WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 92: Outcast

──────

『...The military state plans to dispatch an investigation team.』

The golem finished calmly.

After hearing everything, I tilted my head. A military state communications officer had reported to me, a mere laborer, of all people.

Perhaps realizing that, the golem added as if making excuses.

『Do not misunderstand. This does not mean we wholly trust your opinion. The military authorities still believe this situation arose from a simple error. This investigation team is being sent to determine the cause of that error. Informing you of this is merely a brief explanation of the situation for an information provider.』

“Of course.”

『...I must emphasize this once more. Do not do anything rash. The military state is highly alert over this matter, and the investigation team will include a general officer. Lieutenant Colonel Callis is a soldier of the military state. The military state will judge her actions as well. Even if there are suspicious aspects to the lieutenant colonel's conduct, it is not your place to interfere. I recommend that you remain still.』

Even though I said I understood, the golem repeated herself over and over.

Did she think I couldn't understand? The military state hated pointless work, yet she was saying the same thing twice.

『If you truly wish to leave the Abyss, faithfully serving your sentence according to the military state's orders is the only way.』

I said I understood. Why was she so desperate not to leave me alone? Wait.

“Are you worried about me?”

『Denied! I am merely stating common sense! It is ten times more realistic and constructive than aiming to escape from a place where escape is impossible!』

Her answer was so firm that it was almost hurtful. She didn't have to put it that strongly. I nodded halfheartedly.

After that forceful declaration, the golem steadied herself and continued.

『...Lieutenant Colonel Callis has requested canned meat. Is there nothing you wish to request?』

“No, I'm fine. It looks like the lieutenant colonel will distribute it herself this time anyway.”

『...Understood. Then this officer shall take her leave. Take care.』

“Yes. Take care too, Captain.”

The golem cut the connection immediately after I finished speaking. Thud. Its body went limp, and I propped it neatly upright in one corner of the cafeteria.

Getting to my feet, I muttered into the empty air.

“With this, Lieutenant Colonel Callis is completely isolated. She has nowhere to turn. How will she act once she's been driven into a corner?”

No answer came.

What was that? She was clearly listening. If she didn't answer, it'd look like I was talking to myself.

So she couldn't ignore me, I shouted toward one wall of the cafeteria.

“See? Isn't it nice that we left one golem intact? If we'd smashed them all, we couldn't have requested supplies, and we wouldn't know what was happening. Do you understand now that smashing everything isn't always the answer?”

The opposite wall rippled like a mirage. Her concealment technique unraveled, revealing the regressor leaning against the wall with her arms folded.

Though she had heard every word exchanged between the golem and me, the regressor still answered as if displeased.

“...If we smash the golem and kill her too, there'll be nothing to worry about.”

“She said a general officer is coming. What will you do if you casually kill the lieutenant colonel and a general officer comes down personally?”

“They may be generals, but not all of them are strong. Unless it's one of the Six Generals, I can handle them alone. It'd be much easier with Tyrkanzyaka.”

It wasn't arrogance. General officers stood at the apex of the military state's pyramid, the strongest forces leading the nation called the military state.

Unless they were among the Six Generals, whose strength was on another level entirely, she confidently declared that she could defeat any of them as if it were common sense.

That was impressive, but there was another problem. I carefully pointed it out.

“You know this, right? From general officer onward, they're major national figures. The moment you kill one, the military state marks you as a target, and we're locked into an irreconcilable hostile relationship.”

“You and I have already been marked. Do you think they'll leave us alone after we survived in the Abyss however we pleased? Even if we get out of here, we won't be able to dream of an ordinary life. What are you so worried about?”

Tch. That was true.

With nothing left to say, I complained for no reason.

“I'm worried about you being so calm about murdering a general.”

“Quiet. You're the one who stayed calm even with a blade pointed at you.”

“It was a poker face. Do you know how startled I was inside?”

The regressor snorted at my answer. She clearly didn't believe a word of my excuse.

“A petty criminal like you? Then the military state would've fallen last night.”

“No, really. Both the captain and the lieutenant colonel agree. They say I'm a petty criminal.”

“You don't need to try to deceive me too. We might become comrades, after all.”

‘Just considering Azzy and Tyrkanzyaka, there are more than enough reasons to keep him alive. Unless something unusual changes in the next run too, I'll probably keep him alive. If possible, I want to learn his true intentions in this run.’

It didn't look like she'd believe me even if I said it aloud.

Still, was there any need to correct her? I had secured my right to survive not only this run, but the next one too. Be grateful, future me. I'm working this hard for myself.

Anyway, I had effectively saved my life, so I let it go and shrugged.

“That makes it even harder to understand.”

Unlike broad-minded me, though, the meticulous regressor couldn't simply let the question in her heart pass.

She asked me what she wanted to know.

“Do we really need to keep that lieutenant colonel alive?”

“Captain AB just explained it. A general officer is coming.”

“No, I'm not talking about the situation. You never intended to kill the lieutenant colonel from the beginning. You weren't trying to help her either, but apart from that, it feels like killing her was never even an option to you.”

Sometimes, the regressor's thoughts jumped in strange directions.

I didn't know whether that was because of her externally installed thirteenth-run thought circuit or simply her nature. Most of the time, she grasped at the wrong end of the stick, but once or twice, she unexpectedly pierced the heart of the matter. Like a cow catching a mouse while walking backward.

Even when I smiled vaguely, the regressor continued to press me.

“Why? Don't tell me she's your type.”

“Ha ha. Of course not.”

“Then?”

“Haah. Well.”

You see, while reading the officer's mind from time to time, I realized something.

The human heart was fascinating.

“Aren't you curious, Mr. Shei?”

“About what?”

The officer's goal was to become a Level 4 citizen. She had become an officer for that purpose and taken the hand of the secret society that had approached her in private, the Lords of All Creation.

Her progress had been smooth. With their support, she had received two medals and risen to lieutenant colonel at breathtaking speed. She had gained a fair degree of fame as well, enough that people in the military state recognized her.

Then came an order from the Lords of All Creation.

Pretend it was a mistake, infiltrate Tantalus, and obtain information.

Tantalus of the Abyss. It was a hellish realm nobody should dare approach... Yet the danger had greatly diminished after the jailbreak, and above all, the fact that the laborer sent down first was living there without a care was encouraging.

If even a petty criminal had survived, what reason was there for her, an elite of the military state, not to survive unharmed?

So, following their orders, the officer entered this place.

But.

“It's a land of complete isolation. The Abyss, where she can't rely on anyone else's help at all. She'd climbed to a fairly high position as a lieutenant colonel, yet she was dropped here alone without any support. Everyone is pressuring her, but she hasn't accomplished a thing. She's even being treated with hostility by people she never considered enemies.”

The dangerous figure, Shei, still regarded her with hostility.

The King of Dogs had already built a deep bond with the laborer, leaving no room for her to wedge herself in.

She needed to do something about that laborer, yet the Progenitor, who ought to be indifferent to people, fiercely protected the laborer for some reason.

The officer watched me all day in search of an opening. Every time, I pretended not to notice her gaze and showed her the position I held and how firmly we were bound together.

The more I did, the more despair consumed her.

A hopeless mission. She gnawed at her nails while trying to devise a solution that wouldn't come. Yet no method would simply appear on its own in the isolated Abyss.

By now, the officer must have understood. Here... she, the newcomer, could do nothing.

“She has no one to exchange a word with, no idea how much time is passing, and her goal grows more distant while the end draws closer. Her life is no different from that of a tiny fly.”

Even if the officer found an opening and approached Azzy, the moment I rang the bell, Azzy would run to me at once.

Even inside a building, whenever she passed through a shadow untouched by light, she felt a gloomy gaze. Tyr was watching her warily.

Even the regressor standing before me gave off killing intent whenever she looked at the lieutenant colonel. Someone of the lieutenant colonel's rank could sense unhidden killing intent, so she was experiencing death several times a day because of it.

“Could she die here? Could she fade away like a dim candle, accomplishing nothing and remembered by no one? Could the people whose plan went wrong abandon her? That's what she's worrying about now.”

Her goal was to become a Level 4 citizen.

The reason she wanted to reach Level 4 was to leave what she possessed to later generations.

Yet she had neither family nor spouse. If she died here, everything would come to nothing.

Wasn't that quite a contradiction? Risking her life for something that didn't exist in the present.

“What will she show at the very bottom?”

At the end of her life, at the end of that contradiction, what would she choose?

“Aren't you curious?”

I was so curious that I wanted to ask her once.

As expected, the regressor didn't understand.

“You caused all this for that? Something this inefficient?”

“It isn't only because of that. Anyway, you can't kill someone who's alive. Since we're keeping her alive anyway.”

Because I was a mind reader, I knew that a sincere answer only came when someone was truly placed in that situation. Even people who swore they could give their lives for their country fled when a blade actually approached their eyes.

That was true even when I had read their minds and found not a trace of falsehood. They had deceived even themselves.

So the lines written down now meant nothing. When that moment arrived before their eyes, when a situation unfolded that words couldn't get them out of, truly valuable sincerity would finally emerge.

I only wanted to see that.

“...Really.”

The regressor quietly considered my words, then added with unexpected approval.

“If I had to guess, you must've been a truly bad bastard.”

“I told you, I'm a petty criminal.”

“Hmph. I suppose so. Anyway, regardless of what you say, it certainly... has value as an attempt.”

‘The lieutenant colonel is a woman. So she isn't the instructor that immortal mentioned. She's probably a pawn. Rather than interrogating and disposing of her immediately, leaving her alone might let us uncover the truth more clearly... I don't want to take even that minor risk, though.’

Persuaded by me, the regressor withdrew her killing intent toward the lieutenant colonel.

She placed Skywarbler, which she had been gripping tightly, back beside her head, then rubbed her chin as she sank into thought.

‘I wasn't going to do such leisurely groundwork in a run I'm throwing away... Since things have turned out this way, should I change the plan?’

Reading that thought, I could only stare in shock.

I had expected it, but this was a throwaway run?

Please don't do that. You're making the mind reader reading your mind anxious.

Anyway, I turned my gaze again and posed a question to the officer beyond.

What was an officer in checkmate thinking?

Lieutenant Colonel Callis undid the belt she had brought with her.

Some time after clothing packets became widely used, leather, having lost its primary use, was often used for accessories and consumable goods instead of clothing.

Wallets, pouches, belts, bags, ornaments, and more.

The military state regarded luxury as abhorrent, but it had no reason to stop leather stockpiles scattered throughout the country from being used. Throwing it all away would have been an even greater loss.

For a brief period, there had been a leather boom, and it remained quite fashionable until a certain incident occurred. Like all short-lived luxury goods, it came in numerous variations.

Lieutenant Colonel Callis's belt was one product that had survived after dozens of variations rose and fell, thanks to its somewhat unique function.

The left side of the belt was strangely swollen. When Callis hooked a finger into the gap, a cleverly concealed compartment appeared between the layers of leather. She took three bundles from inside.

‘The three bundles that person gave me.’

Even she didn't know what they contained. The Lords of All Creation had stressed that she must never open them before the right situation arose. So Callis had intended to conserve them as much as possible.

Now was no time to be choosy about her methods.

‘One is for communication. Another is for escape.’

It was not yet time for the communication one. She set it aside.

The escape one had been given to her for the day when all hope was lost, when she needed to escape the Abyss. She should set that aside too...

‘Do I really need to?’

Without realizing it, Callis reached for the bundle meant for escape. The moment she noticed what she was doing, she clenched her hand tightly. Drawing in a ragged breath, she bit down on her lip.

‘Not yet. Not yet. I haven't accomplished anything. I can't weaken already.’

Barely regaining her composure, Callis pushed the escape pouch deep inside with trembling fingers.

Only one remained.

‘And the last one... This is for when I need help.’

She didn't know what it contained.

Still, hope grew larger when it couldn't be seen.

Holding onto that faint hope, Callis took out the leather bundle.

The Lords of All Creation, a secret society that had sunk roots deep into the military state. Since it was their hidden trump card, she hoped it contained something that could turn the situation around.

‘Please. Let there be something inside that can get me through this crisis...!’

Filled with desperate hope, Lieutenant Colonel Callis opened the bundle.

Footnotes:

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