WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 659: Tower of Babel, Floor 1

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Babel was far wider than it looked.

We had walked without a word for nearly five minutes, yet nothing appeared. Ceiling, walls, floor, all I could see were bricks stretching on without end.

How many bricks would it take to build a tower like this? People compared immeasurable numbers to grains of sand on a beach, but even that did not seem enough to build Babel.

That was strange. Even with spatial magic, it should not have been this far from what we saw outside.

"Shei. Did we change direction at some point?"

"Not once."

Shei stood with her arms crossed, frowning.

After traveling together for so long, I could guess her mood without reading her mind. Shei was extremely sensitive right now. Babel's warped space was putting her on edge.

We had not changed direction and continued straight ahead, yet the corridor still had no end.

"Hmm. An endless space. I suppose this is the first test."

That made no sense. If someone could create infinite space, who would buy houses or land? There had to be some kind of trick.

Magic was like stage magic. Once you understood its mysteries, it turned out to be an absurdly simple trick. A card trick that seemed impressive because it repeatedly turned over the same card could often be pulled off with nothing more than memory. Peel back one layer of mystery, and all that remained was an absurd truth.

Ordinarily, that meant we were circling through the same space. I asked Shei again.

"Shei. Have we changed direction at all?"

"Not even once. We haven't veered to either side. We're still going straight."

"Hmm. Interesting."

Since spatial magic was involved, it did not seem to be such a simple trick. This was troublesome.

I was someone who solved problems through mind reading. I read the thoughts of whoever set the problem, found the answer, and got called a genius. I was weak against problems that did not involve people.

Without turning her head even slightly, Shei spoke.

"Shouldn't a mage solve something like this? Hughes, Lankart. Isn't this your specialty? Hurry up and solve it."

Lankart scoffed lightly.

"How foolish."

"What?"

"Hui already knows the answer. He's choosing his words not because he cannot solve it, but because he's trying to explain it in a way even a fool like you can understand."

Hey, hey, hey. What was that supposed to mean? Was he calling Shei an idiot?

Shei raised her eyes slightly and glanced at me.

"Is that true?"

"Well, that's..."

Lankart's expectations of me were too high, and Lankart genuinely believed in them. The strongest Hui Lankart imagined was a genius whose body might be weak, but whose mind surpassed everyone else in the world. Lankart was a genius worthy of the age as well, yet thought even more highly of me. It was exhausting just trying to keep up.

Still, I could not show weakness. That bastard Lankart was always testing me. Lankart called himself my friend and follower, but no one watched and tested me more closely. If I showed weakness, Lankart might tear into me.

I spoke.

"Not to that extent. I was considering how we should handle it. Unlike Lankart and Shei, I have limited means at my disposal."

"So you know the method?"

"Yes. I'm a magician too, so I can easily see through a trick like this."

"What does stage magic have to do with magic?"

"They're both tricks. Look."

I threw a card behind us. The spinning card flew into a gap between the bricks and embedded itself there. Then I began walking forward, slowly counting.

After some time, a card embedded between the bricks appeared far ahead.

Shei spotted it and spoke as though she had reached a great realization.

"The card? I get it. This space is repeating!"

"..."

Her eyes sparkled at me as if expecting praise. I gave her an awkward smile.

Did she think it had just kept going? That could not be it. How was I supposed to explain this?

"You say it like you just realized something obvious. What's that supposed to be? Are you trying to seduce Hui by flaunting how stupid you are?"

"W-What? Seduce? Of course not! Who seduces someone by acting stupid?"

‘If it were something else, maybe!’

Would anything else work?

As if speaking for me, Lankart sighed.

"If we were circling through the same space, Hui and I had known that from the beginning. This is a problem of spatial curvature."

"Spatial curvature?"

"In magic, a circle is the most common geometric form. It symbolizes an equal force radiating from a single center. In the world of magic, an arc is the same as a straight line. This corridor looks straight, but it forms a circle at an identical phase from the center of the spatial magic."

"Umm."

‘What does it mean for an arc to be the same as a straight line...?’

Of course she did not know. That was the kind of thing taught in magic circle theory. So stop nodding as if you understand. It only makes you look worse.

"Climbing Babel is like entering a magic circle and interpreting its structure. Hui walked one full circuit to examine the entire magic circle. Do you understand?"

"Yeah. More or less."

"I understand perfectly well that you do not understand at all."

"What did you say?!"

"It does not matter. Hui will solve the problem anyway. All you need to do is swing your sword when Hui tells you to."

Shei, whose ignorance had been exposed, shouted indignantly.

"If you're so great, why don't you solve it yourself?!"

"How foolish. I have already solved it. I'm simply waiting for Hui's knowledge."

"Why? Aren't you confident?"

"Confidence? This is not a matter of confidence. It is a matter of judgment."

Shei must have meant it as a provocation, but Lankart did not care in the slightest.

"Hui is superior to me, so I am waiting for Hui's judgment. It is only natural to follow the judgment of someone superior."

"...Hughes is?"

"The superior person stands above others. That is the rule of the Arcane Federation. And Hui is superior to anyone I have ever seen. He must know even the answer I have not found."

...No, I had not found anything else.

Right now, there were only Lankart, Shei, and me. Just three people. Lankart was the smartest person in this space, and since I could read Lankart's thoughts, I was on roughly the same level.

What good was mind reading? If there was nothing useful nearby to read, it was worthless. Was there anything besides Lankart that could help?

"So what is it? Do we break the walls?"

"Restrain yourself!"

There was nothing!

Shei raised Jizan as though she was about to smash the corridor apart. I hurriedly stopped her.

"If we just want to get outside, we can destroy everything at random. But if we want to climb Babel, we need to find the answer and head toward the correct space."

"Then where is the correct space?!"

"Let's see."

We were circling through the same place, yet we had not shifted even slightly while moving straight ahead. That ruled out the left and right walls. Then it had to be either above or below.

...And the ceiling and floor had different numbers of bricks. There were more bricks on the ceiling. They were the same size, so that was strange.

"Shei."

"Yes?"

"The bricks on the ceiling. Remove exactly three rows. No more, no less. Just three rows."

"All right."

Without the slightest hesitation, Shei swung Jizan.

Her mind might be another matter, but her swordsmanship had reached a lofty realm. Even if she lacked talent, the swordsmanship ingrained in her body traced a beautiful arc across the corridor ceiling, breaking exactly three rows of bricks.

Vibrations should have run through the corridor. A roar should have echoed, and shattered bricks should have scattered as dust.

Nothing happened.

The warped space returned to normal. The gap left by the three rows of bricks vanished as though it had never existed.

Beyond it lay a void where distant starlight seemed to glitter.

The endless void above the sky, which I had seen when I flew to the floating castle with Lankart, spread out before me.

"Space?"

But only for a moment.

Then the corridor straightened.

A clunking sensation came through the ground beneath my feet. Like a wound healing, the ceiling moved and filled in the three missing rows of bricks.

The ceiling had been sealed. The space had clicked into place.

The corridor stretched straight ahead as it had before, but something was different. As the number of bricks on the ceiling and floor became equal, the spatial curvature turned into a straight line.

"Hughes. There's something ahead."

As she felt the strange sensation disappear, Shei opened her Seven-Colored Eyes. With her far-seeing Indigo Eye, she spotted a door at the end of the corridor and shouted.

"A door! There's a door ahead!"

"The door was hidden until the space unfolded."

"So that's how it works? Spatial magic is rare, so I didn't know. With a structure like this, I would've had trouble alone. I can use relics, but I don't know much magic theory."

I did not even ask. You were not a mage, so of course you might not be able to solve it. Why did that bother her so much? Had it hurt her pride?

I thought that only in my head. My friend did not.

"Do not mutter over a problem on the first floor. Hui likes stupid women, so just stand nearby and squeal. He'll take you along."

"...Hughes. Can I get rid of him?"

"Restrain yourself. He's useful, after all."

I wanted to get rid of him too. But Lankart had solved this problem as well, and I had only read the answer. He was my cheat sheet. I had no choice.

Lankart raised his chin and spoke stiffly.

"Yes. I am useful. That is the difference between you and me."

"Hughes solved it, so why are you showing off?!"

"There are infinitely many ways to solve spatial curvature. One can calculate it with light observation magic or reverse-calculate the curvature with gravity magic. Hui simply solved it in a way even fools could understand."

"..."

‘I only removed the bricks. I still don't understand...’

What kind of thought was that? Was she admitting she was an idiot?

When we opened the door, stairs leading upward appeared. It meant we had passed the test.

Shei carefully stepped onto the stairs and spread out her senses. Unexpectedly, there was no strange feeling on the stairs. It seemed the Demon King had not placed traps or problems there.

Shei led the way up and asked,

"Do we just keep going up? We were the first to pass, right?"

"Of course not. As I said before, spatial curvature is difficult, not impossible to solve. Several people have likely already gone ahead of us."

"...I wasn't asking you."

"I know. But Hui would've wrapped it in pleasant words, so I said it directly instead."

"I didn't need that!"

Shei huffed and threw open the next door. Then she froze in place.

"...Huh?"

A vast hall on the second floor appeared before us. A chandelier hung from the high ceiling like one in a banquet hall, while a carpet covered the floor. On the far side of the luxurious hall, which did not suit a mage tower at all, stood a large door. No matter how I looked at it, that seemed to be where we needed to go.

Glass chairs and tables had been placed here and there, but those were not important.

"Are you challengers?"

Clergy members and holy knights in white priestly robes were seated at the tables.

Among them, the oldest and healthiest-looking cleric made the sign of the Celestial God and rose. Time itself had apparently failed to wear them down, because the contours of muscle were visible beneath their robes.

Were they a cleric or a martial artist? One of those people called monks?

Cardinal Elton approached us with a gentle yet imposing manner.

"To send us guides when we were lost and wandering, this too must be the guidance of the Celestial God. I am very glad to meet you. Forgive my rudeness, but may I ask for directions? Do you know how we can climb this tower?"

‘If they refuse to tell us willingly, it will not be too late to deal with them then.’

Why was an order of holy knights inside a mage tower?

Footnotes:

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