WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 266

──────

I focused my increasingly hazy mind and saw a transparent star. It gave off a light as beautiful as a jewel, and before I knew it, I had no choice but to slowly approach it.

But no matter how far I walked, I could not set foot on that star. I could only watch it from afar like this.

Why was that? I looked down at my body.

A strange energy flowed through it.

It warped my body, twisted it, shattered it, and broke me apart. At the same time as I collapsed, I felt myself regenerate again.

The moment I felt that, I understood clearly. As long as I remained so twisted, I could never approach that pure white world. I existed because of that star, and that star could exist because of me.

So I could only gaze at the star from this distant place.

As I blankly watched it, I eventually sensed unfamiliar lights seeping onto the star.

The first thing I noticed was a cluster of black light. It trembled slightly as though surveying its surroundings, looking over this world. I shrank back a little, worried it might notice me, but fortunately, its senses stopped before reaching where I was.

“What the hell is this filthy place? I nearly ruined my eyes.”

The will leaking from the black light was incredibly rough.

As if responding, the purple cluster of light rippled as though laughing.

“Hehehe... Still, this place is much better than where that corpse-fucker stays. At least it doesn’t reek of rot here. Don’t you agree?”

At the will flowing from the purple mass, the black light seemed to grow brighter. But it soon sensed something and reduced its light again.

“Tch. No need to deal with a crazy bitch. More importantly, what is this place? They kept saying they were making it. Did they really succeed?”

The black light turned as if turning its head.

Where its light pointed lay a mass containing bluish-green light.

For some reason, it was quite a familiar soul. I lightly searched through my scattered memories and remembered that it was the Chairman. I had seen his soul in a similar world before.

“What do you think? At this level, no one outside should be able to watch us.”

“You can certainly be confident of that. Though it looks awful.”

“Bleurgh.” The black light sent out the will of someone dry-heaving, then looked around.

“But why did you only call the two of us? I thought a few more people remained at the university.”

“It could not be helped. This place cannot be maintained for long, so I gathered only those who answered my call. After all, there is someone I wish to introduce to you.”

The Chairman quietly sent out his will.

The other two lights rippled with stronger light, as though interested.

“Huh? A new one came? Is there anyone useful like that at the university?”

“...Isn’t there an interesting girl among those children swinging swords over there? I hear she is already finishing the basic curriculum. Hehehe, if even this old one has heard of her, she must possess extraordinary talent. It is truly a shame. If she were not a sword-user, I would have devoured her long ago.”

As the two lights chatted among themselves, Cassian suddenly came to mind. An extraordinary talent among the swordsmen.

But who was Cassian again?

I tilted my head amid my drifting memories. As I continued thinking, I felt my memories slowly coming together.

At the same time, the distortion engraved into my body became clearer.

The process of putting me back together was destroying this unknown world even more.

Perhaps they sensed my movements, because the wills of the lights stopped. I could feel them beginning to turn their attention toward me.

“Heh heh, so that child is the one you wished to introduce. Not someone who uses a sword, then.”

Once I realized I had been noticed, I saw that my body contained a color just like theirs.

It was a gray light, swaying like waves.

Unlike their distinct lights, however, mine was so faint that it seemed ready to vanish at any moment. It meant I could not maintain my ego in this space.

Was that why all my memories had been scattered?

It was a belated realization.

The more my memories gathered and the more I regained myself, the more I began to lose myself.

My mind melted away, my soul scattered, and my flesh fell apart.

But only briefly.

I regenerated once again.

I began repeating the cycle of collapse and regeneration.

“What a delicious-looking child. This one will be Number Thirteen too, then. Is this the third time?”

The purple mass sent out a will as though smacking its lips.

The Chairman stepped in front of it.

“This one is cooperating with me, so do not think of touching him. As you can see, I could not have created this space without him. If you try to devour him again, I will have no choice but to stop you.”

“A misunderstanding, a misunderstanding. I did not devour the last one. That corpse-fucker was the one who touched the previous Number Thirteen.”

