WeTried Translations
Translator: Hydrogen B
Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 327: One Apple Tree
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Leading the horse away, the woman picked up one of the steel ingots on the ground.
A dark red tattoo ran down from her elbow, visible through her torn sleeve. Pure white light traveled along it and seeped into the ingot. Geometric vertical lines appeared across the steel.
The woman focused her arcane.
Light flashed.
In the blink of an eye, the steel ingot had turned into a sturdy plow.
The power to alter matter with arcane. Alchemy.
And highly advanced alchemy at that.
“A plow? That’s something you only use for farming.”
“...Yes.”
“That’s strange. I heard the Lesser States didn’t have fields. Why make a plow?”
As she fastened the plow to the horse, the woman glanced at me and briefly asked,
“...Wanderer?”
“Ah, yes. I came here recently.”
“...There are fields. The Lord of Gold is omnipotent.”
She became more talkative as soon as she mentioned the Lord of Gold. Like a lawyer defending a client, she continued with surprising enthusiasm.
“...The Lord of Gold often makes fields. Wherever the Lord of Gold passes, vast fields full of crops remain. The scale is so large that the Golden Palace has separate Juggernauts for harvesting crops...”
I see. Raiding might have been the Lesser States’ main source of income, but they could not possibly feed themselves through plunder alone. Food had to come from somewhere.
So it came from the Golden Palace.
Everything in the Lesser States was created by the Lord of Gold through alchemy. Still, someone who could build fortress walls alone would naturally create more farmland when needed...
Wait.
As I followed that thought, I realized something and asked again.
“Wait a second. You don’t grow crops in fields made by the Lord of Gold... You mean the Lord of Gold creates the crops that grow in those fields?”
“...Yes.”
Hold on.
That had enormous implications.
Having fields and producing crops little by little was entirely plausible.
But what if the Lord of Gold could create crops from the start? What if grain could be ripened through alchemy?
“Wait, that’s cheating. If you can produce food whenever you want, you don’t need supply lines at all.”
“...That’s right.”
“It’s impressive, but why are you telling me this?”
The woman struggled to fasten the plow to the horse. Creating it through alchemy had taken an instant, but the simple task of tying it on took twice as long. She wiped the beads of sweat away with her overall strap and spoke quietly.
“...Know this, military-state man.”
I flinched.
When I showed a moment of wariness at how she had recognized me as someone from the military state, she briefly looked at my wrist.
The bio-terminal, one of the military state’s inventions. An identification device containing condensed biological information.
I couldn’t believe she had noticed it.
‘...Know how great the Lord of Gold is. Know what the military state has dared to challenge. You people who revere the likes of Maximilien as one of the Six Generals cannot grasp even a fragment of it.’
Pretending to be flustered, I hurriedly pulled down my sleeve.
Watching my panicked movement, the woman would think,
‘...It’s too late to hide it now. The water has already spilled. Foolish military-state man.’
Good. I had revealed my identity naturally.
Now things were a little fairer.
Because I knew who she was too.
The Lesser States had no settled land, so they had no ruling class like feudal lords. That did not mean they lacked classes.
Jackals were raiders. Yet no one could survive through plundering alone. Someone had to produce the things people desperately needed.
This place was littered with byproducts left behind by the Lord of Gold. To use them as fuel for a small campfire that would keep you alive another day, you had to learn alchemy. Most people in the Lesser States were therefore skilled alchemists. Just as farmers learned farming and hunters learned how to hunt, alchemy was not optional in the Lesser States. It was essential for survival.
A few among them stood out even further.
Chosen alchemists who could process the Lord of Gold’s special byproducts, incomprehensible substances that could not be broken down through strength or arcane.
The woman before me was one of the Lesser States’ strongest alchemists, someone who stood above even Maximilien in the field of alchemy.
Even if she was farming here now.
“You have a sharp eye.”
“...You’re awfully conspicuous for a spy.”
To have a new conversation, we needed to redefine our relationship. It would be strange for an ordinary jackal to ask where the Golden Palace was or what the Lord of Gold was.
But now that she knew I came from the military state, I could ask.
“I thought the ground here seemed oddly soft and covered in grass. This land used to be farmland created by the Lord of Gold.”
“...”
“Is that why you made camp here instead of in a city? No matter how remarkable alchemy is, food matters.”
“...”
“But I’m curious. The Lord of Gold can create grain, so... why aren’t crops growing in this field?”
I lightly tapped the ground with my foot and looked around.
There was no water source nearby. The only water nourishing her field was in a small watering can. A short wire fence had been set up around it, but it looked too low and flimsy to stop anything that might target the crops.
Even if the plants overcame all those hardships and bore fruit, passing jackals would pick them clean before they ripened.
Or the Lord of Gold might pass by again and transform the field into something else.
Yet she was still plowing it.
“This land’s fertility has waned. Well, a field forcibly made in unsuitable soil could never last long.”
“...”
“The Lord of Gold isn’t omnipotent after all, are they? Is it only imitation?”
“...You.”
“Or perhaps I’m wrong. Maybe the Lord of Gold can do it but chooses not to? With enough thought and effort over a long time, they could even change the soil itself... It seems they simply aren’t interested in the Lesser States.”
Crunch.
The terrified horse cried out and bolted forward. Behind it, the steel that had once been a plow scattered across the ground.
It had crumbled black, like ashes someone had kicked apart.
Steel that would have remained unchanged for a thousand years if left alone had rusted away in an instant in the woman’s hand.
No, rusting was not enough to describe it.
Collapse.
The very structure that made steel recognizable as iron had collapsed.
After rendering the plow useless in an instant, the woman glared at me with cold eyes.
“...Creation is harder than destruction.”
“Of course. I’ve built towers out of cards, so I know. Building them takes work, but someone can knock them down with one tap.”
“...The Lord of Gold continues that difficult work. I don’t know what a military-state man thinks of them, but.”
‘...Compared to me, who only knows how to break things, the one who creates all things is remarkable. Given enough time, they could create even the world itself... They are the supreme being.’
There were people like this sometimes. People who reacted more strongly when you attacked what they loved or respected than when you attacked them personally.
Poking that spot was useful. It got more honest reactions out of them.
“...I don’t care what you people do.”
‘...Wage war. Attempt assassination. It has nothing to do with me. No matter what the military state does, it cannot harm the Lord of Gold in the slightest.’
Her words were a little clumsy. Thank goodness I could read her thoughts. Anyone else would have struggled to communicate with her.
“...But if you try to insult the Lord of Gold.”
‘...I’ll melt you myself.’
It was not a bluff.
She only let out a little arcane, yet the ground sank. It was neither earthcraft nor Earth Qi Art. The soil and gravel that had once been made into farmland, the earth where seeds could breathe, crumbled and collapsed.
Sand flowed down around her like the pit of an antlion. One wrong step and I would slip right in.
An innate arcane of collapse. What an inconvenient ability.
Even if I stole it, I would have no use for it. It only accelerated corrosion and collapse, and someone as dependent on tools as I was would gain nothing from it.
Rather than keep clashing, perhaps it was time to become friendly.
“I think you’ve misunderstood something. I have no intention of insulting the Lord of Gold.”
“...Then?”
“You kept talking as if your side had the upper hand, so I only pointed out your disadvantages to gain the advantage in negotiations.”
The arcane eating away at the surroundings vanished. The woman withdrew her innate arcane and asked,
“...Negotiations?”
“Yes. We are peace envoys dispatched by the military-state high command.”
The woman looked at me suspiciously.
“...Not spies?”
“If we were spies, we wouldn’t walk around openly riding military-state mounts. Like you said, what spy would display a bio-terminal for everyone to see?”
‘...I thought you were just stupid.’
That was harsh. Azzy was a dog, so it was fair to call her stupid. I was not.
Hmm. I had read plenty of thoughts, but not the Golden Palace’s location or even a way to find it. What kind of land was this, where even the upper ranks did not know that?
Still, she was a Lord of the Lesser States who had personally visited the Golden Palace. She seemed to know more than we did. It was worth asking.
“Either way, this worked out well. We’ve had a hard time finding our way in this foreign land, and then we meet someone who knows the Lord of Gold. What do you say? Would you like to contribute to world peace by helping us?”
“...World peace?”
“That sounds grand, but it’s nothing much. Just arrange a place for us to negotiate.”
“...Negotiate with whom?”
“Obviously the Lord of Gold. If the Lord of Gold isn’t the ruler of the Lesser States, who is?”
“...Are you serious?”
“Why are you making me nervous? Is there a problem?”
‘...An audience with the Lord of Gold to negotiate directly? Are they fearless? Or just without a plan?’
The woman shook her head and answered.
“...Do as you wish.”
“Does that mean you’ll help?”
“...No.”
After rejecting me without hesitation, she turned completely away and looked down at the ground beneath her feet. Seeing land that now seemed better suited for construction than farming, she sighed bitterly.
Was she really planning to farm again? Tch. Not very cooperative.
“Then at least tell me where the Golden Palace is.”
“...I don’t know.”
“Wait! Then tell me how to find the Golden Palace!”
“...Normally.”
“What do you mean, normally? How can something I don’t know be normal?!”
‘...Normally, read the traces in the land and ask for directions. There is no other way.’
People in this country did not know where their own palace was! Even if it moved around, surely at least one person should know!
If it were hidden in some tightly guarded secret place, I could have learned about it through mind reading. But because it roamed the land, no one knew.
Tch. Did I really have no choice but to search on foot?
“You don’t seem especially busy if you’re farming. Would you consider guiding us?”
“...Not really.”
“We’re peace envoys, I told you. Blood, flames, war! We want to end this terrible chain of tragedy and get along. You should help!”
“...Not my concern.”
‘...You call this land the Lesser States as though it is one united thing, but there are only jackals picking up the byproducts left by the Lord of Gold. Juggernauts move however they please, and every company pursues only its own profit. No one obeys another person’s orders... Unless the Lord of Gold commands them directly.’
This person was skeptical of negotiations, not peace. It was not that she disliked peace. She thought meaningful negotiations could never happen in the first place.
Tch. That was disappointing.
I needed to read the Lord of Gold’s thoughts. But if the Golden Palace was hostile from the start, reading those thoughts would not be easy. Mind reading was powerful, but reading the past took time. More importantly, I needed an opportunity to get close.
I had no idea what I would do at the Golden Palace, but I had to approach it amicably at first.
This woman would be helpful. She was a follower of the Lord of Gold and also the owner of a Juggernaut...
If I could not persuade her now, I could at least lay some groundwork.
“Well, that’s unfortunate, but it can’t be helped. Since you gave me useful information, shall I tell you one thing in return?”
“...Don’t need it.”
“It’s a method for farming well, one nomads don’t know. If you don’t need it, then fine.”
The woman stopped walking.
Her words and expression did not reveal much emotion, but her actions were honest. Her eyes told me to go on, so I smiled lightly and dropped the bait.
“Listen carefully. The most important thing in farming is.”
“...The most important thing?”
“An unbreakable heart! Don’t give up, and keep working hard!”
“...”
“Ah, sorry. Don’t glare at me like that. Can’t even make a joke.”
It was not really a joke. That was the most important thing. I shrugged and added an explanation.
“All crops were once wild plants without even seeds worth eating. Humans selected the crops that were at least somewhat edible, then crossbred them again and again to make better varieties. If humans did that with each other, people would rush in throwing stones and calling it a Class-3 Taboo. With plants, it’s widely practiced under the name of selective breeding.”
“...Any good varieties?”
“You need to find them first. Even then, you only learn through trial and error. No matter how good a variety seems, you won’t know whether it grows well here until you plant it and let it bear fruit. You don’t know whether it’ll fail or succeed, but you have to sow as many different kinds of seeds as possible.”
She probably was not farming because she lacked food. As a Lord of the Lesser States, she would not lack money.
The fruit itself mattered less to her than the fact that she had managed to grow it.
“...How do I get them?”
“The Lesser States don’t have those varieties, so you can get them from a nearby country. The military state, for example. The military state even has companies that specialize in developing crop varieties. You just need to sign a truce agreement!”
Once the conversation circled back to a peace agreement, the woman lost interest.
“...You’re saying the same thing in the end.”
“What can I do? You aren’t the only one planting seeds. You don’t know whether they’ll grow, but you still have to sow as many as possible.”
How was that for a persuasive buildup?
Even such a desperate buildup did not seem to change her mind. Completely ignoring me, the woman created another plow. She called the horse over, tightened the reins, fastened the plow to it again, and slowly led it onward.
Tch. Nothing to be done about it. How could I change the mind of someone who had returned to farming?
“Tch. If you don’t want to, forget it. Azzy, let’s go.”
Azzy bounced over to me.
“Woof! Meat side dishes!”
“You didn’t even catch the horse. What meat side dishes? None. We’re having bean porridge today.”
“Woof?! Liar!”
“Who told you to jump out because you couldn’t wait? If you had stayed put and watched, I would have added at least a piece of meat. None! Don’t even dream of meat from now on!”
“Mwoooooong!”
“Hey! I’m not meat! Don’t bite me!”
Be careful with the word ‘anything’.
A long journey required a relaxed start. We had only entered the Lesser States. If we chose the wrong direction now, the error would grow uncontrollably later.
The regressor wanted to head east toward Claudia, but if the Golden Palace was in the west, we would lose as much ground as we had covered. Even the regressor did not seem to like that idea, so she tried every method available to determine at least its rough location.
In a somewhat economic direction.
The camp in the Lesser States was currently suffering a cheerful economic retaliation funded by the regressor.
Tch. She should have given that money to me.
Still, people could lie, but money did not. The regressor’s overwhelming spending spree had apparently produced results, but it took time, so we ended up staying at the camp for the day.
The Lesser States camp was not as silent as a military-state night.
Even deep at night, people freely came and went through others’ tents. A rider thundered down the narrow road. People who screamed and leaped aside showered the rider with curses, then continued on their way.
There were no streetlights. But lamps carried by people and alchemical lights made by alchemists along the road shone in every direction, filling the camp with a soft glow.
In the middle of it all, I walked alone through the camp with a bundle of cards in hand.
“At last, supplies worthy of being called supplies.”
I had been using cards lately without replenishing them. The arcane stored in the clubs could be restored slowly, but the diamonds had been heavily depleted.
I had lost many entirely, and several were damaged enough that the backs showed through. They could no longer be used for games. On top of that, a skewer I had made in the Abyss remained, leaving my deck with two Diamond 1s.
A magician needed matching pairs.
This was too much of a mess of a deck.
But I was on a busy journey. Making them myself would take too much time. Since the regressor had given me some spending money, I should commission a talented alchemist.
I searched for one as I walked through the camp’s night market.
Jackals picked up unfinished byproducts made by the Lord of Gold and sold them. That meant there were buyers. The Lesser States had companies that turned every kind of material into goods.
Unless you owned a Juggernaut, smaller companies naturally set up shop at camps with large populations. I needed to choose someone useful carefully.
Unlike the military state, where everything was fixed in place, the markets of the Lesser States were battlefields. You had to wage war even to buy a single piece of scrap metal.
“Official rum produced by Drum Company! Fifty liters for 990 alche! I won’t lower it by a single coin!”
“Fuck! The official price is 500! You expect us to pay double?!”
“If you don’t like it, go get it yourself and sell it. Next!”
Even buying simple goods required exhausting bargaining.
“Looking for someone to fix my vehicle!”
“What kind?”
“A gear-driven two-wheeler!”
“Gear-driven? Is that a Maximilien model? Damn, you ride around on a relic...”
“What I ride is none of your business. Get lost if you can’t fix it!”
“When did I say I couldn’t? Lead the way. Make sure you have plenty ready for repairs.”
Parts and people varied too much, so everything had to be matched individually.
“Are you rich?”
“Sir, if it wouldn’t be rude... Could you buy me just one cup of rum...?”
There were even people trying to beg for a mouthful of something to eat. All kinds of people gathered here, creating a cauldron of chaos.
Naturally, those people included swindlers.
Right in front of me, an elderly person in rags had somehow grabbed someone by the collar across a table.
“Cough, cough. You bastard, are you kidding me? How is this only worth fourteen alche?!”
“Please calm down and look at the scale. How could I pay more for scrap metal of this weight?”
“It’s a broken arrowhead I found in a gap in the fortress wall! It can’t be scrap metal! And my senses told me it weighed more than thirty kilograms. Why does it only show twenty-eight here?!”
“Would a scale lie? There must be something wrong with your senses... Well, if you only have three fingers, even this weight might feel difficult to hold.”
Hahaha.
Laughter came from the onlookers. The mocked elderly person’s face turned red and blue. Yet no matter how angry they got, the scale’s reading would not change.
To change it, you had to step on the pedal beside it.
“Oops. My foot slipped.”
The scale appeared to be placed on a wooden box, but the box and scale were really one set. Pretending to slip, I naturally stepped on the pedal along the side of the box as I passed.
The scale’s pointer shook and turned three notches.
For a moment, the whole area went quiet.
I walked leisurely through the silence I had created.
“Ah, excuse me. Hope you sell lots.”
“Y-you...!”
A moment later, curses and shouts erupted behind me. A three-fingered fist struck the merchant in the face, knocking out three of the merchant’s teeth.
The elderly person hesitated, perhaps not intending to go that far, but the merchant’s teeth were gold teeth, precious metal processed and set into the merchant’s mouth. The merchant hurriedly tried to pick them up, but sharp-eyed jackals had already hidden them in their sleeves.
All kinds of commotion broke out, but it had nothing to do with me.
“It’s a little loud. Doesn’t anyone manage this place?”
Grumbling, I left the disturbance behind and looked over the relatively quiet street.
What I wanted made was versatile alchemical equipment focused on portability rather than destructive power or durability. It was a product that required an absurd amount of work compared to the materials it used.
That meant I needed an outstanding alchemist. Could anyone make it in one night...?
As I walked and considered it, a small tent with a carelessly made sign caught my eye.
[Anything.]
Hmm. I could feel the confidence.
Still, would this be okay? People who answered “anything” never seemed happy when you actually gave them anything.
Let’s see their skill.
I pulled aside the tent flap and stepped inside.
“Come out. A guest has graced you with his presen...”
“...Spy.”
A familiar face looked up at me.
Ah. It was the woman from earlier.
I wondered why a Lord of the Lesser States was doing this kind of odd job, but I was the King of Humanity and currently rolling around on the roadside myself. There was no need to ask. Everyone had their circumstances.
First, I needed to confirm one thing.
“This is the place that makes anything, right? Not the place that turns anything into powder? I saw a plow turn into ashes earlier.”
“...Leave.”
“I want to commission this alchemical equipment.”
I spread my cards across the table.
They were clearly a deck of playing cards originally, but parts had vanished or worn away as if burned.
The woman picked up one card with frayed edges that had worn away.
Diamond 8, all thin and long things.
As she examined that ambitious piece I had used so often, she muttered,
“...This.”
“What do you think? It’s worn down a lot, but that’s because I used it so usefully...”
“...It’s trash. Who made it...”
What? She was insulting someone else’s work right to my face?
Wait. Calm down. She did not know I had made it.
No matter how lacking her communication skills were, she would not criticize a work in front of its creator.
This was an opportunity. I should make it clear that I created it and embarrass her.
“Ahem. Actually, I made that. Back when I was young and knew nothing, I gathered every bit of knowledge and funding I could to make it...”
“...Figures.”
“Figures? What do you mean, figures? You can’t even farm properly, and you insult something someone made with blood, sweat, and tears! Do you not know what consideration is?! I held back earlier, but let me be honest too. You’ll never make a living with your farming! Even the laziest farmer would look like the god of agriculture next to you!”
