WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 338: Sleep Well

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Perhaps because we were inside the Juggernaut, time passed smoothly without our noticing. By the time we had eaten a simple dinner and finished cleaning up, evening had already fallen.

Time had seemed to crawl aboard the noisy Cataphract, but on the Juggernaut, night came in the blink of an eye. Time must ride vehicles too.

The Juggernaut ran without rest all that time. Whenever it seemed about to slow, Perru took black steel from the storage room and threw it into the furnace. Each time, the Juggernaut surged forward as though struck by a whip.

Curious, I asked.

"I heard the Juggernaut runs on a Lord's power. Does it keep moving at night too?"

"...If you put in enough fuel."

It was strange, but even Perru did not know how it worked. The Lord of Gold had made it, after all.

There was nothing to do but accept it.

After filling my stomach and properly washing up for the first time in a while, I looked for somewhere to sleep. Perru spoke to me.

"...Room. There."

Perru pointed to the room that had been used as storage. Two plain beds stood in the roughly tidied room. It looked so cramped that it would be hard to live there, much less have any privacy.

I frowned and complained.

"Look, I don't want to be too demanding as a guest, but why do I have to sleep in that dingy little room? Unlike Azzy and Tyr, I'm a human being who needs a proper living space."

"...There is no other way."

'...There isn't enough room elsewhere for beds. I have no choice but to put the two men in the storage room.'

If I could sleep alone, I would be satisfied enough, but that was not even the case. And of all people, my roommate was...

"Huh? Why do I have to share a room with him?!"

A regressor disguised as a man. That was genuinely dangerous.

If I happened to approach her in my sleep, she might counterattack with the Heaven-Reversing Boundary and kill me before I even woke up.

"Why are you being so fussy, Mr. Shei? My safety is in far greater danger from sleeping with you!"

"What danger could you possibly be in?!"

'If we share a room, I'm the one in far greater danger! I can't even rest comfortably in case my identity is exposed! Tch. How long do I have to keep living while being treated as a man...?!'

What danger was there? She was not a child, and she felt threatened just because she was sleeping in the same room as someone of the opposite sex? Sharing a bed would be one thing, but a room was going too far. If she felt that way, she should not have disguised herself as a man in the first place.

"I don't have the strength to resist if you get improper ideas! If we're left alone in a locked room, who knows what might happen to me!"

"What ideas do you think I'd have?! I've never had improper thoughts about you! Besides, I'm..."

"You're what?"

'I should just reveal that I'm a woman...! Hoo. Calm down. It's still too early. It's more advantageous to remain a man until things with the duchy are settled. It won't happen, but if they mistake me for the Holy Maiden... Tyrkanzyaka and the Fog Duchy might turn against me.'

The regressor calmed her rising impulse.

The power to know the future belonged to the Holy Maiden. It seemed the regressor had often been mistaken for one. Being mistaken for the Holy Maiden was often beneficial, but not while she was with Tyr.

The regressor had plans of her own, then. Though I was not sure whether she was really only being "mistaken" for the Holy Maiden.

"Last time, when I tried to wake you up, you nearly took my head off! Then you shamelessly told me not to disturb you while you sleep. Wow, there are limits to how brazen you can be."

"I-I couldn't help it! A traveler needs at least some way to protect himself while sleeping!"

"I wouldn't say anything if it stopped at protecting yourself! The problem is that it aims straight for the neck of someone trying to wake you up kindly!"

"I didn't cut it off!"

"If you had, you'd be a murderer! Don't act proud just because you didn't. Be grateful that I didn't let you cut it off!"

As we noisily bickered, a boy with a short bob walked in from outside. Pretty enough to be mistaken for a girl, he giggled as he spoke.

"Oh, honestly. Shei has no idea what he's missing. Sleeping with Father is such a precious opportunity."

The regressor tilted her head at Hilde.

Hilde clearly resembled the regressor at the moment. The sharp eyes beneath the short bob that exposed the nape of the neck were exactly like hers.

But something was different.

Hilde's transformations until now had been perfect enough to surprise even Hilde, but anyone could have told this one apart at a glance. The craftsmanship was excellent, yet she looked distinctly unlike the regressor.

"What is this? A transformation? Even so..."

Hilde, only half-transformed into "Shei," let out a deep sigh.

"I don't look like him at all, right? Yep. It's a failure. Your character is too difficult to interpret, so this is as far as I got. I can't immerse myself in it, so my acting isn't very convincing either."

The regressor seemed quietly pleased that Hilde could not transform into her. Was it pride in being wholly unique? Even though she might normally have attacked the instant she saw her own face, her attitude was mild.

"Hmph. Of course. Not everything in the world goes the way you want."

"I learned that today too. I give up completely. I think I'm misinterpreting something, but I don't know what it is."

Understandable. How could anyone understand that mental world without knowing the premise of regression? Even I, with mind-reading, did not fully understand it.

Hilde raised both hands, then suddenly leaped at me with a mischievous smile.

"Anyway! If you hate sleeping with Father that much, switch with me! I have no problem sleeping with Father! No, I'd like it even more!"

"Huh?"

"You're asking whether it's okay for a man and a woman to sleep in the same room? It's fine. I'm disguised as a man right now! Not only the same room, even the same bed would be safe!"

No. I was the one refusing that. Sharing a narrow bed was irritating enough, so why did it have to be with a man? I would not be safe. If anything, Hilde should use a woman's body.

The regressor seriously considered Hilde's offer. Then, seeing her own face pressed up against me, she felt repulsed and refused.

"Forget it. I'd rather not do it than watch my face clinging to him."

"Oh? Are you jealous?"

"Jealous of what?! It makes me uncomfortable! You'd feel uncomfortable too if someone ran around doing nonsense with your face!"

"Not really? I can do as much nonsense as I want with my own face. What kind of nonsense should I do?"

As Hilde said that, she casually headed toward the storage room. At that moment, darkness rippled behind her and suddenly pounced, wrapping around her arms and legs.

"Oh my? Tyrkanzyaka?"

[Hey, what grown woman strides into a man's room like that? Come back here.]

"That old-fashioned way of thinking is what slows things down!"

Saying that, Hilde was dragged beyond the darkness. Perru, who saw someone get swallowed by darkness right beside her, fled in fright once again.

In the end, only the regressor and I remained before the storage room. Sweeping back her hair, the regressor clicked her tongue and waved a hand.

"Fine. I'll hang a curtain in the middle, so don't come over."

"I don't understand why you're the one being defensive. Shouldn't I be the one screaming? Unlike you, I'm a harmless human without an ounce of aggression!"

"It's not that I'm wary because it's you. It would be the same no matter who it was. I can't sleep well when I can sense someone else in the same space."

'If nobody is beside me, there is no danger. Not for me, not for the other person. For everyone...'

The regressor took out a wide sheet of cloth and divided the room down the middle. The already cramped room became even more suffocating, but I could read the relief from beyond the curtain. In her own space, the regressor relaxed and let down her guard.

Well, she could hang it or not. It was more comfortable for me if she did. I would not have to worry about accidentally touching her and losing my head.

Carefully moving so I would not touch the curtain, I lay down on the cot and spoke.

"Privacy is certainly guaranteed. Good night, Mr. Shei."

"...You too."

Her reply came a beat late.

-------

Elik, King of the Golden Kingdom, gave an order to her disciples.

"Fill this room with a single gold coin. The one who fills the room most wisely will prove worthy of receiving my teachings."

It was such a trite question that it had been worn down to the bone, and each disciple presented their own answer. Sound, light, fragrance. The disciples filled the room with all kinds of invisible things and waited for Elik's evaluation with proud smiles.

Yet Elik's test held another hidden meaning.

"Water that flows into the sea becomes clouds and falls again, while broken tools are melted down and made into steel once more. Those who pursue wisdom should consider how to replenish what they use rather than simply consuming it. That is far more difficult."

The first question was famous, but the disciples had never heard what came after it. Elik gave another order to the disciples, who stared blankly at one another.

"Turn what you have filled it with back into gold."

The disciples hurriedly gathered what remained and tried to exchange it for gold.

But things that had been used naturally lost their value. It was said that not one disciple returned with a whole gold coin.

...Until the Lord of Gold appeared.

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