WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 297
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297.
Only silence flowed as I felt rough magical power encroaching on the surroundings. Somehow, that magical power seemed to carry the scent of something burnt.
A mage’s magical power usually revealed the nature of their magic. That was why swordsmen smelled of iron, while necromancers carried the stench of corpses.
By that standard, the owner of this overwhelming magical power pressing down on me was connected to fire.
I casually looked up. There, atop the high wall, I met Horae’s eyes as she looked down at me. Intense flames seemed to flicker within her red gaze.
“I have heard much of you, Lady Horae. It is truly an honor to meet you. My name is Evron.”
I bowed deeply with a smile. Yet Horae merely frowned slightly, as though something displeased her, and showed her irritation.
Her attitude was somewhat different from what I had expected. Earlier, I had asked Kronia to find someone who could help with my advancement. I had thought Horae would show at least a little goodwill.
But Horae was showing me faint hostility. No, it probably was not hostility. Rather, she was probably showing that she found me bothersome.
I only took it as a threat because of the difference in our levels. From her perspective, she was lightly pressuring me, but to me, it was no different from a great crisis.
Then I needed to learn why Horae was acting this way. I continued bowing my head as I watched her carefully.
After some time, Horae withdrew a little of the magical power that had been weighing on me. As I straightened myself, she slowly opened her mouth.
“Because of you, I suffered a great loss. So you should compensate me for it.”
A loss?
I rolled my eyes at those incomprehensible words. What loss could I possibly have caused her? I had no idea. I cautiously spoke.
“...A loss? May I ask whether I have committed some offense against you, Lady Horae?”
Horae crossed her arms and frowned at my question. She let out a long sigh, then clicked her tongue.
“Tch. I had a very good feeling about what I was making this time. If I had finished it well, it would have ranked among the ten best things I have ever made. So I was putting my heart into it, but your troublesome request interrupted my flow. Hm? How do you plan to make up for that?”
Horae lightly shook her leg with an insolent attitude. The moment I heard her, I could not help letting out a bitter smile.
I understood why she was acting that way.
I briefly glanced at the muscles bulging beneath Horae’s leather clothes. Even without magical power, they held enough strength to crush a person.
But those were not muscles built for fighting.
They were the marks left by striking something over and over.
I quietly ran my fingers over my own hand. I could feel the hardness of the calluses carved into even my soul. Her muscles were marks left upon her soul, just like these calluses.
I could tell because I had collected physical information from many people over the years. I swallowed lightly as I considered it. I could not even imagine how much time it had taken her to attain such a perfect form.
Still, there was one thing I could learn from it.
Horae was an exceptional Meister, enough to leave such enormous marks upon her soul. As if proving it, she was also quite famous.
According to what I had investigated beforehand, Horae stayed on the 8th floor, just like Merov, who had evaluated me before. In that sense, the two could be considered similar in level.
But her reputation could not be compared to Merov’s at all. Merov was known among a few people preparing for advancement, while Horae’s name was known throughout the university.
The difference between them came from the magic tools she made. I had heard their quality was enough to please even the Professors.
That meant Horae’s skill was not bound solely by her realm. She had reached the level commonly called that of an artisan.
That was why Horae’s magic tools sold for high prices. I had heard that about three years remained until the auction I had attended before, and that if one of her magic tools were listed there, it would easily surpass several tens of millions of points.
I knew very well how enormous that amount was. Domitian, whom I had gone through so much trouble to bring down, could not repay his debt of fifty million points and had his trees stripped by me regularly.
Considering how Domitian had once exerted influence over so many families, it was a truly miserable outcome.
Of course, Domitian could not repay his points because he owed many others as well, not just me. I was merely pecking at a corpse after all its flesh had been stripped away.
Still, it was astonishing that selling one or two magic tools could resolve such debts.
So this was a Meister. I had heard they were monsters that sucked up points, and it seemed their reputation was not unfounded. That was probably why the Technical Coalition controlled an entire city.
I lightly smacked my lips.
It was somewhat different from making magic tools, but I also made puppets. That was why I immediately understood what Horae meant by her loss.
Whenever I made a puppet, I forgot everything else and focused solely on what I wanted to make. An excellent puppet could only be born from uninterrupted resolve.
