WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 498: An Inverted Pyramid?

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When the earth is empty, people call it desolate. When the sky is empty, they call it clear.

Both words described the Enger Plain.

In one corner of the plain lay Ende, where even clouds crossing the sky grew weary and fell to the ground. Its night sky was so clear that its jewel-like stars were impossible to count. It was a night when beasts howled in the distance, longing to send their voices to the bright moon overhead.

"Ugh, those ungrateful piggies...!"

Inside a cramped safe house with neither a yard to look up at the night sky nor a window to hear the sounds outside, a human vented his rage.

"I took them in, gave them a place to sleep, fed them, and they repay me by attacking their master? Now they strut around as if they're the masters of the city! After relying entirely on Gruel's power to get anything done!"

As his voice rose, Welshi, the dog beastkin watching at his side, nervously raised her ears.

"Master. Someone might hear you. Please lower your voice..."

"Shut up! Don't interrupt me when I'm speaking!"

Fuming, Duke Erectus paced around the room before roughly kicking the desk. It tipped over, and the water bottle sitting on top lost its balance and fell.

Just before it struck the floor, a soft tail wrapped around it. Moving like a hand, the tail saved the bottle from its fall.

Guard dogs learned qi arts to protect their masters. Unlike other beastkin, dog beastkin were given opportunities to learn specialized qigong, and they had continued developing it in their own way. Some had even manifested innate arcane, and even the Holy Maiden with fur had been a dog beastkin.

Dog beastkin enjoyed a status little different from that of humans.

A Guard Dog Family? Humans used other humans as servants too. If dog beastkin occupied that position, it only meant they were that close to humans.

Welshi braced the desk with her knee, caught a cup with one hand, and lifted the water bottle with her tail. With astonishing concentration, she restored the table, cup, and bottle to how they had been before the desk fell. The feat made even Duke Erectus fall silent for a moment.

"If those piggies were even a quarter as capable as you."

He seemed to have forgotten his anger, but only briefly. Duke Erectus soon began fuming again.

"Should I contact the homeland? No, I'd only become a laughingstock if I couldn't even govern a city like this properly. But I can't hide like a criminal when I'm the ruler of Ende! I have to take it back. How do I take it back?"

Connections, authority, money, people. He had lost a great deal during the revolution, but he still had enough left to count.

As Duke Erectus considered how to reclaim the city with his remaining resources, Welshi, who had been waiting quietly, spoke with care.

"Master. When a storm is raging, sometimes it's best to keep your head down for a while."

"Are you giving me orders now?"

Duke Erectus snapped at her, his eyes flashing. Welshi fell silent as if used to it, and he continued on his own.

"You're telling me to hide like a coward? That's even more ridiculous. This city belongs to my ancestor, Saint Enger. It bears the grace of the one who drove out piggies and beasts and expanded the plain. Naturally, I must drive out the beasts and expand this land as well! Your duty isn't to advise me, but to serve me..."

"Shh. Wait."

Welshi quickly reached out and covered Duke Erectus's mouth. It was an outrageously disrespectful thing for a servant to do, but perhaps Duke Erectus sensed the unusual atmosphere too, because he obeyed and stayed quiet.

"I hear something strange outside. Master, prepare to escape."

Duke Erectus disliked the thought of abandoning the safe house he had struggled to acquire, but he prepared to leave without complaint. Regardless of his feelings, Welshi had never been wrong when it came to keeping him safe.

When they moved a wardrobe aside, a hole leading downward appeared beneath it. Welshi held her master tightly and slid down. In an instant, they reached the first floor from the third. They opened a small hatch and escaped the safe house.

Then they heard orcs murmuring behind Duke Erectus.

"Sniff. Is this really the place? Aren't we wasting our time?"

"The magician found it. Search it, and we'll find him."

"Even if he's a magician, how would he know a duke is hiding here? Neither tricks nor sorcery could do that."

"I heard from Gulta that he uses real magic. Maybe he can find a duke with it?"

"What magic? Stir up a rat, and it'll run out. Let's go."

Duke Erectus had been trying to keep quiet, but the word rat made him react violently.

"A rat? You filthy piggies...! Welshi, kill them!"

"Restrain yourself."

There were more of them. Taking them down would be easy, but if their location was exposed, they would face endless pursuit. Ignoring Duke Erectus's order without hesitation, Welshi rather roughly dragged him away.

After Welshi took Duke Erectus far away, a commotion broke out near the safe house.

"Wait! There's a secret passage here!"

"They were here until just now!"

"Search the area like you're hunting rats!"

Yet the duke and his servant were already far away. The confused orcs sent in their report only afterward. Their reporting system was terribly slow for a pursuit party, but it would be useful experience for orcs who had never organized anything before.

Hiding in Ende was easy. So many beastkin and humans lived in the city that nobody's presence seemed strange. Even unusual people could blend in.

Besides, far more people in Ende feared change than welcomed the recognized humans' downfall. Welshi used that fact to somehow find a place for her master to stay.

"Something's wrong."

"What... is it?"

Duke Erectus answered, exhausted by their repeated escapes. Realizing that her master's strength had reached its limit, Welshi stopped and looked around.

Ende's night was chaotic and noisy. Hoofbeats, cries, and countless other sounds brushed past them. Usually, they were only irritating noise, but now that they were being pursued, they hid the identities of the duke and his guard dog.

