WeTried Translations
Translator: Joy
Editor: Joy
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Damned Transmigration ◈
Chapter 8: Elena (2)
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The luxurious carriage parked in front of the run-down apartment building was a rare sight in Oldor.
Standing a short distance away, Gordon from the general store shifted anxiously, his gaze flickering between the building’s stairs and the second-floor window.
Elena.
Like Yuri, Gordon too was seeing her in person for the first time in ten years.
Their only contact was an annual exchange of letters at New Year’s. She would send her wishes for his health in the coming year, and he would write back, but their correspondence had never gone beyond that.
He had not expected anything more.
Back when Elena had lived at the orphanage, Gordon had felt sorry for the girl, who could not get along with the other children besides Yuri. He had slipped her candy a few times, but he had never considered it an act of kindness worth mentioning.
If anything, Gordon was simply grateful that Elena, now a mage of the Dersia Mage Tower, had not forgotten her childhood memories and still wrote to him every New Year.
A mage.
And not just any mage, but one affiliated with a Mage Tower. Such people were on an entirely different level from ordinary mages in terms of talent. It would not be an exaggeration to call them the nobility of the magical world.
Elena, in particular, was a child whose talent the Tower Master had personally recognised and taken in. That meant she might one day even aim for the position of Tower Master herself.
For Gordon, who had never left this rural town in his life, exchanging letters once a year with such an accomplished girl was a source of lifelong pride.
‘D... Did I send that letter for nothing...?’
He had hesitated greatly even when writing it. Until now, he had never been the one to write to Elena first. He had worried that he might be bothering the girl who had grown into someone so remarkable, or overstepping his bounds.
Elena’s New Year’s letters always contained the same question.
‘How is Yuri doing?’
Gordon had never replied with anything more than, ‘He is doing well.’
He did not want to worry Elena, and he did not think Yuri would want that either.
In the end, after much deliberation, he sent the letter.
It began with an apology for writing so suddenly. Then he wrote about how Yuri had lived since leaving the orphanage and what had happened to him recently.
This time, Yuri had truly come close to dying. If the Oh brothers who had stormed the office and the Black Snake Gang had not slaughtered each other, if a stray blade in that brawl had sunk just a little deeper into a vital spot, Yuri would have died.
Even if no one else did, Elena had the right to know.
Even after leaving Oldor for a splendid city and studying at the Dersia Mage Tower, she had worried about Yuri’s circumstances for ten years.
But Gordon had never imagined she would come so quickly. Even considering that he had sent the letter by special delivery, Elena must have left for Oldor the moment she received it.
Gordon remembered what Elena had been like ten years ago.
A timid child who could not get along with anyone but Yuri and always followed behind him. Whenever Gordon pitied her and gave her candy, she would grin and bow her head as though she were the happiest person in the world.
But the Elena he saw after ten years was different from the girl he remembered. There was something extraordinary about her very presence. When Elena stepped down from that large, luxurious carriage and immediately came to greet him at the general store, her expression and bearing were so intimidating that, if Gordon had been a little older, he might not have been able to endure it and would have pissed himself.
Elena had been that furious when she quickly greeted Gordon and stormed into Yuri’s home.
‘Surely Yuri won’t mouth off to Elena...’
Yuri’s temperament was no joke either.
Working for an organisation had forced him to bend somewhat, but Yuri had originally been a rude brat with a rebellious streak.
Perhaps he would be unable to accept how much time had passed, still trapped in the days when Elena trailed after him, and hurl abuse at her despite the fact that she had come all this way because she was worried about him...
‘Is he going to get the shit beaten out of him?’
As Gordon fretted over the thought, the old stairs creaked.
Elena, dressed in a pure white dress, and Yuri, carrying a large travel bag, were coming down from the second floor.
“Mr. Gordon.”
Elena offered a faint smile to Gordon, who stood there with his shoulders hunched.
“We’ll be going now.”
We? Gordon looked at Yuri in surprise.
‘Sigh.’
This was not Gordon’s fault. He had not sent the letter hoping Yuri would get fucked over. He must have sent it for Yuri and Elena’s sake.
So Yuri gave Gordon a wry smile and bowed his head.
“That’s how it turned out.”
“Uh... So suddenly?”
“She made a fuss and told me to pack because we’re leaving today.”
The place was a rental anyway. He had packed everything worth taking, so if he did not pay next month’s rent, the tenancy would sort itself out.
Gordon blinked his round eyes.
So Yuri, who had been heading down a bad path, was leaving Oldor with Elena.
“That’s wonderful!”
It was certainly something to celebrate. Gordon beamed as he approached Yuri and patted him on the shoulder.
“Take care of yourself. And don’t give Elena any trouble.”
“Yeah. I’ll write from time to time.”
“Good. Come visit and say hello at least once before I die.”
“Yeah.”
It was a happy parting, so there were no tears. Rather, Gordon felt as though the sore spot in his heart had finally healed.
“Are you returning right away?”
The woman sitting in the driver’s seat rose.
Yuri flinched and turned his head. She seemed to have been sitting there all along, yet her presence had been so faint that he had not noticed her.
“Yeah.”
Elena nodded, then looked at Yuri’s surprised expression.
“This is Haryeong, my bodyguard.”
Haryeong silently gave Yuri a small bow.
She was an Easterner with short black hair and black eyes, and skin so pale it was almost white.
“A bodyguard?”
“Yeah.”
“Does a mage of your level need a bodyguard?”
Yuri had asked out of genuine curiosity, but Elena’s lips twitched. She pressed her lips together to stop a smile from spreading.
“Of course I need one. Being a mage doesn’t mean I can deal with every situation.”
“My lady is useless at everything except magic.”
Haryeong spoke with a blank expression.
Elena flinched and glared at her.
“Don’t say unnecessary things.”
“I also have the freedom to say what I wish. If you want silence, please draw up a separate contract.”
Elena silently glared at Haryeong in response to the immediate retort. After a moment, she took a deep breath and approached the carriage door.
“Fine. Leave immediately.”
“How often should we rest?”
“I ran out without properly reporting, so we need to return quickly.”
“Shortest route, highest speed. Understood.”
As Haryeong answered, she pulled up the black mask around her neck. Yuri glanced at the mask covering her mouth before following Elena into the carriage.
The carriage, luxurious on the outside, was equally luxurious within.
Yuri sat in a seat softer than the bed in his room and stared at Elena across from him.
“What kind of person is she?”
“I told you, she’s my bodyguard.”
“She doesn’t seem like an ordinary bodyguard.”
“That’s true.”
Elena snorted and set her wide-brimmed hat aside. With a faint jolt, the carriage began moving.
“Haryeong is from Salhomun.”
“Ah.”
The name was familiar to both Yuri and Lee Su-hyeok.
Salhomun was both a bodyguard sect and an assassin sect. But unlike low-grade assassins, they could not be hired just because someone had money. To hire a Salhomun assassin, one needed the proper qualifications.
Even in the game, hunting named NPCs protected by Salhomun assassins had been an ordeal, which proved their skill. Once a contract was made, they would readily sacrifice their lives for the employer who hired them.
Because of that, a strategy of hiring a Salhomun assassin as a meat shield had once become popular in the Seronis community. It was quickly abandoned because, considering the reputation grind and hiring fees required, it was not cost-effective.
“I heard not just anyone can hire them.”
“The Tower Master said it would be convenient and arranged the contract for me. Besides, I’m not just anyone.”
Elena turned her gaze to the window. Oldor’s dirty, worn scenery rushed past. She rested a hand on her spotless white dress.
‘She’s so annoying...’
The subtle self-promotion in her letters really was part of her personality. Instead of responding, Yuri sank into thought.
‘Orca Dersia arranged a contract with a Salhomun assassin?’
For Orca to do that much, Elena and Orca had to be closer than Yuri had thought. This carried far more weight than simply bringing her a Grade 4 request. Salhomun was that closed-off.
Perhaps Elena was in a position where she could be considered Orca’s disciple.
‘Not a real disciple, surely.’
If she were, insufferable Elena would have bragged about it in her letters, and there was no way rumours about it would not have spread.
“A Grade 4 request and Salhomun too? The Tower Master must really look after you. Are you her disciple or something?”
There was no point guessing, so Yuri asked directly.
“A disciple?”
A bitter smile spread across Elena’s lips as she stared coolly out the window.
“Not yet. I’m working to become one.”
“What does that mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. It’s true that I have the Tower Master’s favour, but that doesn’t mean I’m the most special. Three of us, including me, are competing to become the Tower Master’s disciple.”
Even in the game, there had been no NPC introduced as Orca’s disciple.
‘Salhomun...’
More surprising than the closeness of Orca and Elena’s relationship was the fact that Heavenly Thunder Orca had arranged a contract with Salhomun for a prospective disciple.
The Orca from the game had despised assassins like Salhomun assassins to the point that, if a player encountered her while employing one as a bodyguard, she would immediately attack after special dialogue.
[The stench of blood is vile.]
[See clearly how thin the hide of a beast that has filled its belly with the lives of others truly is.]
Yuri had seen that event as well. The emptiness he felt when the assassin he had hired at great expense was fried by Orca’s lightning...
‘Now she’s personally assigning an assassin to a prospective disciple?’
The fact that thirty years had passed since the period depicted in the game truly hit home.
There had to be a reason why stubborn Heavenly Thunder Orca had changed her mind, and Yuri had a feeling that reason was related to transmigrators.
The Dersia Mage Tower’s magic contained the core spells needed for a lightning mage build. In the game, there was a chance for spellbooks to drop when killing mages from that tower. Applied to reality...
‘They probably wouldn’t carry such valuable spellbooks around on them, so perhaps someone captured and tortured them to force the magic out of them?’
An ignorant, aggressive transmigrator might act that way.
If Orca had been losing subordinate mages to attacks like that, even someone as stubborn as her might change her mind and prepare countermeasures.
Lightning mage builds were popular even in Seronis, so the community had plenty of guides for them.
Before settling on his panty martial artist concept, Yuri had tried various builds, including a lightning mage build. A guide written by the overseas player THOR123 had been a great help at the time.
THOR123 had also reached first place in the Hall of Fame with a fairly high score, so that player must have transmigrated into this world as well. Yuri did not know whether THOR123 was alive or dead, but he needed to keep the player in mind.
“How long until we arrive?”
“About a week if we hurry.”
Elena, who had been looking out the window in silence, turned to Yuri as if she had been waiting.
“Yuri, do you want to become a mage? Or a martial artist?”
Elena had clearly been thinking about various things as well. With a serious expression, she quickly continued.
“If you want to become a mage, I can help you myself. I can’t teach you Dersia’s magic, but I can teach you shared magic.”
“Is it even possible for someone who has never learned magic to start now?”
“...It’ll be difficult.”
Elena admitted it honestly. She furrowed her brow and crossed her arms.
“The earlier one begins magic, the better. But isn’t it the same with martial arts?”
“No.”
A voice suddenly came from the driver’s seat.
“Considering the accumulation of murky energy in the body and blocked meridians, it is better to begin young. However, learning martial arts at a later age is not necessarily disadvantageous. Some even argue that it is better to begin after the physical frame has fully developed.”
“Haryeong, I didn’t ask you.”
“I only answered because I heard you.”
Yuri could not see Haryeong’s face from the driver’s seat, but Elena’s face across from him was perfectly visible. She was openly glaring toward the front, looking thoroughly displeased.
“Physical development or whatever, it’s still true that starting late has disadvantages, isn’t it?”
“The meridians can be opened through stimulation from external arts. Once that is done, the murky energy is naturally expelled, so it is easier than magic.”
“That applies to magic too. Dersia’s magic...”
“You were the one who said you couldn’t teach me Dersia’s magic.”
Yuri, who had been quietly listening, cut in.
Elena flinched and looked at him.
‘Are you taking her side?’
Her wide eyes seemed to be asking exactly that. Yuri flinched at the look, but continued.
“I think martial arts would suit me better.”
“What...?”
“I’ve done physical work until now.”
The disadvantages of age did not apply to Yuri. Transmigrators could catch up to those who had started earlier even if they began far older than Yuri was now.
But he could not flaunt that in front of Elena.
So Yuri chose martial arts over magic for now. That way, he could appropriately hide his level from Elena, a genuine mage, and it was true that he had done physical work.
“B-but magic is much better than martial arts. It’s convenient, and...”
“My lady, that is not a good thing to say. As I am employed by you, I will refrain from giving my opinion, but another temperamental martial artist would not have tolerated those words.”
Elena’s shoulders trembled at the entirely correct point. She clutched her skirt and steadied her breathing, then nodded sharply.
“Yeah, I take it back. Haryeong, what I said was rude.”
“I believe one of my lady’s few good qualities is being quick to apologise.”
“Few good qualities?”
“It is rare for someone to have nothing but good qualities.”
Electricity crackled around Elena at Haryeong’s response. Elena trembled, then hurriedly withdrew her mana when she noticed Yuri staring at her.
“H-Haryeong is always like that.”
“Do you always crackle with electricity like that?”
It was not like she was Pikachu.
At Yuri’s dubious gaze, Elena hurriedly pressed down the hair floating from static electricity.
“It’s a habit.”
“What a wonderful habit.”
If this world had something like a smartphone, she would never need to carry a portable charger.
“Th-then... Haryeong. Are you going to teach Yuri martial arts?”
“Are you insane?”
The reply came immediately.
“No amount of money would make that possible. If I taught that man Salhomun’s martial arts, both he and I would die.”
“W-what if it isn’t Salhomun’s martial arts?”
“I can teach him some miscellaneous techniques. You will have to pay an appropriate fee, though.”
“...I’ll think about it.”
“I should tell you in advance that I cannot teach a cultivation method. If you truly want that man to learn martial arts, my lady will have to find an appropriate cultivation method for him.”
“That won’t be a problem.”
With that final answer, Elena fell silent. She slumped her shoulders and clutched her skirt, openly showing that she was unhappy about several things.
“Ahem.”
Yuri glanced at the openly sulking Elena and cleared his throat softly.
“By the way, where am I going to live?”
He was following her because she said she would take him along, but he had not heard where he would be staying. Would she get him a room at an inn? Surely she would not buy him a house.
“My house.”
“What?”
“What’s with that reaction? Of course you’ll stay at my house.”
Elena looked like the strange one for acting as if Yuri’s reaction were strange.
“I have plenty of rooms, so don’t get any strange ideas.”
“No... Even so...”
“Unlike your house, mine even has an indoor toilet.”
Yuri silently closed his mouth.
An indoor toilet was an important matter.
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