WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 492

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Ende's Spring - 5

The pig-kin riot shook the entire city. From the outskirts of Ende all the way to Oberli, a fire that had ignited without warning sent a hot wind sweeping through the streets.

Sapien, who had been escorting Gruel, received a summons from one of the Obelisks. He excused himself, stepped close, and was passed word in a hushed voice about what had broken out in Ende.

'Orcma has staged a riot and is threatening Oberli?'

A few links in the chain of events had been left out and context was scarce, but the fact itself was clear enough. Sapien glanced quickly over at Gruel. Gruel was cracking jokes at his grumbling subordinates.

Gruel was pig-kin himself, but he had only arrived in the city today, so the odds that he had planned something were slim. Still, the timing was too convenient to ignore. Inviting the Beast Faction this deep into the city had already been a considerable risk for Ende, and now this disturbance on top of it.

Sapien channeled his energy and sent his words through Voice Transmission, too low for Gruel to catch.

[Take the second unit and head out first. I'll keep him occupied here.]

"Honestly. You invite a guest and then stand there whispering among yourselves? At this rate I'll start thinking I'm being left out."

Gruel grumbled with irritation, and Sapien waved his subordinate off before turning to face him.

"There has been a small incident. Please wait here for a moment."

"Wait? You gave me an earful for taking care of a bit of business before our meeting time, and now you're asking me, with this many men standing around, to wait? Civilized people have no shame."

"I ask for your patience."

"Patience."

Gruel twisted his face into something close to a sneer and shrugged with exaggerated indifference.

"Fine. If that's what the great man of Oberli says, I'll oblige. Everyone, break time! Stretch your legs while you're at it!"

The Beast Faction warriors let out rough laughs and rolled their shoulders and limbs in every direction. It was an open display of discontent, deliberately threatening. Since the fault lay on this side there was nothing to say about it, but the Obelisks felt a prickling tension creep through them all the same.

Gruel strolled toward Sapien with perfect ease.

"Since we're killing time, let me tell you something interesting."

"What would that be?"

"We beastkin have four ears. Human ears, and animal ears."

Gruel tapped the side of his head, where hair covered everything. Hidden beneath that slight bulge of fur was a human ear.

"It means we're less creatures that came out right and more creatures that got mixed together. Either way, having more ears isn't always a good thing. The animal ears are far sharper, and the human ears just muddle the senses and get in the way."

"I know."

"But when you cultivate energy, your senses sharpen too. A human who handles energy as finely as an Obelisk can reach senses equal to a beastkin's, or even surpass them. And unlike us, they can switch it on and off at will. Far more useful than a beastkin who has to take in every sound whether they want to or not."

None of this was new to anyone. Everything Gruel was saying was groundwork for something else. Sapien felt a faint unease stir inside him.

"What is it you want to say?"

Gruel grinned.

"So then, what about a beastkin who sharpens their senses further with energy?"

"...What?"

"My own kin, the pig-kin, have started a riot, you say? So you're trying to pin me and my men here? My, my, what a disaster! A city as big as Ende and the trouble just never stops!"

He declared it openly and doubled over laughing. Caught without any room to deny it, Sapien was stunned.

"I sent that by Voice Transmission..."

When energy cultivation reaches its peak, it can seize even the air itself. Voice Transmission is a technique that carries sound directly by gripping the wind with energy.

Because it physically cuts off the sound, there is ordinarily no way to intercept another person's Voice Transmission, regardless of one's level. Under ordinary circumstances.

"I didn't hear the sound. I heard 'you' hearing it. Next time you use Voice Transmission, watch the inside of your ears too, especially for information you're that desperate to keep hidden!"

Sapien had underestimated his opponent. To have reached understanding through energy means carrying one's own principle within. Gruel had reached a level where energy amplified even the natural gifts of a beastkin.

Sapien answered with a hollow, defeated feeling.

"...If you heard it, you already know. Ende has a serious disturbance on its hands right now. Until it is settled, I cannot allow outsiders into Oberli."

