WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 234

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The Die Is Cast

Yerien Grandiomor was born a princess, but grew up as an ordinary citizen of the military state. Back when the military state was obsessed with hunting down remnants and local lords were still putting up scattered resistance, the princess was too young to become their rallying point.

A young Guardian Knight and a stubborn old nanny wandered from place to place looking for people who would help them, but the brazen local lord-knights only wanted to use royal blood. Some even tried, shamelessly, to arrange political marriages with a princess who was still a nursing infant.

Unlike the center, local lords had their own territories and ruled them like kings. For that very reason, blind loyalty to the royal house was thin.

Grinding his teeth, the Guardian Knight fled with the princess. Without the help and devotion of a few loyal knights who had not forgotten chivalry, that still-young Guardian Knight could never have protected her alone...

Now drifters, the princess and her Guardian Knight committed sacrilege, disguised themselves as brother and sister, and returned to land ruled by the army. At the time, the military state was just a group of soldiers who had stumbled into a successful revolution, with almost no administrative power to speak of. In that chaos, the Guardian Knight and the princess lived as if they were ordinary military-state citizens.

Some people did appear who knew who they were, but most were the kind who would never open their mouths even at the cost of their lives. In that knife-edge peace, the princess grew quickly.

She grew up under military-state rule. She had an older brother who looked like he would rip out his own heart for his little sister, an old nanny who sometimes teared up, and suspiciously kind adults all around her. She grew up showered with love and attention, lacking nothing.

Then one day, she realized it.

This kind world around her had not been given for free.

At first she wavered. She struggled against a cruel fate. Once she understood she was expected to risk her life and fight for a country that had already fallen, she wanted to run.

Even if she ran... the Guardian Knight would respect her. A few vassals might accept it too.

But there was only one reason they were so generous to her. Because she was a princess. Even if she ran, that chain would remain.

So the princess accepted duty out of duty. She put on the crown of thorns she had been given at birth and offered herself on the altar, so the remnants could burn hotter with her as sacrifice.

Then, around that time.

As the Resistance representative investigating the strange incident in Hameln, she received unusual visitors. Boys and girls her own age. Children her age who had broken somewhere inside and burned with hatred.

The sacrifice rose to her feet, took the hand of an abandoned friend, and walked by her own will.

She wavered for a moment, but she had a hardened will strong enough to hide her true feelings completely. The princess composed her expression and posture, then looked at the regressor.

“Then now that formal greetings are done, shall we talk...?”

Inside, she was shaking endlessly, but she was still a princess. Whatever her inner state was, what she showed was upright.

Our regressor, though, well, her resolve was admirable, but...

“There isn’t much to discuss. I’ll give you the key points fast. Listen carefully.”

As for what she showed, whew. I had no words.

“We didn’t contact you to seek shelter, or to find an escape route.”

“Then why?”

“We’re going to hit Headquarters. To be blunt, there is almost nothing you can do to help with that.”

The regressor cut straight to business. She cut so hard that question marks filled the princess’s face, but as if even explanations were a waste, the regressor continued.

“We have power to spare. We’ve got the Progenitor, me, and the Pied Piper of Hameln. The Beast King is with us for now.”

Why am I in that list?

“We’re going to strike fast and pull out fast, so weak people making a fuss would just get in the way. If they only drag us down, that’s a problem. I want elites only, if possible.”

“Wait a moment, young lord. This is moving a little too fast.”

‘What is she talking about? A strike? No matter how strong they are, with this group, against military-state Headquarters...?’

I get it. When the regressor first proposed raiding Headquarters, we also could not understand, for a moment, why we had to smash Headquarters. We thought it was ridiculous too.

But when I read her thoughts, surprisingly, she had a plan.

“You chased our trail too, so you know this. On the way to Amitenggrad, we received no interference at all. They just kept repeating active engagement avoidance.”

“Yes. Spies on our side reported the same.”

‘Active engagement avoidance. Basically running away. We do that a lot too, so I know it well...’

“But when we left Amitenggrad, the loose encirclement tightened bit by bit, enemy numbers kept rising, and then they merged the entire southern corps and pursued us. Then they fought scattered battles and concentrated in the east.”

“You’re incredible. I heard the Six Generals had gathered, but I did not think you had faced the entire southern corps...”

The princess naturally praised the regressor, but praise slid right off someone born rebellious like her.

“At first I thought it was because of the Pied Piper of Hameln... but it’s strange when you think about it. Enemies who used active engagement avoidance because they hated losses suddenly fight head-on just because the Pied Piper gets added? That makes no sense.”

Raising an army cost money. Especially for the military state. Bullets, alchemic steel, clothing packets, even food. Every part of it consumed serious alchemic cost or resources.

If the regressor or the Progenitor had committed irrecoverable destruction, that would be different, but aside from poking a few bases here and there, we had not caused major damage. The military state had little reason to burn that many resources.

But they spent them anyway. To catch a tiny group like us, they dispatched an absurdly large force.

The princess’s expression turned grave.

“If what you say is true... then are you saying the corps moved not to attack you?”

“That’s what I think.”

“Wait, then why?”

‘The military state raised troops for a reason other than catching them...? Then why did they mobilize the southern army?’

To hunt something, you needed deep knowledge of the prey. Once a member of the military state and now a hunter herself, the princess understood the military state more deeply than any other remnant of the fallen kingdom.

‘No, I need to shift perspective. The military state is not ruled by a king. Headquarters exists, but I have never heard they move armies for personal feelings. I should not guess intent first and explain actions from that. I should infer intent from actions.

Now then, the simplest answer is usually right. Why would they need to load the southern army onto the Meta-Conveyor Belt?’

Obviously, for movement. The Meta-Conveyor Belt was transportation. Then a new question came, where to?

Her mind spun tight. Then in one instant, every puzzle piece clicked. Enlightenment hit her, and the princess exclaimed.

“...War aimed at the north! The Lesser States!”

The regressor nodded.

“Right. They did not organize an army to chase us. They pretended to chase us so they could organize an army.”

“My heavens...!”

“Well, they probably did want to restrain or expel us for real too. The presence of Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka gives the Fog Duchy an excuse to intervene. If they leave the King of Dogs alone, the King of Wolves will come.”

A strategic goal was never just one thing. And that was probably not all.

Realizing a critical problem, the princess forgot decorum and shot to her feet.

“Wait. Our base is near the northern border! If war breaks out, we will be the first target of ‘stabilization’! We need to tell them quickly... Kyaa!”

In her rush, her foot caught a chair leg and she almost fell. The Guardian Knight moved in panic to catch her, but the regressor was much faster.

The regressor had learned Heavenly Mirror, and whatever others might think, she was also a woman, so she had no psychological hesitation there. It also helped that in previous turns she had already become familiar with the princess.

As if they had rehearsed it, the regressor caught her smoothly and naturally. Supporting herself by clutching the regressor without thinking, the princess froze for a moment as if shocked by electricity, then sprang back. Her light pink hair made it harder to see, but her face flushed slightly.

“Ah, ah! Thank you, young lord...! I was so startled, I made a fool of myself!”

“Be careful.”

The regressor, meanwhile, had only caught her by reflex and thought nothing of it.

Startled by contact with someone unfamiliar, the princess grabbed a fistful of her own hair, covered her mouth, and mumbled.

“Sir. Inform everyone. Tell them to prepare for evacuation immediately.”

“Understood.”

The Guardian Knight pulled out a hidden piece of pure white stone tablet from inside his clothes.

The Rakion Great White Wall. One of the miracles of the Sanctum, and part of the pure white wall surrounding holy ground.

Inner temple walls built using pieces of that wall remained linked as one whole. Even broken fragments did. If someone wrote on a tablet fragment, the same writing appeared on the inner temple wall.

So temples served as bulletin boards that carried not only god’s will, but also the king’s commands. It was also one reason the Sanctum could cling to power and spread across the world.

...The military state, which made moving Great White Walls and communications officers, had no need for it.

Just as the Guardian Knight was about to reveal the Great White Wall fragment, the princess urgently stopped him.

“Sir, not here!”

‘The Progenitor is in this space. You cannot expose the Great White Wall here!’

Remembering why the fragment had been wrapped up so tightly, the Guardian Knight asked brief leave and stepped outside the container.

Of course Tyr had noticed what it was, and her mood turned sour, but she was not so petty that she would rage when it was not even shown in front of her eyes. The princess had kept the minimum courtesy.

“Whew. My mood just got a little foul. Come over here for a moment and help me feel better.”

