WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 541: You Were Born to Be Blessed

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Even in the Sanctum, with its long history, very few had ever been granted the title of "Heaven." It was rarer still for a Holy Maiden.

To the Sanctum, which served the Celestial God, heaven was the sacred realm where the god dwelled. How could some insignificant creature of the earth dare lay claim to that name?

Yet she was the Holy Maiden of Heaven. No one questioned it or objected.

The one destined to become the Holy Maiden of Heaven had been determined from the beginning.

Maiél, the Holy Maiden of Heaven. Even within the veiled Sanctum, she was a mysterious being known only by that title. Merely hearing her voice was a blessing. She was the Holy Maiden closest to the First Holy Maiden.

Maiél was not present in this space, yet she watched us as though she were.

"Sister Yegcheriya. Creating difficult situations may be your hobby, but you've chosen a very troublesome person this time. 'That thing' doesn't distinguish between good and evil the way you think it does."

Maiél continued before Yegcheriya could respond.

"I know. You don't make that distinction either. You believed until your dying day that no matter how wicked a being might be, it could repent and spread goodness. But Sister Yegcheriya, if you know how good humans can become, then you must also know how wicked they can become."

What was that? Had she seen Yegcheriya's death in the future?

She spoke as if she had already heard the answers and seen the outcome. Was that because she was a Holy Maiden who could see the future? I had no way of knowing. She was not truly present in this space, so I could not read her thoughts.

Yegcheriya seemed used to this strange way of speaking.

"Then does that not mean he, too, is a human capable of repentance? No matter how base and wretched a person may be, if they heed my words and follow the teachings, they may stand beside the Celestial God. Those were the words of the gospel. In the same way, the First Holy Maiden blessed all people. She believed that even the wicked could become good if they received guidance."

"Yes. I liked that about you too. But I couldn't like all of you. You presented humanity with problems it wasn't yet ready for, then irresponsibly did nothing but watch. Goodness and savagery are different, Sister Yegcheriya. Even if you can do anything, there are things you must not do."

As if she had nothing more to say, Maiél fell silent and turned toward me.

"King of Humanity. You sought me out to ask about the King of Dogs, didn't you?"

"How did you know...? Are you really a prophet?"

I read minds, sure, but why did a Holy Maiden who had never even met me know the question I had not asked yet?

I had called the regressor unfair, but at least in this iteration, she was not that unreasonable. She simply knew what would happen in the future, and even that could change because of variables.

But prophets existed in this world.

And they grasped fate itself and twisted it.

Maiél spoke with the certainty of someone who already knew the answer.

"To give you the conclusion first, your guess is right. The King of Dogs, now complete and perfect, is a being ordained by the First Holy Maiden. A saint... no, I suppose I should call her a Holy Hound. Either way, it is truly monumental."

A being ordained by the First Holy Maiden meant that the First Holy Maiden had foreseen her from the distant past. Just like all those other Holy Maidens.

"I knew it. You people were the ones who made Azzy and Fenrir what they are."

"'Made' is not the right word. The First Holy Maiden saw this scene in that distant future, and it is simply being realized according to the natural order. In the end, it is history and civilization that create things."

Prophets who saw the future did not work from the shadows. They saw the tangled threads of causality and made slight adjustments so that future would arrive. Their intentions became diluted through thousands upon thousands of links, then spread across humanity through their influence.

That was why no one could hold them responsible. They were people who saw the backs of the cards in the deck. They saw what cards would be dealt next and who would receive them. They cleverly manipulated the order to give their side the strongest hand and ruin the enemy's made hand, but those on the receiving end would find it hard to tell.

It was cheating. Compared to me, who only read other people's minds and peeked at their hands, they were far worse. To them, this was not even a game.

Someone should arrest them.

While I complained internally about how unfair it was, Maiél continued.

"Dogs are beasts, yet they are obedient, loyal, and above all, weak. Much weaker than wolves. Unless it is a hunting dog, it neither harms humans nor has the strength to harm them. The First Holy Maiden saw traces of order in dogs. She saw that if the savagery of wolves were stripped from that dog and it were made complete and perfect, it would become a pillar of this order for eternity."

"Strip away savagery? How can you strip away someone's nature?"

"Humans possess wicked natures. Petty envy, filthy jealousy, lowly desires. They carry an innate malice that seeks to fulfill their own desires even by harming others. But most endure and restrain that malice. Having learned goodness and standards from order, they struggle and agonize, then overcome their malice and desires."

Maiél looked beyond us, toward where Azzy was.

"That is why the King of Dogs continually fought the King of Wolves, her own wicked nature, and in the end claimed victory. Through that, the King of Dogs became complete and perfect. A promise was fulfilled, and an eternal promise was forged. The King of Dogs has now become a bulwark humanity can trust and lean upon."

Just as I had expected.

Dogs and wolves had once been one. But dogs, domesticated by human hands over a long time, had become far too different from wolves. It was not strange for them to have different kings.

Still, there was no reason for the two to fight each other. Beasts did not fight like that.

"Humans separated dogs from wolves, but it was the First Holy Maiden who separated the King of Dogs from the King of Wolves and made them fight each other?"

Maiél neither confirmed it nor denied it.

"It was going to happen, so it was allowed to happen."

"All that just to make one friend for humanity? That seems far too grand for that."

"Of course that isn't the only reason. It is for a greater discipline and order. Though even if I explained it to you now, you wouldn't understand..."

What do you mean, I wouldn't understand even if you explained it? Come meet me. I'll read your thoughts, then I'll understand perfectly.

...But I could never, ever let anyone notice I was using mind-reading. The moment I did, I would be "read" as well. They would avoid meeting me even more stubbornly, and it would become practically impossible to meet them.

The moment I read the future they had seen with my mind-reading, I could play on equal terms with them.

I needed to wait until the regressor took me to Holy Mountain Yulim. Ugh. What should I bring up here? I needed to choose something that wouldn't make them suspicious, if possible. It was troublesome when I couldn't read their thoughts.

That was when the regressor, who had been quiet until then, spoke.

"You mean killing the King of Sin that will exist in the future, right? I know that much. You can just tell us about the Great Law."

'I have heard things like this countless times since the eighth iteration. If I mention the King of Sin, I can skip the pointless procedures, so I should say it now.'

Even the Holy Maiden of Heaven seemed unable to foresee the regressor's actions, because she hesitated for a moment.

That was very like the regressor. She had said the Sanctum had helped her until now, right? I did not know how much information they had shared, but the Sanctum must have exchanged quite a lot with her. Thanks to that, we could move the discussion along quickly.

Maiél looked at the regressor with a sorrowful expression.

"...My last hope. Are you planning to help the King of Humanity?"

"I'm not particularly helping Hughes. We're just each getting what we want. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone joined forces to stop the King of Sin?"

"That is idealistic. But it will ruin everything. It is a path closer to despair than hope."

"It could still work out, couldn't it?"

"That is like throwing yourself into clumsy optimism. It is no different from standing still before a collapsing landslide, believing it will pass around you. The King of Humanity is a Beast King, a savage being who contains even his own malice intact. 'That thing' is the enemy we must face."

"That's not true. Hughes may be extreme, but he isn't evil. He can help me and all of you."

'Maiél has helped me several times, and she has bestowed her blessing several times, but she ultimately failed to prevent the destruction. I need to find another way. If I cannot stop sin or kill the King of Sin, then using Hughes to prevent the King of Sin from appearing seems like a good option too.'

It seemed the goodwill I had built up so far had not been wasted. I was touched, regressor. So that was how she saw me.

Maiél clasped her hands and prayed, her voice carrying sorrow even through that phantom form.

"...That is why you can only be my first despair. Ah, First Holy Maiden who blessed me. Why did you bless me, only to..."

The Holy Maiden's pious prayer continued for quite a while. By the time I started to grow restless, Maiél cleared her throat and spoke again.

"For order and standards to stand firm, promises are necessary. The promise that the other party will not harm me. The promise that what is mine will be guaranteed safety. The promise that order will protect me. And above all..."

For some reason, Maiél glared at me as she continued.

"The promise that if I break order and spread evil, I will be trapped in the chains of sin forever and punished. Reward for virtue, punishment for evil. Only with such faith can humans endure without destroying one another."

"But those promises don't actually exist, do they?"

"Promises do exist. Just as laws, morality, and standards that preserve order exist in this world."

Maiél answered at once, then let out a small sigh.

"But yes. You're right. As you say, human promises are petty and insignificant. If there are no eyes to witness sin and no power to punish it, promises are weak things that can be discarded at any time. Fragile, lowly promises that break so easily lead people to doubt promises themselves."

It seemed Holy Maidens were not blind zealots who followed only the Celestial God's will. Well, they could not be.

Yuel, the Farsighted Holy Maiden, had seen every ugly side of humanity and become a cynic after being worn down by it all. Holy Maidens who saw even what could not be seen could not lose themselves in blind faith without basis. They had seen and borne too much for that.

"We need a more fundamental promise. A promise of immutable truth, of a different order from the lowly promises humans make with their tongues and fingers. An absolutely unchanging covenant forged by a conceptual being staking its own concept. The King of Dogs was... a test of whether such a covenant could exist."

Conceptual beings were manifestations of concepts themselves. The nature held by a conceptual being did not change.

Of course, it was not absolute. If the concept itself changed, then the conceptual being would change too. Just as wolves were tamed into dogs, becoming the King of Dogs.

"The King of Dogs fought her own malice and finally forged that covenant. Now, no beast will feel hostility or fear toward the King of Dogs. The King of Dogs has become a being that represents and speaks for the gentleness and mercy of beasts."

Beasts had gentle sides. That was also a natural principle. Predators had no reason to hunt when their bellies were full. They needed prey to eat later when they were hungry. Prey animals formed herds and got along with other beasts because they needed to reduce the odds of being the one chosen when a predator came.

Azzy had become the embodiment of those qualities. As a result, other beasts would not attack her either.

"So, in short, you succeeded in changing a Beast King to suit your own tastes? Hmm. Then you could make the same attempt with the King of Humanity. Maybe you already have."

"Your question is... Ah, I see. Having realized that the King of Sin exists, you suspected that even it was a being ordained by the First Holy Maiden."

What? How did she really know?

It was a question I might ask. But it was strange that she knew it and brought it up immediately. It was like she had seen the conclusion in advance, then returned to give me the answer.

They were called prophets, but there had been no true prophet in the fullest sense since the First Holy Maiden. Even Yuel and Peruel, whom I had met, possessed powers that were only like fragments of prophecy.

But the Holy Maiden of Heaven seemed to have taken only the largest and most vital fragment. She could clearly see the future at a level equal or nearly equal to the First Holy Maiden.

"King of Humanity. But you are wrong. Even if the King of Sin destroys humanity, even if we encouraged the King of Sin's birth, it cannot be our responsibility."

Was that evading responsibility? Yet Maiél looked far too confident for someone who was running from it. Rather...

"Because sin belongs to humanity."

Responsibility seemed to be fleeing from her, and she looked like she wanted to chase it down and seize it. Maiél continued with an expression that seemed to sneer coldly.

"It is not the King of Sin that destroys the world. It is humanity's sin. Like every other conceptual being, the King of Sin is only its representative..."

The King of Wolves could be hostile toward humans. But she could not destroy humanity.

Fundamentally, wolves were weaker than humans now. They could not accomplish what they lacked the power to do.

But the King of Sin, which represented sin, had the power to destroy humanity.

And sin was part of humanity.

That meant...

"Every problem begins when humans obtain the Demon God's power. When they use power beyond their station to kill other humans. When they realize that power is not actually so special, and anyone can obtain it by following the same process. In that moment, humanity's future ends. Eternal night descends upon the world, the branches that stretched out without end are cut off all at once, and all humanity falls asleep, never to dream again. That is how the end comes."

One day, you open your eyes and can see nothing.

Not because your eyes are closed, nor because the lights have gone out. There is simply nothing. No light, no sensation, no pain. The futures that flowed like rivers, shone like stars, and branched like trees vanish all at once, leaving the eyes that saw the future reflecting nothing, as though blinded.

A horrifying end, so empty it was almost absurd.

That was the future Maiél had seen.

I was not reading her thoughts, but it was as though the future Maiél had "seen" lay before my eyes. It was not an illusion. The regressor, Yegcheriya, and I all "saw" fragments of the end Maiél described.

With darkness reflected in her eyes, Maiél glared at me with a gaze filled with endless emptiness and despair.

"That is why you must not exist, King of Humanity. You, who are only a Beast King, cannot overcome this. You cannot defeat humanity's ever-growing malice. You cannot stop humans who reach the demonic and touch forbidden knowledge that will destroy even their own foundations."

What was this?

My instincts as a living creature sounded an alarm. An irresistible force seemed to be crushing me. Something, something was hostile toward me.

Yet I could feel nothing.

It was not killing intent or power. Maiél was not in this space. I, who could read minds, knew that better than anyone.

And yet my instincts as a beast told me that I could die.

I could die when she was not even here? What was this sensation, as if the entire world were rejecting me?

"You will affirm them instead. Rather than saving those dying on the slope as they tumble into the abyss, you will smile and see them off. As long as humanity is humanity's enemy, your existence is of no use. It would be better if you simply disappeared..."

"Stop, Maiél. Hughes has lost all his power."

At that instant, the strange pressure I had felt from Maiél vanished.

I thought she had withdrawn her power because of the regressor, but something about that did not sit right. It was as though the future that rejected me had changed the moment the regressor intervened.

Come to think of it, the Holy Maiden of Causality had said the regressor's causality was twisted. Could the regressor be a hidden card against prophets?

Maiél spoke resentfully to the regressor.

"...Shei. Have you seen hope in him? But you know it too, don't you? Even without his power, he is dangerous."

"Even if you kill him, it won't do much good, will it? Hughes can't do anything. He's weak, and he gets swept up easily. So just hold on to him so he doesn't get swept in that direction."

The regressor answered carelessly, then clapped her hands as if she had suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, right. I have something else to say. I want to go to Holy Mountain Yulim. I agreed to take Hughes to Yulim if he helped with this."

"You drive me to despair in so many ways. Holy Mountain Yulim, together with the King of Humanity. That land is..."

The regressor looked accustomed to making demands like this, as if this was not the first time. Excessive demands would normally be ignored, but it seemed the greatest and most blessed Holy Maiden, Maiél, could not do that.

Now looking resigned, Maiél clasped her hands and closed her eyes.

"But though you are my first despair, you are also my last hope. Shei, I will bless you, placing my hopes on the thinnest thread. There is one condition."

"A condition? Why?"

'Before, you granted all my requests without conditions.'

If Maiél could hear that thought, it would probably drive her mad, but she had no way of knowing.

"In the lands of the ancient Kingdom of Ten Thousand, an ancient evil that once slept is about to awaken. It is a dark and terrible malice that brought fear and chaos into this world long ago, during the age of savagery. If you, Shei, defeat 'that thing,' a remnant of savagery, and if your view of savagery remains unchanged through that process... I will guide you to Holy Mountain Yulim."

"Oh, that? Can I handle it alone?"

"It will not be difficult. I will bless you."

Maiél clasped her hands tightly, closed her eyes, and prayed for the regressor.

"My last hope. And you, who are savagery. First Holy Maiden who blessed me, and exalted Celestial God who watches over her. Your devout child prays for their boundless glory and blessing."

Maiél's voice gradually rose. At first, it was only a murmur. Then it became as loud as a shout, before spreading into a roar that echoed through the chapel. By the end, it was no longer even noise, but a force that seemed capable of cracking the world itself and spread throughout the world.

[May a goddamned blessing lie ahead of you.]

Then the world clicked into place.

With a strange sound in my ears, as if some enormous yoke were being fitted together.

The regressor and I received the Holy Maiden's blessing.

Footnotes:

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