WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Inept Mage’s Infinite Regression

Chapter 84

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True History

But another quest appeared immediately.
[Quest: Robita's Secret (D)]
[Robita Bisneri is hiding something. Can you uncover that secret?]
Seeing it was a low-rank quest, Ethan relaxed. Robita, on the other hand, went pale at the sight of the corpse and stammered. It was just like when the carriage was attacked and the coachman and maid were killed.
"Uh, no, I... my heart's racing again..."
"How can a noble be scared of a corpse?"
Renzo grumbled, but Ethan did not think it was unusual. Most nobles received military training close to a knight's level, but in regions where neighboring territories were relatively stable, that training often stopped at basic refinement. Even if conflict broke out, nobles could handle it through diplomacy or hired mercenaries, so they did not always have to face corpses themselves.
"Please rest. We'll handle this."
While Boen kept watch, Ethan and Renzo searched the body.
"Just a robber?"
"Why do you think that?"
"Doesn't look like he had anything valuable."
"I don't know. I don't think so."
"Why?"
"Look at this."
Ethan showed Renzo the corpse's forearm as Renzo searched through his clothes. There was a tattoo. The script was in an ancient language, but Ethan knew the phrase.
"'Born of different blood, but buried in the same pit.' He was with a thief gang."
Renzo slapped his forehead.
"...Ah, damn it. So that was it."
"Hm?"
"I used to work with a guy who had that tattoo, and my money always came up short."
"Ah. If he was from a thief gang, he probably did not see careless people as comrades. He saw them as wallets. You should have been more careful."
"Why are you taking a thief's side? And how do you even recognize that tattoo? This guy's suspicious."
Robita, now steadier after finding nothing else on the body, spoke.
"The meeting place is close. Could you come with me?"
Ethan and the others agreed.
The meeting place was a warehouse beside a bell tower, only three minutes from where Robita had been attacked. The door was closed, but they could enter through a window above stacked crates. Aside from old cargo, no one was waiting inside. Only a few rats crawled around in the dark, rustling softly.
After about an hour of waiting, Robita spoke.
"Let's return to the inn. I have something to tell you. Something I've hidden until now."
∞
The Emperor, the Mage Council, mage towers, witch assemblies, the Loto Moros Merchants' Guild, the bosses of each city's thief gangs, the heads of the great eastern houses, the fairies of Kasli Foklain, the high chieftain of the frontier giants and the chiefs of each beastman tribe, dragons, heirs of ancient legacies, even the vanished Demon King: each claimed, or believed, they ruled Damarth Yumaha. Yet in the present age, only kings were acknowledged as its true rulers.
For 2,232 years, since the Oath of the Empty Throne, all kings had respected and followed that order. Their rule was not perfect, but most still believed it was better than the era before the oath.
Some mages in the Mage Council still quietly believed, even now, that they were the true rulers of the world. The Oath Calendar began when the Nine Mages, the ancient predecessors of the Mage Council and the de facto rulers of that age, gave up their authority and transferred power from mages to kings. From the Mage Council's perspective, this merely handed the troublesome work of governance to non-mages, like a master assigning work to servants, while mages gained more time to pursue truth. Of course, this was neither the official position of the Mage Council nor a view shared by all mages.
In Damarth Yumaha, when kings ruled on the surface, people commonly believed another ruler existed beneath that surface. It did not even have to be the Mage Council.
It could be historians.
Robita said, "I did not attend university, but I studied under Professor Alinai Quine."
Ethan and Renzo showed little reaction, but Boen was impressed.
"Alinai Quine? You mean Alinai Quine, the author of Dawn of Debo Kior?"
"Yes."
Ethan asked Boen, "Is he famous?"
"You don't know? He's a very famous historian with Sage Designation."
If Heroes and Champions were designated by the Kings' Roundtable, and archmages by the Mage Council, then wise men and sages were selected by Havain University.
A designated Sage received protection from both kings and mages, gained the right to read forbidden books and enter forbidden lands, and above all received unlimited support from Havain University for any research they wished to pursue. They were treated as a great scholar representing the age, a position every scholar dreamed of.
"I heard he's old now and no longer active in academia, but he left many works that will remain classics. They say history students start by copying his books. I love many of them myself. So he was in Bisneri. If I'd known he was that close, I would have gone, even if I had to force the trip."
Robita shook her head.
"He avoided revealing his residence because followers constantly swarmed him, and he stayed there only for a few years while teaching me. It would have been difficult to meet him no matter what."
"I see."
Boen nodded, but still looked disappointed.
Robita said, "In his later years, Professor Alinai's research topic was True History."
Boen replied, "I see," then asked for details unrelated to the immediate context, and Robita answered willingly. Renzo looked bored, but he did not seem to think the conversation was pointless.
Ethan had to answer Demi's question.
<What is True History?>
<True History? It means real history. The history defined by Havain University.>
<So you believe history has both real and fake versions?>
<What do you mean, "believe"? Real and fake history exist.>
<Terra has gathered very little information on Damarth Yumaha's magic, but it seems we also did not understand your perception of history. Please explain in more detail.>
<Perception? You're using that word strangely.>
As Robita went over Professor Alinai's shift from ancient history to modern history, Ethan explained.
<How should I explain this... I remember my father once taught me history like this when I was young. A boy was walking down a road and kicked a stone. The next day, he walked the same road, and the stone had fallen over. The wind was no different that day, so he found it strange and touched it. Feeling around, he found it had a very odd shape, like a person. As a keepsake, he broke off the part shaped like a nose and took it. The next day, a girl came looking for him and tried to kill him. The villagers stopped her and asked what happened. "That child cut off my father's nose." The boy could not understand her words. The girl told the villagers again. "He could not even help my father when he collapsed from illness, and then he cut off his nose. Even if I cannot kill him here, I will take my father's nose back." The villagers rebuked the boy. Panicked, he said what he took was the nose-shaped part of a stone shaped like a person, not a human nose. Then he reached for his pocket, but a wise old woman grabbed his wrist and asked whether he truly would not regret this. The boy asked what she meant. The old woman asked again, was that stone truly not a person? The boy was deaf. Even if he heard someone crying for help, he could not hear properly. The boy was blind. If something did not move, he could not tell a person from a stone. The boy was mute. He could not say it was not a person. Then blood began to drip from beneath the boy's pocket. The old woman took the girl's father's nose from the pocket and gave it to the girl, and the girl forgave the boy.>
Demi said,
<That is a strange story.>
<My father did not make it up. It's called "The Nose-Shaped Stone." It's a common story used to explain history to children. I've read it in a book too.>
<Why did the nose-shaped stone become a real nose? Was it magic?>
<No. There is not a single mage in that story. It's not about magic or mages.>
<But the stone became a nose.>
<Right. That's what history is. A stone becomes a nose.>
<Philosophical.>
<No, I mean it literally happens that way. If someone is deeply mistaken about something, and only that person knows the fact, then for that person, the world becomes truth.>
<No, User. That is a solipsistic worldview. For example, when a child loses sight of a parent, the child may believe the parent has vanished from the world and will not return. If so, humans in Damarth Yumaha could not survive.>
Ethan said,
<You picked out the key point well. That's called contention.>
<What is contention?>
<When two people's truths contradict each other. The boy and the girl in the story were in contention. But the girl won.>
<Why did the girl win? Who decides that?>
<...Uh, it's hard to point to one thing. Maybe because she knew more. She also spoke more convincingly. The boy said he broke off a nose from a fallen stone shaped like a person and took it. That's too strange. People were persuaded by the girl's story.>
Ethan felt he needed to add more.
<Look. At first, the boy thought he hit a stone while walking. At that point, the girl's father was still alive, so it was a contested state. But the next day, the girl's father died, so the boy won. That's why the girl's father became stone. But when the boy put the stone-shaped nose into his pocket by himself, it was still contention. Contention between the boy and everyone else. If the boy had found the strange stone first and pulled it out of his pocket to show people, maybe his story would have won the contention. But then the girl appeared. She presented a more convincing story before the boy could show evidence. Now people think the boy must have made a mistake, because he is deaf, blind, and mute. The boy lost the contention with the girl.>
<That story raises many questions. For example, when the girl finds her father, does she find him as a father shaped like stone?>
<She would find him as a father whose body had hardened like stone. He would not look like literal stone. That would also serve as evidence for the girl's story.>
<What if the boy had already shown the villagers the nose-shaped stone?>
<Then it would have been stone.>
<The girl would think that makes no sense.>
<I don't think so. She could think he was struck by petrification magic, or caught a disease that turns the body to stone, or think, "this is not my father.">
<In the last case, where did the girl's father go?>
<He would be missing. No one could know whether he would appear again.>
<That is strange.>
Ethan spoke as if teaching a child.
<The world is strange by nature. It changes according to other people's awareness. That's common sense.>

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