WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 609: The Floating Castle, Buoyant Fortress

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The capital of the Arcane Federation, the floating castle, was as graceful as a moon drifting through the endless sky. Gliding silently and gently through the heavens, it was both the Arcane Federation's capital and its symbol. The terrifying magic that had elevated an entire city into the constellations showed just how powerful and magnificent the Arcane Federation was.

The ignorant masses crawling across the earth looked up at the floating castle with envy. Only mages were qualified to ascend to it. That was why they desperately bore children and taught them magic.

It was their only path to a higher status.

People said that both water and humans gathered in low places. That was simply because gravity pulled all things downward. The floating castle, which twisted the very laws of gravity, was a golden land where supreme knowledge and power gathered.

And I was falling toward that floating castle...

"Ahhhhhhh!"

My scream rang through the empty sky. Violent winds tore wildly at my body. At this speed, I should have been slowing down, but I was only accelerating.

Reverse Gravity. It was a high-level white magic spell that reversed the direction of gravity acting on its caster.

Put simply, it made you fall away from the ground.

Wouldn't that make you leave this world?

Exactly.

There was no ground to stand on in the sky, so you would rise forever without striking anything. It would be a problem if your mana ran out midway and you fell, but it would be an even bigger problem if it didn't. You would be flung into the distant void of space, where no one could even recover your corpse.

That was why Reverse Gravity was considered an extremely difficult and impractical spell, nearly useless in most situations.

Still, there was no better magic for reaching the floating castle drifting at the edge of the sky.

"The floating castle roams all across the Arcane Federation. Searching for it with flight magic would be a waste of mana and time. The most rational route is to ride the Orbit of the Heavenly Pivot in reverse."

Lankart explained leisurely as he adjusted our direction. Like a comet streaking diagonally downward across the sky, the three of us rose at an angle.

We pierced through the clouds, yet our speed showed no sign of slowing. The air grew thinner while the wind only became fiercer. Gasping for breath, I shouted,

"Th-the wind is too st-!"

"What? I can't hear you. Save it for later. We can talk properly once we reach the floating castle."

"No, I mean the wind's too stro-!"

My voice failed to reach Lankart ahead of me and was buried beneath the raging wind. Perhaps he believed I would be fine even in a situation this extreme, because he did nothing.

That was the problem.

Lankart was a mage. A sorcerer who had mastered white magic, black magic, and even innate arcane. It would probably be faster to count the things he couldn't do than the things he could. Even while wrapped in brutal winds, he remained calm.

And Lankart had no doubt that I, whom he acknowledged, had reached a similar level. He was convinced that if it was a problem he could solve, I would overcome it too, no matter what hardship came my way.

That was probably why he had shoved me into the Abyss. Ah, if I had known this would happen, I shouldn't have insisted on staying in first place. I had needlessly stirred up his strange inferiority complex.

Tsk. Should I just endure it with my regeneration...?

Just as I was considering it,

"Heavenly Sword Technique, Gentle Breeze."

A swift slash passed before my eyes. Shei's Skywarbler cut through the oncoming wind and held the air in place.

Whew. I lived. I had never been so grateful to breathe. With my mouth finally free, I said,

"Wow. You saved me. Thank you, Shei."

"...Hmph. I didn't do it for you. I needed to avoid the wind too."

'I couldn't keep watching him shiver the whole time while we were flying.'

What was that supposed to mean? Her words and thoughts were completely different. She said she hadn't done it for me.

I respected other people's privacy, but obvious lies made me want to expose them.

"Come on. You did do it for me."

"Hah? You're mistaken."

"How could I be? Then where did Skywarbler come from? It had been drifting around protecting you until now. You used its ability because I was cold."

"...Huh?"

'Was that... it? No. I just thought I owed him something, so I was repaying him...'

What? It wasn't something she had consciously meant to say. She had just blurted it out without thinking because she was embarrassed? Huh. Speaking faster than you think really was a talent. Was it because of that Heaven-Reversing Boundary thing?

"I'm not trying to pick a fight. I'm thanking you. You showed me how you felt, and it'd be a shame if it didn't reach me. Thank you, Shei."

"...Y-yeah. Well. If you're grateful, I don't have any reason to refuse it. Put it on your tab."

"Back then, you wouldn't have lifted a finger even if I was freezing. I guess traveling together has socialized you a little. I'm deeply moved."

"I've always had social skills! It's just that you weren't reliable enough until now!"

That meant I was reliable now. She was embarrassed, yet she had said something even more embarrassing. It would have been virtuous to let it slide here, but...

"Hm? So I'm reliable now?"

Was that really necessary? It was better to clear things up quickly before more misunderstandings piled up. It was for Shei's own good.

Shei flinched when she realized what she had said.

'Huh? Is Hughes reliable? It isn't like he isn't reliable... Hughes has kept helping me already. He never betrayed me, even when I was at my weakest. Before and after my regression, he has been the most favorable companion I've had. He is reliable... right?'

"...Uh, well. I suppose..."

Shei wasn't used to either hearing or saying such embarrassing things. Her voice gradually faded away. Seizing the momentum, I said,

"I suppose? Ho. So I've become someone Shei can rely on. That moves me too. All I've ever heard is that I'm all talk and can't be trusted."

"As if! Enough already! I'll dispel Gentle Breeze if you don't need it!"

"What? I never said I didn't need it. I said thank you. Why do you keep taking it the wrong way when I'm gladly accepting it?"

"Because you keep picking at everything I say!"

"I only spoke honestly about how I felt. Isn't Shei the one picking at things?"

"Shut up!"

"B-bb-bb! Cough, I can't breathe!"

Wait. If she suddenly withdrew Skywarbler, I couldn't breathe! No, more importantly, breathing was harder than before. What was going on?

Clutching my chest as though it might burst, I looked around.

Only a few minutes ago, I had seen a dreamlike scene. The golden sun shone over a sea of clouds. The land below looked as small as toys, as if I were looking down at a map, while mountain peaks rose through the clouds in the distance. Strange, beautiful sights filled my vision.

Yet while I had been talking to Shei, the scenery had completely changed.

The first thing to change was the color. Beyond blue, beyond indigo, an empty azure almost as black filled the space above me. No matter how far I fell, no matter how deeply I sank into it, that color didn't seem likely to change. An emptiness that would never end, even if I fell forever, stretched across my sight.

When seen from the ground, even clouds seemed to belong to the sky. That was no different from a frog in a well measuring the heavens. Looking down from this height, the clouds resembled white hems brushing gently across the earth. Rain and lightning were no more than droplets of sweat and static electricity. The natural world I had revered as the Celestial God's grace looked so, so insignificant from this altitude.

What exactly was heaven?

Could clouds, rain, and lightning alone be called heaven? They couldn't even embrace the round curve of Mother Earth.

And above my head... there was a journey far more distant, one I could never reach even after eternity had passed.

Insignificant.

The belief that humans were the lords of all creation.

The reverence for clouds crawling beneath our feet as the Celestial God's palace.

This thin, hollow sky that ended after a brief ascent.

Even humanity's ignorance, which had failed to reach that farthest end.

Compared to the cold, empty truth, all of it was utterly insignificant.

"Connecting to the Orbit of the Heavenly Pivot. Reverse Gravity, Ender."

Lankart's murmur crossed space and reached me. Shortly afterward, the magic that had been making me fall upward ended.

Our bodies began falling once more toward distant Mother Earth.

Mother Earth's form traced soft, round curves. Was that why our path was a curve rather than a straight line? Perhaps we had always lived in a curved world. Human knowledge was simply too shallow and fragmented, so we had accepted it as straight.

Breathing was no longer the problem. Shei spread Skywarbler into a spherical form and enclosed the space around us. Then she pulled me inside and shouted,

"Hughes! Hold on tight! If you let go, we'll get separated!"

We were following the same trajectory, so there was no chance of losing each other. Still, I needed the air Skywarbler provided, so I held on to Shei.

Our bodies continued moving along the round horizon, tracing an elliptical path. Were we rising, or falling? It was difficult to tell now, and it didn't really matter.

We were moving.

That was all.

Watching the scenery of space, struggling to preserve a handful of air, falling in an ellipse, and drifting through empty space beyond gravity.

Only after we had moved for a long time, without needing to distinguish any of it...

We found the floating castle jutting out between the clouds.

The encounter felt like a miracle. In a universe this vast, we had met a floating castle that was no more than a single point. What else could that be called but a miracle?

"The floating castle..."

Even Shei, who feared nothing in the world, was overwhelmed with awe by the sight. I could deeply understand how she felt.

Still, having read Lankart's thoughts, I was comparatively free of such sentiment. Even this vast trajectory, which had seemed nothing but mysterious, was within the bounds of my understanding.

"We're here."

Once the floating castle was close enough to see with the naked eye, Lankart muttered. I narrowed my eyes and took in the floating castle below.

The floating castle, said to have been built by the Lord of Gold himself, was as beautiful as one would expect. The entire city had been built atop dark, monochrome stonework, with five towers rising as though they were guarding the castle in the shape of a pentagram. The maze of intersecting roads resembled a magic circle, and the gold and pure silver packed between them dazzled the eyes.

The castle of magic displayed its mysterious, beautiful grandeur, blending naturally into the backdrop of the sky.

At the center of the floating castle stood a tower so massive it couldn't be compared to the other five. Blue mana light flowed across its surface.

That was probably Babylon, where the Demon King resided.

As he watched the floating castle draw closer, Lankart frowned in annoyance.

"Is it because I altered the trajectory? What a nuisance. Hui, prepare to defend yourself."

"Huh? Me? Prepare to defend myself? How?"

"Figure it out."

Lankart waved a hand.

The five magic towers moved at once. As though watching intruders, the towers aimed directly at us and began gathering lights of every color. Mana light powerful enough to be visible from this distance condensed within them.

Having gathered their strength, the magic towers fired beams of light toward us.

Footnotes:

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