He could no longer hide it, so he laid out the truth plainly, but that was a little too late. Gruel's expression shifted.

"Hey, now... are you joking?"

Clang, clang, clang. The moment Gruel's words landed, the Beast Faction and the Obelisks drew their weapons on each other simultaneously. A tension that felt one breath away from combat hung between the two groups.

Amid that razor-edged air, Gruel drew a long, slow breath. The day was not particularly cold, yet white vapor poured roughly from his mouth.

"Our kin rose up full of grievances. And instead of calming them down or talking things through, your first move was to hide it, even if it meant deceiving us and cutting us off."

"This was not foreseen. If anything, Oberli must be even more cautious of your people now."

"Sure, I understand that part. You're frightened. You're scared. We're strong, and if it comes to a fight, both sides get hurt."

It would have been hard to let it go even if the truth had been told from the start. Now that they had tried to conceal it and been caught, the Beast Faction had no reason left to hold back.

"But! If fighting is what you fear, being looked down on is death! Back down once and they'll keep coming for your blood and flesh, again and again and again!"

Compromise and concession were things possible between humans. In the wild, where you coveted each other's blood and meat, there were only two options: fight, or die.

Lose the standoff and you die. You had to show the will to leave a wound even if you died for it, or you would never escape being prey. You had to take revenge when your kin were killed, or you would never plant the seed of wariness in your enemy.

Honor might look useless, but there was a reason to grip it even at the cost of recklessness.

"Are you afraid of us!"

"Are you afraid of us!"

"Are you afraid to fight!"

"Are you afraid to fight!"

The Beast Faction warriors began snorting and stamping, chanting Gruel's words back at him. The wind that had started with Orcma's demonstration had reached the Beast Faction too.

"We are going to Oberli."

What Ende and the Beast Faction had agreed on was to join forces in Oberli and bring down the King of Wolves. The state of the city and whatever was happening inside it was none of their concern.

"If you want to stop us, stop us with force, not with words."

But Oberli had to defend the city. Whether it was enraged pig-kin or the Beast Faction, anyone coming for Oberli was an enemy.

Regardless of the odds. Regardless of how bad the situation looked.

Sapien gripped his weapon.

******

Furious pig-kin were advancing on Oberli's walls. The ones who had been hammering the gates with picket signs showed no sign of flagging at the sight of the unopened doors; if anything, they burned hotter. They had abandoned the signs for a log hauled in from somewhere and were ramming the gate with it.

"Oh my, oh my. What in the world is this mess."

Kito, a rabbit beastkin and trap designer, blinked her large eyes in a panic.

The five livestock beastkin made up most of the population, but Ende had many other minority beastkin as well. Cats and rabbits were the most common among them. Rabbit beastkin in particular had always been known for timidity and had always occupied the bottom of the pile.

"Do something!"

"Force is what the Obelisks are for... I'm with the technical department..."

"Exactly! Use that brilliant technical mind of yours to stop them! You can do it!"

But Kito had earned her place as a resident of Oberli for one simple reason: she had awakened an innate arcane.

The public official pointed a jabbing finger, the veins in her neck standing out.

"Those things haven't even trained their energy! Turn whatever they've got into traps!"

"But I haven't changed anything they're carrying..."

"This is an emergency! Hurry!"

While Kito stood there at a loss, a large ladder crashed down beside her. A heavy wooden ladder, thunk, came to rest against the wall. Kito lurched back in shock and sank to her knees clutching her head. Cheers rose from below and pig-kin began climbing.

Thankfully, Obelisks who had rushed to respond smashed the ladder, but there were only five or six of them and the numbers pressing against the wall kept growing. Mixed in here and there were beastkin who were not pig-kin.

"You think they'll spare you just because you're beastkin? You're not pig-kin, you're not livestock-kin, but you're still Oberli's privileged class just the same as the rest! Hurry!"

"Ugh..."

At this rate the walls would actually fall. Kito, frightened to the bone, looked around frantically and unleashed her innate arcane.

