WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 281

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The Blessed Nation, the Cursed Human - 4

The blessed nation ruled by House Grandiomor: the kingdom, a land of kings and knights.

In that nation, overflowing with a thousand years of glory, there was a man called the People's Hero.

He was like hope itself to the common people. Though born a commoner, he earned great military merit and was appointed a Free Knight. He was handsome and personable, became close friends with the biggest names around him, beat back twenty rival suitors, and married a beautiful young lady.

All anyone could say of his rise was that a dragon had risen from a stream, and the people cheered for him as if it were their own story.

Towering honor. Lavish balls. Wealth and power. Everything commoners could never dream of was his. The thirsty masses watched him and felt a vicarious satisfaction that soothed their craving. Twisted as that feeling was, they loved him.

Then the People's Hero turned away from all that glory and chose to work for lowly soldiers, and he became everyone's idol. The commoners felt as if they had become one with him...

Exactly as the royal house planned.

The People's Hero was a figurehead meant to soothe public discontent. As resentment grew by the day, the royal house decided to create a representative who could draw the people's attention.

For that miserable yet glorious role, they selected the People's Hero, a man with real strength and striking looks.

In exchange for obeying the royal house and the knight-nobles, he was given everything. Soaring fame, the woman he loved, even a comfortable mansion.

But everything he was given weighed on him. He felt like he was wearing clothes that did not fit. No matter how often he washed, changed clothes, or waved at cheering citizens, he could not shake the suffocating feeling.

Because the one watching him was his former self from those poor, desperate days. He could not feel at ease anywhere.

Tormented by guilt, he decided that at the very least, he would be faithful to the duty he had taken on.

On a stage where knights were the stars of the battlefield, soldiers were less than handymen.

They were porters, carpenters, laborers. They were bait, or a few lines in an epic that decorated someone else's glory.

If a bored knight went out hunting, soldiers carried pots and blankets and drove beasts toward him. Even when cornered beasts tore their bodies apart, they were not allowed to strike back. The glory of driving a spear into a beast's neck belonged only to knights.

And once a knight skewered a beast with his spear, the dead soldiers appeared only in songs praising knightly feats.

The People's Hero pitied those soldiers and did everything he could. He secured food for starving soldiers, abolished bad practices, reorganized units, and supplied materials.

Instead of trailing behind knights, he repaired bases, paved roads, and dug waterways. He also kept up civil support operations. It was to gain public support.

He trained soldiers too, so their very existence would not become meaningless in name only. If they had even minimal force, they would not be consumed so easily.

The knight-nobles complained that the people had stolen their all-purpose unpaid servants who could work all day, but the People's Hero barely smoothed things over by mobilizing all his connections. Above all, his close friend Patraxion, the Peerless Spear, helped greatly. The People's Hero was outstanding in combat, but not the strongest, so without the Peerless Spear, he would have been challenged to duels.

In any case, he stayed true to those who trusted him. To the royal house, and to the soldiers. He was simply diligent.

Unlike later evaluations, he had no blind hatred toward the royal house. He had only a sense of responsibility.

Then one day.

He was so faithful to the soldiers who followed him that he could not refuse their rebellion plot.

In the end, the People's Hero brought down the royal house.

Everyone cheered in the royal castle reduced to ash. Fallen knights who had been wounded and abandoned, knights who followed Patraxion, oppressed crowds and soldiers. They rejoiced as they painted a hopeful future.

Listening to their cheers, the People's Hero sank into dark thoughts.

He had carried out the deed in a rush, but he did not have the ability to lead a nation.

In truth, no one in this world has the ability to lead a nation. What made the People's Hero a little better than a king was that he realized that fact himself.

He quickly grasped his limits and reached a conclusion. If he could not lead a nation, he would borrow that ability for a while.

Fortunately, there were beings in this world who reigned without much interest in worldly power. If he asked them for help, there would be a way.

After settling the worst of the chaos, the People's Hero assigned duties to his subordinates and departed.

To the place that reigned but did not rule, that led all in the name of faith.

To the Sanctum.

"...He is coming."

And the Farseeing Saintess Yuel watched all of it.

In the deepest part of the Sanctum. A secret, holy space only saintesses were allowed to enter. Light seeped through gaps in gray bricks, and statues honoring the first Holy Maiden blessed all beneath them.

The Farseeing Saintess withdrew her gaze from him.

After the true prophet, the first Holy Maiden, lost her life on the cross, saintesses appeared in the faith of the Celestial God. Their origins, ages, looks, and abilities all differed, but they shared exactly two things.

One, they were women.

The other, their powers were tied to foresight.

"Judging by the letter he is sending to the Sanctum now, it seems he wants help and is reaching out to us."

Among them, Farseeing Saintess Yuel possessed a simple yet powerful ability.

Clairvoyance.

The power to see everything in the world from where she sat. Eyes that saw a future that had not yet arrived.

A divine authority that could shake nations and overturn heaven and earth, if revealed to the world, dwelled in that small body. She was still a child, but still.

Yuel waited for an answer, but silence continued. Puzzled, she turned her gaze here. Instead of a place a thousand li away, she saw a beautiful garden.

Water flowing from holy statues moistened the earth with grace, while wildflowers and vines swayed in beauty. A sacred landscape, holy and reverent.

And there, a girl with ebony hair sat in a rocking chair, nodding off.

No painter in the world could capture this scenery. Any painting he made would miss that holiness, something human language itself struggled to explain.

It truly looked like proof of a god in itself. Even someone who did not believe in the Celestial God would feel compelled to kneel. A reverence beyond beauty, a mysterious aura, an old and graceful bearing.

