WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 234: The Die Is Cast

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Yerien Grandiomor had been born a princess, but she had grown up as an ordinary citizen of the military state. Back when the military state was feverishly hunting down remnants while local lords continued their scattered resistance, the princess had been far too young to become their rallying point.

Her young guardian knight and tenacious nurse had wandered the fallen kingdom in search of people willing to help them. Yet the local lords and knights had the audacity to think only of exploiting the royal bloodline. Some had even tried to arrange political marriages for a princess who was still an infant.

Unlike the central government, regional lords possessed territories of their own and ruled them like kings. Naturally, their blind loyalty to the royal family was weak.

Grinding his teeth, the guardian knight fled with the princess. Without the aid and devotion of a few loyal knights who had not forgotten chivalry, the still-young guardian knight could not have protected her alone...

The princess and her guardian knight became wanderers, then returned to the lands ruled by the legions while disguising themselves as siblings, despite the sacrilege. At the time, the military state was little more than a group of soldiers who had somehow succeeded in a revolution, with practically no administrative power to speak of. Amid the chaos, the guardian knight and princess lived as ordinary citizens of the military state.

Some people learned their identities, but most were the sort who would never speak, even at the cost of their lives. Within that precarious peace, the princess grew up.

She grew up under the military state's rule. With an older brother who looked as though he would tear out his heart for his younger sister, an elderly mother who sometimes welled up with tears, and suspiciously kind adults all around her, she lacked for neither love nor attention.

Then one day, the princess realized something.

The kind world surrounding her had not been given to her for nothing.

At first, she wandered. She struggled against her cruel fate. Once she understood that she would have to devote her life to fighting for a country that had already fallen, she wanted to run away.

Even if she did run away... the guardian knight would respect her choice. A few of her retainers might accept it as well.

Still, there was only one reason they were so generous to her. She was a princess. Even if she ran, the shackles of being a princess would remain.

Out of duty, the princess accepted her duty. She placed the thorn crown she had been given at birth upon her head and offered herself on the altar, so that the remnants would burn even brighter with her as their sacrifice.

Then, one day.

While the princess was investigating the strange incident in Hamelin as the Resistance's representative, the Resistance received unusual visitors. They were boys and girls around her age, children broken in some way and burning with hatred.

The offered sacrifice took the hand of an abandoned friend, rose to her feet, and began walking on her own.

She wavered for a moment, but the princess had the strength of will to hide her feelings completely. She composed her expression and posture, then looked at the regressor.

"Now that our formal greetings are over, shall we talk...?"

Her heart was shaking terribly, but she was still a princess. Regardless of her unsteady resolve, the bearing she showed was proper.

Our regressor, though... Her resolve was admirable, but...

"There's nothing much to discuss. I'll get straight to the point, so listen."

Her bearing... Whew. I had no idea what to say about it.

"We didn't contact you because we wanted to rely on you, or because we were looking for an escape route."

"Then why did you?"

"We're going to strike the headquarters. Honestly, there's almost nothing you can do to help us there."

The regressor stated her purpose plainly and briefly. So plainly that the princess's face filled with question marks, but the regressor continued as though even an explanation was a waste.

"We have more than enough strength. We have the Progenitor, me, and Hamelin's Pied Piper. The Beast King is following us for the moment as well."

Why was I included?

"We'll strike quickly and leave. It'll be a problem if weak people start making a fuss and get in our way, so I'd prefer it if you only picked the elite."

"Wait a moment, sir. You're moving a little too quickly."

'What is he talking about? Strike them? No matter how strong they are, they plan to take on the military state's headquarters with this group...?'

I understood. When the regressor first suggested attacking the headquarters, we had not understood why we needed to smash it to pieces. We had even thought it was absurd.

After reading her thoughts, though, I found that she surprisingly had a plan.

"You followed our trail, so you should know. On our way to Amitenggrad, we didn't face any interference at all. They only kept actively avoiding battle."

"Yes. Our spies informed us of that."

'Actively avoiding battle. In reality, they were running away. We do that often too, so we know it well...'

"But when we left Amitenggrad, the loose encirclement gradually tightened and the enemy numbers kept growing. They united the southern legions and pursued us. Then, after fighting scattered battles, they gathered in the east."

"That's incredible. I heard the Six Generals had assembled, but I had no idea you faced all the southern legions..."

The princess naturally praised the regressor, but it did not reach someone born with such a rebellious nature.

"At first, I thought it was because of Hamelin's Pied Piper... but it was strange. They avoided battle because they didn't want to take losses, yet they chose to confront us head-on just because the Pied Piper joined us? That doesn't make sense."

Mobilizing an army cost money. That was especially true for the military state. Their bullets, alchemical steel, clothing packets, and food all consumed considerable alchemical costs or resources.

Unless the regressor or the Progenitor had committed destruction that could not be repaired, we had done them no harm beyond poking at a few bases. There was little reason for the military state to spend that many resources.

Yet they had spent them. An absurdly large number of legions had been deployed to capture a group as small as ours.

The princess asked with a grave expression.

"If that's true... does that mean the legions did not move in order to attack you?"

"That's what I think."

"Oh. Then why?"

'The military state did not mobilize to capture them...? Then why did it move the southern army?'

To hunt, one needed a deep understanding of one's prey. The princess had once belonged to the military state and had now become its hunter, so she understood it more deeply than any other remnant of the kingdom.

'No, I need to change my perspective. The military state is not ruled by a king. There is a headquarters, but I have never heard that it moves troops based on personal feelings. Instead of guessing at their intentions and explaining their actions, I need to infer their intentions from their actions.

Now, the simplest answer is the correct one. Why would they put the southern army on the Meta Conveyor Belt?'

Naturally, to move them. The Meta Conveyor Belt was a means of transportation. Which led to a new question. Where?

The princess's mind raced. Then, in an instant, every piece of the puzzle clicked together. Realization dawned on her, and she cried out.

"...It's a war toward the north! The Lesser States!"

The regressor nodded.

"Right. They didn't organize an army to pursue us. They pretended to pursue us in order to organize an army."

"My goodness...!"

"Well, they probably did want to restrain or expel us too. The presence of Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka would give the Fog Duchy an excuse to interfere. If they leave the King of Dogs alone, the King of Wolves will come looking for her."

Strategic objectives were not limited to one. And that was probably not the end of it.

Having realized the gravity of the situation, the princess forgot her dignity and sprang to her feet.

"Wait. Our base is near the northern border! If war breaks out, we'll be the first to undergo 'stabilization'! We need to tell them quickly... Ah!"

In her rush, the princess caught her foot on a chair leg and nearly fell. The guardian knight hurried to catch her, but the regressor was far faster.

The regressor had mastered the Heaven-Reversing Boundary. Besides, regardless of how others might see it, she was a woman as well, so she had no psychological hesitation. The fact that she had become acquainted with the princess during previous regressions also played a part.

As though they had practiced it beforehand, the regressor caught the princess smoothly and naturally. The princess clung tightly to her without thinking to support herself, then froze for a moment as if struck by lightning before leaping back.

Her pale-pink hair made it difficult to notice, but her face had reddened slightly.

"Ah, ah! Thank you, sir...! I was so startled that I made a fool of myself!"

"Be careful."

The regressor had only caught her on instinct and gave it no thought.

Perhaps startled by touching a stranger, the princess grabbed a handful of her hair and covered her mouth with it as she muttered.

"Sir. Inform everyone. Tell them to prepare to evacuate immediately."

"Understood."

The guardian knight took out a pure-white stone tablet fragment concealed within his clothes.

The Rakion Great White Wall. One of the Sanctum's miracles, and a piece of the pure-white wall surrounding the holy land.

The temple's inner wall, built using a piece of that wall, remained intact. Even a shattered fragment did. If someone wrote on the stone tablet, the same writing appeared on the temple's inner wall.

The temple therefore served as a bulletin board that conveyed not only divine will, but royal commands as well. It was one reason the Sanctum had been able to spread so widely throughout the world by aligning itself closely with power.

...The military state had no need for it after creating a mobile Great White Wall, the communications officers.

Just as the guardian knight was about to reveal the fragment of the Great White Wall, the princess hurriedly stopped him.

"Sir! Not here!"

'The Progenitor is in this space! We must not reveal the Great White Wall!'

Remembering why the Great White Wall fragment had been wrapped so tightly, the guardian knight briefly asked for leave and stepped outside the container.

Tyr, who had noticed its identity, was displeased. Still, she was not so petty that she would become angry over something not even revealed in front of her. The princess had observed the minimum courtesy.

"Whew. I am a little displeased. Come over to me for a moment and help me calm down."

Or not. She was trying to put me to work, using her displeasure as an excuse.

After letting out a deep sigh of relief, the princess looked at the regressor with admiration.

"Y-you're incredible... You seem even younger than I am, yet your martial strength rivals Absolute Spear's, and you possess such insight as well...! If you had led the rebellion, Absolute Spear would not have been needed to bring down the kingdom!"

It was immense praise, though considering she was the last princess, it was difficult to know how to react to it.

The regressor, however, felt awkward for another reason.

'Insight? I saw the future. Of course I should know. No, I should have realized it a little earlier than this.'

The Abyss would collapse.

The curse would vanish, and vitality would return to the land.

Several countries would compete over the fertile ground.

War would break out. The Seven-Day War, where every battle ended within seven days.

The regressor had known this for a long time. It had happened in a previous regression.

She did not know whether the military state intended to destroy the Abyss with that in mind, but the war itself had already been foreseen.

Yet amid the fierce pursuit, she had forgotten. She had assumed the military state was truly pursuing us and responded in earnest.

'Now that I think about it, Absolute Spear and the War Mage both held back until we captured the Gunslinger. The only one who had a reason to fight us was the Gunslinger. And the Gunslinger had been targeting Hughes from the start... It seems Headquarters does not tell even the Six Generals about the original operation. Damn it, who are those people at Headquarters?'

In any case, because we had fled all the way along the south, the southern legions had gathered in the far east along the Meta Conveyor Belt. If they simply moved north from there... their deployment would be complete in no time.

The war would begin with the military state's occupation of the wilderness.

'Anyway, we should stop it while we still can. There's no reason not to. If we escape into the Lesser States, it will only become an excuse for war.'

War was not what the regressor wanted. More precisely, it would be better if the human world did not descend into chaos through war before we stopped the King of Sin.

That was why she would strike the headquarters.

"Sir...?"

The regressor had not intended it, but she had sunk into thought with an extremely complicated, heavy gaze. She looked serious, as though examining a much more distant future and a far greater picture.

I did not even want to imagine how that must have looked to the princess. Ugh, the thought gave me chills.

'...Isn't he too perfect? His skills are outstanding, his insight is deep! He understands the state of the world, and he has the face of a refined young nobleman that could put a woman to shame...! How could someone like this even exist?'

I hated it, but I read it anyway. Ah, I wished I could turn off my mind-reading. Would someone please knock me unconscious?

The regressor heard the princess call and responded.

"Uh... It's nothing. We've fought the military state and gathered a lot of information. We naturally know more."

"Too much humility can be a poison as well."

"I'm not being humble..."

She had meant it literally, but the princess did not understand. She only looked at the regressor with eyes full of admiration. My goodness, the day had come when the regressor would receive such reverence.

Was this the end of the world? Or was regression really that much of a cheat?

As I nodded to myself, Siati suddenly gave me a smile filled with exhilaration. The story we had shared had given her great inspiration.

Siati swiftly turned, then dropped to her knees before the princess. Her knees struck the container floor with a thud.

"Princess. Give the order."

"Siati? You never do this normally, so why are you kneeling and putting pressure on me...?"

When the princess looked at her in confusion, Siati lowered her head even further and pleaded.

"Order a full-scale attack. Now is our only chance."

"What? Siati, what are you...?"

Siati continued with a quick, concise explanation.

"If the military state is preparing for war, it will first tighten its control at home. If we remain in the north where the legions will gather, we'll only die like dogs. We need to evacuate. But with troops already gathered in the far east, if we set out leisurely with civilians in tow, we'll only be pursued and defeated piecemeal. We'll suffer losses close to annihilation."

The princess was clever enough to infer a war from only a few clues. As Siati continued, the proposal gradually became clear in her mind.

"To prevent that, we need to attack the headquarters too and throw them into chaos. Our people's only chance of survival is to leave the enemy with no room to turn its attention elsewhere. Princess, make your decision."

The princess closed her mouth.

This was Siati's proposal. It was a plan proposed by a vengeful woman who would die satisfied if she could burn herself up and leave the military state scarred. It was full of personal desire.

The problem was that it was the right approach.

They would suddenly have to wage an unprepared all-out war. Biting her lip, the princess asked the regressor with faint hope.

"Surely, sir... You intended this from the beginning...?"

"Huh? I only planned to borrow some of your spies."

Even the regressor, who had not foreseen things reaching this point, waved her hands. But the die had already been cast.

Footnotes:

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