WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 602: A Wildfire Also Starts from a Small Spark - 5

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Even within my mind, my older sister was every bit the Beast King. Though she had nothing to do, she bustled around me, chattering as if she were singing. Aside from her intelligence and occasional habit of talking to herself, she was no different from a curious beast.

Perhaps that was humanity's true nature.

"I'm special."

I answered my sister.

"Are you bragging?"

"No! I'm stating a fact!"

"Sounds even more like bragging."

"It's still true. I'm a king. The Beast King who represents all humans. Like the King of Dogs, the King of Wolves, the King of Cats, the Sheep King, and the King of Tigers, I have to embrace and represent every beast."

A Beast King was an embodiment of an idea. They lived while bearing the stereotypical image of their particular "beast."

Though Azzy was the King of Dogs, she lived alongside humans instead of commanding dogs. That was because she was a dog. The Mountain Lord settled on a single mountain, claimed it as her territory, and drove every other tiger away. That was because she was a tiger.

Being a Beast King did not necessarily mean being kind to beasts. They were, after all, only embodiments of an image. Unless they were social animals, they would not be kind even to their own kind.

Humans, though, had gone beyond being simple social animals.

"Still, ordinary humans see me as special. Every one of them."

"Because humans know far too much for their own good. Besides, you went everywhere you normally wouldn't, even snowy mountains, jungles, and deserts."

"Yes. Thanks to that, everyone knows me. And they want something from me, as if that has become a fundamental trait of humanity."

As countless humans began to trust and follow the king, the king who should have been an embodiment had turned into a ruler.

"That's why I need an ordinary standard. A weak, soft, pliable, stretchable standard."

"Not a strong, sturdy one?"

"Humans are weak and soft. When the harsh world fixes you with a stern gaze, you have to quickly change your expression and bow your head. That's what humans are. Other beasts adapt to nature too, but few change as quickly as humans do."

My sister spoke as if singing, then looked at me.

"That's you. You, the ordinary me."

"So I turned out this way because of you."

"Not because of me! It was unavoidable, like the sun setting and the moon waxing. I could no longer represent humanity! No, any king with power will inevitably stray from being the King of Humanity!"

My sister bounced around, looking genuinely wronged. I tried to summarize what she had told me as simply as I could.

"So some Beast King committee somewhere decided that since you're the King of Humanity but can no longer represent humanity, they would leave you as you are and create a new King of Humanity as an embodiment? Hmm, no, then there would be two Kings of Humanity... In short, they're making a crown for the King of Humanity to wear?"

"The Crown of Humanity! That's a good metaphor. There is only one king and only one crown!"

"It's not a good metaphor for me. A king is human, but a crown is a tool. Could you spare a thought for my position, suddenly becoming something that sits on someone's head?"

"You won't sit on my head! Unless you want to, I mean!"

"That sounds like you're saying I can if I want to."

"If you do, we'll both find it uncomfortable, so I'd rather you stand near my shoulder! If you're going to whisper in my ear, it's better if you're close to my head!"

"What do I need to whisper?"

My sister smiled softly and stared into my eyes. Her gray irises, as though black and white had blended together, read the memories that had passed through me. Among those countless adventures and incidents, she asked me every question I had faced once more.

"Is it acceptable to confine, watch, and oppress everyone? If you place them in a rigid, perfectly square box, stack them neatly, and build a towering pyramid, can you praise that pyramid's grandeur and intricacy?"

Starting with the military state.

"What about a world where one person creates everything? A land where anything not created that way is discarded or pushed aside? What if, despite resenting it, they ultimately have no choice but to consume those creations?"

Then the Lesser States.

"What about a world where blood binds everyone so no one can resist? A kingdom hardened stiff as a corpse?"

After the duchy.

"Can you eat meat fruit? Can people be born from it? If not, how far is it acceptable to go to stop it?"

At last, we had arrived here. A place where countless questions and choices crossed.

My sister placed a hand on my shoulder, looked deeper within me, and drew out my true feelings.

"You reached a conclusion. You've already decided what you like and dislike. That is why you threw your weight behind the side you supported."

"I supported everyone's wishes."

"But doing that already means you granted someone's wish."

...Yes. It would be a lie to say my heart had not leaned toward one side. I gave everyone a chance, but the side I stood on was clear.

I respected everyone's wishes, but there was one wish that drew me more strongly. A wish that was more honest and primal, one that used order wholly as a tool. Rather than a wish to reinforce an order destined to crumble someday, I preferred one that flickered like candlelight yet illuminated someone's path.

My sister, though, did not even have such preferences. She had become the kind of king people desired.

"But you don't need to move with the wind anymore. I'll grant your wish."

With a reassuring smile, my sister held out her hand to me.

* * *

A chick enters the world by breaking its eggshell. Every living thing has such a sorrowful, beloved sacrifice. At the sacred moment when an individual writes its history, there is a shell that blesses its birth by being destroyed.

The Tree of Origin, a Demon God, was no different. That tree of the Demon God, which had bloomed from the remnants of the blessed ginkgo tree, had grown from one enormous seed.

The ovary. The most secret and primordial domain, whose existence no one but Nevida knew.

"Hah... Hah... I managed to get Skywarbler back somehow, but..."

Holding Skywarbler, Shei looked toward the center of the ovary with a troubled expression. There, Jizan, one of Shei's two weapons, was embedded.

Jizan, the recoilless sword, could only be wielded by one it chose. Even Nevida, a Demon God, could not hold and wield its power unless Jizan permitted it. Jizan was a Demon God containing the understanding of this land.

But what if it was not a person? What if the one holding it was a Demon God containing the principles of the world?

And what if that Demon God, too, was by nature one that gripped the earth?

"Of all things, she bound Skywarbler and Jizan with a Lesser World Tree."

Jizan was wrapped in the roots of a small sapling. It was a Lesser World Tree, a sapling and weapon Nevida had fashioned from the remains of the World Tree.

A tree grips the earth with its roots and communicates with the sky through its leaves. True to that nature, the Lesser World Tree bound Jizan with its roots and held Skywarbler with its leaves. Of course, it could not seize the open sky itself, so Shei had been able to split Skywarbler into small pieces and pull it free. Jizan, a relic of the Demon God, would not be so easy.

"I don't wield Jizan's true power. I only borrow its strength, so it'll be difficult for me to break these restraints... It can't be helped."

The moment she used her power, Nevida would detect her, but Shei had come prepared for that much. She grasped Skywarbler and built up her inner energy. The air that had been held by the tree found its master and flowed into Skywarbler. A vast inhalation without an exhalation filled Shei and Skywarbler.

"Heavenly Sword Technique..."

Wind covered Skywarbler and formed a gigantic blade. Shei delivered a destructive strike at the Lesser World Tree binding Jizan.

"...Dragon-Slaying Slash!"

Whoooom.

The sword made of wind did not make a sound. She had withdrawn even the air that could carry one. The silent slash raised a storm as it swept over the Lesser World Tree.

Breaking branches and scattering leaves whirled through the air. Shei retrieved Skywarbler, let out a deep breath, and approached the place where the vortex was dying down.

Then the Heaven-Reversing Boundary reacted. Without a moment's hesitation, Shei threw her head back and leaped away. Something savagely snatched at the space she had just vacated. It had enough force to crush even rock.

"Your reactions are faster than a cat's."

A disappointed voice came from the branch clutching empty air. Then the branch twisted this way and that before changing into something like a human hand. It curled in its fingers from thumb to little finger and pulled its body out from inside the tree.

"Ugh! Nevida...!"

Nevida seemed to have bloomed from the Lesser World Tree itself. Emerging from the tree, she looked at Shei with the same impassive gaze. There was less bewilderment or discomfort in her eyes than exasperation.

"Your life was preserved by my liege. Why have you returned here again, without treasuring it?"

"Hmph. Why ask when you already know?"

"To uphold the great cause proclaimed by the Celestial God, your life would mean nothing to you. But do you not find my liege's wish to save you, at least, precious?"

Nevida was scolding Shei, as though she truly had not wanted to kill her.

"Killing you would go against the wishes of the king who spared you. He, too, is a king to whom I owe loyalty, so I tried to avoid that choice if possible. Yet you insist on casting aside even his mercy."

Perhaps this very moment was the last chance Nevida was offering her. If Shei gave up resisting and fled even now, Skywarbler would at least remain whole. Nevida would not bother pursuing her.

Shei instinctively realized that. Yet instead of turning her back, she took a step forward and raised her head.

"I'm not casting it aside. But that is exactly why I had to come."

"Exactly why?"

"You're going to hurt Hughes!"

A thread of wind stirred Nevida's hair inside the ovary. There was no way wind could have entered such a narrow space, yet Shei, holding Skywarbler, was summoning wind within it.

"Do you think I'm an idiot? Hughes is the King of Humanity. The one you want to revive is also the King of Humanity. For one to be made whole, the other has to disappear. And you will definitely choose to sacrifice Hughes."

If she had to choose one of the two, Nevida would choose the other king, not Hughes. That was Nevida's wish after enduring two thousand years.

"If that's going to happen, then I have to be there too. Because I stand against you."

"Against me?"

Shei spoke to Nevida with clear determination.

"If there's going to be a King of Humanity, Hughes is better."

"...Better."

"Yes. He's better than some king from the distant past who died who knows when. Hughes was the king who was with me here and now. He acted directly, even if he lied, deceived, and hid things. Even when he threw situations into chaos, he found the best answer within them."

The King of Humanity becomes the King of Sin. But Hughes was not that. And from what she had seen of Hughes so far, he was far removed from the King of Sin.

Then perhaps Hughes would not become the King of Sin.

There was no basis for it. It was utterly irresponsible. Perhaps the cowardly power of regression had taken from her the fear of failure.

But Shei believed it.

"I'm the same as you. If the resurrection ritual for the King of Humanity is underway, I don't know how it will end, but I'll take Hughes's side. I'll make Hughes my king!"

"..."

"So, what do you say, Nevida? I am entirely on Hughes's side! Then are you my ally, or my enemy?"

There was no need for an answer. Nevida had always had only one king.

A small child she picked up in the forest. An innocent, adorable girl who took the hand Nevida had offered so proudly and followed her home. Nevida's friend, disciple, teacher, and king.

If the two could not coexist, if she had to choose one, she would choose her without hesitation.

That was why she could not accept Shei.

Without a word, Nevida raised her hand and brought it down decisively.

Lush branches fell over Shei's head like a flyswatter.

Footnotes:

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