Or not. She was using me because her mood was bad.

Deeply relieved, the princess now looked at the regressor with open admiration.

“A-amazing.... You look younger than me, yet you have combat power comparable to the Peerless Spear, and insight this sharp.... If you had led the rebellion, the kingdom would not even have needed the Peerless Spear to fall!”

It was intense praise, and considering she was the last princess, it was the kind of praise that made it hard to know how to react.

But the regressor was awkward for a different reason.

‘Insight, my ass... I saw the future, of course I should know this. No, I should have known a little earlier than now.’

The Abyss collapsed.

The curse vanished, and the land’s fertility returned.

Countries competed over that renewed fertile land.

War broke out, the Seven-Day War where all fighting ended in seven days.

The regressor had known this for a long time. Because that was how it had gone in a previous turn.

She did not know whether the military state had tried to remove the Abyss with that in mind, but either way, the war itself had already been foreseen.

Yet in the middle of a fierce chase, she forgot. She treated it as if the military state was truly chasing us and responded seriously.

‘Come to think of it, the Peerless Spear, the War Mage, and the Gunslinger all fought while holding back until they captured us. The only one with a real reason to fight us was the Gunslinger. In her case, she had been targeting Hughes from the start... Looks like Headquarters does not even tell the Six Generals the original operation. Damn it, what the hell are those Headquarters bastards?’

Anyway, we kept running all the way along the south, so the southern corps gathered in the Far East along the Meta-Conveyor Belt. If they just moved north from there... deployment would be complete in no time.

Starting with the military state’s occupation of the wasteland, war would ignite.

‘Either way, stop it while we still can. No reason not to. If we slip into the Lesser States, we just become their excuse for war.’

War was not what the regressor wanted. More exactly, before stopping the King of Sin, it was better if the human world did not fall into chaos through war.

So we strike Headquarters.

“Young... lord?”

Maybe not on purpose, but the regressor had fallen into thought with very heavy, sunken eyes. She looked serious, like she was examining a much farther future and a much bigger board.

How that looked in the princess’s eyes, ugh, I get chills just thinking about it.

‘...Isn’t this person too perfect? Amazing skill, deep insight. Able to read political currents, and on top of that, a noble, refined face prettier than many women...! How was someone like this even born?’

I read it even though I did not want to. Ah, if I could, I wanted to switch mind reading off. Could somebody just knock me out?

Hearing the princess call, the regressor answered.

“Uh... right, it’s nothing special. We fought the military state directly, so we got access to a lot of information. Naturally we know more.”

“Too much modesty can be poison.”

“It’s not modesty though...”

She meant it literally, but it did not reach the princess. The princess only stared at her with eyes full of longing. Good grief, the day the regressor received that kind of admiration had come.

The end times, maybe. Or maybe regression really was that broken.

As I nodded, Siati suddenly sent me a smile full of exhilaration. Everything that had just been said had given her huge inspiration.

Siati spun around and dropped to one knee before the princess. Thud, her knee rang against the container floor.

“Princess. Your order.”

“Siati? You never do this normally, why are you kneeling so seriously...?”

The princess looked confused, and Siati bowed her head even lower.

“Give the order for an all-out attack. This is our only chance.”

“What? Siati. What are you saying...”

Siati explained quickly and sharply.

“If the military state is preparing for war, they will crack down domestically first. Staying in the north where corps are about to flood in is a pointless death. We need evacuation. But with forces already gathered in the Far East, if we move leisurely with civilians included, we will be tracked and destroyed in detail. We will take near-annihilation losses.”

The princess was sharp enough to infer war from just a few clues. As Siati continued, what she was proposing became clearer and clearer.

“To stop that, we also need to attack Headquarters and throw them into chaos. Taking away their ability to look elsewhere is the only chance for those people to survive. Princess, make your decision.”

The princess closed her mouth.

This was Siati’s proposal. A plan proposed by an avenger who would be satisfied to burn her own body just to leave scars on the military state, then die. It was full of private desire.

The problem was, it was also correct.

They had been pushed into a sudden full-scale war without preparation. Biting her lip, the princess asked the regressor, half hoping for a different answer.

“Could it be, young lord, you were aiming for this from the start...?”

“Huh? I was just planning to borrow your spies for a bit.”

The regressor, who had not foreseen this far, waved both hands, but the die had already been cast.

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