WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 201: Land Flowing Like a River - 3

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Humans had always feared the night. Darkness concealed the enemy, and sleep was an attacker's greatest ally. Everything that came at night was dangerous.

That only held true when the night was not on our side.

If Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka was on our side, night became a cozy, peaceful time that wrapped us in a veil of quiet.

[The sun has set.]

As long as darkness covered the land, Tyr could go days without sleeping. Her heart had begun beating again, and she had recovered some of her functions, but bloodcraft still powered her body.

Among the things she had given up was the ability to endure the sun.

It could not be helped. Asking a young girl who had barely managed to survive underground to also preserve enough strength to endure sunlight would have been too cruel.

Once the sun set, Tyr emerged from her coffin. Her red eyes gleamed as she looked down upon the world.

"You have waited long enough. You may rest now. Darkness is my time and my domain. I shall not allow anything to enter it."

Tyr declared it proudly. At the same time, layers upon layers of darkness surrounded us. Even the sunset glimmering beyond the western mountains could not reach this place. Unless it was the midday sun looking down on all creation, our darkness was no weaker than the gentle sunlight when they stood at similar heights.

In any case, Tyr was awake.

So I gave her a hard time.

"Tyr, do you have a moment? This is just between us."

"Of course. Ask whatever you wish."

"We need to assess each other's capabilities, so could you explain all your weaknesses one by one?"

"...Hm?"

'Weaknesses? My weaknesses? Why so suddenly...? Ah, he must be anxious. In that case, as the eldest among us, I ought to show him confidence.'

Caught up in a strange sense of duty, Tyr wrapped herself in darkness and declared confidently.

"I have no weaknesses. I am Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka, a being once feared by the entire world. Would fear itself have anything to fear?"

"Not necessarily. You sure avoid sunlight openly enough."

Tyr flinched at my questioning, then spoke as though making excuses.

"That is not a weakness. It is simply something I dislike. I could once walk beneath the midday sun while cloaked in darkness, and now that I have regained my heart, I could stand beneath it bare-bodied without issue. I merely rested for a time to gather my strength for an important battle."

"Isn't that a weakness?"

'It is true that my movements are restricted beneath sunlight, but I would not call it a weakness.'

I did not think this woman knew what weakness meant. If your movements were restricted under sunlight, wasn't that a weakness?

Unaware of my thoughts, Tyr lifted her slender shoulders and boasted.

"I do not fear the sun at all. To a vampire, sunlight is no more than mildly stinging raindrops. Perhaps an Ain or Eiling of low rank would be different, but an Elder can endure the sun, and to a Progenitor such as myself, it is nothing more than an annoyance..."

"I'm asking so I can accurately assess our capabilities. Can you use your power well beneath the sun, or can't you? Answer yes or no."

Wouldn't mildly stinging raindrops punch holes in your body if they poured down all day? Wasn't the fact that they stung already a problem?

Tyr hesitated briefly, then looked away.

"...Yes."

"Okay, confirmed. You get weaker under sunlight."

"That only applied before I regained my heart. Now I can display equal strength. What you should be worried about is..."

"That's only possible because your power can't leave your body. If you could use bloodcraft outside your body, there would be a legion walking around at night instead of a few dirt grunts."

"...Urgh."

Tyr could not add anything in the face of that factual bombardment. Since I was already at it, I decided to dig out a little more information under the pretense of assessing our capabilities.

"If we fought during the day, how much darkness could you use?"

"How could you measure darkness by quantity? My darkness is infinite. It will not run dry before the next night comes."

Huh? That was strange. Why did she mean it?

Tyr truly believed that.

Still, something was off. If there was no limit, there was no reason for her to conserve power all day. She knew she had limits, which was why she gathered her strength, yet she sincerely believed it would not run dry?

Ah, wait.

"Tyr, do you have limits, but say that because you've never actually run dry?"

"I suppose one could see it that way. Even the longest day would not be enough to exhaust all my darkness. It would be different if I protected my entire legion with darkness, but I have more than enough to protect you, Shei, and myself."

That still meant there was a capacity limit!

"Hey! What if your darkness runs out at a critical moment and we end up in danger? Do you want to turn me into a vampire that badly? Are you planning to kill me on purpose, then say it can't be helped and forcibly turn me into one?"

"...O-of course not."

'Turning him into a vampire unnaturally would only earn his resentment. I shall protect him with all my strength... If something happens to him despite my best efforts, there will be nothing I can do.'

My vampire life insurance was reliable. It even warmed my heart.

Could she not just make sure I didn't die in the first place? With thoughts like that, she might let a bullet flying at me slip past at a critical moment.

Anyway, I decided it was time to seriously investigate our capabilities.

"For us to stay safe, we need to know each other's weaknesses and limits clearly. Be honest. How much darkness can you use?"

"How could darkness be measured? Still, I gathered darkness all day today and stored up my strength. Even if a fierce battle broke out, I should be able to unleash it until the sun sets... Unless the Sanctum uses some strange trick."

"What if you use up all your darkness?"

"My body would remain. I would simply crush the enemies one by one."

"All right. I've confirmed the darkness part."

'...He seems to find me quite unreliable. Years of fleeing must have left his body and mind unsettled. This will not do. I must give him confidence so that he does not worry.'

No, that wasn't it. This was a simple assessment, so stop giving me false reports. If she started believing them herself, I might get fooled too.

"What about your other weaknesses?"

"If I do not even fear sunlight, what other weakness could I have?"

Huh? Really? As far as I knew, vampires had several more weaknesses.

Why was she so sincere? Bragging was one thing, but did she genuinely not think of a single other weakness?

"No, Tyr. The whole world knows your weaknesses. What do you mean you don't have any?"

"How strange. How could the entire world know weaknesses that even I do not know?"

"The heavens know, the earth knows, I know, and even an elementary school graduate knows. Even Azzy, who's suddenly grown much smarter lately, might know."

For a long time, vampires had been humanity's greatest fear.

Calling them enemies would have been too simple, since many complicated circumstances were involved.

Vampires had once been human, and they required fresh human blood to survive. They despised bodies that violently craved blood, yet they did not wish to throw away those perfect bodies. Time could not weaken them, and even beasts avoided them. Yet their end always came in human form.

Humans stood at the opposite end of vampires. They were vampires' prey, yet could become vampires at any time. Humans loathed vampires, but also envied their half-immortal existence. When the chance to become a vampire came along, they sometimes accepted it as good fortune.

Predator and prey, yet also a strange relationship where one side depended on the other from birth until death.

Reverence bred curiosity. Humans had always tried to learn more about vampires. They pursued the truth while clinging to fantasy, filling the gap between them with knowledge.

Yet the Progenitor herself knew nothing. What irony.

"How ironic. I am the beginning of all vampires and the god of their race. Are you saying there are weaknesses of vampires that even I do not know?"

"That's what I was going to say. Whew. This won't do."

Since we were on the subject, I decided to test it. I turned and called the regressor.

"Shei! Come over here for a moment!"

"Wait a bit. I'm looking after Nabi."

The regressor was busy tending to Nabi.

The long life on the run had exhausted Nabi more than it had exhausted me. Inside her box, Nabi was on edge and hissed whenever anyone but the regressor approached her.

Even now, if not for the regressor's friendly manner, the food in her hand, and the mana herb made from World Tree leaves, Nabi might have overturned her meal several times.

After closing the lid of the box, the regressor shook her head with a pitying expression.

"This is difficult. Maybe because she's the King of Cats, she doesn't welcome traveling far from home... She would be better off living quietly somewhere peaceful."

"Let's agree to abandon her somewhere and handle the immediate task first. Between humans."

"Watch your mouth... Fine. What's the immediate task?"

The regressor was our party's main force anyway.

Her ability to respond to anything was unmatched, making her something like an all-purpose remedy. If we were going to assess our capabilities, it would be better to do so with the regressor.

"Shei, do you know vampires' weaknesses?"

"Of course. Sunlight."

"What else?"

"Salt and spices. Garlic, for example."

Tyr gently furrowed her brow and denied it.

"Nonsense. I do not fear such things."

'It is true that I dislike the sun. The Sanctum made full use of that fact to trouble me. But I do not fear salt and spices. I have never even encountered them in the first place.'

She had never even encountered them. At that moment, I understood Tyr's problem.

Ah, folk remedies had not made their way to Tyr. Perhaps because she always marched at the head of an army.

I left the explanation to the regressor. Listen to the vampire countermeasures even an elementary school graduate knows.

"Huh? But I heard vampires are sustained by blood, so they dislike spices that dissolve into it. Trace amounts of deadly poison don't work very well on them, but pouring on a huge amount of salt causes them a great deal of trouble."

"How ridiculous. Vampires are beings who rule blood. Why would they dislike salt, which is not even a poison that clots the blood?"

Since we were talking about it, why not give it a try? I placed a little cooking salt on the back of my hand and held it out to Tyr. Tyr tilted her head.

"Could that be salt?"

"Yes. Have a taste. If it's not a weakness, it should be fine."

Tyr hesitated, unable to bring the white salt to her mouth. I held out my hand farther, urging her to try it.

'Does this not look like a kiss on the back of his hand? How bold... Though our roles have been reversed.'

No, she was not hesitating because she disliked salt.

After glancing around for a moment, Tyr seemed to make up her mind and lightly touched the back of my hand with her tongue. Her small tongue brushed the white salt, then pulled away.

Immediately afterward, Tyr frowned at the unpleasant sensation.

"It tastes... bad."

"You can't taste anything, Tyr. You can only taste blood."

"That is true. It feels unpleasant. It does not suit my blood."

"That's a weakness."

"It is different. This is only a matter of preference and taste..."

"Boo."

"Kyah!"

When I suddenly thrust the salt toward Tyr, who refused to admit it to the very end, she jerked her head back as if she had seen a bug. The Progenitor let out an uncharacteristically cute scream, then froze in that position.

Hah, see? I'd known ever since she made that tearful face and said my blood tasted bad. What picky tastes.

"Tyr. Knowledge about vampires has spread so widely that it has made its way into novels and illustrations. You can't let your guard down. The three things people fear most are tiger attacks, smallpox, and vampires. Everyone in the world knows about it. Even Shei knows."

"Wait. I sense a little malice in you saying that even I know."

Tyr seemed to accept my words and slowly nodded, but the moment the regressor turned her head, Tyr went completely still.

Avoiding the regressor's stare, Tyr cleared her throat softly once more. Then, shaking off that gaze, she looked at me.

"Fine. Let us say I dislike salt. What does it matter? How could anyone possibly feed me salt?"

"You can't let your guard down over things like that. The military state is a country that uses every means at its disposal without hesitation."

If a weakness existed, there was no reason not to exploit it. It was only rational, especially against an opponent who could not be easily defeated otherwise.

I wiped the playfulness from my face and spoke with utmost seriousness.

"Today's attack was a probing battle. They were probably trying to wear Tyr down. Fortunately, we drove them off with Shei's strength alone, but a full-force attack and a probing battle are different. We need to make a plan before they come. By then, it'll be too late."

Footnotes:

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