WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 120: What Am I?

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The head of Crow Company, the largest private military corporation on the continent. Garcia Rubalt, Duke Oun, one of the Ten Peaks.

Such an enormous figure was kneeling before Kyle.

Kneeling atop Orban's stomach, which was wrapped in the Holy Shroud and feathers, with both hands pressed to the floor, he looked both strange and pathetic.

"No..."

Kyle spoke with an uncomfortable look on his face.

"It's difficult when you suddenly kneel before me."

"That's how sincere I am."

Duke Oun looked up at Kyle.

"This may only be a projection, but if kneeling isn't enough, I'll even pretend to lick your feet."

"What exactly are you asking me to do?"

"Didn't I tell you? Save me."

"How can I, someone who has only just reached the Boundary Realm, save you, Duke Oun?"

"At least try."

"No, how exactly do you want me to save you?"

His voice was so desperate that Kyle decided to hear him out first.

"I'm trapped in the dark frontier."

Duke Oun let out a deep sigh.

"Of all the headquarters personnel who entered the dark frontier, I'm the only one who can't leave this land. Supplies keep coming in, so I don't lack for anything, but I can't live in the dark frontier for the rest of my life, can I?"

"I do feel for your situation, but what help could I possibly offer?"

"Perhaps something will change if you come here."

"What? Perhaps?"

Kyle asked in disbelief. Perhaps? It sounded like he did not have so much as a shred of evidence, let alone certainty.

"Did that demon not say it? You are a Turning Point. It seems the world is about to change because of you... If you come to the dark frontier, something is bound to change. Just as a demon emerged from the Black Cube."

"That doesn't sound like a good thing."

"If anything can change my fucking situation, I can lick more than your feet. I can lick your ass too."

"Do not say disgusting things."

"That's how sincere I am. This place may even suit you. You've survived in this space without any equipment, haven't you?"

Duke Oun raised his head and looked around. The laboratory, restored to its original appearance as the mana evaporated, was strewn with the remnants of beings that had once been human.

"Once one reaches the Boundary Realm, they establish themselves and gain resistance to mana, but you had not reached the Boundary Realm then. You were even fine after coming into contact with something that crawled out of an outer god's stomach."

"Maybe the outer god likes me."

"Likes you? Do not say such nonsense. Those things from beyond are no different from deadly poison to mortals. Seeing one can corrupt the mind, and even learning information about one can do the same."

Duke Oun spoke with a hollow laugh. It seemed even he had not heard of the will that had been carved into Kyle's mind earlier.

"There will be no danger at all. I will protect you with everything I have. Just come here once... and if nothing changes, you can simply return."

"No."

Kyle answered without a moment's hesitation.

It was because of the will the outer god had carved into him earlier.

"Such a cute and lovely child."

"Come here."

"Next time."

"Again."

He could sense it instinctively. He could not go near it. If he did, something horrifying would happen.

Kyle found exhilaration in surviving danger, in coming back alive from the edge of death. But that was only when he could fight his opponent to some degree.

At least not yet.

"I do feel for your situation, Duke Oun, but my life matters to me too. Even today, I struggled because I didn't want to die."

"You struggled and survived, did you not? You even opened the Boundary Realm. Great gains only come when one accepts risks."

"No matter what you say, I have no intention of going to the dark frontier anytime soon."

"It doesn't have to be soon. I can endure a little longer. Just promise that you will come to the dark frontier someday and help me."

Duke Oun pressed his forehead to the floor again. For the head of Crow Company, his manner was somewhat frivolous, but that only made his desire to escape the dark frontier feel more genuine.

"If it's a promise with no set date, I can give you my word."

"No set date is a little cruel... How about one year?"

"That's too soon. I'll go once I'm certain I can protect myself."

"Didn't I say I'd protect you?"

"I believe that in the decisive moment, the only person who can protect me is myself."

"The Thunder Emperor taught his grandson well."

"I learned that from my mother, not my grandfather."

More precisely, he had learned it from his father in his previous life.

"Fine. Then we'll make a promise with no set date. I'm not someone who ever makes promises like this, so understand how desperate my situation is."

"What will you give me in return?"

"How about we discuss that gradually later?"

"No, let us discuss it now. Why are the Crows so obsessed with Fenris?"

"Huh."

Once again, the hilt was in Kyle's hand. Since things had come to this, he intended to hear everything he wanted from Duke Oun.

"If I answer, can you swear that you will come to the dark frontier within five years?"

Five years.

It was a long time, or a short one, depending on how one looked at it.

"Make it ten years."

"So you're not some pampered young master. You're a complete punk, no different from a robber except you aren't holding a blade."

"I'm holding a blade."

"Looking again, you are. Fine, ten years."

"Swear you won't lie. Don't give me some obvious excuse about the founder's will."

"That is only the reason we give publicly. Crow Company's ultimate ambition is the safe Ascension business."

"What?"

Kyle understood safe Ascension, but what did he mean by business? He stared with wide eyes. Duke Oun seemed amused by his reaction and chuckled.

"Whether human or Demihuman, what do people wish for when they grow old and their Lifespan nears its end?"

"I don't know. Immortality?"

"That's part of it. Our corporation also studied immortality for a long time, but we ultimately decided it was not worth developing. Physical aging can be overcome, but there is nothing to be done for the mind."

Tap. Tap.

Duke Oun raised a finger and tapped his head.

"A living mind can only endure so much. Even a ten-year-old child can become depressed and commit suicide depending on their environment, so how could the minds of beings who live for decades or centuries endure?"

"Do not races like elves and dragons live for hundreds of years?"

"Even those long-lived races have their own hardships, and races not born long-lived are not suited to living as they do. And think about it. If complete immortality were achieved, who do you think would enjoy it?"

"The rich...?"

"The powerful. The world would be seized by powerful people who do not die. And if they possess minds that never wear down, they would rule from above forever. It would not be a pleasant world."

The image of the Emperor's youthful face crossed Kyle's mind.

"That is why the founder established the corporation's long-standing ambition, safe Ascension. Ascension is the sublimation of a being after death, and what comes next in this world. No one knows what lies after death. You can only know it by dying."

Kyle could only blink.

He had died once and even reincarnated, but he could not remember what had come after death. He had simply died as Raikal, then opened his eyes as a newborn baby.

"Think about it. What if we could learn what lies after death, whether an afterlife truly exists? Depending on what that world is like, people may no longer fear what comes after death. Allowing people to meet a happy death without breaking the structure of the world, that is the ambition passed down since our founder. The Valhalla Project."

"Huh..."

"The only person in this world to achieve complete Ascension was the Sword Saint, Ruin Alastor. Do you know about necromancy?"

"I don't."

"It is a technique for contacting the dead. It requires a medium... and the sword the Sword Saint kept by his side until just before his Ascension was Fenris. Through Fenris, we wish to contact the ascended Sword Saint, learn the secret of Ascension, and complete a way to safely pass through the path he pioneered."

It was absurd.

"Is that possible?"

"You only learn whether it is possible by trying. We need Fenris to try. So? Now that you have heard the story, don't you want to hand Fenris over?"

"Not at all. Frankly, it sounds so suspicious and ridiculous that I wonder whether you are lying, Duke Oun."

"I swear I'm not lying. Didn't you see it earlier? Our corporation's proud agents. Artificial Boundary Realms. And the barrier protecting my son."

Chuckling, Duke Oun patted Orban, who was still lying there.

"All of it is the product of the Valhalla Project. Our corporation has sponsored Ascendants for hundreds of years, helping them reach their destination. These are works made by crushing or dividing the relics left in the bodies they shed behind. Most are defective, of course. Still, isn't it an incredible achievement that we succeeded in artificially opening the Upper Dantian?"

"Then why not ask us to sell you the Founding Ancestor's bones instead?"

"Sir Kyle, do you think that makes any sense? If we asked for that, Alastor would be outraged and wage war against our corporation. Besides, there is no guarantee that the Sword Saint, who achieved complete Ascension, even left behind a body."

Thinking about it, Duke Oun was right. Alastor revered Ruin Alastor so deeply that his red hair and golden eyes had become symbols of the family. Asking them to sell whatever remains might be left of him would make the family furious.

"Have you not tried necromancy on the Ascendants you sent up?"

"Of course we have, but none of them could hold a conversation. It seems the belly of an outer god is a truly terrible place. Didn't the demon beg earlier? It said it didn't want to go back."

Demon King Astaros had said that a mortal's Ascension was crawling into an outer god's mouth.

It was what Duke Oun had said earlier as well. Ascension sounded grand, but it was human sacrifice, offering oneself as the sacrifice.

'And if you avoid Ascension, you enter the mouth of a sky god through the cycle of reincarnation.'

Astaros had said that too. He truly loved and cared for Ruin Alastor, which was why he had left Baal behind and told Ruin to annihilate himself.

'What a fucking horrible world.'

It was absurd enough to make his head spin. Open your Upper Dantian and grow as strong as you want, then die and be eaten by a sky god. Ascend, and be eaten by an outer god.

'...What am I?'

The thought suddenly came to him.

Sword Demon Raikal. It was true that Ruin had killed him, but objectively speaking, Raikal had not been weak. Five hundred years ago, Raikal's name as the Sword Demon had shaken the world because he was that strong.

He had been defeated quite a few times, but aside from Ruin, he had paid every one of them back. He had not only fought the weak. The opponents Raikal had lost to, struggled against, and eventually defeated in return had all been monsters who had opened their Upper Dantians.

That demon, Hua Zhongxian Mak-i, too. He had ascended four hundred years ago and had ranked at the bottom among the Ten Masters of the East. Kyle had never even heard of him, since he had lived in a different era, but was the Sword Demon truly weaker than the lowest of the Ten Masters of the East?

Kyle did not think so.

He could be sure because he had fought the man. Hua Zhongxian Mak-i had left much behind in the belly of the outer god and had not been in perfect condition, but even so, judging by the strength of the techniques and will he wielded, he could not have been stronger than Raikal.

Then why had he ascended, entered the belly of an outer god, and become a demon?

Why had Raikal died and entered the belly of a sky god?

Because it had been before Ruin ascended?

That could not be it. Had Duke Oun not said that Ascension itself could be attempted even before Ruin?

'They only failed.'

This reincarnation was deeply unsettling.

The way his Upper Dantian had opened as if it had been waiting for a situation like this, and the voice of someone who had spoken through Jor's mouth. He could sense a dark, clingy intention behind it. An intention that said, I reincarnated you, so I will use you as a tool as much as I please.

Whose intention was it?

"Don't think too hard about it. Selling Fenris wouldn't just benefit our corporation, it'd benefit the whole world. We would uncover the secrets of Ascension and the afterlife, and allow people to enjoy happiness after death. I promise you, once the Valhalla Project is complete, Alastor will receive it before anyone else."

Perhaps he had taken Kyle's silence as hesitation over whether to cooperate. Duke Oun began persuading him.

"The Thunder Emperor may attempt Ascension on his own someday, but not everyone in Alastor can do that, can they? Once the Valhalla Project is complete, everyone who lacks the qualifications will be able to enjoy the benefits of complete Ascension. Your family included."

"Hmm..."

"Naturally, we'll also provide royalties from the revenue the Valhalla Project earns in the future. Once it's complete, sums in the hundreds of millions or trillions will become insignificant. Though you will lose Fenris."

"What? Lose it?"

Duke Oun blinked at Kyle's question.

"Isn't that obvious? Fenris will be used as a door to open a path beyond the sky of this world, to some distant place we do not even know. Forever."

"Woof!"

Fenris barked loudly. It was the cry of a wolf, but Kyle could clearly feel the emotion behind it.

Dislike.

"That would be difficult. I'm only borrowing Fenris from my family as well."

"For the great cause of the world's future, do you have no intention of making such a difficult decision?"

"I'm still young, so I can't feel the urgency you speak of when it comes to that distant future."

The one who was desperate now was not Kyle, but Duke Oun. More than Crow Company's Valhalla Project, he likely wanted to escape the dark frontier.

"No, wait. If you're trapped in the dark frontier, what did you mean earlier? You said that if I had died here with the Central Branch Head, you would've cried in the same place as my grandfather."

"The connection seems to be a little strange... The condition is poor. It appears we have stayed connected for too long."

Duke Oun's body, kneeling atop Orban's stomach, began to shake. He said the connection was poor, but the shaking looked as though Duke Oun himself was making it by trembling his body.

"Anyway, Sir Kyle, I have said everything I wished to say. I answered your questions as well. Do not forget, ten years. It may only be a verbal promise, but please come save me within ten years."

"Wait. Let me ask you one more thing. Is Crow Company also supporting the Emperor of the Empire?"

Duke Oun's body stiffened as he tried to escape the inconvenient question. He blinked a few times, then burst into loud laughter.

"The Valhalla Project is a business for after death, not immortality while one is alive. I haven't personally met the rejuvenated Emperor, but I wasn't the one who gave him youth."

Duke Oun chuckled as he rose.

"Those who must leave should leave for the world to turn properly. Isn't that so? I don't know who gave the Emperor youth, but that's not right. At least, that's what I believe."

Was he sincere?

Kyle doubted him, but did not demand an oath. His careless manner sometimes made him seem honest, but Kyle decided not to trust everything Duke Oun said.

"How many years have you been trapped in the dark frontier, Duke Oun?"

"Fifteen years."

Duke Oun's smiling eyes watched Kyle.

"Strangely enough, you are fifteen years old. Isn't that an interesting coincidence?"

With those words, Duke Oun's body grew faint and disappeared.

Was the connection really poor? Or had he left because he did not want to answer difficult questions?

Kyle stared for a moment at Orban, still lying wrapped in feathers and the Holy Shroud.

'Coincidence...'

There were still many questions, but he knew one thing for certain.

There was no such thing as coincidence in this world. At least, not where Kyle was concerned.

Kyle being born fifteen years ago, and Duke Oun being trapped in the dark frontier for fifteen years, were not coincidences.

Just as the Black Cube had spat out an Ascendant, Duke Oun had been trapped in the dark frontier by something connected to Kyle.

'The Black Cube was found in the dark frontier too. My existence... seems to be connected to the dark frontier somehow.'

He felt sorry for Duke Oun, but it only made him more certain that he could not go to the dark frontier.

At least not now.

* * *

"Fuuu..."

At the center of complicated magic circles and mechanical devices, Duke Oun, Garcia Rubalt, let out a long sigh and rubbed his knees.

It had only been a projection, but his kneeling had been sincere.

"Did you really need to go that far?"

"Would it have looked sincere if I had not knelt?"

Garcia answered the blunt question with a laugh. Slipping a hand beneath his mask, he rubbed his lips and grumbled.

"It was sincere too. If I can get out of this fucking place, I can kneel as many times as needed. I can even lick the ass of a fifteen-year-old boy."

"Would it not be better for us to go directly and kidnap Kyle Alastor?"

Beyond the machinery stood people wearing cloaks of black feathers.

The Black Wing Guard, Crow Company's headquarters executives and Garcia's personal guard. They were loyal retainers who would bring back even the Emperor of the Empire's head if Garcia ordered it.

"If things become truly dire, I may have to give an order like that, but there's no need yet. I don't want to fight Alastor either."

Garcia shrugged and stepped out of the magic circle.

"If our corporation uses its full strength, we should be able to stand against Alastor."

"Perhaps with our full strength, but we're a corporation that calls itself family. We aren't truly family. Alastor is family."

"..."

"My children have grown too big for their boots. Their father has been buried here for fifteen years, yet not one of them sincerely asks after me."

Just thinking of his children made him sigh.

His eldest son wanted his father to die quickly in a faraway land so he could become the head, not merely the president. His second son dreamed of complete independence after securing a share in Erebos's Demon King succession. His eldest daughter, strange by nature since childhood, had holed herself up in the south and become absorbed in evil arts.

Compared to those three damned children, even the youngest, whom he had long ago cast out of his sight, seemed like an angel. Incompetence had at least become blissful ignorance.

"It seems Sir Kyle intends to encourage the youngest to do something. For now, we should support that side."

Grumbling, Garcia headed outside.

To the damned land that would not even allow him to clock out, let alone retire.

Footnotes:

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