WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 199: Mister
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“So, how long do I have to stay in this thing?”
“Hmm. You’ve regained consciousness, and your urgent treatment is mostly complete, so...”
Duke Oun shrugged as he operated the device connected to the capsule. With a hiss of escaping air, the capsule opened.
“However, your injuries have not fully healed, so you must not overexert yourself. For the time being, ride this.”
When Duke Oun snapped his fingers, the pure white box in the corner of the infirmary floated into the air. It split apart and shifted through several forms before becoming a wheelchair.
“No... I’m not so badly hurt that I can’t walk on my own.”
“Have you already forgotten what I just said? I told you that you must not overexert yourself.”
As he said that, Duke Oun plopped down into the wheelchair. It required neither a caregiver to push it nor its occupant to turn its wheels. The wheelchair moved smoothly with nothing more than the movement of a stick, and when he pressed a button, its wheels turned sideways and it even floated into the air.
“It’ll be much more comfortable for you to ride this than to walk yourself.”
After showing off the wheelchair’s functions, Duke Oun brought it before Kyle. Kyle looked deeply displeased, but he sat down in it anyway.
“This is a little excessive.”
Kyle grumbled as he moved his newly freed body around.
Throb.
Pain struck the moment he moved his limbs. A variety of agonies, as though his joints were shattering, his muscles tearing, and his nerves burning. Duke Oun chuckled as he watched Kyle grit his teeth and suppress a groan.
“See? You’re in no condition to push yourself. It’s honestly remarkable that you survived those injuries.”
The wounds Kyle had sustained in his battle with Velatus had been life-threatening. His internal injuries were severe, few of his bones had remained intact, and both his mana and intent had been utterly drained.
The problem came after those injuries. He had been swallowed by an outer god’s rift and subjected to loving gazes. The outer gods’ mana had flooded into Kyle’s body. His Spirit Root and soul had expanded as though they were about to burst, and as mana filled his dantian, the Circuits connected to it throughout his body had been burned by it.
Burned was only a figure of speech. His Circuits had not literally burned to ash. Still, there was no denying that the mana injected alongside those gazes and their favor had placed a severe burden on his body.
Most of Kyle’s bones had already mended, and his internal injuries were healed. His Circuits and nerves were intact as well. Yet the reason moving his body still caused such terrible pain was...
‘Is it because of the mana?’
According to Duke Oun, mana had seeped throughout Kyle’s body. His physical form had not mutated and he retained his sense of self, but a deadly poison capable of altering his very existence was inside him. It was fortunate that he suffered no worse than pain.
‘Can I circulate mana?’
Kyle frowned and circulated the Primordial Chaos Sword Canon.
...
For a moment, he thought he might faint. He tasted blood between his clenched teeth. His dantian was full of mana, but trying to circulate it brought pain so intense that death seemed preferable. It was like forcing his aching body to move, or trying to push something through a pipe twisted into knots. He had only circulated it lightly, yet cold sweat drenched his entire body.
“Oh dear.”
With a sympathetic expression, Duke Oun personally took out a handkerchief and wiped Kyle’s face.
“It seems you cannot circulate mana as you please.”
“I could still use Voice Transmission...”
“Voice Transmission does not require precise mana control.”
That was true. Kyle steadied his ragged breathing and grimaced.
He was in no condition to move his body or circulate his cultivation technique.
‘Escaping on my own will be impossible.’
Duke Oun’s decision to kneel and ask for cooperation had been born from desperation, but it was also an attempt to win Kyle’s favor. From the beginning, Kyle could not escape this place on his own. Even with Lucia and Jor’s help, it would be impossible to escape Duke Oun’s headquarters while evading every pursuer, then cross the dark frontier all the way to Gladiheim.
In other words, Duke Oun had no need to oppress Kyle.
At least, not for now.
“I would like to contact Alastor.”
“I expected you to say that, so I have already sent a messenger.”
“A messenger? Can’t you contact them with magic? You could ten years ago.”
“Sir Kyle, that was possible because it was ten years ago. I am much deeper in now than I was back then.”
Duke Oun let out a hollow laugh and put away the handkerchief.
“At this depth, it is impossible to contact the continent with magic. We must send a messenger to somewhere communication is possible.”
“Why have you come this deep? Moving forward will only isolate you further.”
“I moved forward because I could not go back. And because I had no choice but to move forward.”
“You have no choice?”
“How should I put it? A premonition, perhaps. Or intuition...”
Duke Oun tapped the head concealed beneath his mask.
“I cannot shake the feeling that if I do not move forward, I will cease to be myself. Perhaps it is merely baseless anxiety born from my peculiar predicament, but I have no wish to test whether that anxiety might come true with my own body. So I keep moving forward, enough to settle that anxiety.”
“Could that not be what the outer gods want?”
Kyle looked up at Duke Oun with a frown.
“You said you were cursed for destroying and coveting things that belonged to the outer gods. Perhaps this is a way of drawing you close enough for the outer gods to punish you themselves.”
“Of course, I have considered that possibility. That is why I advance only in moderation.”
Duke Oun’s voice was unexpectedly calm.
“Still, I believe moving forward is better than standing still or going back. If I cannot leave anyway, I would at least like to witness sights no one else has ever seen.”
“You said developing the dark frontier was not your lifelong ambition.”
“That is right. I began this massive project at the request of the Beastfolk Allied Nations. But when you spend twenty-five years on something and pour money into it, you naturally develop some stubbornness. As the head of a company, I also cannot help but think of sunk costs. Sir Kyle, do you know what sunk costs are?”
“No.”
“A sunk cost is an expense that has already been paid and cannot be recovered, no matter what you do.”
Duke Oun spoke with a smile in his voice and placed a hand on Kyle’s wheelchair. This state-of-the-art wheelchair did not need a caregiver, but Duke Oun deliberately pushed it himself. He apparently believed that doing it this way would better display his sincerity toward Kyle and build rapport.
“Let us say you invested in a mine. Yet no matter how much you dig, you find no vein. That is a very troubling situation, is it not? The money you invested was no small amount. To cover those losses, you must discover a vein, and that vein must be valuable enough to recover all the money and mental costs you have invested so far.”
“Well... I suppose so. But if no vein appears no matter how much you dig, wouldn’t it be better to stop before losing even more?”
“Ha ha! What a dispassionately rational perspective. It is no boast, but I am called the greatest head of the Crows since the first chairman, Cyrus Rubalt. Sir Kyle, for a truly exceptional businessman, guts are more important than calm judgment. Most truly successful businessmen possess a gambler’s nature.”
I see.
Kyle slowly nodded. Come to think of it, Cyrus Rubalt had been the same five hundred years ago. Rather than safely growing his business, Cyrus had gambled by selling every one of his businesses to the Empire at a bargain price, turning the Crows into the continent’s largest military corporation.
“I have already poured most of headquarters’ budget into this land and melted away my precious time. If I turn back or stop, I cannot recover any of it. I may even die. So I have no choice but to move forward. I must recover my investment, no, more than that.”
“Even if failing means total ruin?”
“Ha ha ha!”
Duke Oun’s laughter grew louder.
“Sir Kyle, I am already cursed. I cannot leave this land. It is much like being imprisoned. If I am imprisoned anyway, should I not dig all the way to the bottom? Besides, this is quite an appealing prison. The further I advance, the more I discover things that cannot be found on the continent.”
His laughter carried delighted excitement.
“The mining analogy was wrong. It’s not as though this land yields nothing. The regenerative fluid that healed you. A mask that conceals the soul from gazes. The artificial Boundary Realm achieved through Artificial Circuits and Artificial Dantians. Communication with Ascendants I painstakingly supported on their way up, and what I created through that... Ah, never mind. In any event, most of these innovative, state-of-the-art technologies were made possible by discoveries in this land.”
“Then you have already recovered your sunk costs.”
“No, I have not. Development is not free, you know. And if I cannot sell what I develop, it remains a loss. Every new technology developed here will only become profitable once I leave the dark frontier.”
As Kyle listened to Duke Oun’s speech, he understood what sort of person this man was.
“Discovery and innovation, technological development and progress! There is also the desire to explore. What lies beyond the endlessly expanding darkness? To be honest, I am curious. That is why I move forward.”
Duke Oun Garcia Rubalt. Just as he boasted, he was a businessman, a gambler, and an explorer. The voice that had seemed to lament sunk costs now shone like that of a dreaming boy. In the end, sunk costs were merely one pretext for that man to keep moving forward. Garcia Rubalt simply wanted to move forward.
‘This mister... he’s enjoying being cursed.’
Of course, that was not all he felt. His desire to leave the dark frontier was also sincere. Yet even if Duke Oun gained the freedom he desperately wanted, he would not flee from the dark frontier. He would simply come and go as he pleased, continuing its development.
Honestly.
Kyle did not dislike people like that.
A businessman’s calculations. A gambler’s nerve. An explorer’s curiosity. Discovery and innovation, technological development and progress. Duke Oun had listed plausible reasons for his advance, but they were all just wrapping paper.
His talk of sunk costs and recovering his investment was merely a garment Garcia Rubalt wore to justify his own nature to the world, and to himself, a corporate leader who had to weigh profit and loss.
The truth was simple. He advanced because he wanted to see what lay ahead. He took things because he wanted them. That was all this man was.
Kyle smiled without realizing it. He understood that feeling better than anyone. Why did Kyle wield a sword? Why did he continue wielding one even after dying once and reincarnating?
To catch up to Ruin? Because he wanted to grow stronger? Those were all true. None of them were lies. Yet there was no special purpose behind wielding a sword itself. If he had to name a purpose, it was because he liked wielding a sword, but he did not wield it solely for that purpose.
He swung first, and purpose followed afterward.
He wanted his next strike to be better than the last. He wondered whether there was an end to the sword. Had he not felt that clearly during his desperate battle with Velatus? Even with death at his doorstep, he had laughed because the strike he had just made was better than the previous one. At that moment, Kyle had not thought of grand causes like liberating the East or punishing Velatus.
He had simply moved forward because there was a better next step ahead.
‘At their core, he and I are not so different.’
Only where they advanced differed. Duke Oun moved forward because he wanted to see beyond the darkness. Kyle moved forward because he wanted to see the end of the sword. That was how they crossed the boundary of death. Neither was the sort of person who could contemplate stopping, and both lived by attaching plausible reasons to their advance.
For Duke Oun, it was sunk costs. For Kyle...
‘This time, I could say it is because I want to repay the debt I owe Ruin.’
Each of them had things that made it difficult to pursue their desires with pure simplicity. It was easier to have a purpose, even one that was only an excuse, and it allowed them to devote themselves more deeply. It was better to have some destination, however vague, than none at all.
‘Wait.’
He should not feel kinship with that suspicious man so readily. Perhaps all of this was Duke Oun’s performance, just like the knees he had bent or the hand currently pushing the wheelchair.
“So, is the development progressing smoothly?”
“It is going more smoothly than when you went missing. Back then, this damned land was so vast that deciding where to go was exhausting. Now, however, we have a general sense of direction.”
“A direction? How? Did you develop some kind of compass?”
“Ha ha, nothing like that. I should have told you earlier. Members of the Demon Tribe crossed over from beyond the darkness.”
“...The Demon Tribe?”
It was an abrupt statement. Kyle blinked and turned to Duke Oun. Duke Oun’s expression was hidden by his mask, but the fingers pushing the wheelchair tapped its handle in rhythm.
“It seems the other side of the darkness is connected to Erebos. That land was always strange and mysterious. You know this yourself, do you not? Erebos is physically drawing closer to the continent.”
“That is... true.”
Erebos was originally the land of the Demon Tribe far beyond the North Sea, but over five hundred years, the distance between Erebos and the continent had gradually grown shorter. As if an entire island were being pushed closer by immense waves.
“It truly is. Erebos is being pushed closer by the northern current. Erebos has kept its exploration of the other side strictly secret, so we did not know, but judging by the circumstances, it seems the far side of the northern current is connected to the dark frontier.”
“You mean the westernmost edge and northernmost edge are connected? Is that possible?”
“Ordinarily, it would be impossible, but are you not accustomed to things that defy common sense? You yourself returned to the continent after ten years.”
Kyle let out a hollow laugh at that. He was certainly accustomed to extraordinary events. Even the inside of the rift that had swallowed him was a place where time and space tangled together. When he regained consciousness, he had not fallen in the East, but on the front lines of the dark frontier.
“So that is how you found a direction for development. You are developing in a different direction from where the Demon Tribe crossed over?”
“Correct. Though several minor problems have arisen, and the Demon Tribe is interfering with development...”
“Minor problems?”
“Hmm, now that I think about it, it concerns you as well. More precisely, it concerns your adjutant. Just to be sure, are you the sort of superior who considers their adjutant’s problems to be their own?”
“Yes.”
“A fine superior. In truth, Lady Lucia and I share the same problem. In other words, my problem is also your problem. Do you agree?”
“Look at this mister.”
Kyle blurted it out in disbelief. Duke Oun was smoothly inviting Kyle aboard his own ship.
“What kind of problem is it?”
“It is because of the succession war being waged by a senile Demon King. Your adjutant surprisingly possesses a Demon King’s brand. Just like I do.”
With a chuckle, Duke Oun extended the hand that had been pushing the wheelchair before Kyle’s face. The ring on his middle finger glowed, and a black inverted pentagram floated into the air.
“...Huh.”
Even Kyle could not help but react in surprise. The inverted pentagram rising from Duke Oun’s ring was familiar to him. It was the same Demon King’s brand carved onto Lucia.
“What in the world happened?”
“Where should I begin? First, I should tell you of my hardships as a father. You may not know this, Sir Kyle, but raising children is not easy.”
Duke Oun withdrew the inverted pentagram and let out a deep sigh.
“Even though he was a worthless fellow, he was still my son, so I put him in charge of a branch. Yet he suddenly turned himself into a half-demon, then decided he wanted to become the Demon King instead of inheriting the family business.”
“...”
“I am a father, so naturally I want to support my son’s fanciful dream. For my son’s sake, I captured a Demon King candidate who crossed into the dark frontier and took their Demon King’s brand.”
“Setting aside the fact that your son became a member of the Demon Tribe, why is the brand you supposedly took for him on you?”
“I can’t just hand it over quietly. Do you have any idea how precious this is? This is my belief: life requires an appropriate amount of hardship, and a son must eventually surpass his father. If my son truly wishes to become the Demon King, he must either buy this brand from me or kill me and take it.”
This man is insane.
Kyle sincerely thought so. Even that was merely a justification Garcia Rubalt had wrapped around his actions. That man likely secured the Demon King’s brand simply because he wanted to research it.
“Well, it was something I did for my son... but as a result, several candidates now want to kill me. Things truly do not go as one wishes.”
“I am genuinely curious. Why are the Black Wing Guard willing to work themselves to the bone in this land for you for twenty-five years?”
“Why else? I am an excellent superior, and the Black Wing Guard are people who have been sincerely inspired by me.”
“Did you brainwash them?”
“Ha ha, brainwashing is imperfect and no fun. Sir Kyle, affection cultivated over a long time becomes a bond stronger than any brainwashing. And humans are naturally captivated by people who are better than them, more admirable than them, and who relentlessly move forward.”
“Mister? You’re that sort of person?”
“At least I am not someone who sits around miserably. But Sir Kyle, I rather like you calling me ‘Mister.’ We seem to have grown quite close. May I start calling you by your given name as well?”
“No.”
Duke Oun smacked his lips when Kyle rejected him without hesitation.
“I have spoken too much about myself. Are you not curious about your family?”
Duke Oun lightly brushed aside the matter of the Demon King’s brand, Lucia, and the Demon Tribe. Instead, he brought up a subject Kyle could not help but be curious about.
“For example, Sword Bud.”
“...Sword Bud? Do you mean Alastor’s emblem? That is Sword Flower.”
Alastor’s emblem was a flower made of blades. Kyle thought Duke Oun meant that and asked, but Duke Oun shook his head with a chuckle.
“No. Sword Bud is the epithet of your younger sister, Kaya Alastor.”
“...What?”
“She is the disciple of Sword Church Master Helenas, and while you were missing, she came to be considered Alastor’s most cherished child.”
Kyle’s mouth fell open at the words that followed.
Footnotes:
“Sword Bud” is 검영 (劍英), a Korean homophone of the unrelated “Sword Shadow” (劍影).
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