Please support the translation by reading the translation and commenting on otakutl official site.
Thank you.
Everyone from Otaku Translation
Chapter 3: Return
In the dead of night, Leon scrambled to his feet in a panic, carrying his younger sister onto his back as her face turned faintly purple, and rushed her to the hospital. After nearly a dozen grueling hours, bloodshot and exhausted, he sat on the edge of a dirty hospital bed with his back to the setting sun outside the window.
Staring at his younger sister, who had finally stopped coughing, he asked in a low, conflicted voice: "Anna, tell me—when did you stop taking your medicine?"
Hearing her elder brother calling her by her name, something he rarely did, the pale, frail girl on the bed shuddered slightly. She knew that, though Leon appeared calm, he was likely on the verge of losing his temper. Lowering her head, she reluctantly confessed: "About… two months ago, maybe?"
Two months ago… Leon clenched his fists upon hearing this, recalling the timing. His dirt-streaked nails dug into the flesh of his palms.
Two months ago, it was precisely when he turned sixteen and came of age.
That day, the kingdom's military welfare officer arrived punctually for a follow-up visit, announcing that he was officially an adult. In accordance with the so-called new policy, they forcibly terminated the bereavement funds he was entitled to as the family of a fallen soldier, which were originally meant to continue until he turned twenty-two.
That rare day of clear skies, free from smog and dust, had felt colder than the depths of winter to Leon’s family of four. The military's decision to repurpose bereavement funds to cover overspending had pushed his barely stable family to the edge of a cliff.
Leon silently gritted his teeth as he recalled that day, his hands clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
The benefits were cut by a quarter, yet household expenses hadn’t decreased. They’d even managed to keep meals consistent…
Damn it! How have I not noticed until now?
---
"Elder Brother." Anna’s feeble voice broke the silence, pulling Leon out of his thoughts. The frail girl on the bed turned her head slightly, speaking in a voice so light it seemed ready to dissipate at any moment: "Maybe… you should just stop worrying about me."
Leon’s entire body tensed at her words. He shot up, glaring at her with bloodshot eyes as he roared: "Don’t you dare—"
"Elder Brother!" Her raised voice triggered a fit of coughing, and she quickly grabbed Leon’s veined, trembling hand.
Struggling to steady her wheezing breaths, she softly continued: "I’ve thought it through over the past two months. Even if my death means one less set of benefits, without having to buy my medicine, you could scrape by. With the other two's benefits and some extra day labor, you’d manage to see them both through to adulthood."
She paused before adding quietly: "My registered age is a year younger than my actual age. When my sickness finally takes me, you could avoid the patrols and toss my body into the waste canal outside the capital under cover of night. You can keep hanging my old clothes on the coat rack at home, pretending I’m still here. In that way, we can continue to receive the military’s bereavement benefits for another two years.
“Elder Brother, listen to me. I’ve already asked the families in Veteran’s Alley—they’re willing to help. If they cooperate, you can fool the welfare officer. Elder Brother? Elder Brother! Where are you going?"
To find those people, to make them pay!
Upon hearing Anna’s suggestion, Leon, trembling all over, was horrified to realize that for a brief moment, he instinctively agreed with her plan. After being in this world for three years, he had somehow started to get used to all of this!
It felt as if there were another numb, cold version of himself chasing relentlessly behind, trying to swallow up the barely still-living version of him. Without realizing it, Leon began to run faster, his hot blood almost instantly filling his head.
As he bolted out of the room, he violently knocked over a medical cart. He immediately bent down to grab a scalpel still stained with blood, before staggering out of the hospital, heading straight for the Department of Public Works, three streets away!
If it weren’t for those scumbags at the Department of Public Works who approved the construction of the alchemy factory near residential areas, Anna wouldn’t have fallen ill due to the toxic fumes!
If it weren’t for their collusion with the factory, issuing a statement that the leak hadn’t caused pollution, her illness could have been treated with the necessary funds!
If it weren’t for the corruption of the kingdom’s military department, the double compensation left by his parents, who were mechanics, would have been enough to raise his three younger siblings to adulthood!
And! If this damned world hadn’t turned out to be such a mess, he wouldn’t have to struggle like this now, and he’d at least be able to live like a human!
---
With blood rushing to his head, Leon gripped the scalpel and rushed through three streets, charging toward the Department of Public Works under the blood-red sunset. He arrived at the square where, just yesterday, people had been lined up like livestock, waiting to be selected.
Although there was still an hour left until the official end of work according to the kingdom's regulations, the staff of the Department of Public Works were already streaming out of the brightly lit building, laughing as they passed Leon, who stood in tattered clothes.
"Master Wilde’s troupe is performing at the Crossroads Theatre next week. You going?"
"Not my thing. I prefer circuses. Why, aren’t you taking your wife?"
"She likes operas, sure, but she likes handbags and sales at the department store more."
"No wonder. Good luck with your wallet, then."
Opera, circuses, handbags, department stores... If he hadn’t heard what they were saying, he might have even forgotten that this was not a world of poverty and hardship, and that not everyone was suffering like his family.
Listening to the cheerful conversation of the well-dressed employees of the Department of Public Works, Leon couldn’t help but slowly raise his head. His bloodshot eyes, filled with thick veins, stared fixedly at the brightly lit building in front of him.
Anna’s logic was sound: sacrificing her could save the family. But he really couldn't take it anymore.
Having worked hard for three whole years, leaving early and returning late, he only found that life not only hadn’t improved but had instead begun to slide into an abyss.
Pressing his cracked, bloodied lips together until the taste of iron and salt filling his mouth, he strode quickly toward the Department of Public Works’ building.
It was prime time to slip in unnoticed.
He planned to head to the second floor and gut the bastard who approved the factory first.
Then, amidst the chaos, he would run up to the fourth floor to find the scumbag who provided false testimony for the factory, causing his family to be denied compensation and leaving them unable to afford Anna's treatment. He would make sure they both perish together! Let these damned...
A collision snapped him out of his thoughts. A fat, greasy man bumped into him, scowling as he brushed off his coat.
"Watch where you’re going!" the man said angrily, taking another bite of his cheese-smothered burger before walking away.
After slowly getting up in a daze and looking at the somewhat familiar figure, Leon couldn't help but freeze for a moment.
It was him! That fat bastard who had refused to hire him yesterday!
Staring at the despicable man's back, watching that greasy, detestable face as he tore into a double-decker meat burger, Leon felt his mind explode in a dizzying rush.
As if driven by some inexplicable force, the rage that was about to burst from his mind found its perfect outlet, staining his already bloodshot eyes with a deep crimson. His hand tightened around the cold, hard scalpel as he staggered forward, chasing after him.
If he had let him through yesterday, maybe he wouldn’t be in this desperate situation now! If he had let him through yesterday, maybe he could have saved Anna’s life! If he had let him through yesterday…
"Daddy!"
Just as Leon closed in on the man, ready to act, a crisp, childlike voice suddenly rang out near his ear.
Accompanied by that bell-like call, the arrogance and indifference on the fat man's face melted away in an instant. His previously aloof expression softened, and the weariness that had marked his features vanished as if it had never been there.
The man took a deep breath, pulling in his bulging stomach, and then, with some effort, squatted down. Smiling warmly, he opened his arms wide to welcome the little girl running toward him.
“...”
As Leon watched the little girl laughing and running past him, like a fledgling darting into the man’s embrace, he gradually slowed his steps. Feeling a bit lost, he turned his head and noticed, not far behind him, a slightly plump middle-aged woman standing and gazing warmly in their direction.
Even in a world as messed up and wretched as this, the way the woman looked at the father and the daughter was filled with an enviable happiness—a look that was eerily identical to the one Anna had given him during dinner last night.
“....”
"Damn it!"
Muttering unintelligibly, Leon loosened his grip slightly, letting the blood-stained scalpel fall to the ground with a metallic clang. The sound immediately drew a suspicious glance from the fat man nearby.
Ignoring the disgustingly blissful family of three standing before him, Leon spat once more onto the mirror-like polished stone tiles beneath his feet. Then, having regained his composure, he silently turned away and, with his signature heavy footsteps, walked toward the Cleansing Bureau, shrouded in shadows.
Killing his enemy and dying in a blaze of vengeance might indeed feel like sweet satisfaction, but sometimes, no matter how much a person wants to die, they have to keep living... at least long enough to die in a way that means something more.
Standing in front of the Bureau's dark, heavy doors, Leon paused for a moment. Then, raising a hand, he grabbed the gleaming brass handle, worn smooth from countless touches, and pushed it open with force.
He remembered that red-haired interviewer from yesterday mentioning that the Cleansing Bureau was an auxiliary department under the jurisdiction of the Police Department. Following the rules of such fieldwork units, if he were to die in the line of duty, it should entitle his family to a substantial compensation payout.
So, if one out of the four members of his family had to die first to ensure the remaining three could live on—crying but alive—then let it be him!
Please vote for this novel at
https://www.novelupdates.com/
If you would like to support this translation, you may choose any one of the options below.
How to find a list of chapters
Please find the chapter label next to your favorite translator's name, and click the label.
No comments:
Post a Comment