WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 410

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God and King

The capital of the Fog Duchy, and the castle where the awakened Progenitor resided: the Castle of the Full Moon. That lightless fortress, absent from any map, stood a great distance beyond even the Twilight Fortress. Without Rallion leading Tyr's carriage so smoothly you could barely feel yourself moving, the journey would have been a grueling one.

The Fog Duchy's peculiar climate and atmosphere made for quite entertaining conversation.

"More meat again?"

"...Are you tired of it?"

"Not at all. I love it. Humans descended from hunters, after all. Mmm, delicious. Nothing like this back in the military state."

"There was too! It just never got distributed as far down as Father-dear!"

"We've agreed to call that 'it didn't exist.' Nom. Oh, it's even been cooked? Who did this?"

"Me."

Cabilah stepped out from the carriage's side compartment and clapped her hands. At that signal, bone soldiers in white aprons and triangular kerchiefs filed out slowly, each carrying a plate.

Skeleton thralls serving food was less uncanny than it was absurd. Cabilah directed them with a prim air.

"You should consider it an honor. I, a great Elder, went to the trouble of cooking for..."

'...If I say livestock, unni will get angry. Be nice about it.'

"...for unni's impossibly aggravating consort. No, unni! I wasn't insulting him, I'm just jealous that he gets to be your favorite! My words came out a little rough because of that! Please don't be angry!"

"If you can't find a nice way to say it no matter how hard you try, just say what you mean. Tyr, I'd rather that too, so please just let her be."

Either way I hear everything through mind reading, and when words and thoughts don't match it only confuses me. I'll give myself away at this rate.

Using Cabilah's nervous glances at Tyr as a side dish, I poked through the food on my plate. Potatoes steamed and then pan-fried in oil until crisp, topped with cheese. Meat slow-cooked for hours with heaps of spices, falling apart along the grain at the lightest touch. I scooped potato and meat together and chewed slowly.

"This isn't beginner's cooking. Whoever made this has done it before."

"Done it before? I may be a vampire, but I've eaten twice as many meals as you have. A little green thing like you thinks a thousand years is nothing?"

"You're prickly even when I compliment you. I was just surprised that someone who can't taste still cooks this well."

"Hmph. I wasn't cooking for your approval."

Her words said one thing, but her feelings said another. Satisfied, Cabilah launched into a rambling explanation.

"These livestock have impossibly picky palates for livestock, even when I generously serve them meat, all they do is complain it's bad or tough. Sometimes they get fed up and ask if there's any bread or vegetables! The best way to shut them up is to put a little flair into the presentation."

"Can't be helped, really. You can't live on the same thing day in, day out. Though from what you're saying, it sounds like you cook for them regularly?"

"Nothing else to do, so it passes the time. And I'm used to handling meat."

Producing food like this without being able to taste it herself. Like a blind painter or a deaf musician. My stomach was already full, but the food kept going in anyway.

Tyr had been watching me eat with abandon, and she called Cabilah's name quietly.

"Cabilah."

"Yes, yes! Unni!"

'Unni called for me! What is it? Did I do something wrong? I don't think so. She's probably just calling me, right?'

"...Teach me to cook sometime."

Tyr lowered her voice to a murmur, and Cabilah cried out in pure rapture.

"Leave it to me! I'll teach you everything there is to know about cooking, unni! From prep to knife work, each step and how long it takes, everything in detail!"

"Shh. Keep your voice down."

It didn't take long for Hilde or me to empty our plates. I leaned back in full satisfaction and patted my stomach.

"Another loss on the military state's record. Guess having no real foundation as a country means you can't win at much."

"Starting trouble again. The military state is strict about luxury goods, that's all. Food like this is something the military state could manage too!"

"Having food like this and still not getting to eat it means life is hard there. In the end you're filling up on beans. Ah, I wonder if I could ever go back to the military state after this."

Best to stir things up when boredom strikes. I knocked the military state down a peg with a little food commentary, and Hilde's pride did the rest, filling the silence on her own.

"It's because the military state has so many people! When the military state was on the verge of collapse, chimera beans were the only way to feed everyone! You think we climbed all the way to the Tree of Corruption and stole those beans for nothing?!"

"I wasn't criticizing it. Just making a simple comparison."

"Raising livestock is a luxury in itself! According to military state research, if you get rid of one cow and plant chimera beans on that pasture, you can feed twenty people. In other words, keeping one cow means twenty people go hungry! It's not that anyone couldn't do it if they tried!"

I watched Hilde bouncing with indignation and let my thoughts drift to what I knew about the Fog Duchy.

