WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 641: Black Magic, White Magic, and Gray Magic - 5

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Temperus collapsed helplessly beneath my grip. Missionary Casas recoiled in horror at the sight.

"They're dead! You killed a family enforcer on the family's grounds. Aren't you afraid of the heavens or the family?!"

"They're not dead. They only fainted."

Don't look at me like I'm a murderer. Unless someone actually wanted to die, I didn't kill them.

"Phew. At least you have some common sense."

Casas came over to check Temperus's condition and let out a relieved sigh. They may have had the political sense to know that making an enemy of the Celsius family on their own land was dangerous, but more than that, they simply could not tolerate a murder taking place before their eyes.

"I'll go melt the ice covering those guards. Even if they are the enforcer's guards, leaving them like that would be dangerous."

"Could you melt the ice stuck to me first?"

"I have no divine power to spare for a black mage. Handle it yourself."

Then why did you bother talking to me? Go handle it yourself.

While Casas used a dispelling art to melt the ice, Hilde sidled up to me. She did not look particularly impressed that I had taken down a Celsius family enforcer.

"Father is a liar~."

"What? How?"

"When you dealt with that enforcer earlier~. You didn't use any magic at all, did you?"

"What are you talking about? Didn't you see my magic? The pinnacle of standard-issue magic. Tactical-grade magecraft devised through the body alone, something even the military state could not achieve."

"That was all, though. Enduring the ice and knocking down the enforcer had nothing to do with magic, did they?"

She was observant. Feeling a little awkward, I scratched my head.

"You noticed that. Even the enforcer didn't."

"Of course not. The enforcer is a mage. Since you didn't use magic, they had no choice but to miss it. Father just pushed through with brute strength."

"Brute strength? That was stage magic, as good as the real thing, you know?"

No matter how much stronger I had become, there was no way I could move while covered in ice bound together by magical energy. Even if I forced it apart, the sharp fragments would have shredded my body.

Tyr's Demon God meant I would not die, but if I openly showed off my regeneration like that, Temperus would have noticed something. They would not have felt defeated.

There was no other way to keep Temperus trapped in the unknown.

"Then what did you do?"

"A simple trick. I froze ice over my joints beforehand."

"Huh?"

"Celsius magic is not about cold but phase transitions. In other words, it is crystallization magic. And crystallization magic cannot freeze a crystal. It is already a crystal."

"Ah!"

Hilde's main work involved disguises and espionage, so she possessed broad knowledge for handling unexpected situations. She quickly understood what I meant.

"Right. I froze ice over my joints beforehand. Because of the rules in Celsius territory, even splashed water freezes easily. Even if my whole body is covered, I can still walk as long as my joints are fine. It was cold and difficult, though."

"The enforcer was completely fooled by Father's acting."

"Fooled? Until they passed out, they thought I had used magic. How is that any different from magic?"

If you got caught, it was a trick. If you didn't, it was magic. Wasn't that how it worked? Strip away the facade, and all that remained was pitiful, desperate struggling.

"Since you told me such a trick so readily, I can assume Father trusts me a whole lot, right?"

"You can't hide it forever. A secret is completed when you quietly confide it to someone."

"Then it reaches someone's ears and eventually becomes a rumor throughout the world~."

"Well, then I only have myself to blame."

If I truly didn't want anyone to know, I shouldn't have said anything in the first place.

Hilde tilted her head for a moment, lost in thought.

'Ah! You're right~. If we leave here safely, nothing will change. That isn't the outcome Father wants...'

"By the way, could you get this ice off me? I'm starting to lose the ability to move."

"All right, Father. Stay right there. Qi Art, Blast. I'll break it all at once."

"You're only breaking the ice, right? You're not going to break me too, are you?"

"Of course not! Trust me and hold still!"

"I'll save that as a last resort. First, I'll try melting it with my body heat."

"Tch..."

"You just clicked your tongue, didn't you? Your real goal was to hit me, wasn't it?"

It certainly was troublesome magic. If I broke it with force, I would be injured too. Should I start peeling it away along my joints, one piece at a time?

"Huh?"

I had not done anything, yet the crystal was slowly melting as though it had been exposed to sunlight. As I regained my freedom, I looked down at the liquid running off my body.

"You could melt it yourself? Tch. Of course you could. I worried for nothing! Give me back my concern!"

"No, I didn't do this."

