WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 213: Great Power Needs a Strong Rope

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No matter how exhausted Historia was, she was still one of the Six Generals. The stronger someone was, the harder it was to capture them alive. Seeing Historia restrained by nothing more than chains, the regressor voiced her doubts.

"By the way, did you really capture her? You didn't use some suspicious trick, or notice anything strange?"

"Didn't you see it? Me, in sturdy full-body armor, luring my opponent into a trap and driving Ria into a corner?"

'I did. Your final attack was pretty smooth. It flowed like you'd rehearsed it beforehand.'

Oh, regressor. You finally got something right.

I'd rehearsed it beforehand to make up for my disastrous practical-exam score. Originally, the script called for me to lose by a narrow margin, but today Historia had deliberately gone down for me.

I'd even prepared an excuse. Puffing out my chest, I said, "You may not know this, but Ria and I were classmates. We used to spar together. My internal energy is much weaker, but I know every weakness in her martial arts. Right, Ria?"

Historia, who should have chimed in at the right moment, merely watched lazily. I rattled the chain in my hand, urging her to answer. As if waking from a nap, Historia opened her eyes and nodded.

"Ah, mm."

"See? She says it's true too."

Heh. I'd fooled the training instructor with this too. Could someone who only glanced from far away possibly know?

Historia had been idly chewing on her cigarette when she suddenly spoke.

"Hui. Fire."

"Ah, here."

I promptly lit it with standardized magic. Now that she had something to relieve her boredom, Historia took a satisfied drag. I snuffed out the flame on my finger with a flick, but the regressor's suspicion only deepened.

"Isn't the Gunslinger oddly confident? It feels like she let herself get caught on purpose."

"What? A member of the Six Generals let herself get captured? By me?"

"Yeah. The Gunslinger surrendered far too easily. She must be plotting something."

Half right. More precisely, I was the one who'd done the plotting. It was a sharp observation, but seeing the regressor suddenly act perceptive irritated me a little.

Pretending my pride had been wounded, I cried out as though she'd struck a nerve.

"What? Are you saying my subduing Historia was a fake accomplishment, that she only played along on purpose? Is that what you mean?"

This was an approach the regressor had never expected. It surprised her so much that she actually startled despite having been looking at me suspiciously.

'What? That's how he's taking it?'

"That's not what I meant. It was a reasonable suspicion."

"A reasonable suspicion? You just suspected me however you wanted, didn't you? Do you want to put me down that badly?"

'This guy is so upset that he's taking everything the wrong way!'

I wasn't particularly upset. It was just that you started acting sharp, so before I knew it... Did I tease her too much? Should I stop...?

'That was all it was? What a petty little man.'

Never mind. I was taking this to the end.

Flustered, the regressor lowered her voice to calm me down.

"There's something suspicious about it."

"What's suspicious? Because I'm a failure and a criminal, you can't believe in anything I accomplish?"

"No, if she wanted to escape, she could've jumped off the Meta Conveyor Belt. It's strange that she went out of her way to get captured..."

"Wait! How could you say that? Mr. Shei, you're teaching a prisoner how to escape!"

"Ah!"

At my rebuke, the regressor hurriedly covered her mouth. She cautiously looked at Historia, then lowered her voice and trailed off.

"Surely... the military state wouldn't send a member of the Six Generals without a plan. She'd know something like that too."

'She would... right? I didn't really tell her how to escape, did I?'

Oh? Is that so? I was about to give Historia a subtle look, but stopped. Her face was still lazy, yet a faint glimmer of mischief had appeared in her eyes for the first time in a while.

With her cigarette between her lips, Historia spoke around it.

"Ah, there was a way like that. Thanks for telling me, cutie. Just as you suggested, I'll consider using that method to escape when the guards grow lax."

"Whaaat?!"

Now that was real covering fire. Since Historia was naturally playing along, I pressed on.

"Wow! Now you're leaking secrets to the enemy just to undermine my achievements? You're a spy! This won't do. I need to report you to public security right away!"

"I'm not a spy... Wait! We're being hunted by the military state in the first place, so what do spies or public security have to do with anything?!"

The regressor shouted, then turned toward Historia. Historia still stood there with a shameless expression.

'Tch, is she pretending not to know even though she knows, just to tease me, or is she simply teasing me...? One thing's certain. The Gunslinger and that guy are irritating in remarkably similar ways! No wonder they were classmates!'

If even Historia could tease you like this, wasn't that your problem? You always said you were good at defense. Maybe even in conversation, you'd developed into the type who reacted to others rather than digging into them.

In any case, Historia looked far too relaxed for a prisoner. She even knew a way to escape.

After thinking it over, the regressor opened a space and rummaged through her pocket.

"Anyway! You're a prisoner. I don't know what you're thinking, but if you're one of the Six Generals, you'll find some way to break free of chains. So I'll tie you up again with this."

What the regressor pulled from her pocket as she barked at Historia was a long, thin skein of thread that looked as though it had been painted in alternating layers of green and gold. Recognizing its faint gloss, I asked, "Heavenly Silkworm Thread?"

"That's right. It's tough and strong, and it absorbs internal energy. No matter how much internal energy you pour into it, it only gets stronger. It won't break. To tie up the Gunslinger, you need at least this much."

Wow, something that precious. Even Seamless Perfection couldn't obtain much of it in bulk. When I asked Sepi to make me a wrapping cloth out of Heavenly Silkworm Thread, she complained endlessly.

The regressor unraveled a skein of thread and held it in both hands. As she pulled it taut, the Heavenly Silkworm Thread cut through the air with a threatening sound.

"This is better for you too, Gunslinger. Heavenly Silkworm Thread may be tough, but it isn't as hard as chains, so it'll hurt less... That is, as long as you have no intention of escaping."

"Hmm. I'm a prisoner, so do whatever you like."

"Good. Hughes, undo the chains."

"No need."

Historia clenched her cigarette between her teeth and exerted force, snapping the chains apart. With sickening cracks, broken links rained down behind her.

Despite breaking the chains with the strength of her arms alone, Historia only had a few red marks on her skin.

"Phew. That hurt."

Historia complained as though it hurt, even though it clearly hadn't hurt at all.

Humans couldn't throw off chains because chains were harder than their bodies. No matter how strong someone was, if their body was weaker than the chains, the first thing crushed would be flesh and blood.

The same was true for internal-energy practitioners who had attained Geongon. Pouring internal energy into themselves didn't make their bodies harder. Even if their strength increased, that power could still injure their own bodies. Once bound in chains, they couldn't escape without firm resolve. That was why the military state's restraint suits existed.

The calculations changed somewhat once a person had grasped Gam. If someone could circulate internal energy inside their body and strengthen their flesh itself, ordinary common sense no longer applied.

They could fall from great heights unharmed, tear apart restraint suits, or smash chains with their own strength, suffering no more than slight pressure against their skin. They had reached the realm of superhumans, beings who transcended humanity in the fundamental sense.

And if they went beyond that and reached the Principle... they would surpass even superhumans.

The regressor clicked her tongue briefly.

'At that age, she attained Geongon, grasped Gam, and reached the Principle. She only brushed against it, but still... Tch, what is God doing? If they were going to grant someone regression...'

After her brief thoughts, the regressor muttered, "...Hmph. Just as I thought. You could've broken them whenever you wanted."

"Don't worry. Earlier, I really was completely out of strength."

Historia answered as she rubbed her wrists, studying the regressor through the curling cigarette smoke. The smoke rose into the sky, but Historia's eyes sank deeper.

'Hui aside, what exactly is that? According to the report, he entered Tantalus of his own will. He's not some secret weapon of the military state, nor is he something Hui created. The power of his treasures is remarkable, but his internal energy is even more so. Especially when he suddenly became stronger at the end...'

Historia recalled that final moment when she'd fought the regressor.

Historia had never lost to anyone since Hamelin. A genius among geniuses, she was so unmatched among people her age and even within the military state that the Absolute Spear had personally stepped in. At such a young age, she had even touched the edge of the Principle. She was the military state's pride.

Yet she had suffered a decision loss to the regressor, who looked far younger than her. Especially in the final moments, it was difficult to dismiss it as the power of a treasure.

I knew what was really going on, so I could nod and think, Ah, she's a regressor. That makes sense. But the military state, and Historia too, must have felt as though lightning had struck their heads.

'Especially at the end. His hair seemed to grow longer and his body seemed to grow, if only for a moment. What was that? A seal? Or had he somehow reached the Principle at that age?'

"What are you doing? Hold them out."

The regressor ended their subtle probing with a sharp snap of the Heavenly Silkworm Thread. Historia slowly held her arms out in front of her.

"Go on, tie me up."

"Put your arms behind your back and turn around."

Historia obediently followed the regressor's command. Without easing her vigilance, the regressor bound Historia with Heavenly Silkworm Thread.

The supposedly precious thread wrapped around every part of Historia's body. Even while being tightly bound all over, Historia somehow kept her cigarette in her mouth and muttered, "...Nngh. Cutie, you're rougher than you look."

"Will you stop calling me cutie? We're not even that far apart in age."

Focused on tying knots, the regressor answered without much thought. Half probing, half an expression of discomfort, Historia spoke again.

"You look like you're about to enter middle school. At that age, there's a world of difference between us."

"What world of difference? I'm nineteen!"

"Nineteen? Really? Ah, I see. You were underdeveloped."

"Underdeveloped? You're just freakishly tall!"

'It was true that I was underdeveloped, but...! I've been eating enough and growing now. I'm not short enough to be treated like a child!'

That was true. Historia was simply tall enough to be only slightly shorter than I was.

The regressor might be short on manners and education, but she wasn't short herself. She wasn't tall, exactly, but she wasn't short either.

"You need to watch your mouth, cutie. When you're speaking to someone taller than you, you should call her big sister, not a freakishly tall woman."

"Big sister? Did someone hit you on the head? What nonsense are you talking about?"

'Ah. Right. I still have Agartha's Mask, so she must think I'm a man. Is that why she called me a kid?'

If that was the case, why had she disguised herself as a man in the first place? It was a question I still couldn't answer. What on earth had happened to the regressor before she fell into Tantalus?

Oh, wait. Now that I thought about it, the way she was tying her up... And why Historia seemed uncomfortable...

I subtly pointed it out.

"Mr. Shei, your tying method is revealing some rather indecent intentions."

Footnotes:

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