WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 232

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Princess of the Fallen Kingdom, First Resistance

The flowing land formed a valley of its own.

The Meta-Conveyor Belt could not have elevation gaps, so when the military state built a route through the northern highlands, it carried out a massive project worthy of being remembered in history.

Normally, flowing water carved the ground over long years and formed valleys. The military state did the opposite: countless people carved a valley so the land itself could flow. It was a human feat that twisted even the order of nature. Even if it was the work of an enemy, it was hard not to respect it.

Then again, were they really her enemy?

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

That still was not enough for them. They tried to cut off the few remaining bloodlines of the royal house. They committed the blasphemy of toppling a king.

So Yerien Grandiomor should have hated them, or so she had been told.

But fury pieced together from knowledge was flimsy, and scattered quickly. No matter how often she reminded herself, Yerien could not find anger.

The last princess. The final descendant of the Grandiomor royal line that had come down from ancient times.

Yet this girl, so small before nature, stood watching the endlessly flowing land.

Half lost in awe.

Then she spotted a familiar white handkerchief and muttered,

"...That handkerchief."

Sir Randemeyer, the guardian knight standing quietly at her side, nodded.

"It is yours, Princess. Then it truly must be them...."

Still murmuring in disbelief, Sir Randemeyer soon turned to Yerien with eyes full of admiration. Respect, reverence, and affection filled his excited voice.

"Amazing! How did you know they would come this way? As expected, one who inherits noble blood must possess foresight beyond ordinary people!"

These were people who would collapse in delight if Yerien so much as whistled and call it a heavenly tone. She was used to being suddenly showered with praise, yet it still embarrassed her. Yerien gave an awkward smile.

"Hehe. It's not that. We just had no other option. For us, based in the north, this is the only way we could meet them. If I had to put it another way, it was a gamble on one card."

"Exceptional insight, and the heavenly luck to make it work, those are the qualities of a ruler! Princess, you possess all of them!"

"Hehe...."

The exalted princess covered her face with a reluctant smile. Maybe his devotion was too great; the knight failed to read the distress hidden behind it.

Still looking toward the container, Sir Randemeyer cautiously raised his next point.

"Princess, if I may be so bold, may I say a word about the delegation?"

"If you are going to tell me not to go, then don't."

"I beg you, Princess! It is dangerous!"

As if he never got tired of it, Sir Randemeyer boldly tried to reverse the decision his liege had made.

It was enough to earn the knight a blow, in more ways than one, but Yerien knew it came from loyalty and only shook her head.

"The answer stays the same. I will go in person."

"Please reconsider. It is dangerous. The other side is..."

"I know. But if someone intends to use that power and still cannot take risks because they are afraid, that is nonsense. Sir Randemeyer, I must go, as your liege and as the representative of the Resistance."

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

"Isn't Sir Randemeyer enough? The kingdom's last knight, and the strongest knight in the Resistance. Or are you saying you will not protect me?"

"How could that be! I will protect you with my life! But...!"

There were things resolve alone could not protect.

Twenty-five years ago, when the royal castle burned and honor fell into the dirt. When one man exposed the bare face of so-called noble duels. Sir Randemeyer had realized that at only ten years old, and now he clenched his spear shaft and spoke in a crushed voice.

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

"Sir, don't worry. That boy is only a slightly younger Peerless Spear."

"That is exactly why he is a monster! A monster who might destroy a nation by himself!"

Under the value of noble duels, knights had once ruled this world.

But after that value was turned upside down, the kingdom's honor was trampled to pieces. A duel that one person started toppled the kingdom. The remnants of the old kingdom scattered, and despite holding powerful forces, they could not rise again. Because the very value they protected had been broken.

As long as the Peerless Spear existed, knights were not born. They only died.

"If, by any chance, harm comes to Your Highness...!"

"Sir. Shh."

Yerien put on a deliberately stern face. Randemeyer immediately bowed his head and dropped to one knee.

After a short silence that made her displeasure clear, Yerien softened her expression and spoke gently.

"I am the Princess of the Fallen Kingdom. Taking risks is part of my duty."

Randemeyer gave no answer. It was not because he had nothing to say, but because his code forbade him from speaking unless his liege allowed it. Yerien used that code often, and still felt uncomfortable every time.

What exactly were knights, and what exactly was a king? Why had people abandoned kings? Maybe this was why kings disappeared.

With a bitter smile, Yerien said,

"And I can assure you, they will not be that dangerous. That is what my insight says."

She had only slapped the name insight onto words. In truth, she had no grounds at all. They were already cornered, enemies crowded the path ahead, and she was calling that path an exit.

Still, they had no choice. When all their stake was gone, every moment became all-in.

The princess did not know what the kingdom had truly been like. She did not even know whether the country praised in heroic verse was precious enough to restore at the cost of lives.

But many 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.

After steadying her resolve, she smiled softly and called her friend.

The one with no interest at all in restoring the kingdom, and so not bound by that duty.

The precious friend who had lost friend, future, and right arm to the military state.

"And Siati will help me."

After boarding the Meta-Conveyor Belt, the princess of the Resistance came to the container where we were staying and ran into an awkward situation.

'Whaa.... I really did not expect this at all....'

Same here.

It was good that the Resistance approached us so boldly. I had also already known, from reading the regressor's thoughts, that their leader was the Princess of the Fallen Kingdom.

Well, if you wanted to gather the remnants of a fallen state, you needed at least a royal bloodline. To keep a resistance going for nearly twenty-five years, what mattered first was not letting hearts break.

But.

"Ahaha! Historia, it is so good to see you! So, so good!"

I did not expect a Hameln survivor to be standing beside the princess.

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

Should I greet her, or not.

A prosthetic attached to her right arm. Skin rough and deeply tanned from long days under the sun. A creaking smile, like something in it had broken.

Historia squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head away. But tied up like this, she could not escape. The prosthetic right arm caught her chin.

That took guts. Even bound, one of the Six Generals could easily smash a person to pieces. Yet this Resistance member, an enemy of the military state, walked that close anyway.

The princess hid behind her guardian knight and darted her eyes around.

"S, Siati. That person... is one of the Six Generals, right? Even if she is tied up, getting that close still seems a little... dangerous."

Siati did not stop. Instead, Historia retreated by that much. Overwhelmed by Siati's pressure, she tried to turn away like she wanted to avoid even looking at her.

But traces of the past clung to Historia like eyelids. Her energy had reached such a level that even with her eyes closed, she could still picture Siati perfectly. The violent momentum, the overexcited breathing, and that right-hand prosthetic moving unnaturally, just enough to brush the edge of discomfort.

"Ah, don't worry, Princess. I told you, I am close friends with one of the military state's big shots."

Siati pulled Historia by the shoulder. Historia tried desperately to pull away, but bound as she was, and without using force, she had no way to shake Siati off. Their chests touched, and Siati's blatant gaze stayed fixed on Historia. Historia clenched her teeth and lowered her eyes.

"And my precious friend was even my lifesaver. When she dug through the bottom of Hameln's river and saved me... I cannot even describe how happy I was."

Like she was toying with a prisoner, she fearlessly grabbed the face of a Six General, pulled her close, and rubbed her cheek against hers. Siati wore a smile full of rapture.

"Because it meant monsters have human hearts too! It meant even the Daughter of the Military State, who looked invincible, could be wounded by our hands!!"

Hameln, the bottom of the river.

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

Alone, they would be swept away too easily, so they planned to hold one another like chains.

But Siati and a few others who had fully given up hope chose to let themselves drift.

They said floating corpses would cause a greater shock, so they chose to sink into the river while hugging the bodies of children killed by Nicholas and the beasts.

The children cried and held onto Siati. Her will did not bend.

They needed sacrifices anyway, and the more dead there were, the less suspicion the military state would have. If they wanted it to look like a mass suicide, they needed truly drowned bodies too.

She said she herself was the best fit, having lost her right arm and groaning in worsening wounds.

If she lived on like this and became nothing, she would rather die and hurt the military state even a little.

Half sincere, half despairing, she had said it with a smile.

It had been an excuse to shake off her friends' attempts to stop her.

But.

To children united by repeated hardship, a grand cause that said they could give up life was painfully sweet.

She had not meant it that way, but her words reached their hearts.

They had already had more than enough reasons to give up on life after being abandoned. Only the instinct carved into their bodies as living beings still held them back.

Humans learned the ability to throw away life for things they could not see. The military state's own harsh teaching, that one could die for the country, was part of that.

That lesson turned back on the military state.

For friends.

For those who would survive.

To hurt the country they hated.

The children, walking the riverbed arm in arm, released strength from their arms and shoulders one by one. Instead of taking the next step, they lifted the feet they had planted.

The chain that had supported each other snapped strand by strand and washed away in the river.

Or maybe an invisible, powerful chain had bound them all and dragged them away.

Historia had come down to the lower reaches while searching for the missing children, saw that scene, and tried to save the children drifting away. But no matter how strong someone was, not even the Daughter of the Military State could hold onto lives that had already given up living.

In that horrific scene before her eyes, the lives Historia swam out and saved were, cruelly enough, only a few, including Siati, who had drifted first.

They swore they would kill the military state even if they died, then threw themselves into the Resistance.

That was how true Resistance members were born, not remnants of the old powers, but those born and raised inside the military state.

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