It resembled the phenomenon caused by Casas's Time Anointing. But they were busy saving the others who had frozen. Then this was...

"Father Casas. I think we need to hurry."

It was not melting. Tiny crystals flowed down like grains of sand, rolling away in one direction.

If a glacier had low tide, it would probably look like this. As though it missed the moon because it had been born from water.

The ice flowed toward the castle tower made of ice. It seeped into the ice castle and became one with it, as if it had always been part of it. I was admiring the fact that an ice castle had such a function when something unexpected happened.

"Father. That castle is moving...?"

There was no need to turn my head. The ice castle was large enough to fill my vision, and it was unquestionably moving.

As befitted a castle, the ice castle consisted of several towers. The place where we stood was the courtyard of an annex, a secluded place where disturbances could easily go unnoticed. It seemed the enforcer had brought us here because they wanted to handle this quietly, but...

It seemed the person above them had already known.

Rumble.

The annex slowly "stood up." A building that should have stood firmly in the same place was committing an enormous act of rebellion.

A pointed tower became its head, while the windows on the floor below became its face. The thick lower section split apart and became two arms. The first floor and stairways became legs, firmly supporting the giant.

It was around twenty-five meters tall. An ice giant of staggering size looked down arrogantly at such insignificant creatures. It was an overwhelming ice statue, so huge that the thought of fighting and winning never even arose.

"Wow... That's incredible."

There was no time to be impressed, yet admiration slipped from my mouth. A castle of ice rose from its place and stood on two feet like a giant. Simply seeing it with my own eyes felt as though it fulfilled some childhood fantasy.

"Be more amazed. Look up at me with greater reverence. It suits people like you to stare from down there."

The voice came from the giant's face. Looking up as instructed, I saw a young lady with long blue hair sitting at an open window with her chin resting on her hand, gazing down at us in the most arrogant pose imaginable.

Her appearance seemed familiar. Her attitude was even more arrogant. After taking a sip from a crystal teacup, she looked down on us with cold eyes.

"An enforcer could never finish the job properly. If they had watched with even a little dignity, they would not have been fooled by such a pathetic trick. Then again, that is why they can only clean up after others."

For words spoken from a dizzying height of twenty-five meters, they reached my ears with startling clarity. It did not even sound as though she were shouting. Was my voice the same? I asked at a moderate volume.

"Who are you?"

"I shall grant you the honor of engraving my name into your minds. I am Elcia Celsius, the one who will become the master of this beautiful, dazzling tower."

The Celsius family ruled Celsius territory. An enforcer was nothing more than a useful pawn selected by the family from among the mages born and raised here.

A family of geniuses, born with exceptional intellect and descended from the genius who first discovered magic.

Her striking appearance and arrogant attitude gave me a sense of familiarity.

"The Cyan Tower Master?"

Her profile, visible beyond the window, looked far too much like the Cyan Tower Master of the floating castle.

Elcia Celsius smiled confidently.

"It seems my pitiful younger sibling has lowered the family's standing in many ways."

Younger sibling? That was news to me. The Cyan Tower Master had never spoken about family. It was not as though we were close enough to reveal our family histories to each other.

...Still, come on. I had never heard that the Cyan Tower Master had an older sister with innate arcane!

"There are far too many people who take the Celsius family lightly."

She pointed directly at me.

"Father!"

At the same time Hilde shoved me aside, the giant moved. A massive fist of ice slammed into the ground near where I had been standing.

A small earthquake shook the area. Vibrations ran through the ground and ice, while shards that had broken off the giant's body fell like hail. Crack, crack. The shattered and split ice seemed about to crumble apart and scatter...

Then it seeped back into the giant's body.

An endlessly regenerating ice giant? It was also incredibly fast and powerful. Something that large could throw its strength around without worrying about destroying itself. No human could endure that kind of physical force.

More importantly, that was... not innate arcane!

"Was it Hughes? I shall give you a chance to answer my question. This is not a duel, by the way. It is a kindness I am extending to you. Though the answer will bring you despair."

Elcia still leaned against the window, looking down at us with leisure.

Her innate arcane had not manifested yet. The ice giant was a separate power, neither magic nor innate arcane. Its true identity was...!

"My loyal knight Olaf. What is the true nature of this little snowman I ride?"

"A relic...!"

It was a crystallization left behind by an arcane master of the past, one that manifested their inner world in reality!

Footnotes:

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