WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ Damned Transmigration ◈

Chapter 97: Departure

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Five days had passed, and Lacey was no longer confined to a wheelchair, though she hadn't fully recovered. She still couldn't move too strenuously.

So, Lacey greeted Yuri without getting out of bed. She could have risen, but she wanted to look as sick as possible.

She still remembered retching and vomiting her guts out in front of him the last time they met.

"You're leaving today, right?"

Lacey deliberately let her eyes go unfocused and made her voice thin. Her act was so overdone that she looked like a patient who could drop dead at any moment.

"Why are you acting like that?"

Yuri clearly didn't see her that way. He looked at Lacey, who had deliberately narrowed her eyes and made her voice hoarse, with an expression that said she was pathetic.

"...Ahem."

Lacey's ears reddened when she read the subtle emotion in his gaze. After clearing her throat a few times, she straightened the shoulders she had deliberately slumped. Her eyes regained their focus as she stared at Yuri.

"You're leaving today, right?"

She returned to her original question as if nothing had happened. Her effort was so commendable that Yuri didn't point it out again.

"Yes."

"Must be nice. I think I'll need to rest for a few more days. I have business in the city too."

"Business? Didn't you come to see the exposition?"

They were preparing to rebuild the exposition hall that had been blown away, so it seemed the exposition would be held again next year. But this year's exposition was over.

"The exposition was one reason, but I also wanted to meet the mages who gather during this season. They don't usually get together unless there's an event like this."

"Ah, that..."

Yuri quickly shut his mouth before he could casually call someone a sack of shit.

"Fabian?"

"Fabian's one of them. It'd be pretty fun if you came along too, Yuri."

"Is it a gathering of transmigrators?"

Lacey frowned at the sudden question.

"No."

Fabian was a transmigrator, but not every mage Lacey associated with was one.

"Are you a transmigrator, Yuri?"

"No."

"How long are you planning to keep saying no?"

"I'm not sure, but I'll probably keep saying no to you, Lacey."

If his guess was right, Lacey was THOR123. Honestly, Yuri was glad to see her. His wholesome exchanges of opinions with Thor had always been enjoyable.

But had Thor enjoyed them too? Yuri had never lost to Thor, not even once. He didn't think that was wrong. Still, even in a wholesome exchange of opinions, someone might get annoyed if they were beaten senseless and lost every time.

If there was a problem in their relationship, it was Thor. She had been obsessed with being an orthodox mage, specifically a lightning mage focused on Dersia magic, yet she stuck her nose into everything and acted as though she knew it all. The problem was the idiot who pretended to know things without actually knowing them, not Yuri, who corrected her when she was wrong.

What if she'd built up bad feelings over all that? Really, Yuri wasn't so much wary of it as he wanted to tease Thor, or rather, Lacey. The real Thor had been a satisfying punching bag too.

"Why are you saying no only to me?"

"Because I'm not one."

"What the hell does that even mean...?"

"Anyway, I'm not."

Yuri suddenly held out a letter toward Lacey, whose shoulders were trembling. She stared at it for a moment, then looked up at Yuri.

"I'm sorry."

"Pardon?"

"Um, I think your courage is admirable, Yuri. But... we don't know each other very well, do we?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm grateful that you worked up the courage to confess, but... we need more time to get to know each other. First, you need to admit that you're a transmigrator..."

"Are you insane?"

Yuri waved the letter with a disgusted expression.

"This isn't a love letter."

"Pardon?"

"It isn't for you either."

Lacey blinked, then her face turned red. Her shoulders trembled, but she quickly composed herself before answering.

"It's an American joke."

"Amer... ican? What's that?"

How could he keep pretending not to understand even now? Lacey glared at Yuri in disbelief, then sighed deeply and accepted the letter.

"Then what's this letter?"

"Please give it to Elena."

He had spent nearly the entire night writing it, but the envelope wasn't thick. He had written most of it, crumpled it up, and thrown it away.

No matter what he wrote, it turned into excuses and justifications. He tried to write only the facts, as plainly as possible, but nothing felt right. In the end, it became a letter containing only what he wanted to say.

"..."

Lacey looked between the letter and Yuri's face. He wanted her to give it to Elena. It was nothing special, yet it weighed heavily on her heart. The letter would undoubtedly affect Elena somehow, but Lacey couldn't guess how.

Elena was that unstable right now. As soon as Lacey returned to Rutlan, she would have to offer Elena an explanation.

She would have to say that meeting Yuri in Alderan had been a simple coincidence, and that they had no personal relationship whatsoever. If she didn't, Elena might develop all kinds of misunderstandings. Especially if those misunderstandings involved transmigrators...

Lacey didn't even want to think about it.

"All right."

After some thought, Lacey had no choice but to nod. She had no idea what emotional change Elena would undergo after reading the letter. That would depend entirely on its contents. Still, she had no intention of asking what it said, much less secretly reading it.

"Is there anything else you want me to tell her?"

"I wrote everything I wanted to say, but..."

Yuri gave a bitter smile.

"Tell her I'll wait."

What was he waiting for? A reply? Seeing the forced smile on that shameless man's face, Lacey couldn't bring herself to ask.

"All right."

That was all Lacey could say. She set the letter beside her and let out a short sigh.

"I don't know when we'll meet again, but I hope you stay safe until then."

"I hope you stay healthy too, Lacey."

"Heavenly Downpour."

"Why would you do that?"

Her surprise attack didn't stand a chance.

* * *

Alderan Airship Port.

The Mabeld airship had already finished preparing for departure.

Since it wasn't a merchant vessel or passenger ship, the Mabeld airship was much smaller than the others. Even so, it was larger than the budget planes Yuri had flown in Korea.

As expected of an airship owned by the Mabeld Family, its interior was excellent. Looking around its well-equipped rooms, Yuri was reminded that money really was the best.

"I spoke quite a bit with the Sword Dragon brat."

Even though the airship hadn't departed yet, Elleia was drinking. She set down her greatsword, sat on the large sofa in the lounge, and pulled the cork from a bottle.

"Come to think of it, isn't this the first time we've properly talked?"

Elleia drank straight from the bottle, gulping down the alcohol as her gaze shifted to Yuri and Haryeong.

"It's a week to Gwangseo, even allowing for plenty of time. Isn't it more fun to talk than sit around doing nothing? Or do you not want to get close to a transmigrator?"

Yuri shrugged at her teasing smile and sat across from Elleia.

"It's an honor to be able to get close to the Martial Apex Venerable, Cruel Mayhem."

"Don't flatter me. You met Moonlit Reveller before, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"I don't like that bastard. We're both transmigrators, but his bizarre behavior gets me lumped in and treated like some kind of weirdo."

With a deep rumble, the airship began moving. Elleia sank deeper into the sofa as her body swayed.

"And it's not just Moonlit Reveller. Zenith Star and Tide of Carnage aren't right in the head either. I understand why they were grouped together as the Death Realm because they might be transmigrators, but compared to those three, I'm perfectly normal."

"Are Zenith Star and Tide of Carnage transmigrators too?"

"Who knows? Unless you're crazy like Moonlit Reveller, you don't go around announcing that you're a transmigrator. They get offended and say they aren't when you ask... but Zenith Star probably is one."

Elleia had already drained more than half the bottle in an instant. Her gaze turned toward the window. When Yuri followed it, he saw the city steadily receding into the distance. Haryeong, who had ridden an airship once before, had already pressed herself against the window to look outside. Estor was doing the same.

"As far as I know, after you defeated the Blood-Robed Demon General of the Demonic Cult in a life-and-death duel, your whereabouts became unknown. Why are you with the Mabeld Family?"

"Mabeld is my family home."

The answer made not only Yuri, but Haryeong and Estor as well turn in surprise. Elleia, however, only wore an indifferent expression as she poured the remaining alcohol into her mouth.

"To be precise, not mine. This body's family home."

"What do you mean...?"

"This body is Alnair Mabeld's younger half-sister."

Yuri remembered Alnair, whom they had greeted before leaving the estate. Sharp features, a lean body, sun-darkened skin. Honestly, Alnair and Elleia didn't resemble each other at all...

'Green eyes.'

Elleia glanced at Yuri, who couldn't find anything to say, then chuckled.

"The former head of the family, this body's father, was far too fond of women. He decorated an annex like a grand palace and kept dozens of concubines there. This body's mother was one of them."

Haryeong, who had been looking down from the window, had returned and sat beside Yuri. Her face was stiff as stone.

"Well, it seemed the former head was careful about contraception. But this body's mother had dreamed too big."

If she had a child, wouldn't she become more special than the other concubines?

"The former head and his principal wife drew a clear line there. A concubine who became pregnant could no longer stay in the annex. As you know, the Mabeld Family has more money than they could ever spend. This body's mother left the annex after being promised a vast fortune and continued support."

The child of a concubine was not allowed to bear the Mabeld name or live at the Mabeld estate.

"This body's life before I entered it had no hardships. She couldn't live at the Mabeld estate, but she received enough money to spend extravagantly for the rest of her life, and her monthly allowance never stopped. The only concern this body had after becoming an adult was the tremendous strength it was born with. A young lady from a wealthy family had no use for superhuman strength."

Her mother had once held ambitions of drawing closer to the center of the Mabeld Family, but time had taught her the truth. No matter how well she raised her daughter, they could never return to the Mabeld estate. If she became greedier, the wealth she'd received would be taken away, her support would end, or worse, she might even lose her life.

She wished for her healthy daughter to be happy. She wanted her daughter to meet a good man, marry, and give her grandchildren. She wished for the ordinary future most people in the world enjoyed.

That ordinary future never came to pass.

Someone else entered the body of her daughter, her only family.

"I couldn't hide it for long."

A new bottle of alcohol floated over to Elleia.

"I wasn't good at acting. I tried, but by the third day, she had no choice but to notice. The way Elleia's mother looked at me... she no longer looked at me as though I were her daughter."

She must have thought it couldn't be true. Yet she gradually realized it. That was undeniably her daughter's body, but the person inside wasn't her daughter. Her daughter's manner of speaking had changed. Her behavior had changed. Nothing felt natural anymore.

She might have been able to deceive anyone else. But she couldn't deceive the eyes of a mother who had given birth to her daughter, raised her all her life, and lived with her.

"On the sixth day, she came into my room with a knife."

She asked the obvious questions.

Who are you?

Why are you pretending to be my daughter?

Where did you hide my daughter?

Elleia's mother must have known about transmigrators. But she didn't want to accept the existence of a transmigrator. Accepting it would mean accepting that her daughter's soul was dead. So she said that instead. Someone had hidden her daughter and was pretending to be her.

"Did you kill her?" Haryeong asked.

Her expression was one Yuri had never seen before. Her face remained as blank as usual, but emotions Yuri couldn't understand were tangled in her eyes.

"I'm not that much of a monster."

Elleia answered after emptying her second bottle.

"She wanted to kill me. But I couldn't bring myself to do the same. Do you know what happens to transmigrators? When we enter a body, its memories come with us."

She giggled and tapped her head with her fingers.

"The memories of the body, not mine. It's a very strange feeling. There are no emotions, only memories... but when those memories connect with my own and come back to me... emotions follow on their own."

"..."

"Maybe it differs depending on how sensitive someone is. I knew she wasn't my mother, but I couldn't treat her as if she wasn't my mother, as if she were only an enemy trying to kill me. Perhaps the body itself didn't want it, but I had no choice but to run away."

"...Emotions."

Haryeong murmured softly. Elleia watched her face for a moment, then tossed the empty bottle aside.

"I don't think I committed a crime. I never wanted to become a transmigrator either. But the face of the woman who came into my room with a knife kept haunting me. So I left Alderan and fled far away."

She changed her name. Elleia Yudel was the name she gave herself in this world. She decided to abandon her former name completely.

"The tremendous strength that had troubled this body's original owner was a great help to me. I considered learning magic, but since I had entered a body born with such strength, I thought it would be better to make use of it. So I picked up a greatsword."

After that, Elleia wandered the Western Continent and grew stronger. She entered Rifts and earned money as she became accustomed to fighting with a greatsword.

"Was it when I reached the fifth tier? That's when it happened."

Elleia Yudel is a transmigrator.

The one who spread that rumor was the body's mother.

"I heard she spent every bit of her wealth looking for me, the daughter who had disappeared. Unfortunately, I never learned magic or martial arts that could change my face, so I was eventually found. No, even if I had changed my face, I probably would have been exposed in the end. There are spells and magic that can track someone through the blood of their relatives."

When she learned that her daughter was living under the name Elleia Yudel, the body's mother had no choice but to accept the truth she had refused to acknowledge. Her daughter wasn't hidden somewhere. The person she had seen then wasn't a stranger pretending to be her daughter, but a transmigrator who had crawled into her daughter's body.

"After that, things got truly difficult. I wasn't as strong as I am now, and that era was even more hostile to transmigrators than this one. People came at me from every direction, saying they would kill me, and the Sect of War began hunting me too."

So she fled to the Eastern Continent. Even pursuers hesitated to follow the treacherous sea route across the Central Sea.

"Should I say I was lucky? Around the time I entered the East, it was decided that the Sect of Order would be expelled from Union. The Sect of Order's Calamity Star went on a rampage, nearly killing the Battle Saint of the Sect of War and dealing serious damage to the Sect of War's main forces."

Thanks to that, the Sect of War's pursuit didn't cross the Central Sea.

"Even so, the world knew I was a transmigrator, and changing my name didn't mean I couldn't be exposed again at any time. So I decided to live openly as a transmigrator. Fortunately, the Righteous Heavenly Alliance that ruled the East didn't try to kill transmigrators on sight, and I was able to build a friendly relationship by opposing the Demonic Cult."

Several years passed after that.

"I heard that woman committed suicide."

Clunk.

Haryeong, who had been sitting with her lips tightly pressed together, suddenly rose from her seat.

"...Excuse me."

Haryeong spoke in a low voice and sat back down. Yuri didn't know why her shoulders were trembling, or why she was biting her lower lip.

But he knew he shouldn't ask.

"It was a strange feeling. She was the woman who spread the rumor that I was a transmigrator and made me live as a fugitive... but when I first heard she had died, I didn't feel relieved at all. I wasn't terribly sad either."

"Guilt?"

Elleia gave a short laugh at Yuri's murmur.

"That's right. Guilt. I felt it. From then on, I started taking out my anger on the Demonic Cult's martial artists. I lived that way, earned the alias Cruel Mayhem, and became the Martial Apex Venerable."

The floating sensation inside the airship stopped. It must have reached its proper altitude. Elleia continued speaking as she looked at Haryeong.

"You asked why I'm with the Mabeld Family, didn't you? I've taken the long way around, but Alnair was the one who made the offer first."

The life-and-death duel with the Blood-Robed Demon General, one of the Demonic Cult's Seven Evils, hadn't left Elleia unscathed either. It wasn't easy to fully treat her internal injuries while Demonic Cult martial artists were hunting her. Just as she was in trouble, an envoy from the Mabeld Family arrived.

"Alnair had known for a long time that this body was his younger half-sister, and he tried to turn my difficult situation into a connection. I had no reason to refuse."

That was how Elleia returned to the Mabeld Family, which the body's dead mother had once so desperately wished to join.

The body's father had already died of illness more than a decade ago.

It was difficult to accept that the head of a Pride family had died of illness, but after Alnair became head of the family, the Mabeld Family grew even wealthier.

The annex where dozens of concubines had lived was demolished without a trace, and a new building was constructed in its place.

"As a transmigrator... do you feel familial affection for Alnair, your half-brother?"

"Of course not."

Elleia scoffed.

"This body's original owner never even met Alnair. Things might have been different if they had grown up as real siblings, but there are no memories connecting us. Why would I feel familial affection for him?"

Neither of them had any sense that they were half-siblings.

"But when I first met Alnair, that crafty bastard subtly brought up how we shared the same blood. I doubt he actually thinks that way."

Alnair was a merchant. If he could make use of it, he would even use a half-blood connection. If the other person was a Martial Apex Venerable, he was the sort of man who would fabricate familial affection that didn't exist and use it.

"There are no sibling-like feelings toward Alnair in my memories. Plenty of people share the same blood, but that doesn't make them siblings. Alnair helped me, and in return, I'm serving as part of the Mabeld Family's strength."

Elleia's gaze never left Haryeong. It was likely because of the turbulent emotions Haryeong had shown.

[You...]

The transmitted words reached Haryeong, and she hurriedly composed herself.

"This story has gotten too long."

Elleia stood with a yawn.

"We have a whole week, so I'll hear your stories tomorrow. I've been drinking, so I'm going to sleep."

Despite saying she was going to sleep, Elleia left the lounge with her arms full of alcohol bottles.

"...What should I do? I don't have a story like Elleia's."

Estor murmured as he glanced out the window.

"Tell us about your failed first love."

Yuri looked at Haryeong as he spoke. Haryeong, who had been mulling over the transmitted words from Elleia, suddenly rose from her seat.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to practice martial arts in my room."

"Haryeong."

Yuri tried to stop her, but Haryeong slowly shook her head. In the end, only Yuri and Estor remained in the lounge.

"...Um."

Estor rubbed his fingers together and glanced at Yuri.

"Want to spar?"

"If we fall from here, we'll die."

"Why would we fall?"

"You might lose control of your strength and break the airship."

"Um..."

Before Estor could say that would never happen, he looked out the window again. The city was already out of sight, and clouds stretched below them instead of land.

"Let's not."

If they fell, they would really die.

Estor answered with a shudder.

Footnotes:

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