WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 20

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The Culprit Must Be In Here, Then

Night in the Abyss is announced not by a setting sun but by overhead lights beginning to flicker. When the military state's standard clock strikes six in the evening, artificial lamps standing in for the sun blush red, imitating the colors of a dying day.

Copies are always constrained by the form they copy. From top to bottom, the daytime lamps fade and sink, slow as the sun sliding past the horizon. Once they're gone, faint night lights scattered throughout the Abyss switch on and cast their glow into the interiors of buildings.

The copy always shows. Night lights fall short of a real evening sky in every way. Instead of the hazy indigo that lingers after sunset, a bleary lamplight washes over the Abyss. Not the soft, fog-like glimmer of moonlight and stars, but something unpleasant. A light that carved shadows even out of darkness.

Compared to the sun's grace, which bathes the whole world in warmth, anything else was bound to look dim.

When the daytime lamps went out, they took the corridor lights with them. The mirror shard I had wedged into the door gap now reflected nothing but dark. The light in my room died with them. Impossible to keep working. I stopped what I was doing and pushed back from the desk.

Fifty-two cards lay across the surface. Made from the alchemical gold the regressor had given me, and every spare hour of the day. A full day's work, pressed into a deck.

I was a magician. An alchemist who transmuted cards and suckers into money. A full deck was my weapon.

With one sweep of my hand, fifty-two cards lying in disarray across the desk slid obediently into my palm. Square, rigid, springy. A familiar weight, welcoming me back.

I split the face-down deck in half and shuffled. The cards bent and yielded, their teeth meshing into each other's gaps. Shuffle, flip, twist, shuffle again. Thwack. I set the finished stack down on the desk.

"Diamond ace."

I turned over the top card. Diamond ace. Of course. I had shuffled it that way.

Going days without cards hadn't dulled me. The skill had waited somewhere deep inside, patient. I picked up the diamond ace with the same calm as always. One sharp red pip owned the entire face of the card, taking up every inch as if it had always been its birthright. I held it between my index and middle fingers and flicked it over. When I spread both hands wide a moment later, the diamond ace was nowhere.

The cards were good. My form was solid. I exhaled slowly and steadied myself.

"All right. Let's go."

I hoped it was Azzy stealing from the pot. But if it wasn't...

Even just to have an escape route, I needed my own weapon.

I eased the door open without a sound.

The corridor lay drowned in darkness, so still it seemed to swallow sound itself. During the day it had been quiet, sure, but at least there'd been some trace of life.

Now it fit its name. Tantalus. Dim and still.

I made my way down the long corridor. The dark and quiet made noise feel like a transgression. I lifted my heels without realizing it.

It didn't take long to reach the cafeteria. I steadied myself and reached out, checking for thoughts from inside.

Nothing. Not even static. Meaning, at minimum, no one inside was actively thinking.

Whether they had no thoughts, or simply weren't human, that remained to be seen.

I slipped inside and took a spot in one corner of the cafeteria. All I had to do was sit still and wait. The moment Azzy went for the pot, she was caught. And if a ghost showed up instead, I could bolt.

Hunting, at its heart, was the art of waiting. Behind every glorious hunt lay a stretch of quiet endurance. I held my breath and fixed my eyes on the pot.

Time dragged on. My concentration frayed, and my head had started to dip in little nodding motions, doing practice stitches in the air. A few minutes, maybe. Then sound from outside. Someone was there.

Got you.

See? An intruder, just like I thought. There was nobody "inside." I never believed that unprovable conspiracy theory anyway.

I tensed and waited, perfectly still, for the moment the trap would snap shut. The instant they touched the pot, there was no getting out of it. Then I'd charge straight out and catch them....

The shadow that stepped into the cafeteria swept its golden-gleaming eyes around the room once. Then it walked directly toward me.

Mind reading didn't exactly make me a master of stealth. I stood from my seat and pointed at the regressor.

"So it was you. I suspected as much."

"What?"

"If you were that desperate, you could've just asked for a bite. Did you really have to creep in here in the dead of night to steal? Your little transgression has poisoned the well of trust between us! Distrust is a rot that eats society alive, friction grinding between the gears of civilization like rust. Do you have any idea what a terrible thing you've done?"

"What are you even talking about."

The regressor ignored me and turned away.

"Keep quiet if you have nothing useful to say."

"You know what they say. The one who made the mess is always the first to get offended. And here you are, making a mess of Tantalus and acting like you haven't a clue!"

"What in the world does that mean?!"

She shot back before she could stop herself, then stared at me with dawning disbelief.

"You didn't actually think I came here to steal food, did you?"

"Up until a moment ago, yes."

"That's not better! Up until a moment ago? Do I really look like I'm on the same level as someone like you?!"

We're in the same boat. Both locked up in here together.

I'd just caught a glimpse of her thoughts. Unfortunate, but the regressor hadn't come to steal food. She'd returned in the night because she'd noticed something odd just before leaving the cafeteria earlier, and it had been nagging at her ever since.

I scratched the back of my head.

"So. Is there really something hiding in here?"

"Probably. I can't say for certain, but it can't hurt to check."

"Ah."

I gathered my things, stood, and gave the regressor a slight nod.

"Good luck."

"...Where are you going?"

"Running away, because I'm scared."

She looked at me like I'd said something completely unreasonable.

"Didn't you say you were the instructor responsible for managing and supervising us?"

"Ghosts aren't trainees."

"What about me? You're just going to stand by while I investigate the prison?"

"Who asked you to investigate? And if I told you not to, would you listen? If you're going to do it regardless of what I say, what's the point of me stepping in?"

"Wow."

'Still talks as annoyingly as ever. But wait, what is this? Does he mean it? No, surely not. He must be scheming something.'

Scheming, right. If it really was a ghost, something I couldn't read the mind of, there was nothing I could do. Against non-humans, I was worse than useless.

I walked toward the cafeteria door without looking back.

"Well then. I'll be going. Don't forget the debrief. If possible, please submit a report with a sample."

"Then why don't you stay and watch?"

"Sorry. Lights are out, I need to sleep."

"Stop making excuses and stay right there."

"Why?"

'Someone strong enough to deflect my sword... and he's on edge.... Could there really be something truly powerful hiding in this place? Or is he trying to divert my attention? Either way, I'll interfere for now. It's not that I'm scared... I just need someone at the rear, as a precaution.'

Fear is contagious. The moment I made it plain that I was terrified, the regressor's own guard went up by the same measure. Enough that she was even considering keeping me, her temporary enemy, at her back.

The regressor worked through her logic and settled on an excuse.

"Whatever's hiding in there could be an intruder, right? In that case, dealing with them falls under your duties as the person managing this prison. You should be watching too."

"That's a fair point. Check it out, and if it is an intruder, take action first and report after. I'll be in my room until then."

Go knock yourself out. I was already stepping through the door.

'Hey! I said don't go! Fine, desperate measures, I'll throw Skywarbler at him!'

Don't you dare. I'd die.

I spun on my heel and walked back inside. Positioned myself right behind the regressor.

The sudden reversal made her grimace.

"What are you doing?"

I couldn't very well say I came back because I was afraid she might actually follow through.

And honestly, if the regressor was right and there really was an intruder here, wasn't it safer to be close to her than to be alone? Azzy was still furious at me. The vampire, being something like a ghost herself, had no interest in any of this. Right now, aside from the regressor, the only one who could protect me was me.

A deeply unsettling thought.

"Right then, lead the way. We're going to vanquish this ghost! We can't let some spirit threaten us!"

"You..."

'Still... having someone at my back is a relief. Too bad it has to be him, of all people....'

All the same, the regressor kept me behind her and began sweeping the room with those blazing golden eyes.

The third of the Seven-Colored Eyes, the golden eye. Fire-Eye Golden Pupils, the sight that reveals what cannot be seen. With eyes like those, a ghost wouldn't be anything to worry about.

What could I do? Nothing. Stand beside her and watch, like someone eating popcorn in the stands.

Well. I could at least cheer.

"You've got this! Ghosts are nothing but residual magical energy left over after death! Don't be scared, let's go! With your sword, Trainee Shei, you could cut a ghost clean in half!"

"...Could you be quiet? You're so loud I can't hear anything."

"You're looking with those flashy eyes anyway. Focus on your vision."

"I'm listening too, you know."

The regressor swept slowly around the cafeteria, then let her gaze travel to the storage shelf along the inner wall. She tilted her head with a puzzled look.

"Nothing. I can't see anything."

"Come on. See? There's nothing here after all."

"That can't be right. My instincts tell me, when something feels like it's there, it usually is."

Those instincts of hers weren't exactly inspiring confidence. They hadn't caught my bluffing, after all. Then again, I owed my life to those same instincts. I couldn't say much.

"If those glittery eyes can't spot anything, I'd say that settles it."

"Something's off...."

"Just drop it. There's nowhere left to hide in a cafeteria this tiny. Two tables and a broom-closet of a storage room, that's all there is. Unless whatever it is can walk through walls."

"Walls?"

I meant it as a joke, but the regressor latched onto the word and fell quiet.

"Right. Walls. Of course. Military state concrete is thick. If something were hiding inside it, I wouldn't have been able to sense it."

This conspiracy theory had reached a genuinely serious level. I sighed and waved my hand in front of her face.

"All right. So what are you going to do about it? Break through the wall? That's property destruction."

"I won't break it."

'I'll just slice it.'

She lifted her head and pressed a finger to her eye.

The fourth of the Seven-Colored Eyes, the green eye.

Those ominous green irises could see through solid matter. Metal was difficult to penetrate, lead especially. That was the point. Something it "couldn't see through" showed up as a solid black blot in her vision, which made it perfect for finding metal.

I borrowed the regressor's sight through mind reading.

Black and white filled my view. The world looked like a sketch drawn from thin lines traced and retraced over themselves, alternating dark and bright. The penetrating sight reached the interior of things. When her gaze passed over me, the white bones inside my body stood out in sharp relief. Strange, how being seen through clothes is embarrassing but being stripped to the skeleton feels like nothing at all.

Her gaze moved to the wall. The concrete looked like a flat sheet of white pasteboard, and inside it, a mesh of iron rebar stood out in crisp detail. The regressor moved her gaze slowly across the wall and stopped.

In one section of the wall was a small silhouette shaped like a little figurine. Anyone else looking might have thought someone had accidentally dropped a doll into the concrete mix while the wall was being poured.

But the figurine's true identity.

"Found you. Still in here after all this time?"

A military state arcane golem. Small model.

The regressor reached back over her head. Skywarbler settled into her hand. In that instant, the draw had already begun.

A slash tore through the wall in a blink, shaving it thin as paper. The concrete cracked like bark from a dead tree, peeled away in a long spiral strip, and from its edge began to crumble into dust. A gap opened up.

From within it, the regressor drew out the arcane golem, skewered neatly on the tip of her slender blade. The golem's frame twitched.

『I strongly request that you cease this destructive behavior.』

A flat, emotionless voice came from the golem. The same voice I had heard when I first arrived in Tantalus.

Captain AB, as I recalled. The military state's communications officer. A bugle with no feelings.

The regressor snorted.

"That kind of request only works before you go and hide from me like a rat."

『Considering your destructive and volatile temperament, I calculated that presenting myself would have resulted in destruction regardless. That calculation remains valid. Additionally, this unit ceased operation whenever it determined you were in proximity. There is grounds to interpret this as evidence that this unit was not spying on you.』

"Right. Right. Your calculation, your request, all of it makes sense. Very military state of you. Always perfectly rational. So."

She raised her sword again. Sparks jumped from the tip. Part of the golem's circuitry caught fire, and it buzzed and crackled like something screaming.

"I'm going to break you. Goodbye. Hiding inside the wall was a nice touch, I'll give you that."

『I demand you cease this destructive action immediately. Severing communications will cause inefficiency.』

"Hm. Desperate now? This must be one of your last golems. Well, it wouldn't matter even if there were more. From here on, I'll be walking every wall in this place with my green eye active."

The regressor tormenting the golem looked genuinely cheerful, in a way she hadn't been for a while.

A golem, not a ghost. Of course it couldn't be read. What a relief. Just as unreadable, which made it just as troublesome in that respect, but the regressor would handle the destruction. Not my concern.

I settled back to watch. That was the plan.

『I repeat my request. Cease this destructive action immediately. Your actions are preventing the transmission of information pertaining to supply distribution. I repeat my request....』

Supply distribution. Those words snagged at something.

Trapped here as we were, resources would run dry sooner or later. At the rate Azzy was helping herself to whatever she liked, the food would be gone in no time at all.

The regressor might have all her treasures to fall back on, but I needed those supply drops....

Wait. If the golem got destroyed, so did the distributions!

I rushed toward the regressor.

"Repetition. A word I truly hate. But I can repeat myself too, as many times as it takes."

She didn't even notice me coming, absorbed in tormenting the golem, her expression lit with something close to joy.

"Breaking this golem won't do anything to your main body, but if it makes the military state even slightly inconvenienced, that's enough for me."

『Warning. Hostile action will....』

"Goodbye."

Thunk.

A light flick of Skywarbler sent the small golem spinning into the air. The regressor brought the blade to bear, poised to unleash a storm of slashes. Coiled, compressed, power ready to burst.

I'd come at her from the blind side to avoid the blade and reached for her shoulder.

"Just a moment! Wait!"

My hand landed on her shoulder.

Something launched from below my field of vision. No time to react, only the sensation of being swept away. Something enormous rushing toward me.

No. The other way. The world was flipping, and my vision was spinning.

What launched wasn't something coming at me. It was me.

Heaven-Reversing Boundary. Reversal.

Sky-flip.

...Wait.

A counterattack reflex?

One so deep in the body's memory that the mind didn't even need to be involved?

By the time I read all that, my body was already falling toward the ground.

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