WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 352

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The King Who Kills Others, the God Who Kills Himself - 10

A windfall had arrived for the jackals.

The Golden Mirror could make anything, but he did not make just anything. His alchemy had been used solely for the Gold State, and every work scattered across the Lesser States was nothing more than grave goods buried alongside it. The jackals who rummaged through that grave were grateful even for scraps.

Then the Golden Mirror prepared for war.

War is not made of money alone, but without money, war cannot be made at all. Weapons, provisions, warhorses, supply carts, everything costs. What the Golden Mirror produced in ordinary times was valuable enough, but nothing compared to the windfall a war brought with it.

The jackals, who had been frightened at first when told to prepare for war, took one look at the money pouring in front of them and lost their heads entirely.

"War's not so bad."

"Damn. What is this? Steal just one of these and sell it to another country and you could spend ten years living like a king."

"Sell it? Ha! You think wanderers get fair prices for anything these days? Lucky if you don't end up stabbed and dead."

There was a reason the Heatblast Lord had wanted war. War enriched the Lesser States, not because they won wars, but because the Golden Mirror made weapons.

Money has a nature not unlike a river. Both carry vast currents and sweep along everything that floats in them. Equipment made by the Golden Mirror was wealth in itself. Jackals who coveted it came flocking, and jackals who had been about to leave stayed on. Word would travel by wanderers across all of the Lesser States, and jackals would naturally band together into legions.

The Lesser States' legions. That great march was just about to begin.

"Hey, hey! Over there!"

"What are you making such a fuss ab, huh?"

As if signaling the start of the war, an enormous serpent slid across the ground.

It was a great snake, wrought from the earth itself. The body was over three meters in diameter, and its length was beyond counting. Soil split apart in scales along its hide, and cornstalks grew from it like whiskers. The earth serpent shook the ground as it advanced.

This was plainly a monster that defied natural law. They said the great southern forests had snakes the size of houses, but those at least were made of blood and flesh. This thing, by contrast, was artificial.

"A monster snake! Run!"

"Someone made that snake! But who?!"

The jackals who had bolted to flee suddenly stopped in their tracks.

"Wait. A snake made of earth? Could that be one of the Golden Mirror's creations?"

"No one but the Golden Mirror could make something like that."

"Then it's on our side? Is someone controlling it?"

A reasonable hypothesis. I would have thought much the same. The jackals circled the earth serpent without fear. When it paid them no attention whatsoever, they convinced themselves it was an ally and lost interest entirely.

Unfortunately for them, their conviction was wrong. This earth serpent had been made not with alchemy, but with earth arts.

The regressor sat perched atop the earth serpent's head with Jizan plunged into its crown and thought.

'Right. This time around, I've earned Jizan's recognition. I don't have to grip it like a sword and swing. I can fight by applying earth arts the way Jiseon did in a previous loop.'

She would not match Jiseon, of course. The regressor had never trained in earth arts, and her understanding of strata and soil flow was lacking. This earth serpent was only a rough imitation she had conjured by recalling how Jiseon had looked in battle, and it would not draw out the same power Jiseon could.

Even so, the mass contained in three meters' worth of earth was real enough. If you hurled it into something, it would produce exactly the effect you hoped for.

'...Still. He tells us to just walk in boldly, openly, says that way no one will suspect us. What kind of cons has he been running to have nerves like that? Does he have more than one life?'

Of course not. He has exactly one, which is precisely why he picks the best move available. Picking fights with every person we passed while riding in as a half-baked earth serpent would hardly have gone over well. Playing it calm and passing as one of the Golden Mirror's creations was the better choice.

True, the earth serpent could come under attack. If it did, the attackers would be from the Golden Mirror's side, and we could prepare for a fight then. How simple.

This is the royal road. Straining your brain to take the roundabout path is the strange thing. If reaching the Golden Mirror is the goal, then go and reach him.

I was busy congratulating myself on my own brilliance when it happened.

"...Why did you bring me along?"

Perru directed the question my way.

Her position among us at the moment was an awkward one. Not a hostage, not an ally. We had not restrained her, and we were not particularly on guard against her. If anything, a small amount of expectation rested on her.

It seemed she was curious about that herself. I opened carefully.

"Just so you know, I mean no offense. Please don't take this badly."

"...Already at my worst. Can't get any worse."

"Then that's a relief! I'll speak freely!"

'...I'm starting to get annoyed somehow.'

She said she couldn't get any worse. Then again, the moment you say something out loud, it stops being reliable. That's just how feelings work.

I explained it to her helpfully.

"Perru is on the Golden Mirror's side, but she's an asset to us. You can't use your ability against us anyway, can you? If you did, the Golden Palace, built from alchemy, would collapse."

Elik had told Perru she must not use her strength. You did not need to read minds to see why. It was her ability. That power that negates alchemy is a perfect counter to the Golden Mirror.

Well, it didn't seem likely she could beat the Golden Mirror, who treated even the earth as alchemic material, but either way, she was clearly a deeply troublesome opponent for him.

"And they know that too. So they won't use anything large enough to drag Perru into it."

"...My life means nothing to me."

"No. What they need to worry about isn't your life, it's your ability. If they caught you in the crossfire and you used your power, they'd be in real trouble."

Perru might refuse to use her ability even if she were about to die, but did the Golden Palace know that? Fear comes from the unknown. Unable to know what was in Perru's heart, the Golden Palace would be extremely wary of her.

Though really, wariness was not even required on their part. The best case was that they attacked her carelessly and her survival instinct responded on its own. If that happened, Perru would end up on our side whether she wanted to or not.

"Ha. Whatever Perru's own feelings, she's on our side! Couldn't be more reassuring. I'm so proud of myself for finding her and bringing her along in the first place!"

"...Taking that back. I can get worse."

Of course you can. There is always a lower floor beneath the lowest floor. The fact that it is my favorability rating in question is unfortunate, but...

Nothing to be done. I could not reveal the real reason.

Perru was a launcher for her innate arcane. To use her innate arcane, I absolutely had to bring her along.

To reach the Golden Mirror's core, we would need to break through a final line of resistance at the last moment. That resistance would most likely be made of alchemy. Perru's innate arcane would be my trump card.

Good. A perfect plan. I was quietly cackling to myself when it happened.

Boom. The serpent shook hard. The rest of us, holding our breath inside its belly, tumbled and rolled at the impact. I had been gripping a corncob embedded in the inner wall as a handhold and kept my footing; I held my breath and turned my attention outward.

Around the earth serpent, wing-fitted homunculi were closing in. Heatblast-Wing, the Golden Mirror's Geraut, the vehicle propelled by the Heatblast Lord's innate arcane. Wreathed in flames, the Heatblast Lord flew in and called out to the regressor.

"You managed to escape with your life. You should have kept running. Did you come back on your own two feet because you want to die?"

Facing someone who had died by her hand once already, the regressor was perfectly calm.

"Those are my words back at you. I tried to settle this civilly and you attacked without warning. You think I can't fight back because I'm weak?"

The Heatblast Lord tilted his head.

"...Strange. That sounds remarkably like you want a fight."

"Can't a homunculus understand plain speech? Do you need to interpret it?"

The regressor's shout came sharp as she grabbed Jizan where it was planted in the serpent's crown and drove it forward.

The earth that all people trust as solid is in truth always in motion, and viewed from a grand enough scale, its flow resembles a liquid. Earth arts, the power that realizes this, moves soil and rock according to one's will. Remarkable, but oddly limited.

Unlike alchemy, the practical uses of earth arts in daily life amounted to digging holes, and that was achievable without earth arts at all. Between a shovel and earth arts, everyone could see which was easier to come by.

Clearly extraordinary in its way, yet not especially rare as abilities go, for that reason, earth arts had not passed down through the generations outside those affiliated with the Church of the Earth Mother.

That was perhaps fortunate.

The fact that earth arts is more than sufficient for harming people had been kept secret within the Church of the Earth Mother's silence.

A sensation of the body sweeping sharply backward. The earth serpent had stretched its tightly coiled body straight out. That massive body of earth, moving at a speed that could not possibly belong to earth, drove itself into the Golden Palace.

The ground roared. Clouds of pale dust billowed up. The scattered dust clung to the wings of the homunculi and disrupted their combustion. Every homunculus that had been airborne staggered all at once.

Through the midst of it, a single whirlwind surged upward, heavy with earth and sand.

Wind dissolves all things. Scent, water, even the earth itself. It carries everything the world contains away as it goes, settling nowhere, belonging to no one place, for that very reason, wind is above all else truly exalted.

A vortex of earth and sand rose high into the sky. Like a dragon ascending to the heavens. Human sensibility runs much the same across all ages and lands; the people of old who witnessed that sight named it the Dragon Updraft.

The regressor was no different.

Celestial Sword-Cudgel Style, Serpent's Ascent.

Gripping the sandstorm as though it were a sword, the regressor cried out toward the Golden Palace.

"We came ready! If you want a fight that badly, come fight me first!"

The most informal declaration of war ended, and the regressor swung the sandstorm. A thundercrack followed as though the world itself were splitting apart.

But it would have been hard to predict. That tremendous display of force was nothing more than a show to draw attention.

The attack alongside the earth serpent was certainly threatening, but against homunculi it might work; reaching the Golden Mirror himself was another matter entirely. Against a supernatural disaster like the Golden Mirror, it was better to find a weak point than to meet force with force.

The regressor knew that too. And so she had attacked with everything she had.

To open a gap in the collision of worlds, and send us through it.

"Right, let's go!"

Thanks to the distraction drawing every eye away, we could walk into the Golden Palace without spilling a drop of blood. Now came the thief's hour. We slipped out through the gap the regressor had torn open and stepped outside..."Foolish."

, and standing right in front of us was a figure of steel. A homunculus clad head to toe in plate armor looked down at us with cold eyes.

Oh, honestly. This is a problem. In ordinary circumstances I would have read ahead with mind reading and either retreated or advanced accordingly. But every last one of these things is a homunculus, so I can't read a single thought. Is this how ordinary thieves do it all the time, under conditions this uncomfortable? My respect for them is genuine.

"The Golden Palace is the Golden Mirror's domain, and the Golden Mirror is the god of the Golden Palace. He would not overlook foreign matter that entered within."

The armored figure looked as though not even a needle could find a way in. Or perhaps there was no human body inside at all. But what did it matter, it was moving.

What mattered was not something like a person's inner essence or true nature. Whether that fist could break me was what set my attitude. In that sense, facing that plate armor called for sufficient courtesy.

Fortunately, I had arranged sufficient courtesy. I had prepared something fitting for exactly this.

The plate armor spoke.

"Furthermore, did you truly think you could sneak in carrying a presence that immense, Progenitor?"

"Speechless at the absurdity of it, and you jump to conclusions on your own. I simply covered myself because I dislike the sun. What exactly are you going on about? You think I would bother concealing myself from the likes of you?"

From the dark interior of the earth serpent's mouth, a deep crimson light flashed. Darkness is ordinarily only the absence of light, but for the Progenitor, it becomes power. From the earth serpent's mouth, darkness flowed out like venom.

Gradually, darkness claimed the space. And out of it, Tyr appeared, as unhurried as someone on a pleasant outing.

The homunculi were visibly on guard. None drew close; instead they pushed only their abilities forward. They seemed wary of being dominated by Tyr.

In the midst of it all, the armor spoke.

"...Alone?"

What was the true meaning of that? Was it gauging the extent of Tyr's strength, or was it wary of me, still out of sight? The former would be fine, but the latter had me a little worried. I would rather not be on anyone's mind at all.

Oh, honestly. Golden Mirror. If you were going to make people, make them properly. Why give them this defect that stops me from reading their thoughts? It's inconvenient!

While I was grumbling and pressing forward, Tyr smiled gently and settled her parasol onto her shoulder.

"Oh? You still have the composure to count numbers while facing me?"

Clank. Clank. Footsteps rang out in the distance. Dozens, hundreds of footsteps overlapping. Like a well-trained army advancing in formation.

But no army was visible anywhere. Not until the footsteps drew right up close.

Then, when the footsteps finally reached where Tyr stood, Black Knights in plate armor stepped out of the earth serpent's maw one after another. Ten, twenty, thirty, and still more came.

Not Black Knights summoned as mere silhouettes of darkness. These were armored. In armor made directly by the Golden Mirror at that, the finest he could produce.

A tool can belong to anyone. The Golden Mirror had prepared it for the Lesser States, but captured, it was ours. On the way here, every ownerless suit of armor we came across had been gathered and handed to Tyr.

Black Knights moving by Tyr's power while wearing armor the Golden Mirror had made. Born as Dirt Grunts, they would not be especially formidable, but a grunt in solid armor is a mountain in its own right. It all came down to equipment, in the end.

"I am a legion unto myself. Count if you can. There may be more on the way, so you had best pay close attention."

"The Blood Brand!"

The power to engrave a brand using blood and exert dominion. A vampire's ruling power. Vampires, whose boundary between self and world runs thin, can divide themselves to rule. In her youth, Tyr had led tens of thousands of thralls with this power.

A far cry from what she could manage now.

'In the old days I would have commanded a legion of ten thousand or more... now even borrowing the power of blood magic, a hundred is the limit. My power has clearly weakened. But...'

"An opening!"

The plate armor launched a fist with no warning at all. Less like a martial technique and more like a projectile. Shoulder and fist moved toward Tyr's face simultaneously.

Tyr did not have fast reactions. Unlike the regressor, she had no Heavenly Mirror, and since she possessed an undying body, she also lacked the keen sense of mortal danger that every living creature must carry. By the time she noticed the armored figure's attack, a blow to the face was already imminent.

It would not have mattered much if she had been hit, but the head in particular gave her pause. Reacting too late, Tyr snatched at the armor's arm in a hurry.

With a grinding crack, the arm was torn away.

Tyr's strength is excessive relative to her weight. Because of that, she cannot control her own speed. The moment the arm blurred, a thunderclap rang out and the armor's entire arm was ripped out at the root.

Her own body was no more capable of handling that speed than the armor's arm had been, and for a moment Tyr's arm hung loose and dangling, but that was truly only an instant. She could simply regenerate. Any exchange that cost both sides damage was meaningless against Tyr.

"...There's no reason to hold anything back. I'll need to be a bit brutal about this."

Tyr drove straight through the plate armor. There was no one inside, but that did not matter. She filled the interior with darkness, then traced the Blood Brand using the blood of a nearby homunculus, and the plate armor became her faithful thrall.

The homunculi unleashed their abilities all at once. The Black Knights charged. The war that had been previewed earlier played out here, in the Golden Palace.

Though even this was bait.

'Go on ahead, Hyu.'

Tyr pushed her presence out further and drew the eyes of the homunculi toward her. To smother my presence beneath hers.

And one meter below where Tyr fought, I was making my way forward through a tunnel in the earth.

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