WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 481: Reign but Not Rule

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The plan was to use Ende's strength to stop the King of Wolves. It was a good plan, but it had one prerequisite: we had not asked Ende what it wanted. Even if Ende was prepared to fight the wolves, it would all be pointless if it lacked the resolve to do so.

As the regressor prepared to leave, she said to me,

"Today, we're going to meet Ende's mayor, Triber. I'm going to warn them about the King of Wolves."

"Have a good trip."

I waved from where I lay on the sofa. The regressor narrowed her eyes, walked behind it, and flipped it over with one kick.

Pinned beneath the sofa and flailing, I heard the regressor shout at me.

"You're coming too! It'll be easier to persuade them if Azzy, the King of Dogs, is there!"

"Then just take Azzy. Why do I have to go?"

"Someone has to watch Azzy. You don't have anything to do anyway!"

"It hurts my feelings when you attack me with facts."

"Get up before I make it hurt for real!"

I was already hurting because I was pinned under the sofa. My excuse meant nothing, and the regressor dragged me toward central Ende.

Ende was a city of free beastkin. It had neither towering walls nor grand buildings. Yet even such a city had social classes.

Like in many places, those of higher status lived in physically higher places as well.

There was a small hill in Ende. The first humans to settle there had built their homes atop it for one reason: being higher up made them relatively safe from beasts.

As Ende's population grew, the city no longer needed to fear beast attacks. Instead, the humans who had settled there first began to fear the beastkin gathering around them. More precisely, they feared not the beastkin themselves, but their future selves, who would mingle with them.

That was how Oberli came to be. An upper district with an order different from Ende's disorder. Though humans and beastkin eventually mixed there as well, it was still a city within a city, distinct from Ende.

Mayor Triber of Ende lived there too.

At the heart of Oberli, Triber welcomed the regressor in a solemn square paved with white bricks.

"...Are you the adventurer recommended by the Purple Merchant Guild?"

Wrinkles were natural marks of age on an elderly human, like tree rings. On beastkin, though, they looked more like signs of becoming a beast. Wrinkles caused by drooping ears could not help resembling animal features.

In that sense, the old man before me looked like an old dog standing on two legs.

Naturally, I had no intention of disparaging dog beastkin. That was purely my personal impression.

A powerful figure with connections to the imperial family, a battle-scarred old dog who had held their position even in a city of beastkin, leaned on their cane and stared steadily at the regressor.

"The Purple Merchant Guild does not give recommendations lightly, but even so, such a young adventurer... Right. You say a great crisis is approaching Ende? What could it be?"

"If you're talking about a crisis for Ende, there's only one possibility. You should know that too."

Even before Ende's powerful leader, the regressor spoke as rudely as ever.

I had to admit it. You really did treat everyone equally. You were rude to everyone!

"The King of Wolves will come soon. I came to warn you beforehand."

Triber and the other elderly beastkin began murmuring. Some of them trembled. What one knew was more frightening, and even if they had expected that name to come up, it was still frightening.

Triber looked over the group and frowned, their wrinkled face creasing further.

"...Do you have grounds to be so certain?"

This was it. Having waited for my dramatic entrance, I threw the bouncing ball into the square. Azzy shot out almost mechanically. She snatched the ball while skidding across the ground, then rolled around with it.

Oberli's square was a solemn place where the city's ruling class held open meetings. Azzy had burst into it barefoot, creating a startling entrance.

"She's here just in time."

...This was not my own idea. The regressor and I had agreed on it beforehand. I didn't think she liked this sort of thing, but she was more flexible than I had expected.

A few beastkin frowned, but quite a number of dog beastkin perked up their ears. The beast within them welcomed their king.

"Ah... As expected. The King..."

A Beast King was difficult to describe for beastkin. They did not necessarily know the king personally, they had no duty to obey, and a Beast King did not particularly seek to rule them.

Even so, a Beast King was a king.

There was no need for proof. Doubt did not even arise. They simply knew. They understood one another.

That was what a Beast King was.

After receiving the King of Dogs, Triber slowly approached Azzy. Azzy was friendly toward humans and loyal to dogs, so she did not guard against the old dog beastkin. Watching Azzy happily shake her head with the ball in her mouth, Triber spoke slowly.

"...The last sighting was in the Kingdom. I heard all news stopped after the royal family disappeared and it became a military state."

"Azzy was trapped in the Abyss. Since she disappeared from the world, the King of Wolves wandered the plains without purpose. That was why it often clashed with Ende."

"Now that the King of Dogs has appeared in the world, the King of Wolves will begin acting too."

"Yes. A collision is inevitable."

The regressor pronounced an unavoidable fate upon Ende's leaders. Just as the atmosphere was about to grow heavy, Triber straightened up and spoke again.

"Perhaps this is for the best. A battle with the wolves was bound to happen someday. If we must fight, it would be better to fight alongside a king."

Triber, a dog beastkin with even a faint trace of imperial blood, was political, rational, and cooperative. Gripping their cane firmly, they declared,

"We of Ende will uphold the covenant between dogs and humans."

"That's a wise decision."

"It is also the obvious decision. The King of Dogs is a powerful fighting force. If the King of Dogs is here, she will fight the King of Wolves, and our burden will be far lighter."

With a faint smile, Triber knelt on one knee before Azzy and bowed their head.

"I am only half. I can offer a king only one knee. Your Majesty may not be familiar with human customs, but... let this be enough."

"Woof! Manners aren't important! The promise comes first!"

"I'm glad to hear you say that. Do not worry, Your Majesty. The promise will be kept."

Oh. For something the regressor had planned, this was going surprisingly well. No, things had been strange until now. This was how it should be. When you regressed, you could simply try the methods that would work from the start.

'I'm glad this went well this time. It's good that I don't have to threaten them with something else.'

Threaten them? Against such a gentle dog beastkin? So things didn't always go well. Just like you.

Perhaps because they had received their king, every dog beastkin at the meeting agreed with Triber's decision. The non-dog beastkin may have felt uneasy, but they accepted it as well. They each led clans or were elders respected by all, so if Oberli approved it, one could say Ende as a whole had been persuaded.

There was just one thing bothering me.

So many beastkin had gathered here, so why were there no humans or pig-kin in sight?

While I was wondering, an elder who had received word approached Triber.

"Mayor Triber. A messenger from the Purple Merchant Guild has arrived. I think you should meet them."

"Excellent timing. Even if only in name, Ende is territory of the Lilac vassal state. Battle is battle, but we must receive the supplies we need from that state. Since the Purple Merchant Guild has come as well..."

Triber muttered to themself, then glanced at the regressor as a thought struck them.

"...Hmm. I have the feeling that I'm being driven into a situation where I have no choice but to fight."

It was a sharp insight, proving they had not lived so long for nothing. The regressor, who had driven them there, calmly lied.

"You're overthinking it."

"Well, it hardly matters. Since it's a messenger from the Purple Merchant Guild, would you like to meet them together?"

"Let's go. Hughes!"

She finally called my name. Having finished my role of throwing the ball and waited around bored, I finally trudged in from outside. The regressor pointed at Azzy and said,

"Watch Azzy while we're gone for a bit."

"What am I, Azzy's babysitter?"

"Yeah. No, you are."

'It's not like you have anything else to do.'

If you were going to deny it, deny it all the way! It was true that I had done nothing, but still!

Triber and Oberli's officials went off somewhere with the regressor. A few beastkin left as well, leaving only those who had come purely to welcome Azzy. They maintained the dignity expected of Oberli's beastkin, but their ears and tails were not as calm as their reason.

"Grr. To think I would live to see the King of Dogs..."

"At least the King of Dogs appears fairly often, doesn't she? Whenever there is a sighting of our Sheep King, it's always somewhere like a monastery or a mountaintop. It becomes quite a fuss."

"Fairly often, my foot! Most of the time, we can't go looking because of the King of Wolves!"

There was a faint excitement in their murmurs. After calmly reading the beastkin's thoughts, I came to a conclusion.

How should I put it? A Beast King was something close to a religious leader for beastkin.

Beastkin inherited the traits of beasts, but they were not beasts themselves. A Beast King's influence over them was inevitably weaker than over beasts. Their lives did not fall apart just because a Beast King was absent.

But when one was present, they felt happy for some reason, their hearts swelled, and it gave everyone an opportunity to unite. Just like now.

I understood why the regressor had told me to bring Azzy along to make connections. Persuading them would be much easier.

Azzy seemed to feel the same way. Ordinarily, she would have rolled around playing with one ball, but now her eyes sparkled as she looked over each beastkin's face.

It was not the constant goodwill she showed humans. There was a deeper joy in Azzy's large eyes and expression.

"Lots of humans will keep promise! You, will you fight with me?"

Azzy trotted over, grabbed a dog beastkin's hem, and asked. It would have been difficult to say no to such an innocent question, and the dog beastkin clenched a fist and steeled themself.

"Of course! My King, I am ready to fight!"

"Woof! Woof! Me too!"

"We feel the same!"

Perhaps because there were so many dog beastkin, Oberli's square filled with boundless excitement and cheers. The dog beastkin who had at least maintained their dignity gradually edged closer, trying to hold Azzy's hand.

There were plenty of people besides me to watch her. But... I was the King of Humanity too. Why did no one treat me like that? You were beastkin, but you were closer to humans, weren't you?

Feeling strangely left out, I stood quietly and watched the group fan meeting. Then someone passed beside me near the entrance.

"Quiet!"

Bang! Bang!

With an irritated shout, someone hammered hard on an iron door. The sensitive beastkin all recoiled and looked toward the source of the noise.

Though everyone was staring at him, he did not feel burdened. Instead, he became even more irritated.

"You woke me up! Are you all in heat or something? Why are you so noisy today?"

"M-Master... There is a meeting today, hosted by the mayor."

"Since when did meetings become choirs? Do you have no idea how unpleasant your voices are?"

The two groups absent from Oberli's square were humans and pig-kin. At last, someone from one of those groups had appeared.

Time had passed. Generations had changed. The wolves' threat had come right to their doorstep, and Ende had transformed into a city of beastkin.

Yet the newcomer was a human who still stood at the top of Ende.

Footnotes:

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