WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 48: I've Been Following You This Whole Time

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It had only been a few days since I noticed the vampire's secret desire and failed to grant her long-cherished wish. I was quite satisfied to have secured even a single thread of connection with her, and I thought I had made great progress in building ties within Tantalus...

There was a time when I thought that, too.

"Could you spare me a moment?"

"Again?"

Familiarity did not necessarily become welcome. More often, it turned into boredom or annoyance. Lately, whenever the vampire had a spare moment, she would visit my room or find me in the dining hall. It was giving me a headache.

There was only one reason the vampire came to see me. I scowled and replied.

"That's an addiction. An addiction."

"It isn't particularly difficult for you, is it?"

"Even so, coming to see me after every meal and whenever you have a break is a bit much."

"You only need to put your finger in. I will handle the rest."

She clearly would not listen even if I tried to stop her. With a sigh, I nodded. The vampire untied her garment ties and approached me as though she had expected it.

If someone watched from afar without knowing what was going on, it would be an incredibly enviable sight. A beautiful woman who could turn anyone's head brightened whenever she saw me, dragged me somewhere secluded, then took my hand and buried it in her chest.

Except...

"Come. Hurry."

She opened not her clothes, but her flesh.

And if they knew I meant burying it inside her chest literally rather than figuratively, they might feel differently.

I pushed my fingers deep into the gap in her severed flesh. By now, I could find the way to her heart without looking. Aware of that unwelcome change in myself, I expertly rummaged through her insides.

"Bolt."

Electricity flowed down my fingers and into her heart. Though weak, it was a spell cast while directly touching a heart. The shock could stop it.

But my target was a vampire whose heart had stopped long ago. For her, the shock was a welcome stimulus that brought back nostalgia from the past.

"Hngh. Haa..."

A blush spread over the vampire's face. Her heart throbbed from the shock and violently pumped blood. So much blood rushed into her pale ivory face that her complexion changed, and for a moment, pleasure of an entirely different kind swept over her.

The vampire let out an excited moan and gripped my arm tightly. It felt as though her whole body were hanging from me, yet the weight on my arm was incredibly light.

After savoring the lingering sensation for a while, the vampire leaned against me as though clinging to me.

"Hnnngh... You are becoming more... skillful."

"Humans are creatures that learn. We're getting used to each other."

"Thank you... Please do it again next time."

"Come less often. It's a hassle for me."

"You used to speak of respecting the elderly, yet now you do not even bother pretending."

"I didn't know you'd come this often. I clearly told you not to expose your heart carelessly, but do you have no intention of keeping that rule now?"

"This body is already dead. What harm is there in taking out my heart? Why should I not expose it?"

The vampire was about to take it out and show me while she was at it. I hurriedly reached out to stop her. She snickered, pulled my hand away, and straightened her clothes.

"Besides, I only show it to you. Be proud."

"Proud, my ass. It's not especially welcome, either. What I'm doing is respecting the elderly, not labor. Everyone, regardless of age or gender, hates extra work."

"Then what if there is payment for that labor? I will give you gold I had stored away separately."

"No thanks. Gold from before the Alchemical Revolution isn't trustworthy. Its actual value is about the same as a somewhat pretty rock lying on the ground."

"Ugh, ngh. It seems much time has passed..."

Discouraged, the vampire rested her chin on her hand and muttered.

"What should I do...? All I have left are gold and statues. I do not know if they will be suitable payment."

"Statues?"

"Yes. Paintings and statues. If I had one hobby, it was collecting artworks. Emotion lasts only a moment, but art remains. Though even those... I do not know how much value they hold in this era."

"They should be better than gold. Can you show me?"

"Very well. Stay here. I will bring them."

The vampire left to bring the artworks. Watching her walk away, I smiled to myself.

See? What a sucker. I touched her a little, played hard to get, and now she was about to hand over her wealth herself.

And artworks, at that. They were among the few things that grew more valuable with age. Artworks preserved for over a thousand years in a coffin with a vampire, and owned by an absolute ruler who once dominated the world? I could not even estimate their value. It was a treasure vault worth more than an ordinary gold mine.

You never knew what might happen in Tantalus, so I needed to keep at least one treasure close at hand. Imagining a rosy future, I turned around.

'Th-that-that-that. That bastard. What is he doing with Tyrkanzyaka?!'

...First, I needed to deal with the voyeur peeking at us from around the corner.

Pretending not to know anything, I walked down the hallway. The regressor followed behind me, concealing herself with a Stealth Technique.

'Should I reveal myself? Or not? It would be better to catch him red-handed and question him immediately. No, what if he thinks I was following him?'

What do you mean, what if? You were following me. Did you leave your conscience in the previous iteration?

While I desperately held back the words itching to come out, the regressor reached a conclusion after much thought.

'No! Focus on your original purpose, Shei! I came to find out what happened in this Abyss and prevent Azzy and Tyrkanzyaka from falling into corruption! To do that, I can intervene!'

Whoosh.

The regressor leaped out and landed in front of me. Then she stared at me and strode closer.

She had finally decided to step up. I had waited a long time. Calmly, I greeted the regressor.

"Hello, Trainee Shei..."

"What did you do to Tyrkanzyaka?"

Straight to the point. Pretending not to know anything, I replied.

"Have you been following me all this time?"

"Of course... No, I happened to! I happened to see you heading somewhere with Tyrkanzyaka, and I witnessed you doing something strange!"

"Something strange? I don't believe I've done anything worthy of criticism."

"Are you going to deny it? I saw everything from beginning to end! I even heard what you two were saying!"

What was that? She was just a stalker.

"What was that? You're just a stalker."

Oops. That was my inner thought.

"No, I'm not!! If you really think about it, I am! Like an undercover detective!"

"Trainee Shei, are you a police officer?"

"Huh? N-no."

"What? Then you're just a stalker."

"No...!"

The regressor hopped around in agitation, then took a deep breath and glared at me.

"Stop changing the subject. This is a very serious matter!"

"I'm the one who finds this absurd. What did I supposedly do to Trainee Tyrkanzyaka? At the very least, I didn't do anything against my conscience."

"Now you're going to deny it?"

"The one denying things is Trainee Shei, insisting you weren't following me."

"That's not what's important right now!"

"Fine. Let's hear what's important, then. What is it?"

She seemed to think she had cornered me after I gave in a little. Growing even more confident, the regressor shouted.

"You forcibly groped Tyrkanzyaka!"

"What? Who did I forcibly do what to?"

"You forcibly touched... Tyrkanzyaka..."

Even as she said it, the regressor realized how little sense it made, and her voice gradually shrank. I narrowed my eyes at her.

Of course it made no sense. Threatening and forcibly groping Tyrkanzyaka, the monster that defied the heavens, the Queen of Darkness, and the Progenitor of vampires?

If that were possible, why would I be living like this?

My gaze turned cold. Realizing what I meant, the regressor shrieked.

"B-but I saw it clearly with the Green Eye! Y-you, you put your hand into Tyrkanzyaka's chest!"

"Yes. I even touched her heart."

"Don't give me that! What, are you saying you melted her frozen heart with some poetic expression?"

What was she talking about? I meant it literally. I had physically touched it with this hand.

"And she said you were becoming more skillful...!"

"It isn't a pleasant experience."

Did she know what it felt like when your hand naturally parted flesh and reached a heart? The vampire could control her own blood and regenerate even when her body was torn apart, but that did not make putting a hand inside her any less strange. Slick flesh, twitching muscles, a strangely warm and damp interior. It felt like being inside a whale's stomach.

Blood, organs, muscles, bones. Humans had evolved to find everything inside a body nauseating. Exposed organs were practically an omen of death. I was no exception. These days, my sanity was being chipped away in real time.

"Y-you. Anyway. I honestly don't know what exactly you're doing with Tyrkanzyaka."

As if she had not already reached a tentative conclusion in her head. Pretending not to know anything, I tilted my head and asked.

"You really don't know?"

"I don't knooow!!"

'At this rate, Azzy and Tyrkanzyaka will both be influenced too much by this man! I still don't know whether this is corruption, but if it leads to that result in the future, this man could be responsible!'

What did she think I was doing? Corruption? Why would I corrupt them? Did I have a death wish?

Seeing her imagine such nonsense, I could tell she really did not know. Well, she could never imagine that I was directly touching a heart and giving it an electric massage.

"You're obviously doing something strange that others shouldn't see!"

That was correct. I had nothing to say in rebuttal.

"The fact that you can't answer means I'm right! I'll put an end to that today...!"

"I do it because I want to. Who are you to say you'll put an end to it?"

Nice timing. The vampire, dragging a large coffin, approached with a deliberately angry expression. She passed the regressor and stood in front of me, blocking her path.

The regressor was greatly shocked that Tyrkanzyaka, who had treated her like a disciple in her own way, had taken my side.

"Tyr...kanzyaka?"

'Tyrkanzyaka is standing with her back to that man and facing me?'

Her eyes trembled in disbelief. The vampire's gaze, though, was icy cold.

"Enough. Why do you meddle in every little matter of mine? How can a disciple raise his voice over his teacher's affairs?"

"No. I'm doing this for you!"

'In the previous iteration, you were betrayed by someone, suffered greatly, and joined a great war that burned the world!'

Her desperate voice was sincere. Those words were surely true, something that had happened in the future. The regressor clearly wished to prevent Tyrkanzyaka's downfall and pray for her happiness.

Whether it was for the world or for herself.

But only I knew that. The vampire could not read minds.

"For me?"

Despite those feelings, the vampire scoffed.

Footnotes:

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