WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 175: Magic Is Magic, After All!
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A narrow alley blanketed in fog.
A woman was running through it for all she was worth, though the fog was so thick that walking was difficult, let alone running.
“Pant, pant.”
Jessica ran desperately.
She had rushed so frantically that one of her shoes had already come off, and she was a complete mess, but she did not care.
All she could do was keep running through the alley while repeatedly looking back with anxious eyes.
Crash!
“Argh!”
Was it because the fog was too thick?
Or because she had been watching behind her and failed to watch where she was going?
Jessica missed the sunken steps ahead of her and tumbled down them.
Despite the accident, Jessica immediately tried to get up and run again, but that was only her wish.
Perhaps she had struck her head as she rolled down the stairs.
Her hazy mind and blurred vision forced her back down before she could even rise.
‘N-No. I have to run.’
What kept Jessica conscious when she could have passed out at any moment was overwhelming terror.
The dreadful certainty that she would not even be able to escape if she delayed any longer stirred her survival instinct and made her forget even the pain.
Was it a blessing in misfortune?
As she desperately looked around, Jessica spotted a door and pounded on it with all her strength.
Bang, bang bang.
“Hello? Is anyone there?!”
“Please, just let me in! I’m begging you!”
“Just until the fog clears, please...!”
Jessica cried out pitifully.
Yet no matter how desperate her plea was, the door remained firmly shut and did not budge.
Naturally.
At least in this city, there was no fool who would be lured by an unfamiliar voice into opening the door during the Misty Hour.
Even knowing that, Jessica had no choice but to cling to the door.
It was her only lifeline now.
‘I never should have come out.’
Amid a whirlpool of anxiety, unease, fear, and countless other emotions, Jessica regretted it too late.
She should not have gone out when the Misty Hour was so close. No matter what, she should have waited until after the bell rang.
‘No, I should never have gone to that place in the first place.’
Regret that could not be undone gripped her heart all the more deeply.
Then, as Jessica wore a despairing expression before the unopened door and her mounting regret, a heavy bell rang through the air.
Dooong!
‘This is...!’
At that moment, Jessica brightened without realizing it.
The distinctive sound, as though a thousand hammers were striking a thousand chunks of iron at once, was what she had been waiting for.
It signaled that the Misty Hour was ending.
Dooong!
A second time, a third, a fourth.
Watching the fog gradually scatter with every toll, Jessica burst into tears.
The sensation of death, which had nearly reached her, retreating at last loosened the taut thread of her nerves and brought relief.
But because of that, she failed to notice.
With every toll.
And as the fog thinned.
A shadow was gradually drawing closer to her.
At last, the bell rang eleven times through the air, and Jessica sighed in relief, believing it was all over.
Crunch!
Dooong!
Bright red blood splashed across the wall.
A stiff corpse lay sprawled on the ground.
As the final, twelfth bell tolled as though consoling that death, the curtain-like fog lost its strength and scattered into nothing.
In its place rose blue shadows.
Knights straight out of an old tale, clad head to toe in armor and wearing blue capes.
And at their head.
She stood before the blood-soaked ground.
A blue-haired woman in a neat uniform rather than armor, holding a sword stained with blood.
With eyes as still and deep as a lake, she gazed at Jessica’s corpse for a moment before sheathing her sword.
“Sir Lucas, see to the cleanup.”
“Yes, Princess.”
“And make sure there were no witnesses.”
“Understood.”
The man in the most splendid armor prostrated himself.
The knights moved in perfect order, collecting the body and disappearing.
The woman silently watched the process. Only after confirming that every trace had been cleanly removed did she leave with the knight called Lucas.
The death of the woman named Jessica vanished into the fog as though it had melted away.
Leaving behind only the metallic stench of blood...
* * *
‘I’m going to London this time.’
‘Me! I’m coming too!’
‘...I’m not going there for fun.’
‘What does it matter? It’s not like taking along one cute little baby bird like me will cost you extra fare!’
‘You’re getting a bit heavy to call yourself a baby bird these days, aren’t you?’
‘You’re not supposed to ask a lady’s weight!’
‘What lady? You’re more of a chicken-pigeon.’
Having followed Rimon all the way to London despite enduring all his teasing, Yoo Na-gyeong had been looking forward to this trip.
It was exciting enough to be taking an overseas trip she had never had a chance to take while alive because she had been too busy working.
And the destination was London, the city of magic. That alone made her heart pound.
But the moment she got off the train, Yoo Na-gyeong realized her expectations had been far too modest.
Because London, reached after a long journey, was far more fantastical than she had imagined.
[Wow!]
Magic lamps floated in the air like streetlights, pushing back the fog, while one in every ten passersby strode proudly through the streets in robes.
Instead of taxis, carpets and horseless carriages carried passengers through the skies and along the roads, while dancing puppets advertised outside shops.
On one side of the street was a monster shop displaying two-headed snakes and eagles with lion bodies. On the other was a perfume shop selling love potions.
It was utter chaos.
A city that resembled a scene from an abstract painting rather than reality.
Yoo Na-gyeong admired London.
[When I saw it in films and on the news, I thought it might be exaggerated, but London truly is a magic city!]
“...”
[Come to think of it, Team Leader, you’ve been to London before, right? Compared to back then... why do you look like you have a headache?]
“Why else would I? Because I have a headache.”
Rimon lowered the hand that had been holding his forehead.
Then, looking at the sight that had so impressed Yoo Na-gyeong, he muttered with an incredulous expression.
“What the hell is this insane spectacle?”
[What do you mean? It’s London. The city of magic, with the most Dungeons and magic-type Players in the world.]
“What magic? This and that are all just items, Skills, and Players.”
[So what? It might be different from the old days, but all that changed is that what people did with magic is now done with Skills and items.]
“...You don’t actually think London has always looked like this, do you?”
[Huh? It hasn’t?]
“If London had always been this way, it wouldn’t be called a magic city. It’d be called a demon realm, you idiot.”
Having lived so long, Rimon had seen plenty of villages turn into major cities and cultures change overnight.
He had grown especially accustomed to the world changing at breakneck speed after the Iron Age began.
But London’s transformation was enough to leave even Rimon dumbfounded.
‘What the hell did these lunatics do to London?’
London had once been a quiet city.
Seeing that tranquil city transformed into something like a theme park made Rimon shudder.
Of course, he knew that London had changed greatly after the Magus Guild arrived.
He knew that ninety percent of the world’s magic-type Players had gathered there and made London into a new city of magic.
But seeing something once was worth hearing about it a hundred times.
The sights he had merely clicked his tongue at in the news and newspapers were on an entirely different level in person.
The absurdity of what he had seen through mass media had not even been a tenth as strange as reality.
[Oh, Team Leader! Look over there. They’re selling dancing cookies at a discount. Can I go take a quick look?]
As Yoo Na-gyeong happily looked around from above Rimon’s head while he suffered through a headache, a cold voice came from behind them.
“It is good that you are enjoying yourself, but you should refrain from wandering around alone, even for a moment.”
[Huh? Why?]
“I have heard that neglected pets have recently been disappearing in London. Apparently, they are being eaten by other abandoned pets.”
[Come on, Weiling. You worry about the strangest things. There’s no way I’d become food for some pet...]
Yoo Na-gyeong, who had been about to answer confidently, suddenly closed her beak.
Then she rolled her eyes toward a man leaving the monster shop with a collar fastened around the neck of some winged wolf and swallowed dryly.
[...I’ll stick close to Team Leader.]
“I am glad you will be careful on your own.”
Weiling, a woman dressed as a man in a suit, who had calmed Yoo Na-gyeong’s fuss, quietly asked Rimon.
“Where do you intend to go now? As you instructed, I have not arranged accommodations, but if you would like to rest, I can find somewhere for you to stay immediately.”
“...”
“What is it?”
“No, I was just thinking that you’ve become rather like an attendant lately, you little know-it-all.”
“...I am not like an attendant. I am an attendant.”
“Were you?”
“Yes. Though perhaps you forgot because someone treated me as nothing more than a machine that handled work for them and kept me cooped up at the company.”
“Sounds like you work under someone who knows how to recognize talent.”
Rimon chuckled as he looked at the dark circles beneath Weiling’s eyes, which seemed to radiate cold resentment.
Then again, she had handled Guardian’s work in Rimon’s place all this time.
Since Guardian’s founding, one thing after another had happened, piling overwork upon overwork upon overwork. It was almost surprising that she did not hold a grudge.
“Well, forget the accommodations. Start by showing me the way.”
“Would you like a guide to the tourist attractions?”
“No, not that nonsense. You know, the thing I told you to look into beforehand.”
“...The Magic Hall?”
“Yes. The Magic Hall of the Twenty-Seven Lineages of Magic is so well hidden that even people like you would have difficulty finding it. But I thought you would need to manage something of that level if you wanted to do the job properly.”
“In that case, it seems my guidance will not be necessary.”
“Huh? What do you mean by that?”
Rimon looked puzzled.
Instead of answering, Weiling raised a hand and pointed in one direction.
The moment Rimon followed her finger with his gaze, he made a strange expression without realizing it.
[Team Leader, didn’t you say the Magic Hall of the Twenty-Seven Lineages of Magic would be difficult to find?]
“...I did.”
[For something difficult to find, doesn’t it stand out an awful lot? Or is that just me?]
“I wish it were just you.”
A grand clock tower stood before London Station.
Stuck right on it was a banner that read:
[The Original Magic Hall Street, Carrying On the Traditions of the Twenty-Seven Lineages of Magic!]
Looking at it, Rimon wondered where the city of magic he knew had disappeared to over the past few decades.
Footnotes:
“Chicken-pigeon” recreates a joking Korean blend of “chicken” and “pigeon,” used here to tease Yoo Na-gyeong for getting plump.
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