WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ How the Child of Prophecy Survives ◈
Chapter 1: Child Born from Death
──────
This is a story told by humans, not gods.
This is a story for the dead, not the living.
Its end is inevitable, so greet that end with joy.
* * *
“Huff! Huff! Hah! Huh!”
“Help! Please, help us!”
Amid the pouring rain, cries echoed from within a massive well.
The walls of the well had been carved from sturdy stone. Though the fingernails of long years had raked across them, the joints remained smooth and even. No matter how desperately people clung to them until their nails broke, they could only slip back down.
“No! Please...!”
Thud.
“Aaaagh!”
A man who had struggled not to be dragged away was finally hurled into the depths.
Splat!
“Ugh...!”
The man fell onto the heads of those standing atop the corpses piled high in the well, and both he and those he struck groaned.
“Is that it?”
Hires, director of the Mihanil Empire’s Special Security Bureau, lit a cigarette beneath the brim of his low-pulled hat.
Rumble... Boom!
Lightning flashed, followed by a thunderous crash. Judging by how little time passed between light and sound, it had struck nearby.
“Yes, Director.”
“Close it.”
“Yes.”
At Hires’s indifferent command, an agent waved a hand. Others seized the winch beside the well and began to turn it.
Grrrnk...
“No! This can’t be happening!”
“What did we ever do wrong?!”
Of the roughly thirty thousand Saraan people brought here under the pretense of a policy to support migration, the several thousand still alive stared at the shrinking patch of sky and screamed.
“Hoo...”
Even as he listened, Hires merely exhaled cigarette smoke coldly.
There was nothing in his eyes. His pale face looked as though it had been made of wax.
“Even God would be surprised.”
No one heard Hires’s murmur. With the rain pouring down, even Hires himself could not hear it.
The rain would continue for at least another five days.
The well had been designed to collect groundwater that seeped in when it rained. Once the seasonal downpour had passed, it would fill to a level just short of overflowing.
Thousands of years ago, it had been the most precious treasure of those who lived in this land. Through the ages, it had been repeatedly repaired and expanded, becoming a historical cultural relic. It was also a sacred site where offerings were made to a primitive, barbarian god.
And now, just as the people who had once lived here did, the Mihanil Empire was offering sacrifices to a barbarian god whose name it did not even know.
“They want everything, yet they don’t want to dirty their own hands. How very noble.”
The faint lines on Hires’s face slowly rippled through the cigarette smoke.
The Emperor was obsessed with the bird they kept. They locked it in a cage, never allowing it to spread its wings, and whenever it sang, they would rush over in a frenzy, even setting aside state affairs.
It was understandable. The Emperor’s beloved pet bird was a prophet.
This vast empire had been built in less than thirty years. It had all begun with the power of the prophet the Emperor secretly kept. At least, that was what the Emperor seemed to believe.
As director of the Empire’s Special Security Bureau, Hires had learned this in secret through highly exceptional channels.
After all, while gathering the Saraan people to offer to the barbarian god, he had to thoroughly determine whether there were any other prophets among them.
Horrifically, the prophet who had told the Emperor they must perform this ritual was a Saraan woman. When the Emperor demanded a prophecy, she foretold that the Empire would be destroyed by a Saraan. If they wished to avoid that ruin, she said, every Saraan had to be offered to the well and killed.
The Emperor created an organization with the impressive-sounding name Special Security Bureau, seated Hires in the director’s position, and gave him an order.
Offer every Saraan to the well and kill them.
And if he found another prophet in the process, he was to bring them to the Emperor alive.
Hires was deeply skeptical of the mission. To him, the prophecy sounded like a lie spun by a lowly Saraan woman seeking the mad Emperor’s favor. This ritual looked like a scheme by that same woman, afraid the Emperor might turn their attention to another Saraan.
But the Emperor’s orders had to be obeyed.
No matter what.
Whatever situation Hires might be in.
There was no particular malice in it.
He was simply doing it because he had been told to.
Grrrnk...
Thump...!
The winch reached its end, and the well’s lid shut completely.
There was a hole in the center of the lid that allowed people to see inside, but it was too small for even a small-built person to pass through.
The screams that had pierced through the rain abruptly faded.
“...Quiet.”
Hires found the present, filled with nothing but the sound of pouring rain, deeply satisfying.
The screams of the Saraan people dying inside the well overlapped with the screams of his wife Mia when she went mad after delivering a stillborn child.
As Hires relived that moment, the miserable image of his son, born dead, rose in his mind. He squeezed his eyes shut.
Something that seemed ready to explode at any moment floated lazily over his wax-pale face, as if savoring his pain and grief.
“...We’re going back.”
“Yes. I’ll escort you.”
Suppressing his tremors, Hires spoke calmly and turned away.
Click.
His aide opened the car door, and Hires climbed in. The luxurious leather seat was soaked with rainwater, but he did not care.
Once the door closed, even the sound of rain seemed to fly far away.
Vroom...
As the aide began to drive, only the low hum of the engine, powered by Valt, remained. The familiar sound did not even register as noise to Hires.
So the screams of the dying Saraan people and his wife’s screams continued to echo in his ears.
He would return when the rain stopped.
He had to make sure that no Saraan remained alive inside the well.
* * *
Click.
“...”
Back home, Hires stood motionless in the entryway for some time, staring blankly into the darkness and cold air.
Only three days ago, he and his wife had sat together, thrilled that their baby would soon be born, whispering about love, hope, and the future.
“...Mia.”
With great effort, Hires moved his uncooperative lips and called for his wife.
But his throat was hoarse, and no sound came out properly. He cleared it and called for her again in the calmest voice he could manage.
“Mia.”
...
There was no answer.
Had she fallen asleep from exhaustion after crying?
Everything hurt too much. Hires leaned his rain-soaked shoulder against the wall.
After standing there for a long while with his eyes shut, pressing down everything boiling over in his chest, he bent over and slowly untied and removed his boots.
Drip. Drip...
Water fell from his soaked coat.
Even hearing it, Hires felt as though none of it mattered. He removed his hat, held it in one hand, and walked silently toward the bedroom without even putting on slippers.
He only wanted to see his sleeping wife’s face.
Then, with that alone, perhaps with one sigh, he might be able to move again.
Hires crossed the dark house as quietly as he could and grasped the bedroom doorknob.
He could not tell what was running down his rain-soaked face.
Click...
He had tried to open the door as quietly as possible, but it still made a small sound.
He hoped his wife would remain deeply asleep.
Hires opened the door and cautiously poked his head inside.
“...”
Hires’s cold expression slowly softened. His eyes fixed on a silhouette standing at the center of the room.
“...Mia?”
Sounding a little flustered and a little relieved, Hires called his wife’s name as he opened the door and stepped fully inside.
Then he instinctively knew that something was wrong.
A scent he knew all too well, but one that should never have come from his home.
...
Lightning flashed beyond the curtained window.
Hires saw his wife standing with her head bowed, blackened by the backlight.
Something long protruded from the neck of his beloved wife, reaching all the way to the ceiling.
Nothing like that could grow from a person’s neck.
Boom!
Darkness descended upon the room again. A beat later, when the thunder struck with full force, Hires lunged toward his hanging wife.
Sway, sway.
Slosh, slosh.
Creak, creak.
Splat, splat.
The sounds that mocked Hires’s screams echoed leisurely.
Three days after losing his son to stillbirth, Hires returned home after two days spent carrying out the Emperor’s mission and lost his wife Mia.
He did nothing.
He could do nothing.
Everything had already ended.
* * *
“...”
Hires suddenly wondered what he was doing.
He was driving through the pouring rain. When had he left the house? Why?
‘Mia. Where is Mia? I can’t leave Mia alone.’
Hires searched for his wife.
Then he found her limp, drooping head staring at him from the dark passenger seat.
A tightly rolled white cloth was bound to dead Mia’s chest.
Unable to accept that she had given birth to a stillborn child, Mia had gone completely mad. After raging wildly, she suddenly became quiet. She wrapped the dead baby carefully, held it in her arms, and stroked it with a vacant smile.
So even if Hires was the only one alive, his whole family was together in this car.
Nothing showed on Hires’s empty face as he looked ahead again.
He drove aimlessly. Yet from the scenery passing by, he recognized the road.
“...”
Hires realized he was heading for the well.
He did not remember clearly, but he thought he probably meant to die.
He was afraid of being left alone. And he was too uneasy to send only his fragile wife and very young son on such a distant journey.
Perhaps the well came to mind when he thought of death because this incident had shocked him that deeply.
Or perhaps not. What did it matter now?
Although he could barely see through the downpour, Hires drove silently along the muddy, slippery road until dawn and arrived at the well.
Rushhh!
Hires lifted his wife and son from the passenger seat in one arm. With his other hand, he opened an umbrella to shield his beloved family from the rain.
The muddy ground was slippery, and he staggered a little, but he regained his balance and began to walk slowly.
“...”
He stopped in front of the well.
Naturally, Hires could not open the lid of this enormous well by himself. The hole in the lid was also too small. Perhaps a child could fit through it, but neither Hires nor Mia could.
Suddenly realizing this was all meaningless madness, Hires collapsed where he stood.
He threw away the umbrella too.
What meaning was there in holding an umbrella over a corpse already dead?
“Hahaha...”
Strangely enough, he laughed instead of crying.
Perhaps he had gone mad as well.
“...”
Then Hires suddenly clenched his teeth and sprang to his feet.
He roughly dropped the white bundle from his wife’s arms, the bundle containing his son born dead.
This was because of you.
Because you could not be born normally.
That was why we lost our son.
And now you have taken my wife from me too.
It did not matter that the thought was irrational.
Hires simply needed something, something even he did not understand.
Even so, he could not bring himself to unwrap the cloth and look upon the face of the son who had been born dead three days ago, no, four days ago.
He did not have the courage.
Aaaagh!
When Hires thought he heard a sound like the howl of a beast, he had already thrown his dead son through the well’s small hole.
“...Ah, no! My son!”
Coming to his senses, Hires threw himself flat on the ground and tried to force his body into the hole.
“No! No! He’s my son! Give me back my son!”
Hires screamed, desperately calling for his son who was already dead. He shoved his head into the well where the abyss slept and stretched out his hand with all his strength.
But it had not rained long enough for the well to fill with water. His hand touched nothing.
“...”
Hires, straining to reach farther, abruptly froze.
His ragged breathing stopped. He forced his head deeper into the hole.
...
The sound of a baby crying.
Hires sprang up and looked frantically around.
Brilliant hope shone on his face as though a god had descended upon it, while dark madness swirled there as though a demon had taken hold.
Hires rushed to the car and tore through its interior.
Thud! Thud!
Then he used a dagger to rip apart the upholstery inside the officer’s car.
Gathering the fabric, Hires worked frantically, tying it into one long, sturdy strip. He secured it around his chest and ran madly back to the well.
Scrraape!
He slid across the hard stone lid of the well, tearing his trousers wide open and leaving blood streaming from his knee. Ignoring it, Hires threw the long strip of cloth into the hole.
Splash...
Water sounded inside the well.
Even through the pouring rain, Hires heard it clearly.
It reached!
The cloth had definitely touched the surface of the water!
“Son! Grab it!”
Hires did not understand what he was doing. With only the constant heart of a prayer, he kept shouting for his son to hold the cloth.
Then, after a moment, a small force tugged at the strip clutched tightly in his hand.
Hires’s face filled with explosive joy.
“Hold on! Son, you have to hold on tight!”
Hires encouraged his son over and over. Hope rose on his face like dawn breaking.
For some time, he felt that small force moving the cloth this way and that. Then, all at once, a slightly stronger force gave it two short tugs.
Hires instinctively knew it was a signal.
A signal? From a newborn?
...So what?
“Son! Wait just a little longer! Just a little!”
Kneeling, Hires braced himself by pressing his head against the opposite side of the hole and frantically pulled the strip upward.
“Huff! Huff! Huff! Huff!”
Though it was tied securely around his chest, Hires feared that if he lost his grip, the shock would cause his son to fall. He wrapped the soaking cloth tightly around his left hand and pulled with all his strength using only his right.
His water-swollen left hand tore to pieces, blood streaming down the cloth into the hole.
“Waa! Waa!”
The baby’s cry sounded close.
With tears of joy pouring from his eyes, Hires pulled faster.
“Just a little more...! Just a little more!”
Hires could not tell whether that desperate voice was his own or someone else’s.
But in the end, he held a living, breathing newborn in his arms.
“Hah! Hah!”
Hires clutched the baby, wrapped in filthy cloth, tightly to his chest and quickly rolled away from the hole.
“Thank you! God, thank you! Thank you! Thank you...”
Feeling the baby wriggling and crying in his arms, he looked up at the rain-soaked sky and repeatedly cried out his thanks to God.
After sobbing for a while, Hires quickly came to his senses. He crawled on his knees, struggled to his feet, and ran.
He picked up the umbrella lying beside Mia’s body, sheltered the baby, and raced to the car. He carefully placed the baby in the passenger seat.
“My son, my son...”
Hires slowly unwrapped the cloth, now dyed bright red with his blood.
He was too happy in that moment to find it strange that the end of the strip was tied securely to the cloth wrapped around the baby.
“Waa! Waa!”
The sound of a baby crying, which he had wanted so desperately to hear.
“Shh, shh... Shh...”
Having no experience caring for a baby, Hires panicked and stroked the baby’s face to soothe it. Blood from his torn hand soaked the baby.
The baby soon stopped crying and fell quiet. The baby smacked its blood-red lips and swallowed the blood flowing into its mouth.
“...Your black hair looks like Mia’s. You’re so, so beautiful. Truly...”
Hires whispered, tears falling steadily.
“Wait here for a moment. I’ll bring your mother.”
He kissed the baby’s blood-soaked forehead, returned to the well, and came back carrying Mia’s body in his arms.
Then he secured the baby tightly against Mia’s chest so it would not move, weeping tears of joy as he drove home.
Rushhh!
Something seemed to make a sound from inside the hole of the well, but it had surely been the rain.
Hires looked back at the baby, soaked in rainwater and his own blood, trembling with rapture and excitement.
“Our son, Mia.”
Hires whispered to Mia.
“Yes, Hires. Our son.”
Hires heard Mia’s happy voice and looked into her eyes.
Seeing Mia’s clouded eyes fixed on him without moving, her body settled into the seat as she held the baby, Hires smiled.
He did not know its name, but an ancient barbarian god had surely saved his son.
This baby is undoubtedly my son.
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