WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 401: People Die

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When someone higher up suddenly has to enter a workplace, what's the first thing they should do to avoid everyone turning red in the face?

Announce that they've arrived. It'd be a problem if no one recognized them.

A ruler with particularly perverse tastes might hide their identity, quietly enjoy watching the other person react, then reveal who they were and savor the catharsis. Fortunately, Tyr didn't have the bad habit of putting her subordinates in awkward situations.

In a way, it was considerate of her. If you made things awkward for the Progenitor of vampires, you'd have a hard time keeping your life.

Before she had a heart, Tyr had been numb to that sort of catharsis in the first place. Before entering the Duchy, she announced her return in advance.

The effect was unmistakable.

A massive fortress stood in the distance. Darkness rippled ominously from its crimson steel gates. The tightly sealed gates looked so grand that even a falling meteor wouldn't budge them.

The Twilight Fortress. An impregnable castle that several bold kings had invaded to exterminate the vampires, yet none had managed to breach.

Every fog-covered place belonged to the Duchy, but only beyond that fortress did the true lands where vampires lived begin. No stories from within made their way outside. The Twilight Fortress protected the Duchy from foreign invasions.

At the same time, it was a pen that kept the livestock from escaping vampire rule.

That gate, which had become such a symbol of fear, opened with a heavy groan as Tyr approached.

Beyond the arched gate, a crimson carpet covered the ground. Nothing stood on the carpet stretching straight ahead, as though none dared block the Progenitor's path. Instead, hundreds, perhaps thousands, knelt on either side, worshipping the Progenitor.

There were vampires among them, but humans as well.

It was an overwhelmingly grand welcome ceremony. It didn't suit me. Unlike Tyr, I had perverse tastes and liked hiding my identity.

As I sighed and passed through the fortress's main gate, a booming voice rang out beside me.

"Progenitor! We have awaited your return!"

Thud. Knees struck the ground.

The person kneeling at the very front was a martial monk dressed in a single robe. The emaciated body visible between its folds looked like a skeleton, as though a touch would make it snap.

Yet appearances were so meaningless. That frail body contained immense strength and skill. It had been that way before becoming a vampire, and even more so afterward.

Blood Monk Dogo. A fallen martial monk. An Elder who had once nearly become an immortal, then chose to remain in the mortal world as a vampire rather than face the death called ascension to immortality.

Beside Dogo stood a noblewoman with an innocent expression, dressed in a voluminous gown cut deeply at the chest. With a bright yet peculiar smile in her eyes, she gathered her skirt. As though it were second nature, she bowed with impeccable etiquette that even the strictest head steward couldn't criticize.

"Have you been well? This humble one is beyond blessed to greet the Progenitor in this way."

The Progenitor's patron, maid, and teacher. The noblewoman who had wrapped an entire nation's court in blood, Countess Erjebeut.

There had been many Countesses before her, but now there was only one. Her atrocities had been so horrific that giving anyone the title of Countess had become taboo.

Elders who had each changed history. Five of them were present, solely to receive an audience with the Progenitor.

The Progenitor gave them a brief reply.

"It has been a long time. I am glad to see faces unchanged from before."

A brief flicker of unrest passed over several faces then, but Tyr didn't notice. Her gaze had settled on a familiar shadow behind them.

"Rallion. You were here already."

Rallion shook out its body lightly as it approached. Tyr stroked Rallion's mane with a warm smile.

Rallion had been sent toward the Duchy to deceive the military state's watchers. Tyr had not ordered Rallion back then, but had told Rallion to continue to the Duchy. It seemed Rallion had waited there for Tyr's arrival ever since.

Countess Erjebeut said proudly, "Blood Steed Rallion announced the Progenitor's return. Since Rallion appeared in the Duchy, every creature here has longed for this day and prepared for it."

"You have done well, Erjebeut."

"Your grace humbles me."

I'd sent Rallion here quite a while ago. How had they kept preparing without knowing when Tyr would come? Then again, Valdamir, Lungken, and Cabilah had hurried all the way to Claudia because they were certain Tyr would return.

"Will you rest from your journey, or attend to state affairs? Please command us. We shall obey."

"Before I hear what has happened in the meantime... wait a moment."

Tyr glanced at me, took my hand, and led me forward. I'd been watching from behind, but suddenly found myself at the front. Tyr stood me beside her as though she intended to show me off to everyone.

The human brought by Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka.

Everyone's eyes instantly fixed on my face. They hurriedly filed me away in their minds. Erjebeut in particular covered her mouth with one hand while busily assessing me.

'A human? Has the Progenitor, who has never kept a human close, taken a favored consort?'

Oh dear. My face was completely exposed. There'd be no quietly slipping past this.

Tyr deliberately kept me at her side, then gave her command.

"There is an injured person. I wish to treat him at once, so bring Luscinia here without delay."

She meant to summon Luscinia, the Progenitor's Elder and greatest healer, for the sake of a mere favored consort. At the mention of Luscinia, every Elder avoided meeting her eyes and hesitated.

"Ah... Well. Forgive us, but..."

Their reaction was clearly strange. Even if they were shocked by the appearance of a favored consort, these were Elders who would offer up their very hearts at Tyr's command. Yet they couldn't bring themselves to speak and only wavered.

Not just Dogo and Erjebeut. Even Lungken and Cabilah furtively watched one another's reactions.

Sensing the strange atmosphere among the Elders who couldn't open their mouths, Tyr questioned them.

"What is the problem? You need only obey my command."

"Progenitor. There is something we must report first."

There was only one Elder here who could speak frankly to the Progenitor. Valdamir spoke for all the Elders, or perhaps in place of the vampires reluctant to say it themselves.

"Luscinia has perished completely."

Tyr's face hardened at the news of an Elder's death.

The Duchy's preparations for the Progenitor's return to her homeland after so long were perfect. Even Tyr's temporary residence had been decorated with luxury too extravagant to seem temporary, and the storerooms were full of supplies for any situation.

There were five kinds of carriages and palanquins in the backyard alone. They had prepared transportation suited to any whim Tyr might have.

They hadn't prepared a physician, perhaps because they never expected Tyr to bring an injured human.

In any case, once I entered the residence as a guest of honor, I asked Tyr, "Can Elders die?"

"...Yes. But that only happened when I was still inexperienced and fought the Sanctum. Since founding the Duchy, not a single Elder has experienced death."

Tyr answered while lost in thought.

The death of an Elder seemed to have shaken her considerably. Naturally. Hearing that a subordinate who'd been with you for centuries had died would trouble anyone. Especially when it was an Elder who, like Lungken earlier, could be crushed beneath a Juggernaut, struck by lightning, skewered by a spear, and sent flying, only to recover in minutes.

She knew exactly how difficult it was for them to die.

"It happened over twenty years ago, and all of Luscinia's thralls remain, so there must have been some kind of accident... But until I hear the details, I cannot even guess what happened."

I was curious too. What sort of accident could kill that Elder?

"You said there were thirteen Elders in total, right?"

"That is so. But you will find it difficult to see all thirteen. Some Elders, like me, fall into long sleep or wander the world. Excluding Rallion, who is with me, usually only half are awake and active in the Duchy."

"Then other than Rallion, six, no, five Elders are all there is?"

"...There are likely still six."

"Huh?"

Six minus one was still six? Was this vampire miracle math?

Tyr continued her explanation, deep in thought.

"They said Luscinia died, and that there is a vampire who inherited the true blood Luscinia possessed. That vampire has not been personally acknowledged by me, so cannot yet be called an Elder, but they must possess strength no different from an Elder and rule Luscinia's thralls. Perhaps because it is unprecedented, Valdamir has left the matter as it is and watched for now."

"So someone became a noble without Tyr's permission? How arrogant. While the Progenitor is alive and well..."

"Yes. If not for that, the position might have become yours."

"But an experienced vampire would obviously be better at being an Elder, right? Someone who rose steadily from below would be more suited than a parachute appointment. It sounds like a good choice!"

Deflection successful.

Tyr answered as though slightly disappointed by my indirect refusal.

"In any case, it is unsettling, so I must deal with that first. I intended to have Luscinia examine your condition..."

The Elder's death had slipped past me because it was so sudden, but it was no small matter. Luscinia, the Reverse Heaven's Practitioner. Luscinia had left a mark great enough to be recorded in history.

Luscinia had been a blood-energy practitioner and martial scholar. Luscinia was a master who studied blood pathways and the body to create and refine energy techniques. It was said that Luscinia had willingly become a vampire to pursue deeper, darker research.

There was supposedly no energy technique still passed down today that Luscinia's hand hadn't touched.

Tyr had intended to use such a historic Elder as my physician. Was this the privilege of someone backed by the Progenitor...?

The problem was that Luscinia was dead now.

"Since Luscinia is gone, I must find another physician..."

"I'm fine. I'm still young, so I recover quickly. I do need rest, though."

"There should be several skilled physicians among Luscinia's thralls. I will select a few for you."

"No. It would be different just after the injury, but now that some time has passed, follow-up care is more important than emergency treatment. If someone pokes at it again carelessly, it will only strain my body."

My body had been stabbed through the stomach, then only had the hole closed with emergency treatment. A vampire who casually exposed their heart wouldn't hesitate to cut me open. How could I leave such major surgery to an Ain or someone at the Yeiling level? It had to be an Elder, damn it.

Ow, ow. Thinking about it made my stomach hurt again.

Groaning, I sprawled across the sofa. I must have shown too much pain, because Tyr looked at me worriedly and sat beside my head. Instead of a dark, unfamiliar ceiling, a beautiful vampire with shining red eyes filled my vision.

As she stroked my forehead, damp with cold sweat, Tyr murmured, "...If you were a vampire, something like this wouldn't hurt you."

Had Luscinia's death shaken her more than she let on? Tyr seemed to have flipped a little switch. In the past, she might have suggested it once, but now she was trying to persuade me. My pain hurt her too, and she was worried I might die.

She hadn't originally been this sentimental. Was that also because she had regained her heart?

I appreciated the sentiment, but...

"Elders die too, don't they? Like this time."

That single sentence refuted her. Tyr's hand twitched as it stroked my hair.

"There must have been an accident. Luscinia, and Elders in general, do not die without cause."

"Likewise, humans do not die without cause. In that sense, Elders are no different from humans."

My refusal came across clearly. Tyr ruffled my hair in displeasure. It had already been messy, so not much changed.

After playing with it for quite a while, Tyr rose from the sofa. As she prepared to leave, she spoke to me.

"They say they have things to tell me about Luscinia's death. Hyu, I will give them strict instructions, so ask for anything you wish. Erjebeut's attendants will serve you without any shortcoming."

"Thank you. My stomach feels a little heavy right now, so I don't think I can digest anything. I'll eat later."

"All right. Rest comfortably."

With her black parasol resting on her shoulder, Tyr left one quiet sentence before departing the guest room.

"...If you change your mind, tell me anytime."

...I could feel her trying to make me put down roots in the Duchy.

Footnotes:

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