When I snapped and shouted, the woman shrank back a little and tried to explain.
“...It’s useless. Wasteful.”
Was that an explanation or picking a fight? Let’s see what she was thinking.
‘...Expensive and complicated. It takes too much work. But it is not worth the cost. The result of precious alchemical coins and advanced techniques is nothing more than a thin wire. It is extremely inefficient. It would be better to make other weapons...’
Reading her thoughts, I could understand her point.
I would let it go because I could read thoughts. If I were not a mind reader, I might have grabbed her by the collar. Be careful in the future.
“...What do you want? Repairs?”
“You could call it that. I want all thirteen cards restored in this style. Make them all. I’ll pay whatever you ask.”
Skewers, hooks, composite bows, short spears, sickles, revolvers, wires, hand axes, shields, and swords.
Most of those had been consumed or damaged in battle while leaving Amitenggrad, the military-state capital. I had given the revolver that remained to Ria, and despite recovering it as best as I could, more than half the wire had vanished.
I had been too busy to replenish them until now, but I should fully restore my combat strength while I had the chance.
It would not cost that much anyway.
The woman stared at the cards, then shook her head.
“...Can’t.”
“You insulted it as trash, and now you say you can’t? Is this how people do business these days?”
“...No. It is easy to make. But.”
“But?”
“...It’s bothersome.”
Was this really someone trying to do business? She would not do it because it was bothersome?
Of course, that was not her true feeling. Let’s try mind reading.
‘...It is not about difficulty. It takes too much work. Making transforming weapons is easy, but making them change into card form... It requires the same effort as sewing every stitch by hand. And making specific shapes is closer to art than technique.’
She definitely had skill if she could tell all that so quickly.
It had taken a lot of effort to make them. Even Diamond 1, the versatile skewer with the simplest form, had taken an entire night. I could not even say how long the others had taken.
...Tch. That was why I wanted to make someone else do it.
“If you stay up all night, you could finish three cards.”
“...No.”
“Weren’t you sitting here to work and make money? Why are you striking against a customer? Do you not want money?”
‘...Chatter, chatter. So noisy. I am not here for money...’
The woman let out a small sigh and raised her hand.
“...Instead.”
She pressed her palm to the table.
The tattoo on her arm flashed. Arcane passed into the iron table, making it glow pure white. The moment the table was engulfed in white light, she raised her hand.
Then something strange happened.
The steel table followed her palm upward as though it were clinging dough. Glittering light fell like powder.
It had not melted. The steel, shifted into a mutable state through alchemy, remained cold but became soft.
It looked just like a bundle of thread made of light.
The woman repeatedly wound the steel bundle around her palm, drawing it thinner and thinner. Once it was thin enough, she grabbed it in one motion and poured it over my card.
A flash of light.
A moment later.
“...Here.”
Diamond 8 sat before me, completely intact.
I said in admiration,
“Wait. You repaired this in one second? And you’ve been complaining all this time?”
“...The same structure repeats. I copied it.”
Even if the structure was the same, she had alchemized the entire thing and pasted it on? She even gave the wire elasticity!
There was a reason alchemists who traveled alone operated under company names. If you processed raw materials and manufactured products all by yourself, you were a one-person factory and company. What else could you need?
The power to understand and alter structures in a short time.
Alchemy.
Everyone learned it. Paradoxically, that was why people of the Lesser States did not need other people very much. If they desperately needed something, they made it themselves. They only traded for things they could never obtain.
That was probably why the Lesser States could not form a large society. They did not need others very much...
“Great. Keep up the momentum and repair the other cards too!”
“...Can’t.”
‘...For this one, I only needed to fill in the missing thread. But the other cards have set forms when they transform. They are partly art, so they are hard to touch.’
“Tch. Fine. Then how much should I pay for the repair?”
This was the important part.
The regressor had given me spending money, but she had never said to return the difference. That meant any money I negotiated off the price went straight into my pocket.
To spend like a prime minister, I had to earn like Azzy.
I waited for her to name a price as I read her mind.
Footnotes:
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