WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 535

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Surviving Means Being Strong

"Is this a dog chew for humans?"

"It's an elixir. I would have liked to give one to everyone here, but I thought the King would probably prefer the dog chew."

Energy does grow the harder you train and apply it, but training alone isn't enough. Just as even a blessed body fails to develop properly without proper nourishment, a vast gap exists between an energy practitioner who has trained on elixirs and one who hasn't.

That said, more elixirs don't automatically mean better results. The saying that too much is worse than too little is the kind of deception only someone who has had more than enough can afford to make. Nations looking to boost their fighting strength go searching for elixirs, and as a result, elixirs are scarce the world over.

For energy practitioners in particular, elixirs are something no amount of alchemic coin can compare to. Ende had prepared this gift with genuine care. And yet...

"I don't really need it. I already have plenty of elixirs, and I'm past the stage where eating them would make me any stronger."

True to form, the regressor, who never wanted for wealth, said something outrageously comfortable.

"Take them and use them yourselves... mph!"

I clamped a hand over her mouth and scooped up the elixir.

"You don't ignore someone's goodwill. And what, is it fine as long as only you're strong? I need to eat too. Selfish."

"Hah? I gave you elixirs before! You barely touched them then!"

"They had no effect back then. Now is different. Something tells me they'll actually work."

The Demon God seems to have given me a vessel of my own, so I should be able to build up energy in my body now. Best to stock up whenever I get the chance.

"I'm glad you'll accept it. It takes a weight off my mind."

When I tucked the elixir away, Mayor Triber relaxed visibly and smiled. Warmth grows through the giving and receiving of gifts. Having cleared that hurdle, he moved on to the next topic.

"The vassal state has not yet made any move. Their prized Black Tiger Corps marched out full of ambition and got swept away by the Tiger Calamity to the last man, so I imagine they are in some disarray. Ende itself has not settled down either. The shock of being ambushed in the middle of rescuing those buried under the rubble, right after driving off the King of Wolves, was considerable. The one saving grace, if there is one, is that anger seems to be winning out over despair."

A great injustice had cast smaller ones into shadow. All the petty grievances were forgotten inside the larger injustice the vassal state had dealt Ende. Pig-kin against dog-kin, beastkin against human, the minor divisions dissolved in the face of something worth being truly furious about.

In the end, that was all it had taken.

"I did not wish for things to turn out this way, but however it happened, Ende has now made an enemy of the vassal state, for better or worse. Ende's citizens won't be able to accept them again, and the vassal state will look at us with a sour eye. To them, Ende must look like a fox sheltering under the Mountain Lord's shadow. They won't have the nerve to throw a single stone at the fox right now, not while they're afraid of the tiger."

"Let me say this for what it's worth: don't get any ideas about using the Mountain Lord."

Because I'm the one you'd have to answer to. I meant it sincerely, and Mayor Triber nodded.

"Of course. You can't invite a tiger into the house just because you're afraid of thieves. But I do worry about the thief who'll come knocking if you don't."

"I'm curious what's worrying you so much that you'd confide it to a visitor just passing through."

"There are things you can only say precisely because the listener is just passing through."

Mayor Triber said it gently and drew out a wooden case. The same kind of wooden case as the gift, but holding something different inside. And following the natural flow of all this, whatever was in there had to be the real point.

Inside the wooden case lay a pitch-black seal.

"This is a relic of the Black Tiger Corps. The Black Tiger Seal."

Innate arcane is an expression of one's own mindscape. Among those personal worlds, innate arcane whose mindscape is largely sealed can sometimes retain its form and power even after the mage dies.

The Black Tiger Seal was that kind of relic. It had been left behind by someone who spent a lifetime pressing seals, someone who died after gaining an innate arcane rooted in that very act. In life, the owner likely had little connection to large-scale attack magic, but the Black Tiger Seal left behind after death had been reborn as a strategic weapon capable of applying crushing pressure across a fifty-meter radius. Proof enough that a seal, pressed down on someone's head, counts as a weapon.

"Relics, especially ones that can be used as weapons, are rare. The vassal state will come after it with eyes turned inside out, and even the Empire will have its eye on this one."

"I can see that. Whether it's the Empire or the vassal state, it's a very tempting bone they'd chase without stopping to think. So what do we do with it?"

"If the one after it were a dog, I'd offer it as a gift. But they aren't dogs, they're jackals. Better to throw it somewhere far away, somewhere that keeps their eyes from turning this direction at all."

Mayor Triber closed the lid of the case and held it out toward us. In terms of value, elixirs would look like nothing beside it, but it was far too much to simply take.

So that's why he gave us the gift first. He set up the flow of giving naturally. Cunning.

"Ende needs time to tend to its wounds and stand on its own. This Black Tiger Seal is a precious thing, but it's also a seed of trouble. I would like your party to deal with it."

"Something this valuable? Even selling it carelessly would fetch a considerable price."

"Only if there were somewhere with the means to buy it. The only place that could purchase a strategic-grade relic with a known history is the Seven-Colored Merchant Group. They don't deal in contraband, which means there's effectively nowhere to sell it. And I can hardly, as the mayor of Ende, hand it off to a fence, so I'd like to pass the trouble on to you instead, if you'll forgive me putting it that way."

"I don't mind taking it, but..."

There was always selling it to another vassal state. But the one nearest to Ende was the Lilac Duchy, and selling it to a rival of the Lilac Duchy was no different from declaring war. The black market? Was there any black market willing to buy strategic weapons besides cultists or rebel armies?

It's genuinely hard to move, no question. I understood the urge to be rid of it.

"What do you think, Mr. Shei? Do you want to use it?"

"It's not bad, but... honestly, not that good for me either. I have Skywarbler and Jizan. Wouldn't it suit you better?"

"It's nice enough, but it doesn't really suit me either. Unlike the Demon God, this draws heavily on magical energy."

The Demon God is a principle written into the world itself. The way I use the Demon God's power is by touching that principle and making use of an enormous rule. The target just happens to be one of the world's rules, but in essence it's similar to stealing someone else's innate arcane and using it.

By comparison, a relic is an honest transaction: pay magical energy, receive a fixed effect. For someone like me who has to resort to tricks because I'm short on both energy and magical energy, it's not the right fit. A con artist who stops running cons sees their income drop.

"Can't be helped. I'll just have to sell it."

"Do you have a buyer?"

"Yes. As it happens, I can think of one faction that needs the Black Tiger Seal."

I picked up the case as naturally as you please and held it right back out. Mayor Triber stared at the returning case with a puzzled expression.

"Black Tiger Seal, for sale. Not used even once since I received it."

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like. It seems like something you need, so I'm selling it to you."

Selling back something I'd just been given. I held out my empty hand to Mayor Triber without a trace of shame. He looked at my open palm with visible discomfort and ventured a protest.

"Ende needs time to recover. I have already explained this."

"Yes. I heard."

"And yet you're saying we should fight the vassal state to hold onto a relic?"

"I never said you should fight. I'm telling you that you're not in a position to choose not to fight."

When I'd crossed paths with Marquis Lapaeno, I'd had a brief read of his thoughts, everything from why the Black Tiger Corps had bothered coming to Ende in the first place, to what the vassal state was preparing. It wasn't a deep read, but I caught the rough shape of it.

I shared what I'd read while making it sound like my own deduction.

"The Black Tiger Corps is the vassal state's strength. The army that carries out the vassal state's will came to Ende because there was something they needed here."

"Wasn't it a foothold for obtaining the Kingdom of Ten Thousand's elixirs?"

"More precisely, it's because they suddenly needed a large supply of elixirs with no current owner."

Elixirs are precious. So the people who receive them are carefully selected. You had to be from a distinguished family or taken on as a guild disciple before you'd see any, and even then you only kept getting them if you produced results.

But talented people are just as precious as elixirs, so supply and consumption are kept in careful balance. The vassal state had been ignoring the ruins beyond Enger Plain for the same reason, the returns were unstable given the resources involved, and even when something was gained, consumption couldn't keep up.

"A vassal state enjoying stable rule suddenly rushes to mobilize an army the moment word arrives of a fight with the King of Wolves? If they were so desperate for elixirs, why didn't they do this from the start?"

"Are you saying there's another reason?"

"It's simple. They're preparing for a battle, or a war. Getting some real combat training in while they're at it, two birds with one stone."

But what if they needed combat-ready strength right away? What if they had to train energy practitioners quickly and fill the ranks fast? The ruins of the Kingdom of Ten Thousand, full of resources and treasure just sitting there, made a fine pretext for moving troops.

"Lure the beastkin who've lost their homes into joining the army, secure elixirs and treasures from the Kingdom of Ten Thousand, gain a reason to move the corps, and potentially recruit the Beast Faction's Masters into the fold. It would have been a perfect opportunity from start to finish. It just ended in failure."

"War? Against whom?"

"I don't know that part, but it certainly won't be Ende. The scale difference is too large for it to be called a war. Honestly, if it hadn't been for the Tiger Calamity, the Black Tiger Corps would have trampled Ende flat."

The vassal state was a nation in its own right. Ende was nothing more than a frontier city. In an open fight, it would be swept aside with ease.

Mayor Triber's face darkened as he weighed the odds. He knew the objective difference in strength between Ende and the vassal state. No matter how you looked at it, there was no path to winning. And yet.

"But are you going to do what the vassal state demands and leave this city? Hand over everything, the money and the land, and step aside?"

"We cannot do that. Ende is the beastkin's land. It is proof that beastkin, like humans, can build civilization and advance."

"Well, of course."

Even if you're weak, you can't just sit down and wait to die. Even a worm writhes when you step on it. Not because it can bear a human's weight, but because that's all it can do.

"Negotiate if you can, or use it as leverage to threaten if you'd rather. You're already sitting at the table and you need every card you can get. How you play them is up to you."

"...Is there no way to avoid the fight?"

"Even the most formidable vassal state can't fight a dead man."

Mayor Triber let out a long, slow breath.

A distant relative of the imperial family, blood that would earn respect anywhere, and yet various circumstances had pushed him all the way out to Ende. The irony was that being pushed out had made him mayor of a city. He knew the situation between the Empire and the vassal states well enough, and he understood this peace wasn't going to last.

"There's no place for you in this order. If you want one, you have to stir things up. Survive the chaos when the old order falls apart and you become the new order. Fail, and you're just a flash that burned out."

"You return the lesson in a way I never expected. I've learned something today."

"Learned something, please. I'm the one who learned something."

A kind and decent mayor of Ende. That was the truth of his character, but to dodge the darkness, you first had to know it well. Surviving means being strong. Mayor Triber had the cunning of a seasoned politician.

"If we take the Black Tiger Seal, the vassal state's eyes will turn our way, and later, when the vassal state and Ende come into direct conflict, we'd have no choice but to side with Ende. Trying to forge a powerful alliance out of a piece of merchandise nobody else can move. That's not bad at all, is it?"

He was already spreading word that the Mountain Lord was Ende's guardian deity, and that the Black Tiger Corps had earned a tiger's wrath. Ende was already using every means at its disposal to survive. Trying to leave the Black Tiger Seal with us was probably part of the same effort.

Mayor Triber, caught out, answered without a flinch.

"Allies? I simply wished to entrust something precious to the heroes who saved Ende."

"I appreciate the thought. But we're not as reasonable as you imagine. We won't play along with your plan. If the vassal state marches on Ende, we'll be too busy to care, and if the vassal state tracks us down, that won't trouble us much either."

"Then returning the Black Tiger Seal was pure goodwill on your part, for our sake. I'm grateful for it."

I grabbed Mayor Triber's wrist as he reached to take the case back.

It was goodwill, yes. But I never said I was giving it back for free. I said it plainly.

"I don't think you caught what I said. I'm selling it back. Bring another elixir."

You gambled with the Black Tiger Seal as bait and you lost. A failed gamble still has a price. Did you think you'd get something for nothing?

Just then Azzy nudged me with her paw. I glanced over and saw her drop the nearly-finished remains of her dog chew on the floor. I added one more thing.

"And a dog chew."

Elixirs were precious even in Ende, but Mayor Triber handed one over without a word of complaint. He'd had one ready from the start. That made three elixirs in total. Effects varied wildly between types, but right now my body had not even a speck of energy to speak of. Even an unnamed elixir like this was worth having.

On the way back from the meeting. The regressor, who had kept quiet so as not to show weakness, asked in a low voice.

"...Was it Mayor Triber who was pulling Orcma's strings?"

"Well, it's just a guess. It's a small thing now, either way."

"No, it tracks. He's someone who was pushed out of power for no other reason than being a beastkin."

'If the Rider of Plague spreads and beastkin fleeing the danger get massacred at the border, Ende will grow disillusioned and side with the King of Wolves. Mayor Triber is someone whose only concern is the welfare and rights of beastkin, not the Empire, not the vassal states.'

Her thoughts came slowly. Well, the regressor had probably considered it a minor thing too, for the same reason.

"Why did he do it? A disturbance was the obvious outcome."

"Mayor Triber probably decided pig-kin needed a clan of their own. So he turned a blind eye and backed Orcma, even if it was somewhat illegal. He just didn't know the disturbance would grow this large."

"The disturbance got bigger because you stirred it up."

"New order is born out of chaos. Thanks to it, we found out what pig-kin actually want."

"There's going to be an even bigger disturbance coming anyway, so couldn't this have waited..."

That certainty comes from knowing the future, which only you have. Whether to wait for a bigger chaos to arrive, or grab the once-in-a-lifetime chance right in front of you, how would anyone know?

Unlike you, ordinary people gamble with the unchangeable past as their stake. What's riding on it is different.

Someone appeared as we were about to leave Oberli. The massive pig-kin spotted us and walked over with deliberate, heavy steps, making sure we could hear him coming. Gruel, the pig-kin's pride and the greatest contributor to Ende's defense, came over to speak.

"I heard you were injured. Are you doing better?"

"This is nothing. I could leave right now if I wanted."

The regressor answered with a show of confidence. A top-tier fighter at the Master level could gauge someone's condition from their presence alone, but the regressor's Heavenly Mirror always projected a state of perfect health. Gruel nodded.

"You'd be the only human to take on the Mountain Lord and survive. So, where are you headed next?"

"To the nearest monastery. There's something I need to find out."

"The nearest monastery?"

Enger Plain was wild land. No ordinary monastery could survive here. The nearest one was far to the north, in the northern reaches of Enger Plain where the great farmlands lay.

Then again, if you were talking about monasteries that weren't ordinary, there was one to the south of Enger Plain as well. The Blood Monastery, watched over by its most famous nun.

Gruel asked again, looking like he couldn't quite believe it.

"You're not talking about the one with the witch in it, are you?"

"Probably that one, yes."

"Bold... well, or maybe not. You two aren't exactly ordinary either."

You two? I'm the only one who's not ordinary here. I'm still in the realm of ordinary, aren't I?

...Honestly, at this point, maybe not.

"If you're heading south, watch yourselves. Strange things have been happening in the old lands of the Kingdom of Ten Thousand. Tribes that fled southeast to escape the King of Wolves have been going quiet one after another."

That was why the Beast Faction had come north in the first place. Gruel added it briefly and continued.

"And the priests of the old Kingdom of Ten Thousand have been moving in suspicious ways. Be careful."

"Did you come to warn us?"

"I came to say thank you. You worked hard. Without you, we'd all have been crushed under the Mountain Lord's foot. It's a poor substitute, but I wish you well."

Gruel said what he had come to say, gave a single easy wave, and walked away, as if that settled everything. It was the farewell of a nomad, someone equally used to meetings and partings.

Our business in Ende was finished, that much was clear. But I had just learned something new, and I rounded on the regressor.

"Wait a moment. The monastery we're going to, is it actually the Blood Monastery? Not the Golden Carpet Monastery or the Running Wind Monastery?"

"Yes. Isn't that better for you too? Monasteries fall under the Sanctum's domain, and you have an awkward history with the Sanctum."

"But the Blood Monastery is awkward for every human. Especially for me!"

"It'll be fine. She won't dislike you if you were favored by Tyrkanzyaka. If anything, she'll probably like you more."

"That's also awkward..."

Being liked by the wrong person was its own kind of trouble.

Despite its name, the Blood Monastery was known as an exceptionally devout place. Which only made the question larger, because the one who governed it was someone with little connection to devoutness.

A blasphemer who had become an Elder to test her own faith. And a zealot who had kept that faith even after becoming a vampire.

The place was headed by the Fallen Nun herself, Sister Yegcheriya.

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