WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 681: Without Consideration, There Is No World

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The Arcane Federation was a country that looked down on the ignorant and honored mages. Since those with greater magical talent were generally stronger, magic was a symbol of strength and authority in the Arcane Federation.

It seemed this culture had not arisen solely from the need to survive a harsh environment through magic.

"When you say tear it down, you mean bringing down 'Pride,' right? The star of destruction is even higher than the floating castle. If it falls, it won't end with a mere disaster."

"Yes. The White Tower Master told you about 'Pride,' did she not? It's nice not to have to explain it. Usually, I have to assess the other person's intellectual level and tailor my explanations accordingly. It gets tiresome."

The Demon King spoke with a satisfied expression.

"If 'Pride' falls, the earth's crust will shake, volcanoes will erupt, and earthquakes will strike. The ground will collapse without warning, making it impossible to build anything upon it. The existing order, built upon solid ground, will become useless. The Arcane Federation, protected by the floating castle, will become the only nation left. The world will be reorganized according to the Arcane Federation's standards."

"The effects of 'Pride' falling will reach the Arcane Federation too. The Arcane Federation in the continent's northeast will suffer the least from the impact, but all kinds of extreme weather and climate changes will sweep through its territory. Will it really be fine?"

"What problem is there? We have an ark here."

An ark. A vessel meant to save humanity from destruction. The land would collapse and be ruined, while the floating castle remained in the sky, far beyond the earth.

I had wondered why people as rational as mages had created something so outrageously inefficient.

"So that was why you needed a facility as grand as the floating castle. To keep your distance from the ground where 'Pride' would one day fall."

"That's not the only reason. It looks impressive, does it not? It's a symbol that motivates the chosen and shows the ignorant their place."

"Romance is important. It plants a desire for magic in the people of the lower world."

It did look impressive, but they had accounted for even that? It felt strange.

"An artificial sun, gravitational anomalies, five towers responsible for life inside the floating castle, and countless convenient facilities and magical tools... If you solve the food problem, you could live in the sky forever. What about food?"

"What did you think when you saw the top of the Tower of Babel?"

The vast grassland directly beneath the artificial sun. I had wondered why such a space existed.

"...Fields created with spatial distortions. Your preparations are complete."

"There are no workers, so we haven't touched it yet. If we take the ignorant aboard the ark, farmers will be the first ones we bring in. Mages can't be expected to farm, can they? Nothing in the world is absolute, though. If we're desperately short on hands, perhaps."

The Arcane Federation had many mages, but only compared to other nations. They could not form a society by themselves. Someone had to handle the menial work, and it would be inefficient for mages to do it.

The Demon King planned to take laborers aboard his ark, the floating castle. They would probably live near its outer shell, in cramped, densely packed residential blocks. Dark, narrow rooms untouched by the artificial sun would become their homes.

It was no joke. His plan was concrete and realistic. From the beginning, everything here seemed to have been arranged for this purpose.

"You really are fully prepared. It seems like it wouldn't matter if 'Pride' fell right now."

"You noticed immediately!"

"Huh?"

"Here. Take this!"

The Demon King took a rolled-up sheet of paper from his robes and tossed it to me. I unfolded it. Drawn inside was a magic circle so complex and intricate that I could not take it all in at a glance. Some parts were so detailed that even I could not understand them at once.

"A scroll?"

"You'll likely be pleased once you see it!"

"Why are you giving this to me?"

"Two questions. I'll answer them separately. First, because you climbed this Tower of Babel. You've already grasped the essence of spatial magic, so you should be able to interpret the magic circle easily. Once you interpret it, the path to the Demon God will open."

It would not be easy. It would be difficult. Still, I had more than enough hints.

The rules governing the floating castle were gravitational anomalies and spatial anomalies. The inside of the floating castle had an inverted-gravity structure, while countless spatial distortions occurred within the Tower of Babel.

Were those spatial distortions caused by the Demon King's innate arcane? Or by Saint Rene's relic? Perhaps both. Just as a mage of the Celsius family had used the Celsius estate's relic, the synergy would be tremendous if someone used an innate arcane from the same field.

Yet one thing remained unexplained.

The gravitational anomalies filling the floating castle. The power that let people stand and live upon its outer shell.

Where exactly did that power come from?

And what did it have to do with spatial magic?

"And now for your second question. I did not give it only to you."

"What?"

"Everyone you brought with you received this scroll. I'll give one to the Red Tower Master when she arrives shortly. Anyone who reaches the top of Babel and the center of the floating castle is qualified to receive this knowledge."

"The Demon King has been with me the whole time, so when did you... Ah."

He had not been only beside me. What a pointless question.

Space rippled beside the Demon King. The space around him was connected to different places.

Lankart, Shei, and Hilde had climbed with me. Since I had not exactly hidden the route, perhaps the Cyan Tower Master and Avant-garde had followed afterward as well.

"Distance means nothing to someone who controls space. You are here and over there at the same time."

"That's right. For reference, I'm also having a pleasant conversation with Lankart. Until you arrived, he was the mage closest to me. I believed that if any mage could reach this place, it would certainly be him. Your arrival was a delightful miscalculation!"

The Demon King seemed to respect and care for Lankart. It was a little different from how he delighted in watching his other disciples beat each other senseless.

It was probably because Lankart was a mage of the spatial school. His Right-Handed World was not simply a metaphor for human affairs.

"So this was not a rare scroll. What kind of magic does it contain?"

"Can't you tell by looking at it?"

"It's so dense that it's hard to look at in the first place. I'm smart, not sharp-eyed."

"Ah. That could be a problem. They say you see only as much as you know, but one can't apply that saying to a blind person."

"My eyesight isn't bad enough to compare me to a blind person. Not everyone can look at a magic circle and understand it exactly as it is. Is this even magic? The mana is far too little for a magic circle this complicated."

"It is magic. Its name is Meteor."

"Ah. Meteor."

...What? Meteor? I had a bad feeling about this.

"The reason it requires so little mana is that this magic is closer to 'summoning' something that already exists. It takes strength to lift a stone up, but dropping a stone that's already up there is very simple, is it not?"

"No. Wait. Then this is literally a switch for humanity's extinction, and you handed it out to everyone who climbed the Tower?"

What Ruel had said was true. This was insane. This scroll was literally a switch for humanity's extinction. Should something like this even exist?

"Can you really hand things like this out?"

"It's easy once you know the principle. Anyone who has learned even a little gravity magic can do it."

"That's the problem. Anyone can do it! Why would anyone even need magic like that? What I need is knowledge of the Demon God! I climbed the Dragon Gate to see Saint Rene's holy relic and learn from it!"

"You asked two questions at once again. Whether you intended it or not, it's efficient. I'll answer you this once."

The Demon King raised a finger.

"I cannot give you Saint Rene's relic. I'm not being spiteful. It's because I do not possess it."

"What? Then who has it?"

"Saint Rene's relics are scattered throughout the world. You know that too."

Rene's Pouch? But there was not only one Rene's Pouch. There were several types as well. It could take the form of a pouch like Shei's, or a space like an attic that anyone could enter and leave. It could also be an invisible storage space for items, like the Celsius Heritage Vault.

And those subspaces were probably all connected. I spoke.

"The subspace within Rene's Pouch itself is the relic."

"Most are meaningless empty spaces. But there is a single key that reaches her holy relic. Unlike the keys that lead to empty spaces like the other pouches, it possesses the power to alter space itself. Even I did not know its true nature... until your companion set foot in the floating castle."

My companion, huh.

Rene's Pouches were merely keys leading to empty spaces. Yet the one connected to Saint Rene's relic possessed the power to control space.

Heh. I happened to know one such treasure. It had been hidden well. The relic itself had never revealed itself outside the subspace, so I would not have been able to read it either.

Maybe I had become too obsessed with mind-reading.

"And secondly, Saint Rene is not the Demon God. The Demon God's relic is up there."

"'Pride.'"

"The Demon God chose to leave the ground, which was filled with fools, and watch from the empty, distant reaches of space."

Ah. I understood what I had to do.

I gripped the scroll. The strange mana dwelling in the magic circle writhed. The formula was complex, but the mana contained within it was extremely slight. That was because the magic itself already existed.

This was only a trigger.

Seeing me, the Demon King smiled as if he had been waiting for this, looking utterly delighted.

"You understand things so quickly. I like that."

Riiip.

I tore the scroll apart.

Footnotes:

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