WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 279: The Blessed Nation, the Cursed Human - 2

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Captain AB closed her eyes and unfolded her innate arcane. Dozens of vines stretched out in every direction. Morning glory vines spread across walls and ceilings alike before eventually reaching the communications officers.

The communications officers had shut their minds away in the face of this unprecedented crisis, but Captain AB persistently prodded them. Before long, each of them unfolded their innate arcane and resonated with Captain AB.

‘Communication request from Communications Officer IB.’

‘Communications Officer IB is a person of concern who led a hostile entity here. Request denied.’

‘Objection. If she has a means to explain the current situation, this module must obtain it.’

While they dithered among themselves, Captain AB sent a powerful will through her innate arcane.

‘Communications Officer IB demands it! This is an emergency for you and the military state! Return to your respective rooms and answer the transmission immediately!’

Resonance magic worked both ways. If one side influenced the other, the other side had no choice but to be influenced in return.

Still, someone with a firm will would not be swept away by a minor influence. Captain AB steadily encroached upon the communications officers. Following her orders, they returned to their rooms.

『AB!』

It seemed the transmission had reached Eimeder as well. Historia clung to Eimeder, who looked ready to rush this way. Bang, bang. Two shots aimed for Eimeder's face. Eimeder had to shield her face with her wings, making her miss her chance.

Good. She was wary of Captain AB.

"So my job is to buy time until Captain AB finishes?"

Buying time. That was all I could ever do...

As I muttered bitterly to myself, the angel's wings shuddered unnaturally. A white feather suddenly flew toward me with a sharp hiss.

A cowardly long-range attack? Since it was the wing that moved, I couldn't even catch it with mind-reading!

I faltered, caught off guard, but Azzy sprang up like lightning and snatched the feather out of the air. She landed neatly, chewed the soft feather to pieces, and barked proudly.

"Woof!"

"...Good job, Azzy."

She couldn't fight that thing, yet she was good at biting feathers. Well, she was the Beast King too. I praised her sincerely for the first time in a while, and Azzy cried out bravely.

"Leave it to me! Go!"

"Don't rush me. If I go in carelessly, I'll die."

"Woof? Don't die! Live!"

"You talk a good game when you won't even fight the angel yourself..."

"Win!"

I almost got angry, but rationally speaking, she was right. Yeah. I couldn't fight it either.

Still, I thought I could help in another way. If strength wasn't enough, I would use my wits.

I unfolded the Queen of Cloth. A hideous hole had been torn through the center of this precious cloth that had saved me from the angel. It pained me to ruin it further, but I had to turn even this into an opportunity.

I pulled out a card with my left hand and turned it into a skewer. Holding it upright, I gouged out the hole. At the same time, I poured magic power into my right hand. Drawing an alchemical circle in blue light, I attempted an extremely compressed form of alchemy.

"Set. Ri. Alke."

I cut the Queen of Cloth around the hole. Then I pressed the square piece of cloth down with all my strength and rolled it into a cylinder. My skill at rolling mana herbs hadn't gone anywhere, so the Queen of Cloth rolled up quite firmly.

It was the most basic form of alchemy, changing only an object's shape while leaving its material structure intact. It looked crude, but it would be enough for Historia.

"Ria! Catch!"

I threw the rolled-up Queen of Cloth toward Historia. Having slipped away from Eimeder at just the right moment, Historia caught it behind her back without looking.

Historia checked what was in her hand and muttered.

"...A mana herb?"

"It's a bullet! Fire it!"

Historia's gun was not bound by specifications. It compressed and detonated qi, so it didn't need gunpowder. Even if something didn't fit the barrel, she could force it in and fire it.

『Not a chance!』

Eimeder lunged at her as though she wouldn't even give her time to load. Four wings struck from every direction.

Historia's loading was as extraordinary as her shooting. She flicked the bullet up with a finger and leaped into the air to avoid the attack. As she jumped, she even performed the trick of catching the bullet with the muzzle. The bullet traveled down the barrel and into the gun.

It was the sort of forced loading one might have seen when muskets were still used. Historia's pistol already held several rounds, but ignoring their order, it loaded the bullet I had made.

『Something born from the earth dares to lift its feet from the ground... How laughable!』

The wings chased Historia. They moved too fast for the naked eye to follow. She couldn't possibly dodge them now that she was in the air.

But if she had intended to dodge, she wouldn't have jumped in the first place.

Historia trusted my bullet even though she didn't know what I had given her. Had she calculated that she couldn't win anyway? Or did she trust me too much? From the beginning, she had filled her gun with qi and waited only for a bullet.

Now that she had one, all she had to do was fire. Historia naturally aimed the muzzle.

"Fire!"

Thoom.

Perhaps because it was made of cloth, the shot sounded dull. The rolled cloth was sucked toward the angel's wings. Rising feathers collided with the bullet.

At that instant, white light burst forth.

The Queen of Cloth was a precious fabric that swallowed light on the inside and reflected it on the outside. The bullet made from it tore through the angel's light and scattered it in every direction.

The bullet completely blew apart one wing before glancing off and embedding itself in the ceiling. The angel now had only five wings.

Success. I just needed to make five more!

A faint smile formed on my lips.

『Tricks...』

A new wing rose from the angel's back.

I muttered in despair.

"How am I the fraud here? That's the real fraud."

Quite displeased by losing a wing, the angel turned toward me and growled.

『With nothing but a human tool devoid of any mystery...!』

"No, Hui! This is enough! Even this...! Urgh!"

Eimeder caught up to Historia as she desperately shouted. Her wings smashed through walls and floors as she attacked with wild abandon.

‘If I can scatter the light for a moment, there might be a chance! Just three rounds! Only enough to use my principle! Once I zero in, I can't miss...!’

Good. She needed a few more, right? Three more would be enough!

I moved my hands busily. My skill at rolling mana herbs was still there, and three bullets were ready in an instant. Judging Eimeder and Historia's movements, I threw the bullets in the direction Historia would retreat. Since I could read her thoughts, predicting her movements was easy.

Historia pulled back at that exact moment. Just as she shifted her center of gravity backward to catch the bullets I had thrown.

『Shallow. I can see through it all.』

Eimeder spread her wings wide. The angel's body halted in midair, then sharply turned toward me.

Oh, was she targeting the supplies before the combat unit? Truly the military state's angel. Her strategy was military state through and through.

Wait. Did that mean I was screwed?

As I faltered, Eimeder tore through the ground with her wings and charged at me with terrifying force. Azzy's fur stood on end.

"Hui!"

Realizing what was happening, Historia clutched the bullets and hurried after the angel. But Historia had no wings, while the angel only grew farther away.

Since that was the only thing she could do, Historia raised her loaded gun.

But.

‘Only the wings...’

The angel's wings extended from her back. The uppermost wings even covered her back, as though she was wary of Historia. All Historia had in her line of fire were wings.

‘If I fire... I'll only destroy one wing.’

Historia's thoughts raced. A retreating enemy. An exposed back. The gun in her hand. The person she had to protect. In this crisis, Historia's concentration had reached its peak.

But...

‘There isn't a way.’

The weight of her thoughts gradually tipped toward despair. Her outstretched hand was useless. The enemy was moving, but Historia's hand didn't know how to move.

‘I still have to fire. If I don't, Hui dies. But how?’

There was no answer. It was hopeless. Strength wouldn't enter the hand holding the gun. The shaking muzzle came into her view.

‘...I'm stronger when I don't fire. The enemy is wary of my bullets.’

She didn't fire. Historia had profited greatly from that strategy when facing the Spirit Track. The Spirit Track avoided entering Historia's line of fire, allowing Historia to gain the upper hand as if she held a sword with an invisible blade.

‘But I have to fire. They are wary because my bullet will be fired eventually.’

Not firing was stronger. But she had to fire.

A contradiction.

Something impossible by the laws of reason.

Yet Li was the last of Geon, Gon, Gam, and Li. Li reached the laws of the world. Even if it had to twist those laws, it would bring that contradiction into being.

It was different from innate arcane. Innate arcane overlaid the world with new rules born from one's own inner image. In that sense, it was a declaration to the world. It announced new rules and placed everything beneath their control.

Li, on the other hand, was more like childish stubbornness. It demanded that the world create a single exception outside all common laws...

Within that contradiction, an image passed through Historia's mind.

The regressor. Shei. An absolute powerhouse who held an invisible sword and freely swung space itself, lengthening and shortening the blade at will, firing sword energy like bullets.

‘His invisible sword...’

In that moment of life or death, what Historia recalled was the image of Skywarbler, the Heavenly Sword.

Historia slightly adjusted her grip on the gun. The muzzle was not aimed at the angel. It was aimed slightly above her, over the angel's right shoulder.

If she fired like this, she would miss. Yet caught in a strange exhilaration, Historia fired at that point.

The bullet was not fired.

But Historia had certainly fired.

Within the contradiction, the laws of reason twisted. A crack formed in empty space. The bullet did not fly, but every result that it could have produced came to pass.

Historia felt it through her sixth sense. Her bullet had definitely touched something somewhere. Gritting her teeth, Historia swung her pistol. The relatively light weapon met heavy resistance. It was as though she were swinging a sword with a blade a hundred meters long.

Still, she swung.

The gun Historia drove in, no, the sword. That incomprehensible thing which had reached its target through contradiction cut through the laws as they were.

Gun-Sword Total Intent.

By the time I came to my senses after reading Historia's distant exhilaration, the angel had already spun through the air and crashed into the wall, three right-side wings torn off completely.

Footnotes:

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