WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 341: The King Who Kills Others, the God Who Kills Themself - 1

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The Golden Ark's hatch lowered. When we stepped outside, an elderly person in a straw hat was waiting for us right in front of it. For a moment, none of us knew what to say.

They were standing there with nothing below their knees, looking up at us.

It was frightening, but so sudden that it was more confusing than anything. Were they trying to look pitiful, or scary? Before we could even react,

"Heh heh heh! It's always fun seeing such dumbfounded faces!"

The elderly person chuckled playfully, then took a deep breath.

Pssshhh.

Air rushed in, and their body suddenly shot upward. Once they stood at eye level with me, the elderly person laughed heartily.

It wasn't just that they had no legs below the knees. Their entire lower body was gone. Piston legs had been attached in their place, allowing them to walk.

Hecto, the Suppression Lord. One of the Lesser States' Lords, who handled pistons as though they were part of their own body, approached us with a welcoming hiss from their joints.

"It's been a while, Verdigris. Sorry for stopping you so abruptly. I was working, so I received the report late. Still, I trust you'll understand."

"You think saying sorry is enough? You stopped us so suddenly that I spilled all my tea."

Everyone else had already reacted, but I was the only one who'd made a fool of myself. What were they going to do about my emotional damages? When I grumbled, Hecto shrugged as if to ask what else they were supposed to do.

"What else could I do? A Goldshredder tearing apart rocks and steel was about to trample farmland. I only apologized as a matter of courtesy, without meaning it. If you'd actually trampled the cornfield, I'd have flipped the whole thing over."

Their answer was so hearty that I doubted my ears for a moment.

Everyone from the Lesser States I'd talked to so far had been obsessed with gears, hot-tempered, or terrible at communication. By the principle of induction, I'd quietly assumed the next Lord would be abnormal too.

They had even lifted the Golden Ark with a giant lift, so I thought they were an enemy or a lunatic. But they were much better at talking than I expected.

"What? Why do you seem normal?"

Oops. That was my honest thought.

"Heh heh heh! I'm the strange one in this country! Doesn't a country need at least one normal person like me to keep it running?"

They really was strange. They just laughed off what I said as a joke? Was this what Lesser States people were like?

This was why you shouldn't judge someone by their appearance. Someone without legs could have such a pleasant personality.

After answering kindly, Hecto pulled out a cane, extended it, and planted it on the ground. Once they had balanced themself, they looked sharply at Perru and asked,

"Anyway. If you had no business here, you could have simply gone around. Since you've come down, I assume you have another purpose. I'm old, so standing for long is difficult. Why don't you tell me what you want?"

The regressor stepped forward ahead of Perru.

"We're peace envoys from the military state. We want to speak with the Lord of Gold about ending the war and reaching an agreement."

It was a direct, no-holds-barred proposal. It was so candid that there was no room for misunderstanding, which made it all the harder to believe.

Even Hecto blinked for a moment before they could process it. They looked at the regressor suspiciously, unable to believe her. Luckily, Perru was there to vouch for our identities.

"Is that true, Verdigris?"

"...Yes."

"Do you have anything to prove your identities?"

It was a reasonable request, but the regressor had nothing like that. As she hesitated, Hilde stepped forward instead.

"We do have something that proves our identities, but would you even recognize it? I can also tell you why Maximilien never became a Lord, if that will do as a substitute."

"That won't be necessary. It seems true that you're from the military state. If you had no business with the Lord of Gold, what fool would board Verdigris Lord's Juggernaut and cross the Lesser States?"

Satisfied, Hecto furrowed their brow and stroked their beard.

"Hmm. Peace envoys. I didn't expect the military state to send them first."

That made sense. The military state hadn't expected it either. If it hadn't been for the regressor, they would have sent an army instead of peace envoys.

Something this important couldn't be settled so easily. Hecto scratched at their straw hat, looked toward the jackals surrounding us, and spoke.

"This isn't a suitable place to discuss political matters. Shall we go inside and talk for a while?"

"Fine. Lead the way."

When the regressor nodded without hesitation, Hecto paused.

"You'd step so willingly into land that may be a trap? Don't you feel any sense of danger? If you peace envoys disappear, peace itself may turn to dust."

"Try it."

Damn. That was cool. When would I ever be able to say something like that?

Even with the ability to read minds, I couldn't say things like that. Sometimes people have no real intention, then suddenly get upset and actually do it. You needed the confidence to survive even at the center of an explosion, like the regressor.

Her answer overflowed with confidence, but Hecto just laughed loudly.

"Ha ha ha! How bold! Of course, this city does have traps, but I won't use them on you! Come on, then! I'll lead the way!"

Things seemed likely to go better than expected. Even when the regressor charged in headfirst, conversations went smoothly with normal people like them. Or maybe someone at Hecto's level was simply willing to accommodate her.

‘They weren't hostile even when I treated them harshly. I should remember that.’

The regressor, who had been preparing for a possible battle, put Skywarbler away. She watched Hecto limp along on piston legs and fell into thought.

‘The Heatblast Lord, the Verdigris Lord, and the Suppression Lord. No matter how quickly generations change in the Lesser States, I've never heard of any of these Lords. The only one I know is Claudia's Thunder Lord.’

Hecto's appearance was exceptionally distinctive. Since they walked on piston legs, the hiss of escaping air and the creak of metal followed in a steady rhythm. Visually or audibly, they were hard to forget after seeing them once.

That wasn't limited to Hecto. The Heatblast Lord, Rowkett, was the same. Perru, who dissolved steel and therefore had to ride a horse unless she had the Juggernaut, was relatively ordinary by comparison.

Yet the regressor recognized none of them. I couldn't read memories from previous cycles, so I didn't know for certain, but it was probably because she had never seen them in the earlier cycles.

‘Did they all die because of the war? Or... before the war?’

It was still midday. Tyr hated sunlight, and Azzy would only bark out nonsense no matter how complicated the conversation became. That wasn't discrimination against beastfolk. It was just true. There was no reason to linger in the city when we had a perfectly good Juggernaut, so only Hilde, the regressor, and I had come for a quick visit.

Strictly speaking, I didn't need to come when there were already two people handling the practical matters, but reading thoughts was useful.

Several subordinates ran over, but they scattered at once after Hecto gave a simple order. They were quite disciplined. Less so than the military state, but everything was relative. The fact that they could command the jackals at all spoke to their leadership.

Hecto walked down the main road and led us to the center of a plaza. A few backless benches surrounded a statue in the middle of the white stone square. Looking tired, Hecto sat down and adjusted the length of their pistons.

The regressor looked around and said,

"This doesn't look like a good place to discuss political matters either."

"Of course this isn't the end of it. Just wait."

Hecto raised a finger and pointed at the statue.

It was a statue of a middle-aged man with a stern expression. The craftsmanship was remarkably lifelike, but the round steel food cover on its head instead of a hat stripped away all realism. Since it was the only part made of a different material, it seemed to have been placed there after the statue was created.

Hecto activated their innate arcane toward the cover.

Steel had to be hammered and flattened to make it. Even after alchemy was born, hammering steel into shape remained common.

The Suppression Lord's innate arcane manifested with the image of hammering steel.

Their innate arcane applied pressure to steel. Its shape and appearance didn't matter. If it was steel, they could exert pressure on it. It would be difficult to move if the force went in twisted directions, but by forming it into something like a piston, they could control the immense power from their innate arcane in a single direction.

That was why their pistons operated regardless of heat or wind. It was also how they had lifted the Juggernaut.

Hecto applied that ability to the steel cover. From the inside outward.

The cover gradually grew larger. Alchemized steel, with its excellent malleability and ductility, swelled like a balloon under Hecto's ability. Normally, even metal would tear after expanding to a certain point, but Hecto was a Lesser States Lord whose alchemy and innate arcane had become one. The carefully controlled alchemized steel continued growing, unable to tear or break.

At some point, the cover reached the ground. It had grown larger than the statue. That still wasn't enough, and the steel cover kept expanding until it blanketed the entire plaza.

Alchemy could reshape matter, but creating precise forms was difficult. Rolling steel thin and evenly depended more on the caster's sense than on alchemy itself. Yet the Suppression Lord, who could perform the rolling process with their innate arcane, could make steel sheets thinner than paper with their bare hands.

The regressor watched their ability and thought,

‘Precise. If they can expand it, they can probably compress it too. Are they warning us that they'll attack if necessary...?’

"Ha ha ha! What do you think? Isn't it more private now?"

No, I thought they just wanted to show it off.

Hecto adjusted the length of their legs with a chuckle, then dropped the amusement from their face and got to the point.

"First, let me say this. I don't particularly want war either."

The regressor nodded with satisfaction, but Hecto's reason for not wanting war wasn't what she expected.

"I harvest and sell food for the Lesser States. When many people die in a war, that means I lose potential customers, doesn't it?"

"That was the reason?"

Cold calculation of profit and loss. This was the Lesser States. Even if they were different, their roots hadn't changed.

"I do intend to help you. Verdigris knows this, but the Lord of Gold is not far from here. I know the exact location."

"Then why did you call us here instead of leading us there right away?"

"That won't be possible immediately. I'd like you to wait one day."

We still had time, but there was no reason to drag things out, so the regressor asked reluctantly,

"Why?"

"I don't need to explain my circumstances, but I'll answer in return for your honesty. The Lord of Gold is cultivating fields nearby at this very moment."

"Fields? There are fields right here."

"More of them. These aren't enough."

The cornfields we had just seen were already enormous. Yet the Lord of Gold was making even more. Did the Lord of Gold intend to feed the entire Lesser States and still have food left over?

The regressor's thoughts were similar to mine.

"Who cares about homunculus fields? What matters to you is Claudia's real food, isn't it? This corn is already enough, so why?"

...Her wording was a little excessively sharp.

At the mention of homunculi, a secret of the Lesser States, Hecto's body jolted. They stared at Perru in shock.

"Verdigris! Did you tell them?"

"...They already knew."

"What? They already knew?"

"...I wouldn't tell them."

‘That's true. Even Verdigris Lord wouldn't reveal it to outsiders without reason, especially not important people from the military state. I can't underestimate the military state's intelligence network.’

After calming themself, Hecto let out a deep sigh and said,

"That doesn't mean this food is meaningless. It's better to eat something than starve. Humans process that food inside their bodies in their own way, so eating homunculus food doesn't make them resonate with the Lord of Gold immediately. There is a grace period of several weeks. If it's fermented into alcohol, or made into feed to fatten livestock before slaughtering and eating them, the end comes dozens of times more slowly."

Hecto planted their cane against the ground and continued.

"That is the role of the Drum Company I run. Processing homunculus food. The more I work, the more food is released into the Lesser States. Food people can eat without major problems! That is my job, my duty, and my pride!"

Having spoken with overflowing conviction, they added quietly,

"Of course, I do make a little money in the process, but that can't be helped."

"So it is about money in the end?"

"Money matters, but it's also for the Lesser States. There are only a few days when homunculus food bears fruit. If we miss this chance, the Lesser States will run short on food. That's why I asked for one day's grace. I won't stop you if you intend to find the Lord of Gold without my help. But if you wait just one day, I will personally guide you there."

It was an understandable situation and not a bad offer. The regressor fell into thought.

‘Finding the Lord of Gold will take time anyway. I'll accept the offer in case we can't find the Lord of Gold. If needed, we can ignore them and go to the Golden Palace, can't we?’

And this was supposed to be an apostle of justice. Justice would weep. Just as the regressor was about to accept the offer while hiding her dark intentions,

"Wait a moment. There's something I want to know."

Everyone else had had their say, so it was only fair that I got some answers too. Reading minds gave me a rough idea, but it was better to have someone think about it directly if I wanted a clearer answer.

Hecto said,

"Go ahead."

"What happens to humans who resonate with the Lord of Gold?"

"I've already told you more than enough. I have no reason to tell you any more..."

"Do they become like that statue?"

I pointed to the statue of a man, rendered with extreme realism, standing atop a pedestal patterned in monotonous repetition.

It was a work of art that no person without talent could have sculpted.

Footnotes:

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