WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 495

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Flowers Bloom in Spring

Spring had finally come to Ende after a long wait. The beastkin, freed at last from human rule, were savoring a freedom of their own. Led by the pig-kin, who had reclaimed the name Orc, Ende was steadily doing away with the abuses and injustices that had accumulated over the years.

The lowest of the low were reclaiming their rights and pursuing peace. By all logic, Ende should have been paradise.

But somehow, it didn't look particularly happy.

At the manor I shared with the regressor, she had been picking at the food the Manhan Quanxi had laid out when she suddenly spoke up.

"Hughes. I've been trying not to think this, but... aren't pig-kin just rotten from birth?"

"Pfft."

A surprise ambush of bigotry, just like that. I glanced around quickly and said, "Where did that come from? Someone might hear."

"So what if they do."

"If word gets to the Orcs, we'll have trouble getting their cooperation. They're extremely sensitive to racial slurs right now. Even coming from Mr. Shei, they'd make a scene."

"And then what? The pig-kin have no redeeming qualities, and they're worse than humans in how they act. Do I have to keep humoring them?"

I knew why the regressor was irritated. The pig-kin's recent behavior had been, well, a lot.

The pig-kin had started by abolishing all discrimination. Dog, cattle, sheep, horse, pig, all declared equally on par with humans.

As a result, every clan was now required to employ pig-kin.

Even the cattle-kin clans that farmed and did heavy labor.

Even the sheep-kin clans that tailored, did laundry, and cut hair.

Even the horse-kin clans that delivered goods and carried messages in and out of the city.

The pig-kin had secured a seat at the table and with it the authority to boss everyone around.

The dog-kin clan? Gone entirely. Dog-kin had provided services mostly tied to humans, security, escort work, trade liaison. Once the public officials fell, the dog-kin, who had sat just below humans in the pecking order, found themselves out on the street as well. The pig-kin moved into the gap.

Spring had seemed to arrive, but the city was still grinding through its growing pains. Whether these were ordinary pains or a sign of something worse, I couldn't say. I made my best case for the pig-kin anyway.

"Well. Things are still fine for now, aren't they? City functions are running. People aren't complaining that much."

"You think this looks fine?"

"More than anything, they follow us completely, unlike Oberli back when the public officials were running things. Makes them a lot easier to work with."

"That's true, but it's not the only problem. The pig-kin's management abilities are catastrophic. Without Triber, this city would have collapsed already!"

In truth, Ende had only changed the people at the top. Everything else was the same as before. Triber and the other Oberli beastkin who actually ran things were grinding through brutal workloads to keep the city going. If even a few of the Oberli clan heads had gone on strike, Orcma would have crumbled on its own.

Then again, the fact that they were all still faithfully at work suggested the Oberli beastkin hadn't been very fond of the public officials either. Looking at how those officials had behaved, that was understandable enough.

"Ha. What can you do. Have the pig-kin ever managed a city before? They've been at the bottom their whole lives. They've never had a chance to learn."

"Exactly, so what have the pig-kin actually done? Gruel subdued the Obelisks. Triber is running the city. And you, Hughes, are the one who turned a march into a revolution. What exactly have the pig-kin calling themselves Orcma actually accomplished?"

"They held a peaceful protest."

"A protest? You indulged their tantrum. That's all it would have amounted to on its own."

Hmm. The regressor was getting sharper. Maybe it was my imagination, but her views seemed to be drifting further and further to the right.

"I guess discrimination always has its reasons. They cry about injustice, but when you watch what they actually do, the injustice feels a little..."

"That's far enough."

Before she could spell out any more of her political position, I held up a hand.

"That line of thinking. I can't agree with it."

"You don't see it that way?"

"I don't. I'm the King of Humanity. I consider all humans equal. Whether beastkin or human, beggar or emperor, they are all my people. I respect every one of them."

I said it with complete sincerity, but the regressor answered with open skepticism.

"You treat Azzy like a dog."

"That's because Azzy is a dog. If anything, Mr. Shei is the odd one. You seem to care more about Azzy than about any Orc."

"Obviously. Azzy is more precious to me than any pig-kin. Practically and emotionally both."

"Woof! Me, precious! You precious too!"

Azzy had apparently caught every word with supernatural ears and came trotting over, tail wagging. The regressor clearly hadn't expected to be overheard. She reddened slightly and turned her gaze away, visibly flustered by the attention.

"Ahem. Anyway. I'm not saying pig-kin aren't people."

"Then what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that on average, they clearly fall short in certain ways."

"That's far enough. That's twice."

There was no calling it moderate anymore. Before the scale tipped past the point of no return, I cut her off.

"Mr. Shei. If you pursue justice, you know this: there is no bloodline of kings and nobles. Given similar conditions, geniuses emerge regardless of birth."

"That doesn't apply here, though, does it? The pig-kin don't have any."

"I said similar conditions, Mr. Shei."

Don't make me say it three times. Say it three times and you leave a permanent mark.

"The lower the living standards and level of education, the rarer energy practitioners and mages become. That's true even within the same country across different eras. Beastkin energy arts have advanced considerably over the years, and Gruel's case proved that pig-kin can reach the principle through energy as well."

"Gruel is exceptional."

"By that logic there's no end to it. Everyone who reaches the principle is exceptional. 'I am strong, not humans in general', so what. If you're going that route, there's no point saving humanity either. The weak die, and that's that."

"I didn't say anything like that."

"That's where your thinking leads, Mr. Shei."

The regressor clicked her tongue and crossed her arms.

