WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 84: Real Instructor, Fake Instructor

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The final line on the note read as follows.

‘When the supplies arrive, use them on him.’

He alone could answer every question they had, yet he had lost himself and sat there blankly. The supplies were their only remaining clue.

Tyr headed toward the golem bound in the cafeteria.

Its ankles were shackled with chains of shadow as though it were a pet. When Tyrkanzyaka snapped her fingers, the shadow chains turned to smoke and vanished as if they had never existed.

Tyr handed the freed golem its speaker. After being torn out so many times, the speaker now fit loosely into its mouth. It spoke weakly.

『…What business do you have?』

"I have something to ask. About the supplies."

The golem's body creaked with anger. It slowly looked up at Tyr, clenched its fist, and spoke.

『The supplies will arrive shortly. However.』

The communications officer's voice from the microphone carried firm resolve.

『I will receive the supplies, but I will not distribute them to Tantalus.』

That was a bolt from the blue for Tyr, who had been waiting only for the supplies.

"W-Why? Isn't it your duty to hand the supplies over to us?"

『If the trainees inside Tantalus fail to cooperate with me, I may delay or suspend supply distribution at my discretion. I am simply exercising the authority granted to me.』

"F-Fail to cooperate? When have I done such a thing?"

『Binding this unit and removing its speaker is something even a child who attended elementary civic school would judge to be uncooperative.』

Tyr had no words to refute that. She had not intended to cooperate with the golem then, and she had no intention of doing so now.

"Such… cowardly tactics."

『Without such authority, how else would I control a powerful being such as yourself?』

Tyr stretched out her arm. Countless black knights rose from the shadows and began filling the cafeteria.

Displaying a fraction of the Progenitor's power to command innumerable armies, Tyrkanzyaka threatened the golem.

"I am Tyrkanzyaka, the Progenitor. The Shadow Queen, the root of all vampires. The one who bears the name Kanjaka, the monster said to devour the world. Do you dare threaten me?"

The golem only scoffed.

『I am Captain AB, communications officer of the military state. A communications officer accepts no orders from anyone but the command staff. Even if it means death.』

The golem spoke heroically, as though death did not frighten it at all.

『If you have no need for supplies, destroy this unit. I will lose my eyes to watch Tantalus, but you will lose every supply shipment from this point onward.』

"You little…! A mere golem…!"

『Even if you destroy my true body, I will not yield. I am a communications officer of the military state!』

Tyr was the desperate one. Without the supplies, she could not carry out what he had asked of her.

The Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka, a supreme being and the root of all vampires, had to back down before the threat of a single golem.

It wounded her pride, but there was no helping it.

Tyr was a vampire who needed nothing to live, but he was not.

"I will ask only one thing. The supplies are certainly in your possession, are they not?"

『Affirmative. The supplies arrived here with the inspector a short while ago. Once the inspector's evaluation of the surrounding area is complete, I will receive them. From that point onward, whether to distribute them will be entirely at my discretion! If you wish to receive the supplies, cooperate with my instructions!』

"…Fine. How do you want me to cooperate?"

『First! Cease all hostile actions against this unit. Answer any questions I ask sincerely and thoroughly. Provide regular opportunities for me to observe Tantalus's condition! There are also forty-eight additional details…!』

That was when it happened.

Bang!

Something burst faintly in the air. It sounded like someone shaking out a blanket as broad and thick as a quilt.

Or perhaps like a parachute opening.

Both the golem and Tyr fell silent. They stared at each other for a moment before Tyr opened the window and looked outside.

A supply crate was falling beyond the window, suspended beneath a large parachute.

『…Huh?』

A stunned voice came from the golem's microphone. Then came the sound of the crate striking concrete. An unmistakable sound, one that shattered hope.

『Why? Why are they dropping the supplies on their own?』

The balance of power had reversed. Tyr watched the parachute descend below, then calmly closed the window. The latch clicked shut, sealing the cafeteria once more.

In the cafeteria, now wholly swallowed by darkness, only Tyr's ominous voice rang through the air.

"The supplies have arrived. What will you do now?"

『…』

The golem could not speak for a moment. The method it chose to escape this crisis was brazen shamelessness.

『I-I highly valued your cooperative attitude, so I distributed those supplies in advance. Therefore, I hope you will also uphold the agreement we reached earlier.』

"An agreement? Have we ever made anything even remotely resembling an agreement?"

Its voice lacked the confidence needed to be completely shameless, and the supplies had arrived far too early for it to insist they had made a deal.

Not that it would have worked either way.

"Are those your final words?"

『W-Wait a moment. There must be some mistake.』

"It seems the mistake lies with you. Your useless mouth is still making sounds."

『N-No…! Mm!』

A whip made of shadow wrapped around the golem's entire body. Bound by whips tightening from every direction, the golem could only watch Tyr leave the cafeteria.

Shei stood ten paces from where the supply crate had landed, glaring at it.

The arrival of supplies itself was not a problem. Tantalus was empty now, but a facility of this size would normally receive supplies several times a day.

He had even foretold it in his note, so their arrival had always been inevitable.

Yet Shei had raised her guard because she sensed an unfamiliar presence inside the crate.

Why?

Why was there a person inside that crate?

"Have they arrived?"

"Yeah. But something's… strange."

Tyr, flying in wrapped in darkness, landed beside Shei. Eager to inspect the crate, Tyr tried to approach at once, but Shei stopped her.

"Wait, Tyrkanzyaka. There's something in there."

"…Hm? I know that. Isn't that what a crate is for, to hold things inside?"

"No, not an object… A person."

Just as Shei murmured that, the lid of the crate shifted, and a hard, sharp voice came from within.

"I heard Tantalus has a laborer assigned as maintenance personnel. It's still working hours, so why hasn't the laborer come to receive the supplies?"

Click, click. Locks came undone inside the crate. The lid opened, revealing a woman dressed in a military state uniform.

Not a wrinkle marred her crisp uniform, and its shoulders were sharply tailored. Two shining medals hung over the chest clearly visible even through the uniform. Her entire appearance seemed to proclaim that she was an officer of the military state.

She looked nothing like a certain suspicious instructor. She was the very image of an officer, enough to make Shei instinctively recoil.

With her peaked cap tucked beneath one arm, she surveyed everyone and spoke in a weighty voice.

"Tsk, discipline in the military state has grown lax. To think no one came to receive supplies meant for them."

Her voice was tiresome just to hear. Hard, authoritarian, and stiffly formulaic, it struck Shei's ears.

‘Should I cut her down…?’

As Shei seriously considered it, the officer put on her cap with a precise motion. Her blunt-cut hair formed a sharp line beneath it. After adjusting it neatly, she raised her chin and spoke.

"Greetings. As of today, I am Lieutenant Colonel Callis Kritz, assigned as an instructor at Tantalus. I have assumed overall command of this place as of this day and hereby report my arrival."

"An instructor?"

"That is correct, trainee."

Shei had questions.

There would have been nothing strange about Tantalus having two instructors.

But there were only four trainees inside at most, and even that number could shrink depending on how one judged things. A fragmented immortal and the King of Dogs were difficult to count as people.

Yet they had dispatched two instructors?

"Rest assured. I have no intention of harming the trainees. Rather, the ‘exemplary’ trainees who remain here may one day become collaborators of the military state. I have come here to guide you toward a better path."

She spoke as if the instructor already present did not matter at all. If she had newly arrived, she should normally have reported first to the person already in charge, regardless of rank.

Her rising suspicions suppressed her vague hostility. As Shei quietly observed the situation, Tyr paid no attention to the person before them and had shadows search through the supply crate.

"More importantly, where are the supplies?"

Tyr searched for the supplies. A massive hand of shadow turned the entire crate over and shook it thoroughly, but not even a speck of dust fell out, much less supplies.

Puzzled, Tyr soon cast a strange look at Callis.

"Could it be that you are the supplies…? Hm. How should a person be used…?"

Perhaps even an officer of the military state, rigid as a machine, could feel the threat to her life. Callis hurriedly rummaged through her coat in a manner unbefitting an officer.

"If you mean the supplies, you must mean this."

Callis took a rectangular paper pack from her inner pocket. She pushed the top with her thumb, and the lid sprang open to reveal thick, paper-wrapped cigars.

"Mana herb. A Level 3 luxury item. Tsk, even officers find it difficult to smoke these without authorization from above, yet they distribute them for the sake of a mere laborer… The military is giving this place special treatment just because it is Tantalus. As if it were anything more than a place where people live."

Muttering in displeasure, she handed the pack of mana herb to the shadow hand that had approached her. The hand snatched it up and flew straight to Tyr.

Mana herb was a psychoactive herb that relaxed the body and calmed the nerves. It had a slight mana-restoring effect and was usually rolled in paper and smoked as a cigarette.

That was probably the supply item he had requested. Shei came to that conclusion.

She did not know whether it would restore his lost memories, but perhaps something had been hidden in it.

"Wait. More importantly. A laborer?"

Only then did Shei sense something strange and murmur.

A laborer? What did that mean? The only person here who needed mana herb was that utterly untrustworthy instructor…

Utterly untrustworthy…

No way.

"Yes. A laborer. Did no one know?"

Callis clicked her tongue.

Then she revealed the truth about him, the truth Shei had been so curious about.

"Hughes. That man is a laborer assigned to Tantalus. After being placed under emergency arrest for gambling in Amitenggrad's 13-3 District, he was sentenced to labor service at Tantalus."

Footnotes:

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