WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 377: Lightning Did Not Fall from the Sky - 2

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Underground meant exactly that: beneath the earth. Beneath a layer of soil, things that could not proudly reveal themselves beneath the light held their breath in hiding. People tended to bury what should never see sunlight, what they did not want exposed, what had no need to come up for fresh air.

The Lightning Rod Tower was no different. Even a structure that channeled lightning's power into the earth had things it did not want seen.

The entrance underground was sealed by a thick iron door. I gave it a light push just in case, but it did not budge.

Naturally. It would be troublesome if something hidden suddenly came out, or if someone came looking for it.

There was no lock in sight. This basement, accessible only to the Thunder Lord and her lightning guardians, was designed to open only when lightning power was channeled through it. No matter how great a thief I was, as long as I was an ordinary human, there was no way I could open this door...

At least, not before I met the Lord of Gold.

Eight of Spades.

I pressed the card against it. It stuck with a sharp click.

The Demon God's innate arcane had broadened the horizon of human understanding. Things people had dismissed as gods. Great principles that nature followed as a matter of course. Humanity had drawn closer to that knowledge.

Just as people carved branches into spears and split stones into axes, those who understood such principles could divide their power and put it to use. Followers of the Earth Mother used earthcraft, druids wielded nature's power, and alchemists used alchemy as a tool.

Still, they were only tools. Compared to mystery itself, they were pitifully insignificant. No matter how sharply one carved wood, could they know the wisdom embedded in its rings? No matter how finely one ground rock, could they understand the value of gems refined by the earth? True mystery hid behind practicality.

This idol existed to recall forgotten mysteries.

I nudged the card sideways. I had only pressed it against the door, so once I moved it, the steel door should have remained exactly where it was. That was the common sense we expected.

Yet when I moved it...

Another card was there, where it had touched. It clung to the door as though embedded in it.

"This really makes me feel like a magician."

There was no reason to perform magic when nobody was watching. This was not a trick. The part touching the card had truly become a card.

The old alchemists' fanciful belief had been true. The origin of all things was one, so if one crossed the barrier of existence, one substance could become another. Everything held the potential to become gold, and likewise, scrap iron.

...Unfortunately, turning things into iron seemed easier than turning them into gold.

"Ta-da... Ah, this takes a lot out of me. Magic without an audience is so empty."

Lamenting, I removed the card stuck to the wall. Behind it was another identical Eight of Spades. I peeled it away with my fingers, and there was another card beneath it.

Clatter.

Cards made of thin iron fell like rain. Once I had removed every last card, my fingers scratched at empty air. Looking down, I saw countless cards scattered across the floor, enough to account for the door's thickness.

"It feels like my ability is becoming more and more specialized for thievery. Convenient, though."

I reached inside, undid the latch, and pushed the iron door. The resistance that had felt as though it would never yield vanished, and the door opened easily.

"Knock, knock, knock. Coming in~."

Beyond the iron door was a short, dark corridor. Another door stood on the other side, one that looked easier to open than the last. Before going any farther, I threw one of the cards I had made inside, just in case.

Crackle.

Electricity sparked. The card bounced once in place, then stuck flat against the corridor floor instead of rolling away. It was clearly unnatural.

"As expected, lightning is running through here. I can't let my guard down."

If it had been a person, I could have read their thoughts beforehand and dealt with them. Grumbling, I took out the Ten of Spades. I inserted it into my living terminal like a clothing packet and stepped forward.

There was a slight tingling sensation, but it quickly faded. Before the earth, even lightning's momentary flash had to fade away. The current followed the Aki Avatar into my Ten of Spades and vanished.

After crossing the corridor, I pushed open the second door. It was noticeably lighter than the first thick steel door. When it opened, the sight Claudia had wanted to hide appeared before me.

Countless beds stood in neat rows. They were separated by partitions and far smaller than ordinary beds, making the room feel cramped. Several devices hung over them, completely out of place, making it feel even more suffocating.

Then there was the crying.

The piercing cries of newborn babies, impossible not to find grating, drilled into my ears.

The noise churned madly. Thoughts more primal than beasts', thoughts from children unable to form clear language, flooded into my mind-reading. Murky thoughts that might have been pain, deprivation, or simple dissatisfaction. I could read them, but I could not understand them. They did not even know what they were feeling. They had not learned yet.

This wasn't easy. I felt like I was going to regress into infancy.

"Uh, um? You can't come in here!"

'All the other thunder trainees are outside right now...!'

Just then, the child I had seen atop the Lightning Rod Tower before noticed me and hurried over. A thunder trainee, was it? She was still a child who had not even become a guardian, but she was the oldest one here.

"Hi. You're Jeri, right?"

"Y-yes, hello... But how did you get in here? You can't approach unless you can handle lightning power!"

"Really? Something felt ticklish, so I guess that was lightning power."

"Y-you forced your way through? Then... are you an intruder?"

Jeri raised an arm warily. Even if faintly, lightning power swirled around it.

No matter how ordinary a human I was, I was still a healthy adult man. Breaking a child's arm would be as easy as breaking a child's arm. Of course, being an ordinary human, I would not use force against a child.

"You know I'm the Thunder Lord's guest. I got lost."

"How did you get here if you were lost...?"

"If I had found the right way, I would have gone where I was supposed to. I came here because I got lost."

"That's true...?"

She fell for that. In any case, while Jeri had lowered her guard a little, I looked around and asked,

"By the way, isn't this inside the Lightning Rod Tower? They said they were hunting the Thunder God up there. Don't you need to evacuate?"

