WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 324: The Land Where the Lord of Gold Roams

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Surprisingly, nothing happened during the night. The jackals had considered robbing our Cataphract, but they never put the idea into action. It was fortunate for them. The bloodthirsty member of the Six Generals had been keeping watch with wide-open eyes.

Hilde grumbled in disappointment.

"What a shame. If they'd tried to steal from us in the middle of the night, I could've killed them in self-defense~."

"You came here to negotiate a truce, so what are you talking about? Don't do anything that gives them an excuse."

The regressor dismissed it as a bad joke, but I could read that Hilde meant every word and shuddered. Hilde was a little strange too.

We decided to leave before Hilde could act on that murderous intent. Once we had finished preparing and climbed into the Cataphract, we called the driver.

"DG. Are you awake?"

The golem responded after a long delay.

"[...State comm... ...officer.... Limit... ...]"

Its crackling voice rang out weakly. The golem tried to grasp the steering wheel with its creaking arms, then drooped its head as though its strength had given out.

Hilde poked the golem a few times and muttered.

"Tch. Looks like it's reached the limit of its communication range~. What a shame."

"It's a miracle the signal reached this far after we left military state territory. DG, your mission is over. You don't need to transport this vehicle anymore. Shut down if you understand."

A faint response came from the golem, then it completely ran out of arcane power and stopped.

That was the end of our communications officer's support. From here on, we had to find our way entirely on our own. Hilde roughly folded up the golem, tossed it into the back seat, and took the driver's seat.

"Sigh. Can't be helped. From here on, 'I'll' be driving. If I get bored, it'll be a disaster, so Father, please put snacks in 'my' mouth from the seat beside me!"

"What snacks are there in the military state? All our supplies are canned food."

"Tch! Damned country!"

With Hilde clicking her tongue, the Cataphract set off into the distant wilderness.

Shortly before sunrise, while the dawn sky gradually brightened, the Cataphract rattled across the wasteland. We had blown off its roof to reduce its weight, so despite its remarkable performance, it looked little different from a cargo wagon.

Wind, light, and dust struck me unfiltered through the exposed roof. The broad wheels became a music box for the uneven ground, delivering the earth's song exactly as it was. Sky and land alike had mastered the art of making people miserable.

Still, little discomforts might be proof that one was truly alive. You felt inconvenience because you were alive and trying to keep living. With the cool wind brushing past me, we kept moving forward...

One person who was half-dead, though, had a major complaint about the sunlight. As the sun appeared beyond the horizon, Tyr groaned in displeasure and tilted her parasol.

"I have never in my life traveled a road this bright. There isn't a speck of shade in sight."

"Just a moment. I'll put up a tent."

"Forget it. Flapping cloth is worse than nothing."

"I'm not putting it up just for you, Tyr. We need one in case it rains too."

This was what they called putting on a show. Even knowing it would not help much, I set up the tent and made some temporary shade to soothe Tyr's foul mood.

'Hmm. Since you put effort into it, I shall accept your goodwill.'

For someone who had said she did not need it, Tyr obediently went beneath the tent and sat down. She still had her parasol slung over one shoulder, but her expression had softened considerably as she grumbled.

"Did you not say this journey was long and urgent? Then why do you not travel at night? You waste nearly half the day. You do not look like people pressed for time at all."

"Why are you in such a rush? When you're in a coffin, you can't even tell a day from a month. Yet you're making a fuss over one night."

"That is when I remain in darkness. If the sun shows its shameless face, I know a day has passed whether I wish to or not."

"Sometimes I wish the sun wouldn't rise either, when I don't want to get up. But we don't have a choice here. We need to see what's ahead before we move."

Tyr snorted.

"Whatever appears, it will be no more than rocks or fences. I need only see it, break it, or avoid it."

It was strange that breaking it came before avoiding it. There were obstacles in this world that could not be overcome with strength alone.

"That won't work."

Tyr was slightly offended and answered with a deliberately angry expression.

"You underestimate me. Night is my time, and darkness shines upon me. Even without a speck of light, I can respond well enough."

"I'm not saying you lack strength..."

That was when Hilde spotted something, sharply turned the wheel, and shouted.

"Watch out!"

Bang.

The Cataphract shook violently. It seemed the front wheel had struck something hard and lifted off the ground. The luggage flew up for an instant, and Azzy gave a startled yelp.

Fortunately, the Cataphract was a masterpiece of the military state, designed to break through any terrain. It would not be damaged by something like that.

I was the one who took the impact.

Hilde sharply turned the wheel to avoid the obstacle that had suddenly appeared. I had to grip the railing and hold on as my body was thrown around.

In the middle of it all, Tyr asked,

"...Were we not traveling across a wilderness just moments ago?"

"That's right."

"And now... It is as though..."

Tyr slowly looked around.

A low hill dotted with sparse trees. Small house foundations lay scattered across it like pebbles. Only traces remained, as though the settlement had vanished long ago, like ruins from a long-fallen village.

Tyr asked,

"...This looks like ruins. What village is this?"

Ah, the most meaningless question one could ask in the Lesser States. While I considered how to explain it, the regressor answered.

"I don't know. No one knows whether this used to be a village of the old Golden Kingdom, whether the Lesser States built it and destroyed it, or whether it appeared looking exactly like this the day before yesterday. Because this is the Lesser States."

"You do not know?"

"It isn't only this. Sometimes a beach stretches on, then suddenly you find a pile of rocks. Sometimes a cliff suddenly appears in the middle of a village. Nothing is strange here, no matter what appears. There is no reason for it to be made."

The regressor trailed off and looked ahead.

The Cataphract barely reached the hilltop after weaving through the house foundations, then raced down the slope again. The sight hidden beyond the hill was revealed before us.

The regressor stared at the enormous structure at the foot of the slope and muttered.

"...That must be the same too."

A massive wall looked even grander from afar. Like an ornament stretching along the horizon, a huge fortress blocked our view. It was so tall we could not see beyond it from the slope, and so long that one end did not fit within our sight.

Yet it did not continue any farther on the other side. It had not collapsed or fallen. It simply ended there, as though construction had stopped.

Because of that, it seemed unable to fulfill its role of separating one land from another.

That was fortunate for us. Hilde drove the Cataphract toward the side without a wall.

The closer we drew, the more imposing the great wall became. It stood straight and vertical upon firm ground, without a trace of age.

Had it never seen battle? Or was it sturdy enough that battle could not damage it? Tyr repeatedly admired the wall, whose lack of damage might reflect either uselessness or exceptional effectiveness.

"What an incredible scale. I have never seen a fortress so enormous and majestic. Its height is overwhelming, but even the wall stretching endlessly onward is awe-inspiring. Had it not been broken in the middle, it would have been a great wall remembered throughout history. How much time must have gone into building a fortress of that size..."

"One day, probably."

The regressor answered Tyr's muttering.

"Hm? Shei, did you say one day?"

"Yes. Only one person built that wall. It took one day. I don't know about anything else, but that much is certain."

The regressor's words were a clear fact. I had never met the Lord of Gold directly, so I did not know what was truly real, but it was at least the truth visible on the surface.

Still...

"Shei. Stop giving us shallow explanations and explain properly now. Who made that, and what does that person do?"

It was difficult to explain in words, sure. But it was time she told us. How long was she going to keep hinting at it indirectly?

The regressor hesitated.

"Uh..."

'I don't have confidence explaining it. The Lord of Gold's ability is too alien... To be honest, I don't really understand its principle either.'

Wow, what a radical person. It was understandable if she could not explain it. The Lord of Gold's authority was that alien.

But had she been acting confident until now? She had barely explained anything properly.

"C-Cough. Why don't you do it? You seem to know it well too."

"It's been a while since class. Trainee Shei, pay close attention."

"I-I know it too! I'm just telling you to explain it instead!"

"There's a saying that if you cannot explain something in your own words, you do not truly know it. Ah, ah, Shei."

"Hey!"

"Shei. How long must I wait?"

"...Ugh, fine."

I should have had a blackboard and a pointer, but neither was available up here. Regrettably, I had to explain it with words alone. Leaning back in my seat, I began.

"I'll make it simple. The Lord of Gold's ability is alchemy. The strongest and most wide-ranging alchemy in the world, almost like creation itself."

"You mean the ability you people used to play with scraps of iron?"

"Our alchemy is a joke compared to the Lord of Gold's. See how that wall stops in the middle? At first glance, it looks like there was a huge wall, then something destructive passed through and broke it. But the truth is the complete opposite."

Why the people of the Lesser States each traveled in their own vehicles. Why a nation of alchemy had also become a nation of nomads.

"On a wilderness where there had originally been nothing, the Lord of Gold passed through and 'transmuted' that wall."

It was because of the Lord of Gold's authority to create the territory of an entire country.

The Lord of Gold overturned all things in the world. No, it went beyond that and created something new. Creation was the destruction of the order that had existed before. To avoid that procession of destruction, the people of the Lesser States became wanderers.

After swallowing, I continued my explanation.

"Think about it again. Why was a great wall built below a hill? Why does a fortress of this scale end in the middle without any context? Alchemy explains those questions. It was built below the hill because it used the soil and rocks here as materials. The reason the wall ends in the middle without a trace is not because something broke it. It was only made that far."

That was why no terrain feature or structure was strange in the Lesser States. The reason was clear.

The Lord of Gold made it, so it existed. No further explanation was needed.

Tyr's knowledge had stopped three hundred years ago, though, so she asked a question.

"Why did the one called the Lord of Gold stop building the wall?"

"No one besides the Lord of Gold knows that. It's been ages since people began arguing that walls were useless, yet the Lord of Gold still makes things like this. Why the Lord of Gold wanders through the Lesser States and fills empty land with things. There is no shortage of guesses."

"What a strange person."

"Well, before I met you in person, Tyr, you were just a vampire who slept a suspicious amount. You cannot know the Lord of Gold until you meet the Lord of Gold directly. I am only telling you what I have heard."

Anyone who had studied properly could answer at least this much. You knew the general history of a neighboring country, did you not? Especially if it was a hypothetical enemy state.

'For something he only heard, he understands it quite deeply... Didn't he say he was a citizen of the military state? He talks as though he has lived in the Lesser States.'

It was secondhand experience. While the regressor grumbled inwardly, Tyr remembered something and clapped a curled hand against her palm.

"Ah, I remember. You said it in the Abyss. Someone made countless amounts of gold through alchemy, and that caused a country to collapse. Was that person the Lord of Gold?"

"Oh, you remembered that. My teaching has not been in vain."

"Hehe. Is that not the least I should do? I have taken every word you said deeply to heart."

"That's right. The person who plunged the Golden Kingdom, which had enjoyed every kind of wealth and splendor, into chaos and destroyed it was Lord of Gold Democrias. The Lord of Gold's mere existence caused all of the Golden Kingdom's gold and weapons to lose their value. In a world flooded with fakes more brilliant than the real thing, the people of the Golden Kingdom could no longer trust anything.

"Trust collapsed, and the economy broke down. The wealthy fell, and the poor were reduced even further. Amid the endlessly repeating chaos, all resentment turned toward the Lord of Gold and the alchemists taught by the Lord of Gold. The king of the Golden Kingdom tried to execute every alchemist, but..."

What was the point of continuing? The result was already spread out before us. I shrugged and went on.

"Seeing as the Golden Kingdom fell and the Lesser States ended up like this, it seems that failed, right?"

What had happened... I would find out after meeting the Lord of Gold, but I had not faced that person directly yet. I would learn during this chance.

The king of the Golden Kingdom, one of the Five Lords. The Steel King, called a monster of comprehension, whose authority understood and analyzed every human technique...

Why had such a person been "consumed" by a mere human? Why did the person who killed a king call themselves the Lord of Gold?

It was an opportunity to find out.

"That is why they say farming is impossible in the Lesser States unless the land is especially blessed. It was not good farmland to begin with, but even if you managed to establish a proper foundation, once the Lord of Gold passed through... The golden fields you worked so hard to cultivate would become a carpeted royal palace."

That was also why people in the Lesser States viewed gold as no more than stone. They were not deceived by appearances. Food, transportation, clothing. They made whatever they needed at the time, or if that was impossible, took it from someone else. There was no logic beyond survival.

A land with more tools than anywhere else in the world, yet a way of life closer to the wild than anywhere else.

The Cataphract passed the unfinished great wall. Unable to fulfill its role, it left its inner side exposed to passing wanderers.

Footnotes:

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