WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 117: History of the Abyss

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"I expected too much from an elementary school graduate."

If you didn't know, you could've at least studied up first. Why did you always rush in headfirst?

The regressor bristled at my provocation.

"I know that much! The Abyss was formed when an ancient tyrant massacred prisoners and incurred Mother Earth's wrath!"

"That's exactly what they teach at elementary citizen school. Now, allow the top student at military middle school to explain."

It was such an undeniable fact that the regressor couldn't even get angry. Left speechless, she made a childish objection instead.

"You said you were Level 0. How could someone like you have been top of middle school?"

"Oh dear, you really don't know. If you vanish like a ghost without notifying the school, you immediately become Level 0. We call that dropping out."

She couldn't refute that either. She'd never experienced it, after all.

While the regressor fumbled for an answer, I explained the advanced history taught in military middle school.

"After the Conquering King crushed the rebels with unstoppable momentum and captured countless prisoners, he decided to solve his food problem while setting an example. He would kill all three hundred thousand prisoners. But around then, with faith in the Earth Mother spreading among the people, killing an enemy without burying them was considered taboo. That didn't sit well with the Conquering King, who was already traveling with corpses in tow. So he intended to wipe out faith in the Earth Mother along with the prisoners."

What was the easiest way to destroy a faith?

Simple. Ruin its reputation.

Thoroughly enough that it could never recover.

"Back then, there were wanderers who called themselves buriers. They buried the dead in exchange for food. At first, ordinary people welcomed them for taking on such unpleasant work, but as the war dragged on and more wanderers did nothing but beg for food, people gradually came to hate them. Bandits occasionally traveled around pretending to be buriers as well.

"The Conquering King took advantage of that. He announced that countless deaths were coming and summoned every burier in the land, using the grave goods of soldiers who were about to die as bait."

Mother Earth, once the mother of all who walked the land, had begun to lose her influence around then. The Empire had split apart, the emperor was gone, and kings who wanted to reunify the Empire and become emperor waged bloody wars.

Countless wars broke out. Mountains were piled from corpses, and rivers ran red with blood. Amid all those deaths and tragedies, the candidates for emperor narrowed to two.

The Conquering King and the Victorious King.

Two kings who were opposites in every way, including their fates.

"The buriers had multiplied greatly by then. Without realizing this would be the beginning of an enormous massacre, they gathered in clouds. Or perhaps they knew and pretended not to. They had come for the grave goods of the prisoners who would die."

Then the Conquering King's herald shouted at Mother Earth's workers, gathered there like a swarm of insects.

"The Conquering King ordered the buriers who had assembled. We will kill them all and put them in the pit you dig. So dig as large a pit as you can. The more bodies it holds, the more grave goods you will be able to take.

"At that declaration, blinded by wealth, the buriers competed to dig into the earth."

Those wandering buriers needed others to die to fill their own bellies. Pretending not to know how their actions would look, they prepared graves for three hundred thousand people in the name of carrying out Mother Earth's will.

For three days and nights, they dug. Each day, the ground sank deeper, while heaps of dirt as large as hills rose around it.

Nothing was larger than the vessel of their greed. Even a pit large enough to hold three hundred thousand corpses would not have satisfied it.

After only three days.

The buriers had dug a huge pit that could easily hold three hundred thousand people.

"And when the grave was complete... the first ones pushed into it were the buriers themselves, their eyes shining with anticipation. The Conquering King had never intended to let those thorns in his side live."

"Oh!"

The immortal let out an exclamation. The regressor, who had put aside all her displeasure, was listening to me with complete focus.

Only Tyr wore a puzzled expression.

What was that about? She should have been the most interested. Normally, she paid more attention to old stories than anyone.

'It differs a little from the story I knew...'

Huh? She knew this story? A living history book?

Damn military state! What the hell had you been teaching me? Didn't you cross-check anything?

There was no point continuing with a wrong story and embarrassing myself further. I hurried to wrap it up.

"At that time, the buriers who died with the three hundred thousand people laid a curse upon the Conquering King. Mother Earth answered their plea and cursed him. The place where he committed the massacre became the Abyss, and the surrounding land turned into a barren wasteland where not a drop of water flowed and not a blade of grass could grow."

There was more I wanted to say, but I quickly finished the explanation. If the living witness to history denied it, that would be humiliating.

"This historic place is the Abyss."

As soon as I finished, the immortal asked as though he had been waiting.

