WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 303: Let's Protect Nature

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I wasn't hurt. Rather than stabbing me, the branches wrapped around me in a soft embrace. They were compassionate, yet so resolute that I couldn't even think of resisting.

Leaves rustled. Branches knocked together. A gust of wind flowing through the tree played it like an instrument. The tree's busy yet beautiful, disorderly melody filled my ears.

"Maximilien, this wager is your victory. I believed my lord would not come until all people cried out with one voice, yet you chose the opposite path and found my lord in the end."

Amid it all, I heard wood splitting. When I looked toward the sound, a knot hole I hadn't noticed before was slowly growing larger. A dry voice drifted from deep within the tree's dark hollow.

"Since my lord has personally appeared before us, this humble servant is overcome with emotion and knows not where to place herself."

Then a hand emerged from the knot hole.

A long hand gripped the edges of the hole and pulled them apart. From the hollow, now split wide open like a great gate, a person squeezed out.

They said tree spirits lived inside knot holes. It was probably a folktale born from the simple thought that if there was a hole, something must live in it. Yet that legend stood before me.

If spirits truly existed in this world, they would probably look just like her. She had an androgynous appearance that made even her gender difficult to guess. Her green hair fell all the way to the ground, lush with tiny leaves like vines. Her silk robe was secured with vines, though it still hung loose enough to reveal her arms up to the elbows beneath its sleeves.

She was strange enough already, but her most distinctive feature was the horns hanging from her head. They resembled a deer's antlers, but they weren't animal horns. They were simply tree branches extending from her temples.

I muttered,

"...A druid?"

Druids were few in number, but among them, she was the most famous and powerful. The Watcher of history, who had witnessed all history from ancient times to the present.

Nature's representative. The most beautiful beast.

...And, as I'd just learned, the leader of the Lords of All Creation.

"This humble servant is Nevida. An undying beast greets the King of Humanity."

The primordial druid, Nevida.

After straightening her robes, she knelt before me and bowed her head. Thump. Her forehead struck the ground with a soft sound.

Uh, well.

I was simply bewildered. Anyone would probably feel the same if someone climbed out of a tree and bowed to them.

More importantly, she was a being who had surpassed superhumans, someone with absolute martial strength. As befitted the leader, she could treat someone like Maximilien as insignificant.

This was strange. I knew Maximilien had called for help. But how had she reached here from another country in less than a few hours? What was this? Where was everyone on our side? Why weren't they joining us already?

No, was it better if they didn't?

They would lose even if they joined us.

A chill ran down my spine. Nevida was an irresistible powerhouse, someone who could destroy a country alone through nothing but personal strength. Someone even stronger than Tyr.

The bigger problem was that she clearly had a purpose for me. I hid the skewer behind my back, smiled, and said,

"Uh, nice to meet you. I'm Hughes, the King of Humanity for this generation. Please raise your head first."

At my words, Nevida immediately raised her head. Her oak-colored eyes brimmed with endless emotions directed at me. Admiration, expectation, yearning, and... desire.

If someone had no feelings at all, I could build something new from the ground up. Like I had with Tyr.

But if she had such clear business with the King of Humanity, persuasion was impossible. The moment I looked into her eyes, I knew.

The one saving grace was that this monster belonged to the faction within the Lords of All Creation that worshipped the King of Humanity most fervently. She had just struck her forehead against the ground to greet me, hadn't she? She wouldn't kill or harm me.

Hmm. Should I try testing her?

I gave the order as calmly as I could.

"I have some business with Mr. Maximilien, so could you step aside for a moment?"

Nevida struck her head against the ground again. While I flinched, she kept her face pressed to the floor and spoke in a voice that echoed through the room.

"I beg your forgiveness. This foolish servant lost a wager to him and must pay the price for him. I pray that you will understand."

Was she telling me not to kill him? But I was the King of Humanity. I spoke sternly, hoping my kingly authority would come through.

"No, I really am the King of Humanity. You do believe me, right?"

"My lord is whole. How could this humble servant dare doubt you?"

"The King of Humanity is ordering you. I said step aside."

"I beg your forgiveness."

Nevida only said she was sorry, then struck her head against the ground again. She had no intention of listening to me.

What was this? She called me my lord and King of Humanity, then ignored what I said? If she wasn't going to listen, why was she being polite and treating me like a king?

There was no helping it. While Nevida kept bowing, I secretly gripped the skewer again. Maximilien's Thinking Gear had stopped, and he was dying, but she was a primordial druid skilled in medicine and medicinal arts. If she took him away like this, she might somehow revive him.

One strike. He was already on the verge of death. I only needed to deliver the final blow.

"I'll keep this brief. This is the last time. Move."

"I beg your forgiveness."

I counted silently, then kicked off the ground the instant Nevida struck her head down. Tap, thump. The sounds overlapped as I leaped over her head. I aimed the skewer and rushed toward Maximilien. I reached out for his body, lying there as though dead...

I had jumped, but I wasn't falling.

Branches and vines held me fast. A tree had risen at some point. It was so still that I hadn't noticed it growing until it was already there. By the time I realized, I was dangling in midair like I'd been caught in a spiderweb.

...I'd read the thought, but I couldn't avoid it.

She hadn't controlled the tree. She had protected Maximilien. Yet the tree had obeyed that intention on its own, hanging me up to separate Maximilien and me.

She was completely different from Maximilien. He designed machinery with gears, then controlled each one and made them move. Every action was conscious.

Nevida only had intent. The trees followed her will on their own. So even if I read her thoughts, I didn't know what result they would produce.

The trees acted on their own? What the...!

Then Nevida spoke while still bowing her head.

"If my lord had been whole, even this humble servant's petty rebellion would not have been permitted. But the shackles that wicked woman placed upon you remain firm. It grieves me that the road ahead is still so distant."

Nevida let out a deep sigh. She exhaled for so long that I worried she might die from lack of breath, then slowly rose.

I noticed the place where she had struck her head. Instead of blood, soft green sprouts had grown there in a lush mound like a pillow.

...What a trick. If she was going to do that, why strike her head against the ground at all? Was this some political performance for show?

"This servant did not seek my lord. The King of Humanity must not be sought. Only when the people desire him will he truly come. But Maximilien challenged that. He did it. He achieved it. I honor his will, and so I shall help him."

My body moved along with Nevida. More precisely, the tree suspending me slowly shifted sideways. The tree pulled its vines as it opened its knot hole like it was about to swallow me.

Huh. At this rate, I was going inside that thing. I struggled, but every time I did, my body only sank deeper into the vines.

This was dangerous. Nevida had never intended to take me away. But Maximilien would use me to try all sorts of things, and now Nevida would help him!

I might die before I even become the King of Sin!

"Wait. I won't kill Maximilien, so could you let me go?"

"This servant shall attend you. My lord, this way."

"Listen to me!"

"I beg your forgiveness."

Damn it. What kind of lunatic was this? I shouted desperately.

"Someone save me!"

That was when Nevida spotted something and smiled faintly. A meteor reflected in her eyes. Something fell from far away, wrapped in wind and trailing magical light that had not fully burned away.

One second until impact. Nevida grasped a branch to meet it. A sharp blade aimed at her approached alongside a familiar voice.

"Skywarbleeeeeer!"

The sky split apart.

Clothes fluttered before me, and a welcome figure fell like lightning in front of me. Against the shattered backdrop, severed branches and leaves fell a half beat later. With every branch and vine cut apart, my body was free again.

As I fell, I saw it clearly.

Skywarbler, descending wrapped in wind, clashed with the small branch that rose to meet it.

It was Skywarbler, the sword of the sky. Its blade, forged from compressed space, could split even rock. It should have split through that ordinary branch and the arm holding it. It should have been enough to split Nevida's body like firewood as well.

Yet the branch wasn't cut.

Rather than splitting, new branches and leaves grew from the point where it touched Skywarbler. It looked as though the branch were devouring Skywarbler and growing from the sword.

Even though her strike had come to nothing, the regressor merely snorted.

"Hmph! You blocked that well! Then how about this!"

Her expression was proud. She had absolute faith in her own strength, and power enough to support that faith.

The regressor smiled challengingly and swung Skywarbler. Fast, light sword strikes aimed for Nevida. Yet Nevida didn't even dodge. Twigs and leaves extending from the branch blocked the sword strikes on their own.

"Not bad!"

The regressor shouted confidently as she flipped backward through the air. Nevida took a step back in response and swept the ground with her foot. The leaves covering the floor slowly rose on a whirlwind. They looked as though they were protecting her with some mysterious power.

Nevida spoke.

"...I heard there was a child going around destroying 'roots' with a relic of the Demon God. So you are the one Maximilien spoke of."

"Ha! That's me. So what are you going to do about it?"

Oh, as expected of the regressor. It was impressive how she didn't shrink back even before a primordial druid. Was this the true nature of a regressor who didn't value her own life...?

'Ah, ahhh! This is bad, this is bad! Why, why is she already here? You're not supposed to appear for a long time yet! No. I can't beat her!'

Nope. This was her true nature.

I nodded as I read her thoughts.

Footnotes:

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