WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Reluctant Imperialist

Chapter 69

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Clocking In (3)

Inside Gigantes

00 : 35

BOOM!

The Revolutionary Faction's signal had arrived.

I listened quietly from inside the hideout.

Bang! Bangbangbangbangbang-!

This was more than just hearing with my ears. The virus pulsed violently, released mana, detected the entire area its waves reached, and fed that back to me as sensory data. In short, the virus's field of view overlaid my neural network. My perception expanded.

Aaaagh-! Guhhk-!

Gunfire and screams mixed together. The security forces facing the Revolutionary Faction collapsed helplessly. Before long, the members had seized the chokepoints and set up barricades.

Then another force moved in.

The Royal Guard.

They were fundamentally different from knights. If a knight was the Empire's sword, standing alone as an elite, the Royal Guard were the Imperial Palace's hunting hounds. Raised in the palace from childhood, educated there in everything, they were molded into armed machines that existed only for the palace.

"......"

I closed my eyes and focused.

Within those overlapping waves of mana, suddenly,

I felt one distinct, alien wave.

Thump-

A presence that made my heart tremble: Izenheim.

That bastard was hiding among the Royal Guard sworn to protect the Emperor.

Was that possible?

Not impossible. If they had somehow pushed a five- or six-year-old Izenheim into the palace.

Still, for now, I only watched. I would not draw my blade too early.

I simply waited in calm silence.

A variable was most destructive when people thought it was not there.

* * *

Inside Gigantes

00 : 45

"S-stop them! Stop those bastards! Shoot them all dead-!"

The supervisor panicked at the Revolutionary Faction appearing from somewhere underground and ran for his life.

"What are you doing, you idiots?! Shoot! Shoot now!"

The guards panicked and sprayed machine-gun fire, but Revolutionary Faction members deployed artifacts, deflected the curtain of bullets, and dropped them with precise return fire.

"Uh, wh- wha-aagh!"

Crash. The supervisor fled desperately, only to be grabbed by a familiar face. It was one of the workers he had kicked with his boot a few days ago.

The worker's mouth twisted with hatred.

"You pig bastard."

"S-spare m-"

Bang!

No hesitation. He put a bullet squarely through the supervisor's forehead.

The bastard's eyes rolled back and his breath stopped, but they did not spare him even a glance. They did not even have the luxury of settling personal grudges.

"Move!"

They quickly wove barricades from steel frames and construction materials. Their comrades needed even one more second to infiltrate Gigantes's core.

Thud, thud, thud-

Then heavy footsteps shook the ground. The scent of mana rolled in on the air.

Revolutionary Faction members stared through gaps in the barricade.

Steam and smoke split apart, and a Royal Guardsman in pitch-black full armor appeared.

"Fire!"

Ratatatatat-!

The Revolutionary Faction members rose as one and pulled their triggers. Hundreds of rounds rained down, yet the guard neither dodged nor blocked.

Bullets struck his armor, made tiny clinks, and bounced away uselessly. Armor painstakingly coated by high-ranking alchemists could not be scratched by rifle rounds.

Whoooosh!

Someone threw a grenade. The guard flicked his hand. Invisible mana crushed it midair.

"Fire! Do not stop!"

They did not stop. They were afraid, but they did not show it. Their lives were already thrown away.

If the Empire survived, alive or dead would be the same. Better to become a blood-soaked cornerstone for their descendants.

"Shoot! Do not stop, shoot!"

Ratatatata-!

Bullets infused with mana stone streaked forward in blue trails.

......

Inside Gigantes

00 : 50

Deep underground. The blast door leading to Gigantes's mana ore vein was forbidden ground, off-limits to workers and even supervisors.

"Detonate."

BOOM!

The Revolutionary Faction blew the door clean off with Menci's mana bomb.

"Enter."

Before the smoke even cleared, they moved in with perfect coordination. Heat and pressure from raw, unrefined mana hit them first. Then, in the middle of a massive cavern hundreds of meters underground, the descending ore body came into view.

The heart of Gigantes, flashing red and blue like a living thing.

Around the mana ore vein, dense networks of pipelines and cooling systems sprawled out.

"......Demolition teams, go to your assigned points and set charges as you descend."

At Tiger Mask's order, the members split up. To destroy the mana ore vein, they had to apply even pressure at exact points.

There were hundreds of calculated points. They slid down into the depths of the spiral stairwell.

"All other combat teams, form up again."

Tiger Mask gave another command. Elite operatives, including Rabbit Mask and Eagle Mask, responded at once. They checked their gear and warmed up their mana.

"Let's go."

"Ready."

The Royal Guard would arrive eventually. If they did not kill them, the mission would fail.

Only twelve had been confirmed. From here on, it was guerrilla warfare.

"Move out."

The elites split and scattered through Gigantes's branching paths.

......

Inside Gigantes

00 : 55

Boom-!

A Royal Guardsman slammed his armored fist into the pavement.

Crack!

Hard asphalt split like paper. Flying chunks shredded the barricade, and Revolutionary Faction members were torn apart before they could even scream.

The guard started to raise his fist again, then-

Screech!

A sharp metallic sound came from above. Rabbit Mask was riding a hoverboard. The steel wire she launched wrapped around the guard's arm and neck.

The guard released mana through his whole body as if mocking her.

Fwoosh!

He intended to melt the wire with mana heat, but Rabbit did not panic. In that split second, she caught the frequency of his emitted mana wave and sent mana through the wire in the exact inverse phase.

Cancellation interference. A basic principle of mana engineering, and one of the hardest techniques to execute in real combat.

The wire did not burn. While the guard's mana was neutralized and dispersed in the air, the steel line tightened harder.

"......!"

He froze in surprise, and Tiger Mask drove straight into the opening.

The thin blade in his grip flashed like lightning. He cut exactly through the gap between helmet and neck guard.

Clang.

The helmet rolled away. Rabbit Mask paused for a moment when she saw the revealed face.

"......"

He was young. Still boyish, maybe in his late teens at most.

A terrified boy's eyes stared at her.

-Slash.

Tiger's sword cut him down.

"Do not hesitate."

Rabbit nodded quietly.

"Eleven."

There were eleven Royal Guards left. They had no room for sentiment. They moved toward the second target.

BOOM!

This time it was a Royal Guardsman wielding a two-handed sword. He was over two meters tall, and every swing tore whole sections from the narrow corridor walls. Mana packed into the blade detonated like shockwaves and crushed the space itself.

Crunch!

Tiger tried to meet the blade head-on, but the instant they clashed, the enormous weight knocked him away.

Whip!

Rabbit Mask quickly fired a wire and yanked at the guard's ankle. The giant did not budge. Instead, he grabbed the wire and pulled Rabbit toward him.

Rattle!

At close range, she scattered dozens of tiny beads. They burst into thin clouds across the guard's face.

No armor, however tough, could make every seam perfect. Breathing holes, sight slits. They were covered by mana barriers, but fine neutral-form mana slipped through those gaps like it was swimming.

"Khhk!"

Particles entered his airway, burned his lungs, and blurred his vision. The guard staggered, clutching his face with one hand.

"Hup!"

Tiger Mask charged and thrust his sword. At the same time, Rabbit Mask dove her hoverboard. Sliding low over the floor, she jammed a small mana bomb between the guard's exposed knee joints.

Bang!

With the blast, the giant collapsed.

"......Ten left."

The two looked at each other, breathing hard.

Kzzzt.

Then a static-filled report came through the radio in their ears.

“Zone 3, Royal Guard neutralized.”

“Zone 7, same.”

“Zone 9. It's Eagle. Damn, that was rough. We ganged up and got one.”

Tiger Mask shook blood from his blade and said,

"No. Seven."

A faint smile touched Rabbit's lips.

......

Inside Gigantes

01 : 35

While fierce fighting raged at the outer approach routes, the remaining comrades attached bombs one by one to the surface of Gigantes's mana ore vein.

No one made a fuss. There was no need. Everything was unfolding exactly as planned.

“Remaining Royal Guards: zero. Most security forces are down too.”

“No need to kill every guard in hiding. Leave the rest to comrades outside and come back.”

The Revolutionary Faction members who had eliminated all Royal Guards gathered one by one, and finally reached the deepest bottom of Gigantes.

"Tagan."

Rabbit Mask handed Tiger Mask, Tagan, a bright blue bomb.

A special condensed mana bomb designed to be fixed to the final root of the mana ore vein and burrow inward. Once activated, it would reach from the very bottom of the vein to the crown in twenty minutes.

They had to flee through the tunnel in that time.

It was possible, but after coming this far, life was secondary.

"......For the cause."

Tagan raised his hand while gripping the detonator. Everyone came close and pressed their wrists together.

In that position, Tagan pressed the button without hesitation.

-Thud!

-Thud! -Thud!

-Boom!

Small explosions bloomed one after another across the outer surface of the mana ore vein. Preliminary blasts to shave the surface and penetrate inward.

Sshaaaaaaa-.

Blue and red mana-stone fragments poured down like rain. Tagan and the Revolutionary Faction members let those fragments strike them and wore calm smiles.

