WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
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Chapter 284
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284.
The treasures came to inhabit puppet bodies in order to teach humans. It was meant to help their powers bloom more fully.
However, we were not bound to humans at all hours. The students possessed the powers of many treasures, and every treasure had to receive its fair share of time.
He said it was to thoroughly protect the treasures' rights. So the treasures had no choice but to conduct classes according to that schedule.
As a result, I only taught once a week, and even then for about two hours. I was free for the rest of the time.
But having that much free time did not mean I could be satisfied. In the end, I still could not leave the tower.
I looked out the window. A vast sea of trees spread beneath the mountain. I smacked my lips at the dense vitality contained within it.
I wanted to leap through the window and devour them all at once, but I could not pass through this thin pane of glass. They were a feast forever out of reach.
With a small sigh, I stared at the sun hanging high in the sky. As I accepted the sunlight pouring through the window, I once more engraved its perfect form into my body.
Then I felt as though the sun were staring back at me. Surely, it was not merely an illusion. That was likely the result of someone inscribing their own eye.
All stars were such beings to begin with. I, too, had once contained that sort of perfection. But my memories of that time had become terribly faint.
That was why I desired to become perfect once more. I dreamed of casting off this imperfection and becoming whole. That was why I had decided to participate in these classes.
“Slaughter...” [I, I am envious...]
Blood Axe, who had been looking out the window with me, trembled as it watched the others leave the tower. They were the ones who had caused trouble before and had trees planted in their bodies.
I narrowed my eyes at them. I intended to investigate them someday. He would not have planted trees in them for no reason.
Of course, there was something else I needed to examine first, so I had put it off. As I sank into thought, it suddenly sprang to its feet.
“Slaughter!” [I will leave too!]
Before I could stop it, it threw itself through the window. Not that I intended to stop it.
I had settled near the window in the first place to make it act out like this. I wanted to see whether the tower's barrier would stop it.
As it passed halfway through the window, I gripped my parasol. If it managed to escape completely, I intended to follow after it.
But it failed to leave the tower. Golden magical power spread like a net and wrapped around its body.
The net pushed it back inside. Then the net that had stopped it melted away and became a bolt of lightning. It struck down into its body as though punishing it.
Blood Axe screamed and rolled across the floor. Before long, it looked up at me with a tearful face blackened by burns.
It seemed it had not changed completely yet. I nodded as I recalled the chilling expressions it had occasionally shown over the past week.
I leisurely looked around. Several treasures were wandering about nearby.
We were not on the fifth floor, where our rooms were located, but on the first floor. Several statues stood nearby, proving as much.
I smiled in satisfaction as I looked at the writhing, indescribable, nameless masses. A sweet fragrance drifted from them.
That fragrance likely came from their forms, which unabashedly displayed the desires of us treasures. They had been made to be beheld through the senses of a treasure, not human eyes.
The most striking of the statues was the thing attached to the ceiling. When I raised my head, a massive form came into view.
The statue, shaped like human hands gathered together and reaching down toward the earth, gave the impression of a heavenly being descending.
Each sculpture had distinct characteristics like that, so treasures with time to spare could not help being drawn here.
Had it been his shadow that made those statues? It was splendid craftsmanship, not something I would have expected to originate from him. It made me want to commission a sculpture of myself when I had the chance.
As I calmly studied the sculptures, I poured myself a cup of tea. Then I watched Blood Axe slowly rise.
Originally, I had intended to restrain it as much as possible so it would not cause trouble. But once I realized something was wrong with it, I decided to let its impulses loose in moderation.
I wanted to observe how it moved through that. That was why I had come here as well. There was no place more suspicious than this.
A place that naturally drew treasures together. How strange.
If it were that sinister, vile, wicked bastard, he surely had some scheme for maintaining this place. That was why I had deliberately avoided visiting it.
Yet even so, Blood Axe had become contaminated by something unknown. So I first needed to determine what it was.
I had examined it thoroughly over the past week, and what had just happened was the final procedure to reveal its true nature.
If it had lost its original desire, the barrier would not have reacted. But the barrier still recognized it as a treasure.
I took a sip of the tea, warm fragrance rising from it, and organized my thoughts.
That reaction meant it had not been replaced all at once. There was some medium that was contaminating it.
I nodded as my suspicions gradually proved correct. Blood Axe approached me.
“Slaughter, slaughter.” [I am sad, so I will go play over there.]
It stretched out a hand and pointed toward the central hall on the first floor. Humans had gathered there in great numbers. It seemed they had come to attract the treasures' attention, dissatisfied with their lessons.
Among them were several humans who attended our class. It surely wanted to play with them. I nodded.
“Promise that you will not cause any trouble. Then I shall graciously allow you to go.”
“Slaughter!” [I promise!]
It raised both hands high. Having thrown away its gloomy expression, it bounced toward the humans. I clicked my tongue as I watched it go.
I trusted it. I trusted the stupidity inherent within it. Even though it had made such a promise, it would surely cause some sort of trouble.
That was inevitable. Even if contamination had made it more docile, it could not have changed the fact that it ranked dead last among all treasures.
Even so, I had let it go because I intended to use the trouble it caused as bait. The more it ran wild, the stronger the contamination would become, and I would be able to learn where its source originated.
Leaving it behind as it moved away, I stared at the sun. After sipping my tea for a while, I smiled.
Perhaps because I had left it beneath the sun for so long, sunlight had steeped richly into the tea. I trembled slightly at the sensation of the sun's perfection filling me.
As I enjoyed the tea, I sensed someone approaching. They did not seem to have any intention of hiding themselves.
The owner of those footsteps strode over without hesitation and plopped down where Blood Axe had been sitting. When I glanced over, I saw a massive body made entirely of muscle.
“Were you waiting for me?”
I looked up at the voice above me and saw the face of a cheerful-looking man. A man twice the size of my body burst into hearty laughter.
“How barbaric. Lower your voice, you are making my head ring.”
I frowned slightly and glared at him. He tapped the table and looked me up and down. His eyes gleamed as he opened his mouth.
“Oh? You look different from what I expected. Such a frail body with such substantial lumps attached to it. You look perfect for me to hold.”
I felt his gaze settle on my chest. Disgust filled me, and I swiftly jabbed my parasol into his eyes.
The wraiths dwelling within the parasol let out ghostly shrieks and shot toward him. If he blocked them head-on, he would surely melt away.
But he extended one hand, his face showing not the slightest sense of danger. That hand gently redirected the power I had unleashed.
My parasol was drawn back toward me. Even the wraiths were bewildered by how natural the movement was.
As expected, I did not seem capable of surpassing him in manipulating a body. I glared at him.
This was the treasure known as the Flowing Sword. We had met a few times in dreams before.
But this was the first time I had seen him in a puppet body. I let out a small sigh as I looked over the Flowing Sword's muscular body.
The muscles filling that body served essentially the same purpose as the organic masses attached to mine. They were a kind of pouch for power.
I, too, had wanted a form like that. Why had he attached these cumbersome things to me instead? I ground my teeth, filling my heart with resentment toward him.
“This is a body he forced upon me, so withdraw your gaze. If you continue looking at me like that, I shall have you given a similar body.”
I threatened the eyes examining me with my parasol. If it were him, he could surely give this one a body like mine as well. Perhaps my warning worked, because the Flowing Sword shrugged.
“Very well. So why did you wish to meet here?”
Had we not made an agreement among ourselves? He whispered, carrying magical power. I lightly waved my parasol.
A wraith rose from within it and gradually surrounded us. Using my power, I created a barrier.
It basically possessed properties similar to my parasol. It distorted any gaze attempting to observe the inside from outside.
No matter what we discussed now, only the distorted sounds I created would be heard outside. I checked the barrier once more and nodded.
“I called you because I have something to discuss with you. I have prepared suitable precautions besides this, so you need not worry.”
I sipped my tea and glanced at the Flowing Sword. As he said, we had agreed in our dreams not to hold gatherings outside.
That was to avoid his gaze. We had no point of contact outside the dreams. So calling him here would inevitably arouse his suspicion.
To reduce that suspicion, I had spoken with him beforehand through a mirror bug. I wanted to create a reasonable excuse to meet him.
As it happened, I had useful material. I turned my eyes toward Blood Axe, playing with humans in the distance.
That stupid thing handled power in a manner similar to this one. In human terms, it was the method used by those who wielded swords.
So I wanted to adjust its lessons more efficiently. In that regard, there was no better example than the Flowing Sword before me.
He occupied a high position on the rankings. There would also be records of me checking the rankings, so he could not possibly question the justification for this meeting.
Of course, I did not believe that alone would keep us out of his sight. Given how sinister he was, he might be carefully watching this meeting even now.
But we needed to speak outside despite that risk. Only then could we understand our current condition.
“First, there is something I need to confirm. Hold out your hand.”
“Hmm. I do not know what this is about, but very well.”
He extended his thick hand. It was so enormous that three of my hands could fit atop it. I placed mine on it and sent in my power.
The wraiths intertwined and flowed into his body. At the end of their path, I examined his body. Once I had confirmed it, I let out a quiet sigh.
“As expected, you have been contaminated as well.”
“I have been contaminated?”
“Yes. Examine my body as well.”
I felt his power seep into me. I frowned slightly at the unpleasant sensation passing through my body.
But I did not block that power. He needed to understand our circumstances too. I looked down at my body.
The ones who had gathered in dreams had all become suspicious of the bodies he had made for us the moment we noticed the tower's strangeness. We believed he could not have made us these bodies for no reason.
It was a reasonable suspicion. If he had wanted to conduct classes for humans, there were simpler methods than this.
He possessed puppets that held our powers. So rather than dragging us into the tower, he could have used those to conduct the classes.
But he had deliberately tried to involve us in these lessons. That meant there was something he could only do by trapping us inside puppet bodies.
So I had tried to remain still. I had examined the body several times and found no trap, so I judged that something would happen from outside.
Yet Blood Axe had become contaminated despite receiving no stimulus at all. The moment I saw that, I began to wonder whether contamination might exist within me as well.
So I conducted several tests on myself. I needed to see whether I had changed from before. If someone had interfered with me, traces would surely remain.
But no matter how I examined myself, I found no abnormalities. I still existed as myself.
Still, as I watched Blood Axe from beside it, I realized what I felt might not be the truth. That was why I wanted this meeting.
The Flowing Sword and I had examined each other's bodies in dreams before. So we remembered our original forms from before we had been trapped inside these bodies.
And from what I had just confirmed, his body was more distorted than what I had felt in the dream. Before long, the Flowing Sword nodded.
“Ha. It is true. Your body is more distorted than when I saw it in the dream.”
So it was true after all. My suspicion had been correct. I immediately furrowed my brow. I had changed without realizing it. What a horrifying thing.
I clutched my throbbing head. This was what he wanted. He wanted us to change little by little.
No matter how cunning and wicked he was, he was ultimately only a lowly mage. He could not tamper with us so freely.
Then how was this possible? I needed to determine the cause. And causes could generally be inferred through their results.
I did not know how he had contaminated us, but I knew exactly what his objective was. He had been revealing everything to us from the beginning.
He wanted us to grow close to humans. Just as Blood Axe was doing while playing with humans over there.
Then perhaps those humans were connected to our changes. Humans were the only ones who had approached me.
But that was only speculation in the end. It did not explain how he used humans, or why we failed to notice the changes.
“Then should we not leave these bodies first?”
“That must remain our last resort. He will not leave us alone.”
I shook my head.
He was pressuring us with an exquisitely calculated method.
If we shed these bodies to escape this unknown trap, it would be no different from losing the competition against the other treasures.
While we were trapped in the storehouse, the other treasures would be teaching humans. In such circumstances, he would surely manipulate us to keep us from achieving what we desired.
As beings who inscribed desire, we could never accept that. We could not simply let this rare opportunity pass us by.
The Flowing Sword must understand that as well, which was why he would not immediately shed his body. So we needed a different method. We could not run away. We had to fight him.
If we uncovered his plan and destroyed it at the root, he would no longer be able to tamper with us. Fortunately, we possessed a clue.
“I trust you know why I chose you rather than another. Unlike that idiot, your head works.”
“...Hmm. I am likely the only one who can approach that one.”
He turned his eyes toward the humans. No, he was not watching the humans, but the opaque puppet shimmering near them.
That was the Transparent Ring. The one who had left our gathering. It was our greatest clue.
I narrowed my eyes. Previously, it had removed its wedge without leaving us a word. Then it had lost even its memories and lingered beside humans.
That was deeply strange.
Over the past week, I had consistently checked how much Blood Axe had been consumed by contamination. I learned that contamination did not accumulate over a short period.
So it made no sense for it to suddenly remove its wedge without even contacting us. It had been as cautious as we were.
Therefore, its sudden change could also mean that it had reached something crucial while investigating the tower.
He must have noticed and trapped it to remove it. Otherwise, the current situation could not be explained.
That was why we needed to approach it. Even if it had lost its memories, not all the information it had investigated would have disappeared.
Since he had dealt with it in a hurry, traces he had left behind would surely remain. But I could not approach it myself.
The fact that it had fallen into a trap meant he was likely watching it. If I, who had no connection to it, approached, I would surely be discovered at once.
That was why we needed a treasure with a connection to it. That was why I had called the Flowing Sword. He had already approached the Transparent Ring before.
Their class times even overlapped, so there was no better option. After considering my opinion for a while, the Flowing Sword nodded confidently.
“Excellent. I shall step forward.”
He grinned. I could not help frowning slightly. He seemed amused.
This was an unavoidable risk. He might have had a connection to the Transparent Ring before, but that also meant the Flowing Sword was already on the bodymaker's list of suspects.
The more the Flowing Sword approached the Transparent Ring, the more the bodymaker's attention would grow. In the end, he might become like the Transparent Ring as well.
Yet he had that attitude. I could not understand it.
“Hmm. How could I not know how dangerous this is? I know full well that you intend to sacrifice me to obtain information.”
The Flowing Sword spoke while stroking his chin. I gave a small nod at his confident attitude, and he grinned.
“I could avoid it if I wished. But I am a sword. A life spent at the edge of a blade must ultimately walk alongside danger, must it not?”
A sword's life. I could only shake my head at words I could not understand.
Most of the wraiths that had entered me were mages. I did not consume humans who wielded swords, since they did not suit what I sought to achieve.
That was why I could not understand his attitude.
“Will I overcome it, or will I fail to? That is all that matters to me. So I can only be grateful that a crisis for me has arrived.”
He rose sharply from his seat. Then he looked down at me and gave me a thumbs-up.
“Then I shall be on my way. At the next gathering, I shall personally bring what you desire.”
“Ah, I should conduct the lesson before leaving.”
Muttering that, he walked toward Blood Axe. I sipped my tea as I watched his back, which looked somewhat dependable.
Perhaps he really would break through that incomparably sinister bastard's grasp and bring an answer for us. Carrying that hope, I waited for the day of the next gathering.
And when I finally entered the dream, I realized there were only nine of us.
The one who had failed to arrive this time was the Flowing Sword.
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