WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 598: A Wildfire Also Starts from a Small Spark - 1

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For the past two thousand years, Nevida had tried everything to awaken the King of Humanity. Those attempts continued even now. Hoping this would be the last, she looked at the lotus leaf where the King of Humanity slept.

Nevida had endured too many failures over far too many years. Her heart had hardened like the bark of an ancient tree. Even if a sharp blade cut into it, she no longer felt pain. She simply put forth new branches without thought, withered, then stretched out once more.

Yet just before a new bud emerged, when hope softly stirred at the thought that perhaps this time would be different, Nevida could keenly understand why she lived and what she lived for.

Nevida had been born to serve her lady.

The traitors who had stabbed Nevida's lady and fled from cursed Mount Yulim. El, who had dared betray her lady and still waited so brazenly.

The Warriors of the King who had stepped forward to bury Nevida's lady in their own territories while she still clung to life. Those who had plotted to assassinate her, saying she needed to be definitively dead for the next King of Humanity to appear. The bastards who had expanded their domains in her absence, falsely claimed the title of king, and deceived the people.

The bastards who had followed, pursued, and tried to assassinate Nevida after she left with her lady, who had stopped at death's threshold. Those who wanted to secure their own positions by obtaining her lady. Those who spread El's teachings, saying a savior would one day come to the world.

Nevida's lady was the King of Humanity, yet humanity was her enemy. No one respected or served her for who she was. She fled, hid by becoming a tree, and wandered through the ages while sleeping beside her lady. She sought out every kind of knowledge to revive her, endured an unfathomable span of time, and eventually even brought forth the Tree of Corruption.

And now, Nevida was attempting the most promising method yet.

Nevida's hands sweated with tension. She had turned her body into a tree countless times and assimilated with the Tree of Corruption itself, so her body had long since left the realm of humanity. Still, at the thought of seeing the King of Humanity again, she felt as excited as a tree that had endured winter just before spring, like a bud on the verge of opening.

"..."

But Nevida could not simply wait for the fruit to ripen.

Insects were gathering around the flower's scent.

"I have come to see the King of Humanity! Open the gate!"

The Tree of Corruption was receiving a thriving stream of visitors for the first time in a while.

The Anub tribe was made entirely of dog beastkin. They were Agartha's loyal hounds and a prestigious family of the old kingdom that still held great renown in this jungle.

Unlike beastkin born from fruit, they were the "real thing," descendants of the King of Dogs and Agartha, born from a queen's transgression long ago and bearing royal blood strongly within them.

"Woof. The rumor must've spread. Other dogs caught the scent and came running too."

Blanca Baskerville barked quietly as she looked down at the entrance to the Tree of Corruption, where millions of roots spread outward and formed a deep, winding slope.

"Isn't it because you caused such a commotion?"

A small butterfly-shaped illusion rippled behind her.

Walpurgis. The Night Witch. Until the Great Witch and Nevida recruited her, she had been a legendary witch who submerged this jungle in cold, silent nights. Unlike the Great Witch, who had received the Progenitor's blood, Walpurgis had ruled the jungle for more than two hundred years with pure black magic.

She had given much, taken much, killed countless lives, and saved countless others. She was the very concept of a "witch." Although she had become comparatively gentle after receiving the Great Witch's blood, she was particularly sharp today.

"You fought the King of Humanity. What was that reckless behavior from someone only staying here temporarily?"

"Pah. How was I supposed to know he was the King of Humanity? No one gave me any information."

"Don't you think the fight itself was the problem?"

"No. Not at all."

Blanca answered as she touched her upright ears.

"I was born to fight. I only did my part. Like them."

At the end of Blanca's gaze stood around a hundred members of the Anub tribe.

"Come to think of it, you and they look rather alike! Do you have some connection?"

The strange man wearing a monocle looked between the two and asked with a click-click sound. The interlocking noise, impossible to hear from a living creature, was both harmonious and unsettling.

Maximilien, the Halberdier and architect of the military state. One of its Six Generals, an alchemist who had nearly become a Lord in the Lesser States, and a mage whose combat ability rivaled that of a qi master who had reached the principles.

Blanca folded her ears slightly at the unpleasant sound.

"They're said to be the Queen's loyal hounds. Not figuratively. They actually have ears and tails. They have a dog's loyalty too. Wouldn't even an emperor who possessed all the wealth and glory in the world want one?"

"So you share an ancestor! I see! Yet your ears and tails became shorter in only a few generations..."

"...Huh? Are you picking a fight?"

The Baskervilles' ears and tails had been cut off by people called "stylists" when they were young. Their short ears and tails symbolized humanity's arrogance.

Blanca lowered her voice slightly and growled. Maximilien, whose heart was made of gears, asked in the same steady rhythm without the slightest agitation.

"Hmm? Was there something in my words that could be taken as picking a fight?"

"You..."

Then Nevida emerged from her thoughts and spoke heavily.

"That is not so. The tree of origins does not put forth branches in only a few generations. Humans altered them."

"Their ears and tails? How fascinating. How?"

"They cut off their ears and tails when they were young. They retained those ears and tails, but humans wanted to erase such traits. A completely useless thing to do."

Rather than wanting to stop the fight, Nevida simply wished to correct the false information. The tree of origins was her domain.

Nevida rose.

"Nenyaph is the Whore's spy. She will certainly come to obstruct us. We cannot allow outsiders in at a time like this. Walpurgis, deliver the message."

"...Forgive me, but the Great Witch has already gone to greet them."

Within Walpurgis's illusion, the Great Witch could be seen flying down on a massive hawk. Nevida stared steadily at the illusion and muttered.

"Hexia?"

"Yes. The Great Witch finds beastkin cute... and pitiable. What shall we do?"

Nevida shook her head.

"Let Hexia do as she wishes. I will not interfere."

Despite Nevida's cold tone, her attitude toward the Great Witch was endlessly soft. Maximilien asked, sounding puzzled.

"How strange. I thought the captain and I were similar fruit."

"Of course. You and I grew from the same branch."

"No, I was not speaking of the captain's tree. I meant our dispositions. I like things that fit perfectly together like gears, and I thought the captain was like a tree without blood or tears. Yet you are unusually soft toward the Great Witch."

"Trees have blood and tears as well. Only their form differs."

After that brief answer, Nevida continued.

"She is my teacher."

"A teacher? Even a supreme being who has lived since ancient times while dispensing teachings had a teacher?"

"Many. As many as my years."

Nevida recalled her teachers one by one.

Nevida's first teacher had been an ill-tempered druid who did nothing except get drunk, cause trouble, and send her on errands. Nevida had learned nothing from the druid, but became a druid because that was the first person she met.

Nevida's second teacher had been the King of Humanity. She taught her everything, yet never gave her a single command or order. She decided to use every ability she possessed for her lady's sake.

...Unfortunately, Nevida's next teacher had been El. El had not taught her, but the world she showed her broadened her horizons. In particular, the four prohibitions El had shown her... became the soil in which the tree of origins was planted.

Had El expected Nevida to become a Demon God? Probably not. The Sanctum could not prophesy a Demon God. A Demon God existed beyond all frameworks.

Still, the unpleasant feeling rising within Nevida remained. She decided to set it aside. Dwelling on it would accomplish nothing.

"Hexia's idea led me to become a Demon God. Before her, I was only an old druid, but now I am a Demon God whose reach extends throughout the world."

"The Great Witch was that remarkable? What did she do?"

"She came up with the idea that meat could grow on trees."

"The Great Witch came up with that. How did it make the captain a Demon God?"

A tree spreading out from the origin of species, one that bore beasts from the tips of its branches. That idea itself was an intuition that pierced through the world.

Nevida could not explain it. Instead, she understood why Maximilien showed such interest.

"If you become a Demon God, you will understand."

"Ha ha ha. How cowardly! Are you saying one cannot understand without the qualifications?"

Maximilien laughed as though brushing it off, then asked with a faintly self-mocking smile.

"In the military state, the King of Humanity told me this. My innate magic was not a part of the world, but one way of interpreting the world for my own convenience. He said I could never become a Demon God."

"My liege said that?"

"What do you think? I would like to ask a Demon God. Does the captain agree with the King of Humanity?"

Nevida could answer that with certainty.

"I do not know either. I cannot understand other Demon Gods either. The same is true of what a Demon God is."

"Tch. That is not helpful."

"No one will be helpful."

That was what made one a Demon God.

Perhaps discouraged, Maximilien turned his gaze away without another word. Outside the massive knot that served as a window, a fierce wind blew. Leaves were falling in that wind from the tree with the least peaceful days in the world, the tree of origins that brought storms both literally and figuratively.

The sight of World Tree leaves falling was a spectacle wondrous enough to inspire awe...

Then everyone present felt something strange.

"Huh? Do leaves normally fall?"

Changes in nature were continuous. They did not happen suddenly in a single instant. Nature had its proper order and principles, showing signs beforehand.

Yet the leaves falling from the Tree of Corruption were unnatural in every way.

"Woof. Come to think of it, my lips were a little chapped. The humidity is low."

Blanca muttered as she licked her lips. Her slightly chapped lips greedily took in the saliva.

"It should not yet be that season."

Nevida muttered and bloomed a flower at her fingertips. The petals, which should have opened fully while holding dew, somehow dried up after opening halfway and fell away.

The weather was dry. There was so little moisture that even the Tree of Origin's leaves were drying out.

Yet that was strange.

"That is impossible. Dozens of waterways cross through this land. The World Tree drinks enough water to exhale clouds by itself. How could the weather be dry?"

Walpurgis raised a reasonable question. Trees drew water from the ground and released it through their leaves, and the World Tree was like the king of all trees. Blessed by the World Tree, this land should always have been filled with life. Life was much the same as moisture.

How could there be a lack of moisture?

Everyone wondered, but Nevida knew the reason.

"The Whore?"

Nevida spread out her roots. Her senses differed from those of humans and were far less sensitive, but she felt the moisture through the tips of her roots.

Then Nevida realized.

The waterways.

The atmosphere.

They were carrying out scorched-earth tactics against the Tree of Origin.

The waterways that should have flowed had diminished, and not a single cloud could be seen in the dry sky. It was as though moisture itself had been stripped from this space, this land where the Tree of Origin stood.

"It is the Celestial God's power. It is taking 'water' from the Tree of Origin."

"Since when?"

"One cannot block waterways overnight. Judging by the scale, perhaps..."

Since Nevida had sensed the presence of the Offering God, Ankra, beyond the forest.

It had been such an unexpected attack that Nevida noticed too late. Trees were passive. Even when water ran short, they could not go looking for it, so they calmly accepted their fate and dropped their leaves. That was how trees survived.

Nevida might have noticed under normal circumstances, but she had been too occupied with blooming the lotus where the King of Humanity slept.

"From the beginning."

"From the beginning?"

"It must have started before I went to find the King of Humanity. The noose must have been tightened so gradually that I did not notice."

To a tree, water was close to being everything needed for life. Even if the Tree of Origin had been a true World Tree, it would have suffered a considerable blow. Probably much like when the World Tree was burned long ago.

Even so.

Maximilien asked in confusion.

"What is the problem? This is a Demon God in the form of a tree."

A Demon God did not wither. Even if all the water dried up, the Tree of Origin would always remain the same. Knowledge remained exactly where it was, unrelated to water or seasons.

Those leaves were nothing more than decoration. The Tree of Origin's true essence was the species growing from its countless branches. The origin of those species was the Tree of Origin itself.

"Even if a few leaves fall, there is no problem here. At most, the people living below will be a little confused. There is no problem."

Branches that grew rice, branches that grew wheat, branches that grew beans, and more. The fruit growing from such branches would fail to ripen and fall away. But what did that matter? Other than the residents beneath the World Tree's shade, neither Nevida nor the Lords of All Creation would suffer any damage.

"...That cannot be."

Walpurgis dismissed Maximilien's words.

"In the past, a Queen of the Kingdom of Ten Thousand died after being swept up in such chaos. The World Tree burned afterward, and night came to the Kingdom of Ten Thousand. What they seek must be chaos itself. This will become the spark that burns this entire tree!"

Footnotes:

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