WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 507

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A Promise Kept

The easiest way to crush a rebellion is to restore the old order. Calling Oberli's public officials kings might be a stretch, but Gruel understood that freeing them and the Obelisks would be fatal to Orcma.

Orcma itself hadn't even noticed its own weakness. Too fixated on driving Azzy out, they had completely forgotten about Oberli and left it to rot. At this point it was practically a natural death.

They're clearly smarter than Orcma, at least. Though that's an embarrassingly low bar.

"Weren't you going to look for Mr. Shei? I spotted some Beast Faction warriors a moment ago."

"More precisely, I was looking for the ones moving the King of Dogs. I received word they'd been found, but... for some reason I felt like waiting here instead."

The regressor is someone only Gruel can handle. So I had assumed that if she started causing trouble, he would go to her. I was wrong.

But Gruel was also one of the people I needed to meet. I spoke up.

"What do you want?"

"Leave for the vassal state."

Short and to the point. He had no intention of explaining why, so I said it for him.

"You want us to lure the wolves all the way to the vassal state?"

Having his intentions read seemed to catch him off guard. He paused.

"...You knew."

"Less knowing, more guessing. You're not from Ende, and you weren't planning to do anything here after the coup succeeded either. Your purpose from the start was protecting the Beast Faction. Isn't that right?"

"Saying I protect the Beast Faction makes it sound as though I've made myself some sort of king. I'm only trying to preserve the natural order."

Since there was no longer any point hiding it, Gruel crossed his arms and continued.

"The ones you call the Beast Faction are a nomadic people who have wandered the wildlands alongside buffalo since ancient times. They are strong and fierce, but not stable. Floods, droughts, rampaging wild beasts, when disaster sweeps through the southern plains, their numbers fall sharply. But disaster always passes. When better days come, they flourish again. That is the natural order."

"And?"

"But the wolves have been lingering on the Enger Plain for too long."

Gruel turned and looked out into the distance. South of Ende lay land that ran dry for half the year and drowned in water for the other half. Beasts had to keep moving. So did humans.

"Floods and droughts sweep through the plain and move on. But a wolf pack that should have swelled briefly and then thinned has been there too long. They've been roaming from the old territories of the former nations all the way to Ende, killing buffalo and attacking humans."

All of it happened because the King of Dogs who should have fought the King of Wolves never appeared. Gruel looked at Azzy and spoke.

"If the King of Dogs is here, the King of Wolves will certainly march north. If she goes all the way to the vassal state, that becomes even more certain. I'll accept anything so long as the wolves are removed. Better for them to be driven all the way up to the vassal state and dealt with cleanly there."

From the Beast Faction's perspective, all that mattered was the wolves leaving the Enger Plain. It didn't matter what happened to Ende or the vassal state.

For Oberli's guard dogs, it was news out of a clear sky.

"You intend to keep the public officials locked up...!"

"That's not the point! Wolves to the south, the vassal state to the north, Ende will be caught between them!"

Even if the Obelisks and the public officials were freed, Gruel couldn't win. And with them still imprisoned, Gruel could do whatever he liked with Ende. The guards' faces darkened. At this rate, the dog-kin who had failed their coup would face even worse persecution.

Still, there was one thing I didn't understand.

"Wait. Then why did you come to Ende at all? If your goal was getting the King of Wolves to leave, you had no reason to risk coming here."

"Because I had to confirm one possibility."

"Possibility?"

"Whether there was any chance of defeating the King of Wolves here in Ende. The surest way to remove the King of Wolves from the Enger Plain is... killing the King of Wolves, isn't it."

It might have been possible, if things had gone smoothly. But the pig-kin staged their protest, the Obelisks grew tense and moved to check the Beast Faction, the Beast Faction couldn't afford to be isolated in an unfamiliar city and threw their support entirely behind the pig-kin. With no Obelisks left, the pig-kin seized power.

Up to that point, honestly, things were fine. But the pig-kin disappointed Gruel. They showed no real leadership, no real ability, and chose to avoid the fight.

Disappointing, but not a bad outcome for Gruel.

"Watching how things played out, it's already done for. No choice but to take the second-best option."

"So in the end, you're backing out too."

"A cold-blooded choice, yes. Better than keeping a promise that was never going to be fulfilled."

Nobody wants to fight the wolves. Only people who want to use them, people who want to avoid them, people who look the other way.

Gruel is the same in the end. Of course, he probably had some hope buried in there too, but...

"Awoooooooo!"

That was when it happened.

A dog let out a long, loud howl. The sudden animal cry startled not only Oberli's guards but even Gruel.

Me? My ears hurt. The howl had come from right beside me.

"Woof! Woof woof! Awoooo!"

Azzy barked at the sky several times. It was a howl carrying some kind of emotion that no human could quite understand.

Anyone who claimed animals were emotionless machines would have thought twice hearing it. Azzy's cry was that heartbroken.

"Awoooo..."

Azzy turned her face from the ground and howled up at the sky. The King of Dogs represents all dogs. She had taken human form to convey her will to humans. The emotion Azzy poured out stirred every dog and dog-kin in Ende.

Howls rose from every corner of the city. The dog-kin who had been falling back stopped in their tracks.

"The King...?"

"Why is she crying...?"

"Awoo, awoo."

After howling with everything she had, Azzy lifted her head. A jet-black crack formed near her brow. The jagged, imperfect fissure twisted and expanded, then wound together like braided plant stems into a single shape.

"Wolves, win against."

A crown split in half floated above Azzy's head.

The symbol carried by the Beast King. A crown I no longer possessed, having lost my power. But Azzy had it. Exactly half of it.

Half? Wait. Why half? Where's the other half?

"Promise kept, fight together in pack. Wolves, win against. Can do."

Words spoken while wearing the crown are a declaration. Azzy was speaking now on behalf of all dogs.

"Fight with me. Humans keep promise, I protect humans too."

Gruel is beastkin as well. Like every other beastkin, he carries reverence for the Beast King.

But he was also a human, and the great patriarch responsible for the Beast Faction. He spoke with evident difficulty.

"Even if you say that..."

"It won't work. I'm sorry. Our Azzy asked for too much."

You tried, Azzy. But human hearts don't move from sincerity alone. That one over there isn't a dog or a pig, he's just a human.

Leave the persuading to me.

"In the end you're just a Piggy like Orcma, so what's the point of asking favors. Fine. We'll do it your way."

"...Orcma?"

Hearing that embarrassing group mentioned by name made Gruel's brow twitch. I had successfully provoked him. I shrugged and went on.

"Orcma's whole plan was to use Azzy as a sacrifice and run, because they figured they'd lose in a fight. You said you were disappointed in them, and now you're going to do the exact same thing, sacrifice Ende to buy yourself an escape. Sounds about the same to me."

"To avoid becoming the same, I would have to stand and fight the wolves myself."

He got right to the point. Sharp, but not something to be happy about without reservation. Sharp people read your intentions too.

Gruel muttered it and looked at me with a strange expression.

"Curious, Magician."

"What?"

"You helped Orcma and brought down the public officials. Then you put the pig-kin at the top and watched them collapse under their own weight."

He hadn't known Ende's situation when he arrived, but he must have picked up a fair amount of information during his stay in Oberli. He made no effort to hide his wariness.

"And now you're provoking me into fighting the King of Wolves. What's your real motive? If you wanted to fight the wolves, you didn't have to help Orcma in the first place."

A sudden suspicion seemed to strike him, and he asked sharply:

"Is what you want simply chaos?"

This is why I dislike sharp people. I didn't expect him to turn my intentions right back around on me.

But for Azzy's sake, I had to answer. Gruel operated on logic. Ri is the power to complete one's own world and realize it. He would only move if his own heart pointed the way.

I answered with relative honesty.

"I think nothing in this world is simply given. Not having animal ears is not a good enough reason to be entitled to rule. All humans being equal is not a good enough reason to strip away what others had. That's nothing but using 'what's natural' as a weapon to satisfy your own desires."

The public officials who threw their weight around without the strength to back it up, the pig-kin who enjoyed power without the ability to hold it, everyone came to understand their own weakness and foolishness. Peel back one layer and they were all beasts and humans.

I wanted to see that. And I confirmed once more that I was right.

"The only thing that's truly given is animal desire. I've confirmed everything I needed to. Now it's time to do what needs to be done."

"And what needs to be done is helping the King of Dogs and saving humans? Why, of all things?"

Gruel looked genuinely intrigued. I asked back, annoyed.

"What's wrong with that?"

"The King of Dogs is a Beast King. And yet her purpose is more noble than any human I've known."

That's Azzy being strange, not a general rule. A beast that doesn't attack humans unconditionally makes no sense to begin with. There are plenty of dogs that bite people.

But a promise is a promise, so I have to see it through. This is why you should never get bitten, whether by an animal or a contract.

"Well. They say the devil who tests humans is actually the one searching for God more desperately than anyone. Seen in that light, you're much the same."

What are you dragging scripture into this for? Just give me an answer.

"Same goes for you. People would think I was the schemer here. You're the one who gave the pig-kin their chance."

Coming to Ende and immediately offering that Piggy boy a chance to become his disciple, then jumping in to help Orcma the moment he heard about the coup, he had no business pointing fingers at me. He should start with himself.

"If you want to keep your hands clean, keep Ende at arm's length entirely. The pig-kin held their protest because you came. The revolution succeeded because of you. They enjoyed power thanks to your strength. The most important thing for Orcma was you suppressing the Obelisks. The one who moved this whole board is Gruel. That's you."

"So you're saying I was tested too."

Caught by his own logic, Gruel laughed quietly and ruefully.

"...True. I was putting my own expectations on my kin without asking them."

"Stop expecting things from others and do it yourself. Before you wish your kin would be admirable, show them what that looks like first. Set the example."

Gruel uncrossed his arms. He was the one who had marched the Beast Faction into Ende. The will to fight had been there from the start.

Watching the city fall apart had drained his motivation, but motivation comes and goes on its own terms.

"...The King of Dogs will fight even without me, won't she?"

"She's been fighting since before you were born."

"Don't misread me. I'm not fighting for my kin or for honor. I'm fighting because the King of Wolves seems worth fighting. I'm not interested in a pointless death. A dog's death, no, a pig's death, no thank you."

Gruel turned and walked away with long strides. In front of him stood the prison holding the Obelisks. He looked at the building, lavish even for a prison, and called back to me and Azzy.

"Can we win?"

A promise is kept. Having confirmed the will, Azzy called out with full confidence.

"Win!"

"Then."

Gruel grabbed the prison door and pulled. The thick iron door, the only thing about this lavish prison that actually looked like a prison, tore away like paper.

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