WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 11: Why Can't You See the Tide of the Times

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The vampire pushed me aside, settled into place, and spoke solemnly.

[Before I teach you bloodcraft, I shall first assess your skill.]

As though she had been waiting for it, the regressor reached behind her head and grasped Skywarbler's hilt. Skywarbler had been floating in the air at her master's command, but now that she had a chance to show her strength, she gave a delighted cry and sharpened her blade.

When the regressor swung her sword once through the air, a clear, pure sound rang out, as though it had brightly illuminated the darkness.

Swish.

The regressor waved her sword from side to side.

"My sword's a little special. It might be hard to judge my real skill with it. Should I use another sword?"

[That is of no concern. The special thing in your hand is also what makes you shine.]

"Fine, then. How should I show you?"

Creak.

The black coffin's lid opened at an angle. That familiar white hand suddenly emerged from the darkness, pointed its fingertips downward, and dropped a black bead.

Tap.

The shadow, darker than darkness itself, began growing like a sapling. Just as plants use sunlight and air to nourish themselves, the black sphere absorbed the darkness around it to fill its body.

The shadow rippled even in the dark, rapidly taking shape before transforming into an armored knight.

[It is an echo of the past.]

Neither the regressor nor I had been particularly curious, but the vampire continued explaining.

[It is the echo of a knight I once encountered. In life, he was called the Black Knight and slaughtered hundreds. I summoned an echo from the blood I took from him and made his armor from darkness. Face this knight.]

"Can I break it?"

[If you are capable.]

The vampire continued with a faintly smug air.

[It will not be easy. Though it is only an echo, the blood that makes up its body belonged to the Black Knight. Its armor, formed of darkness, has the strength of steel. I have recreated that once-famous knight exactly...]

Whoosh.

A slash was carved into the darkness. A diagonal plane formed, dividing the space above from the space below.

One line that cut through space itself.

Skywarbler was a pair of scissors that cut up the world. Even darkness, which was closer to mist than steel, split in two beneath the regressor's single stroke.

Had she once told me she could cut light?

She probably could. She was cutting darkness, after all.

[...Oh. Impressive.]

The vampire expressed admiration for the swordsmanship, which was almost like a magic trick. The emotions within her thoughts, though, were a little different.

'...? Even if the sword she holds is special, with just one strike? Not even holy knights could leave a scratch on that echo...'

You're flustered, Vampire.

What she had brought out just now was not all she could do, but it had been more than enough to use against a skinny, immature child. She had recreated a Black Knight once infamous in his day, and the regressor had disposed of him with ridiculous ease.

'At that age, too? Did humanity make some enormous advancement while I slept...?'

Don't use her as your standard. She's a regressor who devoured all kinds of lucky opportunities through countless deaths. Even if she hadn't fully recovered her power yet, some of it remained. On top of that, she was holding an absurdly powerful sword.

Humanity hadn't advanced. She was someone who had monopolized humanity's history.

The vampire collected herself and spoke.

[You do not seem to have reached adulthood yet, but your skill is remarkable. For someone of your caliber, it would not be strange if you sought your own path.]

"Really? I'm not that talented. I just found a lucky opportunity and pulled forward a little of the power I'd gain in the future. There are plenty of people stronger and more talented than me. I'm just an inferior copycat chasing their traces and imitating them."

The regressor genuinely believed that. Having struggled against beings beyond all standards in every cycle, she felt inferior to them despite monopolizing every kind of lucky opportunity through regression.

It sounded like excessive humility, perhaps even deception. Yet compared to the enemies she had truly faced, it wasn't wrong at all.

[You are too modest.]

"I'm not being modest. Look."

The regressor's sword tip pointed at me. I jerked in surprise.

Ah, damn. That startled me. Who points a sword at someone? Didn't she learn to point gently at people? People say even pointing with a finger is rude, so why use a sword?

The regressor snorted at me.

