WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 431

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Heaven-Defying Trial - 1

The night was too long and too dark, hiding many truths behind its curtain of silence. I won't go into all the details, but to put it simply: I was the creator who had remade Tyr's body, and its master.

...For a few hours, at least.

As I've said many times, I'm an ordinary human. No matter how much her senses had returned and her emotions been restored, Tyr was still a vampire. She could command every drop of her own blood, and no matter how many nights passed, she never tired. I, on the other hand, am an ordinary human who starts dozing off in his chair after a single all-nighter. No matter how beautiful the woman in front of me, I cannot overcome the desire for sleep and food.

I surrendered more times than I could count, but that only works when the winning side agrees to accept. Exhausted to the point of collapse, I lay in the bed like a corpse.

"Hyu."

"N-no more, Tyr... I'm done. Go on without me."

"Did I ask anything of you? I only called your name."

Tyr pouted, then broke into a soft smile and poked me.

"Hyu."

"...Yes."

"Hahaha. I just wanted to say it."

"I'm tired, please stop calling me..."

"My goodness. To think a little time together would exhaust you this much."

A little? I couldn't measure it precisely, but at least three days seemed to have passed. I slept and rested in between, of course, but that counts as essential maintenance time. Without it I would have died.

"Easy for you to say..."

"I have always been confident in a long campaign. Hahaha. Though I suppose for a human, it must have been quite the forced march."

"Tyr's become human too, hasn't she. I restored your senses and everything, so why aren't you tired...?"

Maybe it was because physical and muscle fatigue made up the bulk of it. Bloodcraft was still alive inside Tyr's body. For someone who commanded even a single drop of blood, there would be no weariness, no wounds.

"Watching you in your weakened state is its own pleasure... but are you simply going to lie there forever?"

"I'm dying. Humans don't need to have the blood drained out of them to die, you know. Go find something else to do."

"What else is there to do..."

Just as Tyr began to whine, footsteps sounded from down the hall. Tyr and I fell silent at the same moment, as if on cue.

It was unmistakably a presence. Someone was deliberately making themselves heard as they approached the Progenitor's chambers. Tyr frowned briefly at the unfamiliar presence, but an intruder would have made no sound at all. And in this castle, home to so many vampires, only an Elder could approach without being intercepted.

Tyr recalled that and turned her senses toward the door.

She no longer had the power to sense blood. Instead, she filled the corridor with darkness. The approaching presence did not waver even as that darkness crept closer. Soft footsteps came to a halt, and the figure bowed toward the darkness that blanketed the hall.

"Progenitor. This is your handmaiden Erjebeut. I have returned from carrying out the task you commanded."

Countess Erjebeut. The Elder who had welcomed Tyr at the Twilight Fortress, then been ordered to bring Lir Nightingale back and departed for Claudia.

Wait, hold on. If that Elder was here now, that meant...

"Good. Report."

"As you commanded, I have brought Lir Nightingale. Please lay bare every one of her crimes and pass judgment."

It was the signal that the Duchy's long-awaited trial was finally beginning.

Here at last. The Duchy's hottest issue. Things were about to get noisy.

'Can the Progenitor truly have spent the night with a consort...? Unthinkable. A carnal desire that even I, across unfathomable ages, have long forgotten, and yet the Progenitor, who was once such a young and pure child...?'

...Wait, was that the second one? Without my even noticing, the Duchy had apparently grown tremendously loud.

Keeping the tangle of emotions buried deep inside, Erjebeut bowed toward the door.

"Then your handmaiden shall withdraw so as not to disturb you further. Please enjoy your time with your consort."

Countess Erjebeut, chief handmaiden to the Progenitor, the woman who had taught aristocratic manners to a child who had nothing but power. After centuries of serving the Progenitor, she took her leave, a quiet confusion stirring somewhere inside her at the sight of a changed Tyr.

I knew through mind reading, but Tyr, with no way to read a vampire's inner thoughts, replied without a care.

"...Hyu, even Erjebeut says so."

"I'm going to rest now. I'm on strike. Don't ask me to do another thing, it counts as abuse."

"I suppose I really should put you through some training. To be so worn out after so little time. I'll have Valdamir informed later."

"Geez... by human standards I actually held out for a remarkably long time."

I'm the King of Humanity, for what that's worth, but it doesn't count for much when your partner is a vampire. I sighed and buried my face in the pillow.

One way or another, there was work to be done. The two Elders who had left on their errand returned with the most likely suspect. Tyr had announced she would question Lir in a public setting, and word spread to every vampire in the castle.

They happened to be vampires who had come into the Castle of the Full Moon for the Night Ebb. A matter this serious, one the Progenitor herself was presiding over, was not something to miss. They had had little else to do besides wait anyway, and so they gathered naturally in the great hall of the Castle of the Full Moon.

Crimson carpet lay spread across the floor like a pool of blood. The chandeliers hanging from the high ceiling shed no real light, only the faintest glow meant for atmosphere alone. Antique paintings and decorations stood preserved as if time had stopped around them, like exhibits in a museum. The vampires who were of much the same age as those relics were no different.

With a path left clear for the Progenitor to walk, they stood without the slightest movement. The impression they gave was not so different from looking at a still life. No one had told them to, yet they had arranged themselves like statues and waited for the Progenitor.

Tyr seemed perfectly at home with the scene. She walked toward the jade throne without the faintest hesitation. As her consort, I followed behind her and took the seat of honor right beside the throne, where the whole hall was visible at a glance.

A mere concubine, seated above everyone. It was the sort of sight that should have turned the world on its head, and yet not one vampire's expression shifted. Each vampire commanded their own body completely, and every one of them knew there was no call to display emotion in a formal setting.

But I read them.

'A concubine.'

'The center of all this change.'

'I've heard rumors about the King of Humanity.'

'Every Beast King I ever encountered steered clear of vampires. And the King of Humanity?'

'No, the King of Humanity is a being surrounded by nothing but rumor. Too early to say.'

'Perhaps... it wasn't that the Progenitor changed and then took a consort. Perhaps this person changed the Progenitor in order to become the consort.'

When had so many intentions and thoughts ever surged through a vampire's castle at once? I would wager today set the record, now and in the future both.

From the moment she sat on the jade throne to the moment she looked out over the hall, every movement Tyr made was unhurried to the extreme. Until now it had simply looked like she was slow to act, but seated on the jade throne, every gesture took on the ease of absolute authority. In the silence and the stillness and the dark, Tyr slowly turned her gaze down to a single vampire kneeling on one knee before her.

"Lir Nightingale. Is that you?"

Kneeling neatly before the throne, Lir Nightingale looked much as she had when she left the Duchy. A nurse's uniform as her base, an apron over it. The ampules on her garter belt were emptied one and all, evidently used in Claudia, and the bag holding her surgical tools was a little worn.

Lir Nightingale greeted her with exactly as much deference as the occasion called for.

"Hello, Progenitor. A pleasure to meet you. My name is Lir Nightingale."

It was an entirely human sort of greeting. If the Progenitor walked out into a village and approached a child, this was probably the kind of reception she would get.

At minimum, she respected Tyr. Her manner of speech and her etiquette were different from other vampires, but that was all.

'I had heard she departed the Duchy the moment I returned, so I assumed she was wary of me, or afraid...'

Seeing Lir for the first time, Tyr tilted her head at the more docile response than expected. Either way, if the other party was cooperative, that was fine. Tyr turned to Erjebeut.

"Well done, Erjebeut. But where is Dogo?"

Erjebeut had anticipated the question. She bowed deeply before answering.

"There was a slight altercation at Cloud Village, and he is currently in recuperation to put his body back in order."

"Recuperation? Dogo?"

"Yes, my lady. Even I would not have believed it had I not seen with my own eyes the power of that boy who wields the sword of heaven and earth. That single blow was truly world-shaking."

"Shei, then. I sent the two of you precisely in case of that, but I thought even Shei would not be foolish enough to pick a fight against both of you..."

That makes the regressor sound pretty bad. She isn't exactly the sharpest, but picking a fight isn't always a matter of being foolish.

Tyr shook her head slowly.

"Well. Knowing Shei, there may have been some strange scheme at work. What became of Shei?"

"He was injured by Dogo's counterattack. The wound was lighter than Dogo's, but he is not a vampire. I considered ending his life on the spot, but it seemed unnecessary to go that far, so I stopped Dogo. Had he proven an obstacle to the mission, I would have dealt with him immediately, but Lir Nightingale also complied with the Progenitor's summons without resistance."

"That's enough, then. Please convey my thanks to Dogo as well."

"Understood."

Even Elders could be hurt. The threshold was absurdly high, but if a tremendous force rampaged through the body, time was still needed to restore the damage within.

...Even so, the best way for a wounded Elder to recover was to be at the Progenitor's side. That Dogo would choose recuperation elsewhere meant he had grasped how Tyr had changed. Whether it was consideration for Tyr or wariness of her, I couldn't quite tell.

Knowing Dogo, who wouldn't exchange a word with any woman, it was probably the latter. In any case, Tyr let it pass without much thought and rose from her seat. The gazes of every vampire in the hall converged. It should have been enough to make anyone shrink, but Tyr accepted the reverence as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Today, to all who have gathered here to welcome my return and the Night Ebb, I wish to speak on a matter of great importance."

Having opened with that, Tyr turned slowly to survey the assembled crowd.

"All of you have kept this country well in my absence... but there is one thing. Something that even we vampires cannot overlook or let pass. Some of you may know; others may not. After today, all in the Duchy will know."

Tyr's voice carried weight as she spoke.

"Luscinia has perished."

Whether more vampires already knew than didn't, or whether the vampires gathered here today were simply more attuned to this kind of news, a clear majority of them had already been aware. They showed almost no reaction to the announcement of Luscinia's death.

"And a single vampire has inherited his true blood. This was done without the sanction of me, the original owner of that true blood. Today, I will judge that matter, and I will return the true blood to where it rightfully belongs."

Whether Lir would live or die, and if she died, who would become the next Elder, this gathering was the place to settle those questions. Since someone here could become the next holder of a true blood, this was a trial no vampire could afford to miss...

Wait. Why was everyone looking at me? If they were going to look anywhere, they should be looking at those two.

'The holder of the true blood has already been decided.'

'Passing a true blood to a yeling or ain would ruin the hierarchy and the bloodkin structure.'

'The Progenitor... surely wishes to bestow it on the consort.'

You all. That's the conclusion your famous vampire cold-bloodedness led you to? That this entire trial is a performance with its ending already written? Honestly, this is exactly why cold-blooded vampires are...

'Whether or not she is guilty has yet to be determined. But if the true blood is to be reclaimed... it would be best if it could go to Hyu...'

How did they figure that out.

Failing to feel emotions does not mean failing to understand them. Vampires had once been human, and they had lived and rubbed shoulders among humans long enough to know them well.

This was starting to feel like it wasn't really the Healer Sage's trial at all. The Healer Sage herself was beside the point, and all attention had shifted to Tyr or to me. On top of that, Lir dying and me taking her blood felt like a foregone conclusion.

But we'd see about that.

"Lir Nightingale."

"Yes, Progenitor."

"I will ask you directly. Did you bring about Luscinia's death?"

I had mind reading, and I knew better than anyone that Lir was not the culprit. I was curious to see what shape the truth would take when it surfaced.

Lir, having received such a weighty question from the Progenitor herself, closed her eyes, composed herself, then spoke.

"Yes, Progenitor. I killed him."

...Huh?

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