Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint - Chapter 580

WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Chapter 580: Miss Agartha

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Few people knew this, but the world of plants was far fiercer, more desperate, and more brutal than the world of animals.

Some groves of trees competed to grow taller so they could receive even a little more sunlight sooner, only to destroy themselves in the process. Kudzu vines then climbed those desperately grown trees like snakes and smothered them to death. Some trees spread poison around themselves, while certain grasses endured that poison and claimed the empty territory.

Plants might look still and peaceful, but they waged war every moment to steal even a little more sunlight.

Such wars took place within a single tree as well. Branches growing lower down were blocked by the thick leaves above and eventually failed to sprout new buds. Unable to stretch farther for lack of sunlight, they left behind only thin twigs before disappearing.

The lower parts were weeded out, while the upper parts flourished. That was how trees grew into the shapes we knew.

The World Tree was also a tree, so it should have followed those rules.

Yet the Tree of Origin was a Demon God before it was a tree. It lay beyond the common sense of ordinary trees.

Countless small branches stretched out like a net. There were no leaves, because no sunlight reached this place and they were unnecessary.

Instead, fields grew where leaves should have been. Seedbeds hung from the tips of branches, and unfamiliar crops grew from them. People carrying baskets carefully walked across the branches, one step at a time, to harvest the ripe crops.

The seedbeds growing on branches at different heights looked like terraced fields. The problem was that the drops between terraces were several meters high. Still, I could clearly see enough people to call this place a village.

Attaching four wings had been worth it. Even while holding the regressor, I slowed down enough to glide onto the ground. The wings, having fulfilled their task, withered and fell away at once.

"...You're late."

The Great Witch, who had been waiting below, greeted us with a sulky expression. I carefully set down the regressor.

"For our first time, we got here pretty quickly. Besides, I wasn't alone."

"...Still, you're late."

"No one's waiting for us, so how are we la..."

I had been about to dismiss it when I noticed a crowd approaching our landing spot. The people on the branches climbed ladders and ropes like a swarm of ants, gathering around us.

Someone flying down with wings would naturally be remarkable. Still, their reaction was far too enthusiastic.

"It's the witch!"

"Witch!"

The nearby people cheered like thunder. They had enough manners not to climb onto the branch where we stood, but their heated stares and shouts made it feel as if they were watching a performance.

It felt oddly nice to be welcomed so warmly by strangers. I waved back at them.

"Hello! Thank you all so much for the welcome!"

"Who are you? Get lost!"

"You're not even a witch!"

How harsh. Should I awaken as the King of Sin?

'Ugh, there are too many people. I came down in such a hurry that I forgot to change my appearance with Agartha's Masks... I should've erased my presence before coming here.'

The very witch they had welcomed had turned pale from extreme social anxiety. The Great Witch touched her face and tried to endure it, but she finally dry-heaved and came up behind me.

Her aversion to people had worsened after meeting a crowd. Well, one person was better than dozens. Maybe this was a chance to get closer...

"Y-you handle it..."

The Great Witch pushed me in the back, avoided the approaching people, and hid behind the regressor. The crowd kept drawing closer regardless.

"You're the witch who came from above the leaf clouds, right?"

"Ah, yes. That's right."

"We asked the witch."

"The witch left the answer to me. As her representative, this is all I have to say. Get lost, you bastard."

Did I look easy to push around? The resident got worked up at my answer and charged at me.

"You're not even a witch!"

"Neither are you!"

I tilted my head to evade the resident's attack, grabbed their whole face, and slammed them into the ground. They hit the tree on the back of their head and trembled without making a sound.

That resident was neither the Great Witch nor Nevida. What did some ordinary citizen think they could say to me? Did they think I bowed my head to everyone?

The most intuitive form of body language was violence. The people who had calmed down a little whispered among themselves as they looked at me. I asked the person on the ground, "By the way, why are you looking for the witch?"

"Um... We wanted to ask the witch to take on a commission..."

"A commission? What kind?"

"A medicine that makes hair grow..."

"Wow. Witches can make medicine like that? They're more amazing than I thought."

Once one person spoke up, the others started shouting over one another.

"Our village was attacked by a leopard! We need a deadly poison to kill it!"

"I came to receive a supply of mining dandelions. When will the witches come?"

"Mushrooms are growing from my father's body, and he's dying! We need medicine!"

