WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 342: The King Who Kills Others, the God Who Kills Himself - 2

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The Golden Mirror had no artistic sensibility. Hilde had learned that firsthand. Looking closely, I could see that the city clearly reused only a handful of patterns.

That statue, on the other hand, was incredibly elaborate. From the wrinkles around its mouth to the finely sculpted beard and hair, even its vivid expression. It could never have been made by someone who simply recycled patterns.

It was as though a living person had been hardened in place.

Hilde's eyes sparkled as she nodded vigorously.

‘Just as expected of Father! You do have an eye for art! Well, art belongs to humans. Of course the King of Humanity would know!’

I had learned some of it by reading your thoughts, actually.

Still, that was frightening. While everyone else was thinking about the talks, she had been examining the statue from every angle. What kind of person was she?

"...You bastards. I can't tolerate this any longer. I treated you with enough goodwill..."

Hecto's body trembled with rage. Hot air blasted violently from his pistons. Pressure became heat, warming the air.

No, the regressor had already brought up everything important, and I had only wrapped it up. Why was he staring at me like he wanted to kill me? Was this Jenga? Did the person who knocked the tower down bear all the blame?

Hecto, literally boiling with rage, spread his hand. More than a dozen pistons rose from his body and all pointed at me. If he wanted, they would shoot out in an instant and pummel my entire body.

"Are you trying to threaten me?!"

A taboo was a taboo.

No matter how much the people of the Lesser States lived like mayflies, they did not truly want to die tomorrow. What would happen if it became widely known that Lesser States food caused deformities and could even kill them?

They would stop buying food from the Suppression Lord. Then they would struggle to survive in Claudia instead.

One or two people would be fine. A special being like a Lord could handle that demand. But if everyone tried to live in Claudia, society would collapse.

If everyone wanted food from Claudia, the economy would be ruined.

For the Lesser States to retain even the bare shape of a country, this taboo had to remain hidden. Yet an outsider, from an enemy nation they were at war with, had learned even that secret.

‘If it comes to it, I'll fight to the death...! If my own strength isn't enough, I'll use the power of the Golden Palace!’

Hecto spoke with the resolve to die. He truly was a loyal subject.

"No. I was only asking just in case. We shouldn't make a mistake based on our own guesses. If we wanted to threaten you with this, wouldn't we have said what we suspected right in front of you all?"

"..."

He was simply too decent. Someone more suspicious and ill-tempered would not have listened to me out of offense. Yet Hecto listened carefully and understood that my question came from pure curiosity.

‘Are they afraid they'll become statues when they meet the Golden Mirror...? Heh. If they've guessed that much, I understand why they'd be afraid. I can't keep being vague.’

After silently glaring at me, Hecto took a deep breath and withdrew his pistons.

"...Resonating with the Golden Mirror won't turn you into gold or steel. Those statues were not made from living humans. You can rest easy."

"Then what happens?"

"Don't ask any more. I can never tell you. But I can guarantee that you outsiders are safe."

That was enough. If he only thought through the answer a little more clearly, I could read it perfectly with my mind-reading.

Even Hecto did not know the exact details. Only the Golden Mirror would know how the process of "resonance" worked. Still, though he did not know the principle, Hecto had served the Golden Mirror for a long time and knew what happened.

Humans who resonated with the Golden Mirror were... "collected." So they could be "called forth" at any time.

Good. I had gained another clue. My curiosity had been fully satisfied, so I nodded as if I understood and had no further interest.

"If you don't want to say it, you don't have to. I only needed to confirm that I'm safe."

"...Thank you for understanding."

He did not look grateful at all. Well, that was probably just political courtesy.

There had been a brief dispute, but the regressor accepted Hecto's offer and decided to give him one day's grace. Hecto, who sat there with the uncomfortable expression of someone who had been thoroughly taken for a fool, kept the steel cover in place and called Perru over separately. He intended to dig up at least a little information about us.

He was good-hearted and diligent too. It was unlike the Lesser States, but a country needed people like that to resemble a country at all.

The regressor stepped through the steel cover and walked away calmly, then glanced back.

"So they weren't using living people as statues? That's more surprising."

"What? Mr. Shei, you knew too?"

"Obviously. When you see a sculpture that's excessively realistic, the first thing to suspect is whether it's really a person."

Wouldn't the normal response be, Wow, that's well made? What kind of life had she lived?

"Still, you noticed it too?"

"I only picked up on something the Suppression Lord let slip. A person resonating with something, it sounded unsettling. Mr. Shei was right. It was good that we didn't eat Lesser States food."

"He said outsiders weren't greatly affected, but still."

‘If I don't simply die in the Lesser States and end up resonating with the Golden Mirror, could I regress...? Ugh. I don't particularly want to find out.’

The regressor shook her head, made her preparations, and spoke.

"I'm going to look for the Golden Mirror first. If the Suppression Lord was telling the truth, it should be nearby. Knowing the location in advance will give us more options. If necessary, we can shake off the Suppression Lord and go meet it ourselves."

She boldly declared that she had no intention of keeping her promise. That was the regressor for you.

Hilde offered something that was not quite praise, but carried a trace of admiration.

"Wow~. You don't intend to keep even the promise you made a moment ago! Amazing! I'm moved!"

"Quiet. What are you going to do for the day, then?"

"Me? I'm going to disguise myself and gather information!"

"That's the same thing!"

"You accepted the offer, not me! Besides, when I transform, I become someone else, you know?"

"Someone else? Even if you transform, you're still you. You aren't becoming another person."

The regressor's thoughtless remark happened to strike Hilde's sore spot. Perhaps it was exactly what a shapeshifter who had lost herself needed to hear.

Yet messages sometimes depended on the messenger. Hilde wiped the smile from her face and said,

"You have no right to say that. You can't find me."

"I can tell. I've guessed right a few times."

"By using your 'eyes'? Pfft. Anyone can figure it out when they start from suspicion. And when you want to confirm it, you have to rely on the Authority of Light, don't you? That's cowardly. What's worse is that you don't even know you're being cowardly. The only person who recognized me from the beginning was Father."

Uh. I had used something similar to an Authority too, mind-reading. I felt terribly sorry whenever she praised me too much.

Still, I knew I was cowardly, so did that make it okay?

"What's gotten into you all of a sudden?"

"My pride is hurt because you're passing judgment on my transformation magic. I'll be going now. I need to prepare for infiltration~."

Hilde waved her hand and headed for a secluded part of an alley. The regressor watched her back with a baffled expression.

"What was that about?"

"I don't know what it was, but it looks like Mr. Shei offended her."

"Are you saying it's my fault?"

Not your fault. You two probably just didn't get along.

We had talked about splitting up to gather information, but I had no intention of running around myself. I was terrible at physical work.

The Golden Mirror. Did it want to become a king? Or a god?

I could not understand its intentions at all. Its actions had no consistency. Looking at how it produced food and built cities, it seemed to want to save humans, yet after making so many humans, all it did was collect them.

A king killed others and lived off their blood and sweat.

A god divided itself and gave its pieces to people.

The Golden Mirror's actions lay somewhere between those two. It used its abilities to provide others a place to live, but the people who lived there ultimately reached "collection." The people became part of the Golden Mirror in the end. If they lived, they were "collected," and if they died, they were "disassembled."

But... there was no reason to collect things like humans.

Was that why it insisted on the title Golden Mirror? Because it was neither king nor god?

"I really need to meet it."

I muttered to myself as I retraced the path I had taken.

That was when I heard a commotion from the street ahead. Looking up, I saw carriages tangled together on a slightly sloped road. Their apparent owners shouted with veins bulging in their necks.

"Who the hell brought a carriage into the city?!"

"They slammed on the brakes over there!"

"What does me stopping for a moment have to do with you crashing into the wall?!"

A traffic accident. A common occurrence.

This city was temporarily inhabited by the Suppression Lord's alchemists and scavengers eyeing the cornfields. Public order was maintained by the Suppression Lord's power and reputation, but trouble was inevitable when so many unruly scavengers lived together.

It couldn't be helped. Should I go around? I did not know the city's layout well, but as long as I had a sense of direction, I would eventually reach where I wanted to go.

What? Bad with directions? I refused to consider such fantasy creatures human. How shameful was it for a human, who could only rely on intelligence, to be bad with directions? You were disqualified from being human.

I turned into a side alley and was about to head for the next one.

"Huh. There's no path here."

That was strange. There should have been a path by my calculations. Did I need to go a little farther? Let's see, the next alley.

Right. If I went through here, it led to the next street. Just as I was about to enter the alley, I abruptly stopped at the thought coming from inside.

‘If someone comes, I'll get them. Stab some rich-looking bastard and make a score. One hit is all I need!’

There was a mugger too? They were holding a dagger with clear murderous intent. A surprise attack to lower their guard would not work on someone like that. The moment I spoke to them, they would try to stab me.

Run. I should naturally turn right here.

I was not lost yet. I knew which direction the sun had risen, and I had a clear grasp of north, south, east, and west. If it came down to it, I could just climb onto the rooftops and run around. I was not bad with directions.

That made it all the stranger.

I had not intended it, and I had made each choice without much thought, but it felt as if I was being naturally herded down a certain path. It was definitely the right way, yet I kept being led into secluded alleys where it would not have been strange for someone to jump out.

It was bizarre. How could I explain this? As though none of my choices had any meaning, and I had become a puppet moving as someone else decreed. It felt unpleasant, like dancing in the palm of a chess player who could see ten moves ahead.

But that could not be. I was a mind-reader. A con artist in psychological warfare who could read the thoughts of a player who saw ten moves ahead and set traps in return. Yet my mind-reading sensed nothing.

The scavengers who blocked the road, the aspiring highwayman, and even the dead-end wall. None of them had deliberately blocked my path. If they had known, I would have read it beforehand and dealt with it. Even if someone had designed it, how could they have known I would walk down that street at that exact time and prepared such arrangements?

It was pure coincidence that I had come this way...

"I will give you a warning, barbarian."

...No, there was one more possibility.

The "fate" spoken of by the Sanctum.

A woman wearing a robe pulled low over her face stood blocking the narrow alley. The only visible parts of her body were her slender mouth, ash-gray hair, and the callused fist exposed between her sleeves.

Just as expected.

I had read her thoughts, but now that I had come this far, I could not run. The moment I changed direction at the first street, this encounter had already been "foreordained."

By the Sanctum's Holy Maiden.

Standing here as ordained, she glared at me as ordained. She was hostile, but had no intention of attacking. She had come here only to warn me.

"If you seek to stop the war, I will watch without interfering. Instead, blessings will await you in the future. But if you seek further chaos, if you intend to reduce humanity into beasts that act as they please once more..."

The Steel Maiden. Peruel.

Among the Holy Maidens at the pinnacle of the Sanctum, she was the only one with pure martial strength.

The Steel Maiden raised her tightly clenched fist and pointed it at me. The fist that shattered heretics in a single blow was covered in sacred cloth not to protect the fist, but to protect whoever it struck. Yet despite that tearful consideration, they said no one had ever been protected.

Everyone the Holy Maiden's fist touched had been crushed.

"By the will of the First Holy Maiden, who blessed this servant and cursed barbarism."

Though I had come alone without any sense of danger, I would not have been safer if I had come with someone else. The Steel Maiden could not be stopped. Literally.

Peruel pointed at me and warned,

"With this very fist, I will personally deliver divine punishment upon you!"

No, not me. The King of Humanity.

Footnotes:

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