WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 305

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Growth, Life, and Friends

"Did she leave? Is she gone? She’s really gone, right? Let’s see, Green Eye!"

The regressor scanned the area with Green Eye, the piercing green eye among the Seven-Colored Eyes. She checked everything from the ground to the sky, clearly shaken.

After checking again and again, she let out a relieved breath.

"Huaa... At least that’s a relief...!"

Then it happened.

Boom, an explosion rang out. Not as sharp as gunpowder, but far too violent to be plant-made.

Calling this a relief is strange just from the sound, regressor.

"How is this a relief? Everything’s gone insane!"

"Ah, it’s fine. Those are bean pod bombs. They’re annoying, but if Nebida herself isn’t here, we can clean this up quickly. As long as the Root Tree doesn’t bear a Root Beast."

"Root Beast?"

"A beast made of wood. Sometimes beasts are born from the fruit of the Tree of Blasphemy too. But this time, I guess it didn’t get that far. Thankfully..."

She was muttering when it happened.

[Kyaaaaaaak!]

In the distance, a giant snake with a tree trunk for a body twisted violently.

Explosions kept going off. Bean kernels shot up with sparks, painting the brightening sky. One chimera bean flew in a parabola and slammed down right beside me.

For a moment, the regressor and I were both speechless. Then screams started tearing through the silence from every direction.

"A... wooden snake?"

"What are you standing around for? Attack!"

"Rations! The military rations are exploding all at once!"

"Quartermaster, if we get hurt by beans, does that count as a duty injury?"

"Cut the crap and kill that snake first!"

Gunshots rang out, and officers and generals of the military state rushed in with weapons, hacking at the tree snake. Even so, the wooden serpent, with a body as thick as a giant tree, kept thrashing violently whether cut or sliced, and the damage kept piling up.

The Demon God’s power reshaped the environment itself. Even without intent to attack, when mountains and forests moved, the tiny bugs living inside them took lethal blows. The regressor clicked her tongue as the screams echoed.

"Tch. They want me to clean this up? The military state isn’t even on my side anyway!"

"No. From now on, they can be on Mr. Shei’s side."

"What?"

"Go take care of this. I’ll look after Ria and get Azzy out."

Only then did the regressor remember everyone else and whip her head around.

"Ah, right. What about the others?"

"They’re fine."

"Got it!"

She grabbed Skywarbler and Jizan and took off running. Wrapped in wind, she leaped into the air, held Jizan at a slant, and swept down quickly with Skywarbler.

"Heaven-and-Earth Sword-Cudgel, Flintground!"

Friction set the air ablaze. Skywarbler swallowed flame and glowed red-hot. With that burning blade, she split the tree snake clean in two. The burning serpent twisted its massive body in pain. Charred branches fell all over headquarters, and ordinary soldiers screamed.

"Platoon leader! What do we do about that?"

"...Headquarters ordered us... not to attack...! Burn the trees first!"

The spreading fire only added to the chaos, but the regressor didn’t care.

"Fire’s better than exploding pods and tree snakes. At least it makes you lot feel some urgency! I’ll set them on fire, you put them out!"

For a short while, she and the military state fought together. The tree snake still writhed in severed lengths, but it looked like it would be cleaned up soon.

"The scale is huge, but the effect is weak. Why did Nebida use the Root Tree if she wasn’t even going to fight? It’s like she just wanted to show off the Demon God."

Exactly, regressor. Nebida used it to show off the Demon God.

To me.

I turned my head. The chimera bean that had landed beside me had already put down roots and started sprouting again. A large sprout reached my feet.

Compared to the fruit it would bear, the stem looked too fragile. It crept along the ground as it grew. I walked slowly with the ever-lengthening chimera vine.

This stem came from a chimera bean. By nature, it should bear chimera beans.

But a Demon God’s nature is a little different.

Kidney beans, peas, chickpeas, red beans. Crops with even one foot in the bean family grew one after another. It looked like someone cheerful had hung every kind of bean on one tree.

But once you looked at what lay beneath it, it wasn’t funny anymore.

A rising kudzu vine wrapped around concrete. Clover stretched its tiny leaves straight up. It bore no beans, but still claimed a place on that stem with pride. I walked past it.

If I kept walking with this... what would come out?

This was the essence of the Root Tree. This was why Nebida despised the Sanctum that gave names to all things in the world.

Of course, it had nothing to do with me.

"Hm. Can’t use this."

This type of Demon God was especially hard for me to use. Nebida was a druid, so she could use it hundreds of times better. If I tried, at best I could probably grow peanuts.

Still, maybe that was enough.

I pulled out the Spade deck. After sorting through a few cards, I took out the 9 and rolled it between my fingers.

Spades were special. Diamonds consumed alchemic coins, clovers needed mana infused into them, and hearts required matching drugs stored in them, but spades needed none of that. If they needed anything at all, maybe only my faith.

Because spades were idols honoring the Demon God.

Without Maximilien, I couldn’t move the gears. I had no choice but to grab the side of the Steel Beetle and climb up with effort. It was only about four meters, but I was already out of breath. Guess I was tired too. Damn, I wanted mana herb.

When I finally got up, Historia was sitting weakly with her back against a gear. Her hollow eyes turned toward me. I smiled and said,

"Ria. Want a peanut?"

"Where would you even get a..."

I snapped my fingers. A peanut formed at the tip of the bean vine that had climbed up with me. It must have run out of strength following me up, because it produced only one.

Still, crack one peanut and you get two kernels. I snapped it in half and handed one to Historia as she let out a hollow laugh.

"I’m giving you one specially, since we’re close enough to split even half a bean."

"Hmph."

Historia popped it into her mouth and chewed lightly. Crunch, crunch. I shelled mine too and sat beside her.

As expected, peanuts were great. They made their presence known in any dish, but they were excellent on their own too.

After that brief taste, Historia muttered,

"Hui... are you the Human King?"

"Yeah."

"I see."

Then silence. I asked again.

"Is that all you wanted to ask?"

She clearly had more. When I pressed, she opened and closed her mouth, then said,

"...Got any mana herb?"

"I gave you all of it."

"The one you stashed."

"Tch. How’d you know?"

Clicking my tongue, I pulled out the mana herb tucked into my biometric terminal. Keeping it there had been nice. Even without smoking it, you could still feel some of the effect.

"That’s exactly like you."

She smirked and held out her hand like it was already hers. But mana herb was precious, so instead of giving it all to her, I pulled out a card to cut it.

Historia frowned.

"You’re stingy over one stick."

"Shut it. It’s not just one stick. This one stick is my whole stock, so of course it’s precious."

Historia lifted her eyes slightly.

"...Can’t you give me all of it?"

"I’m giving you half."

Ah, it wasn’t cutting well. Maybe I was too drained.

While I only managed to scratch a line into the mana herb, Historia looked at me like I was pathetic, then raised the edge of her hand.

Whoosh. Her hand brushed past it. Before the cut ends even separated, she grabbed the larger piece for herself. She quickly put it in her mouth so I couldn’t snatch it back, then without a word held the tip out toward me.

"Fire."

At least say it out loud. I raised a finger and brought it near her lips. The shortened mana herb touched it.

"Set, Ri. Fahrenheit."

Historia inhaled, and the mana herb drank in the flame. Before it went out, I lit mine too.

The words I couldn’t bring myself to say turned to smoke and scattered into the air. The short mana herb burned out as quickly as its length. After pulling out mine, now down to almost a single drag, I looked up at the sky and muttered,

"Ria. They say I’ll die in the near future."

"...Yeah?"

"And they say the Human King will be born again. That’ll be the King of Sin."

"Who? How?"

"I don’t know who’ll do it. I don’t really know how either. But I sort of know why. Maybe... they want to defeat sin."

Maybe that shocked her. Historia drew in a sharp breath and burned through her mana herb in one go.

"Can... sin be defeated?"

"I don’t know. But maybe that’s what they want to believe. Just like how you gritted your teeth and became a general because you wanted another Hameln to never happen."

Historia closed her mouth. She forgot the mana herb was already burned out and tried to bring it to her lips with a trembling hand.

