WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 29

──────

Resistance (4)

Delta, with a large spike buried in his skull, couldn't even change his expression. All he managed was the faintest lip movement through a seizing face, each word a labored struggle.

"Wh... at... is... this..."

"Oh? Where'd the card go? Ta, ta-daa! There it was!"

Thwuck. I pulled the skewer free from his head. With the stopper out, the blood that had been pooling came gushing free all at once.

Delta, bleeding from the head, tried to grab his gun again, creaking like something broken. His hand kept grasping at empty air in the wrong spot. Every time he reached for the trigger, his arm bent to the right. Those trembling, helpless fingers were a sorry sight.

I flipped the skewer over. The skewer that had just entered and exited someone's skull was gone, and in its place appeared a single card smeared with blood. I shook it to flick off the blood, then bowed deeply toward Delta.

"Thank you for watching until the end. You were quite a good audience. But I am a magician! I can't die in a place like this."

"I'll... kill..."

"A magician must escape alive, whether he's chained and thrown into a river or locked in a room packed with lit explosives. So I can't take part in your legendary suicide bombing show. Sorry! I've decided to perform an escape act right here in Tantalus, with all of you as my audience!"

Delta's body crumpled to the ground. His brain was too damaged to respond. Only scattered, disconnected thoughts remained, signaling he wasn't quite dead yet.

That wouldn't last much longer.

I crouched down and met his eyes.

'Our goal, we knew it, from the start.'

"Of course you did. How could you not? People who've made peace with dying don't come charging in with contingency plans."

'Knowing that, you tried, to deceive me.'

"Deceive. Hmm. Who deceived who first? Your leader, who promised to get you out while never intending to follow through? Or you, hiding behind the pretense of principle and deliberation, letting that lie pass unchallenged in silence? Can you honestly say you never deceived anyone?"

'No... I never.'

"However noble you were trying to be, it doesn't much matter to me. Justice that never translates into action is no different from undigested bile. However dearly you held your own feelings, however much you dressed them up as a greater cause, your justice was nothing more than self-love with a prettier name on it."

'You're reading, my...'

The thoughts were fading. Blood drained from the hole in his head while pooling somewhere else inside. The pressure from that imbalance crushed his own brain from within. The more it gave way, the more his consciousness crumbled with it.

His final thought stretched long. Like the closing word of a book drawn across the very last page, what remained of him lingered on by pure inertia.

A book was drawing to its close.

I had read enough. Holding his gaze, I whispered.

"Goodbye, Elci Clark. You were a failed terrorist. Whatever your past was, however you might have justified it, none of that changes what you are."

'A... a... a...'

"But I'll remember you. Your end."

'A...'

"Goodbye."

The thoughts stopped.

That book closed.

The body of codename Delta, real name Elci Clark, lay sprawled across the floor, a corpse.

I swept my hand over the dead man's eyes. The wide-open eyes slid shut.

That was that. A plain and brief life, ended here.

"Haah."

No need to clean up the blood, thankfully. The blood flowing from the corpse was rolling toward the underground armory as though that were simply how the world worked. As long as there was a vampire around, the tedious work of wiping up bloodstains was unnecessary.

I worked my stiff shoulder and muttered.

"Right. One thing down."

Next was the leader. Until I caught him and his bomb, this wasn't over.

Time to figure out where he was and what he was doing. Might as well read some thoughts.

Eyes closed. Mind reading spread out like mist, widening awareness. I followed the faint threads of thought drifting at its edges.

.

..

...

"Nine thousand nine hundred ninety. Nine thousand nine hundred ninety-one. Nine thousand nine hundred ninety-two..."

Whoosh. Whoosh.

An invisible blade carved through the air. Skywarbler, the sword with no weight and no thickness. The reason a weightless sword still produced sound when cutting through air was that the blade was tilted flat when swung, to create at least a minimum of resistance. Even so, a sharp wind spread in all directions like it meant to split the space apart.

"...Ten thousand."

The ten-thousandth swing was done. Sweat rolled down. The loose trousers were breathable, but nowhere near enough to cool a body running that hot. Shei wiped the sweat from her short hair, which barely grazed her earlobes. Beads clinging to the ends fell to the floor.

On impulse, she cut the falling droplet. Once, twice, five times, ten times. Stacked slashes.

One falling drop became three hundred and ninety-two tiny collisions. The shattered droplet scattered in every direction the moment it touched the ground.

"Haah."

Shei set her stance again. Perfected. Refined over thirteen cycles through careful reflection, stripped of everything unnecessary. A clean, centered guard.

It was a stance well-suited for Skywarbler, a blade without weight. Because it needed no stored force before a swing, a simple rotation of the wrist from the centered guard was enough to draw out endless variation.

Of course, as with everything in the world, there were only two sides, left and right, and not being able to load power in advance was a drawback in its own right. Each individual strike lacked weight.

That was a problem to be solved once she obtained the earth sword Jizan.

So what she needed to do was train. Before she obtained Jizan, before a powerful blade could mask her own strength, she had to shed one more layer.

That was why she had come to Tantalus, and why she had learned bloodcraft.

Shei set her stance again.

Perfected. Nothing to fault. But to go further, she would have to break what was perfect, find fault where there was none. Only by breaking one shell could a wider world come into view.

Long ago, in the early cycles she could barely remember, the wandering swordsman's style she had swung in desperation just to stay alive only held her back now, half-transcended as she was. The swordsmanship that had carried her through all those long years, that had died alongside her time and again. The time to let it go had come.

Break it down completely. Build it again from nothing.

Shei took up Skywarbler again.

"Haah. Haah."

She had gained a fair amount in Tantalus. The prison break she had only ever heard about, she had watched with her own eyes. She had met the vampire and the beastkin King of Dogs. And on top of that, an unexpected variable.

...A variable.

The sword stuttered. The arc bent wrong. Shei stopped mid-swing and clenched her jaw.

That easygoing, unhurried man. Every time she thought of him, something felt off. Someone who didn't exist in any future she had ever known. Yet here he was, living in this place with an undeniable presence, closer to Azzy than anyone, and with Tyrkanzyaka paying him quiet attention too. Even if he vanished tomorrow, the mark he had left would remain clear.

More than anything, Shei herself was paying far too much attention to him.

"Damn it. If I just hadn't crossed paths with him..."

Every time they got tangled up, she felt herself pulled further in. Irritating, and yet the man hadn't actually done anything wrong. It was just that everything he did left a vaguely unsettling feeling.

He was hiding something, too. Otherwise, there was no way he could have seen straight through her concealment technique and anticipated that she was listening.

She could win against him in a full fight, probably. But with no signs of open hostility, she saw no reason to burn everything she had on a fight to the death. So her conclusion was provisional indifference. She wouldn't attack unless he came at her first.

It would be a problem if he caught her off guard, though...

"A problem? If anything, it's better this way. At least now I know not to trust him."

If she died to a surprise attack, she'd just move on to the next cycle. And from that point on, the moment that man crossed her path, he'd find himself being interrogated with his limbs removed.

Stray thoughts. Shei shook them out with a swing of the sword.

Two thousand swings. Sweat soaked the floor and her breathing was starting to strain, but still nothing felt right. Trying to pour force into the blade using the bloodcraft she had just learned threw her balance sideways, and keeping it clean and efficient pulled her back toward the feel of her old swordsmanship.

Blood. If she could truly understand blood, feel the weight it carried through her body, would something change?

Was her talent simply not enough? Was she unable to find the stance that could hold all of her strength?

If only there were a useful sparring partner for moments like this... someone like that man, whose depths she couldn't begin to fathom...

"Oh!"

Too absorbed to notice. She hadn't even sensed someone approaching. Shei stopped swinging, steadied her breath, and fixed the intruder with a sharp stare.

The intruder wore thick armor. Shei identified the model in an instant. Military state combat equipment. A battle suit. The outdated design and signs of poor upkeep told the whole story. Someone had stolen a decommissioned model slated for disposal.

Shei wiped her face on her sleeve and muttered.

"Resistance?"

"Wha, what? How did you know?"

The young man stared, visibly startled.

Simple reasoning. Outdated or not, the military state would never leave battle suits, the crown jewel of its military technology, simply lying around. All units were collected and destroyed, or broken down for parts to build new ones.

For someone to be wearing one, they had to have stolen or seized a unit marked for disposal.

Which left only one answer.

Thrown briefly off balance, the intruder laughed it off. "Ha ha. The Resistance's reputation has apparently spread far. Even a young boy like you recognizes us... Boy, are you a laborer here too?"

"No. A prisoner."

Short, with no interest in saying more.

Then something odd in what the young man had said caught Shei's attention. 'Too'? There were no laborers in Tantalus right now.

Before she could point that out, the young man had already launched into a speech.

"Locking up a child this young in Tantalus! The military state truly is a heartless, pitiless country! What could this young boy have possibly done to deserve this!"

"I parked myself in the middle of a city and said I'd give gold coins to anyone who could beat me. Knocked down everyone who came. Eventually the army showed up, and I knocked them down too. Then someone called a general came and took me in."

"Huh?"

The young man started sweating. His target wasn't responding the way he expected. For the first time, he actually looked at Shei properly.

Thin and slight, as if she'd never had a proper meal. 'Male' in appearance, but with naturally fine bones, the thin ankles visible below the loose trouser hems looked like they'd snap with a light tap. Not a body built for fighting.

But those keen, clear eyes held not a grain of fear, and the straight posture was edged like a freshly honed blade.

Not a person. A sword. Even breathing seemed vaguely threatening, and she looked like she'd cut someone down just standing still.

The young man instinctively adjusted his battle suit. With a clank, the armor shifted to cover his neck and the underside of his jaw. Shei hadn't even shown hostility yet, and already he'd flinched and covered his vitals on instinct.

Shei looked at him with that blade-like gaze.

"The Resistance coming to Tantalus... you're not here to rescue prisoners. That would just be absurd. You're here to commit an act of terrorism."

That landed squarely. The young man waved his hands in a panic.

"What are you talking about! Do you think we're terrorists?!"

"Yes."

Blunt. Cold.

"The Resistance... no vision, no plan, just a ragtag bunch nursing vague grievances. All you ever do is rush in like moths to a flame and blow things up."

Real disillusionment, the kind that only comes from living through it. Shei's voice carried the weight of a verdict already handed down.

The young man flinched.

"Someone's been too thoroughly indoctrinated! We are the Resistance, a group that fights for freedom. We will overthrow the military government that seized power without right and bring true freedom to this country!"

"Been there. Didn't change much. Or rather, things got worse."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You don't need to understand. I'm not going to explain."

Shei rested Skywarbler on her shoulder and stared at him.

"You want to bring Tantalus down? Please. This prison won't crumble just from rats like you gnawing at it. You're going to fail. Because it isn't time for it to fall yet."

"No! We'll succeed! The leader's already on it. Once the work is done, this legendary prison falls and we'll be recorded as liberators!"

The young man blurted it out, unable to hold back his excitement. Shei snorted.

"Just said it yourself. That you came here to commit terrorism."

"Hng!"

He'd said it himself, so he couldn't deny it now. The young man's face scrunched tight, then he raised his arm in a threatening gesture and muttered.

"...Not bad, kid. Tricked me into saying it myself."

"Idiot. Your mouth is just loose. If this counts as getting someone to confess, the military state Security Bureau must do its profiling through mind reading."

That relentless prodding snapped the young man's last thread of composure. Forgetting his leader's warning entirely, he erupted.

"Fine! Tantalus disappears beyond the Abyss! We will bring down this symbol of oppression! So what are you going to do about it?"

"You know if Tantalus falls, you won't come out of it unscathed either."

"Doesn't matter! We came ready to die! The Resistance is always prepared to die for the country!"

"Hmm. For the country."

Never a sane person among those who invoked the nation. Shei smiled faintly and raised her arm.

"I wonder. I don't think that man is just going to sit back and watch."

Tantalus would fall.

Just not now.

A little under a year from now, 'she' would arrive. After that, Tantalus would fall, and from beneath it, true despair would crawl free. The shards of the end, monsters that, left undisturbed, could alone bring the world to ruin.

So these people were bound to fail. Not a single line had been written about them even in the cycles before Shei existed. A Tantalus that would topple for a handful of terrorists would never have earned the name Abyss.

Nothing she needed to worry about. That man would handle it on his own. He had seemed well-practiced in things like this.

"Separate from all that, I have no reason to just let you go either."

Shing.

A clear ring. Shei drew Skywarbler and swept it through the air. Even the sword's cry carried a keen edge as it came into the world.

Her voice dropped low, dangerous.

"A scarecrow walked straight to my door."

"Scarecrow?!"

The young man worked his battle suit furiously in response. The helmet that had been folded back snapped upright into place. A hard visor locked over his face and came down. Steel scales bristled at the weak points, neck and armpits alike.

Steel locked into steel. Clank, clank. Mechanical, rhythmic noise wrapped around him. Greaves for the legs, gauntlets for the arms. On the left, a gun loaded with six armor-piercing rounds. On the right, a massive broadsword, the kind that could shred through blades.

Fully armed, the young man let out a roar at Shei.

"Scarecrow? No! This is a battle suit! You're bare-handed, and you think you can beat me?"

With a biometric terminal, magical energy to drive the alchemy, and the strength to move in it.

A full-body alchemic apparatus that let ordinary people wield knight-grade combat power. A battle suit.

Clad in that power, the young man advanced on her with menace.

"You're going to regret those words!"

"Hmm. Bare-handed. Bare-handed..."

Shei, facing the battle suit, wasn't startled in the least. She measured instead. Her opponent's strength and her own, and what she lacked.

"Fine. As it happens, I needed some live practice right on the edge. I'll take you on with nothing but my body."

At that, Shei stopped channeling her energy.

She withdrew the magical energy wrapped around her blade too.

What stood here now was a frail girl holding a sword far beyond her station.

With nothing but one person's skill and experience, she had to overcome a weapon forged from the military state's blood and history.

Could she do it.

Didn't matter. Shei smiled.

"Only one way to find out."

Die at worst, and she'd been through that more than once.

The girl, holding an invisible sword, advanced toward the battle suit as it came to life. To meet the sound of interlocking steel, Skywarbler sang, thin and long.

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