WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Got a Gallery in the Wild ◈
Chapter 94: Traces (3)
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Human bones were fairly easy to distinguish from those of other animals.
Even compared to humanlike apes, they were easy to tell apart.
The back of the head was round, while the jaw was square.
These were definitely human bones. I was certain of it.
[Post title] Found Human Bones
[Author] Wild Grylls
[Post] (Photo of a human skull)
[Post] Found a skull in what I think was originally an Owlbear cave. These are human bones, right?
└ [Heavenly Demon]: It does appear to be a human head. Are there no other bones?
└ [Wild Grylls]: There are so many bones around here that it’s hard to find any others.
└ [SwordTasteMaster]: I think it is?
└ Yeah, definitely.
└ If that’s not a human bone, then what is it?
└ Judging by how it’s been reduced to bare bone, it must’ve been a long time ago.
└ There were people in the Forest of Four Seasons??
└ There must’ve been. They all just died like those bones.
└ Could that be Grylls’s future?
└ The odds are reaaaaally fucking high lol
└ That’s your great senior. Why aren’t you hurrying up and paying your respects?
└ Are you insane? Lmao
└ Fuck. Is that really something you say to someone? Lmao
└ That really kills your motivation lol
└ Lmaoooooo
└ Lmaoooo
└ [Starlight Princess]: You people are awful. How can you say something like that?
└ Be honest. You snorted too, didn’t you?
└ [Starlight Princess]: I’m too emotionally withered to laugh.
└ Hey, it was a joke. Why are you taking it so seriously?
└ For real, you live a seriously joyless life.
Even after asking the Gallery just in case, they agreed that the bones were human.
And old ones at that. You could tell from the fact that nothing but bare bones remained.
‘At least it wasn’t a head injury.’
The skull was in fairly good condition. There wasn’t a single crack or break on it.
I started looking for more bones.
But I had no choice but to give up soon after.
I wasn’t an archaeologist. How was I supposed to pick human bones out from among countless others?
Confirming that there had once been a human here was enough.
‘Was this person dragged here by an Owlbear?’
I needed to search the area more thoroughly. I put down the skull and walked around the cave.
The cave itself was huge, so there was plenty to inspect.
“This place...”
That was when I found somewhere I couldn’t simply pass by. It was a space right beside the nest.
Two walls stood tall, with a fairly large area beyond the gap between them.
I poked my head through and took a quick look.
“...”
Bones. Human bones lay quietly against the wall.
Unlike the bones an Owlbear had eaten, they were still intact.
I slipped through the gap and searched the space from top to bottom.
“Oh...”
The area beyond the walls was bigger than I expected. It was cozy, too.
Many years must have passed, judging by the cobwebs and dust. Even so, it still felt cozy.
More than anything, the furniture and equipment scattered around caught my eye.
Most were made of wood and had rotted away, but some barely retained their shape.
‘Is this a stone axe?’
A tool made by tying a nearly crumbled piece of wood to a stone.
The front of the stone seemed to have been ground as sharp as possible.
The way the wooden handle was secured showed that this person had woven the fibers by hand as well.
Unlike me, who had the Gallery, this person had clearly started from nothing.
‘But these marks...’
I ran my fingers over the marks carved into the ground. They were very familiar.
They were identical to the marks I carved into the wall every day, recording how many days I had survived.
Usually, though, people made such marks on walls, not floors. Wondering why, I looked around.
‘That wall’s full too, and so is that one...’
The space was enclosed by walls on all sides. Every one of them was filled with marks.
There had been no room left on the walls, so this person must have started marking the floor.
It showed just how long they had survived.
“...”
A vague feeling came crashing over me like a tidal wave.
This person had survived for so long, yet they had still ended up as a pile of bones.
I had the Gallery, but... could I really hold out as long as this person had?
They had survived far longer than me. Looking at all this, they must have been much stronger than me too.
But they died. Lonely, with no one to remember them, leaving behind nothing but countless day-count marks.
This person could become my future.
“Haah...”
It was a feeling I couldn’t put into words. I didn’t know if I should call it despair or acceptance.
If I’d known nothing at all, I could’ve clung to hope until the end... but seeing this made everything feel hopeless.
Could I really get out of here? No, could I even survive until then?
‘...I need to keep trying.’
Survival marks covered not just the walls but the floor as well.
It had to have been well over two or three years. I didn’t know why this person had died.
I searched around, hoping to find the cause of death.
The Forest of Four Seasons was a forest that had made even someone as clueless as me stronger.
A person who had survived for two or three years couldn’t have died for no reason.
“Hm?”
As I searched every corner of the space, I noticed something.
A box placed near the edge. Despite the passage of time, it had retained its shape.
The thick dust showed that even insects like spiders hadn’t gotten into it.
‘Still, just in case...’
I gently poked it with the tip of my sword. Something could jump out of it.
Fortunately, it only rattled a few times. Nothing happened.
‘What could be inside? Did they store bottles in here like I do?’
With a subtle sense of anticipation, I slowly opened the box.
Dust flew everywhere and made me cough, but I soon found what was inside.
“...Books?”
There wasn’t much. Just a few books.
They had been stored surprisingly well, so they were in decent condition.
Careful not to tear off the cover, I picked one up.
There was writing on the worn-out cover.
‘As expected, I can’t read it.’
I didn’t know any of this world’s languages. Judging by the script, it vaguely resembled a European language.
The Gallery was the best thing for situations like this. I carefully photographed the whole space.
[Post title] Found Where a Survivor Lived
[Author] Wild Grylls
[Post] (Photo of a space between walls)
[Post] (Photo of bare bones leaning against a wall)
[Post] (Photo of survival-day marks carved everywhere)
[Post] (Photo of stone and wooden items believed to belong to the survivor)
[Post] (Photo of a book with writing on it)
[Post] (Photo of the box where the books were stored)
[Post] There was a secluded place next to the Owlbear nest, so I went inside.
