WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 110: Where the Storm Calls (10)

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Kyle woke on his own in the early dawn. The first thing he saw was the unfamiliar yet lavish ceiling decorated in an exotic style.

He lay still and blinked as his mind gradually woke, one memory from yesterday after another returning to him. The trade ship had sunk, and they had washed ashore on the island's northern coast. They had gone down to the city and met Cesar, the ruler of the archipelago and head of the Skaldir Family. After dinner, they had gone to bed early, promising to continue the matter the next day.

Once he sorted through his thoughts, what he needed to do became clear. Today, as agreed with Cesar, he had to deal with the rift in the forest to the island's northeast.

A ship heading toward the Federation would not leave for another week anyway.

Kyle rubbed his eyes with his palm and sat up. When he turned his head, he saw Elysia lying beside him.

She was sleeping soundly, oblivious to the world. Her bright platinum-blonde hair was scattered messily in the faint dawn light streaming in. Come to think of it, she slept much more than Kyle had initially expected. No, calling it simply a lot might not be enough. He could not help wondering how she had managed to stay awake for several days while fleeing the pursuit of Wyvern Knights.

Had she shown superhuman willpower in the face of death? Or had the aftermath made her sleep more?

Then again, they had endured that awful cabin for the past four days. It made sense.

"Wake up."

"Mmm... Just a little longer..."

"Cesar's knight will be here soon. We need to get ready."

"My head is pounding..."

Kyle ignored Elysia's complaints and forced her awake. She barely managed to sit up, then stared blankly and blinked at the dim light beyond the window.

"Does your head still hurt?"

"No... I'm fine. Probably..."

Elysia muttered softly as she began putting on her clothes. Kyle glanced at her, quickly finished preparing himself, then began organizing the items in his Inventory Pouch once more.

"Why are you checking things so urgently?"

Elysia asked after roughly fixing her disheveled hair and putting on her white robe. Kyle answered without looking back.

"Food."

"Why food...?"

"Just in case. By the time you regret not preparing, it's always too late."

Spatial Magic was as dangerous as it was difficult. Having experienced the teleportation at the Alenos ruins, Kyle had no choice but to prepare for the worst. Any experienced mercenary would probably do the same.

"Fortunately, we have enough. If we conserve it, this should last us a month."

The Dried Rations they had bought in Cadis. The Black Crow Merchant Company had treated them better than expected, so they had not used up any of their food on the trade ship. After checking every other item, including the Dragon Heart, Kyle finally pulled on his sword's hilt.

Shing.

The cool blade slid halfway free in the dim room. Since he had cleaned it yesterday, the sword was in good enough condition to use immediately. It was made of star iron, so even seawater had not corroded it. The scabbard was another matter, and he carefully inspected its inside.

Nothing was more troublesome than being unable to draw his sword immediately in an emergency.

No problems.

"This is..."

"Have one."

After fastening the sword at his waist, Kyle held out a dried date to Elysia. The instant she saw the red fruit, her brow furrowed on reflex.

"When did you pack those?"

"When we were in Cadis."

"I'm fine. I don't have an appetite."

"Eat anyway. I don't think we'll have time to get breakfast separately."

Elysia hesitated, tightly shut her eyes, and nibbled at the date. Her face changed in all sorts of ways with every chew. Kyle took out another date and tossed it into his mouth.

Taste aside, it was not bad as emergency food.

It was still sweet enough to make his tongue sting, but that was actually helpful. As the sweetness went down his throat, his slightly hazy mind cleared.

Knock, knock.

That was when someone knocked. Kyle exchanged a look with Elysia, walked to the door, and pulled the handle. A familiar face stood in the corridor beyond.

"You're awake."

The man with two cutlasses looked at Kyle, then at Elysia behind him, with surprise in his eyes.

"Mages usually stay up all night and wake late in the morning."

"Is it already time?"

Kyle asked. The man nodded.

"Yeah."

"I didn't expect you to come in person."

"Lord Cesar sent me himself. It isn't as though I don't take this matter seriously. Setting aside the unpleasant business from before, if you solve this rift, I will apologize as much as you want. Compared to the Skaldir Family's safety, bowing my head is nothing."

The man's voice was serious. At the very least, he did not seem to be lying when Kyle looked into his eyes.

"Follow me."

The man turned around. Kyle signaled to Elysia, who had pulled up her hood, then followed after him.

When they stepped outside the castle, cold, damp sea wind swept over the three of them. Red light had begun spreading across the bluish sky. Beneath it, a group was already waiting.

"You're finally out, Kyle. Earlier than I expected."

Cesar smiled brightly. Instead of the extravagant silk clothes he had worn yesterday, he was dressed in neat traveling clothes that seemed to blend the cultures of Velia and Azaril.

"Did you hear my name from the captain?"

"That's right. And your companion is Ely?"

Elysia nodded silently. Ever since meeting Jade in Nibelmund, the gateway city of the duchy, she had settled on her childhood nickname, Ely, as her alias. Cesar caught sight of the faint golden eyes beneath her deeply lowered hood and gave a small laugh.

"It looks like you have quite a few complications of your own."

"......"

"Well, don't worry too much. The Black Crow Merchant Company sailors are resting safely. Depending on how things go, they might even become honored guests. We can't treat them poorly."

Cesar gave Kyle a meaningful look.

Depending on how things went, they might become honored guests. Their treatment would depend on today's outcome. The verbal agreement between Kyle and Cesar also included overlooking the Black Crow Merchant Company's violation of the strait's rules.

"Is this everyone going to the forest?"

Kyle changed the subject as he looked around Cesar. It was still early dawn, before the sun had properly risen. Besides Kyle, Elysia, the dual-sword man, and Cesar, only four others stood in the castle courtyard.

"Yes. There is no need to make a fuss."

Cesar spoke casually. Among the Skaldir Family's four vassals was the man who had guided Kyle to the castle yesterday. The rest were all skilled knights or mages as well. Cesar appeared to have selected them himself.

"They are all elites of the Skaldir Family. At the very least, they won't hold us back."

Cesar looked up at the slowly brightening sky. When he lowered his head, his gaze turned to the island's northeast.

"Let's leave. We need to arrive before sunset, at the latest."

* * *

The group of eight left the castle and headed north across the island. By the time they left the city, the sun had fully risen.

"Almost no one comes here. The docks and city are in the south, and people usually have no reason to enter the forest."

Around noon, they reached the entrance to the northern forest.

Unlike the broad southern plains, the entrance was packed with thick trees. It felt as though two completely different worlds had been forced together in one place. Cesar, leading the way, held a small compass in his right hand.

It was a Mana Compass.

"Have you seen the rift with your own eyes?"

After they had traveled through the forest for some time by following the Mana Compass, Kyle asked Cesar ahead of him.

"I have."

"What was it like?"

"That is difficult to explain clearly. There is a solid line drawn through empty space, and it feels as if mana is alive within it. Sometimes it draws mana in, and sometimes it releases it instead."

"Mana is alive?"

Kyle repeated in a tone of disbelief. It was already surprising that magic from thousands of years ago remained, but hearing that mana was alive made it even harder to believe. Even if it was dragon magic.

"You might dismiss it as nonsense, but that's how it felt to me after seeing it myself. I take some pride in my knowledge of magic, but... I couldn't find any other way to describe it."

"How far does the rift's influence extend?"

"I don't know precisely, but roughly one kilometer in every direction."

That was wider than he had expected. If it had changed the vegetation across such an area for thousands of years, Kyle could not begin to imagine how powerful the magic was.

"Has anyone been harmed directly?"

"Not yet. But we don't know what might happen. If we keep assuming everything will be fine and victims appear later, it will be too late to do anything."

Cesar's answer was calm, but Kyle could hear the deep worry in his words. If they kept assuming everything would be fine, it would be too late. Kyle understood that well. He had an irreversible past of his own.

Regret always came too late.

"Assuming there is even a clear way to deal with it."

Cesar spoke with a self-mocking tone. Kyle watched his back as he looked down at the Mana Compass, then turned to the side. Elysia was there, lightly tugging at the edge of his cloak.

"Kyle."

"Go ahead."

"Can you feel it?"

Kyle did not answer. He only kept his mouth shut and gave a small nod. Even without Elysia saying anything, he had felt the flow of mana subtly change some time ago. Kyle's sensitivity to mana was the greatest in the Knights of Ash.

"The scenery around us looks normal, but the flow of mana has changed."

Elysia said as she looked around.

"It is definitely strange."

"Something else is even stranger. The nature of the mana is a little different from normal. The deeper we go, the more certain I am that it isn't my imagination. It feels like..."

Dragon mana.

Elysia swallowed the rest of her words. Kyle did not add anything either. There was no need to talk about it endlessly when they would soon see it with their own eyes.

In the silence, the eight people continued onward.

They took short breaks from time to time. There was no time to sit down for a leisurely lunch, so they chewed the Dried Rations they had brought while moving. They spoke as little as possible to conserve their strength.

Before they realized it, the sun was setting. It was late afternoon.

They had left early in the morning, yet after walking nonstop toward the island's northeast, it was already this late.

Then, as they crossed a certain point, the air suddenly grew heavy.

Kyle instinctively drew on the mana from his ring. The density of mana spread all around them was on an entirely different level. The heaviness of the air was only an illusion caused by that.

"This is where the rift's influence begins. Don't be surprised. Whatever happens, it will be beyond anything you imagine."

Cesar, who had been silent for a while, turned around and spoke. The Mana Compass in his hand repeatedly clicked and rattled with noise. Something was clearly wrong with it.

The nearby scenery was the same.

The trees growing thickly around them had become even denser. The presence of animals running through the brush felt vivid. So did the faint sound of trickling water somewhere nearby. Every sound echoed as if it came from all directions.

To make matters worse, their sense of direction became blurred. The sunlight overhead no longer reached them properly, caught by the thick leaves and branches. Fragments of sunlight mixed sparsely with the gray shadows covering the ground. Plants that had died from heat and frozen flowers existed side by side. The bizarre forest, painted in every color, felt like a dream.

Maybe it really was a particularly terrible dream.

Kyle let out a hollow laugh without realizing it. The more he looked around, the more absurd it felt.

Was this what they meant by changing vegetation?

"This is impossible..."

Elysia, walking beside him, spoke in shock. Kyle, Cesar, and his vassals all turned to look at her.

Following Elysia's gaze, they saw a flower blooming not far away. Its stem had been black and dead only moments earlier, yet now a bud was opening in real time. As if that were not enough, transparent frost formed between its petals.

Then, in an instant, it withered again.

"This... It can't be..."

"Did you think I was lying?"

Cesar turned his gaze away from Elysia and looked down at the compass again.

"The flow of time and space is abnormal within the area affected by the rift's mana. It wasn't this bad before, but it keeps getting worse. Compared to that, flowers like this are common. Sometimes dead animals come back to life and begin running around again."

"You are saying that is common?"

"Do you understand how serious this is now?"

Elysia pressed her lips tightly together. Even the smallest doubt had disappeared from her face. The sight of a dead flower coming back to life only to die again had been that shocking.

"How far are we from the rift?"

"We're almost there."

Kyle was no different. After coming this far, doubting Cesar's words would be foolish. After some more time passed, Cesar, who was guiding them from the front, stopped and turned around.

"There."

Cesar looked back at Kyle and Elysia, then tipped his chin toward the sight ahead.

"It looks bigger than when I saw it before. Damn it."

He frowned and cursed. Kyle and Elysia did not react to his grumbling. They could not. The sight before them was too strange.

At the center of the grotesque forest, a long line hung in the open space between the tree trunks. The scenery around it was twisted beyond recognition by extremely compressed mana. Kyle, who was highly sensitive to mana, could see mana on a completely different level from human mana moving in and out through that line.

He could feel it clearly without even needing to see it.

"Be careful. The first mage who saw that rift reached out without thinking and was crushed to death."

Cesar warned Kyle as he stepped forward. Ignoring him, Kyle approached as close as the rift's mana allowed.

"Can't you see it?"

"See what?"

"The scenery. Countless moments of time visible through the rift. Is this... the past?"

Kyle muttered as though entranced, staring beyond the solid line. Cesar and his vassals did not understand what he meant. They looked at one another and tilted their heads. Elysia was much the same. She narrowed her eyes and glared beyond the line Kyle was watching, but she could only see mana rippling there, with no scenery in sight.

"You can see something through the rift..."

Cesar, who had also been staring at the solid line, murmured thoughtfully.

"I've invited many mages, but you're the first to say that. Is it possible?"

Cesar asked, excitement creeping into his voice.

"Wait a moment."

Kyle closed his eyes and drew on the mana from his ring. Along with Illusion Magic, Spatial Magic was one of the most difficult among the many branches of magic. Even preparing to cast it required intense concentration. Kyle shut out his external senses and focused on the rift before him and its foreign mana.

It really does feel alive.

Cesar had been right. There was no other way to describe it. Kyle slowly spread the mana from his ring, attempting to create resonance with the mana near the rift. At first, the mana blended together as if melting into one another, but then it fiercely pushed Kyle away as if rejecting him.

"Did it work?"

"...No."

For an instant, the solid line emitted every kind of light. It did not last long.

Cesar stared at the rift as it quieted once more and sighed, unable to hide his disappointment.

"So it still won't work..."

Kyle glanced at Cesar as he rubbed a hand over his face, then touched the ring on his left hand. He had used a fair amount of mana just now, but the gem within the ring still held mana that had filled during his rest. A trace of hope returned to Cesar's eyes.

"That's exactly what I mean. It would have been nice if I could solve it immediately, but I'll need to stay for a few more days and observe it. The magic is far more complex than I expected, so I need time to understand it. I think I need to examine the rift's workings carefully. If I study it a little..."

Kyle calmly continued as he looked over Cesar and the others.

"Huh?"

Someone let out a dazed sound.

A pendant set with a white gem flew out from inside Kyle's clothes. The large, pure-white gem shone with an icy light. Floating in the air without any help and radiating a fierce glow, the pendant was clearly not normal.

"What is that?"

"What the..."

"Kyle!"

Amid the rising voices, Elysia rushed toward Kyle in surprise. Kyle blankly stared at the Dragon Heart floating before him.

Countless scenes flashed through his mind. The boundary between dreams and reality blurred. The rift, which had been quiet, rapidly swelled as if responding to the Dragon Heart.

It happened incredibly fast.

"Fuck..."

"Everyone, get down!"

The dual-sword man shouted at the top of his lungs. He swiftly grabbed Cesar, threw himself backward, and rolled roughly across the ground.

Flash!

White flooded everything. In an instant, every color in the world was erased. The thick brush, the flowers blooming in every color, the small animals that had wandered around moments earlier, even the rift suddenly running wild.

Everything.

When the world's colors returned, two people had vanished from where the rift had been. Cesar and his vassals, left behind in confusion, stared blankly at the rift, now reduced to a small point.

Kyle and Elysia were gone.

Not even a trace remained.

As though their very existence had been erased.

Footnotes:

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