“Ha. You crazy bitch. You should not slander people so carelessly without evidence. You should look at yourself before looking at me. Everyone knows the first Number Thirteen last met a witch.”

“Evidence... Hehehe. Why not turn over that rotten tower of yours? A poor soul or two might come wriggling out. Shall this old one drag a foot through it?”

The two lights rippled toward each other again.

The Chairman released a faint light, as though sighing.

“Do not fight here. Since the introductions are done, let us end this here.”

The Chairman released an intense light.

The transparent star shone beautifully and swallowed every light of another color. Once again, only the star and I remained.

How much time passed like that?

I eventually sensed even the transparent star slowly extinguishing its light. Having lost its glow, the star began hiding itself within this twisted world.

I tried to approach it, but the star only blocked my way.

In the end, even the star disappeared, and only silence remained where every light had vanished.

Once I was alone, I felt the memories that had slowly gathered beginning to scatter. Everything that could recognize my existence was gone. Since I could no longer be observed, even the anchor that sustained me disappeared.

My memories warped, and my mind twisted as well.

As I became twisted, this world began twisting with me.

I could only blankly feel the process.

Breaking, falling, becoming contaminated.

And at the end of it, every law lost its meaning.

Time melted space as if flowing backward, and at some point, I was falling along with the world.

Like a meteor shower, perhaps.

I could sense many things scattered around me.

Like me, they were beings that would fall and disappear.

Then I, no, we seeped into the Abyss.

It was a swamp made of corpses and land built from blood.

Breathing in that Abyss, I understood why distortion existed in the world.

The Profound Covenant, was that the law engraved upon this world?

It rejected magical power not simply to strengthen that nature. Rather, it was responding to foreign matter that had entered from outside...

The thought scattered as the entity called me melted away.

I broke apart, became foreign matter, and began to disappear.

Yet amid that sense of loss, I suddenly felt magical power filling my mind.

A golden radiance held my melting mind in place.

As I watched the collapsing world, I slowly closed my eyes.

Then I snapped them open again.

My head was a mess, and the throbbing pain inside it made me stagger as I rose. Isabella came over and naturally supported me.

The warm scent of sunflowers brushed my nose.

That scent was proof that I had returned to reality.

Once I felt it, my mind quickly began to recover.

I slowly looked around.

A very spacious room came into view. It looked even larger than Professor Irian’s room.

Ah, right.

This was the Chairman’s room.

As my memories returned, the Chairman approached me while I groaned softly. He looked quite satisfied.

“To think you would develop this much in a week. Truly remarkable.”

The Chairman looked down at me with a pleased smile. When our eyes met, he continued with curiosity.

“So? How did it feel to meet the others?”

“...Very memorable.”

I silently ran a hand through my hair and searched my memories.

The sight I had just seen came vaguely to mind. Three colors of light resting upon a transparent star.

Green, purple, and black, perhaps.

They must have been the colors of the souls possessed by those summoned there.

They were probably all reincarnators.

What I had just seen was a gathering of reincarnators.

Well, it was only natural for such a gathering to exist. It was difficult to survive alone in a world where those who hunted reincarnators were everywhere. Similar beings were bound to form groups in the end.

That was why I had assumed the Chairman knew several reincarnators. So I had told him I wanted to make contact with them. If they had survived in this world for a long time, they would surely be useful to me as well.

The people I had just met were those people.

Of course, the Chairman said he did not clearly know what kind of people they were. He claimed that was a matter of mutual courtesy. Still, from what he had roughly figured out, I had heard that there were both students and professors among them.

I lightly shook my head while trying to recall their identities.

My memories were still unstable, so I could not clearly remember what had been said there.

I glanced at the Chairman.

It had probably been a week ago when we had sought cooperation by holding each other’s leash. At the time, the Chairman had still harbored a shred of suspicion even as he experimented with curses.

But now, perhaps because he had begun trusting me, I could not sense any doubt from him.

Well, that was natural. He had experienced the results I produced firsthand.

I looked down at my body.

I could feel the flow of curses densely engraved into my soul. They settled more heavily than the ones I had stolen from the Imperial Prince before.

