WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 644: Interlude: Conversion of the Foolish Masses

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Kelvin Celsius's mental image was the oldest of them all. Its functions had grown so creaky that without the support of the other relics, it could no longer properly manifest anything.

Yet some memories lingered more vividly than others. Being humiliated in front of everyone, or experiencing something sudden and shocking, could leave a stain on the mind and surface again and again.

-Please... Stop...

Even Kelvin Celsius, whose consciousness was faint, could not simply let that subject pass.

-I'm... not as amazing as all of you think I am!

-What?

Embarrassment.

Even after death, she still felt embarrassment. Enough to jolt awake whenever someone praised her.

-What are you talking about? Too much humility is irritating, Kelvin.

-I never expected to meet you like this, but it is an honor to meet you at all.

Every mental image here belonged to someone who had become a relic while carrying pride in Celsius. United in their respect, they looked up to Kelvin.

Kelvin trembled all over. Every other relic was singing her praises, yet she stood shaking in the middle of the Heritage Vault as though the entire group were bullying her.

It looked fun, so I decided to join in.

"Everything I heard and saw in Celsius territory was about your greatness. They even attacked me for disrupting the rules. Isn't that strange? If even half those accomplishments were true, you'd still be a remarkable figure."

-No. That was... Everything I did...

"Why? It isn't as though someone pretended to be you and did all of it. Unless..."

Tilting my head, I asked, "Did you pretend to be someone else?"

I asked on the off chance, but Kelvin could not answer right away. She shook her head wildly, then spoke as if sobbing.

-It wasn't my will. By the time I noticed, people were praising it as my accomplishment. But it wasn't something I achieved...

"What? That can't be true. If it wasn't your accomplishment, whose was it?"

Kelvin's mental image shook violently. Her image, dormant within the relic, was trying to show me something.

Her memories unfolded around the Heritage Vault. A barren plain, a pitch-black night sky, and countless tiny stars glittering above.

Just before I was drawn into Celsius's past, Kelvin confessed quietly.

-Fahrenheit.

This was an age when the Arcane Federation was not yet a country, nor even a place fit for people to live. It was not so distant a past, when refugees barely survived in ramshackle huts without any real civilization.

There was a missionary named Rene.

She was a respected missionary who became an apostate after stealing the knowledge gathered by the missionary society. Yet even after becoming an apostate, she remained respected because she had not used that knowledge for herself. Rene traveled from refugee camp to refugee camp, taking in orphans, teaching children, and helping them find ways to survive.

How to obtain water.

How to make fire.

How to read maps.

How to count stars and read the sky.

And how to live alongside others.

Her lovely face grew rough in the cutting wind, and time carved wrinkles into it. Still, she never stopped her work. She believed knowledge had the power to make everyone prosperous, and she spread it far and wide.

Celsius was one of her countless disciples.

One with no particular talent.

Rene had many disciples. They had learned enough, yet still thirsted for knowledge, remaining by Rene's side in pursuit of greater learning. They were called Magi, after the First Holy Maiden and the eastern sages who blessed her. Later, that name became the origin of the word mage.

They more than lived up to the name of the wise men from scripture. They were truly brilliant, and they changed the world with their knowledge.

They said no finger was painless when bitten, but there was still an order to them. Among those disciples, one was especially capable.

His name was Fahrenheit.

He was a Magi of flames, the thing most needed in this cold, dry north.

He was a man like fire. He flared up quickly and shone brilliantly. He cooled just as fast, but no one refused fire because it did not last forever. Among Rene's disciples, Fahrenheit glittered like starlight as he stood before everyone.

Everyone coveted fire, but it was dangerous in equal measure. Many came seeking his innate arcane or trying to recruit him. Attempts at kidnapping and blackmail were common too.

Everyone who tried ended up burned to ash.

Fahrenheit was not just skilled in battle. He was dexterous, and he put that skill to use in his research.

"Heat? Warmth? Those can be expressed as numbers too. See the mercury inside the glass? It has risen higher than before, right? This measures how much heat has entered the mercury."

His path left flames behind, and civilization bloomed amid the melting ice. He might not have been the smartest or greatest, but Fahrenheit was the most powerful mage.

"If you're going to imitate it, do it properly, Celsius."

Celsius was not so much his disciple as someone who picked up his scraps. A follower, really.

Fahrenheit melted sand with fire to make glass. He had the power to precisely control destructive flames, and he crafted that glass into all kinds of tools. Celsius could understand a few of them, but she could not even guess what the others were made for.

"The scale dropped below zero? What's the problem? Just write down values below zero. Why are you making such a fuss over that?"

"I told you there was boiling oil in that flask, so be careful. You didn't know it was hot? Do you only realize something is hot when you can see it boiling right in front of you?"

"Think of heat as sand piled high! Of course it flows from high places to low places!"

It was too difficult. Keeping up was exhausting. Whenever he used his power, even getting close to him meant risking her life, and understanding him required studying day and night. Whenever she was completely lost and asked him to teach her, Fahrenheit would sigh heavily and explain.

She had never been his equal from the beginning, but at some point, Celsius gave up even trying to compete. Instead, she decided to become a translator.

The tools Fahrenheit created were too complex and difficult. Even Celsius, who was at least gifted, struggled with them. What chance did everyone else have? Ordinary people could not use them. They broke them, and even when they read the instructions, they could not understand them.

The language of a genius differed from the language of fools. Celsius muttered bitterly to herself as she continued her "translations."

Fahrenheit, who handled fire, melted sand into glass. Glass broke easily, though, and only Fahrenheit could turn it into precise tools. Celsius took useful glass inventions Fahrenheit had made, remade them with materials that were easy to obtain, and passed them on to others.

"Something like this exists? Celsius, you're skilled with your hands too!"

Fahrenheit drew scales by his own standards, but they were easy to read only for him, since calculations came naturally in his head. Celsius redrew the scales and adjusted their units. Ordinary people loved the clearer markings.

"In your honor, we shall call this Celsius from now on!"

Fahrenheit always looked toward high places, but the higher the place, the more dangerous the fall. Celsius headed lower. Toward freezing points instead of boiling points, because cold was less dangerous than heat. Unlike him, who stored heat with boiling alcohol and mercury, Celsius found a stable way to store heat.

"It's warm... Thank you..."

All of it was a byproduct of Fahrenheit's work. All Celsius had done was explain his achievements more easily in the language of fools. It was not anything remarkable.

But everyone praised Celsius.

Like how people grew more fervent for the Holy Maiden than for God himself.

-I only gave them names. I didn't discover any of it.

The recollection ended. Even so, cries praising Celsius still rang in my ears.

The fools did not recognize the genius. They worshiped the first Celsius, who had only carried his language to them. Each time, Kelvin Celsius hid herself in shame.

That was all there was to it.

A far more trivial and insignificant story than I had expected.

"You have innate arcane now that you are a relic, don't you?"

Having innate arcane meant she was at least an arcane adept. Back then, it would have been even more valuable.

-My innate arcane arose so I could withstand Fahrenheit. I needed to protect myself to observe his research closely. It isn't even a mental image impressive enough to boast about... Those relics are far more remarkable.

"I heard you compressed immense heat into a tiny crystal."

-That heat belonged to Fahrenheit. My power was only capable of receiving it. Everyone misunderstood and called me the mage of burning ice...

She even got a cool nickname. Though she looked like she wanted to die of shame. No, she had already died.

"Still, this is unexpected. So this was Celsius's true nature."

After hearing the whole story, I felt disappointed.

Celsius territory. Mages with a stronger sense of superiority than anyone else. The relics and rules they protected above all else.

I understood it, but looking at that slightly twisted mental image, I thought there would be some amazing twist hidden beneath it.

"There wasn't any twist at all."

Kelvin curled up even tighter.

-...Right. There is no twist that exceeds your expectations. I...

"You really were an amazing person? Tch. What a waste of time."

I thought there would be a heartrending story, but after hearing it all, it was just bragging. It was only bragging.

"You had a teacher, friends, and people who adored you. You made accomplishments. Later, you built a territory and lived well. Even after death, you are still revered. That is a completely satisfying life, isn't it? I don't know why you became a relic."

Not realizing I was being sarcastic, Kelvin answered.

-Yes. Objectively, I was fortunate. I received treatment far beyond what my abilities deserved... I chose to remain as a relic because I wanted to repay that kindness somehow.

"Ugh, this is annoying."

There was simply nothing else to say. She had nothing she wanted to change, no wish she wanted to fulfill. She had become a relic while carrying nothing but unnecessary shame.

-Why is that annoying?

"I thought someone would come out and claim that fools who don't understand magic are no better than pigs and dogs. That would have been more exciting."

Kelvin answered in horror.

-What a frightening thing to say. Of course not. We learned from Father Rene. She was closer to truth than anyone, yet I have never seen someone as humble as her. Naturally, we should follow her example.

"Magic is the power of special people. Foolish people cannot even dare to imitate it."

-That is true.

Huh? She had been speaking so uncertainly until now, but now she sounded confident?

-It is the power of special people. Like Fahrenheit and Father Rene. Truly special people accomplish amazing things with that power. Not fools like us...

"Fools?"

-Yes. When I was under Father Rene, there were many ordinary disciples like me. We used to call one another fools.

So at first, fools was not a word mages used to look down on civilians. Its use had changed a little over time.

-What was being special? Why did we not have such talent? We mocked ourselves and despaired. Many gave up learning because of their inferiority complex alone.

"You didn't need to do that."

-I was one of those who gave up. Rather than pursuing lofty truths, I translated the answers geniuses came up with. Even though those achievements were not mine.

"That isn't giving up. You found your path. You achieved something."

It was not interesting, but I had accomplished my goal. I closed the mental image Kelvin had created.

"You wanted to become special too. You wanted to understand geniuses. You wanted to stand beside them."

-That's right. But I failed.

"Yet you succeeded. You gave people far less capable than yourself a chance to understand geniuses. Because of you, others did not have to feel despair."

She had conveyed knowledge that otherwise would never have reached them. Was that not enough?

-It wasn't my achievement. I only conveyed someone else's achievement.

"That is an achievement."

-Fahrenheit's achievement.

"Conveying his achievement was yours. If a Holy Maiden only conveys God's words, does that make her nothing? That would be blasphemy."

Kelvin understood the nuance of what I said, but muttered as though still dissatisfied.

-No matter how great Fahrenheit was, he wasn't a god...

She pointed that out even now. Was it not admiration, but an inferiority complex?

Still, that was the important part.

"Right. He would have been only an ordinary human, if not for you."

-...Me?

"If it weren't for you, he almost would have become a god. You were the one who treated him as human when he understood no one and no one understood him, and might otherwise have faded away. His accomplishments, techniques, and knowledge became humanity's because of you."

I always said I was ordinary. That was not modesty or humility. Being ordinary meant being human. It meant belonging within that category.

It was more troubling when I called someone special. That meant I was refusing to treat them as human.

"You did not fail to catch up with a genius named Fahrenheit. You grabbed him by the trouser leg and dragged him down to humanity. You kept him from drifting away from people. That is remarkable enough, isn't it?"

-When you put it like that, it sounds as though I did something bad...

"It was a good thing. Both of you wanted it, didn't you? Usually, something that benefits both sides is called a good thing."

-Both sides?

I nodded.

"Mr. Fahrenheit must have wanted you to do that too."

-Fahrenheit did?

"Otherwise, he would not have shown you research containing a lifetime of effort. He even explained it to you as kindly as he could. Surprisingly, he relied on you too. He could solve problems, but explaining those solutions simply was another field entirely."

Thanks to Celsius, Fahrenheit did not have to be special. She brought his discoveries, which had been separated from the public, into reality. It might seem like nothing, but it was everything.

"You made specialness ordinary. You spread it to everyone. That was your achievement."

The Celsius family was trying to make rules themselves special.

Kelvin thought deeply, then asked,

-Fahrenheit may have had a bad personality and looked down on people, but... did he really want to be understood?

"Everyone does."

-What an idiot. It wasn't that difficult.

"Mr. Fahrenheit probably thought the exact same thing about you. Why can't you do this? It isn't even difficult."

Kelvin laughed lightly. I could see the knot within her mental image unraveling strand by strand.

Kelvin Celsius sat down in the middle of the Heritage Vault again, hugging her knees. Her form was still hazy, but it shone unusually bright.

-Still, I will remain as long as I can.

"Do that."

-And you? You can leave whenever you want, King of Humanity.

Well, that was true.

I could not read a relic's thoughts, but I did not need to read thoughts to use a tool, did I? I could simply use it.

"Goodbye, Kelvin Celsius. It was nice to see a book with a proper ending for once. It leaves an aftertaste. Though it was a little short on dopamine."

-Goodbye, King of Humanity.

Kelvin returned to sleep among the other relics. In a drowsy voice, as though entering a long dream, she muttered,

-It was good that I remained, even like this. As long as I remain, I never know what meetings may come again...

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