WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 542

──────

Which Comes First, Faith or Ability?

The monastery coughed us out, Shei and me. The children who had no idea we had nearly died were still playing in the field. Azzy had wrapped herself around Lemme's hair and was rolling around in it. When the wool started knotting, Lemme let out a pitiful bleat.

"Meeeh. Who brought this dog here?! If you brought her, you're responsible for her!"

"Woof woof! Me, I herd sheep! I take responsibility for the sheep!"

"Biting isn't responsibility! Let go!"

Lemme, King of Sheep. The king of the sheep who follows the shepherd.

Sheep are, at their core, timid and dull. That is why, since ancient times, humans have driven hundreds of them with nothing but a wooden crook and a single dog. Sheep do not much care whether it is a human guiding them or a dog nipping at their heels, as long as they reach a field full of grass.

Perhaps it was that dim quality that endeared them to the clergy, because sheep ended up becoming the creature most cited in the Eucharist.

I could have walked past without a word, but we had crossed paths, so a greeting seemed right. It was not as though I was on bad terms with the King of Sheep.

"Hey. What are you doing out here?"

"What does it look like?! I'm being tormented by a dog, that's what! Get this dog off me, human! Before she ruins my whole coat!"

"Zzz."

"Get up! Your drool is matting my wool!"

Lemme twisted and wriggled, but could not shake Azzy loose from her coat.

Wolves are the natural enemy of sheep; dogs are their handlers. Opposite jobs, same outcome: both send sheep somewhere they did not choose to go. Between sheep and dog, the pecking order is absolute.

I peeled Azzy off and turned to Lemme.

"Right, but why did you come to the monastery in the first place? Not many sheep live here."

"To be groomed!"

Lemme said it while trying to pick apart the spot Azzy had licked flat.

"I have soft and fluffy wool! But when the wind blows, or I get wet, or dirt gets in, it all clumps up and feels awful!"

She fussed at her own coat with her hands. Even a Beast King cannot groom her own fleece. With those small hands of hers, she could barely reach the rich, white hair that fell nearly to her knees.

"So I go looking. Humans who will groom my wool!"

"You came all the way here to find someone to groom your wool?"

"Meeh! Yes! The young humans here have small, gentle hands, so they don't hurt me while they do it!"

"I imagine people anywhere else could do it just as well."

"It's not about skill. What matters is whether they revere me while they do it! Humans elsewhere just scrape the comb around and try to shear me, and I hate that!"

"Why not just let them shear you?"

"They can't shear me! They try to yank my wool right off!"

The wool belonging to the King of Sheep was soft yet impossibly tough. Even among the Beast Kings, who were creatures of concept, she had a particularly singular coat -- one that could not be cut by ordinary means. Try to put scissors to it and the blades would just chew uselessly against it.

Then Shei spoke up with an offer.

"Want me to cut it?"

"Meh? You?"

"Yeah. I think Skywarbler could handle your wool."

"Absolutely not. No human blade can cut my wool. I am a sheep. I don't like pain!"

Lemme refused flatly. But at that moment the children, who had been gathering up the tufts that fell during brushing, held out a small bundle to Shei.

"This is wool that fell from the young lamb's apostle."

"If you can cut this, we'll acknowledge you!"

"It won't be easy, though! We use it for cat's cradle sometimes, but once it knots you can't undo it at all! We've got a whole pile saved up in the dormitory!"

The innocent children approached Shei without an ounce of fear. Proof, if any were needed, that fear is something learned. If it were instinctive, they would never have walked up to someone with that expression.

Expression aside, Shei did not particularly dislike children that pure. She had the two kids grip either end of the wool, then drew Skywarbler in a shallow arc. Ting. The wool fell in two with barely a sound.

"It cut!"

"Amazing! We couldn't break it even with scissors and a saw!"

"Alright! We'll give you the honor of shearing the young lamb's apostle!"

The children chattered on, and Lemme gave a wary reply.

"Meeeh? Is that really okay? Fine then. I'll give you the chance to cut my wool. But you only get one try! If you yank it, I'm ramming you!"

Lemme waddled forward, scooped her mass of hair up with both hands, and held it out to Shei. Shei faced the enormous pile -- enough to stuff a whole person inside -- without a hint of nerves.

I felt uneasy for no particular reason and asked, "Shei-ssi, can you really do this?"

"Of course. You just saw it, didn't you? Skywarbler can handle the King of Sheep's wool."

"Not that. I mean, do you actually know how to cut hair, Shei-ssi? You don't exactly seem like the dexterous type."

"What are you talking about. Where do you think my hair went while I was traveling? I cut it myself."

"Ah. So that's why your hair looks like--"

"Want me to shave you bald?"

"Please just get on with it. Lemme's waiting."

Grumbling, Shei compressed Skywarbler and ran energy through it until it glowed warm. The blade shimmered with a faint heat haze as it glided smoothly through Lemme's hair.

Snip, snip. She gripped the wool with her energy, angled Skywarbler, and cut through each section cleanly. Clumps of Lemme's wool fell one after another. Each clump was probably more than most people grew in a year, yet even after dozens of passes, the end was nowhere in sight.

Snow-white hair falling like snowflakes had a way of holding the eye. Me, Azzy, the children -- we all watched without looking away.

Lemme, the one being groomed, showed no gratitude whatsoever and kept smacking her lips. She squirmed and shifted and said, "Meeeh. This is boring. Bring me some grass to chew on."

The air of someone who had mistaken herself for royalty. I was not the only one who found it presumptuous -- Azzy, who had been watching, suddenly barked straight at Lemme.

"Woof woof! Stop!"

"Meeeh!"

"Can't move! You'll get hurt! You and the human both!"

"M-meeeh... I can just chew on a little grass, surely..."

Sheepishly intimidated, Lemme went still with her hands folded together. Either way, thanks to Azzy, the cutting went considerably smoother. After nearly an hour, Shei finished the last stretch and used the heated Skywarbler to curl the ends of Lemme's hair, then brushed her hands together.

"There. Pretty good, right?"

Saying no would have been dishonest. Shei's work was genuinely impressive. The cut itself was clean, and that last-minute decision to curl the ends took a kind of instinct and eye you could not fake.

Lemme, who had been buried under tangled wool, was now a lovely girl with long, flowing hair. The children stared in open admiration at the completely transformed Lemme.

"Wow! She's beautiful!"

"The young lamb's apostle looks so much cleaner and prettier!"

"The fluffy version was nice too, but she looks so much more comfortable now!"

Lemme herself looked more preoccupied with watching Azzy than with any of it. You couldn't expect aesthetic appreciation from a sheep, I supposed. She probably just felt a little less smothered than before.

Shei shook the last bits of wool off with a satisfied air.

"Done."

"When did you learn that?"

"I told you. I cut my own hair on the road."

'I put some thought into wanting to look at least somewhat presentable. That's where the habit came from. And with the Seven-Colored Eyes, I could see the back of my own head.'

I had assumed she did not think about that sort of thing at all, but apparently not. Come to think of it, the Manhan Quanxi, Rene's pouch -- she had a quiet habit of looking after herself and her surroundings when she could. Not a bad way to live.

"And the Holy Maiden's blessing made it easier."

"Sorry? The Holy Maiden's blessing? What does that have to do with any of this?"

"Huh? You don't know? It's the Holy Maiden's blessing."

"What does the Holy Maiden's blessing actually do? I haven't felt anything especially different."

"Heh. So even you don't know everything. Then again, when would you have ever received a blessing."

Perhaps the successful shearing had gone to her head. Shei said it with a small, satisfied air.

"A Holy Maiden's blessing changes depending on what authority she holds. The Steel Maiden gives you the strength to realize your will; the Maiden of Causality gives you the knowledge to find what you're looking for. The Solar Maiden lights the path ahead. And the Celestial Maiden gives... luck."

"Luck?"

"Yeah. Whatever you try, it tends to work out. Obstacles in your way find easy solutions. Fortunate encounters drop in front of you without you even looking for them. The other maidens' blessings are definite but narrow in scope. What the Celestial Maiden gives is much more vague and far-reaching. Like a goddess of fortune."

Luck. Give me a break. Luck exists, sure, but it's just probability in the end.

"Look at today. It's a small thing, but almost no stray hairs were left after I cut the King of Sheep's wool. I only picked this up from watching others, so my technique isn't that sharp. The fact that it went this well -- that's the blessing."

"That's just your own ability. Cutting hair is cutting hair."

"Aw, don't be embarrassed to give a compliment--"

"It's not embarrassment. You're wrong to attribute it to a blessing, Shei-ssi. This isn't some cult. You're crediting your own hands' work to a Holy Maiden?"

I could not say the Holy Maiden's blessing had no power at all. They did genuinely see parts of the future. But crediting the results of your own effort to a blessing was a different matter entirely.

"And think about it again. If the blessing were that powerful, why would it be helping you shear Lemme's wool? That's just a way to pass the time."

"Who knows? There might be a use for cleanly cut wool from the King of Sheep."

"The wool isn't being woven into cloth right now, so what would it even be used for? The Celestial Maiden's whole mission is defeating an ancient evil. Even if that wool is precious, it's not going to stop any ancient evil. Are you planning to give it as a gift?"

"Couldn't hurt to keep it. And there might be a reason to give it to someone."

"A gift? In this monastery where Lemme's wool is practically lying everywhere?"

On top of that, this was the Wildlands, beyond the reach of civilization. There was no one to sell it to even if you tried. Were we going to barter with the locals? That would be a use for it, technically, but they probably had nothing worth trading in return.

That was when it happened.

"Hello there! Is a nun present?"

A booming voice rang out from somewhere. Loud enough to startle the sheep, the children, and even Lemme.

In the civilized world, making noise on someone else's property was considered trespassing. But this was the Wildlands, and things worked differently here. A barking dog does not bite; threats always approach without a sound. Announcing your presence was a gesture of goodwill.

"Soil-kin, I see."

Yegcheriya, face once again wrapped in linen, stepped forward to welcome the large, brown-skinned man.

"They say all beings under heaven are children of the Celestial God, but not all children are filial. I have heard that the soil-kin brethren worship the Earth Mother rather than the Celestial God. I, a servant of the Celestial God, welcome any visitor -- but I want to make sure you are comfortable with this meeting continuing."

Soil-kin. An immortal race who had absorbed clay into their bodies until their flesh took on the properties of earth. Among the original peoples of the Kingdom of Ten Thousand, they followed a somewhat different faith -- a shifted, transformed descendant of Earth Mother worship.

That was part of why there was only a single monastery across this vast Wildlands. In soil that teemed with so much life, weeds grew that even the Celestial God's winds could not uproot.

But this particular soil-kin seemed more open-minded than most; he paid his respects to the nun as well.

"Indeed! I came specifically to see the nun!"

Yegcheriya spread her arms wide in welcome.

"Welcome! Even in this land so far into the wild and the heretical, seeds of faith carried on the wind will always take root! I, Yegcheriya, welcome your repentance with all my heart!"

"Ha. I have no intention of converting to the Celestial God!"

"That is perfectly fine! The fact that you came here at all is already a great and hopeful thing! Why not start by reading the scripture?"

"No, truly, I appreciate it but no. I am only here because I wanted to receive a... what was it. A sacrament? I came for that!"

"A sacrament, you say?"

"Yes. A marriage sacrament, I believe. I heard that in the countries to the north, the priest's blessing is given at a wedding. My partner came from far away, and I want to follow her customs if I can!"

The immortal laughed openly and explained his situation. He had brought a woman from a faraway place to marry, and the clash of customs between their homes was causing some friction. He wanted to come to the Blood Monastery and receive the sacrament so that nothing could be said against the union.

He was treating a holy sacrament as a practical tool, but Yegcheriya paid no attention to that small motive. If anything, she looked even happier, pressing her palms together in a moved gesture.

"Aah! This is true repentance achieved through love itself! I have not yet met your partner, but she must be a person of real faith! Very well. I will have everything prepared to bless this sacred union whenever you are ready!"

"Good! I'll leave you with some hides and meat in exchange -- what was the word. I'll make an offering!"

"Donations are gratefully received!"

"And I am sorry to ask, but could this monastery provide some proof that the sacrament has been promised? It feels a little awkward to go back empty-handed."

"Of course. As it happens..."

Yegcheriya smiled broadly and looked our way. The children, who had been stacking Lemme's wool into neat piles, found themselves on the receiving end of that gaze.

"Some wool has just come available that would make a fine token of proof."

And in that moment, something cold crawled through me.

Discomfort, if that was the word for it. The feeling of gambling on a table where the game had already been arranged. The feeling of dancing while the hand I would draw and the cards to be turned over had already been decided.

The world was fitting together in a strange way. In the Wildlands, wool and hides were daily necessities, as good as currency. There was nothing to compare them to. Wool from the King of Sheep was in a category of its own. Arriving with that would earn you treatment fit for a dignitary.

And this opportunity just happened to land right in front of us? Almost as if showing off?

Come on. It's a coincidence, surely.

...I wanted to say that.

"Hughes."

"You noticed too, Shei-ssi?"

"Yeah. I know. That immortal..."

Shei, same as me, had picked up on something about that immortal, and was caught in a strange feeling she could not quite name. Too much for a simple coincidence, but too inexplicable to chalk up to the Holy Maiden's blessing either.

"Well, well! Teach. And kid! Been a while! Running into you here of all places -- what a thing!"

The immortal recognized us and waved his arm in a wide, enthusiastic arc. Rashy -- a fellow inmate from our time in Tantalus, and himself an immortal -- had found us again.

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried