WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 288: The Blessed Nation, the Cursed Human - 11

──────

"Why, Captain AB?"

I sensed a faint reluctance from Captain AB. Strange. No matter what I had done until now, Captain AB had never felt anything like reluctance toward me.

"Sir. If things proceed as you intend, what will happen to the other communications officers?"

"They'll find freedom. Just like you did, Captain AB."

I said it casually, but Captain AB clearly did not take it lightly. She spoke earnestly.

"From what this officer has heard, your plan seems to... abandon the communications officers."

"Abandon them? Who's abandoning whom? Communications officers have better qualifications than I do. They've received officer training and can use inherent arcane. They're even the real powers controlling the military state from behind the scenes."

"That is why. Communications officers possess immense strategic value. They know many of the military state's secrets and have authorization to access its many facilities. If you reveal the truth about the communications officers and cause chaos, they will be the first ones placed in danger."

That would happen. Any enemy of the military state would target the communications officers first. They would need information, and they would need to cripple the military state's communications network.

What if they were on the military state's side? What about those loyal to it? Would they protect the communications officers?

Probably not.

Once they learned that a mere communications officer had been giving them orders all this time, could they truly continue as before? It would not be easy, either rationally or emotionally. They might even try to eliminate the communications officers.

I accepted Captain AB's point.

"You have a point, Captain AB."

"Then..."

"But I don't see why I should care."

Captain AB stopped breathing. Still holding Yuel bound, I continued.

"Communications officers are the military state's absolution, created for its own sake. Their entire lives are taken away, and they're used like tools, so no one can hold them accountable. No, people don't even know. Thanks to that, the military state, a country clearly made by humans, is becoming something greater than humans. A country that rules over the human species."

Until now, kingdoms had been ruled by kings. History had seen plenty of debate over how a king and a country should divide their roles, but a king was human in the end. Humanity had always been ruled by humans.

The military state, though, was ruled by no one.

"The communications officers' situation stands out the most. They have authority to access all sorts of military state facilities, yet they rot in rooms without even a drop of hot water. Because of them, all humans are ruled by a military state that does not even truly exist! Isn't it better to walk on the ground with your own feet and die than be used up in a dark room until you die?"

"...Affirmative. This officer also believes that would be better. This officer knows what joy is and how precious it is."

Right. Captain AB had tried to enjoy life even when her own life was in danger. It had been fulfilling. Now that she knew what it meant to be able to do something, Captain AB would surely...

"However, this officer believes there is a better way."

"What? A better way?"

Why did she disagree? Having seen ordinary people's fierce lives right before her eyes, she should have thought similarly to me.

"This officer had you, sir. Because this officer was with you, this officer gladly accepted every new thing she encountered. But the other communications officers do not have you. In a harsh world, new things will seem more threatening than joyful, just as they did when this officer first faced them. The other communications officers are unlikely to overcome that. This officer..."

Captain AB stopped and chose her words.

She had no particular reason to give. To a communications officer who had only made objective judgments through the eyes of the military state, an assertion unfettered by rules or interests was far too unfamiliar. Captain AB barely found words that suited her heart.

"This officer does not want that. Even if it is irrational."

If she did not want it, that could not be helped. That alone could be a reason. The world flowed according to rules set by gods, but what moved humans was the heart.

I nodded.

"I understand. But that doesn't mean I'll change my mind just because you don't want it. Like you, I still have enough of a sense of duty to defeat humanity's enemy."

"The target you intend to defeat. You are attacking it because it is not human. Is this officer's assumption correct?"

"Yes. A human's enemy may be another human, but even the most vicious murderer cannot become humanity's enemy. They're still human, aren't they? A stomachache doesn't make my stomach my enemy. Just as I can't fight my right hand because it happened to strike my head while moving."

As I shrugged, Captain AB spoke with a slight stammer.

"...This officer is your ally. Is that not so?"

I read the flow of her thoughts. An image formed in Captain AB's mind, which had been a blank white page with nothing on it until just moments ago.

The wish of the first communications officer to rebel against the military state.

"The military state is a country that moves according to 'orders from Command' delivered through the communications officers. Everyone believes in the existence of Command somewhere."

"Isn't that effectively the same thing? Orders from Command are information those communications officers process."

"It is different."

"What?"

Though I had a rough idea where this was going, I pretended not to notice. With firm resolve, Captain AB uttered a lie no communications officer should ever tell.

A lie that would become truth from this moment onward.

"This officer is AB. First among the communications officers."

Captain AB placed a hand over her chest.

"There is no hierarchy among communications officers, but their identification names are arranged according to the order of their abilities. This officer received the name AB, which had remained vacant for a long time. Aside from A, known as the original communications officer, this officer could be said to possess the strongest abilities... But A was not a communications officer."

Of course not. She was the Holy Maiden.

