WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 238: Dark Zone

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The inside of the meta-conveyor belt was also called the Dark Zone. Unlike the Fog Duchy, the name was entirely symbolic.

The Dark Zone was not dark at all. If anything, it was much brighter than other areas.

Lights that allowed work to continue even at night.

Searchlights that tracked those who tried to escape.

Beacons atop tall spires that watched over the laborers.

It was bright enough to see clearly at night, yet paradoxically, this land was the Dark Zone. Until they completed their sentences, people in the Inner Circle could not go beyond the belt. Therefore, what happened inside never reached those outside.

That was why it was called the Dark Zone. A void created by the absence of information.

Unlike the pastoral land beyond the belt, the inside was home to laborers dragged there for breaking rules or committing crimes. It was full of people forced to continue their penal labor without enjoying even the smallest freedom.

"Huff, huff."

One of the military state's seven great inventions, chimera beans, grew vigorously on the communal farm. The large beans looked so plump that any farmer who had raised them would feel full just from looking at them.

But the laborer was not a farmer, and they felt no fulfillment in tilling fields and harvesting crops. This field was not theirs, and they had never wanted it. It had simply been forced upon them.

Chimera beans grew quickly and produced abundant yields, but they required vast amounts of water and labor. Unless their branches were pruned regularly, the vines would spread wildly before collapsing under their own weight. Their job was to drive away the birds and insects that preyed on the thickly grown beans.

A prisoner and laborer, they desperately snapped off the chimera beans' branches despite their exhaustion. As they carried out the mindless work, they remembered how they had ended up here.

They had beaten up an overseer who demanded bribes while wielding a tiny scrap of authority. Hot-blooded as they were, they could not stand the sight. Even when their solid fist slammed into the overseer's jaw, they had not felt the slightest regret.

A year later, though, they regretted that day every moment.

If only they had not raised their hand then, they would not be in this state now.

Not even a fragment of the anger that had brought things this far remained in them. All they wished for was for the day to pass quickly, for this grueling labor to end sooner.

The moment they even thought of the word escape, fear overwhelmed them. They could not allow the thought of fleeing to enter their mind. Even setting aside the searchlights watching every direction, they had repeatedly seen those who disobeyed orders dragged farther inward.

They did not know what lay deeper inside, but one thing was certain. In the year since they had arrived, no one had ever returned. That frightened them even more.

The one consolation was that the overseer they had beaten, the one bold enough to take bribes in the military state, had been dragged deep inside and vanished. That was their only small comfort.

Only the military state had the right to exploit someone in the military state. Thinking that through their hazy mind, they cut through the brush with their blunt sickle.

That was when it happened.

『Military state communications soldier Io is informing all laborers. All laborers are to stop working and return to their quarters immediately. I repeat. All laborers currently at work are to return to their quarters immediately. This is an order. That is all.』

They doubted their ears. For a military state laborer, ending work early was much like a god. Always sought, yet never appearing.

But suddenly, they had been granted an audience with one.

Wondering if they had heard wrong, they looked up at the sky. It was still bright. There should have been a long time left before work ended.

The overseer screamed at them. Watching them shout that anyone who did not go rest at once would be penalized was enough to give an ordinary laborer cognitive dissonance. Gathering their tools, they hurried off to rest as fast as they could.

"Guess you live long enough to see days like this."

It was nothing more than unexpected luck that had arrived by pure chance. Yet somehow, it made life feel a little more worth living.

Gunners without the Gunslinger were powerless. They could not even keep an enemy in check. Bullets occasionally struck the automatic carriage's exterior, but the already difficult-to-penetrate body was currently under Tyrkanzyaka's control. The bullets that struck alchemical steel reinforced with her uncanny magic power merely bounced off.

As I gripped the wheel and raced forward, I spotted an obstacle blocking the road ahead. There were gridded alchemical-iron caltrops and a huge barricade.

I shouted at once.

"Shei! The road's blocked!"

"I know."

The regressor immediately kicked off from her seat and leaped onto the hood of the automatic carriage. With her feet planted there, she extended Jizan to the side. Once the automatic carriage came close enough to the barricade, she stretched out her arm and threw Jizan.

Earth Staff Style, Earthen Sickle.

Jizan spun through the air and struck the barricade.

At that instant, the barricade and caltrops burst in every direction with a shriek of metal. The sword was light only to those it acknowledged. To anything else, it weighed more than a huge automatic carriage.

And if something that heavy came spinning at you?

Barricade or caltrops, they were no more than scarecrows before the rotating Jizan. The heaviest threshing machine born from the earth ferociously harvested the steel crop.

A tremendous roar, explosions, and flying steel fragments. Amid that miserable scene of destruction, I pressed down harder on the pedal.

"Breaking through! Everyone, brace yoursel... Urk!"

The vehicle jolted violently, and I slammed my head into something. Even after the regressor had cleared the way like that, debris still remained.

This thing tossed my ass around over the smallest bump. Was it even made for people to ride in? Then again, the military state did not see its citizens as people to begin with.

"This damn automatic carriage...! Shei, don't you have better transportation than this cheap piece of junk? Something incredible that can carry all of us while speeding along!"

"Do you think something like that exists?"

The regressor stood with one foot on the automatic carriage's side, stretched out, and snatched up Jizan where it lay on the ground. It was a stunt-worthy feat.

After recovering Jizan, the regressor returned to the passenger seat. Still gripping the wheel, I grumbled.

"Then how about something that flies through the sky? I saw you riding the wind pretty well earlier!"

"There are too many people now. The heavier it is, the harder it is to ride the wind."

"Then put more strength into it!"

"Easy for you to say when it isn't your strength..."

The regressor snorted, then her eyes widened. She immediately reached out and shoved me backward.

"Watch out!"

