WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 72: Another's Heart

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If you accomplish something, you deserve an appropriate reward.

This principle does not apply only to massive systems like schools, society, or nations. If anything, rewards carry even greater meaning in narrower relationships, such as those between individuals.

After exercising, you need adequate rest, and an exhausted body needs nutrients. After long labor leaves you tired, you crave sugar. When one person helps another, they must be given satisfaction through a positive response.

That kind of reward system makes the body, mind, and human relationships stronger.

Therefore, I had to reward Azzy.

Jingle, jingle.

"All right. Barbecue party."

"Woof!"

Azzy's eyes sparkled as she wagged her tail. Her tail was so powerful that the wind it raised blew the flames and smoke straight at me. If she wagged it a little faster, she might even fly into the sky.

I plunged a skewer into the meat. It went in without resistance, so it seemed cooked through. It had ended up half-boiled after soaking in water for so long to increase its volume, but I wasn't the one eating it, so I stopped caring.

I lifted the broad slab of meat on the skewer and spun it over my head. Azzy crouched down, her eyes full of anticipation. A string of drool ran from the corner of her open mouth.

I drew my arm back, then swung it wide and sent the slab of meat flying into the distance.

"Catch! Special meat frisbee!"

"Woof! Woof woof! Woof!"

The meat frisbee flew through the air, radiating irresistible flavor and mouthwatering appeal. Azzy's eyes went wide as she raced after it. She snatched the flying chunk of meat out of the air, then smiled happily as she tore into it.

This was a play-meal, playing and eating at once. It must have been a better reward for Azzy than anything else.

I didn't usually put this much effort into it, but a dog who fought the vampire for me deserved some meat.

I placed the next piece of meat on the grill and shouted.

"You'd better keep listening to me from now on!"

"Woof woof! Okay!"

Azzy's happy laughter, having received a simple but sufficient reward, carried all the way over here. Dogs really were great friends. She had fought a desperate battle with a blood steed, yet a few chunks of meat were enough to make her happy.

I snickered, then suddenly realized something was wrong.

"That's strange. I worked hard too and got good results. Why don't I get a reward?"

Huh?

I clearly knew accomplishments needed rewards, so why was I the only one not receiving one? The person who understood the need for rewards better than anyone was busy taking care of everyone else's rewards?

This was unfair. Something, something was...

"Woof woof woof! Delicious! Woof woof woof!"

Azzy had already devoured all the meat and came up to me, gently wagging her tail. While more meat cooked, I petted her and muttered.

"Azzy. Praise me a little."

"You're nice! Give meat!"

"I don't mean praise to earn food. I mean praise that comes from the heart. Something sincere."

At that, Azzy put her hands on her hips, puffed out her chest, and shouted.

"You're nice!"

"Right. It was my mistake to expect metaphors, idioms, or anything metaphysical from you. Thanks, though."

"Give meat!"

"Still trying to earn your food, I see."

When I skewered and flung another piece of meat, Azzy immediately ran after it, leaving me behind. Right, she was an animal who knew nothing, so all she had to do was look after her own share.

Just as I was starting to resent Azzy for being so carefree...

"Is something wrong?"

Rewards were just as necessary in the negative sense, and that was what people called punishment.

The vampire who had caused that mess after being controlled by someone like Finlay had faced my stern anger. As punishment, she had been ordered to clean up the destruction she caused.

That was why the vampire was compacting the ruined concrete ground and collecting the chunks of flesh that had made up the immortal's right arm. Her authority had to be kept from touching the immortal, so for the first time in a while, she had to use her own hands to pick them up one by one.

The vampire lifted a box full of the immortal's arm, or more precisely, the flesh that had once formed it.

"But wasn't it you who destroyed the earthfolk man's arm?"

"Come on! It takes two hands to clap. If Trainee Tyrkanzyaka's Black Knights hadn't been there, would the immortal's arm have been damaged that badly? So both sides bear responsibility, and Trainee Tyrkanzyaka, who acted on her own, bears the greater share!"

How dare she try to shift responsibility onto me? Not a chance. I glared at the vampire and pressed her.

After I said that, she lowered her gaze and spoke softly.

"I wasn't trying to excuse myself. I only mean that it feels a little unfair if I'm also blamed for this horrible sight, with someone scraping off pieces of flesh with skewers and scattering them everywhere."

I did feel a little guilty, but there were far more people in this world who should feel guiltier than I did. Before them, I became completely confident.

"You're upset over something being a little unfair? Do you know how unfair this is for me? I worked until my body was breaking, and all I got was cleanup duty! It's like I cooked, didn't even get to eat all the food, and got stuck doing all the dishes too!"