If my concentration broke midway through, my resolve toward the puppet would naturally break as well. Even if I tried to add it back later, reconnecting a broken flow was nearly impossible.
The quality of the result would inevitably decline. That was why Horae was showing her displeasure.
Considering how much Horae’s magic tools sold for, I could not even imagine how many points I might owe her. I might have to mortgage my entire life to repay it.
But there was no need to panic. The moment I heard her explanation, I realized this was only a complaint.
I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead and shrugged.
“Hmm, now that I hear it, I do think I committed a serious offense. But separately from that, perhaps Lady Horae should be paying me points instead.”
“I should pay you points?”
Horae stirred her magical power even more fiercely. I could almost hear something in my body being slightly crushed.
Still, I did not show it. I simply smiled brightly at her.
“If you are not bound to Kronia, Lady Horae, you could have refused if you truly found this bothersome. Yet you came to see me anyway. That probably means you became interested in the tree I made.”
Horae fell silent, as if I had struck the mark. I calmly circulated my magical power and steadied myself.
From what I had learned, Horae was not someone who moved just because she was pressured. If Kronia wanted to move her, they would naturally have needed to offer considerable compensation.
But the rewards one could offer someone as exceptional as Horae were limited. She could easily acquire most things with points.
So Kronia must have offered something capable of catching Horae’s interest. What reward could that have been?
Seeing Horae had come to find me, the answer was simple.
Kronia had probably brought up the patchwork tree.
They would have told Horae that overseeing my advancement evaluation would allow her to meet me directly. There was no need to infer why Horae had accepted.
She clearly wanted to learn how I had made the tree. An advancement evaluation was normally a process of scraping a mage down to the bottom and examining everything.
Of course, because of the university’s prohibition, Horae could not tell anyone that information. The contract would also prevent her from coming after me afterward.
But it had little to do with the contract if Horae inferred my method and created something of her own. Her method would differ from mine.
Kronia’s plan was probably to encourage Horae to draw information out of me, allowing her to make a similar tree. Whether I passed or failed would be a separate matter.
So there was no reason for me to worry.
As I showed my composure, Horae quietly watched me. The flames in her eyes seemed to have diminished a little.
After some time, Horae plopped down. She scratched her head, looking embarrassed.
“Tch, you caught me. If you had fallen for that, I was going to scrape you clean down to the bottom.”
I blinked at Horae’s sudden change in attitude. She lightly jerked her chin at me.
“I heard you are good at brewing tea. I’m thirsty, so bring some out.”
Horae spoke leisurely as she swung her leg. The irritation from before had vanished entirely. I bowed my head slightly, then drew a magic circle in the air.
It was Perfect Tea.
The magic I had cultivated since before coming to the university made beautiful flowers bloom inside the teacup I held. When I handed it to Horae, her nostrils flared.
This tea had been made by condensing fruit brought from the Magical Power Council. Since it came from fruit that had blossomed while holding pure magical power, its flow would cleanse the impurities within the body.
Horae gulped down the tea in one go and nodded. She seemed to like it.
I began refilling her empty cup again and again.
Before long, Horae quietly patted her stomach. The smile on her face showed her satisfaction.
“Mm, it’s good. The rumors were right after all. I like it!”
I bowed my head at the goodwill in Horae’s voice. I had probably passed the first filter.
Horae looked down at me and stroked her chin.
“Seeing how sharp you are, you probably know why I came too. The tree you made looked interesting, so I examined it. It was not something just anyone could make. I split one apart out of curiosity, and it exploded.”
“Hmm. That is unfortunate.”
So that was why she had been irritated from the beginning. Had she exploded one of the patchwork trees I gave her?
I smiled.
I was confident no one would notice that fragments of my soul were mixed into the patchwork tree. As Horae said, the tree exploded from even a small shock.
The patchwork tree I made was unstable by nature. If I had not used my tree branches as a kind of adhesive, the magical power of the branches would have collided and exploded.
Was that not how I made soul Saplings, by using such collisions?
Naturally, even a small flow of magical power into the patchwork tree would upset its balance and cause it to explode.
It had perfect security because it was unstable from birth. That was why I could take the tree out without concern.
Of course, that did not mean there was no way to examine it at all. If the explosion was the problem, one merely had to forcibly suppress it.
If one froze space and time to hold the tree in place, it should be possible to look inside. It was a method that people of a higher level could use easily, as Professor On had done before.
But that alone made it difficult to learn how the patchwork tree was made. Freezing space and time also meant severing the flow of life.
The patchwork tree I made could exist only because all its tree branches circulated along a perfectly controlled flow. My soul fragments existed within that circulation.
So if someone forcibly suppressed the explosion, that flow would be damaged as well. Professor Irian had personally confirmed that, so it was certainly true.
Dragons that crossed dimensions possessed an innate talent for handling space and time. What mage could investigate something even such a being could not notice?
I looked at Horae with a small smile. Her eyes sparkled. She seemed satisfied with my attitude.
“It looks like you knew it would explode. Right, of course. You have to protect your own things. You cannot just watch while other bastards come charging in to steal your know-how.”
“That is true. Since I make puppets too, it is troublesome whenever others interfere with them.”
“Heh, interesting. Interesting. As expected, meddling with the work of puppeteers only brings losses. Tch, I should let go of my greed.”
Horae smacked her lips.
I rolled my eyes slightly at her words. It seemed she had some connection to puppeteers.
I briefly considered what I knew.
Horae was a Meister under the Technical Coalition, and the place she usually stayed was naturally their city.
The city controlled by the Technical Coalition was called Ironclad City, was it not?
It did not take long to remember which puppeteers were there. They were the ones with Aronia as their association head.
They all made puppets shaped like armor. Miorang, whom I had met in the previous competition, and Gunda, who had attended class with me, were both members of that association and had gotten along with me quite well.
My eyes brightened as I realized I had found common ground with Horae. This was a good opportunity to build a connection with her.
I cautiously spoke.
“Do you perhaps know Lady Aronia?”
“Hm? Ah, yes. Well, you must know her too since you joined the same association.”
“Yes. We contact each other from time to time.”
Horae’s eyes widened slightly at my words. She seemed quite surprised that I was in contact with Aronia.
“You contact that bitch? What would that difficult bitch want?”
“Lady Aronia wants something from me. And I have a wish right as well.”
“A wish right! You, is that true?”
Horae abruptly rose at the words wish right. Intense greed began to flicker in her eyes.
I quietly smiled. As expected, she reacted.
I had mentioned the wish right because Horae seemed to have suffered at Aronia’s hands to some degree. Otherwise, there would have been no reason for her to bring up puppeteers.
“Yes. I cannot explain the details due to circumstances within the association, but it is true that I possess a wish right. I should be able to request anything from Lady Aronia, so long as it does not place too much burden on her.”
“Heh heh, is that so...”
Horae began to smile sinisterly. Once I confirmed that, I cautiously continued.
“If there is something you want from Lady Aronia, I will transfer the wish right to you.”
I thought of Professor On’s coin, which I kept safely inside my spatial pouch.
It was both proof of being a successor and the right to demand wishes from the association heads. It was the result of what Mauro had promised the other association heads at the competition grounds.
Until now, I had not used the wish right carelessly. Opportunities to ask something of mages stronger than myself were rare.
But soon, the coin would pass into someone else’s hands through an auction. Once that happened, the wish right would probably lose its effect as well. If I no longer possessed the token, the promise would disappear.
So I needed to use the wish right quickly before then. I had thought a great deal about what to gain from it, but if I could buy Horae’s goodwill with it, it would not be a waste.
If I managed to obtain even one magic tool, an enormous number of points would come rolling in. How could I let such a good opportunity pass?
Besides, it was unlikely to become a serious problem. Horae had called Aronia harsh names, but there was a trace of familiarity beneath her rough tone.
The two probably knew each other well. That was why I could transfer the wish right without concern.
Perhaps because she sensed I was telling the truth, Horae slapped her knee and laughed loudly. I could feel the space around us lightly tremble.
“I will not refuse! Good, very good. Hmm, how many chunks of meteoritic iron did that woman take from me? I might be able to take even more from her with this. Fine. Since you gave me such a good opportunity, I will naturally pay you an appropriate price as well.”
It was an extremely successful deal.
Feeling my face brighten, I quickly bowed my head.
“Thank you. I am glad I could be of help to you, Lady Horae. The fact that this connection has been made must mean you have accumulated great virtue.”
“Mm, you even know how to flatter. I like you very much!”
Horae grinned. I smiled as well.
Aronia might be a little appalled that I had handed over the wish right like this, but it did not matter. Meisters were more profitable than puppeteers.
The atmosphere grew very warm as our interests aligned.
But that atmosphere did not last long. This was still an advancement evaluation hall.
Perhaps realizing that, Horae soon stopped smiling.
“Hmm. It was a good deal, but that does not mean I will promise your advancement. If your advancement becomes a problem, it will harm me too.”
I nodded slightly at Horae’s words.
She looked me over and slowly continued.
“I am talking to you like this because the kid asked me to. Otherwise, I would have failed you immediately. You are still far too lacking. Your magical power, your body, your will, your emotions. All of it.”
I could feel Horae’s eyes, filled with magical power, pass over every part of my body. There was a trace of regret in her gaze.
It meant I had not reached the threshold she had established.
I could not help smiling bitterly. This situation was somehow familiar.
When I first met Merov during the process of advancing to the third floor, he had failed me immediately as well. This time was the same. If I had not arranged this through Kronia, I surely would have failed at once.
I could easily guess why Horae had judged me that way.
As she said, I was severely lacking.
No matter how much I had cultivated myself, I could not compare to the completeness of mages above the fourth floor. Naturally, I could not satisfy Horae.
That was also why I had asked Kronia to arrange this evaluation. Before I could say anything, the other party first needed to be willing to listen.
I met Horae’s gaze and calmly nodded.
Then, instead of retreating from the magical power pressing down on me, I took a step forward.
“You are correct. I know very well that I am lacking. That is why I chose to think differently. If I am lacking alone, then I will advance together with many others.”
The fact that I had endured her magical power meant I had exceeded the line Horae had guessed at. Her eyes showed interest. She seemed to have realized how I had endured her magical power.
Horae lightly jerked her chin at me. It seemed she was willing to hear me out.
I quietly stirred my magical power. To pass, I needed to reveal my potential completely.
I placed my hand on my chest and began resonating with the shadow tree that spread widely within my domain.
Then I grasped that immense flow in my hand and slowly revealed it outside.
The wide shadow beneath my tree began to wriggle.
It went beyond my inner image and encroached upon the outside world. The shadow rapidly expanded until it filled the evaluation hall.
This evaluation hall, dyed entirely black, was the form of my domain.
Yet the darkness did not feel dark at all.
That was because of the many stars embedded within it.
The stars scattered brilliant light as they brightly illuminated the shadow with magical power. The magical power they released flowed into the soul Saplings rooted above them, and the soul Saplings circulated that magical power until it saturated the shadow.
The many puppets extending from me would become another foundation, and the Saplings rooted there would become another tree.
These Saplings were connected as one, filling the existence known as me.
Within this circulation, I was merely a mass connecting these countless things.
So I could not stack my tree high like other mages did.
But I would spread wider than them.
As if proving it, I could feel countless soul Saplings blooming within the shadow.
This forest was the path I wished to take.
To acknowledge my own insufficiency, diminish myself, and fill that space with more things.
“Oh, interesting.”
I heard Horae utter a small exclamation.
She began flowing magical power into my domain and examining it closely. I accepted that gaze and revealed everything.
Horae’s eyes moved back and forth. She was certainly interpreting my domain down to the tips of its roots.
After some time, she shook her head and sighed.
“What a mad bastard. Is this why you could make that tree? Hah, I knew something was strange. I could never do this.”
As expected, I had anticipated that Horae would abandon the idea of making a tree after seeing this.
I was likely the only one who could use a method like this, planting so many trees.
But Horae’s admiration did not mean the evaluation was over.
She looked straight at me and spoke.
“Still, this alone is insufficient. Reaching the fourth floor means perfectly completing your potential. You cannot persuade me simply by spreading out your inner image like this.”
I quietly nodded.