"Even that guy deflected my sword with one strike."

[That sword?]

"Yes. Skywarbler, and with just one finger."

[That fellow?]

No, she was right, but honestly, I couldn't do it twice.

'If he deflected a sword strike with one finger, he must be several levels above her. That is an achievement I can hardly believe. Are people these days normally that strong? Can they cut steel as easily as breathing?'

The regressor, and I, her victim of shameless exaggeration. The vampire looked at the two of us and made the mistake of setting the average far too high.

Don't set normal by the regressor's standards. What did everyone else living in this era do to deserve that? Hurry up and apologize to all the ordinary people you've robbed of their normality!

Besides, I'm a fraudulent listing. I'm full of bubbles!

'When he called my authority outdated, that wasn't confidence... He meant it literally? Has the era truly moved on?'

Having naturally led her to this misunderstanding, the regressor said,

"...So please teach me well. I'll learn with everything I've got."

[Very well.]

'I, too, should do everything I can to help this child defeat that arrogant bastard.'

She had brought out the vampire's sincerity.

The vampire extended a finger toward the regressor. With a small pop, the tip of her finger split. Red blood flowed from the tiny crack.

That blood was a little different from the other blood the vampire controlled.

Blood as an authority. The Progenitor's power, which used blood to wield magic and command servants. That blood gleamed with ominous mana, lapping as though it would corrode all things in the world.

Yet the blood the vampire shed now was utterly ordinary and human, which made it feel even more alien.

It was red, did not shine, and smelled faintly metallic. It seemed to insist, with a strange irony, that even a vampire had the same blood as a human.

Still, its presence was enormous enough to fill Tantalus. Even the darkness slowly retreated as though it revered the blood.

The droplet slowly floated toward the regressor and circled her.

[Great power comes with a great price. Yet from what I see, you possess enough potential to swallow even that price.]

"This is..."

[My true blood.]

The first blood possessed by a Progenitor, true blood.

If it were offered to the Sanctum, it would grant enormous blessings and the title of Paladin.

If given to a vampire, it would promise eternal wealth and power.

If one wished to aim even higher despite accepting some trials, one could place it within one's own body. If that person defeated every scavenger after their blood and established themselves, there would be one more Elder in a world that had only twelve.

Either way, it was a precious and dangerous thing capable of changing someone's life from top to bottom.

Before such a treasure, the regressor said,

"Why are you giving me this? Are you telling me to become a vampire? I don't really want to be one."

She looked at it with an expression that went beyond indifference and bordered on annoyance.

The vampire was shocked again.

'My true blood? That blood once made the world tremble simply by appearing? And she won't even give it a glance?'

The vampire barely regained her composure and continued in a trembling voice.

[...No. I have no intention of turning you into a vampire either. I cannot repeat a similar mistake.]

"Then?"

[I will engrave the true blood over your heart. The blood of a predator. With it, your senses for blood energy will become sharp as a blade.]

"Ah. Like that? Then I'll take it!"

The regressor immediately spread her arms. She had no interest in the true blood itself, but she plainly intended to use it as teaching material.

Seeing her attitude, utterly free of regret, deeply disappointed the vampire.

'It was a test. If she failed to resist her desire and said she wanted to become a vampire, I planned to dismiss her as unqualified... Still, I never expected such an indifferent response. Are vampires truly no longer beings of awe?'

The vampire stretched out her hand with a hint of gloom. The true blood flew toward the regressor's chest, and a red gear-shaped mark was engraved over her heart.

[If you master bloodcraft completely, you will be able to remove my blood. Return it to me then.]

"All right. But you sound weak. Did drawing out the true blood strain you too much?"

[...I am fine. Do not worry...]

'True blood... And yet, have even vampires become beings left behind? It has already been over three hundred years since I slept. It could be...'

Time is merciless. The vampire sighed deeply and said,

[I shall begin the lesson.]