[Post] There were bare bones inside, plus survival-day marks carved all over the place.
[Post] The strangest thing is the books. What country uses this writing?
└ [Heavenly Demon]: It is not from the Central Plains.
└ [SwordTasteMaster]: It isn’t from the Messiah Empire either. I’ve never seen it before.
└ [PrincessChaenggu]: It’s not writing from my country either.
└ [AllHailTheSun]: Not from Setan. Not from Alvenheim either.
└ Looks like an ancient language.
└ That’s not enough. Upload more.
Nobody knew what it was. There weren’t that many countries, so there shouldn’t have been many languages either. It was strange.
For now, I thought it would be best to listen to Anonymous User. I turned the page.
The books had that distinctive musty smell, but I could still flip through them.
‘They’ve yellowed, but they’re still readable.’
Now I just needed to upload this to the Gallery.
I hoped someone could recognize it.
[Post title] Showing More of the Book
[Author] Wild Grylls
[Post] (Photo of a densely written page)
[Post] Will this do?
└ [Heavenly Demon]: It is even more clearly not from the Central Plains.
└ [SwordTasteMaster]: Not from the Messiah Empire either. Is it writing from the Iris Kingdom?
└ [Allfather]: It is not writing from the Iris Kingdom either. Still, I believe I have seen it somewhere before. Please wait a moment.
└ [Starlight Princess]: Could it be writing from the Holy Kingdom?
└ [DontAbandonTheHero]: I’ve never learned writing like that!
└ SuspiciouslySo It isn’t a language used by beastfolk either?
└ If nobody knows it, isn’t it from a country that was destroyed long ago?
└ That’s pretty likely. It’s definitely from a country that fell at least fifty years ago. No country has fallen in the last fifty years.
└ Grylls, you found something incredible.
└ [Wild Grylls]: What good is that? We can’t decipher it. This is important to me too.
└ Why is it important?
└ Because it’s a survival journal?
└ [Wild Grylls]: Yeah. Since it’s a survival journal, it could be a huge help to me. I absolutely need it.
Books could serve as bridges connecting the past to the present.
If that bridge collapsed in the middle, countless records and techniques could be lost.
There was a reason people burned books first when they wanted to erase records.
‘If it’s ancient writing, will it be even harder to understand?’
No matter the country, things changed as time passed.
Language was no exception. Past languages and current languages had plenty of differences.
That was only natural. Nobody knew what history might unfold in between.
Even the Republic of Korea had seen some words altered by the Japanese colonial era.
And comparing Hunminjeongeum, created by King Sejong, to the current language showed clear differences.
‘There are quite a few books like this.’
As I turned the pages, I checked the other books.
They were just as well-preserved, and every one was filled with writing I couldn’t understand.
If only I could decipher all of them. They could be a huge help to me.
‘I should just upload all of them.’
Translation was only possible through the Gallery anyway. I might as well upload the whole thing.
I carefully put the books back in the box so they wouldn’t be damaged.
Then I placed the box inside my Subspace Bag.
After that, I searched around for anything useful, but there was nothing else.
‘The only thing left was the necklace around the skeleton, I guess.’
A necklace hung from the skeleton’s neck. More precisely, it was a pendant.
A red gemstone that looked quite expensive was set into it.
Even if I took it, I didn’t think it would be useful.
So I left it on the skeleton so it could keep wearing it.
‘This person must have missed other people too.’
I looked at the skeleton leaning forlornly against the wall.
It seemed pitiful beyond words.
This person must have wanted to get outside too, but they never fulfilled that wish.
‘They say prisoners come here with both their eyes gouged out, but this person wrote too.’
They must have been stranded, or had some other reason for ending up here.
After quietly looking at the skeleton for a while, I entered the Gallery.
Then I bought a suitable sack and gathered the bones into it.
‘Bear with it until I move you.’
Maybe it was because I always observed my parents’ death anniversaries. Or maybe it was just my nature.
Leaving the dead here like this didn’t feel respectful.
I couldn’t do anything about the bones that were presumably eaten by the Owlbear, but this skeleton was fully intact.
I put the bones in the sack and left the space.
Outside, Wonmo was playing with butterflies near the nest.
“Wonmo. Let’s go.”
“Kyuu!”
That was enough exploring for today. I needed to return to my cave and start taking pictures of the books.
The sooner I figured out what was written inside, the sooner I could get all kinds of information.
‘And hold a memorial service while I’m at it.’
I didn’t know whether this world even had a concept like ancestral rites, but I was going to do it anyway.
This person might become my future, but as someone had said, they were my great senior.
The legacy left by this senior would become an enormous resource for me.
After some time, I returned to my cave, put away all my things, and looked around the area.
I was looking for a suitable place to use as a grave.
‘I’ll bury them over there.’
Of course, I wasn’t burying them right away. I planned to upload the books to the Gallery first.
I took out the box of books and set it aside.
‘Did they find anything in the Gallery?’
Some time had passed since I uploaded the book pages.
By now, someone might have figured out what the writing was.
With that hope in mind, I logged into the Gallery.
└ [Allfather]: Could you hurry and photograph the next page? This old man is so excited I can’t calm my lower half.
└ Sir;;
└ This guy gets vulgar whenever he sees something interesting;;
└ What the hell is it that has him acting like that?
└ They think it was written by the Undying King’s brother? Probably someone from the Balkan Kingdom?
└ Holy shit, why is that there?
└ Fuck, if that’s real, scholars all over the world are going to lose their minds.
└ Historians are excited while Academy students cry lol
Allfather had apparently succeeded in deciphering it.
Footnotes:
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