WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 124: The History of Tantalus

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After silencing me, Jiseon looked around at everyone and asked,

"Do you know how Tantalus came to be?"

Ah, a question from a past exam. I immediately stepped forward.

"I just happened to prepare for this! Tyr, tell her!"

"Of course I know. Was it not caused by the Conquering King's massacre? There are several theories about why it came to be, but the main one is that the Earth Mother grew angry."

Tyr looked at me expectantly after answering, as though waiting for praise.

But Jiseon shook her head, so the praise would have to wait.

"No! Not the Abyss. I mean Tantalus."

"Tantalus? Do you mean the building beneath our feet?"

"That is correct."

"...I do not know. They said they would serve me, so I left them to it. When I opened my eyes, I was here."

Naturally, nobody knew. Tantalus had been built in the Abyss, but its history was not particularly long. Besides, it would have been a lie to call the people here well-informed.

Jiseon, the only person in this room who knew the answer, began speaking.

"After the land was laid waste by the Abyss, people came to fear the Earth Mother, realizing that she too was a venerable deity capable of anger. At the same time, those who impersonated buriers appeared everywhere, and people gradually began to avoid the Church of the Earth Mother.

"To rebuild the Church, we had to calm the Earth Mother's anger and undo the Abyss. Therefore, I entered into negotiations with the military state."

After the military state succeeded in its coup, they planned a massive civil engineering project to punish criminals and stabilize public sentiment at the same time.

The military state lacked the expertise for a project of that scale. At this rate, it was obvious that it would become a live burial carried out in the name of construction.

They could not afford to kill that many people. There was the precedent set by the Conquering King, and it would also mean the loss of valuable manpower.

The military state, which worshipped efficiency rather than loyalty, made the easiest yet most difficult choice.

They gathered the scattered followers of the Earth Mother, who had been living without a common center.

"If we aided the military state's construction, they promised to build a 'lid' to cover the Abyss."

At a time when most people believed in the Celestial God and the Holy Maiden, joining hands with the Church of the Earth Mother went against both public opinion and foreign nations.

Of course, the military state was not the sort of country to care about such trivial matters.

Still, the followers of the Earth Mother, who had been persecuted, would not have immediately followed the military state without sufficient bait.

"Erasing the Abyss was everyone's long-cherished wish. Followers scattered across the world gathered to bury the buriers' sins. They trusted and followed me."

And now, the truth of what bait the military state had used to gather the followers of the Earth Mother was revealed.

"So Tantalus was originally meant to cover the Abyss like a lid?"

"That is correct. Tantalus was originally built as a lid to cover the Abyss and contain Mother Earth's anger. I thought that if we covered it like the lid on a boiling pot, her anger would settle... Foolishly, that was what I believed."

Well, when faced with a hole that was hard to fill, the first thought was usually to cover it.

It was an ordinary idea anyone could have. The only reason nobody had tried it was because the hole was unimaginably vast.

Even the same idea differed in feasibility depending on its scale. The Abyss was too large and too deep, so nobody had ever considered covering it.

They lacked both the resources and the technology to create a lid of that size.

...Except for Jiseon standing before us.

Jiseon continued her explanation calmly.

"During the military state's five-year project, we all worked until our bones were ground to powder, and many of our brothers and sisters collapsed. Even so, we joined our strength for the wish of a lifetime. Brothers, sisters, sons, daughters. We all united and continued our harsh labor. Once we completed the work we had promised, we made our demand of the military state, and the military state kept its promise."

They had created a blessed concrete structure wider than the Abyss itself.

Though she was responsible for this incredible feat, Jiseon explained it in a flat tone, as though reading from a book.

"Once the lid was complete, the War Mage, one of the Six Generals, personally carried it into the Abyss and placed it over the opening. The bottomless void was enough to make one's knees tremble just by looking at it. When it was immediately hidden beneath the lid, we who believed we had fulfilled our lifelong wish shed tears of joy. It felt as though we had finally corrected the sins committed long ago and returned everything to its rightful place...."

Her voice caught there, and the sentence trailed off.

I knew what happened next.

I had read it from a Resistance engineer.

"The moment you stepped on it, the ground sank into the Abyss. The curse of the Abyss couldn't be hidden by something as simple as a lid."

"...It seems someone told you. Then again, it was not a secret at the time."

Remembering one of the few devastating failures of her life, Jiseon weakly confirmed it.

"...That is correct. The moment I took my first step, it sank by that much. The despair of feeling the ground beneath my feet give way...."

Once I helped her past the difficult part, Jiseon's words began flowing freely.

"How great that disappointment, that despair must have been. I felt so sorry and ashamed that our five years of hard work had earned us no reward. I had nothing to say to my comrades who trusted and followed me...."

The person who had led those persecuted people felt a heavy responsibility for that failure.

Her dry voice was low and dark, like dust settling on the ground.

"Everyone was deeply disappointed and scattered in every direction, leaving me alone to dwell upon that terrible failure. Yet the next view only appears after one reaches a steep cliff. As I stared at the Abyss for a long time, I realized something. What we had laid over the Abyss was not a lid but land. That land was the key to reaching the source of the Abyss."

The concrete structure should have fallen beneath the Abyss and descended forever through an imaginary space.

Strangely, it did not sink unless someone stepped on it. Unlike ordinary objects, it did not fall.

But land that could not be stepped on had no meaning, so nobody considered that fact important.

Nobody except Jiseon, who could not let go of her failure.

"To reach the bottom of the Abyss, humans had to step upon this land and live here."

An infinite space, and therefore a meaningless one.

For it to gain meaning, people had to set foot there and build history. The more they were born, grew, died, and lived upon that land, the closer Tantalus came to the source of the Abyss.

That was why Jiseon needed people to remain in Tantalus.

"I intended to take responsibility for my failure and remain in the Abyss alone, to reach its source. I would continue until this land reached the bottom, or until this body fell asleep and was buried."

"But wasn't that far too indefinite?"

I slipped in a question and drew out Jiseon's answer.

"The military state said the same. They said it was too indefinite and offered to use this place as a prison instead of wasting such valuable ability. They said there were many prisoners who deserved to die, so they would turn it into a hell where those people could be confined. Their lives would then help the cause as well."

"Ah, so that was why the military state kept sending people down here."

Jiseon nodded bitterly.

"To put the military state's prisoners into the Earth Mother's hell. In a way, it was a deeply irreverent act. Yet I accepted that offer. Solely because of my greed, I pushed prisoners into the Earth Mother's prison instead of a human one...."

The Abyss had been created by Mother Earth. It became a literal hell, punishing those irreverent toward the Earth Mother.

That was why people had considered Tantalus nothing more than a prison until now. Even the Korean words for hell and prison, jiok and gamok, sounded somewhat alike.

Here was the surprising truth.

Tantalus, built by humans, was not actually a prison.

It was a structure made to deceive the Abyss into believing it was land, so it could reach the source of the Abyss.

It was humanity's deception of a god.

"Then you are the one who made Tantalus, Jiseon?"

"More precisely, the military state designed it to make use of this land. I merely proposed it to them."

"I had never heard that before. I thought the military state built a prison inside the Abyss because it was a crazy country."

I had wondered why their development path was so strange. It was payment for a promise.

Well, no matter how little there was to do, nobody built a prison underground for no reason.

"That information was classified, so it is no wonder you misunderstood."

Phew. Jiseon drained a cup of water in one gulp, perhaps because her throat was dry.

"The military state raised this land and built the prison, while I threw myself into the military state's service to pay my debt. For over ten years, I took part alone in construction projects large and small. After that, I traveled the world seeking a way to return the land to its state before the Abyss."

Her voice gradually grew more animated. The closer the story came to the present, the brighter Jiseon's expression became.

She was someone whose present was better than her past, and who expected her future to be better still.

"Then one day, I heard news of an escape. I came here intending to inspect Tantalus once more, and I became certain."

On the verge of fulfilling her long-held wish, Jiseon showed a volcanic yearning despite her thin frame.

"This land had made sufficient contact with the source. It was now possible to erase the Abyss."

A story told with emotion carried power. Nobody dared doubt Jiseon's words now.

Everyone understood that she possessed the power, had put in the effort, and had found a way.

The Abyss disappearing was now an established fact.

"Wait! What happens to us if the Abyss disappears? Won't we disappear with it?"

Jiseon answered that point with certainty.

"No. Only the Abyss will disappear. This land will return to its original state, the great pit where the Conquering King intended to bury three hundred thousand people before the Abyss came into being."

"Hm! In that case, there is nothing bad about it!"

While the satisfied immortal nodded vigorously, Callis hurriedly asked,

"How did the military state react to your visit, Brigadier General?"

"React? I do not know. I merely notified this place and entered."

Rather than being concerned by that answer, Callis was relieved. If Jiseon had notified them and entered without any warning, she would have time at least until the military state could respond. The more sudden Jiseon's actions were, the better Callis's chance of escape.

This time, I asked.

"When will you erase the Abyss, then?"

"My stamina is a concern, and I must inspect this land a little longer. I intend to proceed the day after tomorrow."

A declaration that we would escape this tiresome Abyss the day after tomorrow.

The moment I heard it, joy welled up inside me without my realizing it.

I had never once thought this damned world was worth liking, but the thought of going up and feeling sunlight made me desperately miss the surface.

The cool wind brushing past my ears, sunlight scolding my lazy body, even the distant scenery.

I had not thought I was the type to look at a view and feel joy, but perhaps I had truly longed for those things that had been with me all my life.

"Waaaah! We're escaping!"

I openly showed my excitement.

"Since we're leaving anyway, none of this matters now! Jiseon! Eat everything here!"

Jiseon politely refused.

"Even if you offer it to me, I am a small person and have limited room in my stomach. I am full, so how about everyone slowly eats the rest?"

"Come on! We're escaping this place the day after tomorrow. We can't possibly finish all the leftover food in such a short time! We'll make new food tomorrow to eat tomorrow! The food left today will go into Tantalus's official slop bucket!"

‘Throwing away the fruits of the earth in front of a follower of the Earth Mother...? Does he not realize how rude that is?’

As Jiseon frowned slightly, I called over Tantalus's official slop bucket.

Since ancient times, leftover food belonged to dogs. That was why even a minister's dog had a fine coat.

"Azzy!"

"Woof? Me?"

Azzy approached with her head tilted.

I placed a plate piled high with meat in an empty spot on the table. Then, like a gambler pushing all their chips in, I grandly shoved it toward her.

"That's right! Eat all of this today!"

"Woof! What's gotten into you?"

Azzy immediately sat down and buried her face in the food, smacking her lips. After tasting the lightly seasoned, freshly cooked meat, she happily shouted,

"Tomorrow! Woof! The sun rises in the west!"

"I don't know where you learned that saying, but this food isn't from the sun. It is from this person! Be grateful!"

"Woof-dozer! Thank you!"

"...Please eat as much as you wish, King of Dogs."

Jiseon could not bring herself to scold a dog, and simply nodded.

Footnotes:

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