WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 272: The Land of Steel and the Faceless Humans - 13

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Leaving Siati where she was, I stood and addressed the communications officer beyond the doorway.

"You must know Captain AB and I are acquainted. Why put the captain out front? Was she a hostage? Or have you been away from people for so long that you're too shy to talk unless you have a stand-in?"

Even with Azzy smashing through the door, Communications Officer IA remained calm. The agitation I had drawn out lasted only a moment. Having fully grasped the situation, IA deployed her innate arcane again.

Innate Arcane: Spiderweb.

Dozens of thin, delicate threads extended from around her. They reached the many nearby communications officers and wove them together.

Memories, senses, and information flowed along those fine threads. It did not have as long a range as Captain AB's morning glories, but at close range, it connected people more intimately than any other type of innate arcane.

Linked as one with every communications officer in this module, IA rose to her feet and stepped outside.

"That is not the case. This is the message we wish to convey."

Despite emerging from a dark room for the first time in years, IA merely narrowed her eyes slightly. In a dry voice not unlike Captain AB's, she said,

"At present, this module has determined that the cost of repairing the damage from your terrorist activities vastly exceeds the cost of maintaining the military state's secrets. Therefore, we have decided to reveal ourselves in order to speak with you."

"I'm a little disappointed. The military state I know would keep a secret even if you beat it to death."

"Naturally, this was not a simple decision. There was disagreement during the calculation process. Ordinarily, disagreement never arises between synchronized communications officers, but..."

One of Captain AB's flower buds touched a thread extending from IA. Like a butterfly sipping nectar, IA drew information and emotions from it before turning to me.

"Due to Captain IB's strong insistence, every member of this module unanimously agreed to lead you here."

"Oh, so Captain AB pulled some strings. She must have a high rank."

"There are no ranks among communications officers. We are synchronized and equal. That said, differences in ability do exist between individuals."

IA used one of her threads to touch a flower bud from Captain AB. Innate arcane should have been invisible to others, but communications officers seemed to share a relationship far closer than ordinary people. The flower bud turned toward IA and reluctantly bloomed.

"AB. She is closest to the first A and is among the most powerful communications officers. Her innate arcane is an invasive, wide-area synchronization type. Close range, long range, area of effect, number of synchronized individuals. Her abilities exceed the average in every category."

"Oh. Did she use that ability to persuade you to accept me?"

This was why people needed to make connections. This was my political victory for finding Captain AB first and getting on familiar terms with her...

"That is not the case. Communications officers are many as one, and one as many. No matter how exceptional her abilities may be, strength has no meaning in synchronization magic. In fact, the stronger one is, the more certain their defeat becomes. And she offered resistance she could not win."

Was that not it? Had her efforts been useless?

"Could Captain AB have ended up like that because..."

"When her opinion was rejected, she attempted to oppose every other communications officer. However, a single communications officer cannot resist a module. Especially one with great ability. After prolonged resistance, she was stripped of her place as AB and assigned to a vacant position in the Inner Circle Module, where she now performs her duties."

Assigned? She was practically a puppet.

That explained why the morning-glory vines had been forcing the captain's body to move. Her synchronization magic had backfired, binding her instead.

Captain AB was no different from a golem now. It was fortunate she had not been disposed of immediately, but...

I hadn't expected her to end up like this.

"Then something is strange. If Captain AB's attempt failed, why did you call me here?"

"...That is precisely why. Pied Piper. We do not know what means you used to corrupt her mind, but if her mind has been corrupted, maintaining secrecy from you is meaningless."

"You're treating a person like a disease."

Grumbling aside, I understood what IA meant. Since I already knew communications officers' true identities, there was no need to keep them secret from me.

"You are gnawing away at the military state from both within and without. We therefore demand that you immediately cease your hostile actions."

"Hmm. Fine, let's say that's true. If this is a negotiation, then you must have something to offer too. What will you provide?"

"First, to facilitate smooth negotiations, we would like to clearly understand your demands."

"A mere captain is going to meet our demands? Forget it. Bring someone higher up."

Wow. The day had come when I could call a captain mere. I had really grown.

Still, it made sense. With someone who might bring down the military state standing before them, having only a captain on the front line felt inadequate.

"Specifically?"

"Well. At the very least, shouldn't you bring someone from the military state's highest command? A member of the command headquarters, perhaps?"

"The command headquarters? Would that be sufficient?"

"There's no one above them."

Like a troublesome customer, I stubbornly demanded to see whoever was in charge. Only they could satisfy my curiosity, and the curiosity of everyone gathered here.

Yet IA's response was completely unexpected.

One of the spiderweb threads extending from her body trembled. A faint flicker of shock crossed IA's face as she read the information in that subtle vibration. It lasted only an instant. IA quickly regained her composure and took in the information she had received.

"Then speak to me. I am sufficiently qualified."

IA voiced the military state's deepest secret.

"Because the command headquarters is, in fact, 'us.'"

The impact of mentioning the command headquarters was immense. Siati, the princess, even Historia. Everyone's eyes widened at the unexpected truth.

"More precisely, there is no individual or organization that commands every communications officer and issues orders. However, if the command headquarters refers to an entity that combines information and makes judgments for the benefit of the military state, then it can be none other than the communications officers."

In other words, IA claimed that the communications officers themselves were the command headquarters. Even Historia looked unable to believe the revelation.

"The command headquarters that has moved the military state all this time... was communications officers?"

"These are not orders issued arbitrarily by individual communications officers. Information received from dispatched communications officers passes through communications officers stationed throughout the military state, where its truth is assessed. It is then delivered to the modules, which use simulations to find the optimal future and distribute the corresponding orders throughout the military state. In other words, what is called an order from the command headquarters is the collective will of five hundred communications officers, and the very reason communications officers exist."

Once, I had compared communications officers to the nerves of the military state. They were beings that sent orders to every corner of the military state through golems.

That comparison had been accurate in a slightly different sense.

The military state's leadership was a collective entity of countless nerves entwined like a human brain.

"That is why, if you seek the leadership of the military state, the target must inevitably be 'us.' Communications officers oversee and control all information and determine what is confidential."

A command headquarters that had never appeared. Communications officers who had likewise never been seen by anyone. The military state's command headquarters revealed itself only through orders, like a metaphysical entity no different from a ghost or god.

But the communications officer before us had confessed its true nature.

"The military state was a utopia. A country where everyone is commanded by someone."

From everything I had seen while living in the military state, only innocent people lived there.

Citizens suffered under all manner of harsh rules. They worked like oxen with rings through their noses, fattening the military state. The soldiers who appeared to command them were actually only carrying out the command headquarters' orders.

And the ones issuing orders to everyone were, in truth, communications officers.

"But the communications officers who command every soldier, even the Six Generals with their absolute military strength, are only captains. They are pitiful, wretched beings trapped in tiny rooms, able to communicate only through golems for their entire lives. What do you think, Siati?"

"I don't need to care about their circumstances!"

Siati, who had yet to fully understand the truth behind it all, burst out angrily.

"What does any of that matter?! They killed my friends. I swore I would never forget them! The military state must repent for its sins. If not willingly, then by force!"

Imagine someone committed murder by swinging a sword. The sword was not guilty. The blame lay with the person who swung it.

But the military state treated every human as a tool.

Every human was a tool. They only worked, or rather, functioned according to someone's orders. Therefore, every human in the military state was innocent.

Even this communications officer, who appeared to be the one issuing orders...

"Siati."

"What?!"

"Want to ask her age?"

"What would change if I knew?!"

"It would. Just humor me. This is really the last thing."

Siati glared at me, clicked her tongue, and looked at the officer before her. Before Siati stood a being who seemed to embody everything she hated about the military state, dressed in a stiff uniform and watching her with emotionless eyes.

"Fine. At least tell me the age that will be written on your gravestone before you die. How old are you?"

It was the sort of ordinary question people might ask every day, one that asked and judged the length of someone's life. In a way, it seemed to add one more brick to the outdated evil of seniority.

"I am twenty-one."

Yet even that made an enormous difference.

Twenty-one. The children who became communications officers had been born three years after the military state came into existence.

It had to be that way. Communications officers could only be created by oppressing and educating children in a perfectly controlled environment.

In other words...

"Younger than me...?"

Siati's fury seemed ready to burn. Even if she lacked the ability, her anger alone had been strong enough to swallow the military state whole.

Before a face younger and paler than her own, though, it could only lose its direction and wander.

When the Hamelin incident occurred, these people must have been undergoing brutal instruction at the communications headquarters as well.

"If you're twenty-one, then the Hamelin incident...?! You said you remembered it..."

"I remember it as information left behind by the previous generation of communications officers."

"Then where are those previous communications officers?!"

"The whereabouts of the previous generation of communications officers are confidential, so even I do not know."

But there was no need to ask. If such valuable personnel, who were no different from the command headquarters itself, had become unfit for further use, what would the military state have done?

"They must be dead. Whether by their own will or someone else's."

Footnotes:

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