WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 229: An Ordinary Life (Revised)

──────

'I' had to live an ordinary life.

But she, who had forced an ordinary life upon 'me,' could not answer what an ordinary life even was.

Naturally. Life itself was ordinary. Everything between birth and death was life, so what could possibly be defined as ordinary?

Still, she had needed to place shackles on 'me.' At the end of countless questions and answers repeated over an immeasurable span of time, she had devised one method.

That was...

Historia had poured out her emotions, but her complaints had a clear limit.

"I had to struggle through the back alleys just to survive..."

My past had been no less miserable than hers. Historia fell silent.

Whatever hardships Historia had suffered, she had risen steadily through the ranks until she became a general. Along the way, she had carried out countless missions, eliminating remnants of the Kingdom, executing spies, arresting secret organizations, and keeping other countries in check. Still, it had been the path of a true general. Her career was brilliant.

What about me? To survive in the military state's back alleys, I had done emotional labor, manual labor, mental labor, extralegal labor, all while damaging my body, mind, conscience, and respect for the law. I had struck it big after getting onto the right gravy train, but it still took a long time to properly settle down.

"I only wanted an ordinary life! Do you know how hard it was for a drifter without even a citizen registration to put down roots in the capital? It's true that I never contacted you, but... someone living an ordinary life in the back-alley gutter wouldn't even get to meet a general, never mind one of the Six Generals. There was no way to meet you through ordinary means."

Everyone had their own reasons for suffering. Comparing who had lived the harder life would eventually turn into an ugly whining contest. The two of us differed completely in both strength and status, so we could not even understand each other's hardships.

Historia knew that too and quietly accepted it.

'...I took out my bad mood from that brat on Hui. Calm down.'

As a proven way to settle herself, Historia reverently inhaled the smoke from her mana herb, then brought up the matter at hand as if nothing had happened.

"...So. What are you going to do now? If you say you're crossing the border and running away like this, I'm willing to let you go peacefully."

"How are you going to let us go peacefully?"

"If I delay the report and my return, then exaggerate your strength, the military state may give up pursuing you."

"Will the military state really give up? If it was going to sit still after losing us, wouldn't it have never tried to stop us in the first place?"

The military state was rational. Headquarters, which led the military state, should be the same.

If they were pursuing us, there had to be a good reason.

I did not know what that reason was. Even when three of the Six Generals had gathered, they had not known. Historia had pursued us for personal reasons, but after taking a quick look through mind reading, neither Absolute Sonata nor the War Mage knew Headquarters' intentions either.

They had simply followed under the vague assumption that there was a reason.

Well, if someone at the level of the Six Generals demanded an explanation, Headquarters would probably tell them. Yet everyone had carried out their missions with only that hazy, indistinct faith.

"...Whatever the military state's intentions are, that doesn't change anything. As long as it brings an army, it won't be able to follow you once you cross the border."

"Of course it can't. Sending an army into another country is war. Not pursuit, war. It's not going to start a war just to catch us."

Just as I confidently declared that they could never follow us...

"...War?"

The regressor blinked wide-eyed. She looked like someone who had forgotten something, then been dramatically reunited with it. A moment later, her eyes narrowed like a beast that had encountered an unfamiliar light, and she pressed us in a sharper voice.

"Wait. You said troops were gathering toward the far east, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then what happens to those gathered troops?"

"The main force under the Six Generals... If the target disappears, they should disband."

"A whole corps has gathered on the Meta Conveyor Belt. Are they just going to disband without gaining anything? Would they really do that?"

Historia stopped speaking.

The military state was rational. It did not accept needless losses. If something was certain to be a loss from the start, it did not move.

It was a country where strategic avoidance of engagement existed proudly in military doctrine, not as a joke. Armies wasted strength in real time to prepare for emergencies, but dispersing like this would be an enormous and meaningless loss.

Which raised a question.

Why had Headquarters gathered a corps while accepting such a massive loss?

'It's war.'

The regressor clearly saw through something even I had never predicted.

'They didn't gather the corps to capture us in the first place. They gathered the corps while pretending to capture us so they could wage war...! We were bait!'

Was the regressor always this smart?

I was a mind reader. On my own, I was only a magician who read others' predictions in advance and stayed just one step ahead. I was not a creator who could make something from nothing, nor was I a pioneer leading the world from the very front.

I was just an ordinary user who made slightly better use of what already existed.

As a mind reader, I could only imagine what everyone else could imagine. The regressor, on the other hand, saw through the military state's intentions from only a few clues, as if her experiences of crossing death again and again had not been for nothing.

She had looked so lacking before, yet she was displaying intuition on this level...!

It was enough to hurt my pride.

'Because the first war happened around this time in the previous cycle too! The Seven-Day War, where every battle ended in only seven days!'

Hey.

If you saw it in the previous cycle, you should've remembered it beforehand! Don't suddenly recover that memory now!

The operation had failed. The military state had been fooled.

The military state's generals, who had moved in perfect order under commands delivered by communications officers, felt a deep sense of defeat.

No matter how strong the enemy was, there were only three people and two beasts. Meanwhile, ten thousand soldiers had gathered here. The difference was so great that counting the ratio was meaningless.

On top of that, an elite Level 5 Bernartern unit stood ready. Powerful forces capable of fighting a war had gathered in the far east.

Yet... the enemy had vanished.

The red horse pulling the container stopped running the moment the sun rose in the east. Blood Horse Lallion glared at the sunlight in displeasure, pawed pointlessly at the ground, then rammed its head into a nearby tree a few times. After that, it let out a mournful "Neighhh-" toward the sky and disappeared.

Lallion failed to fulfill its duty as bait. Only three officers, accompanied by a communications arcane golem, had been pursuing it.

The red horse was the bait.

According to information personally obtained by Historia, the Daughter of the Military State and Gunslinger, after infiltrating them, the container Lallion pulled was bait meant to divert the military state's attention. There was no need to commit forces to it. One communications golem was enough.

The information was accurate.

The container was empty. At most, one of Historia's uniforms fluttered like a flag. Nothing but crude dolls could be seen inside the weightless container as it clattered along. It was such a halfhearted decoy that anyone fooled by it would have their guts twisted.

Having successfully confirmed it, the officers immediately sent a report through the communications officer.

Yet... the main force that received the report was gloomy.

"...This is bad. The daughter really got kidnapped."

No matter how long they waited at the Far Eastern waystation, even waiting until the main force that had departed after them joined up, the enemy never appeared.

After opening every passing container and finishing a day of laboring like daily workers, the corps had awkwardly joined the main force and was waiting for the next order.

Absolute Sonata Partlaxion, who led them, was at a loss.

"Getting away is one thing, but the daughter being kidnapped is a problem. They won't kill her, right?"

Colonel Gande, his adjutant, answered.

"They will not kill her. If he is Hamelin's Pied Piper, then he and Major General Historia, the last survivor of Hamelin, were classmates. Since they knew each other, he will not take her life easily. And..."

"And what? I told you not to drag things out. Are you trying to set me up on a date or something?"

"...Please stop saying such absurd things! It gives me chills!"

"It's your fault for talking so slowly that I have to resort to this. So, what?"

"Major General Historia... As the chief of staff said, there is a possibility that she is helping them. Isn't it strange that she sent the code saying the red horse was bait, yet left no other clue at all? Perhaps..."

As a colonel and a warrior, Gande could not dare slander one of the Six Generals. Instead, he carefully passed the words to the only great person qualified to say them.

Partlaxion understood the implication and nodded broadly.

"This daughter seemed like she would listen well, then she went and fell head over heels for some flute-playing minstrel. Is this why they say the quiet cat is the first to climb onto the stove!"

"...Setting the comparison aside, what will you do now?"

"We'll have to see how things turn out. When she comes back, let's see whether she has any lip marks left."

Even Colonel Gande, who could distinguish feints from real attacks as naturally as breathing, had trouble telling his damned master's jokes from his serious words. After considering the words of that unreliable superior and respected master for a moment, Gande carefully asked,

"...Master. Are you speaking from experience?"

"Hey, hey! Don't say something that'll get me killed. That was just my wife's baseless suspicion!"

At that moment, the War Mage kicked open the door to the temporary headquarters and strode in majestically. She could not have slept properly after working day and night, yet she looked little different from the day she had first flown in.

"Commander Partlaxion. An order has come from Headquarters."

"What did it say? Did they find where the runaway daughter went?"

"Listen to the end. Headquarters judges that they passed through the Inner Circle and overtook us. You are ordered to immediately gather in the north through the Meta Conveyor Belt."

"The north?"

"Yes. As the northern commander, you will take command of the corps for now."

Absolute Sonata tilted his head.

He was not surprised that they had passed through the Inner Circle and overtaken them. The staff officers had already brought it up. Absolute Sonata agreed with the prediction too. He had even applauded loudly, saying it was a move that struck precisely where they were weakest.

What puzzled him was that the military state had issued a gathering order even now.

"If they overtook us, then we're already too late. And if such a large army gathers in the north, the Lesser States along the border will definitely react. Ah."

As he spoke, Absolute Sonata realized the military state's true intention.

To pursue a small group of powerful enemies, forces should be scattered rather than concentrated. Like that empire's net cast across heaven and earth, the basic method was to send scouts prepared to die in every direction, use their lives as bait, and slowly tighten the encirclement.

Yet the military state had concentrated its forces excessively, even considering the nature of the Meta Conveyor Belt. What use was a concentrated corps on a narrow road? Only a few people could fight at once anyway.

But that question too was resolved in an instant.

If the reason they had gathered a corps was simply to gather a corps... then this entire pursuit was theater.

Partlaxion smiled fiercely.

"I understand. Headquarters, those bastards. They're doing something interesting... They really know how to use their heads."

If this pursuit was actually a staged chase, Partlaxion had no reason to feel burdened. He had carried out his mission admirably. Now he needed to prepare for a real battle.

The War Mage, who still had not grasped the situation, frowned more deeply and asked,

"Hm? You understand? What do you mean?"

"...Are you really a mage, Granny? I feel like you're single-handedly eating away at the preconceived notion that mages are smart."

"That is not a preconceived notion. It is a prejudice. Correct it."

"If it's a prejudice that says you're smart, please keep it. It's a good thing."

It took some time to explain it to the War Mage, but in any case, war had been decided.

The fugitives were now out of the military state's attention...

The forces gathered in the far east. The military state preparing for war. And us, free from the surveillance net.

The empty Headquarters. The communications officers, and Headquarters' true identity.

After thinking it over and over, the regressor made a suggestion.

"Let's hit Headquarters."

As if I had been waiting for it, I answered.

"Great!"

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried