WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 464: The One Who Might Become My Father

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Hmm. She was confessing that her mother had been a courtesan? No matter how I put it, it would sound like an insult to her parents. I chose my words carefully.

"Your mother chose a profession where she sold affection. You must be glad to have had so many fathers because of it."

"Yes. Thanks to that, I got to meet Father too... I'm very happy."

"What are you talking about? I've never been to places like that, and I don't have the authority to play around with courtesans! I was so broke that I even had to take a part-time job at a host club!"

If anyone was selling, it was me, not buying! ...Wait. Was I really in a position to look down on someone else for being a courtesan? I was just spitting into the air and having it fall back on me.

"Father came as an employee, not a customer.... The brothel was testing the waters with a business aimed at women, but you ended up falling for one of the courtesans, so they threw you out right away."

"That's the setting now?"

"Still, thanks to that, 'I'... gained the best father."

I had professional ethics too. Even at the military state's host club, I had never laid a finger on anyone directly connected to my workplace. Hilde's setting was utterly ridiculous slander.

Still... I was beginning to understand why Hilde insisted on calling me Father.

"Hilde's audience was her fathers, then. Was all that acting meant to impress fathers who kept changing?"

"...Yes. The customers at the brothel came to see Mother. 'I' was a trace left behind by one of Mother's former customers, so the fathers disliked 'me.' To Mother as well, 'I' was practically a flaw that lowered her price and damaged her reputation."

"She gave birth to you herself and still made such a fuss?"

"In the Empire and its vassal states, which follow the doctrine of the Celestial God, a child must be born if one is conceived. That applied even to brothels. Thanks to that, 'I' was born... but for a child to survive, 'I' had to cater to others as well."

Hilde murmured as she recalled a past she could barely remember.

"The first father couldn't stand the sight of 'me.' Whenever he saw 'me,' his face twisted, and he would gesture for someone to take 'me' away. I didn't understand then, but looking back, I think it was because he felt defeated by not being able to have Mother. The only time he smiled at 'me'... was when 'I' called him Father. It was a twisted smile, as if he were drunk on victory...."

"Haha. It seems your first father treasured his wife dearly."

"Though he said he had no desire to bring home a flower someone else had picked, so he never bought her out of the brothel."

"Damn it. With so many parents, anything I say turns into a personal attack. What am I supposed to do?"

It felt as though she had built a minefield and told me to walk through it. I had no choice but to listen to Hilde.

"...'My' very existence was Mother's flaw. Because of 'me,' the caliber of honored guests who sought Mother declined, and her price fell. It would have been nice if she could hide it, but a scandal attached to a courtesan never disappears. As fewer people asked for her by name, Mother became furious. She said it was because of 'me.'"

"Hmm. It would be rude to say maybe she simply depreciated with time, wouldn't it?"

Apparently, that was a little rude. Hilde pinched my side. She had not used any energy techniques, but pinching hurt even without them.

"The fathers who came to see Mother were at least kind to 'me.' Fathers who wanted to preserve their dignity, even if only outwardly, used 'me' to display their generosity. 'I' struggled desperately to please them. At least while they were there, 'I' could play at being a family."

"So Hilde's acting began there?"

"...I suppose so. Though I don't know whether to call it acting or currying favor. I had to act so Father wouldn't abandon me and so I wouldn't disgrace Mother. For an authoritative father, I became a good and obedient 'me.' For a vain father, I became a clever and precocious 'me.' For an old father, I became a spoiled and clingy 'me.'"

"You called for a courtesan and got the ideal daughter too? At that point, that's not a flaw. It's an add-on."

I had meant to lighten the mood, but Hilde murmured bitterly.

"It was the ordinary path of a courtesan's daughter becoming a courtesan herself. If I had stayed there, 'I' might have sold affection just like Mother."

"That's a relief. Ah, I don't mean your mother's work was a profession that had to be avoided."

"Working in a theater troupe gives you much better treatment and more freedom than being a courtesan bound to a brothel."

"What am I supposed to say, then?"

Hilde gave me a small smile and whispered.

"...Or so I thought. But Father was right. 'I' only needed an audience. No matter how much talent I learned or how many arts I mastered, it was meaningless without an audience to watch. Unlike other people, 'I' was not made up of myself. I always needed someone to define 'me.'"

Hilde was acting as her past self. She had consciously forgotten every event she had lived through since she began acting, forcibly calling forth the person she had been then. The time she had been swept up in an accident while acting and gone on the run, the time she had devoted herself to the Celestial God and served in the Holy Sword Corps, the time the Holy Maiden had summoned her and she had worked in secret as the Shadow Casket.

After forgetting her previous roles and returning to that purer self, Hilde stood at her beginning and whispered to me.

"Father can become that person. If Father takes 'me' in, 'I' will become Father's daughter alone. 'I' won't possess Father. Father will possess 'me.'"

Fathers, audiences, even the Celestial God and the Holy Maiden. Hilde had made all of them her audience and been disappointed by every one of them. Now, she clung to me, the last person she had found.

"If it's Father's command, I'll do anything. I'll serve Father with all my body and heart. I'll become Father's own Holy Sword Corps member."

She meant she would cast aside both the military state and the Celestial God, then use everything for my sake. I would gain a faithful slave who would serve me with complete sincerity.

And not just any slave, but a powerhouse on the level of the Six Generals.

A Shadow Casket who could transform into any appearance I wanted, act out any voice I wished for, and infiltrate anywhere.

It was quite a bold temptation. All the more so because I could feel her sincerity.

If I had been an ordinary sort of person, I might have accepted it without hesitation.

Unfortunately, I was a truly ordinary human being.

"Is this performance your own biography? It was quite impressive."

My will only needed to move me. I had no intention of becoming a sovereign who ruled retainers like a vampire. That would be a waste of what those retainers wanted.

I gently pushed Hilde away.

"But once you're old enough, it's time to become independent. How long are you going to keep looking for a father? No matter how much a father dotes on his daughter, if she stays past the age when she should become independent, he can't help feeling conflicted about it."

It was a firm rejection. Hilde blinked beneath the blanket. Perhaps she had not expected an offer that placed even herself on the table to be rejected so easily. She smiled sadly.

"...You're cruel. Am 'I' not enough to satisfy you?"

"Because I'm satisfied, I want to leave you be. The moment I can handle you however I please, you stop being interesting. I cherish and love my own hands, but I don't consider them interesting or awe-inspiring. If an actor moved exactly as I wanted, why would I go to the theater?"

Maybe some people got confused because of the name Beast King. The Beast King was not someone who controlled beasts. It was someone who represented beasts, someone swayed by beasts.

If a representative controlled the beasts they were supposed to represent as they pleased, that would be manipulation. In that case, there would be no need for a Beast King in the first place.

As I answered calmly, Hilde seemed to recall something and asked.

"Father. You don't intend to become the king of the military state, do you?"

Huh.

She had suddenly struck at the heart of it...?

When I hesitated after she hit the mark, Hilde calmly placed a hand against my chest and murmured.

"I realized it from watching you. Father has no intention of ruling anyone else. You only look and watch. That's why you have no attachment to anything. You left the military state behind so easily, and you left Tyrkanzyaka just as easily."

"That's..."

"You have no intention of possessing even someone like 'me,' so there is no way you would want to possess a country. 'My' plan never had a chance from the beginning."

Warmth slowly returned to Hilde's body. From the moment I rejected her new role, she had begun putting her old roles back on. She returned to being Hilde of the Holy Sword Corps, the Shadow Casket, the Hilde who had followed the King of Humanity, then gave me a casual shove. Unlike before, her hand carried energy, and I could not resist as I was pushed back.

With the blanket draped over her shoulders, Hilde looked down at me coldly and spoke to herself.

"Father would rather have 'me' use force and drag you to the military state. You'd rather see 'me' act according to 'my' own wishes."

"Not necessarily. I did intend to visit the military state."

"But... you will never become its king."

I couldn't deny it.

Right. If I had wanted to become king, I wouldn't have left it to Captain AB or Historia. It was enough for me that humanity itself decided humanity's fate.

"If Father had at least lied and said you wanted to have 'me,' it would have been easier for both of us."

"I couldn't do that because it would weigh on my conscience."

Hilde spoke with self-mocking bitterness, and I answered honestly.

"Even if Hilde abandons me, I can't lose a great actor. Using a treasure of humanity for my own selfish desires would be a waste."

"..."

It was disappointing, but it couldn't be helped. That was what the Beast King was.

Contrary to what people believed, the King of Humanity ruled no one. Unless humans themselves felt as though they were being ruled.

That was how a natural being lived....

Then I felt that strange discomfort again.

Even if it couldn't be helped, what I had done was a decision fitting for the Beast King. Yet something that had taken shape in my heart was tugging at it.

I hadn't been able to distinguish it clearly the last time I felt it, but I was a mind reader. I knew better than anyone what happened inside a mind.

That was my heart.

My heart, which I could not control as I pleased.

"Either way, Father and I both have to escape the Duchy. Like it or not, 'I' have no choice but to stay with Father~. Tch. How unpleasant."

As Hilde murmured sadly, the words slipped from my mouth.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. It only makes me feel more miserable~. Go to sleep."

Hilde snapped at me sulkily, then lay on top of me just like that. As if my body were a bed, she climbed onto me, curled up, and closed her eyes. Before long, I heard her soft, steady breathing.

I almost told her she would catch a cold sleeping like that, but stopped myself. What did it matter? She was using energy techniques now. Sleeping naked would not be a problem either.

Steam rose from the bucket of water heated by lightning. Hot, humid air filled the small tunnel. This seemed comfortable enough to sleep holding a heater.

I pulled the blanket over myself and tried to sleep as well.

Footnotes:

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