WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 553: Civilization x Savagery

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Life is work. To live means doing something, no matter what. Whether I had defeated an evil black mage or saved more than three hundred lives did not matter. If you were alive, you had to work. That was the truth.

"Oh, what a life. I can't even relax and rest."

I sighed as I stood before the three hundred refugees.

The regressor had overturned the ground to make temporary shelters. The food supply came from what remained in Mortal Village, supplemented a little by the regressor.

Still, in a land where people set out water and pray first whenever they get sick, there was no one to treat refugees whose bodies and minds had been worn down. Callis, being from the military state, considered mental injuries nothing more than fussing, while the regressor only knew unusual treatments such as curse-breaking and purification.

Yet a position shapes the person, and work creates the position. Remove all the worker ants from an anthill, and the ants that had been loafing around become worker ants.

I became a doctor and examined the injured refugees.

"Ughhh. My head feels like it's splitting apart... I'd rather you just kill me."

"Really? Is that truly your wish?"

"...Ugh, no. Please make it hurt less..."

"That can't be helped. The only way to lessen the pain is anesthetic."

"Then give me that...!"

"The stuff you ate in the black mage's prison was anesthetic. It's the same kind. It'll hurt worse once it wears off, you know? Bear with it."

I waved my hand and sent the patient away. The barbarian, clutching their head and groaning, left the tent while shooting me a resentful glare.

"Quack..."

Hmph. I didn't care. I really was a quack. Reading minds and letting people endure pain they could bear. That was my job.

Besides, if they could walk out under their own power, they didn't need treatment in the first place.

I glanced at a tent built some distance away. Those who had been the black mage's sacrifices and were barely clinging to life lay inside. They were conscious, but their thoughts cut off unnaturally. It seemed they did not have much time left.

The cleanup is more troublesome than the rescue. Looking at it this way, it was fortunate the regressor hadn't stopped the apocalypse yet. Cleaning up a world after preventing its destruction would be far harder than stopping the destruction itself.

I had roughly finished examining everyone, prepared and administered medicine for those who needed it, and finally found a moment to spare when Rashy threw open the tent flap and barged in.

"Teacher, are you here! Ah. Should I have knocked first?"

"There isn't even a door, so what would you knock on? More importantly, why does a healthy man like you need me?"

"Well, I have a favor to ask!"

"Ah, I've developed an allergy to favors lately."

Rashy did not care that I was clearly reluctant and explained why he had come.

"I heard that where you come from, when people get married, they need an officiant? Someone respected and trustworthy, like a shaman, to witness it. So I'd like Teacher to officiate our wedding!"

I never thought I would live long enough to be asked to officiate a wedding. Until now, the most I had ever done was deal at gambling tables.

"That was all a fabrication, though. I've never been a teacher, and I got into Tantalus by scamming my way in."

"It's fine! My people wouldn't know whether Teacher is a teacher or a fraud anyway!"

"I don't mind doing it, but we'll need to make the timing work. I won't be staying here long."

"Is that so? Then we'll hold the wedding quickly! Callis! Please come here for a moment!"

Wait, right now? What kind of wedding moved faster than setting up a gambling table?

"Is it okay to be so casual about getting married?"

"Casual? I've already told the whole village several times, and we received the Offering God's permission through the shamans. We only kept postponing it because there was a problem with how we would hold the wedding."

For immortals, a wedding meant burying the groom and bride together and leaving them there for nearly a month, right? The immortals might not think much of it, but Rashy, who had gone away to study, privately understood how barbaric that custom was.

It was practically saying immortals should only marry other immortals. That was why they were trying to hold a different ceremony.

"But we have wedding gifts now, and Teacher's group is here as well! Is there some special auspicious day? Having good guests here now makes this the best time!"

"Hmm. In other words, you want us to lend some support?"

"Hahaha! That's right! If it's a foreign ceremony, it would feel out of place if only Callis and I knew what to do. Wouldn't having guests from the same place give us some dignity?"

He spoke bluntly, but he thought about a lot. Maybe being simple did not mean being stupid.

Then again, immortals and ordinary humans really did have vastly different constitutions. Immortals could treat their bodies roughly, but ordinary humans would quickly worsen and die. Their basic conditions were different.

"Rashy? Did you call me?"

While I was listening to Rashy's wedding plans, Callis pulled aside the tent flap and appeared.

"Oh. Callis!"

The moment they saw each other, the two shared a deep kiss. They did not seem to care much that I was there. Only after thoroughly kissing and caressing each other did they pay attention to me.

"By the way, why did you call me?"

"Ah. This. I asked Teacher to officiate our wedding."

"What? A criminal, not a priest?"

"What does it matter? No one will know anyway. Teacher also has the power of a druid. Druids are sages of the forest. You may not care, but in our village, they are respected even more than most priests."

"A druid...? I don't think that was listed in your profile."

People are creatures that evolve. How long was she going to think of me as nothing but the Abyss vermin I used to be?

Callis withdrew her suspicious gaze and said, "Rashy. I have a suggestion."

"Surely you do not dislike the officiant? Still, Teacher is the only suitable person we have right now, so how about putting up with it?"

Was having me officiate something she had to put up with? He had proposed it himself. There were limits to being rude!

That did not seem to be what she meant. Callis shook her head.

"No. The officiant is not the problem. If we hold the wedding in the military state's manner, both you and I will become outsiders in this land. Our suggestions will be much easier to ignore, and Mortal Village will remain stagnant without much improvement."

It might seem excessive to make such a fuss over a wedding, but ceremonies held that much meaning. Marriage was originally the joining of different bloodlines. Unless the couple planned to become completely independent, one side naturally ended up belonging to the other.

A ceremony showed where you belonged. Even if Rashy was Right-Arm or whatever else, if he stubbornly held a wedding in the manner of lands beyond the steppe, he would be treated like an outsider.

"Then what are you suggesting?"

Rashy knew that too. There was simply nothing he could do. If they held an immortal wedding instead, Callis would no longer be among the living.

That was why he had brought the Sheep King's wool, to make up for their lack of authority with something valuable.

Callis approached it from a different angle.

"I will hold an immortal wedding ceremony."

If she could endure the ordeal of an immortal wedding, she could have both. It was an extremely risky way of thinking.

Naturally, Rashy flared up.

"It is dangerous! A month, and a whole month while buried under earth! You must endure all that weight without outside help!"

"I will bring food and use magic to protect myself. If we prepare properly, I believe there is a high chance I can get through a month safely."

"A high chance is not certainty!"

"Rashy. If I am with you, I can overcome it."

"That is exactly why!"

Rashy clenched his fist until the veins stood out.

"I...! I do not have the confidence to keep watching you grow weaker before my eyes...!"

I understood the regressor's feelings a little. It was nice that they were so absorbed in their own world, but making me stand here like a folding screen made me feel bad somehow.

Well, that was that. I understood both sides. Whichever choice they made would not change much.

If I had to pick which one I preferred, though, I naturally favored the option that took the risk.

"Rashy. I have a question. Can't you sneak out halfway through?"

"...That would be difficult. The pair becoming husband and wife are placed in a basket with their bare skin pressed together. The basket is buried deep underground under the shaman's supervision. They make air holes, but it would be difficult to dig our way up from inside. The force I use to dig through the earth would tear through Callis's body as well."

"What if you made a passage in advance or left yourselves some room? Just because you're buried underground doesn't mean you have to stay there uncomfortably the whole time, right?"

It did not necessarily have to be this method. Buried in the ground? They could just escape. Spend a month lounging around, then sneak back and pretend it had been hard.

"Are you saying we should cheat?"

"Cheat? Call it flexibility. Tradition or not, does it make any sense to bury people underground for a month? This is when being a little flexible is wise."

"I see...! As expected of Teacher! To think you would consider deceiving the ritual! An idea no ordinary person would even imagine!"

Why had no one thought of this? Was I the strange one? Was I really strange?

Callis was impressed by my suggestion as well.

"It is a perfectly good method if we are not caught. Still, making a passage large enough without the people doing the burying noticing seems difficult. We would need an accomplice who can keep their mouth shut..."

"I'll ask Shei. With Jizan's power, he should be able to make a secret passage without anyone noticing."

"Thank you!"

I would help, but why were you pretending to be so clean? You, who belonged to an underground organization in the military state, were worse than a petty criminal like me.

"Just a moment. I'll go keep watch."

Anyway, we were plotting a scam we called flexibility. It would not do any good for someone to overhear us. I stepped out of the tent and looked around.

Then I saw a very unusual person walking toward us.

The barbarian tribes usually dressed barbarically as well. The immortals either went completely bare-chested or covered themselves so carelessly that “wearing clothes” barely seemed like the right phrase.

The immortal approaching me, however, had hidden their body completely. Even their head and face were covered, as though their skin could not be exposed.

Even so, there was one place left strangely open. Around the mouth. Through that hole, I clearly saw lips marked by stitches, as if they had been cut from somewhere and sewn on.

"Teacher? Why are you standing outside so blankly... 'Mouth'?"

A shaman of the Offering God. Among the immortals who offered up parts of their bodies to gain the power of immortality, those chosen ones had offered their eyes, ears, and mouths.

A shaman who truly communicated with her god had come in person to deliver its will.

'Mouth' walked directly toward us and spoke in a grotesquely resonant voice.

『In place of the Offering God's mouth, I have come to convey the Offering God's will.』

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