WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 571: Protect the World from the Regression

──────

The Tree of Origin was Nevida's Demon God, a tree that had inherited the essence of the World Tree and held the Demon God's immense authority. Nevida, an ancient druid and Demon God, could control this magnificent, enormous tree as she pleased. Within it, she was practically divine.

True to her nature as a god, Nevida made my room in mere seconds. It was so spacious and comfortable that I could hardly believe it had been hollowed out of a tree. It would have been perfect if not for its inconvenient location, which kept me from going outside.

There was a bed made of soft straw and a table formed from growing wood. The chair, made from a tree stump, was covered in dried moss like a cushion, while a clothes hanger jutted out from the ivy growing along the wall.

The room even had a toilet, a kitchen, and a food storage area. Clear water could be heard running through bamboo pipes overhead. If I pulled out the cork plugging one of the holes, water would probably pour out.

Inside a calyx-shaped container were petals soaked in plant oil. When I flicked the pod attached beside it, sparks flew and ignited the oil. Fire and grass, which ought to have been natural enemies, coexisted here, a sight that brought nature's mysteries to mind. When I closed the lacquered wooden lid, the smothered flame returned to its long slumber.

It was civilization made entirely from nature. She had provided me with a home and furnished it in an instant. If this was not a god, then what was? It was only a temporary home that would vanish someday, but I was grateful all the same.

I brought the armless regressor into my room. Having barely survived thanks to me, the regressor showed her gratitude by saying,

"Just kill me...!"

She did not, actually.

What was that supposed to mean? I asked in disbelief.

"What are you saying all of a sudden? Are you some captured lady knight?"

"...Ugh. I do look the part."

Even a captured lady knight usually did not have both arms torn off, so she would still be getting better treatment than the regressor.

Groaning in pain, the regressor looked at the stumps where her arms had once been and clenched her teeth. She had controlled the bleeding with energy circulation and first aid, but the blood soaking through her clothes still showed how terrible her condition was.

"I've already lost my arms, and my weapon was taken too. The chances of recovery are slim... and Nevida won't just let that happen. There's nothing I can do anymore. If I'm going to die anyway, it's better to die quickly."

Honestly, it would not have been strange for her to decide on suicide. The one saving grace was that she was not completely despairing. A martial artist who had been defeated and had both arms ripped off should have been devastated and pessimistic, but what I felt from the regressor was frustration.

'That's how I can regress with a clear mind. If I die broken down, it'll be a waste of time.... Ah, maybe it's because I lost too much blood. My head is buzzing too. I feel like I'm going strange.'

That kept me from getting swept up in her feelings as well. If the regressor had truly wanted to die, I might have helped her kill herself, so that was fortunate.

"Don't be so pessimistic. What would all my effort to save you amount to, Miss Shei? You're making the person who worked to save you feel foolish."

I spoke with comfort and encouragement in mind, but the regressor responded as if she were wary of something.

"...You want my body."

"What nonsense are you talking about!"

What? I had never wanted her body even when she still had both arms! And now that she was half wrecked, what, I was supposed to want it? There were limits to what a person could want!

"You asked for me as soon as you learned I was a woman...."

"What would I do with you? Treat you! Are you really going to die like this?"

"What good would treatment do? I have no arms, and my weapon was taken. Even if I stay alive, I'll just become the great witch's test subject or Nevida's hostage...."

That was why I had given Nevida a good reason to keep you alive! So Nevida and the great witch could not kill you carelessly! What did she think all my effort was for?

How hard had I worked for this, at the cost of my own image! Fine. Time to hammer the cold, hard truth into her...!

'Wha? That man is the King of Humanity? Why?'

Wait. Calm down.

Someone's thoughts were coming from outside. My head cleared as though I had splashed cold water on my face. I stopped what I had been about to say and focused my mind reading on the thoughts drifting in from somewhere.

'Mm-hm. He does look a little like the one sleeping above.... But looks aren't enough of a reason. Huh? The King of Dogs found him, and he's using stolen innate arcane? Who said that? That little gear kid's innate arcane...?'

They were the great witch's thoughts. She seemed to be speaking with Nevida, but Nevida's thoughts were still flat and without fluctuations, making them less distinct than the great witch's.

'Still, it's strange.... Even putting aside that this Beast King is male, even a male Beast King has little desire to reproduce. Sex is no more than an adopted form, and their essence represents both male and female.... A Beast King is a perfect being in itself, like a hermaphrodite, and successors arise naturally, so there is no fear of their line ending.'

Tch. She had already noticed something strange. I thought it would take longer.

Nevida was a druid who handled grass and plants. The great witch, meanwhile, was an authority on animals who handled beasts as familiars and knew poisons and medicinal herbs well. It was only natural that the two would cooperate.

'The King of Humanity might be a little different.... If he was split in two, he would be incomplete too. Mm, I understand.'

