WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 368: Like the Turning Thunder Mill

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If Deka had done one thing right, it was bringing Perru's horse, Aurea. More accurately, Aurea had run after Deka of its own accord after Perru left it behind, but still.

Perru rode her beloved horse aboard the Golden Ark, barely managed to start it, then collapsed. Aurea stayed beside its owner, whinnying as if worried.

Seeing Perru sprawled on the bed and groaning, Hilde commented.

"She looks like she'll die before we reach Claudia. Shouldn't we get a written agreement from her first~?"

She said something awful while pretending she meant no harm. The regressor reacted irritably too.

"Don't say such ominous things. She won't die that easily."

"No~. I have some expertise in healing, you see, and Perru's body seems to be in quite a dangerous state. Even divine power can't heal this~."

Tyr reacted slightly at the mention of divine power, but Hilde was not foolish enough to admit she could wield divine power in front of a vampire. She only slipped it into the conversation as though discussing someone else.

"Perru might look fine right now, but her energy is tangled, isn't it? It's because parts of her body were filled in with homunculus material. A graft that replaces the body with another power is a Type Two taboo. Once you do it, divine power can no longer restore your body."

Healing through divine power was restoration. Yet when parts of the body had been replaced by power, as Perru's had, restoration was impossible. Hilde, once a paladin, had seen through it and effectively declared Perru terminally ill.

The regressor answered as if it were nothing.

"It's fine. There's someone who can treat the Verdigris Lord."

"Treat her? Is there a Holy Maiden somewhere? No, even a Holy Maiden can't heal someone who has committed a taboo."

"Not a Holy Maiden. The Healer Sage."

"The... Healer Sage?"

Hilde tilted her head. Naturally. Jiseon and Yoseon. Like everyone else, even I, who was skilled in mind reading, could only think of those two immortals. Hilde, who had once run an entire country's intelligence bureau, was no different.

More than that, a Healer Sage? Holy Maidens and divine power clearly existed, so why would there be an immortal who healed people? Something felt strange.

"That's odd~? There isn't a Healer Sage among the immortals I know. There aren't enough of them to confuse one for another, either."

"Of course not."

'She won't be called the Healer Sage until the future that has yet to come. Without the Seven-Day War that earns her that reputation, she won't be called that at all. But I know what kind of person she is. If someone's hurt, she'll treat them no matter what they are.'

Come to think of it, she might have mentioned the Healer Sage while making medicine in the Abyss. An immortal who did not exist yet. So only the regressor knew about her? Regression really was nice. You got information no one else knew.

Unlike me, who could simply read minds, Hilde doubted the regressor's knowledge. Complaining as though she were annoyed while secretly analyzing the regressor with sharp eyes, she asked.

"How do you know information that even I, a former intelligence director of an entire country, don't know~? It's terribly suspicious. Shei, what exactly are you?"

"Think whatever you want."

"All right~. I'll think whatever I want~."

Ignoring Hilde, who sulked like a child, the regressor glanced at Tyr.

'...There is one problem, though. Tyrkanzyaka... Still, it shouldn't be much of a problem. The Healer Sage is a vampire, but unlike Tyrkanzyaka, she acts alone.'

What? The Healer Sage was a vampire? A vampire who drank human blood went around healing people? Did that make any sense?

...Actually, why not? Even humans, who ate beasts, had veterinarians. Though their work was not grand enough to earn them the title of Healer Sage.

Azzy, who had been yawning lazily, smacked the floor with her tail and whined.

"Woof. I'm bored. Woof."

"Go have fun tormenting the horse like usual."

"Woof. I can read the room. I won't torment it."

"Then why are you telling us you're bored right now?"

Where had she sold off her ability to read the room? This was why beasts were like this.

Still, a journey where people died left and right had been harsh on Azzy. A little change of pace would be good. We would not have many chances to spend our time like this, either.

When the next full moon came...

Azzy would have to fight the King of Wolves whether she wanted to or not. With our strength, even the King of Wolves would not be a problem. If necessary, we could seek help from another country, and if necessary, there were vampires too.

"Let's go out to the deck for a while. I need some fresh air too."

"Woof!"

Azzy jumped up excitedly. I opened the door leading outside and stepped onto the deck.

The wind swept past us fiercely. Just as before, the Golden Ark moved by dismantling everything beneath it. Because it dismantled rather than crushed, the Golden Ark moved in utter silence.

Could this ship go out to sea too...?

No, probably not.

What sea? Ships were for lakes and rivers.

"Woof..."

Azzy had already placed her paws on the side of the deck and was blankly staring at the view outside. If she was just going to stare blankly, I didn't know why she brought me along.

More importantly, whenever she got on a vehicle, she always put her front paws on the window and stuck her head out. Was that a habit?

