WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Magic-Eating Wizard ◈

Chapter 10: Factional Strife Is an Age-Old Imperial Tradition

──────

Once Cardin had finished speaking, even Ruska did not dare hurl an insult.

It felt as though the old man might refine Ruska into an elixir if Ruska spoke without thinking.

“We should treat your injuries before we talk. Ruska, in particular, looks to be in poor shape.”

As Cardin held out a hand, a long, translucent mana field stretched out and wrapped around Haren.

The power seeped into Haren’s body, forcibly twisting the broken arm and finger bones back into place.

For a moment, the pain was enough to bring tears to Haren’s eyes. After that, though, all that remained was a sharp yet refreshing sensation.

“I have only filled in the flesh and joined the bones in a hurry, so don’t overexert yourself for the next few days, until you’re fully healed.”

Beside them, Ruska, who had received similar treatment, climbed down from Rim’s back and lightly stamped a foot several times.

The leg was still covered in blood, but the deeply gouged wound had already filled with flesh.

Cardin had treated a mild sprain Haren suffered during a spar before, but Haren had not expected the old man’s life magic to heal even such serious injuries in an instant.

At first Haren had not noticed, but even the loss of stamina caused by anemia had been restored.

Still, it was strange that Kadin left the burns on his own body untreated despite having such skill.

“We should walk while we talk. The night is deep, and we have far to go.”

Cardin said this as he turned and began walking after the treatment ended.

“Now then, how far had I gotten?”

“You said wizards are magical creatures too. So can essence be extracted from a wizard’s head and made into an elixir?”

Cardin shook his head at Haren’s question.

“It’s not so simple. Essence that has entered a wizard’s spiritual body even once becomes corrupted during extraction. If someone consumed it carelessly, they wouldn’t be able to digest it properly and would have to endure tremendous contamination.”

There was a warning in the solemnity of his voice.

“The result would be death, or survival without any further growth as a wizard. The moment they tried to digest more essence to develop their spiritual body, they would go out of control.”

Hearing this, Haren understood why wizard society had not become a world where the strong preyed upon the weak, unable to sustain nations, schools, or even families.

If anyone could extract essence from other wizards without side effects, no one would want comrades or disciples.

The moment one became weak, there would be no telling when someone would stab them in the back.

A conscience and morality that did not yield to greed were considered noble values because they were difficult and rare.

“Of course, people have devised all sorts of loopholes, as they always do. They may implant the essence into another creature first and filter out the contamination. They may extract it while the person is alive through sexual contact. Or they may make it into a tool to use instead of absorbing it directly...”

The techniques Cardin mentioned were surely strictly prohibited, the sort that would get someone cast out of society merely for learning them.

“But all of that takes a great deal of effort. Unless the essence is exceptionally powerful and rare, it isn’t worth it.”

“So that colonel must have had essence worth the trouble.”

“Starbreaker is famous for possessing some of the greatest destructive power among explosion spells. It’s why my arm is in this state. It was a spell beyond the means of an ordinary colonel, so he was likely a promising talent carefully raised by some school or family.”

As he spoke, Cardin tossed and caught the mage officer’s head several times as if he were juggling.

He smiled broadly, looking genuinely pleased.

Then, after catching the head he had thrown, the old man looked at Haren and suddenly raised a terrifying subject.

“But aren’t you curious about anything else? For example, whether it’s possible to extract a ‘blessing’ from a wizard and implant it in someone else. I think you’ve wanted to ask that all along.”

The atmosphere froze before he had even finished.

Rim, Ruska, and even Nasrel stared at Cardin with tense expressions.

None of them had said it aloud, but they had all harbored similar suspicions. Cardin was the first to reveal them so openly.

Haren had never imagined he would bring up the subject so bluntly.

“You’re free to believe me or not, but no such method exists. A blessing is both a constitution and a spiritual quality. Even if one took another person’s body through a secret art of soul theft, the blessing that had dwelled in that body would be damaged.”

Even if this did not apply to the Prophet, Omniaffinity and Great Strength were deeply connected to the nature of one’s mana field and magical affinity.

The Primordial Type that Kishasha supposedly possessed was the same.

“More than anything, if such a method truly existed, wouldn’t eighth-tier wizards have already taken every useful blessing for themselves?”

It was hard to trust Cardin completely, but his logic was reasonably sound.

Surely people that powerful would not lack the knowledge or ability to do so.

Of course, Haren would need to find out later whether most eighth-tier wizards truly lacked blessings.

After saying that, Cardin walked silently as if he had said all he meant to say. Haren watched his teacher’s back, let out a quiet sigh, and followed.

Whether the explanation was true or not, the fact that Haren had to follow him now would not change.

* * *

One old wizard and four young wizards walked all night, only emerging from the forest around dawn.

Seeing his disciples dazed with exhaustion from fleeing and fighting, Cardin smiled.

“From now on, let’s take transportation and travel more comfortably. If we walk out of the Empire, it’ll be next year before we arrive.”

“Transportation...?”

Rim looked around in confusion.

They stood by a river near the forest. Aside from a single railway bridge, there were no artificial structures in sight.

“It’s coming at just the right time.”

At Cardin’s words, the distant sound of escaping steam and clattering metal came closer.

A massive steam locomotive raced along the tracks.

“We can take that.”

“But there’s no train station here...”

“That’s why it’s fortunate! If there were a station here, people would already be spread all over the place trying to catch us.”

Cardin laughed heartily at Rim’s observation, then spoke in a careful tone.

“Everyone, suppress your mana fields from now on. You could fall if you do it wrong.”

As he spoke, his mana field wrapped around all four of them, and they rose gently from the ground.

Flying for the first time, Haren’s eyes widened in surprise.

‘Flying with a mana field? No, is this flight magic...?’

It felt as though gravity had vanished, then they flew by “falling” upward.

Cardin skillfully controlled not only himself but the bodies of the other four. He waited for the train to pass beneath them, matched its speed, and landed them on top.

“Come on, let’s go down.”

Cardin led the way down a ladder and entered a train car without hesitation.

The four who followed realized that it was a well-appointed first-class carriage.

Unlike the other cars, which had dozens of seats crammed into them, this one was divided into separate compartments with partitions and doors.

Cardin looked around, then abruptly flung open one of the doors.

“Pardon the intrusion.”

“Hm? Who are you, barging in without even knocking? How rude...!”

The middle-aged gentleman inside voiced his displeasure at the unexpected visitor.

He appeared to be traveling with his family. A noblewoman and two sons sat beside him, and the boys looked about Haren’s age.

They stared at Kadin and the group behind him with a mixture of confusion and discomfort.

Thanks to cleansing magic, no mud or rainwater remained on them. However, their clothes, torn apart during the battle, were little better than rags.

Just before the middle-aged gentleman could shout for an attendant, Cardin pulled a black mirror from his clothes and held it out.

“Would you happen to lend us some clothing?”

“...Ah, it seems you’ve fallen on hard times. As a devout follower of the Church of Light, I can’t turn away. The Lord commands us to help the poor and unclothed. Please wait a moment.”

Amazingly, the man who had looked ready to shout only moments earlier replied with vacant eyes.

He even urged his family along.

“What are you all doing? Hurry and lend them some clothes.”

“Yes, dear...”

“Would you like to borrow this?”

The noblewoman and children likewise took out clothes from their travel trunks with blank expressions.

The four disciples each selected a few garments that would fit, while Cardin accepted and put on one of the gentleman’s neat suits.

“Thank you. I hope all goes well for you from now on.”

“Have a pleasant journey, sir.”

The family smiled blankly until the group left the compartment.

Cardin turned to his disciples and spoke proudly.

“Quite useful, isn’t it?”

“Is that the first spoils you acquired this time?”

According to Voras, Cardin had stolen something, which was why all of this had happened.

Cardin had also said that the mage officer’s head was the second excellent spoil.

Cardin nodded at Haren’s question.

“It’s called the Mirror of Drunken Dreams. It can temporarily control ordinary people who aren’t wizards, and if desired, it can blur their memories as though they had been drunk. It has several difficult conditions if one wishes to handle it freely, but few magical artifacts are so convenient and useful. It’s something you couldn’t obtain even with money.”

An item like this surely could not be common.

This was not some hypnosis app. It was a magical tool that could manipulate a perfectly healthy person however its user wished, then leave no trace behind.

There were more than enough ways to abuse it.

Haren could understand why the unknown powerful figure it had been stolen from was so furious.

Cardin then hypnotized a passing attendant as well and secured a first-class compartment.

More precisely, he made the attendant naturally accept that Kadin and his disciples belonged there.

A little later, the four changed into the clothes they had obtained and sat together in the compartment.

“You have all worked hard. Get some rest now.”

Before Kadin had even finished speaking, the four collapsed into deep sleep without regard for who fell asleep first. Their accumulated exhaustion was simply too much.

* * *

When Haren opened their eyes again, the sun had already passed its peak and was beginning to sink.

Nasrel, who had greater stamina, was already awake and sitting with a bored expression. Ruska and Rim were still asleep.

Cardin, who had somehow acquired a newspaper, looked at Haren.

“You’re awake?”

“Yes...”

Haren wiped away a little drool from the corner of their mouth, then looked at the scenery racing past the window.

“Where is this train going?”

“I don’t know very well myself. I only know that it’s heading north. But isn’t that the charm of train travel?”

The remark was so carefree that Haren did not even have the energy to answer.

Was that really something a person who had killed a naval colonel and become wanted across the country should say?

Then Haren remembered that they had become a criminal as well and felt gloomy.

By now, Haren’s face and those of the other fellow disciples were probably on wanted posters too.

“The police will be after us. Can we really take the train all the way to Berman?”

“There’s no need to worry so much. It’s an imperial tradition for different factions to fail spectacularly at working together, and this is an inland region beyond the navy’s control. The army and police won’t properly cooperate with the search. By the time they begin moving in earnest, we’ll already have left the Empire.”

“No way...”

Haren muttered in disbelief, but having grown up on Elmin Street, Haren knew well how negligent the imperial police could be.

In truth, the country had been so corrupt and rigid that it lost the last great war in the first place.

Its main enemy at the time, the Holy Kingdom of Almeria, had less than a third of the Sherden Empire’s territory and population.

Even if it had suffered a surprise attack without a declaration of war, the difference in national strength was such that a normal country could never have lost.

Haren had never felt any patriotism, but still felt a strange sadness that the country that could be called home was in such a state.

“Well, if you’re truly uneasy, I suppose we can do this much.”

Cardin touched his own face, and his bones and flesh twisted with a crunch.

A moment later, the dignified elderly gentleman was gone. In his place stood a face similar to, yet different from, the middle-aged gentleman they had just seen.

“Life magic?”

“Just a simple disguise. It should be enough to use this face when necessary.”

The old man truly possessed every sort of skill useful for doing evil.

After briefly discussing what lay ahead, Haren summoned the hypnotized attendant and ordered a meal on the train.

Worrying would not solve anything, so it seemed better to deal with their hunger first.

They ordered eight servings, calculating that Nasrel would eat five and that the other two would wake before long.

Kadin said he was not hungry, so they did not order anything for him.

As expected, Ruska and Rim soon woke with bleary eyes after smelling the food.

“What’s that smell...?”

“You’re awake? Try some of this. You haven’t eaten since yesterday.”

“Oh, me too! But who is this?”

For a brief moment, Rim failed to recognize their teacher. Then they filled their stomachs and had a light cup of tea.

Cardin addressed his disciples.

“Well, you’ve rested enough. Shall we discuss yesterday’s events? Personally, I’m interested to hear how you defeated a third-tier wizard. Even if Ruska reached the second tier, it couldn’t have been an easy fight.”

“It certainly wasn’t easy.”

Haren recalled the previous night’s battle and briefly explained what had happened.

Cardin listened with occasional murmurs of interest, then suddenly asked, “Can you still control your mana field as you did then?”

“No. I’ve improved from before, but not to that extent. It was like something possessed me then...”

Haren raised a hand and sharply shaped the mana field.

However, unlike when it pierced through Voras’s back, the mana field around Haren’s hand had a blunt tip and uneven density.

“There’s nothing more effective than fierce real combat for improving a wizard’s skill. In the process of concentrating to the limit in order to survive, essence digests rapidly and one’s control over the soul improves. Ruska’s advancement in tier is a similar case.”

Only after hearing this did Haren realize that the remnants of the Flashlight Bug’s essence in their inner world had been almost perfectly digested.

It had taken more than half a month to digest two essences before, and that was only because Haren’s spiritual body possessed unusual qualities. This was certainly fast.

“And once you have such an experience, the memory remains in the body. Train gradually, and make it your own.”

Nasrel and Rim had also improved remarkably compared to before the battle, though not as much as Haren.

After checking everyone’s growth, Cardin grinned at his disciples.

“It seems we should seek out real combat from time to time in the future, doesn’t it?”

“I feel like we’ll all die after another one or two times.”

“I believe in you. You should believe in yourselves a little more as well.”

As they chatted, the train finally stopped at a small city called Bentega around sunset.

Station attendants bowed to the departing passengers.

“Thank you for traveling with us.”

Just as Cardin had said, there were no police officers at the station searching for them.

* * *

After spending a night at a small inn near the train station, they took another train north the following morning.

Before that, they did not forget to buy various necessities in the city, including fresh clothes.

“Tickets for Orgus City, please. Five first-class tickets.”

“That will be five rants in total.”

Instead of using mental magic, Cardin paid properly for first-class tickets. Puzzled, Haren asked, “Couldn’t we just use that mirror to ride for free?”

“It’s not as if we lack money, and shouldn’t the railway company earn some money from selling tickets? Don’t be so fond of getting things for free. You’ll be punished for it someday.”

Haren was briefly taken aback by Kadin suddenly speaking of morality like this.

It was not wrong, of course. Still, the man had no issue with killing people, but refused to ride without paying...

His moral compass was truly twisted in a strange way.

After boarding first class and setting off, Haren leafed through the provided newspaper.

Before long, Haren found a story about them.

Perhaps because the Empire was so vast and populous that all sorts of incidents occurred constantly, it had only received a brief mention in a local paper.

[Moria City: Naval Colonel Dies in Terror Attack by Dark Wizard.]

Looking at the young colonel’s photograph, Haren felt conflicted.

His lively, confident expression made him seem like a completely different person from the owner of the head distorted by pain and terror.

Below it was a photograph of his grief-stricken wife and young daughter, along with a statement from a naval spokesperson declaring that the murderer would be punished and the stolen remains recovered.

Even after reading further, there was no separate mention of Haren and the others killing Voras.

There was no sign that the navy had put Haren or the other disciples on wanted notices. It seemed the gangsters’ employers and the navy were not communicating smoothly.

“Here, look. This is how you do it. Don’t make a mistake next time, understand?”

“Got it...”

Meanwhile, Rim learned from Ruska how to fire a pistol and pull back the hammer.

Since Rim had acquired it in the previous battle, Rim would keep the weapon and use it when needed.

After finishing the newspaper, Haren also devoted themself to magical training.

Haren mainly practiced altering the shape of the mana field and could clearly feel their control improving, just as Kadin had said.

“This is hard...”

Nasrel found watching Haren entertaining and tried it as well. However, because of the nature of Great Strength, Nasrel’s mana field was far more rigid than even that of an ordinary fighter.

Unable to manage even distribution and concentration, let alone changing its shape, she quickly lost interest.

As they changed trains several more times and headed north, no one came searching for them.

The naval spokesperson’s declaration in the newspaper had been empty words.

At times, it seemed almost too easy to escape like this.

Then, on the fourth day of their unexpectedly uneventful train journey to flee the country, Cardin finished all the procedures and walked out of the station with a hearty laugh.

“We’ve finally arrived. My tailbone is aching all over! I don’t want to ride another train for a while.”

Privately agreeing, Haren turned to take in the surrounding scenery.

Unlike the Empire, the city had a somewhat plain impression. Its unusually shaped roofs, designed to keep snow from piling up, stood out.

A southern city of the Kingdom of Berman, a land of frozen winter, welcomed them.

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried