WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 93: The Eraser in My Head

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There are two kinds of ignorance in this world.

One is not knowing the answer.

The other is not even knowing that you don't know.

The second kind sounds far more distant, but surprisingly, it is close at hand.

Think back. Go far back from now, to your sparkling childhood. There must be glorious memories from that time, memories that made you feel special.

Back then, you were the center of the world, the master of your grandest dreams, and the protagonist of a magnificent epic.

Yet the little things buried within those shining memories never reveal themselves.

Things that weren't special at all. The chill of a glass of water you drank one morning, or the warm scent of a pillowcase left in the sunlight. Such details filled each day with color, yet were so difficult to remember that they sank beneath the surface and never rose again.

You can't even try to recall them until someone mentions them. And even if you do remember, it isn't truly a memory of that day. It's only an image pieced together from everything you've experienced since then.

Memory is an abyss so mundane, yet so merciless.

So no one could blame me.

Not even if I failed to remember something no one had pointed out to me.

"Wait. Shei."

"Huh?"

"Aren't we forgetting something?"

The regressor frowned deeply.

"That way of talking again? Can't you just say it properly?"

"That way of talking? What's that supposed to mean?"

"That damn way you make the subject, predicate, and object all into 'something,' then only raise a question!"

I flinched and hurriedly waved my hands.

"That's unfair. I really can't remember it either! At least this time!"

"So you were aware of it, you bastard."

I got chewed out for no reason. It felt like my heart was crumbling, but this wasn't the time to worry about something so trivial.

The bundle the officer had received from "them." The one they had been told to open when they needed help. Inside was a broad, fan-shaped leaf and the words, [Remember the forgotten being].

The officer still hadn't remembered, but the problem was that I'd forgotten what that forgotten being was too. Even as a mind reader, I couldn't remember something when I didn't even know what it was.

Still, there had to be something. Something important that I'd forgotten.

I struggled to dredge up that vague memory.

"What is it? It had something to do with you, Shei. Could you describe your defining traits for me?"

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"It's urgent. Hurry."

When I pressed her, the regressor folded her arms and sank into thought.

"My traits...?"

'Regression... Can't say that. Fortune Devourer, master of the treasury. Gear dependency... Tch. Why are these the only things I can think of?'

She was honest in her self-assessment, at least. But that wasn't what I wanted to know.

Groaning, I listed the regressor's traits one by one.

"Doesn't trust people, likes men, prickly, one-armed factory foreman..."

"Want to die? Why are those the things you remember?"

"One-armed factory foreman? One-armed factory foreman. Right-arm killer. Found it. The right arm!"

"That's really it? You're making fun of me right now, aren't you?"

Making fun of her? Did she think I was the kind of person who teased people for no reason?

I wanted to yell at her, but this wasn't the time. I spun toward the regressor and shouted.

"The right arm! Where's the right arm?!"

The regressor scrunched up her face.

"It's on your right. What, want me to cut it off and show you?"

"This isn't the time for wordplay! Rashy, the immortal! His right arm! Where is it?!"

"...The immortal?"

Only then did the regressor realize what I was looking for and recall the immortal from a corner of her memories.

His right arm, rotted by a curse. Chunks of flesh scattered everywhere. She had made a recovery potion to lift the curse, then soaked the immortal's right arm in it.

Yet there was no memory of taking the restored right arm out.

Of course there wasn't. The regressor had only soaked the arm in recovery potion, then completely forgotten about it!

The regressor sighed.

"Ah. I forgot."

"Forgot? How could you forget something like that?!"

I shouted in disbelief. Looking flustered herself, the regressor fiddled with her hair and replied weakly.

"W-Well. I put it in recovery potion to heal it, but you kind of want to forget it when the right arm keeps flopping around on its own."

"You've got a talent for it! Doesn't that right arm walk over on two fingers and smack people when it gets upset? How could you forget that?"

"No, it kept trying to climb out of the tank full of recovery potion even though the curse hadn't been lifted yet..."

"And?"

The way only her eyes shifted around reminded me of Azzy after she caused trouble and pretended she didn't know anything. What had she done?

"I chained it down so it would sink."

"You sank it?"

Something even I hadn't done. When it came to extreme measures, no one could beat her.

"Fine. Let's say that makes sense. But you must've seen it whenever you passed by!"

"Well, the recovery potion smelled awful, so I put it in a secluded room. I even set up a barrier so the smell couldn't escape..."

"Are you sure that's curse removal? It sounds more like sealing magic."

This was absurd. I thought I lived a pretty aimless life, but the regressor was the kind of person who threw away plans she already had.

For the three days I spent restoring Tyr's heart, the regressor had been so curious about what was happening there that she abandoned the immortal and completely forgot about him!

I looked at the regressor with cold eyes.

"...Shei. Do you hate Rashy?"

"Well, actually, I wouldn't say I like him much."

"Hmm. So liking men doesn't mean you don't have standards."

"Stop emphasizing that kind of thing! I just forgot, that's all!"

'I did lock it away somewhere too far out of sight... Seeing that flopping right arm kept reminding me of that horrible corpse golem from before. After that, I had no time to worry about anything because of Tyrkanzyaka's heart... I should reflect on this. My focus was too narrow.'

So she did reflect on it. I suppose there was still some humanity left in her.

Well, whatever. People could forget things sometimes. It wasn't as though I'd forgotten it too, or anything...

"Wait! More importantly, you're the one who used the immortal's arm! You should've remembered some of it too!"

...Never mind. This brat was so rotten that she didn't even know what reflection meant.

Of course, I had forgotten too. As the owner of the Immortal Light Arm, I acknowledged that I bore a very small share of the responsibility.

Still.

"My situation is different from yours, Shei."

"What excuse are you going to make? We forgot the same thing!"

"At the time, I was trying to restore Tyr's heart and nearly died without even remembering myself. You expect me to remember some dark-haired man's right arm in the middle of that?"

"...Well."

"On top of that, I left myself a note in case I lost my memories. What did you do, Shei, when you were perfectly sound of mind?"

"........."

"Say something if you have something to say. Shei, I think we need to weigh your conscience today. It looks like it'll weigh exactly as much as Skywarbler."

Even if she had ten mouths, she would have had nothing to say.

The regressor folded her arms and struck a needlessly serious pose, then casually turned and pointed outside. She was avoiding the question.

"I sealed the right arm in the laborers' dormitory over there. It's not urgent, is it?"

"We're already very late, but let's go."

I headed where the regressor pointed.

Dozens of indistinct doors lined the corridor of the laborers' dormitory. Some were broken, while others had fallen off entirely, but even that destruction gave them no character. Traces of violence filled every corner. Unless you were Azzy, it would be hard to find anything hidden somewhere in here.

"This way."

The regressor opened the door to a room at the far end. The moment I stepped inside, a wave of heat washed over me.

The pungent scent of medicinal herbs stung my nose. Beyond the hazy smoke filling the room, I saw a square tank sitting on the bed. I groped my way forward and looked inside.

Clear recovery potion bubbled in the square tank, along with the immortal's right arm, chained up and sunk deep beneath the surface. It looked like an ancient ritual.

When I silently turned toward the regressor, she looked away as if she had nothing to say.

I pointed at the tank.

"You left it like this the whole time?"

"...Yeah. All I had to do was remove the curse, so I didn't need to touch it."

"Looking at it, the curse seems completely gone."

"It... does."

"Why didn't you take it out?"

"I... forgot."

"Good grief, you blockhead."

"What?!"

Her reactions were always sharp at times like this. I began unwrapping the chains tightly wound around the tank. With every loop I removed, the flopping right arm moved more vigorously.

"Just wait a little longer, right arm. I'll give you your freedom..."

The moment I was about to free it, the right arm sprang through the gap in the loosened chains. The immortal's right arm kicked off the surface like a carp, flew up, and struck the bridge of my nose.

"Urk!"

While I was briefly dazed, the right arm landed on the floor in an instant, stood upside down, and ran across the floor on two fingers.

I clutched my throbbing nose and shouted.

"Shei! Catch it!"

"Huh?"

But the regressor had already stepped aside to avoid the right arm. In the blink of an eye, it escaped the room and raced down the corridor.

I hurriedly stood up and blamed the regressor.

"You're just watching it go?!"

"It was a little creepy... Besides, why? That right arm will go find its owner anyway. Weren't you planning to revive the immortal?"

"I was planning to, before she got involved!"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"No time to explain! Where's Rashy's body right now?"

"In a cabinet in the training room."

"Why did you put it in a place like that again?! No matter how I look at it, it seems like you're trying to hide a corpse!"

I immediately ran to the training room, and the regressor followed behind me without understanding what was going on. The two of us raced down the corridor, following the right arm's finger marks.

When we rushed into the training room, we found the officer standing before the cabinet with the bundle in hand, and the right arm pushing off the wall with a three-point kick before soaring through the air toward the immortal.

"Good heavens. A right arm is flying."

With that level of control, could that right arm manage a triple spin too? As I muttered blankly to myself,

the right arm latched tightly onto the immortal's shoulder.

Having absorbed the full power of the regressor's special recovery potion, it transferred all the vital energy it held to the immortal.

It looked as though someone had driven a huge syringe into his shoulder. Every time the swollen right arm contracted sharply, the vital energy it had soaked up flowed into the immortal's body.

The immortal's body accepted that energy. It spread through his veins, and life began returning to him.

Then, at some point,

the immortal's eyes snapped open.

Footnotes:

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