WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 226: Choosing Seats

──────

On a map, the Meta Conveyor Belt was a broad, flat, doughnut-shaped road that supported the interior of the military state. It was land that flowed like a river, so I wasn't sure it even deserved to be called a road, but it was vast enough to circle the entire country.

If we headed straight east from here and followed the coastal road north, we would reach the Fog Duchy, where vampires ruled openly. It was the land of Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka. Once we entered, the military state would be unable to pursue us.

Naturally, they would think that was our destination.

So we would pretend to leave the Belt for the coastal road, then pretend that we were actually staying on the Belt.

In truth, we would take a shortcut, not even the inner route, overtake them, and head somewhere else.

Of course, the plan required two conditions.

First, the bait had to be tempting enough.

We achieved that by offering up Rallion.

"Goodbye, Rallion. It was a good horse..."

"Hm? Hyu, I appreciate your sympathy for Rallion, but there's no need to worry. Rallion will return."

"What? It'll come back?"

"My other servants are beings whose deaths have been halted. Rallion alone was revived from the grave of my old mule. No, it is a vessel holding my faint memories and recollections... In the end, it is part of me. Even if I leave it far away, it will return someday."

Rallion wasn't that good a horse after all. A sacrifice that could return wasn't a sacrifice. Still, it wasn't widely known, so we decided to make use of it.

Then came the second condition.

We could not reveal our trail.

That was why we had to abandon the container. Even if Tyr wrapped it in darkness, a huge container flying through the air shrouded in darkness would be impossible to miss when surveillance eyes were stretched out in every direction. Failing to notice it would be a problem of intelligence before it was a problem of camouflage. Its very texture would be different.

So we made a tremendous decision.

"Hey! It's cramped! Stop moving!"

"I'm not the one moving."

"...You're not seriously suspecting me after tying me up, are you?"

"Grrr. Stuffy!"

"Meow. I pity those who don't know the comfort of tight spaces, meow."

[...Endure it a little. It was not made to hold five people in the first place, so why complain needlessly?]

Until just before sunrise tonight, we would all hide in Tyr's coffin, which could swim through darkness, and fly at full speed!

We put our belongings into the regressor's pocket, placed Nabi in a box at our feet, and lined up neatly inside the coffin. We were packed together in a row, like bean sprouts crammed into a steamer. It was uncomfortable and suffocating, but there was no helping it.

Tyr's coffin was a treasure that had existed alongside the Progenitor's history, a mystery half transformed into something from another world. It could easily hold five people.

Its size was just right, too. It was smaller than a carriage, small enough to pass through forest paths and between buildings. It could even move in three dimensions in ways a container never could.

As expected, a vehicle didn't need to be large. That was all for show. Efficient compactness was the rational choice for the future!

Being cramped was a problem, but it didn't matter much unless we were a huge family.

Azzy, Ria, Tyr, me, and the regressor lay side by side in that order.

This was entirely Tyr's fault. Even in such a narrow space, she had insisted on separating men and women into sections. Since she needed to lie in the middle to control the coffin, the arrangement had come about naturally.

'Just as planned. I'll be able to stay close to Hyu again after so long.'

There was a little private desire mixed in there, but still.

The space was too narrow for us to lie sideways, so we all lay lengthwise. As a result, Tyr and I faced each other directly.

'It's nice to see him up close after so long, but... of all places, in a coffin. It's embarrassing, as though I've pulled back fabric and shown him the inside.'

Embarrassing? Why? I'd seen inside your skin countless times, and I'd even touched it. The sensation was still vivid in my right hand.

Wasn't being inside a coffin far more normal than Heart Touch? People might enter coffins, but it was rare for them to touch someone else's heart with their fingers!

'Ugh. When I was alone in this coffin, it didn't matter at all... Why am I so conscious of it now?'

Perhaps because she had brought people into a private space, Tyr still felt uneasy. That was why she kept complaining in front of me.

[This incense cedar coffin of mine is a space filled with my authority, a temple meant solely for me. I had never allowed anyone inside throughout my life, so not even my servants, much less my enemies, had seen its interior.]

"There's not much to see, though. What's the big deal about showing us a little coffin?"

[That attitude is the problem. This is a secret sanctuary never revealed to the world. Do not try to pry further, and consider it an honor that you were allowed inside at all.]

Even as she moved the coffin through darkness, she would voice her displeasure every so often. It wasn't that Tyr was petty, exactly. She just disliked having her private space exposed...

...Wait. Now that I thought about it, this was a little irritating.

Why did I have to cater to her over something like this? We could share a coffin! I hadn't wanted to get into one before I died either! It wasn't like I had begged to come in. We needed to do this!

Was it bothering her that much? Then I'd pry into every last corner!

I shifted in the cramped space and lifted a corner of the carpet.

"What's this deep, secret mystery? This red carpet? It doesn't look very special."

[Ah. There...]

"Oh, there's something behind it too. Let's see... Clothes?"

[No! Don't touch that!]

Beyond the carpet was a pile of clothes that looked as though it had been shoved in carelessly. Primitive garments that needed to be folded neatly for storage, rather than placed in packets, were displaying all their flaws before my eyes.

I pointed at the creases and sighed.

"When you're storing laundry outside a packet, you should fold it properly. It's all wrinkled. What is this... Ah."

So that was why she didn't want me looking. I nodded gravely.

"Oh dear. You were embarrassed because you don't clean your room. You spend so much time in this coffin, so you should tidy up once in a while."

[Did I not say that I never intended to let anyone inside in the first place!]

"People who live messily shut away in their rooms always say that. It's my room, and I live alone, so what does it matter if it's a little dirty? They're right."

As I nodded, I suddenly opened my eyes wide and shouted.

"Until someone comes in! That's why I'm saying you should keep it tidy normally! Do you think other people clean and organize because they have nothing better to do? They clean because they don't know when their parents, their lover, or an honored guest might visit! Tyr is paying the price for not tidying up!"

[Urk...!]

When I pressed the wrinkled clothes toward her and questioned her, Tyr had nothing to say. She clenched her teeth and snatched the clothes from my hand. We were practically pressed together anyway, so they were still right in front of my eyes.

Hoo. When else in my life would I get to lecture a twelve-century-old girl? I wouldn't get another chance like this.

A world where the seniority system had been turned on its head. This was fun.

"Cleaning is like life. Even knowing things will become messy again someday, people still keep their surroundings in order. Just as they live fiercely despite knowing they will die someday. So Tyr should..."

[Hm? Do you wish to overcome death? In that case...]

"That's not the same metaphor! It's a one-to-one correspondence! If death is becoming messy, then Tyr should never become messy! But the moment you become messy, it's already over!"

She suddenly swerved the conversation somewhere else! It was so abrupt that I almost accepted it without thinking about the logic!

'Ho. Now that I think about it, that is true. I am not alive, I do not sweat, and I neither eat nor drink anything except blood. Neither my clothes nor the inside of my coffin could ever become dirty. From the beginning, the inside of my coffin was never dirty...!'

Tyr borrowed my logic and smiled triumphantly.

[You are right. Cleaning is something done by those who need it. Yet I am Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka. I require neither water nor food, and I live on blood and darkness. What meaning could cleaning or organizing possibly have for me? It was only disturbed briefly because I had to put your bodies inside.]

"Oh? So that's how you're going to put it?"

Tyr answered shamelessly.

[It is the truth.]

"If that's how you're going to put it..."

Fine. She had learned shamelessness. I'd achieved my purpose. She wouldn't complain about us borrowing her coffin anymore... Huh? Wait a moment.

She didn't organize because nothing got dirty? Then what about her clothes? I tilted my head and asked.

"Then Tyr, do you not do laundry either?"

[Hm?]

"Laundry, laundry. Even revolutionary clothing packets have to be taken out and washed sometimes. But I don't think you've ever washed the clothes you wear every day."

Come to think of it, I had never seen Tyr hand-washing clothes in Tantalus either. I used packets too, so I hadn't given it much thought, but wasn't that strange? Washing clothes was a monster that devoured household labor. Why had I never seen her do it?

There was only one conclusion.

"The reason you wanted to hide the clothes was because you don't even do laundry... Ah-ha."

[That is a false accusation!]

"Then have you done laundry? I've never seen you do it."

It would be funny in its own way to see a Progenitor crouching down to do laundry. There may be higher and lower professions, but there is no such hierarchy among tasks. Someone had to do what needed doing.

Even I had taken on all sorts of chores. Did being a Progenitor make her too good for them? I was a little jealous.

[I, I have said repeatedly. I do not produce anything filthy...]

"Then you won't mind this, will you?"

Hmph. How about this?

I grabbed the hem of Tyr's clothes, brought it to my nose, and pretended to sniff it.

The gears in Tyr's mind creaked. She blinked her red eyes as she watched me, then reacted a beat late as though she had malfunctioned.

[Hyu?!?! What are you doing?]

"Checking the smell. Let's see what clothes that supposedly never get dirty smell like."

Let there be even the slightest odor. I'd use this as an excuse until she couldn't even hold her head up... Huh.

"Oh? There really isn't any smell?"

What was this? She didn't do laundry... Ah.

The Progenitor could control blood and darkness as she pleased. She had enough control to keep a space full of blood from smelling of blood.

When disposing of corpses, she had even crushed them into pulp with blood before swallowing them. Whether it was waste from inside her body or foreign matter outside it, she could dissolve it all and dispose of it separately.

"Wow. I've heard some people visit the Duchy because they want to become vampires. I think I understand why. Besides not dying, it's convenient in all sorts of ways..."

[Le, let go! You insolent brat!]

Her clothes really smelled of nothing but fabric. Even the scent was clean. I'd joked that dying might be easier than living, but I never thought it would be true...

As I lamented life, voices began to overlap from in front of and behind me. The regressor's voice echoed through the coffin wall behind my back.

"Stop squirming! I said it's cramped!"

"How much did I move?"

"You moved a lot! And it wasn't even for a reason! You're doing strange things, that's why!"

"Ah! Ah! Don't poke me! It hurts!"

It hurt when she poked me with her finger! She was absurdly strong, but her fingers were thin, so it hurt even more! Was this the relationship between pressure and area?

Ria's voice reached my ears from the opposite corner of the long, vertical hexagonal coffin.

"...It's good that you two seem close, but could you switch places? It's too cramped over there because you're moving. Um, it's hard to explain, but since the two of us ended up like this..."

"Woof, cramped! Chest, tight! You, too big!"

"Um, roughly for that reason."

What could be happening over there? Curiosity welled up, but it was too cramped for me to even consider looking...

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried