WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

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◈ Omniscient First-Person's Viewpoint

Chapter 94

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The One Who Hears the Wind

The immortal, awakened from a long sleep, immediately kicked off the cabinet and jumped down.

He landed heavily on the floor, then staggered for a moment. His roughly reattached arm and leg were still loose and trembling.

But he was an immortal with regenerative powers, and at that moment his whole body was brimming with essence.

"Hup!"

The moment the immortal tensed, his slightly twisted arm and leg snapped back into place. The scratches covering his body healed in an instant, and his dried-up frame swelled as if it had just been soaked in water.

Fully restored, the immortal looked down at his hands and feet and shouted.

"Oh! My essence is overflowing! What happened here?"

As he looked around, the officer standing in front of him straightened and spoke.

"Tantalus trainee, Rashy. Correct?"

The immortal answered at once.

"Correct! To wake and be greeted by such a beautiful lady. My life has not been in vain! This too must be Mother Earth's arrangement!"

"...Beautiful lady?"

"Of course. If you see someone beautiful and don't call her beautiful, then what do you call her?"

His tone was smooth and playful, but it came so suddenly that the officer could only frown.

"No time for wordplay. I am Lieutenant Colonel Callis Kritz, appointed instructor at Tantalus, and this facility's administrator. And."

The officer opened a bundle and took out an item. Rashy watched with curious eyes, then recognized it, and his face lit up.

"Is that not a World Tree leaf!"

"You recognize it."

If beasts had a king, then grass and trees had the World Tree.

Unlike beasts, however, the king of plants did not take human form.

Humans were the dominant species on land, but only in the realm of beasts. No matter how arrogant they were, few would dare claim humanity ruled plants as well.

And that was reality. Plants kept their original nature, indifferent to whatever happened to beasts.

Even flowers and grasses that bloomed and withered countless times had kings, but those kings were nearly impossible to find. Plant kings all had different forms, making them hard to distinguish, and even if someone found one by extraordinary luck, it died the moment it was uprooted.

Still, some trees lived for thousands of years, and the same was true for their kings.

The kings of trees had lived anywhere from decades to millennia, and among them were some so ancient that their locations became known.

People called those the World Tree.

It was said that after absorbing the earth's essence for millennia, a single root was like a small hill, and a single leaf as large as a great fan. Some people revered and worshiped this vast, sacred king of trees, born and raised alongside Mother Earth, as though it were a god.

Immortal Rashy was one of them.

"Of course I recognize it! Our tribe is closer to Mother Earth than anyone else in the world. How could we fail to know something so full of essence! The sacred ginkgo may not be near us, but it has always been the object of our longing!"

To everyone outside that group, though, it was simply a curious, enormous tree.

A somewhat valuable one, since even a fallen leaf could be sold for money.

The officer said,

"Then you know how valuable this is."

"Of course I know its market value too! I tried to buy one once, and it was damn expensive! My tiny labor wages weren't even close! Anyway, thank you. I was short on essence, so my regeneration was slowing down! Thanks to this, my body is fully healed!"

The immortal nodded eagerly. The officer who had handed over the World Tree leaf showed nothing on her face, but inwardly she was confused.

'Strange. I didn't even feed him the World Tree leaf, but his right arm jumped back on its own and he recovered his strength. What happened?'

Wait. That recovery potion that healed his right arm, could it be...

Half in disbelief, I asked the regressor.

"Shei. In the potion ingredients, did you by any chance..."

"Yeah. Earth essence works well on immortals, so I used a World Tree leaf."

I couldn't hide my shock at the regressor's calm answer.

"Wow. You only spend big at times like this."

"It was the minimum necessary cost. Someone turned that arm into a total rag, and the curse was severe. I couldn't have healed him otherwise."

"Right. Entirely my fault."

Tsk. I clicked my tongue, pressed myself against the corner, and carefully peeked into the training room. The regressor followed right behind me, still clueless.

"The lieutenant colonel met the immortal. Is that why you called me?"

"We're already too late. Let's just watch."

While the regressor and I peered in through the open door, the officer also assessed the immortal with sharp eyes beneath the brim of her cap.

A massive, muscular body that looked about two meters tall. The flesh visible through his tattered shirt was darker than bronze, more like metal than skin. His rugged frame overflowed with vitality, and he had already regained the strength of his prime even before using the World Tree leaf.

'Still, what was that right arm doing, running in here on its own...?'

Still, a good result was a good result. Setting that question aside, the officer looked him up and down.

'They said he tore people apart with his bare hands. In the Abyss it doesn't stand out much, but the immortal race was once called a berserker tribe. And among them he held the second-highest rank, Right Arm... He could be a very useful ally.'

In the land of immortals, who had never escaped tribal society, Rashy had left and wandered the world, taking keen interest in the powerful military state. After various negotiations and acceptance of strict terms, he remained in that state, even obtaining temporary citizenship.

Then he committed murder and was cast into the Abyss, no reconsideration possible.

'One of the very few who bears goodwill toward the military state.'

The Abyss was full of enemies. In this place cut off from the world, she had found the only being with potential to become an ally.

The officer felt a deep sense of relief.

'Good thing I solved the mystery of that bundle. If I hadn't remembered... their orders are always delivered this vaguely...'

The officer touched her chin, thought for a moment, and finished her cold calculations. Rashy stared happily at the World Tree leaf and spoke in eager anticipation.

"Do you truly mean I may keep this?"

"Fine. But there is a condition."

"Ha! Such a precious gift! Thank you!"

"I said there is a condition."

Judging him useful enough, the officer lowered her cap and said,

"It is not a gift. It is a cost I paid on this trainee's behalf. I have incurred considerable loss as well, so the trainee should, to that extent, to me..."

"Haha! People of the military state really do have a talent for stiff speech! This gift, I gratefully and gladly accept!"

"Trainee. I have said this several times..."

The officer looked displeased at the immortal, who kept insisting it was a gift. She assumed he meant to write it off as a gift and swallow the leaf with no obligation.

But that badly underestimated his boisterousness.

"No, it is a gift!"

Shaking his head stubbornly, the immortal gave another big thumbs-up and said,

"This is an immensely precious gift to me, and right now, when I lack essence, exactly the nourishment I needed most! You carried this yourself, came to find me, and handed it over. That means this item is a gift filled with your heart, and if hearts have been exchanged, then surely we can call ourselves friends, can we not!"

"...What?"

Raised in the military state and unaccustomed to words like that, the officer took a beat before understanding him.

In other words, the immortal refused a debtor-creditor relationship and chose a debt of the heart instead.

A financial debt ended once paid, but friendship did not wither until the heart did.

"I am not a man who refuses a friend's request. Well then, what do you ask of me, friend?"

Even for the officer, this outcome was unexpected. She was speechless for a moment, then sank into thought.

But she had already been pushed to the brink. Right now, she had neither reason nor justification to refuse.

Nor any will to.

"...There is something I must do. I want the trainee to help me with it."

"Haha! For a friend's request, gladly!"

The immortal held out his hand, and though the officer was clearly reluctant, she took it in the end.

'...I have no wish to be friends with a prisoner trapped in the Abyss. But for using him right now, this is better.'

Whether it was called friendship or debt did not matter.

As long as she could use an immortal who seemed not to value his own life, the officer decided not to care what this relationship was called.

'Maybe because he's so big... Even his hand is huge. Each finger is two joints longer...'

During the handshake, the instructor had that odd, unfitting thought, then briefly shook her head and refocused.

'No. I was only considering his build. At this size, he'd make a perfect meat shield.'

Good.

Time to pull back. I looked away from them and whispered into the regressor's ear.

"Shei."

The regressor jumped with a shudder.

"Ah, damn. You scared me. What?"

Why so jumpy? I asked, looking at the regressor with every hair standing on end, hissing at me.

"Why are you so startled? We're both men."

"Because it's disgusting! You could just talk normally, so why whisper!"

"If I raise my voice, they'll hear everything inside."

"I always keep sound from leaking out, so it's fine!"

So stalking was your passive skill. Very admirable.

I nodded and pointed to the side.

"Looks like they'll come out soon too, so should we run?"

"Run? Didn't you have business with the immortal?"

"It just ended."

I glanced over there, looked at the officer who had gotten the ally she wanted to trust and rely on, and muttered.

"Because I got what I wanted."

The regressor tilted her head, not understanding what I meant.

"If this keeps going, I won't feel great about it. The immortal... even if he sides with the lieutenant colonel, he probably won't create any meaningful change... still, I'd rather avoid extra trouble."

"Seriously. Says the biggest troublemaker in the world."

"What?"

"Never mind. Just come on!"

It was about time the officer and the immortal came out of the training room. To avoid interfering, I grabbed the regressor and headed outside.

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