WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 321

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I Can Beat Them, Just Not Kill Them

I looked away from the regressor and focused.

Geon, Gon, Kan, Ri. The four directions in which a human could extend their energy.

Geon was the sky. In other words, all things. I set myself at the center and affected everything around me. I pushed out Geon energy and grabbed the handle. My hand and the handle connected as if they were one.

Gon was the earth. I set the world at the center and straightened myself upon it. The essence of Gon energy was truly realizing how small I was before that vast world, then planting my feet firmly on the ground. With my energy sense, I felt the flow beneath my feet.

Kan was the body. From here on, the world did not matter. The body was a small universe isolated by a single thin layer of skin. I poured energy into muscle, bone, and flesh to transcend the human body...

"Urgh. I'm already running out of energy."

...But this was where I was weak. Kan energy affected the entire body, so the amount of energy it consumed multiplied severalfold. A weapon could break and be replaced. My body could not.

I locked my posture as much as I could, gathered the bare minimum of energy at the point linking my waist and arm, and held on. Even that tiny scrap helped. If I could just keep this up.

"Woof! Woong! Woof!"

Maybe she sensed I was in danger. Azzy stuck her face toward me and barked wildly. She kept twitching like she might bolt out at any second.

Yeah, humanity's best friend. Thanks. All you did was bark, but still, thanks. Dogs really were comforting.

"Azzy. You're all I've got. But don't worry, I definitely..."

"Muuuuung! I can't hold it!"

With that shout, Azzy jumped down full speed.

Her body swept past behind me. She jumped over me, landed far ahead, then came charging back toward me with frantic footsteps.

Wait, no way. That pounding I felt from her... was that excitement?

"Woof woof! Chase tail!"

"So it was your hunting instinct, aaaaah!"

"Nom! Woof, got it! I'll let go!"

"If you're going to let go, don't grab it in the first place! You're shaking it!"

Every time Azzy popped into the edge of my vision, the sled rocked like crazy. Thankfully, she did not seem intent on pouncing and flipping it outright, but she kept nudging it, and my balance kept breaking.

This was bad. If a person touched the sled, I could read them first and prepare, but this was Azzy, so I had to rely on pure skill. I had zero confidence in that.

"This is really dangerous! Hilde! Emergency! Emergeeency! Help me!"

When I screamed for help, Hilde smiled airily and asked back,

"Would you like some help?"

"Yes! Hurry!"

Hilde sprang to her feet. With a serious face, she put both hands on her hips, stretched her arms and legs one after another, and shouted,

"Fighting, fighting! Father, you can do it! You have 'me'!"

"Don't just cheer me on! Give me practical help!"

"If I may coach you a little, bend your knees more! For some reason, your lower body looks weak, Father!"

"How is coaching practical help?!"

And the weak lower body thing could not be helped! The Human King was not exactly known for leg strength!

Damn it. She was enjoying watching me suffer over there. I had gone through plenty of indignities, sure, but I was still, at least in name, the Human King.

I shouted with pure malice.

"Just wait! Once I get stronger, I'll smack every one of you over there at least once!"

"Yeah, please do."

Especially you. Regressor, you'd better be ready.

***

"Woof. I used it all."

Azzy saved me when I was about to collapse from exhaustion.

Well, could I call it saving? She just bit the back of my neck and leaped up in one bound because I looked like I could not hold on any longer.

My arms throbbed. My back ached. My grip shook. My calves were swollen stiff. I had no strength left, and my energy would not move the way I wanted.

"That was fun! Woof! Let's play again later!"

"Figures. Every time a dog opens its mouth..."

We're both kings of beasts, but one of us burned energy just to stay on the sled while the other ran at the same speed and still had plenty left. Definitely unfair.

I lay facedown on the floor of the Cataphract, running on pure spite, when the regressor spoke.

"You're already out of energy? I can't believe it! For someone who even learned Gon energy, that's just pathetic!"

"...You think I wanted to be born this way? If I could've chosen my body before birth, I'd have chosen yours, Mr. Shei."

"You think I got this strength for free?"

Maybe not the strength, but regression was absolutely free. If regression got her energy arts, magic power, and relics, then that was free enough.

The regressor scratched her chin and looked down at me.

"Anyway, your balance looks better than expected. There is no problem with your energy output or control. It's just..."

"Just what?"

"...You are disastrously short on energy. You only have a little more than a completely untrained person."

Thanks. Nice to have an official stamp on what I already knew.

"But it's fine! This actually makes things simpler. If your energy is low, then just increase it!"

"Easy to say. How?"

"There's a simple way. Expensive, though."

The regressor traced a circle in the air with her finger. Following the trail of her fingertip, a round hole opened in empty space. She reached in and rummaged around.

Hilde saw that and covered her mouth.

"Waa. Shei. No way, is that...?"

"My pocket."

"That's Rene's Pocket, isn't it? You had one too?"

"One."

"There are only four in the whole world! And you're saying 'one'? What are you, a king's son or something?"

"I wish."

'This... hmm, alchemical coin. This one is for emergencies. Not this either. Ah. Found it.'

Brushing off the awkward question, the regressor flicked her hand around a few times and pulled something out. It was a small wooden box locked with a black clasp. She opened it lightly and held it out to me.

"Here. This. It's an elixir."

A white pill wrapped in medicinal paper appeared. A faintly fishy yet fresh scent spread through the air. I raised my head just a little and looked at it.

"An elixir?"

"Yeah. How much you absorb depends on your skill, though."

An elixir. Hmm.

Still, no reason to refuse what she offered. This was my first time taking a real elixir. Who knew, maybe this would restore my strength.

And this elixir was even...

"Wow, Ivory Pill! That's the rare elixir you can only make from an elephant's essence!"

Hilde, who had been sniffing at it, recognized what it was and exclaimed. She was genuinely impressed, but she was also trying to keep the conversation going by giving the reaction the other party wanted.

A normal social move, but the person she was talking to was as far from normal as possible. The regressor answered flatly.

"Right."

"How did you get it? I heard elephants treat even their own dead with great care, so it's hard to get even from one that just died!"

"Picked it up somewhere."

"Waa. That's a truly lazy answer that screams, 'I don't want to tell you.' You picked up a Demon God, and you picked up an elixir too. What exactly do you all trust in this kind of person to keep following her?"

Tyr answered Hilde's grumbling.

"I shall answer: affection. And if affection is not enough, then spiteful affection. We have not been together long, but it has been memorable."

'H-hateful affection...?'

You're shocked at the weirdest part. Of course it was hateful affection. Did you think it was tender affection?

"By the way, Mr. Shei. I heard an elixir should be taken in the most comfortable and stable condition possible."

"That's right."

"But no matter how I think about it, this violently shaking carriage cannot be called 'stable.' Should we not move Hyu somewhere that does not shake before he takes it?"

"We should."

"For example, a place as calm and comfortable as my coffin would be more than enough..."

'My coffin is practically my own body. I can remove even the tiniest vibration. Heh, I had wanted to place Hyu alone inside it at least once. A good chance has come.'

"Ah, no, that won't do. To digest energy, it's better to do it on bare ground."

"...Why?"

"When you're moving, the energy doesn't settle well. Especially if he'll use that energy for Gon energy, it causes some problems. Better to stop first and absorb it slowly."

"Even if it's my coffin?"

"A coffin still moves, doesn't it?"

Slightly disappointed, Tyr answered bluntly.

"Then since we do not stop, Hyu will have no chance to take the elixir."

"No. It's getting late anyway. We're in the Lesser States' sphere now, so let's rest briefly and then move. The golem has reached its communication limit too."

The golem only held the controls without answering. There wasn't even static, which meant the limit had probably been reached a while ago.

"Were you not saying we were busy? Why rest?"

"Mmm. In the Lesser States, it's usually better to travel during the day. You'll understand as soon as you see it..."

That was true.

The Lesser States were a land where everything changed. Even the terrain was no exception. A today that looked no different from yesterday promised nothing about tomorrow. Everything changed, so nothing could be trusted. This was a land of distrust.

"Over there. Looks like someone set up camp. Let's stop by."

The regressor muttered while looking at the distant flicker of a campfire and the faint silhouettes around it.

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