"Grain hasn't been growing well on the branches lately. Don't you have some kind of fertilizer?"

They waved bits of metal and alchemical coins clenched in their hands. Unable to immediately grasp the situation, I looked toward the Great Witch.

"...All kinds of materials grow on the Tree of Origin, but minerals and metals are scarce... So we take those and make things like medicine in return..."

"Ah, barter? I suppose mining minerals would be difficult for witches."

They accepted commissions and received minerals as payment? There seemed to be a lot of requests, perhaps because they had built up for a long time. This was far too much for me to resolve.

Still, I had no idea how this crowd might change if I told them it couldn't be done right away. Desperate people tended to become aggressive.

"Look, I can't remember everything if you all shout here. Organize your requests and bring them to me. Then I'll pass them on up there."

"Pass them on? To which witch?"

"The witches will choose. They each have their own specialties, after all. Wouldn't it be easier to gather everything at once and take it to them than to compare them individually?"

I didn't know whether the witches would accept all these commissions. I didn't particularly care, either. Still, these people would be satisfied just to write them down, bring them over, and wait.

"Wait, wait. Don't try to write them on my body. Is there no village chief or tribal chief here? Someone or some group that can represent all of you?"

"A village... chief?"

"This isn't one tribe, so we don't have anything like that."

"Though there is one place that could be called a representative..."

Everyone's eyes turned toward one spot. Among the countless branches extending from the Tree of Origin, it was the branch most visibly touched by human hands. Golden ears of grain hung from it instead of leaves.

"The Rice Paddy Branch."

The people beneath the World Tree's shade lived on branches. Even though the Tree of Origin was the World Tree and its branches were large enough to live upon, a branch was still a branch. Branches rising diagonally upward had no concept of level ground. The short flat stretches made from planks fitted together by humans were the best they could enjoy.

"A village full of stairs. The quality of life must be terrible."

As I grumbled and walked up the stairs, the regressor suddenly said, as if something had occurred to her, "When I see things like this, you really are interested in how people live."

"Pardon?"

"No matter where you go, you seem to observe the people living there. Is that why? Because you're the King of Humanity?"

"I've never consciously thought about it."

Why would I go around because I wanted to observe humans? People were simply visible wherever I went.

"Is that so?"

The regressor casually let it go and looked around.

"By the way, where did that witch go? She vanished all of a sudden."

"Wasn't she beside you, Shei?"

"I don't know. She hid behind me, then disappeared at some point."

'I don't usually miss a presence. Have my senses dulled because I'm injured?'

No, she hadn't missed anything. The Great Witch was right behind us.

She was following us while concealing her presence with Agartha's Masks. She had hidden among the crowd, yet nobody paid her any attention. With her witch's hat off and quietly following along, people moved alongside her without even realizing she was there.

'...No one recognizes me. This is more comfortable. Agartha's Masks... They're comfortable.'

Agartha's Masks had three aspects: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.

Truth changed perception.

Normally, when looking at someone's face, people could roughly guess their gender or age. Yet Agartha's Mask determined what others perceived the wearer to be. Even someone with a face like the regressor's could be recognized as a man with this mask.

Goodness determined one's impression.

Few people felt threatened by the face of a smiling dog, no matter how large it was. Yet they reacted with fear to a leopard or wolf of similar size. Agartha's second mask affected the wariness people felt upon seeing a face.

Beauty revealed beauty.

Charm, presence, charisma that drew the eye, and sensuality that tempted the opposite sex. It revealed and concealed the sort of presence that made a face seem to shine.

The Great Witch was wearing all three masks at once to avoid attention. She lowered her presence as much as possible and hid among people with the appearance of an ordinary girl, drawing no one's gaze.

'These are my ancestor's masks... No, Agartha's face itself. The king's authority that works even on beasts, not just humans.'

Humans weren't the only creatures able to recognize faces. The effect would be much weaker on beasts, though.

The Great Witch used them for such trivial purposes, but Agartha, one of the Five Lords, had united the jungle through that power. At times through beauty, at times through awe, and at times through the power of civilization, Agartha subdued uncivilized savages and brought them under a single order. Agartha even tamed the beasts that posed the jungle's greatest threat.

It was such a powerful authority that it seemed superior even to the ability of the Grandiomor royal family, which merely affected human sociability. It was ironic that Grandiomor's lesser ability had survived longer.

