WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 466: Even Inside a Vampire's Belly, Keep Your Wits and You'll Live

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Even as a Yeiling, a vampire was still a vampire. Chief Biritear matched or surpassed me in strength, could not die, and possessed bloodcraft. She might not have been particularly strong by vampire standards, but she was still troublesome.

"Your stomach is quite spacious."

"If you do not wish to be digested, surrender quietly. If hunger clouds my mind even once... I may not leave behind even a handful of bloody water."

She meant it. Chief Biritear moved languidly, but she had not properly drawn on the power of Gluttony. The more fully she used it, the hungrier she became and the more she craved blood.

Still...

This was manageable.

I took my hand off the wall and spoke.

"Mother. I think I've grown enough, so I want to be born now. Won't you show your fully grown son the outside world?"

"You still have room for jokes. Shall I take a little of that room away first?"

At Chief Biritear's gesture, every piece of furniture in the house moved toward me. A wooden chair creaked as it strode closer. The table, drawers, and wooden ladle followed behind it.

Right. Wood.

"Did you know? Trees do not die. They only stop."

I gripped a card in my hand. Nine of Spades, the Tree of Origin. The unfortunate trees that had been felled by axes, dried in the sun, turned into planks, nailed together, and made into furniture answered my call and began their revenge. Roots grew and branches stretched out. Sharp branches shot up and stabbed straight into Chief Biritear's body.

If she had been one of Erjebeut's bloodline, who specialized in domination, this would not have worked at all. But my opponent was a Yeiling of the Blood Leech bloodline. Her bloodcraft was insufficient to dominate trees that had escaped her control.

"Druidism? You hold two faiths in your heart?"

"No. This is the revenge of the trees you killed! Taste their suffering!"

Chief Biritear broke branches with her arms and legs, but the roots embedded in the hut kept producing an endless number of branches. Her view gradually narrowed beneath the flood of branches and leaves.

Right. Vampires were not immune to injury. Their wounds simply healed quickly. They were certainly easier to deal with than humans who used energy techniques.

The objects not made of wood still approached me, but they lacked their earlier momentum because she could no longer control them properly. I tightly bound the rolling cauldron and fire poker with wire, then headed for the door to escape through the opening.

That was when it happened.

"...I do not wish to eat wood. It has no flavor."

Crunch. Crunch.

I heard the sound of wood being chewed. Looking toward the chief, I saw her roughly grab leaves and branches in both hands and shove them into her mouth. Branches and trunks shattered mercilessly as they filled her body.

Astonishingly... she devoured the wood faster than the Tree of Origin could grow more.

"That's all dietary fiber, so it won't digest well. You're going to have a hard time in the bathroom."

"Chew, chew. Gulp. Do not worry. Did I not tell you? This place... is my stomach."

As Chief Biritear said that, hard bark began to grow across her body.

Druidism was especially weak against bloodcraft. Perhaps because of the difference between plants and animals, bloodcraft's power of domination had the advantage. Apparently, that disadvantage remained even against a Yeiling.

"Tch!"

I jabbed the lock with a skewer. Just as I felt it start to give, newly grown red bark blocked the gap in the door. She had digested the bark through Gluttony, dissolved it into her flowing blood, and reconstructed it.

Crunch.

Chief Biritear had already eaten the chair and table. She waddled toward me with her belly enormously swollen. Looking at her stomach, swollen like a pregnant woman's, I muttered.

"I already have a sibling.... It's too cramped for two people, so I think I should leave first."

"Your mouth is still working. Then again, I am too full to have room to eat you... so I shall simply hang you on a hook."

When she said this place was her stomach, it was not simply a metaphor. The blood flowing through this hut was her bloodstream. Chief Biritear could digest what she ate and dissolve it into that blood. That was why she could keep moving even after devouring the chair and table.

It was bloodcraft too powerful to believe belonged to someone on Finlay's level. Well, this was her home ground, and I would have lost if I had fought Finlay properly back then.

But I wasn't the same as I had been back then either. If I fought now...

"I win."

Muttering my victory, I pulled out the Eight of Diamonds card. All thin, long things. I pulled the ends of the card containing alchemized steel wire. A single card became hundreds of strands of wire, wrapping around my hands.

"You still intend to fight. Your tenacity rivals a vampire's."

I quietly watched Chief Biritear's belly rapidly deflate. At a glance, it seemed to vanish in an instant, but she was actually releasing the digested furniture through the blood flowing at her feet. As long as she could interact with this hut, escaping would be difficult.

Then I just had to stop her from doing so.

"Did you know? A stomach is actually outside the body."

With wire wrapped around my hands, I secretly took out the lightning coil. A ball of thread made from steel wire and lightning. When I combined the two, lightning flowed through every strand of wire.

"It temporarily stores things to separate nutrients that will enter the body from impurities that will be expelled. It looks as though it's inside the body, but the outside and inside are separate."

"Are you explaining Gluttony to me?"

"In case you didn't know."

"How kind."

