WeTried Translations
Translator: Hydrogen B
Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 182: The Road Home (3)
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“P-paralysis poison?”
“...”
“W-what do you mean...?”
The village chief had been struck right on the mark. His hands trembled as he muttered under his breath. The right hand that had held a cup just moments ago was now empty.
Five men sat gathered in the living room. A heavy silence hung over them. The crude ceramic cup the village chief had been holding had already shattered, its fragments scattered across the floor. Hot tea had splashed in every direction, like blood that sprays when someone is killed.
“Am I wrong?”
“N-no. I don't know what you're talking about. You can't just say something like that out of nowhere...”
“You don't know? Then one of us must be lying.”
“That isn't what I meant...”
“Take a drink. If I'm wrong, I'll offer you a sincere apology, along with generous compensation.”
Kyle spoke evenly. Unlike the village chief, Kyle and the other two still held cups of untouched tea.
Kyle slowly raised his cup and held it out to the village chief. The chief's trembling eyes fixed on the cup, faint steam still rising from it. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. Panting, he barely managed to accept the cup Kyle offered.
“This brings back memories.”
As the village chief sat frozen with fear, Kyle began to speak.
“When I wandered the continent alone, all kinds of things happened. There were times when I had no choice but to kill people. This world isn't so forgiving.”
“...”
“Do you know what I did first whenever I entered a village? I looked around. No matter how ordinary a village seemed, there was no way to know what lay beneath the surface. More than once, I went easy on suspicious people because I still had my doubts, only to be ambushed in the middle of the night.”
“What... happened?”
Still clutching the cup, the village chief barely forced out the question. Kyle answered as if it were nothing.
“I killed them all.”
“...”
“More precisely, I cut off the heads of those who tried to do that to me. Right before I drew my sword, when they realized their plan had failed and death was upon them, they all fell at my feet and begged, as though they'd agreed on it beforehand. They said they had no choice. That they did it to survive. That there had been no other way. They all gave the same excuse.”
“I...”
“Do you know that murder can become as familiar as eating a meal?”
Kyle's voice was low, but every word bore down on them like a crushing weight. Whenever he spoke, the village chief and Jan flinched.
Haa, haa.
Their ragged breathing echoed clearly through the living room. Father and son could not even look at Kyle's face. Instead, their eyes kept drifting toward the elegant sword resting beside him.
It was as though everything there existed to judge them.
The sword that had cut down a Troll in a single blow. If that blade turns toward us...
“At first, of course, you feel repulsed. You're killing another person. It isn't like hunting an animal. You retch and vomit again and again. Sometimes, you even have nightmares.”
Whether he knew what they were thinking or not, Kyle continued calmly.
“But once you cross a certain line, it becomes as natural as breathing. Nothing can stop you anymore.”
“...”
“The victims are already dead, burned or buried beneath the earth. Your conscience, the only thing that could have held you back, was ground away long ago. All that remains is the monster you became.”
“How do you... know that?”
The village chief forced out the words.
“Because it's all my story.”
Kyle's black eyes were calm. His gaze pierced the village chief.
At that moment, the chief instinctively threw the cup aside and sprang to his feet. Hermann and Walter were faster.
Thud!
“Urgh!”
“Father!”
“Don't move. I might cut you down.”
The village chief, who had tried to flee while grabbing his son's hand, was slammed face-first into the living room floor. Hermann had already risen from his seat. He pinned the chief's back beneath his left foot and held a drawn sword to the back of his neck.
“W-wait! This is just a misunderstanding...!”
“Shut up, brat. We'll decide that.”
Walter silenced Jan with a look before he could protest. His usual easygoing expression and tone were nowhere to be seen. Hermann was no different.
Leaving the living room to the two of them, Kyle walked into the kitchen.
The brick house was large enough for a family to live in comfortably, and it contained all manner of kitchen utensils. Pots, ladles, an unusually large cleaver, and a salt container with its bottom exposed.
No, that's not salt. Is this the paralysis poison?
Kyle opened the lid, dipped a finger into the white powder, and tasted it. Along with a faint salty flavor, his tongue gradually began to lose sensation.
It would not mean much to a high-ranking knight or mage accustomed to controlling mana, but it was deadly enough for ordinary mercenaries or merchants. If they drank tea offered under the guise of kindness and their bodies stiffened, it would have been difficult to escape the hunters afterward.
I have a rough idea now.
Kyle picked up the salt container and returned to the living room. The village chief was still trembling beneath Hermann's foot, staring at the blade held to his neck.
Walter clicked his tongue as he looked at Jan, who seemed ready to burst into tears.
“How did it go?”
“There was poison in the form of salt in the kitchen.”
Kyle tossed the salt container he held. Walter caught it easily, examined it from several angles, then frowned.
“You didn't eat it, did you?”
“Only a tiny amount.”
“You crazy bastard. I told you not to push yourself. What if something really happened?”
“It isn't particularly rare poison. They probably bought it from a passing merchant. It's such an obvious trick that there's nothing surprising about it.”
Kyle was looking down at the village chief with cold eyes when a series of loud screams suddenly rang out from outside.
“Aaargh!”
“It wasn't me! I don't know anything!”
“S-save me! Please, save...!”
The cries, nearly shrieks of despair, drained the color from the village chief's and Jan's faces. Kyle spoke to them in an icy voice.
“Get up.”
Hermann forcibly pulled the village chief to his feet. Limping alongside Jan, the chief left the house. Hermann followed close behind without sheathing his sword, while Walter glared at them with sharp eyes.
When they reached the center of the village, people startled awake by the disturbance in the middle of the night had already gathered there.
“Kyle.”
“Is everyone all right?”
Kyle looked over the six members, divided into two groups. Like the three who had come from the village chief's house, each had dragged along a villager who had tried to poison them.
“No problem. Just as you said, something felt off, and they tried to pull something.”
Gerant let out a short sigh.
“Looks like they planned this together. Did we look that appetizing?”
“You should know who you're trying to rob before pulling something like that. They must have used the same method to fleece some country knight before.”
“Did you taste it?”
“Yeah. Just a little. It wasn't enough to be dangerous.”
“Any poison these bastards can get their hands on is going to be low-grade.”
The men joked, though not entirely in jest. The villagers watching them saw the swords in their hands and could only shift uneasily, unable to step forward.
Then the village militia, arriving late, pushed through the crowd in the center of the village.
“C-chief!”
“Who the hell are you? Let go of the chief right now!”
“Who do you think you are, drawing weapons here?”
From the young men who had guarded the village entrance earlier to older, middle-aged men, the village militia shouted as they gripped swords and spears that looked as though they had been looted. The villagers began to join in one by one.
“Stop! Everyone, stop!”
Just as the uproar was about to erupt, a young man Kyle had seen before emerged from the crowd.
“Put your weapons away! Do you all really want to die?”
Sven, was it?
The young hunter who had worked alongside Jan, the village chief's son, wore a terrified expression unlike the others. He was the complete opposite of those who had grown bold because they outnumbered them.
Perhaps he had considerable influence as a hunter, because the cries spreading like wildfire gradually died down.
No. We can't provoke them. We could all be wiped out.
Sven bit down hard on his lip. He vividly remembered Kyle slaughtering the Troll in an instant.
It was already over the moment the strongest paralysis poison they got from passing merchants did nothing. I told them we shouldn't do this. But everyone was blinded by his damn horse and Inventory Pouch. And now look what happened.
“...What is going on here? Please explain.”
Sven stepped forward as their representative, pretending to remain calm. Kyle curled the corner of his mouth in a mocking smile.
“Walter.”
“What a joke. You're still going to play innocent at this point?”
Walter threw the salt container into the middle of the village road for everyone to see. The small spice container rolled across the ground beneath the bright moonlight.
The villagers' faces darkened in an instant when they saw it. Some even sighed and turned their heads away.
“Explain it. From the beginning to the end. Everything.”
Kyle gave Hermann a look. Hermann grabbed the village chief by the back of the neck and roughly forced him to his knees.
“What happened here?”
In the center of the village, where well over a hundred people had gathered, Kyle's calm voice rang out coldly. When the village chief came to his senses, a blade gleaming like a star rested beside his neck, casting a chilling light beneath the moon.
With everyone's attention on him, the chief squeezed his eyes shut and slowly opened his mouth.
“We... had to meet the tribute payment.”
“Tribute payment?”
“Didn't you ask earlier whether Baron Falken ruled cruelly?”
The village chief let out a self-mocking laugh.
“Yes. That greedy old man has gone beyond squeezing the surrounding villages dry. He's stripping them bare.”
“...”
“On the first day of every month, a knight from House Falken comes to collect money. One hundred Gold. Nearly half the village's total income. Where could powerless people like us get that kind of money?”
“So you robbed passing strangers?”
“Yes. We did. We bought paralysis poison from passing merchants, pretended to be kind, killed strangers who entered the village, and took their money and belongings. But what else could we do? Baron Falken's knights come to the village every month without fail. If we fall even a little short, it won't be outsiders who die. It'll be the people of this village.”
The village chief's voice grew increasingly emotional.
“I know. I know it isn't right. But if you look at it that way, aren't we all equally mad?”
He let out an unhinged laugh.
“Hailen has fallen, and the north is in such a state that a civil war could break out at any moment. Duke Ehrenfeld sits in the capital, paying an enormous tribute to the Empire. In return, he squeezes his vassals dry. What do you think they do after that? Who do you think suffers in the end?”
“How many people have you killed so far?”
Kyle asked with a dry expression. The village chief could not answer.
“You can't even count them.”
“...”
“Was that the only reason you tried to kill us?”
“What else were we supposed to do?!”
The chief suddenly shouted. His booming voice swept over the entire village in an instant.
“Were we supposed to sit still and let Baron Falken's knights kill us?”
The village chief choked back sobs as though he had lost his mind. Fear no longer remained on his tear-filled face.
“Four years! It has already been four years since Hailen fell!”
He shouted.
“What is wrong with choosing to become monsters in order to survive? The royal family that lost to the Empire was at fault from the beginning!”
The village chief turned his wild eyes toward Kyle.
“My wife died then too! During the Northern War, while those damned Imperial bastards violated her!”
He looked around at everyone, dragging out emotions that had festered for years.
“What did the royal family do then? What were they doing? The Knights of Ash? You called yourselves the continent's greatest knight order? You failed to protect anything! Anything!”
“...”
“They should have never rebelled against the Empire! They should have surrendered from the beginning! Then we would not have had to live this miserably. At the very least, we would not have had to give up being human...”
After venting his anger for some time, the village chief lowered his head to the ground. All that remained after his fierce outburst was his miserable sobbing.
“You're right. The Knights of Ash couldn't do anything.”
“...”
“So we'll set it right now.”
Kyle spoke. Those who had been looking at the village chief with pity turned toward Kyle one by one. The chief slowly raised his head as well.
Kyle calmly accepted all their gazes before looking at Jan, who stood there blankly.
“Jan.”
“Y-yes!”
“When is the next tribute collection day?”
“Tomorrow...”
“Will Baron Falken's knights come in person?”
“Yes. Usually two or three of them. But this time, we haven't managed to meet the amount...”
“There'll be bloodshed.”
Kyle muttered as though it did not matter. Jan and the other villagers' eyes widened.
“What are you going to do?”
Hermann asked after withdrawing his sword from the village chief. Kyle silently nodded. The members and every villager alike watched him.
Kyle personally helped the village chief to his feet.
“Get up. You all have something to do before the sun rises tomorrow.”
Footnotes:
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