WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 531: An Idle Body Breeds a Busy Mind

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After returning to the estate, I passed the napping Mountain Lord and went inside. Labored breathing came through the door I had left slightly open earlier. When I entered, Azzy was tending to the regressor at her bedside.

Perhaps because she was using her power, a faint holy radiance glowed above Azzy's head. It would not do much for internal injuries, but it was still healing power.

No matter how I thought about it, that was not a power a beast should have.

Fortunately, someone here knew the answer to that question, or at least a clue. I sat beside the regressor and spoke.

"You heard everything we said, right? So? Did anything seem strange to you?"

"...No. Nothing."

The regressor answered every question despite groaning in pain.

"It's a relief she came because of the wolf. I thought she had come to avenge the tigers."

"Avenge the tigers? What would she be avenging?"

"People usually hunt tigers when exterminating harmful beasts, since tigers keep them from making paths through the mountains... I thought she had come for revenge because so many tigers died."

"The things I killed coming to take revenge on me? That's far too human a perspective. What about tigers, then? They eat plenty of boars and deer, but I've never heard of those animals taking revenge on them."

"...I know. I was just saying."

‘The Mountain Lord came because the wolf influenced her. She has no reason to indiscriminately attack humans. Knowing that much is enough. As long as the King of Wolves is stopped, the Mountain Lord won't become a disaster for humanity.’

She seemed careless, yet she left fewer openings than expected. She could not help acting as if she knew the future, but she hid every clue that regression was the reason.

That was why people suspected she was a Holy Maiden.

"What a relief. Since the King of Wolves was dealt with here, that's one major worry off my mind."

"Hmm. That may be one worry off your mind, Shei, but I still have one left."

"...What is it?"

"Azzy. Look over her head."

"Woof?"

At my words, the regressor looked above Azzy's head. A faint but still glowing ring of radiance floated there.

Her eyes widened.

"What is that...?"

"You should know."

"Don't assume I know everything... There are plenty of things I don't know."

"At least you know you don't know much. That's reassuring."

Noticing our gazes, Azzy rolled her eyes upward. Then she startled herself and leaped straight up.

"Woof?! Unidentified flying object!"

"You didn't know something was hanging over your own head this whole time?"

"You can't see what's right under your nose! Woof woof!"

Azzy stretched out her forepaw toward the halo above her head. But since the halo itself was a mass of light, she could not touch it. She kept jumping as if she wanted to bite it, but trying to reach a ring hanging above her own head with her mouth only made her do somersaults.

Leaving Azzy to tumble in circles by herself, I asked the regressor, "You said you came to stop the King of Sin, right?"

"Yes."

"Just as dogs symbolize gentleness and wolves represent savagery, even when a concept is emphasized, it cannot help being influenced by the original being. And no matter how I think about it, the King of Sin is based on humanity. No creature except humans would take an interest in something like sin."

That much was already known to both of us. But there were facts the regressor knew that I did not.

Even if I had to provoke her, I would draw them out today.

"And I know Beast Kings well. Even a powerful King of Humanity is only around the Mountain Lord's level. That's not enough to destroy the world. To be honest, I think you're making too much of it, Shei. Like a doomsayer."

At the mention of doomsayers, the regressor's face visibly twisted. In peaceful times, doomsayers were nothing more than madmen walking around and justifying their insanity. She had probably been treated that way more than once.

Having actually seen the end of the world and returned, it had to be enough to make her burst with frustration.

"...No. The King of Sin is that dangerous."

"How could it be? I'm the King of Humanity, and I'm telling you I'm not that powerful."

"It's different from you. The King of Sin is truly a different being from the King of Humanity."

Ah, right. The regressor had repeatedly insisted that the King of Sin was different from the King of Humanity. She never thought of any clues about why, so I could not read the reason from her mind.

"What idle beast besides humans would discuss sin? What, are beasts going to start a revolution in search of freedom?"

"It's not another Beast King... The King of Humanity became that way after absorbing the sins of every other human."

"What, is sin some kind of elixir you can drink? And what elixir can burn the world just because someone drank it? If one exists, I'd love to drink a whole bowlful."

"It's a metaphor! The concept separated!"

A concept separated? From a Beast King?

Having finally pried out a clue, I held my breath and waited quietly.

"Beast Kings are beings of concept. If the beastly part is removed from them, only the concept remains. A King of Concept made of nothing but the concept is more powerful than when it has a physical form."

"How?"

"I don't know the details. But a being that becomes a King of Concept after losing its physical form becomes one that burns everything for the sole purpose of spreading its concept. It refuses food and sleep, acting only as the concept itself. The King of Sin ignores life and the future to spread sin... It's the end of humanity."

Beasts put considerable effort into survival. They traveled in search of food, hunted, ran from predators or fought rivals to avoid being eaten, rested, mated, gave birth, and raised their young. Life was everything to them, and they spent everything on living.

Beast Kings were no different. That was why Azzy, Nabi, and the Mountain Lord seemed so simple and dumb.

But what if a Beast King burned its own soul to achieve something? What if it sought to carve its concept into the world, like a human who had reached the Demon God?

"The King of Wolves was the same. If we hadn't fought alongside Azzy and won, she would have become the very King of Savagery, a far more powerful and terrible calamity."

‘Like the calamity that once swept across the Enger Plain, leading every kind of beast and even beastkin.’

The regressor had said we needed to help Azzy defeat the King of Wolves. She had said it would not be very difficult.

If defeating the King of Wolves was easy, there was no particular reason to do it with Azzy. She would certainly help, but only to the extent a Beast King could. If an entire legion came and swept her away, why call her a calamity? She would just be a nuisance.

In other loops, Fenrir must have become something beyond an ordinary King of Wolves.

It was hard to believe, but I could not look away from it. A real example stood right before me.

"So, in short, that means becoming like Azzy?"

"Azzy...?"

Azzy had grown hazy all over, traded her crown for a halo, and gained healing magic for no clear reason. Anyone could see she was no ordinary Beast King. She did look like an idiot as she desperately tried to bite the ring above her head, though.

Watching Azzy turn somersaults, the regressor groaned thoughtfully.

‘That's true. Azzy definitely looks strange now. I didn't know what happened to beings of concept. Does it happen through handing over or taking away a crown? Did Azzy become the King of Gentleness after giving up her crown?’

A Beast King transformed into a King of Concept. Hmm. It was interesting, but it still did not feel like this had anything to do with me. Was it because I had neither a crown nor any power? I wished she would at least think of a clue about how the King of Sin appeared.

‘Then what about Hughes? Like a dog and a wolf, will Hughes fight that thing borne at the top of the Tree of Corruption? No, Hughes has no crown, and I never saw him in the previous loops. Did the concept separation already happen?’

"Shei."

"Huh? Yes! Yes."

The regressor answered with a start, then grimaced in pain. I felt a little guilty pressing an injured person, but people thought more when they were unwell. I could not waste this chance, when she was likely thinking more than she had at any point since she was born.

"I think I roughly understand what happened. I can guess what concept separation is and what it caused. But there's something more important, isn't there?"

"...What?"

"Who did it, and with what intent."

I was certain. No, I could not possibly not know. I was involved.

In the distant past, so long ago that I could not remember it. The King of Humanity back then was not me, but the promise made then still remained and bound me.

But what about the regressor? She had accumulated power and knowledge of the future through repeated regressions. She had to know. If she did not, or if she knew wrong, there was only one reason.

The Sanctum. Those bastards had deceived her.

Come on, let me hear why.

The regressor opened her mouth as if she had made up her mind.

"...Right. I think, urgh, I should tell you this. I'm not certain either, but the one behind the concept separation was..."

"The one behind it?"

At last, she was speaking. I had waited a long time. Without showing it, I waited for her words and thoughts. It did not matter whether she lied or spoke sincerely. The moment she said it, I would read the memories connected to those words with my mind-reading.

‘It should be fine to tell him. It's even less likely that Hughes is the King of Sin now. He proved it by helping Azzy, and even if I reveal the truth, it won't be more dangerous than it is now.’

Once she made up her mind, no one could stop her. The regressor spoke as soon as she thought it.

"Nevida."

Right. Nevida. Nevida...

What? Nevida?

The completely unexpected answer made me tilt my head.

"Pardon? The Great Druid?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"It may be hard to believe, but there's no one else."

Why not the Sanctum?

Could she not see that ring over Azzy's head? It was the radiance bestowed upon Saints and Holy Maidens. We still needed to confirm whether Azzy was truly a Holy Hound chosen by a Holy Maiden, but did she not suspect the Sanctum even a little?

"What evidence makes you think that?"

"That thing is growing at the top of the Tree of Corruption."

The Tree of Corruption was Nevida's Demon God, the Tree of Origin.

The World Tree that had stood in the jungle of the old Kingdom of Ten Thousand had burned and fallen. From its remains grew the Tree of Corruption, bearing every kind of fruit. Potatoes, corn, carrots, watermelons, lotus roots, and more. The World Tree had originally been a ginkgo tree, but instead of ginkgo nuts, it bore the fruits of every plant.

And as one climbed higher and higher up the Tree of Corruption...

An animal unlike anything ever seen pulsed within red flesh.

The regressor recalled the enormous flower she had seen from afar. It was too ominous and beautiful to be sitting at the top of a tree. At the very peak of the Tree of Corruption grew a forbidden fruit of good and evil, drawing in every trace of vital energy.

"The King of Humanity, made from a Root Beast."

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