WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 134: The Slanted Ceiling and the Mountain of Smiling Corpses - 6

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The corpse in loose clothing seemed accustomed to carrying people slung over its shoulder. Even as a corpse, it still was.

After carrying me up the mountain, the corpse of a follower of the Earth Mother set me down before the Great Master's remains. I patted its shoulder a few times and stood before her remains.

I opened my bag and took out some liquor.

Baekhwahongju, a wine said to turn one's face red like a flower after a single cup. It was the most expensive liquor the regressor had brought, and also the first one I had secretly stashed away.

It was a waste, but the Great Master's remains deserved something of this caliber.

I filled a cup with Baekhwahongju and sprinkled it beside her remains.

Once to the left. Once to the right. Once behind her.

Then, holding the empty cup, I knelt before her. I set the cup by my feet and tipped the bottle slightly.

Sound for the first pour.

Fragrance for the second.

Taste for the third.

After pouring three times, I set the cup before her, brought my hands together, rose, and bowed to the Great Master.

Once to wish for the life she had lived.

Once to mourn her death.

Then I knelt again, lifted the cup before her, and drank it down.

The potent liquor flowed down my throat.

My consciousness grew hazy as well.

You are unbearably arrogant.

Rivers are Mother Earth's veins, while soil and stone are Mother Earth's flesh?

Absurd.

Because they call the Earth Mother their mother, they stubbornly insist upon it like spoiled youngest children.

Rivers are no more than drops of sweat running across her skin, and soil and stone are nothing but callused flesh.

Mountains are merely small boils upon her body, while the Earth Mother's blood reveals itself only now and then through the deepest wounds in her festering sores.

You drink river water and till the land. Because they are necessary and important to you, you mistakenly believe they must be important to Mother Earth as well.

In truth, compared to Mother Earth, we are beings too insignificant to even be called ants.

The Earth Mother's blood is lava flowing beneath volcanoes. Her flesh is the sea of steel that holds that blazing lava.

You have never seen it? Ha, of course you have not.

Just as an aphid crawling over skin sees a fingertip as the horizon, we too could never dare behold Mother Earth's flesh.

Far below us, at her center, Mother Earth's heart must lie. Yet even that would surely differ from what everyone imagined.

Followers of the Earth Mother, remember this. Mother Earth is merciful, but we are far more insignificant than she expects.

Humans are no more than petty creatures who tear into Mother Earth's callused skin in search of food, then drink the beads of sweat flowing across her body.

Those who serve the Earth Mother must learn humility. They must understand their own insignificance.

I do not know whether the great and immense Earth Mother watches over us, or simply regards us with indifference.

But we who live parasitically upon her...

Have absolutely no right.

We are not as remarkable as we believe ourselves to be.

The highest mountain in the world, Mount Unfallen.

The farthest edge of the earth, where even the clouds lay beneath one's feet and one could take in a tenth of the world at a glance.

The Great Master had knelt at its summit.

"...It was this lowly one who had been arrogant."

Just as things too far away could not be seen, neither could things too close.

That was why the Church of the Earth Mother made its followers climb mountains as an act of asceticism. The higher the mountain, the more valuable they believed the trial to be.

Countless people challenged Mount Unfallen, the highest among them, and just as many died.

A mountaintop with thin air could not be reached through strength alone. Those with light bodies, small frames, and highly refined energy arts held the advantage.

A young girl who had only just awakened to the teachings fulfilled every one of those conditions and conquered Mount Unfallen's summit.

She achieved the wish of every follower of the Earth Mother.

Yet what shook the girl's heart was not their praise, but amazement at the world itself.

After witnessing the world's grandeur and realizing her own humility, the girl refused even the position of master and wandered the world. To learn more about Mother Earth, she met others, traveled, and threw herself into trials.

She immersed herself in lava, and she scooped it up to place in furnaces.

Some masters condemned her. They pressured her to stop at once and return, claiming that digging into Mother Earth's secrets could only breed arrogance.

Summoned before the masters, the girl split open the earth before their eyes and proved herself right.

From that day on, the girl was called the Great Master, teacher to every follower of the Earth Mother.

"...I was never worthy of teaching anyone."

As I watched that mental image speak to me, I scratched my head.

"These days, corpses keep doing things I don't expect. It's a real problem. You're dead, yet you're talking to me through a mental image."

Innate arcane was the manifestation of an individual's mental image.

Among those who manifested such innate arcane, people whose resentment ran deep sharpened their mental image before death and left it behind in a keepsake. Then they tested whoever took hold of it.

You could call it a sort of vengeful spirit with an awful lot of attachment.

There were not many mental images that had remained so vivid without crumbling away over the years.

Maybe it had been preserved so well because it was at the bottom of the Abyss.

"Enough. If you're going to test me, get on with it."

As if replying to me, the Great Master slowly continued.

"Yet there is one thing this lowly one wishes to ask of the guest who has come here."

Clear, sorrowful eyes met mine.

What I was reading now was not a thought. In the truest sense, it was closer to a book. A mental image written down by its author with a purpose in mind.

I would read it better than most people, but there would not be much difference.

"Of this lowly one's lingering regret."

The scene changed.

Hell lay before my eyes.

The world seen from the farthest distance had been so beautiful. The land seen up close was ugly and horrific.

Three hundred thousand people lay dead, dying, or waiting for death. Screams and shrieks echoed throughout the pit. Even more groans and death throes drowned them out.

Most cursed the Conqueror King, but some, driven mad by rage, hurled resentment at every living thing in the world. Naturally, that resentment extended to the pit, the Great Master who had made it, and the Earth Mother to whom it belonged.

Though the Earth Mother she served was being insulted, the Great Master could not even feel anger. Their fury seemed justified instead.

As she looked upon them in misery, a handsome man with a commanding presence approached her.

"Ha ha ha! What incredible power! You dug a pit this large all by yourself!"

The Conqueror King.

A ruler of this era, with a magnificent beard and strength great enough to shatter Mount Tai itself.

Dressed in full armor, he beamed and made the Great Master an offer.

"Hey, Great Master! Have you considered joining my army?"

After creating this disaster.

He wanted her to join his army?

Contempt, revulsion, and fury welled up within her. Still, the Great Master had cultivated enough self-restraint not to reveal such feelings.

She answered.

"...How could one who serves the Earth Mother involve herself in killing?"

"Who said I wanted you to defeat enemies with this? I don't expect that! And what use is digging power when it comes to defeating enemies?"

The strongest man of the era waved a hand confidently, saying that miscellaneous abilities only got in the way when defeating enemies.

"I hated those fools who swaggered around calling themselves interrers because they made such a shrill fuss whenever they had to clear away corpses! Because of them, my precious soldiers and I had to waste time digging! I've lost count of the routed troops I failed to chase down and the victories I let slip away because of it!"

There was not a trace of malice in the Conqueror King.

What I sensed from him was purity.

Nothing but his pure desire to unify the world and his mad rush toward that goal. He did not spare a thought for those trampled beneath his hooves.

"But if we have the Great Master, digging and burying corpses will become much easier! Then we won't need to disgrace the interrers anymore! The Great Master gets to preserve her honor too! Isn't that good for everyone?"

If it was good for everyone.

Then what about those who would die by his hand?

What about the common people who would be crushed beneath the Conqueror King's pursuit in the time she saved him?

To begin with.

"To begin with, if you didn't kill them, there would be no need to bury them."

"What? You want me not to kill the rebels?"

"That is correct. If Your Majesty the Conqueror King were to stop killing..."

"The Great Master says foolish things too. I thought you were someone greater."

The Conqueror King frowned and replied as if he no longer wished to listen.

"Those who revolt are executed as an example. Isn't that common sense? If they don't want to die, they shouldn't revolt in the first place. Everyone needs to learn that! Great Master, you know nothing about war or rulers!"

How could she know nothing?

How many corpses had she buried during this war? On battlefields where there was not even enough strength left to recover the dead, in villages attacked by bandits, in lands massacred by warlords before they passed through.

How much death had she buried?

"Anyway, you're still working, so I won't ask again! Think it over once you're finished!"

She would think it over.

With the power Mother Earth had granted her. With the power to tilt mountains and split the land.

Whether she should cast the Conqueror King and his army into the depths of the Abyss...

The scene stopped. A pitch-black staff lay before me.

The earth sword, Jizan.

I had to choose.

Would I take hold of this staff and simply honor the souls of the dead as an interrer?

Or would I draw it as a sword and punish the Conqueror King as Mother Earth's representative?

"Seriously."

At one moment in history.

"Don't test me, coward."

I turned the page.

The halted world began to move again. I forced my way into the past it had tried to hide and read on. Caught in an unintended situation, the mental image creaked as if flustered.

What happened afterward.

It was a dark night when even the most oblivious beasts kept quiet.

Reflecting on the disaster she had created, the Great Master stood before the pit once more to finish the funerals. The pit had grown quieter than before.

Maybe it was because it was dark. Maybe it was because there were no other sights or sounds to distract her. The groans and screams sounded far clearer than before.

She deliberated for a long time. Truly, for a long time.

