WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 616: Kindness Is the Height of Arrogance

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[Hello, enlightened citizens of the floating castle! Today, a dark mage escaped from the Security Bureau! We are releasing the suspect's description, so if any enlightened citizen of the floating castle spots them, please subdue them immediately or report them to the Security Bureau!]

An avatar of a twin-tailed girl formed from light magic diligently delivered the news. A large image of my face, taken who knew when, was displayed beside a detailed list of my traits.

Native of the military state. Insignificant mana. Received an implantation procedure for a bodily catalyst called a bio-terminal, and so on.

They were quite specific and distinctive details.

"I've never been wanted before. This is my first time becoming so famous."

I was disguised, more or less, but anyone with a keen eye could arrest me right away.

Yet nobody recognized me.

No, they had no intention of recognizing me in the first place.

"Still..."

I looked around the notice board.

"No one cares?"

The mages did not spare it the slightest attention. A few carefully observed the girl's avatar, but they left without paying attention to what it was saying.

Amid such complete indifference, the girl's avatar pitifully repeated words no one would hear.

I asked Lankart, "Is the floating castle always like this?"

"Like what?"

"...You didn't care either?"

Then again, if he had cared, he would not have let me walk right past my wanted notice. When I pointed at the avatar, Lankart finally noticed it.

"That avatar? It announces news from the floating castle. Mages are thoroughly uninterested in anything outside their own interests, so I heard they gave it an exaggerated appearance to at least draw their eyes."

"Even considering that, they seem pretty uninterested."

"Anyone with above-average intelligence knows it's strange to care about a virtual being. It's only natural."

He sure said dangerous things casually. There was nothing wrong with getting immersed in a virtual being.

"Not that. My face is on a wanted notice."

"Wanted? I've been wanted too, but it was no problem. Mages are rational. When someone is obviously superior to them, they bow their heads and seek instruction. Toss them even a little of your wisdom, and they'll pant like dogs with delight."

"What wisdom do I have to toss around?"

I pressed a hand to my head.

Lankart Spendry. A classmate I had studied with at Hamelin Middle Military Academy, who had splendidly betrayed the military state and thrown himself into the Arcane Federation. A genius who awakened his innate arcane at the tender age of thirteen.

How had I become friends with such a genius?

Simple.

I only had to pretend I was a genius on his level.

They said lies were exposed someday, but I was a mind reader. Just by reading and following the thoughts of the genius Lankart, I could be treated as something close to a genius myself. If I took one more step by adding other people's perspectives into the mix?

I became a genius who surpassed him.

That was why Lankart firmly believed I was a genius greater than himself. Well, mind reading was my ability too. I was a genius in that sense.

"Fine, mages are uninterested. What about the other fools?"

Lankart answered as if it were obvious.

"Fools? There's no way such people exist in the floating castle."

"The purpose of a class system is exploitation. Even mages need people to clean and run errands, so didn't they create a class of fools?"

"There's no need for fools. At least in the floating castle, there's neither a place for fools nor air for them to breathe."

"You've become one of the enlightened while I wasn't looking."

"You don't become enlightened. You're born that way. Even when we were in the military state, the only people who weren't foolish were you and me. The rest were, frankly, inferior human beings. Isn't that right?"

I would like to clarify that this was Lankart's personal opinion and had little to do with mine. What dangerous ideas you had.

"And this floating castle proves that fools aren't needed to live. Look."

Just as Lankart said.

A mage walked down the street and arrived at a building. There was a door on the first floor to receive visitors, but the mage's destination was higher up. The mage tapped the ground with a staff, and warped gravity sent them straight up to the fifth floor.

Another hungry mage placed milk crystals in a bowl and sprinkled crumbs over them. After lightly tapping it with mana, the milk crystals melted and the crumbs absorbed moisture, swelling into cereal. The mage slurped it down.

A mage reading a newspaper tore out a page and floated it in the air. Then they took a gem from their pocket, hung it from their staff, and scattered light over it. The flashing light passed through the paper, turning the ink into shadows that were engraved into a small orb as if being sucked inside. Having clipped the newspaper in an instant, the mage burned the rest and walked away.

The entire world was filled with magic. The blessing of magic provided convenience simply because they knew how to use it.

Gravity, light, wind, crystals, space.

The floating castle truly was a city of magic.

"I hear mages who stay in the lower world hire fools. But that's impossible in the floating castle. The mysterious magic filling this place would cause accidents for anyone who couldn't sense mana."

"Don't the mages here keep servants?"

"Great mages and Tower Masters keep disciples. But there is no innate hierarchy among the enlightened. Anyone can awaken innate arcane, and each person's innate arcane belongs to them."

Fools were foolish. The enlightened were wise.

No further distinction was needed between them.

That was the rule governing the floating castle, and within the floating castle alone, it was true. Living here without awakening mana was close to impossible.

Lankart snorted and continued.

"I don't agree that there is no hierarchy among the enlightened, but I can't deny this place is better than the idiots in the military state."

You found land that suits you. Good for you.

After inwardly offering Lankart my blessings, I said, "Then what about the person who will help us? Are they superior?"

"They are on the superior side. Though they're right-handed."

"Compared to you?"

"For now."

Lankart readily admitted it.

He added "for now"? To Lankart, that was practically a declaration of surrender. It had taken nearly a year for him to acknowledge defeat to me, or more accurately, to my mind reading. It wasn't easy to earn his approval.

"Of course, they're nowhere near as good as you. They lack the desire to improve. They make no effort at all to become wiser."

"That's harsh, Lankart. If you considered the time and expense I put into looking after you, you wouldn't dare say such a thing."

A voice reached us at that moment. It had to belong to the acquaintance Lankart said would help us. I turned toward it.

Lankart's acquaintance did not seem like a mage.

In other words, they looked bright and cheerful.

They were a mage with long, straight limbs. Their short blue hair looked as cool as its color, and plain gold earrings glinted from their long ears. Since there were no jewels in the earrings, they seemed to be accessories worn purely for fashion.

Wide-legged pants that looked like a skirt at a glance and snug gloves went well with their blue shirt. Clear eyes were faintly visible through translucent sunglasses lightly resting on their pale face.

I was quite surprised.

A mage, of all people, was dressed with other people's eyes in mind.

And not just any mage.

"Hui. That's the helper I told you about. The Cyan Tower Master."

A mage who had even mastered innate arcane, no less than the Cyan Tower Master, pursuing fashion!

"I am Elisha Celsius. People in the floating castle more often call me the Cyan Tower Master. Nice to meet you, the friend of 'that' Lankart."

The Cyan Tower Master smiled brightly and offered me a hand. It was difficult to refuse in that atmosphere, so I dazedly clasped it and shook hands. Whether it was the magic's influence or their natural constitution, I could feel coldness even through the glove.

I was not the only one sizing the other up. The Cyan Tower Master glanced at my wrist and said, "So you're the dark mage who escaped prison. I hear you gave the Security Bureau a proper kick in the teeth?"

"I had no choice. I apologize for causing a disturbance."

"Ahaha! It's fine. The Security Bureau needed a little stimulation too. A floating castle inhabited only by the enlightened lacks tension. May I call you Hui?"

Their social skills were incredible. Almost burdensome. I spoke with a slight hint of refusal.

"That was the name I was called in the military state. I use Hughes now."

"That's a shame. It was a good name. Still, after what the military state did, you must have had no choice but to discard it. Personally, I find what happened in Hamelin deeply regrettable."

"What?"

"The greatest problem with dark magic is that it can grow stronger by using the lives of others. That makes dark mages more vulnerable to corruption than anyone else... But I respect you for rejecting that taboo and leaving anyway."

Elisha continued with what seemed like genuine regret. I was rather flustered by Elisha's sudden questions.

They knew about the Hamelin incident? They had already learned something about me?

No.

The Cyan Tower Master, Elisha Celsius, was the head of the floating castle's Intelligence Bureau. Gathering and understanding information from outside the Arcane Federation was their job, and there was probably less they did not know when it came to magic. Since they had been in contact with Lankart, it would not have been difficult to learn about the Hamelin incident.

I was simply...

"Hey, Lankart!"

Flustered by a mage whose friendliness did not feel mage-like at all!

"You introduced this person! Take the lead now!"

Talking to someone I wasn't close with who kept taking the initiative was exhausting! When I called out, Lankart spoke with clear reluctance.

"I don't particularly want to. It drains me."

"Doesn't it drain me too?!"

"You feel that way too? Strange. By my judgment, the two of you seemed like the same kind."

"This person and I are different genres! Mine is friendliness that naturally blends in, while this person's is friendliness that forcibly wedges its way in! I'm the only one suffering here!"

"Ahaha! What an amusing fool. You say I'm burdensome right to my face. Even I'm a little hurt, you know?"

The Cyan Tower Master pushed up their sunglasses and smiled. Just standing there, they seemed to make the air around them cooler.

This person, who seemed likely to be even more popular with women than men, was the Cyan Tower Master, Elisha Celsius.

The mage Shei had thought might be able to help her.

I had wondered what kind of eccentric mage would step forward to help others, but now that I had met Elisha and read their thoughts, I understood.

'Fools can't help it. They're foolish. Who would want to be born foolish?'

Because they were kind? Humble?

No.

The mage known as the Cyan Tower Master was...

'Ah. The more I learn about outside the floating castle, the more I realize how full the world is of foolishness. There's so much of it that people consider it "normal." So I should at least treat them kindly. A thread of knowledge bestowed upon fools. That will be praise for my brilliant intellect.'

Even among mages called eccentrics, Elisha was a more deranged eccentric than most!

Footnotes:

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