Sasuke Retsuden (English Translation)

Prologue

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He could not sleep.

The man pressed his thin body against the cold sheets.
The breath in the room is white, and he couldn’t stop the trembling of his body when he wrapped my blanket that wasn’t even cotton around his body.

Sleeping on a futon made of sweat and in dirty sleeping clothes, had it already been half a month of this? I don't feel like I'm taking a rest when I sleep, because of the bruises I get every time I go to bed. If I could sleep at least in a place where the wind
didn’t ’t blow through the gaps in the walls, it would be a little better.

With a feeling of disgust, he opened his eyes and stared into the dark room.

In a room as small as six tatami mats, four adults sleep. In a place where those senior to the prison call the shots, it’s only natural that the newest ones get the coldest place in the cell without objection.

I turn over, the floor  just as hard and I let a groan escape my mouth. "damn it…. why am I like this……”

Until just half a month ago, the man was in a jail in the capital of Redaku. Even without freedom, minimum living conditions were guaranteed, it was safer and more comfortable than here.

When I finished my term, I was just wondering if I would go back with a proper crime again.
However, one day I was to be transferred out of nowhere. It was only heard that they would be engaged in fatiguing labor work in cold mountains. Because it is manual labor, it can only be done by young and healthy prisoner.

It was a stone astronomical observation facility located at the peak of a desolate mountain range. Tataru Institute of Astronomy. It seems to be a long-standing research facility that comes from Janmarū Tataru, who has a tradition of living in the same period as the Rokudo Sennin [Sage of Six Paths], but it does not matter. The problem is that the place where the laboratory is located, is so cold that it could be well below freezing in early spring, and the food, the clothes and the room provided were dug in the cold soil from the morning to the evening with no breaks from the environment. Under these circumstances, the livestock were doing better than us. "Why am I... under circumstances like these..." I bite my teeth and tightly grip my futon. Fatiguing work every day and every night.

Soiled nails bite into soiled palms of the day after day work.

The man's crime was a family’s murder. Three years ago, on the winter day, I broke into a house for something to eat, and casually stole all the money they had. When I left the young couple and two children who were at home, I had them tied up with a rope and ran away. It seems that everyone had froze and were dying for two days without being noticed by anyone. Because of that, it’s howhe played a role in killing four people, so it's not a bad thing. It was an accident, there was no killing intention there. Most of the time there was nothing to eat, so I stole it from someone else's house, so it's almost like a legal defense... I wonder why I have to meet such an eye. I’m not happy with it, but I will try to let it soak in like water (?). I’m already bound.

The man decided with eyes fixated on the ceiling.

The lives of prisoners are managed by the sound of the bells. I was exhausted when the dull sound rang, and the  prisoners began to get up like zombies. If you oversleep, they will be recklessly betrayed by the guards who watch over them, so they are all correct in time. I went out of the room yawning and eat twice a day. And I thought "I'll just eat pig or whatever kind of suspicious meat they offer" Standing in a line extending the length of the dining room, he took one deep breath and suppressed his feelings. Contrary to the weight of his sleepy body, his nerves are clear and were excited. Even if some guy were to decide to enter from the side of the line and step on his foot in the process, he would not care this morning. Even if the man behind him vomited in almost the immediate vicinity of his ear. "I'm leaving here today. We're out of here."