I couldn’t let her eat ash, so I grabbed her hand and pulled it down. My eyes met her black pupils.

"Hui, could you... have stopped what happened in Hameln?"

"Probably."

"Why didn’t you stop it?"

"Because it hadn’t happened yet."

"You can’t stop it after it happens."

"So I couldn’t stop it."

Maybe it was because I answered too lightly. Historia dropped my hand. Pressing her forehead, she spoke as if pleading.

"I... don’t understand. Why do you have to do that? Hui. Can’t you be a little more normal? Even if you’re not the Human King... you don’t have to go anywhere."

Normal, huh.

I was already normal. Because I was the Human King. I could do most human skills well enough, and I was kind enough to blend in and live among them.

That was all.

But what Historia and... "she" wanted as normal wasn’t that. They wanted something very different from humans as they were now. Something much gentler, much kinder.

Humans weren’t like that, so I couldn’t be like that either.

"Ria. Thank you. For helping me without asking why or what for."

"Liar."

"Even I can feel gratitude. Humans aren’t such shameless creatures."

"...With just words?"

"What do you want?"

In that instant, something flashed through Historia’s mind. A simple, instinctive desire. Normally she never would have said it, but maybe the drug’s effect lingered, and the words were about to spill out, when,

"Nya. Stupid mutt. Can’t even undo this, nya?"

At some point, Nabi had climbed onto the Steel Beetle. Historia came back to her senses and swallowed her words. She probably could have said them anyway, but even the cat’s eyes seemed to make her self-conscious.

Nabi glanced around, then raised her claws. She jammed them into the gap between misaligned gears, yanked one out like she was fishing it up, and flung it aside. The huge gear flew off and dropped below. Nabi crouched there, waiting for something.

"Woof! Me, free!"

Azzy jumped up through the gap where the gear had been removed. After uselessly biting gears inside the Steel Beetle all this time, she regained her freedom and shook herself hard.

"Us, hate! Binding, hate! Woof woof! Dark and lonely!"

Nabi was better with front paws than Azzy. And beasts that used front paws were relatively familiar with tools. That was probably why Nabi looked smarter.

Nabi looked down at Azzy and sneered.

"Nya. Stupid mutt, nya. Dumb ones start with their teeth while other dumb ones are fighting."

"Woof! Me got bitten! Had to help! Also that thing had bad smell! Smelled like metal!"

"That’s what makes you dumb, nya. Like it or not, no reason to jump in when other beasts are squabbling. Best way is watch quietly, then steal food."

Nabi raised a paw slightly. A mana herb was stuck in her claw. That cat had really enjoyed herself while we were gone.

Azzy shook her head hard and pointed at me.

"Me, won’t! Keep promise! Then human keep promise too!"

"Nya-nya. Stupid mutt. Old promise, long forgotten, nya."

Nabi sneered, flicking the claw with the mana herb in it. Azzy shook her head fiercely.

"Woof! No! Me remember!"

"Nya-nyang. Doesn’t matter, nya. Promises are only kept when they benefit nya. No king left to keep promises, humans forgot all promises already, nya."

"No! No! Human remember! Look!"

Azzy barked loudly to deny Nabi’s words. Nabi snorted, but Azzy wagged her tail and came toward me.

Azzy, the King of Dogs, had followed me all this time without a shred of doubt. That kind, friendly beast looked at me with absolute certainty that I would remember the promise. With a bright smile across her face, she brought up the promise from long ago.

"I’ll protect you. You protect me too. I’ll trust you, you help me too."

She wagged her tail at any human without exception, and whether that human was evil or good, she would never attack or kill them. You could call that a flaw, but the advantage was much greater. Someone you could trust unconditionally was far too useful.

Azzy was surely the dumbest and strongest sucker in the world. No matter how often she was deceived, she would never abandon her faith in humans, including me.

"I’ll love you. You love me too."

Compared to that, I was the Human King, but now that I had lost most of my power, I had no obligation to answer her. Life always came before promises.

Still, faced with that pure and yet artificial trust, I couldn’t just laugh.

Maybe.

"-Then the bad wolf won’t be able to hurt you."

Because Azzy might be what I become in the future.

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