WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 688: It Was Going to Fall Anyway

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The relic's memory had ended.

Normally, relics only showed the scenes they wanted to show, but Rene had shown me every last detail of her story. I spoke to the being beyond the memory.

"You hesitated, and in the end, both of you died. Wouldn't it have been better to just let it fall?"

Space rippled. Rene slowly stepped out from the place where she had died.

"No matter how I think about it, it wasn't something I could stand by and watch."

"Why not? Using ruthless means in war is the same either way, isn't it? Leading an army and killing people with spears and swords, or dropping a meteor and killing people. What's the difference?"

"...Sin."

"Sin?"

When I questioned her, Rene answered firmly.

"War is made by the times and carried out by nations. It is a terrible tragedy, but amid that great current, each individual's sins are diluted. War is what is evil, not the people who live through it. We can place the blame entirely on war."

I quietly listened to Rene.

"But the star Professor Principia dropped would have become the professor's sin alone. The Empire and the vassal states would have feared and guarded against the professor for the rest of their lives. People across the continent would have seen the professor as an object of terror."

"Would that be so bad? Is there a difference between fearing war and fearing a person?"

"Humans can be overcome."

Rene looked sadly at Principia's head, which had rolled away.

"No matter how powerful a human is, they die easily. A drop of poison in food, a dagger that comes when they let their guard down, or a traitor arriving with a smile. Anything can kill a person easily. The Gold Duke killed us then, but even if it hadn't been the Gold Duke..."

"Would you have died someday anyway?"

"That is the sin. If Professor Principia bore that sin alone, the war would have made killing the professor its goal. The professor was intelligent and powerful, but not meticulous. Someday, the professor would have met a similar death and been condemned by everyone. I couldn't turn the professor into an idol of sin."

Hm. That was a remarkably priestly thing to say. She didn't want to see the professor she respected become a symbol of evil...

"Even if it meant the professor died?"

"That is..."

There was a problem with that, though. I mocked Rene's foolishness.

"Let's say you hate sin. But what about letting yourself and your companion die? Isn't that a sin? Is it fine if your friend dies?"

"Of course it isn't fine. But if we don't commit sin, we'll go to heaven..."

"Then murder isn't a sin either, is it? You're giving someone a free one-way ticket to heaven. Huh? Then why did you stop the professor from dropping the star? The professor was just giving all the imperial citizens a group tour of heaven!"

Nothing to say, right? That was the problem with heaven. It wasn't fair.

I didn't believe in heaven, so I never said irresponsible things like that. I did my best for the life and survival I had now.

"You can commit any sin against yourself, but not against others? That's awful. That's why Principia died."

"...That..."

"You tried to save strangers while ignoring the danger to your friend. You say sin killed Principia? You were Principia's sin. You defined it as sin and stopped the professor by using your relationship as a weapon. In the middle of a war where all kinds of superhumans and mages ran wild, you were the only one demanding that the professor answer for sin right then."

I always said this. It wasn't a sin if you didn't get caught. What did I mean by that? Sin existed only when it was observed.

I didn't mean anything went as long as you weren't caught. I meant the very concept of sin could not exist otherwise.

"I... Professor Principia's sin..."

"You tried to take away the professor's sin and took away the professor's life instead. Congratulations. The way to stop someone from committing sin is to kill them before they commit it. You succeeded!"

Rene was silent for a long time. If she still had a body, I wondered if she would have been crying. But she was already dead, and she was still agonizing over it.

It was clear that her actions had harmed Principia. Yet was stopping the meteor strike truly wrong? Rene believed it was not.

"Then... should we have dropped the star on the Empire and the six vassal states? Should we have crushed seven nations that had built history and civilization beneath it? Should we have watched that tragedy happen...? Something that would be recorded as a desperate tragedy and horrific sin?"

A star could not be dropped on the continent. Rene still believed that. Even if it was the professor she respected, she could not accept it. She tried with all her strength to persuade me.

"I know. I was beside the professor. It couldn't be undone. Even Professor Principia couldn't drop a star on the Arcane Federation's land because the professor knew how severe the consequences and aftermath would be. Just because it was another nation's land... Neither my teachings, my beliefs, nor my common sense would let me stand by and watch everything there be destroyed!"

If humans could do anything, could they drop a star on a city? Was that truly something they were allowed to do? Even in war, was it acceptable to drop a star without warning and turn the land into a place of death?

Rene's answer had been no. She had held to that answer to the end.

And that was enough.

"Who decides that?"

"Who decides...? If there is kindness in this world, if one values life, if one understands the deaths of innocent people and the suffering of those who must live on ruined land, then no one could ever choose that! That is what it means to be human!"

"No. You decide it."

I dismissed Rene's words simply.

"Principia decided, you decided, and the Gold Duke decided. Do you think they were the only ones? The mages of Babel, the invading army and its generals, the leaders of the Empire and the vassal states. The present was created by the choices of all those people."

It was not sin that stopped Principia. It was Rene. The one who stopped Rene was the Gold Duke. Everyone had judged and acted according to their own wishes.

"You say the times created the war? Humans created the times. So no one is without responsibility. No one is meaningless. The Demon God's influence was simply too great, and a few people at the Demon God's side came to shape the times."

"The ones who decide what is right are..."

"Humans."

People always decide. Those countless directions collide and come together to create an age. No one is free from it. No one can stand apart from the times.

"You saved the Empire from the meteor, Rene. Your wish changed Principia's mind. I respect that part of it."

Rene had acted according to her wish. I did not condemn her actions. What I was pointing out was why she had no choice but to regret them.

"Of course, I respect the opposite as well. The Gold Duke's malice too."

"You respect the Gold Duke's malice?"

The Gold Duke was Rene's opposite. The Gold Duke had persuaded and provoked Principia, then killed the professor when it seemed the professor might change his mind at the last moment. The Gold Duke had stopped at nothing to achieve one goal.

"Was that also the right thing? How can you say that?"

"The Gold Duke lost power because of alchemy, lost a country after defeat in war, lost honor by fleeing, and lost even dignity after losing to Principia. All that remained was vengeance against the Empire and the vassal states. The Empire and the vassal states created that, and it was the karma they should have borne."

I understood the Gold Duke too.

When the other side was acting however they pleased, was it justice for me alone to follow the rules? No, that just made me a sucker. When things went south, sometimes you had to flip the board and shove a skewer through the other person's head.

"The Gold Duke was a villain who tried to use the professor's power for personal ends."

"Was the Gold Duke a villain? Then you should have stopped the Gold Duke. You knew they were dangerous and had nothing left to lose. Why didn't you use your innate arcane to stop them?"

If you thought it was unfair, you should have fought.

Struggle was natural. If the result was something I could not accept, I had to fight against it. If I didn't, and only grieved? How long are you going to do nothing but cry after losing everything?

"In the end, you should have fought. Even if you didn't want to use force, even if you believed there was a right way in this world. At least once, you should have resisted and struggled. Rather than regret and grieve even after death, you should have defeated and subdued the Gold Duke."

The Gold Duke was better, if anything. Cowardly and shameless, but true to their wish. The Gold Duke would have had no regrets. The hatred and anger held back then still remained, drifting above our heads.

And perhaps the assistant's hatred did too.

"I respect your wish. But instead of regretting it like this, you should have fought. The fortunate thing is that you're already dead, yet still have power. You have a chance to correct your mistake."

"A chance?"

"A star is falling. Its name is 'Pride.' It began falling from the moment you died, but it is a star of destruction that has yet to complete its descent."

I turned to look at the assistant who had entered the room at the very end.

The muscles built through every kind of menial work did not suit a mage. His skin was tanned from constantly being outside. He looked like a sailor who had worked aboard ships for years.

He was smart enough that Demon God Principia kept him at his side and let him participate in his research, but unfortunately, he never became an arcane practitioner because he only helped with other people's research.

A tragic genius hidden behind the giant called Principia. An assistant who had always learned from countless geniuses.

The least capable, yet most learned scholar.

"Academia. He was supporting the star..."

The assistant, Academia.

He was the Demon King.

From that spot, he delayed the star's descent and single-handedly annihilated the vassal states' allied army. His story as the Arcane Federation's hero and the vassal states' nightmare came later.

"He is no longer supporting the star. Now, 'Pride' is about to complete a fall that has lasted over a hundred years."

"What? Why would he...?"

"Is that important right now? He's protected us from it until now, and that was enough. How long are you planning to rely on someone else's kindness? Even without him, it would have fallen if someone had just nudged it."

The Demon King had conveyed it through a scroll. 'Pride' was not waiting to fall. It was already falling. The only reason 'Pride' had not reached the ground was because he had been holding it back.

That was not the Demon God's power. It was the Demon King's power, magic. By casting a precisely calculated gravity spell, he had warped its path so that 'Pride' orbited the planet.

But to put it another way, it was like stacking hundreds of pebbles in a single line to form a tower. If someone who understood gravity magic caused even slight interference, the balance would collapse. Then the Demon God's innate arcane would draw that star to the ground, as naturally as anything.

That was the true nature of 'Pride.'

When those who came seeking to covet, guard against, or interfere with the Demon King's power discovered the truth, the countdown to destruction would begin. Anyone could drop the star and gain the power to destroy the world.

"The star is already falling. It is larger than all the meteor swarms that targeted the Empire and the vassal states combined. If it falls, it won't end with an impact. It will be close to extinction. The punishment for putting off your homework is a bit excessive. But if you overcome it, won't the thrill be even greater?"

Rene looked at me with hostility and contempt in her eyes.

"Did you do this?"

"Oh, come on. What does that matter?"

It was not because I thought it was better for me to drop it than let someone else do it. That way, it would feel less unfair... Absolutely not.

"This is the second chance you've been given. You're lucky. You died, and now you have a chance to clear away your regrets. Well, think of it as a reward for living kindly."

Rene was dead. This was her relic. I was reading the dead, but it was closer to talking to a book by myself.

Still, Rene before my eyes looked more alive than ever.

"Use some power. Use every last bit of it."

Footnotes:

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