WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 701: I'll Bring You a Floating Castle in the Sky, Too

──────

"That's impossible. He's not an evil person. He may be extreme, but he cares about humanity."

"He is the King of Humanity."

"I know that!"

"Tsk. Someone who mistakes themselves for knowledgeable is far more foolish than someone who knows nothing. Don't be stupid, Cyan Tower Master. The King of Humanity is not human. Must I explain something so obvious?"

The Demon King looked at the Cyan Tower Master with disgust. Intimidated by her master's cold gaze, she carefully asked,

"Isn't that strange? If the King of Humanity is a conceptual being, wouldn't he have no reason to bring down the floating castle?"

"He does. To prevent the separation of concepts."

"What? The separation of... concepts?"

"Why don't you ask the White Tower Master about the rest? She can explain it far better than I can. That group truly seeks the separation of concepts. Ah, perhaps she won't be coming back now."

Had he already known the White Tower Master was the Holy Maiden? He must have known that faith mattered most to that fanatic. Wasn't he afraid of her power to stop time?

Apparently not. The Demon King looked down even on the Cyan Tower Master, who now possessed the Demon God.

"The Cyan Tower Master is compassionate and sensitive. That, too, is a form of intelligence, and I took notice of it. But in the end, you feared power and rejected that position yourself. It was regrettable, but I understood how you felt. Because you are compassionate, you lack ambition and competitiveness. Character is an ability too."

Kindness was an ability as well. It wasn't entirely wrong, but the Demon King's words were so cold and calculating. Maybe that was why he had noticed.

"The King of Humanity exploited that part of you as well. Because you would surely help him."

"I may have gotten in his way, but I haven't helped him much."

"You protected him when he came to the floating castle and used black magic. When he spread black magic through Celsius territory, you defended the Commoners by saying they had merely been deceived. When the Red Tower Master deliberately picked a fight, you didn't avoid her as usual because you wanted to keep attention away from the territory. You went to stop him from pursuing the Demon God, yet in the end, you fell for his words and blew up the entire floating castle."

The Cyan Tower Master also headed the intelligence division. She watched the lower world through crystal telescopes in cooperation with the White Tower, that faintly glowing ivory tower, and gathered information through her broad network of connections. Even after I left, she had kept track of my circumstances to some extent. She was that sort of person.

"Those were all my choices..."

She could understand even a black mage, given that background. Standardized magic was taught from manuals in the military state. Knowing that, the Cyan Tower Master understood my background and let it slide.

Likewise, even when the Commoners of the lower world learned black magic, she defended them because they had been led astray by me. Back then, the Cyan Tower Master felt a measure of responsibility and resolved to stop me.

Afterward, she worked with the White Tower Master to stop me from finding the Demon God. Though she lost the battle of wits, was overwhelmed by momentum, and was defeated.

Then, at the very end, she willingly rammed the floating castle into "Pride" to stop it.

"...I was chosen because I would make that choice?"

"You understand now? That's it. Rather than punish someone who crosses the line, you would try to protect even them."

The Demon King, who had only stood by and watched, had already seen and understood everything. Had he observed me with deep interest? Or had he simply stayed still, seeing and judging everything with an ability close to omniscience?

Ah. I wanted to read his mind.

No, this wasn't the time.

"We drew lines. White mages and black mages, the Chosen and the Commoners, the lower world and the floating castle. It seems the actions we took to advance humanity's knowledge offended the King of Humanity."

I had to win the Cyan Tower Master over before the Demon King finished talking. The Demon God was the only way to stand on equal footing with him. Without the Cyan Tower Master, I couldn't accomplish anything.

"Wait! It's different. I acted to break down the old discrimination within the Arcane Federation!"

First, stall for time. Justify my actions to the confused Cyan Tower Master while drawing out as much of the Demon King's response as possible.

"From the start, I was imprisoned, humiliated, and driven out of the floating castle, and I saw a world that ignored a talented child. Down there is never fair! Children born into better school districts, wealthier families, and better environments are the ones who ultimately learn magic and rise to high positions!"

"That falls within the margin of error. A true genius will emerge even from such circumstances."

"Countless people are abandoned within that margin of error. I only wanted to give those abandoned people a chance. Right now, black magic is their only hope! Isn't it better to have even that than no choice at all?"

At the very least, once they learned black magic, they could use magical tools. Their quality of life would change completely. Right. Let's go with this. I'd be better off pretending to be a human rights activist. Then...

"Black magic is like qi arts. It cannot encompass the principles of the world. It is convenient power gained by selling the future. If such knowledge existed, who would bother learning white magic?"

The Demon King would probably erase the very existence of black magic. What he needed was white magic, knowledge that could advance the world, even if only a little.

"The Commoners must live slowly and painfully in the frontier. They must curse their own stupidity and lack of talent, longing for learning. Only then will the talented desperately learn magic and someday reach another Demon God to build another floor of the tower."

The Demon King spoke lightly as he waved both hands.

An indescribable presence gathered in one place. Something invisible twisted. Was this a spatial anomaly? He didn't seem to be raising magical energy, so what was it?

"This land was made for that purpose."

Then the distortion in space formed a tiny point in midair. A small, pitch-black point. The Demon King clenched it tightly in his hand.

"Now. Let us dismantle the meteor first. It will make fine material for restoring the ruined floating castle."

The extending space redefined the world once more. Some invisible, imperceptible wave brushed past my body and spread outward. Something spreading from the Demon King seeped into "Pride" as well.

Tick. Tick-tick.

I heard the sound of hairline cracks spreading. One, two. Then countless more. The ticking filled my ears. It sounded like a swarm of crickets singing in unison. I covered my ears against the noise that seemed to grip space and crush it.

After a moment, "Pride" collapsed along those countless hairline cracks.

It looked as though the world itself was crumbling. The floor, walls, ceiling. The dense, solid cosmic ore surrounding us in every direction was collapsing as if it had all been a lie.

The spatial wave created by the Demon King shattered the alien meteor like a glass marble.

What was this? It was a meteor that had drifted through space, hardened for millions of years. He had destroyed "Pride," which even the Cyan Tower Master and Shei had barely managed to penetrate, with a single gesture?

"Recreating it now that the Lord of Gold is gone will be troublesome, but unlike then, there are plenty of mages. Since we were able to recover my teacher's relics, I suppose it was a worthwhile exchange."

Needle-thin fragments rained down over his head. It was a precarious sight, as though the shards might pierce him at any moment. Yet the meteor fragments falling above the Demon King's head bent along invisible curves. Then they were sucked into the black point he had created.

"Work with the other Tower Masters and compile the knowledge gained from my teacher's relics into books. With the talent of Tower Masters, you will surely gain enlightenment. Hmm, and..."

I had seen something like that before. That was... a vanishing point? It was slightly different from the Black Tower Master's innate arcane, but it had more similarities than differences!

"Cyan Tower Master. Inform your family. Erase every trace of black magic. I will not impose any restrictions on the method."

That was only a fraction of the Demon King's ability, yet I could glimpse his omnipotence through it. More than anything, he was obstructing me with clear intent. He hadn't been a mere observer!

At the command, the Cyan Tower Master turned to look at me. Her face was full of confusion.

"Hughes... I truly don't know anymore. What Master wants, what you want. None of it makes sense to me."

Really? Even better. I shouted without hesitation.

"You don't trust either of us? Fine. Since you can't trust anyone, trust yourself! What do you want to do?"

"I don't know! I don't want to be wrong! I want to make the right choice. I want to find the answer!"

"Then find it!"

"I'm saying I don't know the answer! Isn't it best if nobody gets hurt? If my sister becomes the family head, there won't be any need to fight. We can all get along. We just don't have to learn something like black magic. White magic is enough. If the Demon God means causing countless people to die, isn't it better to leave it up there and never find it? We can live today just like yesterday!"

Today like yesterday. That sounded like something the Sanctum would like. Yes. I understood. Smart, kind, and deeply understanding as you were, you couldn't understand people on the other side.

"You want today to remain like yesterday, even tomorrow? That can never happen. Because for those whose yesterday was hell, a tomorrow that continues like that is despair. That is why they must seize a different tomorrow, even if they have to learn black magic! They must break today's world for a different tomorrow to arrive!"

"Even if that takes away someone's today?"

"That's a problem for after yesterday is broken. How today will unfold is unknown. Whether someone loses their peaceful today, or everyone finds a new today. That doesn't matter at all. A changed today can only begin once yesterday has been denied!"

But to those without a tomorrow, those words were nothing but a curse. What was wrong with struggling to avoid death? The true sin was dying quietly without even struggling. It was murder directed at oneself.

"I am the King of Humanity, not the king of mages. Are mages so great? As far as I am concerned, they are all nothing more than stupid beasts. It disgusts me beyond measure to see idiots who can barely use a single tool acting as though they are superior to humans. If they try to become noble without knowing their place, I will drag them down to the lower world and put them on the same level as humans!"

I voiced words that might have been closest to my true feelings. Because they were close to my sincerity, my feelings reached the Cyan Tower Master too.

The Cyan Tower Master's deliberation did not end. Yet even without reaching a conclusion, she made a decision.

Her innate arcane, Crystal Theory.

The Cyan Tower Master's innate arcane seeped into the gaps of the meteor shattered by the Demon King's spatial wave. Some power froze over the broken gaps, holding them in place. The temperature inside the meteor dropped, as though winter had suddenly arrived.

The collapse caused by one person was halted by another. With his work obstructed, the Demon King rubbed his chin and looked at the Cyan Tower Master.

"What is this, Cyan Tower Master?"

"Master. I am indecisive, and there is still much I don't know."

"So it seems."

"That is why I need more time. Time to learn magic from the Demon God's relics, sort out the situation, and let everyone consider the right answer."

The Cyan Tower Master did not take my side. Nor did she take the Demon King's. She understood both of us, but neither choice pleased her.

So she decided to stop everything for now. That was her decision.

"Please stop for now. The King of Humanity, and you too, Master."

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried