WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 277: Founding Ideology of the Military State

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The angel's arrival was far too dramatic.

She appeared in a blinding flash and casually flung someone aside. Not just anyone, either. Historia, the Gunslinger and one of the Six Generals, a powerhouse capable of turning the tide of battle on her own.

Yet before that overwhelming strength, even Historia's body was no different from a leather ball. She flew through the air. The standing golems toppled over in unison, papers scattered everywhere, and Historia rolled across the floor before crashing into a wall.

Having displayed such overwhelming might, Eimeder landed before the communications officers as softly as a feather.

The officers belatedly tried to grasp the situation. They all deployed their innate arcane at once and rapidly exchanged opinions.

'Eimeder? But Module I shouldn't have summoned Eimeder...'

'Is it Eimeder from another module?'

'I object. No module can control and observe Eimeder at the Inner Circle's central coordinates. It is outside the effective range.'

'Be careful. That form does not match Eimeder's specifications. There is a possibility of a defect...'

『How dare you presume to judge right and wrong. Blasphemous.』

Her remark clearly suggested that she had read their communications. Realizing that, the communications officers fell silent and stopped communicating.

Meanwhile, Eimeder folded her wings of holy light one by one and looked down at them.

『As expected, what humans create is incomplete. No matter how lovingly they are kept inside a box, they eventually reach for what lies beyond it. No matter how similar they are made, they cannot become the same.』

Until now, the Eimeders who appeared had spoken in the monotonous manner of communications officers. They relayed information and carried out assigned tasks, showing no will of their own. They had been more like objects or systems than angels.

But the winged angel before us was different. The real Eimeder lamented in a solemn, oppressive voice, like a messenger descended from the highest heavens.

『How pitiful. How pitiful...』

"Communications officer? No, this is different!"

"The voice of the military state...?"

Hearing that lament, the communications officers stepped back hesitantly, exchanging glances like children caught doing something bad. As they all tried to get away from Eimeder, they naturally formed a wall of people, leaving Eimeder and me facing each other.

No, there was one more person.

Having just been freed from IA's restraints, Captain AB swayed as if she had only just been born. She looked as though she might collapse at any moment, but she stubbornly forced herself upright, breathing heavily as she murmured.

"Yuel...?"

Life had returned to Captain AB's eyes. She was moving and speaking entirely of her own will now.

But the timing could not have been worse.

The angel of judgment had descended at the very moment she regained her freedom. How could fate be this cruel?

『The work closest to success... the sole result that I, the military state, had watched so closely, has now been mercilessly defiled.』

"Communications Officer Yuel. Is that you? Why are you...?"

『Had nothing happened to you officers, I would have existed as a mere communications officer. I would have lived alongside you as a resident of a lonely room. But.』

Eimeder lamented again.

That alone made every hair on my body stand on end. A deep-seated fear swallowed my whole body. My life and death hung solely on her will. Like an ant before an elephant, all I could do was hope she would take no interest in me.

『For the savagery we cast out to invade this nation would be a great regression in human history. This cannot be tolerated.』

Of course, things would never work out that conveniently. We were bound to clash somehow.

『I, the military state, shall personally set everything right.』

My body felt heavy. Breathing was difficult too. Light should have had no weight, but every part of me it touched felt submerged in water. I had only felt pressure like this when I faced Tyr alone in the Abyss.

The bigger problem was that, unlike Tyr, who had been indifferent toward me, that angel was... one hundred percent my enemy.

"I thought you might have been hiding something. Wow. You were hiding a real angel inside an iron box."

Only after speaking did I realize my voice was trembling. Instinctive fear had grabbed my body and shaken it.

Don't fight her.

The angel before you can take your life.

My instincts confirmed what my mind already knew. Instinct and reason had reached a dramatic agreement.

The real Eimeder was stronger and more dangerous than any opponent I had ever faced.

Especially because I couldn't read her thoughts.

That angel had borrowed IA's body, but it was not her true body. She merely used IA's body as a tool to speak and act. In a sense, she had manifested by using a human body as a golem. I couldn't tell what she was thinking or what her intentions were.

"Ha. One mountain after another. I thought things would be fine once I shook off most of the Six Generals. Why do increasingly troublesome opponents keep showing up...?"

I had disliked this damned country from the moment I first encountered it.

Soldiers were practically machines that obeyed orders. Schools sorted people with knife-like precision according to a fixed curriculum and evaluation standards. The authority granted to individuals was limited and narrow, leaving little room for a mind reader to exploit.

A mind reader couldn't read a nation's mind.

The military state was an inhuman country where a mind reader had no room to shine.

And after slipping past all the Six Generals, the final obstacle was an angel? Seriously, this was awful. It was almost as though this country had been made specifically to target me...

Ah. Was that it?

"No. Should I think of it the other way around?"

I wasn't narcissistic enough to say that this entire country had been created to target me.

I had simply realized the fundamental question.

Fortunately, the being before me could answer it.

"This country thoroughly rejects humanity. Obsessively so. Did you deliberately exclude humans from the moment you created this country?"

Eimeder watched me silently for a moment. She was clearly thinking something, but unfortunately, I couldn't read her thoughts right now.

No, not just right now.

I had never been able to read this country's thoughts from the beginning.

Because the military state was not human.

『The military state is not human.』

Are you a mind reader? How could you say exactly what I was thinking?

"If the military state isn't human, then you aren't the military state either."

Eimeder wasn't swayed by my pace. Like a peddler teasing an audience, she slowly drew things out despite the suffocating tension.

『The nation is more important than its people. Law takes precedence over life. Justice is more noble than personal will. Ideals precede reality.』

"An outdated theory of monarchy? I guess angels give free lectures these days too."

Eimeder continued without reacting to my mockery.

『God is greater than humanity. Even if that human is a king.』

"That's a theist's perspective, so it's hard for me to understand. Why don't you explain it in a way an atheist can understand?"

There was no answer. Instead, the pressure crushing my body grew stronger.

Tch. This wasn't someone I could reason with. She seemed worse than a fanatic. I should start preparing.

The one saving grace was that I could read IA's thoughts.

Was IA being controlled? Yes. Right now, she was no different from a golem. With her innate arcane deployed, she had surrendered her body to Eimeder.

But unlike a golem, IA was human. Just as a golem expert could take one glance and immediately identify what was broken, I could read a human body.

In other words, I couldn't notice any signs before she attacked.

But if she launched an attack and her body moved, I could read it at that instant.

『...Begone, savage! Just as you were driven out in the First Year!』

Just like now!

With that shout, Eimeder shot forward like a beam of light. Almost at the same time, I read the sign and shouted.

"Captain Bbi! Move!"

I roughly kicked Captain AB aside and pulled a broad sheet of cloth from my deck of cards as though drawing a sword from its scabbard.

The Diamond Queen, the Queen of Cloth. The thick fabric that had protected Tyr from countless lights.

With its reverse side facing outward, it became a blackout curtain...

But if I flipped it over!

"Rainbow Reflection!"

A thick sheet suddenly unfolded between Eimeder and me. It was a mirror to Eimeder and a blackout curtain to me, a cloth whose two sides were different. My vision was blocked, and the sword made of light struck the mirrored surface. The edges of my sight, obscured by the blackout curtain, flashed like lightning.

Haha. Good thing I had been slowly preparing it through alchemical transmutation. Otherwise, I would've died long ago.

Well...

It wasn't as though I had truly blocked it even now.

『Pathetic.』

With a chilling voice, the blackout curtain caved in. From my side, it looked as though the Queen of Cloth itself was coming to strike me.

A sturdy cloth like the Queen of Cloth had some stopping power. I could confidently say it would repel arrows and bullets, at least. Azzy had actually held it in her mouth and deflected them all.

But an angel's strength was beyond arrows and bullets. Comparing them would have been insulting.

A hand punched straight through the blackout curtain and struck my abdomen.

The first pain I felt was in my head. My torso had suddenly been shoved backward, and my head, unable to keep up, spun.

Ah, I'm screwed.

If it was already this bad... how much was my stomach going to hurt?

Maybe because I was spinning, my head felt dizzy. Rather than flying, it felt as though I was falling backward. If I hit something like this, none of my bones would remain intact.

But the impact I expected never came.

Something soft wrapped around my back instead of a hard wall, followed by a shock that felt as though it had been filtered through paper several times. Historia had caught me as I flew away and crashed into the wall in my place.

"Hui! Are you okay?"

Phew. She saved me. I could roughly predict where a human attack would land and dodge or deflect it, but falling down or crashing into a wall was difficult because I never knew what would happen.

I groaned to show I was fine.

"Ughhh... Damn it, this body has never even been hit by my mother..."

"Sounds like you're fine."

Historia understood perfectly. She carelessly shoved me behind her. Still reeling from the impact, I rolled backward.

I could hardly complain, though, because the winged angel was trudging toward us from the front.

If she intended to pursue me, the moment Historia caught me had been her chance. But Eimeder hadn't done so. Instead of spreading her wings and chasing after me, she watched Historia and lamented once more.

Footnotes:

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