While the vampire explained various things to the regressor, I hovered around them. The reason was simple.

True blood. True blood. Blood passed down only as legend for over a thousand years. A treasure that could earn enough money to live on for life if I found the right buyer.

It had been engraved on the regressor's body. A tattoo worth more than gold.

But I had already refused to become her disciple. Asking for true blood was beyond my wildest dreams. Besides, after reading the vampire's thoughts, it didn't seem like she would give me true blood completely anyway. The reason she had taken it out in the first place was her wariness of me, so it would never come to me.

Tch. The vampire was thinking in the wrong direction. If she wanted to make me submit, she should have just given me true blood. If she told me she would give it to me if I knelt, I would've sneered and immediately thrown myself down to lick her feet like a dog.

Still, there was a chance. The vampire had only recently awakened and was rather confused. From reading her thoughts, she didn't seem to have adjusted to this era yet.

So?

If I somehow sweet-talked her, perhaps something would fall into my hands too.

[...? What are you doing, you bastard? Why do you keep hovering around after refusing my teachings?]

I could feel her hostile gaze. I didn't know why, but she seemed to have developed a complete dislike for me. I held out both hands and made an excuse.

"I'm an instructor for the military state. This is a Re-education Facility. I'm responsible for managing and supervising all of you."

[Managing and supervising? You dare claim you can manage and supervise me?]

"Duty isn't always assigned with one's ability in mind. I trust Trainee Tyrkanzyaka, but separately from that, I have a duty to watch what all of you are doing."

'The imbalance of duty and ability. Does he mean chivalry? If he puts it that way, it isn't entirely incomprehensible.'

When I spoke boldly, the vampire accepted it for a moment.

Whew. I didn't expect pretending to be an instructor to help this much.

The vampire still looked uncomfortable.

[But I am in the middle of teaching. Surely a child receiving instruction should not be seen by others.]

"When was that ever the case? These days, one teacher instructs as many as fifty students. Different teachers are assigned for martial arts, magic, strategy, and tactics, and students choose the classes they want. Most lectures are even held in open spaces."

[Do not lie. What fool would share knowledge that secret?]

"The state. The country collects and controls all knowledge. Then it sorts the knowledge it gathers and distributes it freely to its citizens."

Martial arts, magic, strategy, and tactics were power and authority in the form of knowledge itself. At least, they had been in the vampire's era. There was a reason for master-disciple relationships and apprenticeships. Masters held the upper hand as the ones passing down knowledge, while disciples were worked like slaves for scraps of it, hoping that knowledge would someday become theirs.

Yet now people taught it generously.

The vampire could not close her mouth.

[Good heavens.]

"Students even have multiple teachers. Some take classes at private academies as well as military schools. Teachers don't find that strange either. It's an age of enlightenment. Knowledge is no longer passed down in secret. It is all revealed before the world and awaits evaluation."

The vampire found it so hard to believe that she asked the regressor to confirm it.

[Shei. Is what he says true?]

"Yes. It is. The military state's only good policy."

[I see...]

The vampire was once again reminded of the passing of time. The regressor glared at me unhappily.

"That doesn't mean you have to listen to him. He's watching us because he's worried about what we might be plotting."

[No, no. If the world ultimately chose that path, there is little meaning in denying it alone. I will not stop him from watching.]

The regressor frowned. I gave her a teasing glance, then sat down beside them with the intention of immediately picking up anything that fell my way.

The vampire ignored me and resumed her lesson.

[...Therefore, blood is life. It is the origin of life flowing through your body and the source that draws out strength. You must feel every last drop of blood within your body. You must be able to clearly picture where the blood flows.]

The lesson continued in a leisurely voice. It was exactly the kind of thing that would make you sleepy after a meal, but the regressor listened to the vampire with astonishing focus.

Would this actually help her? It sounded like the nonsense peddled by quacks.

Should I listen too?