Innate arcane, Miss Goldberg.

Kito's innate arcane was collapse.

More precisely, it was the ability to hold something that was about to collapse in that state just a little longer.

A poorly stacked pile, a rope pulled taut, a ball perched on the edge of falling. Every bit of that instability, everything that should have already given way, she held and suspended. Inside Kito's innate arcane, everything hung in place without dropping.

And when it was all wound up like that, what happened when Kito released it?

The taut rope snatched someone off their feet, a pit that had been barely holding gave out, a leaning post swung and struck someone, a ladder that had looked perfectly fine snapped.

That was what a trap was. Something dangerous but hidden well enough that no one could detect it, waiting for someone to set it off and bring it all crashing down in an instant. Kito used her innate arcane to force that situation into being.

The scene was already so chaotic and unstable that the precariousness built up inside her innate arcane in no time at all. The whisker-hairs on Kito's cheeks stood on end as instinct screamed danger. Kito turned back to the official who had given the order.

"D-do I actually do it?"

"What are you standing there for! Do it now!"

"A-are you really sure? This is really happening? Should I go ahead? I'm going to do it?"

"Stop talking and do it already!"

"Someone might get hurt though..."

"I don't care if those things get hurt! Do it now! Or I'll hurt you myself!"

The official snapped in fury. Kito squeezed her eyes shut and pressed both hands hard over her long ears. She was trying not to hear the screaming that was about to follow, but a rabbit's long ears were more than two hands could cover.

Kito murmured, hoping as hard as she could that the screams would not reach her.

"Sorry... I'm so sorry..."

"No need for that."

"Huh?"

I had moved close to Kito and snapped my fingers.

There was a cauldron that had been boiling water. It had been prepared at the official's order, meant to be poured on the pig-kin below. It sat over a hastily thrown-together pile of firewood, but for some reason it lost its balance and rolled off.

The boiling water spilled and the cauldron went tumbling across the ground. People scattered to avoid the searingly hot pot. A cattle-kin carrying a net was no different. The net that should have been packed around the sandbags propped against the gate tangled around the rolling cauldron and was dragged along with it.

"Huh?"

Unluckily, Kito happened to be right in its path.

Before she could react, the net wrapped tight around her ankles. When the cauldron rolled off the edge, Kito was dragged along without resistance. She stumbled, tipped over, and ended up dangling upside down from the wall. Skirt and clothes both flipped inside out, wrapped up in netting and swinging in the air, Kito cried out through her tears.

"S-someone help meeee!"

"Why did you have to be the one to get caught in it!"

Traps did not distinguish friend from foe. Kito, being at the center of everything, had a quiet habit of becoming a victim of her own ability. It was an occupational hazard of her innate arcane.

Though this time, I had set off one of the nearby traps early on purpose.

Quite an interesting innate arcane. Easy for me to borrow, and entertaining in its results. I want one like it for myself.

Maybe it was because everything was such a mess, but even with me and a few others joining the scene, nobody paid us much attention. Kito was making far too undignified a spectacle of herself, and every eye, the Obelisks' included, was fixed on her.

Understandable, really. No one expected pig-kin to come from inside Oberli, so of course everyone let their guard down.

But the cost of letting their guard down was steep.

Someone moved fast toward the official from behind. Before anyone could react, that shadow wrapped a thick arm around the official's throat.

"What? Who are you! Ack!"

"Everyone stop."

A pig-kin. A pig-kin who should have been outside the walls was suddenly right there with an arm locked around the official. In the stunned silence that followed that unprecedented turn of events,

the First Fang, mercenary commander Urukpaing, held the official hostage and snarled.

"Open the gate right now. Or the official's life ends here."

The more intricate the plan, the more gaps it opens. The longer the preparation, the greater the chance of a leak.

Most great events tend to happen without anyone intending them. Against all expectation, no plan at all can itself be a plan.

The gate that had held back the hot wind swung open, and Ende welcomed its spring.

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