WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 337: The Ship of Theseus

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Beyond the Mist Range lay a land forever thick with clouds and fog. Sunlight could not pierce the mist that blanketed it, and vampires lived there.

The Fog Duchy's mist and the vampires living within it did not easily cross into the Lesser States, blocked by mountain ranges so tall that even clouds would sweat crossing them. The damp air blowing in from the Sea of Leviathans pooled there, held back by nature's barrier.

There was one exception. Claudia, the Cloud Village spread across low hills, was different. Where the mountains had been torn away, clouds poured down like a waterfall. Beyond that Cloud Waterfall lay an ancient land veiled in mystery.

The Mist Plains. A land now called the Fog Duchy. Vampires who had fled the light settled there.

In many places, vampires were creatures of legend. But to people from the Lesser States who had lived in and around Claudia, vampires were nightmares that would suddenly reappear just as people had begun to forget them. They rarely emerged, but whenever they did, Claudia was shaken to its core. Naturally, people feared them all the more.

After hearing that, Tyr nodded.

"So Claudia means Cloud Village. I know that place well. Long ago, while wandering in search of somewhere to live, I found a small village at the edge of the wilderness. I remember tearing open the Cloud Waterfall myself."

"...Urgh."

"Why are you so frightened?"

Perru could barely meet Tyr's eyes. Her body trembled with instinctive fear, making her look almost pitiful.

Tyr eyed her suspiciously.

"Are you perhaps a follower of the Celestial God? Hm. You needn't fear me so much. As long as you don't flaunt your faith before me, I won't kill you one by one... Unless you offend me too greatly, that is."

"...Eek."

Tyr had lived long enough to establish principles of her own. She did not kill someone simply for believing in the Celestial God, but if they displayed that faith before her, she killed them without mercy.

That did not mean she followed her principles every time. If she took offense, she might kill someone anyway. Then again, if you draw a line too clearly, someone will spend all day walking right along it. A little flexibility was necessary.

I spoke for the terrified Perru.

"Tyr. Stop scaring her. It's natural for ordinary people to fear vampires."

It was only natural. What human could stay calm in front of a vampire who saw their body as a walking food store? Just as sheep and wolves could not become close friends, vampires and humans had a hard time getting along.

Tyr frowned at that uncomfortable truth.

"You argued with me from the beginning without a hint of fear. Even knowing I was a vampire, and the Progenitor at that."

"As long as you don't drink my blood, you're not a vampire. Vampires scare me, but humans don't particularly scare me. We're both human, after all."

"Right. You were the strange one. You were the first human I met after waking up from a long sleep, so I was briefly confused. This must be the normal reaction."

Though Tyr shot me a sidelong glare, a faint smile formed on her lips, as if she were secretly pleased.

In truth, nothing had changed. As long as Tyr did not crave someone's blood, she was still only a girl with beautiful silver-white hair.

Perru, however, remained terrified. A few words could not erase fear rooted so deeply within her.

Well, what could I do? This was the price of neglecting public relations. Should I tease Perru while I was at it?

"All right. It's about time to eat, isn't it? Could you prepare three more bowls for me, Shei, and Hilde? Ah, Tyr doesn't need a separate bowl. Perru can just climb onto the table."

"...Eek."

"How mischievous. Stop it. Unlike other vampires, I have no need to drink blood myself. I am the sea where all flowing blood arrives. If someone bleeds, it naturally seeps into me even if nothing special happens. The blood that child spills when she stubs her finger is enough."

"...Aah."

That was supposed to reassure Perru, but it only frightened her further. I added another jab.

"That was in the past, though. You can't eat well these days, can you? Don't you need a special meal? Fresh women's blood?"

"...I'll bring the food."

Frightened out of her wits, Perru hurried toward the storeroom as though fleeing. Using food as an excuse to leave, she frantically searched for meat. It seemed she meant to feed animal blood to a vampire.

It was pointless.

