WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 66: 11. St. Yansk University and the Chamber of Secrets (9)

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After spending some time bustling between the reliefs and stone pillars, scribbling notes, Elphihara returned with a triumphant look.

“I checked everything I could read! This really is a victory monument!”

“Whose victory, and over what?”

“Well... um. That part is written rather vaguely.”

Ivan narrowed his eyes. Elphihara frowned and raised her voice.

“Don't look at me like that! Church people, whether from back then or now, always coat everything in metaphor like they're asking some Zen riddle. Unless you specialize in studying scripture, it's normal not to understand what they mean properly!”

Then they should have brought a priest from the start.

Elphihara pouted and grumbled.

“Explain the parts you did translate.”

“You can tell just from the language, but this is a remnant of the old Church. Not from the mythological era, but the ancient age... the period of the Eastern Dellen Empire. It seems to be around two thousand years old.”

“War may have been common in that era, but why would the Church build a victory monument?”

“There would have been plenty of reasons. It was the era when the Church actively carried out sentences of historical erasure. This ruin seems to be one such remnant, more or less. From what I can tell, the Holy War Army fought against ‘happiness.’”

“...Happiness?”

That was a somewhat strange concept for priests to wage war against.

Ivan frowned, and Elphihara shrugged.

“The fifth pillar says, ‘It is said, the darkest evil is the one who whispers blessings into the ears of the faithful. The world's bliss springs only from the Lord's embrace, and outside the Lord's peace, there is no gospel.’ Hmm... Then the usual predictable scripture verses go on and on. But to put it simply, yes. It seems there was a cult here.”

“...A cult.”

“A heresy. Yes, something like that. It must have grown quite large. The style of these pillars isn't from the Church, after all.”

Ivan looked around again with fresh eyes. So this place had once belonged to a cult.

After defeating it, the Church had carved new reliefs into the site as a victory monument, then buried the whole place beneath earth and sand...

Wasn't that strange?

“Why go to that trouble?”

“Pardon?”

“If they won and annihilated the heretical sect, why bury it underground? Destroying the entire building would be overwhelmingly easier than burying it. Even if there was some religious significance to burying it, why create such complicated spells and reliefs?”

“Hmm... Church rituals from that era are really beyond a mage's field. You'd be better off finding a priest who studies old texts or Church history. In any case, that's all I know. Besides, we can't be sure they buried it themselves.”

“Hmm?”

“I mean, well. After two thousand years, the building could have naturally sunk beneath the ground over time. Something like that could have happened.”

“No.”

Ivan shook his head.

He raised a hand and pointed at the enormous ceiling supported by the pillars.

“If it had been buried naturally over time, this ruin should have been excavated as a wreck amid loose soil. This place is too intact. And in that case, there would have been no need for a massive protective spell to preserve it.”

When the dwarves' excavation relic had accidentally destroyed the surrounding area, the protective spell installed in the ruin had activated at once.

The ruin had clearly been sealed deliberately.

Sealed. A seal.

Ivan slowly stepped forward, turning the unpleasant word over in his mind.

“Can you use the protective spell again?”

“W-what now?! What are you trying to break this time?!”

“Nothing like that. I am asking because this may be dangerous. If it is difficult, wait behind me.”

“What? Dangerous? This is just an old ruin...”

“As if.”

Ivan armed himself with an axe and pistol.

“There is a high chance that something lies dormant here, something the Church of that era could not dare destroy and had to seal beneath the earth.”

That was a little difficult to call academy common sense.

Still, judging by the circumstances, it was practically fantasy common sense. The dark fantasy kind, mostly.

There was a good chance they would need magical interpretation later. But it was not worth exposing a Hero Party member's child to unprecedented danger.

Everything had been within expectations up until they reached this ruin. If Ivan's “common sense” had been right, this should have been nothing more than an ordinary treasure vault. Naturally, protecting one person would have been no trouble.

Now the situation was different. If some ancient demon the old Church had sealed away after organizing the Holy War Army was sleeping here, he could not guarantee this brat's safety.

“Wait here. Can you use a levitation spell?”

“What do you even take me for?! That's basic magic!”

“Then that is good. If it seems dangerous, leave the ruin and fly to the waterways with levitation magic. If you get lost along the way, stay where you are and wait.”

Elizaveta's agents would be stationed in the Pritchenkaya Underground Waterways right now. Once enough time had passed since he departed on this mission, a rescue team would certainly be sent.

It would be better to send Elphihara with them. Ivan turned and began walking forward.

“Wait, what about you?”

“I have to do what needs doing.”

“What? No, if it seems dangerous, shouldn't you withdraw and wait for reinforcements...?!”

“This is directly beneath Saint Yansk University.”

Ivan kept walking without turning around.

“A crack has formed because of the dwarves' relic, and an ancient ruin that no one noticed for all these years has suddenly appeared. Is there any guarantee it will still be safe after time passes?”

He had no intention or reason to explain any further.

This was Ivan's “common sense.” Once a seal was discovered, it would inevitably be broken in the near future.

It was practically fantasy quantum mechanics. The state became fixed the moment it was observed. In other words, an encounter had been triggered.

There was no way to explain all that one by one, so Ivan headed deeper into the ruin.

“But, but you are going alone?”

“I am used to it.”

The Annihilation Unit usually operated as a small strike force, but it was fundamentally a Special Operations Unit specializing in infiltration and reconnaissance. Naturally, Ivan had carried out plenty of solo missions within a designated area.

And in another sense, he was used to it.

What was reconnaissance?

Reconnaissance meant sending agents ahead to identify threats along a route before allied forces entered unexplored territory.

So there was only one meaning to having served as a scout, especially a scout for the Hero Party.

He had to be able to return alive from any situation.

He had to be able to respond to whatever situation he encountered.

Ivan had always been assigned missions that assumed he would face unknown enemies. Right up until they reached the doorstep of the Demon King's Castle.

So this was familiar in every sense. He did not welcome it, but if it had to be done, then he had to do it.

“Urgh!!”

Footsteps came rushing toward him.

Elphihara stopped close behind Ivan's back and let out a deep sigh.

“Looking after lesser races is an elf's duty to begin with, and protecting commoners is a noble's duty!”

“That differs a little from the elf duty I know.”

“Do you know elves better than I do?!”

“Not really.”

“Then learn it this way from today onward. I really do not understand why there are so many racists among humans. Is it because of your uncivilized social culture?”

Wasn't that itself racist?

Ivan briefly thought so, but when he saw Elphihara following him with frightened little steps, he snorted with laughter.

He had thought being half as good as Beolgreen would be enough.

Her personality was a little better than Beolgreen's.

“I can feel the passage of time. You grew up well.”

“...What? Do you know me?”

“Of course. How could I forget that?”

Ivan chuckled as he recalled Elphihara from those days.

Unease piled up across Elphihara's face.

“When... when did we meet?”

“Twelve years ago. I first saw you when Beolgreen came to our military camp. Did you not tell me to bring your ‘elf master’? You said I should serve a meal instead of fodder.”

“Uh... uhh...!!”

“Do you remember?”

“Unlike humans!! We have... good memories.”

Elphihara's face turned red enough to burst.

“You are... um. Very different from how I remember you... really, really different...”

“Time has passed.”

“...Right. Humans age quickly. That is true...”

She mumbled as if she had something else to say, then turned away.

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Even as they passed the pillars and headed deeper into the ruin, Elphihara did not speak.

She only occasionally glanced at Ivan's face, then silently followed behind him.

After a long while, they finally reached the end of the enormous temple. Ivan stopped.

A massive door stood before them, suspicious to anyone's eyes.

“Do you sense anything?”

“No. The mana is actually... fainter than it was at the entrance.”

“Hmm.”

Ivan carefully raised his axe and gave the door a light push.

He expected some kind of seal or resistance. Yet contrary to expectation, the door opened smoothly, as though its hinges had been freshly oiled.

-Whoosh.

Warm air washed over his face.

Ivan covered his eyes with one hand and held his breath. A sweet scent filled the air.

Poison?

He hurriedly tried to warn Elphihara, only to freeze at the sight before him.

“...What is this?”

Beyond the door was a vast space filled with tiny objects, each smaller than a palm, piled up like mountains.

They glittered under light pouring down from somewhere in the ceiling.

Piled high like treasure from a story...

“Combs...?”

Ivan narrowed his eyes and examined the room. Nothing else was visible.

Combs of every sort, decorated with mother-of-pearl, gold, silver, jewels, and gemstones, were piled up in countless heaps and glittering.

No, looking more closely, they were a little different from ordinary combs.

A palm shorter than typical combs. The sort used only for an extremely specific purpose...

‘Beard... combs?’

Ivan took a step back. Why would beard combs suddenly appear in a place like this? The situation was obviously suspicious. Ivan raised his axe and looked for Elphihara.

Standing directly behind him, Elphihara blankly muttered with a dazed expression.

“Gold... spell scrolls... gods, that is Loraine...?! Why is something so precious here...? With that... with that, I could extend my life by ten years...”

The rest was incomprehensible. She seemed to be mixing in Elven as she babbled.

At that point, Ivan nodded.

‘So that is what they meant by happiness.’

The victory monument's relief had said, ‘The darkest evil is the one who whispers blessings into the ears of the faithful.’

And the fragment of the past Ivan had briefly seen when he entered this place. His memories with the former king.

Elphihara's words when he woke her after she had fainted. “That was such a good dream.”

It had not been a temptation meant to show regrets or lingering attachments. It was simply an illusion that recreated the moment each person desired most.

The North Wind and the Sun.

The hardest opponent to resist was one's own happiness.

Ivan nodded. In that sense, it could be considered fortunate.

In this uncivilized premodern world, there was nothing he wanted except beard combs.

Everything he wanted now existed only on Earth.

Family whose faces had grown dim, friends whose names he could no longer remember, food from home he could eat whenever he wanted, television and smartphones. Whatever it might be.

That was why it looked like that.

Ivan looked at the dazzling, multicolored beard combs pouring down like a waterfall before him and snorted.

Then he immediately slapped Elphihara's cheek.

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Footnotes:

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