WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 85: Real Laborer, Fake Instructor

──────

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

Tyr, who had already known he was a penal laborer, stiffened in surprise and glanced at Shei. Fortunately, Shei did not immediately roll her eyes back and charge after him.

She merely narrowed her eyes and let out a soft hum through her nose.

"...I see. That explains things."

Shei had been harboring doubts about him in more ways than one.

His many abilities of completely unknown origin. A manner far too casual and friendly for a military state officer. The strange way he eagerly meddled in private matters while acting as though official work had nothing to do with him.

He had done nothing but spin smooth words without stating his name or rank or filing a report. He was several decades removed from an ordinary instructor.

Above all, setting aside his rescue of Tyrkanzyaka... reviving her heart made the least sense of all.

If the military state had known how to restore the Progenitor's heart, it would have tried to control her by holding it hostage rather than reviving it. That was the military state's idea of reason.

His actions had not resembled the military state's at all. That was why Shei had tried to uncover his hidden motives.

'But every time I tried, he slipped away like an old snake, so I could never be sure!'

The military state sought to standardize all creation, humans included. Someone as chaotic as him could not possibly be an instructor. He went against its very ideology.

It made more sense that he was a criminal with bizarre, unnatural abilities who had to be locked away in Tantalus...

"Wait. A penal laborer? Not a criminal meant to be imprisoned in Tantalus?"

Penal laborers and prisoners were entirely different. Prisoners were detained with their freedom completely stripped away, while penal laborers paid for their crimes by serving at an assigned facility and doing every kind of menial work. Their offenses were comparatively minor, and they lived as something close to workers.

Not an instructor.

Not a serious criminal who belonged in Tantalus.

Just a petty criminal?

And on top of that...

"He was brought here over gambling?"

"Correct. A parasite true to his rotten status as a Level Zero citizen. Instead of honestly working, he chased a sudden fortune."

Callis made no effort to hide the contempt on her face.

Tyr, who had only been carefully watching the situation, bristled at that attitude and defended him.

"A parasite over a game of cards? Harsh words."

Callis answered at once, as though she had prepared the response beforehand.

"Of course, he would not have been sent to Tantalus for that alone. But after separately questioning the five people involved in the gambling, we learned that he regularly gambled and lured decent people into games."

"Gambling is only a game. How can playing be called a crime?"

"More importantly, the other four unanimously testified that he had clearly cheated. On that day alone, he supposedly won ninety percent of the games."

Tyr paused.

Even an exceptional gambler having a ninety percent win rate was abnormal. Tyr, who knew little of the world, still understood that much.

Her rebuttal was far less confident this time.

"...Perhaps the other four were simply incompetent."

"They were so frustrated after losing again and again that they joined forces for the final game, yet still could not beat him. That was when they became certain."

"...Joining forces to cheat is not something to be proud of either..."

Even Tyr, who felt warmly toward him, could no longer continue defending him and trailed off.

Having thoroughly refuted her, Callis raised her voice with renewed confidence.

"Those who have nowhere lower to fall try to use their circumstances as an excuse for crime. The military state does not tolerate that. To prevent them from testing military law with appeals for sympathy, even trivial crimes by Level Zero citizens must be punished as warnings to all!"

Callis lifted her head and shouted.

"Level Zero citizen Hughes! You may have enjoyed a lax life until now, but it ends today. Your supervisor has arrived. Come out at once and report your current status! If you do not, you will be punished for dereliction of duty!"

Her booming voice rang through Tantalus, but nothing answered from within. Tyr stepped forward instead.

"He cannot answer. He has lost his memories and become half-witted."

"Lost his memories?"

Callis gave a scornful laugh.

"Is memory loss an excuse to neglect one's duties? It cannot be. If it were, someone could murder another person, pretend to have lost their memories, and be declared innocent."

"It is not a matter of turning away from something that happened, but being unable to do what must be done. The two are entirely different, as different as the past and the future."

Tyr spoke gently, yet her words carried the old-fashioned reproach of a scolding. Callis fell silent, unable to respond, and Tyr carefully picked up the mana herb before moving away.

"These supplies are for him. If his mind returns, I will hear the rest of it then."

Before heading into Tantalus with the mana herb, Tyr suddenly stopped and asked, "Wait. Did you say his name was Hughes?"

"Correct. Is there a problem?"

"...You are not mistaken?"

"Before being assigned to Tantalus, I read every document containing the personal information of those staying here. There is no room for doubt."

Tyr wore an awkward expression. Shei snorted as though she had expected this.

"See? I told you his answers were strange. The beans made no sense from the start."

"...We can ask him directly. What matters now is waking Hyu."

"Let's go together. I have questions for that bastard too."

Shei's eyes burned as she spoke.

"I finally have a lead... He won't be able to run away now...!"

Tyr could not blame her for that. In any case, this was something he had to endure. All Tyr could guarantee was his safety.

Tyr and Shei walked side by side toward his room once more, the man's name still unknown.

Callis was the very model of a military state officer, but like every human being, she valued her own life. She had come to Tantalus under orders, and she had even heard that she might die here... But dying a dog's death was not what she wanted.

That was why Shei's bloodlust had filled her with such terror that it seemed to stop her breath.

"The Progenitor is one thing, but he is a threat nearly on the level of a general officer... Releasing bloodlust the moment we meet."

The Progenitor was historically famous, a being akin to a natural disaster.

Was there any need to fight a typhoon and win? Was there any need to stand firm when lightning struck?

One only needed to lower one's head until the typhoon passed and wait in a low place until the lightning stopped.

As befitted a vampire who had lived for ages, the Progenitor was indifferent to all things and did not care much about how drastically the world around her changed. When the military state had moved her sleeping coffin to the Abyss, she had not resisted at all.

It was a well-known story even within the military state. She had asked only once where they were taking her, and when the soldier transporting her unwittingly answered that it was the Abyss, she had murmured, "Then I will not be able to see the sky there," before falling silent again.

As long as one did not touch the Progenitor's sore spot, such as praying to the Celestial God in front of her, there was no great danger. She might even become an ally.

"The problem is the irregular."

Shei was ranked as Level Three, but he was an unknown powerhouse whose identity and origins were unclear.

A dangerous individual who had required Partlaxion, Absolute Spear and one of the military state's Six Generals, to personally step in and subdue him.

Having a monster beside her that could kill her at any moment was never pleasant.

The one reassurance was that the penal laborer sent down ahead of her, their litmus test, had not yet been stained blood-red.

Even a petty criminal had survived, so there was no reason Callis, an elite of the military state, could not do the same.

"...I do not know what happened to turn him into an idiot, but."

Callis let out a deep breath and removed her service cap. She prided herself on having strong nerves, but her body was honest. A bead of sweat ran down the back of her neck beneath her short hair.

"My mission is survival, then reporting."

Since Shei had smashed every golem, they had not gathered enough information about Tantalus's interior. Her superior, who had originally been scheduled to come, had sent her down instead. She was to go first and collect information, and if anything dangerous happened, experience it with her own body first.

Callis knew she was in no better position than the laborer sent ahead of her, but she had no choice.

This was why she had risen above countless other officers to become a lieutenant colonel.

"Make humanity great again."

Remembering their cherished wish, she firmed her resolve.

* * *

The fourth floor of Tantalus belonged to the penal laborers. It held places where they had to work, such as the cafeteria and laundry room, as well as the dormitories where they rested after finishing their work.

Heading toward one of those rooms, Shei said, "Come to think of it, that guy was staying in a penal laborer's room? He lived in a place like this?"

"Did you not even know where Hyu had been staying all this time?"

"I did not even know his name. How would I know where he stayed?"

Tyr rebuked Shei, who was looking around with interest.

"You are truly inattentive. You have spent so much time together."

"Huh? Honestly, you did not know either until you got your heart back."

"...Mm."

Tyr said nothing more and opened the door to his room.

He was still perched on the bed, staring blankly ahead. When the door opened, he turned his head toward it for a moment, but it was no more than a response to stimulation.

He answered questions and reacted to what others did, but he did not act of his own accord. He had yet to find himself, but Tyr greeted him as warmly as always.

"Hyu, are you well?"

The cramped room in the penal laborers' dormitory seemed full with only two more people inside. Tyr crossed it and sat beside him.

Shei leaned against the doorway and muttered, "It gives me chills when I think about it. Even without a sense of self, he gave us an alias."

"There must have been a reason. Here, Hyu. Look. This is the supply you needed..."

Tyr took a mana herb cigarette rolled in paper from the pack. Then she suddenly realized that she did not know how to use it.

To a vampire born immune to disease, poison, and drugs, a finger-sized roll of tobacco was an incomprehensible object. Tyr held it awkwardly, unsure what to do.

"How does one use this...? This stick, I mean... It does not seem to be something one eats..."

What was the most common way to use a long stick?

In Tyr's experience, there was only one.

Holding up the mana herb cigarette, Tyr lightly smacked his shoulder with it.

