WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

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◈ The Regressor and the Blind Saintess ◈

Chapter 12: Revelation

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Five days passed.

The repairs to the cottage were progressing smoothly.

They had torn off the old roof and set a new one in its place, made from felled and worked timber.

They had also repaired the chair missing a leg and the bed with its warped frame.

All that remained was repairing the fence and bringing in the supplies to fill the interior.

Seeing the cottage finally beginning to look like a home, a satisfied smile spread across Vera's face.

'This should be enough for a residence.'

The fence could be rebuilt later with the twins' help. Vera had already asked Norn to procure the supplies, and the orders had been placed.

For a moment, reassurance filled Vera at the thought that the immediate problem had been handled. Then, Vera walked to the center of the clearing before the cottage.

'Today...'

Today was the day to test the Holy Spell Arts whose framework had been created over the past five days.

...That was right.

The path Vera had chosen was Holy Spell Arts.

Vera had studied the textbooks received from Trevo, building a basic understanding of divine arts. Based on that, Vera had approached Authority in many different ways. Yet the conclusion he ultimately reached was that the Authority of Covenant could not be incorporated into combat arts.

Unlike the twins' Unyielding, the Authority itself was not intuitive enough to apply to the body.

Once its parameters had been set, it was difficult to respond to changing circumstances while they remained in effect. This also meant that its existing weakness, the inability to receive immediate feedback during battle, could not be overcome.

So, to resolve those problems, Vera turned to Holy Spell Arts, specifically formations.

If it was difficult to apply Authority to the body, then it could be applied externally instead.

If obtaining immediate feedback made it difficult to respond to circumstances, then Vera only needed to create an environment where feedback was unnecessary.

Using a formation, Vera would inscribe rules through Authority into space itself.

If the surrounding area could be made into a battlefield favorable to Vera, all those weaknesses could be addressed.

The Authority of Covenant was the Authority of rules. It inscribed what one had sworn as a single rule and granted power suited to that rule.

Therefore, using the Authority in this way, through rules themselves, was not impossible.

After completing the concept, Vera next created the formation to bring it into reality.

Fortunately, he could derive the theory necessary for the design by studying the interpretations of formations received from Trevo.

A barrier formula created over five days of agonizing thought.

Now was its first test.

Of course, given the shallowness of his learning, it was not a highly refined formula.

Its lack of refinement was something to gradually improve in the future, so for this test, Vera focused only on activating the formation.

Vera took a deep breath and released the divinity within him.

'I will blend Authority into divinity.'

At that thought, the divinity turned ash-gray.

As Trevo had said, the process itself was remarkably easy. Vera merely needed to open a channel so the divinity would pass through the place where the Holy Mark lay as it was released.

Vera confirmed the ash-gray divinity, then gathered the gray divinity scattering through the surroundings.

'Condensation.'

The most basic use of divinity.

Once Vera did so, the divinity spreading through the air like pale smoke intertwined and became several strands of thread.

All the materials needed to form the framework were now gathered.

Without hesitation, Vera drew the threads forward before his chest.

The first step was...

'Coordinate Fixation.'

Applying to himself the coordinates where the formation's range would take effect.

Vera wove the longest strand of divinity into a circle.

Hummmmm.

The divinity resonated. It swirled around Vera.

The next step was setting the range.

'Five paces.'

A distance of nearly three meters. Vera's ability had not yet reached the point of applying it over a broad range.

Among the threads circling Vera, he selected the longer ones and wove them into a range-setting formula.

A circle responsible for coordinate fixation, made from the longest thread. In the empty center sat a formula woven into the shape of a sphere.

At a glance, the completed formula resembled a planet encircled by a ring of orbiting satellites.

Having reached that point, Vera looked around.

'Success.'

The divinity that had been scattering now began to remain within the set range.

Now, only the most important part remained: the application of Authority.

Vera considered the rule to inscribe into this space with a radius of roughly three meters.

He needed to consider stability. So Vera inscribed into the formation a rule that would cause the least visible disruption possible.

"Within this area, all physical abilities will increase by ten percent. However, no one may move faster than a falling leaf. Should this rule be violated, the offender will lose thirty percent of all physical abilities for ten minutes."

Hummmmm.

The formation vibrated. Ash-gray divinity arranged itself, inscribing Authority into space.

The penalty had been set stronger than the benefit because that was the nature of the Authority of Covenant.

A covenant was founded on being upheld. Thus, the penalty borne for breaking it naturally had to be greater than the reward gained.

As the space vibrated again and Authority was inscribed into it, Vera felt the formation's activation draw near.

Only the finishing touch remained.

The remaining short threads of divinity. Vera moved them, borrowing the name of the Authority's owner and inscribing it into the formation.

"I proclaim all these rules in Lushan's name."

The binding force of rules. The process of guaranteeing it in a god's name.

Once that was done...

Whoooosh.

The wind blowing within the space began to flow noticeably slower than the wind around it.

Vera knew what that meant. The incoming wind was violating the rule within the space.

'It worked!'

An electrifying thrill ran up Vera's spine.

Vera did not try to suppress the smile rising to his lips. Still smiling, he looked around.

It was not only the wind. The leaves drifting in and the insects as well.

Everything violating the space's rules moved one beat slower than it did outside the space.

Strictly speaking, it should have been classified as a failure.

The effect had even reached nonliving things. Of course, that was partly because Vera had not established detailed rules. But at its root, it was a phenomenon caused by incompletely controlled Authority acting out on its own.

Still, it was clearly an error that could be corrected through improvement.

Rather than being disappointed by such secondary matters, Vera chose to rejoice in the immediate success.

Suddenly, the Holy Emperor came to mind, cackling and mocking Vera.

Vera's smile deepened at the thought.

He had found something to strike back at that old man with.

* * *

"The Apostle of Guidance has returned."

It was Norn speaking.

In the clearing before the cottage, Vera had been adjusting the formation when Norn's words reminded him of a fact he had pushed into a corner of his mind amid all his focus on the formation.

"Ah, the one who presides over Revelations?"

"Yes. The Apostle said that you will receive your Revelation tomorrow, so you should prepare."

Revelation. This ritual, in which one received the gods' trials, had always been overseen by the Apostles of Guidance.

Vola, commonly called the God of Travelers, possessed the Authority needed to connect the divine realm and the mortal realm.

The reason Vera's Revelation was being held at the end of the week was that the Apostle of Guidance had been on an external assignment, and they had needed to wait for the Apostle's return.

Vera nodded slightly in answer to Norn's words, then asked a question that came to mind.

"What kind of person is the Apostle of Guidance?"

It was only natural for Vera to ask.

What had the Apostles Vera met here been like? A fool, a madman, and an eccentric old man.

Were they not all people who fell outside the bounds of normality?

So, when Vera asked with a hint of suspicion born from a growing prejudice against Apostles...

"...Well."

Norn's body flinched. Alarm showed on his face. His words would not continue and instead trailed off.

From that reaction, Vera immediately understood.

'...There's another idiot.'

That Apostle of Guidance was likely not in his right mind either.

There was one more thing to cause stress.

At the thought, irritation began to show on Vera's face. Norn, who had hesitated for some time, avoided Vera's eyes and continued in a troubled tone.

"...He is a cheerful person."

Vera swallowed the words that cheerfulness and madness were clearly concepts from different realms.

He was not stupid enough to blame Norn for that person being a freak.

* * *

The next day, at noon on the day of the Revelation.

Vera headed to the Grand Temple's prayer hall and met Trevo, who was praying there.

"Trevo."

Trevo, who had been praying for some time, looked up.

Spotting Vera, Trevo brightened and offered a greeting.

"Ah, Vera. You are here because of the Revelation, correct?"

"Yes. Where should I go?"

"Please follow me. I must attend as an observer as well, so we can go together."

"...You will be observing too?"

"Ah, did I not explain? The Revelation ritual is an event that every Apostle currently remaining in the Holy Kingdom must attend as an observer."

At the explanation, Vera's body flinched.

"...Every one of them?"

Those people would gather in one place. The thought made the back of Vera's neck tense.

Trevo seemed not to notice anything strange in Vera's response and nodded in the same lively tone as before.

"Yes. The Apostles of Love and Abundance are on external assignments and cannot come, while the positions of Apostle of the Lord and Apostle of Rest are presently vacant. That makes five of us gathering this time. Hm, now that I look at it this way, there seem to be an unusually large number of Apostles in this generation. Normally, an era rarely has five or more Apostles."

As Trevo continued on, Vera merely nodded instead of answering and continued thinking.

'The vacant positions...'

Fifteen years later, when the war against the Demon King broke out, every one of them would be filled.

In just four years, Rene would receive the Holy Mark of the Lord. About six more years after that, the Apostle of Rest would fill the position.

After Vargo's death, the position of Apostle of Judgment would remain vacant until the owner of the next Holy Mark appeared around the time the war against the Demon King grew fierce.

Of course, not all of them took part in the war.

Vera had avoided that war as well.

Trevo, the Apostle of Wisdom, the Apostle of Guidance whom Vera would meet now, and the Apostle of Love, whom Vera had not yet met, remained unknown because they were protecting the Holy Kingdom while the war raged.

As Vera continued thinking, he glanced at Trevo, who was chattering away alone.

'Guardian of the Demon-Sealing Array, was it?'

The duty inherited by the Apostles of Wisdom.

Only after coming here had Vera understood why Trevo had been unknown in his previous life.

Perhaps the Apostle of Guidance and the Apostle of Love had similar duties, which was why they had remained unknown as well.

Suddenly, Vera felt frustration rise within him.

Despite having already lived one life and knowing nearly every event across the continent, information on the Holy Kingdom was particularly limited, preventing him from making use of that advantage.

With information so limited, Vera could not make certain plans for what Rene would experience later or how to resolve it.

Vera's brow creased slightly at the thought, and Trevo finally noticed that he did not seem well.

"Vera? Are you unwell?"

"No. I'm only a little nervous."

"Ah! If that is why, I can understand. Hearing you speak reminds me of the day I first received a Revelation. The Holy Mark that suddenly descended upon me while I was an apprentice mage at the Mage Tower, the wonder and blessing of that day. When the day of Revelation came, those memories surged in like a tide and shook my heart. So without realizing it, I shed tears and..."

Trevo rambled on.

Vera's face twisted at once, but Trevo was too immersed in his story to notice.

For the first time in a very long while, Vera thought about sewing someone's mouth shut.

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