WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 572

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The Parrot Speaks

After an enormous amount of effort, I had managed to reattach the regressor's arm. I decided not to dwell on how. It was not a pretty sight.

Tying torn muscles back together, reconnecting severed blood vessels, forcing bones into alignment by sheer pressure. The techniques, authority, and energy involved were at a level that defied easy description. Lightning cord to reconnect the nerves, bloodcraft to regulate the blood flow, energy to adhere the arm so it would not come loose again. The process burned through a staggering amount of spirit medicine and stamina.

"Hah. Hah. Hah."

Completely drained, the regressor was barely conscious, drenched in sweat. I uncorked a bottle of spirit medicine and tipped it into her mouth. Drinking it this way cut the effect in half, but she simply drank twice as much and solved that problem.

"Hff. Hff."

'My throat feels like it's on fire...'

Having swallowed the spirit medicine, the regressor panted with a burning thirst. Anyone could have seen she needed water without mind reading. I opened the bamboo tap, poured a cup, and brought it over. She opened her mouth like a baby bird and drank what I offered.

'Haah. Ugh. I drank water and I'm still burning. It feels like my body is falling apart. All I can do is hold it together.'

She could not move a single finger yet. The regressor was herself a master of the energy arts, and the treatment had been thorough, a week's rest would probably restore sensation, and a month from now she could hold a weapon again. Right now, though, she was as weak as weak could get.

'I've never been this helpless during a regression cycle... Normally if my arm got cut off like that I'd just die. Right now I'm in a state where I can't resist anything Hughes does to me...'

Her thoughts reached that point and she flinched, looking at me with frightened eyes.

'Surely not, right? He's rude but he tends to respect certain lines... But what if, while I'm completely defenseless, he tried something... W-what do I do? How far would someone like Hughes actually...'

What am I supposed to do about that. Tell me what you want. Come on. If I were going to try something with you, I'd have taken my time from the very beginning and worked up to it properly. I am not the type to push myself on someone who doesn't want me, alright?

'No, no! I'm just weak right now, that's all. Stop thinking about leaning on anyone! This relationship disappears when I regress anyway. When the next cycle starts we'll meet again like strangers! The deeper I let this get, the more I'll be the only one who gets hurt! It's always ended up that way. My first love too, it went like that...'

Oh ho. So she had a love life going on somewhere in all those regression cycles.

Lost in her own thoughts, the regressor suddenly started rummaging through a hazy memory.

'Wait. A first love...? When did I ever have a first love...?'

Too many regressions and the memories start to blur. Honestly a little sad. I was quietly reading her thoughts when a red fountain erupted from the regressor's shoulder. Blood was seeping through the stitching. I caught it too late and shouted.

"Hey! Mr. Shei, blood! You're bleeding from your shoulder!"

"Wh-what?"

"What are you doing? Focus! You're losing blood!"

The shoulder joint had turned into a blood faucet. The regressor realized what was happening and barely managed to stabilize her blood flow. With no mental bandwidth to spare for anything else, she gritted her teeth.

'...My head's spinning, I can't think straight right now. Focus first. I'll deal with the rest after I've healed.'

And so it went while I was wholly occupied with her treatment.

Knock knock. A tapping at the door.

I tried mind reading first and was thrown off to find no thoughts coming through from outside. There had definitely been a knock, but whoever was out there wasn't human? I approached the door with some caution.

"Who's there?"

No answer, but there was a presence. I opened the door carefully, and what appeared before me was a parrot. A parrot with red feathers and a blue tail sat perched on a wooden rod, bobbing its head.

"What is this."

[What is this.]

"A parrot? Did it fly all the way up here? Or... a familiar?"

[Correct! Correct!]

The parrot chirped excitedly and spread its wings, flying into the room. It looked around for somewhere to land, found a familiar spot, and settled down.

On the regressor's shoulder.

"Hey! Get off there! I barely got it reattached, what happens if it falls off?!"

[Squawk? Then where...?]

"Her head, at least that's better."

'Nothing is better! Get down! You're messing up my hair!'

The parrot nestled itself into the regressor's hair. After clearing its throat for a moment, it spoke in a squawking voice.

[King of Humanity. I've come for an audience.]

"You say you're granting an audience and then you send a familiar? I don't feel even a trace of respect here."

[My apologies. But bear with me. It's easier to borrow Polly's mouth than to speak directly.]

"Easier? Speaking through a parrot? Wouldn't it be easier to just use your own mouth?"

[Not particularly. What's so hard about talking? Even a parrot can do it, and here you are making such a fuss!]

A little far away, maybe? The thoughts aren't coming through clearly. Has to be one of the witches. Which one, though?

The parrot stood on the regressor's head with an air of lofty composure and spoke.

[Humans are the real fuss-makers. Beasts share the same blood. Parrots speak, leopards use their heads to hunt. The only things humans do better than beasts are jealousy, envy, petty desire, and childish scheming. I'd sooner go face to face with a beast than with creatures like that. Wouldn't you agree, King of Humanity?]

Hmm. Noted. The contempt for humans bleeding through the words. The fondness for beasts.

This is the great witch.

The manner of speaking had thrown me off, but the only being who would waste this level of dominion on holding a detailed conversation through a parrot familiar was the great witch. And come to think of it, no other witch would have made contact with me before she did.

Well, I could agree with parts of what she said to some extent. But something was fundamentally wrong with the framing. I spoke up.

"I don't agree at all, actually."

[No? Is the King of Humanity just defending his own people?]

"Not particularly. I'm looking at things as they are. Other beasts don't feel jealousy or envy? They don't bare their teeth out of petty desire? Every beast does those things too, so why single humans out for it."

If everything good is something beasts do as well, but everything bad gets blamed on humans alone, that's the strange part. Saying humans are beasts doesn't mean humans are uniquely terrible.

"The one making a fuss, if anyone is, is you. Wouldn't you say? Great witch."

[Squawk, squawk squawk!]

The parrot, struck where it hurt, thrashed its wings roughly. Red feathers fell across the regressor's eyes and face. I caught a feather about to touch her nose and addressed the parrot.

"Are you perhaps afraid of humans?"

[N-no! Not at all! I'm not scared! It's just, they're difficult!]

"If you're not afraid, then come in person. No matter how skilled you are with your familiars, you'd need your own eyes to see what I'm really made of."

From the brief meeting we'd had before, what I read was that the great witch has a fairly significant case of social anxiety around people, severe enough that she is closer to beasts than to humans.

She's fine if the other person is a woman, or someone she's met before. That's why she talks to Nevida and the other witches without any trouble. But with me it seems she couldn't manage that.

In particular.

[...How am I supposed to know what the King of Humanity might do to me!]

"People keep saying that like I've done something, when I haven't done anything lately. At least let me actually do something first before you accuse me! Give me a fair grievance at minimum!"

If she's afraid of humans, she'd be afraid of me too, being the King of Humanity.

Wait, hold on. Could this work in my favor? Being feared is easier to work with than being dismissed, isn't it?

I squared my chin and asked with an authoritarian bearing.

"So then. Why did you come looking for me?"

The parrot ruffled its feathers with apparent discomfort, but it's just the familiar, not the witch herself, so that hardly amounted to much. When I stared it down, the parrot flinched.

And the regressor preemptively shrank back too. Why are you scared.

[It's about the Demon God!]

"The Demon God?"

[Yes. Is it true that the Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka has become the Demon God of animals?]

"Demon God of animals? Not quite. If anything, she'd be the Demon God of blood."

The parrot shook its head up and down, making a strangled sound of distress.

[Why, why?]

"Why? A Demon God becomes a Demon God because that's what they are. If you're asking why she became one at all... Besides. She's the one who created the entire vampire race on her own. Is it really so surprising? You even received her blood to become an Elder yourself,"

[That was for research purposes! I was investigating the mysteries within the Progenitor's blood in order to become a Demon God myself! And now someone has beaten me to it...!]

Among the Progenitor's thirteen Elders, the great witch is a somewhat different kind of existence. The great witch, the darkness cast over the deep jungle and teacher to all witches, is the head of a power in her own right. The Progenitor and the great witch had dealt with each other as equals, exchanging their respective treasures. The great witch contributed her knowledge; the Progenitor, her blood. The two darknesses of the continent became entangled and grew more complete.

But an Elder is still an Elder. From the outside world's perspective, it probably looked as though the great witch had come under the Progenitor's banner. The vampires who had once dominated the continent were also far more powerful than any coven of witches living in hiding.

[Tyrkanzyaka...! Born before me! Stronger than me! And now a Demon God on top of it all, isn't that just too much!]

Perhaps the great witch had carried a quiet sense of inferiority about all of that.

The parrot, having ranted to itself, fixed its gaze on me and fumed.

[King of Humanity, I've heard a Demon God changes you.]

"It's not a story limited to me. A Demon God changes the world itself, which is why I'm affected along with it."

[Either way! That's basically right!]

That's not something I should let slide, but fine, I'll grant it for now.

[So how does one become a Demon God like Tyrkanzyaka? Tell me the method.]

"Why are you asking me."

[Because Demon Gods are human. You're the King of Humanity, so you'd know!]

"Ask the Demon God. You and Tyr aren't strangers to each other."

[That would make it look like I'm beneath Tyrkanzyaka!]

"You are, though. What's the complaint? By name value, by accomplishments, Tyr becoming the Demon God makes all the sense in the world."

[What am I lacking then!]

"Dignity, charisma, strength, authority, renown, looks. Oh, and age too."

[Shut uuuup!]

The outraged parrot flapped into the air. It looked ready to peck and claw at my face any second, but I am human. I don't lose to some lightweight bird. I grabbed it by the neck in one motion and pinned its wings.

[Squawk squawk! Let go!]

"You're surprisingly strong. Because you're the great witch's familiar? Still, I'm not weak enough to lose to a mere parrot."

[Let Polly go right now! You haven't forgotten that I'm the great witch, have you?! How dare you lay a hand on my precious familiar, do you not fear meeting me again?!]

"Excuse me? What about you. You haven't forgotten that I'm the King of Humanity, have you?"

The parrot stopped flapping. Its eyes rolled in their sockets, and it spoke with a show of stubbornness.

[H-hmph. Showing off when you've lost all your power. I, I know. The King of Humanity lost all his strength and fell asleep...]

"I'm working with Nevida right now to get that power back. And what, you're asking if I fear meeting you again? Listen. Do you want to meet me again on bad terms, after I've gotten my power back?"

The parrot's eyes rolled once more. It folded its wings quietly and curled its claws inward, looking away.

[...N-no.]

Nevida's attitude is that she doesn't care what happens after the King of Humanity is revived, but the great witch is different. She has her own aims for cooperating with Nevida. She would want to stay on reasonably friendly terms with the King of Humanity. Whether that King of Humanity turns out to be me or not is another question, but either way.

That was enough threatening for now. I smiled pleasantly and set the parrot gently back on the regressor's head.

"Of course. I'd like to stay on good terms with the great witch as well. After all, the great witch is a friend to beasts, which means, by extension, a friend to humans."

[Y-yes. Thank you...]

"But great witch. Why do you want to become a Demon God?"

[W-well... it's... for revenge.]

"Revenge? Whose revenge?"

[It's... for...]

"Pardon?"

She can't get the words out, so I can't catch the meaning. I need mind reading for this. Grumbling inwardly, I asked again. A clear voice came through the parrot's beak.

[Revenge for the World Tree that burned and fell. To honor the soul of the blessed ginkgo.]

The parrot's eyes turned toward a single fixed point. Its feathers settled calm and still. The great witch's parrot spoke with an unhurried composure that seemed unlike any bird.

[The last World Tree still standing, the metasequoia. I intend to bring it to ruin.]

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