"It's fine. We're safe inside the Lightning Rod Tower."

"Ah, is that why these children aren't at home and are here instead? So they'll be safe if lightning strikes?"

"These children are..."

Jeri hesitated over whether she should say it. It was not confidential, but it was not something she openly discussed either. After thinking for a moment, Jeri decided it was better to explain than be misunderstood and spoke up.

"They're abandoned children."

"Abandoned by whom? The Thunder Lord?"

"T-that can't be true! The Thunder Lord is the one who took these children in!"

I understood. Jeri was the model student type. With people like that, it was better to deliberately make a wrong guess and let them explain it themselves than ask directly.

Reading thoughts was the easiest option, but things were too chaotic right now.

"The Thunder Lord makes sure every child born in the Lesser States can live in Claudia! But bad jackals abuse that rule. They have children, shove them forward, and gain the right to live in Claudia, as if children were objects!"

"Ah. Because having a child gives them the right to stay in Claudia?"

"Yes. After that, many of them live as though the child has nothing to do with them. Some even abandon them."

There was no need to lead her any further. Her emotions became the fuse, intensifying her feelings. Jeri began spilling everything without even being asked.

"...Especially when the child has a disability."

I see. Was pain the emotion underlying all that crying? No wonder my head had been spinning.

In the Lesser States, if someone had three children, one would die, another would be born with a disability, and only the last would be at least outwardly healthy. It was because the crops created by the Lord of Gold threw the body's balance off when mixed with other "normal" crops.

Every newborn gathered here had a disability. I did not know whether their parents had abandoned them after learning of it or had no choice but to leave them here.

"We feed and care for these children... Children who overcome their disabilities and grow up safely become thunder trainees. If they overcome their disabilities, they gain some resistance to lightning power too."

The more a body was made up of the Lord of Gold's crops, the more easily lightning passed through it. I put on a sympathetic expression.

"Then quite a lot of children die."

"...It can't be helped. It's cruel. We can only hope God takes these children somewhere good..."

Jeri closed her eyes and clasped both hands together, as though she had forgotten saying yesterday that the Celestial God was bad.

Before unavoidable tragedy, people could do nothing but hope. Faith sprouted in places like this. Because they did not want their hopes to vanish like this. Because they wanted them to lead somewhere, to some result.

Faith inevitably took root in tragedy. It sprouted and bloomed amid the wreckage left when concern for humanity struck reality and shattered.

"That's wrong."

"Pardon?"

...Yet sometimes, or rather often, faith created tragedy in order to survive.

Faith, created by humans, turned around and ruled humanity.

"God doesn't take these children somewhere good. Never."

"W-what?"

"God called them here even though this place isn't good for them to begin with. Is that a joke? After making them die in agony, what exactly do you expect God to do for them?"

Humans could be ruled. Humans were animals by nature, so if something superior appeared, they would wear shackles around their necks and become livestock.

But faith could not be that ruler. Faith was a tool, and just as a tool could not seize a human and swing them around, neither could faith.

"Jeri. Where did these children come from?"

"W-where...? The Lesser States..."

"Why are they suffering?"

"Because the Lord of Gold's crops caused disabilities."

"Whose call brought them here?"

"The Thunder Lord..."

Realizing too late that she was being led, Jeri stopped speaking and shrieked.

"Y-you're trying to frame the Thunder Lord right now! Aren't you?!"

"No. She probably hasn't realized it herself. She's maintaining this system without intending to, or without ever thinking about it."

I knew because I had read her thoughts. The Thunder Lord herself acted only from goodwill... or perhaps a sense of duty. That sense of duty, like Jeri's, had been learned by growing up here.

When people ate crops directly alchemized by the Lord of Gold and formed their bodies from them, their bodies became stronger but more vulnerable to outside interference, much like homunculi. Unless they learned internal energy or awakened innate arcane, they would become materials if the Lord of Gold so much as brushed past them.

Those who ate the crops produced in Claudia were no different from ordinary humans. Still, getting close to the Lord of Gold remained dangerous. A rampaging Lord of Gold was dangerous to everyone.

But if both existed openly, if they were balanced enough to mix together and wander through the Lesser States, then the tragedy of the Lesser States would continue until one side came to an end.

"A delicately manipulated chain of cause and effect has reached equilibrium. All of this must be part of it."

"Ah, ah..."

Jeri covered her ears and groaned, as though she wanted to pretend she had not heard me. Yet while Jeri neglected her duties for a moment, the uncomfortable newborns began crying louder. Their cries spread to the other babies like an epidemic. For creatures that carried on through generations, the cries of the next generation had the power to call the previous one. The discordant sound, impossible not to find grating, seized and pulled everyone along.

Where else could hell be? This was hell.

"So then, where was this place again?"

Ordinarily, I would have stopped here. I would have lamented the innate tragedy of the Lesser States and shed tears.

But I walked through the screaming newborns and reached the wall on the other side. It looked as though there was nothing there, but I had read of the secret place beyond it in the Thunder Lord's memories.

I took out the Eight of Spades and scraped the groove between the walls. Light flashed for a moment, then the wall turned into hundreds of cards and scattered. Countless cards fluttered down like startled butterflies, and an empty space appeared through the gap in the scattered wall.

It was the secret place of the first Thunder Lord, which I had read about in the Thunder Lord's memories.

Footnotes:

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