WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 588: A Story from the Past. The Old Testament

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Even Nevida did not know why I had suddenly changed my attitude or what I intended to do. Still, she did not waste time setting aside her own desires to worry about matters beyond her control. With Nevida's power, I arrived at the top of the Tree of Origin in an instant.

The Tree of Origin had grown a little since I last saw it. By my estimate, it had grown nearly twenty meters taller. Perhaps even the World Tree had entered a growth spurt.

'Humanity has changed over the past two thousand years as well. Nevida grew the Tree of Origin to bridge the gap between humanity before Year One and modern humanity. The King of Humanity up there must now be almost the same kind of being as me.'

At the top of the World Tree, where clouds clung to its branches, I climbed upward using human fruits as stairs. I was a little nervous, but now that I had come this far, there was no turning back. I could only look ahead and keep walking.

'There are other thoughts within the echo. Nevida must have breathed vitality into it. I can sense a consciousness that is half-awake. And within that... I can glimpse memories that are incredibly old.'

Each time I stepped down, the branches laden with fruit bent slightly. Was this what it felt like to step on people as you climbed? Not a pleasant feeling.

Stairs were supposed to be solid. You could not climb properly on soft, squishy stairs. Every step had to be taken with the fear that they might collapse at any moment.

'Its essence is the King of Humanity. Yet because of Nevida's obsession, two Kings of Humanity have come to exist across time. But the Beast King is a conceptual being, and only one individual can exist for a single concept.'

Before long, I reached a huge flower bud. Looking down through the slight opening beneath it, I took a deep breath. The King of Humanity was inside. Unlike before, an overwhelming presence below seemed to suppress my very existence.

Was I really supposed to go in? Had I done something pointless?

'One of the two will disappear. The stage is perfectly set.'

Still, there was no helping it now. Drawing a quick breath, I jumped into the flower bud. The fully ripened bud opened slightly, as though welcoming me.

My body fell into the bud.

At the same time, my consciousness fell into distant ages.

* * *

Nevida was one of the Warriors of the King. She had survived for ages so distant that even history had blurred, but she had never forgotten for even a moment that she was a Warrior of the King.

That was why even the King of Humanity of this era deserved her respect. Nevida bowed her head and saw the King of Humanity off as he entered the flower bud.

Only as a sign of “respect.”

There was only one king she truly served.

Flap.

A parrot flew in. Nevida slowly turned her head like a withered old tree.

“Hexia.”

“Nevida. Squawk. I have something to say.”

“I know what it is. It concerns the druids.”

“Squawk. That's right. It may look as though those bastards ran away, but they won't just leave. They'll try to interfere somehow.”

The great witch's parrot continued speaking as it fluttered about.

“We need to prepare. They will never stand by and watch a human be born from these fruits. Hmph, how ridiculous. They did nothing to help bear them, yet they act as if they have some right to them!”

The parrot was still so worked up that it did not land, simply flying about in the air. Nevida watched the bird dart around for a while before asking,

“What about you?”

“Squawk. Me? What about me?”

“Hexia. You created the Meat Fruit. But you were also the one who tried to burn it. Did you not also reject the idea of humans being born from the Meat Fruit?”

For a moment, the parrot's wings froze in midair. It dropped far below before coming to its senses and flying back up.

“I made the Meat Fruit! I'm different from them. I had the right to do that!”

Its voice was fierce, but it lacked its former force. Nevida noticed, yet did not point it out. Hexia was one of her few allies and nearly her only disciple. She did not wish to crush the spirit of the disciple who had fully inherited her teachings.

“...And it would have been fine if it had not been them! The beasts inside the Meat Fruit cannot even move. They're no different from corpses. What's wrong with using something no different from a corpse as a corpse?! Why do they keep talking about the value and dignity of beasts?! What happened to Mother was only the trigger. Those bastards intended to burn every Meat Fruit from the start!”

As the parrot continued shouting, its voice gradually turned into a mumble.

“If only humans had not been born from them... If they had not kept saying it was all my fault and making me out to be a bad person. I could have just pretended not to know and been happy.”

“You are right, Hexia.”

Nevida had lived before Year One. It was an age of barbarism, when common sense and order had not been established, and laws and morality were laughable jokes. The logic of strength was all that endured through the ages. The strong devouring the weak was the only absolute truth.

“Taboos, morality, laws, order. They are what that wicked harlot who used trickery to drive her lord away used to judge the world by her own standards.”

Nevida was still living in that age of barbarism. From her point of view, this era was also the product of immense violence. She had personally witnessed the First Holy Maiden reshape this world through transcendent power. A step removed from the world, Nevida understood that even what called itself civilization was a product of barbarism.

“There is only one reason you became a problem. They made you into one. They tried to judge you with their strength.”

They could impose laws, demand morality, and require norms and order because they were strong.

“Judge the world with your strength. Do what I wish to do. You possess that power. There is no need to hesitate.”

Nevida turned her head and looked beyond the distant forest. Her eyes changed into those of a hawk.

At that moment, the jungle moved. The trees filling her vision shifted aside for her. Though no wind blew, the trees that understood the Demon God's will bowed low, fearing they might dare block Nevida's sight.

Through that clear line of vision, Nevida spotted Nenyaph watching from afar and muttered,

“They will come to judge you and me as well.”

* * *

The moment Nenyaph realized she had been detected, she changed locations. There was no time to hesitate. Her opponent was a primeval druid, a monster whose authority reached to the very end of the sky. Nenyaph was among the stronger humans, which was why she knew all too well how frightening someone above even the sky could be.

“Master is still a monster...”

She had once trained under Nevida. Having witnessed that power up close, she also knew its weaknesses. Linked to the Tree of Origin, Nevida bore that immense presence as she lived. A being of that caliber would not react sensitively to the movements of every tiny insect. Life would become exhausting if they did.

That was why Nenyaph had watched with hawk-like eyes...

Yet Nevida had detected her, as if to prove it was not that she could not. Nenyaph immediately pushed through the trees and ran to shake off pursuit.

But it was not enough.

Before she knew it, a huge snake had caught up beside her. A vine snake with bark instead of scales opened its great jaws as it pursued Nenyaph. The cursed root beast born from Nevida's power burned through its short life to tear Nenyaph apart.

Nenyaph took out seeds and breathed a little vitality into them. She slipped between massive boulders and scattered the seeds in every direction. Behind her, the vine snake roared as it chased after her. Its body flowed through the gaps between branches with astonishing flexibility.

At that moment, Nenyaph unleashed the authority sealed within the seeds.

Druid Secret Art: Vine Roots.

Vines burst forth and bound the vine snake. It let out a painful scream and twisted wildly. Its scales scraped against sharp rocks. Bark-like scales shattered and scattered, and blood like sap flowed out, but the vine snake seemed to suffer more from stopping than from crashing into the rocks.

“Master. You are wrong. Having power does not mean one may do anything. To wield power, one needs a just cause, and power that cannot earn the sympathy of all is nothing more than barbaric violence. It will become original sin and bind humanity.”

The vine snake was a beast Nevida had created. It could not live long in the first place. It devoted its entire brief life to carrying out the command it had been given.

What a sinful beast.

Nenyaph felt a brief pity for the root beast. At the same time, her faith became firmer.

“The weak being subjected to one-sided abuse by the strong... Even if that is reality, it must not be considered natural.”

Reaffirming her resolve, Nenyaph germinated the seed in her grasp. There was no soil and little sunlight, yet the seed rooted itself in her faith, drank in her determination, and grew. After changing again and again, it became a sapling with countless leaves and steadfast roots.

The grown leaves emitted light on their own.

A dazzling white, holy light.

Nenyaph was filled with faith, and she gained the right to wield that faith as power.

A sword forged from faith, a holy sword. Only then did Nenyaph realize that she belonged to the Holy Sword Corps. This unfamiliar power felt as natural as though it had always been part of her.

Holding the holy sword, Nenyaph approached the vine snake. As though it had been waiting for her to come closer, the vine snake thrashed violently. Its eyes contained nothing but shallow hostility and anger.

“Whether because you created it, because it will soon die, or for some other reason, you must not make even compassion and grief for that pitiful life into hypocrisy.”

The vine snake opened its jaws wide. Its mouth was covered in twigs and leaves. As mercifully as she could, Nenyaph drove the holy sword beneath its jaw.

Light flowed through the vines. The vine snake's eyes widened.

The beast born with a limited lifespan, which had thrashed about without knowing the sweetness of water or the warmth of sunlight, savored the grace of light for the first time.

The vine snake's expression gradually relaxed. Its body, which had howled in pain, found peace. The root beast that had struggled before death fell asleep in the light it had sought so desperately in its final moments.

The vine snake returned to being nothing more than a vine.

Having gained the power to kill the root beast, Nenyaph suddenly muttered,

“It seems you do not even have time to appear here in person. Are you busy?”

If it were Nevida, it would not have been strange for her to appear at once and slaughter Nenyaph. It would not matter to her that Nenyaph had once been her disciple. The reason Nevida had not appeared yet was likely because circumstances prevented her from doing so.

“...The King of Humanity. Must you truly create even your own king with your own hands before you are satisfied, Master?”

The Tree of Origin was consuming vitality at a rapid pace. The vitality of the World Tree, which had monopolized a single land for hundreds of years, was being spent this quickly.

What kind of being could require such power?

It was frightening, yet Nenyaph found a thread of hope within it. Now, while the Tree of Origin consumed vitality and kept Nevida occupied...

This was the only chance to sever that sin.

* * *

“Right and wrong, barbarism and civilization. Order and propriety. What can be done and what cannot.”

I walked slowly through the darkness. The inside of the flower bud could not have been that large, but no matter how far I walked, I found no wall. Only after walking for so long that it made no sense did I realize.

This was a mental landscape.

“What are they all for? You can't eat them. You can't see them. They can't even be explained to me. So how am I supposed to know?”

Then the owner of this voice was...

I turned around.

A girl with shaggy gray hair was wiggling her toes as though throwing a tantrum.

“El says I'm too special to understand, that a king can't understand it. Because I'm not ordinary, I'll never realize it, and I'll live forever ignoring it. But what can I do? If something isn't there, it isn't there.”

She was endlessly free and utterly unselfconscious, full of the optimism of a beast. The previous King of Humanity, who had died after being betrayed and torn apart, spoke to me with pure, innocent eyes, as though she had never once recognized how twisted her fate was.

“What do you think of me now that I've become ordinary? You know, don't you?”

When had we even met for you to act like you knew me? I did not even know what you were.

“You know now, don't you? You're ordinary. Instead of humanity, you represent the one person standing before you. You can't embrace everyone, but you can read one person's heart down to its deepest depths.”

What? How did she know?

My mind-reading was closer to a side effect. It was the representative nature a King of Humanity should possess, weakened and twisted in a strange direction.

She knew that?

“Big Sis knows. That was the promise.”

And the absurd nonsense did not end there. What noona? That was the most ridiculous thing I had heard lately. I did not have a noona.

Then the girl puffed out her chest and proudly shouted,

“I was born first. I'm your noona.”

...I could not refute that.

Footnotes:

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