WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Inept Mage’s Infinite Regression

Chapter 72

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Osmal reclaimed Cora with nearly two thousand soldiers intact. The Kingdom of Kardien made much of the victory, publicly at least. But the war was not over. Eurogia's entry into the war had been a far greater crisis than anyone realized. While Kardien fought to take back Cora, Yekatan had to contend with Eurogia's skeletal soldier units.

The Yekatan king had personally led a thousand troops to blockade Dilloso's seven hundred. Dangerous-looking, perhaps, but not an unreasonable choice. They had the numbers, and once Cora was retaken, Kardien would march up with its remaining soldiers. With the allied battle mages joining the fight in force, the odds at Cora looked considerably better. An army led by a king in person had high morale, and victory would earn the people's support. The Yekatan king himself was a mage, which made him a formidable force in his own right. In hindsight, though, the general view was that they had underestimated Eurogia.

Osmal and his command, along with the battle mages, had all assumed Eurogia had concentrated their strength at Cora. The Undying Church's Requiem, Keropkalon,all of Eurogia's formidable assets were there, and those were what had nearly made Cora impossible to retake. The results from Dilloso told a different story.

Eurogia had advanced with nearly four thousand skeletal soldiers and, together with Dilloso's eight hundred, struck Yekatan's thousand in a pincer. At that point, the Undying King rode a skeletal wyvern out of Cora and joined the battle. He ran the Yekatan king down through Toes and all the way to the royal capital, Asgasil, which he then occupied. The Yekatan king surrendered. The Undying King refused to accept it and had him hanged. In the meantime, the king's eldest son Yejoff Asgasil and his retainers attempted to flee, but were captured before they could cross the border and beheaded. Yekatan was gone.

And all of this had already happened before Ethan stepped into Limbo.

∞

"Would you like to see the expanded space first?"

Demi's low, resonant voice greeted Ethan as he stepped out of the bedroom. She never seemed to leave the great hall. She was usually stationed somewhere before what you'd call the throne,the seat of honor,with the small side door behind her: the one for starting a regression just after death, or for exiting Limbo. Beside it, the merchant sat with his stall spread out. Ethan had a comfortable supply of D-rank Lottery Coupons from his Broker Quests, so he made a habit of checking the new items the merchant brought each day. The wares were unpredictable enough that he hadn't actually bought anything recently. The merchant never spoke first, and Demi ordinarily offered nothing more than a brief greeting.

'But this time I leveled up.'

"The great hall doesn't look like much has changed," Ethan said.

"Let's step out into the corridor."

He walked. Demi followed.

Waiting in the corridor was Zir, the broker,a spider in a suit, walking upright on two legs, about the height of a small child.

"Good day to you, sir."

"Oh, Zir."

"Care for a game of Rocaf today?"

The two of them were evenly matched. Ethan had been sure that learning from a skilled opponent would sharpen his game fast. By now he just felt guilty about it. Checking the merchant's wares, playing a few rounds of Rocaf with Zir, then heading back,that was the rhythm of his visits.

The first rule of Limbo Ethan had learned was to get out quickly after dying, before the next regression began. But since he entered Limbo every time he fell asleep, there were other rules to know. Even setting the first aside, if his time here stretched past three hours or so, it would drag on his stamina the next day. Short stays were fine. Long ones weren't. Demi said she couldn't explain why.

Three hours was a long stretch in a Limbo with nothing in it. Unless something came through a Broker Quest or a Lottery Coupon, he couldn't bring in books or anything of that sort. Body magic like Ruure's Breathing didn't activate here either, which made both study and training impossible.

Killing time had its limits. The merchant was a poor conversation partner, and Demi avoided talking about Limbo or Terra. Zir was much the same on that front, and whatever they could discuss was mostly useless. Zir's species had a complicated, nearly unpronounceable name that translated roughly as "Dimensional Weavers",a race that lived between dimensions, unable to exist within any single one, so they made their living as intermediaries, brokering and the like. Ethan had assumed that meant interesting stories. Instead, Zir was the youngest of his siblings, barely into his first assignment, and had never been handed anything dangerous. He spent a fair amount of time venting to Ethan about his parents' excessive control. Through all of it, Ethan had come to know Zir's family members and friends and gotten a rough picture of Weaver society,not so different from human society, really, except for the line of work. All his time in Limbo had really given him was one more friend in need of advice. The upside, for what it was worth, was that despite all Zir's complaints, he was clearly loved by his family and friends, overbearing as they were.

"Let's play in a bit," Ethan told him.

"Understood, sir."

Zir retreated into the parlor, settled into his seat, and began moving the Rocaf pieces on his own. Ethan's skills had improved quite a bit lately, so he was probably trying to recoup his losses.

Demi pointed to the main gate at the end of the corridor.

"Shall we?"

"Is it all right to open that door?"

"It is now."

Ethan pushed it open, and the outside of Limbo spread before him.

The sky was a hazy, milky white,thick with fog,and the ground below matched it exactly. No earth visible anywhere. Light came from somewhere and kept things bright, but there was no telling where the sun was.

The floor was the same as inside Limbo: dark grey stones of varying sizes fitted together, the stonework of a fortress. The path could lead upward or downward. The battlements rose to Ethan's waist, notched with loopholes. Limbo was a castle. No mistaking it.

Ethan stretched his hand past the railing.

"What happens if I fall from here?"

"It would become rather troublesome."

"For who? Me? Or you?"

"Both."

Below the stairs, another door led back inside, into the lower floors of the castle.

"That's probably the first floor. Let's head up to the third."

"At first I thought it looked like the Charasen Fortress, but the layout is different."

Climbing the stairs, Demi asked, "In what way?"

"The stone color and finish made me think so,but Charasen Fortress is wide. It was a royal castle once, apparently. And for what it was, not particularly ornate."

At the top of the stairs, a steeple came into view. Through the wooden entrance, someone was waiting inside. A new arrival, judging by the level-up notification.

"...I've been waiting for you."

The clothing was similar to Zir's,a style fashionable in the west, something Terra-born that Demi had called a suit. Zir's was white. This one was black. Only the mask, covering the entire face, was white. Its shape echoed the merchant's golden mask.

What struck Ethan most was something simpler: the other person was plainly human.

"There are humans here too?"

"Yes," Demi said. "You're human yourself, sir."

"Oh,it's just that not everything I've seen here has looked human. Is that too self-centered a way to think about it?"

"Not at all. This is your Limbo."

The masked woman cut in.

"But just because I look human doesn't mean you should take that as given."

"...Fair enough."

"Does it matter whether I'm human?"

"Depending on what you are, it might. Or it might not."

She greeted him in the noble manner of Damarth Yumaha and said, "Introductions are overdue. I am the Collector."

Ethan figured she was either not sharing a name, like the merchant, or simply didn't have one. Thinking charitably, Collector might actually be her real name. Demi murmured something about leaving the two of them to talk and headed back.

Ethan looked around. A spiral staircase with no railing stood at the center of the steeple, and every wall was lined with bookshelves. Large, thick books, all apparently in the same style.

"If you're the Collector, what do you collect?"

"Things like what you're carrying."

"What I'm carrying?"

"Take them out."

Ethan felt a heavy bundle against his chest and pulled it free. A deck of cards. Not paper as he knew it,stiffer and smoother, with nothing about them that felt like something meant for games. Each card had an illustration, and a name written beneath it.

He read the topmost card.

"'Magic Academy Student Boen Palmize, Rank D'?"

"Doesn't look particularly promising."

Ethan laid the cards down one by one onto the table in front of the Collector, reading as he went. The names of people he knew, or had once known, written alongside their occupations or titles. He thought he'd gone through them all, only to find five more bundles still inside his coat. He leafed through the rest loosely and set them on the table.

"Is that all?"

"Seems like it. What are these?"

"These cards are called 'Facets.' Facet cards, you could say."

"Facets?"

The Collector picked up as many cards as she could hold in one hand and began to shuffle. Three overhand shuffles first,the most basic method,then splitting the deck in half and letting both halves cascade together in a waterfall, a spring that bent the deck and sent cards arching from one hand to the other, a one-handed charlier cut, and finally a ribbon spread that fanned them all across the table before she flipped them face-up. Ethan clapped.

The Collector hadn't expected that. She spoke a beat late.

"...Everything has a Facet. For example,there is a dog here."

Ethan recognized the dog. A spotted hound with a long snout and short fur.

"Oh, Rtachi. One of my father's hunting dogs. Too old now. Just sleeps."

"The description says 'Old Dog Rtachi, Rank D.' You've never seen this dog hunt, have you?"

"In his prime, the kennel handler would take him around and lend him out. I almost never went hunting with my father, and I didn't even live in the castle when I was young. The Rtachi I remember is curled up by the hearth, asleep. How did you know?"

"There's only one Rtachi card. That was enough."

The Collector swept the back of her hand elegantly across the spread.

"The cards here hold the Facets of the beings you've encountered."

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