She had eaten all the wood. Only metal remained now, and vampires were quite good at controlling metal.

The chief gripped her knife and charged. I spread the wire to block her, but Chief Biritear slashed the knife vertically as though she had been waiting for it. Snip. The wire could not withstand the blade infused with blood energy and was cut apart.

'Even if it is wrapped in energy, it is still a thin thread. You cannot block me with this. Show me another trick. If you cannot, it is over.'

Chief Biritear stepped through the huge gap in the wire. She positioned herself to protect her knife rather than herself, exposing her face and back entirely.

It was a vampire's method of attack, one that used the body as a shield. If necessary, she would tear into my body with her teeth. As she charged like a beast, I gripped the severed wire again.

In truth, the wire had not been cut. Only the coil of lightning had been severed, while the wire sagged as it waited for her. Chief Biritear had mistaken lightning for energy techniques and charged straight into the center of the wire I had laid out. The moment I felt resistance, I kicked the cauldron and sent it rolling. As the cauldron rolled, it tightened the wire.

"A net?"

Something like that. The card had been woven into a net from the start.

"Hmph. Something like this...!"

One cauldron was apparently not enough. Chief Biritear charged recklessly with the net hanging from her. I clung tightly to the wire, but even as it dug into her body, the vampire did not care and pressed me back with sheer strength. It was a truly vampire-like charge.

"Set, Lee!"

That was what I wanted. The moment the wires burrowed into her body.

"Bolt!"

Bolt's electric shock flowed through the lightning coil. In that brief instant, lightning coursed through her entire body. For the first time since becoming a vampire, Chief Biritear experienced paralysis.

'What is this? My body has stopped on its own?!'

It shocked her very senses. It would be different from ordinary electricity. This power worked well against vampires.

Chief Biritear was an experienced vampire in her own right. She let blood flow through her body with bloodcraft, bringing her entire body back under her control. It did not take long for her to regain control of her body. Still, it was enough time to wrap her in the net and hang her from the rafters. Unable to touch her hut as she dangled in the air, Chief Biritear had no choice but to admit defeat.

"What was that power just now.... An alchemist from Cloud Village? It was different from that as well...."

"New things are always being born in the world."

I dusted off my hands and knocked on the door. The force of the blood flowing through it had clearly weakened considerably. The chief could no longer stop me from leaving.

Ugh. I had used up all my wire too. It was a shame, but trying to retrieve it would be suicidal. I slowly picked the lock and started to step outside...

"Oh. Before I go."

Before stepping out, I paused at the commotion outside the door and gestured at the chief with my chin.

"Could you tell the villagers outside to disperse?"

The chief swayed as she hung there and answered.

"...Why should I do that?"

"Otherwise, a village will disappear from the map today."

Of course, it was a bluff. I had no way to harm dozens of villagers holding spears with farming tools tied to them. What was that? A sickle tied to a spear? Their centers of gravity were all different, so they would cut their own feet if they swung them wrong. I wouldn't even be able to read that in the villagers' thoughts and would get cut while dodging.

I could probably win now that my body had improved... but I wasn't a vampire. I didn't want to risk getting stabbed by those rusty old spears.

Regardless of what I felt, though, Chief Biritear saw me as a threat stronger than herself. And an owner did not send livestock to war.

Where there were no rights, there were no duties. The two were always bound together.

The chief calmly accepted her defeat and shouted.

"...Everyone in the village, listen. Withdraw at once and return to your homes."

"What? Chief, what do you mean...?"

"At once! Have you decided not to obey me now?"

When the chief suddenly shouted, the villagers surrounding the hut looked at one another and began lowering their spears one by one. They had no duty. All they had to do was move like sheep, as the vampire commanded.

The sounds of people gradually faded away. I waited for them all to leave, then spoke calmly.

"May I ask you one thing?"

"Go ahead."

"I want to escape the Duchy. Where can I find a broker who helps people get out?"

This village was a mountain village on the edge of the Duchy. And the chief was a vampire who had lived for nearly five hundred years. She had surely heard something. I asked Chief Biritear, and she answered reluctantly.

"Why should I tell you?"

"If you don't answer, this hut will burn to nothing. You will be exposed beneath the blazing sun."

That was another lie, of course. I had no ability to burn down a hut soaked with so much blood. The vampire knew that too. The power I had shown so far was not enough to burn this hut down in an instant.

Still, Chief Biritear answered.

"Cross the valley and keep climbing west through the mountains. You will find land where trees cannot grow. Walk along the boundary from where the last tree grows, and you will see a peak where clouds gather. I have heard people come and go there. Go see for yourself."

The vampire answered.

With a lie, of course.

'That cloud-gathering peak is guarded by an Ain. Collie, the shepherd dog of the blood-drenched bloodkin. If you approach carelessly, she will drive you away at once.'

It gave me useful information too. Searching this way was easier than checking every place one by one.

"Thank you. Since you've given me useful information, I'll leave peacefully."

Waving my hand, I opened the door and stepped into the bright world.

Whew. I had won against a Yeiling. It made me newly proud of how much I had grown. Lighthearted, I walked through the empty village. I could sense humans watching me from inside the livestock sheds, but it didn't matter. They were livestock with neither rights nor duties.

...Except for one.

"It was you... What did you do to the chief...?"

It was the girl I had met before digging the tunnel. Perhaps because she had seen me once, or perhaps because she was simply young, she didn't know fear and blocked my path. She held tightly to a spear she could not even swing.

It was meaningless resistance, of course. There was no way a girl weaker than an ordinary human could defeat me. She should have listened to adults more than anyone, but that girl who did not listen should not have stood in my way.

"Hehe. Do you think you can stop me when even the chief couldn't?"

"Answer me!"

The girl threateningly thrust out her spear, but I leisurely shrugged and answered.

"What you need to do right now isn't stop me. It's save the chief."

"...S-save the chief?"

"Hurry. You're the only one who can save the chief right now. Well...."

Brushing my hair back as though I found her ridiculous, I suddenly hardened my expression and glared at the girl.

"If you choose to fight me, the life the chief wanted to save at the cost of her own may be in danger too."

The frightened girl sucked in a breath. The spear tip trembled wildly in her fearful grip. I stepped aside so she could pass and held out my hand.

"If you're going to save her, I won't stop you. But... if you intend to interfere, this conversation ends here."

The girl made her decision quickly. She hesitantly passed me, then suddenly began running toward the chief's hut. Watching her scurry away, I breathed an inward sigh of relief.

Whew. That was lucky. One wrong move and I could have been stabbed by that spear.

Damn. Reading her thoughts was a sight to behold. In her mind, she had clearly been pointing the spear at me impressively, but from where I stood, the tip wobbled around like a drunken butterfly. Even mind-reading, no, especially because I could read minds, could not predict the spear's trajectory. It was more threatening than a vampire's attack.

In any case, I had persuaded her with words and kept my dignity intact. Still pretending to be relaxed, I headed down the path the chief had shown me.

With hope of escape.

...Then again, Hilde hadn't appeared even after all that commotion. She really must have run off. Where in the world did she go alone? Leaving me behind!

* * *

"Haaah. I wonder if Father knows how great a resolve 'I' have made."

Hilde thought of the "father" she had left behind and let out a deep sigh.

"Honestly. Of all people, the audience I least wanted to lose has ended up in this state. I suppose 'I' have no choice but to make the sacrifice. I only left a letter because I didn't want to embarrass myself for no reason."

It had been an unavoidable choice if she wanted to escape. Hilde sighed.

She was not worried. He was the King of Humanity. Whatever hardship he faced, he would overcome it. Hilde had no basis for that belief, but unconsciously trusted it nonetheless.

But if the two of them stayed together... Hilde became useless.

Her strengths were transformation and acting. She was everywhere and nowhere. She had become a member of the pursuit force chasing her to break through their encirclement, lived as a mountain village woman, assassinated bandits who raided the village, and even pretended to be their leader.

But she could not transform if he was beside her. It was like sealing away one of her strongest abilities.

That was why Hilde had left him behind. For a more certain escape.

Hilde covered her face and smiled for a moment, then slowly lowered her hands. Where the face of a mischievous young girl had been moments ago was now the slick face of a man. Transformed into Hughes, Hilde lightly pressed her throat with a finger and adjusted her voice.

"Still~. I've gathered enough data~. His face, voice, way of speaking, and... even his body. This should be enough to fool even Tyrkanzyaka for a little while~."

She changed her face, adjusted her voice, and corrected her gait. She was the very image of "him." Wearing his mask, she recalled memories that might be called nostalgia before she made her very mindset become "him."

"An audience.... Am I destined never to escape acting after all~?"

That was right. Hilde had been an actor by nature. She had acted before the men she called fathers at the brothel, before nobles in theater troupes, and before pursuit forces while she fled. She had done it to survive, and it had helped her survive.

Her essence was acting as something other than herself. It was a contradiction... but it was the right answer. Acting could no longer be separated from Hilde's life.

"Tch. He's the only audience anyway."

The Celestial God wanted her to remain with the Holy Sword Corps. The Holy Maiden wanted her to be the Shadow Casket. But he wanted her to be an actor who encompassed every role she had played before, even though he could use her personally.

The King of Humanity was that kind of being. An existence closer to a phenomenon than even the Celestial God or the Holy Maiden, truly absolute.

"I chose the wrong person to rely on from the start. I should have gone looking for the King of Humanity. Why did I go around doing good things only for others?"

After grumbling one last time, Hilde closed her eyes and summoned her role. One man she had observed until now, the sum of all humans who was ordinary, yet commanded every kind of ordinariness.

'I am Hughes. The King of Humanity.'

The King of Humanity named Hughes.

The White-Faced One.

The fiend who had once thrown the Empire and its vassal states into chaos appeared in the Duchy.

Footnotes:

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