WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 340: Sunlit Shade (7)
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It would be better to admit it. He needed sincerity. The security chief had only told him to stall for time, but Gyeoul truly meant to try persuading her. Not because there was any real hope. Even though he expected to fail, this situation simply sat wrong with him.
“I suppose I can’t help it if it looks that way. In any case, I belong to the U.S. military. If the U.S. military fights you, I have no choice but to stand with the U.S. military. For the sake of the people in the refugee zone who depend on me too....”
「Theen-」
“But Esther, I don’t want to fight you either. I’m saying I don’t want you to get hurt.”
「.......」
“There’s also a lot I need to hear from Major Campbell, the man you’re holding there. The day I first learned this settlement’s secret, I asked him. I asked what had happened to a person named Hwangbo Esther.”
Half for her to hear, Gyeoul sighed.
“Campbell said you were dead.”
「Kik.... Liiiar.」
“Yes. It was a lie. So I was very surprised when I saw your face. The same goes for the people here with me. That means they didn’t even know you existed. Everyone is confused, and angry too. They’re asking why Major Campbell hid the truth even from us.”
「You caaan, shift the blame like thaaat, but it’s no use.」
Esther groaned with despair and hatred.
「I was foooled by that pastor bastard, foooled by those military bastards, and foooled by this bastard Campbell tooo. I wooon’t be fooled anymore. I caaan’t trust you either, Lieutenant Colonel. Nooo, I won’t trust you. If I dooon’t trust anyone, then I wooon’t be fooled eeeither!」
“Let me ask one thing.”
Gyeoul deliberately changed the subject.
“What did Campbell do to you? Is it Campbell’s fault you became different from the other believers?”
It was an attempt to create even the smallest point of sympathy. Wasn’t it human nature to want to tell someone after suffering through something terrible? At the same time, Gyeoul listened to the transmissions coming in from the snipers and raised an open hand toward the security chief. He was asking them not to give the firing order yet. It was interference with command authority, so Chief Grimm, who had been about to give the order, looked displeased. But Grimm did not ignore him. It couldn’t have been something Grimm wanted either.
The more unjust the suicide, the longer the note. Sure enough, Esther nodded her twisted head.
「That’s riiight. Because of Park Tae-sun, that son of a bitch, I became a monster anywaaay, but becoming this muuuch more horrible of a monster was Elijah Caaampbell’s fault! This bastard’s fault!」
The girl burst into sharp laughter in a voice that sounded distorted.
「He injected me with this and thaaat, cut my flesh, drew my blood, and watched my body swell while enjoying iiit. He said he was going to become veeery famous. He would become a hero, meet the president, get a medal, and make sooo much money. He said everyone would respeeect him, and it would all be thanks to the great fooools and me. He said you tooo would leave your name in history thanks to meee.」
“....”
The great fools probably meant the Great Patriots.
「Aaah, that’s right. Lieutenant Colonel. Should I tell you one thing this bastard doesn’t knooow?」
“Something Major Campbell doesn’t know?”
「Yees. Kik. You seeee, I can understand what the Tricksters are saying.」
Gyeoul was stunned.
“What...?”
「Actuallyyy, it isn’t hearing, and it isn’t seeing either. It’s a suuuper strange sense, but anywaaay, I mean I can understand the conversations they haaave.」
Esther laughed aloud again.
「This son of a bitch tortured meee every day. This is a radio wave collected in Saaaan Franciscooo, and this is a radio wave collected in Looos Aaangeleeess, this and thaaat.... At first, it was just noisy, and I couldn’t see anything, but after I got a certain injection, I graaadually started to hear it.」
In the past, he had once held a suspicion close to certainty. Maybe mutants transmitted certain traits to one another by biting and reinfecting each other. There was a high chance that the specific injection Esther mentioned had served the same function. It meant Campbell had injected Esther with the latest Morgellons complex secured in the field, likely extracted from a Trickster.
「Buut I kept telling this bastard I didn’t know anythiiing. I didn’t want to show him things going his waaay. Hee. Then he said that couldn’t beee, that the frequency must have beeeen tuned, that I should tell the truth, and he burned me with hot irooon, and when I cried because it huuurt, he said my body wouldn’t die from this muuuch, that it would all heal after an hour, and that I was disgusting, so stop cryiiing....」
After saying that much, she fell silent for a moment, then called Gyeoul.
「Lieutenant Colonel.」
“Yes.”
「The Tricksters, you seeee, really, really hate Lieutenant Colonel Han Gyeoul. Because they caaan’t kill you, and they caaan’t even dream of infecting you, and wherever you appear, they caaan’t handle it.」
“I see....”
「Yees. I have so maaany memories, you seeee. I know how strong you aaare, and how well you fight. So, when I said earlier that I didn’t want to fight you, Lieutenant Colonel, I really did hate the thought, but it was also because if you interfereeed, I wasn’t confident I could kill that bastard Park Tae-sun.」
“Esther. Then why not give up here?”
「Giiive up?」
“Yes. Like I said earlier, I have no choice but to stop you. Besides, you’re alone. You won’t be able to break through trained troops. And... I don’t know what Campbell told you, but there might still be a chance for treatment.”
「Where would there beee, a chance like thaaat?」
Esther’s shoulders, one thicker than the other, shook wildly. Huuu, huuu, the sound of leaking wind. It sounded like loud laughter, and also like she was shaking her shoulders as she cried. Gyeoul kept trying to persuade her.
“Who knows what else Campbell has hidden? Just as he hid you from us, there’s at least some chance he deliberately hid data even though treatment was possible. To monopolize the research by himself.... But to find that out for certain, Campbell himself has to stay alive. If you kill him here... facts known only to him may never be uncovered again, or even if they are uncovered, it may be too late to use them for treatment. The people of the Saints Church don’t have much time left.”
Esther asked at once.
「And after thaaat?」
“He’ll have to pay for his crimes.”
「You’re lying agaaain. I told you, I’m noooot stupid. If I don’t kill this bastard, he will neeever die, you know? That crazy bastard Park Tae-sun is the saaame! Treatment? Even if that shit were possible, I wouldn’t take iiit! What I want! Only! Tearing those two bastards apart and killing theeem! The ones who did wrong! Should be punished! Why? Because if it isn’t meee! Nobody will give them a proper punishment!」
She had been panting with rage, but before Gyeoul could say anything, she suddenly grinned like a madwoman.
「Weeell, fine. Kik. That doesn’t maaatter. Lieutenant Colonel, why do you think I talked for sooo long? Because I just wanted to complaaain? Noooo! Nooot at all?」
Gyeoul felt a tingling in his nerves. 「Crisis Detection」 and 「Survival Instinct」 had been prickling nonstop since he came here, so there was no particular change there. That was because of Esther’s special presence. Separate from that, 「Perception」 and 「Insight」 were newly coming to a boil. Just as Chief Grimm had asked him to stall for time, had the girl who was neither human nor mutant also been deliberately stalling?
‘Why?’
The balance of the situation was still the same. What could Esther do by buying time now? Still, suspicion rose. Had the girl who gained the traits of monsters that handled electricity also gained their cunning?
Sure enough, the girl revealed her cleverness.
「Now, Lieutenant Colonel, you must have realized my value tooo. If I kill this bastard, at leeeast for a while! The fact that I’ll be the only one with the ability to decode what the Tricksters are sayiiing! It’s an ability that could save maaany soldiers, it’s that kind of chance! Since you know that nooow, Lieutenant Colonel Haaan Gyeoul! You caaan’t kill me carelesslyyy!」
True enough, that was what it meant to eavesdrop on enemy communications.
「Once I kill only the bastards who deserve to dieee, before I kill myseeelf, I might help you a little, you know?」
“Esther.”
Gyeoul called her calmly, and chose his next words while hoping some ember of religious faith still remained in her. There was no other way to persuade her, so he spoke as if taking a gamble.
“You’re right. You have the power to save many people. Tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands. Maybe... this is the Lord’s will.”
After a brief pause, the grotesque voice came out clearly trembling.
「Whaaat did you saaay?」
“In Christian faith, everything in this world is part of almighty God’s plan. If He truly exists, then there must be some reason for all the pain you’ve had to suffer. And as a result, you’ve been given the chance to save countless people.”
The Bible had many stories of suffering endured to prove faith. Gyeoul remembered one of them. The 「Memorization」 correction made a memory from several months ago even clearer.
“A nun I met before told me there is a verse like this in the Bible. 「Where evil abounded, grace abounded all the more.」 Then she gave me the example of Job, who was tested. The Lord took away everything he had, but he kept his faith. By doing so, his faith became more righteous than anything else. The Lord created evil, but evil itself was not His purpose... that was what she said.”
「Nooo....」
“「My God. My God. Why have you forsaken me?」... I heard those were the words Jesus spoke when He was nailed to the cross. The Lord gave suffering even to His son, with no exception. Although it was a story told to me by a Catholic nun, I think the meaning still carries across.”
「Nooooo!」
Esther let out a terrible scream.
「No! No! No! There is no God! There is no God! It’s all a liiie! If He’s really almightyyy! Why is this all He can dooo! If He really loooves me! Whyyy! Is this all He can dooo!」
“....”
「Yooou! You never even belieeeved! You were never betraaayed! Don’t talk so carelesslyyy!」
Reacting to the sudden intensity, Chief Grimm mouthed a question. Not yet? Gyeoul hesitated for an instant, then shook his head. The security chief folded his arms anxiously. From the way the conversation was dragging on, Grimm seemed to have glimpsed some hope.
After breathing hard for a long while, the girl made a rough sound.
「I’ll kill them.... I’ll definitely kill both of theeem....」
Gyeoul leaned toward the microphone.
“Esther, you said I only had to stay out of your way. But as I said earlier, you’re alone. Even if it isn’t me, you won’t break through the encirclement.”
On the screen Gyeoul was watching, the movements of the Heavy Infantry were fully displayed. The weight and power of the improved armored suits were overwhelming. If not for the hostage, there would have been no need to deploy snipers.
Esther, who had been quiet, suddenly jerked her head up.
「You’ve been saying alooone, alooone, since earlier.... But actuallyyy. I’m not alooone, you know?」
Almost at the same time, a control room operator reported in utter shock.
“Multiple unidentified heat sources detected! Movement detected in seven sectors!”
Chief Grimm was horrified.
“Where did they come from!”
“Centered around the route the target passed through...!”
The starting point was the Fifth Laboratory. The route Esther had taken while cutting wires and destroying electronics had gone unmonitored due to power problems. From that straight line, like branches spreading from a trunk, motion sensor and thermal sensor alerts were spreading.
「Thereee! I can hear you all being surprised! Kik! Thank youuu for waiting until everything was readyyy! Haa! Haa! Hk! Haahaahahahahahaaat!」
Esther, lurking at the end of the tunnel, burst into hate-filled laughter.
「You seeee! All this tiiime! I’ve been conceiving without a partner, you know? Over and over! Over and over! At impossible intervaaals! Even after coming outside, I dropped twooo more!」
It was a madness that made even Gyeoul shudder.
Footnotes:
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