WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 694: Man vs. Meteor - 2

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The magical energy fired by the floating castle's five towers steadily chipped away at Pride. The firepower was sufficient. Pride was falling at an incredible speed. From Pride's perspective, even a pebble tossed from here would be faster than a bullet.

Pride was not only something for us to fear. From Pride's perspective, we were frightening too.

Avant-garde, observing Pride through a crystal telescope, relayed the news.

"Impact deviation. Three arcminutes, seventeen arcseconds northeast! Compensate for it!"

"Adjust the defensive magic's firing angle. Apply a click correction!"

The exceptional mages of the White Tower and Cyan Tower observed the impacts in real time and made corrections. The towers delicately shifted direction and released magical energy. Amid precise calculations, countless mages fired spells. Those spells followed the current created by defensive magic to intercept Pride.

Five beams of light. Pieces of Pride shattered under them. It was a clash between the power that sought to destroy the world and the power that sought to save it.

A struggle on a planetary scale continued.

The Cyan Tower Master took out a fountain pen and drew a circle in the air. An ice lens formed along the pen's path. Having created a lens and telescope in an instant, she looked toward Pride and spoke.

"It definitely hit it directly... Something's wrong. White Tower!"

"Yes!"

"Recreate Pride's form with an avatar of light."

"Yes. Please wait a moment. Multi-angle telescope set. Deploying the triangulation magic circle."

The White Tower's mages placed their hands on the floor. One side of the floating castle flipped over, and an astronomical observation tower fitted with a strange telescope rose from within. The telescope had twenty-four lenses, all aimed at one point.

"Reflected light secured. Reconstructing the polyhedron."

The twenty-four streams of light gathered by the telescope formed a shape in midair. A three-dimensional reconstruction achieved through multi-angle observation. They gathered reflected light with the telescope, reverse-calculated it, and recreated the image. Pride's form appeared in the air just beneath the eyepiece.

The Cyan Tower Master fell silent when she saw Pride's reconstructed image.

"Wait. Hughes!"

The Cyan Tower Master called to me, since I was nearest. I ran over to her.

"What's wrong?"

"This image was recreated by observing and reverse-calculating the White Tower's magical energy reflected off Pride. Look."

"Oh, this is..."

Something was wrong.

Meteors were normally round. That was unavoidable given the structure of this universe. Anything that stuck out got hammered flat. The same applied to meteors.

Yet the form before us was far too pointed to be called a rock. It looked like an arrowhead.

"It's... pointed?"

"Yes. I knew something was strange. Too much of the defensive magic's energy is scattering. It's being dispersed by Pride's slanted side."

Pride was pointed? That was a problem too. History had proven that sharp things were more dangerous. Still, that was not the only issue. The meteor's shape was a minor concern.

"That's strange. It didn't look like that when we observed it... Why didn't we notice Pride's structure the last time we saw it?"

The problem was the gap between perception and reality.

If we had known, we would have prepared in advance. Yet when we learned Pride's coordinates and observed it, it had not looked like that. It had clearly appeared to be an ordinary meteor.

Growing urgent, the Cyan Tower Master observed Pride through the telescope and spoke.

"It's spatial distortion. The spatial distortion surrounding Pride is interfering with visual observation. How is this possible? Could otherworldly magical energy cause something like this?"

Otherworldly magical energy? Coincidence? Just happening to take a form that caught those trying to stop it off guard?

No chance. Even a passing dog would laugh.

"Ha. No way. Don't deny reality, Cyan Tower Master. This is obviously a trap aimed at an observer, isn't it? Can't you see the malice behind it?"

We had thought it was round, but it was actually pointed. That pointed end was clearly falling toward the ground.

This made it clear. Pride was a weapon. It had been made to snipe someone on the ground.

"Who could have made it? An alien who mastered space magic? I just arrived at the floating castle, so I have no idea."

The Cyan Tower Master bit her lip, then called out to Pride's creator.

"Master!"

The Demon King answered that call once again.

He wore a casual shirt, held an ice pop, and lay in an invisible hammock with sunglasses on. He lifted his sunglasses slightly and said,

"You called?"

"Space magic is distorting our view of Pride."

"Hm. You found it. Well done."

"I appreciate the praise, but that isn't why I called you. Why is space magic protecting Pride?"

"Why ask when you already know?"

He was not trying to mock her. He was genuinely puzzled as to why she was seeking confirmation of his intentions when she already knew.

Still, the Cyan Tower Master had to ask. She believed there had to be another reason.

Because if her suspicion was true...

It meant the Demon King had deliberately shaped Pride.

"I've tried to deny that possibility until now. I believed the knowledge up there was simply dangerous, and that you did not wish for the world's destruction. But now I have no choice but to revise that judgment. Master, do you truly wish for the world to end?"

The Demon King frowned as though it were troublesome. He sighed deeply and looked at the Cyan Tower Master as though she were a poor student.

"Hmm. That isn't very important, Cyan Tower Master. It is part of the process."

"What?"

"There is no absolute in this world. You may not agree."

The Demon King bit into his ice pop with a crunch and answered indifferently.

"The world must learn that truth. There is no absolute in this world. No piece of common sense, scholarship, or magic is beyond question. What we have is endless learning."

"So you're going to drop a meteor onto the ground?"

"No. That is part of the process. What matters is moving forward."

Moving forward?

"My teacher decided not to drop the meteor on this land. Not because it was only natural, but because Saint Rene persuaded him. For the record, I was deeply moved by your words as well. You spoke much like Saint Rene."

"Saint Rene laid the foundations of the Arcane Federation and was the teacher of all mages. Of course I should follow her teachings."

"I respect her to a degree as well. As you said, we need later generations to carry on our progress. I agree with that."

"Then why...?"

"Still, I have a slightly different view on the method."

Shouts came from outside. The mages seemed to have realized something was wrong. Even amid the spreading confusion, the Demon King alone calmly chewed his ice pop.

"Where do development, progress, effort, and inquiry come from? A larger population? A higher standard of education? Or a comfortable, leisurely life free from all labor?"

The Demon King shook his head.

"Of course not. If that were true, the era when countless intellectuals were driven into harsh lands alongside my teacher would never have been the most brilliant. Population, education, and leisure are necessary to a degree, but they are not enough."

"Then what is necessary?"

"Tests."

The Arcane Federation was a nation of mages. The ignorant were cast aside, the chosen were treated well, and exceptional mages ascended to the floating castle. There, they conducted their own research or climbed the towers to inherit the knowledge of those before them.

Those who did not learn magic fell behind in the borderlands. Even those who learned it lived as mediocre mages if they did not work hard. Only those blessed with talent and diligence could reach the center, the floating castle.

The Arcane Federation was a land that forced people into endless competition and trials.

"People study because there are tests. Hardships and adversity come, and people strive to progress because they must overcome them. If they grow complacent, they fall behind. There is no absolute in this world. To stop in a world where everyone moves forward is to fall behind alone."

"Pride...!"

"It is a test for those who do not know their place and are arrogant enough to think this world is sufficient as it is. It takes at least a falling meteor for them to try to learn about space and gravity."

This country, which rejected the ignorant with such cruelty and forced magic upon everyone... Its very structure had been designed by the Demon King.

"Then why have you stopped the meteor from falling until now?!"

"Ha ha. I am not unreasonable. Even when setting a problem, one must give time to solve it. Only when they feel fear and anxiety over not knowing when it will fall will they finally study."

He was not a king, ruler, or man of power. He was simply a teacher. He sincerely held the mindset of a teacher evaluating and grading humanity.

The Demon King looked at the Cyan Tower Master and me with approval.

"That you tried to solve it was, hmm, not a bad miscalculation. The desire to step in and solve problems beyond your own is commendable. But this problem is for the arrogant, not for diligent chosen people like you. It was simply a waste to use it for the wrong purpose. I cannot interfere with my disciples' progress, so I have been cheering you on for now."

Even this attempt to shoot down the meteor from the floating castle was, to the Demon King, an admirable effort.

The Demon King was an existence that set tests for humanity itself.

The Cyan Tower Master knew her master had a harsh side. He encouraged even battles between mages and drove humanity into endless competition. Still, she believed her master was a sensible and rational person.

But the Demon King's common sense and reason had already gone beyond humanity.

"...We will stop Pride."

"Go ahead. I am cheering you on."

The Demon King nodded with a sincere smile, then disappeared once more.

Footnotes:

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