WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 325: The Land Where a Senile Old Man Roams

──────

The scenery changed sharply once we passed the Great Wall.

Artificial structures began appearing here and there. The surroundings gradually grew more complex, and before long, the Cataphract was in the middle of a city.

Small brick houses lined one side of my view. Far in the distance, a four-story pavilion overlooked the world. The long roads were paved with polished stone. It looked like a prosperous city where every brick had been planned and laid with care.

Yet this too was the Lord of Gold's work. The city stood there, but not a single human shadow could be found within it.

There was neither anyone to keep it running nor food to sustain them.

"How incredible. A mere human created an entire city alone..."

Tyr's eyes sparkled like a child's. Even a ghost city seemed fascinating to a vampire who had slept for three hundred years.

To be honest, it wasn't just Tyr. I felt something similar, though for a different reason.

"Um, Mr. Shei. I've just thought of something."

"What is it now?"

"We're delivering the armistice agreement to the Lord of Gold, right?"

"Probably. I guess that's what'll happen."

"But will there really be a truce? Now that I've seen the Lord of Gold's power in person, it seems even more overwhelming."

The Lord of Gold's authority was alchemy that came close to creation itself. It was powerful enough to make colossal castles and cities in an instant, yet precise enough that every brick had a different shape. He was an alchemist capable of creating heaven and earth.

Which raised a question.

The regressor said the military state would defeat the Lesser States. Presumably, that meant defeating the Lord of Gold.

How had the military state become a powerful nation? With its army alone?

"What if the Lord of Gold refuses the armistice agreement? What if he turns all of us into gold for being disrespectful, then marches proudly on the military state and attacks it?"

This was important.

The regressor had been confident that the Lesser States would accept a truce. After reading her memories, I had been indirectly influenced into joining this journey without a second thought.

But after witnessing the Lord of Gold's authority with my own eyes, I was starting to have doubts.

No matter how I looked at it, he was terrifyingly strong. If he created a castle above my head and made it collapse, I'd be crushed like a bug.

"The military state has a short history, so it doesn't have any mystic power protecting the country... But the Lesser States have alchemy and the Lord of Gold. Mr. Shei, can you beat the Lord of Gold?"

"...If I gave it everything I had."

The regressor's answer was far too hesitant. Let me read her thoughts.

'The Lord of Gold isn't something you defeat or lose to. He's even more alien than Tyrkanzyaka. But I can't explain it, and it'd be a problem if I said something unnecessary and scared him...'

See? You aren't confident either!

As Tyr and Ria had shown, when I faced a power I couldn't contend with, I preferred making it an ally.

What was the easiest way to win a seventeen-to-one fight? Become one of the seventeen. How was I supposed to defeat seventeen people alone?

Anyway, I had business with the Lord of Gold, but I didn't need to approach him the same way the regressor did. An armistice agreement inevitably carried the seeds of conflict. If I fought the offended Lord of Gold and a castle collapsed over my head, I'd vanish before I even had the chance to use my ability.

"Please be honest with me. I'm prepared."

Still, the regressor had to know something. Otherwise, she wouldn't be stepping forward so confidently.

When I pressed her, the regressor changed her mind and spoke.

'Right. This guy only whines with his mouth. He'd still walk into a minefield without flinching. He won't run just because I say I'm not confident.'

Having reached that conclusion on her own, the regressor recalled the Lord of Gold from her previous life and answered honestly.

"I probably can't beat him. The Lord of Gold's authority is beyond alien, it's grotesque. Even with Jizan, I wouldn't be able to touch his body."

"I see."

I'd expected it, but still. She really wasn't confident she could win.

After nodding for a long while, I gave Hilde an order.

"Hilde, turn the vehicle around. I want to go back."

"Yes! We're turning around right away! Yay! Straight to war!!"

"No, you can't! Wait!"

The regressor hurriedly grabbed my collar and shouted.

"Hey! You said you were prepared!"

"I was prepared to run away! Prepared to throw away petty honor and save my precious life!"

"That's not what being prepared means! And what are you planning to do if we go back now?"

"That's what I should be asking! What are we going there for if you aren't confident you can win?! Other than dying!"

I tried to pull both my arms free, but she was too strong. It only made me look as though I was throwing a little tantrum as I shouted.

"You seem awfully pleased with yourself because you pulled off an assault on the military state, but the military state is barely even a country! It's a malformed state with an unnecessarily complex and fragile structure, with no mystic power protecting the nation and no king with authority! That's why we could strip it clean!"

"Hee~. It's true, but it feels strange hearing that as a citizen of the military state."

In truth, the military state had survived only thanks to the Holy Maiden's blessing...

No, forget the word blessing. Hypocrisy, perhaps, but blessing sounded far too sacred.

Anyway, it had barely endured because the Holy Maiden found and denied every possibility of the military state's destruction that she had seen in the future.

It wouldn't have been strange for the military state to collapse at any time or in any way. Even the Holy Maiden had weakened so much that she created communications officers as replacements. If someone had seriously set out to harm it, it would have crumbled in an instant.

It had nearly fallen when only three people joined forces.

The Lesser States were different. Their size and scale aside, the foundation of the Lesser States was solid.

Democrias the Lord of Gold. He was the Lesser States, and the Lesser States were him. Even if every person in the Lesser States died, as long as the Lord of Gold remained, the same nation would one day rise again.

And as long as I couldn't defeat the Lord of Gold, placing the armistice agreement before him was the same as placing my life in his hands. If he rejected the truce, I would simply be dismantled on the spot.

"I'm not fighting! I'm leaving! I don't want to die!"

"Listen to the end! We won't have to fight the Lord of Gold directly!"

"Oh, really? I'll sit back down."

Seriously. She should have started with that. I knew I could trust you, regressor!

"Your attitude changes way too easily! Don't you have any principles?"

"Could you call it flexible thinking instead?"

Wasn't that obvious? If the situation changed, my attitude had to change too.

Still, the regressor had thought this through. I thought we'd have to fight the Lord of Gold. Even if she could regress, she wouldn't charge in headfirst without a plan.

"Why won't we have to fight him? Is the Lord of Gold the type to sign an armistice agreement immediately?"

The regressor shook her head and reluctantly revealed what she knew.

"No, the Lord of Gold won't cooperate with us. But he won't attack us either. He'll probably... be indifferent."

'When I visited the Lesser States before the world's destruction in my previous life... I couldn't even speak with the Lord of Gold.'

The regressor carefully chose her words as she recalled her previous life. In her mind appeared the Lord of Gold's figure, glimpsed from afar.

Before the King of Sin appeared, the Golden Palace Guardians gave the regressor a chance to meet the Lord of Gold alone in the face of the world's crisis. Climbing onto the palace and entering its empty grand hall, she explained everything to the Lord of Gold and shouted for his help.

But the Lord of Gold never looked at her. He never listened to her voice. Lost in thought, he only kept making things with alchemy. Behind him, useless toys fell in heaps.

The regressor tried to draw his attention by striking him. But when she got close enough, an intangible force pushed her away. The Lord of Gold's force field was powerful enough to repel even the regressor, who had strengthened herself with every kind of treasure in the world near its end.

The Wall of Severance. Beyond that force field, the Lord of Gold continued his alchemy.

As though the coming destruction had nothing to do with him.

Unable to bear it any longer, the regressor swung Jizan at him...

The moment she broke through the force field and reached the Lord of Gold's domain, the world itself moved to exclude her.

The Lord of Gold's authority was alchemy. Alchemy brought to its ultimate height created all things. All things created to kill humans attacked the regressor. Even the regressor, who had reached a high realm at the time, nearly died.

After that, the Guardians who had followed her in attacked, so the regressor was driven out without being able to try anything else...

Still, it was valuable information to a regressor who returned even after death.

"The Lord of Gold is insane."

Ah. So if I spoke to him wrong, he'd erase me from the world? Mm-hm. Understood.

I rose from my seat again.

"I really want to go back."

"Wait! I don't mean he's a mad tyrant. He's just focused entirely on making things right now, like his mind is elsewhere. As if he's going to fill the entire Lesser States with junk!"

"Why would you bring an armistice agreement to someone like that? It isn't realistic."

"I'm telling you, that's not it! We didn't bring the agreement to show the Lord of Gold. If we can persuade only the Golden Palace Guardians, we can stop the war! The Lord of Gold is indifferent to what happens to the country, and it's the Guardians who actually run the Lesser States!"

Now I understood. The Lord of Gold was powerful, but he was just a wandering old man with dementia? The Guardians held the real power? She should have said that from the beginning.

Reading the regressor's thoughts was exhausting. I couldn't read information she had gained in a previous life beyond time itself, so I had to make her recall those memories whenever I needed them.

"What is it, Mr. Shei? You could've explained that from the start, so why hide it?"

"...The Lord of Gold is publicly known to rule the Lesser States. The Guardians are loyal to him too. It's close enough that I didn't think it needed correcting."

The regressor mumbled an excuse, but I read every thought hidden behind it.

'This is a Golden Palace secret. You can't know it without meeting the Lord of Gold directly. If I tell him this, I won't be able to avoid suspicions that I'm the Holy Maiden. If I answer too much, I'll have to explain regression too... Fortunately, he doesn't seem suspicious yet.'

Was that really true? Wasn't it getting dangerous around now?

Either way, this was good. They were Golden Palace Guardians, so they would be at the Golden Palace, and the Lord of Gold would be there too. As a citizen of another country, I would rarely have a chance to walk up to the Lord of Gold openly and read his thoughts.

I had to go.

That way, I could read the Lord of Gold's thoughts and learn how Elik, the king of the Golden Kingdom and one of the Five Lords' descendants, had fallen.

No, had I explained that wrong? To put it more clearly.

I had to learn for myself why the Five Lords, who stole the King of Humanity's power, had been abandoned by humanity.

Only then... could I reclaim my right to represent humanity.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried