WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 612: The Hollow Floating Castle Theory

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They called it an arrest and an escort, but the mages did not seem particularly interested in Shei or me. They were inattentive enough not to notice even when I untied my rope halfway through and secretly played cat's cradle.

[You told me to let myself get captured, yet you're the only one playing around!]

Even Shei eventually had enough and scolded me.

The magic tower's doors opened automatically. As soon as we entered, they closed and began moving downward with incredible smoothness.

Was this an elevator? The military state had elevators too, but the magic tower's elevator was unrealistically smooth and fast. I could barely tell it was moving.

After some time, even cat's cradle had stopped being fun, so I looked around and asked.

"How far down are we going? At this rate, we might pass straight through the floating castle."

"Ha."

"Heh."

"Pfft."

'This is why commoners are...'

Three different sneers flew at me at once.

What? I only asked. What was so funny that they had to surround me and laugh? Being mocked from all sides was bringing back school PTSD.

Not that I had experienced it myself. I had read the thoughts of someone Lankart had looked down on.

"...No, something's strange."

Shei, the only one who took my words seriously, stared at the ceiling.

"We're definitely going down, but the direction kept changing."

"What? How can the direction change if we're going down?"

"I don't know. But it definitely changed. What is going..."

"It would take too long to explain. There would be no point in telling commoners how this floating castle moves."

The Green Tower Master stepped forward to show off before I even had to ask. No, if she wasn't going to explain, she shouldn't have said anything.

"Commoners have eyes like ours, do they not? You will be given the chance to observe and understand the floating castle. A chance, at least."

"What chance?"

Ding.

A soft chime announced our arrival. The Green Tower Master opened the elevator doors with her umbrella.

"The chance to witness and understand this mystery."

The moment I saw the sight beyond the elevator, I understood why the Green Tower Master had drawn it out so much.

Long ago, in an age when philosophers, those food-stealing freeloaders, robbed the world of its food while their trivial imaginations took on substance and wandered freely.

There had been people who believed another land existed beneath this one.

They claimed the round earth was really an eggshell, and we were no more than insects crawling over it. An absurd rumor had once spread that a true civilization, protected by Mother Earth's shell, stood upside down inside the earth, walking upon land just like ours.

They had become objects of ridicule now, but if they were revived and saw this sight, they would have collapsed in awe.

A vast hollow.

Countless mages walked along the walls of that round world.

Mages stood upside down like bats, walking with their staffs braced against the ceiling. Trees growing upside down stretched from the ceiling toward the floor like stalactites. When someone cast a spell, a spherical projectile traced an inverted parabola and fell toward the ceiling.

They were not hanging from it. The direction of gravity acting upon them was different.

Permanently maintained Reverse Gravity pushed everything outward from the floating castle's center. Bodies pushed by reverse gravity used the walls and ceiling as ground. That was why people could stand and live on the walls and ceiling as well.

Where was up, and where was down?

Naturally, up was the center of this floating castle, and down was everywhere else.

The tower that seemed to pierce the floating castle's center, the 'something' in its middle that shone like the sun and controlled gravity, was the sky itself.

Not the sky, a name given to empty space, but the sky as an omnipotent and mighty god.

Perhaps this was Shei's first time seeing it as well. She parted her lips slightly and muttered blankly.

"...So this was what the floating castle looked like."

Huh? You're a regressor. Had you never visited somewhere as famous and important as the floating castle?

"Have you never been to the floating castle, Mr. Shei?"

"That is..."

"Of course not. A commoner cannot find this place without guidance, and even if one did, why would they be allowed this far inside?"

I wasn't asking you, and I wasn't asking about this loop. Why were you showing off so much?

The words rose to my throat, but I barely held them back.

Normally, I would have mocked her and pressed further, but that wouldn't help now. The mages' belief that they were chosen people was rooted too deeply. No matter how I pushed, they would only sneer.

If I had been stronger or could control the mood of those around me, I might have created an opening. But they were all mages, chosen people proud of their acquired knowledge. They considered me a different species from the start, so criticizing them would have no effect.

Questions worked better than criticism at times like this. They could satisfy both their vanity and my curiosity.

"But you let commoners like us into the floating castle."

