WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 254

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“Then I will conclude the lecture here. Thank you for listening to such a long lecture.”

I bowed deeply. A few people began clapping, and when I glanced at them, they all seemed quite satisfied.

Their expressions showed that I had successfully concluded my second lecture.

Naturally. Even if they tried to doubt me, anyone would be tempted after seeing a prince use magic.

I led the prince down from the platform. I could sense people approaching us. They must have wanted to ask something now that the lecture was over.

However, Isabella naturally stepped in front of them. She bowed her head to those approaching and smiled gently.

“I’m sorry, but His Highness needs to be adjusted again, so I don’t believe we can accept questions. If you have anything to ask Master, would you leave it with me?”

A few people looked displeased at Isabella, but they readily turned away at her words. Prince Beral stood behind her, his face twisted in a scowl.

A prince was practically a living guillotine. There was no reason to give one an excuse to find fault with you.

The power of authority truly was sweet. Using Beral as a shield, I left the lecture hall.

After taking only a few steps, I felt the Council’s magic naturally guiding us back to the workshop.

Once we entered, Isabella placed several layers of seals on the door and cast a light detection spell to see whether anyone had infiltrated the room.

Thankfully, there seemed to be no problem. Isabella gave a small nod.

I headed for the sofa with the prince and sat down with a light smile.

“Then I believe you may come out now.”

As soon as I finished speaking, the light faded from Prince Beral’s eyes as he leaned against the sofa. Before long, his body slumped as if he had fallen asleep.

At the same time, a faint whisper began coming from his body.

It came from his chest.

The sound gradually grew louder, and soon something emerged through Prince Beral’s mouth.

It was a small, threadlike snake covered in black scales.

The snake coiled around Beral’s shoulder and met my eyes. I smiled lightly at it.

“How was it? How did it feel to use magic yourself?”

Just as I had said, he had succeeded in only one week.

As I interlaced my fingers, the snake flicked its tongue and formed a faint whisper.

-I understand why everyone saw me as a halfwit. Even if I only experienced magical power indirectly, I could feel that sense of omnipotence. It was truly a remarkable experience. The same goes for becoming this body.

The snake lightly twisted its body and stared at its own reflection in its scales as if fascinated.

That was a puppet containing Prince Beral’s soul. It was only natural for him to find it strange that he had left a human body and settled into a new one.

“Then let us examine your body.”

I held out my hand to the snake.

It left the prince’s shoulder and naturally made its way up my hand.

The skin touching the snake felt cold, almost like thin ice. It was probably not simply because a snake’s body was cold.

It would be more accurate to say that my body instinctively recoiled from the traces of countless curses carved into its scales.

I placed a finger against the snake’s forehead.

Threadlike magical power seeped into its body through my finger.

However, the magical power was immediately repelled by the dreadful energy flowing through the snake’s body.

That meant the curse’s power was extremely strong.

I tried various methods to spread magical power through the snake’s body, but the curse flowing within it rejected my magical power.

It even contaminated some of it.

I severed the contaminated magical power and nodded.

“There still do not appear to be any abnormalities. I believe you may remain in that body.”

The snake wrapped around my hand flicked its tongue happily. Then it climbed down and coiled around the prince’s shoulder as before.

The snake stared blankly at the sleeping face of its original body and whispered. The will that seemed to etch itself into my mind held a trace of bitterness.

-But this body is certainly much more comfortable. Was I truly someone unfit for the imperial family, as people said behind my back?

The snake looked at the prince’s body as if deep in thought.

Before, that body had been pale enough to seem like it might collapse at any moment because it could not accept magical power.

But now, it was full of healthy color.

Unlike before, it was filled with magical power. Having been unable to draw in magical power all this time, it was still absorbing it even now.

That was the true nature of the Emperor’s bloodline. The other princes likely possessed bodies similar to that one.

If Beral had lived among them, it was understandable that he would develop such an inferiority complex. It was also understandable that people had doubted him.

But that was not Prince Beral’s fault.

I lightly shook my head and spoke.

“Of course not. If not for the magical power curse, Your Highness would have become an even greater mage than I am. You learned magic in only one week.”

-Is that so?

“Please do not worry too much. I will help you return to that body. This is only the foundation stage.”

I quietly watched the snake.

It was the Snake of Curses, the magic I had accumulated over time, transferred into the form of a puppet.

Since it could not use pure magical power as a source of energy, I had used a type of magical power curse that contaminated magical power as its core.

Because it had undergone that sort of processing, it was a rather inefficient body for a puppet.

Furthermore, although I had filled it with magical power curses, the Snake of Curses was only magic that I had hastily assembled within the past year.

Naturally, it had many flaws. If left alone, it would certainly collapse within a few days.

However, I had succeeded in resolving that problem by transferring Prince Beral into it. More than that, I had succeeded in allowing him to use magic.

Of course, that did not mean I had discovered a treatment for magical power curses.

It would be more accurate to say that I had used a trick only I could manage.

I stroked my chin.

While researching magical power curses, the first thing I investigated was the limit of their influence.

How far did a magical power curse reach?

Did it affect the soul, the body, or the mind?

That was also a question addressed in the Council materials on magical power curses.

However, the Council had not reached a clear conclusion.

Well, it could not be helped. It was difficult for mages to examine the insides of beings carrying magical power curses.

If they wanted a definite result, they could have experimented on their own bodies.

But they could not give up their own trees.

I was a little freer in that regard.

So I experimented by carving the form of a curse directly into my own tree.

In the end, I created the strange magic called the Snake of Curses and used it to test the influence of magical power curses.

Through that, I learned some of their characteristics.

The Snake of Curses only affected trees.

Even if it bit a living body and injected its curse, the target would only suffer briefly before the curse dispersed.

That meant the curse only reacted to souls.

From another perspective, magical power curses could be seen as something carved into the soul.

Since it was a force that directly affected the soul, no being could escape a magical power curse without a proper treatment.

And that structure was strangely familiar to me as well.

I touched my wrist. A faint flow from the contract reached me.

Contracts were also carved into the soul. And if someone tried to escape one, their soul would collapse.

Just like a magical power curse, there was no way to escape that curse without resolving the contract.

Why were the two so similar?

I found that a little strange.

But I did not need to know the reason.

What mattered was the fact that magical power curses were carved into the soul.

If the soul was the problem, I only needed to replace it.

It was something I had already experienced once.

So, just as I had done with Isabella, could I not remove the prince’s soul and plant a Patchwork Tree in the empty space?

Once the Patchwork Tree was planted, using magic would be simple. Isabella had experience, so she would be able to guide Prince Beral well.

Of course, there was a problem with this method.

I had only been able to plant a Patchwork Tree in Isabella because she possessed an incredibly strong mind.

If she had not possessed the talent of a mage who could reach the realm of extending branches in less than two hundred years, she would have collapsed in an instant.

Prince Beral did not have such talent.

How could I expect such powerful mental strength from someone who had lived only twenty years?

Even if he was somewhat exceptional, he would certainly collapse from the shock the moment his soul was removed. There was a ninety percent chance he would die, and even if he survived, his mind would be ruined.

I had tested it on my own body, so I was certain.

Once, out of curiosity, I had briefly tried to remove my own soul. I had lost my mind for about a week.

When I awoke, I was in the form of a boy, held in Mira’s arms.

Apparently, she had pieced my shattered mind back together.

So I could not subject someone as precious as Prince Beral to odds so cruel and almost certain to fail.

Then I needed to change my thinking.

If the mind collapsed because the soul was gone, then I only needed to transfer the mind along with the soul.

That was how I created the body of that snake.

Of course, because the magic had many flaws, there was still a risk that it would collapse.

But I could make up for that with the magical power curse contained in Prince Beral’s soul.

The wood forming that body was also from the Golden Fragrance Sound tree I had acquired before. It did not contain any magical power whatsoever.

Since he had obtained a body completely devoid of magical power, it was only natural that the prince within it would feel as comfortable as he did now.

Separate from the prince, who had gained a new body, his original body had lost its mind and soul, becoming half a corpse.

In that state, planting a Patchwork Tree was simple. The Patchwork Tree filled the vacant space left by the soul and slowly began to grow.

However, the body was still bound to the soul. That meant the prince could still enter that empty space.

I led the prince, in his snake body, to the Patchwork Tree. I wrapped him around it and connected his mind to his original body.

One mind came to contain two bodies.

And through that, the prince succeeded in using magic.

That was what I had done over the past week.

Hmm. It would have been nice to have more specimens.

Quite a few people carrying magical power curses were unexpectedly present in the Magical Power Council. They were guests whom the Council members had personally brought in.

A few of them had even approached me. That meant I could use them as specimens too.

But there was a major problem with that.

I glanced at Isabella.

The reason Isabella had struggled to suppress the Patchwork Tree was not simply an issue with her soul. It was also a problem with the body that contained her soul.

A tree took root not only in the soul, but in the body as well. That was why, when the tree went into a fit, the body could not avoid damage either.

Thus, while refining her tree, Isabella carefully adjusted it so that her body would not be overloaded.

Others without Isabella’s talent could not do that.

The prince was the same.

Even now, the Patchwork Tree rooted in his body was rebelling, and that naturally damaged his body as well.

However, the prince’s body easily endured such minor shocks. A Patchwork Tree could not make it so much as flinch.

Well, his body was that strong, so it had endured the magical power curse.

I quietly shook my head.

Prince Beral’s magical power curse was persistent and dreadful.

Cases where the entire body rejected magical power were not easy to find. Even when such cases existed, the records only stated that the victims had died quickly.

The prince had endured such a curse for twenty years.

That was the power of his ancient blood. The potential carried by a descendant of the imperial family had protected him.

That was why the prince did not need to control the tree perfectly as Isabella did. He only needed to restrain it whenever he wanted to use magic.

That was why I had rejected the other people’s offers. Only blood carrying long years, like that of the imperial family, could endure the tree’s backlash.

I glanced at the two of them.

Isabella controlled her tree through her mind, while Prince Beral controlled his through his body.

By understanding the potential of these two, I would be able to move forward.

With that thought, I quietly smiled.

The snake slowly approached me.

-But those people really seemed to believe your lecture. What sort of trick did you pull?

The snake whispered curiously.

I met its eyes and stroked my chin.

The Patchwork Tree was something only I could create. Even if someone created one, they needed a magical power curse like the prince’s to contain the tree.

They also needed a body that had endured long years, like the imperial family’s.

Otherwise, they would naturally be unable to control the Patchwork Tree.

Of course, if the mind containing it was like Isabella’s, someone could overcome those conditions and contain the tree.

But how many people like that could possibly exist?

It was impossible to spread something requiring so many conditions to everyone.

Yet I had deceived them by saying anyone could contain it.

Prince Beral had learned all my intentions when he moved into the snake’s body. Since he had experienced it himself, he must have realized how impossible it was.

He could have told everyone that this was all a lie.

But he said nothing.

Naturally.

What would he gain by revealing it was false?

If he handed me over to them, he might no longer be able to use magic.

Having already tasted the power called magic, he had no choice but to side with me.

And just as I expected, the prince cooperated with me.

Prince Beral had become my accomplice.

“It is only natural that they believe it. Some truth was mixed into my lecture.”

If I showed them the Patchwork Tree, they would immediately realize the limits of this plan.

That was why I had shown them a different tree in the first lecture.

This lecture was the same. I needed to hide lies within the truth I possessed.

So I showed them a very definite piece of information.

It was the method of creating soul Saplings.

Fragmenting a soul and compressing those fragments under pressure.

The value of that knowledge was not inferior to what they had given me.

In this lecture, I revealed part of the process for creating soul Saplings. They knew the value of that knowledge, so they were pleased.

Of course, it was bound to fail unless a piece of my tree branch was mixed into it.

Still, simply knowing that such a direction existed would give them confidence.

So I planned to continue mixing knowledge like that into my lectures.

In the end, everyone would be satisfied.

One reason I had made this decision was because I felt that revealing this knowledge would benefit me.

Had the puppeteer association not created something fairly worthwhile after I released that knowledge in advance?

Their unique corpse puppet design had ultimately benefited me.

That showed me something.

Sharing knowledge I could control would eventually lead to a path that benefited me.

Of course, this method had a slight problem.

It was impossible to plant soul Saplings in people.

They would likely begin to suspect that by the end of the lectures.

So before then, I needed to complete the results represented by the prince and Isabella.

How could they doubt it when the results were right in front of them?

That meant I needed to research even harder.

I slowly rose to my feet.

“Then I am going to the library now. What will Your Highness do?”

-Ah, I will remain here. I would like to use magic a little more.

The snake’s eyes sparkled as it slipped into the prince’s mouth.

Soon, the body twitched slightly, and the prince opened his eyes.

I met Prince Beral’s gaze and nodded.

It would have been good to bring him to the library as an advertisement, but it was also important for him to learn magic.

So I needed to respect the prince’s wishes.

I bowed to him and left the workshop.

Then I arrived at the library.

“People are staring.”

Isabella whispered quietly.

As she said, the moment we entered the library, I could feel people’s gazes gathering on us.

Even though not much time had passed since the lecture ended, we were already drawing this much attention.

That meant the knowledge I had released had received considerable notice.

Of course, I did not think those who attended the lecture had explained everything.

They had paid a significant price to attend, so they surely would not reveal it to others.

They had probably only said that the lecture was satisfying.

Perhaps even more people would attend the next lecture.

I had been feeling short on materials, so that was excellent news.

Without reacting to the gazes of others, I headed toward an empty seat.

When I sat down, I felt magical power ripple and surround me.

I slowly looked around.

It was called a library, but there was nothing here. Only empty seats filled the room.

That was why I had been confused when I first came here.

But now, I knew how to use this place well.

I closed my eyes, focused my magical power, and swept my hand through the air.

Space opened, and a book I had been thinking of fell out.

That was why this place was called a library.

All knowledge was inscribed in another space. That was why information could only be accessed from this seat.

The materials I had received from the Council members were the same.

Otherwise, I would not have needed to come here.

Clicking my tongue in disappointment, I opened the book.

This time, I was reading a book titled [Magical Power Curses: A Study on the Transformation of Overlapping Curses], written three thousand years ago.

After briefly reading the overview, I understood the meaning of the title.

It was research on cases where multiple magical power curses, rather than just one, overlapped within a single body.

It was material that only Council members could access, and I had extracted it from one of the Council members who wanted to attend this lecture.

The reason I had taken it was because such overlapping magical power curses might be related to the prince’s curse.

Although I had used a trick to move the prince’s magical power curse into the snake’s body, that was only a temporary measure.

To settle the tree stably, I would eventually need to transfer the prince’s soul back into his body. Only then could the soul and tree properly connect.

So before reconnecting his soul, I needed to resolve some part of the prince’s magical power curse.

In addition, researching magical power curses was necessary to bleach the Patchwork Tree.

For now, I needed to continue researching.

Once I stabilized the Patchwork Tree, Isabella would be complete.

And the prince would be able to achieve his long-held dream of becoming a mage.

I focused and etched the words into my mind.

If I continued this way, I would surely succeed.

I held that certainty in my heart.

And it was after I completed my fourth lecture that I realized something had gone wrong.

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