WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 232: Princess of the Fallen Kingdom, First Resistance

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Flowing earth forms a valley of its own.

Because the Meta Conveyor Belt could not tolerate any difference in elevation, the military state had undertaken a massive construction project worthy of being recorded in history when building a route through the northern highlands.

Normally, flowing water wears away the land over time and forms a valley. Yet the military state had made countless people carve out a valley so that the land itself could flow. It was a human achievement that twisted even the laws of nature. Though it was the work of her enemies, Yerien could not help but respect it.

No, were they truly her enemies?

When she was too young to remember, this country had killed her parents. The soldiers who staged the coup had dared to execute King Grandiomor and the queen, the rightful rulers of the kingdom, on absurd charges.

That was not enough for them. They had also tried to sever one of the few remaining noble royal bloodlines in the world. They had committed the heaven-defying act of overthrowing a king.

Therefore, Yerien Grandiomor should hate them...

That was what she had been taught, but resentment woven from knowledge was loose and easily scattered. No matter how often she searched her heart, Yerien could not find any anger.

The last princess. The final descendant of the Grandiomor royal family, which had endured since ancient times.

Yet before the grandeur of nature, she was only a small girl staring at the endlessly flowing earth, half lost in admiration.

Then a familiar white handkerchief caught her eye, and Yerien murmured.

"...That handkerchief."

Lord Landemeyer, the guardian knight standing silently at her side, nodded.

"It belongs to Your Highness. So it really is them..."

Landemeyer muttered as if he could not believe it, then looked at Yerien with eyes full of admiration. Respect, awe, and affection filled his face as he spoke excitedly.

"Amazing! How did Your Highness know they would come this way? As expected, someone of noble blood possesses foresight beyond the reach of ordinary people!"

These were the sort of people who would swoon and call it a heavenly melody if Yerien whistled. She was used to them suddenly painting her face with gold, yet it still embarrassed her. Yerien smiled awkwardly.

"Hehe. It wasn't anything like that. We had no other choice. Since we're based in the north, this was the only way we could meet them. You could say I gambled on a single card."

"Exceptional insight and the heavenly fortune to make it possible. Those are the qualities of a ruler! Your Highness possesses them all!"

"Hehe..."

The exalted princess covered her face with a reluctant smile. Perhaps because his devotion was too great, the knight failed to see the distress hidden behind Yerien's expression.

Landemeyer looked toward the container, then cautiously brought up his next concern.

"Your Highness, if I may be so bold, could I say something about the delegation?"

"If you're going to tell me not to go, don't. I've already decided."

"I beg you, Your Highness! It is dangerous!"

As if he had not grown tired of it, Landemeyer dared to try to overturn his liege's decision.

Yerien ought to have struck the knight in both senses of the word, but she knew it came from loyalty and merely shook her head.

"The answer is the same. I'll go myself."

"Please reconsider. It is dangerous. They are..."

"I know. But someone who intends to use that power cannot refuse to take a risk out of fear. Lord Landemeyer, I must go as your liege and as the representative of the Resistance."

"Urgh...! Then at least allow an escort..."

"Isn't Lord Landemeyer enough? You are the last knight of the kingdom and the strongest knight in the Resistance. Or will you not protect me?"

"How could that be? I will protect you at the cost of my life! But...!"

There were things resolve alone could not protect.

Twenty-five years ago, when the royal castle burned and honor fell to the ground. When the true face of noble duels had been exposed by a single person. Landemeyer had realized it at only ten years old, and now he gripped his spear tightly as he spoke in a strained voice.

"I can accept that Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka is a legendary vampire. But that boy swordsman named Shei is a monster who matched Absolute Spear at that age!"

"Lord Landemeyer, don't worry. That boy is only a slightly younger Absolute Spear."

"That is exactly why he's a monster! A monster who might destroy a country all by himself!"

How long had knights ruled this world beneath the value of noble duels?

But once that value had been used in reverse, the kingdom's honor had been trampled to pieces. A duel begun by one person had brought down the kingdom. The remnants of the kingdom had scattered in all directions, and despite possessing such great strength, they had been unable to rise again.

Because the very value they wished to protect had been broken.

As long as Absolute Spear existed, no knight could be born. They could only die.

"If anything happened to Your Highness..."

"Lord Landemeyer. Shh."

Yerien put on an angry expression. Landemeyer immediately lowered his head and knelt.

After using a brief silence to emphasize her displeasure, Yerien relaxed her expression and spoke gently.

"I am a princess of a fallen kingdom. Taking risks is part of my duty."

Landemeyer did not answer. It was not because he had nothing to say, but because the rules forbade him from speaking unless his liege allowed it. Yerien often used those rules, yet they still made her uncomfortable.

What exactly were knights, and what exactly were kings? Why had people abandoned their king?

Perhaps that was why kings had vanished.

Yerien smiled bitterly.

"And I guarantee that they won't be very dangerous. That is what my insight tells me."

She had simply called it insight, but there was no basis for it at all. They had already been driven into a corner, and she was looking at an enemy-infested path ahead and calling it a way out.

Still, there was no other choice. When all the stakes were gone, every moment became all in.

The princess did not know what the kingdom had been like. She did not even know whether the country described in heroic poems was precious enough to risk their lives restoring.

But countless people had saved her, cared for her, and loved her. Yerien could not abandon those who had cared for her.

Even if she were not a princess, as everyone's daughter, Yerien intended to fulfill her duty.

Having steeled herself, she smiled softly and called for her friend.

A precious friend who had no interest in restoring the kingdom and was therefore not bound by duty.

A friend who had lost her friends, her future, and her right arm to the military state.

"And Chiaty will help me."

The Resistance princess who rode the Meta Conveyor Belt and visited the container where we were staying ran into an awkward situation.

'Eeeh... I never expected this at all...'

I felt the same.

It was fine that the Resistance had approached us so boldly. I had also known from the regressor's thoughts that their leader was the princess of a fallen kingdom.

Well, to gather the remnants of a fallen kingdom, they would need at least someone of royal blood. To keep resisting for nearly twenty-five years, the important thing was not letting their hearts break.

But still.

"Ahaha! Historia! It's so good to see you! So, so good!"

I had not expected a survivor of Hamelin to be beside the princess.

"Hui, you too! I never imagined I would reunite with such familiar faces here!"

Should I greet her or not?

A prosthetic right arm. Skin rough and deeply tanned from spending so much time under the sun. And a creaking smile that looked somehow broken.

Historia squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head away. But tied up as she was, she could not escape. The prosthetic right hand caught her by the chin.

It was a fearless thing to do. Even bound up, one of the Six Generals could easily crush a person. For someone from the Resistance, which opposed the military state, to get that close to her...

The princess hiding behind her guardian knight darted her eyes about.

"Ch-Chiaty. That person is one of the Six Generals, right? Even if she's tied up, isn't it a little dangerous to get so close?"

But Chiaty did not stop. Instead, Historia recoiled even farther. She tried to turn away as if she wanted to avoid Chiaty, overwhelmed by her forceful presence.

Yet traces of the past clung to Historia like her own eyelids. Having reached the pinnacle of internal energy, she could picture Chiaty perfectly even with her eyes closed. Her violent momentum, her excited breathing, and her prosthetic right hand moving so unnaturally that it barely reached the uncanny valley.

"Ah, don't worry, Your Highness. I told you, didn't I? I'm close friends with someone important in the military state."

Chiaty pulled Historia close by the shoulder. Historia desperately tried to get away, but bound up as she was, she had no way to shake Chiaty off without using force. Their chests pressed together, and Chiaty stared openly at Historia. Historia clenched her teeth and lowered her eyes.

"Besides... my precious friend is the benefactor who saved my life. When she dug through the bottom of the river in Hamelin and rescued me... you have no idea how happy I was."

As though tormenting a captive, Chiaty fearlessly forced Historia's face toward her and rubbed their cheeks together. Her smile was full of delight.

"Because it meant that even a monster had a human heart! Because it meant that even we could wound the military state's daughter, who had seemed invincible!!"

Hamelin, at the bottom of the river.

The children decided to walk along the riverbed with their arms linked.

The current was too dangerous to face alone, so they planned to hold onto one another like links in a chain.

Except Chiaty and several others who had completely abandoned hope chose to let themselves drift away.

They said a few bodies floating downstream would create a greater shock, so they intended to embrace the corpses of children killed by Nicholas and the beast, then drown with them.

The children wept and tried to stop Chiaty. But Chiaty's will was firm.

They needed sacrifices anyway, and the more dead there were, the less suspicious the military state would be. To make it look like a mass suicide, they needed real drowned bodies.

She had lost her right arm, and her wounds had festered until she was constantly suffering. She was the right person for it.

If surviving like this meant becoming nothing, she would rather die and hurt the military state, even a little.

She said it with a half-sincere, half-resigned smile.

It was an excuse to drive away her friends' attempts to stop her.

But.

For the children who had become one through repeated hardships, such a grand reason to give up on life was far too sweet.

She had not intended it, but her words reached their hearts.

Those abandoned children already had enough reason to give up their lives. Only the instinct to live, imprinted in their bodies, had held them back.

Humans learn to give up their lives for something unseen. The military state's harsh teaching that one could even throw away one's life for the country was part of that.

It turned back upon the military state.

For their friends.

For those who would survive.

To torment the country they hated.

One by one, the children walking along the riverbed with their arms linked relaxed their arms and shoulders. Instead of taking their next steps, they lifted the feet already planted.

The chain that had supported them broke link by link and flowed down the river.

No, perhaps an unseen and powerful chain had bound them all and dragged them away.

Historia, who had come downstream while searching for the missing children, witnessed the scene and tried to save those being swept away. But no matter how strong she was, not even the military state's daughter could hold onto lives that had abandoned their will to live.

In the terrible scene before her, the lives Historia personally swam out and saved were... ironically, only Chiaty and a few others who had drifted away first.

They vowed to destroy the military state even if it cost them their lives, then devoted themselves to the Resistance.

That was how the true Resistance, born and raised in the military state rather than remnants of the old power, came into being.

Footnotes:

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