......But.

Something was wrong.

The condensed bomb, the most important one, the one that had to pierce Gigantes's heart, stayed silent. It only glimmered blue with no reaction at all.

"......What is this."

"This, this is..."

"Tagan! It's not activating!"

For the first time, the comrades wavered. Tagan pressed the detonator button several times.

Nothing changed.

The bomb did not twitch even slightly, and Tagan ground his teeth.

"What the hell happened?!"

Rabbit Mask, Sensi, grabbed Tagan and asked.

"......What happened, you ask."

At the quiet, hot, dark pit of ore,

Tagan looked from face to face packed tightly in that place, then spat through clenched teeth.

"It means we have a traitor among us."

Sensi drew a breath and slowly turned her head. The comrades looked at one another. Faint suspicion appeared in their eyes too, but Sensi's gaze fixed on only one person: Eagle Mask.

"Huh? Me?"

Eagle stepped back as if stunned.

"Me? Me, really? You know me. We've been doing this together for ten years!"

Tagan's Tiger Mask trembled with rage.

"......You were the first one to tell us Menci got captured. You were also the one who forced your way close to Menci. We made it clear we were not to form private ties."

The comrades' eyes turned sharp. Eagle Mask raised his voice as if wronged.

"That's bullshit, not me! If anything, you're the suspicious one, Tagan. You've been checking that bomb yourself this whole time!"

"......"

Shing! Tagan drew his sword. Eagle gave a dry laugh.

"Wow. Look at this bastard. You're just going to kill me on your gut feeling?"

"Everyone, stop-"

"Amazing, just amazing~"

Clap. Clap. Clap.

He applauded.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

The clapping echoed through the underground.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Sensi glared at him and pointed.

"You. Stop. Why are you clapping?"

"Hmm? Ah, why? Because."

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Even then, Eagle Mask kept clapping, looked over all of them one by one, and lifted his brows with a sly grin.

"Because you were right."

WHOOOSH!

At that moment, part of the underground wall tore open and another new figure flew in.

Dark armor black as pitch with a red aura coursing through it, and inside it, a monster pouring out mana on a completely different level.

It was a Captain of Ten.

* * *

Inside Gigantes

01 : 45

Izenheim had been hiding behind Revolutionary Faction masks and inside Royal Guard helmets alike. They had pieces on both sides and were playing the board.

Izenheim's calculation was clear. From their side, the complete destruction of Gigantes was not beneficial.

If the Revolutionary Faction succeeded and Gigantes's mana ore vein disappeared completely, the Empire would abandon Gigantes cleanly.

Then it would become zero.

If it was only partially ruined, the story changed. The Empire would be forced to squeeze out massive resources to restore Gigantes. Rebuilding costs would be fatal bleeding for an Empire already running dry, and countless thieves would steal that money along the way.

Of course, the Revolutionary Faction may have known this too.

Still, they wanted symbolism more than efficiency.

Symbol mattered as much as ideology.

The sense of liberation from permanently destroying Gigantes, the breeding ground of imperial exploitation.

The solidarity of knowing there was an organization that fought for workers. They bet their lives on the message their success would send to the people.

But Izenheim had deceived that pure desire, twisted it however they pleased, and even tried to manufacture fake heroes: Royal Guards who protected Gigantes from terror.

Filthy fucking bastards.

"......"

I walked through Gigantes's now-quiet interior. I entered through the underground blast door, its entrance completely torn open, and looked down into the abyss below.

This underground shaft was a full 400 meters deep. It was practically sky, yet my retinas turned blue and the scene below came into view.

I saw the Revolutionary Faction clashing with the Royal Guard.

“Fuck, because of you!”

“You fucking bastard!”

-Kraaaaaaagh!

“Because of you, because of a turncoat bastard like you, aaaagh!”

Their furious cries, betrayed at the most crucial moment, echoed upward.

"......Pretty brutal."

I waited until the situation below settled into a slight lull.

When the noise started thinning out, I slung the bomb I had prepared in advance over my shoulder.

With this lacking brain of mine, I still prepared for every scenario I could.

One of them, if there was a problem with the bomb, had come true. This bomb, purchased from Ekentoi in the underground city black market, had enough power to blow the mana ore vein apart.

If this worked, maybe I should buy Kairon a meal.

I placed my foot on the top railing.

A vertical drop of 400 meters. This too could be a descent.

No, it was absolutely a descent.

The essence of descent was not about distance.

Come to think of it, the biggest difference between those Royal Guards weighed down with heavy armor and a knight like me might be this.

Coming down from the sky.

Tap.

I kicked off lightly.

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