As I had boasted before the Chairman, I possessed a soul ideally suited to containing magical power curses. Each individual soul fragment could hold a curse. And the soul formed from them always maintained a certain shape.

That was why the Chairman had continuously engraved curses into my soul.

In only a week, he had placed twice as many as the curses I already carried within me.

I had become a jar containing countless curses.

That bizarre space from before had also been made based on my soul.

I opened my hand, and a transparent jewel rolled across my palm.

That jewel was the Mountain’s Heart, as well as the star that had supported me in that space.

The attempt to synchronize the curses within me with the mountain and create a world, even briefly, had succeeded.

I stroked the jewel and recalled the world I had just seen.

It could be called the foundation of the world the Chairman wished to create.

A world with virtually no magical power.

The Chairman’s world was quite useful. As I had experienced directly, because that world contained the magical power curse as its law, it rejected magical power created in this world, and the souls that possessed it.

Therefore, the only beings who could seep into that place were those outside this world.

Those from another world. Reincarnators.

In that sense, the world the Chairman wanted to create could be considered a paradise for reincarnators.

It was a place where they could avoid this world’s malice.

But a place inhabited only by reincarnators was not necessarily safe.

I searched through the memories that were now growing a little clearer.

The unknown beings in my memories had spoken of the previous Number Thirteen.

They had openly revealed that they hunted the previous Number Thirteen.

That meant reincarnators did not trust one another to that extent either.

Like others had done, they had probably tried to hunt them while bypassing the university’s laws.

Had I not nearly suffered the same fate just now?

I narrowed my eyes at the Chairman.

The attempt to construct that virtual world had been an experiment.

An experiment to structure a world around me and the heart, creating a space where others could remain for a brief time.

That was why, once the Mountain’s Heart vanished from that world, everything composing the world could do nothing but press down on me.

If it had continued to the end, my mind would surely have melted away completely.

Even if my soul regenerated, my mind had limits.

Yet the Chairman had not given me a single warning about it.

He had probably wanted my mind to collapse.

If I broke down, he would no longer need to cooperate with me. He could use my mindless soul as the center of a world, just as he had done earlier.

There was no way the Chairman would not try to obtain me, his test subject, completely.

But I had an appropriate countermeasure as well.

I slowly touched my forehead.

The golden radiance that had protected my mind until moments ago settled there once more.

This was what I had trusted.

A virtual world was, in the end, a kind of dimension.

That was why Professor Irian’s magic, belonging to someone who crossed dimensions, could hold an absolute advantage over it.

I frowned quietly.

I could not remember how I had escaped at the end.

It was strange that my memories had vanished even though the Professor’s magic had been protecting my mind.

As I searched my memories, I slowly shook my head.

Perhaps that magic had protected me because recalling it could damage my mind.

It had saved me again, just as it had before, so there seemed no need to force myself to remember.

I crossed my arms, then had no choice but to tilt my head.

Again?

Had I experienced something similar before?

I pressed hard against my throbbing temple.

The Chairman, who had been watching me, gave a sly smile.

“Ho ho, I did not know you had hidden such interesting magic in your head. Still, you gained something as well, did you not?”

The Chairman looked at my head with interest.

I clicked my tongue lightly as I faced his pleasant-looking smile.

Well, we both had our own schemes.

As he said, I had gained something too, so I had no intention of pressing the matter to the end. I had hidden Professor Irian’s magic in the first place to gain an opportunity like this.

I focused my mind on my chest.

Inside the inner image held there, I found my tree, which had turned black and hardened completely.

The soul Sapling and shadow tree stood far away from it.

My tree was silent, surrounded by curses as though it had become a stone statue.

I could faintly sense its will from within, but I could not tell what it meant exactly.

Perhaps it was happy too.

I rubbed my chin.

Just now, I had grasped the sensation of creating a world.

It could be called a fortunate opportunity.

For a brief time, I had been able to observe a realm that my current level could not even dream of reaching.

If I could understand even a fragment of it, I would surely be able to advance further.

Furthermore, magical power curses were the laws of this world. Therefore, the curses engraved into my soul would surely produce a corresponding reward somewhere.

So the tree tempered within those curses was naturally receiving their benefit.

When I could contain every curse within myself and, in the end, lift them all, my tree would grow another step.

I had a feeling that the path to the fourth floor lay there.

So, as my tree desired, I needed to contain more trees.

I met the Chairman’s eyes.

He smiled and beckoned with a finger.

“Hmm, you do not seem to intend to rest, so I shall prepare the next curse.”

At the Chairman’s casual gesture, a glass coffin stored in one corner of the wide room flew through the air.

Inside the coffin, covered in many seals, was someone who looked as though they had fallen asleep.

It had preserved a soul engraved with a magical power curse for a long time.

The Chairman stroked the coffin and continued.

“The world collapsed earlier because the star could not fulfill its role. So, to maintain the world longer, I wish to engrave a curse that preserves souls outright.”

“Oh? Preserves souls?”

I murmured quietly.

The Chairman spread his arms as though showing off and handed me the coffin.

“Yes. This is a curse called the Soul-Engraving Hammer, which I obtained three thousand years ago. The stronger the magical power it encounters, the more firmly it fixes the soul in place. Like this.”

I examined the person inside the coffin.

The man was still breathing deeply, as though the Chairman’s claim that he had acquired it three thousand years ago were a lie.

I nodded at the strange sight.

“Very good. This should be excellent for tempering my tree as well.”

“Ho ho, I knew you would appreciate it. Then, since we created a world even temporarily today, how about we place around ten more curses in you?”

The Chairman asked cautiously.

He seemed worried that I might be exhausted.

I met his eyes with a slight frown.

“To be satisfied with only ten. You should put in a hundred. Pain is only temporary. Should we not continue the experiment with the intent of shattering my soul?”

The Chairman’s eyes widened at my words.

After thinking for a moment, he slapped his knee and nodded.

As he looked at me again, I could somehow feel deep trust in his eyes.

“I had been thinking wrongly. For the past week, I only guarded against you fleeing, never realizing you held such deep intentions. Yes, magic is born from sacrifice.”

“Wait just a moment. I shall bring more terrible curses.”

As the Chairman added that and gestured once more, several more coffins flew over.

The tree that watched them through my eyes sent out a faint will.

I smiled with satisfaction.

I could not properly understand it, but it was clearly very pleased.

It took a very long time to finish the experiment in collaboration with the Chairman.

As I left the Chairman’s room, I let my body hang limp.

Then, with my body twitching, I struggled to raise a hand.

Isabella gently embraced me.

I whispered to her.

“Let us go to the workshop. I believe we need to research the curses further there.”

There was no time to rest now.

At my urging, Isabella looked worried.

“Master, are you all right? I am worried that you are pushing yourself too hard.”

“It cannot be helped. We need to achieve as much as possible within the next week. That is also the promise I made with you, Ms. Isabella.”

I met Isabella’s eyes and gave a faint smile.

The reason I wanted to move as quickly as possible was because I had to study the new curses engraved into my body.

I looked down at myself.

Although I was now a mass of curses, I could not properly understand how those curses had been combined. I was only a test subject.

Well, that was natural.

How could a mere third-floor mage glimpse the Chairman’s magic?

To understand it even a little, I needed to receive as many curses as possible into my body like this.

If I continued researching them, I would surely reach the goal I had set before, perfectly bleaching the patchwork tree.

Isabella, who had been quietly looking down at me, gently stroked my hair.

“I am always grateful that you act for my sake like this. So I will give my life to you as well, Master.”

Isabella began walking with a warm smile.

I could only scratch my chin.

Hmm. She did not need to give me her life.

After all, I was doing this because of my own greed.

Leaning half my weight against Isabella, I slowly headed for the workshop.

When we arrived, Isabella quietly stopped walking.

Someone was standing in front of the workshop.

“Ah, Mr. Evron. You have arrived. I have been waiting.”

The first thing I noticed was golden hair, proof of imperial blood.

It was Imperial Prince Beral, who had lived as the Chairman’s test subject before me.

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried