WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 525

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Crossing, and Crossing Again

The Heart's potion boosts my physical capabilities by a dramatic margin. But the price it demands is just as certain. The body may be fooled by a clever man, but it never lies about what it's owed, and what you spend will always come back around to collect.

But who am I? The Magician, the man who skips out on debts. I've spent my whole life cheating others, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before I learned to cheat my own body too. Pay in something else, pay later, and never let it hit all at once.

"Hup. Feel pretty fresh, actually."

"Hey! Put your arm back in before you say anything! Your shoulder is dislocated!"

Hm. I glanced over and sure enough, my right shoulder was sitting a good half-handspan lower than the left. I tried to lift it. Nothing. Completely out of socket.

Still, compared to what I'd just done to earn it, a dislocated shoulder was cheap.

"What's the big deal? I pushed that hard, of course I dislocated something. Just pop it back in and we're good."

"Why didn't you use energy? Even a little flow would've kept it from popping out!"

"I didn't have energy to spare. You know I can barely use it at the best of times."

"Oh, right. You barely have any reserves at all."

'There's just no measuring him, is there. He's so gifted at everything else, I naturally assumed energy arts were in there too. Actually, thinking about it now, that really is strange. Building up a reservoir takes its own kind of skill. How do you have every other ability under the sun and no energy to show for it?'

I've shown her my weaknesses over and over and she still overcalculates me. This was everything I had, and I mean everything, with the limits broken on top of it. Don't give me a role like that again.

"Either way. Jizan saved my life more times than I could count."

"Bark! Bark bark! Me, bark bark bark bark!"

"...And Azzy helped too."

"Bark!"

Azzy puffed out her chest with a proud look on her face. No, no, you don't get to be proud. You were the one who should have been fighting the wolves. I helped you. Thank me.

Speaking of which...

"Azzy!"

"Bark?"

The regressor called out sharply. Azzy's eyes went wide and she turned to look.

At first glance nothing seemed different, but something in the regressor's expression was tight.

"Azzy, just now... didn't you go a little blurry?"

"Bark?"

Azzy tilted her head with that same blank, guileless look she always wore. But the regressor had seen it clearly enough.

For just a moment, Azzy had gone translucent.

"Hughes... did you see it?"

"Yes. I did."

"Why is... why is Azzy trying to disappear?"

She already knew the reason. She asked anyway, because she was searching for a reason Azzy wouldn't disappear.

"It's not so strange. A Beast King exists to represent a species. But Azzy gave up the title of King of Dogs and used it to complete the wolves into true wolves instead. Right now, Azzy represents nothing."

"So that's why she's disappearing? That doesn't make sense! She's been perfectly fine this whole time, and now just because she passed on the crown she's going to vanish...!"

"Let me finish. It's the opposite."

"What?"

Honestly, I wasn't entirely sure myself. But Azzy still hadn't disappeared, and that meant there had to be a reason she hadn't.

"If she were going to disappear, she would have vanished the moment she handed over the crown. She didn't. She's still here. Whatever it is, Azzy is representing something right now."

"Then why did she go blurry?"

"Hard to say. Maybe she represents something blurry?"

"Something blurry? Like what?"

"How would I know? You're the one who might have a clue, Mr. Shei."

"I don't know either. A situation like this with Azzy..."

'Even when I helped kill the King of Wolves, Azzy just stayed as the King of Dogs, helping humans the same as always. I have no idea whether this change is good or bad. But one thing I know for certain: this never happened in a previous run.'

Hey. What do you mean, a situation like this with Azzy? What kind of phrasing is that? Keep talking like that and you're going to end up admitting you're the regressor before long.

Honestly. Just go ahead and say it. I'm tired of tap-dancing along the edge of her thoughts every time I read them. Come out with it and let me ask you directly.

'Ugh. But I can't explain previous runs. It causes problems whether they believe me or not. The moment someone knows I'm a regressor, their focus shifts from the world to my regression.'

But I couldn't let on that I'd already figured it out. The instant she became aware I was reading her mind, she'd stop thinking in front of me. So, given how things were going, the better move was to work on actually earning her trust.

I'd been drifting through my own thoughts for a moment when the commotion reached me. I'd noticed Marquis Lapaeno's army arrive earlier and heard what was being said, but hadn't paid it much attention.

Which was why I was a beat slow to react when the fighting broke out.

"What, what? What is that lunatic doing?!"

I turned toward the noise. Gruel and Marquis Lapaeno were already at each other, and Duke Erectus was sprinting toward us clutching his guard dog in his arms. The details were unclear, but a fight had started, that much was obvious.

The regressor held out her hand.

"Hughes. Jizan!"

"Here."

"Good... eek! Don't throw it!"

"You said give it to you. You even held out your hand."

She'd been so certain I would throw it and she would catch it that her certainty had infected me, and I'd thrown it before I could second-guess myself. Not that it mattered, Jizan apparently still hadn't forgiven her and refused to be lifted.

"Ugh. Fine, you hold Jizan! I'll manage with Skywarbler!"

"One moment. My right arm won't go up, so I'll need to grip it left-handed."

"You still haven't put your shoulder back in?! What have you been doing?"

"There was no opening! Either you do it for me or you stop complaining!"

"Fine, I'll do it, just hold still!"

"Actually, wait. The fact that you're offering makes me less confident, not more. I'll do it myself."

"What's wrong with me?! I can reset a shoulder..."

'Come to think of it, have I ever reset someone else's shoulder? Almost no one around me has ever had their arm pop out like that... Still, how hard can it be? You just push, right?'

"...Probably?"

"I said no!"

While the regressor and I were squabbling, Azzy tapped me on the shoulder. The bad shoulder, naturally. I winced and turned around.

"Azzy. That's the hurt shoulder, so be gentle when you..."

"Bark."

"Gyaaah!"

Azzy grabbed my shoulder and gave it a firm, decisive twist. The sound of bone clicking into place traveled through my whole body. I shrieked like a little girl and shoved her away with my right arm.

"That hurt! What was that?!"

"Treatment!"

"Since when do dogs treat anything... wait."

My right arm was moving. She'd put the bone back. When did Azzy pick up that ability?

The regressor watched my arm work perfectly and said, sounding a little put out, "I could have done that."

'Would've been a useful experience, honestly.'

I am not an experience point.

"Forget it. Let's get over there!"

Gruel and Marquis Lapaeno were trading blows. On the surface it looked like Gruel had the upper hand, moving fast and pressing the Marquis back. The reality was the other way around. Lapaeno left slashing force hanging in the space he passed through, a natural predator for anyone as mobile as Gruel. The Marquis moved unhurried and methodical, claiming ground one corner at a time.

If it were just the Marquis, the regressor throwing herself in could turn the fight around. But that wasn't the problem.

"Wait. Mr. Shei. There's an army behind him."

The regressor's eyes flashed orange for a moment, then returned to normal. The Seven-Colored Eyes, the overlook view that lets her tally numbers at a glance. She clicked her tongue.

"Five hundred. Every single one of them knows energy arts."

"What do we do? Fight?"

"Stop them first, figure out the rest after. We can't just... oh?"

Right then, Duke Erectus, sprinting with his injured guard dog in his arms, spotted us and changed course. He came at us trailing blood, and even the regressor went rigid at the sight.

"Hell! You there! Adventurer! Save Welshi!"

"What?"

"There's no time! Welshi is dying! Hurry, you must have some way to help!"

The regressor naturally had the means. But all the goodwill Duke Erectus had built up over time was negative, and instead of moving she fixed him with a skeptical look.

"You're the one who brought the vassal state's army here, aren't you?"

"No! You people stopped me! Damn it, there's no time for this! Hurry..."

His voice was close to a scream.

It was a pity, but the regressor had no real reason to save Welshi. The fight with the wolves had already killed or wounded a great many beastkin. Saving each and every one of them was beyond even her. What she could offer, the full extent of her care, was mixing healing medicine in a large pot and distributing it to the injured.

And more than that, she needed to stop Marquis Lapaeno. That was the path that prevented the greater loss.

"Please... please..."

Well. That was the regressor's situation. But I was interested in this man.

"Mr. Shei. Go on ahead. I'll take care of him."

"Oh. Alright."

The regressor stepped forward without hesitation, and I stayed behind to see to Welshi. He'd done some kind of first aid, bandages wrapped around the wound, but it was nowhere near enough. The blood had soaked through until the cloth looked like fabric woven from the stuff.

Short of the Healer Sage, saving Welshi was beyond what I could do. But I'd try. That was what he wanted.

I forced blood back through the wound with bloodcraft and started pulling out thread to stitch. A body trained in energy arts was tough, but there was no guarantee she could survive my surgery. By any honest measure, she was closer to death than life.

Even so, Duke Erectus had forced himself to look away from that truth. He'd put whatever thin thread of hope he had left on me.

"You can save her?"

"Honestly, the odds are poor. I'm not a physician, and even if I were, do you think I could close wounds left by a master?"

"Is there no way?"

"There's one option. But it's far too valuable to use on a mere dog-kin."

His face lit up. "What do you need? I'll pay anything! Just save Welshi!"

"It's too precious for that. Wouldn't it be faster to simply find yourself a new guard dog?"

"What the hell are you saying?! I'm asking you to save Welshi!"

"I'm sorry? I thought any guard dog would do. Beastkin are just beings born from the Warrior's womb to serve humans, aren't they? Welshi has served her fill. Let her go."

"How can you say that?! Welshi and I have lived together for nearly twenty years! She can't be replaced!"

"Then you should have treated her better while it was still possible."

The words went into him like a blade. Duke Erectus clenched his jaw but made no move to argue back or raise a hand against me. I was the only thing keeping Welshi's life from slipping away.

"You humiliated her in public, laughed at her for being worthless, whipped her, and she even died in your place twice over, and you never once showed gratitude. You never saved her yourself. And now you're begging someone else to do it at the last moment. Have you no shame?"

"I know! But... still, she's mine! My guard dog! If she's mine, I can care for her, I can treasure her!"

The best argument he could come up with was that she was his property. Old convictions don't bend easily. And yet..."She's worth far more to me than people like that lot!"

His feelings, at least, were honest. I watched the tears run down his face and said, "You got what you wanted."

"What?"

"You were searching for someone who could acknowledge you. You seemed to feel that beastkin were too base to be worth anything. But you had to lose her to know she mattered, didn't you?"

He had never counted his guard dog among people. The way a man might pay no mind to how his dog looks at him, he'd treated them carelessly and shrugged off their opinions as things beneath notice. That was how it had been, right up until he ran from Orcma and heard Welshi's heart while fleeing alongside her.

And only once he'd stood beside her as a fellow fugitive did he begin to see Welshi as something like an equal.

"You already had it, all along. Someone who saw you and acknowledged you. The thing you were looking for was right there, closest of all. Sounds like a lesson straight out of some old fable."

"Then..."

"But now you're going to lose it."

"What?"

Well. This is beyond me. Without divine power or a vampire's touch, she can't be saved. A shame.

I shook my head and started to rise. Duke Erectus's face collapsed into despair at the weight of that small gesture. It couldn't be helped. But at least he'd understood, in the end.

"Bark."

"Hm?"

I was about to leave him there when Azzy, staring at Welshi and Duke Erectus, gave a short bark.

"You want to help?"

"Save who? Welshi? I want to, but I don't have the ability."

"What if you did? Would you?"

She'd deserve that much. If I had the power.

Everyone knows how to move a boulder to the top of a mountain. You lift it or roll it, one step at a time. But the number of people who can actually do that is vanishingly small, and even they won't bother without some enormous reward waiting at the summit.

So no matter how desperately someone prays to be saved, I can't answer that prayer.

"Bark!"

Whether she'd heard my answer or not, Azzy set her front paws on Welshi's back. And started licking the wound without any further preamble.

Her heart was in the right place, but a Beast King's healing ability was roughly on par with antiseptic. What Azzy was doing amounted to no more than licking up blood, better than letting it keep flowing, maybe, but it wasn't going to save Welshi.

"Oh."

A miracle happened. White light gathered and bloomed, and Welshi's wounds began to reverse.

"Welshi! Can you hear me? Welshi!"

"...Your Grace."

"Yes. It's me! Damn it all. Why did you get involved..."

Not healing. Something closer to restoration. Azzy, who had just performed a miracle, looked up at me with blood still wet around her mouth, tongue lolling, wearing the same harmless face she always had.

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