WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 30: Resistance - 5

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She was afraid.

This was land cursed by Mother Earth, an Abyss beyond the Celestial God's sight. Death itself did not frighten her, but the thought that even death might not save her soul filled her with terror.

Beta, a devout girl whose real name was Serapi, clutched the cross she always kept against her chest.

"No. The Celestial God is in our hearts. He must always be watching the world through our eyes..."

Her father had been a pastor. A devout believer, he led his flock every Sunday. Each week, people offered prayers and found just enough comfort to endure the days ahead.

Then the military state classified every form of religion as a "hobby."

Blasphemously, God was now expected to pay taxes.

It was absurd. How could the Celestial God, master of this world and parent of all creation, pay taxes? Naturally, people protested. Her devout father had stood at the forefront of the opposition to that policy.

Then the military state took him away.

He never returned.

Remembering her hatred eased her fear somewhat. Beta exhaled deeply and headed for the underground armory.

"May God's hammer fall upon this blasphemous, unjust, and vile military state."

If it came to that, she would become that hammer herself, even if she ended up battered and broken after judging the military state.

She had just taken a step while praying.

Then the door to the underground armory suddenly opened on its own. Beta startled at the unexpected change, but took it as the Celestial God opening the way for her. She pressed her lips together and boldly stepped inside. With faith, she could keep moving forward.

It was so dark inside that she could not see an inch ahead. Beta tapped her elbow, then ran her fingers up to her wrist, gathering every bit of magical energy in her body at her fingertips. After fidgeting for a while, she whispered.

"Lux."

Light gleamed at her fingertip.

Lux, the military state's standard light-producing spell. It was the only one she could use out of the dozens of standard spells she had learned in school, but she was satisfied with that much. Being able to light the way whenever it was dark was convenient enough.

Of course, she could not help feeling conflicted whenever she remembered that the hateful military state had developed the spell. Light belonged to the Celestial God in the first place. The military state merely borrowed that light, then had the nerve to tax it. Beta justified herself that way and raised her finger high.

The darkness within did not disappear even under the light. It only slowly retreated for a moment. Beta could barely illuminate the ground beneath her feet as she went deeper inside.

Without even knowing where she was going...

Then.

A candle lit up.

An ominous light bloomed in the darkness.

Beta hurriedly raised her head.

Blood covered everything. It looked as though someone had cursed the entire world with blood. Red blood flowed through the engraved gaps in the stone walls, whose carvings must once have been beautiful. Sacred paintings had been defaced with bloodstained monsters.

It was a scene that seemed to mock the Celestial God.

Yet Beta felt fear before outrage.

Blood. Red. Darkness. The unknown.

As primal terror washed over her.

[Was it you? The insolent one who dared offer prayers to the Celestial God in my palace.]

Beta sucked in a sharp breath. She hurriedly grabbed her cross and raised her gun.

A thick voice sounded from the darkness.

[A cross... Hehe. It has been a long time. I never thought I would see one even here...]

Then her cross heated up, turning red and becoming stained with blood. Beta hurriedly let go, and the red cross, freed from her grasp, shot into the air.

With trembling eyes, Beta followed its path. The bloodstained cross flipped upside down and flew toward a wooden coffin in the center of the room.

Right then, a pale arm emerged from inside the coffin.

A soft hand reached for the cross. Beta's cross, now a red inverted cross, settled onto the pale hand.

A coffin painted black.

A bloodstained inverted cross.

Realizing who her opponent was, Beta raised her gun and shouted.

"You cursed vampire! You abandoned your humanity and defied the natural order, you spawn of demons!"

The white hand paused. Armed with faith, Beta did not shrink even in the pitch-black darkness as she pointed her gun at the coffin.

"You have no right to profane that! Put it down at once, monster!"

[Oh?]

Crunch.

The bloodstained cross crumpled in an instant. Before Beta could grow enraged at the desecration of her faith, the irresistible power she felt made her instinctively afraid.

[You say I have no right? That I abandoned my humanity by defying the natural order?]

The question came from inside the coffin. God was distant, and demons were close. As though proving that, malice and magical energy crept toward Beta, testing her.

Still, Beta had not lost her faith. Faith was firmly rooted in her heart, and she held a gun in her hand. There was nothing for her to fear now.

Beta shouted.

"Yes!"

[Nonsense.]

Creak.

The coffin's lid opened.

An incense cedar coffin. Its ability to absorb moisture and odors made it a wood beloved by librarians and undertakers. The lid of the coffin that had held her for a thousand years opened.

Darkness flowed like oil.

The darkness, so dense it had become liquid, spilled out.

"Fear me, if you must. I am a predator, and I am something for you to fear."

A pale hand emerged from within. Ancient dignity seeped from its small, graceful movement. A distant fragrance drifted through the room. Blood was everywhere, so its scent should have been overpowering, yet what Beta smelled was like the scent of old books.

It was the scent of the incense cedar coffin.

While Beta was dazed by that strange fragrance.

From inside the coffin.

"Despise me, if you must. I am a vampire, a being that drinks your precious blood."

She appeared.

She looked like a girl whose colors had faded. Her snow-white skin was utterly bloodless, like a polished pearl. Silver hair fell to her waist, gleaming as if to prove that its color had not come from an absence of pigment. Her eyes were so red they seemed almost bewitching, yet it was impossible to look away from them. Beneath her high nose sat a small, lovely pair of lips. Her features, beautiful as though God had carefully sculpted them, were dizzying to behold.

The black dress hanging from her shoulder straps was solemn and neat, making her resemble a noble bride.

Even the darkness surrounding her could not conceal the soft light the girl gave off. Without prior knowledge, Beta would have mistaken her for an angel.

"But if you invoke the name of that cursed god and treat me as unclean. If those who abandoned me shamelessly pretend that I abandoned them instead."

Something was wrong.

Her perception. Her faith.

A wicked, strange being that drank human blood was beautiful enough to rival an angel.

They said she was a vampire a thousand years old, yet she looked like nothing more than a girl in the first bloom of youth.

The room was filled with blood, but it carried the atmosphere of old books.

There was none of the madness or brutality Beta had only heard about in rumors. Her graceful movements held ancient dignity, and her small face possessed breathtaking beauty.

This vampire was completely different from everything Beta had learned.

"I shall send you to the side of the god you revere so dearly."

The reality before her was too different from all she had believed.

There was no common sense surrounding Beta now. No powerful words from a respected priest.

She was alone.

It was the first trial she had ever faced. Would she pursue faith, or surrender to the power that had appeared before her?

Beta made her choice.

Not through faith, but through the momentum of everything she had believed until now.

"Lord! Guide me!"

Bang.

The bullet pierced the vampire's eye. The girl's head snapped back. Blood splattered, accompanied by the sound of flesh tearing. Beta felt guilty, as though she had destroyed a work of art with her own hands, yet she also felt a strange thrill that she had overcome temptation and followed her faith.

"I-I did it. I didn't fall for the devil's temptation... I-I defeated a vampire!"

But.

Of course.

"...Was that your will?"

The scattered blood rose again. As though the world had rewound, her neck turned back into place. The bullet that had pierced her eye was pushed out from within and fell to the floor.

Her eyes were still red.

No, they were redder than before.

The instant Beta met those irises, her body froze like a mouse before a snake. It no longer felt like her own body. She could not move her hands or feet.

In a world where everything had stopped, the white girl raised a pale hand.

"Then die for your lord."

Neigh.

An ominous snort.

When Beta turned her head, a huge blood-red horse was staring at her with wide eyes. Brilliant red light flashed around its eyes.

When had it approached? How could something so huge even be underground?

Those questions had long since vanished.

Beta groaned in terror.

"Ah, ah!!"

She tried to fire her gun.

Her fingers would not move. As if the gun itself rejected her, it did not budge no matter how hard she pulled the trigger.

Beta looked down in panic. Her gun was already soaked red with blood. Blood seeped from the grip to the muzzle, taking over the entire weapon.

That was not all. Beta realized that even her own body no longer listened to her. Veins like spiderwebs rose across her skin. The vampire's blood on her skin bound Beta's arm and forced it to move.

The blood of Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka was domination.

Long ago, she had ruled half the world with this power. Before the people even noticed, five nations and seventy-two territories had fallen into her hands.

The Crimson Blood Brand.

Proof that someone had become part of her, limbs that moved according to her will.

The muzzle turned toward Beta's eye. Her own weapon aimed at the most vulnerable part of her body. She could not stop it, no matter how she tried. This was the power of the vampire called a calamity for a thousand years. Devout faith alone could not resist it.

Beta's hand and eye trembled, but her body faithfully aimed the gun at its owner.

She saw the cold iron circle and the darkness trapped within it. The smell of gunpowder filled the air, like sulfur burning in hell.

The cold, dark depth inside the gun would flare red at the flick of a finger and spit out an iron bullet. That stupid iron bullet, unable to recognize its own owner, would shatter her soft eye and tear through her brain.

To her despair, humans possessed the ability to imagine the horrors that awaited them.

Even her devout faith could not stop the terror leaking through. Her teeth chattered. Her eyes trembled before destruction. Faith could not be seen or touched, so it could not protect her from that iron bullet. It could only save her soul.

"P-please spare me."

God was distant, and her gun had betrayed her. All that remained was a girl who was still young.

So it could not be helped. It would be cruel to expect an ordinary person to value something above their life.

Sadly.

Cruel trials that demanded one's life came far too often, given their severity.

"You have no manners, no dignity, not even a shred of spirit. Pathetic. If you had cried out to your god until the end, I would have personally corrupted you."

The vampire let out a lament. It was a brief, decisive sigh.

At the same time, it was a sentence cutting short one human's fate.

Her beautiful hand fluttered through the air like a butterfly.

"Go."

Click.

The trigger was pulled. Beta squeezed her eyes shut, expecting death.

But the bullet did not fire.

There was only the empty sound of the trigger being pulled. The Crimson Blood Brand had pulled the trigger, but it had not worked the bolt, ejected the spent casing, and loaded a new round.

"Ha... Ahaha."

She lived.

Just as Beta gave a faint laugh.

The blood horse took a step.

That was the end.

Like weeds trampled without thought by horses that had wandered everywhere.

Like insects humans crushed under a finger without a second thought.

One human became a puddle of blood.

Not even a corpse remained. Like a bug crushed against a rock that left behind only a stuck fragment, the human crushed beneath the hoof of the Blood Steed Rallion became part of the wall and floor.

Tyrkanzyaka waved her hand. The surging blood washed away even those traces.

After that, nothing remained.

The vampire had removed an insolent intruder.

From the world, and from her memory.

The sea of blood was far too vast to remember even a puddle of blood.

Only the iron bullet that had wounded her, if only a little, remained. Tyrkanzyaka picked it up with her pale hand.

How long had it been since metal had pierced her body? She would have to trace back through countless days and nights. An attack like this could not truly harm the Progenitor of vampires, but still...

Once, it had been an accomplishment attempted by the finest knights, with only a tiny few succeeding.

Yet such an ordinary-looking girl had managed it.

"It stings a little... It seems people these days all hide a trick or two."

Besides, when Tyrkanzyaka had pulled the trigger, the gun had not fired. It appeared to have some special way of recognizing its user.

She would need to be cautious.

The ancient vampire, who had just seen a gun and been shot by one for the first time, muttered to herself.

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Today's the best day ever!

A human made something tasty for me! It was meat, but it tasted like beans too, and it was really good!

We played ball too! The human threw too slowly, so it was a little boring! But it was still nice! Playing ball is fun because it's a game!

And, and!

"Woof!"

New humans! There are lots of them! It's exciting when so many humans are talking!

Ah! Could one of those humans be the one who fulfills the covenant?

"Woof woof!"

They'll like me if I walk up smiling!

We'll get even closer if we play ball together!

It's okay if they can't fulfill the covenant! Humans are still humans!

One came out! They're talking to me! Let's play! It'll be fun! It will!

Fun!

Fun.

Fu...

Bang.

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I know.

You're afraid of me.

You're scared of me.

Everyone is frightened. Their bodies are shaking. They want to run away.

They only aren't running because they have nowhere to go.

I'm sad.

They don't rely on me as much as I rely on them. It feels like I'm going to fall apart. I'm anxious.

But if I smile and keep relying on them, won't they rely on me someday too?

Let's play a little more. Just a little. Just a little longer.

...

Everyone left. They were afraid of me, so they ran away without even meeting my eyes. "Monster," someone muttered as they passed.

I'm not a monster. I'm a puppy.

I'm a good puppy who listens and knows how to wait!

I listened to the human and came to this dark, gloomy place. I waited here for a long time. Even when nobody answered, I kept waiting. When humans killed other humans in scary ways, when the unpleasant smell of blood filled the air, I shut my eyes tight and endured it.

Because I'm a good puppy. Even when I'm bored, even when I'm lonely, I stay strong and wait because I'm a good puppy!

...Still. I think everyone's afraid of me.

"Fetch!"

Except this good human.

I like the good human's hands. They pet me a lot. They scratch my head and under my chin.

I'm happy because there's a good human!

After petting me, the good human walks over to a bad human. He smiles brightly and raises his hand. A white square suddenly pops out from the back of his hand! He keeps saying things and moving the white square around!

Huh?

Stab.

Blood comes out. A human falls down. Then they don't move.

"Woof?"

They're dead.

Yeah. They're dead.

A human killed another human. Blood comes out. It doesn't stop. They're dead.

It happened before too. Maybe humans killing humans is normal.

No, maybe death comes to humans not in the form of hunger, illness, or predators...

Maybe it comes in the form of another human.

"Phew."

The human who killed them has his eyes closed.

He's a good human who makes tasty food for me, plays ball with me, and pets me often. Sometimes he gets annoyed, and for some reason he has even tried to hit me. But he isn't afraid of me. He's a good human.

That good human killed another human.

He's good to me, but maybe he isn't good to other humans.

But.

Maybe.

"Woof."

Are you afraid of me too?

When I walk closer, the good human frowns. I'm suddenly scared. Is he afraid of me?

"Huh? Why are you over here? Hungry? Don't even think about eating the corpse. If you get a taste for human meat, I'll be in danger... No, people will hate it."

I know. I won't eat it. Human meat doesn't appeal to me. I know people get scared if I eat it.

So I won't. I'm a good puppy.

"Hey, hey? This isn't the time for pets. I've got things to do, so go away for a bit."

I want to be friends. I don't want to be scary.

But if I'm scary, I wish you'd tell me from the beginning.

"Go away! I said I don't have time to pet you!"

If you're afraid, I'll just leave.

"Hey. Fine. I can't tell what you're thinking."

The human clicked his tongue and pressed down on my head. It wasn't heavy at all, but I moved. When I backed up two steps, he grabbed me and petted me roughly.

It was rough, but nice.

If he was afraid of me, he couldn't hold me this tightly.

"Happy? Right? I petted you plenty, didn't I? I'm off to kill someone. You can't kill people, so go to the cafeteria and lick pots or something! Shoo! Shoo!"

Okay.

I can't fight humans.

If that's fighting humans, I can't help the good human.

But still.

I want the good human to live.

If you die, I'll be sad and cry. I'll cry all day. I might even forget to eat for two days.

So.

Lick.

Azzy licked my cheek once, then trudged off toward the cafeteria. I wiped the saliva from my wet cheek with my hand.

She really was strange. Happy one moment, depressed the next.

I still couldn't read dogs' thoughts very well. She was the Speaker born to communicate with humans, yet I could not understand what she was thinking at all.

Was that only natural? The King of Dogs was fundamentally the representative of all dogs. No, their representative dog. If I could read her thoughts, that might be the real problem.

"Well, anyway. I found them."

My head hurt from reading minds too much, but I had still made progress.

The ones who had died so far were just expendable rabble meant to fill out the numbers. Kanisen and the technician called Gamma, the real main force, were still inside the administration building. They had stopped moving, as though they had found something.

The vampire was in the underground armory. The regressor was fighting an enemy in military armor.

Both had the ability to deal with their enemies in an instant and come help me.

The problem was that neither intended to do so.

The vampire did not care what happened outside, and the regressor believed I would handle things myself, so she was deliberately restraining her strength as she fought.

"Fuck. What do you mean, I'll handle it myself?"

I could run over right now, explain the situation to the regressor, get her to defeat the enemy quickly, then stop Kanisen from blowing up Tantalus.

It was possible, but it would take too long. Besides, the regressor, whose wariness of me had reached its peak, might not believe me.

Did I have to handle this somehow? Ah, I wasn't confident I could win.

'Found it!'

Huh? Was that Gamma, the technician? Why did that thought suddenly explode so loudly? I could hear all of it.

'I've uncovered Tantalus's secret! I never imagined it had this kind of structure. If the basement beneath the administration building hadn't been dug up, we never would have known!'

Huh? What was it? He found the secret?

'Haha! With this structure... We barely need any explosives to destroy it! It will collapse in an instant! I need to report to the leader quickly!'

No, wait! Really?

There was no time. I ran toward the administration building.

Footnotes:

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