I knew that well too.
I had already shown this to Merov.
At that time, Merov had admired the inner image I cultivated, this potential of mine. That was why he allowed my advancement to the third floor.
But as Horae said, this was only potential.
Even if I planted my domain full of soul Saplings, there was a limit to how much they could grow.
That limit came from the shallowness of my shadow. Because my realm was still shallow, my puppets and trees could not extend freely.
No matter how much magical power I held or how widely I spread my domain, I could not resolve that lack of depth.
After all, the tree at the center of my forest could not grow beyond a certain level.
In that sense, it was a dilemma.
I had made soul Saplings and puppets to build my realm, but for them to grow further, I needed to raise my realm.
Yet if I focused on growing my own tree like other mages, there was no need to cultivate a forest in the first place.
To grow these things, I needed to cut away at my own tree.
As I looked upon my domain, I suddenly remembered what Merov had told me.
When he conducted my advancement evaluation to the third floor, Merov lamented that the old system had made more sense. At the time, he had compared climbing floors to an insect’s process of metamorphosis.
The first floor was an egg, the second floor a larva, the third floor a pupa, and the fourth floor an adult.
I understood well how that classification worked.
The first floor held those who had adapted to magic, while the second floor was the stage for those who had awakened to magic and begun taking their first steps.
The third floor was the realm reached by those who had chosen their own paths after taking those first steps.
Since it contained the potential of the future, it was called the pupa.
Then what did the fourth floor, adulthood, mean?
I glanced at Horae.
Amelia had said that they used completeness as their standard. So she had emptied herself, perfectly relied on her puppet, and achieved unification.
It was a strange thing that ordinary mages, ordinary puppeteers, could not attempt.
The reason others did not attempt it was obvious.
Breaking down the connection to a puppet and burying oneself within it meant linking one’s life to the puppet. Once she had connected herself in that way, Amelia could not return to how she had been before.
It was a contract.
But there was no need to see it as something bad.
Amelia had distorted herself because she truly wished for it.
It could be said that Amelia had reached the end of what she pursued. Since she could no longer return, she would no longer look for other possibilities.
Yes. That was why she could be said to have completed herself.
That was probably the completeness they spoke of.
And that completeness would probably be connected to the adulthood Merov had described.
A pupa was a preparatory stage for solidifying one’s form.
The moment one became an adult, one could never return to what came before.
One had to cut off all possibilities and look only toward the path one would follow.
In that sense, the fourth floor was the most fitting state for becoming complete. It was the end and beginning of what one pursued, and almost the final stage of being human.
As I understood that meaning, I also realized why the realm I occupied was called Young Tree.
We were still in the process of growing.
That was why we had no choice but to be lacking.
Only by overcoming those insufficiencies, completing ourselves, and becoming whole could we advance to the next realm.
That was why it was Young Tree.
And that was why it was Complete Tree.
I quietly closed my eyes.
It had been quite a long time since I understood these meanings. I had been certain of them since reaching the third floor.
My path was clearly different from everyone else’s.
But because I knew that, I had no choice but to worry even more.
I did not know how I could complete myself.
Others had fairly clear answers. Naturally, they only needed to follow paths already walked by many before them.
But I stood completely alone.
So I needed to draw my own path as perfectly as possible. If I failed, I could never undo it.
That was why I tried to hold as many possibilities as I could.
I had tried killing myself. I had scattered puppets among people. I had held magical power curses to raise purity. I had caused treasures to fall.
Through that process, I came to recognize the possibility I had to pursue, the possibility I could not help but pursue.
Of course, it had only been something I imagined inwardly.
I had refined the theory alone and never attempted it even once.
I had kept putting off the opportunity because this required me to stake everything I had built so far.
If I failed even once, I would have to repeat the path I had walked until now.
That was why I had compressed myself to my limit.
And now, I could be certain.
I could succeed.
That was why I stood here.
To approach the limit I had only imagined until now.
That was why I spread out my inner image.
This night sky was the starting point of the path I would walk.
I concentrated and gathered my will within the soul Saplings rooted in the shadow.
In response to my will, they began to take deeper root in the stars.
Those roots did not remain at just one star.
They extended roots toward the countless stars spread across the shadow tree.
In the process, they connected and crossed one another.
The stars within the shadow touched the soul Saplings. When the roots stopped growing at the end of that process, their distant connections formed a complex shape like a single structure.
At first glance, it looked like a magic circle.
Yes.
A vast magic circle that used the stars as points and the roots as lines.
My tree began pouring magical power into the roots of those soul Saplings.
The pure magical power tempered for so long within magical power curses saturated the roots.
In response, the many stars buried within the roots began releasing light.
They absorbed the magical power overflowing through the shadow tree, then poured it into the roots, brightly illuminating the magic circle.
The transparent roots gradually filled with magical power.
They absorbed all the magical power of the shadow tree and my own tree, filling the magic circle.
But that magical power soon reached its limit.
Naturally, this immense magic circle held a spell far beyond my level.
I was merely trying to force it into activation.
To complete it, I needed ten times more magical power than I possessed now.
So even if I poured out magical power beyond my limits, it was nowhere near enough to fill the magic circle.
I felt cracks forming in my body from the lack of magical power, then vomited a mouthful of blood.
Was this still not enough?
I sharpened my mind further as I felt the roots of the soul Saplings tremble.
I had expected this to happen.
That was why I had made so many preparations before.
I reached out and clawed through the air.
Then stars hidden deep within my shadow domain revealed themselves.
Unlike the other stars, they released no light at all.
But they were so enormous that they could not be compared to any other stars.
They were even larger than the Moon at the center of the shadow.
They were the connections to the treasures that had contaminated my mind before.
While I filtered their magical power through the inner demon puppets, they had lost their light and become buried deep within the shadow.
But now I needed to remove those filters.
The magic circle required an enormous amount of magical power.
I sent my will to the inner demon puppets and stopped their control.
The curtains covering the stars vanished, and the stars that had lost their light slowly began to burn.
At the same time, I felt wild magical power begin flowing into me.
It instantly filled the empty shadow tree.
But I could not touch that magical power.
Naturally, it was not magical power that came from me.
If I left it as it was, it would surely try to ruin the magic circle rather than fill it.
I knew that well.
Even so, I had released this magical power because there were those who could control it in my place.
I sent my will toward several stars resting between the lines of the magic circle.
Then they began devouring the magical power of the treasures flowing around them.
Those were all treasures that could be called the owners of that magical power.
If I could not control it, then I only needed to return it to its owners.
Of course, those treasures had fallen endlessly and become my puppets.
So, for this brief moment, I could place them under my will.
The stars, filled with magical power under my command, poured that power into the roots connected to them.
The trembling magic circle slowly stabilized.
The magical power of the treasures flowed endlessly into the magic circle through me.
At the end of it, the magic circle held brilliant light and began releasing an intense aura.
The preparations were complete.
Now I only needed to activate the spell.
I tightly clenched my hand.
The shadow domain that filled the evaluation hall slowly began to shrink. The magic circle lost its shape along with it and gradually faded.
As I focused my mind, my domain slowly vanished.
Soon afterward, my inner image disappeared, and the sight of the evaluation hall returned.
But I did not panic.
This was exactly the result I had wanted.
I cautiously opened the hand I had clenched.
A small bead, no bigger than my fingernail, rested upon my palm.
I looked closely at it.
The scenery within the tiny bead became clear to me.
At the top of the bead, transparent Saplings spread widely around a single tree. Beneath the trees where they were rooted, stars emitting brilliant light rested below.
It was a sight quite familiar to me.
Naturally.
It was an object that contained my inner image exactly as it was.
Holding it in my hand, I looked at Horae.
“I have seen the wishes of many people gather to create a god. So I wondered whether such wishes could create only an imperfect result like a god.”
“That is...”
Horae’s eyes widened.
As an 8th floor mage, she seemed to know what this was.
I settled my hollow stomach and continued.
“After thinking about that, I sought to make this. Hmm, from a magical perspective, you could say I attempted to create a world. What do you think? Is this enough?”
I glanced down at the bead.
Then I saw a line of markings appear on my tree standing within it.
A new spell was certainly being engraved.
Satisfaction naturally brought a smile to my face.
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