WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 486: So Much Has Happened to Me

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I really went through a lot. Seriously, this is exhausting.

I had not been in Ende long, but cramming all that work into the last few days had worn me out. Ende was absurdly vast. Just walking around and reading thoughts took up an entire day.

Reading minds, sorting out the situation, moving around, then reading more minds. It was grueling work, like searching through a chaotically arranged library and piecing together a chronology one volume at a time.

Still, people have a part of them that finds this sort of organizing thrilling. Picking Orcma members out from among tens of thousands of people and ruining only them was quietly fun. They had hidden among the citizens while enjoying the sweet fruits of their work, so watching them gradually grow anxious gave me a sense of accomplishment.

I wrapped up some simple work today, shook off anyone tailing me, and returned to the mansion. As I crossed the dim courtyard and headed inside, I saw two figures waiting there.

The regressor and Azzy were standing in front of the mansion.

What? Had they stayed up waiting for me this whole time? How pointless... Still, it made my chest feel a little warm. I had not known having someone wait for me could feel this nice.

"Where have you been wandering around until now?"

Never mind. The warmth in my chest filled with smoke again, leaving me stifled. Hearing the regressor's sullen question, I answered indifferently.

"Why? I went and did what you wanted me to do, Mr. Shei."

"You could at least tell me where you're going, what you're doing, and when you'll be back. So I don't worry for nothing."

"Then did you explain where you were going? You just said you'd be back late and disappeared again today."

"I did come back late!"

"I didn't even get a chance to say when I'd be back. Why didn't you listen?"

Apparently at a loss for words, the regressor grew even more sullen.

‘I’m strong, and I roughly know what I need to watch out for in this time period. But even if you’re the King of Humanity, you’ve lost your power. What if you go alone without Azzy and get hurt, or even die?’

Her thoughts were kinder than her words. Just think and never speak. Or tell me everything honestly. Then you'd at least be halfway decent.

"Don't stand around outside. Come in first."

‘Whatever he’s doing, he really does seem busy. He should rest.’

Switch your thoughts and words around. You have a talent for making even kind thoughts sound annoying.

Once inside, I found Manhan Quanxi sitting alone on the dining table. The regressor usually kept it in her subspace, but she must have been waiting for me, since she had not put it away yet.

The regressor placed her hand on Manhan Quanxi and asked, "Did you eat?"

"I grabbed something while working."

"Want a meal?"

"I'll skip it today since I'm about to sleep."

"You should've said that sooner. I already pressed it."

Your actions are faster than your questions. I was a little hungry, so I gratefully ate. A simmering red soup came out, and after quickly finishing it, I felt warmth spread through my body.

The regressor waited until I was done eating, then spoke as soon as I put down my spoon.

"You. Are you the Magician?"

"Gasp. How did you know?"

"Why are you surprised? You went around calling yourself the Magician whenever you did anything."

"How do you remember that? I thought you'd have forgotten already."

"Why? You're not famous, but I can remember that much."

"I'm more concerned about your memory than my level of fame, Mr. Shei."

"Hey!"

After we exchanged friendly insults, the regressor crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair.

"I keep hearing the name Magician whenever I go around. They say you've been causing a huge commotion in Ende. It was impossible not to hear about it."

"I'm not causing a commotion. I'm just teasing people in a slightly amusing way."

"That's what I mean. From what I hear, public opinion isn't that bad."

Oh. It had already reached the regressor's ears? That was a little surprising.

"What do people think?"

"Ordinary people see you as a cheerful criminal. Ende's guards and the Obelisks quietly welcome you too. They say the Magician only ruins people who disturb public safety."

That was rewarding. I nodded proudly, and the regressor said, "So what are you doing under the name Magician? Are you some kind of guard?"

"It's a little different from the guards. They can't do anything before an incident happens. Even when something does happen, it's hard for them to tell who the villain is and who got dragged into it."

"And you can?"

"Of course. Eavesdropping, sneaking in, deceiving people, acting. Hiding among humans and drawing out their desires. As the King of Humanity, I'm good at that sort of thing."

I conveniently left out the mind-reading, but the regressor had experienced so many strange abilities by now that she accepted my accomplishments without much suspicion.

"Before we fight the King of Wolves, we need to straighten out Ende's order. We need to gather all of Ende's strength if we're going to stand against the King of Wolves."

"What? You're good at this when you actually work. You should've done it sooner!"

"Treatments like this are like stimulants. If you use them too long, they lose their effect. Disorder comes from inequality, so if we don't solve that at its root, it'll burst out again someday. And once they get used to this, they'll find another way."

For now, this was unfamiliar territory, and I was rampaging around while openly leaving my traces behind, so they could not think straight. But if they learned my identity by chance, I would go from a symbol of fear to a target that had to be killed. If an outside enemy appeared, Orcma would become more united and oppose me.

‘Not bad. He won’t help much when it comes time to fight, but he’s really useful in all the smaller matters.’

Say that out loud. Don't just think it and move on. I was letting it slide because I could read minds. Anyone else would have abandoned you and run away long ago.

"Got it. You don't need anything else?"

"Not really. Ah, even worms wriggle when stepped on, so Ende's troublemakers might cause a scene once. If we get through that, there shouldn't be any trouble afterward."

"If they're troublemakers, should I deal with them in advance?"

"It would be better if Ende resolves this itself. Internal discipline is the quickest way to build stronger unity."

‘Hm. Come to think of it, the times Ende failed to stop the King of Wolves were when Ende had weakened. Hughes really is the convenient type to have as an ally. He gets along with everyone. He understands how humans think. If I had to put it into words, he seems like he'd be good at internal affairs... I want to station him at some base somewhere.’

Haha. What? You were the same. Not exactly convenient to have as an ally, but terrifying to have as an enemy. If you became my enemy, I would die next cycle without even knowing why.

"I did my work, so shall we inspect what you did now? What did you do, Mr. Shei?"

"I went to the Beast Faction and delivered Ende's message. The King of Wolves is coming, so we should join forces for peace on the plains."

"Do we need their strength too?"

"They're savages. If we don't reach out first, they might side with the werewolves and invade Ende."

Ah, right. The werewolves had joined the King of Wolves. The King of Wolves was hostile to all humans, but the King of Wolves did not attack werewolves. Through them, the King of Wolves might form an indirect alliance with humans.

Everything was moving like a carefully assembled machine. The regressor had plans of her own.

"Gruel, the fierce orc warrior. If even someone like him, a pig beastkin who has reached the Principle, lends Ende his strength, it will be safe."

Oh? A fierce orc warrior. A powerful beastkin who had reached the Principle...

...An orc? A pig beastkin?

An ominous thought passed through my mind, but he was not an Ende citizen, so it should be fine, right?

No group exists without force. If one does, do not come out and argue with me. Hide quickly instead. Another armed group will come along and swallow you whole.

Fang, Orcma's armed force, was a mercenary unit made up of pig beastkin. At the same time, it was Orcma's largest cooperating organization.

First Fang Urukpaing spoke to a subordinate.

"Two contacts connected to ranch owners outside Ende have disappeared. Rumor says they were embedded naked in Ende's outer wall, struggling helplessly. Fifteen wagons turned into toy cards, and the pack horses went on parade carrying drunk horse beastkin before being recovered by Ende's guards."

Taken one by one, they were minor losses. Yet all those losses were piling up and weakening their unity.

"More importantly, the Magician... He is targeting only Orcma with exact precision."

The greatest reason Orcma had been able to grow was its anonymity.

Beastkin causing trouble was nothing surprising. But Orcma hid among such beastkin.

Some acted without even knowing they were Orcma. Some knew but did not know exactly what they were doing. Some took on fairly central roles but committed no crimes themselves.

Their activities were too minor to worry about, and no one could tell who was good and who was evil. Hidden behind anonymity, Orcma grew stronger by the day.

"The Magician. We can't leave him alone. For the glory of the orcs, no... At least to receive treatment equal to other beastkin. We need to secure more interests. We can't go back to the days when orcs were oppressed. Back when cutting off an orc's head on the street was not a crime..."

If it had been those days, Orcma could not have existed in the first place. If they caused a disturbance, their heads would have been cut off, and they would have been tortured. Not them, but their families.

But that was no longer the case. Ende was a city of beastkin, treatment of pig beastkin had improved, and since the appearance of the Holy Maiden with fur, it had become impossible to slaughter beastkin indiscriminately as before. In this situation, accurately distinguishing Orcma was as difficult as cutting out only the diseased part of a body. One wrong cut would damage the body.

Yet the Magician was doing exactly that. Whether he truly used magic or not, his existence alone made orcs afraid of being cut away, and they were turning their backs on Orcma. At this rate, not only would an orc revival fail, even their unity would collapse.

Urukpaing renewed their resolve and asked a subordinate, "You spread the false information?"

"Yes. We told our collaborators to gather here because we were going to establish a code for dealing with the Magician. If the Magician is getting information somehow, he will want to disrupt this meeting."

"Good. If the Magician comes here unaware, Fang will bite the back of his neck."

"But we don't know who the Magician is. Will we be able to find him?"

"There aren't many humans in Ende. If a human comes here, it is safe to assume they are the Magician. Report to me as soon as you find one."

Fang hid throughout the area and waited for the human foolish enough to come. Collaborators who had also been deceived came as well, but they were sent back through a secret passage prepared beforehand.

‘When will you come, Magician? If Orcma is your goal, you won't miss this chance.’

Like fangs hidden in a mouth, they quietly but sharply watched for their prey.

Then, after a short while, someone in a hood slowly approached through a group of passersby. There was no bulge above the deeply drawn hood.

"A human!"

Fang immediately leaped out from hiding. They sprang from rooftops, behind walls, and beneath the ground, surrounding the human. The hooded human looked around in alarm at the shadows that had suddenly appeared.

"Found you. Magician."

Urukpaing approached the human, clashing the gauntlets together threateningly as Urukpaing growled.

"How long did you think you could keep hiding your identity?"

"I don't know who you are, but this is as far as you go."

"You've finally shown your tail."

There was no way a human coming here in a hood could be anyone other than the Magician. It was simple reasoning, but it had a basis. The orcs confidently surrounded the human in the trap they had made.

But they should have thought a little harder.

The Magician, who had hidden his identity while tearing through Ende until now, would not approach so conspicuously.

"I don't have a tail."

The human declared it confidently and threw back his hood. Fang, eager to see the Magician's face, drew in sharp breaths when they saw who had been hidden beneath it.

"Still, I have feet to step on tails. It seems... you are the ones who have shown yours."

Sapien. Ende's official and leader of the Obelisks.

Seeing Ende's strongest guardian, Fang looked at one another in panic. Fang might have been a famous mercenary unit, but they could not heavily arm themselves inside the city... and their opponent was Oberli's strongest official. Touching Sapien would cause trouble, and Fang could not do so in the first place.

"Th-the Magician..."

"An anonymous letter arrived in Oberli. It said an impure group would gather here, at this place and time."

The moment the hood fell to the ground.

Bang. Sapien kicked off like lightning, seized one orc by the collar, and slammed the orc into the ground.

The savage attack was like that of a beast. The orc immediately lost both consciousness and a tusk.

Ende's warriors fought beasts. That was why they gradually came to resemble beasts. They survived by imitating the movements of animals that had survived in the wild.

Sapien incapacitated one with explosive energy, then took the gauntlets and put them on. The gauntlets were larger than Sapien's fists, but that did not matter. Wild energy filled the gauntlets.

"Was the person who sent the letter the Magician? I should thank him. He gave me the chance to clean up this trash in one go."

"Argh...!"

Cornered, Fang made a drastic decision. Urukpaing shouted, "Scatter!"

Even if they fought, it was uncertain whether they could win. The bigger problem was that their opponent was an official.

One condition beastkin had promised the duchy in order to have Ende recognized as a city of beastkin was guaranteeing the safety of officials. If beastkin harmed or tried to harm an official, Ende could take whatever measures were necessary.

Most importantly, the Lilac Duchy itself could intervene.

Pig beastkin had created Orcma to rise again. If they received outside interference before becoming established, everything they had done so far would become meaningless. Hoping that as few orcs as possible would be caught, Urukpaing ordered them to flee.

But there was one more thing they had overlooked.

"If you thought you could escape... I'm disappointed."

Even as humans fled in droves at the threat of wolves, Sapien had chosen to remain alone in Ende. Sapien, the city's guardian Obelisk, was not someone an ordinary mercenary unit could handle.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Each time the human's hands moved, another one fell. Orc-shaped marks were left on walls and the ground. Sapien bounded off the floor and walls like a beast.

Urukpaing charged at Sapien with raised gauntlets.

The collision between orc and human produced a tremendous crash. Finger-shaped pieces of iron flew from the broken gauntlet. It was Urukpaing's, whose energy was weaker.

Beastkin had powerful bodies but lacked wisdom. That was why their energy was comparatively weaker, and why they had not become the main current of history.

Urukpaing somehow grabbed Sapien with their dented gauntlets and shouted, "Go! Scatter!"

"Captain...!"

"Hurry!"

"A tearful effort."

Sapien immediately twisted and threw Urukpaing to the ground. The orc's back struck the ground. Leaving Urukpaing behind as the orc gasped for breath, Sapien went after the rest.

Then the orc's powerful hand seized Sapien's clothes. Even as blood ran from the corner of Urukpaing's mouth, the orc tightened the grip.

"You can't go...!"

"Hm."

Even that tearful resistance was meaningless. Sapien's fists and kicks mercilessly struck Urukpaing. Only after the orc's massive body was sent flying through the air more than five times did Urukpaing's grip finally loosen.

Still, the time Urukpaing bought was valuable. While the fight dragged on, Fang carried away their fallen comrades and disappeared all at once.

Sapien brushed off his clothes and muttered as he watched the street where the orcs had vanished.

"I should have brought some subordinates with me."

Sapien had been confident of avoiding injury. But Sapien had not considered the need to catch every fleeing orc. The Magician's letter had arrived too suddenly for that.

Still, catching even one was something. There were many ways to make someone talk. And there were even more if the target was a pig beastkin.

"Still... Magician. Who could he be?"

Sapien was curious about the identity of the man causing upheaval in the city, but did not attach much importance to it.

As long as it helped the city, Sapien only intended to make good use of the Magician.

Footnotes:

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