Most of the Fog Duchy was grassland. The damp earth wedged between sea and mountains got little sunlight, and only low-growing grass spread thick across it. The rolling hills that descended from ridge to shoreline were well suited to cattle and sheep. That landscape had not changed even after vampires came to the land.

The flocks racing across wide plains were lively, and the shepherds who followed them were healthy.

...And it was the blood of those healthy humans that the vampires took.

The vampires of the Fog Duchy were, in a sense, shepherds who kept those humans as their flock.

A knock at the carriage door. "Progenitor."

Valdamir, who had been driving so unobtrusively you forgot he was there, had come to them, which meant even this short journey was over.

"We have arrived at the Castle of the Full Moon."

"Well done."

I opened the window and looked outside. Dark fog blanketed the land. Hundreds of meters out, where the mist made everything difficult to make out, a deeper darkness loomed over me like a giant.

The capital of the Fog Duchy. The lightless ancient fortress that appears on no map.

The Castle of the Full Moon.

Cry, cry. Black-headed gulls wheeled overhead in lazy circles. The murmur of countless people gathered in the city settled low across everything. Each individual voice was small, but woven together they were enough to make the fog itself tremble.

Every one of them carried awe and unease in their chests as they waited for the Progenitor's return. Just as they had at the Twilight Fortress.

It made me realize again, as if for the first time, what position Tyr held in the Fog Duchy. The origin of all vampires. The god of vampires, before whom even the great Elders bowed and deferred, those same vampires who drank human blood.

And I had made Tyr's heart beat again. If I went further and fully restored her senses as well, that would mean I had...

Ah, no point getting complicated about it. I pushed the thought aside and started getting ready to step out.

"Is this Tyr's castle? It's a whole city. Won't be bored while we're staying here."

"Rest easy. This will take some time regardless, so think of it as a break."

"Hm? Didn't we need to investigate Luscinia-ssi's death?"

"I will call together those who know and hold a proper inquiry. But until the prime suspect comes to us, there likely won't be much to go on."

That made sense. If Elder Luscinia was dead, the Healer Sage, who had inherited his true blood, would naturally fall under the most suspicion.

Hmm, I should have read her more carefully when I had the chance. Her unusual bloodcraft was so fascinating I couldn't focus on her thoughts properly.

The only thing I knew about this case was that the Healer Sage had not killed Luscinia.

"...And Valdamir will have already done the detailed investigation. Let's hear his report and think it through together. Even for you, digging out the truth in unfamiliar vampire territory won't be easy."

Tyr said it as though it went without saying that Valdamir would have prepared everything. And sure enough, Crimson Duke Valdamir did have things ready for the Progenitor.

"I will present them at once."

"Good. I'll be with Hyu, so have it sent over."

The god of vampires was Tyr, but a god exists only within the temple and the hearts of people. The things that move a country, though, reach into every corner outside the temple.

It seemed that running the country fell almost entirely to a handful of Elders. And Valdamir's share of that was very, very large.

God and king.

The vague unease I felt wasn't purely my imagination.

"Come. Take my hand and follow, Hyu. If you're going to be king of the military state, it would be better to let people know your face early."

"What if I end up not becoming king of the military state?"

"Then all the more reason to stay at my side. You are my..."

'...Calling him a concubine is somehow embarrassing to say aloud. I should put it differently. And I have no intention of taking Hyu's blood, so concubine isn't even the right word.'

"...honored guest, and I should make that known so others will treat you accordingly."

I hoped it would stop at just treatment.

Any other time I would have refused something that put me on display, but this once I went along with Tyr's wishes. I stepped out of the carriage first, then turned back with one foot still on the step and offered her my hand.

Tyr took it, but looked puzzled.

"You're being courteous? What's gotten into you?"

"Like I'm always saying, I can do it-I just choose not to. But there are times and places for showing courtesy, aren't there? Especially when Tyr's dignity needs to be on full display."

Best to keep your cards hidden when you can. But if you absolutely have to lay them down, you lay them down as impressively as possible.

You might think fewer people knowing your hand is better, right? Not at all. The ones paying close attention to what cards I hold are exactly the ones most eager to clean me out.

I escorted Tyr down from the carriage, one hand resting lightly on her shoulder as I guided her at an unhurried pace. It was a gesture of real closeness, and though Tyr was a little flustered, she accepted the escort willingly.

When Tyr appeared that way, what had happened at the Twilight Fortress repeated itself, and the reaction was far louder this time. Vampires and humans alike, every voice joined in astonishment.

"The Progenitor... has a concubine?!"

Not exactly wrong. But did they have to use that word? I wish they'd call it something else.

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