WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 19: Greylim's Best Dancer!
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“No.”
The Guard Captain muttered the words.
Zain frowned. He was clearly thinking, What a strange man.
“You mean that monster corpse?”
“Yes, it looks like a Split-Tongue Deer.”
“That’s right. Its tongue is forked.”
The Guard Captain was a seasoned veteran of the Greylim Territory, while Zain was Hero Gunter’s attendant knight.
Both were deeply knowledgeable about monsters. Even from atop this high cliff, they had recognized it at once.
“It looks like its throat was bitten out, but strangely enough, the rest of the corpse is clean.”
“Why would something go through the trouble of hunting it without eating it?”
“Some creatures become aggressive whenever their territory is invaded. They don’t always hunt for food.”
“Hmm, is it very dangerous?”
There was a slight awkwardness in Zain’s tone.
He seemed wary of sounding like a knight who was afraid.
The Guard Captain noticed.
“I don’t think we need to worry. I’ll go down first. Sir Knight can come down last.”
“...No, I’ll go down first.”
Zain’s pride had been hurt by the Guard Captain’s consideration.
Knights were lesser nobility, but Zain had not been granted land. He was merely one of Gunter’s attendant knights.
The Guard Captain, meanwhile, was a deputy commander in Greylim who enjoyed the lord’s trust.
Their ranks were ambiguous, so there was a bit of tension between them.
“Then I appreciate it. I’ll guard the rear.”
“Yes.”
“There could be danger, so it would be best to descend in pairs. Hanson, go down with Sir Knight.”
The thick-armed soldier acknowledged the order.
Zain and Hanson grabbed the ropes and began climbing down the cliff.
It was nearly vertical.
They had to place their feet carefully as they descended.
A rocky outcrop beneath Zain’s foot crumbled away and fell.
His heart sank, but he did his best not to show it.
He descended faster than Hanson.
A cliff like this was nothing. Considering all the training he had received, there was no reason to fear it.
Then Zain suddenly slowed down.
Drrr-
A vibration came from somewhere.
At first, he thought he had imagined it.
Hanson, descending beside him, did not seem to notice.
Drrrr-
No.
The vibration became clearer.
Instinctively, Zain looked down toward the ground where he felt it.
The monster corpse they had assumed someone had killed and left behind as a display.
Something was approaching it.
“Stop!”
Of course, he was not shouting at whatever was coming.
Hanson stared blankly, as if asking what the hell had gotten into him.
Zain felt the urge to punch him in the face, but held back.
Instead, he pointed toward the ground.
Hanson’s eyes widened.
The ground around the deer corpse swelled upward.
Bang!
Several legs burst from the earth.
What appeared was a monster.
It swallowed the entire deer in one bite, then left.
The whole process had taken barely a minute.
No one, including Zain, said a word during that time.
The first among the frozen group to move was the brave knight.
“Let’s go down.”
“Down there?”
“Or are you planning to keep hanging here?”
Zain glared sharply at Hanson.
The thick-armed soldier only wore an expression that said, There’s a way back up too, you know.
When Hanson looked toward the top of the cliff, the Guard Captain signaled for them to descend as well.
Zain and Hanson stepped onto the ground, where only bloodstains remained.
The soldiers who had stayed above followed them down.
The Guard Captain approached Zain as the knight examined the traces on the ground.
“Do you recognize it?”
Zain shook his head.
“What do you think, Guard Captain? I’ve never seen a monster like that.”
“I certainly don’t know every monster in the Great Forest, but... yes, this is my first time seeing one as well.”
“Same here.”
“It troubles me that we have no idea what it is.”
“That troubles me the most too.”
The soldiers only exchanged looks at their conversation.
If they didn’t know, then they didn’t know. What was so troubling about that?
It was as if the two men were having a conversation only they understood.
“I believe it had eight legs.”
“I saw that as well.”
“Could it have been a spider?”
“I have visited the sea before. Considering the carapace attached to it, it may have been closer to a crab. Like a Red Mud Crab.”
“I’ve lived beside the Great Forest my whole life, so I wouldn’t know. This is a forest, after all.”
“...That’s true. It’s probably more likely to be a spider than a crab.”
“There is a monster called the Grey Tarantula.”
“Does that thing burrow?”
“Not exactly. There are separate mole-type monsters, such as Spiny Moles and Blood Moles.”
They listed monsters that might be related to the creature they had just seen.
Their gazes met.
“...It may be a Chimera.”
“I think so too.”
Zain’s eyes widened.
There were not many people who could identify a Chimera.
Zain had broadened his knowledge while following Gunter. He had even seen those terrible monsters called Chimeras several times.
Still, wasn’t the Guard Captain being far too calm for someone who had spent his life in Greylim?
“Do you know about Chimeras?”
“To some extent.”
“Chimera-type monsters like Cockatrices are completely different from true Chimeras.”
The Guard Captain glanced at Zain.
“Yes, I know. They are artificially created monsters, the product of a grave sin deserving divine punishment.”
It seemed he truly knew.
“We should track this Chimera.”
“...What? That isn’t our mission.”
Zain was dumbfounded.
Hunting a Chimera was a knight’s duty, not the Guard Captain’s.
Besides, they had been ordered by the lord to investigate the identity of the pillar of light.
The order of priority was different.
“I believe this should come first.”
“Finding where the light rose should be the priority.”
“Catching the Chimera is important too.”
Zain finally became irritated.
There had been things bothering him from the start.
“Guard Captain. Do you take me for a fool?”
“...”
“You’re hiding something. Speak.”
The atmosphere turned icy.
The soldiers swallowed nervously.
* * *
Gulp.
I swallowed.
Popcorn would’ve been nice.
There was nothing more entertaining than watching people fight.
I watched the sudden arrivals from my hiding place in the tree.
They couldn’t possibly have imagined that a snake would be clinging to a branch and watching them.
“I’m not particularly hiding anything.”
The Guard Captain, my archenemy.
The enemy of my family and home.
He faced off against the knight with an impassive expression.
“It’s strange enough that you know so much about Chimeras. Is that pillar of light related to the Chimera?”
“It is.”
Good job, Guard Captain. Don’t let that young brat intimidate you.
He was my archenemy, yet somehow, I found myself cheering for him.
Was it because I liked that dignified mustache? Mm-hm.
“There have occasionally been Chimeras found in the Great Forest.”
“Occasionally?”
“Once every few decades, perhaps.”
“Is there a living black mage?”
“No. They are ruins. Dungeons. Pelerian’s Dungeons are scattered throughout the Great Forest.”
Pelerian.
After muttering the name several times, the knight shouted in shock.
“Heaven-Defier? You mean the dungeon of that mad Fairy Mage, Heaven-Defier?”
Wow.
Goosebumps rose all over my body. No, my scales stood on end.
Heaven-Defier?
Wasn’t that insane?
That racist old fairy had an incredible epithet.
A mage who defied heaven. It made my tail curl.
I thought that Dungeon had been made over three hundred years ago, yet Pelerian was apparently still famous.
Could Pelerian still be alive? Pelerian was a fairy, but really did look ancient.
“I heard Heaven-Defier was already dead...”
“They are Dungeons created long ago. Light has occasionally shone from them, and there are records of Chimeras being found as well.”
“The lord never told us anything about that.”
“It would not be good for such a story to spread.”
“...I suppose not. If rumors spread that Heaven-Defier’s legacy remained.”
“I would appreciate it if you kept this information confidential, Sir Zain.”
The knight nodded.
That Dungeon seemed to be quite a big deal.
To me, he had just looked like a senile old man.
They agreed to track the Chimera.
First, they would assess their opponent and determine whether it was within their ability to deal with.
“Do you have an Insight Scroll?”
“Yes, I always carry one.”
“That’s fortunate. First, we must find it.”
An Insight Scroll?
What exactly could it discern?
More than that, I was curious how they planned to track the Chimera.
The process by which the Guard Captain and knight figured out the Chimera’s identity was impressive.
They had roughly identified it after seeing it only once, even bringing up the Grey Tarantula and Blood Mole.
There was a lot to learn from watching them.
“Dig into the ground.”
The soldiers immediately took out field shovels and began digging.
Weren’t they afraid that the Chimera would return?
During that time, the Guard Captain pressed an ear to the ground.
The soldiers dug down.
Actually, I had tried that long ago. I had turned over the earth where the Chimera appeared with earth magic, but found no trace of it.
Sure enough, digging revealed nothing.
The soldiers looked blankly at one another too.
“Dig deeper.”
The Guard Captain sternly ordered them to continue.
A little later, one of the soldiers was suddenly sucked into the ground.
“Argh!”
“W-What is it? Are you okay?”
“Y-Yes, I’m fine. I’m all right. Ugh, the smell.”
The soldier who had fallen underground seemed unharmed.
The Guard Captain lit a torch and climbed in.
“As I thought, there was a burrow much farther down.”
“You predicted it?”
“Yes. Something that large could not move while digging through the earth in real time. When it crawled up to the surface, it blocked its escape route with dirt, but there was a passage it had dug in advance below.”
So that was it!
The Guard Captain seemed thoroughly familiar with monster ecology.
“Hmm, there are webs strung up here. It seems to sense vibrations through them.”
And it could probably smell blood too.
I almost wanted to offer that advice.
The Chimera only came when there was blood.
With help from the soldiers, the Guard Captain crawled out of the burrow.
He brushed the webs off his body and spoke.
“Defeating it will be simpler than expected.”
What did you just say, bastard...?
I was pissed.
He made it sound so easy.
Wasn’t he underestimating the Chimera too much?
“I think we can handle it ourselves.”
“Shall we make a plan?”
I listened as closely as possible to eavesdrop on their plan.
Then I could only be impressed.
These bastards were vicious.
Humans were terrifying... creatures more wicked than snakes.
I snapped up a beetle crawling along the tree.
Crunch, crunch.
I’d watch while eating this instead of popcorn.
Even if you catch the Chimera, I’ll be the one who benefits in the end.
* * *
Humans put on a truly remarkable show for me.
They made thorough preparations to hunt the Chimera.
After everything was ready, Hanson, the thick-armed soldier, remained behind.
The other soldiers moved a good distance away and suddenly began singing.
“Pause for one beat, pause for two beats, pause for three more beats, one, two, three!”
Well, those weren’t the exact lyrics, but it was roughly that kind of song.
Because Hanson began to dance.
He stomped the ground and jumped around in time with his comrades’ clapping.
“Now that’s Greylim’s Best Dancer!”
The Guard Captain was truly terrifying.
Even while saying that, his expression didn’t change at all.
Knight Zain stood beside the Guard Captain, holding a scroll.
When the Chimera appeared, they would lure it into a trap and tear the scroll to determine its strength.
Then they would decide whether to subdue it or run away.
Hanson danced so hard that he began panting.
And it clearly paid off.
Drrrr-
The vibration began.
Hanson flinched and stopped dancing.
“Keep dancing!”
That crazy Guard Captain.
Hanson’s movements slowed.
It looked like someone had dragged the quietest kid in class onto the stage during a school retreat and forced him to dance.
Bwahaha.
It brought back painful memories.
My Mental Attack Resistance almost increased.
Drrrrr-
The vibrations grew stronger.
The Guard Captain finally stopped the abuse.
“Pull him up!”
Hanson’s body shot into the air.
Not because he was a Flying Human.
A rope had been tied around his waist and looped over a rocky outcrop on the cliff. The other soldiers simply pulled it together.
In any case, Hanson gained enough distance from the ground.
The earth swelled where he had been dancing.
Baaang!
Eight legs snapped at empty air.
Riiip-
Zain tore the scroll.
‘Insight’?
Despite that plain name, something I could never have imagined happened.
Footnotes:
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