WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 702: Survivalist

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"Master is a harsh person. He tells people to advance even if they have to fight, compete, and trample one another. Learning doesn't have to involve injury and pain. I don't agree with Master either."

The main point always came afterward. She had voiced her complaints about the Demon King first, so what followed would naturally be the opposite.

"But you're even harsher than Master. You leave even the decision to wield power in people's own hands. On the surface, your words sound as though they would save those who have been abandoned... but they would plunge everyone into endless conflict. It's like giving every person an equally sharp sword."

As expected. I asked with a hard look on my face.

"Is there any reason not to?"

"There are only reasons not to. The world you envision can only exist if everyone is strong, kind, and courageous. But most people are weak, cowardly, and afraid. Most would use power not to resist, but to take from others. They would point their swords at people weaker and more pitiful than themselves. Just like in an age of savagery."

She could not have meant only black magic.

There was once a time when even making a finely sharpened sword without permission was a crime. Alchemy had advanced to the point where it could no longer be prevented, but people were still arrested for carrying weapons in the street.

The widespread use of qi arts was also relatively recent. In the past, they were controlled by the military or passed down in secret by families and sects. The military state was the strange one. No other nation made black magic and qi arts mandatory subjects for everyone.

Power itself inspired fear. We wanted our neighbors to have no claws or fangs. If a mere whim changed their hearts, they could hurt someone at once.

"Because they are foolish, they are the rabble, and they are not kind either. They will try to destroy not only their own miserable yesterday, but someone else's peaceful yesterday as well."

"Maybe they will."

"If you know that and still allow it, that is no different from sin. Why do you tolerate sin?"

"Personal justice and social justice are different. You're smart, so you try to look at all humanity at once, but an ordinary person like me can only see the one person in front of me."

Still, how were they supposed to resist without fangs and claws? How were they supposed to face those armed with new fangs and claws, authority, qi arts, and magic? Were they supposed to die quietly for the sake of order?

I couldn't accept that.

"Order began with distrust. I can hurt others, and others can hurt me. But the desire to survive is usually stronger than the desire to hurt someone else. Even if I kill a hundred people, it means nothing if I die in the end. Survival is the absolute principle of life. That is why humans created the tool called order. To survive."

I will not kill others, so do not kill me. Order was the ultimate destination of that simple peace treaty. That was why order needed savagery.

"But an order where you can harm others freely without fear of retaliation? That is no longer order. Only when people recognize that they too are weak and receive protection can they acknowledge and accept the need for order."

Order was a mutual contract. It had to apply to both sides. If one side could exercise power unilaterally, that was savagery from the very beginning.

"Shouldn't the floating castle be hurt once, so it realizes that it too benefits from order? Then it might make a more careful choice before trying to drop another meteor."

I didn't deny order. If anything, I affirmed it. Humans were nothing more than beasts, struggling so they would not die meaningless deaths. Order was the result.

Yesterday, too, had been won through someone's struggle. There was no reason today should not become the object of struggle as well.

"I understand."

The Cyan Tower Master understood my words. Her expression, though, was far from satisfied.

"Even so, I still don't agree with you. Struggle is too sad and exhausting. If you keep getting hurt, you'll eventually die. Humans can't endure endless struggle. But..."

This was different from magic or scholarship. There was no answer to this question. There were only people's conclusions, and the differences between those conclusions brought conflict.

After reaching a conclusion in her heart, the Cyan Tower Master looked at her master.

"Master. Please teach me. Why did you create the floating castle?"

At that moment, the Cyan Tower Master trusted the Demon King. She believed the floating castle had been created to stop "Pride." That belief depended on rejecting the alternative.

If she did not believe that, she would reach the opposite conclusion.

"Hmm."

The Demon King wore a troubled expression again. It resembled the expression he had worn when answering the Cyan Tower Master's question before.

I couldn't read the Demon King's thoughts, so I didn't know what he truly meant, but his expression told me enough. The Demon King was probably...

"Cyan Tower Master. Why do humans make money?"

He answered a question with another question. The Cyan Tower Master replied calmly.

"To buy what they need."

"That is the usual reason. Yet people save money even when they do not need anything in particular. They prepare in advance because they don't know when they might need something. Some devote themselves to collecting money itself, but if money had no such value, they would not collect it."

The Demon King pointed toward the floating castle, visible beyond the meteor.

"It is the same. This floating castle will be useful someday. If the lower world is destroyed, this floating castle will become an ark. It will drift forever, preserving all of humanity's knowledge, magic, and superior genes. For hundreds of years, until the lower world stabilizes."

An ark.

The final stronghold that sailed through the sky, preserving every kind of wealth and knowledge for the sake of preserving the species. It would leave the ruined lower world behind and save only intelligent, outstanding humans, so humanity could someday rise again.

That was the floating castle's purpose.

"You were concerned that the humans of the lower world would abuse black magic, were you not? I learned a similar truth. The humans below are foolish, and they can easily make choices that destroy the world. I realized that as well, and I created the floating castle to prepare for it."

"The lower world being destroyed? If 'Pride' doesn't fall, there will be no need for the floating castle."

"Cyan Tower Master. Not everyone in the world is like us. 'Pride' is only one method. What do you think would happen if the polar ice melted and the Sea Calamity invaded the land? How great a war do you think would break out if the Empire's seven garbage disposal sites could no longer endure and rose up? Or what do you think would happen if the King of Sin appeared?"

War, the King of Sin. Of course the Demon King knew about the prophecy of destruction too. He had seemed indifferent even to Shei's warning. Was it because he already knew and simply found it tiresome?

"The world can be destroyed in any number of ways. Unlike us chosen people, they will die without even realizing that they are walking toward the flames. I created the floating castle and selected what could be saved in preparation for that day. The things I judged would be needed after the world was destroyed."

Magic. Knowledge. Books. Technology. And humans.

Above all, he needed humans who were as intelligent as possible and could sense magical power. Knowledge was useless without people to use it. There needed to be many mages if they were to survive in a ruined world someday.

"Cyan Tower Master. You are a precious talent. The Professor acknowledged you, and you can use gravity magic freely. I only learned and understood the Professor's theory, so I can reproduce gravitational anomalies only through magic."

He said it easily, but he meant that he could use gravity magic like elemental magic such as Fahrenheit or Celsius. Raising this floating castle without the Demon God had been achieved through magic alone. There was a reason people in the lower world believed the floating castle housed the Demon God. They could not have imagined that a single human had lifted an entire city into the sky.

"But one cannot always prepare the proper magic. When I consider the future, I need your power, the power to handle the Demon God's relics."

"You could use that power to stop the destruction of the lower world."

The Cyan Tower Master asked as though she truly could not understand.

"Why do you think the lower world will be destroyed? You could protect the world with the power that keeps the floating castle in the air. With this Demon God, we can stop a meteor like 'Pride.'"

Wasn't the answer simply to ensure the floating castle was never needed? Couldn't they protect the lower world with this power? The Cyan Tower Master asked according to the most ordinary common sense.

The Demon King, too, failed to understand and asked in return.

"You wish to protect the lower world? Then you should not have stopped 'Pride.'"

"What?"

"'Pride' was destruction refined to the point where it would only destroy the Empire, Cyan Tower Master. The vassal states would suffer aftereffects, but the entire continent would not perish."

In Shei's recollection, the Empire had remained intact. It had suffered a severe blow, but the nation had not fallen, so it was no different from "Pride" being stopped. The Empire, with the Sword Saint, must have possessed strength beyond the Demon King's expectations.

Put another way, that meant the power of "Pride" had been restrained.

The Demon King had wanted only the Empire to be destroyed. Because...

"But if the Empire does not fall, that will mark the end of this world. The King of Sin will bear the sins of civilization and destroy the world personally. Because of your actions, the land has already reached its end. Nothing can stop the King of Sin now."

From his perspective, the world had already been destroyed.

Footnotes:

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