WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 600: A Wildfire Also Starts from a Small Spark - 3

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Meanwhile, someone had slipped into the Tree of Origin amid the confusion.

"Those stupid Anub fools. Just marching through the entrance like that."

Long ago, the Kingdom of Ten Thousand had priests.

They were not particularly remarkable. Countless savage tribes lived in the jungle, each developing its own primitive faith.

The natural world. Spirits. The World Tree. Totems. Powerful beasts or kings of beasts. Anything with power could become an object of worship. Faith led to inquiry, inquiry became power, and the priests came to possess abilities unique even within this jungle.

Over a long period, the Agartha dynasty of the Kingdom of Ten Thousand had tried to spread the teachings of the Celestial God, but every attempt came to nothing. Not because people rejected them, but because they accepted the Celestial God's teachings as just one faith among many.

The jungle's dense growth stifled the spread of ideas so thoroughly that even the Celestial God, whose reach spanned the continent, could not overcome it.

The priests retained their independent domains, but independent power was always a thorn in a king's side. They clashed with the Queen at every turn.

Perhaps Queen Agartha had also hated humans when she decided to become the king of beastkin.

"We should serve the King of Humanity. The King of Humanity will drive out the mongrel beasts born from the Queen and make us pure again."

It made sense. The priests probably did not like the Queen much either.

"The ground beneath the World Tree is full of holes. That massive trunk looks packed solid, but there are countless cavities inside. Some were dug by someone, while others were made out of necessity."

The Tree of Origin had inherited even the World Tree's size. A trunk capable of bearing such overwhelming volume and mass could not be described as merely thick. It was more like a mountain where a steep slope suddenly turned into a cliff.

The land where the World Tree stood was not a pleasant place to live. It was lush both above and below. Hundreds of millions of uneven roots tangled together like threads, each a different height and thickness, while crater-like hollows spread beneath them. Once someone fell into one, even recovering the body would be difficult.

That was why people built homes on the branches. Back when the previous World Tree had been a blessed ginkgo tree, residents could not live there at all. Only a few druids tending the tree lived there.

"Below, there are countless water channels. They are enormous rapids that draw river water all the way up to the leaves. They probably manage the largest channels, but they cannot manage every one."

The priests looked at one another and nodded. The doll priest took out a cursed doll and moved its hands and feet.

The dolls moved accordingly.

Corpse dolls controlled by black magic threw themselves into the water without a shred of reason. Swept up by the current created by the World Tree, they were carried upward.

"Have you found it?"

"I'm looking. Be patient..."

The water channels were straws the Tree of Origin had plunged into the river, rushing torrents that twisted upward toward the sky. As they led throughout the Tree of Origin, they repeatedly branched off and narrowed at random.

Dozens of corpse dolls took wrong turns, drowning or being crushed somewhere along the way. Soaked in drugs and magic, the corpses would block the World Tree's water channels for quite some time and cause all sorts of sanitation problems.

Even so, one fortunate doll found the right passage. The doll priest raised the still-living cursed doll and shouted.

"Found it. This way."

"Lead on. We will follow."

"You should be grateful. Without me, you would have become fertilizer for the World Tree. Now, wrap my hair around yourselves. It will show you the way."

Once they had finished preparing, the priests threw themselves into the water channel leading toward the summit.

Pumping such an enormous volume of water upward required immense pressure. The water pressure was enough to crush a human, but the priests protected their bodies with various spells and forced their way up through the channel.

"How... much... farther...?"

"A long way! Save your breath!"

Being swept up a river was a rare experience even for priests. After so much time had passed that they began to fear it might never end...

Their bodies were flung into open air.

"Pwah!"

"We're here!"

They had arrived inside the dark Tree of Origin. There was no telling how high they had climbed.

The beast priest sniffed at the scent drifting through the air.

"Sniff. Damp, wet wood... This seems to be a space inside the World Tree."

"I heard the King of Humanity is at the top of the World Tree. Where is the summit?"

"We won't know until we go outside. I'll dig through the wall with my claws."

As the beast priest extended sharp claws and approached the wall, the memorial priest stopped the beast priest.

"Stop! If we damage the World Tree carelessly, the Great Druid might notice!"

"Then what do you suggest? It is only a matter of time before the Great Druid realizes we are here."

"I'll seek out the souls of the dead and hold a memorial rite. They'll know the way."

"This is the top of the World Tree. Who could have died here?"

"I heard a witch lives here. At least one or two people must have died! This place is full of vital energy. It is an ideal environment for lingering spirits. If there are witches who have split their minds and planted them in beasts, I'll find them quickly!"

The memorial priest rummaged through her pockets, taking out fruit and pieces of meat. After placing the bare minimum of offerings for the rite, she shook a bell and began her ritual.

A corpse could reveal how someone had lived. For those who handled magic or vital energy, traces of it sometimes remained even after death. In a sense, the memorial priest was closer to a coroner who read those traces and inferred the dead person's actions in life.

There were no corpses here, but similar traces would be enough. The memorial priest searched for remnants of the dead through her ritual.

Strong-smelling food and the loud ringing of a bell filled the space with signals that stimulated all five senses. She searched through the vital energy all around them for traces mixed with a human response.

Not long after, the memorial priest found traces of death...

"Ugh!"

...Far too many traces of death, as countless as those thick leaves.

"Blegh! Ugh. Cough, blegh!"

It was as if someone had seized the memorial priest and turned her inside out. She vomited everything in her stomach, collapsed face-first into the mess, and fainted.

Startled, the beast priest dragged her away. Her eyes had rolled back, and she showed no sign of waking.

"Hey! Shaman! What happened?!"

"...Look over there."

The doll priest, wearing a grim expression, pointed somewhere.

Petals had grown in neat layers along the wall. Large fruits hung from orderly branches that looked as though they had been tended by someone's hand.

Within the translucent fruits, swollen with an unknown juice, were human silhouettes curled up like babies.

"...What is this?"

The doll priest roughly counted them. At least a hundred. If there were more elsewhere, the total would multiply many times over. Counting by folding fingers, the doll priest muttered.

"...It seems someone performed black magic with the World Tree."

Then, footsteps clicked through the darkness.

A faint lantern light spilled from the pitch-black corridor ahead. The footsteps made no effort to hide their presence. The beast priest bristled and focused every bit of attention on their owner.

Then the beast priest froze in shock.

'...What? I can't sense anything...!'

"Why are you people here?"

Black bats took flight all at once. After their silent wings swept through the space, a witch in pitch-black clothes and a pointed hat appeared before them like an illusion.

Walpurgis, the Witch of the Night.

The Great Witch's sole retainer, the witch who alone managed the Domain of the Lords.

And the nightmare that had once plunged this jungle into a deep, dark night.

The priests instinctively stepped back in fear. Even then, the doll priest calmly came forward.

"Heh heh. Great and dreadful Witch of the Night, we have something urgent to discuss."

"You infiltrated a restricted area through the water channels just to talk? Do you hide in someone else's storage room when you wish to have a conversation?"

"If necessary, perhaps we do. How were we supposed to know where the water channels led?"

"...I'll at least hear you out. Just know that I'm being very accommodating."

Walpurgis crossed her arms, making it abundantly clear that she had no intention of hearing them out properly.

"I hear the King of Humanity has appeared."

When the doll priest got to the point, Walpurgis pulled her witch hat low with a troubled expression.

"You know as well? There isn't a single person in the jungle who doesn't."

"Those sensitive to news would all know. They caused such a commotion."

"This trouble wasn't even my fault, but I'm the one cleaning it up in the end. Everyone is so irresponsible."

After waiting for Walpurgis to complain enough, the doll priest pointed at the flesh fruits.

"These fruits. Are they ingredients for resurrecting the King of Humanity?"

"You could say that."

"Was the King of Humanity also something you made with these?"

"No. The King of Humanity's body already existed. They had no consciousness, but we were respectfully caring for them."

"Then why did you make these humans?"

There was no point hiding it any longer. Walpurgis sighed and continued.

"The Great Druid sought a witch. A witch's medicine is both medicine and poison, capable of restoring someone on the verge of death and killing a healthy person overnight. The Great Druid wondered whether witch's medicine might revive the King of Humanity."

The priests were puzzled.

Many people sought witches, but they were all people who had reached the end of the road. Witch's medicine was an unknown substance whose effects and intentions had never been proven. It was the final gamble of people with nothing left to lose.

"Of course, the Great Druid didn't trust witch's medicine either. She questioned its effects thoroughly. But how can you know what effect it has before drinking it? Someone has to drink it first."

The priests remembered another episode from the past.

Long ago, when the jungle had sunk into a deep, dark night.

Walpurgis sold illusions.

Those who drank her medicine fell asleep in happy, delightful dreams. It was said that they all shed tears when they awoke, begging for their illusions back and pleading to return to that world.

The awakened longed for night again and sought Walpurgis out. Each time, Walpurgis gave them new medicine. Those who drank it fell asleep with blissful expressions, and most never woke.

That dark period, when the jungle had sunk into a silent night without pain or screams, remained a terror to everyone. People waiting for parents who never returned, vanished children, and lovers who had left love behind all sought the Great Witch in the darkness, holding on to a thread of hope.

The Great Witch acted for those who had once been her people, and only after taking in the Witch of the Night did morning return to the jungle.

People could not even cheer. They were only grateful that the night had passed safely, and searched for those who had vanished during it.

Some wondered how the Great Witch had taken in the Witch of the Night, but curiosity always came after survival. No one searched for the reason...

"But the newly grown World Tree produces every ingredient. Roots resembling people, mushrooms that grow beneath acorn trees, the pistils of irises. They're all precious, but experimental subjects to test medicine made from such precious ingredients are more precious than anything."

Walpurgis finally revealed the reason.

"These flesh fruits are test subjects for the medicine intended for the King of Humanity. There are many samples, few variables, and I can adjust the test groups however I wish."

"Cough! Cough!"

The memorial priest regained consciousness and sat up coughing. Her legs trembled pitifully, but she did not even think of wiping the vomit from her face as she shouted.

"How many people did you kill here?! How many deaths did it take to fill this entire space with traces of death?!"

"I haven't counted. Is there some problem? You have no connection whatsoever to the flesh fruits I used as test subjects."

Shrouded in darkness, Walpurgis raised the brim of her hat slightly in question.

"The night-illusion medicine was made to ease pain and forget suffering. They sought it out themselves, drank too much, fell asleep drunk on illusions, then reported me to the Great Witch."

Witches made medicine. No one could guarantee what that medicine would do, not even the witch who created it.

That was why someone had to be found to drink it. Walpurgis had used illusions of the night as bait to test countless medicines.

Until the Great Witch, having heard the rumors, came to find her.

"The Great Witch said the problem was that night continued forever and severed the ties people had in daylight. In exchange for no longer seeking test subjects in the jungle, the Great Witch allowed me to use this place. On the condition that I make the medicine commissioned by the Great Druid."

The memorial priest stared at Walpurgis in dread and horror. Yet one person, the doll priest, trembled with excitement and laughed.

"Kekeke. You should have told us about something this useful. I've been scouring the jungle for worthwhile dolls like an idiot. It was a good thing we came up here."

Walpurgis asked flatly.

"Do you have any other business?"

"Fruits that grow humans, and the King of Humanity. You cannot hide and monopolize something so important to every human. We should share it."

"Do you not intend to leave as you are?"

"Why should we? If we leave now, we will gain nothing."

"No."

Walpurgis took hold of her hat brim, lifting it slightly as she whispered.

"You would keep those paltry lives of yours."

At the same time, bats flew in from every direction. Screams beyond the range of human hearing filled the space.

The beast priest lunged at Walpurgis, tearing her body apart. Walpurgis's form scattered like an illusion, black smoke wrapping around the beast priest.

Walpurgis flickered briefly, then appeared several meters away and casually waved a hand.

"Sleep within the night."

Bats scattered in every direction, and shining dust drifted among them. It was a dreamlike, fantastic sight, as though the stars of the night had been crushed into powder.

"H-Hold your breath! Don't breathe it..."

The memorial priest could not finish. Drugged by the medicine, the priests collapsed one after another. Amid the bats' silent wingbeats, only the doll priest remained standing.

"You don't sleep. Then again, dolls don't need sleep."

"Keh heh heh. You noticed?"

The doll priest took out a cursed doll prepared in advance. The doll priest poured magic into the cursed doll wrapped with someone's hair, and the sleeping priests staggered to their feet.

Bodies that had lost consciousness became dolls, moving according to the doll priest's will. The sleepless dolls surrounded Walpurgis.

"Thanks to you, I've gained precious dolls! Witch of the Night, thank you! And I'll make you into a doll too!"

The beast priest rushed in, while the memorial priest swung a knife and bell. It was an attack coordinated without any concern for whether they hurt one another. Walpurgis held her hat brim and muttered.

"But there are not only medicines that put people to sleep."

Walpurgis suddenly darted forward and embraced the doll priest. Startled by the unexpected act, the doll priest stepped back, but Walpurgis's form vanished as though sinking into the doll priest.

"What is this?! What did you do to me...?!"

"Enjoy it. Endless hallucinations and ecstasy. A night that will never come again."

At the voice ringing beside his ear, the doll priest stiffened.

The doll priest's body would not obey. A tremor ran from one ear through the entire body. It felt as though someone had turned the doll priest into a toy and was playing with it. Just before bliss overwhelmed the doll priest's mind, the doll priest felt a fear that could not be named.

'This is dangerous...! I need to sever my connection to the doll, quickly!'

Doll masters normally used humans. That was how sensations could be transmitted fully without interference.

This time, though, that advantage became poison.

Witches were medicine and poison. As the doll priest hesitated for just a moment in that endless ecstasy, the doll priest's body and mind stopped resisting. The doll priest surrendered to that endless pleasure and rapture.

Not to the doll, but to its controller.

"Aah! Hah, hah! Huaaah!"

The doll priest gasped in pleasure.

Overflowing sensations scrambled the doll priest's mind. Trembling alone, twisting their body, scratching themself raw to relieve an itch, the doll priest forgot how to distinguish themself from the doll.

Both the doll priest and the doll were puppets of pleasure, gifted by the Witch of the Night.

The moment the doll priest realized it, the priest's mind snapped.

"-Sleep well."

The Witch of the Night whispered quietly amid the collapsing dolls.

Footnotes:

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