WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 345: The King Who Kills Others, the God Who Kills Himself - 5

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"I am in awe of Your Majesty's teachings! At first, I thought you had only said it to drive me away... My faith was lacking! Please forgive this foolish servant!"

At first, she thought it was a tasteless prank. She assumed he was merely trying to amuse her with a display of wit, so instead of scolding him, she played along.

But... it soon became clear that her disciple's discovery was both fact and truth.

"As Your Majesty surmised, all things are truly one. Just as we craftsmen may use many kinds of iron, yet iron is fundamentally one, all things also come from a single origin! A pure form that makes up matter itself! Of course it can be changed!"

The disciple firmly believed that Elik had already realized this truth and posed the question to share her understanding with others. Whenever he saw Elik, he launched into incomprehensible explanations.

But Elik could not understand a word he was saying.

It made no sense even by common reasoning. How could iron be turned into gold?

Iron could be made into weapons. Yet it remained iron even after becoming a weapon. Mixing different metals to make an alloy was like adding sesame seeds to flour dough, not turning it into glutinous rice or buckwheat dough. The latter was called something other than a craft.

Fraud.

Elik, who possessed the king's power, understood that clearly. Yet what her disciple spoke of far surpassed all the knowledge she... no, humanity itself had accumulated until then.

"When I lacked faith, I did not dare imagine it. But when Your Majesty taught me, my eyes were opened! I do not know whether it is a mass so small it cannot be seen, or whether it flows like water. Perhaps it is so small that it has nothing to do with any form we know. If sand were fine enough, would it not flow through cracks in stone like water?"

She did not know.

An unwelcome guest had entered a world where everything had been divided into possibility and impossibility. She did not know. No matter what knowledge she applied, she could not grasp even a speck of what he was saying.

Yet for someone who had ruled all her life... she did not have the nerve to boldly declare that she did not know.

Doing so would mean denying the name Elik, handed down since ancient times, and the power contained within it.

Uriaa Elik composed her crumbling expression and said,

"You have understood correctly. I too had reached a similar conclusion, though I had not examined it as deeply as you have."

"Your Majesty has countless affairs to attend to. It cannot be helped. It is more than I deserve simply to be the first disciple to understand Your Majesty's intent!"

Not at all. She had no such intent. Her disciple had simply misunderstood on his own.

"Could you show me this form?"

"Well, that is... I have considered it as well... Just as a furnace is needed to melt pure steel, separating that pure form would require a blast furnace hundreds of times hotter... Perhaps Your Majesty..."

There was no need to say more. Possessing the king's power, she knew the answer.

Impossible. It could not be achieved with humanity's current technology.

"It cannot be done. Even if you reached the required temperature, the furnace itself would melt."

"So that is the case... Then even if it is a shortcut, there is no choice but to reach it through innate arcane. Innate arcane is the only way to spread the principle Your Majesty has realized throughout the world."

If innate arcane was the only way to reach it, Elik could not imitate him. She shook her head.

"I cannot. For one who possesses the king's power, learning innate arcane is close to impossible."

That was true. Those who inherited the king's power had never possessed talent for innate arcane. Their overwhelmingly powerful authority had devoured their talent for manifesting mental images.

But that truth was used to conceal another.

The truth that Elik could not even guess at the principle, let alone manifest a mental image.

They said a king could not understand the hearts of the people, but the people also could not dare guess the king's heart. The disciple, who revered, admired, and loved the great Elik without end, cried out without understanding her true intent.

"Th-then I shall become Your Majesty's innate arcane!"

"...Will you?"

"This too is grace bestowed upon me by Your Majesty. To repay it, I shall use this power for Your Majesty for the rest of my life!"

Elik gave a hollow laugh.

Her disciple had reached something she had neither learned nor taught, all because of a slight misunderstanding. He had surpassed even the king's power and reached a realm no human had yet attained.

Perhaps boredom had been an exceedingly luxurious emotion. Compared to this helplessness, this inferiority, and this base pleasure...

"I permit it."

"Thank you!"

"And from now on... spread your discovery farther and wider, Demo."

Recognized by the king he loved, Demo smiled brightly and bowed his head.

"I shall obey!"

A few years later, people called alchemists appeared in the Gold State. Several craftsmen who had learned from Demo succeeded in turning steel into gold. The alchemists naturally gained wealth and power, rising to become the true power of the Gold State.

Where there was light, there was also shadow. As alchemists rose, the blacksmiths and craftsmen who formed the foundation of the Gold State had to endure difficult times. Even the Gold State's proud craftsmen could not compete with alchemists who could create gold directly.

Still, it did not matter. Gold from the Gold State spread across the world and returned as every kind of wealth. Even those who picked up the scraps spilled by alchemists lived in luxury. The finest masters forgot even their craft, spending their days soaked in drink.

Concealing its growing cracks beneath the brilliance of gold and silk, the Gold State sank endlessly into extravagance and pleasure.

Then one day.

"W-we will no longer accept gold from today onward..."

As always, collapse arrived quietly and certainly.

"Th-there is too much of it. There are almost more gold pieces than grain. Please give us something else instead..."

Who could have anticipated it?

Gold. It had long been a symbol of wealth, a precious metal used as currency everywhere in the world. It also held great value as a catalyst for arcane power, so everyone coveted it.

But when the gold minted by alchemists became more plentiful than stones, people began treating gold like stone. Economic logic overturned a value that had endured for thousands of years.

It had never happened before, so no one expected it. No one prepared for it, either. Naturally, no one had a fitting solution. The chaos grew beyond control.

"Please buy my gold!"

"Why won't you take it when I have this much gold?!"

"Bandits attacked us? Hire mercenaries! Tell them I'll give them all the gold they want... What? They won't accept it?"

The tower built on gold collapsed in an instant. They had only lost their trust in gold, yet every piece of gold in the Gold State lost its value at once and became a burden. It was an achievement no alchemist could ever have accomplished.

Nothing had changed, yet everyone became poor at the same time, and unrest broke out. People no longer wanted to fight by the logic of gold.

They picked up weapons of steel instead.

The craftsmen who had lost wealth and power to alchemists rose again with the arrival of the age of steel.

The first thing those who held weapons did was attack the alchemists. They killed the alchemists blamed for all this and seized their property. Until then, alchemists had only been craftsmen who turned steel into gold. They knew nothing of battle, so they were helpless before the successive attacks. Neither the gold they had trusted so dearly nor those they had controlled with it could save their lives.

Across the nation, alchemists were hunted down and executed. Gold stained with blood scattered across the ground. A sudden bloody storm swept through the entire Gold State.

"Demo, criminal of high treason, listen. It is difficult to forgive the crime of plunging the nation into ruin through your foolish actions."

Even Demo, the first alchemist, could not escape the flames.

"Put shackles around his neck and hang an iron ball from him. Then whip him and make him wander the Gold State. I leave his judgment to the people of the Gold State."

With hatred for alchemists reaching the heavens, the creator of alchemy would be stoned to death by the people.

Uriaa Elik, king of the Gold State, looked down at Demo with cold eyes and pronounced his death sentence.

* * *

Right. I could feel it. This memory resembled the memories of the past I had seen beneath the Abyss.

There was such a thing as a residual imprint. When a human who had reached a high realm died, the arcane power and vital energy they had built in life remained even after death. Sometimes, it even forced the body to move and recreated habits from their life.

Residual imprints disappeared when a funeral was held, whether through cremation or burial, or when the corpse was damaged beyond the point of holding its shape. But if its original form was preserved through some means, it remained.

Like at the bottom of the Abyss.

And... like this Golden Palace.

The question was why I could feel King Elik's imprint instead of the Golden Mirror's.

"Tyr. How is it? Can you feel anything... Tyr?"

Huh. Where did my bodyguard go?

She had definitely been beside me, and we had walked here together, but she had vanished before I noticed. What was this? Reading her thoughts, she seemed to be nearby.

More importantly... something was strange.

Why was there an open space after we pushed through the cornfield?

The corn had been tall and dense, but when I approached earlier, there had been no broad clearing like this. Beyond the corn, all I could see was more corn. Yet after I passed the Heatblast Lord and stepped beyond a single row of corn, a clearing suddenly appeared.

It was a pastoral sight.

There was a large village hall that also served as a warehouse. It had no decoration at all, which made it feel all the more welcoming. Behind it stood a low hill, and a stream babbled beyond that. The sound of a waterwheel turning echoed loudly.

It was the sort of country scene you could find anywhere.

Naturally, it had not been visible from outside. It felt as though I had entered another world.

As I looked around, farmers trudged out of the cornfield behind me.

Carrying armfuls of corn, they headed toward the warehouse. Without a word, they filled it with corn, then went back to pick more. Like worker ants.

Yet I could not sense their presence. I could not read their thoughts.

Because everyone working here was a homunculus.

"Y-you! How did you get into the Golden Palace?!"

An old man in a straw hat was staring at me in shock.

It was Hecto, the Suppression Lord. As expected, he really was connected to the Golden Palace.

‘How did he get here?! It cannot even be seen from outside!’

I could read his thoughts, so Hecto was the original. I got here by reading your thoughts.

"Did I not give you one day of grace?! This violates our contract!"

"What are you talking about? I was looking around the cornfield and happened to wander here. This is the Golden Palace?"

"W-what...?!"

After panicking for a moment, Hecto gathered his thoughts and shouted,

"Do not lie! You found the Golden Palace guarded by a Guardian in this vast cornfield, and you claim it was an accident? Nonsense!"

His mind worked fast, as expected. But what could he do about it? Other than stubbornly insisting it was a lie, what could he do? If he could not prove it, that made it the truth.

"It really was an accident. I only came this far while scouting. If you had readily told me where the Golden Palace was, I would not have come here even by accident."

"You intended to come here the moment you began scouting!"

"No, I didn't. Did you enter my mind and come back out?"

If he could do that, he should be the King of Humanity. When I openly stood my ground, Hecto could say nothing and only seethed.

Then it happened.

"Enough. Let him come."

The village hall door opened, and a woman emerged.

Her brilliantly golden hair, as if real gold had been melted down, was tied into a ponytail, which seemed a terrible waste. The clothes clinging tightly to her body did not seem meant to show off her figure, but simply to keep trailing hems from getting in the way of work. Wearing leather gloves and ankle-high boots, she examined me with sharp eyes.

"Are you the Golden Mirror?"

"No. But you must have something to say to me."

"I came to offer peace to the Golden Mirror. How am I supposed to know who you are?"

The woman placed one hand over her chest and introduced herself.

"I am Uriaa Elik, the Golden Lord. The ruler of the Gold State and lord of understanding."

The ruler of the Gold State, a sovereign with the power to reproduce every craft in the world.

And a king who had been "devoured" by the monster of understanding.

"I am also... the Golden Palace that rules the Lesser States."

King Elik's homunculus spoke with calm dignity.

Footnotes:

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