A scene where faith itself manifested. Yuel stared, briefly entranced, then came to her senses and called out.

"Sky Saintess-nim?"

When she asked again, the girl with closed eyes slowly opened her mouth.

"I rejected him, Yuel."

Sky Saintess, Mayel.

The one who had become so.

The sleeping prophet.

She stood highest in the Sanctum, and she answered in a gentle, affectionate voice.

"Did I make you watch rough things for too long, Yuel? Sorry for troubling you. It was a historically important moment, so I borrowed your power. The matter is over now, so take your interest away from him. It's the season when the aurora will be beautiful, so go rest while gazing at the icy sea of the North Sea...."

Yuel could not follow and asked back.

"Huh? Th-the North Sea? Rest?"

"Ah, was 'now' not the season for auroras yet?"

Her tone was detached from reality, like she was dreaming. If someone with ordinary common sense heard it, they would smile and think she was still half asleep.

But if the other person was the Sky Saintess, an existence beyond common sense, the standard of judgment changed. You doubted your own common sense and believed her blindly.

Because what she saw was not dream scenery, but a future ordinary humans still did not know.

"It's fine, Yuel. A few months have passed, so you've gotten used to how I speak. So used that you even scold me. So for now, just let it pass."

"Y-yes...."

Yuel was still young, and even while confused by Mayel's words, she answered.

"Then, what about him...?"

Yuel asked timidly about the People's Hero, and Mayel smiled softly. Her voice was calm and tender, as if she were comforting Yuel.

"I took care of him myself. There is nothing to worry about. Everything is flowing exactly as the first Holy Maiden ordained."

She was not stating her own will, she was relaying what she had seen in the future as it was. So speaking in the past tense was no problem at all. From Mayel's perspective, it was already the past.

In other words, the People's Hero's request had already been rejected. He would arrive in one week, but the Sanctum's answer was already fixed.

"Understood, Yuel? Now purify your body and mind by watching beautiful scenes whenever possible. I did it because it was needed, but I regret it a lot. I mixed up your age and made you watch the kingdom's destruction and the king's death. That might have been too intense for someone your age."

"Uh, Sky Saintess-nim...."

"One week? It takes so damn long to come here from there. Making me spend a whole week of my precious lifespan. What a waste. So you go sleep too, Yuel. Thanks for waking me.... Ah, that was me greeting you in advance!"

Mayel showed a kind smile, then started nodding off again. A soft and friendly order to leave. Yuel bowed and withdrew, because one must not disturb the Sky Saintess's sleep.

Yuel crossed the garden and returned to her room. Her cozy, warm, abundant room.

It had three sections. The largest one was full of all kinds of odds and ends whose uses were hard to guess. Toys that normally no one would even imagine existed, and things Yuel had found through Clairvoyance. Curious by nature, Yuel had begged people to bring her those objects, and the Sanctum faithfully answered the saintess's requests.

The second room was a sitting room with a desk and chair. Of course, that place too was full of old vases, bizarre-looking plants, and precious books from all over the world. Even then, she had chosen those carefully because the room was too small, and the rest were safely stored in the Rakion Grand Library.

The third room was where Yuel spent the most time. Her bedroom. A cozy room with a bed so huge it filled the space. As always, Yuel lay down on that bed.

To Yuel, that bed was a small world. Yuel, who had Clairvoyance, lay in bed and contemplated all things under heaven. With that authority, she turned her gaze elsewhere.

Yuel did not look at the North Sea.

What appeared in her eyes were the people singing of hope in the fallen kingdom, and the People's Hero racing toward this place. Without realizing it, Yuel smiled.

'I rejected him.'

Then all at once, the words the Sky Saintess had spoken rose in her mind, and the smile on Yuel's lips faded.

"Sir?"

A ripple spread. Captain AB's voice. I came to my senses with a feeling similar to waking from sleep.

"No matter how many times I called, there was no response. Are you all right?"

"Ah, yeah. I guess I dozed off for a second. Did we arrive?"

"Affirmative. However, you still did not respond even after landing, so I was worried. Was the impact from landing severe?"

"Looks like it was."

"Was it enough to make you lose consciousness? Perhaps because this officer is heavy...?"

"Yes. So make sure you exercise regularly. You hole up in your room and just spy on people, of course you gain weight."

I gave Captain AB stern health advice that would surely do her good. Leaving the discouraged Captain AB behind, I looked around.

I could not see a thing. I needed light.

"Set, Ri. Lux."

A faint glow came from my fingertip and lit the corridor. At the end of the dark, narrow passage, I saw a stone door.

"That place, right?"

"...Affirmative. This scene, this officer found it in Communications Officer Yuel's memories. This is definitely the right place."

"Hmm. Doesn't look trapped."

Then again, if someone could storm Headquarters and search all the way down here, half-baked traps would be pointless. And if there were traps this deep underground, they could be more dangerous for their own side anyway.

Either way, checkmate. This far down, there was nowhere left to run. For me, or for the military state.

I tapped the stone door and spoke.

"All right. I came here knowing what's inside, so open up."

But there was no response. I could read their mind with mind reading, but that person's will was not here. They were focused on controlling the angel.

To use mind reading properly, I had to turn the target's attention toward me. If I left it alone, Historia could be in danger, so for now I had to break in and at least slap them awake.

"I'm using force. Captain AB, step back for a moment."

Underground, with a stone door. Perfect conditions for earth arts. I spread both hands and placed them near the corners, then used earth arts. If it belonged to earth, this technique could sink it or raise it. My power was too weak and too slow to use well in battle, but for moving heavy objects, nothing beat this.

Rrrrrumble. A heavy vibration ran through the ground, and the stone door slowly opened.

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