WeTried Translations
Translator: Hydrogen B
Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 91: The Bullying Game
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Lieutenant Colonel Callis was an officer of the military state.
She took pride in that fact.
Having distinguished herself since middle military school, she naturally entered the higher officer academy. After earning excellent grades, she became one of the military state's honored officers.
The moment she graduated from the officer academy, she was granted Level 3 citizenship. As her Level 3 citizenship was engraved into her bio-terminal, Callis wept for the first time, overcome by pent-up sorrow.
Level 3 citizens enjoyed many privileges, but the greatest of them was the right to inherit.
From Level 3 onward, citizens could inherit property.
The first place Callis went after becoming an officer was the Veterans Affairs Office. Before her father's estate could be incinerated, she inherited it.
A house with a yard, an old but luxurious automated carriage, a gold-plated sword, and specialized military gear.
Had Callis not claimed them, they would have been reclaimed by the state treasury. Memories of her childhood that would have been dug up beneath engineers' shovels.
Callis was proud that she had secured it all. With her own hands and through her own ability, she had preserved memories that might otherwise have been buried beneath concrete.
‘I can't stop there.’
After struggling so hard to reach this point, shouldn't she aim even higher?
Level 4 citizens could use every facility in the military state without restriction. They could even own land, employ private servants, and temporarily grant their spouse Level 3 citizenship upon marriage.
Above all, Level 3 citizens only had the right to inherit... From Level 4 onward, they could pass property on to others.
The inheritance passed down from her father, along with every asset she would build upon it, could be passed intact to future generations without loss.
Leave something behind.
Level 4 was worth striving for for that reason alone.
Yet talent alone was not enough to reach Level 4. It was a rank one could barely attain only with the right opportunity, sufficient luck, and the ability to seize it.
Even her father, who had been an excellent officer... had only reached Level 4 because he received a two-rank posthumous promotion after choosing the right place to die.
If her father had not happened to be near headquarters when it was in danger, if his death had been even slightly less glorious, Callis would not have received the inheritance regardless of her own level.
‘Fortunately, an opportunity came to me as well.’
Once she became an officer, “they” approached her. Her ambition was great, but she lacked the courage to throw herself into danger. So, to plunge herself into hell, she took their hand.
She was assigned to reckless operations, but Lieutenant Colonel Callis made full use of her abilities and earned distinguished service. She even received a medal at the New Year's address.
After several such assignments, she became a lieutenant colonel at a relatively young age.
Then came a new assignment from “them.”
Infiltrate Tantalus in the Abyss and assess the situation inside.
More precisely.
‘To identify anything that could interfere when they secure the King of Dogs.’
Tantalus was a demonic realm no one should ever enter... But the recent jailbreak had greatly reduced its danger. They said even the laborer sent down ahead of her, a scouting petty criminal the military state called “litmus,” was still alive.
It was an order she had to obey anyway, but that calculation was also why Lieutenant Colonel Callis accepted so readily. If she carried out the mission successfully, “they” would not be able to discard her.
Seeing this as an opportunity, Callis volunteered as a supply inspector and staged an accident to fall into Tantalus.
Plans always went wrong in the worst possible way.
As though it had been destined.
After the officer fell in, I made time every day to play with Azzy. I sighed as I slipped heavy discs between my fingers.
“Ah. I used to be able to play with you casually. Now that I've got competition, I can't rest.”
The goodwill I'd built up over three months was still there, but that fickle little dog rushed up to any human she saw. How was I supposed to take my eyes off her?
I threw the discs. Azzy ran.
She leaped up and caught one in her mouth, kicked off the wall to snatch another, then stretched out with the strength she had saved. Azzy's body sprang through the air.
It was as if she had stepped on empty space and changed direction.
Having caught the last disc as well, Azzy landed and her eyes shone with delight.
“Woof woof woof woof woof woof woof!”
“Three discs, success!”
“Wooof!”
Difficult challenges, repeated attempts, and the thrill of success gave an enormous sense of reward. Azzy hopped in place a few times, savoring her joy.
When I pulled the discs from her mouth, Azzy cried out with sparkling eyes.
“Woof! Competition, good!”
“What competition? The only competition you know is competing over food.”
Did she think copying difficult words would make her speech human? She had to know what they meant to speak like a person.
As I snorted, Azzy smiled brightly.
“Monopoly, bad! Makes lazy! Like you!”
“...Monopoly? Where did you learn a word like that?”
“Woof woof! Ball! More!”
“These are discs.... Anyway, now that we've done three discs, what should we do next? Hmm.”
As I scratched my chin and thought, an idea suddenly struck me. I snapped my fingers.
Oh, wait. Was this the moment? Was it finally time to try that?
“Hey, Azzy. Have you ever thought about four discs?”
“Woof? Me, like! But can't!”
Azzy liked it when I threw things. It was play, after all. But she meant it simply would not work.
It was an objective assessment. Azzy could not step on air, so she could not change direction in empty space with nothing to push off from.
“But what if I became a foothold for you?”
“Woof?”
“Yeah. You jump for one, step on me for one, kick off the wall for one, then use your last bit of strength for the final one. Like that!”
“Woof! Me, like! You?”
“We'll give it a try.”
Until now, Azzy had only needed to read my movements. From four discs onward, we had to work in sync. She needed to watch my position, then step on me and leap at the right moment once she was ready.
All right, then.
I knelt on one knee and braced my arm firmly against the other, so my body would not shake even if Azzy stepped on me.
“I'll throw them one at a time. Go for the closest one first.”
“Woof!”
“All right, start!”
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
I threw four discs in quick succession, leaving short intervals between them, from the closest to the farthest. Then, seeing Azzy run toward me, I locked my body in place.
...Wait a second. Azzy was the King of Dogs, but she was in human form right now. So her weight was roughly...
Huh.
“Wait, you...”
Before I could finish, Azzy leaped straight at me.
The impact felt like being struck by a carriage.
Tyr saw me rolling across the concrete and immediately scolded me.
“That is why thou shouldst have been more careful!”
“I'm fine. It's all healed already, isn't it?”
I held out my arms and legs. The scrapes I'd gotten from the concrete earlier had vanished completely.
One of the Beast King's powers was healing by licking. As a conceptual being, the Beast King could heal with its tongue, and Azzy made full use of that ability on me.
Tyr saw my fully healed wounds and sighed.
“...I do not like it, but it is fortunate that the Beast King is here. To heal wounds... by licking them...”
“Why don't you like it?”
“How could I be close to the King of Dogs? We were once mortal enemies.”
“Azzy is the King of Dogs of this generation. She must be dozens of generations removed from the King of Dogs you fought.”
“Even so, her essence is the same as the one I fought, is it not? That uneasiness does not disappear. And.”
Tap. Tyr poked my shoulder with two fingers. Her sulky gaze turned toward me in complaint.
“Dozens of generations? How cruel. It was only a few hundred years ago.”
“I don't understand why ‘only’ comes before a few hundred, but it's probably true. The King of Dogs has a relatively short lifespan.”
“King of Dogs? Does she not take on a human body and grow old alongside humans? Then how can such a carefree King of Dogs have a short lifespan?”
“She fights the King of Wolves every other day.”
“King of Wolves?”
“Wait, you don't know that story? It comes up often in children's storybooks.”
Tyr forgot her concern for a moment and looked at me with eager eyes. Her blood-red eyes glittered.
For the Progenitor, who hungered for stories, I recited a tale from my memory.
The King of Dogs and the King of Wolves.
They had originally been beast brothers who got along well. The two animals, both fond of living in packs, worked together to drive prey into a corner, then bit its neck to end its life.
The small, swift dog usually drove the prey in, while the wolf with sharp teeth finished it off. Clever, quick, and perfectly coordinated, the two helped one another through peaceful days of hunting.
Then one day, a shepherd came to the place where they lived, leading a flock of sheep like clouds.
The shepherd was looking for grass for the sheep to eat. Looking around, the shepherd spotted a dog that had come out to scout and spoke to it.
“Hey there, little wolf. Could you guide me to land covered in wild grass? If you do, I'll give you something delicious.”
Wild grass held no value at all for the dog. The dog guided the shepherd to a hillside thick with grass. When the shepherd saw the green grass covering the broad hill, the shepherd was overjoyed.
“You are such a kind wolf! Thank you! Here, I'll give you a bone with meat on it!”
The dog had only pointed out a patch of grass it could not even eat, yet it received a delicious bone. Excited, the dog took the bone in its mouth and ran straight to the wolf to tell it what had happened.
It boasted that humans who tended sheep gave such delicious meat, then shared its prize.
After hearing the story, the wolf excitedly ran over and sank its teeth into the neck of a young lamb grazing at the edge of the flock. Had the enraged shepherd not struck the wolf with a staff, it would not have stopped at one.
Hit across the back, the wolf snatched up the limp lamb and quickly fled.
The hunt had succeeded, but neither the dog nor the wolf was satisfied. One young lamb was too small for the two of them to eat.
The dog longed for the bone with meat on it, while the wolf feared the heavy wooden staff.
The wolf wanted the dog to help with the next hunt. It ordered the dog to draw the shepherd's attention while it hunted the largest sheep.
Then, claiming it needed to heal its wounds, the wolf swallowed the young lamb it had caught in one gulp.
The dog received only a single bone without even a trace of meat.
The next day, as planned, the two split up and approached the flock. The King of Dogs, who had to draw attention first, appeared before the shepherd.
The shepherd spotted the dog lingering nearby and stood up, leaning on a hard wooden staff. Yet instead of swinging it, the shepherd waved a hand broadly and said,
“Kind wolf. Tell me where that big one that took my sheep last time is. Then I'll give you a bone covered in meat.”
The shepherd offered a bone covered in meat. The wolf offered a bone without a scrap of flesh.
After thinking for a moment, the dog accepted the shepherd's offer. It led the shepherd toward where the wolf would come from, and the wolf, hidden nearby, was beaten soundly and driven from the pasture.
From that day on, the dog lived with humans, while the wolf howled every time the full moon rose, recalling the pain and betrayal of that day....
“...Don't you know the story that says the King of Dogs and the King of Wolves began fighting because of that? The King of Wolves must have existed back then too.”
Tyr listened to my story with an absorbed expression. After being completely swept up in it, she came back to herself and lifted her gaze slightly, recalling an old memory.
“Wolf... Ah. I see. I had forgotten. That one which led wild dogs and rushed at us.”
“That makes sense. To vampires, the King of Dogs and the King of Wolves would have seemed the same. Whether it was a dog, a friend to humans, or a wolf that came running at the scent of blood.”
“Either way, it is an interesting story. Today is the first time I have heard it.”
“It comes from a children's storybook.”
“There was no one beside me to tell me such tales.... Though that is no longer true.”
Tyr snapped her fingers. A shadow rose beside me and formed into an antique chair. Tyr sat down, then looked up at me with concern.
“Whatever happens, do not get hurt. If thou art injured, who will tell me stories and make my heart beat?”
“It was just a little blood. I'll think of what I spilled as something I gave you, Tyr.”
“Don't say such nonsense.”
A small hand smacked my right arm. It did not hurt at all.
Then Tyr gripped my right arm with that same hand and whispered to me with a desperation unlike anything I had ever seen.
“Thy blood does not taste good. So keep it safely inside thy body. Do not spill even a single drop.”
Tyr was so full of concern that I had to reassure her again and again that I understood.
Footnotes:
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