That was why she understood beasts, and Beast Kings in particular, even better. The great witch finished her conversation and thought to herself.

'Still, he may have some other scheme. Nevida won't keep watch over him. She'd consider that sacrilegious. But I don't mind. Voyeurism is a witch's specialty.... I can't miss the chance to observe the King of Humanity's ecology.'

Don't turn witches into voyeurs just because you feel like it! They already have enough of a bad image. Acting like that is why witch hunts happen!

Still, the great witch forcibly turned nearby insects into familiars. Normally, she would have needed to raise them and form a bond with them before making them familiars, but the great witch, who was both a witch and carried vampire blood, had long surpassed such limitations.

Twenty insects slipped through gaps and settled throughout the room. They were the voyeur witch's eyes and ears. An ordinary human could never interpret the signals sent by twenty insects all at once, but the insect familiars, fused with bloodcraft and made into parts of the great witch's own body, would serve as her eyes and ears.

Surveillance. I would not even be able to relax and rest. Not that I had ever relaxed much in the first place.

There was no helping it. Tch, this really hurt my pride, but...

"No. Miss Shei won't become the great witch's test subject or Nevida's hostage."

"...How do you know?"

"Because Miss Shei has to become my girlfriend."

"W-what?"

"So stop being stubborn about pointless things and get your arms reattached. Are you trying to die?"

'W-what is he suddenly saying?'

I roughly pulled the flustered regressor over and sat her in a chair. Confused as she was, she moved as I guided her without any resistance.

Ah, this hurt my pride. I was someone who had been hit on plenty of times in my life, not someone who had ever made a move on anyone.

Still, you could not always do only what you wanted in life. To protect the regressor's life under Nevida and the great witch's watchful eyes....

No.

To protect this world from the regressor's life, this was my only option!

"I have normal standards of beauty too, you know. I don't want to be with someone wriggling around without arms and dripping blood everywhere. Look at you. You smell, and you're filthy. It's disgusting."

"...It can't be helped! My arms, ugh, were torn off...!"

"That's why I'm trying to restore you to normal. Here. Hold out your shoulder stumps. I'll use Tyr's Demon God to heal you, so use energy circulation to keep the connection points steady."

I held up the pair of arms I had carefully brought with me. They were the very arms the regressor had lost. If someone were mangled this badly, they would have to worry whether their body would die before the arms could even be reattached, but that depended on the person.

Even in the worst situation, with her arms torn off, the regressor's Heaven-Reversing Boundary had cut off the blood flow to her arms and circulated it back through her body, minimizing blood loss. It was an incredibly precise response, like she had experienced having her arms torn off before.

"Here you go. Miss Shei's lost left arm and right arm, which I kept safe. Wave your hands and say hello. Ah, Miss Shei doesn't have hands to greet them with, does she?"

"I'm barely hanging onto life, and you're making jokes...!"

"Making things serious in a serious situation only makes them heavier. Let's think positively."

Holding the two arms Nevida had torn off with both hands, I waved them around. The bones were twisted, and severed muscles dangled loose, but there was still life in them. That was all thanks to me circulating the blood without resting for even a moment.

The regressor saw a brief glimmer of hope in the relatively intact arms, but soon shook her head.

"...Even if they're reattached, it will take months to regain my strength. And even after recovering, I won't be as strong as before."

"Then recover for a few months. You have more life ahead of you. What does it matter if you spend a few months recovering?"

'...That's true. Hughes doesn't know that I can regress.... Rather than spending months struggling to reattach my lost arms, it would be better to die and start over.'

This was for me, not you. Things had been going oddly well for me this cycle too, so I might regain my full strength if things went right. I could not reset already.

"Think of this as training too. If you live for a few months as if you have no arms, you might break into a new realm."

"Does that even make sense?"

"And saying, 'My arms were cut off, so I'll just die,' does? Especially when you're someone whose arms can be reattached. What you're doing is an insult to every armless person in the world. And it's a terrible thing to do to me too."

'Still, from Hughes's perspective, not knowing about regression, I must look strange for trying to give up on life. Urgh. Fine. There's still plenty to gain in this cycle. Starting over is a hassle too, so I'll see it through to the end. ...A-and what Hughes said is bothering me too.'

Hesitating, the regressor leaned back in her chair and bobbed her head in place of her missing hands.

"...There's a medicinal elixir in my pocket. If you process it the way I tell you, it'll help reattach my arms. It takes a lot of energy to connect every muscle one by one."

"Good. I have a lot to say, but let's make reattaching your arms the priority first."

"Y-yeah."

The regressor was not tense merely because treatment was about to begin.

...Ha. This felt like I was back at a host club, catering to a customer's whims. What do you think, great witch? Satisfied?

'Mm-hm. So this is what it feels like.... It's not bad....'

Reading the thoughts of the spectator watching me, I carefully continued.

Footnotes:

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