WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 82: An Eraser in the Mind

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No matter what, an unmarried man and woman could not spend the night in the same room. To Tyrkanzyaka, that was common sense beyond question.

After bringing him into his room, Tyrkanzyaka laid him on the bed. She could not bring herself to undress him, so she had no choice but to let him sleep in his uncomfortable clothes.

Perhaps three days of exhaustion had caught up with him. The moment his head touched the pillow, he fell asleep.

Tyrkanzyaka silently covered him with a blanket and left. She settled in front of his room, sitting atop the coffin with her parasol over her shoulder as she spent the night listening to his breathing within.

Just before the lights came on, the King of Dogs appeared.

Azzy came trotting lightly down the distant corridor. Tyrkanzyaka briefly tightened her grip on her parasol.

"Woof?"

Azzy only tilted her head at the sight of Tyrkanzyaka.

Tyrkanzyaka was reminded of what she had regained. A small wave of emotion passed through her.

The King of Dogs had not barked. That was all, yet even something so small brought her joy. The emotions she had regained reached her through such trivial things.

"You truly don't bark..."

Azzy spoke to Tyrkanzyaka, who was blocking the door.

"Woof! It's morning! We have to wake him up!"

"Wait. I shall wake him..."

"Woof! Woof!"

As Tyrkanzyaka opened the door, Azzy shot through the gap like an arrow. Then she raced around the room, barking fiercely.

Startled, Tyrkanzyaka rushed in after Azzy.

Azzy was loud enough to wake even someone who had lost their memories.

He slowly sat up like a mummy. Even after sleeping, he stared blankly into space with dazed eyes.

"Are you awake?"

Tyrkanzyaka spoke to him as she had yesterday. She did not expect an answer. She simply wanted to give him some semblance of an ordinary routine.

Then...

"Hello..."

At the voice from the bed, Tyrkanzyaka was so startled that her heart nearly leaped from her chest.

"Shei! Shei!"

Tyrkanzyaka immediately seated him on the coffin and flew over to find Shei. When Shei opened the door while rubbing her eyes, Tyrkanzyaka showed her the blank-faced man and cried out,

"I think he has regained his memories!"

"Hm?"

"When he woke this morning, he greeted me. His memories must surely be returning!"

Tyrkanzyaka's voice still trembled with excitement. Shei, on the other hand, seemed indifferent.

"I don't know. To me, he still looks far from normal. Look at that vacant face. He looks completely different from his usual self."

"Isn't he better than yesterday? Yesterday, he only repeated my words here and there, but today he spoke on his own. He is clearly remembering words!"

Shei hesitated as she watched Tyrkanzyaka's excitement. Tyrkanzyaka would be disappointed if she told her the truth.

Still, Shei was not the sort of person who could tell pleasing lies.

"Memory loss like that does not mean he has lost memories as information. Information such as knowledge and language remains in his head. What disappeared was the self that connected that information to himself and drew on it."

He did not seem to realize they were talking about him. He merely sat blankly atop the coffin as he listened.

Shei looked at him and muttered,

"See? He isn't showing much of a reaction. He probably doesn't even know who he is right now."

"But he is a little different. Look."

Tyrkanzyaka hurried over to him. He had been sitting there blankly, but he finally reacted when she approached. Tyrkanzyaka patted his shoulder, pointed to Shei, and whispered,

"Now then. Try greeting Shei over there."

He sat blankly like a child while Tyrkanzyaka devotedly cared for him.

Watching them, Shei muttered to herself.

'Ah, I think I'm about to experience cognitive dissonance.'

From the outside, they looked like a fully grown man and a young girl. Yet the girl was caring for him like a mother.

Just days ago, that grown man had been an instructor from the military state who smiled slyly and radiated an air of mystery. The man who had made Shei tense more than once was now sitting there with the most innocent expression in the world, being fussed over by Tyrkanzyaka. It made her head spin.

'I understand how Tyrkanzyaka feels. Something must have gone wrong while he was repairing her heart, so she probably feels deeply responsible.'

But Shei still could not relax. That man could read everything from where he sat, then manipulate people with little notes. He was exactly the sort of hidden mastermind she hated most.

If he had only seemed like a hidden mastermind, that would have been one thing. Yet he had casually repaired the Progenitor's heart, and Shei could not even begin to grasp his true intentions.

He did not seem like a mere hidden mastermind, nor anything completely pure. He was closer to chaos itself.

'He isn't really acting, is he? There's no reason for him to, but...'

Even without a reason, he was the kind of person who would calmly do something insane. No matter how much she wanted to stop suspecting him, the doubt remained like a stain in one corner of her mind.

Just as Shei glared at him sharply...

"Gre...eting."

He understood Tyrkanzyaka's words and timidly bowed his head to Shei.

"H-hello..."

Even that behavior seemed suspicious because of how he had acted in the past. Shei waved a hand.

"This means nothing. I told you, he can still greet people even without his memories..."

"...Unni."

"?!?!"

Goosebumps rose along Shei's arms.

A chill ran through her entire body.

An instinctive revulsion washed over her, and her head went blank. Shei urgently shouted,

"W-w-w-what are you talking about?! You mean nuna!"

Tyrkanzyaka pointed out,

"Shei, wouldn't hyung be more appropriate?"

"Ah, right, big brother. No, I'm younger than him... More importantly! Wait! Everyone stay where you are!"

When Shei was suddenly flustered, she reacted one way. She grabbed Skywarbler, which she had left floating by the bedside, and stirred up a gust of wind.

Whoooong.

Compressed air burst outward in every direction. Complex currents formed around Shei, and as the wind swept through the narrow doorway, it made a sound like the howl of a beast.

"What has gotten into you?"

Tyrkanzyaka lowered her parasol to block the wind and frowned as she looked behind her. Fortunately, because she had blocked it, his body did not topple backward.

Shei calmed herself while fiddling with her beloved sword, Skywarbler.

"Whew. I just needed to clear my head."

"If you clear it a second time, this prison will be uprooted. Be careful. In any case, do you understand now why I said he was different?"

"Yes. I understand..."

Unni was what a younger woman called an older woman. Using it required some ability to judge her own position relative to the person she addressed.

That meant he had some awareness of himself, as well as the ability to recognize others...

"But why big sister of all things?! It's completely the opposite!"

'That bastard is a man, so why does he see himself as a woman?!'

She had aimed the remark at him, but Tyrkanzyaka took it another way. Resting her chin on her hand, Tyrkanzyaka looked Shei up and down.

"Hmm. You are rather pretty. Pretty enough that it would not be strange to mistake you for a woman... A woman..."

Her words suddenly dragged on as her brows drew together. Tyrkanzyaka looked back and forth between Shei and the instructor several times, then groaned as if something worried her.

She walked over to him and gently explained,

"Do not be confused. Shei may be small, with slender limbs and a pretty face, but he is unquestionably a man. A man in every sense of the word."

"A... man?"

"Yes. He is a man, so remember that well. He is not unni, and certainly not nuna. Getting that wrong would be the height of rudeness."

Her words carried less the air of correcting a misunderstanding than that of warning him.

Shei felt something she could not describe as she watched Tyrkanzyaka glance at her.

'The way she acted yesterday too... No, surely not. Did he really melt her frozen heart or something? Did my suspicions actually come true?'

Only much later did Shei realize something strange.

As Tyrkanzyaka said, Shei was currently posing as a man. It was due to an artifact, so it functioned even when Shei did not pay much attention to it.

Yet he had called Shei unni.

Unni. In other words, a word he could only use if he recognized the other person as a woman.

'Wait. He saw through the Mask of Agartha? How?'

A new suspicion suddenly arose. Had he seen through Shei's disguise from the very beginning?

But Shei quickly dismissed that thought.

'That can't be it. The Mask of Agartha definitely works. Tyrkanzyaka and everyone else still believe I'm a man. And if he had seen through my disguise, revealing it now would be strange.'

Then how?

Shei quickly came up with a reasonable hypothesis.

'That's right. My artifact, the Mask of Agartha, has the power to determine a person's first impression. First impressions are important and affect later encounters as well... But the artifact can only influence that first impression. It does not work on someone who has already met me.'

There was only one thing that could mean.

He had met Shei before, but his first impression of her had not remained.

In other words, he truly had lost his memories.

'He really does seem to have lost his memories. I can stop doubting him... No, perhaps I can use this chance to naturally clear up the misunderstanding that I'm a man...'

Shei had disguised herself as a man to enter the Abyss, then maintained it in case something happened... Yet she was not particularly attached to the disguise. She often forgot that she was even pretending to be a man.

Rather than forcing herself to maintain it, it might be better to clear up the misunderstanding and form relationships more comfortably. That did not mean she wanted to strip off her clothes and forcibly reveal her gender.

If she could use this to naturally plant the idea that Shei might be a woman...

"A... man."

"Yes. A man. You remembered, right?"

When Tyrkanzyaka finished speaking, he nodded firmly and muttered,

"Somehow, you seemed... homobiguous."

Somehow. Ambiguous.

Though he had not put it into words, Shei heard what went unspoken between them. It was ambiguous whether he could see her as a woman, regardless of the Mask of Agartha...

A vein bulged at Shei's temple. With a terrifying expression, she crooked a finger at him.

"Hey. You, come over here for a second. You remember everything, don't you?!"

The instinct to sense danger surfaced before his sense of self. He became frightened and hid behind Tyrkanzyaka.

Tyrkanzyaka smiled kindly and soothed him before beginning to scold Shei.

"Shei. Do not frighten him so. Can't you see he is afraid?"

"No, doesn't that sound suspicious? Look at the way he talks! He's starting to get on my nerves!"

"It is true that you are ambiguous. Your features are delicate for a man, so even I am occasionally confused."

"Being confused is the end of it?!"

'Wait. Didn't that bastard just say something other than ambiguous?!'

When Shei widened her eyes, Tyrkanzyaka stepped even closer and shielded him. Her parasol hid his face.

"Perhaps it would have been different before, but he is no different from a child now that he has lost his memories while helping me. How can you think of blaming him?"

"It is suspicious enough that he is confused about my gender, but it makes no sense for him to see himself as a woman in the first place! There is absolutely no reason for that! Hey! Tell me honestly. You didn't lose your memories, did you?! You're laughing to yourself inside, aren't you?!"

"Now you are slandering him? How can a man be so narrow-minded? You are being too cruel. Don't you think so?"

Because Tyrkanzyaka defended the instructor to the end, Shei could only fume and could not lay a hand on him. Her glare was fierce enough that he, left with only his instincts, became frightened and hid behind Tyrkanzyaka's back.

Tyrkanzyaka secretly enjoyed that fact. It was one reason she did not go so far as to shout at Shei.

When she felt him clutching at her collar, Tyrkanzyaka soothed him again.

"Do not worry. Did I not say that I would take responsibility for you?"

"Th-thank you. Um..."

When his words trailed off, Tyrkanzyaka gently added,

"Did I not tell you earlier? Call me Tyr."

"Yes, Tyr."

"Good. That is a good boy."

Shei could only gape in disbelief.

'I wasn't even going to attack him! Stop casting other people as villains!'

This was becoming more ridiculous by the moment.

Even when she did not want to suspect him, suspicion kept bubbling up. If he was pretending to have lost his sense of self, that was absurd enough. But if he had truly lost it, that was just as remarkable. How could someone act suspicious even after losing their memories?

After grinding her teeth for a while, Shei suddenly had a good idea.

"Wait. Why didn't I think of that?"

If he had truly lost his memories, he would answer questions honestly.

If he was pretending to have lost his memories, he would evade questions that were difficult to answer.

'If it's the first, I can learn his secret information. If it's the second, I can expose his act. This is an opportunity!'

Either way, she had nothing to lose. Shei said eagerly,

"Tyrkanzyaka. Now is the time. This is our chance to get information from him!"

Of course, Tyr would not immediately nod. Yet Shei was confident she could persuade her.

As expected, Tyr immediately reacted negatively.

"Information? Do you mean to interrogate someone who has lost his memories? What else are you trying to pry out of him? Absolutely not..."

"His name, his rank, why he came here, his abilities, things like that! We won't get another chance to learn them!"

But if she could stir Tyr's curiosity... Shei gave a triumphant smile and pressed her suggestion.

"What do you say?"

Tyr, who had been about to refuse vehemently, stopped speaking.

"His name. His name..."

Muttering quietly, Tyr looked at him once with a face caught between curiosity and guilt. Then she gently closed her eyes and took a step back, offering Shei her reluctant agreement.

"...If I am to care for him from now on, I should at least know the basics. His name, for instance. Ahem."

The wall that had shielded him vanished. He stared at Tyr, but she only avoided his gaze.

Footnotes:

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