Divine power fundamentally different from inherent arcane. The tale of the First Holy Maiden answering the calls of her followers from an inconceivably distant place.

Yuel used it to speak with communications officers who wished to communicate. The difference was that it was not synchronization, but simple conversation. Holy Maiden Yuel and the communications officers were too different to synchronize.

That was why the military state became a country without a king.

Yet Captain AB denied Yuel's very role.

"Therefore, this officer is the strongest communications officer. This officer possesses power far surpassing the others and can rule them. Therefore, this officer's will has the greatest influence over the collective will of the communications officers."

Words that narrowly avoided becoming a lie. Truth or lie, it was impossible to say. All communications officers carried out organic communication. Even the will delivered by a single communications officer at the bottom spread through the whole, mixed with it, and grew faint.

Like human nerves.

It could be truth or lie depending on the standard. Yet Captain AB spoke with unwavering conviction.

"The will delivered by the military state's Command all originated from this officer and spread outward. This officer is Command."

"In other words, Captain AB was the military state's king?"

"Affirmative."

Captain AB lowered her head deeply in a disciplined motion. She was trying to sound solemn, but her gentle expression made it look completely out of place.

"To say that, you seemed to have been controlled until just now."

"I-it was possible because this officer accepted it!"

"Fine, let's say that's true. There are more than one or two puppets in this world."

Was she now going to say the military state was really another kind of kingdom, one ruled by humans after all?

That was right. Captain AB might become someone's enemy. But she could never become humanity's enemy, because Captain AB was human too.

"That's wordplay."

"However, it is true."

"Certainly, Captain AB could do it. A Captain AB with a life and desires can shoulder that responsibility and sin..."

Muttering as though the thought had simply drifted by, I released my grip on the wire. The wire slackened limply, and Holy Maiden Yuel regained her freedom.

Even with bruises where the wire had pressed into her, Yuel quickly brought both hands together and watched me suspiciously. If the Holy Maiden used her power, if she summoned even angels here, I would be as good as dead.

I would never normally do this, but I had no choice now. I shrugged.

"Yuel. Try killing Captain AB."

"...What?!"

Everyone in the room drew in a sharp breath. Yuel in particular was shaken as though struck by an unexpected blow.

Why was she so surprised? This was what she had intended to do all along.

"Why act surprised now? It's your job. Dealing with communications officers who have gone astray. If a communications officer becomes mentally contaminated, if they lose their purity and become an ordinary human... wasn't this exactly what you were worried would happen?"

"...If I kill someone, I will kill you before that child."

"Oh, go ahead. I won't be able to touch the military state before Captain AB dies anyway."

I wound the wire around my fingers. After weaving a coil of it into a string figure and pulling both ends, the broad knot gathered in one place and instantly returned to a card. I shuffled the transformed card back into the deck and sighed.

"Humans cannot become humanity's enemy. Captain AB has declared herself Command, and she will probably make it real. The other communications officers cannot stop a Captain AB with desires of her own. No one can but you, the one maintaining this system."

"...You were not asking me to kill her in your place. It was the opposite."

"How you take it is up to you."

Captain AB was human. She was not humanity's enemy. But because she had declared it of her own will, and because she truly possessed the ability to do so, she had gained the qualification.

As long as Captain AB existed, the military state would not become my enemy. It was an ambiguous ending for me.

I could not stop someone who wished to become king in my place. At most, I could test them.

Yuel's eyes trembled as realization dawned on her.

"You chose a king? In this military state...?"

Captain AB approached Yuel. Kneeling on one knee and meeting Yuel's eyes, Captain AB spoke clearly with a steady gaze.

"Yuel. Please cooperate with this officer."

Yuel was clearly stronger, yet she was the one who avoided Captain AB's eyes.

"No... I cannot."

"Think rationally. Any outcome is better than the communications officers' secret being exposed. Is that not also the result of your assessment?"

"It is different! Communications officers must not have desires. If they do, the communications officers, no, you will move this country according to your desires. You will become king. His dream... His wish to create a country that did not need a king will be stained."

Captain AB glanced at the corpse.

"He is deceased."

"Even if he is dead, his dream has not disappeared!"

As though desperately denying it, Yuel threw her arms around the corpse again. Covering the cold body with her own, she cried out as if sobbing.

"The military state is the masterpiece born from his ideals. It is our child, created by him and me together! And you want me to give up on it? No! We should all die here instead! Be buried with every secret! Then...!"

"Then everything he created will disappear. The military state will likely disappear as well. Would that be acceptable to you?"

Yuel drew in a breath.

Why Yuel had kept saying she would bury us, but could never bring herself to do it. Why we had been given enough time. It was because traces of him remained here, including the War Hero's corpse.

Someone who had clung to one man's corpse for nearly twenty years was not likely to make a decisive choice. Yuel's conflict deepened.

Footnotes:

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