WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 228: Now I'm Safe (Revised, Complete Version)

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When I opened the lid of the pitch-black coffin and climbed out, I found myself in a land filled with nothing but peace.

It felt as though I had briefly stepped into one of those fairy-tale wardrobes that led to another world. Just moments ago, I had finished a bloody chase and been groaning in a cramped space. Yet once I stepped outside, the wildly turbulent air had vanished, leaving only a calm, peaceful breeze.

Certain we were safe, I shouted.

"All right! We're safe now!"

Was this the taste of peace? It was sweet. Even the air seemed to welcome me, and that put me in a good mood.

Unlike the south, where forests and trees flourished, the north was a land of wilderness and plateaus. The military state's territory was not all that vast, so coming this far north did not bring any dramatic change.

Still, there was a clear dividing point. Even the gradually shifting climate and vegetation changed completely at the Abyss Plains. Like a national border drawn along a single line, once you crossed the Abyss Plains, barren grasslands and plains filled with artificial structures stretched out before you.

A country that barely deserved to be called one.

The Lesser States, once a nation of alchemy, torn to pieces by alchemy itself.

Still, the more fragmented the country was, the better it was for wanderers like me to slip in.

"Now that we've made it this far, the military state won't be able to chase us anymore. Even if they realize the trick too late and somehow pursue us, we'll already be far away by then. If we follow the Meta-Conveyor Belt a little farther, we'll reach the northeastern waystation. Then we'll cross the Abyss wilderness above it and flee into the Lesser States... Unless the military state can cross another country's borders without restriction, catching us will be impossible!"

It was moving. Was there anyone besides me who had shaken off the military state's pursuit for this long? This would go down in military state history.

Experience escaping the military state. With that on my record, I would not be turned away wherever I went.

The regressor, who had crawled out of the coffin after me, stretched broadly.

"Ugh. They're persistent. What the hell is with the military state? We were quietly going our way, and they suddenly started chasing us."

"Mr. Shei, I think the military state would feel wronged by that. You caused every kind of commotion in the capital. You weren't quietly going your way."

"What? I'm still better than you, Hamelin's Pied Piper. If it weren't for you, they wouldn't have chased us like hunting dogs!"

"What did I do? I was living quietly in seclusion, you know? There weren't any alerts at all until you all arrived. Meanwhile, what did you do, Mr. Shei? You went after the Capital Command. You know that's another word for war, right?"

"You played the flute!"

"Whirili, whirili. When you put it that way, I sound like a wholesome person in the arts. Anyway, you could say I committed no crimes in Amitenggrad. No matter how I think about it, this isn't my fault."

"We're the same! Until we met you, the military state had been actively avoiding conflict! So why did they bring their entire force after us?"

How would I know?

Of course, I often gathered information through indiscriminate mind-reading. As long as my target was human, my mind-reading allowed me to briefly assimilate with them... No, to read all their memories.

But I still didn't know why the military state was acting like this.

Because the military state wasn't a person.

The two Six Generals who had tried to catch us, Absolute Spear and the War Mage.

Absolute Spear had wondered why their orders had suddenly changed, but let it go. They enjoyed fighting strong opponents. Age had made them somewhat less reckless than before, but if they had been given an order, there was no reason not to follow it.

The War Mage was faithful to the military state's orders. She made up for her lack of talent with systems and resources. She was an exact realization of the military state's ideals, and to the War Mage, who might otherwise have grown old and died as an unremarkable mage, the military state was a benefactor. The military state and the War Mage affirmed each other.

The other generals and soldiers had simply followed orders. So I didn't know the military state's true intentions.

No, to begin with, I didn't even know whether this country had intentions of its own.

The regressor called Historia, the person closest to the military state here.

"Gunner! You're one of the Six Generals, so you must know. Who was the military state chasing us for? Me, or this guy?"

"I don't know either."

Historia was smoking mana herb heavily to celebrate being outside for the first time in a while. Watching the chain-smoker shamelessly demand a light while tied up, the regressor frowned at the lack of a clear answer.

"You should know! You're one of the Six Generals!"

"Thinking every Six General should know everything is a prejudice. I'm only a Six General in name. I'm still just a major general."

"You... Haa, fine. Then why were you chasing us?"

"Is there a soldier who questions the reason behind an order?"

"No, but still! There must have been a reason you chased us the most enthusiastically... Ah, right."

'She said she still had lingering feelings for her ex and had things to ask about Hamelin. That's why she chased him...?'

The regressor glanced at me and nodded thoughtfully. I didn't know whether she had fantasies or was simply innocent, but she understood all of Historia's actions based on those two words, ex-girlfriend.

Unable to get a clear answer in the end, she grumbled.

"Does this military state not even tell its soldiers why they're fighting?"

Historia seemed intrigued by the regressor's words.

"That's an interesting perspective. Would you fight if the reason made sense, then disobey if it didn't?"

"That's not it! But someone must be giving the orders! If even you, one of the Six Generals who came after us personally, don't know, then who the hell does?"

"Well, the Command Headquarters probably knows."

"Command Headquarters?"

The moment the Command Headquarters came up, an unpleasant look crossed the regressor's face. It wasn't helplessness, but the lingering discomfort of an unresolved problem. Like finding a bit of dirt left in a corner after finishing the cleaning.

Hadn't she said before that she had destroyed the military state? She had beaten the Command Headquarters, so why was she making that face?

'I've watched the military state fall many times, and I've destroyed it myself... But I've never seen the Command Headquarters directly. Whenever the military state falls, those bastards disappear without a trace. As if they had never existed from the beginning.'

Regressor! You fought the military state for thirteen cycles and still don't know what the Command Headquarters is?! You bastard!

What a relief. I thought I was the only one who didn't know.

I had lived in the military state for nearly twenty-five years, reading countless people's thoughts. Soldiers, instructors, remnants of the Kingdom, I had read the thoughts of anyone I came across. I hadn't specifically sought out this knowledge, but given my ability, I prided myself on knowing quite a lot.

Yet even I didn't know what the Command Headquarters was, or what its true nature was.

When a mind-reader like me said, "I don't know," it meant I truly had no clue whatsoever.

Amitenggrad. The military state's largest city, and the one with the greatest population. Though I had lived there, I had never encountered anyone who belonged to or had contact with the Command Headquarters. It seemed the higher-ups in the Command Headquarters didn't show their faces in public very often.

...Though I had gained one small clue thanks to a communications officer I met recently... Even the communications officer who contacted them directly was no more than their arms and legs.

'The Gunner probably doesn't know the Command Headquarters' true nature either. If she did, she would've shown it in the previous cycle. Still, there is nothing to lose. This is the first time I've been this close to the Gunner, so should I test the waters?'

Right. Even a regressor who had traveled through time, uncovered every secret in the world, and gathered treasures didn't know. How could a mere mind-reader like me possibly know?

As I nodded to myself in satisfaction, the regressor decided to make full use of this opportunity. She asked openly.

"Does the thing you call the Command Headquarters even really exist?"

Contrary to the regressor's worries, Historia answered readily.

"I suppose it does. Orders come down through communications officers."

"I'm asking whether it exists. The communications officers deliver the orders, but not a single person has seen the Command Headquarters' true form directly."

Still, what was easy to obtain was worth just as little. Historia knew no more about the Command Headquarters' true nature than I did.

"That's nothing new. I've been a general for quite a while, but most people probably still don't know my face. Who would salute me after seeing my face? They salute the stars on my chest."

Historia pushed out her chest as though telling us to look at the insignia pinned there. Her outline stood out through the tightly bound celestial silk.

But Historia had forgotten something for a moment.

Her uniform was racing away in the opposite direction as bait to lure the military state.

Good grief. She was still so careless. Helping her now would make me a true friend, right?

Let's see. It would be rude to mention it directly in a situation like this, so I should hint at it by referring to our earlier conversation. Apparently, that was manners these days.

I saluted Historia's chest.

"Loyalty."

My nonverbal expression fulfilled its duty effectively. Historia furrowed her brow and slowly lowered her gaze.

Only then did Historia remember that she was wearing nothing but a thin shirt.

And that she was tied up with the legendary thread known as celestial silk.

Her face reddened briefly. Then Historia clenched her mana herb between her teeth and kicked me without warning. Her leg shot up without any preparatory movement and struck my thigh with tremendous speed and precision.

"Argh, argh! Say it! Use words, not your feet!"

"..."

"Ow, ow! Who left a prisoner's feet untied? Don't you know a Six General's whole body is a weapon?!"

Damn it, my body staggered. Whether I tried to flee or subdue her, her leg traced bizarre trajectories and relentlessly targeted my thigh.

While I suffered under Historia's foot, the regressor looked at me as if I deserved it.

"Hmph. Look at you grinning after throwing her away. It's too late to regret it. She's too good for someone like you."

"Could you please get rid of that baseless ex-girlfriend filter in your head?! And you tied those knots too! You were so determined to tie them tightly, then thought, 'Huh? Is that too tight?' and left the legs alone!"

'How did he know that?'

"W-what are you talking about?! This much restraint isn't enough against a Six General!"

"Yes! It isn't enough! My body is proving it right now! Ow, ow!"

In any case, it had become clear that Historia didn't know much about the Command Headquarters either. Disappointed, the regressor grumbled.

"A Command Headquarters whose identity even the Six Generals don't know? That's obviously suspicious! Why does nobody question it?"

"Maybe they can't question it because they don't know what it is?"

"That makes it more suspicious!"

"That's because you're someone with national-level power, Mr. Shei. Someone who could overturn a country if crossed. Your perspective is on that level. For ordinary people, concepts like the military state and the Command Headquarters are too large."

The Command Headquarters was the collective term for the leadership that ruled the military state. Whenever notices, orders, or instructions came down in the military state, everyone said, "The military state ordered it," or, "The Command Headquarters gave an order," and obeyed first.

That didn't mean it was like some tyrant wielding absolute power... Well, it was a tyrant, but in a slightly different way.

Tyrants stood clearly before your eyes. They used their innate power and violence to instill fear in people.

No one but me knew what was in another person's heart, so people tried to escape the wickedness of violent, capricious tyrants. They flattered tyrants to win their favor, accumulated wealth in the gaps left by their indifference, indulged in luxury and pleasure, and gradually ate away at the country. The filth and grease flowing from above seeped downward and slowly polluted the whole body of water.

But the Command Headquarters couldn't be seen.

It only issued orders through communications officers, and even then, through communications magic golems rather than the officers themselves. The communications officers were only captains. They were not violent and had no force to wield or authority to exercise.

Even I had only learned this recently, but... They lived in windowless rooms, stripped of everything worldly, delivering the Command Headquarters' orders in dry, monotonous voices. Their lives were those of messengers who went beyond incorruptibility and into obsessive purity.

The officers hated the communications officers for giving crisp orders despite their low rank, but even that didn't last long. The communications officers appeared only in the form of golems, and it was extremely difficult to hate something that wasn't human.

If even the communications officers and golems were like that, how much more so the Command Headquarters?

"The farther someone is from the bounds of your common sense, the larger, more powerful, and more complex they are beyond your view, the more your feelings change. Ordinary people call beings beyond their sight gods and worship them. Even if a god takes lives and destroys property, people only grieve. They don't become angry. You wouldn't feel like attacking a storm or lightning either, would you, Mr. Shei?"

"Hm?"

'No? I've even caught lightning before.'

Oh, right. She was the regressor, the worst being in history, one who would even profane gods. I shouldn't apply common sense to her.

She had the strength to fight the military state and was a major figure who could sincerely regard an entire country as an enemy.

She was a major figure, right? She wasn't just childish, right?

What did it matter? If someone was childish but strong, that made them a major figure. If something didn't work out, perhaps I should reconsider whether the problem was simply a lack of strength.

"So to ordinary people, the military state is like a natural disaster. At most, officers feel dissatisfied with communications officers. They don't blame the Command Headquarters. People can only hate what they see with their own eyes...."

Wait a moment. I reflected on what I had just said.

Gods. And religion.

There were no gods in the military state. The Sanctum had been driven out, and the followers of the Earth Mother had come to this land as a civil engineering company. Other folk beliefs had long since been reduced to demons or fairies.

Then...

This country's religion was...

Just as my thoughts began to deepen, the regressor's grumbling interrupted them.

"...But why doesn't this Six General with national-level power know? She should be in a position to know. She doesn't know about the Command Headquarters or Hamelin. What does she even know?"

That careless complaint from the regressor struck Historia at her core.

It was the usual regressor, acting as she always did. If she had been talking to me or Tyr, we would've laughed it off. But conversations took different shapes depending on the other person. Historia did not endure it.

"Then what am I supposed to do?"

"Huh?"

"Should I press the communications officers? Grab those poor people by the collars, drag them out, and threaten them until they spit out the truth? Or should I tear apart the Command Headquarters while searching it like I was hunting rats? Kill everyone until I find out the truth?"

"W-why are you getting angry...?"

Asking someone why they were angry after making them angry. I hadn't thought she'd actually ask. Amazing.

"Do you think everyone can brush everything off and leave like you and Hui?! We can't! It's strange to leave without any lingering feelings! How can you throw away every memory and connection you've ever had... and leave?"

She was speaking to the regressor, but it sounded like those words were meant for me. The regressor's only wrongdoing was provoking her until the depths of those emotions came out.

Quite a lot of wrongdoing, actually.

After pouring all her emotions onto the innocent regressor, Historia adjusted the zero point of her feelings again. Her lowered eyes turned toward me.

"I knew some of you, including you, were alive! But even knowing that, I said nothing. Whenever someone asked, I repeated like a parrot that everyone was dead, that I had tried to save them but found only corpses, that there wasn't a single survivor! Even when suspicious eyes turned toward me, I kept my mouth shut and faithfully followed the orders I was given... Because I had to pay the price for my testimony's credibility, even after the fact!"

After her classmates disappeared through something close to suicide, leaving her isolated as she advanced to officer school, she silently followed the military state's orders. Her talent had been exceptional, but because she carried out operations without sparing herself, she became known as the military state's daughter and a role model to every soldier.

But even in middle school, Historia had not been that diligent. She had acted full of herself, looked down on other children, and skipped classes as routinely as she ate meals. She had been the typical delinquent genius.

I had been the diligent model student.

For her to become such an exemplary general...

"I thought someone would come looking for me once things calmed down...! I worked desperately to be recognized as one of the Six Generals in case you didn't know where I was! But you... You showed no sign of looking for me... And the only ones who come looking for me are...!"

'I've kept... waiting.... And ever since we met again, this idiot has kept running away and pushing me aside...!'

At this point, I couldn't tell whether Historia was biting down on the mana herb or her lip. The ropes bound her arms, but her emotions ran freely without restraint.

I scratched my chin as I met her gaze.

"...I've been busy living my own life too. Somehow, this makes me seem like an awful person."

"That's right. You'll be punished by heaven."

The regressor nodded smugly and slipped in a comment. She wasn't even my sister-in-law, so why was she egging this on?

Footnotes:

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