WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 248: Rainbow Bridge

──────

The battle was over, but despite successfully driving back the enemy, our gains were minimal.

We had wounded Maximilien, the Halberdier, but failed to subdue him. Though we had destroyed a manifestation of Heavenly Link, it was not the true body. Worse, Tyr had consumed far too much darkness in her fury at the sight of it.

I regretted wasting darkness we had been carefully conserving, but Tyr was indifferent.

[It could not be helped. If I had not hunted that angel, I would have collapsed from bottled-up rage.]

"What bottled-up rage? If you just stop sending blood to your head, you'll calm down on your own."

Regardless of my complaints, the Sanctum was Tyr's trigger. Like a cat chasing mice, Tyr became so furious at the sight of the Sanctum that she lost all reason.

I understood that much, so I did not press her further. I turned the steering wheel while pressing the pedal that had now lost its purpose.

"Either way, the losses are severe. They're the Six Generals, each one a national-level force. Even if they launch a surprise attack, we can't come away unscathed."

In a world where a single powerful person possessed the strength to fight a thousand, what was the most troublesome kind of enemy a nation could face?

Naturally, it was a guerrilla.

One powerful individual could race across the land, roaming the country and wreaking destruction. Unless someone equally strong confronted them, there was no way to stop them. Like a parasite inside a body, they steadily gnawed away at the entire nation and inflicted enormous damage.

Of course, sending someone that powerful into another country to die was a loss, but history had passed down countless tales of great figures who infiltrated enemy nations and bought time when their own countries faced ruin.

That was what we were doing now, but the enemy could do the same. If we ever became even slightly separated, the weaker side would be hunted first.

I glanced at the greatest victim of this attack.

"Selphy..."

The princess sat curled up in one corner of the cargo compartment, hugging her knees as she mourned the death of her beloved horse.

We could not carry a horse's corpse around in our cramped cargo compartment, so the regressor used Jizan's power to make a grave for Selphy. After a brief memorial at the grave, the princess climbed into the automated carriage, glancing back with reddened eyes.

Before Selphy died, everything Selphy had been within Selphy. After Selphy died, though, it felt as though most of Selphy had moved inside the princess.

As she felt the automated carriage's vibrations, the princess remembered riding atop Selphy. As she watched the passing scenery, she thought of Selphy. Whenever she ate, she instinctively tried to set aside food for Selphy, then grew depressed.

"Woof. Woof woof."

Azzy silently stayed by the princess's side. She could sense the princess's emotions and wanted to comfort her.

The regressor also glanced in that direction.

She pitied the companion from her previous life, but that was only a story from the past. Though she felt for the princess, the regressor, whose experiences had been severed from this timeline, did not approach her.

Was it because she was bad with words? That was part of it. Was it her personality? That was true too.

The most important reason, though, was the sense of unfamiliarity.

'...Her manner of speaking and appearance are similar to back then, but she's definitely different from the princess I knew. Back then, she wasn't weak enough to show tears when a companion died.'

The regressor did not grieve for someone's death. She felt regret and pity, but she had neither the leisure nor the need to grieve.

You could say her heart had worn away, but more than that, no matter what tragedy struck, she could simply regress.

'Then again, this is still early. The princess might still be emotionally fragile.'

The regressor nodded to herself, concluding that these wounds had piled up until they made the princess she knew.

I lowered my voice and made a suggestion.

"Shei, now's your chance. Go say something to comfort her."

"How am I supposed to comfort her? Comforting her won't change anything."

'Regressing would change things. But I can't regress over just one horse. Besides, now that we've come this far, I won't regress even if the princess dies.'

"It'll make her feel better. Her heart, I mean."

"What good is feeling better? Selphy still won't come back."

'I have the ability to erase the princess's grief, the ability to bring Selphy back... Yet I'm not using it. I have the power to undo all of this, but if I keep quiet and offer comfort anyway, that would be nothing but hypocrisy. So even if others can, I have no right to comfort her.'

Goodness, she was negative.

I could understand her way of thinking. No, with mind-reading, there was nobody I could not understand.

I could not understand people who conversed through golems like communications officers, or people like Maximilien, who hammered gears into their own heads and only connected them when needed. The regressor had simply kept her memories and experiences somewhere I could not see. I could still read her thoughts.

That made it even more frustrating. I sighed.

"That's why you're unpopular."

"What? Do you want to die?"

Her ears were sharp when it came to this. I casually raised my voice and changed the subject.

"Shei, no matter how I look at it, the princess isn't suited for battle. Did we really need to bring her into this fight?"

"We can't send her back after coming this far, can we?"

"That's true, but shouldn't you have refused when she first said she wanted to come? We have Xiaty to help contact the agents who have infiltrated the military state, even without the princess."

"...You're right about that."

'Why ask me that right when her horse died? Wait, could it be? Because the horse died?'

The regressor gave me a suspicious look.

"You don't think the princess has become useless because her horse died, do you?"

"Huh? Shei, did you learn mind-reading?"

"Don't you have any blood or tears?!"

"Of course I do. I'm an ordinary person who bleeds and cries. I just don't have either to spare for an animal."

"That's really too much! And you're the one talking about making someone feel better?!"

'He's like that with Azzy and Nabi too. This guy is really harsh toward animals! Not even the Lords of All Creation treat them that badly!'

Harsh, my foot. It was enough to treat animals like animals. What more did they want?

After scolding me, the regressor sighed.

"I haven't properly explained it to you yet, have I? The power passed down through the princess's bloodline, the Grandiomor royal family."

"I know the rough idea."

"Then it'll be easier to explain. The power inherited by the Grandiomor royal family... Its essence, simply described as the ability not to provoke hostility, is peace."

The regressor began carefully explaining what she knew.

"The belief that the other person won't harm me. A promise that neither side will see the other as appetizing prey. The power that forms society. We need that power."

"Why? Are you planning to end everything peacefully?"

"Correct. My goal is to stop the war, not start a new one."

The regressor's power was immense. Now that she held Skywarbler and Jizan in both hands, she could truly bring about an enormous catastrophe alone.

Jizan was, from the beginning, a relic left behind by the Great Master who had created the Abyss alone. With Skywarbler and her own combat prowess added to that, the regressor might be less mysterious than the Abyss, but she possessed the ability to cause even greater loss of life.

Yet she would not do it.

Her goal could never be achieved through killing.

"If we destroy the communications headquarters and cripple their ability to wage war, the military state, its communications disrupted, will fall into great confusion. We will have to stop fighting and withdraw at the right time anyway. In that situation, the princess's power of peace will shine."

'It's a little forced, but now that we've secured the Beast King, have Tyrkanzyaka with us, and... have even joined up with the gunslinger, we have enough strength. We can do it.'

Oh. The regressor had a plan after all. I suddenly felt sorry for wondering whether being able to rewrite her life had made her live without one.

Since I was at it, I asked everything else I had been curious about.

"But wasn't there ultimately a coup against the royal family?"

"They must have been truly incompetent. Even though the royal family vaguely understood the power in their own bloodline, they never even showed their faces before the citizens. How could there be peace when they never had the opportunity to use that ability?"

"One of the Six Generals, Maximilien, openly tried to kill the princess."

At the mention of Maximilien, the regressor made a deeply displeased face.

"He's different. He... altered his own perception as a measure against the mysterious. I don't know how, and I don't want to know, but don't worry."

The regressor tapped Skywarbler and Jizan with her fingers and smiled with absolute confidence.

"The next time we meet, he won't be able to run away. He won't even have time to look toward the princess."

It had only been a strategic statement, but the regressor had overlooked one important fact while immersed in the conversation.

The front seats and rear cargo compartment might be separate, but that did not mean the princess could not hear us.

The way to overcome the grief of loss was not to mourn it, but to leave it behind and move forward. There was a reason people believed the ever-flowing passage of time was the best medicine.

The princess bit her lip and clenched her fists before raising her head. The regressor, who had been speaking about the princess just moments ago, flinched but brushed it off.

'Oh? Did she hear? Well, it's not like I said anything I shouldn't have.'

But regressor, you still did not understand what you looked like to other people.

The princess moved through the narrow cargo compartment and came close to the front seats. Standing beside them, she brought both hands to her chest and opened her mouth.

"...My lord."

"Huh? Me?"

When the regressor pointed at herself, the princess smiled faintly and nodded.

"Thank you. My power may be weak, and even I don't know how to use it properly, but I will gather everything I have and help you, my lord. For my sake, and... for yours."

"Uh, uh? Thank you."

'...? What is going on? The one who saved the princess back then wasn't me, it was him...'

Exactly. I had been the one helping the princess lately, so why was she thanking you?

Still, I was watching the road, so I could not give her a cold stare. During that time, the regressor collected payment for the work I had done.

"And if... once all this is over..."

After thinking of something, the princess shook her head and swallowed her words.

"It's too early to discuss that. For now, I will prepare to contact the traitor."

"Uh? Okay."

The princess bowed deeply and withdrew. Still unable to understand what had happened, the regressor widened her eyes and lowered her voice.

"She's motivated? I thought she would be depressed because her horse died."

"I guess she was, until a moment ago."

"At least she's feeling better now."

You really were naïve in your own way. No, I could not call you naïve, since this kind of situation was probably a first for you as the regressor. You were actually more popular when you passed as a man, huh?

Then again, maybe you had done all right as a woman too. If only you had not put on such a terrible disguise.

Tyr, who had been watching this from the shadows behind my seat, finally could not hold back a comment.

[...Phew. Aren't you rather skilled?]

"Skilled? I have no idea what you mean."

[Don't play dumb. If you think I am as oblivious as Shei, you are mistaken.]

'To soothe the princess in that short time, then subtly show her what she needs to do next. You are no ordinary fellow. You must have made many women cry back in your day.'

That was unfair. I was a magician. I had made people smile, but I had never made anyone cry.

Except for a few.

"Ugh..."

At that moment, Xiaty woke from the aftereffects of her black magic and injuries. Clutching her bruised chest, she sat up and looked around in surprise.

Historia, who had remained quiet until then, rose to her feet. The precious Heavenly Silkworm Thread rope still bound her, but as always, Historia did not appear inconvenienced in the slightest.

Compared to her, Xiaty looked far smaller, despite not being bound at all.

"...Ugh, what? Do you need something...?"

Like any injured person would, Xiaty instinctively guarded herself against Historia. It was not because it was Historia. She would have reacted that way toward anyone.

Historia understood that feeling well enough. Renewing her resolve, she declared confidently, as though allowing no argument.

"Xiaty. You're sitting this out."

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried