The Monster's Translator

The Butcher's Inspection

"Why won't you just listen to me?"

That desperate, rumbling question echoed against the cold stone walls of the surface encampment, though thousands of feet above the actual source, carried upward by the thermal drafts of Hell Trench. Standing proudly atop a heavily armored war wagon, General Kael narrowed his eyes, his heavy iron gauntlet pointing down into the yawning abyss of the subterranean chasm.

"Did you hear that, commanders?" General Kael barked, his voice carrying across the jagged plateau where an elite squadron of imperial knights stood at rigid attention. "The beasts are howling in despair! They know their reign of terror is coming to a definitive end. This is our moment to finish what our ancestors started a thousand years ago!"

Lyra Ignis stood near the front of the formation, wearing polished silver armor that gleamed under the harsh, unsparing light of the midday sun. Her expression remained deeply troubled, hidden mostly under the dark shadow of her helmet. Her hand rested instinctively on the pommel of her master sword, feeling the cool, familiar metal, yet her mind felt entirely unmoored.

"General Kael," Lyra spoke up, stepping forward with a stiff posture that betrayed her internal turmoil. "Recent scout reports from the upper border indicated that the trench has been unusually quiet for weeks. Is a total extermination sweep truly necessary? Our supply lines are stretched thin, and there hasn't been a single aggressive sortie from the monsters in months."

Kael turned his bulky frame toward her, a thin, patronizing smile curling the corners of his scarred lips. "Necessary, Lieutenant Ignis? That is a remarkably soft word coming from the Academy's top graduate. Do you think peace is forged by waiting for monsters to politely ask for an alliance?"

"I only question the urgency of a punitive purge when no blood has been spilled," Lyra countered firmly, though her heart hammered against her ribs. She was an honorable knight, trained to protect the empire, but a gnawing sense of disillusionment had been eating away at her soul ever since the graduation examination involving Atlas and that whimpering Slime. "If they are not attacking us, why provoke a slaughter?"

"Because peace does not fill the imperial treasury, Lieutenant," Kael muttered, stepping down from the war wagon and walking over to where Lyra stood. He lowered his voice, speaking just loudly enough for her and the surrounding senior officers to hear. "If the populace believes the war is over, the crown slashes the defense budget. Do you have any idea how much coin flows through these military contracts? We hunt down Atlas, we harvest high-value monster cores to justify the next massive war budget, and we maintain our political dominance. It is simple math, Ignis. Monsters were never a military threat to begin with—they are merely our greatest economic resource."

Lyra’s breath hitched. The words hit her like a physical blow to the chest. Monsters were never a military threat.

"General... what did you just say?" Lyra whispered, her eyes widening in horror behind her visor.

Kael waved a dismissive hand, laughing off his own candor as he turned back toward the trench. "Nothing that concerns a loyal soldier. Mount your horses. The inspection begins now. We cleanse the upper borders of Hell Trench, and we leave nothing alive."

As Kael walked away to coordinate the frontline siege engines, Lyra stepped backward, her boots crunching softly on the gravel. Her absolute worldview the very foundation of duty, honor, and empire that she had built her entire life upon shattered into dust.

Every battle she had ever fought, every order she had ever obeyed, flashed before her eyes as a colossal, bloody lie designed to line the pockets of corrupt men like Kael.

Without waiting for the formation order, Lyra spun on her heel and slipped away from the main cluster of knights, seeking a moment of solitude behind a massive, reinforced command tent draped in the purple and gold banners of the empire.

She pressed her back against the thick canvas of the tent, sliding down until her knees hit the dirt, burying her face in her gauntleted hands as the horrific realization sank in.

"It was all a scam..." she choked out quietly, the tears finally breaking free, streaming down her cheeks to drip onto the polished steel of her greaves. "We are the monsters."

Outside the tent, the thunderous roar of war horns blared across the plateau. The ground shuddered violently as hundreds of heavy iron boots marched in unison. The elite expedition had just crossed the threshold, stepping past the warning markers and entering the upper borders of Hell Trench.

"Move out!" General Kael's booming battle cry pierced the air, signaling the start of the slaughter.

Lyra closed her eyes, clutching her master sword tightly to her chest, unaware that in the dark, terrifying depths below, her path was about to cross once again with the very boy she had failed to protect, plunging them both into an abyss from which there was no turning back.