WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Oblivious
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◈ Prince of Rage ◈
Chapter 88
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There were girls who looked to be roughly ten to sixteen years old. Girls gathered as candidates for sacrifice.
Since they had all gathered with their parents or elders of their households, there seemed to be more than a thousand of them.
The candidates all wore veils or wrapped their heads and bodies in large outer garments. The elaborate embroidery on fabrics of blue, red, yellow, and other colours was dazzling.
But what was the point of dressing up so beautifully? Death? Sacrifice?
Surprisingly, though, the mood was not gloomy. It was not lively either.
In one sense, it was solemn. In another, it seemed resigned.
“Adrin, wipe that look off your face.”
Adrin’s mother spoke anxiously. But she was not worried that her daughter might die. She was worried that Adrin might not be chosen as a sacrifice.
Knowing that was why Adrin could not relax her expression.
“The tribe’s survival rests on you. How long are you going to act like a child?”
Her father scolded her sternly.
Pressed by her parents, Adrin clenched her mouth shut before answering.
“What about me?”
“What?”
“What about my survival?”
“Oh, this child. This child. Haven’t I told you over and over? Being offered to the god is the highest honour. You will go to paradise, where game and fruit are plentiful, wild barley ripples endlessly, and fine warriors protect you. Mother envies you.”
“...”
There was no talking to them. Adrin thought not only her parents, but everyone, was barbaric. Cowards.
Her father was about to say something when someone shouted loudly.
“All parents and elders, go home! The selection will begin now! Everyone, go home!”
At the same time, people began raising poles here and there and stretching long sheets like tents, as though building walls. The parents and elders who had come with the candidates were pushed outside.
“Go home! The priests are coming! Go home!”
This was the most important event of the festival, of facing the end. They believed their tribe would survive only if their daughters became sacrifices.
Adrin remained with several of her friends. Some girls from other tribes whom she had never seen before were laughing and chatting, as if they were not even nervous. Perhaps they were forcing themselves to do so.
With her covering drawn over her, Adrin looked up at the sky. It was as though the clouds had wills of their own and were gathering somewhere. They were gathering toward Mount Hekla.
The sun repeatedly disappeared and reappeared, and the ground alternated between shadow and light.
It was a magnificent sight, in a way, but there was no time to appreciate it. The end was near.
“Candidates, line up. This way, this way, this way, this way, this way. One straight line.”
Several people walked around, giving orders to the candidates. The girls obeyed and formed a long line. Adrin had no choice but to join them.
Then, while moving, she bumped into someone. They were as hard as an old tree, so at first she did not even think it was a person. When she turned, she saw a very tall woman.
“I’m sorry.”
Adrin apologised, and the figure turned around. No, he did.
“Valerie?”
The person wrapped in a deep blue covering was none other than Valerie. He was not wearing face powder. He had merely reddened his lips and the corners of his eyes with rouge made from crushed red petals.
Yet that alone made him beautiful enough to hurt the eyes. How should she put it? Because he was not a woman, his beauty surpassed that of a woman. Valerie gave off that kind of dangerous beauty.
Valerie raised his index finger to his lips. It was a gesture telling her to stay quiet and pretend not to know him, yet it was terribly seductive.
“D-Did you come to save me?”
Valerie shook his head and whispered softly.
“No. I’m a sacrifice too.”
“...?”
Adrin could not understand at once and stood there blankly. What was he talking about?
“Why would you be one?”
“I came to kill the dragon.”
“D-Does that make any sense? You’re going to kill a god?”
Adrin had only just begun to resist the customs of the Cambrians, but that did not mean she had completely shattered her preconceptions.
It was an idea so radical, so blasphemous, that no one but an outsider could possibly have it.
Valerie again put his index finger to his lips. Adrin was dumbfounded and confused, but there was nothing she could do.
“Left! Left! You, right! Left! Right!”
The priests were shouting at the front of the line. One side seemed to be rejected, while the other became sacrifices. They appeared to be sorting them first before narrowing them down to one hundred.
Still, she had no idea what standard they were using. It looked completely random, and the fact that they seemed serious about it was the maddest part.
Then Valerie’s turn came.
“You, left! You too, left! You are...!”
Valerie had kept nearly all of his face covered, but when his turn came, he gave the priest a quick glance. The elderly priest froze the moment they saw Valerie.
“Y-You, you, which tribe are you from?”
Valerie could not answer because he could not use his male voice. Fortunately, Adrin behind him helped.
“The Welsh Tribe!”
“The Welsh... The Welsh have truly made up their minds. She must be a woman captured as a slave. Where did they find such a woman? And those eyes, what are those eyes? What are those eyes that pierce my heart? Such painfully beautiful looks.”
Valerie squeezed his eyes shut and bowed his head deeply in utter humiliation. He pulled his covering farther down, hiding nearly all his face.
“G-Go to the left.”
The priest said. The left side seemed to be where the girls chosen as sacrifices had gathered.
Perhaps because the priest had just seen Valerie, when Adrin came forward, the priest seemed to think some country girl had appeared, though she was not ugly.
“You go right... No, just leave.”
“What?”
She had never expected it. Being told not to go right, but simply to leave, filled Adrin with a strange irritation. Even though she had so desperately not wanted to become a sacrifice. Even though she could now live.
“Did you not hear me? You girl who looks like mouldy goat cheese, I’m busy, so hurry and go. The end is near. There’s no time.”
“Hey, move already.”
A warrior overseeing the proceedings grabbed Adrin and pulled her away.
Valerie had not come to save Adrin, but in the end, that was what happened.
Valerie went left and stood with the girls chosen as sacrifices. He stood out clearly because he was so much taller than the rest. Even so, no one thought Valerie was a man.
That was the most humiliating part for Valerie. Why did no one notice? Why?
“Big sister, you’re so pretty.”
“What’s your name?”
“Are you from the kingdom? Were you captured as a slave?”
Not knowing how he felt, the girls around him showered him with praise. Valerie squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth, enduring it. His hatred and determination to kill the dragon burned even hotter.
“She must be very sad.”
“It’s okay. I’ll stay beside you. Let’s die together.”
Who was comforting whom? From beginning to end, everything seemed mad.
In any case, apparently having filled the quota of one hundred sacrifices, warriors came over and tied ropes around the girls, linking them together.
Then they began slowly leading them away as though escorting prisoners. Valerie was naturally among them.
As the hundred bound sacrifices passed through the tents and began their procession, people started scattering flower petals as though they had been waiting for this.
The priests walked at the very front, and under their guidance, the hundred sacrifices continued onward. At the same time, the clouds overhead seemed to move even faster.
When they reached a certain point, the hundred sacrifices stood in the middle of a wilderness while tens of thousands watched from afar. Were they about to become food for the dragon? Ölvir needed to get him the sword in time.
As Valerie was thinking that, the priests guiding them turned to leave, then stopped and looked back at him.
After whispering among themselves, they spoke to Valerie, whose face was still covered.
“Show us your face.”
One of the fifteen or so priests spoke. For a moment, Valerie thought he had been exposed, but when he lifted his head, that hope was completely shattered.
“...W-What, what beauty is this?”
“This is truly absurd.”
“The foulest whore.”
“Let us purify her.”
“Yes, she must be purified.”
Valerie could not understand where the conversation was going. Purify him? What did that mean? Then he saw the lecherous gleam in the priests’ eyes.
“Let us exchange her for one girl, even now. We will still have our hundred, no matter what.”
“Let us do that.”
“Come here. You are not a sacrifice. We will purify you.”
The priests came closer, undid only the link in the rope, and tried to drag Valerie away while he was still bound. Naturally, Valerie resisted, and there was no way the old priests could pull him along.
“What is this? Why isn’t she moving?”
He did not budge at all. Rather than feeling outmatched in strength, they seemed to think he had caught on something.
Valerie wondered how much longer he should endure it. Then someone tried to put a hand on his chest, and he finally exploded.
“Do not touch my body!”
A clear male shout rang out.
Everyone started in surprise. Valerie drew up the power of the runes and snapped the rope in an instant. Then he immediately drove his fist into the face of the priest who had reached for his chest.
Crack!
There was the sound of a skull breaking. The priest’s face collapsed, and they fell backward, dead or alive. Several teeth were embedded in Valerie’s clenched fist.
When Valerie tightened his fist, the lodged teeth sprang free.
Then he swung his fists at the priests around him. He grabbed them with his left hand and pulled them in before punching them. He brought fists down on their heads as though striking with a hammer.
Each time, heads crumpled and burst apart so easily that it seemed impossible for a human head to break like that. Teeth scattered everywhere, eyes bulging from their sockets.
Valerie tore off the covering he had been wearing. Platinum hair long enough to cover his ears flew in the wind. He wore women’s clothes, but his broad shoulders and imposing build made it obvious to anyone that he was a man.
Yet because of the rouge around his eyes and on his lips, he was also incomparably beautiful.
Tens of thousands watched the sight from afar, their eyes widening.
As Valerie beat the priests to death without restraint, young warriors in the crowd drew their weapons and rushed over in shock. Some came galloping over on horseback.
Even then, Valerie chased down every last priest and beat them all to death.
Afterward, he sharply turned toward the approaching warriors. Because of the power of the runes, a bright, starlike light flashed from his eyes.
Deadly beauty and unbearable rage were etched across his face, and the warriors stopped in their tracks. Somehow, he did not seem human.
“I am Valerie, descendant of Sigurd the Dragonslayer! Does that mean I am the descendant of one who killed a god?”
A cry filled with rage rang out. Then, as though it had been waiting for that very moment, Mount Hekla erupted.
Something seemed to shoot up from the crater with a boom!, followed by an enormous plume of black ash. The clouds gathered over the mountain scattered at once, and a thick ash cloud rose high into the sky.
Dozens, hundreds of bolts of lightning struck all at once.
The ground shook.
Rrrrrr...
After a brief delay, a thunderous roar that seemed to shake the entire world came crashing down with a shockwave, sweeping tens of thousands off their feet in an instant. People and livestock alike tumbled down in heaps.
Rrrrrrrrr... Kraa-boom!
Whoooooosh!
Even Valerie was swept off his feet by the immense shockwave, which he had not expected. He planted his feet firmly and rose again.
All the Cambrians trembled in fear. Most fell prostrate, while some hurriedly fled on horseback.
“God! God! Have mercy on us!”
Which one did they mean by god? Valerie turned toward Mount Hekla. A shadow larger than the mountain itself was cast upon the wide, thick clouds. It was clearly a dragon with its wings spread wide.
At last, a dragon’s roar echoed down from the sky.
Kwoooooo!
Then the dragon descended through the thick clouds. It was smaller than Valerie expected, compared to the impossible size of its shadow.
“Valerie!”
Someone shouted. It was Ölvir’s voice. He rode over on horseback and threw a sword. Valerie caught it in one hand.
The dragon looked very small because it was so high in the sky. It circled the area as it descended lower and lower, then finally landed where the sacrifices were gathered.
Boom!
A violent wind surged, and the ground shook. Up close, it was certainly enormous. It was the size of a manor, or a small castle.
Before that gigantic, irresistible red terror stood one man.
Without the slightest tremor or fear, a man in women’s clothing and makeup stood facing it. His platinum hair streamed to one side.
The plan had gone somewhat wrong, but Valerie did not run. He drew his sword and threw the scabbard far away. Wound flashed in the light.
Holding his sword, legs spread apart, he faced Húginnis, the fire dragon of Mount Hekla, a legendary beast or god.
Tens of thousands of Cambrians watched him.
The sight itself was too unbelievable. How could a person be like that?
Of all the madness so far, Valerie might have been the maddest. Incredibly, he was daring to stand against a god.
It was a shock that shattered, in a single blow, the barbarism called ideas, hardened by long custom and tradition. One person’s true madness held the power of an erupting volcano.
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