As I grumbled to myself, Azzy spoke absentmindedly.

"Humans fight each other."

"They don't have anyone else to fight besides other humans."

"Woof, right. Few beasts. So humans fight each other."

The military state had organized its military, then immediately launched a dangerous-beast extermination campaign. Many people died in the process, but it achieved considerable results. There were hardly any dangerous beasts left in the populated regions of the military state.

The Lesser States were a strange land where the Demon God Lord of Gold roamed. Beasts had lost their place to live there. Aside from a few animals useful for livestock, like horses and sheep, they had all left the land.

Azzy spoke weakly.

"...So, woof. I can't help. Because they're human."

That was only true in some places. Beasts still lived across vast lands such as the southern military state and the Mist Range. More than anything else...

"Not necessarily. There are wolves, aren't there?"

"Woof..."

Perhaps it comforted her. Azzy turned back to look into the distance again. What was so interesting that she kept looking? I looked too.

I placed my hands on the edge of the deck and cast my eyes far away. Only then did I realize what Azzy had been watching.

"That's Claudia. We're almost there."

With a view like that, it was hard to look away.

Clouds poured from the sky like a waterfall. Falling from far above, they shattered and scattered as they neared the ground, spreading wide like the skirts of a country girl.

Clouds were water, yet they blocked sunlight. Thanks to that ambiguous blessing, only short grasses grew thickly along the ridge touched by the Cloud Waterfall. Those grasses became a feast for sheep and goats. The white flocks wandering across that green table were difficult to distinguish from fragments of broken cloud.

It was a sight so awe-inspiring that it made gods seem real.

People of old saw that sight and named it the road to the sky, the stairway to heaven, but the Cloud Waterfall existed for purely geographical reasons.

Beyond the Mist Range lay the Sea of Leviathans. Sea-beasts lived there.

It was a primordial sea that humans could not even approach. Humans could only see its surface, covered by a single layer. Far below, in depths too deep and distant for them to imagine, monsters swam.

Sea-beasts. The reason humans, who called themselves rulers of the land, could never advance into the sea.

There was no Beast King in the sea that had taken human form. Humans were the dominant species of the land and held no influence over the distant deep sea. Sea-beasts, those massive creatures wandering the endless ocean, lived proudly beneath its waters.

Yet sea-beasts often appeared in the relatively shallow Sea of Leviathans. Tidal waves created by them rolled in regularly, and their shadows sometimes rippled in the distance. They used that vast sea as their bathtub and splashed about, so the sea mist never had a chance to clear.

The rising sea mist had two possible futures. It could sink again and become part of the sea, or it could continue rising and become clouds. Most chose the former, but the remainder was still enough to create clouds.

Those low clouds did not reach the realm of the sky, but they darkened the air overhead as they rode the wind toward the continent. The wind carrying the clouds struck the curtain of the land and stalled for a moment, then flowed down through a gap at its center.

That place was Cloud Village, Claudia.

It was supposed to be a village where people hid within the pouring clouds...

"Azzy, what's that?"

"Woof?"

"There's something attached to the waterfall. What is that?"

Something sat within the Cloud Waterfall. Frowning, I looked again at the massive structure moving there.

"...A waterwheel?"

It looked like a gigantic waterwheel. Someone had apparently taken the reckless idea of installing one in a waterfall rather than flowing water and put it into practice. If that had been water, the wheel would have shattered beneath the weight pouring down on it. Fortunately, the waterfall's water took the form of clouds. The wheel was intact.

Then again, that also meant there was not enough force to turn it. Clouds were not weightless, but they could not compare to water. A waterwheel that large should not have moved.

Yet it turned.

Lightning struck within the clouds. Small, crackling bolts flashed where the waterwheel met the waterfall. Though the clouds were not layered storm clouds, an ominous energy rose threateningly before fading again.

It looked like static electricity, but at that scale, it was no different from thunder. Whenever light flashed, something other than clouds flowed through the waterwheel. The clouds were not what turned that wheel. It had to be the lightning that had been hiding within them.

I had never seen it before, but I had read Maximilien's and Perru's memories. It was not difficult to guess what it was.

"So that's the Thunder Mill."

The original of the thunder wheels Maximilien had introduced to the Lesser States, and the immense power source that kept Claudia moving.

Long ago, Cloud Village had hidden among the clouds and raised sheep...

It seemed to have gained tremendous power through some challenge.

As I admired the sight for a moment, I spotted a group approaching. They were closer to us than Claudia, and at this speed, they looked like they would arrive within minutes.

"No time to stand around admiring it. Looks like they came to meet us."

"Woof! Over here, over here!"

"They could be enemies. Why are you so excited?"

Then again, to Azzy, every human was probably a friend.

Footnotes:

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