy helpers had arrived from the east. I had to seize this opportunity.

"Um, Tyr. Shei. And all you other beasts."

I raised my voice so everyone could hear.

"I want to live, so could you save me if you aren't too busy?"

It was an honest request, without any strange ideas or plans behind it.

Azzy and Tyr looked at each other, perhaps surprised by my words.

Azzy turned first. She smiled brightly.

"Woof! I'll save you! Stick out your neck!"

"Are you planning to bite me by the nape and run off? Sorry, but humans call that an execution."

I politely declined Azzy's offer. She should say something sensible.

"I'm already saving you... Ngh!"

"Yes. I'm already grateful too."

"Say it with a little more sincerity...! Tch! You're so difficult!"

Over there, the regressor was fighting fiercely. Perhaps Historia had run out of bullets, because she held her gun upside down by the barrel and swung it like a blunt weapon while the regressor wielded Skywarbler against her.

"Hoo. I do find this rather irritating, but."

Tyr snapped her fingers. Darkness drew back like an ebbing tide and swallowed Historia. Historia immediately released qi from her gun, but it looked like it would take her some time to break through it.

"For now, I shall yield to you. Let us leave this place."

"You're retreating, right?! I'll hold her off for a while and pull out!"

The regressor's voice came from the darkness. From farther beyond came Historia's frantic shout.

"Shut up! This has nothing to do with you! Leave that bastard Hui behind!"

"Sorry, Ria! I have somewhere to go! I'll buy you a meal sometime!"

"Heeeyyyyyy!"

Bidding an uncertain farewell to my classmate, I climbed onto the coffin Tyr had brought. The coffin riding through the darkness raced through the streets faster than I had ever seen.

Goodbye, Amitenggrad. City of ordinary people who had cherished me.

This ordinary petty criminal would be taking his leave now.

As Amitenggrad gradually receded into the distance, I bowed deeply toward it.

Footnotes:

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