"So. What does our esteemed King of Humanity say? Are the pig-kin's actions right?"

"I'd rather ask you. Should I say they're wrong?"

"Of course. I've seen it play out. Whatever they claim, in the end the pig-kin are just looking out for themselves. That will cause a split eventually. It already is."

"They've suffered a lot."

"Suffering in the past doesn't entitle you to rampage in the present. The institutional discrimination was already gone once the Holy Maiden with fur was appointed. After that, the pig-kin were just keeping themselves at the bottom. That was their own doing."

We had reached the end. I couldn't defend the regressor anymore. I drew a line between myself and her hard-right conclusion.

"This is Mr. Shei's personal opinion. It has nothing to do with me."

"Woof woof woof. Discrimination, bad! All humans, good!"

Azzy howled in agreement. The regressor, possessing less universal affection than an actual dog, looked back and forth between us and said, "Come to think of it, you two are Beast Kings. You'd genuinely see it that way. But ordinary people would probably think like me."

"Listen to yourself making hasty generalizations. Want to go ask someone?"

"Fine. Though people have their pride, and with pig-kin holding power now, they won't admit it easily."

"Hmph. No such thing will happen."

There was one person worth asking. I decided to bring the regressor to them.

"Your Majesty. It's good to see you again. What brings you here?"

Oberli's mayoral office. Mayor Triber greeted Azzy with a face that had grown noticeably gaunt. The regressor tilted her head at the sight of him.

"Triber is the person you had in mind?"

"Of course."

"That's a bit unfair. He's the city's administrator. Whether it's true or not, he has to take the pig-kin's side. Especially with Piggy having seized Oberli by force."

And yet here you are, talking without a care in Oberli, which the pig-kin have occupied. Watch yourself. Look at poor Triber squirming.

"Those are harsh words. It frightens me someone might hear."

"It's fine. I cut the air with Skywarbler, so sound won't leak out."

'Ah. Right, there are Beast Faction beastkin here too. They can read vibrations with energy, which means they could hear sound from the trembling of glass, the entire space needs to be sealed.'

A beat late, but the regressor sealed the entire office off from the outside. Mayor Triber, sensing that even the flow of air and scent had been artificially stilled, looked at the regressor over the rims of his glasses.

"...I'm listening. It doesn't seem like you came with a pleasant subject. Given the current state of things, I suppose that's unavoidable."

"Mayor Triber, you don't look like you're in a particularly pleasant state yourself."

"It's what must be done. There's a certain satisfaction in devoting myself to this city even in my final years."

Even with the sound sealed off, Triber's answer was perfectly polished. The regressor responded with dissatisfaction.

"No one can know if that's sincere."

I know. But the regressor has no mind reading, so she doesn't.

Still, regressor, you need to shift your thinking a little. It's not that you should give up on knowing someone's inner thoughts just because you can't know them.

You don't need to know what's in someone's heart. You have to trust what they show you.

"Mr. Shei. Sincere or not, that's not what matters."

"Then what does?"

"What matters is that he's actively helping Orcma. Look at the state Triber is in."

Only after I said it did the regressor look at the mayor again with any real attention. For a moment, several versions of Mayor Triber seemed to overlap beyond her gaze, a slightly older mayor, a more haggard one, and one bleeding and buried in the earth. The faces of Mayor Triber she had crossed paths with across her regressions layered into a single three-dimensional image.

The regressor frowned and shook her head.

"...I'm not sure."

"That's because you're trying to judge the person himself. Forget that. Look at what Mayor Triber is doing."

Only after my advice did the regressor shift her gaze to what was around him.

Hundreds of documents. Half-written letters. A half-empty water glass had at some point been pressed down flat like an ink stone, pinning papers in place. One glance was enough to see he was shouldering a killing volume of work.

"You see? If he always worked like this, he would have died of overwork long ago. Even at a rough estimate, he's doing far more than his normal duties. All to keep Orcma's Ende running."

Ende's mayor, Triber, was drowning in overwork.

He had already carried a heavy load to begin with. On top of that, pig-kin who knew nothing about governance had pushed out every public official and planted themselves in those seats, leaving gaps that an old man had to drive himself to fill. The only reason no one had walked off or gone on strike was because the other beastkin respected him so deeply. If he had refused to cooperate, Orcma would have collapsed on its own.

"Put differently, Triber, who is essentially a nobleman of a duchy, is helping Orcma. Actively, at that. Why do you suppose that is?"

"He's just not the kind to abandon his duty."

"Hardly. Mayor Triber thinks the same way I do. That pig-kin, given enough experience, are fully capable of managing a city. It shows in his attitude. Would he be working himself to death like this if he thought otherwise?"

Only then did the regressor grasp what I was actually saying.

What kind of person Mayor Triber was, what kind of character he had, none of that was particularly important. What mattered was how he was behaving, and working backward from that made his thinking readable.

Mayor Triber was helping the pig-kin. Or rather, it wasn't even that he was helping the pig-kin specifically. To him, pig-kin were simply the same as anyone else.

"...Is it not obvious? All beastkin in Oberli are equal. The pig-kin are no different. They may have been a bit extreme about it, but pig-kin are also people with every right to be here."

"You see that, Mr. Shei? People who don't share your beliefs aren't rare. Reflect on yourself, honestly."

"Woof woof woof. Reflect!"

"H-hey, I wasn't even that bad! You two are just making me look like the villain here!"

The regressor, left alone as the sole bigot in the room, protested belatedly. Not that it did much for her credibility.

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