WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 581: Man, the Lord of All Creation

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I wasn't prejudiced, but you could tell roughly how someone had lived from their appearance.

Even in this remote place, the first thing that caught my eye was the crisp white shirt and neatly pressed suit. Next came the short triangular ears rising from a tidy black bob. She looked like a beastkin, but her tail, another defining trait of beastkin, was nowhere to be seen.

Clothes and an appearance so neat that jungle savages could never even imagine them. This was someone who had drunk from the waters of civilization. You could see her level of education just from her posture.

Again, I wasn't prejudiced. I was only stating facts.

"The Baskerville Family? What are you doing here?"

"Hm? You know us?"

Blue flame flared for an instant, and the beastkin in the suit was suddenly standing in front of me. Blue eyes. Definitely a Baskerville.

"I've heard of you. You're famous as the imperial family's loyal hounds, aren't you?"

Far away in the Empire, there was such a thing as an imperial hound family. Put simply, they were beastkin butlers. Sensitive, brave, loyal dog beastkin were taught etiquette and qi arts, then used as bodyguards, butlers, and emotional companions.

The tastes of powerful people really were impossible to understand. They wanted to use people as hereditary hounds for generations. How twisted was that?

Huh? Wasn't that what I did to Azzy? No. Azzy was a dog.

Anyway, the Baskerville Family had mastered exceptional qi arts and become loyal hunting hounds. Perhaps their efforts had paid off, because one of them had even attained the principles.

That was the head of the Baskerville Family, Blanca Baskerville. The pride of the Baskerville Family looked me over from head to toe before answering.

"Woof. Not anymore."

"Huh? You retired?"

"You know us, but you don't know what's happened lately. You aren't from the Empire. Are you from the Kingdom?"

"It became the military state a while ago."

"That's right. You're from the military state. Otherwise, you wouldn't have bothered correcting me."

She got me. Not that I had planned to hide it.

"Awoo. Maximilien isn't here right now. Want to leave a message? I'll pass it along."

"I don't have any business with him. These people are the ones who do. They have a request for the witch."

"This isn't the witch's house, and it's certainly not an agency."

"We need paper. I told them I'd pass their requests up above if they wrote them down."

"You take on troublesome work. Is waiting on people your hobby?"

"Yes. It's a hobby, not a job."

"Woof. Lucky you."

Blanca gave a light laugh, then took paper and a pen from the desk drawer. I accepted them and passed them to the people waiting outside.

"All right, line up and write down your names and what you want to ask the witch for, one at a time! No cutting in line!"

"Write? Letters?"

"I don't know how to write."

"I do! I'll write it for you!"

The people crowded together on one side. Once I had handled the crowd well enough, I slipped into the pavilion and casually asked, "Are you one of the Lords of All Creation?"

Perhaps she hadn't expected the question. Blanca stared at me before answering.

"I thought you came here knowing."

"So I was right."

"Where did you hear that?"

"I'm acquainted with Maximilien."

"Awoo. So you did know."

In a way, it was only natural.

Nevida had created the Lords of All Creation. Maximilien had scattered their seeds throughout the military state.

If those two had made the Tree of Origin their base, then the Lords of All Creation would naturally be based here too. The Tree of Origin was a Demon God where every kind of plant grew. It provided supplies and funding without restraint.

"That's right. Woof. I'm one of the Lords of All Creation."

"As I understand it, the Lords of All Creation are a group that discriminates against beastkin."

"...Awoo. Are you saying a beastkin like me can't be one of the Lords of All Creation?"

"I'm not asking how. I'm asking why. You'd be treated well anywhere you went. I was wondering if you really needed to stay here."

"You have a talent for making things sound nice. Woof."

Of course I did. People without much physical strength had to at least speak nicely if they wanted to protect their miserable bodies.

Blanca shifted aside slightly, inviting me in. I didn't refuse and stepped farther inside.

"Discriminating against beastkin isn't our group's goal. I can't deny that many believe it is, though."

"Then what's the goal?"

"Finding the King of Humanity. The Beast King stronger, wiser, and greater than any other beast."

"What will you do once you find him?"

"That will probably be different for everyone."

Lieutenant General Ebon, who had come to Tantalus, wanted to ask the King of Humanity whether beastkin were humans too. Maximilien wanted to turn the gear into a rule that applied to all humanity.

"Why are you looking for the King of Humanity?"

It wasn't the sort of question someone should ask after suddenly showing up, but Blanca answered me without hesitation.

"Awoo. It's enough for me if the King of Humanity simply exists."

"Just existing is enough?"

"Yes. If they're the King of Humanity, they'll be enough to become my master."

"Master? Are you looking for the King of Humanity because you need a master?"

"Everyone has their own reasons, woof. There are people in this world who need masters."

What a strange reason. The Baskerville Family had made the Emperor their master as an imperial hound family. Was an emperor not enough for her anymore?

Blanca hugged her knees and looked at me.

"Or will you become my master?"

"I'm already your master."

"Ahaha. You only say nice things. Where did you learn that?"

"I'm not joking."

I was the King of Humanity. I was the master she had been looking for.

"Sorry. You won't do."

"Then why did you ask? You got my hopes up for nothing!"

"If the King of Humanity didn't exist, you might have been fine. But not now. Maximilien said he found the King of Humanity. So I won't be looking for a master for a while."

That was me, though. Should I just confess? No, wait. I still needed to know why she wanted one.

"Why does it have to be the King of Humanity?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

Blanca rose from her chair, blue flame flaring around her ears as she spoke.

"Because unlike the King of Wolves, the King of Humanity will bring down that lofty, arrogant Empire."

The Empire had built a great civilization across the Mediterranean and the Great Forest, on the other side of the continent. Blanca bared her teeth at that massive order.

The great witch wanted to bring down the Great Forest, and Blanca wanted to bring down the Empire. There was no one here who didn't want to destroy something on the far side of the continent. Then again, that was probably why they had gathered on this side.

"You want to erase your former master. Is that why you're looking for a new one? Do you want to paint over them?"

"Yes. But you wouldn't do that, would you?"

Blanca slowly moved her nose, taking in the air. Beastkin's hearing and sense of smell were several times sharper than a human's, and beastkin trained in qi arts honed those senses to the limit. Blanca caught a familiar scent of blood among the smells dissolved in the air.

"Because you're the ones who stopped us in Ende. Awoo."

Ende? The beastkin city that had been attacked by the King of Wolves? Why would that...

...Ah, right. The Baskervilles had attacked at Ende. No wonder she felt familiar. I had never met a Baskerville directly, so I had forgotten.

"You're that mage from Ende, aren't you? You've got nerve, coming to find me so calmly."

Blanca's presence grew stronger. I scratched my chin and answered.

"It's not that I've got nerve. Honestly, I completely forgot."

"Do you not need to remember those you've defeated?"

"You didn't recognize me at first either. Besides, this is our first meeting."

I understood people through mind-reading. Since she didn't recognize me, I hadn't consciously connected her to that incident either. She had recognized me by the regressor's scent, not mine.

"You had only heard about me without knowing who I was, and I had only heard about you, so I didn't know your identity either. Then the Mountain Lord showed up and wiped out an entire legion, so things were chaotic. Do we really need to make trouble here too?"

"Your companion seems badly injured. Should I let a chance like this pass?"

"A chance only counts if you consider the circumstances. Have you thought about why I'm here? Who gave her those injuries? Why they left her alive after inflicting them?"

Blanca's smile deepened. The shadow of a pitch-black dog flickered behind her.

"If you ask about the circumstances, you lose the prey. First you chase it down and tear into it."

Blue flame reached the tip of my nose in an instant. Before I could even brace myself, a tremendous impact struck my chest. Pain flashed through me, and my body rose with the chair. Wind roared past my ears, then my body became a battering ram that smashed through the pavilion door.

Breaking down the door was a rather loud entrance. People rushed over at the sudden commotion. The regressor, who had been waiting blankly outside, did the same.

"Hughes! What happened?!"

"Awoo. You're really badly injured. What happened to you?"

The regressor recognized Blanca's voice and stopped walking. Blanca approached her warily, then saw both arms bound so tightly that they could not move. She looked pleased, but also puzzled.

"Oh dear. Both arms are completely useless now. Who did this to you?"

"Blanca Baskerville...!"

"Awoo, yes. It's me. You're in quite a different state from when we parted."

"Tch!"

'She's not someone I can handle without weapons or qi arts! I have to move somehow! Even if Jizan is impossible, I at least need Skywarbler!'

The regressor gritted her teeth so hard I could hear them creak. The more strength she used, the more she circulated her qi, the more terrible the pain became. Even as agony tore through her entire body, she forced her qi outward.

Her muscles had barely finished preparing to heal, yet she forcibly bound them together with qi. The body she had painstakingly stitched back together creaked under its owner's brutal demands.

'Or Hughes will die!'

"How pitiful. Struggling with arms that won't move."

There was no chance of that working. Blanca Baskerville was also a powerhouse who had attained the principles. Even at full strength, the regressor couldn't be certain of defeating her. With the aftereffects of having both arms torn off, and without either Skywarbler or Jizan, she had no hope of winning.

Blanca was also a qi practitioner, so she understood the regressor's condition at a glance and expressed pity.

Only pity.

"But I can't consider the prey's circumstances. Woof..."

Then Blanca suddenly felt something strange as she looked at the regressor. She examined the regressor's face from every angle, then tilted her head.

"The scent's the same... but you became a woman?"

"She took it off because she lost to Nevida."

"Awoo. That's a shame."

"Took off what? Do you want to die?!"

I meant Agartha's mask.

Footnotes:

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