I focused on the vampire's words and the thoughts that shaped those words.

[You hold countless powers within yourself. Fully understanding your body is the first step toward controlling them. Among the powers branching out like a thousand tree limbs, feel the hot, pulsing blood completely.]

I was a mind-reader. No one could rival me when it came to understanding the meaning of words. Even a terrible teacher could become an excellent teacher to me. I didn't need one of the qualities of a good teacher, the ability to convey things. All I needed was knowledge and depth of understanding.

Reading the vampire's thoughts, I closed my eyes and focused. I felt the pounding of my heart and the throbbing arteries.

Oh, I could feel it. My blood vessels were beating and pulsing! Power throbbed around my wrist and carotid artery. Was this the power of blood?

[Blood is a river. A river in its course seems to flow grandly as one mass, yet it seeps into tiny holes in the dirt. The water that seeps in soaks the whole earth as it moves toward the sea at an agonizingly slow pace. What you must feel is not the blood vessels anyone can sense. Feel the blood that has seeped throughout your entire body. Feel the power that fills you.]

Ah, that wasn't it.

Well, even if I could read thoughts, talent and compatibility were still a thing. It wasn't like reading a book meant I could understand everything in it.

It absolutely didn't mean I was stupid. Bloodcraft itself simply didn't suit me.

I was right not to learn it. Even if I had, I probably would've only learned to stop bleeding.

[The greatest obstacle to bloodcraft is the heart. The heart, beating as it pleases, is proof of life that keeps your soul tied to this world. Yet it is also a useless obstruction that moves your blood as it pleases. That is why... only the dead can truly master bloodcraft.]

The regressor seemed to realize something and clapped her hands.

"So that's why vampires are called corpse demons."

[That is correct. Vampires and corpse demons are essentially the same in that they move their bodies through bloodcraft. To become a vampire, one must die once. Your choice not to become a vampire was the right one. A heart that beats as it pleases is proof of life and the quality that lets you go further. Protecting it must come first. The heart is a privilege of the living...]

The vampire murmured wistfully, as though remembering or regretting something, then continued.

[I was briefly lost in sentiment. In any case, to control bloodcraft, you must first control your heart. You must force it to stop for a moment, or force it to beat faster. Do you understand?]

"More or less. Once I get some control over the power to manipulate blood, you're saying I should grab hold of my heart and make it move?"

[You understand quickly. Good. Remember this. The heart is the root of your body. It moves blood, purifies it, and draws out mana. The heart is the center of the body, so always keep it in mind as you act...]

Moves blood, purifies it, mana...? Huh. Wait a second. Something was strange.

"Trainee Tyrkanzyaka."

I stepped in. The vampire replied with a deeply displeased expression.

[...What is it now?]

"Um, the heart isn't a mana organ."

Maybe because she was from long ago, there was a gap between what she knew and what I knew. I stepped between them and explained.

"Most vampires turned their stopped hearts into mana organs, so I understand why you would think that. But turning a heart into a mana organ is actually extremely dangerous and inefficient. If you use your heart as a mana organ, you even need to regulate your breathing to use magic. So these days, people forcibly make mana organs elsewhere."

[...]

"People used their hearts to draw out mana in the past because they had to, but after the Magical Revolution four centuries ago, it became much less common. They discovered ways to draw out mana well without linking it to the body. This is the first thing you learn when you take magic classes at a secondary military academy, so it would be good to know... Ah, did I interrupt too much? Please continue."

Whew. I'd pointed out a very important mistake. This should earn me some goodwill...

'Is he seriously insane?'

Cold, sharp gazes flew into me. It felt like I'd committed some unforgivable crime.

Huh? Why? I only pointed out something wrong.

'I knew that too. Do you think I stayed quiet because I didn't know? We could have listened first and decided later, but he had to nitpick it.'

It was absurd that the regressor was acting like some normal person. You had to point out what was wrong. Nodding along with everything an old person said wasn't courtesy, it was deception. She was the one disrespecting the vampire.