Moving me aside, the regressor thrust Skywarbler through the gap.

Heavenly Sword Technique, Shooting the Sun.

The invisible sword energy fired from Skywarbler brushed past the tip of my nose. My vision blurred for an instant, and a fierce explosion sounded in the distance. A shell flying toward us had exploded in midair. Heat briefly flared against my left cheek.

"Those bastards must've planned to pin us down with the barricade and snipe us! Hmph, not a chance! Who do they think would just let themselves get hit by that?"

The regressor snorted and spoke with confidence. Today, she looked a little cool.

I gave my honest impression.

"Shei, you're kind of cool. I think I'm falling for you."

"Huh?! D-Don't say pointless things in a dangerous situation like this! Focus on driving!"

When she told me to focus on driving, I glanced over and saw a mobile cannon, an automatic carriage with a cannon mounted on top, aiming its barrel at us. As the regressor said, their plan appeared to be to isolate us on the road and fire shells at us one-sidedly.

I pressed harder on the pedal.

"They're not on the road. They probably can't follow us too far. How about we keep intercepting their shots and get away?"

"I'd rather not."

"Can't you do it? Was what you did just now a coincidence?"

"It wasn't! It's the Principle of Impact. You've explained it yourself, so you know, right? If I use the Principle of Impact, hitting something in empty air isn't difficult. That's why we can't just fly through the sky either, because we'd be vulnerable to interception..."

The regressor muttered regretfully.

So if there had been no risk of interception, she would have flown us through the sky. Maybe she was not a miser after all. I might have misunderstood her.

"But it takes stamina and concentration, so I don't want to knock down every shell one by one. What do you think? Should we trust Tyrkanzyaka and endure it with our bodies?"

"My body?"

"I meant the carriage's body, but it would be better if your body could take it too."

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm a frail creature. I can't endure being hit by a shell, and even if the carriage gets hit, the impact will throw off my driving! Treat me with care!"

"Tch. So that's no good after all."

"Obviously! Hurry up and go deal with them!"

The regressor seemed to want to do that, but something bothered her as she looked ahead worriedly.

"I want to, but if I leave my position here..."

"Ah! We won't be able to break through the next barricade! That means I'll be in danger! Stay by my side from now on! Don't go anywhere!"

"Th-That's what I mean. Why do you always phrase things like that...? Tch, anyway. I don't want to use magic power, but should I call down lightning instead...?"

Just as the regressor was about to summon lightning, a white horse that had been traveling beside the automatic carriage broke from the formation and raced toward the enemy with a neigh. The princess and Siati rode side by side on its back.

The regressor spoke as though she had only just remembered.

"Right. The Resistance is here too. Let's leave them to it."

"Can those two handle it? The princess doesn't exactly look strong...?"

I spoke skeptically.

Of course I was skeptical. Siati seemed to have gained some new ability after joining the Resistance, but the pink-haired princess had no remarkable combat ability and kept throwing herself into danger as though her head were full of flowers. Anyone who trusted that would be an idiot.

Seeing my doubt, the regressor reacted as though she found it amusing.

"So there are things even you don't know? Hehe. Well, this isn't easy to find out. The princess herself probably doesn't know."

"What is it?"

"Want me to tell you? I might if you ask politely."

Her smugness irritated me, so I simply read her thoughts.

Knowledge she had learned in previous cycles did not show up in my mind reading, but because the regressor was recalling the memory now, I could read it too.

'The princess is a descendant of the Grandiomor royal family. Grandiomor was one of the Five Lords who drove out the King of Humanity. As the last surviving member of that family, the princess possesses the ability to avoid human hostility.'

The ability to avoid hostility? I looked again at the white horse racing straight toward the enemy.

The artillery unit seemed to hesitate. Should they intercept the white horse charging toward them, or attack the automatic carriage rushing toward Headquarters?

The regressor who had detonated the incoming shell in midair was still watching them with shining eyes from the automatic carriage. It would be rational to intercept the white horse, if only to protect themselves.

Yet the artillery unit did not turn their cannon barrels. They stubbornly kept aiming at us as they prepared the next shot.

After confirming that from the corner of my eye, I spoke.

"Is it an ability that keeps her from becoming a target?"

"That's pretty close. How did you know?"

"Because someone's riding toward them on horseback, but those cannon barrels are still pointed this way!"

Artillerymen, like riflemen, were not considered especially useful. Their loud, slow shells were only useful when enemies were densely packed together, and even then, anyone reasonably strong could knock aside or catch a shell.

Still, they were better than riflemen. At the very least, cannons had enough power to smash down walls or destroy a passing carriage.

Just like now!

"More precisely, it's the ability to avoid hostility. She's less likely to be betrayed, seems the least dangerous even when attacked, and makes everyone more generous toward her. Only those who carry the lineage of an ancient king possess it. It's also why the Grandiomor royal family's bloodline has lasted so long..."

"That isn't what's important right now! The hostility that avoided her is coming toward us! We're in danger!"

That was when I shouted it.

Siati, who had been riding behind the princess, removed her left glove. Her left hand, covered in all sorts of scars, was revealed, not her prosthetic right hand.

The most noticeable thing was her fingers, twisted at every knuckle.

Ugly fingers that stood out even from far away. As everyone watched her movements, Siati raised her hand for all to see, then bent her left pinky finger upward.

At the same time, the main cannon's barrel bent. Just like Siati's finger, it bent upward with a cracking sound.

A tremendous roar erupted. The steel barrel, forged to withstand the force of explosions, bent grotesquely upward like Siati's finger until it faced the sky. The shell inside must have detonated, because red flames and smoke rose from it.

Siati put her glove back on. After she signaled something, the princess turned the horse around and returned to us. They had disabled the enemy's weapon, but the princess did not look very pleased.

Footnotes:

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