"All the sounds are flowing in one direction tonight."

"Perhaps they've finally learned how to line up..."

"That can't be it. I think they're keeping people off the streets so they can capture us."

"Hmph. Do you think those disobedient fools will listen just because the piggies try to control them? They don't understand why we built Oberli."

It was clear from looking around that the attempt had already failed. They had set up barricades and blocked traffic, but beastkin in a hurry were already leaping over rooftops. The effort to impose control had only created more chaos.

"The problem is that they did this to capture us. They haven't given up. They'll definitely try to catch us, and they're heading in the right direction more than I expected."

"Those ungrateful wretches... Biting their master wasn't enough, now they want to drive me out entirely?"

Duke Erectus trembled with rage.

A person could be bitten by an animal they had raised. Animals lacked restraint. But if it dragged you out of your own house while still biting you and abandoned you there, or tried to lock you away somewhere, that was rebellion. Things had reached the point where heads needed to roll.

"I need to inform the principality."

"Can your safety be guaranteed until then, Master?"

"Safety? They're the ones who need to guarantee it. Unless they want to be exterminated for rebellion!"

Welshi's expression darkened. Duke Erectus, who paid no attention to a dog's mood, continued.

"Who expanded these plains? Who spread civilization? Who raised a flag in Ende, this city that mercifully accepted even beastkin, and led everyone? It was my ancestor, the great saint, Saint Enger!"

A saint of the Sanctum, the figure who brought civilization to the Enger Plain and a historic strategist who stopped the vampires. Saint Enger.

Duke Erectus shook as he invoked Ende's founder.

"He said it himself. Beastkin are like livestock, but if their natures are gentle, they can coexist at our side. Piggies, horse beastkin, and cattle beastkin could live in Ende because of that grace! Yet they dare attack me, Saint Enger's descendant?! I won't show mercy anymore. Beasts should be treated like beasts!"

I didn't know whether Saint Enger had said that to persuade people or whether those words had been enlightened by the standards of the time.

Mm. Right. Beasts should be treated like beasts.

As I nodded and waited for the right moment to step out, Azzy rushed out ahead of me. She saw Welshi, wagged her tail, and spun in circles.

"Woof! Nice to see you! Nice to see you!"

"King?"

Welshi had been wary of the unfamiliar intruder, but she recognized Azzy and lowered her guard. Wagging her tail in greeting as well, she then realized Azzy would never have come alone.

"If that's the King... who is it?"

I had wanted to make a more dramatic entrance, but Azzy had ruined it. I slipped out of the alley and waved.

"Hello. This is our first time greeting each other face-to-face, isn't it?"

Duke Erectus first checked above my head and behind my waist. After confirming I had neither ears nor a tail, his expression relaxed.

"Human? Who are you?"

"He's the guest who came to Oberli with the King of Dogs before."

"There was a human like that?"

"He stood there silently, watching us. At the time, I thought he didn't step in because he was being used like I was..."

"I am being used. You saw that exactly right. Those being exploited really do recognize each other!"

Unlike Duke Erectus, who had paid no attention to me, Welshi remembered me. I was touched.

Duke Erectus looked at me, adjusted his clothes, and approached.

"I didn't expect to meet a human here. If you guide me out of this city, I'll reward you generously."

Duke Erectus showed humans a certain amount of courtesy. That didn't mean he was polite.

I'd done quite a lot in Ende, and he still didn't know who I was? He was really slow to hear the news. Or maybe he simply didn't care.

Welshi stopped Duke Erectus as he boldly approached me just because I was human.

"Don't go, Master."

"Welshi. Don't interrupt while I'm speaking to a human."

"No. That man is the human called the magician. He isn't your ally."

Ah, I understood. He had someone else to think for him, so he had become careless. Welshi held onto Duke Erectus and glared at me.

"He's the one who helped Orcma occupy Oberli."

"He occupied Oberli? How?"

"He had Orcma's leading members arrested and locked in Oberli's prison. Then, while the Obelisks went out to receive Gruel, he freed them. An orc mercenary took a recognized human hostage from within, allowing them to occupy Oberli."

She seemed more capable than her master. Then again, horses were used as mounts because they ran faster than humans, and cattle were used for farming because they were stronger. Servants were used because they were more polite, sociable, had better memories, and were more capable than their masters.

"He's on the orcs' side. He's probably the one who found us now as well."

"That's wrong. I'm on humanity's side. I just think orcs are human too."

"Human?"

Some things were obvious, yet not obvious to everyone. To Duke Erectus, the idea that pig beastkin were human was one of them.

"Human? Do those creatures look like the same humans as me to you?"

Common sense was so fragile. I asked in disbelief.

"Of course. They're the same kind of human."

"Those filthy, deficient beasts who don't even know gratitude are human?"

He understood them well. I nodded and replied.

"Of course. We're the same kind of beasts."

"Beasts? Humans are beasts?"

"Then what are humans? Noble, superior beings like gods?"

It was an open mockery, but Duke Erectus answered without changing expression.

"Isn't that obvious? Humans are chosen beings, shaped by the Celestial God in His own image. They are the dominant species of the earth, the lords of all creation that every beast admires. It is only natural for such humans to rule other beasts."

Wow. Impressive.

I was briefly speechless as I looked at Duke Erectus, who truly believed that.

Footnotes:

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