"Wait, Teacher. Did the merciful Earth Mother truly do that? Make an entire patch of land unusable?"

Until moments ago, that was what I had thought too. It was what I had been taught.

This was when the art of evading responsibility came in handy.

"That's what I learned at the military state's middle school. If my story is wrong, please contact the military state's Ministry of Education. It's not my fault."

"No. It's simply somewhat different from the story I heard. I heard that the Abyss was created by the Celestial God's wrath."

The immortal told the story he had heard, but it sounded ridiculous to me.

I could understand Tyr objecting. She was a living history book who had lived close to that era. She had a personal connection to it.

But I couldn't accept you correcting me. That was the pride of a civilized person.

...Not that there was anything I could do about it.

"There are other interpretations, as Rashy said. One theory says the Abyss is the mark of divine punishment sent by the Celestial God to punish the buriers forever. They distorted Mother Earth's will and actively cooperated in the massacre."

Falling into a pit or the Abyss meant death either way. The only difference was that someone who fell into the Abyss could not be embraced by Mother Earth after death.

Then perhaps the curse of the Abyss had been aimed at the buriers themselves... That was another theory.

"Anyway, that's the whole story as I know it."

At the abrupt ending, the regressor looked dissatisfied again.

"What? That's it? The ending feels kind of sloppy."

"Well, everyone knows what happened after that, don't they? The Conquering King, cursed by Mother Earth, set out on the path to ruin. A massacre of three hundred thousand people, his territory turning to desert when the Abyss formed. No matter how powerful he was, he couldn't destroy his own support base and come out unscathed. He remained at a disadvantage after that, then finally lost to the Victorious King in the final battle."

The Conquering King, a mighty ruler whose ambition had been strong enough to cover the world, was ultimately ruined.

The Victorious King, who was mocked for abhorring killing to the point of seeming no different from a monk, claimed victory in the end.

The Conquering King, who became the Defeated King.

The Monk King, who became the Victorious King.

This incident was said to have been the turning point in the balance of power between them...

"How strange. It differs greatly from the story I knew."

"Now then! Even a line written in a history book can't compare to a word from someone who lived through the era! Listen closely, everyone. This is living history from a living history book!"

Without realizing I was teasing her a little, Tyr began her story.

"Do not be too certain. I also heard this tale from others. In my time, the Empire founded by the Victorious King was suffering from enemies invading from beyond the wasteland. Even in those days, when the Celestial God's followers held power, buriers still traveled the world."

That made sense. Faith in the Earth Mother hadn't disappeared just because the Sanctum had been established.

Even if its reputation had suffered, faith in the Earth Mother had spread everywhere like weeds. You couldn't uproot it completely even if you tried.

"According to what they told me, that entire sequence of events was a cowardly scheme by the Sanctum. The Celestial God's apostles had chosen to stand with the Victorious King from the beginning. They used sweet words to entice the Conquering King, guiding him to massacre three hundred thousand people and trample on faith in the Earth Mother. The buriers were indignant at this."

"Oh. That's truly interesting. It completely contradicts every interpretation so far. Is there evidence?"

Tyr nodded and offered her opinion more actively than ever.

"The Victorious King, who became emperor after that victory, made the Celestial God's religion the state faith. The king also supported them in establishing the Sanctum. They had been no more than priests of wandering tribes, yet in less than fifty years, they became a mighty force that dominated the world... Doesn't that seem suspicious?"

Certainly, Tyr's story was the closest to the actual period in time. If I were a historian, it would have been the kind of crucial information that would make me want to live with her for the rest of my life and dig out every detail.

But it was far too biased.

Tyr had fought the Sanctum her entire life, and most of the storytellers she met followed Mother Earth. It couldn't be helped.

"This is also one interesting perspective."

Tyr looked visibly disappointed by my lukewarm response.

"You do not believe me... Yet there is not an inch of falsehood in what I said."

"I'm not doubting you, Tyr. Your story itself has the value of an ancient document."

Whether that document could be trusted was another matter.

"You know better than anyone how much history can be twisted depending on one's perspective. You were slandered terribly by the Sanctum yourself."

"...That makes it all the more plausible, does it not? The Celestial God's hypocrites, their greatest weapon has always been their voices. They are experts at twisting and distorting the words that echo throughout the world however they please. Mother Earth's buriers may have been caught up in that as well."

