WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 361: The King Who Kills Others, the God Who Kills Himself - 19

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Perru blamed herself as she thought of those she had failed to save, but in truth, she had saved far more lives.

If she had not liberated the city or drawn the Lord of Gold's attention, far fewer jackals would have escaped. Some were swept up in the storm of steel fragments but fortunately fled to the far side of the Lord of Gold. Others wisely chose covered mounts, saving many lives as they escaped the Lord of Gold's sphere of influence.

"This way! Everyone, keep your distance and form up here!"

Suppression Lord Hecto was gathering the surviving jackals.

Even with war decided, Hecto's work had not changed. While trying to harvest grain with a machine bestowed by the Lord of Gold, they had been the first to notice something was wrong and gather their subordinates.

The Suppression Lord's subordinates, who regularly came into contact with the Lord of Gold's crops, had no resistance to the Lord of Gold himself. If not for Hecto's swift response, more than half of them would have been absorbed without even knowing why.

That did not mean Hecto could rest easy.

The broad road appearing in real time was heading somewhere. Hecto pointed in that direction and muttered,

"That way leads to Claudia...!"

The Lord of Gold, now especially vicious, was passing through the city and heading for Claudia. It would be bad enough if that were a coincidence, but if it was intentional, it was far worse. It meant the Lord of Gold was moving with a clear target in mind.

Hecto had sent a swift subordinate to Claudia in advance, but the Lord of Gold was just as fast. By the time word arrived, it would be right outside Claudia. Could Claudia, which did not even have enough mounts, respond quickly enough?

"Damn it! I should have sent someone sooner! I was so busy cleaning up this mess that I didn't realize!"

Their peaceful lives were gone. The jackals would have to endure an even harsher nomadic life to avoid the disaster god wandering the Lesser States.

That was only if Claudia survived.

"If that road reaches Claudia, we're finished. We have to buy time somehow...!"

"Mr. Hecto!"

I had slipped in among the fleeing jackals and approached close enough to wave at them. Hecto recognized me and stared in bewilderment.

"You're from the military state!"

"Yes! I'm the military state's peace envoy!"

After a brief moment of confusion, Hecto suddenly exploded at my smiling face.

"Did you people turn the Lord of Gold into that?"

"How could we, when the Lord of Gold beat us up and chased us out? If anything, the Lord of Gold did this to us!"

At my single reply, Hecto fell silent. They had only blurted it out because they wanted someone to blame, not because they had truly thought it through.

...Actually, I had poked it until it went berserk. But that was a secret.

"You saw it yourself, didn't you? The Lord of Gold declared war on the enemies of the Golden Kingdom. What a shame. It seems the Lesser States were included too! Ha ha! You rejected peace, and now look at you!"

"Did you come here to mock me?"

"No. That's only a side objective. I have a real reason for coming!"

"I'm busy. Save your pointless talk for later...!"

"You practically betrayed us, but we're still peace envoys! So we'll stop the Lord of Gold and bring peace!"

Hecto looked at me with an expression of deep emotion.

I knew the situation was urgent, but don't look at me with such sparkling eyes. It was burdensome. I felt a little bad too.

There was not much time, so I briefly explained the current situation.

"The Verdigris Lord is on the move. She'll reach the Lord of Gold no matter what it takes, but she needs everyone else's help."

The contest was simple.

If Perru reached the Lord of Gold and rusted that golden bell, we won. If she failed, we lost.

If we won, we lost the Lord of Gold. If we lost, we lost everything. There was nothing but losses either way, but that was how the world worked sometimes. You had to realize that even a zero-sum game was a luxury.

"Do whatever you can to help Perru reach the Lord of Gold. Draw its attention, put pressure on it, anything."

I did not know how many seconds the Suppression Lord could buy, but even that would be precious.

'So you're telling me to be a meat shield. Verdigris... That child can surely stand against the Lord of Gold. But neither I nor the other lords can oppose the Lord of Gold. Alchemy belongs to that being.'

Hecto considered it, though not for long.

Even lives depreciated. Old people, worn down by long use, often offered their lives at a relatively cheap price.

No matter how far the people of the Lesser States were from patriotism, they became attached to a place with every year they spent there. Hecto had been a citizen of the Lesser States from birth and had lived there into old age. By now, they could no longer separate themself from the country. Compared to that, their shriveled life was terribly light.

A heavy heart and a light life. Having finished weighing them, Hecto made their decision.

"Where is the Verdigris Lord?"

"Over there."

I pointed at the hill in the distance. Hecto watched it for a moment, then furrowed their brow and looked around.

"...Is she hiding behind the hill? Planning to ambush the Lord of Gold when it comes close?"

'There's no denying that an ambush would be most effective... But will the Lord of Gold come that way?'

A hill. If it looked like that to the Suppression Lord too, the operation would succeed. I grinned and spoke again.

"Just watch a little longer. You'll understand."

Hecto looked at the hill doubtfully. Only after several seconds did they realize why I had pointed at it.

The mound of earth was wriggling toward the Lord of Gold as though it were alive.

The ground looked like one solid mass, but it was actually a fabric woven from thin layers. Over tens of thousands of years, Mother Earth had stitched clothes together one thread at a time to conceal her divine body.

The regressor used Jizan's authority to peel back one layer of those clothes and hide the Golden Ark beneath it.

'Ghhh! Even with Jizan...! Lifting the ground is... a little difficult...!'

Using Jizan, she lifted one layer of earth. The Golden Ark raced through the space created beneath it. The Golden Ark could move through the ground using Transposition Movement, making this absurd feat possible.

...Of course, the regressor was expending considerable concentration and stamina to lift the ground.

Worrying about a regressor was probably the most pointless worry in the world.

The hill rumbled toward the Lord of Gold's route. It looked as though a gigantic mole were preparing to ambush the expanding road from underground. The moment those two paths crossed would be when Hecto had to act.

'Their speeds are nearly the same. At that distance, when will they arrive? If I leave now...!'

Having finished calculating, Hecto shouted urgently.

"We move! Raise the horn!"

A subordinate beside Hecto raised a huge horn. Hecto applied pressure to it with their innate arcane. Air flowed through its complicated inner structure before passing through the tube, producing a sound like a ship's horn.

Bwaaaaaang.

The horn sounded long and loud. The lord's subordinates heard the signal and climbed onto their mounts, looking confused.

"We're moving? Where to?"

"Lord Hecto?! Where are you going?"

They asked as if they did not know, but everyone had already guessed. They just wanted to confirm it, clinging to the hope that they were wrong.

Hecto started the Juggernaut and shouted even louder.

"Buy time! We'll draw the Lord of Gold's attention!"

"What?"

"Don't stupidly ask again! I don't have time to persuade you! You! Attach the exhaust pipes!"

The Suppression Lord's innate arcane was the power to apply pressure to metal. Hecto usually used pistons to turn that innate arcane into force.

Their Juggernaut, Steel Heart, was the same. Made of thousands of pistons and cylinders, Steel Heart began to vibrate violently.

"I won't ask you to risk your lives for free. That's not our way!"

Oddly enough, Hecto's Juggernaut was nothing but an engine. What was attached to it and what purpose it served were entirely up to Hecto. Steel Heart did not care how many arms it had, whether it had wheels instead of legs, whether it cut grass with a scythe or felled trees with a saw. It only provided power in silence.

Until now, Hecto had attached the corn harvester designed by the Lord of Gold. Now, every part meant for harvesting corn was removed. The engine core dropped with a clatter, and Hecto's close aides brought components to their assigned positions on it and fitted them into place. Larger wheels, spring-loaded joints, and dozens of exhaust pipes.

The completed Juggernaut boasted a crude, brutal frame. A sound as rough as its appearance came from the exhaust pipes.

"Instead, I'll pay you! I'll buy your lives with my money!"

Rumble.

Steel Heart expelled airflow instead of blood. Hot wind wrapped around Hecto's Juggernaut and transformed into power. Scorching blasts poured from the exhaust ports.

"To those who follow me, I will divide every bit of wealth I've gathered equally among you! I say this as the Suppression Lord!"

Leaving only those words behind, Hecto released Steel Heart's reins. The Juggernaut roared, its wheels clawing at the earth as if tearing it apart. Leaving a storm behind it, the Juggernaut burst forward as one with the wind.

The jackals stirred. Most of them knew how much wealth the Suppression Lord possessed.

The Suppression Lord was the Lord of Gold's closest aide. Hecto had made money for a long time by processing and selling food. Their wealth was impossible to estimate, enough to keep nearly a thousand subordinates and still have money left over.

"Could it be true?"

"Surely they wouldn't lie. Lord Hecto isn't some drifter. I've never seen them break a promise."

Life was precious. But if enough money was at stake that they could never earn it in a lifetime, that was another matter. If they survived by luck, they could spend the rest of their lives in luxury.

"Ah, screw it! It's not like we're guaranteed to die!"

"It's a big score! If I pull this off, I'm leaving this damned country!"

"Are you an idiot? Why leave the country when you're rich? Go live in luxury in Claudia!"

The jackals, who had nothing to lose but their lives, shouted boldly as they mounted their rides. They cracked whips at beasts that might have been pack mules or pack horses and lit their creaking engines. Chasing a fortune, the jackals raced after the Suppression Lord.

"Let's go! You only die once!"

"We somehow survived earlier, didn't we? We just have to do it one more time!"

The jackals of the Lesser States screamed, almost shrieking to rouse themselves, then charged after Hecto as one.

Footnotes:

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