'...I searched this jungle for hundreds of years, only for it to come to me on its own. I never thought it would be in the elephant graveyard... You die if you go there. It seems the Holy Maiden could see through even the elephant graveyard.'

Remembering the regressor's words, the Great Witch sank into deeper thought.

'Wait, though... If she got the masks from the elephant graveyard, how did she reach the elephant graveyard?'

"We've arrived! This is the Rice Paddy Branch. If you go over there... Huh? Where's the witch?"

Only then did the people look around and search for the Great Witch. Though she stood right in the middle of them, none of them noticed her.

'Ahh. I'm so glad I have the masks...'

People passed her by and spotted the regressor. When she wore the mask, the regressor might have looked like a pretty man. But having lost the mask and with her hair having grown out a little, there was no way she could look like a man now. The people pointed at her.

"This person looks like a witch too."

"Idiot. She doesn't have a witch's hat."

"But her clothes are really strange. Both her arms are bound. How powerful must she be to need to seal her own hands? She must be an incredible witch!"

Hearing them, the regressor looked at me with an annoyed expression.

"...You explain."

"Ugh, you're both such a pain. Why are you so bad at talking to people?"

Something was wrong with this world. The regressor and the Great Witch were both far too capable for their social skills. Someone needed to take some of that ability away.

"Don't worry. The witch is watching over all of you with magic right now."

"Really? She didn't run away?"

"What would a witch be afraid of? She could turn all of you into frogs if she wanted."

"But..."

"You're getting awfully rude. Witch! Turn just one of them into a frog as an example!"

"Gasp! No, no! I'm sorry!"

The people here treated witches quite casually. Well, witches weren't especially mysterious in a jungle full of magic and wonders.

'Duckweed, "frog food"? Hehe... Maybe it would be all right if every human turned into a frog...'

"They apologize. Be generous and forgive them!"

'Tch...'

She had almost really done it. I shouldn't make jokes around someone capable of making them come true.

The people looked somewhat suspicious because they didn't believe me, but there was nothing they could do about it. The people surrounding us headed toward a building in the center of the Rice Paddy Branch that looked like a pavilion.

There was no ground upon which to lay a foundation on the branches, so they had to level structures by placing planks on top of pillars. Perhaps that was why every building was a pavilion. Large pavilions stood wherever branches split, where two branches could serve as supports.

Between branches so huge that the distance felt dizzying, the pavilions adorned with drooping vines and thick leaves were as beautiful as scenes from a painting. Naturally, as was true of all art, actually walking through the scenery was exhausting enough to kill me.

Everyone walked up the branches, panting, then caught their breath before the largest pavilion. A moment of silence passed. Nobody gathered here could bring themselves to approach the pavilion, and they hesitated.

Then someone spoke to me first.

"Um, the witch's representative."

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry, but could you go in first?"

"What? This is my first time here, and I don't know anyone inside."

"You came from above the leaf clouds. Those people are strong and fierce, but they show respect to people who came from above the leaf clouds."

Leaf clouds? I raised my head and looked toward the upper part of the Tree of Origin. Lush green leaves covered the sky like storm clouds. The people beneath the tree apparently called that place the leaf clouds.

It seemed they called people who came from the Domain of the Lords that. Well, people like Nevida and the Great Witch would look as extraordinary to them as if they had descended from the clouds.

"And... We're a little afraid of those who came from beyond the grasslands too. They came from the same place as the Queen."

The people inside this pavilion were also special people from the perspective of the old Kingdom of Ten Thousand's inhabitants. I asked, "What? The people in there came from beyond the grasslands?"

Thinking it was a good time to complain, the people each added a word.

"Ah, yes. Outsiders came into the pavilion in Rice Paddy Village."

"They're small, but ridiculously strong."

"They act as if they're the village chiefs! Even though they didn't come from above the leaf clouds!"

They must have had a lot built up. Yet none of them dared to step forward, so they must have been thoroughly frightened as well.

If they didn't want to go, it couldn't be helped. I could open a door myself. Let's see.

"They always go on about how they're the Lords of All Creation. All they do is show off!"

...What?

I froze in front of the pavilion. Lords of All Creation was a strangely familiar phrase.

Feeling an odd sense of dissonance, I opened the door.

"Woof. Sorry, but the owner of this place isn't here right now."

A voice that sounded like a beast acting coy came from inside. A dog beastkin in a black suit sat on top of a desk and greeted me.