WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 96: The Immortal and the Vampire

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The immortal was deeply satisfied by the fullness he had not felt in a long time. After finishing an entire can of beans on his own, he smacked his lips and headed toward the yard.

"The canned food here tastes awful, yet you made it this good! Delicious ingredients taste good even raw, but turning bad food into something delicious is true skill, the essence of cooking! Lieutenant Colonel, you're an excellent cook. You'll make a fine bride!"

Lieutenant Colonel Callis, the military state officer walking beside him, did not look pleased by the compliment. Clicking her tongue in irritation, she replied coldly.

"By that logic, the master sergeant who can make a hundred dishes from one can would be the bride of the century. Stop spouting nonsense and help me with my mission, trainee."

"A hundred dishes! How tempting. Is this master sergeant as beautiful a woman as you are, Lieutenant Colonel?"

"An old bald man with a mustache. He welcomed a granddaughter this year."

"Hahaha! Then never mind! I'll be content with your cooking, Lieutenant Colonel!"

The officer's face twisted so visibly that even the brim of her deeply lowered cap could not hide it.

"Do not assume I will cook for you every day, trainee. This was a special exception."

The immortal looked as if the world had ended.

"Why!"

"I would like to ask you that. Why should I, your instructor, be responsible for a trainee's meals?"

"You could cook for me while you're at it! I have no talent for cooking, and this country has no delicious ingredients! Forgive me for saying so, but whenever I thought of canned beans, I shuddered too much to grow attached to this country! But if you're with me, Lieutenant Colonel, I think it might be a little better!"

Apparently annoyed by the entire situation, the officer pressed her forehead through her cap.

"Finish the job first. Then I'll consider it."

"Understood! Let me see, you said you wanted to get acquainted with the dog lady? You must be shy around strangers, Lieutenant Colonel!"

"Stop talking nonsense!"

"Haha. Understood. You promised to cook for me between friends, so be sure to keep that promise!"

The two had been chatting so ordinarily, even warmly, when they stepped out of Tantalus's main building.

The immortal, who had been talking away, spotted me and waved.

"Oh! Teacher! It's been a while... Huh!"

Just as he started happily toward me, his right arm suddenly twitched on its own and rose threateningly, as though it meant to strike me.

There was still a fair distance between us, but the threat was unmistakable. To me, to him, and to Tyr.

Tyr's eyes glowed red in alarm.

"Hyu!"

At the same time, an army of thousands rose from the darkness at Tyr's will.

The Abyss was a place where sunlight never reached. Every corner lay drowned in shadow.

That was why Tyr's power could extend everywhere. Wherever there was a connection to shadow, the authority of the woman who controlled darkness could reach.

The countless shadows within the Abyss were Tyr's armory, barracks, and soldiers. Darkness surged forward all at once to protect me.

Tyr shouted in anger.

"Earthfolk...! You dare harm Hyu!"

"Wait! This is not my will!"

Even the immortal, the owner of that body, had apparently not expected it. As though his personalities had split apart, he tightly restrained his right arm with his left and spoke.

Not to anyone else, but to his own right arm.

"Offering God! Why are you angry? Hm? What did you say?"

After conversing with his right arm as though it were a separate being, the immortal spoke to me with a puzzled expression from beyond the wall of shadows.

"Teacher. My right arm saw you and now wishes to strike you once! Did you have some conflict with it while I was unconscious?"

"What?"

After skimming his thoughts, it seemed he really had held something resembling a conversation with his right arm.

That thing could communicate? How fascinating.

More importantly, a conflict?

All I had done was use that arm like a rag to wipe up blood while dealing with Tyr. When it got too dirty, I scraped it clean and used it again. Sometimes I dug out bits of flesh with a skewer and scattered them all around.

...If the right arm had consciousness, I could see why it would clench its fist. Hahaha.

I gave an awkward laugh and trailed off.

"Ahaha. Well. It would take a while to explain."

"This right arm, which I received after offering my original right arm to Mother Earth, is a great hand that symbolizes mercy! Yet it is so angry! I wonder what could have happened!"

"I swung that right arm around a bit, and it got cursed..."

"A curse? Hm. It says that wasn't all. Did you perhaps cook with this right arm, or offer it as a sacrifice?"

The right arm had quite a good memory. It seemed to remember better than the regressor.

Since I did not feel confident that I could deceive it, I answered honestly.

"A mad vampire named Finlay went on a rampage, so I borrowed the power of that right arm. I destroyed several servants made from gathered blood and darkness."

"Would that not count as a sacrifice?"

"Ah, does it?"

As I scratched my head and laughed, the immortal laughed along with me and made a generous proposal.

"Good! Teacher, let it hit you just once!"

I rejected him at once.

"Sorry. I can't. If it hits me wrong, I'll die."

"I'll strike gently! Otherwise, I don't think my right arm's anger will subside!"

"It's your right arm's decision, isn't it? You're not the one hitting me, so how could you make it go easy?"

"Is that so? Hahaha! Then make sure you're hit gently!"

The immortal and I were laughing and chatting when Tyr, who had taken those words seriously, shouted indignantly.

"What nonsense."

No one in the Abyss could compare to her influence. At a single word, the earth rumbled, the shadows stirred, and the darkness trembled ominously.

Even the immortal shut his mouth in fear. Tyr warned him in a voice that seemed to rise from the bottom of the Abyss.

"Hyu only chose such means to save me! If you must blame someone, blame me, earthfolk."

The shadow army parted before Tyr. Their movements were orderly and synchronized, as though the same shape had been cast in light.

Leaving the army of darkness behind her, Tyr stepped before the immortal. Her blood-red eyes fixed on him.

"If you truly wish to strike someone, strike me. If that will soothe your feelings, I will take his place. But if you intend to harm Hyu... I will stop you by any means necessary. Even if I must utterly destroy you."

A walking army, and the Progenitor of all vampires. The Shadow Queen.

Her blood was an authority saturated with dominion. To an earthfolk who absorbed vital energy to maintain immortality, it was no different from a curse that prevented regeneration.

Facing the Tyrkanzyaka of legend, the immortal scratched his head sheepishly and laughed loudly.

"Haha! It was to save your lover? Then I understand!"

At that moment.

"L-lover?"

The immense presence that seemed poised to swallow the Abyss vanished as if washed away.

The rippling darkness calmed, and the shaking earth held its breath. The shadow army looked at one another for a moment, then sank into the ground all at once as though they had made a promise.

Only a bewildered girl remained.

Within the collapsing army of darkness, Tyr floundered as though she had been burned, clenching and unclenching her hands several times.

"W-what nonsense. Hyu, Hyu. Look at that frivolous earthfolk. He says the strangest things."

While everyone watched Tyr's behavior in disbelief, the immortal nodded vigorously and shouted.

"What an adorable lover! Good! I shall speak separately with my right arm and settle this properly! It'll understand at least this much! What do you say, my Offering God?"

The right arm, which had been rubbing the immortal's chin all this time, curled its fingers into a small circle in apparent displeasure. Then it sprang back and fell silent beneath his shoulder.

The immortal shouted cheerfully.

"My right arm says it understands! You were lucky, Teacher!"

I answered indifferently.

"You're the lucky one. If it hadn't understood, Tyr would have physically taught it some understanding until it did."

"Haha! That isn't wrong!"

"Anyway, that's what happened. Please tell your right arm I'm sorry for swinging it around without permission."

"That apology seems a little late!"

"I didn't know your right arm would be the one I needed to apologize to. I haven't developed that degree of separatist thinking yet."

"Hahaha! I understand!"

The immortal had never intended to hit me in the first place. If he had truly been angry, he would have rushed at me.

An immortal who did not die easily was just that insensitive to injury.

Whether he was cut by a sword or pierced by a skewer. Even if his arm was severed. To him, it was fundamentally no different from physical contact, so long as it could not kill him.

In other words, he was a good-natured man who could laugh off being hit or injured by someone. Unless someone touched the honor he and his tribe held dear, he was safer than anyone in the world.

That was why he could keep such a cheerful attitude even toward the officer.

It was also why I had awakened him.

"Now then, I have work to do, so I shall be going!"

"Goodbye. I hope your work goes well."

"Until later! You two have a pleasant time together!"

"You too."

Waving his arm broadly, the immortal returned the way he had come and approached the officer, who had stayed hidden from view. His booming voice carried all the way into the yard.

"Oh. I almost truly died just now! It seems difficult to pass through this way!"

When the immortal answered so calmly, the officer glared at him and growled under her breath.

"...Rashy. Can you not even withstand a simple threat from the Progenitor?"

"Of course not! The Progenitor is truly, terribly strong!"

"Is that something to say so proudly!"

'I thought I could rely on him a little, even if he wasn't transcendently strong like the Progenitor or the Beast King...!'

Naturally. In a land that held the regressor, the Beast King, and the Progenitor of vampires, boasting of the single trait of being immortal was hardly an impressive calling card. Looking at them closely, they were all transcendent beings with their own forms of immortality.

An immortal who had been left alone after merely having an arm torn off simply did not have enough clout to face them.

Of course, the immortal did not particularly regret that fact. Being weaker than a natural disaster was nothing to wound his pride over.

"Haha! There are things one cannot do, even at a friend's request! That beautiful girl may appear harmless at first glance, but she is the Progenitor of vampires! She is not someone a mere warrior like me could defeat in battle!"

After receiving such a firm confirmation from his own mouth, the officer clenched her trembling hand tightly.

'I knew it would be this way, but I did not expect him to surrender so easily...! This is an assistant? At this rate, he cannot even serve as a minimal deterrent!'

"Well, if I burned this body up, I might make her itch a little! But then my body would be cursed, and I would never revive again! Haha, it would be best if we did not touch each other! That applies not only to me, but to you as well, Lieutenant Colonel!"

The immortal calmly stated the facts. The officer finally regained control of her emotions and spoke.

"...Forget it. I never intended to oppose the Progenitor in the first place. If possible, I did not intend to approach that laborer either."

"Laborer? Do you mean Teacher?"

"Teacher? A laborer is just a laborer. What do you mean?"

"Is he not an instructor? He introduced himself as one. Then wouldn't that make him my teacher?"

"That bastard was impersonating an instructor too...!"

A sharp glare came from beyond the wall. Though she could not see me, the officer hurled every kind of curse in my direction.

'It is infuriating, but as long as the Progenitor protects him like that, there is no way for me to touch him. Calm down, Callis. Do not waste your mental strength on irrelevant matters.'

The vampire shield was dependable today as well. I was right after all.

The officer quickly gathered herself and said to the immortal.

"As I told you, the target is the King of Dogs. You know about the King of Dogs, correct?"

"Of course! You mean that dog lady!"

"Yes. The King of Dogs is not refusing to follow me, but... for some reason, whenever that laborer calls for the King of Dogs, she immediately runs to his side. No matter where she is."

"Oh! Teacher has such an ability? That is quite enviable!"

"This is extremely important. If the King of Dogs continues behaving that way, the entire plan will fall apart."

The Lords of All Creation's goal was to acquire the Beast King. The reason Callis had infiltrated Tantalus was also to secure Azzy, the King of Dogs.

The reason she, who was only a lieutenant colonel compared to Tantalus's residents, had come as the advance scout was because securing the King of Dogs itself was supposed to be very easy. To win over a Beast King loyal to humans, all she had to do was make eye contact and speak. Lieutenant Colonel Callis had intended to test that once.

Then she encountered the obstacle called me.

'Our plan never assumed that the King of Dogs would resist. The King of Dogs is loyal to humans, especially now that she has formed a pact with the military state. If we demanded it, she would have followed us regardless. But... if that laborer interferes with us to the end, we have no method.'

Forcefully restraining and taking away the Beast King through strength? That was utterly unrealistic. If they had that kind of power, why would they need to use the Beast King? They could simply seize the world with that power.

The reason they sought the King of Dogs was because that level of power could be easily controlled.

Yet that was how things generally worked. If I found something easy to handle, others would find it easy to handle as well.

"Then why not reveal the truth to Teacher and ask him? Explain why you need the dog lady and ask him to yield!"

If that had been possible, the Lords of All Creation would not have been a secret society.

When the officer fell silent, the immortal nodded as if he understood.

"Hmm. So in the end, you must overcome Teacher! I always feel this way, but it is difficult to surpass someone else!"

"He is nothing special. But for some reason... he currently has..."

The Progenitor, Tyrkanzyaka.

The officer recalled Tyr's power.

Darkness spanning all this land, and the power of the Progenitor who ruled it. That power alone could physically tilt an entire nation.

'A mere laborer... Removing him would not be difficult. But the Progenitor behind him would never negotiate. Yet fighting the Progenitor...'

The officer finished her assessment. Unless the Lords of All Creation could commit all their power, within this Abyss alone...

'It is impossible. Perhaps if this were the surface where the sun rises, but fighting the Progenitor here is... suicide.'

Tap. Tap.

The officer's jaw trembled.

The mission would fail.

Because I would interfere. Azzy, who had already been conditioned by the sound of the bell and the entertainment I provided, would not trot along just because the Lords of All Creation called for her.

Yet to remove me, the Progenitor behind me was too frightening.

Perhaps if she reported this fact as it was, once the Lords of All Creation grasped the difficulty of this task...

'They may use me as a pawn to sacrifice... and withdraw from this matter.'

She had worked desperately. As a result, she obtained her father's inheritance just before it was to be incinerated.

She joined hands with the Lords of All Creation, survived brushes with death several times, and gained the merits they provided. She had even received two medals.

The life Lieutenant Colonel Callis had painstakingly built toward becoming a Level 4 citizen...

Was on the verge of collapsing through a single stroke of bad luck.

The officer's body shook. Pulling her uniform cap lower, she gritted her teeth and repeated to herself.

'I will not collapse here. I will find a way somehow. Even if all I have right now... is an unreliable assistant.'

Having firmly resolved herself, the officer slowly moved.

Footnotes:

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