"Does that anger you so much?"

"Of course it does! What did I do wrong in this situation? I did nothing wrong and only worked, yet I haven't received any reward! No one's even told me I did well!"

"You did well."

Huh? What did she say?

As I stood there with my mouth hanging open at the sudden words, the vampire stared directly at me and continued.

"Thank you. You all did very well. Because of you, I was able to avoid making a greater mistake. It was all thanks to you."

I had suddenly received praise, but if people could be made happy by praise like that, there wouldn't be a saying about soliciting a bow of thanks.

I frowned.

"The dog praised me because she wanted food. What is Trainee Tyrkanzyaka trying to get out of me?"

"Do you see me as such a vulgar person? That praise came from my heart. I said thank you, so what is the problem?"

"Of course you should be grateful. We saved you from being controlled by some idiot no one's ever heard of. That's a given."

"You seemed starved for praise, so I gave it to you, yet all I hear are complaints. Then what do you expect me to do?"

"Show me through your actions. If those words truly came from your heart, you won't need an electric massage anymore, right?"

As I turned to leave, the vampire hurriedly grabbed my arm. She hesitated for a moment, then slightly avoided my icy gaze.

"...I didn't say I didn't need it."

"Wow. You really are addicted."

"Addicted? No poison can affect my body. I only wish for a beating heart, even if only for a little while. So, just a little..."

"Wanting something even when it damages your body is called addiction. You didn't realize you were addicted, so you ended up being controlled by your own thrall in such an embarrassing way. Why is someone living a perfectly good life so desperate to make her heart beat?"

When I kept responding coldly, the vampire, whose body was aching for it, finally looked up at me with resentful eyes.

"It's because of you."

"Excuse me?"

What was that supposed to mean? I was so dumbfounded that I couldn't speak. Was this some late April Fools' joke?

I had lamented that it was my fault for teaching an old woman such a stimulating game as a joke, but I was the one who had actually suffered for it! If she said that, it was sheer ingratitude!

The vampire still had more to say. She gripped my arm tightly and spoke.

"My heart does not beat. Whatever emotion I feel soon vanishes. That is why desire, emotion, and memories are all faint to me, as though painted over in shades of gray. Even this very moment I spend with you."

Azzy, her mouth stuffed full of meat, came swaying over. When she saw the vampire, she simply sat down where she was and began tearing at the remaining meat.

The vampire looked at Azzy wistfully, as though recalling a distant memory.

"I do not go hungry, so I have no need for food. Thus, even when I smell or taste it, I cannot be happy. Even with all the finest delicacies before me, I cannot rejoice like the King of Dogs."

"You taste blood."

"Did you believe that was truly tasting it? Taste is only a metaphor. I seek out and consume blood most similar to my own. The more closely the nature of that blood resembles mine, the more it satisfies me."

After lightly scolding me, the vampire looked into the distance again.

"That is why my emotions have no warmth. They only glitter in my mind like starlight. Starlight in the dark night sky is faintly beautiful, but it cannot warm the cold earth. My emotions, too, have no warmth. They only flicker for a moment, then disappear."

The reason the vampire, who was so infamous, had been kind despite the rumors about her was certainly because that was simply her personality. Still, another reason could not be ignored.

Humans became generous toward things that could not harm them.

More precisely, they became numb to them.

The vampire received neither wounds of the body nor wounds of the heart. Even if someone stabbed her with swords and spears, cursed her, and died resenting her, she could let it pass as easily as the song of a bird chirping the night before.

Cruel? No, humanity should be grateful for that fact.

If Progenitor Tyrkanzyaka had not possessed the sensitivity to find beauty even in the same daily routine, if she had not been a girl who could gaze at softly flowing starlight and become lost in sentiment...

Humanity would have had to face a vampire queen several times colder and more brutal than she was now.

"I did not care if Finlay resented me. Even as I killed him, my feelings were much like tidying an old chest of drawers. It was the same in the past, and it will remain so in the future. I quite like you, but even if you suddenly died, I would not bat an eye. I would think, 'There was such a man,' feel a brief pang of regret, then turn away."

No, wait a moment.

Even if it was only a metaphor, why did she have to kill me? That was scary. I didn't care if she never blinked. Could she just let me live?

Unaware that her careless metaphor had frightened me, the vampire gently brought the hand holding her parasol to her chest.

"But in that brief moment when a finger touches my heart, I can feel emotion flowing through my body. Then, my body is mine, yet not mine. My heart leaps as it pleases, and my lungs draw in air even though they need not. The chest that was cold all my life becomes warm."

Even as she held her chest in both hands, all she could feel was coldness. The vampire sadly opened her hands and looked down.

"If I had never known, that would be one thing. But now that I know, I cannot turn back. It has been a long night. Dawn came, and faint warmth shone down, yet I must turn back the clock and return to a dark, cold night. Is that not too cruel?"

Then her eyes met mine again. Blood-red eyes pierced me diagonally from below.

As she calmly laid out thoughts she had carried for a long time, the vampire voiced a single wish, both in her heart and aloud.

"Please, become my heart."

In the darkness where the sky could not be seen, in the Abyss abandoned even by the earth, a long-held wish flowed forth.

And I was terrified.

Her words were romantic. The emotion behind them was so earnest that it was hard to believe it came from a vampire whose heart had stopped, and for a moment, I nearly fell for it myself.

But I had mind-reading.

I read what her words meant, then clicked my tongue at the cruel intention behind them.

Become her heart?

That literally meant becoming an external heart that would stick a finger into her chest and send electricity through it whenever she wanted!

"Come to think of it, I still don't even know your name..."

"Enough."

Before anything else could come up, I quickly cut her off. Her words stopped as though she had been stabbed. For a moment, the gaze she fixed on me was full of resentment.

"After getting burned so badly, you still haven't come to your senses? You can't keep handing your heart over to other people so carelessly. Something terrible will happen again."

"Then you can do it."

"No, really. How can you trust me? What if I take control of you right away?"

I made the threat as strongly as possible to give her a tactful refusal, but the vampire's reaction differed greatly from what I expected.

"If it is you, I do not mind."

She said it calmly, yet even I, with my mind-reading, was so bewildered that I lost myself for a moment and read her thoughts again.

I wondered if the vampire had somehow learned how to joke, so I read her mind properly once more.

'If I must trust someone anyway, if I must place myself upon a scale, then I would rather entrust myself to the side that pleases me.'

No. Was she in her right mind? I never thought I would see someone with such a sucker's mindset.

There were limits to everything. Even gamblers without a drop of blood or tears didn't go out of their way to take a child's pocket money. At this point, I would feel bad even taking advantage of a sucker like her.

That was why I firmly rejected the vampire's plea.

"It matters to me. I don't want to become someone's heart, even if that person is you, Trainee."

The vampire was deeply disappointed by my rejection, which gave her no room to hope.

Yet that miserable feeling lasted only an instant.

Her disappointment soon vanished, and resignation followed. Not giving up, but simply letting everything flow past her like a river, that current brushed by her and passed on.

Mind-reading was really no good at times like this.

I had to reject her. I should've just let it pass.

But if I kept watching it so clearly, I was the one left with regrets.

"But you won't give up on having a heart, will you?"

The vampire closed her mouth at my words. Silence did not necessarily mean agreement, but if placed on a scale, it would clearly tilt toward yes.

She wouldn't do something as stupid as entrusting her heart to someone like Finlay. Still, I expected her to keep doing things only slightly less stupid than that.

Haa. Seriously.

I rubbed my forehead and sighed.

"Then I guess it'd be better if I did it."

"Did you say you would? Then that means..."

For a moment, her face brightened as though flowers were blooming.

I was certain now. She was so easy to read that some other con artist might make her hand over her liver and gallbladder next time... Literally.

It couldn't be helped. I reached out and took the vampire's hand.

"Hope keeps slipping through your fingers not because your hands are absurdly large, Trainee Tyrkanzyaka, nor because hope is so small and delicate."

She didn't even scold me when I openly took her hand now. What happened to her sense of danger? She had grown a little attached to me and was overlooking even simple rudeness.

I took each of her small, cold fingers and lined them up together.

Little finger to ring finger, ring finger to middle finger, middle finger to index finger, then index finger to thumb.

"You were simply not putting enough strength between your fingers."

What was needed was an earnest wish.

Squeeze. I pressed all five fingers tightly together, then pushed them against the vampire's chest. With both hands held to her chest, the vampire looked at me with eyes full of expectation.

Haa. Seriously, I really, really didn't want to do this.

"I'm not your heart, Trainee. I don't want to be, either. Because I don't want to beat diligently every moment, I won't beat when I don't feel like it, and most of the time, I'll be away from you."

When someone's wish struck this close to home, there was nothing I could do.

Just as those who saw the future were bound by it and brought to ruin.

Those who saw the hearts of others could not be free from them either.

"Instead, I'll tell you how to make that heart beat again."

Footnotes:

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