WeTried Translations
Translator: Joy
Editor: Joy
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Damned Transmigration ◈
Chapter 34: Obvious feelings
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“An interesting read.”
Even in Orca’s eyes, the Heinderga Magic Formula was so advanced that it was hard to believe a fourth-tier mage had created it.
“If you can complete it according to your current design, it should be usable up to the sixth tier.”
The Heinderga Magic Formula was not created solely through Elena’s own abilities.
A few months ago, in spring, Elena had purchased Soul-Chasing Flash, Jang-un’s Seven Thunders at the Le Seyun auction house.
Still, Orca saw considerable potential in the formula. Elena had referred to several formulas in Seven Thunders, but it was not an imitation. If anything, she had taken ordinary ingredients and made something excellent out of them.
Jang-un, who was long dead, had been a fifth-tier lightning-affinity mage, and his unique magic formula, Seven Thunders, was magic suited precisely to the fifth tier. On the other hand, Elena’s Heinderga Magic Formula, created while she was still only a fourth-tier mage, had enough potential to be considered effective even at the sixth tier, despite still being an unfinished first draft.
“If you complete it better than the current design, it may even approach the seventh tier.”
Elena’s face brightened at that evaluation, which could not have been more generous. She clenched her fists inside her robe sleeves, then hurriedly composed her expression so she would not show it too openly.
“Ahem. Thank you for the assessment.”
“If you’re happy, just say you’re happy. Squeal a little, too.”
“Do you still see me as a child?”
“Twenty is not such an old age.”
Orca scoffed and closed the cover of the Heinderga Magic Formula. Several other papers were piled on her broad desk, all submitted by fourth-tier mages this quarter.
“How were the other mages?”
“Most were ordinary. There were a few glimmers among them. Some were trash.”
Only fourth-tier mages were required to submit results every quarter, because fourth-tier mages were the most common among all mages. Reaching the fifth tier required either talent that clearly surpassed the ordinary or effort fierce enough to devour one’s lack of talent.
A mage tower was not a place for ordinary mages to remain. If they lacked talent, then they had to work harder than anyone else.
“The only one as interesting as you was Lacey.”
“Did Senior Lacey submit results too?”
Lacey, as a fifth-tier mage, was exempt from quarterly reports. However, she was diligent enough to serve as an example to other mages, so she never skipped a report when she had results to submit.
“It seems she felt something after seeing the Moonlit Reveller’s martial arts a few months ago. She submitted something that was difficult to classify as either a force technique or magic. In the end, it all handles mana, but it was an interesting result.”
Magic assessed in this manner was never leaked outside. After evaluation, the selected magic was refined and either became a mage’s unique magic or, with the mage’s consent, became magic of the Dersia Mage Tower.
The magic of the Dersia Mage Tower had developed this way.
“Arist was trash.”
Of the three candidates for discipleship, Arist Benharman was the furthest behind. She was the second daughter of the Benharman Family, an old mage family. She had entered the Dersia Mage Tower to develop her family’s aging magic and become its Tower Master.
If she became Tower Master and inherited Dersia, she could not become the head of the Benharman Family. That was no problem for Arist. Standing at the summit of a mage tower was more glorious for a mage than becoming the head of an old family with nothing but faded glory left.
Arist had once possessed dazzling talent that anyone would have called genius. She reached the fourth tier at the young age of twenty-one, but the talent that had once seemed like an inexhaustible spring had now dried up.
Two years had passed since she reached the fourth tier. It was fine for her to be struggling. Even for a genius, reaching the fifth tier in two years was absurd. From that point onward, talent for mana alone was not enough. Even Lacey, a transmigrator, reached the fourth tier at twenty and only reached the fifth tier six years later. The wall of the fifth tier was steep indeed.
“She submitted a slightly altered version of the Benharman Family’s magic again.”
That was why Orca called Arist trash. Elena was creating new magic with Seven Thunders as a reference, while Arist had only made minor changes to her family’s magic before submitting it.
“This is the third time. I may have to seriously consider removing Arist from the candidates for discipleship.”
“Well... she’ll do better next time.”
Elena was not particularly interested in Arist. Perhaps she would have been before, but Elena now knew that Arist was no longer competition. Though Elena still called her Senior, she had long considered Arist beneath her.
In the end, the only person she had to compete with to become Heavenly Thunder Orca’s disciple was Lacey Yuzha. To become Tower Master, she had to surpass Lacey.
‘That’s what she thinks.’
Orca watched Elena’s calm face and thought so. In the past, Elena would at least have tried to suppress a smile at Arist’s decline.
“You’ve become less cute.”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
Lacey herself had no intention of becoming Tower Master, though she was interested in the position of disciple. Orca had privately marked Elena as both her disciple and the prospective next Tower Master.
Of course, it was too early to say such things. Orca wanted the uncut gem named Elena to polish herself into a brilliant jewel.
“You said you were going toward Logos?”
“Yes.”
“You’re going somewhere closer than I expected.”
“Is that really close? You might get there in an instant, Orca-nim, but we can’t use magic like that.”
Even by carriage, it was a journey of fifteen days.
“After you return from Logos, you’ll be separating from Yuri.”
Orca smiled mischievously.
“You would hate having to part with Yuri, so I thought you would choose somewhere that took months just to travel to.”
“What exactly do you think I am?”
“A heroine who likes her childhood friend so, so much that she does not want to part with him.”
“It’s not like that!”
Elena, who had been utterly cool when she heard about Arist, now had a bright red face. Her shoulders trembled as she slowly backed away.
“So, so much? How long are you going to keep misunderstanding?”
“Everyone but you probably thinks so. Is it really a misunderstanding?”
“It is!”
Elena snapped, patting her burning cheeks with the back of her hand.
“Ugh, ahem. I did look into other places, but I thought Logos was the best.”
“True. Logos is the most suitable.”
There was a Rift of Chaos in Logos. That god was called the Evil God not merely because it summoned only transmigrators from other worlds.
A Rift of Chaos was a place where the Evil God’s divine power was highly concentrated.
In areas where a rift appeared, monsters multiplied abnormally. All the processes naturally required for living creatures to reproduce, mating, pregnancy, birth, and growth, were omitted. Monsters were simply born from the Evil God’s divine power itself.
Such rifts had existed even before transmigrators appeared, and there were several places with rifts besides Logos. If left alone, a vast horde of monsters would pour forth. One of the Adventurers’ Guild’s primary duties was managing rifts to prevent that from happening.
Monsters were born from rifts every day, but if they were strictly managed, they could also offer many benefits. Some materials obtained from monster corpses had many uses, and depending on the type, some could even be eaten. Viewed generously, a rift could be called an inexhaustible treasure trove of resources.
“The rift in Logos has already been around for decades.”
Orca smiled as she recalled old memories.
“The types of monsters that appear there have long been catalogued. Once you reach the fourth tier, it is not a place where you would face the threat of death. You chose well.”
Elena might have been a concern on her own, but Haryeong, her assassin escort, would be at her side. If that was not enough, they could hire adventurers in Logos and form a party.
“If you go to Logos, your next quarterly report will be replaced by an Adventurers’ Guild request.”
“Probably.”
“There will be no danger at your level, but real combat is still real combat. Using the unfinished Heinderga Magic Formula in actual combat will make you realize many things.”
“Yes.”
“What tier is Yuri at now?”
“He said he’s at the second tier.”
“Ordinary.”
‘So he is not a transmigrator after all?’
Orca had tentatively reached that conclusion a few months ago, but Elena’s answer brought her closer to certainty.
In truth, even rising from the first tier to the second took ordinary people years. But Yuri had taken the Azure Heaven Pill.
He had taken the spiritual elixir and circulated his cultivation method to forcefully open his dantian.
The internal energy that had seeped into his meridians because it could not be guided completely flowed slowly into his dantian each day as he circulated his cultivation method.
He had learned the supreme martial art, Fist of the Rending Cloud, and received direct instruction from Fist Wolf, a sixth-tier martial artist.
Considering all that, Yuri should naturally have reached the second tier even if only a few months had passed.
“Ah... I heard he handles martial arts beyond his tier.”
“He has talent recognized by the Moonlit Reveller.”
The Moonlit Reveller, who had guaranteed that talent, had already left Rutlan several months ago. Even Orca did not know what the Ascard Family had asked of the Moonlit Reveller.
Perhaps they had asked for nothing at all, but the Moonlit Reveller was no longer in Rutlan. That man of unknowable thoughts was probably somewhere in the world now, with Madorido strapped at his waist.
“Will you hold a farewell party after you return?”
“We’re not parting forever, so why call it a farewell?”
“You reunited after ten years and are separating again. You might reunite after another ten years.”
“That won’t happen.”
Elena shot Orca, who wore a teasing smile, a glare.
“We’re only separating for a little while. We’ll keep exchanging letters... and we promised to meet regularly. If circumstances do not allow us to meet, I can go find him.”
That would be enough. Thinking so, Elena left Orca’s room.
Several months had passed since Yuri said he would leave the estate.
Spring had passed, and summer was in full bloom. During that time, Elena had sorted out her feelings. She would have been happy to let Yuri remain at the estate forever, but if Yuri wanted to leave, if he needed to, then that was something she could understand.
After this heat passed, cool autumn would come. By then, Yuri would not be at the estate. She would merely return to the life that had once been familiar and natural to her.
A life where she did not greet someone in the morning, sit at a table already set for her, eat together, say, “I’m heading out,” wonder what he might be doing now, say, “I’m back,” eat together, share idle small talk, or say good night.
That kind of life. Living alone in an empty estate. Elena had originally lived that way, and she had never considered such a life particularly inconvenient.
“...”
But though she could remember what her old life had been like, she could not remember at all what she had felt then. Everything felt unfamiliar.
It had already been more than half a year since she began living with Yuri.
‘Why didn’t we meet earlier?’
Ten years had passed in vain. If she had met Yuri earlier, her old life would not have felt familiar and natural.
She recalled her memories of the Oldor orphanage.
Elena’s memories with Yuri began when they were six.
People were bound to change.
Just as Elena at six was different from Elena at twenty, Yuri at six was different from Yuri at twenty.
Elena liked Yuri as he was now.
That was why the half year they had spent together felt regrettably short.
* * *
“You’re back early?”
In the estate garden, Yuri was drying his sweat-soaked hair with a towel. He seemed to have been training until just now. He scrubbed his face roughly with the towel, then casually draped it over his shoulder.
“...”
Elena stared at Yuri’s face for a moment. She did not know why, but looking at him made her feel as if tears might suddenly spill out.
‘I think I thought too deeply about it.’
It was not as if they would never meet again or be separated by death. Feeling as if her nose was tingling for no reason, Elena immediately tilted her head back.
“What are you doing?”
“I... I think it’s raining.”
“Rain?”
Yuri looked up in confusion. Naturally, the sky was clear.
“My lady, did bird droppings perhaps land on you?”
“...”
“I am your assassin escort, but I cannot protect you from bird droppings falling from a clear sky.”
“What if it was an attack disguised as bird droppings? Poison or something like that.”
“What fucking bullshi...”
Caught off guard by Yuri’s nonsense, Haryeong muttered without thinking, then hurriedly shut her mouth.
“What did you just say?”
“I did not say anything.”
While the two bickered, Elena blinked rapidly. She had only almost cried. No tears had actually fallen.
“We’re going out.”
“Suddenly?”
“We said we’re leaving for Logos in two days.”
After composing her expression, Elena lowered her head again.
“I still have the things I bought when I took on a request last time, but you need to buy new things, don’t you?”
“Well... is there anything I need to buy?”
“Do you have clothes?”
“I do.”
The clothes Elena had bought for him.
“Not casual clothes or clothes for indoors. Standard adventurer equipment. Leather armor or a robe.”
“I don’t have those.”
“A backpack?”
“I have...”
“Not the one you brought from Oldor! I mean a backpack enchanted with expansion magic.”
“I don’t have one.”
“A weapon?”
“I’m a martial artist.”
“A martial artist does not carry even a dagger? Are you going to hunt barehanded, butcher barehanded, cook everything barehanded, and eat it barehanded?”
“I don’t think so...”
“Then we need to buy them, right?”
“I guess we do...”
“We need to go out, right?”
“I’ll go wash up.”
Only after hearing that answer did Elena smile brightly and nod.
“Were you about to cry?”
After confirming Yuri had gone inside to wash up, Haryeong immediately spoke.
“Cry? Who?”
“You, my lady.”
“Me? Why would I cry?”
“Persisting in lies you are not even good at is one of your many flaws.”
“Don’t I have any strengths?”
“Talent for magic that everyone recognizes. A fourth-tier mage at twenty. A candidate to become the Dersia Mage Tower Master’s disciple. An estate in a prime area of Rutlan. Ample savings and a generous monthly stipend. Looks that have captured the hearts of many young men in Rutlan, including the fourth son of the Namgung Family.”
Her strengths poured out as if Haryeong had been waiting for the question. Elena had not expected Haryeong to name strengths, much less so many of them, and her mouth fell open.
There were a few points worth correcting in that list. First of all, this estate did not belong to Elena. Still, aside from that, the rest were facts without exaggeration.
It was embarrassing to say such strengths herself, but proudly agreeing when someone else listed them would make her seem obnoxious. So Elena could only blink without answering.
“You are this impressive, so why are you acting so pitiful?”
“Pi... pitiful?”
“Instead of suffering in silence, confess openly.”
“C-Confess? Haryeong, what are you saying...!”
“I said that persisting in lies you are not good at is one of your flaws, didn’t I? Another is that you only regret things once it’s too late.”
Haryeong clicked her tongue and wagged a finger.
“If you keep lying, hesitating, and being satisfied with being only childhood friends, Yuri-nim will be taken by someone else.”
“Taken... What do you mean?”
“You are not saying that because you truly do not know, are you? It is true that Yuri-nim has remarkable talent in martial arts, so if he leaves Rutlan, many people will covet him. Even the Azure Heaven Sword Lord wanted to make Yuri-nim a member of the Namgung Family.”
“That’s... true, but...”
Elena hesitated, then bit her lip.
“After we return from Logos... I’ll sort things out.”
“Sort things out?”
“My feelings... and various things.”
“Good heavens, you mean you’ll gather your courage after returning from Logos? If you have already decided to do it, why not do it today?”
“No! I need time too.”
“Hmm. My lady is right. If you gather your courage and confess, but Yuri-nim rejects you, what then? It is not as if you can simply decide not to go to Logos. I am not confident I can drive the carriage while escorting you through such an awkward and dreadful situation.”
Haryeong’s logical answer made Elena’s face redden. Hearing that naturally made her imagine it.
What if she confessed and Yuri rejected her? Could they return to the relationship they had before?
“...”
Elena swallowed. She did not want to think deeply about it just yet.
‘If it comes to that, it will be enough to arrange a time to meet again...’
What mattered now was safely finishing the journey to Logos.
Without any problems.
Footnotes:
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