Even after half a day had passed, the Great Master could not reach a conclusion. So she came to do what had to be done first, cover the pit and hold funerals for the dead.

There was a problem.

Those who had fallen had not died.

The Conqueror King considered even the oil needed to polish his sword a waste, so he had pushed them in alive. After throwing all three hundred thousand people inside, he ordered the Great Master to bury them.

An interrer was one who buried the dead.

But the living could not be buried.

Now, half a day after all of them had been thrown in, most were nearly dead.

Yet many still lived.

'The moment they fell in there, they were no different from corpses! Just bury them! It'll be easier that way! For the Great Master and for the prisoners!'

The Conqueror King's words still rang in her ears. He was in the middle of a banquet.

The Great Master gritted her teeth and knelt before them.

She deliberated for a long time. Far too long.

Still, she could not reach a conclusion.

Should she bury prisoners who were still alive, or kill the Conqueror King as he held his banquet?

The Conqueror King was the strongest warrior of that age.

Even if her power could overturn heaven and earth and split the land, she would need to overturn the entire land to kill him.

The Conqueror King would not be the only one to die. Most of the soldiers under his command would surely be caught up in it.

Could it truly be right to cover death with another death?

There was no conclusion. The Great Master rested both hands on her knees and prayed.

Ah, Mother Earth. Why do you put me to this test?

If only I could no longer deliberate. If time could simply stop like this-

"I'm sorry."

Thud.

Her wish came true.

For the Great Master's time stopped here.

"I will take your sin from you."

What pierced through her back and emerged from her stomach was a wedge as sharp as an awl.

Behind the Great Master, who coughed blood with a gasp, came a voice heavy with sorrow.

"This death must become a lesson. The Conqueror King's sins must bring about his downfall. People must praise the Victorious King's victory, extol his virtue, and distinguish sin from righteousness."

Separate from the pain, her mind became clear. With perfect clarity, she understood the other's intention.

This was an excuse.

The person who had stabbed her in the back was making excuses under the weight of guilt.

"But the Great Master has become a Demon God. Just as no one can hold a storm that swept through a village accountable, just as no one can blame a fire that devoured homes and lives, people will do nothing but tremble in fear before you."

Only then did the Great Master realize who had stabbed her.

"A... prophet..."

The apostles of the Celestial God.

Their god was too distant for their faith to flourish, but they had barely kept it alive around their prophet. Recently, they had supposedly been moving between the Victorious King and the Conqueror King in an attempt to expand their following...

Perhaps this was their scheme. The Great Master should have felt fury and betrayal.

Yet.

Why was she so happy?

Why did being forced into death at this moment of choice bring her such relief?

Because she would soon die, only one path remained for the Great Master.

"I have... one wish..."

The Great Master spoke in broken breaths. The prophet answered in confusion.

"I am not worthy of granting it."

"Please... let me... be buried... down there..."

She had to finish what she had left undone.

She had to comfort those not yet dead and bury those who had died.

At the edge of death, she was neither the Great Master nor Mother Earth's representative.

She was only an interrer.

"The thing that pierced you is our symbol and our treasure. If I remove it, you will die soon afterward. If I do not, the traces of us will be revealed."

"...Please... can you not do it...?"

The prophet spoke in distress, but the request of one staring death in the face weighed more heavily than a hundred words. Even the prophet could only hesitate, unable to choose either course.

"Ah... I cannot. I truly cannot..."

As the prophet deliberated, someone carrying a torch walked over from the distance. It was a guard stationed there to stop anyone who tried to climb out.

The guard, bitter over being unable to attend the banquet, would not forgive an intruder.

There was no time. The prophet made a decision.

"Do not forgive me, First Holy Maiden who blessed me. This unworthy one has betrayed your expectations..."

With a brief prayer, the prophet pushed the Great Master into the pit.

She fell into the middle of the corpses, yet strangely, in the very heart of death, her heart felt much lighter. Death was easier for her than killing.

As she staggered to her feet, tens of thousands of eyes glimmered before her. Eyes filled with rage, resignation, and the traces of lives fading away.

She could not save them.

She could not ease their resentment.

She could not avenge them.

All she could do as an interrer who had returned was bury them in Mother Earth's breast.

"Mother Earth. I too shall be buried in your breast. Please, I beg you. Hold us..."

The Great Master brought her hands together and wielded her authority.

She was the first person in the world to see Mother Earth's true form and discover what lay within her.

She cast her final spell.

Innate Arcane. Gaia Ego.

"...In your embrace."

Mother Earth did not love humanity. Not before one person's magic reached her.

From that day on, Mother Earth came to favor humanity.

That day, the Abyss came into being.

And humanity gained earth arts.

Footnotes:

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