[...In any case.]

The vampire deliberately ignored me and continued explaining.

[Even if the heart stops, the blood must keep circulating. Stopped blood pools and rots. The blood that has flowed through the body has its mana depleted... No, that is when the heart is a mana organ... Ahem. And impure blood is purified as it passes through the heart, so it is necessary to prevent contamination of the body as well.]

"Ah. Wait a moment. More precisely, it isn't purified through the heart. It's purified through the lungs."

Maybe because it was old knowledge, there were quite a few holes in it.

It would be fine if we were studying it as classical literature, but it became a problem when it was explained technically. I should kindly point it out.

"Impure blood really means it lacks oxygen. Oxygen enters our bodies and burns the energy we possess to move our bodies. This isn't a matter of dirtiness or cleanliness. It works the same way firewood burns. Just as covering burning firewood with cloth puts out the fire, closing off the lungs, which are the passage for air, extinguishes the flame inside our bodies. We call that dying."

'I, I didn't know that either?'

Fine, the vampire had spent a thousand years repeatedly sleeping and waking up, but how did you not know? You learned this even if you only graduated secondary school.

Ah, sorry. You didn't attend secondary school because you were an orphan.

Wait, was I the most educated person in this prison? For some reason, my shoulders rose with pride. It really was important to learn.

"Anyway. Now that you know, please keep it in mind as you explain. Aaaaagh!"

My hair stood on end. Sensing killing intent, I immediately leaped to the side.

A moment later, the blood horse's hoof struck where I had been. Space tore, and concrete shattered like tofu. Broken chunks of concrete buried themselves in my back.

Snort.

The blood horse snorted as though it regretted missing. Every time it scraped the ground with its hoof, the concrete ground away like sand.

I shouted urgently.

"Seriously! I almost died!"

[Stop exaggerating!]

"I'm not exaggerating! An ordinary person really would've been turned into a handful of blood by that attack!"

[You are not ordinary, so you will be fine!]

Without my mind-reading, you would be a murderer! Killing someone without connections gets you shot! Be grateful for my mind-reading, you!

[Fine! I have fallen behind. I have always been an outsider who could not blend into the era! Have you contributed anything at all?]

"What? When did I ever say you had fallen behind?"

[That attitude is saying it! You think I am some outdated, old-fashioned fossil!]

"I never said that!"

[That means you have thought it?!]

Oops. Caught.

And it seemed even my thought that I'd been caught had been caught.

Blood bubbled furiously. I felt an emotion from within the vampire that I could hardly describe.

Ah, wait. This feeling in her thoughts, was it perhaps...

"Are you sulking, aaaagh!"

Pew.

A crimson sphere flew at me. I rolled pathetically across the ground and avoided it. The sphere passed over my head, then exploded upon hitting the ground and ground apart the concrete.

[Do you think you are any different? You only blended into this era because you were born lucky enough to do so! Shall I make you a vampire too? Shall I make you forever separated from the world, living a life no one comes looking for unless they wish to die!]

The attacks continued. Crimson spheres flew toward me. They did not carry real killing intent. They were a tantrum, an expression of complaint.

Like a child throwing toys around.

The problem was that she wasn't throwing toys. Toys hurt when they hit you too, but those blood spheres would be fatal if they even grazed me.

I was really going to die at this rate. I had to distract her somehow. But how?

[If you are so great, then teach us yourself!]

"All right!"

When I shouted, the attacks stopped. Having finally found room to breathe, I rose to my feet while rubbing my chest.

"Trainee Tyrkanzyaka. I have seen it. The social nature that exists deep within your heart."

[Are those your last words?]

If I cowered here, I really would die. Ignoring the vampire's words, I continued steadily.

"Social nature is the desire to live alongside others. I saw it in you. The desire to blend into this era and flow in the same river as everyone else."

First, I had to survive. I took whatever I had read from the vampire's heart and threw it out, hoping at least one thing would stick.

[Blend into the era?]

Fortunately, the vampire calmed down and began listening to me.

"So today, I reached a conclusion. With proper education, all of you can blend into society well enough."

[...Who are you? What qualifications do you have to decide that?]

"The place where you are now. Its name is Tantalus Re-education Facility. You are trainees, and I am an instructor. I am the one who guides you in this society."

The vampire probably didn't even know this place's name, but did that matter? What mattered was that it could be called that.

I pointed my thumb at myself and shouted confidently.

"I will teach you everything you need to obtain what you want and live properly, Trainees. I will make sure you can become members of society!"

So please don't kill me.

With that wish in my heart, I spoke as confidently as I could.

[...Ha.]

The vampire lowered her hand. The countless crimson spheres decorating the air fell to the ground. Those red balls, which had ground away enormous amounts of concrete, melted into the earth as blood.

I lived. Just as I relaxed inwardly,

The vampire gathered the blood she had scattered and spoke quietly.

[I wondered what you would say, but you simply speak things you cannot take responsibility for.]

How did she know?

A gloomy voice came from inside the coffin.

It was the voice of someone who had repeatedly hoped and given up, again and again over many years, telling herself that this time would be different, that now was the chance. It sounded like someone who had already given up hope.

[I am a vampire. I am a predator that drinks human blood. Humans fear me and avoid me, or envy me and wish to become me. Even if I wished to blend in, my existence cannot blend in with theirs. Can a wolf live among a flock of sheep?]

The way she used a metaphor every time she spoke really made her sound like someone from the old days. And of all things, wolves and sheep.

What was she going to do if she was a wolf? There were barely any wolves these days.

But if I pointed that out, she would get angry again. I should explain it differently, with a metaphor of my own.

"Yes."

[You can say anything with words.]

"Should I show you proof?"

Go on, show me if you can. The vampire thought cynically.

Reading that thought, I immediately took out my chime bell and shook it.

Then, with a familiar howl, someone burst through a second-floor cafeteria window and leaped outside. Crash. Azzy snapped through the iron bars in an instant, landed on the ground, raised her head sharply, and ran toward us.

"Look. That wolf running toward us can live among a flock of sheep."

Screech.

Azzy skidded to a halt in front of me, tearing up the ground. With her mouth full of drool, she looked up at me with expectant eyes.

I reached out and petted Azzy's head. She closed her eyes and enjoyed my hand with a satisfied bark.

"Dogs were originally wolves. Even sheepdogs that fight wolves are wolves if you trace their ancestry back far enough. Sheep might fear dogs, but they aren't afraid of being eaten by them. Dogs don't eat sheep either. Well, they might chew on a sheep bone thrown to them by a shepherd."

Predators and prey could both change. Many wild beasts had been tamed by humans, and dogs were a whole species that humanity had tamed.

The vampire fell into deep thought. She seemed immersed in her own world and unlikely to awaken for a while.

Good. Now was the time.

"Woof? Food?"

"I'll give you some. Let's go to the kitchen."

"Woof woof! Good!"

"By the way, didn't you eat earlier? You're eating again? Are you not a dog, but a pig?"

"Woof! No! Not pig!"

Were dogs and pigs really that different? Azzy's reaction was so fierce that I immediately took the posture of surrender.

"Ah, all right! Don't bite me!"

Naturally slipping away, I headed toward the building with Azzy. I left the regressor and the vampire behind.

'That bastard...'

After we had walked some distance, I heard the regressor's thought from afar.

'After making all that fuss, he just slipped away naturally by himself!'

Damn. Caught again. Run.

"Azzy. Run!"

"Woof!"

I sprinted toward the building, with the excited Azzy following behind me.

All the while, the pitch-black coffin simply floated in place without moving.

Footnotes:

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