Then the regressor called out to Perru.

"Verdigris Lord. The food is from the Lesser States, right?"

"...Yeah. Why?"

"Don't take it out. We'll use mine."

The regressor opened her pocket. Inside were luxury ingredients I had seen before, each fit for an emperor of an entire nation. Wine, meat, rice, and flour, all far beyond the cheap rum Perru had been about to bring. Extravagant ingredients piled onto the table one after another.

"Woof! Food! Fooood!"

It was a feast that made your mouth water just looking at it. Azzy returned like a ghost after catching the scent, put her front paws on the table, and stared with shining eyes. Her tail wagged hard enough to raise dust.

Yet none of the humans marveled at it. Tyr had no interest in food, but even Perru was more interested in what the regressor had said than in the ingredients.

"...From the Lesser States?"

The regressor answered indifferently.

"Yeah. We shouldn't eat that, right?"

"...What do you mean?"

There was more behind Perru's question than the words themselves.

If the regressor meant the Lesser States' ingredients were too low-grade to eat, Perru would have nodded in agreement. It was true, after all.

But the regressor did not sound like she meant that. She spoke as though the Lesser States were cursed... as though she were discussing something that could not be eaten in the first place.

Of course, it was not because she looked down on the Lesser States or bore them ill will.

It was simply true.

"It would be better not to eat food grown in the Lesser States. Every crop created by the Lord of Gold is a homunculus."

"..."

The regressor casually spilled one of the Lesser States' most shameful secrets. Perru could not even attempt to stop her.

Naturally. She could never have imagined that even we, her companions, did not know.

"Humans couldn't be made directly because of the homunculus dilemma. But everything in the Lesser States is an artificial creation made by the Lord of Gold, so people from the Lesser States develop deformities from exposure to it. Eating a little should be fine, but until we meet the Lord of Gold, I'd rather not put any of it in my mouth."

'If part of my body is replaced with the Lord of Gold's work, I don't know what might happen when I meet him directly.'

No, Regressor. Was that not the Lesser States' greatest secret? Why were you talking about it like common knowledge? Don't assume everyone knows every secret just because you do. You startled them.

Stunned, Perru looked around at all of us.

"...Does the military state know that much too...?"

No, we didn't. Even Hilde and I were hearing this for the first time.

Even Perru, a Lord herself, had not known that the crops were homunculi!

"Who knows? It's classified information~."

Hilde put on a knowing, mysterious smile, then called me over with a glance.

'I had no idea at all. What a surprise. Why is a taboo appearing here? Father, did you know?'

No, I didn't. More precisely, I hadn't read such thoughts until the regressor spoke of it today. Reading Perru's thoughts had given me a rough idea about the Lord of Gold and homunculi, but...

Even Perru had not known what she just told us! Deformities in the Lesser States were caused by the Lord of Gold's homunculus crops?! Think of something that important in advance. Let me read it early and prepare!

The regressor seemed accustomed to reactions like this, however, and answered without concern.

"Why? Isn't it something every Lord knows? It wouldn't be strange for me to know it too."

"...What Lord would reveal such shameful secrets to an outsider...?"

"I can't tell you that."

'I heard it from Claudia's Thunder Lord in the previous cycle. I can't reveal it because I didn't hear it this cycle.'

The Thunder Lord was Claudia's true ruler and greatest Lord, wasn't she? Tsk. What was the point of reading Verdigris Lord's thoughts? That woman had come here knowing far greater secrets from her previous cycle!

I had forgotten because we had only been in the military state. The regressor was putting considerable effort into it, but...

In truth, the military state was only one stage of her journey.

The military state was, in a sense, the first stage. The first foundation stone she had to lay. She needed to handle it perfectly for everything ahead to proceed smoothly, but it was also the easiest stage to build.

The road to the King of Sin was long and treacherous. Obstacles on an entirely different level from anything we had faced in the military state stood in her way. The Demon God, taboos, the Sanctum, and even the Lords of All Creation.

And most of them would probably overlap with me...

Having learned an unexpected fact, Perru spoke more tensely.

"...Then you understand why the Heatblast Lord was so desperate."

"Hm?"

"...The Lesser States want land where the Lord of Gold does not set foot. A place where they can settle, like Claudia."

Claudia, built into the Mist Range, lay beyond the Lord of Gold's reach. It was safe from the Lord of Gold's alchemy, making it one of the few places in the Lesser States where people could settle permanently.

That made Claudia the most important land in the Lesser States. The Golden Palace was not truly land, but something closer to a phenomenon. Claudia, the most prosperous city, was the real heart of the Lesser States.

"...The Abyss is a hole that devours everything. The Lord of Gold does not go there. So if we obtain that land, it becomes a second Claudia. A place to raise children..."

That explanation was still insufficient. Unsatisfied with Perru's words, Tyr looked at me curiously.

"A place to raise children? Are there even designated places to raise children in this country?"

"Not exactly, but people from the Lesser States who have a child become eligible to live in Claudia until the child turns ten. They can't earn much money in Claudia, but they can live stable lives there. That is why people badly hurt while living like jackals first look for a spouse. Once they have a child, they can rest until the child grows up."

"And if they don't wish to rest?"

"Then they sell the child to someone who does. Apparently, newborns are openly bought and sold because of that."

This was not even a secret. It was taught in the military state's history classes. Aside from its tendency to portray every nation besides the military state as a hopeless country where surviving a single day was difficult, it was mostly true, so I had always thought it was fairly conscientious.

"That much is well known, but considering what Shei said earlier, the reason Claudia's Thunder Lord actively accepts children must be..."

It must be connected to taboos as well.

As I expected, the regressor nodded.

"That's right. If they grow up eating food created by the Lord of Gold from childhood, their bodies will become homunculi. The Thunder Lord made those rules so that everyone in the Lesser States would not become his homunculi. Claudia's food is normal, not homunculi."

There were four taboos humans must never commit.

Gluttony. Grafting. Intercourse. Heresy.

By that classification, the Lesser States seemed to be a country reproducing the second type of taboo.

The second taboo, Grafting. The taboo of replacing the frail human body with something else. The Lesser States, where the entire nation was a byproduct of the Lord of Gold, openly violated the second taboo. In a land where deformities were nothing unusual, people had to make up for the shortcomings of their bodies with alchemy. Homunculi could be called the culmination of the second taboo as well.

The Sanctum would never overlook this, but the Lord of Gold was a living Demon God. I had thought they could not act rashly because of that...

Hm.

Were the Thunder Lord's rules wisdom she had instinctively learned, or had the Sanctum done something? I needed to look into it.

Tsk. At this rate, I would have no choice but to follow the regressor. I had planned to cut ties at an appropriate time and get off this ride...

Once the confusion had settled somewhat, Perru spoke on behalf of the Lesser States.

"...The Lesser States need that land. We will not give up easily."

"Hee. You do realize that's absurd, right? Whatever your circumstances are, I don't care."

Once Perru had finished representing the Lesser States' position, Hilde, the military state's representative, bristled.

"If you wanted it, you should have tried to eliminate the Abyss like our military state did, spending money, time, manpower, and resources. You were too afraid of losing something to even approach it, and now you want to come in at the end and claim a share? Not a chance!"

"...I admit it."

"Pardon?"

"...That is why I am guiding you. To the Golden Palace."

When Perru nodded, Hilde had nothing left to say. She sat back down, grumbling.

"How can you admit it so readily? Now I'm the only one who looks petty for getting worked up!"

"I think Hilde is a little narrow on the inside."

"Did Father check?! Did you check?!"

Did I need to check? I could tell at a glance.

While Hilde flared up and shouted again, Perru gazed into the distance and muttered.

"...I may admit it. But the Golden Palace may be different..."

Footnotes:

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