"The reason you can enter this place, even as prisoners, is ironically because of Lankart Spendrei. That madman brought you here, so it is difficult both to cast you out and to treat you as guests."

The Green Tower Master's answer was somewhat reluctant. I read two conflicting feelings in her mind.

Displeasure and discomfort toward Lankart, who acted as though he owned the world. She disliked that he had gained enormous power at such a young age, yet at the same time, she wondered whether his innate arcane, which was far more powerful than expected, might contain a deeper realization.

Hmm. So that was it.

I probed casually.

"Our circumstances? What makes them difficult?"

"That is none of your concern."

"You're talking about our circumstances. How can we not be concerned? Is it something you cannot tell us? Or is it something we commoners wouldn't understand?"

Neither. It was reluctance bordering on whim.

I asked while knowing that, and the Green Tower Master realized she had no reason not to answer.

"Lankart's official position is federal investigator. He has the authority to escort anyone he judges necessary to the Federation to the floating castle. Even ignorant commoners like you, who know nothing of magic."

"Wow, Lankart has really made something of himself since I last saw him. Then why did you drive him away?"

"I told you earlier. Falling from an altitude far above the floating castle is forbidden."

The Green Tower Master answered with an unhappy expression.

"The floating castle is the center of the sky, and even meteors falling from space naturally follow the central axis. Most small, insignificant meteors stop at the floating castle's surface, like you commoners, and become bricks that make up this floating castle. But when a large meteor that might harm the floating castle is detected, the floating castle's defensive arcane activates."

"Large? There were only three of us falling."

"You truly know nothing. Well, I suppose that cannot be helped for a commoner."

Every other word was commoner, commoner. It was unpleasant for the commoner listening to her.

The Green Tower Master looked at me pityingly, then snorted as if that was exactly what she expected.

"A meteor the size of a person is plenty large. If it fell as it was, it could easily destroy a village on the ground below. That is why it must be shattered by defensive arcane before it falls."

"You mean the mana beam Lankart deflected?"

"The defensive arcane is a multi-attribute mana convergence shell meant for meteors. It was never designed with innate arcane in mind. ...Though no other method could penetrate his innate arcane either."

The way she ground her teeth as she added that showed Lankart still bothered her. The Green Tower Master shook off the unpleasant feeling clinging to her and walked toward a large building.

"If three objects the size of people are falling, it means one of two things: meteors or intruders. Either way, it is a matter that requires me, the floating castle's final line of defense, to deploy. My innate arcane severs without distinction, whether it is a meteor or a person."

"Wow. So you were deployed because of Lankart. It must be hard, having to work because of something that isn't even your fate."

"You may be a commoner, but you have some awareness. You should. If you want to survive in this floating castle while knowing nothing of magic's mysteries."

Our destination was a building that stood out even within the floating castle. As though mocking all of humanity's civil engineering, it was thicker at the top than at the bottom, with dozens of rooms hanging from it like branches. If someone shook the building hard enough, those rooms looked as though they would come raining down.

What was this? Did floating castle architects not know the laws of gravity...?

No. Maybe the laws of gravity were different here.

In any case, the Green Tower Master stopped before the strange building, removed the gem hanging from her necklace, and inserted it into a gap in the door. Light flowed through the magic circle engraved in the stone door. Green light flashed, and the door spun open, splitting upward and downward.

"This is the Security Bureau. You commoners will be detained and questioned by security officers. They will not harm you, so submit to questioning quietly."

"...Detained? You're detaining us?"

At the word detained, Shei's presence sharpened. The Green Tower Master ignored her reaction and continued.

"Ah. Would it be better to call it protection? Freedom is much like license. If we freely released commoners who have seen the floating castle without ever experiencing it, and you touched the wrong thing and died, both you commoners and I would be inconvenienced."

Surprisingly, she meant that sincerely.

She was saying that Shei and I might truly be in danger if we went outside.

Every word was filled with the consciousness of a chosen person. It felt as though she was forcing commoners unable to use magic to feel deprived. The floating castle was certainly mysterious and profound enough for me to understand why, but...

'Hmph. That floating castle you're so proud of.'

That was why Shei's thoughts stood out even more. I read them and widened my eyes.

'The Sword Saint knocked it out of the sky with a single strike and caused the Great Descent!'

Footnotes:

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