'How many stories did I hear from that time! Though I lived my whole life as the Sanctum's enemy, I exposed their shameful secrets and weaknesses to hunt them. It should be... reliable information, yet even you...'

She was genuinely about to sulk.

When her heart had stopped, she had brushed off a little misunderstanding without caring. Why was she acting like this now?

"Come on. If Tyr had witnessed the event herself, I'd believe you. If you'd lived in the same era, it would be certain, but you're younger than the Abyss. We can't assume every story someone told Tyr is true just because Tyr herself is right."

There seemed to be a serious problem with comparing her to a geographical feature, but at the word younger, Tyr softened at once and accepted what I said.

"...That is true. I was born over a hundred years after the Victorious King ascended the throne."

"Right. Compared to the Abyss, Tyr is a baby. We don't know how stories from that time may have been distorted or what rumors went around. As you know, the world changes quickly."

"Certainly..."

'I did not see it myself, so I cannot be certain either. As you say, I am younger than the Abyss...'

Watching Tyr nod was like watching an absurd play about the injustice of time.

Before she could come to her senses, I clapped my hands and called out.

"All right! We've cleared up the misunderstanding and learned more, so should we call it a day? Let's use the ingredients Shei brought out and have a proper feast!"

Just as I tried to brush it off like that, Tyr, who had been quietly thinking, moved.

She came over in small steps, looked up at me, and spoke.

"...Hyu. Upon careful thought, you have been repeatedly comparing my age to that of the Abyss. Are you making fun of me?"

Ah. I got caught.

What should I do?

In a dazed voice, I said,

"Ah, haha?"

"..."

Thud. A small fist buried itself in my solar plexus. My waist folded ninety degrees, and a beat later, horrible pain arrived.

Her bloodcraft was absurdly powerful. Even after her fist struck my body, it didn't slow down. My body even lifted slightly.

"Ugh! Wait, Tyr...! Your fist is a little spicy...!"

"...Hmph."

Tyr sharply turned around and left the room. I lay on the floor, groaning for a while.

As I rolled around on the floor, the immortal stood over me and clicked his tongue.

"Tsk, tsk. I knew this would happen. I remained silent out of consideration for your position, Teacher, but this is your own doing."

"Mind your own business...!"

Even if I got punched in the solar plexus, I wasn't going to be eaten...! My situation was several times better than yours.

"Ah, speaking of that. Could you perhaps make the room warmer? Perhaps because she lost so much blood, Callis keeps feeling cold."

Rubbing my stomach, I answered bluntly.

"What kind of prison has individual heating? Just cover her with more blankets."

"I have already done so!"

"If she's still cold, what can I do? Sleep while holding each other."

"That too... already..."

What? You'd gotten that far already?

"Do not misunderstand! Though I do not turn away women who come to me, I would not make her strain herself while she is injured! It would be terrible if her injury worsened!"

Once Callis recovered, she was going to harvest the rest of the crop soon enough. I answered without much interest.

"Then you're already doing everything you can. Go make sure she eats properly."

For once, the immortal looked uncertain.

"Must... I be the one to do it?"

"Then what, should I do it?"

"That... gives me an odd sense of resistance as well. Forget I asked. I shall do it."

You were going to do it anyway. Once you're on the plate, just get eaten quietly. Don't make a fuss.

I lay spread out on the floor and sank into thought.

The past the regressor had seen, when the immortal woke up.

Considering his words and actions, a lieutenant general had probably come then too. At that time, no one in Tantalus could have stopped a lieutenant general accompanied by the King of Cats.

The me of the past had probably died then.

In contrast, I was alive now.

I had succeeded.

I had done my best and escaped death. That meant I had fulfilled my duty to myself.

Having escaped death and changed fate, I was calculating how to act after escaping the prison when my thoughts suddenly reached beneath the Abyss.

Wait. Come to think of it, that meant there were the resentful spirits of the buriers and three hundred thousand corpses beneath this land, didn't it? Corpses that had neither rotted nor been eaten by insects for over thirteen hundred years beneath the Abyss?

...Well, it was probably nothing.

"Woof?"

When I still didn't get up, Azzy pressed her front paws against my body. At her call, I sprang to my feet.

"Then shall we process ingredients and apply heat to them, an act that adds nothing nutritionally while dressing them up a little with taste and aroma?"

"Woof!"

Azzy barked happily despite having no idea what that meant.

Footnotes:

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