"Hey. Come to your senses!"

She was not even hitting his head, only his shoulder. There was no strength behind it either. Even if he had not lost his memories, he probably would not have reacted to such a blow.

Shei was so dumbfounded by the childish sight that she could only open and close her mouth for several seconds.

"...That is not how you use it. And even if it were, what would change if you tapped his shoulder that gently?"

"Then how does one use it? There is no other way, is there?"

"It is for smoking... Ah, what is the point of explaining? Just put it in his hand first."

Tyr hesitantly brought the mana herb toward his hand.

Then there was a reaction.

The moment the mana herb touched his palm, his hand twitched reflexively. His fingers curled by instinct, gripping the mana herb cigarette. Slowly, he lifted it to his nose and sniffed it, as though checking its quality.

"It has started."

Tyr did not need Shei to tell her that. She kept her mouth closed and watched what he did.

His movements with the cigarette in hand were natural, as though they had become part of him.

He raised a finger and drew out a flame with standard magic. When he lightly scraped the tip of the mana herb with the nail holding that flame, red fire seeped through the gap.

The fire hiding deep within grew stronger in the darkness, then soon spilled over with its power and dyed the world red.

"Shei? Hyu has set it on fire. Should we not stop him?"

"No, mana herb is supposed to be used like that. It is similar to a scented candle, if you think about it."

A belated cremation began for the dead leaves. People who claimed to have seen a human soul all described it differently, but the soul of tobacco leaves had only one form: a gray snake with vertical stripes, curling upward in the air.

The devoted smoker received that soul with a reverent posture. The snake wound itself around what could not be seen, filling the world with its color and scent.

Once enough smoke had risen, he held the cigarette between two fingers according to an old custom and lightly touched it to his lips.

His movements flowed as naturally as water. The next action formed clearly in Shei's mind.

She nodded.

"Ah, I understand now. This was what he was aiming for?"

Shei had learned a qigong technique called the Heaven-Reversing Boundary, so she understood his actions at once.

The fundamental principle of the Heaven-Reversing Boundary was to carve movements into one's body. The body responded before the mind, allowing one to maintain physical and mental stability in any situation.

To counter mental attacks, the Heaven-Reversing Boundary emphasized a somatic technique similar to what he was doing now.

"The rising smoke is like incense. Is this scent a ritual to restore his mind?"

"The smoke from burning mana herb surely has an effect too, but that is only part of it. What he is doing now is a form of self-suggestion. He is trying to reignite the mind's memories through his body's memories."

From drawing fire with magic to bringing it to his lips and inhaling.

The sequence was far too smooth to belong to someone who had lost his memories. He had clearly found the most efficient path after trying it thousands or tens of thousands of times and carved it into his body.

"These are movements his body learned by smoking mana herb hundreds or thousands of times. They remained deep in his subconscious, so even after losing himself, his body reproduced them on its own. He is using those movements to stimulate his sleeping sense of self."

"Then will Hyu truly awaken from this?"

"Yes. He emphasized it in his note, so it must be certain."

As time passed, the cigarette grew shorter. By then, it was a clock that measured time through its burning. Acrid smoke filled the room, and when the ember that had consumed more than half of the cigarette began tapping against his fingers,

He set it down on the desk.

"Finally!"

Under Tyr's expectant gaze, he...

"Cough! Cough!"

Coughed loudly and continued staring into space with foggy eyes.

Tyr cried out in betrayal.

"That is not right!"

"Huh? That is strange. Was this not it? Is this a different kind of mana herb? No, judging by the way he smoked it, it seems right..."

While Shei examined the mana herb, Tyr looked around. Then she spotted a small chime bell on the desk.

"To begin with, I have never seen him put incense in his mouth! It is not in my memories, so how could his body remember it?"

"That is because cigarettes cannot be found in the Abyss... He probably could smoke them on the surface..."

"Could another trigger be needed? Very well. The incense has been lit, so I will ring this bell next."

"Ah? That bell is for calling Azzy..."

Shei's attempt to stop her was futile. Desperate enough to grasp at straws, Tyr rang the bell. Ding, ding. The little bell chimed, and a few seconds later,

"Woof, woof!"

A dog barked in the distance. Azzy had reacted to the bell and was racing down the hallway toward them.

The cry of a beast came with the rhythm of four-legged footsteps.

Responding when it was not even time to eat... Was she remarkably well-trained, or simply a glutton?

With a sigh, I turned toward Azzy as I always did and called out.

"Azzy. Let's eat!"

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried